Four Horsemen – The Age of Decadence

A blogger in TRE recommended the Four Horsemen as a good documentary to watch. The producer Ross Ashcroft gave an analysis on the rise of civilisation and the falls of empires. It is the last stage in the decline of empires, the Age of Decadence, particularly in the USA that is most relevant to what is happening here. Why not when we are just a small replica of the American system, borrowing and copying everything American to the T? And if America is failing, the symptoms appearing there will also be here in a graduated scale.

The rise of an empire coincidentally dealt with a familiar subject called pioneers. It all began with the pioneers digging the road and paving the way for a brighter future for those that came after them. It then went through the ages of conquest, commerce, affluence, intellectual pursuit and, just before it came to an end, the age of decadence described as bread and circus.

The prominent features of the onset of decadence are as follows:

1. An undisciplined over size military that is over extending itself. This is self explanatory in what we are doing today and how cocky we have become.
2. Conspicuous display of wealth. We have seen many Ferraris and Lamborghinis and French mansions around us like the Antons and the Michaels.
3. Disparity in wealth or a big income gap. No need to elaborate when the wealth of the nation concentrates in the hands of a few families and the high incomes of top people in number of times over the low level workers are there for all to see. The people benefiting from it will tell the daft workers it is the hard truth, can’t be helped.
4. A bloated govt or over size govt. No need to explain on this, big in numbers and big in salary.
5. An obsession with sex. Funny that we have so many court cases about sex recently.
6. Debasement of currency. We used to be able to buy a semi D for $40k but now it needs $3m to $4m to get one. We could get a 5 rm HDB flat for less than $30k but we need $500k or more to get one today. The value of our money has gone bananas.

There are many other features of a decadent state like apathy, amoralism, no one cares a damn. Think Hong Lim Park when several very important issues were raised but hardly anyone bothered to attend. And housing prices kept spiralling and people said it is good. Ashcroft described it as the squandering of a generation of its inheritance. I wonder what he meant and how relevant it is in the City of Sin. One interesting comment by Ashcroft that I feel very strange and astonishing, is the glorifications of chefs in the society. Are we also glorifying our chefs too?

The Americans got rid of the Glass Steagall Act to allow the banks to do as they liked, creating money and gambling in a way that put the casinos to shame. And this is facilitated by the call for deregulations and they did, leading to the financial disaster of 2008 and the massive bailout of the banks that were too big to fall to the tune of U$8.5 trillion. This was several times the amount used to reconstruct Europe after WW2.

The decadence continues unabated after the bailout and the banking and finance bandits dug in even deeper and waiting for the big bang to come. The banks continue to gamble and cheat their clients while the stock exchange was designed for the computer traders to cheat the innocent and hapless investors. Crimes of such nature that are blatantly flouted like in a state of lawlessness by the bankers and the crooks in the financial system without anyone thinking that they were wrong, crimes sanctioned by the states and with the regulators assisting the criminals to become more efficient and bold in the plundering. They don’t even know that these acts were criminal, they did not want to know.

Ashcroft said, ‘When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men living together in society, they create for themselves in the course of time a legal system that authorises it and a moral code that glorifies it’.

How far or how deep are we in this state of decadence? All the features of a state of decadence described by Ashcroft are apparent and here with us.

What is next after the state of decadence?

Here is the link to the Four Horsemen - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fbvquHSPJU&feature=youtu.be. A good 90 minute documentary.

Kopi Level - Green

How much an average Sinkie needs to live in Sin?

This is just a broad brush estimate on how much it would cost an average Sinkie to live here from birth to death, or the sum of money he needs to earn and to pay for the privilege of living in Sin City. It will only consider a few basic factors without going into nitty gritties of living.

For the first 25 years, it could range from $500k to a million to grow a child to an adult. The same amount would be needed from 65 to 80 or more during the golden years. These two phases of life will cost between $1m to $2m for each person.

For the duration of 25 years to 65, the working life, it will need something like $2.5m to $4.5m. At $1k pm for personal expenses, this will work out to about $500k for 40 years. Add in two children will be an additional $1m to $2m. The flat will cost between $500k to $1.5m. A car, at $100k per car for 10 years, it will cost $400k for 40 years.

Just using these simplified numbers, an average Sinkie will need $3.5m to $6.5m to survive in Sin for a period of 85 years. And assuming that the cost for the first 25 years is paid by the parents, it is still between $3m to $6m to get by. And where is the money coming from?

A Sinkie must make this sum in his 40 years of economically active life. This works out to be about $5k to $10k pm, using the minimum and maximum estimates. Any Sinkie earning less than $5k pm is likely to struggle all the way to survive, ceteris paribus.

Can you afford to live in Sin?

Kopi Level - Green

The revelations of the Little India riot

We have heard of brave policemen and of policemen running away from the mob. We have heard of praises and medals for bravery and brickbats for not holding the ground, and worse, policemen fleeing for safety. And the dominant view, the policemen are the law enforcers and must make a stand, face the mobsters and deal with them with force and authority. The alternative view is that the police on the ground were outnumbered and there was no need to risk life and injuries, no need to attack the mob to escalate the tension and create a nasty situation.
 
