12/28/2011

The illegal casinos

Casinos started in a small way, and all illegal. They gambled with match sticks, cards, dice, beans, and some even have their manual roulette tables. Things changed when the sophisticated mafias started to engage engineers and technology experts to create new and more interesting games. For their huge investments to be profitable, they must find willing casino operators to use their machines.

They went to entice the casino operators with high turnovers, high gambling activities and with a sure win formula. They will pay the casino operators a fee and the casino operators will have to accommodate them with how the rules of the games should be played. Some casino operators even bent the rules for the big mafia boys.

And the mafias brought in their expensive and highly computerized machines into the casinos. They explained that the machines would do all the works, and all kinds of gamblers can play the machines. The operators only need to provide coins, $1, 50c, 20c, 10c, 5c and even 1c. The smaller bets were good, would attract many more small gamblers. And the operators obliged without question asked. The operators could just go to sleep and collect their dues.

As long as the mafias kept paying the operators their dues, the operators did not care and did not want to know what the mafias were doing. The machines were rigged to maximize profits. The odds in favour of the mafia machines could be as high as 90% or 99%. And they kept cleaning up the gamblers, big or small. They happily scooped up everything quietly. The operators also happily collected their fees and shared their big dividends among themselves.

The casinos were still illegal, of course. No responsible govt was going to let such casinos to operate freely to rip off the innocent and ignorant gamblers. But the mafias had big plans. It all started in America. They wanted to operate casinos legally and started to buy up the law makers. The law makers might be greedy, the govt could made do with more revenue. But there must be laws, responsibilities, to manage the mafias and prevent them from sending every gambler to the cleaners.

Other than a hefty gambling tax, the responsible govt imposed many conditions and rules for the casinos to operate legally and within limits. The odds must be controlled, no more 90% or 99% wins. The gamblers must have a fair chance of making some wins as well. Basically the mafias were not allowed to cheat the small gamblers in an unfair game. They might be allowed to bring in their sophisticated machines, but the responsible govt would want to know how the machines work and how to monitor them to prevent excesses and rampant cheating.

The govt was also smart enough to set up a regulatory body to monitor, supervise and regulate the casinos and the mafias and their machines. Of course the casino operators would want to regulate themselves. But no stupid govt would allow that to happen. They could not let the operators regulate themselves and work hand in glove with the mafias and their machines to cheat the gamblers. To allow the casino operators to regulate themselves was like asking the fox to guard the hen house. To close an eye and not wanting to know how the machines work and how much advantage they had to manipulate their winnings was criminal. It was a dereliction of responsibility to the innocent and ignorant gamblers who were citizens to be protected by the govt.

The responsible govt won. They allowed the casinos to operate under strict regulations, controlled and supervision. The odds in their machines were controlled and dictated by the govt. And everything was in order, with checks and balance and a fair and equitable system for both the casino operators, the mafias and the gamblers. Only such a system is sustainable.

Only an irresponsible govt would allow casinos to operate freely and in cahoot with the mafias, and to allow the mafias a free hand to do whatever they want, even rigging their high speed computerized machines to cheat the gamblers. No where in the world would this be allowed to happen. No where. Unless the govt is also in cahoot with the casino operators and the mafias.

Seng Han Thong’s affair continues

This episode does not seem to want to fade away. And the developments make the issue more confusing with some red faces in some quarters. Luckily SMRT was safe as there were records to prove what the PR executive said.

Seng Han Thong had apologized and nobody is demanding an explanation, which means apologies accepted but no need to explain further. This should have been the closure. Then Shanmugam came out to explain why Seng Han Thong is not a racist. This was followed by Hri Kumar saying more or less the same and that some blog sites have misquoted him or did not report the case fairly.

What then is the position of Halimah Yacob who was obviously not happy with the statement in the beginning? So, after all the explanations, hopefully she is now happy that it was all a wild goose chase and there was nothing to it. And there is a happy closure. All is a big misunderstanding due to poor command of English and misquoting.

Let’s move on.

Ah Long rules the land

Reading from the media and the unceasing pressure put on residents by Ah Longs and his guerilla painters and fire starters, it is obvious that Ah Longs have won the war. They are getting more outrageous and destructive in their attacks on innocent flat dwellers. Their coercive methods include taunting and terrorizing the whole neighbourhood and residents are living in fear.

Shall I congratulate the Ah Longs for their nasty and lawless acts? Why are the Ah Longs so indefeatable, so creative and deceptive in their harassment of residents? They seem to be more superior in their tactics and no one is able to terminate them.

