This is reported in the Asian Review on 7 Feb 14. Assistant Secretary
of State Daniel Russel was reported to have told a congressional
committee, ‘China's provocative actions, including the declaration of a
sweeping offshore air defense identification zone, "have raised tensions
in the region and concerns about China's objectives in both the South
China and the East China Seas,".
And while the Americans have been waving the flag of peace and
encouraging the ‘neighboring countries to seek diplomatic solutions to
their maritime disputes, America is preparing for what-if scenarios’.
The Americans are not only ignoring all the provocative steps taken by
the Abe Administration, instead they are accusing the Chinese of
provocations. And a defensive act like the declaration of an ADIZ which
is the right of all countries to guard their airspace against foreign
intrusions, the Americans have several of these, it was falsely claimed
by the Americans as a provocation.
And added to this, the Americans are beefing up their military presence
with more and better weapons of wars in the region. The ‘U.S. Navy will
swap three ships stationed in Japan with newer, better-equipped ones to
boost American deterrence in the face of China's continued military
buildup’. The Americans don’t come for peace. The American pivot is not
about peace.
With the continuous provocation by the Japanese govt and the build up of
more American military hardware in Japan, Japan is likely to be the
next stage for an all out war between China and the Japanese/Americans.
Americans are not pulling back the leash on the Japanese but instead are
stoking the fire of Japanese militarism.
The Americans have forgotten how the sneaky Japanese bombed Pearl
Harbour and how American pilots bombing Japan could seek the protection
of China when they crashed landed in Chinese territories after their
bombing missions. The Chinese who were their friends, who had never
attacked or invaded America, are now the new enemies while the Japanese
that killed several thousand unprepared Americans in Pearl Harbour and
in the Pacific Islands are now the American allies to fight China.
While the Americans have forgotten, the Japanese have not. They are
still very bitter over the bombing of Tokyo and the two Atomic bombs in
Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Americans would one day live to regret
their foolishness to encourage the remilitarisation of Japan that could
avenge the American bombings of their country and the death of a few
hundred thousand Japanese soldiers and civilians.
The glory of the sinking of the American Fleet at Pearl Harbour would
one day be commemorated as the greatest triumph of the Japanese Empire
against the Americans and this could only be topped by another bigger
attack in American soil. Roosevelt was furious of the attack on Pearl
Harbour and wanted revenge at all cost. Would the Americans be so dull
to think that the martial spirit of the Japanese and their pride in
Imperial Japan would forget the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki? The extreme rights of the Abe Administration are reviving
Japanese nationalism and militarism with the stories of American attacks
and brutality against Japan as their central theme.
Good luck America, for sleeping with the devil. The Chinese have no
blood debt to settle with the Americans. Not sure about the Japanese.
2/21/2014
Singapore’s soaring land prices ‘suicidal’ for developers
This is the title of a Bloomberg report on 20 Feb 14. ‘Billionaire
developer Kwek Leng Beng said last year that skyrocketing prices and
restrictive rules make buying residential land in Singapore ‘suicidal’.
That hasn’t stopped international developers from rushing in.’
Now we know what is the major factor that is causing unusually high property prices. But it is ok, no problem, international developers are still rushing in to buy. This means that there are still a lot of profits to be made.
While the developers have a billionaire to speak for them on high land prices, is there anyone speaking for the home buyers when the home prices are skyrocketing to the stratosphere? Anyone bothers and care? Or is that a good thing, higher and higher property prices for the buyers, and they can sit on their profits after every purchase?
What we know is that property prices have shot up 2 or 3 times, (not 2 or 3% or 20 or 30%) over the last ten years. Why no one cries wolf? And now that the prices are holding steady or slipping by 1% only in a certain sector while the rest are still going up, and developers are crying foul, that prices are not going up fast enough?
What do you think? Are high property prices suicidal for the genuine home buyers?
Now we know what is the major factor that is causing unusually high property prices. But it is ok, no problem, international developers are still rushing in to buy. This means that there are still a lot of profits to be made.
While the developers have a billionaire to speak for them on high land prices, is there anyone speaking for the home buyers when the home prices are skyrocketing to the stratosphere? Anyone bothers and care? Or is that a good thing, higher and higher property prices for the buyers, and they can sit on their profits after every purchase?
What we know is that property prices have shot up 2 or 3 times, (not 2 or 3% or 20 or 30%) over the last ten years. Why no one cries wolf? And now that the prices are holding steady or slipping by 1% only in a certain sector while the rest are still going up, and developers are crying foul, that prices are not going up fast enough?
