There are no traitors, no 卖国贼

In history books, or fictions, there are always stories of heroes, patriots and traitors to glorify and to condemn. In reality, this is not always true, not so simple. Heard of the saying, ‘For they know not what they are doing’? We are programmed to read a story with the good and the villains on two sides of white and black. We see the heroes and villains consciously and purposefully doing what they were doing, doing the rights and doing the wrongs. There were intents and purposes to do just that, to do good and to do bad. Thus they were easily recognisable as the heroes and the villains. They called such characterization two dimensional.

Life is not so simple. The heroes or villains may be doing things as a matter of fact. The heroes did not know that they were doing things that were heroic. The villains too may not know that they were doing villainous things as well. In many cases they could be thinking that they were all doing good things for the country, for the good of the people. Another variation, the heroes could be the unsuspecting villains and the villains could be the self righteous heroes.

Take the example of the selling of Alaska by the Russians to the Americans. To the Russians, it was a piece of waste land. Might as well sell it and use the money for development, for the good of the people. How can they be accused of selling their national assets away, as traitors to their country? No, that is why the Russians never see anything wrong with that even today. But some may see it as an act of treason, selling national territories away.

Coming closer to home, we have a govt that is doing all the good things for the people. The govt is working so hard to give people the good life, good and affordable homes, good and affordable healthcare, keeping the roads free of jams, creating good jobs for the people, attracting investments for GDP growth that brings along higher quality of living. They even make sure you keep your money safely in your CPF and not to squander them away. And there are many other things that the govt is doing right but the people cannot appreciate, like increasing the population for growth through mass migration, or replacing less talented Singaporeans with more talented foreigners for the good of the country and people.

Instead, the people are not appreciating the good work and sacrifices of the political leaders, and even calling them traitors and all kinds of names. But the political leaders meant well, with good intentions, and the country is soaring, not sinking. And we can proudly call ourselves Singaporeans, not Sinkies.

So, what is all this talk about the govt being traitors or selling out the citizens? No way, the govt is working for you, for the good of the people except that the people cannot see the goodness in them and feel that they are being dismissed or evicted from the main stream of life, being replaced by talented foreigners. That is not true and the govt and political leaders know it. The people who are replaced are simply no good, lazy and not talented enough. That is why the govt is tenaciously doing what they think is right for the people. And they know, and Singapore will be getting better and better and will last another one hundred years.

It is not right to call them traitors. They are not. They are the heroes, the saviours of our country and people. And don’t forget, these men and women are the crème de la crème of our people, the very very best we have, even god like in nature or immortals. They are specially chosen to be morally virtuous and self sacrificing to serve the people and nation. One look at them you will know that you have the best and can sleep in peace, that the country is in good hands and you have a great life waiting for you.

There are no traitors and no卖国贼. History will eventually vindicate the political leaders as the heroes in the future and the future Singaporeans will build giant statues and monuments to honour them.

PS. Writing this piece sure kena whack till tolok tolok.

Kopi Level - Green

MH370 – 7 pings that sealed the fate of 239 passengers

Immarsat said their satellites received 7 pings from MH370 after the ACARS was switched off and the aircraft disappeared. Were the 7 pings normal, expected to be sent by the aircraft in such a situation? Or were the 7 pings something abnormal, not designed for, but somehow were sent to the satellites and not other satellites? 
Are there instruments in the aircraft that could send out such signals after the ACARS was switched off all the way to the satellites? How did Immarsat confirm that the 7 pings came from MH370 across 10,000 miles in open space? How sure are they?

Everyone following this incident, including the experts and govt officials, have accepted the 7 pings on face value, that they came from MH370. What if they were not, were something else, or from some unknown sources?

The importance of the 7 pings is such that the fate of the aircraft and the lives of 239 passengers depended on this mysterious signals that may not be what they were claimed to be. Could Immarsat tell the world how reliable is their claim that the 7 pings indeed originated from the missing aircraft? Or is this another wild goose chase?

This whole thing is looking like someone wanted everyone to look at the Antarctic and somehow there were satellite images in that corner of the world, pings also pointing there, and now more debris are found floating there. And another mystery is appearing, no one has picked up a single piece of debris and no signal from the black boxes despite so many planes and ships in the area.

Does anyone have any doubts about the credibility of the 7 pings?

PS. Always question information and their sources when in doubt.

The Singapore Inquisition

The Little India Riot arising from a vehicle accident and the death of a drunkard led to the burning of police vehicles, attacking of police officers by lowly educated villagers from the sub continent of India. Many police officers were injured. This led to a public inquiry on the causes of the rioting that is unprecedented in the last 40 years of the island’s history.

From the news reported in the media and the evidence, views and opinions of the witnesses, it is looking more like an inquisition like the Middle Ages when the witches and the innocents were jailed, killed or burnt at the stakes. The rioters did not seem to be an issue now and are out of the picture while the bus driver and the time keeper and the police officers are now the primary target of the inquiry. Would the bus driver and time keeper be turned into modern day witches to be sacrificed at the stakes? Would the police officers who were there to quell the rioting ended up as the target of the inquisition and the badly sought after sacrificial lamb to bring a closure to the incident? Still doesn’t make any sense if they are found to be a contributor to the riot.

