What is obsolete?

While everyone is caught in a hectic pace of trying to get rich and get ahead in this materialistic world, has anything really changed with the meaning of life, with the value of things? I quote this statement by a Dr Michael Sandel in an article in the Today paper written by Nicholas Kristof on ‘What money can’t buy.’

‘Do we want a society where everything is up for sale? Or are there certain moral and civic goods that markets do not honour and money cannot buy?’

By asking such a question, I know that this Dr is antique. He has been sleeping and outlived his usefulness. He does not know what this world has become and the modern values that are being cherished as the symbols of success. In short, everything is measured in money and money can buy anything. How successful is a person is measured in money. How much dignity is measured in money. Intelligence is also measured in money.

The goodness of a person is measured in money, if we can remember the dashing and talented and handsome young man who used his Ferrari to take away 3 innocent lives. The only thing people remembered or knew him was how much money he has. Who cares if he is a reckless drunken driver. Who cares about the people whom he killed? Does anyone remember who were killed in the process and their names?

Honour, integrity, loyalty can all be bought. With money, one can buy soldiers, party members, slaves to do silly things without questioning about right or wrong, without questioning about evil and wickedness, without shame and honesty. Just put some money in their mouths and you can move them around in a merry go round.

National pledge is only an aspiration. This is the latest highly regarded opinion to live by. In fact all the age old virtues are just aspirations for the losers to live by. Ask any successful Sinkie and he will tell you this.

Every profession and professional is driven by money. They will do anything for money. Only silly and lowly educated people, the daft ones, will believe in those fanciful old virtues.

The article ‘What money can’t buy’ is superfluous, obsolete, in modern living. It is good to talk about it in fairy tales. I think the schools may have left them out of the syllabus long ago. Only the backward thinking people, the Rip Van Winkles, will still romanticize about such values. I have forgotten about them ages ago. Left them behind too.

To be successful, to live a good life, it is the rule of the jungle, the animal wins. The more animal values one possesses, the more successful one becomes. But some will still hide behind the façade of honesty, integrity, loyalty, goodness, compassion, generousity, graciousness, kindness, truthfulness, and so on, only to laugh themselves silly in good company, without the losers around.

Yes, the losers are all daft. We have sold practically everything that can be sold or in the process of selling them, including our souls, to get more money in return.

In defense of the main media

Everyone is kicking the main media around like a ball. It has been alleged of biased coverage in the by election to favour the ruling party candidate. It has been accused of putting the opposition party candidate in a bad light with funny pictures. But the main media has improved, like the results of the by election. It has improved from what it was before. According to Baey, I think, he also noticed that the main media is getting fairer with more coverage for the opposition candidate. Can’t imagine this kind of coverage in the past, I can’t remember what it was like.

At the rate the main media is improving, soon it will be accused of biased coverage against the ruling party. The incremental improvement counts, just like the 2% gain. One election 2%, ten elections will be 20%. There is great hope that the main media will be better everyday and will do journalism and the journalists proud, one day. Just give it time. Don’t write them off. Hold back the criticisms, afterall they all ‘tan chiak one’ and need to do a good job.

I can’t imagine how the media coverage would be after 2016. One thing for sure, it will be very much fairer. This is the 21th century and no one can think of shitting on anyone’s head in public and in print and say no he didn’t. Everyone will just have to be honest, like it or not, unless one chooses to be an ostrich.

Have faith, our main media is run by professional journalists who always do their due diligence, check up on the facts of things they choose to report on. They will always give honest and truthful reports and in depth analysis. And every photograph is carefully selected to tell the story better. How else could they win so many international awards, like best design, best pictures, best photography, best newsworthy news of this and that, or things like that. I really can’t remember what awards it won but know it won many. An award winning newspaper must be of good reasonable standard. The awards are the proof.

The main media is right and telling the honest truth. This is just my personal opinion, and feel free to disagree. I am very generous and would not sue you if you disagree with me. Everyone has a right to enjoy his freedom to express his own opinion here, in mysingaporenews.

Please don’t help the people, hear the people’s cry.

The govt is so caring and concern about the welfare of the people, about whether they have any money left for retirement, and to pay the exhorbitant medical bills. Where on earth could citizens find such caring govt? And why are the people screaming that they don’t need this kind of help? And why is the govt insisting on a help that the people do not want and then blames the people for depending too much on the govt for help?

It must be the people to be blamed for the govt to insist on helping them with their money. The people have no money? Who is the clown that said the people have no money? No, the problem is that the people have too much money in their CPF that tempted the govt to want to help them with their money. And the govt refuses to listen to the simple and pathetic plea of hopeless Sinkies who don’t even know the money is theirs anymore, and that it is their right to decide how to use it. It is not a govt pension or subsidy or gratuity or grant or handout. It is their money.