At the moment all the comments are academic as the commentators are detached from a reality, from the tense situation where personal security were at risk. And from the comfort of sitting behind a computer and punching the keyboard I thought it would be easy for Arnold Schwarzeneggar or Robocop to deal with the mob single handed. It would be a piece of cake even if the mob were illiterate villagers that were used to violence, to pelting policemen with stones and anything they could lay their hands on, to overturning and burning police cars. One thing for sure, they were not the nice school children that could be shouted down by a school teacher. It was a violent and incensed mob.
 
What would happen if the orders were not given to pull back but instead for the handful of policemen to charge at the mob before the arrival of the SOC officers is moot. There could be a few serious casualties among the men and women in blue. Did anyone suggest to the police women to charge at the mob? This sounds like the soldiers in Kota Tinggi during Confrontation who thought it was a picnic and they could take a break bathing in the river unguarded.
 
It is quite fun really to make all kinds of postulations and even gungho ideas in the comfort of an aircon room with tea and cakes to munch. The riot could throw up a few heroes like Arnold or a few policemen in black plastic bags. Who is wiser?
 
What do you think? Of course it looked quite ridiculous and malu for policemen and women running away from a mob. It would be nice if they would strut out from the ambushed ambulance with guns blazing in both hands, taking down the mobsters in their way. This would be great stuff for Hollywood or even Mediacorp. Really great for adrenalin pumping and story telling and a great opportunity missed.
 
I am still having a lot of wild imaginations on what it could have been. If only I had a machine gun crew. But these kinds of wet dreams are best for the early hours in bed. One can only 'how lian' after the event and not being there.

No need sympathy, no need charity

This is an old story of a beggar in Chinatown. His hands were chopped off so he became a handicap and had to beg for a living. Jobless, unemployable, he sat at the foot of a pedestrian bridge waiting for someone to throw him some crumbs or handouts.
 
This guy was a bit different. He hung a placard on his chest and it read, ‘I don’t want your charity. I don’t need your sympathy’.
 
Many were puzzled by his poster. One day the MP came by and was caught by the eye catching phrase. He could not resist asking him what he wants. His reply, ‘I want to be independent to do my own things. But I am handicap, got no hands to do things myself. My balls are itchy. Please scratch for me.’
 
So?

PS: Didn't know I used She unintentionally. Has changed to He to avoid any embarrassment : )

Comfort women or sex slavery

Agongkia has posted several times in TRE and mysingaporenews that Sinkie PMEs are very fortunate to have jobs like taxi drivers and security guards to fall back on when they are replaced by fake and poorly educated foreigners. In a way it is true. It is better to have a decent job than to end up as sex slaves or as the Japanese disguised it and calling them comfort women. And Japan is revising its history to deny that this actually happened and the sex slaves, mostly Koreans with some Chinese and Taiwanese and other Southeast Asians were willing slaves. Some Japanese even claimed the women volunteered for it.
 
When a people lost their country, when they are conquered, they lost everything, their freedom, pride and dignity. The hundreds of thousands of sex slaves that were sent to provide sexual services to the Japanese Imperial invaders were a historical fact and a shame to those countries affected. And they could not do anything about it when their countries were conquered and ruled by foreigners.
 
Sinkies better prayed very hard that their country would not be occupied and conquered by foreigners or simply handed over to foreigners. Do not take the presence of huge numbers of foreigners in your country innocently and foolishly, even if they were given the pink ic and converted to citizens. We were one after nearly 200 years of co existence and 40 plus years as people of a nation. We must not take this lightly and think that the foreigners would be the same as us. In great numbers we do not know their agenda and what they are up to.
 
Many of them are still thinking that they are citizens of their former countries. This kind of mindset cannot be simply erased by a piece of paper over night. To think and behave like one of us, to be one of us, take a long time of living together. Human beans are not machines that can be switched on and switched off.
 
We have too many foreigners among us and it is as good as being conquered and occupied by these foreigners. You would not know what would happen if they came to power, with their numbers and fresh memories of who they were. We are seeing many rude and frightening signs of what these foreigners could be like. Being foolish, ignorant and the stupidity of being welcoming and nice could destroy everything your parents and fore parents have built for you and your future generations.
 
Sinkies cannot be so daft to think everything is so innocent. Yes, be grateful that with all the tertiary educations, degrees and diplomas, you can still drive taxis and be security guards. This is a kind of blessing that daft Sinkies are getting accustomed to today. Soon your wives, mothers and daughters would count themselves lucky to be maids of foreigners. The worse fate awaiting them is to be comfort women or sex slaves when you lose the very country that you have.
 
Be frightened, be very frightened. It is happening gradually and barely recognizable, but your country is slipping away from you if you don’t stand up to take it back. Think 2050 when the true blue Sinkies become an absolute minority.

Kopi Level - Yellow