A return to govt service

The privatisation of hospitals, public transportation and housing is starting to show how serious this mistake is. Essential services cannot be left to the free market to determine how much the consumers should pay. The market forces, if only it is real, is only concerned with profits, and profits and nothing else. The only principle that governs private business is how much the consumer is willing to pay or how much the seller of services and products can squeeze out from the consumers. As long as there are consumers able to pay, it is affordable, at least to those who can afford to pay. A $100k COE is affordable to the one who can afford it. A $1m 3 rm flat is affordable if there are people who are willing to pay for it. Resources, limited resources, are allocated according to what the market dictates, as being the most efficient and effective. Really? However, for sure, resources will not be allocated to those who need it most if they cannot afford to pay. And the haughty and cocky explanation is that one has to pay for it at market determined price.. If one cannot afford it, go for substitutions, downgrade, or tighten the belt. At the bottom of it all, if one cannot afford to pay, one does not deserve anything, even goods at inflated prices.. To overcome such inequalities, to the rich and powerful these are not inequalities, there are govts, not necessarily socialists, who would want to intervene to better allocate the resources to the needy. I would like to make a call for essential services to be returned to the govt, place under the charge of the public sector. My reservation is that govt services are run by incompetents and any services they provide will be inefficient and ineffective. If this assumption that public servants are all incompetents and useless, which was the justification for privatisation, then it is like the frying pan and the deep blue sea. This is a strange phenomenon as our govt services are staffed by the best talents in the island. As economic system approaches the end of the capitalist road, the communists will say, I told you so. The capitalist road will lead to its own destruction and a revolution of the under class is the natural anti thesis.

Singapore in a state of siege or self denial?

Through WikiLeaks we must have offended many countries in Asean and Asia. From India and Myanmar through Thailand and Japan, from China and North Korea in the north and down south to Malaysia and Taiwan in the East, they cannot be too pleased with what we said about them. George Yeo said that these were just cocktail gossips, not worth bothering about, should not be troubled by them. Our relations with the countries affected would not be affected. That is our version of how WikiLeaks affect us and our friends. What are our blastered friends thinking now? Would they regard the WikiLeaks in the way we do and dismiss them as nothing serious, or nothing that they will lose any sleep for? If they do, then it is just like a tropical thunderstorm that would not last more than an hour. The weather will be fine again. What if the affected countries are seething in rage? Would they, could they or should they? Would there be any consequences? So far only Malaysia has openly displayed their displeasure and, thankfully, no stone throwing across from the causeway. Our improving relations have bore fruits. The silence from the other capitals is quite uncharacteristic of what could be expected. Is the reticence real or several protest notes are already on the tables of George Yeo and Hsien Loong? It has been rumoured that LKY is going to make a comment on the WikiLeaks’ exposure on Singapore. Is this an indication that we are already in a state of siege and a response or an apology is in the cards? Singapore has been hit in the most unexpected manner at a most inappropriate time. All systems were go for the coming general election. A slate of wonderful things are lined up with nice happenings that would make the govt look good are waiting to be rolled out. Now out of the blue, the govt is in a damage control mode. The WikiLeaks is more than just an embarrassment and irritation. It has given the election campaign cart a big jolt when things were just getting comfortable. Maybe I am drawing too much inference from nothing. Maybe there is really nothing to it and things are as normal as before. I can be dense at times.

A few pictures of ION in Orchard Rd

It is never too late when JUSTICE begs to be heard!

Europe urged to recognise slavery as crime Tue, May 04, 2010 AFP PARIS - Historians and anti-racism campaigners are to urge the countries that oversaw and profited from the Atlantic slave trade to recognise it as a crime against humanity, opening the way for reparations. Next week, activists are to send a letter to the leaders of Britain, Denmark, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain asking them to recognise the trade as an historic injustice a century and a half after it ended. They have already convinced France to do so. Click here to find out more!Click here to find out more! The European Memorial Foundation for the Slave Trade will launch the appeal at the French Senate on May 10, backed by the French historian Louis Sala-Molins and John Franklin from the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington. "There are several reasons for this, including its symbolic value, to restore the memory of this crime against humanity," Karfa Diallo, chairman of the foundation, told AFP. "There's also a question, shall we say, of justice," he said....

Good grades equal to nerds

Reading the article by Sandra Davie in the ST today, I can’t help but come to the conclusion that students who did well in tests and examinations, with good grades, are all nerds and lack creativity. Also they often do not do well in life. This is the biggest problem in Singapore’s education system. Though we bragged about how world class it is, how other countries are copying our teaching material, and how our students are able to score straight As everywhere, even winning international competitions, in Science, Maths, General Knowledge and also in Law, don’t expect much from them when they grow up. All these will come to nothing as they enter the adult world. Many are destined to fail or become underachievers in real life. Then where can we find all the creative and innovative people in Singapore? One sure place not to find them is the elite schools. Try the kitchens, the football fields, the night clubs, the world of the celebrities, there must be many creative and successful people in these fields. We need more Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, failure academically but big success in life. Personally I doubt they will not be able to score straight As if they wanted to. This is the secret to creativity and success. We should throw out our top students half way through universities and give them a job in the industries. That is the sure way to trigger their creativity and later be successful innovators and inventors. There is no need for elite schools and top universities as their products will only be so so. Parents of children who did not do well in schools must be relieved that their children will be the ones with more creativity and be more successful in life later. This is about the only piece of good news from the article.