It is amazing but not surprising that the cleaning of a hawker centre
and who should pay for it could drag on for months and wasting so much
of Parliament’s time and the time of Ministers and MPs.
Should not this be a simple case of administrative procedures? The
cleaning of a hawker centre is not something new and has been going on
for years. All the precedents are there as to whether the hawkers should
pay or it is part of the cost that the hawkers have been paying
monthly.
is this dragging on and on, and after yesterday’s Parliament session
it does not seem to end and many more months of scratching at each
other will go on. Is this an in thing, to bitch over such issues in
Parliament when it should have been settled over a few meetings in the
Minister’s office or in the Town Council?
But of course, this is all about politics, about scoring political
points, about integrity, about being honourable, about bitching in
Parliament over an administrative and procedural matter, and about
everything and about nothing.
Should the Speaker of Parliament tell the contending parties to sort it
out over a meeting outside Parliament? Or should the issue continue to
be aired in Parliament to see who is the more honourable one or who has
more integrity over this matter? Or is Parliament a venue to see who is
better in debating?
7/09/2013
What do you want?
Sinkies are most happy when their property prices keep going up. Sinkies
are even happier when they own more and more properties. Sinkies are
happiest when they look at their bank accounts and see the number of
zeros behind the digits keep growing.
Are these what Sinkies are happy about? Would Sinkies be happy to have more babies and children in their homes? The Govt think so but for the wrong reasons. There are different kinds of joy in life. Some want more money and properties, some want more power, some want more children. What do Sinkies want?
The way it is going, many will leave this world without having children or maybe one or two. Many may want to have more as having children is another kind of happiness, another kind of wealth that money cannot buy. Many Sinkies spent a lot of money going on holidays, visiting this place and that place, taking photographs of the places they visited. Some choose to stay at home to enjoy their children and grandchildren. Different interest, different joy, different happiness.
The govt also want children but of an unrelated kind. Strangers from all over the world are welcomed just to push up the economy, for economic growth. Is that a really good thing or a foolish thing to do?
While the social economic system in the country is designed to make the citizens childless or unbearable to have children, and the Govt could not understand why, and choose to import foreigners for economic growth that brings little or no joy to having your very own children and family, and the joy of seeing them grow.
Is there something not right somewhere? What is the purpose of this country if it is not to make the people, the citizens, happy and enjoy a fruitful life of abundance, not only in owning more and more expensive properties, but also having more children and a growing family?
Many will end up leaving behind all their material riches, money and properties, with no children to inherit them. When they pass away, it is all over. What is life and what do we live and strive a life time for? Some are contented that they lived well and do not bother after children after they are gone. It is life, our lives, not the lives of foreigners and people that have nothing to do with us. As a country, the Govt should be talking and thinking about how to make lives worth living in this island for its citizens, and having children and happy children must be a major goal in living. What is the point of having so many properties when there is no one going to live in them when the owners die? Oops, we shall invite the foreigners to take over this island and everything there is in it.
Is that the purpose of it all?
I am just rumbling.
Are these what Sinkies are happy about? Would Sinkies be happy to have more babies and children in their homes? The Govt think so but for the wrong reasons. There are different kinds of joy in life. Some want more money and properties, some want more power, some want more children. What do Sinkies want?
The way it is going, many will leave this world without having children or maybe one or two. Many may want to have more as having children is another kind of happiness, another kind of wealth that money cannot buy. Many Sinkies spent a lot of money going on holidays, visiting this place and that place, taking photographs of the places they visited. Some choose to stay at home to enjoy their children and grandchildren. Different interest, different joy, different happiness.
The govt also want children but of an unrelated kind. Strangers from all over the world are welcomed just to push up the economy, for economic growth. Is that a really good thing or a foolish thing to do?
While the social economic system in the country is designed to make the citizens childless or unbearable to have children, and the Govt could not understand why, and choose to import foreigners for economic growth that brings little or no joy to having your very own children and family, and the joy of seeing them grow.