What do you think? Are high property prices suicidal for the genuine home buyers?
AHPETC – A battle for Transparency and Impropriety
Ng Eng Hen is furious with the poor verdict of Transparency
International on how his ministry spent money on the purchase of
weapons. TI ranked Singapore together with Afghanistan and Iraq, in
another word, our integrity in procurement is at the same level at these
3rd World countries, or at least in the Defence Ministry. The
implications of such a rating are very serious, and many times more
serious than the audit report of AHPETC.
Khaw Boon Wan had written a letter to Tharman to instruct the Auditor General to conduct an audit on AHPETC’s account quoting a Disclaimer of Opinion from its auditor, implying serious issues in the town council’s financial and accounting system. The Auditor General will now have to comb through AHPETC’s books to verify on all the misgivings and non compliance of Town Council’s regulations.
What we are seeing is the PAP wanting to set a very high standard of accountability and transparency for all town councils. And all town councils will be judged using the same standard of accountability, nothing less. On the other hand many critics are crying foul, that this is another political scam of the PAP to run down its political enemies, probably getting them disqualified from the next GE or, if serious enough, could see some of them behind bars. If this is indeed a political ploy, one can expect the PAP to extract the full mileage possible with the timing of the findings, the penalties and punishment, to ensure the WP suffers untold damage that it would become a lame duck when the GE is called.
Putting this expected and understandable perception of PAP critics aside, the involvement of the Auditor General to audit a town council’s account would set a series of precedents that would then be applicable to all the other town councils. To be consistent and be seen as fair and impartial, and standing on moral high grounds, the Auditor General would also have to conduct the same investigations on all town councils with the same ratings from their auditors or worse, like Adverse Opinion in auditing terms. The opposition parties and netizen investigative journalists in social media must be busy scouring the auditor’s reports for the same gradings to be tabled to Boon Wan and the Auditor General. And should there be such findings, the PAP would now be compelled, or at least Boon Wan would be duty bound to make similar requests to Tharman for the Auditor General’s audit.
Would this high standard of transparency and accountability also be applicable to similar or comparable institutions like the People’s Association? In a Breaking News TRE editorial, it posted an article stating that the auditors had given the PA several years of Adverse Opinions that were technically worse than the Disclaimer of Opinion in the AHPETC’s audit. Why was there no calls for the Auditor General to investigate? All eyes will now be focussed on Boon Wan to do the necessary to PA. Would he or would he not request Tharman to do the same?
With the issue of transparency and accountability high in everyone’s agenda, how far would these issues be pushed to vindicate Singapore’s standing as one of the top nations in incorruptibility? Would there be any other town council fitting the bill for an Auditor General’s audit? Would PA be put under the microscope as well?
For Boon Wan to take such a drastic action, he must be very sure that his own house is in order, ie all the town councils’ audit were beyond reproach. Like the bible said, ‘Let the one who has not sinned be the first to cast the stone....’ We have several embarrassing episodes involving the WP and the PAP when the ball curved back to slam the attackers. Retribution came fast and swift at times. How would this incident turn out and who would have the last laugh?
Kopi level - Green
Khaw Boon Wan had written a letter to Tharman to instruct the Auditor General to conduct an audit on AHPETC’s account quoting a Disclaimer of Opinion from its auditor, implying serious issues in the town council’s financial and accounting system. The Auditor General will now have to comb through AHPETC’s books to verify on all the misgivings and non compliance of Town Council’s regulations.
What we are seeing is the PAP wanting to set a very high standard of accountability and transparency for all town councils. And all town councils will be judged using the same standard of accountability, nothing less. On the other hand many critics are crying foul, that this is another political scam of the PAP to run down its political enemies, probably getting them disqualified from the next GE or, if serious enough, could see some of them behind bars. If this is indeed a political ploy, one can expect the PAP to extract the full mileage possible with the timing of the findings, the penalties and punishment, to ensure the WP suffers untold damage that it would become a lame duck when the GE is called.
