Last night’s SG+ on climate change was all about all the great things
Red Dot has done on climate change and saving mother earth. Everything
is so positive, green buildings, water conservation, new water, earth
hour, cutting down on wasteful consumption, reducing car population,
reducing carbon emission, encourage walking or cycling, saving waste
papers, plastics etc etc. Everyone in the panel of discussion was
patting himself and feeling so good that as a first world country we
were setting an excellent example for the less developed countries to
follow.
I was just a bit puzzled by some of the things that we are doing like
scrapping cars in 10 years or less when they can be used for 20 or 30
years. Is this wasteful or saving resources? What about pulling down
structurally sound buildings that could last another 50 to 100 years
just to rebuild even higher and higher buildings? Are these acts helping
to reduce consumption of energy and resources and material or wasting
them?
What about increasing the population from 3m to 5.4m and now proceeding
to 6.9m? Is the increasing population going to increase consumption of
energy and resources or the other way?
On the whole I think any one of these three items, premature scrapping
of good road worthy cars, pulling down of structural sound buildings or
population increases could outdo all the things mentioned in para one
added together to reduce consumption of resources but conversely has
more adverse effects on climate change in bigger ways.
What is the point of saving a glass of water but turning the aircon on
the whole night? Think how much airconditioning is needed to cool the
funny gardens for plants that would grow wild in their natural habitats?
Is the Red Dot really a good example in energy saving or reducing
consumption of resources to help in slowing down climate change? How
much more energy and resources would need to be consumed for every
million people added into the island, the food, energy, utilities, their
toys, the leisure and casual consumption for them to live and use?
Can we remove the red lens and look at the self perpetuating myths and
fallacies we created to make us look good and feel good? Our greed for
more people is so destructive that we didn’t even know or were aware of
it. We are so blind to our wrongs and so smug in blowing our own
trumpets. We are helping in the worse way to destroy mother earth by
destroying our little island first.
4/02/2014
Singapore students top the world in PISA
In a test conducted by Programme for International Students Assessment
in 2012, Singapore students, and I repeat, Singapore students, beat the
rest of the world to come up tops, not only in rote learning but also in
creative thinking. Amazing isn’t it?
After a decade of wearing the no talent tag, when they are deemed to be more stupid and useless than fake talents from the 3rd World, our students are world beaters. And those 3rd World countries where we drew our talents from were not even mentioned or appeared in the top rankings. Among those rated closer to Singapore are South Korea, Japan, Macau, HongKong, Shanghai, Taiwan, Canada, Australia and Finland. No wonder we are seeing the rise of Asia.
These students that topped the PISA test are likely to be strait A students for their O and A level examinations. And they are likely to be admitted to local universities and will also do very well. They will also be able to find employments quite easily and will be quickly promoted to middle management in the future.
But they will not be good enough to be at top management level. They will mostly be replaced by the fake talents from the 3rd World that they beat with hands down. Then they will add to the statistics of the unemployed or underemployed PMEs. And many will end up as their own bosses, driving taxis to pick up the foreign fake talents and hoping for some tips if they are lucky. If they are unlucky they will end up as punching bags to these foreign talents for their amusements.
Some of these who refused to accept their fate will try desperately to submit their resumes to the employment agencies operated by foreigners but would be told that they lacked the skill sets and experience needed for their clients. These foreign employment agencies would prefer to recruit their talents or fake talents from the 3rd World to fill up positions in this world class city.
One caveat, this is likely to be the picture if conditions remain like what it is now. Things may change in 10 or 20 years when all the free trade agreements are signed and foreigners flooded this city looking for jobs and our world beaters would count themselves lucky if they could even find employment in the first place.
Andreas Schleicher, Special Adviser to the OECD Secretary General on Education Policy and Deputy Director for Education and Skills has this to say, ‘It shows that today’s 15 year olds in Singapore are quick learners, highly inquisitive, able to solve unstructured problems in unfamiliar contexts and highly skilled in generating new insights by observing, exploring and interacting with complex situations.’ What he meant is that our students are not blind muggers but really talented and creative. But would those asses listen to him? I bet not. The asses will still be singing praise for foreign talents and recruiting fake talents and bring them in plane loads to replace these local talents in top jobs, middle jobs and eventually all jobs except taxi drivers.