Is there something not right somewhere? What is the purpose of this country if it is not to make the people, the citizens, happy and enjoy a fruitful life of abundance, not only in owning more and more expensive properties, but also having more children and a growing family?
Many will end up leaving behind all their material riches, money and properties, with no children to inherit them. When they pass away, it is all over. What is life and what do we live and strive a life time for? Some are contented that they lived well and do not bother after children after they are gone. It is life, our lives, not the lives of foreigners and people that have nothing to do with us. As a country, the Govt should be talking and thinking about how to make lives worth living in this island for its citizens, and having children and happy children must be a major goal in living. What is the point of having so many properties when there is no one going to live in them when the owners die? Oops, we shall invite the foreigners to take over this island and everything there is in it.
Is that the purpose of it all?
I am just rumbling.
My First Skool – Sack all of them
When I first suggested the idea that all the staff in the childcare should be sacked, I thought I was over reacting and a bit harsh. Now with more cases of abuses being revealed, with more children have scratches and signs of abuses on their bodies and with a child having nightmare and unable to sleep, my call is not overreacting.
If Yusuf’s case has not surfaced, the poor children would continue to be in living hell, being bullied and abused daily. I really feel very sorry for the children there, daily being harassed by their caregivers without anyone having a clue of what was going on and with all the staff keeping quiet about it. It is not a childcare but a horror chamber.
At least two parents have made police reports of their children being abused in the same centre. And you have jokers saying that it was not abuse but mishandling. And you have asses who could not differentiate between disciplinary actions or the normal knocks and tumbles of children. Even disciplinary action is uncalled for at such tender age. How many of the children really know what they are doing and that their behavior is unacceptable and deserved to be punished?
The school administration must do a thorough investigation, review all the video recordings to get to the bottom of the problem. How painful it is to subject the children to such terrifying experience? The children need to be counseled and helped to forget this dreadful experience to grow up as healthy and well adjusted children. Hopefully the scar will go away fast. The whole thing is so sickening.
When so many cases of abuses are being reported, it only shows that Yusuf is not an isolated case and it did not happen overnight but could be ongoing for too long. Sack everyone of them for allowing the torture chamber to go on for so long and to put so many vulnerable children through such an ordeal. Every child will be adversely affected psychologically seeing how their playmates are being harassed and beaten daily.
Can you believe that this is happening in our neighbourhood? And no one seems to be concerned about the harm done to the children except their parents.
Should HFT be allowed in SGX?
Below is part of an article appearing in ‘TABB Forum, Where capital
markets speak’, in response to Congressman Markey’s call for an
immediate ban on HFT.
‘Congressman Markey, in a letter to the SEC on January 18, declared that HFT “represents a clear and present danger to the stability and safety of [US] capital markets and that it should be curtailed immediately.” Direct and to the point.
Congressman Markey backs this assertion with evidence drawn from market events, such as the Flash Crash and Knight Capital, as well as academic studies on the impact of HFT on markets and, therefore, Main Street. If I can synthesize his argument, essentially he states that:
1. The speed of HFT disadvantages other styles of trading.
2. HFT exacerbates volatility in the market.
And as a result …
3. ‘Other’ investors are scared away; and
4. Volume traded by HFT is therefore a dangerously high proportion of overall traded volume.
While I favor “working with HFT to address perceived dangers,” I have to say I see a thread running through the Congressman’s letter that I both agree with and, like the Congressman, find disturbing:
While most HFT is actually just normal-but-very-quick-trading, HFT strategies typically profit from very short-term pricing anomalies between two or more products or liquidity sources. Volatility in the market as well as market fragmentation and the lack of adequate consolidated price feeds in some (many?) markets generate these anomalies and make it easier for HFT strategies to succeed. In fact you might argue engineering volatility -- at the very least, exacerbating it -- is in the interest of HFT strategies.
