In 1978, Deng Xiao Ping visited Singapore and started an economic reform in the vein of capitalism. White cat black cat never mind as long as it catches mice. 1978 possibly marked the end of Communism except in name in China. In 1981, Deng Xiao Ping also ordered the closure of the Malayan Revolutionary Radio broadcasting to Malaysia and Singapore.
Govt to govt relationship between Singapore and China was on the mend and improving by leaps and bounds. Communism was as good as dead as an alternative govt or for exporting revolution by the 1980s when Gorbache’s glasnost and petroiska led to the break up of the Soviet Union.
This is not true in Singapore as a small group of young men and women were plotting a Marxist revolution by infiltrating into the Catholic Church. Obviously they could not be gaining any support from China as Deng Xiao Ping would not allow it or his relationship with LKY would be over. Could this Marxist Group be supported by the Russians or the Communist Party of Malaya(CPM)? With Gorbachev in charge, Russia was in a different kind of revolution, opening up to the West. The CPM was dormant since the silencing of its radio broadcast. In 1989 they signed a peace accord with Malaysia and officially ended their fight for Communism and a Malayan state.
The Marxist Group in Singapore was arrested in 1987 under Operation Spectrum for plotting to overturn the govt by force. Their existence was proof that there must be another revolutionary organization supporting the Marxist movement. They could not be supported by China or Russia or the CPM. Unfortunately, after Operation Spectrum there was no further news of the organization that was behind this Marxist Group for armed revolution in Singapore. It must have gone into hiding. As long as they are not flushed out, the danger is still there.
The 16 arrested could not be a meaningful force to take down the govt on their own or by a revolution. Not by any imagination. They didn’t look that able against an efficient ruling govt and a well equipped armed force. My theory is that they were not supported by the Communist giants but a more powerful force. Who and where is this force that is behind them? They are called Marxists, not Communists, for Communism’s platform of violent overthrow of govts was long a spent force. By the late 1980s, who cared about Communism? Perhaps the origin of this force could be from the dark side.
9/27/2011
9/26/2011
The Halloween Horror that would not go away
One week after the cancellation, and the horror is still haunting everyone. The Halloween Horror is turning out to be the horror of all horror stories. Isabella Loh could have not asked for more. She is made of the same kind of steel like all Singaporean leaders, dare to make the difference, to make tough decisions that are good for the people. Halloween is bad for family values and comes at a bad time when the country is promoting wholesome family and more children. Can’t imagine the harm it will cause to children by the devils that Halloween is all about. Really frightening.
This really takes too long to happen. Commercialism and playing with the devil, both rolling into one in the Halloween Horror. It must be stopped, sooner or later. It is simply bad influence. Hurrah, finally someone has the conviction and gumption to put an end to this twin terror.
Now that the ball has started rolling, let’s look at all the events and festivities that are associated with the devil, commercialised, and unwholesome. While one is now canned, let’s canned all of them once and for all. Now where to start? The two casinos! Wait a minute, they are not casinos in the first place, and they are family oriented resorts, with many wholesome activities for the families. Just leave them alone. And there is nothing devilish in them.
What about those devil worshipping commercialised events and festivals? There must be plenty of them. Uh huh, don’t you dare! Let’s start with something safer and more manageable. No more horror movies. That should be easy. Is Harry Porter and his adventures horror movies or devil related? Difficult to say I think. What about MediaCorp programmes, there must be some that are devil related or about the devil, I am sure.
This really takes too long to happen. Commercialism and playing with the devil, both rolling into one in the Halloween Horror. It must be stopped, sooner or later. It is simply bad influence. Hurrah, finally someone has the conviction and gumption to put an end to this twin terror.
Now that the ball has started rolling, let’s look at all the events and festivities that are associated with the devil, commercialised, and unwholesome. While one is now canned, let’s canned all of them once and for all. Now where to start? The two casinos! Wait a minute, they are not casinos in the first place, and they are family oriented resorts, with many wholesome activities for the families. Just leave them alone. And there is nothing devilish in them.
What about those devil worshipping commercialised events and festivals? There must be plenty of them. Uh huh, don’t you dare! Let’s start with something safer and more manageable. No more horror movies. That should be easy. Is Harry Porter and his adventures horror movies or devil related? Difficult to say I think. What about MediaCorp programmes, there must be some that are devil related or about the devil, I am sure.
A sheepish smile
That is all I can afford when I read about big burly Caucasians beating up local girls. One girl was slammed against the bus door for talking too loudly, in the opinion of the Caucasian and annoying him. Another woman got her windscreen smashed for honking at another Caucasian man who cut into her path abruptly.
