The lure of the dark side

It is officially approved. MAS has given the green light to Chi East, a joint venture between Chi X Global and SGX to operate a dark pool trading platform here. This controversial trading platform that hides under a cloud of secrecy for big traders as against the principle of aboveboard and transparency trading is not new in Europe and America. So the big boys, the front runners, the smart asses are doing it and it cannot be wrong. I remember toxic notes and minibonds that were then so respectable because it came from the world's centre of finance and cannot be wrong too. The dark side has always been sexy and exciting. And playing with secrecy, like James Bond, with a licence to kill, is that much more glamorous and adventurous. It has all the thrills of cloak and dagger and the advantage of being above the law. Has any trading principle been undermined by the dark pool operation? Are the operators having an advantage over those that trades in the open? Is the principle of a level playing field been violated? Every step taken, even a small step, towards the dark side, is a wrong step. It may not be apparent now. It will eventually, but only when the sky turns dark. A frog being boiled to death never know how far it had crossed to the side of death. Little incremental changes are deceiving and comforting. Skirting with the danger of going down the slippery slope may not be evident. Yes, a single step has been taken. Welcome to the dark side.

Obama apologises for Americas evil deeds

by Karin Zeitvogel Karin Zeitvogel – Fri Oct 1, 6:43 pm ET WASHINGTON (AFP) – President Barack Obama personally apologized Friday to his Guatemalan counterpart for a US-led study conducted in the 1940s, in which hundreds of people in the Latin American state were deliberately infected with sexually-transmitted diseases. In a phone conversation with Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom, Obama expressed his deep regret for the experiment conducted by US public health researchers in Guatemala between 1946 and 1948, and apologized "to all those affected." The US president also vowed that all human medical studies conducted today will be held to exacting US and international legal and ethical standards. "This is shocking, it's tragic, it's reprehensible," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters, adding to apologies and outrage voiced by the president, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and other US officials. Is it really shocking? Robert Gibbs really did not know how reprehensible the Americans were and still is? This is nothing compare to all the genocides of the past and present. Do the Americans really believe that all was well in Guantanamo, in Abu Ghraif, in Iraq, in Afghanistan and in Pakistan and elsewhere around the world when the American’s dirty hand is present? This is the true America, the real America that all Americans did not want to know, and neither did the rest of the world. They only want to know the great and charitable and honourable America created in Hollywood. Long live the Empire. Below are some of the comments from the innocent and naïve in the same article. "What happened all those years ago is a crime against humanity and the government reserves the right to lodge a formal legal complaint over it," Guatemala President Alvaro Colom said. Hilary ‘Clinton and Sebelius said in a joint statement Friday that the study was "clearly unethical" and apologized to all those who had been affected by it.’ Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the US government body that funded the study, called it "deeply disturbing" and "an appalling example in a dark chapter in the history of medicine." Senator Robert Menendez, a member of the congressional Hispanic caucus, called the experiments in Guatemala one of the "darkest moments" in US history. "No innocent fellow human should be treated as a lab rat, no matter your nationality," Did the Yakuzas in Japan remember their chemical and biological plant in northern China during WW2 era and how they experimented with Chinese prisoners as guinea pigs not dissimilar and could be worst than what the Ameicans did to the Guatemalans.

I almost bought SPH shares

Looking at how thick the daily newspapers have become, it is a good sign that the media companies are making good money. The advertisements, including obituaries, are filling up the pages. And these are real money pouring in. And the last few days the obituary pages could swell into a voluminous book if the PM's Office had not made the announcement of no obituaries for Hsien Loong's mother. The idea of obituaries in full page or double spread can be a great source of income. It would be better to market the idea of having colour pages for obituaries or even gold plated one with special papers for keepsake, to be framed up, or as collector's items. When that day comes, I will definitely rush out to buy up shares of media companies.

A reminder of what the yakuzas are capable of

Treaty of Shimonoseki 1895 Article 1: China recognizes definitively the full and complete independence and autonomy of Korea, and, in consequence, the payment of tribute and the performance of ceremonies and formalities by Korea to China, that are in derogation of such independence and autonomy, shall wholly cease for the future. Articles 2 & 3: China cedes to Japan in perpetuity and full sovereignty of the Penghu group, Taiwan and the eastern portion of the bay of Liaodong Peninsula together with all fortifications, arsenals and public property. Article 4: China agrees to pay to Japan as a war indemnity the sum of 200,000,000 Kuping taels. Article 6: China opens Shashih, Chungking, Soochow and Hangchow to Japan. Moreover, China is to grant Japan most-favored-nation treatment. Japan’s infamous 21 Demands on China 1915 Japan, under Prime Minister Ōkuma Shigenobu and Foreign Minister Katō Takaaki, drafted the initial list of Twenty-One Demands, which were reviewed by the genrō and Emperor Taishō, and approved by the Diet. This list was presented to Yuan Shikai on January 18, 1915, with warnings of dire consequences if China were to reject. The Twenty One Demands were grouped into five groups: • Group 1 confirmed Japan's recent acquisitions in Shandong Province, and expanded Japan's sphere of influence over the railways, coasts and major cities of the province. • Group 2 pertained to Japan's South Manchuria Railway Zone, extending the leasehold over the territory into the twenty-first century, and expanding Japan's sphere of influence in southern Manchuria and eastern Inner Mongolia, to include rights of settlement and extraterritoriality, appointment of financial and administrative officials to the government and priority for Japanese investments in those areas. • Group 3 gave Japan control of the Hanyeping mining and metallurgical complex, already deep in debt to Japan. • Group 4 barred China from giving any further coastal or island concessions to foreign powers except for Japan. • Group 5 contained a miscellaneous set of demands, ranging from Japanese advisors appointed to the Chinese central government and to administer the Chinese police force (which would severely intrude on Chinese sovereignty) to allowing Japanese Buddhist preachers to conduct missionary activities in China. The above were copied from Wikipedia. The Treaty of Shimonoseki was what the yakuzas demanded of China then under the Qing Dynasty. And in 1915, they made the obnoxious 21 Demands which would turn China into a Japanese Protectorate like Malaya under the British. These were how atrocious the yakuzas were and will be again if they become too powerful militarily. Today they are trying to revive their glorious empire days. Unfortunately the China today is not the China they could stamp on at will. Without knowing the acts of the scoundrels then, the world may still believe that the innocent party is Japan and China is the aggressive party trying to encroach into Japanese islands. Prior to 1895, the Diaoyutai was still Chinese territory. So was the Ryukyus which is now called Okinawa. Who is the gangster?

Kwa Geok Choo

Breaking my morning silence to the passing of another historical figure in the history of Singapore. She stood shoulder to shoulder with the first generation of leaders including her husband Lee Kuan Yew and the likes of Yusof Ishak, Goh Keng Swee, S Rajaratnam, Toh Chin Chye, E W Barker, and the rest of the political leaders of the founding years. Wife of a Prime Minister, mother of a Prime Minister and could be grandmother of another Prime Minister. Everything needed to be said have been said and will be said in the official media. Over the next few days Singaporeans will say farewell to this quiet pillar of strength in PAP leadership.