How many casinos are there in Sin City?

Wrong, none of you would have guessed it. And I am discounting all the back lane and illegal gambling dens. Two is absolutely wrong. I heard this at a drinking hole and of course it is beer talk after some heavy drinking. But not to worry, all were drunk but not drunk to the extent of becoming incoherent. They were marbok but their mental faculties were still clear.

One shouted, three, the stock market is the third casino. Everyone is punting with no regards to the fundamentals of the stocks. And it is not only the aunties and uncles, but the remisiers, the house dealers and the big funds, all engaging in pure gambling, a game of chance. Roll the ball and see where it lands, something like the roulette.

Not three but four, said another. How so, and he explained. Go to HDB and ballot for a new flat. $20 or was it $10 for a bet. If lady luck smiles, you get your flat and you are richer by a couple of hundred bucks at least in five years time. Many new citizens are doing it and hitting it rich.

Five, said another. Getting a COE is also like gambling. Sometimes you pay more, sometimes you pay even more. And sometimes, pay very little. Just hope for the best.

Six, I say six. This guy seemed to have just awakened from his drowsiness. Going to see a doctor is like playing monopoly. You pay and pay along the way. Sometimes pay more, sometimes pay even more. Sometimes pay when really no need to pay. Sometimes you pay to check if you are sick when you are not sick and you feel better after losing your money.

Then this motherly auntie raised her hand, seven, she said. The seventh casino is getting a place for your child in a top school. The chances are so small and sometimes people played dirty, or tilt the table in their favour.

It just seems like everything is gambling in this City. Ahem, one more, the General Election. After voting for your favourite party, you are not sure if you have placed the winning bet or the losing bet. You thought you have won when your favourite party won without knowing that you may lose your pants, or your money in your CPF.

Looks like every Sinkie is a gambler of no choice, from the children to the grandmother. And there is no need for exclusion orders. There is no escape. Wait till Medishield Life comes about. All losers.

Defamation defined - Law Minister Shanmugam

In his dialogue with Law Faculty students this was what Shanmugam said of defamation law.
 
‘Defamation laws, he said, are not there to stop people from criticising the Government, but exist to protect personal reputations.
 
"If you make a personal allegation of fact, if you say I took money, I am corrupt, I will then sue you and ask you to prove it. But if you say I am a stupid fool who doesn't know what I'm talking about, and the Government comprises ministers who don't know what they're talking about and you criticise every policy of the Government, no one can sue you," he said.
 
By all means challenge my competence, by all means challenge my policies, by all means put forward alternate policies. By all means argue it, no problem. That’s not defamation.’ ST 3 Sep 13
 
This is about the clearest definition on the govt’s stand on defamation laws here. This is also the opening up of a govt that used to be suffering from a hang up that no one should criticize the govt, no big no small, no respect for authority.
 
I fully agree with Shanmugam’s position on defamation and personal attacks on ministers or anyone. It is fair criticism on govt policies. I would not go so far as to call a minister a stupid fool. A little decorum will go a long way.
 
And as citizens, it is of utmost importance that they should be interested in the affairs of the state and should air their views on policies or decisions that they are not happy or disagree with. We need participatory citizenry for the good of the country. We can’t have a nations of droids, with no views or do not care a hoot what is going on in the country and to the people. The outcry against the influx of immigrants is a good sign that the citizens are taking ownership of their country and would not be push overs.
This explanation by Shanmugam is a welcome move, to clarify an invisible and moving OB lines. The people and those responsible for enforcing defamation laws would now be in a better position to know what is fair comment or what is defamatory, and to stay away from the law. The eyes will still be watching and defamation or no defamation critics should be careful for you do not know what could hit you next.
 
There is no need to get too personal for all parties when having a discourse on the affairs of the state. Isn’t this what the Govt has been clamouring for, wanting the people to stand for, to come forward to take a more active role in the affairs of the country?

Easy money for Medishield Life?

What is easy money? This is money made easily, with little effort. And the saying goes, easy come easy go. Our govt’s revenue comes from many sources, and some can be easily classified as easy money. Let’s not breathe a word about the CPF. This is the people’s blood and sweat money that they made working for it.
 
Easy money are those like COE premiums, gambling taxes from the casinos and the Tote Board, ERPs, and to a certain extent, profits from sales of HDB flats. The value of these easy monies is quite substantial, in the billions or more annually. Can some of these monies be put to good use like looking after the healthcare of the senior citizens? No I am not asking for the whole chicken, may just a drumstick.
 
