PAP reinventing itself

More new faces and ministers promoted. The cabinet will look brand new if more faces are changed. Probably some skeletons would also be moved out and forgotten comes 2016. And with the liabilities gone, PAP would then be more confident when the GE comes around. By then, the PAP would be able to throw in a minister to any weak GRC to win the election. And with so many ministers promoted, there will be many more to throw around. If one is not enough, throw in two to make it heavier.

This new change is a shrewd move as the current batch of ministers is looking very feeble to carry any GRC under their wings. With promising ministers like Chan Chun Sing, Grace Fu, Tan Chuan Jin, Lawrence Wong in charge, plus a few younger Senior Ministers of State, there is now a new and exciting team to carry the PAP flag, full of promise.

Things are looking brighter for the PAP with this innovative change. Instead of cheaper, faster and better, it is like, younger, nicer and cleaner. And Sinkieland will have a brighter future to look forward to. This is good reason to celebrate the National Day with Love at First Sight.  Let the party rock.

Olympics - The reemergence of the Koreans

What is so great about a rich first world country winning a bronze medal (no intent to rub down our achievement) when a country repeatedly branded by the ignorant self proclaimed experts in the West, including Sinkie experts as ‘abject poverty stricken country’ could win 4 gold medals and 1 bronze at this stage of the Olympic Games? Who is having the last laugh and who is calling the bluff?

Yes the ‘poor and poverty stricken’ North Koreans, all starving, where got energy to do anything, have won 4 gold medals! Believe it, is it true? The disbelievers will claim it is a lie. The Brits will claim it must be the works of drugs. Like it or not, the North Koreans is shaming many rich countries in the Olympics.

At this point in time they have more gold medals than Japan, Italy, Germany, Russia, Australia, Netherlands and many of the countries that are used to sneer at them.

And between the North and South Koreans they have a combined haul of 11 gold medals against 14 won by the Americans and 18 by the Chinese, ranking number 3 in the Medal tally ranking. The Koreans have arrived. They are going to take on the world and show the world that the Koreans can be high achievers.

Imagine France only had 7 and Great Britain has 4 and mighty Germany, Russia and Italy each with only 3. And Japan, Korea’s colonial master has only 2 gold medals.

Well done Koreans.

Is there a choice between smaller and bigger population?

“If Singapore depends on the talent it can produce out of three million people, it’s not going to punch above its weight. Lee Kuan Yew

We were 1m, then 2m, then 3m before we added all the foreigners to 5.6m. When we were 1m and 2m, we were already producing the talents that built the foundation for our economic miracles. We were producing talented Singaporeans even then. Unless those were not talents, then we are just slapping our own stupid face.

Now we are more than 5m. Did the increased population with foreign talents, throw out any great talents? The only foreign talent that is worth mentioning is Olivia Lum of Hyflux. The rest were plain employees, sitting on their fat asses and getting fat pay which any Singaporeans can also do so given the chance. Many of the CEO positions can easily be filled by Singaporeans and you will not see any difference in performance, maybe even better.

The three local banks were built by Singaporean talents. Without local talents there would not be any big local banks to think of. SIA, SMRT, Creative, Singtel were also locals. Not sure about Temasek and GIC but their startup fund is definitely local. The hospitals with their specialists and state of the art equipments were mainly run by Singaporeans and Malaysians. By the way, I think Singaporeans have never regarded the Malaysians as foreigners historically.

Did we produce lesser talents when we were 1m and 2m than we are now? There are some great talents in R and D. But these are instant trees. Would their offsprings be more talented than the offsprings of coolies and labourers, washerwomen and salesmen? What about the risk of offsprings from fake papers and fake talents?

If we have not over aspired to go for 6m and more, we would not be pressurised to create more jobs and ended with the two casinos. We would not be so desperate in our need for water and power and flirting with the risks of a nuclear solution to our ever growing need for more and cheaper source of energy. No need to talk about hyper inflation, high cost of living, high property prices, congestion, inability to own a car etc etc. All these problems are the negative effects of high population. Growth is good but not by increasing population indefinitely. It is a time bomb that must blow up if we don’t stop the population growth. It is not only a time bomb for this little rock but for Gaia, if population growth is not stopped.

