This is another excellent example of how Singapore tackled its problems in its uniquely Singaporean way. Another classic case study for the top management schools around the world.
Singapore with its limited land has a perennial water shortage problem and has to import water from Malaysia. It was never to be self sufficient in water. But this was a major challenge it faced and it was pushed to a corner when the sale of water was used as a hostage by Malaysia to make life very difficult and may even derail its development plans. Singapore is now self sufficient in water by maximizing its water catchment area, reservoirs and technology in water treatment, and the rest is history.
Many people forgot that other than the above, there is another element contributing to the success in water management. We may have enough water, but enough is relative. If the people carelessly misuse this precious resource, we will need more reservoirs and never provide enough water for the island. And there is the economic growth factor that would continue to raise the demand for water.
Here is the brilliant solution. Impresse and educate the people on the importance of water and water conservation. Water is a precious item and should not be wasted by careless and inconsiderate usage. But all these are talks and would only be partially effective on people who are already conscious and responsible. The irresponsible and reckless tiada apa type will continue to waste water no matter how often they are told not to do so. Yes, the solution is to hurt them where it hurts most. Tax on their pockets.
There is a surtax charged on the use of water in addition to the high fees and other taxes. This Water Conservation Tax stands at 30-45% of water used. The reckless and irresponsible can waste water at their convenience, but their pockets will be hurt and emptied by 30-45% more. The additional tax is to teach the people the importance of water conservation.
This is so brilliant that it solved the water management problem and adds into the public coffer. Another brilliant Singapore solution to be taught in Schools of Public Administration. Make them pay and they will heel.
The same theory can be applied to other goods. The high rate of changing mobile phones, and many in good working order is a big waste on natural resources. If govt is serious in conservation of mother earth, they can apply the same principle to prevent wastage of mobile phones. Make additional purchase of mobile phones be subject to 30% tax. Similarly there should be a Car Conservation Tax for anyone buying more than one car. And Petrol Conservation Tax, ….
11/14/2011
Change in editorial policy
I was watching Channel 5 coverage on the SEA Games. Tao Li won 4 gold and going for the 5th. And a games sticker came out at the end of the event. Li Tao first. Is her name Tao Li or Li Tao? Is our shooter Zhang Jin or Jin Zhang? The other shooter was Ong Jun Hong though the TV sticker came out as Jun Hong Ong. Then there were several swimmers, Jia Hao Ng must be Ng Jia Hao. This non standard format of writing of Chinese names also affected the Vietnamese with Nguyen sometimes in front and sometimes behind the names. Actually Singaporean Chinese names were also reported either ways.
If I can be confused, so would other nationalities. As they said, let’s just follow the majority as the majority seems to be always right, or at least it is more practical to do so. In this case we have the western format as the dominant and familiar way, and easier to understand. So with immediate effect the editorial policy of this blog will adopt the western format when names are concerned. The family name or surname will henceforth be written behind the individual’s name. This should standardise everything and no one will be confused anymore. It will make us to be more westernised or international. No more guessing game.
For a start we will have to get use to Kuan Yew Lee, Chok Tong Goh, Boon Wan Khaw, Eng Hen Ng. Luckily still can address our President as Tony Tan unless he prefers people to call him Keng Yam Tan.
That’s it. This is the way forward. Follow the prevailing trend, and the western style. We will set the standard for countries with Chinese to follow suit. I hope the Govt will make it official for Mediacorp and SPH to do the same. In the interim, while the world gets use to this standardisation, just bear with Mr Kuan instead of Mr Lee, Mr Chok instead of Mr Goh....
PS. Let's not confused the world. Or shall I say let's confuse the world more?
If I can be confused, so would other nationalities. As they said, let’s just follow the majority as the majority seems to be always right, or at least it is more practical to do so. In this case we have the western format as the dominant and familiar way, and easier to understand. So with immediate effect the editorial policy of this blog will adopt the western format when names are concerned. The family name or surname will henceforth be written behind the individual’s name. This should standardise everything and no one will be confused anymore. It will make us to be more westernised or international. No more guessing game.