How much will it cost to provide some basic coverage in healthcare for the senior citizens? This can be defined, without being extravagant. Minimum basic healthcare/hospitalization need not be too costly. As it is a welfare scheme provided by public fund, no one is going to complain about no airconditioning, no pretty nurses at their becks and calls, no top notch doctors or surgeons to treat their half a million dollar condition. Just provide the basic medical care for those seniors that needed healthcare or have to be hospitalized, to let them recuperate in the hospital beds with some peace of mind, they will be treated with some dignity and will not empty all their savings or forcing their dependents to empty their savings.
 
This is a social obligation that the govt could and should provide to the senior citizens that have in one way or another contributed to the growth and prosperity of the nations. It is mean and heartless to expect the oldies to pay for their health insurance when they are out of work and living on whatever that is left of their savings. We can’t be thinking of robbing the oldies of their savings can we? How creepy can people be to think that the helpless and needy oldies are easy target for the taking? Do not touch their savings in their Medisave.
 
By providing basic healthcare/hospitalization to the oldies using easy money, the scheme can be self insured by the govt without resorting to any insurance scheme. The cost with limited coverage cannot be so prohibitive when carefully defined, and without being misery.
 
Where is the heart? Easy money, easy come easy go. Where have these easy monies gone to? Using easy money for this noble and important service will be well appreciated and a worthy cause to put them into good use. Stop having more designs on the oldies and their monies in their Medisave, or expecting their children to foot the bills. Not many are ministers and earning million dollar salaries and can keep on paying and paying.

The fallen myth of super talents

The phrase super talents were brandished like a military colour about two decades ago. When it was first broached as something like the treasures of the country, 国宝, almost everyone believed in it, even the people who came out with this great phrase. They sincerely and truly believe that this country is so blessed with the super talents in charge. And thus, being so super to the extent that some even thought that they were immortals, 神仙, the chosen ones. And rightfully, being so special, they need to be paid for their special talents as well.
 
Then we have it, even our junior ministers are paid more than the President of the USA. Our ministers and PM and the overworked President are paid many times more naturally. And all Sinkies were so proud to have another feather in the Guinness Book of Records for having the most highly paid politicians in the whole wide world. No one was complaining when things were fine.
 
Fast forward 20 years and today the term ‘super talents’ seems to have lost its lustre, its original meaning. How many Sinkies really believe that they are super talents? How many super talents really believe that they are super talents? This one I am not sure as only those who are branded as super talents will know.
 
Given their performances that often were pedestrian, given the fact that many a times they were lost as to what to do and needing the aunties and uncles and even school children to give them ideas, the phrase super talents takes on a strange meaning. It may be super talents in the sense that they know how to get solutions from the people, not necessary from their heads. Now this is a rare skill I am sure many will agree, getting paid in millions and asking the people for solutions.
 
The other point is that many Sinkies are having second thoughts that they are over paying super talents that are not super in their expectation, imagination and liking. The super talents are not seen as super talents anymore. The people do not believe so and many are questioning their abilities as super talents. One thing for sure, over the last twenty years, there were hardly anything that could make the super talents stand out as exceptional, in policies and decision making. They were very ordinary, like the ordinary Sinkies.
 
This is the picture of the super talent myth today. The bug bear now is that the super talents are still collecting their super pay and standing up like sore thumbs.
When you see a super talent you will know. When you see one that is not, you too will know.

Saudis Go On Full Alert As Putin War Threat Stuns Muslim World

By: Sorcha Faal, and as reported to her Western Subscribers

August 30, 2013

The Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) is reporting today that President Putin’s orders this week to the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation for a “massive military strike” against Saudi Arabia in the event that the West attacks Syria has “stunned” the Sunni Muslim world and forced the Saudis to go on “full war alert.”

The Arabic Al-Ahd News Service confirmed the Saudis war alert by further stating:

“The Saudi Army is on full alert since today due to the increased possibility of a military attack by the U.S. military against Syria. The ground force operations command of the Saudi Army has ordered all the military units in Saudi Arabia to stand at a level 2 alert and fears were bolstered by recent statements by the Russian President Vladimir Putin in terms of a possible military strike against Saudi Arabia by Moscow.”