As someone who is primarily concerned about the performance of long-only funds and future planning, this sounds unnerving; but it’s actually OK (just about OK, that is) if the volume traded by HFT is a small percentage of the total market. It’s a faint background noise. However, when HFT becomes a large, or even dominant, force in the market, then ‘other’ investors genuinely do have a reason to stay away. Who wants to play in a market where movement for movement’s sake has overtaken fundamentals? No thanks -- I’ll let the HFTs spar in a zero-sum game or volatility ping pong and stick my cash under the mattress....’
The position of Hildyard and some supporters of HFT is that it should not be banned but be controlled and managed. Presumably HFT can be controlled and managed. Below are a few comments to his article.
05 February 2013
any part of our industry that has a market share over 50 % is alarming and wrong .Here is where the exchanges board delivers correct governance to balance the correct order of play . Finally an automated kill switch is very simply applied as you refuse his key entry.
wsteetpro
05 February 2013
I fully agree. It's a matter of time before the markets go into another tailspin - HFTs produce zero economic output. Just skimming off other market participants. Capitalism at it's best!
Anonymous
05 February 2013
if they are using other investors as a profit engine (my perception) then there are real problems with the current market structure. Why would anyone want to invest in something when they know that others are embezzling their money out of the other side of the building?
John Harris
05 February 2013
Yes, by all means, let's have more government mandates. We can't have businesses deciding for themselves how to interact with their customers. If left to their own devices, exchanges and other market centers are certain destroy themselves, bankrupt their shareholders, and leave U.S. capital markets with no secondary markets at all....
crammond1964
05 February 2013
the problem being that a number of exchanges are lying in the same bed as the HFT ; therefore making a debate rather futile .
Exchanges deny their manipulation and HFT survive off the exchanges ridiculous rebate system .
shamlet76
05 February 2013
i think the market is broken. you have phony financials because of the off-balance sheet arrangements, you have market "gaming", which is fraud. shortselling and HFT is dominant. both shortselling and HFT is a capital outflow from the stock market. regulators have disregarded the investors' concerns, which is aiding and abetting shortselling and HFT. banks have become the enemy of their customers. current rules are not enforced. this isn't capitalism. it is a plutocracy.
if HFT was not harming the market, then they should explain where their $ is coming from? we know where it's going to - their pockets.
neither HFT nor shortsellers are investors. they are speculators, traders. but the global economy won't be able to get on it's feet as long as those money movements are taking place. when speculators become dominant, the markets lose.
honestman
05 February 2013
It is unfortunate that so many people offering comments have not read even the most fundmental text on direct digital control of processes used in any undergraduate Chemical Engineering curriculum in any accredited university. In something called closed loop control, a computer calculates the difference between the desired value for a process output and the actual value for the process output. Using that difference the computer makes a change in what is termed a "manipulated variable" that afffects the value of the process output. The process output is the price of a share of the stock whose price is being manipulated, the manipulated variable is the quantity of the stock offered for sale in a naked short sale. The computer can monitor the price of the stock as it is sent downward and can enter a buy at the appropriate point to avoid triggering a stock market "time-out" on the stock.
To increase the price of a stock, consecutive orders for a large number of shares are placed.
A computer program can monitor the effect of the sell orders and decide what action to take. The problem is compounded when large, privileged customers can see the order book and know what orders are out there. To help the manipulation along, rumors and half-truths can be instituted by "analysts".
Ignorance of basic control of chemical reactors is not an excuse for being stupid and saying the same jibberish over and over again in a meaningless diatribe that is full of sound and fury and signifies nothing but stupidity.
There are pro and against HFT camps. The reasons are obvious. The small investors will be outclassed and stand to lose their pants. It is like putting in a few vacuum cleaners to suck clean the small investors.
In a small market like SGX, the most fear factor mentioned, ie the dominance of HFT trades in volumes, will kill all the small investors for sure. Can the small investors of SGX survive the overwhelming presence of HFT and the huge volumes they created and monopolised the trading in the market? This unfair trading practice is dangerous to the big markets like NYSE. How can it be safe to a teeny weeny market like the SGX? The small investor will surely be mauled and the market will go ‘bonk’ for sure.
