Time to buy another car

COE is down. It was $36k last month and now $32k. Cars are now getting cheaper. Better hurry down to place my order for the next one before the price goes up again. I am hearing everyone saying, cheap, cheap and cheap. (It was $10k a short while ago.) I will call the car salesman today and place my order. How much to bid for the COE, any amount, no problem. If he wants to bid $100k also can. I know that I don’t have to pay for that sum as the monkeys cannot afford to pay so much. So many monkeys will scramble and count how much they could afford before submitting their bids. And knowing that they don’t have much money, how much could they afford to bid, $30k or $40k? They would exhaust every little savings they have. That is all they can afford. To me and those who are, ahem, very comfortable, what is a few million? So bid $100k, bid lah, what is the problem? The system is so kind to people like us, bid high high but no need to pay high high. : ) I love this system. It is an amazing system, very well conceived. Sometimes I feel sorry for the monkeys.

Ding dong policies

The family is the core unit of our nation building. We want our young to get married, have children, at least two. We want them to be filial, to visit their parents, look after and care for their parents. And better still, 3 generation family under one roof. We want our womenfolk to be productive, to go to work and provide that second income to pay for cheap HDB flats where one pay check is not enough. On the other hand we build flats that are smaller and smaller. Not only that the flats cannot accommodate 3 generations together, with 2 or 3 children, there is no room for a maid which is becoming a necessity to many families. The car park fees keep going up. How to visit parents when every hour is charged? How to be filial and stay overnight with parents when over night parking fee is doubled? Don’t they want the children to visit their parents, spend time with their parents, to share quality time with the family? And the parking fees for second car of children who want to spend more time with their parents are so costly. And instead of providing for adequate car parks, they only know how to increase the fees to keep people away. Parking is not just parking. It is a social activity, an essential family activity, an activity related to filial piety. It is also an activity where grandparents can help to look after the grandchildren while the parents are at work. The parents don’t just come back to pick up their children and scoot off immediately. The parking policies, providing inadequate car parks and prohibitive parking fees are anti social and anti family. The shoe box flats are also anti family and anti procreation. You mean you don’t know? Ding dong, ding dong, like two balls banging against each other happily ever after. It is unbelieveable to think that this doubling of carpark fees is universal and applicable to all car parks whether they are full or half full. Will it be implemented like dat?

Manifesto of Reform Party

Below are the 19 policy pledges of the Reform Party that I copied from its site. This is a list of 19 policy pledges that are on the top of our agenda for action when we gain a majority in Parliament: Providing Cheaper and Better Lower-Income Housing by releasing more land for house-building and allowing the private sector a greater role Universal health insurance to be funded through current CPF contributions replacing current Medisave and Medishield schemes Basic Old Age Pension payable to all provided they have worked and paid into CPF for a sufficient number of years Reform of CPF to make contributions above those necessary to fund health and unemployment insurance and basic pension voluntary Universal child benefit scheme (as part of Guaranteed Minimum Income) to replace current tax breaks that heavily favour women on higher incomes Guaranteed Minimum Income for those in work to replace current Workfare system and to be integrated with child benefit and tax system A Minimum Wage to encourage businesses to raise productivity Reforms to Foreign Worker Policy to ensure that business gets the skilled labour it needs but that our own citizens come first Reductions in or exemptions from GST for certain categories of goods like food that form a higher proportion of total expenditure for those on median incomes and below Universal free and compulsory education from pre-school through to secondary level Expanded university enrolment and increased investment in improving quality of education for everyone Increased assistance for older workers and women re-entering the labour market to retrain and acquire new educational qualifications Reduction in NS to 18 months initially with aim to reduce it to one year as soon as feasible Requirement for new citizens and PRs to do NS or to pay lump sum tax instead Privatization of Temasek and GIC and distribution of equity to Singaporean citizens of more than five years standing Continuing Business and Foreign Investment Friendly Environment coupled with low tax rates Greater help and support for local SMEs to grow world-class companies Abolish restrictions on freedom of expression to encourage creativity and innovation necessary for a 21st century knowledge-based economy Reduce waste and inefficiency in government starting with slashing ministerial salaries and replacing it with performance-linked earnings tied to indicators directly related to your welfare I am sold to these pledges. I just want to add one point on the housing policy. Do away with salary ceiling. If we build enough flats, there is no fear of those who earns a bit more fighting with those who earn lesser. Forcing young people to buy expensive private flats is wicked. Also, every citizen who has served NS should be entitled to buy a flat from HDB as a recognition for his sacrifice to the nation. I support all the 19 pledges.

Are we at war?

My eyebrows were raised when I read an article by Ong WeiChong in the ST today. The article 'Preserve the link between citizens, SAF' mentioned our soldiers involvement in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. I quote, 'As part of the multinational effort to restore stability in Iraq, 998 SAF personnel were deployed in Operation Blue Orchid in and around the Iraqi theatre from 2003 to 2008. The SAF presence in Afghanistan to date has included provincial reconstruction teams, medical teams, a weapon-locating radar team, an unmanned aerial vehicle task group, aerial refuelling aircraft teams and artillery trainers. The technicality that Singapore is not at war does not disguise the fact that SAF personnel are operating in a war zone.' Fortunately, I believe, we have no casualty yet. What if one of our boys come back in a black plastic bag? Would he be considered KIA, killed in a war? I pray nothing of such will happen to our boys. Such missions are not the same as those in Meubulah during the tsunami crisis when our boys were there to provide and assist in humanitarian aids.

A warning to triple A countries

The Americans continue their provocations against the North Koreans with more military drills and a series of offensive anti North Korea media reports. Many western reporters have been roped in, including some from Asia and even Singapore, to write derogatory and biased reports about North Korea and Kim Jung Il. Now they are intensifying their provocations by attempting to freeze North Korean bank accounts in US banks and western banks that the US could manipulate. And they cry out loud that the North Koreans are provocative. But the western world and the American lackeys could not see any provocative acts on the part of the Americans. What did the North Koreans do to be branded as provocative? Could not they react to such provocations by the Americans? The freezing of North Korean bank accounts is a warning to all the triple A countries that their turn will come. These Asian, African and Latin American countries should take heed of this warning and move their money out of America and American banks, including those banks that are American allies, particularly those in Europe. They should park their money in banks that the Americans cannot lay their hands on or touch them. But if they choose to be silly and continue to park their money in American and European banks, they will have to take the risk of their money being frozen one day.