US playing with insanity

The Americans thought they could push the North Koreans into a hole. They may also think that the South Koreans will join them to decimate the North Koreans. They kept provoking the North Koreans with more and bigger military exercises simulating an invasion of North Korea. The North Koreans responded in their no nonsense and standard approach. You up the ante, we will follow and see your cards. The only thing in the North Korean’s favour is a very strong conventional military backed by a few pieces of nuclear weapons. The Americans were trying to call the North Korean’s bluff. Now the North Koreans are calling the American’s bluff. They openly announced that they will strike with full force on American targets if they were forced to. The Americans are now the chicken.

The Americans can wipe out the whole of North Korea in no time. They have the most power array of nuclear weapons that the North Koreans have no reply and will simply be sitting duck. But the US cannot risk one or two North Korean nuclear bombs on the US mainland. The Americans know that the North Koreans are willing to go for broke and the risk of taking one or two nuclear hits is just incomprehensible. Better to tone down and stop raising more tension.

Flying an ICBM into space will be immediately picked up by the North Koreans and if they read that as the opening American salvo, they could just fire theirs. The Americans are not taking any chances and will not take any chances. They are delaying their test of a Minuteman III ICBM till later. Launching one now will be too risky and they could not anticipate what the North Koreans will do.

Playing with insanity, beating the drums of war can be a deadly proposition. The North Koreans have called the American bluff. The Japanese are still gearing to go, to intercept North Korean missiles. They still fail to see the devastating destruction of modern warfare with modern weapons at the disposal of the adversaries. It is not a repeat of WW2. It is not computer games. The price is too high to pay even for the US. Japan still thinks it can afford to do so, forgetting the lessons of the two Atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This time it would be hundreds of times more monstrous. It could be Tokyo and Osaka, Kyoto and Kobe.

Playing with insanity has an extremely high price to pay.

May Day protest for what?

My article posted here and reposted in TRE received fairly enough comments and generated some awareness of this coming event. Many Singaporeans are rooting to be there and calling for other Singaporeans to be there, to bring their friends as well. Many see the event as a critical moment to determine the future of Singapore and their children. They do not agree with stuffing this island with more foreigners that are mostly a bunch of parasites, the super rich and real talents excluded, here to feast themselves and provide unnecessary and undesirable competition for their children. And the Singaporeans have already been called racists and xenophobes for their unhappiness with all the parasites. It is not a race to the top but a race to the bottom especially for the average Singaporeans. Not many Singaporeans are that talented and not many have parents that are ministers or multi millionaires that could buy a few properties for them to collect rentals and no need to work for the rest of their lives.

The people, at least those who indicated that they are going, and the silent majority, do not agree with the plans of the Govt, or the plans of the 77. Whose wisdom is right, the masses or the 77 is debatable. Also it may not be an issue of right or wrong but a matter of what the majority wants and what the 77 wants. Should the majority give way to the tyranny of the 77?

In the first protest rally, the theme was ‘Say No to 6.9m’. This looks like the natural them for the second protest, a continuation and persistent theme that says the people did not want a big population. Any Tom, Dick and Harry will know that it is fatal if we just rely on increasing population for economic growth. That is an easy and sure path to self destruct. We need growth but through other means.

Many other slogans have been suggested, eg The Day We Say No to 6.9, The Day We Stand Up For Our Children, The Day We Stand Up To Tyranny, Say No To The 77, and many others.

This May Day is important to the future of Singapore and to the children of the Singaporeans. It is about their well beings, their dominant position as owners of the islands. It is also about capitulation, allowing foreigners to take their place, take their jobs and their livelihood. The foreigners are coming for their second chance for a better life. We can empathise with them. But when a better tomorrow for them is a sadder tomorrow for our children, should the parents of our children stand up and say no to this change? Some say it is a kind of genocide, the extinction of true blue Singaporeans, being dispossessed of their homeland, being driven out of their own country by foreigners who come to claim their rights to a better life at our expense.

Singaporean parents, are you that daft or irresponsible to not do anything when you can? Would you Stand Up For Our Children, Say No To Singaporean Genocide, Say No To Our Extinction? I can hear them cry. May Day can be the day Singaporeans close ranks to fight for their own existence and their children’s future. It is idiocy to let in foreigners, give them a pink IC and claim that they are one of us, and to take away food on the table, the food that rightfully belongs to our children. Come May Day, will Singaporeans be fighting for their future, a better future for their children? Quite silly really. Why should they be fighting to claim back their country? Who is the real enemy that is doing this to the Singaporeans? Like they said, ‘With friends like these, you don’t need enemies.’

May Day, May Day, May Day! What does this day mean to you? Were you there or did you walk away?

Get more women to work

The reason for being living in paradise is to work. More women are encouraged to work not because they wanted to, needed to, but because the Govt wanted them to. The old aunties and uncles too are encouraged to work for the same reasons though some have no choice but to keep working. To many Singaporeans, other than the landlord class, many would simply live a life working just to live in paradise.

The whole socio economic system today is that everyone in a household, every able body, must work to support the increasing high cost of living. Housing in particular, is designed to feed on the dual incomes of a household, and may end up feeding on 3 or 4 incomes eventually. Not working is no longer an option today.

The earlier generations went through a period of single income household and could live quite well too. A middle civil servant or middle management level employee could bring up a family on his single income, live in landed property, owned a car, supporting parents and several children at the same time.