MAS and the Govt must seriously look into the introduction of HFT in SGX and don’t end up in a bigger mess than the Lehman bonds crisis. Knowing the risk, the unfair advantages and dangers of HFT, and to allow it to be introduced into our market is simply irresponsible and inexcusable.
If the MAS is adamant in wanting to have HFT in SGX, then it should be well advised to listen to Liquidnet founder and CEO Seth Merrin.
‘Merrin proposes the SEC create "HFT-free zones" to protect retail investors who wish to trade in a separate and slower lane while allowing HFT to continue. Retail investors, he says, should have the option and the opportunity to decide if they want to interact in the HFT zone.’
‘Congressman Markey, in a letter to the SEC on January 18, declared that HFT “represents a clear and present danger to the stability and safety of [US] capital markets and that it should be curtailed immediately.” Direct and to the point.
Congressman Markey backs this assertion with evidence drawn from market events, such as the Flash Crash and Knight Capital, as well as academic studies on the impact of HFT on markets and, therefore, Main Street. If I can synthesize his argument, essentially he states that:
1. The speed of HFT disadvantages other styles of trading.
2. HFT exacerbates volatility in the market.
And as a result …
3. ‘Other’ investors are scared away; and
4. Volume traded by HFT is therefore a dangerously high proportion of overall traded volume.
While I favor “working with HFT to address perceived dangers,” I have to say I see a thread running through the Congressman’s letter that I both agree with and, like the Congressman, find disturbing:
While most HFT is actually just normal-but-very-quick-trading, HFT strategies typically profit from very short-term pricing anomalies between two or more products or liquidity sources. Volatility in the market as well as market fragmentation and the lack of adequate consolidated price feeds in some (many?) markets generate these anomalies and make it easier for HFT strategies to succeed. In fact you might argue engineering volatility -- at the very least, exacerbating it -- is in the interest of HFT strategies.
As someone who is primarily concerned about the performance of long-only funds and future planning, this sounds unnerving; but it’s actually OK (just about OK, that is) if the volume traded by HFT is a small percentage of the total market. It’s a faint background noise. However, when HFT becomes a large, or even dominant, force in the market, then ‘other’ investors genuinely do have a reason to stay away. Who wants to play in a market where movement for movement’s sake has overtaken fundamentals? No thanks -- I’ll let the HFTs spar in a zero-sum game or volatility ping pong and stick my cash under the mattress....’
The position of Hildyard and some supporters of HFT is that it should not be banned but be controlled and managed. Presumably HFT can be controlled and managed. Below are a few comments to his article.
05 February 2013
any part of our industry that has a market share over 50 % is alarming and wrong .Here is where the exchanges board delivers correct governance to balance the correct order of play . Finally an automated kill switch is very simply applied as you refuse his key entry.
wsteetpro
05 February 2013
I fully agree. It's a matter of time before the markets go into another tailspin - HFTs produce zero economic output. Just skimming off other market participants. Capitalism at it's best!
Anonymous
05 February 2013
if they are using other investors as a profit engine (my perception) then there are real problems with the current market structure. Why would anyone want to invest in something when they know that others are embezzling their money out of the other side of the building?
John Harris
05 February 2013
Yes, by all means, let's have more government mandates. We can't have businesses deciding for themselves how to interact with their customers. If left to their own devices, exchanges and other market centers are certain destroy themselves, bankrupt their shareholders, and leave U.S. capital markets with no secondary markets at all....
crammond1964
05 February 2013
the problem being that a number of exchanges are lying in the same bed as the HFT ; therefore making a debate rather futile .