Can these bright Singapore students look forward to a great career in the future? What do you think?
Kopi Level - Green
After a decade of wearing the no talent tag, when they are deemed to be more stupid and useless than fake talents from the 3rd World, our students are world beaters. And those 3rd World countries where we drew our talents from were not even mentioned or appeared in the top rankings. Among those rated closer to Singapore are South Korea, Japan, Macau, HongKong, Shanghai, Taiwan, Canada, Australia and Finland. No wonder we are seeing the rise of Asia.
These students that topped the PISA test are likely to be strait A students for their O and A level examinations. And they are likely to be admitted to local universities and will also do very well. They will also be able to find employments quite easily and will be quickly promoted to middle management in the future.
But they will not be good enough to be at top management level. They will mostly be replaced by the fake talents from the 3rd World that they beat with hands down. Then they will add to the statistics of the unemployed or underemployed PMEs. And many will end up as their own bosses, driving taxis to pick up the foreign fake talents and hoping for some tips if they are lucky. If they are unlucky they will end up as punching bags to these foreign talents for their amusements.
Some of these who refused to accept their fate will try desperately to submit their resumes to the employment agencies operated by foreigners but would be told that they lacked the skill sets and experience needed for their clients. These foreign employment agencies would prefer to recruit their talents or fake talents from the 3rd World to fill up positions in this world class city.
One caveat, this is likely to be the picture if conditions remain like what it is now. Things may change in 10 or 20 years when all the free trade agreements are signed and foreigners flooded this city looking for jobs and our world beaters would count themselves lucky if they could even find employment in the first place.
Andreas Schleicher, Special Adviser to the OECD Secretary General on Education Policy and Deputy Director for Education and Skills has this to say, ‘It shows that today’s 15 year olds in Singapore are quick learners, highly inquisitive, able to solve unstructured problems in unfamiliar contexts and highly skilled in generating new insights by observing, exploring and interacting with complex situations.’ What he meant is that our students are not blind muggers but really talented and creative. But would those asses listen to him? I bet not. The asses will still be singing praise for foreign talents and recruiting fake talents and bring them in plane loads to replace these local talents in top jobs, middle jobs and eventually all jobs except taxi drivers.
Can these bright Singapore students look forward to a great career in the future? What do you think?
Kopi Level - Green
4/01/2014
High-Frequency Traders Ripping Off Investors
High-Frequency Traders Ripping Off Investors, Lewis Says
2014-03-31 00:09:27.261 GMT
By Nick Baker and Sam Mamudi
March 30 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. stock market is a rigged
game where high-frequency traders with advanced computers make
tens of billions of dollars by jumping in front of investors,
according to author Michael Lewis, who spent the past year
researching the topic for his new book “Flash Boys.”
While speed traders’ strategies, developed over the past
decade with help from exchanges, are legal, “it’s just nuts”
that they’re allowed, Lewis said during an interview televised
today on CBS Corp.’s “60 Minutes.” The tactics are too
complicated for individual investors to understand, he said.
“The United States stock market, the most iconic market in
global capitalism, is rigged,” Lewis, whose books “Liar’s
Poker” and “The Big Short” highlighted Wall Street excesses,
said during the interview. The new book comes out tomorrow.
“It’s crazy that it’s legal for some people to get advance news
on prices and what investors are doing,” he said.
Everyone who owns equities is victimized by the practices,
in which the fastest traders figure out which stocks investors
plan to buy, purchase them first and then sell them back at a
higher price, said Lewis, a columnist for Bloomberg View. To
show how lucrative the tactics are, Lewis said a technology firm
spent $300 million to build a line that would shave three
milliseconds off the time it takes to communicate between New
Jersey and Chicago, then leased it out to securities companies
for $10 million each…..
His latest target, high-frequency trading, comprises a
diverse set of software-driven strategies that have spread from
U.S. equity markets to most developed countries as computer
power grew and regulators tried to break the grip of centralized
exchanges….
