Overseas exposure needed

The advert for a sales representative to sell kueh tutu received 300 applications. Finally after several rounds of intensive interviews the position was offered to the best candidate from Timbuktu. He has a Ph D and international experience. He is everything better than the rest of the applicants, a real talent. How not to employ him?

The mama CEO was furious. She only got ITE certificate. No she was not feeling inferior. She is an entrepreneur and is worth several millions. She does not need to feel insecure. She could buy a few Ph Ds if she needed them to paste on her face to look good.

‘What the hell we need a doctorate for to sell kueh tutu? What the hell is the international experience for when he is to go door to door in HDB estates? We are doing local business and the qualifications and international experience are redundant.’

‘But m’am, the head hunting experts said that we should grab the best talents available. And this one looks so good and so talented than the locals.’

‘Which HR expert told you that?’

“The one I spoke to from the international recruiting agency. He came from Timbukone. He said the foreign talents are sooo good. Don’t let them get away. It is good for the country.’

The boh tak cheh CEO sacked the foreign talent with the Ph D immediately, and the HR too. She said she would take her back and the Ph D candidate in twenty years time when she is going international, but not now. The HR has to go for fear that she would employ a foreign masters graduate to wash dishes as well.

No need to create more jobs

You listening, there is no need to create more jobs as long as we can keep productivity up. The rational is simple. We have more than 1 million good jobs in the city filled by foreigners. This is a very good buffer. In fact we have created nearly 2 million extra jobs for foreigners. If productivity can be improved without having to flood the island with more foreigners, the govt could work out a plan to slowly replace the foreigners with citizens. In the meantime let them hold on to the jobs for our citizens. We can calibrate how many more foreigners we need not because they can replace our citizens by presumingly being a bit more qualified or ‘talented’ than our citizens or faking it.

Our TFR only produces about 30,000 or 40,000 job seekers each year. We are actually over creating jobs but also creating unemployment problems caused the jobs didn’t go to the citizens. With 40,000 new job seekers, how many new jobs need to be created? If we plan to maintain a strong Singapore core, not a core of Trojans, we could gradually, slowly replace a small number of foreigners at a time to keep our fresh graduates fully employed.  At this rate, with 40,000 annually, it would take 50 years to replace all the 2m foreigners, assuming a static position, while keeping a lid on population growth.

There is no need to go on the crazy 6.9m run just to create growth for the sake of growth. No need to keep building and building smaller and smaller flats. No need to build to high heavens or down to hell. No need to beg for more foreign investments indiscriminately. No need to keep telling the people they cannot afford to own cars as we have space constraints caused all the space must be turned into concrete for more businesses and more buildings.

What do you think?

Confusion and unhappiness over stock market upheavals

The suspension and designation of 3 highly active and leveraged stocks that
saw their values went from rags to riches and back continue to cause much
grief and unhappiness among investors that were caught in the whirlwind.
Clients and remisiers were equally upset by the turn of events as many are
going to be hurt with a lot of losses, and now the latest, investigation on
short selling and probably prohibitive fines that could hurt the pockets
very badly.

The President of The Society of Remisiers, Jimmy Ho Kwok Hoong, has been
caught in the midst as representative of remisiers and trying to alleviate
the pains and losses of his members and their clients. In another letter to
the ST Forum he lamented the lack of clarity of SGX’s instruction and
slowness to investigate the counters that saw their prices shot through the
roof within a short span of time. The mess got worse when different broking
houses started to interpret the instructions differently and changing
continuously.

As a result some clients sold their shares prematurely and ended in short
positions which could lead to penalties from SGX.  I quote from Jimmy Ho’s
letter, ‘Compounding matters, clients are now required to show satisfactory
evidence that they own the “designated” security, either with the CDP or
other custodians, before they are allowed to sell.  Clients are further
upset over this new ruling, which is onerous, impractical and illogical.
The SGX’s handling of the situation, so far, has been amateurish.’

What is happening?

