When something is full of holes

SMRT was reported to have its 5th breakdown yesterday. This is a very good example of a rotten apple, good to look on the outside but all worms inside. It is exactly like what George Yeo said, everything looks so perfect, but it isn’t real.

Desmond Kwek, like Boon Wan, has inherited a rotten apple. So has Chuan Jin and Gan Kim Yong. Don’t bet on it that it can be resolved overnight. And the people are impatient and may put the lasso on them when they did not create the problems in the first place. And those who created the problems drove into the sunset with their handsome rewards like a great ending in the movie.

This is like a fund manager, notably the one that ran a Ponzi Scheme in New York. When he had lost all the money, no matter what he did, not matter how he tried to patch the holes, there could be too many holes leaking and all the attempts will be futile. And some of the attempts could cause more hardship and be as good as daylight robbery, to fill an empty coffer.

Fund managers having an empty coffer cannot hide for too long. When the money is gone it is gone shot of robbing someone, like in Greece, robbing all the depositors to cover the holes.

When something is full of holes, it is full of holes. And many things are full of holes but looking perfect on the outside. When will the house of cards coming crashing down?

Kopi level - Green

I had a nightmare (stinky dream)

I had a dream. We built a great and prosperous city nation in 3 decades.
I had a dream. We lost our great city nation in half the time.
I had a dream. Our President, PM and cabinet ministers were all foreigners.
I had a dream. We were flying a different flag and singing a different anthem.
I had a dream. Our top civil servants, military officers and police officers were foreigners.
I had a dream. Our children were maids and taxi drivers.
I had a dream. The true blue Singaporeans were turned into the dalits of the land, the untouchable, stupid and uneducated.
I had a dream. We were not called Singaporeans anymore. We were not called Sinkies either. We were called Stinkies.
I had a dream. We lost our great city state and were reduced to stateless people.
I had a dream. The people running our country were foreigners we warmly invited to be our citizens are now our masters.

I woke up in fear. It was so real that I have to slap myself several times to know that it was just a dream. And I wonder, could the Singaporeans be so stupid to lose their country? Could my dream comes true? Could this really happen or is already happening?

Only 300 Sinkies against fare hike

Gilbert Goh’s protest gathering at the Hong Lim Park only drew a miserable 300 protesters. How to read this? One way is to declare that only 300 Sinkies are unhappy with the fare hike. The silent majority are supportive of the fare hike. Tiok boh?

It is so lucky that 300 turned up. If only a handful, then it could be safely concluded that no one is protesting and the fare hike must be reasonable and welcomed by the commuters.

When the first protest movement of more than 5000 people turned up at Hong Lim against the PWP, it was hardly reported in the main media. Yesterday’s protest was reported and with photos too. What is the sublime message? Go figure.

Do not underestimate the power of the media.

A news headline can be taken seriously

 

Take this headline in the Straits Times for discussion, “Briton and family leave for Perth amid threats”?

What would the readers think if they did not have the full story? Would they think that this City state is not safe for foreigners and foreigners are being threatened with serious harms and forced to move out for their own safety? If one is a foreigner in the US or UK or Australia, and planning to come here as a mercenary, to find paradise on earth, would one be having second thoughts?

Would the embassies be sending out travel warnings to their citizens to warn them of the risk if they come here? Or this is intentional, to tell the foreigner not to come here?

This is a very interesting and controversial headline indeed. Maybe a bit of sensationalism but with selected truth. It is true that Anton claimed that he was threatened. Anyone done any investigation that this is indeed true? What kind of threat, life threatening, serious, genuine, or some bloggers sputting nonsense in the net using Anonymous like the hackers?

Still a good headline to catch the attention of the readers.  Maybe I shall write an article with a headline, ‘Xenophobic Sinkie hordes threaten life of talented expat to run for his life from Paradise’? Would this be sensationalism, a bit of half truth?

Top Indian university students are brilliant

 

"Students in the top universities of India are brilliant. India is a world leader in many areas particularly in low-cost engineering. We have to learn a lot from India," said Peter YH Pang, assistant vice-president (university and global relations) NUS during his visit. Peter Pang was reciprocating the visit of the Indian academic team led by NIT-T director Sunderarajan in October last year to NUS, to explore the possibilities of academic collaboration.’…The Times of India

This kind of statement generally is applicable to all countries as their best students must be in their top universities, otherwise the country will not progress. The only exception is the USA where many rich families could buy places in top universities for their D grade scions.

Low cost engineering is definitely a niche in India. This has nothing to do with the low cost labour we have here that India is exporting. India is able to do a lot of engineering stuff cheaply, like cheap cars and equipment. This is the forte of India.

NUS is looking like embarking on an academic collaboration with Indian universities to introduce low cost engineering into our university syllabus and soon we will be opening up a new industry for low cost engineering stuff. Singapore could then have two Science Parks, one for leading edge science and engineering and another for low cost engineering. We can dove tail our economic growth strategy with two engines of growth.

This is like having the best of both worlds. And our industries that are relying on low cost labour will become even more competitive with low cost engineering products.

What a way to go. Come to think of it, it is like a first world city with a third world vitality. The future of Singapore is getting brighter.