For a start we will have to get use to Kuan Yew Lee, Chok Tong Goh, Boon Wan Khaw, Eng Hen Ng. Luckily still can address our President as Tony Tan unless he prefers people to call him Keng Yam Tan.
That’s it. This is the way forward. Follow the prevailing trend, and the western style. We will set the standard for countries with Chinese to follow suit. I hope the Govt will make it official for Mediacorp and SPH to do the same. In the interim, while the world gets use to this standardisation, just bear with Mr Kuan instead of Mr Lee, Mr Chok instead of Mr Goh....
PS. Let's not confused the world. Or shall I say let's confuse the world more?
11/13/2011
The brilliant $2 solution
Not many people can remember what this $2 solution was/is all about. Many have accepted it as a way of life and the new normal. It happened nearly 20 years ago, but I still remember. Just to refresh the memory, two decades ago computer technology was not that advance and computer memory was quite small and expensive. I am not sure if this was the main problem, but some banks found that having too many accounts was not only troublesome for their computerized system, but also costly. Computer memory cost money.
What to do? And to ridicule the problem, many accounts were either inactive or have very small deposits in them, some from children’s saving accounts. It was not profitable or meaningful to have these teeny weeny accounts. The only way to get rid of these accounts was simply to charge them a $2 monthly fee if the clients want to continue to keep the accounts. The logic was simple, it cost manpower and resources to service these accounts, and computer memory space.
As a result, all the banks started to impose a $2 fee on accounts with less than $500 or $1000 deposit. I was a victim of this brilliant solution. I totally forgotten about a gold savings account with a local bank. There were a couple of hundred dollars left in them after I sold off my investment. One day I received a note from the bank that it was closing this account of mine as there was no money left. My few hundred bucks gone like that!
I was furious. How could a bank eat up my money which I thought would grow as the interest was quite high then. What I did was normally expected of an unhappy customer. I closed down all my accounts with the bank. Till today, I have no accounts with the bank, not even its credit cards. I was not the only victim. Many victims also suffered in silence as it was their fault for not closing the accounts. It was the fault of the customers to leave their accounts open. The banks happily kept deducting the money and did not bother to remind the clients to close the accounts.
The $2 was a brilliant solution to save money and unnecessary work for the banks. The one who came out with the solution must be a brilliant super talent.
I think NUS School of Management should use this as a compulsory case study in its management courses. It will be a shining example of how effective a $2 solution can be in cost cutting and getting rid of undesirable customers. Harvard may also want to incorporate this into their courses, as a brilliant Singapore solution.
What to do? And to ridicule the problem, many accounts were either inactive or have very small deposits in them, some from children’s saving accounts. It was not profitable or meaningful to have these teeny weeny accounts. The only way to get rid of these accounts was simply to charge them a $2 monthly fee if the clients want to continue to keep the accounts. The logic was simple, it cost manpower and resources to service these accounts, and computer memory space.
As a result, all the banks started to impose a $2 fee on accounts with less than $500 or $1000 deposit. I was a victim of this brilliant solution. I totally forgotten about a gold savings account with a local bank. There were a couple of hundred dollars left in them after I sold off my investment. One day I received a note from the bank that it was closing this account of mine as there was no money left. My few hundred bucks gone like that!
I was furious. How could a bank eat up my money which I thought would grow as the interest was quite high then. What I did was normally expected of an unhappy customer. I closed down all my accounts with the bank. Till today, I have no accounts with the bank, not even its credit cards. I was not the only victim. Many victims also suffered in silence as it was their fault for not closing the accounts. It was the fault of the customers to leave their accounts open. The banks happily kept deducting the money and did not bother to remind the clients to close the accounts.
The $2 was a brilliant solution to save money and unnecessary work for the banks. The one who came out with the solution must be a brilliant super talent.