Putting this expected and understandable perception of PAP critics aside, the involvement of the Auditor General to audit a town council’s account would set a series of precedents that would then be applicable to all the other town councils. To be consistent and be seen as fair and impartial, and standing on moral high grounds, the Auditor General would also have to conduct the same investigations on all town councils with the same ratings from their auditors or worse, like Adverse Opinion in auditing terms. The opposition parties and netizen investigative journalists in social media must be busy scouring the auditor’s reports for the same gradings to be tabled to Boon Wan and the Auditor General. And should there be such findings, the PAP would now be compelled, or at least Boon Wan would be duty bound to make similar requests to Tharman for the Auditor General’s audit.
Would this high standard of transparency and accountability also be applicable to similar or comparable institutions like the People’s Association? In a Breaking News TRE editorial, it posted an article stating that the auditors had given the PA several years of Adverse Opinions that were technically worse than the Disclaimer of Opinion in the AHPETC’s audit. Why was there no calls for the Auditor General to investigate? All eyes will now be focussed on Boon Wan to do the necessary to PA. Would he or would he not request Tharman to do the same?
With the issue of transparency and accountability high in everyone’s agenda, how far would these issues be pushed to vindicate Singapore’s standing as one of the top nations in incorruptibility? Would there be any other town council fitting the bill for an Auditor General’s audit? Would PA be put under the microscope as well?
For Boon Wan to take such a drastic action, he must be very sure that his own house is in order, ie all the town councils’ audit were beyond reproach. Like the bible said, ‘Let the one who has not sinned be the first to cast the stone....’ We have several embarrassing episodes involving the WP and the PAP when the ball curved back to slam the attackers. Retribution came fast and swift at times. How would this incident turn out and who would have the last laugh?
Kopi level - Green
2/20/2014
COI for Little India Riot – Respect
My admiration for the Chairman of the COI for the Little India Riot,
Pannir Selvam. Senior State Counsel David Khoo pointed to his attention
of an article in the ST on an interview with the bus driver involved in
the accident that started the rioting. Pannir Selvam took the
opportunity to caution the public and other civil society groups not to
act too clever and interfere with the COI with their clever suggestions.
He said, and I quote:
‘This is all highly improper and we don’t need their advice. If anybody thinks that you, your witness or anybody else can fool us, then you’ll be fooling yourselves because we have had enough experience and we know what we are doing. We don’t need your guidance or advice or anything like that.’
This is not only a statement of wisdom but of fact and conviction. Many of the boards of inquiry formed comprised of eminent and experienced people with the right expertise to do a proper job. Unless of course the people appointed to such boards are wishy washy type that do not know what they are doing or are incompetent. This is rarely the case. Then they would need the advice of any Tom Dick and Harry to help them with suggestions that they came up with after a few minutes in the kopitiams.
Calling for public contributions, suggestions, public consultation papers, presumes that the public knows better. How can this be when the best super talents that are paid millions are the professionals while the public are mostly ignoramus or at best with a little knowledge in the subject? The calling of suggestions from the public inadvertently can be an admission of incompetence or inadequacy, or even a farce.
There are things that the public can be invited to express their views, like whether we want 6.9m population as there is no right or wrong in such a position but a matter of preference. It is like a life style choice that is subjective in nature. In professional and technical areas when technical expertise is involved and needed, how much can the lay public contribute in things they don’t know much about? In this riot case, the public can at best offer eye witness evidence for the COI to make an educated assessment of what actually happened.
I must say respect to the Chairman of the COI for putting his foot down on the noises coming from the public. It is not wrong to claim they know best as they really are the best. Now who else is asking for the layman uncles and aunties for advice and suggestions on technical matters? Are they saying that the uncles and aunties know more and better than them?
‘This is all highly improper and we don’t need their advice. If anybody thinks that you, your witness or anybody else can fool us, then you’ll be fooling yourselves because we have had enough experience and we know what we are doing. We don’t need your guidance or advice or anything like that.’
This is not only a statement of wisdom but of fact and conviction. Many of the boards of inquiry formed comprised of eminent and experienced people with the right expertise to do a proper job. Unless of course the people appointed to such boards are wishy washy type that do not know what they are doing or are incompetent. This is rarely the case. Then they would need the advice of any Tom Dick and Harry to help them with suggestions that they came up with after a few minutes in the kopitiams.
Calling for public contributions, suggestions, public consultation papers, presumes that the public knows better. How can this be when the best super talents that are paid millions are the professionals while the public are mostly ignoramus or at best with a little knowledge in the subject? The calling of suggestions from the public inadvertently can be an admission of incompetence or inadequacy, or even a farce.
