The rich knows no bound

Come November 4 ERP gantries will have their fees raised from $5 to $6 a pass. That is two bowls of noodles or two plates of char kway teow. To the rich, it is cheap cheap cheap. To the not so rich, it is arrrgggh. Every pass is so painful.

But this is necessary as these roads are now clogged, like the drains and canals during a flash flood. You want progress, this is what you should expect and be paying. How high will the fees go up when we have 6.9m people here?

Did you ask for it, do you have a choice? No the choice has been made for you. You should be grateful that such tough decisions are made for you. It must have hurt those people deeply for having to make this decision. They must have sleepless nights and nightmares after voting for it in Parliament.

But they will feel good and their conscience is clear. They are doing it for the good of the people, yes, for the good of you and me.

Please say thank you. And thank God that it is not $10 a pass already. This is progress. Only with progress, with a growing GDP can the motorists pay this kind of gantry fees. Count your blessing that we can afford it and the charges are so affordable.

Strategy versus strategy – China versus India

Two Asian powers expanding their reach and influence into Southeast Asia. On the East there is China claiming the little rocks in the South China Sea with potential for oil. Just potential, but still quite good chances of striking some black gold. From the West there is India setting its eyes on the Jewel of Southeast Asia, a thriving and very rich little city with added strategic values militarily and economically.

While China is being challenged by several of the Asean countries, with the USA hiding behind them, India is in Singapore, welcomed and unchallenged. With CECA in her bag, India could literally transfer and transport whole cities of its industries and businesses and people into the island, legally. And with the agreement, it could even sue the City’s govt for trying to obstruct or delay the transmigration of its people and businesses into the City. There is no competition and no USA hiding behind to throw obstacles along the way.

As of today, unofficially, there are probably more Indian nationals in the City than the Indian citizens of the City. Combined they could be the second largest ethnic group in the City, overtaking the Malays. If there is no slowing down to the migration of Indian nationals, it is only a matter of time that ethnic Indians will be competing with the Chinese citizens as the biggest racial group in the island City.

The acquisition of this City will come along with all its riches, a thriving city state with all its assets, national reserves in the trillions, institutions and a well educated population. And most important of all, controlling a choke point in the sea route between the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. Controlling this strategic City is controlling the gate to the region and passage through the region. It is a master stroke, a master strategy many times more superior to controlling some little uninhabited islands in the South China Seas and risking wars with the littoral states and the USA.

Taking over the city state could be just a formality, if the islanders are happy with the arrangement or sleeping and without knowing what is happening until the rice is cooked. It would be a fait accompli, or a de facto ownership of the island, with the consent of the Sinkies of course. Quietly and stealthily, one business park at a time, one housing estate at a time, the acquisition is real and expanding.

The two Asian giants, each one setting eyes on expanding their control and influence into the region but aiming for different assets. Controlling and taking over the city state would be many times more valuable and strategic than the rocks in the South China Seas.

Why Anonymous Collective hacked into ST Online site?

The Anonymous Collective, better known as The Messiah, has hacked into the ST Online site early yesterday morning. They gave the reason for the hacking as a reaction to a reporter by the name of Irene Tham for putting up a misleading article on them. This is what the Anonymous Collective said.
 
'Greetings Irene Tham & Straitstimes.com,
 
I am The Messiah from the Anonymous Collective. We are a decentralized non-violent resistance movement, which seeks to restore the rule of law and fight back against the organized criminal class. We oppose any form of internet censorship among other things.
 
Allow me to explain our intrusion.
 
Earlier today upon discovering the existence of a Youtube video of ours (click here), a straitstimes correspondent by the name of Irene Tham chose to publicize an article distorting our words and intentions (click here). She chose to conveniently modify the sentence “war against the Singapore Government” into “war against Singapore”.
That in our opinion can be very misleading and unfortunately we suspect that must have been her intentions. Look what she made us do!
 
Irene Tham, since you had the ignorant nerve of invading our world (the internet) to speak blasphemous lies, then we took it upon ourselves to invade your tiny little space to voice our issues over a few matter. We sincerely hope you wont mind…. '
 
We can see the switch in the objective from opposing internet censorship to this reporter. The point here is that the ST reporter is being accused to misleading the public by changing the words and thus the content and intent of Anonymous Collective. The AC said that their actions were targeted at the Singapore govt while the reporter changed it attacking Singapore. The difference is quite significant.
 
Did the reporter misinterpret what the AC wrote or was the change intentional? Did the paper double check to make sure what the reported was factually correct? I leave this to the readers to make their own judgment. What follows is that the AC is demanding an apology from the reporter to the citizens of Singapore within 48 hours, failing which she has to resign from ST ‘…for trying to mislead them with her hate.’ The AC added, ‘in the event our demands are not met in the next 48 hours, we will place you in our “to do” list and next time you wont be let off this easy.’
 
I am not sure what is this ‘to do’ list but it sounds like a KIV until a next time something like this happens again. What is interesting to note is that you have a virtual body making threats and warnings of actions against an institution like the ST and of course the govt of Singapore. This is the first of its kind to happen. The audacity is stunning. It is a case of I can hit you but you can’t do anything to me. Sound familiar?
 