Who gives the govt the right to decide what it wants to do with the people’s money? Is it that once the people voted a govt to rule over them, the govt has all the right to do what it wants with the people’s savings? If the govt is sincere and really want to help the people, please use the reserves, or the profits it made from the reserves to help the people, top up the people’s CPF savings or Medisave or buy insurance plans for the people.

Withholding the people’s savings is not helping the people. The people do not need this kind of help and do not want it. It is NOT helping the people. It is causing hardship, pain and suffering on the people who need the money for their expenses.

Please, have some conscience and no need to help the people in the use of their money. The people are not daft and can help themselves. Hear the people’s cry. But then again, deaf frogs are deaf. What to do?

CPF Minimum Sum raised

CPF members who turn 55 between 1 July 2012 and 30 June 2013 have to set aside a Minimum Sum (MS) of S$139,000, higher than the S131,000 for 2011.



Changes will also be made for contributions to the Medisave Minimum Sum (MMS) to help Singaporeans plan for their long-term healthcare needs. (Did Singaporeans ask anyone to be kaypohed to help them plan for their long term needs by taking away their money? Who is asking for help or who really needs help? The helper or the one he is helping?)



From 1 July (2012), the MMS will be raised to S$38,500, from S$36,000 - an increase of 7 per cent.

Another change is in the Medisave Contribution Ceiling (MCC). It's the maximum balance a member may have in his Medisave Account.



This is set at S$5,000 above MMS and would be increased correspondingly to S$43,500, from S$41,000.

I wrote just before the by election that all the increases would have to be delayed but did not know that they cannot tahan already. Now immediately after the by election, all starts to rush out. Just heard that clearing of rubbish will be raised and now this. How many more are lined up to be announced?

Why so desperate to raise CPF minimum when the reserves is one of the largest in the world? Which Ponzi scheme having problems with the payout? This is surely not looking good with our reserves. When there is so much money in the reserves, why is there a need to resort to such dicey and unpopular move? They should plan, yes, plan with the money in the reserves, not the people’s hard earned money, to help the people especially in Medisave. Put some of the big earnings they are making into the people’s CPF instead of paying millions in salary and bonuses.

What more bad news is going to hit the daft Sinkies? They would not listen and would continue to do what they claimed to be good for the Sinkies, especially when taking money from the Sinkies. They don’t even think there is a need to ask the Sinkies. And they are so generous by taking less and the people should feel grateful and celebrate because of this.

$139,000 plus $38,500 work out to be $177,500 frozen with the later probably untouchable by many. And the amount will keep going up annually for the good of the people of course. I am wondering who is more desperate to get their hands onto this money.

Saying the obvious, politely

Telling the PAP that it is going to be history is a bit harsh and difficult to accept. Perhaps there is a polite way to tell the PAP that things are not the same anymore. What has happened in Hougang was an exact replica of the heydays of the PAP. The people rallied behind the party with their hearts, not watching their pockets. It was genuine support for a political party, and PAP had its fair share or giant share of it before. The PAP was the party that the people chose to support and to cheer for.

Would the PAP want to know why the support is fleeing to the opposition camp? It is definitely not because the opposition were better, with more talented leaders. The opposition at this point is time is still a small motley crowd that would be hard pressed to form the govt to run the country. The fault lies squarely on the PAP. It is a confluence of many things, poor or bad policies, self serving policies, poor talents being pushed to the podium as the best talents, a neglect for the people and the people’s interests, alienating the people and taking the people for granted. And more.

Would the PAP be able to see through the problems it is facing them? They have very talented and smart people with them. It is not difficult to know the hard truth if they wanted to. But they could choose to deceive themselves and persist to think that everything is fine. And the old guards will say no problem, we will win back everything. They would even say that Hougang was a piece of cake if they were to do what were necessary. It was the fault of a young turk that refused to listen to the experience old guards. They could do this and that. Put a few men here and there to do what they used to do and easily win back Hougang. Such dated perception of the reality, that things could still be done the old way, will still dominate party thinking. The old school of thoughts and old methodology still rule the inner thinking of the party. And it could turn aggressive and abrasive. You could see the signs during the hustling. The image of gangsterism was there and no one could miss it.

It is not the end of the PAP. It has 4 good years to do the right stuff. It is now the will to serve the people, not rhetoric. Put the money where the mouth is. Slaughter all the fake sacred cows. Look after the people and their interests. The exact and specifics that need to be done are common knowledge. The work is all cut out and waiting. Is there a political will to do the right thing, to, for once, be less self serving and be people centric?

Can Hsien Loong turn it around? Can he stop the slide and revive a party that is turning into a dodo, a deaf frog that is too much of itself? More of the same is not going to work anymore. The old ways, the old guards, must be turned into monuments in the museum and a fresh start is needed, with leaders that are there not for the money. Money is the cause that is seeing the decline of the PAP. Would the PAP wait to turn into ashes befall it rises as a phoenix, or would it pick itself up quickly and fly again.