No country, no govt, no citizen – bo cheng hu

The pathetic incident of this guy spitting at two young women at Woodlands Interchange, grabbing one of them and harassing them, is what this country has turned into, bo cheng hu. This guy went spitting at one woman after another several times each and everyone, including SMRT staff could only watch like a despicable circus act. No one could or would stand up to stop the abuse and humiliation of two women in broad daylight, in a crowded place.
 
How could such a thing happen in a first world city? I can offer only a few reasons. Everyone was so civilized except the guy who spitted at women, or everyone was so selfish, so afraid or did not know what to do or whatever. Chivalry is dead. Manhood is dead.
 
What happened could be like this. The guy could be fierce, but from the video, any medium built guy could knock him down. He was no big hunk, more like a grown up boy. Anyway, the women could also be foreigners. The people watching also could be foreigners, or most of them. Any Sinkie there, maybe a few. Even the SMRT staff in uniform could be foreigners.
 
So you have a group of foreigners in a little corner of this island watching something unpleasant happening. What to expect them to do? They are foreigners, no ownership. This is not their country, it is not their business to get involved. Why should they? And as for the Sinkies, the women could be foreigners too, so why should they bother?
 
The point is that there is no ownership. This island has so many foreigners that every other person is likely to be a foreigner. And at an interchange, the likelihood that the majority are foreigners is even higher. It is a situation of no country, no govt, no citizens. Anything can happen, who cares? No one will step forward to help anyone in distress, to defend or protect lives or properties. It is nobody’s business.
 
When there is a country, a citizenship, ownership, an identity, belonging, then there will be kampong spirit, to help each other, because we are a family, the people of a country. In a rojak situation when everyone is likely to be a foreigner, when none can identify with anyone or anything, this is what could happen. Apathy, alienation, distinterest, not my business, nothing to do with me. No one people one nation, no stand up for Singapore. This is the same as the foreigner cyclist threatening the Sinkie driver in the middle of road. In a country when the national identity is strong, the cyclist would not be seen walking or cycling again if he dared be so rude and aggressive to the citizens. In some countries they would mow him down and it would be his fault for being there. He was not supposed to be there. He did not belong there.
 
We are looking every bit like a failed nation. Yes we are just a city with no identity, not a country or a nation. Nobody cares for anyone except when their interests are directly affected.

Studio flats versus 2 rm flats

The big price gap between these two types of flats came up for questioning in Parliament. Boon Wan rightly said that one cannot compare apples with lemons. This really sums up what were at stake and the perceived unsatisfactory pricing. Some felt that the oldies were ripped off by paying so much for their studio flats and with so many strings attached. But then they should be happy that they were getting apples instead of lemons. Those getting lemons should not complain as the pricing was just right for lemons.
 
Putting this aside, the best thing coming out from the discussion is the kind of profits that studio flats could generate for HDB. In the first place the pricing for the first owner was already very high compared to the 2 rm flats. I think HDB must be making a big loss from such a sale. My apologies for the contradiction.
 
After 30 years, HDB would have to repossess the flat, upgrade and refurbish it, and sell it at what kind of price, you can make your guess. It is going to make another big loss I think, if the same way of reasoning applies. And the same flat would have another round to go, to be upgraded, refurbished and sold a third time to another oldie at even higher price, due to inflation and of course upgrading. And of course, HDB is going to lose another huge sum of money for reselling it a third time.
 
For whatever reasoning and whatever sum of huge losses, I wish that I could be the developer to build and sell these flats with the same terms. I don’t mind making all the huge losses for the good of the people.

Termination of a train driver, a Sinkie

We have heard the story of the termination of a train driver after 18 years of service. Gintai did not explain exactly why but I gathered it was due to some minor mistakes he made. What actually went wrong is not the issue in this article. What I want to address is where should a Sinkie go from here.
 
Gintai was with the Police Force before he became a train driver and had chalked up 18 years of experience on this job. He is about 50 and still has many good years to go even if he does not intend to work till 80.
 
From the company’s point of view, has Gintai committed mistakes serious enough that it was necessary to lose a very experienced train driver with many good years ahead? What is the opportunity cost to hire and train another driver? The new driver could be cheaper without taking the training cost into account. There are opportunity costs involved as well as opportunity to save some money for the company. They can’t be hiring a more experience and higher pay train driver for sure.
 