It is interesting to see how ST reacts to this warning and challenge. Would ST simply ignore it as something from the wilderness? Or would it take this threat seriously and Irene Tham would make an apology or be dismissed? How would this go? Would a virtual body from virtual space have the clout to do this to an established big organization like the ST? This is a big change in the nature of things, the natural order of things.

How to run a stock market to the ground?

Stock markets around the world have been profitable institutions for centuries. As a collector of commissions and fees for listing and trading, it is like an evergreen ATM, always making money. The Great Depression could have temporarily halted the trading activities of a stock market, but they still picked up and ran again. It is quite near impossible to run a stock market to the ground. It would take tremendous ingenuity or stupidity to be able to do so.
 
After twenty years in the industry I have discovered how a stock market can actually be run to ground zero by a special recipe. Let me try to put this into simple steps for anyone who has the chance to do it, like how to assemble 炸蛋, fried egg, DIY online.
 
1. Invite all the big funds to play in the market.
 
2. Consult them on how to fix a system so that they can take full advantage of their high speed computers to make profits from the small investors.
 
3. First thing, allow them to hook their computers into the exchange system so that they would know what other traders/investors are buying or selling. Don’t tell people this is unfair. Better still don’t tell anyone if possible. Don’t talk about it is the best.
 
4. Reduce the commission to as low as possible, even free if can, so the big funds can trade in very big volumes without cost or with minimum charges. Then they can play big big and pay more fees to the exchange while making a killing at the same time. The small investors are there to be cannon fodder and dispensable.
 
5. No lunch break so the computers can keep on running throughout the whole session. Having lunch break is very disruptive to the computers and troublesome for the operators. Then bluff the broking houses no lunch break increases trading volumes, continuous trading means more time to do business.
 
6. Create a system to allow the funds to borrow scrips just in case they oversold some positions and need to cover for a short while. So the funds can long or short to make money either way. The trick is to protect the big funds while they eat up the small traders.
 
7. Deregulate, have as little rules as possible. No rules better still. If got rules, pretend to have dementia. Some say one eye open one eye close.
 
8. If the funds violate trading rules like churning, buying and selling without change of ownership, cornering the market, creating a false market, just ignore. Pretend not to know, not to see. Pretend nothing is wrong. The big funds must be given the fullest support to generate volume and liquidity in the market and of course to make money.
 
9. Make the small traders pay higher commission rate so they cannot get out quickly without losing or cannot make profit unless the price has moved several bids. This will allow the big funds to hold them captive and take advantage of small changes to make money, like push up one bid, push down two bids.
 
10. There is no need to provide a fair and level playing field. Bring in the HFT to make profits by skimming the differences that the small investors cannot see and not chance to see. It is a given that the HFT is sure to make profits like the big funds. No need to care where or who pay for their profits. Zero sum game? Sure.
 
These ten simple steps will definitely run a stock exchange to the ground in double quick time. All the small traders will be scooped up and hung to dry without knowing what has happened. And when there are no more small traders to slaughter, move on.

A simple matter of defence

The issue of women serving NS is gaining currency but has been put down by Eng Hen, quoting Finland and Switzerland as role models. They don’t conscript women, so we can safely say we don’t need it too. Logical reasoning. While women should not be called up as NSwomen, they can still perform some roles in defence as volunteers. And so too can first generation PRs.
 
Everytime someone brings this topic up, suggesting that PRs be called up for military service, I cringed. Though there is the reason of equity to demand that PRs contribute to the country like NSmen instead of taking a free ride, getting PRs in uniform needs to be carefully considered. It is like the same silly reason that if one is a PR for some years, he better be a citizen. Again, the foolish and simple minded just do not know what citizenship meant and how valuable is a citizenship that it should not be given away so freely. There are many implications and serious consequences for granting citizenship so freely to foreigners. And there are serious security implications for allowing PRs to be in uniform.
 
The security of a nation cannot be simply entrusted to foreigners just because that person is a PR. Similarly, the security of immigration cannot be simply entrusted to foreigners as another job to be done and anyone willing can do.
 
A NSman or a soldier is trained to use firearms, be given firearms to handle, to be trusted to use the firearms wisely for the defence of the country and the citizens. A soldier is also trained and privy to military information and doctrines, they called them military secrets. A soldier is entrusted with all the military knowledge of the organizations and sensitive information that need to be guarded and not to be shared with people not supposed to know. A PR, if enlisted to serve in the military service, has be treated as one of us and be given access to military information and equipment etc etc. He has to be trusted to uphold all the things he is trained and expected to do.
 
Are PRs so easily trusted, or should they be entrusted with the nation’s security and defence? OK, with the presence of mercenaries in the form of Gurkhas, one can justify that it is ok. Why can’t we trust PRs when we can trust Gurkhas who are really foreigners? Putting aside the Gurkha issue that has historical precedents, what about the PRs? The PR issue gets more complicated with their origins as they can come from any corner of the globe and could be from countries that we have very special sensitivity to.
While everyone is in heat and cheering to go and make every PR a citizen or every PR a soldier, should this be thought out carefully on how far this should go? Can we trust Ah Meng as an NSman if he becomes a PR also?
 
Or are we now so desensitized, insensitive, that nothing matters anymore as long as we manage to haul another fish in the net. Or for political expediency, to appease the anger of the masses, why not? I still remember the early days when even tree planting was highly classified and everyone is carefully scrutinized for security reasons.
 
Maybe things can be more relax in a country that is also a hotel for the whole world.