Exchanges deny their manipulation and HFT survive off the exchanges ridiculous rebate system .
shamlet76
05 February 2013
i think the market is broken. you have phony financials because of the off-balance sheet arrangements, you have market "gaming", which is fraud. shortselling and HFT is dominant. both shortselling and HFT is a capital outflow from the stock market. regulators have disregarded the investors' concerns, which is aiding and abetting shortselling and HFT. banks have become the enemy of their customers. current rules are not enforced. this isn't capitalism. it is a plutocracy.
if HFT was not harming the market, then they should explain where their $ is coming from? we know where it's going to - their pockets.
neither HFT nor shortsellers are investors. they are speculators, traders. but the global economy won't be able to get on it's feet as long as those money movements are taking place. when speculators become dominant, the markets lose.
honestman
05 February 2013
It is unfortunate that so many people offering comments have not read even the most fundmental text on direct digital control of processes used in any undergraduate Chemical Engineering curriculum in any accredited university. In something called closed loop control, a computer calculates the difference between the desired value for a process output and the actual value for the process output. Using that difference the computer makes a change in what is termed a "manipulated variable" that afffects the value of the process output. The process output is the price of a share of the stock whose price is being manipulated, the manipulated variable is the quantity of the stock offered for sale in a naked short sale. The computer can monitor the price of the stock as it is sent downward and can enter a buy at the appropriate point to avoid triggering a stock market "time-out" on the stock.
To increase the price of a stock, consecutive orders for a large number of shares are placed.
A computer program can monitor the effect of the sell orders and decide what action to take. The problem is compounded when large, privileged customers can see the order book and know what orders are out there. To help the manipulation along, rumors and half-truths can be instituted by "analysts".
Ignorance of basic control of chemical reactors is not an excuse for being stupid and saying the same jibberish over and over again in a meaningless diatribe that is full of sound and fury and signifies nothing but stupidity.
There are pro and against HFT camps. The reasons are obvious. The small investors will be outclassed and stand to lose their pants. It is like putting in a few vacuum cleaners to suck clean the small investors.
In a small market like SGX, the most fear factor mentioned, ie the dominance of HFT trades in volumes, will kill all the small investors for sure. Can the small investors of SGX survive the overwhelming presence of HFT and the huge volumes they created and monopolised the trading in the market? This unfair trading practice is dangerous to the big markets like NYSE. How can it be safe to a teeny weeny market like the SGX? The small investor will surely be mauled and the market will go ‘bonk’ for sure.
MAS and the Govt must seriously look into the introduction of HFT in SGX and don’t end up in a bigger mess than the Lehman bonds crisis. Knowing the risk, the unfair advantages and dangers of HFT, and to allow it to be introduced into our market is simply irresponsible and inexcusable.
If the MAS is adamant in wanting to have HFT in SGX, then it should be well advised to listen to Liquidnet founder and CEO Seth Merrin.
‘Merrin proposes the SEC create "HFT-free zones" to protect retail investors who wish to trade in a separate and slower lane while allowing HFT to continue. Retail investors, he says, should have the option and the opportunity to decide if they want to interact in the HFT zone.’
7/08/2013
The rise of the Indian elite class in Singapore
The Indian community used to be one of the most powerful elite class in Singapore during the colonial days. They are second only to the Seranis or Eurasians in power and influence. They were initially transferred from the East India Companies, the unofficial trading arms of the British Empire. And they spoke and wrote English which gave them that special advantage over the non English speaking locals. They were like the extended arm of the British colonial masters.
After the British departed, the Indian elite continued to dominate the civil service and occupied most of the senior positions, in politics, in the judiciary, in the uniform services and in many of the ministries and stats boards.
The dominance of the Indian elite was challenged when the other races took up English education and started to use English as the medium for communication. The public service employment pie was subsequently shared more evenly relative to the racial composition of the population. Even then, the Indian elite still enjoyed a much bigger share of the pie relative to the size of their population.
Today, the Indian elite is entering its golden years in this city. They are everywhere in the top echelon of management, from politics, the govt ministries and to the industries. The Mediacorp has just appointed Walter Fernandez as the Group Editor In Chief. And there is Warren Fernandez, the Editor of the Straits Times and Patrick Daniel as Editor in Chief of the Straits Times. The three of them would have a big say the in content of the Media and wield great influence on what the readers shall read.
In the Cabinet there is the Dep PM and Fin Minister in Tharman, Law and Foreign Affairs Minister in Shanmugam, MEWR in Vivian, and another minister Iswaran in the PM’s office, also Second Minister in Home Affairs and Trade and Industry.
