Shanmugam told US off

At the sold out Singapore Conference in Washington, Shanmugam pointedly told the Americans to shut up and stop trying to sow discord in Asia. He warned the Americans that the thought and talk of containing China is pure hogwash and would not be accepted by Asian and Asean in particular. It would not work. Asians are no longer unthinking colonized people that can be made to dance with the Western powers pulling all the strings. Asians will determine what is best for them and how to conduct their international relations with other countries. Asians know what is best in their own interest.

The Americans were advised to build more trade relations with Asian countries instead of military alliances and inciting differences and wars. The Americans must be shocked to get a bollocking from their little staunch supporter whom they probably believed will dance to whatever tune they played. And I think, I am not Shanmugam, Shanmugam’s message is more a consensus position of the Asean states with one or two exceptions.

The Americans must take note that their rhetoric to provoke cross border animosity is noted and that the Asean states will not be easily deceived and to allow conflicts to flare up in the region.

Please buzz off if that is the American intention. We don’t need conflicts, we don’t need wars.

The sad Arabian Tales

The Arabian countries are burning and Arabs are dying everyday, killed by foreign forces and instigated to kill each other by foreign forces. To whose interest or benefit it is to keep the Arabs in a constant state of turmoil an upheaval? And who is inciting the Arabs and fanning the fire of hatred in the Arab land?

Asia and Asians must learn from these pitiful and hopeless people if they want to remain in peace and give their people a better life without being embroiled in senseless warfare and killings. The people, be there Arabs, Africans or Asians, would not want to be dragged into wars that would keep them busy fighting each other, and become dependent on foreign charity and domination.

Many of these countries are led into wars because of a few selfish and idiotic leaders who only think of their own interest and positions. The people who are going to die are the average citizens. The people who are going to benefit from the bloodshed and destruction will be the leaders and their foreign accomplices.

There are a few silly leaders in the Asian continent and the South East Asian island countries. Some of them are very keen to drag their countries into wars thinking that it will be just another game of deceit and accumulation of wealth and power. The Asian people must be guarded against such foolish leaders and keep their countries free from wars and fighting other people’s wars.

The Asians must keep Asia in peace for their own good. The Arabs are in this pathetic state because they were weaked, selfish, divided and fixed up by western powers to kill each other, and the provocateurs profited from their foolishness and the destruction of their countries and people.
Asia must stay in peace. The Latin Americans are doing this very well and is a good lesson to learn from.

Lui Tuck Yew, SMRT, hold your horses

SMRT announced that it is going to spend another $90m or more on a new signaling system so that trains can arrive 20 sec or 30 sec earlier. Before even questioning whether this is money well spent, let me just recount my experience with the train services these few weeks after the resignation of the CEO.

I used to take the early trains and my timing has not changed. The strange thing that is happening now is that the interval of trains arriving in the early hours on the East West and North South lines has improved. But this is not all. The trains are less crowded than before and there is ample breathing space between the commuters. No longer would the commuters be forced to breath in the BOs and stench of unwashed commuters beside them.

This is a great improvement and no need to waste millions on another signaling system if it can be achieved at all hours. Funny how things could improve so drastically within a few weeks of the CEO’s departure.

The after office hour rush and jam have also improved dramatically. But this stretch is still not tolerable as the trains are still quite packed. A little more tweaking with a couple more trains could do the trick. I think it is all about more thorough management or a different management philosophy from one that is profit priority to one that is commuter centric.

I would suggest the SMRT keeps monitoring and review the train flow and tweak wherever necessary to improve the service and hold back on the huge expenditure that may not be necessary. And that expenditure need not be passed down to the commuters with higher fares again.

I hope SMRT, LTA and Lui Tuck Yew are listening.

Increase CPF of oldies

This is another brilliant scheme in the brewing. The struggle to get oldies to work longer continues. Now the struggle to get oldies to be better paid. The cost of hiring oldies is lower because of lower CPF contribution, so can raise their CPF.

With all due respect to the oldies, I am also one, depending on the job one is doing, many will slow down and some jobs that are physically and mentally more demanding will extract their tolls on the oldies. Other than some exceptions and some specialized professions when age and experience counts more, many oldies would not be able to contribute as much as the young.

Let’s face the fact that nature made us that way, when one is young, one is full of energy and vibrancy. When one is old, hitting the sack is a big draw and taking life at a slower pace is only natural. Our taxi drivers can drive till 73 and may be even extended to 75. I don’t think it is a good thing. The pathetic state of Sinkies to have to work till that kind of age or else, is a reminder of our failure in our retirement scheme and pension fund. Everything is wiped away by high inflation and the high cost of living is making the oldies into the workforce imperative.

Would employer seriously want to pay more to the oldies for lesser work? Or can the oldies contribute the same with other workers for the same wage? If yes, then there is no issue. Can our workforce can be competitive with higher pay for the oldies without the same level of productivity?

What is questionable is who is going to profit from more CPF contributions from the oldies’ income? Why not just pay direct to their salary when other oldies are withdrawing their CPF savings?

NUS is going to raise the quality of its degrees

It was only a couple of years back when NUS raised its tuition fees. Today there are calling for another raise. And since the quality of education is closely related to the quality of tuition fees, the percentage of fee hike will see an equivalent improvement in quality. As they said, cheap is never good, and you want quality you will have to pay for it. At the rate NUS is improving its standard, soon it will be among the top 10 universities in world rankings.
The only thing that I am concerned is the daft sinkie students. Would they be able to move up together with the university rankings? If the university goes to the top 10, would the quality of Sinkie graduates also go up to the top 10?
NUS is now ranked among the better half of the top 100 universities in the world. Unfortunately the employers are still looking to hiring better graduates from lower ranked universities elsewhere. Are our students getting a good deal, paying too much for too little?
I still think value for money will be to send our daft Sinkie students to India and Philippines for their university education. Cheap and good and they will all turn out to be top management material. Pay less for more. The Indian and Filipino graduates are in demand and will beat any NUS graduate hands down when employment suitability is concerned.
Sinkie parents must think about the rate of returns before paying their children’s tuition fees.