Why pay so much to World Bank

‘The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance is seeking Parliament’s approval to increase Singapore’s membership subscription limit to the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (or IBRD) from the current US$40 million to US$672 million….
 
Our current subscription limit is US$40 million. This limit has not changed since 1966, when we were much smaller and poorer. Considering our economy has grown a lot since then, our current subscription appears relatively low. We have one of the lowest subscriptions among the 188 member countries in the World Bank.
 
Having said that, the quantum of the proposed increase in our subscription limit is not small. It is going up from US$40 million to US$672 million – an increase of almost 17 times. Can I ask the DPM how the Government arrived at this quantum?’ Gerald Giam’s speech in Parliament
 
Contribution to the World Bank to do good is a good thing. What is US$672m when we have billions in our reserve? We are giving away $210m as tuition grant to foreign students studying in Singapore and the total amount, including all things, could be double or more of this sum annually. Another US$672m is ‘sup sup sway’. When there is so much money around, just spend lah.
 
Gerald Giam is asking the DPM how this sum is derived? Does it matter? I can give one hundred and one explanations but what does it mean? Nothing. What is enough, not enough or too much is relative. It is like eating in a hawker centre, food court or restaurant kind of argument.
 
What matters is how is this sum going to be funded? From taxes, ERPs, SWF’s revenue, from CPF, the casinos or where? The money must come from somewhere and someone has to pay for it. Even though it is nothing compares to the billions to be spent on the pending purchase of F35 aircraft, it is still money that could be put to better use. We spent $4.3b for a 5km expressway! So US$672m is definitely very affordable to give away.
 
Spending OPM is easy, but don’t cause hardship to the people as this is an annual commitment and the same money can do a lot of good to the citizens. When the govt wants to be generous, let’s be generous with the citizens first, can?
 
It is US$672m man, not a small sum to the ordinary people. To those spending OPM as a habit, it is just a number and would not affect their pockets. But it will eventually affect the taxpayers and the citizens. The money must cough out from somewhere.
 
The peranakans would like so say, ‘yeow siew’ for spending such a big sum of money when it could make many citizens happy.

Kopi level - Green

Tuition grant, how much did we give away?

Png Eng Huat asked in Parliament and the MOE gave its reply. $210 m were given to international students as tuition grant annually. Presumably or assumingly this is the average sum, so in 10 years it will be $2.1b and 20 years it will be $4.2 b.
 
There are several questions to this figure. Is it just for tuition grants and excludes living allowance and others, or is this the total package given away? Also, how much was given to PRs? PRs are not citizens mind you. What is the amount, can any tell?
 
As for the number of students receiving the grant in polys, it was 1,700 for year 2011 which is 6% of the cohort, lesser than the 9% in year 2010. Similarly 2,200 grants were given to university students in 2011, or 13% of the cohort instead of 18% in 2010. The combined number is 3,900 for 2011 and much less than in 2010. All the data do not include PRs. And the data are only for two years, 2010 and 2011.
 
How many of our own children, the children of citizens, were deprived of a place that rightly belonged to them but went to foreigners and PRs? Seriously, what is the objective of throwing so much money to foreigners and not giving uni and poly places to our children? I can understand that it is good to do it as a charitable act to help other countries. The question is how far should this go and how much should we compromise or deprive our children in so doing?
 
I don’t thing there is another country in the world that gave away so much to foreigners and hurting the children of citizens so much in doing so. What is the return for all these money and places for foreigners?
 
This is not your grandfather’s country you know. The money does not belong to your grandfather too.

No sane person can breach our checkpoint security

With the tight security checks at our checkpoints, particularly at Woodlands and Tuas, it is insane for anyone to think of slipping through the checks and getting away. It could be done by foot as proven by a Took. But to get across in a vehicle is unimaginable.
 
Well, a Malaysian woman motorist did just that and was lost in our concrete jungle for 3 days. Our network of cameras also failed to locate her despite an island wide alert. She was only caught when she did another tailgating job into the Ministry of Foreign Affair, intentionally I supposed, to prove something. Why she did that is still puzzling. It seems that she was trying to prove to the security officers that she could do what she like and there is no way for them to trace her unless she offered herself, like driving into the MFA compound voluntarily.
 
The police should interrogate her intensively and learn a few tricks from her. Never mind if she is insane. The divide between a genius and an insane is only a thin line, so they said. This may be the Achilles heel of our security system, that only an insane person can breach it in an insane way. If the woman is sane, there is no way for her to get through and run free in this tiny island when there was no attempt for her to change cars, number plate or camouflage the car.
 
She simply drove the same car everywhere she wanted. Cool man. Insanity is our weakness.

Sinkies the modern day Sick man of Asia

Many Sinkies are still lull to believe that the future is so rosy and will be so for a long time to come. For the super rich, sure, if things get bad, pack up and go to the new homes they bought all over the world. They have the least to worry what would happen to Sin City tomorrow, even if it goes to dustbin. Their preoccupation is to make hay while the sun is still shining, grab as much as they can while they still can.

For the rest of the Sinkies, they are really sick. They got replaced by foreigners in their jobs, with many who came with fake qualifications. And the sick Sinkies just accept it as normal, nothing wrong with that, can’t do anything about it.

And those who are still working could be working for fakes who had qualifications and experience that were lower or far inferior to them, or all fakes. And the sick Sinkies got to call them boss, listen to their rubbish and got screwed by them as they liked to show who is boss.

And in hospitals, they could be treated by fakes and paying top dollars for it and paying top salaries to the fakes. They are lucky if nothing goes wrong, if not their lives could be at stake or the condition get worse.

And the NSmen are there to protect these fakes in the country who are taking their jobs, their parent’s jobs and making their parents jobless and hoping that their NSmen children could give them some pocket money. How many of them are here when there are at least 500k in the PME category? How many, 10%, 30% or 50% or more?

Yes, many Sinkies are now the new Sick man of Asia, bullied by the fakes and have to serve the fakes and without knowing it or cannot do anything about it. And the foreigners despised the Sinkies, feeling very free to insult and beat up Sinkies, just like old Shanghai where the foreigners are more equal than the locals.

There are many equivalents of foreign concessions, China concession, Indian concession, Pinoy concession, Thais and Pinoy concessions. There are even business parks and condominiums practically filled by foreigners.

Maybe I am wrong, all the foreign PMEs are the real McCoys. The Sick Sinkies are really no good. This may be the reasons why so few were caught with fake certificates. And it is a total waste of money to pay an Indian company to check on their qualifications when all of them are real, or very few are fakes. Imagine getting paid $50k or $60k just to submit reports that may prove all negatives.

Sinkies should just bugger off to other countries to find a job and let the real foreign PMEs to replace them at home. History has come full circle. The poor parents of Sinkies came from the Sick Man of Asia in the 19th and 20th centuries to look for work. Today, the Sinkies are themselves the new Sick Man of Asia and scurrying back to China and other countries to look for work. Their parents could not find decent jobs in their country China. Today, Sinkies cannot find decent jobs in their country, Sin City. Their parents were replaced by foreigners who invaded their country by force. Today’s Sinkies are replaced by foreigners who invaded their island by invitation.

Kopi level - Green

Fare Hike Protest 5pm 25 Jan Sat at Hong Lim

Gilbert is organising another protest at Hong Lim Park this Sat on the public transport fare hike.

Just wondering how many Sinkies would bother to attend despite kpkb about the hike everyday. If only 500 turn out then it will be reported as only 500 are unhappy with the fare hike. The rest, the majority of the Sinkies support the fare hike and find the increase very reasonable and affordable.

Tiok boh?