What to do? It happened. Reminds me of colonial Singapore or South Africa. The sheepish Singaporeans deserve every bit of it for worshipping foreign gods. Even the Chinese hawkers have no qualms or reservation to beat up Singaporeans in broad daylight.
Singaporeans have their jobs taken over by foreigners for their own good. Without the foreigners, they will all go hungry and their women will become maids. Better count their blessings and don’t make too much of an issue when foreigners throw them a few punches or knock the daylight out of them.
Got money, go and pay for a lawyer and take the offender to court. If no money, just shut up, or like me, smile sheepishly. It could be worst.
In the olden days, they came with their warships and killed the men, took the women and the country as theirs.
I just need to be extra careful in the presence of foreigners.
What to do? It happened. Reminds me of colonial Singapore or South Africa. The sheepish Singaporeans deserve every bit of it for worshipping foreign gods. Even the Chinese hawkers have no qualms or reservation to beat up Singaporeans in broad daylight.
Singaporeans have their jobs taken over by foreigners for their own good. Without the foreigners, they will all go hungry and their women will become maids. Better count their blessings and don’t make too much of an issue when foreigners throw them a few punches or knock the daylight out of them.
Got money, go and pay for a lawyer and take the offender to court. If no money, just shut up, or like me, smile sheepishly. It could be worst.
In the olden days, they came with their warships and killed the men, took the women and the country as theirs.
I just need to be extra careful in the presence of foreigners.
Entrepreneur flair or hare brain scheme?
Actually these two terms are two sides of a coin. When an entrepreneur succeeds, he is praised to the sky because his hare brain scheme becomes a success story. When an ambitious plan fails, it will earn the infamous status as a hare brain scheme.
A potential entrepreneur puts his resources, money and reputation at risk. He could become a winner and earns recognition, or a failure with people laughing at his hare brain attempt when it fails. It is fair game really.
Singapore’s ambitious plan to turn itself into the biggest financial centre in Asia could go either way. If it succeeds, the mastermind will gain immediate recognition as the brain behind the success. If it fails, people will be laughing at the hare brain scheme for sure.
Sometimes there is an in-between, when a plan is cleverly conceived on paper and could really succeed. But it could fail because of some other reasons, maybe poor execution or factors beyond its control. Sometimes it could be saboed, intentionally or unintentionally by others with their own hare brain schemes that destroy the main plan. There will be some that are hare brains from the word go as the assumptions are just unworkable.
Is the financial dream an ambitious and workable plan or just another hare brain scheme? The key to the success of Singapore as a financial centre lies in the creation of a sophisticated and highly capitalized stock market with a wide range of products and good quality stocks. This is not all. It cannot be as simple as that. The infrastructure, the hardware and software are easy to buy with the money. The managers too can be bought with a price. There must also be capital, provided by the big funds, and investors, big and small. And the brokerages to lubricate the system and execute the trades. Some thought there is no need for brokerages, just machines trading against machines and online tradings will do. Some even think that there is no need for small investors or traders. Just bring in the big guns with their war chests to fight among themselves and it will be flying to the moon. The big funds are not that stupid. They will play the game if they can find advantages, especially those enshrined within the system, like eating up the helpless small investors.
The horse is sick. The ambitious plan seems to be grinding to a halt. Now, what have gone wrong? Big money was spent in talents and machines, and big boys with their big guns were blazing. For a system to work, all the parts must function accordingly. The system is as strong as its weakest link.
The weakest link, in my view, is the small traders and investors. These seemingly irrelevant elements in the whole system, dispensable to the big empty heads, are just like the planktons that feed the giant whales. Without the planktons, the whales will perish. Without the little guys as cannot fodders, the big boys will go hungry.
Who and what contribute to the demise of the little useless guys? One major flaw is to make the little guys do battle with high speed machines and sophisticated computers and their algos. A mismatch, and the small guys simply got wipe out. They don’t stand a chance. There goes an important small part of the system.
The banks too think so, that the little guys are not important. They are only interested in their high net worth clients, not for trading in the stock market, but for their wealth management schemes, to invest big money in ‘sophisticated’ products and notes. And to retain these clients, they are prepared to sacrifice the small guys, lower the commission in the name of free competition. Again, the small guys paying higher commission would not stand a chance.
In order to feed the fodder to the big boys, the small guys were encouraged to play with new instruments that they have hardly any clue about while the big guys were the experts in such games. The small guys were eaten up for sure. They lack the financial muscles and the sophisticated team of staff to manipulate the range of trading instruments to their advantage.