We are Singaporeans, not opposition

In an article posted in TRE, a blogger by the name of Albert posted this…
 
‘ Honestly, I see so much hypocrisy in the PAP. While I applaud the courage of Tan Chuan Jin to be willing to stick out his neck to listen and then do something, but I don’t think he alone is able and is enough to save face for the ruling party. I think the damage is done and the trust in the PAP among many professionals in Singapore that I know has long been broken.
 
I am also beginning to think that if the 6.9 million population resulted in Singaporeans becoming the minority, does it really make sense for our children to serve national service in future. Just to clarify, I was a proud national serviceman before who was willing to serve and defend the people of Singapore because I know the leaders like LKY, GKS, and Rajaratnam then truly believed in building a nation for the good of Singaporeans.
 
I really have a lot of doubts today because the policies and practices of the current leaders do not seem to point in this direction, unfortunately!....’
 
This is the kind of sentiment that is gaining momentum in a nation divided, a people feeling unwanted and rejected. Oops, can’t say this about the top 20% that are getting richer every day and joining the list of multi millionaires. But there are 80% of the losers whose views and interests may not mean anything or can be ignored, so some may think so. For a supposedly very rich country, if the majority of the people are feeling this way, it cannot be good and the well being of the country cannot last long.
 
This Albert is saying what the silent majority may not say or could not say, but feeling the same way. The people are disillusioned and are crying in silence, in alternative or social media. And sadly, these cries are seen as ‘OPPOSITION’. But these people are Singaporeans who want a better life for themselves and their children. They are not OPPOSITION, for goodness sake. They are falling victims to a society that is getting richer but running away from them. They are trying to catch up but gasping for air. And to make matter worse, they seen themselves being replaced by foreigners who are here having a good time taking over good paying jobs from the citizens.
 
And more sad, or sadderer, the people who are falling behind see a govt that is not doing anything or not doing enough while their good lives are petering away. Is this a myth or real? If it is real, it is very dangerous as the govt will be bungled out without knowing why unless the govt has a secret formula to keep winning elections. If it is a myth, that the lives of the people are really getting better, it is still bad as the govt will still be bungled out at the next election, cause the people don’t think so. The govt can only hope that the whole thing is not real, and the kpkb is only a minority, from the opposition and trying to stir unhappiness. The noise can be ignored as it is not important.
 
Are these people OPPOSITION or just ordinary citizens that are unhappy with their plight, and unhappy with the govt? The govt can ignore the opposition but it cannot ignore the citizens. Unfortunately the 6.9m population issue and the influx of foreigners to replace Singaporeans in good jobs say that the govt is not interested in what the people are saying.
 
So be it. Never mind if NS men do not feel proud about being NS men and the duty to serve NS.

Only $15 more for the right baby

Now this must be the most comforting news that I have read so far. According to a report in a local Chinese paper yesterday, mothers delivering their babies could be assured that the babies they are carrying home are their very own babies by paying an additional $15. This amount is really nothing knowing that the whole child delivering procedure could cost several thousand dollars. The paper did not mention which hospital is charging this additional fee or whether it a govt private hospital or a private hospital. It is like after paying this fee, there will be additional effort or procedure to monitor the correct baby for the correct mother.
 
It is also good to know that it is better late than never. They could have introduced this long ago and be applicable to all the hospitals, private or govt, if there is a problem.
Is there a problem? Millions of babies have been borne and grown up over the years. Wait a minute, you know what I am thinking of? Anyone who thinks he/she does not resemble his/her parents, uh oh. The DNA department is going to be swarmed with such requests and business is going to be good.
 
How many people will be having sleepless night wondering, just wondering. And a word of caution, do not be paranoid about this, don’t panic. It could just because some mothers are being a bit more kiasu and wanted that little bit more assurance.
 
All is fine, I am sure. This is a very reassuring piece of news, must be. $15 for peace of mind.

PS: KKH has confirmed that it was the hospital mentioned by Lianhe Wanbao and that it does not charge extra for the use of Radio Frequency Identification System. It was incorrectly reported by the media.