The other point is that a Sinkie lost his job, hopefully not to another foreigner to be trained to take his place. Now what shall Gintai do, what are his options if he intends to work again? I think at his age, not working is not an option. We also know that getting a job is a near impossible task.
 
First, there is only one train company here, so there is no chance of Gintai driving trains again. Neither can he return to the Police Force. If he is to remain in the city, his next job is probably driving taxi. For Gintai to look for any other jobs, retraining is necessary. And he is likely to get a job that would pay him less than his current basic, without the overtime pay. He probably has school going children and a housing mortgage to provide for. He needs an income.
 
The alternative for Gintai is just not too rosy. The net effect is for the train industry and the train company to lose a trained and very experienced driver. And this driver has to start anew in a new job in a new industry. It is a waste of trained manpower. We value our workforce. Our workforce is our main asset. We foolishly wasted a trained worker who would have to downgrade to do something he has no experience in.
 
On the whole it is a lose lose situation. Maybe the train company will gain by getting a cheaper and new train driver. And a new driver is born. Very likely a foreigner. Sinkies better be nice to their employers and don’t make mistakes to warrant a dismissal. The consequence is dire straits, and nobody will be there to help you, no institution or organisation will be behind you, except Gilbert.

Need to build more private hospitals

The over utilization of our govt privatized hospitals is becoming a joke when an appointment could be in terms of several months or even years. What kind of nonsense is this? Many medical problems would have died or healed by themselves or could have eaten the affected patients. But never mind. Let’s try to do something positive.
 
We have a population of 5.4m and a citizen population of 3.31m. The rest, PRs and non residents, make up 2.1m. This is by no means a small number of people. Now you know why our govt privatized hospitals are finding it difficult to cope. Many of these people are really consuming the health services provided by the govt privatized hospitals, leading to high and over utilization.
 
Perhaps one way to go about improving the quality of healthcare services to the citizens is to encourage the private sectors to build more hospitals to cater to the needs of PRs and non residents. It would be good for everyone, win, win and win solution. The citizens can have better healthcare services from the govt privatized hospitals or private hospitals if they can afford to pay for them. The PRs and non residents can have their private hospitals that are better and well run, to serve them.
 
And the medical profession can have another big industry to make more money. And more land can be sold to build more hospitals, more employment, more jobs and higher GDP. The MOM may even make exceptions and let them staff with foreigners as this is strictly a foreigners industry. Someone just need to do the sums right, on the cost/benefits to the country for providing such services for foreigners, including good jobs in our first world country and the cost of first world infrastructure.
 
Have a new directive that foreigners are now allowed in govt private hospitals to ease the bottleneck. They can go to private hospitals. This may ease the jam in public privatized hospitals and shorten the wait for a medical appointment.
 
What do you think? Think 6.9m coming.

Many questions and answers in Parliament

Many questions were tabled in Parliament and the ministers were busy answering them. Somehow I find the drift not going the right direction. What are all the questions about, and what are the parliamentarians there in the first place?
 
Parliament has degenerated to a state of talking cock to score points for whichever party. Questions and answers were there to do just that while the interest of the people was secondary, do not really matters. At least that is my impression.
 
When would Parliament and parliamentarians be there to speak for the interests of the people with politics taking a break? The politickings should be set aside after the GE and all should work together or separately but putting the well beings of the people ahead of everything else. It is time to work for the people.
 
Roll up your sleeves and get down to work, and forget about party or whether you like that bugger or dislike his or her face. Can we have a bit of sincerity, to deal with issues as elected leaders of the people and working for the people? Do not brush aside the concerns of the people by clever or slippery answers or excuses.
 
Put the people first and everything will fall into place. When this is not the case, everything will be screw up as the intent is wrong, misplaced and nothing will be right. There are still a couple of years before the next GE and there is time to do things and work for the people. The results will speak for themselves.
 
The people are watching and the social media can be harsh to those that are just wayanging and not working for the people. The people are not daft for sure. Whether a politician is sincere and genuine will easily be recognized and be put in their place in the next GE. There is no where to run and no where to hide, and no where to talk rubbish or act silly. Those days of going with the flow and hanging on to the gravy train are over.
 
First base, got problems or no problem? If got problems, what are the problems and what must be done to remove the problems? Or maybe there is no problem so can continue to talk cock and sing song and be merry and enjoy the good office and the good pay and the good blessing of abundance.