A weak link in the whole system is all that is needed to break the system. It stops cranking without the little guys feeding the system and the pockets of the big guys. The lowest element in a food chain still needs to be fatten to sustain the whole system and those at the top of the food chain. Ignoring or despising the arse hole is proving to be a big mistake.
This ambitious plan is turning to look more like another hare brain scheme with many other hare brain schemes sticking to it to drag it down. Where are the cannon fodders? Everyone seems so happy that the planktons are wiped out. Every hare brain seems so happy that commission can be lowered further with no consideration that commission is all that feeds the broking houses and their staff to keep the system going. No commission means no broking houses.
How long can the system hold with the shit building up and nowhere to go? Nature is built on a system where every part has its part to play and feeds on one another. It is a symbiotic relationship, a cycle. It cannot be one way, where one party or a small group benefits at the expense of the other. Human beans, being at the top of the food chain, is constantly being devoured by the smallest and most insignificant bacteria to keep the system in check and going. This fundamental principle of Nature cannot be ignored by hare brain schemes.
A potential entrepreneur puts his resources, money and reputation at risk. He could become a winner and earns recognition, or a failure with people laughing at his hare brain attempt when it fails. It is fair game really.
Singapore’s ambitious plan to turn itself into the biggest financial centre in Asia could go either way. If it succeeds, the mastermind will gain immediate recognition as the brain behind the success. If it fails, people will be laughing at the hare brain scheme for sure.
Sometimes there is an in-between, when a plan is cleverly conceived on paper and could really succeed. But it could fail because of some other reasons, maybe poor execution or factors beyond its control. Sometimes it could be saboed, intentionally or unintentionally by others with their own hare brain schemes that destroy the main plan. There will be some that are hare brains from the word go as the assumptions are just unworkable.
Is the financial dream an ambitious and workable plan or just another hare brain scheme? The key to the success of Singapore as a financial centre lies in the creation of a sophisticated and highly capitalized stock market with a wide range of products and good quality stocks. This is not all. It cannot be as simple as that. The infrastructure, the hardware and software are easy to buy with the money. The managers too can be bought with a price. There must also be capital, provided by the big funds, and investors, big and small. And the brokerages to lubricate the system and execute the trades. Some thought there is no need for brokerages, just machines trading against machines and online tradings will do. Some even think that there is no need for small investors or traders. Just bring in the big guns with their war chests to fight among themselves and it will be flying to the moon. The big funds are not that stupid. They will play the game if they can find advantages, especially those enshrined within the system, like eating up the helpless small investors.
The horse is sick. The ambitious plan seems to be grinding to a halt. Now, what have gone wrong? Big money was spent in talents and machines, and big boys with their big guns were blazing. For a system to work, all the parts must function accordingly. The system is as strong as its weakest link.
The weakest link, in my view, is the small traders and investors. These seemingly irrelevant elements in the whole system, dispensable to the big empty heads, are just like the planktons that feed the giant whales. Without the planktons, the whales will perish. Without the little guys as cannot fodders, the big boys will go hungry.
Who and what contribute to the demise of the little useless guys? One major flaw is to make the little guys do battle with high speed machines and sophisticated computers and their algos. A mismatch, and the small guys simply got wipe out. They don’t stand a chance. There goes an important small part of the system.
The banks too think so, that the little guys are not important. They are only interested in their high net worth clients, not for trading in the stock market, but for their wealth management schemes, to invest big money in ‘sophisticated’ products and notes. And to retain these clients, they are prepared to sacrifice the small guys, lower the commission in the name of free competition. Again, the small guys paying higher commission would not stand a chance.
In order to feed the fodder to the big boys, the small guys were encouraged to play with new instruments that they have hardly any clue about while the big guys were the experts in such games. The small guys were eaten up for sure. They lack the financial muscles and the sophisticated team of staff to manipulate the range of trading instruments to their advantage.
A weak link in the whole system is all that is needed to break the system. It stops cranking without the little guys feeding the system and the pockets of the big guys. The lowest element in a food chain still needs to be fatten to sustain the whole system and those at the top of the food chain. Ignoring or despising the arse hole is proving to be a big mistake.
This ambitious plan is turning to look more like another hare brain scheme with many other hare brain schemes sticking to it to drag it down. Where are the cannon fodders? Everyone seems so happy that the planktons are wiped out. Every hare brain seems so happy that commission can be lowered further with no consideration that commission is all that feeds the broking houses and their staff to keep the system going. No commission means no broking houses.
