The rude pommies

When David Cameron paid an official visit to China with the hope of signing more trade deals, he and his entourage arrogantly wore the poppies on their lapels. They justified themselves that it was their tradition to respect their war dead. They insensitively brushed aside the Chinese request to have them removed as it was a rude reminder of the Opium War humiliation the Chinese suffered at the hands of the pommies. Of course the trip ended with nothing to bring home. So, would they come back with the Jardines and Mathesons and their gunboats loaded with cannons and opium again to force trade with China? They were superior in weapons technology once. They may still think that they could shove the Chinese aside like football hooligans. They better be reminded that even their world famous Rolls Royce engines are falling out of the sky. This is the last days of a dying Empire and more will come when the loot they ransacked from the Asian and African countries were used up. Soon they will be auctioning away all the stolen treasures in the London museums and the Crown Jewels. Buckingham Palace on sale! Who will be the first sick man of Europe? The Brits have a good potential to assume this position, starting with Ireland. Maybe it will take a little longer as they could also print more English pounds, provided the EU did not stop them from doing it. Or maybe David is thinking of slaying a dragon, like Goliath.

A new kind of colonial conquest

For those who have read history or still remember, the Western powers sailed into Africa, Asia and America in their gunboats and took everything from the natives. And the best part is that they claimed everything as theirs, including the people who became subjects of their empires. How Europe became rich had its beginnings in robbery and piracy. Today they came again, guns hidden, but with stash of newly printed papers they called money. And they are taking everything in exchange for these pieces of printed papers. And the natives just gave them away happily this time round. They gave away goods and services. The latest are beautiful houses and properties which they built at high cost, all for the pieces of papers. And the Americans are warning the rest of the world that stopping the use of these printed papers is destabilising the world’s existing order. In other words, if they are not allowed to cart away goods and services, which they happily exchanged with printed pieces of papers, they are going to pull out their guns. There are countries that have wise up to this new form of colonial robbery. They are not going to give away their valuables for worthless pieces of papers. There are others who are happy to collect the printed papers and willingly give away their goods, including hot properties.

Save Singapore while there is still time

The hottest topic in cyberspace Singapore Chapter is overcrowding in Singapore. But this is only a one sided view of the disgruntled Singaporeans. The supertalents don’t believe a wee bit that Singapore is overcrowded and there are signals and mind conditioning processes actively trying to convince the unconvinced that Singapore can support a population of more than 10m people. The people of the world are crying out loud to save the Gaia while there is still time. Singaporeans, or some Singaporeans, are crying out to save Singapore while there is still time. For this group of Singaporeans, they fear that one day they will end up like a congested fish tank teeming with fish fighting to push their heads up gasping for air. For so many years, even today, we have been crowing about how successful we are and how great this little paradise is. Is there anyone seeing signs that it is going downhill and can snap into chaos, unemployment, bankruptcies and disorder? Some thought they are seeing the signs. Some are oblivious to any signs and are looking at more good years ahead. But they have bought their insurance plans, overseas properties just in case. Can the party go on and on like this, with inflation shooting to the roof. Oh, that is only my personal view and it is likely to be wrong. Inflation is very low according to official statistics despite runaway housing prices, car prices, transportation, medical services and even food prices. With the bulk of the population whose salary got to fit the bill of ‘cheaper, better and faster’, can they cope with the rising cost of living? Looking at the speed in which properties are being snapped up and the long queues waiting for ever more expensive housing, I think all the doomsayers are wrong. Singapore and Singaporeans are getting more prosperous everyday, or at least their property prices are making them richer by the days. And now even buy cars can make money too. The good days are here and will stay forever. Who says must save Singapore while there is still time?

Hongkong and China coming down hard on property speculation

Hongkong has announced more stringent measures to curb property speculations amid warnings by the IMF that the property bubble could burst. Sales of properties within 6 months of purchase will not have to pay 15% of stamp duty. Down payment for properties above S$2m has been raised from 40% to 50%. This irrational fear of property bubble is spreading from South Korea, China to Brazil. The control measures would mean that property prices in these countries will not go up anymore. Now that is bad. In Singapore, property prices can only go one way, up and up. And this is good. It must be. And we have no property bubble to fear. Our properties are all priced to be affordable. This is the ingenious trick that all the other countries failed to learn. The affordability formula is as stretchable as rubber. Even if our HDB 3 rm flats are priced at $1m each, they will still be affordable. From two income households servicing the mortgage for 30 years, this can be made even more attractive by having 4 incomes to pay for it. There is further flexibility to increase the repayment period from 30 years to 60 years too. If these countries would be humble enough to learn from us, they will not need to panic and impose all kinds of anti speculation measures. And they will be cheering everyday for property prices to go up, the higher the better.

Cutting talk time in Parliament is right

When it was first proposed, many people were irked by the move. By restraining MPs from speaking in Parliament when that is the most important part of their job I think, baffles the role of Parliamentary sessions. Parliament is the highest body in the country and MPs must be allowed all the time in the world to say their piece. If MPs cannot talk in Parliament or allowed only a few minutes to talk, might as well abolish Parliament. Those were some of the views from the masses. Today ST published some statistics which proved beyond any reasonable doubt that cutting talk time is the right thing to do. Many MPs don't even speak in Parliament or ask only a handful of questions. So what is the point of having long talk time? Ok, it may be just a provision and whether they use it or not is a separate issue. Who knows some Rip Van Winkles may woke up and want to speak for 3 days nonstop? The curbing of talk time in Parliament may be a bit harsh on those who have a lot of questions and things to contribute. Cutting their time is like telling them that they are talking too much and to shut up. The point is that when MPs have a point to say, especially an important one, time must be the least of concern. Only when an MP is talking rubbish that he/she should not be allowed too much time. With the new restriction, let's hope the Speaker is sensible enough to make exceptions and allow MPs to speak beyond the time limit when the points made are important and relevant. In the same vein, when MPs are talking cock, even the time allocated is too much and the Speakers shall rule the MP out from talking more nonsense. Maybe a little tweaking is necessary here. MPs who are known to ask a lot of questions should be allocated more time. MPs who have nothing to say should not be given anytime. Their time can be apportioned to the voracious question askers. Fair right? Another way is to allow MPs to buy and sell talk time credits like carbon credits. MPs who choose not to ask questions can sell their time to MPs who have plentiful of questions. There can be different variations on how this can be done. But one important thing, Parliament is there for discussing important state matters and time must not be an excuse to curtail talking about them. The saddesst thing that can happen is for the Speaker to ask an MP to sit down because he/she has exceeded the time limit though what the MP is saying is important and all wisdom, and for the good of the country.