There are no surprises why this rigging of the stock market could go on for so long as the lawmakers were mostly paid by the big boys to shut up and look the other way. But to write about front running by a few milliseconds to make profits is just skimming the surface of this devious criminal activity. It is the privy of market information on who is buying/selling what, the volume, price, the short positions etc etc that is ripping the innocent investors through the act of plugging their computers into the exchanges that is doing more damages than just high speed trading. They are not telling the host of advantages of having super computers attached to stock exchanges to make trading an almost sure win bet.
The criminals must be brought to justice, the stock exchanges sued and compensations be paid to the innocent investors who have lost their pants trading in the market. Anyone or govt bodies approving its practice are complicit to the crime.
Below is a Wall Street Journal report dated 1 Apr 14.
‘The Federal Bureau of Investigation has launched a wide-ranging investigation into high-speed trading with an eye on whether some firms are acting on fast-moving market information that isn’t available to other traders.
The investigation, launched about a year ago, involves a range of trading activities and is still in its early stages, according to a senior FBI official and an agency spokesman. Trading ahead of other investors based on information about orders that other investors can’t see could violate insider-trading laws, the spokesman said….’
2014-03-31 00:09:27.261 GMT
By Nick Baker and Sam Mamudi
March 30 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. stock market is a rigged
game where high-frequency traders with advanced computers make
tens of billions of dollars by jumping in front of investors,
according to author Michael Lewis, who spent the past year
researching the topic for his new book “Flash Boys.”
While speed traders’ strategies, developed over the past
decade with help from exchanges, are legal, “it’s just nuts”
that they’re allowed, Lewis said during an interview televised
today on CBS Corp.’s “60 Minutes.” The tactics are too
complicated for individual investors to understand, he said.
“The United States stock market, the most iconic market in
global capitalism, is rigged,” Lewis, whose books “Liar’s
Poker” and “The Big Short” highlighted Wall Street excesses,
said during the interview. The new book comes out tomorrow.
“It’s crazy that it’s legal for some people to get advance news
on prices and what investors are doing,” he said.
Everyone who owns equities is victimized by the practices,
in which the fastest traders figure out which stocks investors
plan to buy, purchase them first and then sell them back at a
higher price, said Lewis, a columnist for Bloomberg View. To
show how lucrative the tactics are, Lewis said a technology firm
spent $300 million to build a line that would shave three
milliseconds off the time it takes to communicate between New
Jersey and Chicago, then leased it out to securities companies
for $10 million each…..
His latest target, high-frequency trading, comprises a
diverse set of software-driven strategies that have spread from
U.S. equity markets to most developed countries as computer
power grew and regulators tried to break the grip of centralized
exchanges….
There are no surprises why this rigging of the stock market could go on for so long as the lawmakers were mostly paid by the big boys to shut up and look the other way. But to write about front running by a few milliseconds to make profits is just skimming the surface of this devious criminal activity. It is the privy of market information on who is buying/selling what, the volume, price, the short positions etc etc that is ripping the innocent investors through the act of plugging their computers into the exchanges that is doing more damages than just high speed trading. They are not telling the host of advantages of having super computers attached to stock exchanges to make trading an almost sure win bet.
The criminals must be brought to justice, the stock exchanges sued and compensations be paid to the innocent investors who have lost their pants trading in the market. Anyone or govt bodies approving its practice are complicit to the crime.
Below is a Wall Street Journal report dated 1 Apr 14.
‘The Federal Bureau of Investigation has launched a wide-ranging investigation into high-speed trading with an eye on whether some firms are acting on fast-moving market information that isn’t available to other traders.
The investigation, launched about a year ago, involves a range of trading activities and is still in its early stages, according to a senior FBI official and an agency spokesman. Trading ahead of other investors based on information about orders that other investors can’t see could violate insider-trading laws, the spokesman said….’
