What can $4.3b buy?

 Last few days we were all marvelling at the new $4.3b wonders in Marina South. There were some comparisons as to what $4.3b could buy other than a 5km stretch of roads albeit underground and under the sea. This kind of thing is something daft Sinkies have heard of for the first time. It was touted as a great engineering feat, maybe can rival the pyramids. The tourists will soon be landing on this city to ogle at this 8^th Wonders of the World.

$4.3b can buy something like 43,000 of the latest buses for public transport, or 10,000 units of 5 rm HDB flats. This morning I was enlightened by a better idea on what $4.3b can buy. India has taken delivery of its latest aircraft carrier, an old Russian refit, at a cost of $2.9b. This ship can carry 30 fighter aircraft on board and a crew of 2,000. With a bit more we can have the whole complements of aircraft as well. And if we buy a few junk banks or junk stocks less, we could easily buy 3 or 4 or these aircraft carriers. Then we need not spend so much money stationing our fly boys and their families and aircraft overseas.

Someone in Mindef may want to do a bit of paper shuffling to evaluate the cost of buying a few of these aircraft carriers versus stationing our hardware and soldiers in the other half of the globe. The aircraft carrier group can be floating nearby in the South China Seas. Think it would be cheap and more effective, closer to home and can take up its combat duties immediately when needed, just a few minutes away.

At $2.9b a piece, it is cheap. Throwing $10b we can have 3 to form a carrier battle group that would dwarf those owned by any Asian powers. Wow, the most powerful military state in Asia, for $10b or two underground roads. This must be worth considering. It is a bargain.

DBS iBANKING Alert!!!

I received this email this morning which I suspect is FAKE. The email did not speak English. DBS may want to look at it immediately or explain why it is not speaking English.


DBS BANK SINGAPORE
To
Nov 16 at 6:01 PM

Dear valued customer,

DBS INTERNET BANKING SECURITY UPDATE.

Since March 2013, we introduced a new security system. This new system ensures that there can be no abuse on your DBS iBANKING. To ensure that your account is protected by our new security system, we recommend that you click on the link below and enter your information on check. Once you have done this, your account will be updated with the new security software.

CLICK HERE NOW

CAUTION: After filling out the information requested, you will be contacted/called by one of our staff to be able to complete the software installation.

DBS, The Safest Bank in Asia, your safety and protection is obliged. Thank you for your time and
cooperation.

Sincerely yours
Customer service department.
DBS, Asia’s Safest, Asia’s Best
Safest Bank in Asia 2009-2013, Global Finance
Bank of the year Asia 2012, The Banker
Best Managed Bank in Asia Pacific 2013,
The Asian Banker.

Grace Fu confirms that we are the best

At the Ong Teng Cheong Labour Leadership Institute’s graduation ceremony Grace Fu cautioned against some pitfalls that Singapore should avoid while running the country. She spoke about Sweden and Japan, two of the model countries in the developed world.

In the case of Sweden, despite having one of the best labour relations, remunerations and benefits for workers, there are problems of high cost of employment, loss of competitiveness of the companies and youth unemployment. Sweden thus has one of the highest ratios of youth unemployment in Europe. This in a way could see Sweden facing more problems in the years ahead. This is something that we should avoid if we want to remain competitive and continue to provide full employment to our people. In my view this is our greatest achievements, to be able to provide our workers with good jobs and also helped to provide more than a million jobs to foreigners.

In Japan’s case, it has serious flaws in its healthcare system mainly due to its stubbornness not to employ foreign nurses to take care of its ageing population. The quality of healthcare has dropped and there are long waiting queues in clinics and poor emergency health care. Must be worse than Singapore.

In short, we are the best in both labour management and creating jobs, and also in our healthcare services. Our healthcare system is so efficient that we don’t have long queues in clinics except only one or two wait for appointments to see specialists. But actually this is not true as well.  The waiting time can be cut to immediate if one has the money to pay. So it is wrong to complain of ridiculously long waiting time for medical appointments.

Now who is so stupid to send delegations to Japan and Sweden to learn from their flawed systems? These countries should be learning from us instead. We are the best. But one proviso, we are so good because we imported the best foreign talents to run and manage our systems. Without the foreign talents, we will have the same pitfalls as Sweden and Japan.

She should recommend to Hsien Loong to forbid sending delegations to these countries to learn their pitfalls. It is a waste of public funds, unless we are there to confirm that we are doing the right thing.

The Govt – We are doing our best

Why are there so many people so unhappy with the Govt? The anger and the diatribes are getting worse by the day. Don’t the people appreciate what the Govt has been doing? Look, we are the best run country in the region and probably in the whole world. The standard of living is getting better, income getting better, quality of life getting better, good environment, good schools, safe, and a clean govt. Why are the people still complaining?

High cost of living, high minister salary, high property prices, high car prices, high medical fees, high congestion on roads and in trains, high number of foreigners, discrimination by foreigners, etc etc etc…

But look, these are collateral damages mah. These problems come with the high GDP growth that the Govt had worked so hard for. Without the high GDP growth, life may not be so good. Those problems mentioned above are just part and parcel of the high quality of living the Govt is creating. You cannot have the cake and eat it too. This is the best that the Govt can do for the people.

You got a better way than this? There is no other way. This is the best that can be done given the constraints and limitations of our island and people. You want growth you must bear with these small irritations.  They are the signs of a growing and vibrant city. Be thankful.

What do you think?

A lesson from Saudi Arabia

Tons of rubbish not cleared as foreign workers fled the country. After years of lax immigration and an influx of foreign workers to take over the low skill and manual work that were shun by the locals, Saudi Arabia has started to close the door. The rise of nationalistic fervor and intolerance of the huge foreign presence have led to vigilante groups attacking foreigners, amnesty for the illegals that owned up, while many fled or went into hiding. Many manual jobs were left unattended and the cleaning of the cities went to a halt.

What is happening in Saudi Arabia is a glimpse of what can happen here and worse. The Saudi lost their low level jobs to foreigners, and when they left after the clampdown only the cleaning jobs, low skilled jobs and construction jobs were affected. We too have these jobs taken over by the foreigners. And we also have several industries that have been cornered by foreigners to the extent that they are the new foreigner core, replacing the Sinkie core. Should they leave for whatever reasons, the hole is going to be very big and very damaging to our industries.

The risk of foreigners controlling some of our vital industries is very high given the irresponsible and thoughtless policy of opening our legs without thinking of any protection. Other than the risk of their departure, even if they stayed, the risk of them doing monkey business at our expense is also very high. And there are also the social and health risks with the latter posing a danger that can strike without much warning. We have experienced several health epidemics recently and TB is on the rise. Our compact living and our public transportation will facilitate the spread of diseases much more quickly and very difficult to control.

Saudi Arabia is a lesson and a pre warning to be pro active, to anticipate what is coming. It is a free lesson that must be taken seriously. Can we see what is coming? I have my doubts. The money is good. The GDP is growing. Nothing else matters.

Can a country be dependent on foreigners for all its needs, including essentials, core businesses and security matters?