What is so bad about a smaller population with lower growth, but real productivity growth, and a better quality of life, with more space for everyone and a lower cost of living?

What is price fixing?

Below is copied from the Competition Commission of Singapore’s website.

‘ A particularly serious type of anti-competitive agreement would be those made by cartels. Cartel agreements are usually to fix prices, to rig competitive tendering process, to divide up markets or to limit production. As a result, the cartelists have little or no incentive to lower prices or provide better quality goods or services. Based on economic studies, cartels overcharge by 30 per cent on average. There are four main types of cartel agreements:

• Price Fixing

Price fixing involves competitors agreeing to fix, control or maintain the prices of goods or services. It can be ‘direct’ fixing of prices, where there is an agreement to increase or maintain actual prices. Price fixing activities can also take the form of ‘indirect’ fixing of prices, for example, where competitors agree to offer the same discounts or credit terms. Price fixing agreements do not have to be in writing, a verbal understanding at, for instance a trade association meeting or at a social event, may be sufficient to show that there was a price fixing agreement. It does not matter how the agreement was reached or whether it has been carried out. What matters is that the competitors have agreed to collude.’

On 29 Jul 12, it was reported that 7 Town Councils announced that they would be revising Service and Conservancy Charges in their respective areas. My first impression is that here is a cartel of 7 Town Councils working together to fix prices at the same time. But then again, I think these Town Councils would know what price fixing is all about and knowing the law, they would be well advised not to violate it. Further, they are not commercial enterprises but govt or semi govt agencies and price fixing offence may not be applicable even if they did have some agreements to raise their fees together with or without any intention to fix prices.

As a layman, I would be hard pressed to try to interpret and understand what is price fixing by a cartel and whether in this instance there is any, or whether the Town Councils are guilty of price fixing. I have no reason to doubt the integrity of these govt officials and would believe that they have done the correct and proper thing and there is thus no price fixing.

52 years of fantasising come true

The Olympic medal finally arrived after 52 years of waiting since Howe Liang did us proud in Rome in 1960. We can now feel it, touch it, kiss it and pray to it. Maybe a little shrine shall be built for the public to visit these two medals, to touch them for good luck or something like that. On hindsight, who are the people craving for such a medal in the first place? The men in the street, the Ah Kongs and the Ah Mahs, the Ah Ter and the Ah Kow, the sports fraternity, the adolescence or the mature oldies? We have been talking about this craving for an Olympic medal but who is the one that wanted it so badly to spend so much money for it? How much has been spent, must be ‘very much’ taking into account the logistics, medical and training support, coaches, food, training expenses, salaries and rewards etc, not just for Feng Tianwei but for the whole gang of players and supporting staff over so many years.

One thing for sure, no Sinkie sportsman or woman would want it so badly to sacrifice time and effort to go through a very tough and discipline regime to be world champions. The Chinese factories and other European factories are churning up champions by a very thorough full time process from a very young age. I don’t think any Sinkie or Sinkie parents would want to put their wards through the regime.

Anyway, the medal has arrived. Where to go from here? Would this be so exciting to stimulate people to want more, or would want to go for the gold and spend more money and resources for it? Or would people said, okay, enough of fantasies and youthful infatuation, time to grow up, no need to keep up with the Joneses. Let’s move on to more serious things in life? Some may want to use this medal as a springboard to go ahead in a big way. Some may want to tone it down or want to spend the money on the real Sinkies. And if no real Sinkies want it bad enough to put in the effort, then the money can be better spent on the welfare of the people in other areas.

Sports is about sporting spirit and competition. It would be acceptable too if it could be turned into a commercial enterprise like the European Football Leagues, creating jobs and generating revenue. But if it is a cost centre and for a little bit of glory, is it worth the expenditure, effort and resources? Do we want to go for more medals in the same way?

PS. There have been many negative remarks made about these imported sports talents. I think it is unfair as they are here because we asked them to be here. If any country would to offer any Sinkie such attractive terms it is fair for the Sinkie to accept the offer. They are not to be blamed, just like the FTs that are here. The person to take the blame should be the one that opened the legs wide wide.

PS, the 52 years wait is a mistake. Singapore won a silver medal in table tennis women's team event in 2008 Beijing Olympics.