Change the Singapore Dream – Kishore

This call sounds like insanity. If it is to dream for the moon, perhaps it may be more agreeable. But to dream to downgrade and give up cars as a convenience, is like telling Sinkies to downgrade to a 4 rm HDB flat that cost $1m and only 60 sq m. But what Kishore did was to be provocative, to think tangentially, to walk the unbeaten path. It is always refreshing to think a bit wild, to be unorthodox, to sound a bit insane but to get people out of their comfort zone.

The only weakness in this dream is that he forgot that this is an unnecessary dream if the planners did not go bonkers to follow the economists blindly. We need critical mass to have a sustainable economy. And that critical mass was 2m, then 4m, then 5m then 7m then 10m. And we can build to heaven’s high or deep down and get closer to living hell. Sure the possibilities are unlimited given the expansiveness of the human mind. But there is a cost involved, just like the insane Medishield Life to cover all and sundry, young and old, healthy and sick. Who is going to pay for it or where is the money coming from?

Car ownership is a luxury, and more than a luxury, it is freedom to travel, it is progress, it is what human beans strived to better themselves and their way of life. It liberates the constraints of time and space. Why all the cries for progress, for economic growth, for technology only to abandon it because some economists got their numbers mixed up and forgot the good from the bad? Do we want economic growth only to abandon our dream of car ownership? Do we want to abandon the dream for landed properties or owning a 1000 sq m home or bigger? Do we want to dream of only eating in foodcourts and hawker centres? It is regressive thoughts surely. Why do we ever think of downgrading, downsizing, giving up the good stuff and con ourselves that less is good, no cars is good, smaller flats, the smaller the better? Idiotic isn’t it?

But if I am the rich and powerful, and living in a 5000 sq m homes and owning a garage of luxury cars, I would not mind conning the daft that no cars is good, and living in a dog’s kennel is quality living.

Kishore said we have to give up the Singapore dream of owning cars, he fell short of saying we also have to give up dreaming of a 1000 sq m 5 rm home as well. And I quote, ‘We have to give up this insane dream of owning a car and replace it with an ecosystem of a public transport system that makes it irrational to own a car.’  I would like to suggest that we should give up this insane dream of a bigger population and replace it with a friendly ecosystem and allowing more people to own cars and living in bigger homes. Just cut the shit in growing the population to consume more of the little land we have. In this case, smaller population is good, and there are many countries that are small in population but doing much better than us and with much better quality of life. And their land mass is also bigger, with more space for living and recreation.

The insane dream is 6.9m that will make life a living drudgery to many average Sinkies. They will be reduced to slaves of the economic system while a small elite will continue to live in sprawling landed homes and owning several cars and laughing at the idiocy of the easily conned Sinkies.

There is a need to recalibrate where we are going and how not to destroy our ecosystem and make it more favourable to living than to working for the sake of working. Yes the planners need to change their insane dream and come down from high heavens to uplift everyone to a higher plateau. They need to plan in such a way that there will be more space for living, for bigger homes and for more cars and more roads. And please, no need creative shit to down size the furniture to make the small space look bigger.

The moment the Sinkies start to accept to downgrade their dreams, they are heading towards a colony of mindless ants or bees, busy, busy, busy all for nothing. We must have dreams, big and better dreams for a better tomorrow.

KNN, why we work so hard for?

Dismantling the CPF Minimum Sum Schemes

The govt’s hold on the people’s CPF savings is growing to become a sore point among the hard up citizens that have not enough cash and struggling to make ends meet with some ended up borrowing from the loan sharks. And the painful thing is to see the money, tens of thousands or more in their CPF statements. Would it be a case of want to laugh also cannot laugh, as the money is as good as untouchable. Now with the new proposal for a compulsory Medishield Life Insurance, this is indeed going to be a decisive point that could be a game changer in the next GE.

Now I am wondering would there be a political party that would make this an election issue, to pledge to dismantle the minimum sum schemes and to put a stop to this compulsory Medishield Life Scheme. The alternatives need not be a total change but to give the people an option, to opt in or to opt out of the minimum sums schemes as well as the Medishield Life Scheme.  If these schemes are intrinsically good, there will be many CPF members who would voluntarily leave their money in their CPF savings for the higher interest rates. In the case of Medishield Life, those who want and have the money to pay would still be opting for it while those who do not want can opt out.

Any political party that is offering the people a choice, the free will to opt in or out of these schemes would definitely be very well regarded and rewarded by the voters. So far, other than the ruling party that gave the people no choice, the other parties are keeping very quiet about this, also giving the people no choice. I think the people must be hoping that one of these parties would stand up to offer the people a real alternative to choose what they want, what they think will be good for them, and not be compelled to leave their money in the CPF or to pay for an insurance scheme that they did not want.

Would there be a choice in the next GE for the people to choose a party that will be will more willing to listen and would not force the people into no choice positions or no choice schemes? It would be a very refreshing platform and let’s hope the alternative parties will consider such options seriously in the next GE.

Who is the liar? Putin or Obama/Kerry?

 Putin has gone on record to say that the rebels were behind the chemical attack and not Assad. His commentary was published in the NYT, ‘…there is every reason to believe it was used not by the Syrian Army, but by opposition forces, to provoke the intervention by their powerful foreign patrons, who would be siding with the fundamentalists”.
 
If one is to look at the intent and the outcome of the chemical attack, it is very clear who would want to commit such an act and who has the reason to do so. Similarly, the Assad govt would have the least reason to use chemical weapons to invite an attack. They are not idiots to want to invite an American attack knowing that the Americans have drawn a red line on chemical attacks. People should not take the patronizing position that the Assad is daft and unthinking.
 
