4/08/2012

The glorification of foreign talents continues

Spread your legs, spread your legs, spread them wider, and wider. We must let the foreign talents to come in or we will perish. Though we have survived and built a healthy and economically viable country on our own steam for the first 40 years of our nation building, with very little foreign talents, why is it that we cannot continue to do well without foreign talents?

And what kind of foreign talents are we getting other than a handful of exceptions that will lift us higher in the competitive world? How many of those so called foreign talents are doing jobs that Sinkies can do just as well, I don’t mean the Geylang type? I mean for every foreign talent that is recruited to sit in top management position, are there really no Sinkies that are as good or even better than him or her? This is the biggest bull that daft Sinkies are made to believe and live by.

We have been compared with Taiwan, China, India, Korea etc etc, and are we really doing that much better than these countries that are self sufficient in local talents and have companies that are now recognisable world wide? Maybe we don’t have enough head counts and we need more head counts to be bigger like them. But what is so great about their companies? With Temasek and GIC we can have many of their companies if we want them. We simply buy them over and with the Singapore premium, none will be able to resist our offer. We can buy the world with their talents, lock, stock and barrel. It is like… with one of these we can have a thousand of everything.

I think it will be a better strategy to keep this third wing overseas and no need to bring the hoards of hungry third world, talent or no talent, to our shores and inflate the prices of everything, including inflating our culture and bad manners. After carefully grooming and programming our people to be more discipline and refine like the developed countries, it is a big waste to mix them up with the uncouth and third world behaviour and social norms. And worst, to tolerate them and become one of them, be assimilated by them. There must be other better formula for growth and economic well being other than inflating head counts with third world talents that are deemed better than ours.


Spread your legs, spread your legs, spread them wider, and wider. We must let the foreign talents to come in or we will perish. Though we have survived and built a healthy and economically viable country on our own steam for the first 40 years of our nation building, with very little foreign talents, why is it that we cannot continue to do well without foreign talents?

And what kind of foreign talents are we getting other than a handful of exceptions that will lift us higher in the competitive world? How many of those so called foreign talents are doing jobs that Sinkies can do just as well, I don’t mean the Geylang type? I mean for every foreign talent that is recruited to sit in top management position, are there really no Sinkies that are as good or even better than him or her? This is the biggest bull that daft Sinkies are made to believe and live by.

We have been compared with Taiwan, China, India, Korea etc etc, and are we really doing that much better than these countries that are self sufficient in local talents and have companies that are now recognisable world wide? Maybe we don’t have enough head counts and we need more head counts to be bigger like them. But what is so great about their companies? With Temasek and GIC we can have many of their companies if we want them. We simply buy them over and with the Singapore premium, none will be able to resist our offer. We can buy the world with their talents, lock, stock and barrel. It is like… with one of these we can have a thousand of everything.

I think it will be a better strategy to keep this third wing overseas and no need to bring the hoards of hungry third world, talent or no talent, to our shores and inflate the prices of everything, including inflating our culture and bad manners. After carefully grooming and programming our people to be more discipline and refine like the developed countries, it is a big waste to mix them up with the uncouth and third world behaviour and social norms. And worst, to tolerate them and become one of them, be assimilated by them. There must be other better formula for growth and economic well being other than inflating head counts with third world talents that are deemed better than ours.

4/07/2012

The pathetic pictures of dogs

Last week I remember the pictures of some of the best fighting dogs published in the media. They were mainly pitbulls, kept primarily for fighting, in some corners of Indonesia. The sight of these dogs was pathetic. Each was chained to an empty oil drum which doubled as their kennels. And the most unpleasant and unexpected, they were so under fed that the rib cages were showing prominently.

How could these fighting dogs fight when they were looking more like greyhounds? And fighting dogs or fighting cocks are like footballs and gamblings. The owners should be able to give them a decent meal and also for them to gain strength to fight. They have to be fed well it they are to bite well.

Perhaps those were the losers or the aged, left to be forgotten, to live or to die. The good dogs and the champions would still be well fed and well looked after.

Feel very sorry for these dogs. In their heydays as pitbulls they must have worth a lot and received a lot of strokings from their masters. They could be growling all the way into the ring as if they were invincible, prized possessions of their masters.

