Hearing the good stuff or saying the right stuff

I thought I was dreaming and I had to slap myself a couple of times to confirm that it was 8 am in the morning, bright and clear. I read the news again, the speeches made by Hsien Loong and Tharman, and wow, what were they saying? Let me start by looking at the comments by Hsien Loong first.
 
In the front page of Today, this is the headline, ‘Immigration policies must be managed in sustainable way: PM’. Have we been doing it in an unsustainable way? This is followed by the first paragraph, ‘Singapore has to manage its immigration policies in a sustainable way, taking into account the political, demographic and economic objectives the country has for the long term, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong told a gathering of business leaders yesterday. While new immigrants have to be integrated into Singapore society and not dilute its values, the country must remain open to talents so as to lift the low birth rate and make Singapore a vibrant economic hub.’ He added that in order to improve the lives of Singaporeans, ‘We don’t think we can do this just by expansion, but we do believe we must do this through economic growth, and upgrading and transforming our economy.’ He justified the need to get talented people from all over the world by saying, ‘Because we’ll need that range of skills and experiences and talents which no society can generate on its own.’
 
The first thing that came to my mind is the 2 million foreigners in our midst that were brought in during the last ten to fifteen years. Is this number sustainable, can they be integrated into our system without social and political consequences? Would they not dilute our Singaporean core and our core values, culture, work ethics and social norms?
We don’t think we can do this just by expansion? What is the 6.9m all about? And we already have more than 2m foreigners here. Do their talents fit the range of skills and experiences that our society cannot generate on our own? I think we know the answers.
 
Now what did Tharman said that was so earth shattering? ‘Singapore has to ensure it has a thriving and competitive economy by always looking for opportunities to bring high quality new investments that can create better jobs and ways to take advantage of the rising middle class in Asia.’ Now, how many of the businesses in Changi Business Park are high quality investments and create better jobs for Singaporeans. Really, I don’t know. But I believe everyone who knows knew better. And hardly any of the jobs, good or low paying jobs, went to Singaporeans. We have been taken advantage of instead, providing all the superb infrastructures for low wage businesses employing foreigners instead of Singaporeans.
 
Where are the quality and productivity growth that benefit Singaporeans ‘especially the average workers and the lower income workers’? All we heard of is Singaporeans having to go for retraining to downgrade their job expectations and be underemployed, sacrificing and wasting their qualifications and experience. Tharman added that Singapore must remain an inclusive society through social policies, not only via economic policies, and we are in it together. The realities on the ground is that Singaporeans have been feeling neglected, alienated, not good enough ship out, or it is their fault, go for more training. Why are the voices of anger and unhappiness growing louder? Why are the Singaporeans feeling like they are strangers in their own homes, in their own countries?
 
What have all the economic and social policies been doing? Oops, sorry, it was all economic policies before. Going forward we will have more social policies to integrate the Singaporeans with foreigners and new citizens, to improve our Singaporean core. We will have more quality investments providing more quality jobs for Singaporeans and improving productivity. These are the good stuff that I read this morning and I could hardly believe my eyes.

China unveils nuke submarine fleet

China unveils nuke submarine fleet

Global Times | 2013-10-29 1:33:01 By Yang Jingjie

Photo: CCTV, news.cn/mil

The world has been given a rare glimpse into China's nuclear-powered submarine fleet, with State-owned media carrying extensive coverage of the previously mysterious strategic deterrence force.

The unprecedented revealing of the underwater fleet is a demonstration of China's confidence in its sea-based nuclear strike capability and serves as a deterrent to any attempted provocation amid the changing geopolitical situation, said military observers.

Starting on Sunday, China Central Television carried serial coverage two days in a row on the submarine force of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy's Beihai fleet in its flagship news program Xinwen Lianbo.

The People's Daily, the PLA Daily and the China Youth Daily on Monday all carried front-page stories, features and commentaries on the submarine force, applauding its achievements since the launch of China's first nuclear-powered submarine in December 1970.

According to the reports, the idea of building a nuclear submarine was initiated by Chairman Mao Zedong in the late 1950s to break the global military powers' "nuclear blackmailing and monopoly."

In September 1988, China launched a carrier rocket from a nuclear submarine, becoming the fifth country in the world to have the capability of sea-based nuclear strike.

While striving to improve its strike capability, the submarine force has also maintained a good safety record, with no single nuclear accident reported during the past four decades, said the reports.

The People's Daily on Monday hailed the submarine force as "a shield preserving world peace and stability" and "a cornerstone to safeguard state sovereignty, security and development interests."

Du Wenlong, a military expert, told the Global Times on Monday that the latest publicity shows the maturity in the submarine force's sea-based nuclear strike capability, and implies progress in the development of China's new generation of submarines.

According to military observers, the submarines shown in the CCTV report and newspaper photos are the old models, which were put into service in the 1980s. It is reported that the navy is replacing them with Jin-class submarines, and a newer model, the Tang-class, is reportedly in development.

Du said in comparison to foreign submarines, China occupies a seat within the leading group but lags behind the US and Russia in terms of the submarine's noise output and the number of missiles it can carry.

Li Jie, another military expert, shared similar views, noting Chinese submarines still fall behind US and Russian ones, but have better prospects than French and British ones.

The growing capability of the Chinese submarine force is in line with the global emphasis on sea-based nuclear strike capability.

Sea-based nuclear deterrence is more covert, so it gives the countries the capability to launch a counterstrike after their main nuclear bases are destroyed, Li explained, noting its development requires strong comprehensive scientific and technological capabilities.

In addition to the demonstration of more transparency in the military, Li said the revealing of the force is also a deterrent to foreign provocation.