On the other hand, Obama and Kerry spoke with a blank face to the American people and their allies that it was the Assad govt that attacked the rebels with chemical weapons, exactly like what Colin Powell did at the UN. So who is telling the truth and who is lying? One of the two parties must be lying, telling white lies to the Americans and to the world.
 
Remember the sinking of the South Korean naval ship Choenan and the killing the sailors on board. They even fabricated the weapon used with hastily written words to deceive the world that it was from North Korea until they were proven to be fake.
 
With all the wild accusations in this case, not much different from the accusations of WMD against Saddam Hussein, to discover the truth it is best to look at the intent and the consequences of the act. Who will benefit from the act and who will suffer from the act? This kind of deduction is the most logical as it is based on the premises that all the parties are intelligent and rational people.
 
How many more lies would the liars say before their noses grow to one foot long? The liars in this case are evil and wicked, using chemical weapons to serve their private agenda and killing innocent Syrians and wanting to kill more. Is there justice? Is there a God to punish such compulsive liars?
 
The American people are no fools and will not be fooled again. The British have already shown their middle finger to Cameron. And there are many Americans out there gathering evidence and protesting against an attack on Syria with another lie. Obama and Kerry are looking more devilish by the days.

Racial relations Survey

Racial relations are taking the limelight again with the Survey by the Institute of Policy Studies. The survey revealed some expected results in a multi racial society that has been subject to some violent rape and assault recently. There is nothing new really and the findings could even be deduced with a little bit of thinking. The Survey only confirmed the situation with the numbers from the respondents.
 
What did the Survey expect to find out other than the obvious? What is behind the thinking of the people behind the Survey? There seems to be some preconceived ideas or expectations that are deemed to be good and not good. There are some presumptions of what a good multi racial society should be. And one of the good or right things is that all the different races would be hugging and kissing each other everyday. And all of them will be socializing with each other, visiting each other and making friends if not sleeping together. The people are expected to reach out to understand other races and their sensitivities! Are these the expectations? If so, then they will be very disappointed. Is it the responsibility of individuals to make time to understand others when they hardly have time for themselves?
 
There are many conditions and natural behavior of human beans that would not allow it to be so. Even in a homogenous community, not everyone is hugging and kissing everyone and loving everyone or knowing everyone. There is the limitation of time. In a hot bed society like ours, everyone is so busy trying to make his living better, chasing after that dollar to pay for whatever that is needed. How much time would one have left to go sneaking around other people’s homes and prying into people’s affairs, people who have nothing to do with you or do not matter in their lives?
 
The days when life was less hectic, when there were plenty of idle time to do what one pleased, socializing, talking shop and playing are over. You can’t rewind the society to those days when living was easy and there were plenty of time to gaze at the stars or making love and raising children.
 
Then there are the individual traits that may not be particularly social in nature. Not everyone would like to be busybody or poking their noses at other people’s life and affairs. There are many that are more comfortable doing their own things, be themselves and amusing themselves in their private pursuits. What the heck is this thing that everyone is expected to be socializing with everyone and with other races to be seen as good, normal and expected? What craps! Oh, there are people who would want to be around with people, talking and yaking the whole day and night. Not everyone will conform to the same mould and expectation of the social scientists.
 
People will get together when they have the time and the common interests. People make friends by sharing their common activities in common areas. If the interests are different, how could they be seen messing around with each other? Would the crows and the mynahs be kissing each other or feeding in the same trough? Would one scorn at the crows or mynahs for not associating with each other or for not playing ball together? Would one be unhappy with the introverts, the not so sociable, the not so kaypoh for keeping themselves away from the maddening crowd? Different people chose to have different lifestyles and different ways of living, and people should respect that. Are the people expected to open their doors or go down to the community halls after work to prove that they are part of a community? And why bother to do that in a hotel of strangers? Are the people expected to be sharing their food with their neighbours, greeting and kissing their neighbours along the corridors?
 
As a country and community, what is expected and important is for the people to feel as one people, to believe in the share destiny and common interests, to have the freedom of choice to live as one chooses, but behind all these, to stand up for the country as one united people when a situation demands it. I think this is already asking too much of the people.
 
Is the Survey expecting too much? Or the Survey already knows what to expect and any shortcomings would be seen as unsatisfactory?

Japan about to declare war on China

Last year the Japanese created a farce by buying the Chinese islands of Daioyu from one of its citizens with a fictitious ownership. This has created alarm in China while the Japanese thought the Chinese were as dumb as the Manchus and would agree to their silly act. This final act of aggression is the last straw and China would not allow any further misstep in this direction. Another false move by the Japanese to assert control over the Chinese islands would be tantamount to a declaration of war.
 
Shinto Abe’s election platform was to put Japanese official in the islands and they are saying it again, this time by the Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga that Japan is considering deploying personnel to the islands. Any attempt of such nature will be war as far as China is concerned. Japan must not try to move another inch as the Chinese have taken their position and drawn the line that Japan would not be allowed to cross.
 
War between the two countries is so close and only a matter of time as the highly charged nationalistic group in the country, with Shinto Abe as the leader, is bound to try its luck with China. This group would want to revive Japan’s past military glory and claiming Diaoyu Islands is the first move.
 
China is watching closely and is preparing for the day the Japanese make the next move. There will be no nonsense, and no need for the National People’s Congress to approve. Any Japanese officials landing on the islands will be war.