11/14/2013

China wasted opportunity to improve relations with the Philippines?

The typhoon disaster in the Philippines offers an opportunity for China to win some goodwill from the Philippines Govt and its people by offering more aid. This is the view of some commentators that China could donate more to the victims instead of a paltry sum of US$200k. The Americans coughed out US$20m, the UK 20m pounds and the Japanese US$10m.
 

In my view, even if China would to pour US$100m into the Philippines, it would be money pouring into a bottomless shit hole. Tomorrow, after everything is over, the Philippines will be up to its monkey business and be a pain in the arse to the Chinese Govt again. And it would even attack Hongkong or Taiwanese fishing boats given a chance, arrest them, haul them to their islands and demand a ransom.
 

The Philippines Govt has placed its stake with the Americans and the Japanese and would not want to be on better terms with the Chinese. It is prepared to fight China with the Japanese and the Americans. China can forget about getting some goodwill from them.
 

Having said this, the human tragedy in the Philippines is a different issue and on humanity ground China may want to give a bit more. But don’t expect anything good coming from the Pinoys. If anything that can come from the Philippines it will be more provocations and more frustrations. To hope for anything positive is to be greatly disappointed and very painful when the Pinoys slam at China again.
 

Should China give anything more, it is like throwing some money to a beggar on the roadside and best to just walk away, don’t look back hoping for a smile or a gesture of thanks and gratefulness. The cards are stacked and nothing the Chinese Govt can do to change its relations with the Philippines.
 

Sometimes it is better to be less gracious than be stupid. Give only on humanitarian ground and don’t be an academic fool to expect something in return. The Pinoys have behaved like an irritating pest for too long and would not change.

ANZ Bank doing the right and proper thing

I read about the case that Transitioning Org is taking up with MOM for discrimination and unfair dismissal. Knowing that it is a foreign bank and having preference to hire its own citizens, this is only to be expected. Foreigners are only there to fill up gaps and short term engagements when there is a temporary need by the bank. Every specie or govt will have its first priority to take care of its own citizens. Only daft govt will take care of foreigners first and its citizens last, and deserves to be branded as traitors.
 

The only misgiving I have on this case is that it happened in our own soil. If this happened in Australia or NZ, it is PERFECTLY NORMAL. Every country is doing the same thing. Oops, my apologies, not every country. There is exception. What else can a foreigner expect? And foreigners in these countries knew and accepted this fact gracefully. Nothing to quibble about. But NOT IN SINGAPORE. You cannot have a foreign company doing business here, doing business with our citizens, taking advantage of our system, and to discriminate against our citizens. Any citizen that supports such a practice is a traitor or should be a resident of IMH.
 

The Sinkie that was unfairly dismissed is one of our top talents, a masters degree from SMU, GPA of 3.8/4, and has professional qualifications like PMP, Six Sigma and CISA. I bet even the CEO of the ANZ Bank did not have this kind of qualifications and maybe no one in the bank is as qualified as him. And they only offered him 2 year contract of employment in mid level management!
 

Short term contract employment is a bane in this expensive city. Every citizen has a very expensive mortgage to service and a family to feed and many commitments. Having to change job every two years with no certainty of landing another job is very stressful and unacceptable especially for a highly qualified Sinkie.
 

The govt must have clear policies with regards to employment of foreigners and citizens in this island for itself and foreign companies here. And the govt must set a good example that all ministries, stats boards and GLCs must practice the same employment policies as the ANZ Bank. Priority of employment goes to Sinkies and foreigners should be given short term contracts of employment and when a suitable Sinkie is available, maybe even slightly less qualified, the job shall go to the Sinkie. Forget about the stupid FCF, to give Sinkie a fair chance. The foreigners here don’t even give the Sinkies a fair chance.
 

And don’t disguise the employment status by giving the foreigner a pink IC and remove him from the statistics of foreigners. This is deception and the daft Sinkies know the dirty trick. Singapore must be for Singaporeans. All govt and GLCs must adopt the same employment practice as the ANZ Bank, but in favour of Sinkies and not foreigners. Doing the opposite is selling out the people.

.Chronology of the Hacking Incident

The Messiah started his hacking adventure much earlier with attacks in City Harvest and Sun Ho’s websites. The hacking activities intensified after The Messiah and his group, Anonymous Collective declared war on the Singapore Govt. Below are some of the dates and events that took place. 

28 Oct – AMK Town Council/PCF hacked
31 Oct – Video declaring war on the Singapore Govt
1 Nov – ST Online hacked with The Messiah accusing a reporter for misleading the people in her article, changing attack on Singapore Govt to attack on Singapore.
2 Nov – Many govt sites were down on ‘maintenance’.
4 Nov – The Messiah, James Raj, was arrested in KL, Malaysia.
6 Nov – Hsien Loong spoke that all efforts would be taken to track down The Messiah.
8 Nov – The PMO office and Istana sites were hacked and police reports made.
12 Nov – The Messiah and several others claimed to be members of Anonymous were charged in court.
26 Nov – Second hearing in court.
 

From the above chronology of events it is clear that after 4 Nov, The Messiah and the few arrested could not be involved in further hacking activities. The 8 Nov hacking into the PMO and Istana sites must be down by another group still out there. That is the only logical deduction, which also means that the hacking can start again.

11/13/2013

Ragtag cyber army behind bars

With The Messiah likely to be put away to safety and a few ragtag bloggers and vandals also in custody, it looks like this episode of Anonymous hackers is over. The slight concern is that The Messiah had claimed that ‘he was part of the international network of hackers and actitivists called Anonymous.’ If this claim is true, there is a high probability that his comrades in overseas would want to give him some support and the game is not over.
 

In view of this, the govt’s cyber warrior would still have to be on duty round the clock for a while until this claim by The Messiah is proven to be null and void.
Is The Messiah bluffing? Is there an Anonymous Collective out there with its worldwide supporting cast of hackers waiting to hack into our govt’s websites again? We will have to wait to see what is real.
 

Game over or advance to Level 2?

Malaysia has highest English Language proficiency in the entire region

‘(6 Nov) – Malaysia has the highest English language proficiency level in the entire Asian region, according to a latest research by Swiss-based international education company EF Education First (EF).’
 

The above is quoted from an article in TRE. OK, you can start laughing. We all know that it is a joke right? Now who are we laughing at, Sin City or Malaysia or the Swiss based international company EF Education First. Whoever you are laughing at, it is good to see such highly claimed agency making such a farcical report.
 

With no disrespect, we know that the education system in Malaysia is Bahasa based and Sinkie education is English based. And Malaysia is more proficient in the English Language than Sin? Hehehehheh. OK OK, give them the benefit of the doubt that they are far away. It is OK, we understand. Angmoh tua kee, must be right. We may invite this organization and all its foreign talents here to set up office for such a brilliant find. Issue them with EP immediately, no need to question their talents that are so remarkable.
 

Or we won’t as they have disputed our proficiency in the English Language. They are insulting us whoa!

PS. Maybe it is the way how some of us speak English that are found wanting.