China US relations – Different fears
The rise of China as a contender to challenge America supremacy and
world hegemony is the biggest fear of the Americans. They have ruled the
world since WW2 and could dictate to the world at will, invade
countries, conduct wars, conduct regime change, blackmail and impose
sanction on any country it chose to call enemies. The Americans said you
cannot have nuclear weapons or WMD, that’s it. Refusal to obey will
lead to war, sanctions or regime change or outright assassination of the
country’s leaders.
The rise of China as a counter force to prevent America from doing all the above is not going to be accepted willingly by the Americans. The Americans would want to fly its military aircraft up and down China’s coast, sail its naval ships all over the seas of China. It also wants to fly its B52 bombers into China’s ADIZ at will. It also wants to be able to strike at Chinese embassies anywhere in the world at its own time and choosing. But with the rise of China, all these will have to stop sooner or later. With the rise of China, China too would want to fly its military aircraft along the American coasts, its naval ships in the eastern Pacific Oceans and the western Atlantic Ocean. And it would want to strike back at will should the Americans dare to do a Belgrade again. These are the fears of the American Empire.
The Chinese fear is all about what the USA will do to prevent its rise as a superpower peacefully. It fears that it will have to fight a war with the Americans and its allies along the way. It fears that the Americans will put obstacles on its path in all its activities across the world. The Chinese fear a premature full scale war with the Americans when it is not ready to return favour for favour with the Americans.
Across the world, many countries under the influence of the West also fear the rise of China. They fear China because they were told to, for centuries, by the western powers that China is a rogue and expansionist nation. They fear China because they refused to think who actually conquered and colonized them and dictating how they should conduct their relations and affairs. They fear China because they live under an illusion created by the west that China is a monster and the Americans are their savior. And they unconsciously choose to be under the control and dictate of the Americans rather than be free nations to choose their own destiny without being control by any superpowers. They did not know that the fear of China is an illusion created by the western powers to entrap them like fearing a shadow.
The Americans have a real fear of losing its pole position and the freedom to do as it pleases. China has a genuine fear that the Americans are trying in everyday to throw a spanner in its works or to start a nuclear war.
The rest of the world that claims to fear China has an irrational fear planted in their heads by the western powers. There are a few with self created fear of China when they made claims to Chinese territories as theirs. Other than those with competing claims, the fear of the rest of the world of China is simply foolishness. They do not fear the Americans as they have got used to being bullied and dictated by the Americans and this has become second nature and an accepted norm of living with the American Empire. They don’t mind the Americans spying on them and waiting to destabilize their countries when the Americans are unhappy with them.
Many countries in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and across Asia have been victims of American bullying for decades since WW2 and are seeing the enemy as it is, the real and not imaginary enemies planted in their heads.
There is a new beginning in the horizon when the world will be more equal with more superpowers emerging to balance the American Empire from doing as it pleases, for running roughshod over weaker countries at will.
The rise of China as a counter force to prevent America from doing all the above is not going to be accepted willingly by the Americans. The Americans would want to fly its military aircraft up and down China’s coast, sail its naval ships all over the seas of China. It also wants to fly its B52 bombers into China’s ADIZ at will. It also wants to be able to strike at Chinese embassies anywhere in the world at its own time and choosing. But with the rise of China, all these will have to stop sooner or later. With the rise of China, China too would want to fly its military aircraft along the American coasts, its naval ships in the eastern Pacific Oceans and the western Atlantic Ocean. And it would want to strike back at will should the Americans dare to do a Belgrade again. These are the fears of the American Empire.
The Chinese fear is all about what the USA will do to prevent its rise as a superpower peacefully. It fears that it will have to fight a war with the Americans and its allies along the way. It fears that the Americans will put obstacles on its path in all its activities across the world. The Chinese fear a premature full scale war with the Americans when it is not ready to return favour for favour with the Americans.
Across the world, many countries under the influence of the West also fear the rise of China. They fear China because they were told to, for centuries, by the western powers that China is a rogue and expansionist nation. They fear China because they refused to think who actually conquered and colonized them and dictating how they should conduct their relations and affairs. They fear China because they live under an illusion created by the west that China is a monster and the Americans are their savior. And they unconsciously choose to be under the control and dictate of the Americans rather than be free nations to choose their own destiny without being control by any superpowers. They did not know that the fear of China is an illusion created by the western powers to entrap them like fearing a shadow.
