The injustice of justice

In this modern world, the treachery of the elite is much more sophisticated than the wisest of yore. The elite are using the system to cheat and scam against the interest of the ordinary men in the street.
 
Just read in the media today, ‘JP Morgan set to pay record S16.1b in deal’. What is wrong with this statement? Everything is wrong with this statement. It is trickery, treachery, deception and lies of the highest order. It is never about justice though it gives the appearance of justice. There is no justice!
 
The elite are exploiting the goodwill, reputation, funds and power of big institutions to cheat, to fraud, to scam for their own benefits. In the JP Morgan case, and many other related financial frauds during the financial meltdown, the top management of these financial institutions devised and designed fraudulent notes, CDOs and all kinds of gambling chits in the form of derivatives to cheat the people, the funds and also high net worth customers. And when they were successful, they paid themselves crazy and walked around like gods.
 
When they were caught with their crimes, with their hands in the cookie jars, they used the funds of the institutions to pay for the fines. The guilty party is the institution, no the management. And the money is from the shareholders, not theirs. The shareholders have to pay for their crimes, for their salaries and big bonuses. They have no personal responsibility and accountability. To them, they can cheat and forge all kinds of dubious products and instruments, and they win in all ways. The masses and shareholders are the losers. It is head they win and tail the masses, shareholders and the main street will lose.
 
They will not be caught to pay for their wrong doings. They have the law enforcers in their pockets, paid by them to share the loot. And they are repeating their crimes in bigger ways since then, with the help of the law and lawmakers, that they will not be prosecuted or persecuted. They are the modern day bandits and crooks in suits and ties. They can do not wrong and are above the laws. Many billions will be coughed out from the banks and financial institutions to pay for their crime, now passed to the banks and financial institutions.

Where is the justice? There is no justice.The bank pays the fine and the criminals keep their loots.

Gintai lost his job as a train driver

One of our regular bloggers that stopped posting after his long story of his conversation with Shanmugam posted in his blog has lost his job as a train driver with SMRT. He worked 18 years in the company and is still fit to drive maybe for another 10 years. Was he dismissed, sacked, asked to resign, asked to leave, or whatever term you called it, he lost his job. He is a full blooded Sinkie.
 
This is what Gintai said of his experience as a train driver,
 
‘For almost 18 years, I live, sleep and breath within the train system. I worked almost every day including off days unless I was on courses or on leave. I can’t even recall when was the last time I reported sick. I work with all kinds of odd hours with bizarre reporting timings and rotating shifts with rotating off days. Almost everyday, I had to remember my train timings, places (depots, stations and different platforms etc) to take the trains and worry about my train schedules. If I miss taking the train, the handing over driver will need to continue driving the train. With few misses within a short time-span, it’s out you go. That is one example of many where I was always pre-occupied with trains – even in my sleep; over the last 18 years. I had to force myself to sleep if I were to wake up at 4am the next morning to prepare for work sleep or no sleep! The train must be launched from the depot! No one will understand what I’m trying to say here except the 400 over train drivers in the system whose job is to move millions of passengers regardless of rain or shine, flooding or ponding, lightning or thunder!’
 
And this is what his India Indian friend had to say about his abrupt departure.
 
‘My FT Indian friend Manish had this to say, “… India maybe 3rd world country but it seems that Singapore is poorer than India in all respects now. If they can’t take care of a person who served 18 yrs loyally, then it’s curtain down for them where human values are concerned. You take care my friend.” PS: Reproduced with permission.’
It is so regrettable that an experienced train driver with so many years of dedicated service and loyalty will have to be let off. Nevermind, they will train another foreigner to take over his job if they cannot find another Sinkie to do so. Welcome to the unemployed PMET club.
 
Gintai should give his friend Shanmugam a call. Maybe he will be able to fix him with a better job now that the govt is talking about Fair Consideration Framework to consider Singaporeans first in job offers. Looks like Gintai did not benefitted from FCF.
I feel sorry for Gintai. Hope he will get a job soon. If not he can join Gilbert Goh and speak up in Hong Lim Park for the unemployed PMETs. This group of Sinkies is growing in strength daily. And thank God the govt is working very hard to help them and get them a job.

FCF is not just balancing of employer worker interests

Rip Van Winkle woke up after a long stupor to find a pool of local PMEs underemployed and unemployed while foreigners of all shades are taking over their jobs. What if Winkle continues to be asleep, would anyone know of this problem or would anyone recognize that there is a problem. What is the meaning of being proactive, being able to see over the horizon?
 
