Inspection and certification of medical instruments are going to cost a bomb. And the doctors are unhappy and rightly so as the cost of medical services is already high and now adding more cost. This is the syndrome of creating jobs and income for doing more and more. Aren’t these equipment manufacturers subject to many international regulations and standards to ensure that their equipment is safe for use?
We will be seeing more revenue created from unproductive administrative processes like more checks, more certifications and examination fees, more licences etc etc. The annual checks for cars, especially weekend cars, is another big concern. The cars today are very well made, and in our case many are very new, weekend car owners hardly used their cars, but subject to annual inspections at a hefty fee.
It is so easy to make money when you have the authority to do so. Just create some excuses for more training, more examinations, more checks, more certifications, and money will just flow in. No need to work the guts out in the field, in the factory, in the service outlets producing real goods and services. Better, wait for someone to complain and turn it around to impose more fees to look like trying to solve the problem.
The financial industry just print paper money, create complex notes and sell them to the ignorant. All part of the new industry of creating revenue out of nothing. Is it really that clever to do such things? What shall such things be called? Abuse of power, authority, robbery, trickery, selling snake oil? You don’t need any talent to do such things. The MLM, the holiday share schemes, ponzi schemes, charities and donation schemes , etc etc even the school dropouts, the laymen or conmen can do it. In fact they are more creative and effective than the super talents in such designs. Cheating is the easiest thing to do, and no thinking required if the power is behind cheats.
4/09/2012
4/08/2012
My nightmare turning into an inspiration
Since independence we have called ourselves citizens of this country, and we dutifully went to the voting stations to cast our votes to elect our representatives to Parliament, to represent us, to speak for us, to look after our interests. It was quite shocking to learn that a general election is meant to elect a party to rule the country and has very little to do with the elected representatives. Got or no elected MP no big deal. And that is the reason or the reason behind the law for an election.
I have been living with this nightmare for quite some time since the new awakening, to find a new meaning in the law or a new reason for the law. Now that the dust has settled, time to relook at this new interpretation of the law for election. I said new because it is new to me. It may be an old meaning that I do not know and I could have been an ignoramus all this while, oblivious of the true meaning of the law. Silly me.
Okay, now that some brilliant legal mind has shone a torch on this law and enlightened the electorate on the reasons behind the law, let’s make it clear and proper. A general election shall now be an election for a political to rule the country. Let’s be transparent about this and tell the people what it really is. Just go to the polling and tick against the party. It is much simpler and easy to administer.
The elected party shall form the govt and fill the seats with their MPs in parliament. A little tweaking needs to be done to the Constitution on how many MPs each party is entitled according to the percentage of votes received. The parties can sort out who they want to be in parliament as it is not really important to have a chosen MP by the people.
And there are many advantages to such a system and very cost effective. One thing that can be saved is a by election. Since the people are electing parties, a vacated seat can simply be filled by the party concerned. Save time and resources and the people can have a new replacement almost immediately. Very convenient too.
This nightmare, if interpreted in a positive way, can be an inspiration for a new electoral system.
I have been living with this nightmare for quite some time since the new awakening, to find a new meaning in the law or a new reason for the law. Now that the dust has settled, time to relook at this new interpretation of the law for election. I said new because it is new to me. It may be an old meaning that I do not know and I could have been an ignoramus all this while, oblivious of the true meaning of the law. Silly me.
Okay, now that some brilliant legal mind has shone a torch on this law and enlightened the electorate on the reasons behind the law, let’s make it clear and proper. A general election shall now be an election for a political to rule the country. Let’s be transparent about this and tell the people what it really is. Just go to the polling and tick against the party. It is much simpler and easy to administer.
The elected party shall form the govt and fill the seats with their MPs in parliament. A little tweaking needs to be done to the Constitution on how many MPs each party is entitled according to the percentage of votes received. The parties can sort out who they want to be in parliament as it is not really important to have a chosen MP by the people.
And there are many advantages to such a system and very cost effective. One thing that can be saved is a by election. Since the people are electing parties, a vacated seat can simply be filled by the party concerned. Save time and resources and the people can have a new replacement almost immediately. Very convenient too.
This nightmare, if interpreted in a positive way, can be an inspiration for a new electoral system.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)