The disappearing Act

I wonder how many of you watch the clips on Parliament shown on TV. I have a hard time trying to spot my favourite MPs as it flashed quite rapidly and often only showed a small section of the floor. It is very rare that one has the chance to see the whole house and all the MPs. And also, on a daily basis, the same few faces would appear again and again What happens to those that don't appear at all? There are some MPs that appear to be on perpetual leave, or the camera just refused to look at them. Blame it on the camera man huh.

Another silly article to ridicule China

There is another China bashing article in mypaper today by a Ben Blanchard. He asserted that China's military might is only good on paper and questioned whether they are real or can work. He suggested that most of them would not work especially the missile system but then contradicted himself by quoting how China shot down its own dysfunctional satellite in space. And he laughed at how China handled the Sichuan earthquake as bad in joint operations. He forgot to compare it with how well the Americans handled the Katrina flood. A piece of exemplary joint operations! And he boasted about the US being battled hardened and experienced as they were engaged in two massive military operations in Iraq aand Afghanistan while China had not been in full battle for three decades. The last time was, he claimed, a bloodied nose from Vietnam. He forgot that the Vietnamese drove the mighty and experienced Americans out of their country while the Chinese drove them back from their borders to Hanoi. Who got bashed? To be sure China is still far off in comparative strength from the Americans. And he questioned China's ability to threaten the Americans. But that is not the intent of China. China does not seek to threaten the US. Only the US seeks to threaten everyone, including China, and use war as a means to seek control and supremacy over other nations. What China seeks is simply to deter the aggressive intent of the Americans and to ensure that should any war breaks out between the two, there will be many American boys and girls going home in black plastic bags. Yes, a full blown war will see the US blowing China into pieces a 100 times over. But China needs only to blow the US into pieces, one time over. That is good enough. China had fought the US before, and triumphed. They drove the US soldiers from the Yalu River to the 38th parallel with outdated rifles while the Americans were using air power and heavy weapons. China need not have the same high tech and leading edge weapons to defeat the US in a conventional war. It has proven it could do it, in Korea and in a proxy war in Vietnam. Would the US dare to take on China believing that China's military is all paper only?

Khaw Boon Wan is a good man

Khaw Boon Wan acknowledged in Parliament that the Medisave is our money. And he is there to guard and protect our money. I say very good. Just guard the money and make sure it is safe. But don't have any more designs to take more money from the people to guard. It is too huge a sum and too big a responsibility. Don't ask for more. there is enough money for him to guard already. We are talking about hundreds of billions of dollars in prison. Also, good man don't keep thinking of taking other people's money without their consent, and to keep it away from the people till death do they part.

Cost of living in Cloud Nine

Temasek Review, TOC and several blogs have reported that the budget provided for a 8.8% increase in ministerial salary. The hint is that this is outrageous given that the workers are being asked to be cheaper, better and faster. Superficial impression will make many to agree with such a perception. How could the ministers still be thinking of raising their sky high salaries? Then think again. The workers need not have to have any salary increases, or the increases need not be too high as property prices, I mean public housing, are very affordable. Compare to the prices of private properties, each costing $5m to $10m, it is tough to buy such properties. And 8.8% increase of a $1m salary is only $88k, $2m salary is $196k and $3m salary is only $264k. It will take several years of savings to buy a private property with this kind of small increases. It is thus unfair to frown upon the 8.8% increases as we cannot compare apple with oranges. The cost of living in high society is very high. Properties are expensive and so are luxury cars and overseas holidays. Even the meals are costing that much more. I can't remember how much it cost for cooking class in France. The increases should be comparable with the increases in the cost of living and property prices in the stratosphere. Only then will it be fair. It will be more appropriate to provide for a bigger raise in order to minimise their hardship. Without a pay hike, life can be very tough with a $1m or $2m or even a $3m income. The people should not complain and should count their blessings. At least they need not have to keep on worrying about where and how to get those millions to pay for the high cost of living.

Myth 218 – The market forces determine the prices of public housing

Who believes in this shit? Can repeatedly telling this will make it another fictional truth like affordability? Who controls the supply of land sales? Who controls the minimum price of land sales through reserved price? If not equal or above the reserved price, don’t sell. Who controls the building of public housing, how many, when, where and sizes, ie the supply? Who sets or determines the price of public housing? No, sorry, it is the market that determines the price of HDB built flats. Just like the Pinnacles, the market or buyers decided to pay $200k more for the same flats in the same estate. It is all due to the magical market forces. Adabracadabra…., Ladies and gentlemen, the price of public housing is...., according to market forces....