3/10/2010

Faces of Chingay 2010

These are a few of the photos I took with my friends at the Chingay 2010.

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.