I think NUS School of Management should use this as a compulsory case study in its management courses. It will be a shining example of how effective a $2 solution can be in cost cutting and getting rid of undesirable customers. Harvard may also want to incorporate this into their courses, as a brilliant Singapore solution.
11/12/2011
Posts disappearing after posting
Several bloggers have encountered this problem since yesterday that their posts were disappearing. Is this a bug in Blogger or is it something more sinister?
Whatever, people will put one and one together and look at the direction which they think is the likely source of such strange things. America did it many times. Create a problem and point the finger at whoever they want to target. It is called false flag incidents.
Now some bloggers may think that I am deleting the disappearing posts. No way that I am doing it. I hope it is such a bug. There is no reason for me to delete any post. In fact I welcome more bloggers to post in my blog. The more the merrier. That is why my posts often are provocative and take on pretty strong and controversial views.
I hope this problem will go away. If it persists, as it has never happened before, you can make your wild guess. A point to note, as it made me wondering, was the exceptionally high traffic on Thursday morning. It more than double the normal volume. Could that be the indicator of someone breaking into this blog?
Redbean.
Whatever, people will put one and one together and look at the direction which they think is the likely source of such strange things. America did it many times. Create a problem and point the finger at whoever they want to target. It is called false flag incidents.
Now some bloggers may think that I am deleting the disappearing posts. No way that I am doing it. I hope it is such a bug. There is no reason for me to delete any post. In fact I welcome more bloggers to post in my blog. The more the merrier. That is why my posts often are provocative and take on pretty strong and controversial views.
I hope this problem will go away. If it persists, as it has never happened before, you can make your wild guess. A point to note, as it made me wondering, was the exceptionally high traffic on Thursday morning. It more than double the normal volume. Could that be the indicator of someone breaking into this blog?
Redbean.
All the signs of the world economy going down
The crisis in Europe is just opening up. How serious it will become is still anyone’s guess. Europe is going down, and so is the US. Foreign banks here are starting to retrench some of their staff, in small numbers. The cause, financial deals are drying up. The financial industry will be the first to be hit this time as investment banks are losing credibility with their huge appetite for gambling.
High net worth clients who are smart enough would be getting cold feet with banks gambling with their money. Yes, it is big time gambling, not playing jackpot machines in the casinos. Many high net worth clients must be losing huge sums of money with stock markets going down in a spiral. And with cash is king, some may be tempted to just sit on it.
The retrenchment of investment bank staff is likely to affect the finance talents whose incomes are pretty substantial. And if these people are committed to multi million dollar properties and expensive cars, it is going to hit them in some ways. The big mortgages are not going to go away. They need two big incomes to service.
Then people will be pointing naughty fingers at them. Why take such big loans and big risk? Why buy properties beyond their means. The thing is that they were not given a chance. They were not eligible to buy properties within their means, to eligible to buy more affordable public housing. Hope it is not going to be the case, or some will be strangling themselves. Those in MF Global are likely to be seeking new jobs too.
When the bubble bursts, those who put these people at unnecessary high risk must touch their hearts and ask themselves if they have done wrong.
High net worth clients who are smart enough would be getting cold feet with banks gambling with their money. Yes, it is big time gambling, not playing jackpot machines in the casinos. Many high net worth clients must be losing huge sums of money with stock markets going down in a spiral. And with cash is king, some may be tempted to just sit on it.
The retrenchment of investment bank staff is likely to affect the finance talents whose incomes are pretty substantial. And if these people are committed to multi million dollar properties and expensive cars, it is going to hit them in some ways. The big mortgages are not going to go away. They need two big incomes to service.
Then people will be pointing naughty fingers at them. Why take such big loans and big risk? Why buy properties beyond their means. The thing is that they were not given a chance. They were not eligible to buy properties within their means, to eligible to buy more affordable public housing. Hope it is not going to be the case, or some will be strangling themselves. Those in MF Global are likely to be seeking new jobs too.
When the bubble bursts, those who put these people at unnecessary high risk must touch their hearts and ask themselves if they have done wrong.
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