The Big Thing in Sin City

In this small little island of millionaires, everything is big. Even a small little nimrod will think very big and imagining that it is the most desirable big thing and women will beg to have it in their mouths. I think we are going to be the biggest customers of the US in the purchase of the most sophisticated aircraft of the future. It is flying but will only be ready in the future as it is not flying right yet. The thing big about this aircraft is the price tag.

I just read an advert that someone paid $147k for a Porsche 911. The Sinkies are so rich that they would not want to buy anything on the cheap. They would pay for a piece of worthless paper called COE for $100k to give them the privilege to plonk down another half a million for the same car. Why would they do that, I dunno. It must be a dignity thing. Things must have a big price tag to be good. Oh, they just raise the tuition fees for universities and polytechnics to make them better. The more expensive the better the quality.

Yes, the Big Thing in Sin City is the price tag. Everything has to be priced big to be good and saleable. A public housing flat with a 99 year lease, very likely less than 90 or 80 years left, was selling like hot cakes at $1m or more. And the millionaire Sinkies, I supposed, would congratulate themselves for such a good buy. The guy who bought the Porsche would probably get 2 or 3 landed freehold properties for the same price of one public housing flat. Across the Causeway one could buy several landed properties too, for that price tag.

And many will save a life time for that final visit to the hospital to empty their life savings. It must be a final charitable act, to donate everything to the hospitals and to tip the staff for the good service, or is it the hospital price tag?

And the citizens are so generous that they are happily paying their political leaders millions to keep them from corruption. Of course the leaders are the most dignified and talented people on earth, or at least in the island. Their forte is to learn from other countries, what other people are doing before applying what they learnt to the island. And if they failed to learn anything, they will pay for expert consultants to do the job. Or they may even ask the people, the ordinary men in the street for answers. The price tag for the ministers is not only big, but very big. Obama would have faint if the Americans decide to pay him half the amount being paid to his counterpart here.

Paying big, buying big, getting big pay are the norms here. The thought of how much to pay for the things we paid here can drive many people elsewhere crazy. Imagine how many life times will one need to earn a $100k in many countries. Here it is only good enough to buy a certificate only to be entitled to buy a car with a bigger price tag.

That is how big our money has become.

When meritocracy is stupidity

The problem of highly qualified Singaporeans unable to find employment is not only serious but politically unacceptable to a Govt that has responsibility to its people first and foremost. Silly politicians that keep harping blindly on meritocracy need to be voted out from Parliament. Meritocracy and the practice of meritocracy as a country are very different and complex from practising meritocracy in a well of frogs. In the well, the frogs are safe from intruders and have only among themselves to see who is more meritocratic. In the land of the blind the one eye frog shines.

Singapore only has a population of 3.3m, citizens and PRs. An open door policy to invite foreigners here to work, with only meritocracy as the criteria, is simply insane, stupidity at its peak. There are 6 or 7 billion people out there and if being more talented, or merits, is justification to work here, to replace another Singaporean, the whole 3.3m people should be replaced, from the President and PM and to the low down beggars on the street. Sure you can find millions of people out there that are more meritocratic than a Singaporean or the PM.

Just because the frogs in the well are protected from competition, they can throw the meritocracy card at everyone, not good enough get out, there is always a better foreigner to replace another Singaporean. Why don’t the frogs allow fair competition and let the more meritocratic foreigners to replace them? Never, they know too well that there will be many many out there that will be better than them, every one of them.

In practice, many jobs can be done by a Singaporean. The education and skill level of many Singaporeans are more than adequate to do the job. You don’t need someone with 3 degrees or a master’s to be a middle executive doing administrative work. You don’t need to drive a sports car to get from point A to B when any good decent car will do. It is a fallacy to pick the best when the best is ten times over qualified for the job that a Singaporean is qualified to do? Does this sound complicated?

Who are we kidding, that Singaporeans are not good enough to fill all the middle management positions with the qualifications they got from our world class education system and universities? Who are we kidding when many are employed instead of Singaporeans for all the wrong reasons except being meritocratic?

The nonsense that is happening in the employment scene must be made right and it is the duty and responsibility of the Govt to put it right. It is the Gov’t’s thoughtless policy of opening the door widely to foreigners with little due consideration to the employment needs of the citizens that is the problem. Meritocracy without due recognition to country and citizenship is simply crazy, madness, and idiocy. The whole population should be moved out and replaced by more meritocratic people from all over the world. Yah?

Advertisements are news too

For Singaporeans who have been away for too long, migrated or simply working overseas, the reading of advertisements in the blog is also keeping in touch with home. The types of advertisements, the jobs available, the qualifications needed, the salary offered, the type of companies placing the adverts, tell a lot about the happenings in the country.

