Day of reckoning

In 50 years or 30 years time, if you are still alive, many Singaporeans will start to cry. Because in that time frame, many of the HDB properties will have less than 50 years of lease left. And some may have lesser. And the million dollar properties will not be worth a million anymore, and may not even be worth half of it. That is the reality when the day of reckoning comes. There is no running away from it. Today, many are trying to make hay while the sun shines. Profit can be made by short term flipping. In the long term, the HDB properties are going to worth nothing. Yes, $0! Don’t be mad to plough in your millions. At $500k, with interest of 30 years, it is going to cost $1m for nothing at the end of the story. And this applies to all 99 year leasehold properties. The $1m condo is going to cost $2m and will come to nothing too. It cannot keep going up. It must come down to ground zero! Only freehold or 999 years properties will retain their values.

Year 2010 - Sayanging the footballers

We were supposed to be in the finals of the World Cup this year. I read that the coach is going to submit a nasty report on the behaviour and discipline of our professional players who were booted out of the Asian Cup in Amman. Aren't they playing the in World Cup Final? Maybe that's the reason why they felt so disheartened and depressed. The coach should forgive them, for oversleeping, for smoking, for not attending training sessions. He forgot to sayang them I think. And he thought that they were too big for their shoes! What's happening? These are our first class talents, our Dream Team for the World Cup.

Buffer stock for HDB

Today's ST editorial suggested that HDB build a buffer stock to meet contigency demands of flat buyers. I hope no one is going to reply that once there was a 30,000 stock of unsold flats and very costly. And I hope that no one would comment that last year they sold so few flats and sufferred a deficit of $2b, so if sell more and build buffer stocks, the deficit will be even greater. The idea of a small buffer stock is elementary, and no one needs to teach super talents about this. It is only whether there is an intent to want to do it. Who doesn't know that having a small surplus will shorten the waiting time and become very handy and expedient for those who need flats urgently? Like I said earlier, there are many things that can be done to help the people who need flats urgently. The current system is shitty at best.

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?