A Japanese lesson

By the time the last head is counted, there could be tens of thousands of Japanese dead after the one in a century 9 on the Richter scale earthquake. The flooding water that rushed to the shore and inland, flooding everything in sight was 10m high. Yet, the Japanese were calm, stoic, as if it was just part and parcel of living in Japan. No panic, no kpkb, no screaming and crocodile tears. They put up a brave front despite the destruction and loss of life. Coming home to Singapore, you should look at the faces of the lucky Singaporeans who escaped death while holidaying in Japan or missing a connecting flight to America. There were grief, fear, and some were sobbing. What a frightening experience and a narrow escape from death. Come nearer to Orchard Road, we had the once in 50 years flood of 2 feet deep water. What a disaster! What a comic disaster. It was just an afternoon monsoon rain that could help to clear the longkangs of the debris that needed a strong flushing. Boo, boo, boo, crying all round and blaming everyone and the govt for not preventing a flash flood caused by two hours of tropical rain. Singaporeans must grow up, learn to take disasters in their stride. The two feet of flood in Orchard Road should be time for a little fun in the rain. Throw some soap powder into it and have a free foam party. Enjoy and have fun the next time when it floods. No need to kpkb on spilling a glass of water. Learn from the Japanese. The next campaign for nation building, clap and have fun in Orchard Road when it floods. Enjoy the blessing of water from the sky. Take a bath or have a party. There are worst calamities than a little flood. And for those who are hell bent to have a nuclear plant here, because no choice, too many people and oil too expensive, the Japanese lesson will help them build a better nuclear plant that will never fail. If the local super talents here are not good enough, the foreign talents will swarm here to say aye aye, they can build one for us and guarantee it will never fail. They will not live long enough to see it fail for sure. By then they would have taken the money and gone.

The 4th Dimension

A clash of life forces at the frontier of two dimensions.

Need for a major restructuring of the workforce

Singaporeans should be grateful that 106,600 PMET jobs are being taken up by the Filipinos. This is the same as the thousands of construction workers and maids doing jobs that Singaporeans did not want to do. What Singaporeans should do is to retrain themselves for higher paying jobs. Not retraining PMETs to do lower level jobs. If this is the case, then someone’s ass need to be kicked. There are plenty of high paying jobs in Singapore that Singaporeans should aspire to do. Those jobs that Singaporeans are no longer competitive, should go to foreign talents. We should welcome the Filipinos and the rest to be our PMETs. Singaporeans can then seek jobs that these foreign talents cannot do and pay better. I am looking at Members of Parliaments, mayors, town council chiefs, President, or other political jobs. These are high paying jobs that Singaporeans should aspire to do. There may not be that many now but more can be created. We can have more MPs, more mayors, vice mayors, PMs, dep PMs, asst dep PMs, Presidents, Vice Presidents, and even Senior Presidents, or executive Presidents etc etc. And of course there are plenty of directors to be appointed in public and private companies. Singaporeans are barking at the wrong tree to fight with cheaper foreign talents to be PMETs. There are better and higher paying jobs waiting for Singaporeans in govt and in politics.

Japan caught sleeping

The nuclear meltdown may happen. All systems failed. Human error compounded by a huge earthquake. Did they plan for such a day? They must have. The construction of a nuclear power station must have taken into account all the possibilities of a meltdown and to prevent it from happening. It happened. But what was disappointing is that the 8.9 Richter scale quake did not lead to an immediate evacuation of coastal villages and towns. If it did, it was too slow. The Japanese have been preparing for such eventualities all their lives. They have tsunami drills regularly, more regular than conducting war games with the Americans. How could so many lives be swept away if there was a tsunami warning and evacuation of the coastal people? Caught sleeping? If it is a once in 50 years act of God, maybe excusable. But earthquakes and tsunamis are part and parcel of the Japanese life and they are very well prepared and equipped to deal with them. Japan caught sleeping. The world expects the Japanese to do much better in preventing such disasters. They are very meticulous and systematic people. They have failed their own people this time.

106,600 PMET jobs for Filipinos

This is how successful we are in job creation. And if you add the others, we could have created at least half a million PMET jobs for all the foreign talents here. It is indeed a great feat and something to crow about. It is also a great feat that so many ex PMETs are now driving taxis or becoming agents or self employed, and struggling to make a living. Yes, we are an all inclusive country, including all foreigners as well. For those Singaporean PMETs who are still left in the lurch, it must be their own inept, that they could not compete with the foreign talents. Serve them right. And if they have a big mortgage to service and growing children that need to support, it must be their bad karma. I do try to believe that it is all the faults of these ex PMETs for their own failures. Somehow I also have this niggering feeling that something is not right. Maybe 10%, statistically never wrong, to presume that there will be some that deserved to be in the shit hole. For the rest, I believe they are true Singaporeans at heart and are hard working and will be the ideal employees like all Singaporeans are, work and work and work. It is sad that so many of our own PMETs have ended up in such a dire strait, and many in the prime of their lives. The option is to be retrained as service workers, and their valuable training, experience and expertise be dumped into the longkangs. There is no need for their skills as they can be replaced by cheaper and hungrier foreign talents. Is there anything wrong about this state of affair?