How could it be possible then and not now? Today, anyone thinking of living on a single income and to support parents and children, even if he is in senior management level, is a big hassle. Only people in top management or ministers could afford such a privilege, and those who have inherited wealth and owning a list of properties. The majority of the average Singaporeans would have to live a life working to make ends meet.

Can the socio economic system be fine tuned, tweaked or whatever, to return to a single income family when the quality of family life was much better, when children have their play time and mothers to watch them while they grow up. What is happening to day is that everyone is on his own, parents working furiously, children studying furiously or playing furiously without the watchful eyes of their mothers but foreign maids to keep them company. The mothers have a duty not only to bring in the bacon and pay for the mortgages, but also as a national duty to turn the economic wheel and to produce more babies at the same time.

Getting more women to work is a serious thing, a necessity. Gone were the days when women can afford to choose whether to work or to be home maker. They have only one choice now, work.

Validating fake degrees is an impossible task

When foreigners are concerned, validating their qualifications and resumes could be a task impossible. For all that you know there is a parallel degree mill organisation existing to cover every track that needs to be covered to avoid exposing the fakes. The contact numbers given could be fake or leading to a ‘specialist’ to confirm everything that is stated. There could be a whole industry out there supporting the fake degrees and qualifications. That is why certain degrees that are in demand would fetch a higher price and the buyer could be assured that any tracing will be ‘professionally’ handled to protect them.

Who knows the job applicant would provide genuine contact numbers to an established university but when a search is conducted, it will lead to a team of ‘professionals’ in the university who cooked the degrees and would ensure that the reply is just an affirmation of the search. The tracks are covered and no one is wiser.

For those who are calling for MOM to investigate, I think it is a waste of time. It is better to continue as if nothing is wrong and save a lot of money chasing shadows. And come to think of it, all the big organisations that are hiring the fakes are doing alright aren’t they?  Nothing unusual seems to be happening. The fakes are good fakes too, or very talented fakes as they would cleverly arrow the task to the genuine Sinkies to deal with the problems. The higher they are, the easier it is to cover their incompetence as the real works will be done by a subordinate, probably a stupid Sinkie from a top local university who knows the stuff.

The good thing is that this system of fakes being employed at senior levels, replacing our local PMEs, with the real McCoys as their subordinates and doing the real work is working fine. Let’s not rock the boat or the house will come down when the truth is exposed. And many people will have red faces. We do not want that to happen do we? I can’t imagine if, hypothetically, the SWFs were found to have hired fakes that led to the billions lost in botched investment deals. But I also think that this is highly unlikely. Just keep the fingers crossed and trust the system that nothing will go wrong.

Just ignore Murphy and his law. Just believe that everything is just perfect.

Hsien Loong walking on a tight rope

Caught in between two balls and hanging in the centre, it is a difficult act indeed. Singapore is a small country caught in between two super powers, China and the USA, and has been walking on a tight rope for everyday of its existence. Funny thing is that other countries in Asean or elsewhere did not have such a problem. Did we choose to walk on the tight rope to show off?  Singapore’s official foreign policy is to be friends to all, especially the two super powers. Every now and then the leaders will make their pilgrimage to the two capitals to pay homage to the deities residing in Beijing and Washington.

This is fair and good. As long as Singapore is not taking sides, it would not trip on the tight rope or be pushed to fall. The walk is treacherous and the act a very difficult one when the two powers are at each other’s throat. If you are not my friend you are my enemy. Singapore often has to take sides, like joining the Coalition of the Willings to invade another country when Singapore was obviously the unwilling partner. Singapore is lucky so far as the victims of the coalition were not the openly declared friends of the other superpower. It would be tricky if another superpower declares interest in protecting the targeted country.

Singapore’s position is gradually being compromised and leaning more towards the Americans. Maybe it has no choice as the American way is that if Singapore does not be a friend, it becomes a natural enemy. So Singapore is blowing the trumpets for the American’s presence in the region, supporting the American military pivot to Asia, hosting American warships for military intervention and warfare.

Hsien Loong has just visited Washington, feasted and highly praised by Obama as a reliable and valuable friend, or an accomplice in all American military adventures in violation of national sovereignty and interference with another country’s internal affairs. The latter is contrary to Singapore’s official policy of non interference in other country’s domestic affairs. This is going to blow up into Singapore’s face one day for sure.

The key message that Hsien Loong brought to Washington, with high expectations of buying a sick and premature top end American fighter aircraft, is the open invitation to the Americans to play a bigger role to counter the presence of a rising China, the other super power that Singapore is courting and sleeping with. How is this going to be taken by this sleeping partner is not looking well. Is this classic diplomacy or crass diplomacy, only time will tell. But time is running out unless Hsien Loong has it all worked out before the visit and this sleeping partner has quietly consented to the unfriendly gesture. Sending Chok Tong to China at the same time may be an attempt to placate the Chinese for what he had to say to please the Americans and in making a joke of China.

The call for the Americans to counter the Chinese, and never the Chinese to counter balance the Americans is one sided, loaded against the Chinese. It would be a great act if Hsien Loong could walk the whole tight rope safely without tripping. The Chinese must be holding back whatever they wanted to say or do. What Hsien Loong said in America was not the least complimentary, and the condiments of jokes included.

LKY could pull it off in his time. He was unusual as a statesman. Could Hsien Loong pull it off this time, like his father did, with such a one sided leaning and his unabashed fawning over the Americans, that he was with the Americans first and last?