Now we know there is a problem, and the problem has grown to a point that nice talk is no longer an option. But they are going to talk nice to the employers who have exploited the situation at the expense of alienating a group of experienced and well educated citizens to the fringe of the country’s development. Industries have been taken over or dominated by foreigners to the point that they could not find locals good enough or available to fill even low level positions. And millions of foreigners are now living among the citizens and their sudden departure could create a social and economic crisis.
 
The influx and employment of foreigners in great numbers and the exclusion of citizens in vital and essential services and jobs are no small matters. There are strategic and security implications at stake. A country that is populated by foreigners and employed in essential and strategic industries is like allowing the foreigners to have a stranglehold on its security and national interests.
 
Total Defence is not limited to the uniform groups but also to the economy, the well being of workers/citizens and the sustainability of the economy to continue to run without being held at ransom by foreigners. Do I have to say more when key positions are occupied or dominated by foreigners who could do harm to the country? Do I have to say more when key industries are owned by foreigners that could undermine the nation’s interest in time of crisis?
 
Getting our citizens to be fully employed and in essential and strategic jobs and industries must be part of our national defence. Well, a good start has been made. According to Lim Swee Say, ‘The next step, he added, would be to work with the companies to put in place a programme to nurture local talent over the next few years.’ Things should improve with this programme and over the next few years it will be better. Thank God they are finally doing something.

Limiting influx of foreign talents may affect growth

‘For the past couple of weeks, I have been teaching my annual course in microeconomics in Singapore, a country whose remarkable growth owes a lot to the theory of incentives embedded in my course.

An independent country only since 1965, Singapore is now one of the wealthiest countries in the world in terms of per capita income. Visitors agree that it may be the cleanest and safest country, with remarkable racial harmony and city streets that can be driven at rush hour without the gridlock that you see in most of the rest of the world….

In response to a growing income gap between the many less-well-educated Singaporeans and the highly-skilled foreign workers who are well-paid in the country, the increasingly democratic government has begun to yield to populist pressure to greatly limit foreign workers. Even more so than the U.S., Singapore has benefited from the highly-educated, creative and hard-working expats who drive much of its economic growth.

By subverting the laws of supply and demand and deliberately not allowing the most talented workers to be hired at the going wage, Singapore may be relegating its miraculous growth to the past.’

Dr Lewis Mandell is a financial economist with a research specialization in financial literacy and a teaching specialization in investments and valuation at the graduate and undergraduate levels

The above is part of an article by Professor Lewis Mandell reprinted in the TRE with his permission. It was a nice piece of work praising the great achievements of the govt and what they have done to this island. As a Sinkie, reading it also makes me feel shiok. We are so damn good, but with a few drawbacks. The professor said Singapore must keep opening its door to let the ‘ highly-educated, creative and hard-working expats’ in or else  ‘Singapore may be relegating its miraculous growth to the past.’ I beg your pardon, when Singapore was rebuilding this country, were these foreign expats here and what were their contributions? Thought they were here only after everything has been built, the infrastructure, the industries, the big local banks and institutions?

The article has generated more than a hundred comments from netizens, 116 when I last read, mostly not too complimentary, and still adding. The daft Sinkies were just being disrespectful to this eminent professor. He is here to add value to our universities, teaching our young undergraduates about microeconomics. And he wrote such an enlightening piece on Singapore and even gave free advice to bring in more foreigners for Sinkies’ own good. How can our laypeople spoke so dismissively against this article and the professor without knowing their place? Boh tua boh suay.

No foreigners and dogs allowed

Below is a short paragraph posted in TRE by a blogger, pijitailai, in Mandarin.

新加坡可是越来越威风了，在洋人的地盘竟然不让洋人进入新加坡日的庆祝会。真想不到，新加坡政府在澳洲的一小片短暂的不到一天的租界，竟然表演出一幕《洋人与狗不准进入》的种族歧视风….

The gist of the article is about the Singapore Day in Sydney’s Botanic Garden. Let me try to translate. Singapore is getting more and more garang. In a foreign land Singapore refused to let foreigners enter to celebrate Singapore Day. Can’t believe it, the Singapore govt in a short span of time in Australia could demonstrate ‘foreigners and dogs not allowed in’ racist behavior.

Please regard this as a joke. Of course not, the foreigners could hang such a notice in Shanghai in those colonial days. Singapore would not do such a thing especially in Australia. Now that it has incurred an unfortunate racist protest, maybe to do some damage control and at the same time to advertise how happy we are to welcome foreigners to Sin, it can hold another Singapore Day for foreigners only to make amends and to soothe the nerves of the offended foreigners. It would be good PR and money well spent if more white Australians would visit Singapore and make it their home.

In job adverts in Sin, the foreigners are saying, No Sinkies and PRs needed. This one is true. No bluff.