New laws against xenophobia

I share the concern raised by Radha Basu in the ST today. She pointed to the xenophobic postings in cyberspace and feared that many talented FTs will be turned away from paradise. She quoted two super foreign talents who had intention to settle here but changed their minds when she showed them the anti foreigner blog postings. This is serious and may become a national crisis when the additional 100k foreign talents that Hsien Loong said was needed refuse to come here to work. Our economy will not see the 15% growth and Singaporeans may lose their jobs as well. And for sure, no big bonuses. Xenophobia has no place in this city of the world. Our country is meant for all the supertalents to live here. We need to quickly introduce laws against xenophobic Singaporeans, especially the oldies and those less talented that are most vocal against foreigners. These people must be put behind bars quickly. Or at least they should be made to wear green vests and paraded along Orchard Road or Raffles Place. But the law must also be fair to the less talented and ignorant Singaporeans. Foreign talents that beat Singaporeans, be they 3 year old or 90 year old, or ridiculed Singaporeans must be given a one way ticket back to where they belong. This would at least appease the unhappy Singaporeans for the anti xenophobic laws. How many of you are in favour of such legislations?

HDB flats for collateral! Cannot Mah...

HDB flats will now not be allowed to be used as collateral for loans. This is to protect the owners from losing the roof on their heads. The good thing is that it will join the list of things that Singaporeans can smile and feel happy about aka money in CPF. The high prices of HDB will now make Singaporeans smile and smile. But if they want to go to the Ah Long for a loan, the Ah long will say HDB cannot mah. Never mind lah, it may be a myth of wealth, but many happy Singaporeans with HDB flats worth a million bucks will can be seen smiling and smiling in the kopitiams.

How to prevent more flooding?

People are starting to question the causes of the recent flooding. It is no longer amusing, or something that will go away. It is something that is going to stay and get worst. June and July are our hottest and driest months. Wait till December and January come, then we will know how serious the flooding will be. For the moment blame has been put to the Typhoon in Vietnam, to little twigs and unusually heavy rain. Looks like the rainfall in one month is equivalent to a whole year's rainfall. Going at this rate, rainfall will be up by at least 500% by the year end. Thank God we got the Marina Barrage or the whole island will be under water. While some may think that the Marina Barrage is a cause to the flash floods, I think otherwise. I am going to put to the blame solely on the building of Noah's Ark. We not only have one already standing on top of the Marina Sands Casino, there is another one coming up at Buona Vista, a mega church that looks like an ark. I think we have one too many arks in this little dot. As was told in the bible, once the ark was built, the heavy rain will come, with the flood. So, blame it on the arks! And to stop more flooding, you got the answer now. Or maybe we should ask Paul, the octopussy, for the answer.

My two dangerous hobbies

I thought writing and photography are two of the best hobbies for an oldie to take up. After reading the papers, I am got this feeling that they are extremely dangerous hobbies. I read that a photojournalist was handcuffed while taking photos of the flood and the official reason given was that he was obstructing the rescue work. And the author of a book 'Once a Jolly Hangman', Alan Shadrake, was arrested for defamation. I must be very very careful not to obstruct the law and not to defame anyone. But I would like some MPs to ask questions on when and what kind of acts would necessitate a person to be handcuffed. Many people are shocked by such news.

The politics of flooding

The repetition of several severe floodings over a short span of time is raising goose pimples in Singaporean gossip circles. In cyberspace, practically every forum or blog worth its salt is very unhappy about the incidents. Some even called for the sacking of the Minister of Environment. Flooding is now politics in Singapore. It will become one of the big issues awaiting the General Election, standing shoulder to shoulder with the heavy weights of inflated housing prices, inflation, employment, foreign workers and medical fees. There is no need to think very hard why flooding has become a hot political potato. The root cause of this problem can be traced to the completion of the Marina Barrage which was touted as our solution to flooding. There was kind of an expectation that flooding will now be history with technology, talent and money on our side. And the expectation is not groundless. We have always been trumpeting that we are the best, we have the money to pay for the best, and the best is all we have. Any shortfall in this expectation, any slipshod work, will become intolerable. The people’s expectation has been raised to a very high level. And you can’t fault the people for it. For they believe in what they have been told. They are in good hands and the good hands are paid with good money to do a good job. The only people that should be happy must be the shops in Orchard Road. Whenever there is a flood, they got free advertisements here and around the world. Everyone will be writing or talking about it. Lucky Plaza and Wendy's must be a common household name by now. They shouldn't be complaining, I hope.