How is it that the people not rioting ended up having to explain their actions and have to redeem themselves instead or becoming the cause of the riot? What is going on? And why should the buck stop at the police officers who were there to stop the rioting? If it is meant to be witch hunt, should the buck go higher? Who is being persecuted?

This is like someone shitted and the people being hauled up are the cleaners and the owner of the spot where the shit is, including those who stood by and watched. The intellect of the Middle Ages is having a new life in modernity.

Of cleavage and dichotomy in the Singapore plurality

I have been ranting almost daily on the open leg policies of the Govt practically everyday and highlighting the serious flaws and consequences taking place. Many Sinkies have fallen victims to these policies and are clamming up, resigned to their fate like what daft Sinkies often do. Those Sinkies that are not affected, yet, are getting irritated by my constant drumming and refuse to see that their turn will come one day when they lose their jobs and unable to pay the high mortgages for their nice homes and nice cars. But my drummings must have some effects, big or small, on the Govt and the elite to want to make amends to this dire state of affair. If it is all gone with the wind, then the deaf frogs can continue to remain deaf and do as they like and wait to be bundled out in the most shocking electoral defeat in the next GE.

There is an interesting article by Tommy Koh in the ST this morning, titled, ‘Is there an ideological cleavage in Spore? I would like to repost the whole article here but ST would probably come after me for copyright infringement. So I will talk about what Tommy said and quote some of his wisdoms to share with my fellow bloggers.

Though Tommy politely asked a question, but his article said it clearly that there is a wide cleavage and waiting to be healed. This global city concept is the remedy of Singapore’s economic ire as well as the cause of the sad state of affair happening daily, to its victims of mainly the PMETs. According to Tommy, ‘American business school gurus such as Gary Hamel have managed to convince Singapore leaders that there is a global competition for talent. In order to succeed, Singapore cannot rely only on its home grown talent. It must look outward and recruit talented people from all over the world, to key positions in both our public and private sectors.’

The recommendation is sound with some provisos and cannot be taken literally, hook, line and sinker. Only silly asses will just blindly accept it as the panacea and implement it without any reservations or amendments. The first point is obviously the issue of nationhood and citizens versus a hotel that has no citizens to talk about. The other point is about key positions and not all and sundry down the line. Why do they want to recruit a super talent in recruiting employees or a salesgirl, or a supervisor? And the dangerous part is to bring in foreigners to key positions in the public sector. But for this the Govt has drawn an invisible line, as long as the political office and administrative services are out of the loop, anything goes.

‘The hunt for foreign talent became a national obsession. As a result, Singapore was in danger of overlooking its own talents.’ Said Tommy. And this obsession went down to talents in sports, in housing agents, in property agents, in employing agencies, and likely in prostitutes as well. When elites are not thinking, this is what will happen.

Tommy added, ‘I am glad that there is a more balanced attitude today. This is the result of two developments. First, Singapore discovered that some so called foreign talent was not really very talented. Second, there was the discovery that, in some cases, when a foreign chief executive officer was hired, he or she discriminated against Singaporeans when hiring staff.’ This is not the bad part. The bad part is for the authority to let it happened and doing nothing about it or paying lip services and pretend that the problem is solved.

The most important statement made by Tommy, though actually very simple and any idiot would know and understand, except the deaf frogs, is this, ‘My conclusion is that Singapore should continue to welcome foreign talent. But it should do so to complement Singaporean talent, not to supplant it. Everything being equal, Singapore should give priority to its own talent.’ When this has to be said in so simple a language and hoping that people will understand, it is so pathetic, and near to hopelessness.

I would like to thank Tommy for his ranting for the sake of country and citizens. The daft Sinkies may be uncomfortable with my rantings, but hopefully they know that this is indeed a serious problem if they can see further than the tip of their nose. And hopefully some deaf frogs will wake up from their arrogant and self righteous demeanour to do the right thing, to do something for the Sinkies if it is not too late.

Kopi Level - Yellow

The good local banks

The prices of Singapore’s 3 local banks at this moment are UOB $21.45, DBS $16.17 and OCBC $9.69. If the prices are an indication of the strength of these banks, UOB easily is number One followed by DBS a distant second. The respective PE ratios of the three banks are UOB 11.11, DBS 10.69, OCBC 12.26. In terms of yield, the respective numbers are 3.3%, 3.6%, 3.56%.
 
The PEs and yields are fairly similar but the price gaps are quite wide. What could account for the price difference, if we are to assume that the higher the price the more confident investors have of the stock and the quality of the company and management, UOB stands up from the other two. Why?
 
One very significant difference in the three banks is that UOB is managed by local talents primarily while the other two have foreign talents as their CEOs and also a fairly large presence of foreign talents among the staff.
 
Can we draw any meaningful conclusion from the three banks vis a vis the value of foreign talents? One thing for sure, the investors have higher regards for a bank that is managed by local talents than by foreign talents.
 
This is only a very broad brush comparison and the analysts would have different opinions when they apply different criteria to determine which is a better bank or better investment. Many would rate the presence of foreign talents at the top as a trump card. Some may find this a joker.
 
What do you think?