This is also applicable to foreigners who want to have a feel of the social and economic developments taking place in the country. The advertisements tell a lot of what is happening here, particularly the job opportunities and income level of the people, the quality of life and the vibrancy of the economy.

There are more things to see and understand from just flipping through the advertisements other than jobs or entertainments or food etc etc. You will be surprised how much information can be deduced from just reading the advertisements. So when there are no fresh postings, take a peep into the adverts.

Chinua Achebe - A tribute to a Nigerian nationalist and hero

‘He also addressed corruption head on, teaching younger Nigerians not to be hungry to the point of selling our birth rights. His soul and conscience were non negotiable. He turned down Nigeria’s national honours twice because he was one who believed an elder should not eat his meal atop a heap of malodorous rubbish.

He was a gentle rebel who refused to shake the necrotic outstretched hands of corrupt leaders.  He was an old breed, a wise man from a different generation who could not stand the wanton looting of Nigeria’s public coffers.

Achebe would have loved to spend his twilight years among his own people instead of in America.  With the bastardisation of a nation he was once proud of by kleptocratic military and civilian rulers, the old man had no country to return to alive.’  

The above quote is by a Victor Ehikhamenor in his article on his Nigerian hero and nationalist, Chinua Achebe. The article is reproduced from the New York Times in the ST today.  Reading the article allows me to reflect on the situation in Singapore and I conclude how lucky Singaporeans are for not having the kind of leaders the Nigerians were blessed with. Our leaders don’t eat their meals atop a heap of malodorous rubbish for sure. And Singaporeans are definitely not selling their birth rights away as they are not that hungry. And our nation was not bastardised by kleptocratic military and civilian rulers and looting the public coffers.

Thank God we are Singaporeans and we need not have to run away to live out the twilight years in America. Singaporeans better be grateful.

Why are Sinkies so sick and shameless?

I read this comment from a Sinkie in TRE about racism. The way he put it was really so disappointing. He was unhappy about racism against Asians, but unconsciously he was practising racism against Asians without knowing it. Too many kantans and hamburgers I supposed, or too much deference to the Westerners that subconsciously he felt and acted inferior to them. This is what he wrote,

‘Honestly, how are we the natives expected to react? Smile and behave happily and accept things as they are.

I was in Perth on holiday and my wife was stunned when a white lady ticked her off at a supermarket queue for no reason. She just doesn’t like us I supposed and was mumbling some rascist remarks starring hard at us. I can assure you she is not mad. In Paris in a lift, I witnessed a well dressed white lady yelling at a meek Asian woman asking her to pack off and go back to where she comes from. I can assure you she doesn’t look mad either. What do you make out of these situations?

I guess it is the sense, the feeling of being displaced and having your place taken over that led people to behave this way.’

You notice that he addressed those racist pigs as ladies and their Asian victim as woman. What was so ladylike about those racist bitches to be called ladies? And what was so unlady like for the Asian woman not to be called a lady but just a woman? Too use to call them sir and ma’am and ladies and gentlemen, and too use to be called just man and woman?

This kind of inferior mentality has been subplanted in the mediocre Asian mind that it has become habitual, second nature. Yes Sir, Yes ma’am, but turn around and shout at the Asian women like inferior stocks. If Asians are not going to respect themselves but the West, they deserve to be treated like shit. And if Sinkies could not stand up to foreigners and allow foreigners to ill treat them or discriminate against them in their own country, they deserve it, every little bit of it.

The Europeans are xenophobic for ages. They conquered, robbed and killed the coloured races all over the world and are still stinkingly racists like the examples given. Of course they claimed that the racist bitches are a minority, and they are exceptions. Xenophobia is not a Singaporean thing. And I find it ludicrous for a Tessa Wong to write in the ST today calling for restraints against Singaporeans becoming xenophobic. And Singapore for Singaporeans slogan is xenophobic? Who taught her that?

Xenophobia is practised by foreigners in the work place in Singapore against Singaporeans. Does she know this? If not, go ask Tan Chuan Jin or read the parliamentary reports. The most important issue today is to get rid of xenophobia against Singaporeans in Singapore. The Govt has a duty and responsibility to Singaporeans to stamp this outrageous behaviour out immediately and ‘burn a few on the stakes’. I put this phrase in inverted commas so that no donkeys will take it literally and think it is a call to burn people. It is just an figurative expression ok?

If the govt fails in doing so, and xenophobia continues against Singaporeans and silly Sinkies still think it is the fault of Singaporeans, the anti foreigners cry will get stronger and may get nasty. It is time to nip the problem in the bud by kicking a few foreign butts to mean business. Singapore is for Singaporeans first. There is nothing xenophobic or shameful to say this. There is nothing to be apologetic about it. Or shall we call female Sinkies ‘woman’ and foreign women ‘ladies’ to be respectful and less xenophobic?