One possible option is for residents to pay for hire guns to go after them and take them down like the wild wild west when the law was incapable of dealing with the hoodlums. It would provide jobs for the jobless as bounty hunters.

Is it really so difficult to remove these terrorists?

12/27/2011

An act of war

Many people still believe that the sinking of the Choenan was committed by the North Koreans, except the South Koreans. I am not preview to the full facts, and so are many people. But from afar, one can still make some logical assessments based on the facts available and the actions of the parties concerned. It may not be right but at least it must be logical and not just some blind belief based on the most corrupted source of information, the media that have a private agenda for printing the story. Then there are media that were told to print, some paid to print and some simply print, believing that it was innocent facts.

The South Koreans are begging for war with the North Koreans, conducting regular and provocative war games with North Korea’s arch enemy the US. The US are most eager to precipitate a war in the Korean Peninsula with everything to gain, gaining a bigger foothold at China’s doorstep with permission to station more troops and bases, more control over the South Koreans who would be fully be dependent and beholden to them, the opportunity to sell more weapons to South Korea and Japan, and other countries and making more money and influence. And the opportunity to start a war outside of the US with the Asians killing themselves, and next to China, would be a great bonus.

The South Koreans have a reason to want to go to war. The US have all the reasons to want a war with the North. All they need is a good reason for them to attack the North. The Choenan was the best reason ever presented to them. It was an act of war. No buts, a serious enough incident, the sinking of a naval ship with many seamen dead.

Then one may ask, what was holding back the two protagonists who are bent on a war with the North and given this great opportunity, refrained from doing so? I am not going to discuss why the North Koreans were so stupid, knowing that this was what the South and the Americans were waiting for. The only reason was that they were mad. And many believe this too.

Why would the South Koreans hold back? And why weren’t they be pushed by the US who were so trigger happy to do so? I bet the US was pushing them real hard to start that war. The South Koreans chickened out at the face of war? Obviously not. The last thing they wanted to do was to plunge into a war for the wrong and stupid reason, a false flag incident.

Some may think the two Koreans are mad, but they are definitely not stupid. They might be led by the nose by the Americans, but they would not be fixed by some party or parties to go to war. They would have thoroughly examined the wreckage for the conclusive evidence that it was a hostile act by the North. And if it was, they have no reason not to go to war. It was South Korean lives killed, property destroyed and national pride at stake, the credibility of the govt.

Why didn’t they go to war if they have the proof? Why were they able to ward off the pressure from the Americans who wanted them to attack the North? The North Koreans committed the first act of war! The world opinion and the UN would be on their side. The South Koreans would die to defend their country when attacked and their own people killed.

What is happening? No guts to go to war? Or they did found some conclusive evidence, ….that it was not the North Koreans who sank their ship and killed their sailors?

You may have your own reasons to still want to believe the North sank the Choenan. Good for you.

PS. Please excuse me for belabouring this issue. Forget about the Koreans. The moral of my posting is to remind people not to take the information from the media, particularly politically sensitive information for granted. Think a little and try to see through the issue. You may see something, you may not. If thinks are too hazy, don't jump to conclusion and allowed the scheming parties to fix your thinking. The joke is on you.

US dollar going to the sewage

Saddam had to go when he schemed to replace the US dollar for trading oil. This was a dangerous move that would jeopardize the already weak dollar. When countries have no need to use the dollar to buy/sell oil, the demand for US dollar is going to go down the sewage.

This was the logical reason put forth by many economists that explained why the hoax of WMD was shafted down the dead brains of the heads of Allied governments who then parroted the whole hoax to their people as truth, and joined the gang of the ‘Willing Coalition to kill Saddam and Iraqis’.

The Chinese and the Japanese have just signed an agreement to facilitate trade between the world’s number 2 and number 3 economies using Yuan and Yen, by passing the need to buy US dollars. The implications of this development on the US dollar are severe.

China is also working with the Asean states to promote the use of Yuan. And why not when the US dollar is slipping into the drain? Commercial transactions using US dollars are so treacherous that seemingly profitable deals may end up a big loss with the currency depreciating daily. It is a matter of time before the US dollars be dumped and turned into banana currency.

And hither will the TPP go when the Yuan starts to replace the US dollar as a reliable currency for trade? There is no need for war for the US economy to collapse. When the dollar becomes a useless piece of paper that no one wants, that will be the end of the Empire. It may come much sooner than expected.