In the judiciary the Chief Justice is Sundaresh Menon and Indian high court judges have always been a part of the bench. Then there are many prominent senior counsels in practice.
The Chief of Army is MG Ravinder Singh.
Most notable is that the Indian elite distinguished themselves in finance. Other than Tharman as Finance Minister, there is Ravi Menon as MD of MAS. And the CEO of DBS, the national bank, is Piyush Gupta. There are many top Indians in the foreign banks as CEOs or in top management, and also in GIC and Temasek, including Dhanabalan as the latter’s Chairman. Their dominance in finance is unchallenged and this will grow bigger over time.
In the academia there are many prominent professors heading many departments. So is the field of medicine. The Indian elites are everywhere stamping their influence and authority in their respective fields.
The field of IT is more or less dominated by Indian professionals mainly from India. There is however a strange phenomenon, that the local Indians are somehow not very good in IT. And there is an increasing community of very rich Indian PRs and new citizens finding residence in the City. And they brought along their businesses, now the biggest group among the foreign investors here.
The Indian community is now a very formidable force to reckon with in all fields of enterprise in the island and will play an increasing role in the growth and development of the country. Not forgetting we had two past presidents in Nair and Nathan, not counting the numerous very rich individuals among them. Singaporeans will have to be better acquainted with this development and acknowledge the bigger role played by the numerically small Indian community. But this is set to change with CECA and the India Indians finding this island a very conducive and good place to do business and bringing up children.
After the British departed, the Indian elite continued to dominate the civil service and occupied most of the senior positions, in politics, in the judiciary, in the uniform services and in many of the ministries and stats boards.
The dominance of the Indian elite was challenged when the other races took up English education and started to use English as the medium for communication. The public service employment pie was subsequently shared more evenly relative to the racial composition of the population. Even then, the Indian elite still enjoyed a much bigger share of the pie relative to the size of their population.
Today, the Indian elite is entering its golden years in this city. They are everywhere in the top echelon of management, from politics, the govt ministries and to the industries. The Mediacorp has just appointed Walter Fernandez as the Group Editor In Chief. And there is Warren Fernandez, the Editor of the Straits Times and Patrick Daniel as Editor in Chief of the Straits Times. The three of them would have a big say the in content of the Media and wield great influence on what the readers shall read.
In the Cabinet there is the Dep PM and Fin Minister in Tharman, Law and Foreign Affairs Minister in Shanmugam, MEWR in Vivian, and another minister Iswaran in the PM’s office, also Second Minister in Home Affairs and Trade and Industry.
In the judiciary the Chief Justice is Sundaresh Menon and Indian high court judges have always been a part of the bench. Then there are many prominent senior counsels in practice.
The Chief of Army is MG Ravinder Singh.
Most notable is that the Indian elite distinguished themselves in finance. Other than Tharman as Finance Minister, there is Ravi Menon as MD of MAS. And the CEO of DBS, the national bank, is Piyush Gupta. There are many top Indians in the foreign banks as CEOs or in top management, and also in GIC and Temasek, including Dhanabalan as the latter’s Chairman. Their dominance in finance is unchallenged and this will grow bigger over time.
In the academia there are many prominent professors heading many departments. So is the field of medicine. The Indian elites are everywhere stamping their influence and authority in their respective fields.
The field of IT is more or less dominated by Indian professionals mainly from India. There is however a strange phenomenon, that the local Indians are somehow not very good in IT. And there is an increasing community of very rich Indian PRs and new citizens finding residence in the City. And they brought along their businesses, now the biggest group among the foreign investors here.
The Indian community is now a very formidable force to reckon with in all fields of enterprise in the island and will play an increasing role in the growth and development of the country. Not forgetting we had two past presidents in Nair and Nathan, not counting the numerous very rich individuals among them. Singaporeans will have to be better acquainted with this development and acknowledge the bigger role played by the numerically small Indian community. But this is set to change with CECA and the India Indians finding this island a very conducive and good place to do business and bringing up children.
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