The Americans have a real fear of losing its pole position and the freedom to do as it pleases. China has a genuine fear that the Americans are trying in everyday to throw a spanner in its works or to start a nuclear war.
The rest of the world that claims to fear China has an irrational fear planted in their heads by the western powers. There are a few with self created fear of China when they made claims to Chinese territories as theirs. Other than those with competing claims, the fear of the rest of the world of China is simply foolishness. They do not fear the Americans as they have got used to being bullied and dictated by the Americans and this has become second nature and an accepted norm of living with the American Empire. They don’t mind the Americans spying on them and waiting to destabilize their countries when the Americans are unhappy with them.
Many countries in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and across Asia have been victims of American bullying for decades since WW2 and are seeing the enemy as it is, the real and not imaginary enemies planted in their heads.
There is a new beginning in the horizon when the world will be more equal with more superpowers emerging to balance the American Empire from doing as it pleases, for running roughshod over weaker countries at will.
Do not underestimate the stupidity of Sinkies
The founding generations who turned a fishing village and a swamp into a
thriving modern city state were mostly uneducated or undereducated
peasants and coolies. There were barely a handful of graduates then that
made this miracle happened. So credit must be accorded to the real
talents. After the success there was a sudden realisation by the real
talented that the Sinkies were really daft and untalented and they could
not understand how they could build this modern city with their poor
genes and limitations. It is a deep mystery like the disappearance of
MH370.
There was a real and urgent need to bring in the genuine talents from around the world. There were many real talents in the 3rd World slums who were really talented but did not have the opportunity to prove their worth to turn their slums into thriving metropolis. These were the real talents, hungry and impatient to prove themselves that should be quickly imported to replace the daft Sinkies. And the Sinkies accepted it all grudgingly knowing that these 3rd World talents were the really better than them even if they were fakes.
And the replacement exercise of daft Sinkies began at all levels in full steam. The daft CEOs that built business empires and financial institutions like banks should also be replaced with the new talents to run their banks. By the way, these new talents have never built a bank or started a business before but they are talented to bring the daft Sinkie businesses and empires to a higher plane. The daft Sinkies are no longer able to do any better for the institutions they helped to build, nurture and grow to where they are today. They must be replaced as quickly as possible.
The only group of Sinkies that are irreplaceable are the crème of Sinkie talents, the politicians. These will not be replaced by foreigners, no way when they are near immortals. The Sinkies would not allow it to happen. The Sinkies will tenaciously vote them into power so that they can continue with the talent replacement scheme until all daft Sinkies are replaced by talented foreigners.
The Sinkies can only aspire for the good life and hopefully they will be spurred to work harder and harder and remain as daft as ever, unthinking and not thinking. What is the good life to the daft Sinkies? This can be seen in the advertisements for high end properties and luxury stuff. Sinkies can only attain the good life if they marry a talented angmoh or foreigner. Oh, I need to qualify, only the pretty and desirable Sinkie females have this privilege to a good life. The talented angmohs have good taste too and would only want beautiful Sinkie lasses to share their good fortune. Now where is Anton? The advertisements made it very clear that daft Sinkie men are hopeless and would never be able to afford such high end luxuries and pretty women. Perhaps they were dull and ugly too.
The adverts say it all. Only the angmohs are the talented and are able to afford the good life and provide for the beautiful women. And they are not only talented but very good looking too, the perfect specimen not found in Sinkie men. In fact all advertisements of anything good, talented, expensive, good taste, luxurious, are part and parcel of the angmohs and foreigners. These are things that daft Sinkies would never possess because of their poor genes. This is not a case of self deprecating I am very sure.
How then should the Sinkies not be replaced by the talented and good genes of foreigners? I am sure all the daft Sinkies will nod in agreement and adore the talents and capabilities of the foreigners. They must be aspiring to want to buy a new set of foreign DNAs and get them injected into the eggs of their spouses and hoping that science will make their progeny as talented and well endowed as the angmohs.