The GRU is also reporting today that Pakistan’s largest religious-political party Jamiat Ahle Hadith (JAH) is now threatening Russia too over Putin’s “war order” against Saudi Arabia, and as we can read as reported by The International News Service:

“Addressing a Press conference on Thursday, JAH Vice President Allama Zubair Ahmad Zaheer said that his party would hold demonstrations in all major cities to express solidarity with Saudi Arabia, and to condemn Russian president for his wild and unscrupulous threats.

He warned Putin that he would invite wrath from entire Muslim world if he dared to attempt harm Saudi Arabia. He demanded Islamabad to sever ties with Moscow since Putin’s threat was not meant for Saudi Arabia alone but was a threat to entire Muslim Ummah. He said Russian president’s threat would be treated as a declaration of war against Islam and a strong Jihad would be waged against Russia from all over the world.”

This GRU report notes that both the Saudis “war moves” and Pakistan’s “provocative threats” against Russia are being engineered by Obama regime apparatchiks who now control the largest secret intelligence organization ever created in modern human history and which the Washington Post News Service, using top-secret documents released to them by whistleblower Edward Snowden, reports cost over $52 billion and employs over 107,000 spies….

Though not being told to the American people by the Obama regime (or their propaganda mainstream media), this GRU report says, the unraveling of British support for the Obama regimes planned war against Syria came after new reports from the Associated Press News Service revealed that the chemical weapons attack being investigated by the United Nations were, indeed from Saudi Arabia.

The American InfoWars.Com News Service confirms this Saudi connection to chemical weapons being used in Syria, and as we can, in part, read:

“Syrian rebels in the Damascus suburb of Ghouta have admitted to Associated Press journalist Dale Gavlak that they were responsible for last week’s chemical weapons incident which western powers have blamed on Bashar Al-Assad’s forces, revealing that the casualties were the result of an accident caused by rebels mishandling chemical weapons provided to them by Saudi Arabia.

“From numerous interviews with doctors, Ghouta residents, rebel fighters and their families….many believe that certain rebels received chemical weapons via the Saudi intelligence chief, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, and were responsible for carrying out the (deadly) gas attack,” writes Gavlak.

Rebels told Gavlak that they were not properly trained on how to handle the chemical weapons or even told what they were. It appears as though the weapons were initially supposed to be given to the Al-Qaeda offshoot Jabhat al-Nusra.

“We were very curious about these arms. And unfortunately, some of the fighters handled the weapons improperly and set off the explosions,” one militant named ‘J’ told Gavlak.

His claims are echoed by another female fighter named ‘K’, who told Gavlak, “They didn’t tell us what these arms were or how to use them. We didn’t know they were chemical weapons. We never imagined they were chemical weapons.”

Abu Abdel-Moneim, the father of an opposition rebel, also told Gavlak, “My son came to me two weeks ago asking what I thought the weapons were that he had been asked to carry,” describing them as having a “tube-like structure” while others were like a “huge gas bottle.” The father names the Saudi militant who provided the weapons as Abu Ayesha.

According to Abdel-Moneim, the weapons exploded inside a tunnel, killing 12 rebels. “More than a dozen rebels interviewed reported that their salaries came from the Saudi government.”

Important to note, and as we had previously reported, Putin’s extraordinary “war order” against Saudi Arabia came after he became “enraged” after his early August meeting with Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan who warned that if Russia did not accept the defeat of Syria, Saudi Arabia would unleash Chechen terrorists under their control to cause mass death and chaos during the Winter Olympics scheduled to be held 7-23 February 2014 in Sochi, Russia.

Prince Bandar went on to say that Chechens operating in Syria were a pressure tool that could be switched on an off. “These groups do not scare us. We use them in the face of the Syrian regime but they will have no role in Syria’s political future.”

Putin replied to Prince Bandar by saying “Our stance on Assad will never change. We believe that the Syrian regime is the best speaker on behalf of the Syrian people, and not those liver eaters” [Putin said referring to footage showing a Jihadist rebel eating the heart and liver of a Syrian soldier HERE], and which Prince Bandar in turn warned that there can be “no escape from the military option” if Russia declines the olive branch.

In spite of the truth of Saudi Arabia and their terrorist allies being responsible for chemical weapons use in Syria, this GRU report concludes, the Obama regime continues on its path to war against the Syrian people in spite of it being illegal under both United States and International law…. 

Southernglory1

PS. I am posting this on behalf of Southernglory as he is having problem posting it.