How long can the system hold with the shit building up and nowhere to go? Nature is built on a system where every part has its part to play and feeds on one another. It is a symbiotic relationship, a cycle. It cannot be one way, where one party or a small group benefits at the expense of the other. Human beans, being at the top of the food chain, is constantly being devoured by the smallest and most insignificant bacteria to keep the system in check and going. This fundamental principle of Nature cannot be ignored by hare brain schemes.
9/25/2011
Gambling Divisions in banks
Kweku Adoboli may not have gambled away UBS but is currently the most famous bank employees after Nick Leeson and Jerome Kerviel of Societe Generale’s fame. The latter lost US7b while Leeson in a way gambled away a bank. Some may dispute calling them bank employees as they are employed by a different division of the banks, involved in gambling. Oops, they don’t call it gambling, but trading and traders.
The banks have evolved over the last few decades into the biggest gamblers of all time. They set up big divisions, run independently, as an investment arm of the banks. They could also be full investment banks as stand alone operations. Hiding behind banking terminologies like asset management, wealth management, private banking, or whatever, their key function is gambling with clients money.
They placed bets in all kind of things, including arts, wines, and anything that is collectible and has a value. Adoboli, Kerviel and Leeson were just traders, and the closest to pure gambling. A Korean banker was reported to have jumped off his window when his bank was under investigation for trading violations. It is a worldwide phenomenon. Whatever nice terms they used, it boils down basically to gambling with high stakes, and getting riskier.
To stop the disguises and the deception, banks should simply set up gambling divisions and head straight to the casinos. It will be faster, cleaner and less trickery. Just place money on the table and it is either win or lose. The only problem is that they are not allowed to take advantage of the game by using high speed computers. The casinos are not stupid. There are some regulations in the gambling industry that do not allow unfair practices or cheating. And high speed computers and programme tradings will definitely be banned from the casinos.
The banks still have a huge advantage in having a big war chest. They only need to steam roll with their money in games that have better odds, like black or red in the roulette table. No need to acquire special skills about reading people’s faces in poker or black jack. Oh, poker is also a game that big money has a huge advantage and the banks can definitely give it a try.
In the game of roulette, the bank’s gamblers, I mean traders, can simply put his bets in red or black. He could simply double his bets on, say red, until red turns up. It is a sure win strategy given the near unlimited funds at the banks disposal. Red must come after a few rounds, or a few tens of round. Just keep doubling until it comes. No need expensive and sophisticated high speed computers or elaborated graphs, charts and systems. Yes, just place the bets on red or black and doubling until the next win.
Maybe calling it a gambling division will upset the morally righteous and correct people. Give it another fanciful name and just go and place the bets. At worst it is losing the bank. The CEO only needs to step down. The severance pay is quite good too. This is how advanced and sophisticated the banks have become.
The banks have evolved over the last few decades into the biggest gamblers of all time. They set up big divisions, run independently, as an investment arm of the banks. They could also be full investment banks as stand alone operations. Hiding behind banking terminologies like asset management, wealth management, private banking, or whatever, their key function is gambling with clients money.
They placed bets in all kind of things, including arts, wines, and anything that is collectible and has a value. Adoboli, Kerviel and Leeson were just traders, and the closest to pure gambling. A Korean banker was reported to have jumped off his window when his bank was under investigation for trading violations. It is a worldwide phenomenon. Whatever nice terms they used, it boils down basically to gambling with high stakes, and getting riskier.
To stop the disguises and the deception, banks should simply set up gambling divisions and head straight to the casinos. It will be faster, cleaner and less trickery. Just place money on the table and it is either win or lose. The only problem is that they are not allowed to take advantage of the game by using high speed computers. The casinos are not stupid. There are some regulations in the gambling industry that do not allow unfair practices or cheating. And high speed computers and programme tradings will definitely be banned from the casinos.
The banks still have a huge advantage in having a big war chest. They only need to steam roll with their money in games that have better odds, like black or red in the roulette table. No need to acquire special skills about reading people’s faces in poker or black jack. Oh, poker is also a game that big money has a huge advantage and the banks can definitely give it a try.
In the game of roulette, the bank’s gamblers, I mean traders, can simply put his bets in red or black. He could simply double his bets on, say red, until red turns up. It is a sure win strategy given the near unlimited funds at the banks disposal. Red must come after a few rounds, or a few tens of round. Just keep doubling until it comes. No need expensive and sophisticated high speed computers or elaborated graphs, charts and systems. Yes, just place the bets on red or black and doubling until the next win.
Maybe calling it a gambling division will upset the morally righteous and correct people. Give it another fanciful name and just go and place the bets. At worst it is losing the bank. The CEO only needs to step down. The severance pay is quite good too. This is how advanced and sophisticated the banks have become.
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