Wonder how long will it take for all the dull Sinkies to be replaced by the talented foreigners? But not to worry, the Sinkies are waiting patiently and eagerly to be replaced. They know that this is the best thing ever to happen to them, and it is good for the country too. They will accept their fate in quiet obedience. They will be no protest or resistance to their replacement.
As I said, please do not underestimate the stupidity of daft Sinkies. Many are hoping that the replacement exercise will be completed faster to save them the waiting and the agony. They know that they are unworthy and there is nothing they can do about it. What is the point when they are born daft and unpleasing in every way and unable to compete with the foreign talents? They should be thankful and grateful to their dear leaders and the foreign talents to liberate them from their misery.
April 1st should be gazetted as a Sinkie Day, a national holiday.
Kopi Level - Green
There was a real and urgent need to bring in the genuine talents from around the world. There were many real talents in the 3rd World slums who were really talented but did not have the opportunity to prove their worth to turn their slums into thriving metropolis. These were the real talents, hungry and impatient to prove themselves that should be quickly imported to replace the daft Sinkies. And the Sinkies accepted it all grudgingly knowing that these 3rd World talents were the really better than them even if they were fakes.
And the replacement exercise of daft Sinkies began at all levels in full steam. The daft CEOs that built business empires and financial institutions like banks should also be replaced with the new talents to run their banks. By the way, these new talents have never built a bank or started a business before but they are talented to bring the daft Sinkie businesses and empires to a higher plane. The daft Sinkies are no longer able to do any better for the institutions they helped to build, nurture and grow to where they are today. They must be replaced as quickly as possible.
The only group of Sinkies that are irreplaceable are the crème of Sinkie talents, the politicians. These will not be replaced by foreigners, no way when they are near immortals. The Sinkies would not allow it to happen. The Sinkies will tenaciously vote them into power so that they can continue with the talent replacement scheme until all daft Sinkies are replaced by talented foreigners.
The Sinkies can only aspire for the good life and hopefully they will be spurred to work harder and harder and remain as daft as ever, unthinking and not thinking. What is the good life to the daft Sinkies? This can be seen in the advertisements for high end properties and luxury stuff. Sinkies can only attain the good life if they marry a talented angmoh or foreigner. Oh, I need to qualify, only the pretty and desirable Sinkie females have this privilege to a good life. The talented angmohs have good taste too and would only want beautiful Sinkie lasses to share their good fortune. Now where is Anton? The advertisements made it very clear that daft Sinkie men are hopeless and would never be able to afford such high end luxuries and pretty women. Perhaps they were dull and ugly too.
The adverts say it all. Only the angmohs are the talented and are able to afford the good life and provide for the beautiful women. And they are not only talented but very good looking too, the perfect specimen not found in Sinkie men. In fact all advertisements of anything good, talented, expensive, good taste, luxurious, are part and parcel of the angmohs and foreigners. These are things that daft Sinkies would never possess because of their poor genes. This is not a case of self deprecating I am very sure.
How then should the Sinkies not be replaced by the talented and good genes of foreigners? I am sure all the daft Sinkies will nod in agreement and adore the talents and capabilities of the foreigners. They must be aspiring to want to buy a new set of foreign DNAs and get them injected into the eggs of their spouses and hoping that science will make their progeny as talented and well endowed as the angmohs.
Wonder how long will it take for all the dull Sinkies to be replaced by the talented foreigners? But not to worry, the Sinkies are waiting patiently and eagerly to be replaced. They know that this is the best thing ever to happen to them, and it is good for the country too. They will accept their fate in quiet obedience. They will be no protest or resistance to their replacement.
As I said, please do not underestimate the stupidity of daft Sinkies. Many are hoping that the replacement exercise will be completed faster to save them the waiting and the agony. They know that they are unworthy and there is nothing they can do about it. What is the point when they are born daft and unpleasing in every way and unable to compete with the foreign talents? They should be thankful and grateful to their dear leaders and the foreign talents to liberate them from their misery.
April 1st should be gazetted as a Sinkie Day, a national holiday.
Kopi Level - Green
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