The Japanese reviving their militant past

The Japanese parliamentarians trooped into Yasukuni to pay respect to war criminals that invaded, raped, looted and murdered the Asian countries during WW2. Abe skipped the visit but donated a pine tree to the temple. This is the first major affront to the invaded and colonized countries during Japan’s Imperial conquest of East and South East Asia.

China was furious and so was South Korea. The rest of South East Asia the reaction was muted. They could not feel the importance of the visit nor the impact and pain of the Japanese Occupation. Prime reason, all these countries were not countries then. They were all colonies of European Empires and Japan was just another empire. Only the deep cultural roots and nationalism of China and Korea could their people felt the grief and anger. Even Taiwan too could not feel much as many Taiwanese were recruited to fight for the Japanese Imperial Army.

The Japanese banquet at Yasukuni was followed by a flotilla of 10 ships and more than 80 Japanese attempting to land at Diaoyu Islands. China sent in 8 Surveillance ships to intercept them and prevent a landing. The Japanese sent in 13 Coastguard patrol craft to intercept the Chinese ships. And Abe threatened to use force if any Chinese should land at the islands. He did not threaten his Japanese for wanting to land in the islands nor try to stop them from landing.

The stage is set with an embolden Japan thinking that it can whip the Chinese and starting to talk down to the Chinese like they did in the days of Imperial Japan. Japan still thinks it is a more powerful country than China and would use the stick like it used to do. Of course the Americans are behind them.

Can China stand still and allow the Japanese to slap its face, left and right, and do nothing? For all its national pride and historical humiliation by Japan, China would have to stand up to the Japanese provocation with or without the Americans backing the Japs. China would have to repel the Japanese advances. It could also be a time for exacting revenge on the defeat by Japan in 1894. It could be a conventional warfare, a limited warfare involving air and sea, provided the Americans did not come in. If the Americans dare to meddle and raise the stake, a nuclear holocaust is the next offering.

The game of chicken is about who dares and who blinks. But this chicken game involves more than just being seen as who is more gungho. There are many national issues at stake and there is the risk of a nuclear war that would change the future of human civilization. Would the Americans think it is acceptable to go on to embolden the Japanese and engage in this war? This is not playing with fire and starting small fires. When lighted, it is beyond anyone’s control.

HDB income ceiling should/should not be removed

This has become another pointless controversy with Singaporeans splitted. Some have valid and logical reasons to take their stands. Some are making a stand for flawed or superficial logics.

As all citizens should be treated on an equal basis regardless of wealth, why should some be deprived of a basic right to buy a roof over their heads? A roof is a necessity and every Singaporeans need a place to stay. And every male Singaporean is expected to serve NS to defend his stake in this country. By depriving him from buying a home to stay, there is nothing for him to defend and to do NS.

Maybe the Govt should retain the income ceiling and any Singaporean that is not allowed to buy a public flat, ie no stake in the country, need not have to serve NS as he has nothing to fight and defend for. And for those who have stupidly completed their NS and found themselves being suckered, at least the Govt should exempt them from reservist liabilities. I think this is only fair. Why should they be made to defend a country when the country barred them from buying a public flat to live in?

Why should new citizens be allowed to buy public flats without even having to serve NS and citizens who have served NS cannot buy public flats? And many daft Singaporeans are still singing the stupid tune that the richer Singaporeans will be competing with the lesser well off Singaporeans for flats when it is plainly the fault of the Govt for not building enough and thus causing this mismatch in supply and demand. Instead of blaming the Govt, they are blaming other Singaporeans. How silly!

Would the Govt own up and tell the daft Singaporeans that it was the Govt’s fault for not building enough and not to blame other Singaporeans for it? This is the same thing as demand for C class wards in hospital when the demand is high but C class wards are under provided.

Daft Sinkies, please think clearly and address the source of the problem and stop bitching and blaming other Singaporeans. Singaporeans are divided to fight among themselves without knowing why. How pathetic. And no one, not the Govt or the media take it upon themselves to explain and educate the people on this fallacy. Daft Sinkies cannot see further than their noses or think further than 1 plus 1.

The precarious nature of investing in Malaysia

When Mahathir scuttled the CLOB shares trading in SGX, billions of Singaporean dollars went up in smokes. Hundreds of thousands of Singaporeans simply got burnt with their investment in CLOB shares turning into waste papers. That was how precarious and unpredictable the changes in policies dished out by the Malaysian leaders.

With Mahathir out of the picture, things get a bit better, a bit of normalcy returns. Then with Najib doing a Deng Xiaoping by establishing better relations with Singapore and in a way opening up Malaysia for investment, things get to look more rosy with Singaporeans becoming the biggest investor in Iskandar Economic Zone. Billions are likely to be invested in this project alone and also in other parts of Malaysia. Everything is looking fine, till yesterday.

The Malaysian Generation is a national affair but with cross border implications. Anwar sent an awakening call to foreign investors yesterday by saying that though all agreements will be honoured should his party won the election, things will not be the same. There will be changes to favour Malaysians. Now, what is Anwar saying? What would he do or change to the investment climate in Iskandar and how would it affect the Singaporean investors? The latter are now sitting back and watch and wondering what would happen to their investment if the changes turn out to be unfavourable. Would it be another CLOB of a different kind?

Just when one thinks everything is fine, dark cloud is forming. Investing in Malaysia is precarious and subject to the changes in political fortunes.

