1819 revisited

Doreen Everitt: "I'm not on holiday, I live and work here. And like most overseas people we are here at your request to make sure your country makes money from our expertise."

She also says:

"Your government brings us in to work here because you don't have the skills. Don't knock us because believe it or not there is more foreign money in Singapore than anything else. If we all pulled out you would be a very poor and lonely country. Be grateful that there are people like us willing to give up our country, our ways to actually come and work for you and your government. Singaporeans are not the most friendly of people to be around."

When the British came in 1819, they saw a fishing village. They were so friendly and helpful. They took over the island from the native and turned it into their colonial outpost. They also honoured the native and made them richer by making them subjects of the British Empire. The native were so happy with the recognition and new status, and more jobs to work as cooks and maids and suppliers to the British soldiers. Some were given the title chief clerks. Hell of a big deal then.

Then came 1969, the British were bankrupt and could not help the poor native anymore as they too did not have the money to live the lifestyle of the colonial masters they used to be. So they left, leaving the native in the lurch. And everyone will think the native will become poor and lonely and ended up like any third world country.

But the native did not become poorer and lonelier. The native turned the little trading post into one of the world’s financial centres and its native one of the richest people in the world. But for some reasons, someone told the world that the native were daft and needed the help of foreign talents to help them to build a better life and to give them jobs.

So the millionaire and half millionaire native are now being helped by half baked talents who believed that they are the saviours of the millionaire native. The truth is that many of the half baked foreign talents are poor church mice and average workers in their home countries, could not get a better paying job. Still they really believe that without them the native will be poorer and lonely.

Who created this silly myth? And with the half baked foreign talents and half baked minds, it is expected that they believed so. And sadly, the daft Sinkies also believe that they are daft and willingly give up their professional jobs to drive taxis and become part time agents here and there while the half baked talents look down on them.

It is like a new phase of colonialism. The foreigners came, they saw and they conquered. In this phase, they were invited to do exactly what the native feared and even built up a citizen army to protect such an eventually. What is happening?

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.