After the riot, what’s next?

The riot last night is a reminder that Singapore has not done enough in integrating the foreigners to our way of life. This kind of thing, a traffic accident, may cause some distraught to the victims and family members, if they are Sinkies, and it would be looked upon as an accident just like accidents in NS. The affected would get angry but no rioting. To the foreigners, rioting is part of their DNA. No kidding, they just demonstrated how it works. It is just how they would react in their home countries.
 
So? Instead of putting all the blames wrongly, let’s sit back and see what we have not done right and what we could do better. One thing I think we have not done well is the integration process. We have not taught them enough of our way of life. We need to put in more effort in this area.
 
Let’s appoint a minister that has a passion and tender loving care for foreigners here to organize another integration campaign to make the foreigners become more like us. Then allocate another $10m for it. Maybe $10m is not enough since this was the sum allocated to the last campaign. Let’s be more generous since we have plenty of money in the kitty. How about $50m, will it work? $50m or $100m, it will be money well spent and no more rioting and no more burning of police cars and injuries to our men in blue.
It is something that needs to be done. Let’s do it. Let’s take the fight to the foreigners, with flowers and good food and a lot of tender loving kindness.
 
What do you think?

PAP, check!

We are now in the end game. The first check move has been made. How many moves will it take to a checkmate? I think it is a bit too late to read ‘How to play Chess by Karpov’ and to adopt new strategy and change tactics.
 
In the end game it is all forced moves. And the defender can only react while the attacker dictates the game and waiting for the final move…checkmate.

Rioting in Little India

This is real, not an exercise. 400 people rioted and 18 casualties, including 10 police officers and four from the Civil Defence. 5 vehicles were overturned – 3 from the Police and one SCDF ambulance and a motor cycle. 300 police officers were deployed from the Special Operations Command and the Gurkha Contingent. 27 Asians were arrested at press time.
 
The incident happened around 9.30pm last night when a private coach knocked down and killed a pedestrian. A press conference was held at 2am by Chee Hean, Shanmugam and Police Chief Teo Joo Hee.
The situation is now under control and things have calmed down for the moment. Police are still investigating and more arrests are coming. How this would lead to is anyone’s guess.
 
After 50 years, we finally have a communal riot right in the heart of Singapore. The timing was surreal. Channel 5 just concluded its screening of ‘There was a time’ with a lot of emphasis on the riots in the past. Boon Wan was worried about the foreigners forming enclaves in HDB estates. And the PAP just concluded a major exercise to refocus on what it done wrong and how to get things right again. Now we have this rude reminder that rioting can easily erupt with the slightest incident, a road accident.
The lessons of the past did not seem to be a lesson at all. No on take heed to the enclaves that are forming, and worse, by hundreds of thousands of foreigners congregating at a particular spot. Like George Yeo said, everything looks so perfect. Now the ugliness is raring its head. All the idealism on paper is now torn to pieces by the hard realities on the ground.
 
A lot of soul searching needs to take place after this. Many policies need to be reviewed immediately and the complacency of nothing will go wrong is stark. This is no joking matter. Back to the drawing board, and is anyone still thinking that 6.9m is a good idea? Is there any enclave forming in Little India and other parts of the island? Bitter fruit for thought, surely.
 
We were so lucky to get away with just a few casualties. Little India could be burning and the safety of those residents living in the area could be jeopardized. My God, it is happening. Did anyone see this coming?

Fandi - Welcome home

Ever since the madness about FTs extended to our little pond of sports, I have given up following what was happening to the national football team. All I heard was that the standard has gone from bad to worse despite the silly money being paid to all the foreign players and coaches. So much money wasted, so much time wasted and so many local talents wasted, all for some naïve bugger’s fetish craze for foreigners.

This morning the news reported that Fandi has been appointed as the coach for the Lions XII, taken over from Sundramoorthy. I can only presume that this is the national team. I can only say it is high time we put the screws in our heads back in their proper place and stop coveting other people’s fallen talents. We need to spend our money on our children, our very own talents. We need to nurture our talents, support them and give them pride to be Singaporeans and not be despised as not good enough by FTs. The devious and demeaning thinking and attitude of our silly leaders must be given a good shaking and get the stench of foreigners off them.