Controlling the media, controls the minds and thinking of the readers

The Americans and Japanese have been drumming up the fears in Asian countries of China’s nuclear arsenal as if China is a real threat to them and the Asean countries. And with the control of the media, even the media of their proxy countries, they could regularly perpetuate the thought and belief that China is an aggressive and dangerous military power. The truth is far from this. Just look at the nuclear arsenals possessed by the USA, Russia and China and their nuclear doctrines.

The Russians have 8,000 nuclear warheads followed by the Americans with 5,000 and the Chinese with 800. The sheer size will say that China will be vaporized if it dare to engage in a nuclear war with any of the adversaries. And China rightly adopted a No first strike doctrine. China has openly made this doctrine know to all the nuclear powers that it will not be the first to launch a first nuclear strike on any country. But this was not enough as the Americans and western media continue to brand it as a dangerous nuclear power despite its No first strike policy. And for China, to make this policy more realistic, it does not seek to compete with Russian and the USA by amassing parity in numbers of nuclear warfare. China’s position is a deadly second strike that is enough to deter any country from launching a first strike.

Compares this position with the Americans, the US is only willing to say, without much commitment, that it would not launch a nuclear strike on any country that does not possess nuclear weapons. It tacitly reserves the right to deliver the first strike against China and any other nuclear powers. So, who is the aggressive and dangerous one? Who is more willing to strike first, and who has armed itself with the numbers to destroy the world? But because the USA is controlling the western media, and the media of its allies, together, they keep singing the same tune, that the USA is peace loving and China is dangerous.

The fact that China refuses to increase its nuclear forces is an admission that it will not be the dominant nuclear power and is only good enough to respond to a nuclear attack by retaliating. A country with a small nuclear strike force cannot afford to adopt an aggressive first strike position as both Russia and the USA have enough second strike capability to wipe China out of the face of the earth. In the balance of nuclear power, China has conceded to be the number 3 and with far lesser warheads than the Russia and the USA. This is a self imposed policy not to threaten the dominant positions of the two. China thus is in no position to challenge the military power of the USA and Russia and is not in a good position to think of being aggressive, expansive and world hegemony. With a very inferior nuclear arsenal, it is just not in the right position to do so. So how can it be threatening and aggressive when the USA and Russia could wipe it out clean?

The USA is still pointing the finger at China, just like it is implanting the belief on the rest of the world and to the American people, that North Korea is dangerous and would launch a nuclear strike at American mainland. This is based on the assumption that the North Koreans and their leaders are all lunatics. And this is what the American Administration wants the world and the silly Americans to believe so. In so doing, keep on spending more on more weapons and military equipment and military forces.

The hostile and aggressive doctrine of the American nuclear strategy is manifested by its refusal to state categorically that it will not be the first to use nuclear weapons, and also it’s amassing of a huge nuclear arsenal of 6 to 7 times that of China, while the Russians have 10 times more. And both the USA and the Russians are not aggressive, so innocent, but China, with a nuclear force that is far from what the Russians and the Americans have. This unilateral decision not to have a big nuclear arsenal is a clear statement of China’s nuclear defense strategy, a defensive stance vis a vis the two bigger nuclear powers. How then could a smaller power threaten two bigger powers, or how could an even smaller country like North Korean that may not even have the ICBMs to reach the USA, be a threat to the Americans?

But those reading western media and listening to the Americans crying wolf will believe the American story. China is dangerous, North Korea is dangerous. Their leaders are mad, crazy. The countries that possess 8,000 and 5,000 nuclear warheads and refuse to declare that they will not be the first to use nuclear weapons are not, are friendly nuclear powers. How silly the people of the world can be? Any wrong move by China will make China history. Are the Chinese that stupid to want to be history by launching a nuclear attack on anyone, on America or Russia?

The national leaders of China and North Korea are not mad. Only people who branded them as mad are mad, including those who believe in their madness story.

Two minutes interval train

Is this possible? Can our MRT train arrive at 2 minutes interval? No way, but yes. The last time someone brooded this subject that trains can travel at this interval to move more people I remember that it came with a price tag of $6b or some several billions of dollars. To achieve this remarkable and difficult task of 2 minutes interval safely, a highly sophisticated computerized time keeping system is needed to keep the trains safely apart.

Nothing has been heard of this possible multi billion dollar purchase of a top of the art control system. But if we want our train to operate at such peak intervals, this is the money that needs to be spent and spending with glee, after all it is OPM.

Lately, I am pleasantly surprised when I took a peep at the monitors at MRT stations and, yes, trains can arrive in 2 minutes interval, and sometimes within 1 minute. How could this happen? Has the MRT bought the multi million dollar control system and already implemented it? I doubt so. I think if such an expensive system would have been bought, the news would have spreaded across the front page of the media, and fares would have gone up definitely. Spending several billions for a more efficient running train system must be good reason, valid reason to up the fares.

Since nothing is heard, I can safely presume that the wonderful control system has yet to be bought. But then, how could the trains arrive in 1 or 2 minutes interval? The normal internal is 3 minutes at peak hours. And the 1 or 2 minutes interval did not happen all the times, only at some intervals. Even then, it can be done. And 3 minutes interval seems quite normal.

But it will be good if we spend the few billions to shorten the intervals from 3 minutes to 2 minutes on a regular basis with a sophisticated computerized system for peace of mind. It will be money well spent.

What do you think?