Don’t worry, the haze will go away

This I can assure you, while I look out of the window and see a condition very much worse than yesterday. And I heard in the news that the Indonesians have declared emergency in the Riau Archipelago. And we can keep talking, and talk the haze away. It will go away, one week, one month or three months, when the burning stops, the haze will stop coming. In the meantime keep talking.

Some quarters have spoken that this is a domestic issue and got nothing to do with us. We can’t tell our neighbours what not to do. And our neighbours also think so.

Really? Allow me to remind people on the basics of human rights or individual rights. Everyone has the freedom to do as he pleases…as long as it does not affect others. The freedom stops when others are affected by it. When an act of freedom invades into the privacy of anther person or causing harm to another person, it is no longer an act of freedom. J S Mills called this ‘others regarding action’. Your freedom to act goes as far as the next person you are going to hurt.

If the Indonesians can contain the pollutants within their borders, who cares? They can burn for all they like. But the problems it is causing to the neighbouring countries have made this bush burning an ‘others regarding action’ and is no longer a private domestic affair. Be responsible and do something about it.

This be responsible and do something about it have been spoken for many years and I assure you every year this time Singapore and Malaysia will be telling the Indonesians the same old thing. And come next year or the years after, this time of the year, we will be scrambling as to what should be done, and all equally lost, forever lost about how to handle this annual haze migration problem. Did we have a department monitoring on the haze situation? Didn’t we have sophisticated instruments and satellites in space watching over the hot spots? Did we see it coming?

But don’t worry, keep talking and the haze will go away. It may go away before the masks we ordered arrived. It may go away before we have the chance to distribute the masks to those who needed them. It will go away for sure and talking is good enough for this problem. I am one hundred per cent confident that in a few more days or weeks there will be no more haze around.

No need to do anything. We can talk the haze away.

Silent protest against haze invasion at Hong Lim

Dear Fellow Singaporeans,

There will be a short silent protest against the worst haze invasion by our neighbor Indonesia at Hong Lim Green tomorrow at 5 pm.

We need to stand up as a people and send a clear signal to Indonesia that we will not tolerate this harmful incursion to our health and economy.

This is also to demonstrate our solidarity with our government which is trying its best to bring pressure on the Indonesian government to stop the forest burning.

As haze condition is getting hazardous please just pop by wear black, wear mask and bring some water for the short duration you are there....

This is a called by Patrick Low posted in TRE.

Banking malpractices

It took so long for the ST editorial to come out with an article to chastise the wrongs of the robbers in the banking and finance industry. While the noose is tightening in the West to rein in the wild and reckless behavior of the bankers and their fraudulent ways, nothing of such nature is happening in Asia. Many Asian countries are still gulping in all the toxic products and practices of the West and think, like one western bankers stationed in Hongkong said, ‘If it is ok for London it must be ok for us.’

How many Asian bankers and govts really scrutinized the faulty and dangerous products and instruments coming out from the west, from derivatives and deregulations to computers plugging into the exchange system and hi speed computer trading, and dare to say no them? Or how many really bother to assess the suitability or the unacceptable risks that these instruments and products will cause to their financial markets?

The regulators of stock exchanges have a basic and fundamental principle to uphold, of providing a level playing field and fair practices for all investors big and small. By allowing the big funds to plug their computers to their exchange system and allowing them to gain advantage in speed and information is a clear violation of this principle. The use of hi speed computers, something that many decent finance experts and lawmakers in the West have acknowledged as cheating, is blindly being accepted by Asian govts and stock market regulators, likely believing the same, that if London and New York allowed it, then it is ok to accept them.

Asians will always be condemned as foolish if they continue in their silly ways to accept all the rubbish and snake oils from the West without questions asked and risk destroying their financial markets and the savings of their investors. It is not only illegal, it is irresponsible and immoral.

Are there any Asian experts or thinking persons in the Asian finance industry, strong and with the conviction to keep their financial system clean, fair, and healthy and not be corrupted by the wild Western ways out there?

The little piece of editorial in today’s ST titled ‘Checking banking malpractices’ is just too little and too flimsy to mean anything. More serious work needs to be done to keep check on the wayward and reckless ways of the western bankers before it is too late.

Hi speed computer trading is so foul, giving big funds and their hi speed computers to much unfair advantage over the innocent small investors that it is unbelieveable for it to get a green light to create havoc in the stock markets of Asia. No one can see anything wrong with hi speed trading? If they are so dumb, so speak to the experts in the West of their concerns and misgivings. No need to work too hard to sweat the small stuff. The amount of work and research done to tell how unacceptable hi speed trading is are all out there for all who wants to know, who needs to know.

We need to bring back the likes of Koh Beng Seng.

New trend in begging

Some data showed that at 9 pm last night the PSI hit 452. Before at 8pm it was 224 and after at 10 pm it was 287. For that one hour the PSI went into very dangerous level. And many people have been storming the pharmacies trying to buy N95 masks but all sold out. What contingency plan to stockpile such masks for emergencies just like this?

If the situation gets worst, and the N95 masks are not available, we could see beggars begging for mask along the streets. Please give me a mask, I am suffocating.

Hazy and dazed

Work up this morning, took a peep at the window. Just as bad if not worst. Turn on the TV for confirmation. PSI 95! Real or not? I like to believe that it was 95, but my eyes were telling me that it could not be. An hour later, walking down the same path towards MBFC from Raffles Place, took a look at the MBS three pillars of strength. They were barely visible unlike yesterday morning. My eyes confirmed that the air quality was worst than yesterday and the PSI yesterday morning was near to 200.

Something was not right, must be my eyes, watery and starting to hurt. The machine reading the PSI could not be wrong. But I still chose to believe my eyes and the pain and discomfort in them.

When I stepped into the office there was an uproar. What 97? Bullshit. It was worst than yesterday. And this was what everyone commented. No one believed that the PSI had suddenly dropped below 100.

What is the point of having a national reading that no one wants to believe in? And how could anyone believe in something when they could see, feel and smell the air and know that the situation is getting worst or not better?

Recalibrate the machine or go for an eye check?