'Mohammed' going to the mountain

The first 'Mohammed' has gone mountain visiting. Giovanni Bisignani, the director-general and CEO of the International Air Transport Association, called on LKY at the SGH yesterday. When you are the mountain, the visitors will come for their pilgrimage. They may even be willing to take a queue number for the privilege of visit. According to LKY's press secretary, ' the two men discussed key developments in the aviation industry'. Shouldn't this be discussed with the PM or with Raymond Lim, the Minister of Communications? What is happening? Looking at the betterer side of things, LKY, in his old age, in his medical condition, will not run away from work. He still works when he is sick, hospitalised, for the sake of the country. This would be part of the script when the time comes. A grea

Maids and brokers are human beans too

It is a common practice, though not prevalent, to work the maids from 5am to 12 midnight or more. I have personally hear the noises of maids working in the wee hours of the morning, or washing laundry in the late of the night. The number of hours the maids have to go through for the miserable pay of about $400pm is simply inequitable. Ok, all the employers may disagree. You have your right of views. Other than a contractual agreement which the maids signed to work as required by the employers and the compensation, which are absolutely legal, human rights or abuse of human rights is not an issue to them. I always believe that my god is bigger than your god and children of lesser gods have lesser rights. The other issue is that maids are human beans and need the time to have a break and rest. They are not machine that can go on and on. A decent break, for all the things that the body naturally needs to do is not demanding but a necessity. Only cruel and obnoxious people would ever think that human beans shall be put to work and work for long hours. It is only a decent thing to do. The SGX is pondering over a decision to scrap lunch breaks for remisiers, commonly known as brokers, to increase the volume of trades. This idea is as stupid and making students mug for longer hours to expect betterer grades. The intrincacies and complexities of the business require more than just a few words to explain. Brokers too are human beans and need all the time for the body to rest and recharge. The jokers suggesting that brokers should work without lunch break also need breaks for themselves. But they don’t because they can go on shifts, so do fund managers, dealers and house traders, who can all work in rotating teams. Oh, brokers can work in teams too and go on shifts. Unfortunately the nature of the business which is individual and client based would make such an arrangement difficult to operate. It would require a quality change in the way the business is structured, and brokers would have to form themselves into small business groups. This is best left to those supertalents being paid super salary to think about than a flimsy idea of scrapping lunch break to boost business. The bottom line is that maids, brokers and all tradesmen and professionals are basically human beans and cannot work without breaks, time for lunch and time for other social and even business related activities. It is immoral, unethical, callous and indecent to even make such a suggestion.

Every 4th person in Singapore is an Indian

With the number of settlers from India almost doubling in the last two years, every fourth person in Singapore now belongs the Indian community, which is showing much interest in setting up firms in the island state. The city has a population of 1.79 million, including expatriates, and out of that 400,000 are of Indian origin, showing a 100% increase in the community size in two years.... 1 Oct 2010 The above is quoted from The Financial Express. I am very curious with the numbers mentioned. Singapore's population is 1.79 m, including expatriates, and 400k are Indians. How do these numbers compare with our 5m population, including expatriates? And if every 1 in 4 is an Indian, there should be 1.25m Indians here. Initially I though the numbers were those in the 1960s. I just don't know. Has there at any time in our history that the Indian population hit 25%? My memory says no.

New EC and how much to pay

The new EC at Buangkok is asking for $730-$750 psf and the buyers are those within the $8k-$10k income group. The average price of a 3 bedroom unit is around $850k. Presumably those earning more than $10k pm are too rich to buy these cheap flats. What would this amount mean to a young couple who probably have worked for less than 5 years? Assuming they could cough out $100k for the initial sum, it would mean taking a loan of $750k for 30 years. Roughly it would mean paying a total of $1.5m by the end of the mortgage. Divide this by 30 it will mean a yearly payment of $50k or $4k monthly. This sounds very reasonable and very affordable. The couple would still have a balance income of $6-7k pm. This is the new minimum price for EC. Can’t get it cheaper any more. And anyone buying a unit will instantly join the millionaire class.

The stages of decomposition

A forensic expert was relating this story to me on the stages of decomposition of the human body. A murderer could cut up a human body, packed it up nicely in a neat box, wrapped with gift wrappers to look like a present under a Christmas tree. The first stage of decomposition will be the stench of decay(ada ba woo). A little can be hidden by some fragrance spray. But it will only get stronger by the day and become unbearable. If the stench still did not get any attention, the next sign will be liquid oozing out of the box. This could be wiped away at the early stages but more will come out. Next little maggots will start to crawl out of the box, one at a time, and will get more and more. But don’t open the box. For inside will be a whole box of maggots. Though the gift wrappers may still look good, by this stage it is better to throw the whole box away. Beyond redemption! Oops, better burn it in the incinerator. The stench, the liquid, the maggots are all too unbearable to be left around. The stages of decomposition starts slowly be gain pace rapidly and will change whatever beyond recognition. Why am I writing about decomposition and decay? My apologies if it mess up your breakfast.