There are things that the public can be invited to express their views, like whether we want 6.9m population as there is no right or wrong in such a position but a matter of preference. It is like a life style choice that is subjective in nature. In professional and technical areas when technical expertise is involved and needed, how much can the lay public contribute in things they don’t know much about? In this riot case, the public can at best offer eye witness evidence for the COI to make an educated assessment of what actually happened.
I must say respect to the Chairman of the COI for putting his foot down on the noises coming from the public. It is not wrong to claim they know best as they really are the best. Now who else is asking for the layman uncles and aunties for advice and suggestions on technical matters? Are they saying that the uncles and aunties know more and better than them?
Losers, go back to your own country
Below is a short extract from a post in My Real Singapore by a Joseph Tan.
‘Dear The Real Singapore,
Just wanted to share my experience on Saturday with a FT couple at Parkway Parade.
I brought my wife and 2 boys to Parkway Parade for dinner and after dinner we were heading to the carpark located on the 5th level.
As we walked pass giant towards the escalator, a lady (Indian national) abruptly turn and nearly bang into my and my boy without checking looking.
I turned to her and said:"excused me" and continue towards the escalator.
She turned and shouted at us "what excuse me?"
Before I could react, her partner came charging to towards me and my son and demanded why I shouted at her wife.
I told him, I only said " excuse me" as she nearly bang into me and my son.
He demanded that I should talk to a lady nicely and continue charging towards us with his chest pump up.
I replied: "Ok, how I shout at you and what you going to do about it?"
He replied:"Loser, go back your own country."’
I agree with the foreigners that Sinkie losers should go back to where they come from if they allowed foreigners to kick them in broad daylight. If you cannot defend your right in your own country and allowed foreigners to bully you, then you don’t deserve to be here. You are a real loser indeed.
Or maybe these foreigners have been briefed that Sinkies are losers and they have to come here to help the losers. So in their mind all Sinkies are losers and kicking them is ok. The best part is that the said foreigner could be a fake and he was telling the truth, that even as a fake the Sinkies don’t even know and can’t tell the difference.
Sad to say, Sinkies are mostly losers. They got scolded, insulted, beaten by foreigners and got replaced by fake and shit foreigners who claimed to be talents in good jobs, and lan lan become taxi drivers to be ‘praised’ by hypocrites that it is a good job as they can be their own boss, but quietly wallowing in self pity.
What are you going to do about it, losers? You have lost your jobs and your country to foreigners and you don’t even know it. And foreigners are so bold to call you losers and to go to where you came from? What can I say? How many of the losers were at Hong Lim Park when Gilbert Goh held his protest rallies?
‘Dear The Real Singapore,
Just wanted to share my experience on Saturday with a FT couple at Parkway Parade.
I brought my wife and 2 boys to Parkway Parade for dinner and after dinner we were heading to the carpark located on the 5th level.
As we walked pass giant towards the escalator, a lady (Indian national) abruptly turn and nearly bang into my and my boy without checking looking.
I turned to her and said:"excused me" and continue towards the escalator.
She turned and shouted at us "what excuse me?"
Before I could react, her partner came charging to towards me and my son and demanded why I shouted at her wife.
I told him, I only said " excuse me" as she nearly bang into me and my son.
He demanded that I should talk to a lady nicely and continue charging towards us with his chest pump up.
I replied: "Ok, how I shout at you and what you going to do about it?"
He replied:"Loser, go back your own country."’
I agree with the foreigners that Sinkie losers should go back to where they come from if they allowed foreigners to kick them in broad daylight. If you cannot defend your right in your own country and allowed foreigners to bully you, then you don’t deserve to be here. You are a real loser indeed.
Or maybe these foreigners have been briefed that Sinkies are losers and they have to come here to help the losers. So in their mind all Sinkies are losers and kicking them is ok. The best part is that the said foreigner could be a fake and he was telling the truth, that even as a fake the Sinkies don’t even know and can’t tell the difference.
Sad to say, Sinkies are mostly losers. They got scolded, insulted, beaten by foreigners and got replaced by fake and shit foreigners who claimed to be talents in good jobs, and lan lan become taxi drivers to be ‘praised’ by hypocrites that it is a good job as they can be their own boss, but quietly wallowing in self pity.
What are you going to do about it, losers? You have lost your jobs and your country to foreigners and you don’t even know it. And foreigners are so bold to call you losers and to go to where you came from? What can I say? How many of the losers were at Hong Lim Park when Gilbert Goh held his protest rallies?
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