To be frank, what we have is a team of potatoes. And no matter who is brought in to coach them, they will play like potatoes, maybe a little better or a little worse. To turn potatoes into world champions cannot be done by simply hiring a foreign coach or a few ‘has been’ foreign footballers. We have to be realistic in our expectations. We must have our own pride. No, Fandi is not going to turn our potato footballers into world champions. And please, do not blame him for not being able to do that. No foreign coaches can do that either. It has been proven.

What Fandi can do is to do us proud as Singaporeans again, kicking the ball in the field and running around for Singapore by Singaporeans. We need to look inward and rely on ourselves, our own children, to bring us glory. We have done that in the past, all on our own, local coaches and local footballers. We must know out limitations and be content that we are regional champions. Forget about the World Cup. Oh, you want to spend our millions to buy the world’s best coach and the best players, go ahead. Make sure it is your own money.

We have had our flirtations with foreign coaches and foreign players and we know what we could get after throwing away good money that could go to our boys. We have Sundramoorthy who did just as good as the foreign coaches. Now we have Fandi back, our very own international football star. Let’s give him the fullest support and let him do us proud. But don’t have delusionary wet dreams that he must bring us the World Cup. Fandi would do his best with the potato footballers we have and they will gel around him as a national team. We can then cheer ‘Fandi’ instead of some queer names from dunno where. Shouting them would not mean anything to anyone of us.

Let’s hear Fandi’s name in everyone’s lips once again. Let our boys grow with him and for every Singaporean to feel really proud when the boys bring home a trophy, no matter how small. They are our own talents, not some FTs from God knows where.

The Secret of the Wonder Weapon That Israel Will Show Off to Obama

There was an article in Time World online in March 2013 by a Karl Vick on the Iron Dome that Israel showed to Obama during his visit early this year. In that article it revealed many myths and facts about the claims of missile systems like the Patriots which were much inferior to what the Israelis have produced. It was claimed that no previous missile system has performed anywhere near the Iron Dome. The kill rate is so impressive, a 84% success hit.

What does this mean? The myth or claims that the Patriots were so invincible as if it could destroy near to 100% of incoming missiles was simply rubbish. When 84% was claimed to be so impressive, something that the Israelis were so proud to show to Obama, what could be the hit rate of the Patriots? It must be quite a distance off the 84% mark. A 60% hit rate would be very generous for the Patriots, and it is more likely to be in the 50% or lesser, which is quite the norm.

What else did the article inadvertently disclosed that were otherwise top secret information? A battery of the Iron Dome costs $50m and comes with 20 missiles, a radar and a control and command system. Each missile thus costs something like $2.5m US dollars.

What were these missiles used to hit, or what did the Palestinians threw at the Israelis? According to the report, since 2005, 4,000 home made missiles were fired into Israel, each costing a few hundred dollars. And the Iron Dome missile uses a contact fuse, meaning it explodes on contact with the incoming missile, a direct hit. It also means one missile can hit one incoming missile.

Let’s work on the numbers. Assuming there is an attack and 500 missiles were launched by the Palestinians. With a theoretical hit rate of 84%, only 420 missiles could be brought down by 500 Iron Dome missiles and 80 will get through. And that is the best theoretical hit rate. In a real situation, the hit rate cannot be that high given all sorts of things that could go wrong.

Anyway, another number worth noting. It needs 1.2 missiles to bring down an enemy missile or $3m. Get the picture? It takes $3m to bring down a Palestinian missile that costs only a few hundred bucks. It sure is a very costly missile system. But wait a minute, this is the best, the Iron Dome. What would be the numbers if the Patriot System is used? Impressive isn’t it?

Now the myth of the invincibility of the Patriots and Iron Dome. The Palestinian missiles are cheap home made missiles that have no ECM or counter measures against a defensive missile. Those that are going to be launched by the Russians, Chinese, Iranians and North Koreans, come with counter measures that would greatly reduce the kill rates of the Patriots and Iron Dome. And there is the tactic of raining missiles which will saturate a very expensive defensive system that only has a few missiles to fire will mean that many will just go through undefended. In a small country and a small area to defend, the cost of these expensive American and Israeli systems may be manageable. When the country is big, to deploy them to cover every air space is simply unsustainable on the defence budget.

All the hypes about the prowess of the Patriots are just hogwash. The Israelis don’t even respect them and found them wanting and have to develop their better Iron Dome. The true kill rate must be quite disappointing but not published.