According to reports, during the submarine force's drills, it has repeatedly been tailed and interrupted by foreign ships and aircraft, including one time in international waters in the West Pacific.

"The changing international situation has caused containment to China's growth. The US-Japan alliance and US pivot to the Asia-Pacific both apparently target China. The publicity of the submarine force is a warning to any country that attempts to provoke China, telling them whoever makes the first strike should think about the consequences," Li said.

CCTV commentary said the submarine force has equipped China with a more covert and reliable nuclear counterstrike capability in addition to its intercontinental ballistic missile and strategic bomber, which would make China's rivals abandon their war attempts for fears of the unbearable price they might have to pay.

Tokyo's incitement incurs dangerous cycle

Tokyo’s incitement incurs dangerous cycle

Global Times | 2013-10-28 0:08:01 By Global Times

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe claimed in an exclusive interview with the Wall Street Journal that a resurgent Japan will "take a more assertive leadership role in Asia to counter China's power" and be placed "at the helm of countries in the region nervous about Beijing's military buildup." The chief executive of Japan made spiteful remarks about China and boldly trumpeted China-Japan confrontation. Although Abe also spoke of a strategic China-Japan relationship of mutual benefit, that could hardly offset the enmity he sowed between the two nations.

Japan recently declared it would shoot down Chinese drones heading for the Diaoyu Islands. The Chinese Ministry of Defense responded Saturday that it would be taken as "an act of war" and encounter "decisive action to strike back."

China so far has been relatively restrained in its choice of words compared with Japan's assertiveness and audaciousness. No Chinese leaders openly instigated China-Japan confrontation as their Japanese counterparts did and the Chinese military never makes any preemptive threats. But now words like "war" and "shoot down" are not taboo. With Japanese public opinion continually calling to besiege China, the possibility that China-Japan frictions will escalate into military clashes is growing.

Should one drone of China be fired upon, hostility between Beijing and Tokyo will be fully activated and the situation of Northeast Asia will topple like dominoes. The outbreak of a regional war is possible. Although the US' support to Japan is obvious, it's uncertain how the US will interfere. There is too much variance concerning where a China-Japan military clash will go.

China has not been involved in war for a long time but a war looms following Japan's radical provocation. China's comprehensive military power, including the navy, air force and the Second Artillery Force of the PLA, is stronger than Japan's. Once a war breaks out, China will also be able to bear the economic blow better than Japan.

The Abe administration perceives China will shirk military clashes with them over Diaoyu due to China cherishing the period of strategic opportunities and its fears of the US. But it's hard to say which side is more afraid of the other between China and the US in the West Pacific.  Besides, which country will economically suffer the most is also unpredictable.

China should remain sober with its goals and the bottom line in the Diaoyu dispute. To pursue the goals and safeguard its bottom line could be either realized through strategic maneuver or costly war.

Few powers rose peacefully in history. China's efforts in striving for peaceful rise have been successful but enhanced a misperception that China is fearful of war, fueling countries like Japan to use war to frighten China.

If we don't have the luck to circumvent a war, we should deal with it with rationality a big power should have.

 

Abe, the Japanese runt committing Japan to national harakiri

Abe the little Japanese runt thinks he is brave and especially with the support and encouragement of his colonial masters in Washington he thinks he can safely provoke a war with China and come out unscathed. He couldn't be more wrong for he and his cohorts of Japanese warmongers would be committing Japan to national harakiri. If I were China and I believe China itself would not hesitate to  obliterate Japan and all Japanese from the earth with the full arsenal of nuclear bombs. This is the good time and opportunity for China and all Chinese people wherever they may be  to kill every Japanese within their reach since the Japs have never shown any remorse for their wanton killings of millions of Chinese people during their attack and invasion of China and South - East Asia in the 1930s and 1940s. As for the Japs' colonial masters , the Evil Empire in Washington, China must neutralise this maniac power by stationing enough nuclear submarines with full complements of nuclear tipped missiles in the seas around America as well as full array of nuclear tipped ICBMs targetting USA to serve as a deterrent that the Evil Empire should stay neutral and not interfere in a war provoked by Japan.


Southernglory1     As a foot note  :  My father was brutally tortured by the Japanese military and my mother too suffered severely .

From high finance to low finance

‘Singapore government-sponsored investment house Temasek Holdings is close to investing $60 million or Rs 300 crore in Hyderabad based Spandana Sphoorty Financial Ltd. According to sources, the deal is being closed at $400 million or Rs 2,000 crore valuation.

VCCircle had reported last week, quoting Spandana's CEO Padmaja Reddy, that the microfinance institution would be closing a $60 million deal this week. When contacted, Manish Kejriwal, Senior Investment Director, India & International, Temasek Holdings, told VCCircle, “We haven’t closed the deal.” Reddy was not available for a comment.

If the deal goes through, this would be third investment by Temasek in financial services space. It had earlier invested in non banking financial services company Fullerton India and also in ICICI Bank.’
 
The above is posted at Sammyboy.com. Read that Temasek is also in Chengdu China in the same micro financing business. This is like moving from investing in top global banks to kucing kurap little finance companies.
 
If I have so much money to invest and invest regardless of what, I would rather put the money in a few pawnshops here. At least it would not turn out to be another lemon like the childcare in Oz. Or perhaps I may just do a charity like offering anther 20 or 30 scholarships for Asean students to study here. Write off the money and no regrets knowing well ahead that money is for charity and not expecting any returns. 

Alternatively can hold a few more Singapore Day events overseas to benefit Singaporeans. Can feel shiok also after spending the money.
 
What do you think?