Revisiting the 60s

The Christians are reliving the past, the days of Jesus Christ, the times when miracles happened. Jesus died and was resurrected to live forever. The past can be a great inspiration to many and can be quite frightening to some. The past could be a milestone, a reference point to mark where we have come from and where we should be going into the future.

Last week Hsien Loong was warning the people that if we don’t buck up, we could return to the past, to the 60s. In this sense, the past is something we do not want to revisit.

What were some of the memories of the 60s that are still lingering in our thoughts? Renting a place to sleep, to get married, to set up homes, is a common thing then. The citizens were so comfortable living and sharing with strangers in little rooms, sharing kitchens and toilet facilities. The toilets at home are like public toilets, just as dirty, with no ownership and untidy housemates.

And of course the rooms were small and crammed. A 600 sq ft unit could be shared by 3 or 4 families. Each family of 4 or 8 or more could be squeezed into a single room.

Car ownership was a great status symbol, a social class to be aspired to. There were TV serials just on the theme of car ownership class and how this became the divide of society.

And there were latch key children, with both parents at work and the children given the house key to return to an empty nest. Life was tough and everyone was working hard. The good thing then was the hope and aspirations, the attainable hopes and aspirations for the ordinary folks to own their cars and their flats. And upgrading to bigger and bigger units of flats or private properties were a way of life. Everyone was improving their lives. This latter part, of living their dreams and attaining them quite easily, kept the people happy and focussed on the good life ahead.

In many ways we are already revisiting the 60s in some areas. It is not that we are going backward. We are already there. We are in the process of going full circle. Singaporeans are encouraged to share their flats to strangers and turning their toilets into public toilets, for an income. The new flats are getting smaller and smaller, and with shoe box flats being brandished as the next good thing, more will have to live in them, as owners and not tenants.

The latch key syndrome has not gone away, only the parents. In the 60s, the parents were in Jurong or working somewhere in the island. Today the parents of these latch key children are further away, overseas.

Another 5 years will be all it takes for car ownership to become another new privilege class. Many would have to abandon their dreams of owning a car. Many will live their lives without being able to buy a car while many will be owning 5, 10 or 20 cars.

The upgrading ethos will still carry on. Many will still aspire to upgrade, from a 1000 sq ft HDB flat to a 600 sq ft private flat that costs a million. And their life style will improve with the millionaires living next door. And hopefully no need to turn their toilets into public toilets by subletting to strangers.

The dreams of being rich and owning properties will always be there. There will be those who will become doctors, lawyers, politicians, top civil servants, and be able to afford the rich life of the talented. Many have made it and the reward is more than worth it…if they made it. But many will return to the 60s to live their dreams that will no longer be that easy to attain. It is not a matter of whether they will return to the 60s, they will, many will.

Some of the women folks may end up as maids if they are not careful, and have irons on their faces or falling off while cleaning windows.

The oldies then fared better than those today. Maybe they died earlier. Many could live off their pensions and faded away. Today, the oldies are richer, with plenty of savings in their CPF, but still have to work till they die.

4/06/2012

TRE banning redbean from accessing

Hi TRE, what is happening? I tried to access your site for some reading this morning and found my IP being banned. While your site is reposting my articles, I have rarely made any comments on your site, maybe not more than 5 in all, and all neutral comments, if I can remember.

Must be something funny right? April 1st is more than a week past. You don't have a change of editorial team or administrator for your site I hope.

The Hougang by election court case

The case filed by Madam Vellama Muthu in court for a ruling on when a by election should be held is being challenged vigorously by the Attorney General’s Chambers. The AGC is appealing against Judge Pillai’s ruling for a hearing next week to determine what should be done in view of an MP vacating his seat. The judge has found that there is a prima facie case to have the case heard.

What is the issue of this case? Is it a case of a political party taking a position which other political party disagree. Or is it a case of the people against the govt or the law of the country? If it is the former, where the ruling party is seen as not observing the law of the country, would it then be expected that the ruling party be defending its position?

Or is this a case against the state that the AGC has to come out to take a stand to defend the law? It should be the case if the law is clear. What is now unclear is that the law is apparently vague in the calling of a by election and a case has been filed to have a clear interpretation of the law by the court. Should not this be a good thing, to have a clear position and nobody can then quibble over it? Maybe the AGC’s position is that the law is clear and no need for further interpretation.

What is the best thing to happen? Throw the case out and not wanting to know the court’s ruling and interpretation on what the law really should be?