Meritocrazy in a decadent city state

They say a fish rots from the head. When that happens, the fish does not think anymore and soon the rot will spread through the entire fish. And because of a rotted brain, the stench of rot would not even be noticed. There is no sensory organ to detect the smell of a rotting fish.

The dearth of talents and skilled professionals in this prosperous city state does not stop at the banking and finance industry or the IT industry. It is pervasive and starting right from the top to the semi skilled worker’s level. The absence of intellect affects all levels of the citizenry that the city state is now a glittering shell of its former self. Every level of its people would have to be replaced as there is nothing good left in them, or have already been replaced.

Reading an article this morning in the ST on the hollowing of the academia is just too depressing. This is the seat of the intellect of the nation, the hotbed for the gestation of ideas and ideals by the best academic brains. The rot is just as pervasive but to some, is a good thing. Let me quote a few numbers. 18 out of 25 faculty members in the NUS Political Science department are foreigners, or only 7 are Singaporeans. At the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, 38 are locals (not sure how many are Singaporeans, but you can guess that it will be very small when they have to resort to use the term locals instead of Singaporeans) out of 82 faculty staff. In the Rajaratnam  School of International Studies, 12 are locals out of 29 faculty staff. At NTU’s Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, 21 of the 48 faculty are Singaporeans. Here they feel comfortable enough to say 21 are Singaporeans.

This sad state of affair is not missed by some of the Singaporean thinkers and academics. Some have raised their grievances to the ministers. Seah Kian Peng found this worrying and brought the matter up in parliament and ‘highlighted the fact that that fewer than half of the faculty in political science, communication and public policy – which he described as “some of the most important and context sensitive fields of endeavour in any country” – are Singaporeans.’ NMP Eugene Tan of SMU had raised the same issue six times in Parliament since 2002. Obviously nothing has been done or no action was taken, and the problem continues to grow. Is it a problem, or is it something desirable, planned by the establishment and so no action needed?

According to reporter Andrea Ong, the seed of this transformation or hollowing out in the academia seemed to have started in 1996 when, ‘then Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong challenged the National University of Singapore and Nanyang Technological University to build “the Boston of the East” and be dubbed the “Harvard and MIT of Asia”. The two universities could achieve this by drawing in “the best and brightest” from Asia and around the world, he said.’

Though Chok Tong did not ask the universities to bring lock, stock and barrel from Harvard and MIT, ie buying and bringing all the academic staff here, and replacing all the dull Sinkie students with the best and brightest in the world, the people who executed this ‘dream team’ apparently went ahead to replace the Sinkie academics and students with foreigners. Buying an international football team to compete in the world cup is an isolated fetish craze that would go away with maturity and with minimum negative impact on the country, maybe a few billion dollar lesser, but to replace the seat of learning and the academia with foreign faculty staff and students are simply shallow. But till today, with the problem growing and no concrete steps taken to reverse the trend, it seems that the lunatics have won and are having a field day to transform our universities into the Harvard and MIT and Sin City becoming the Boston of the East.

Those who are still left with a little grey matter are shaking their heads at this silliness but no one is going to do anything about it. We will have our own Harvard and MIT soon, and the faculty staff will be from the real Harvard and MIT, and the students would not be children of daft Sinkies but the brightest and the best from the whole world. We are succeeding, surely and steadily.

Where would the Sinkies go? How would the Sinkies fit in?

Kopi level - Yellow

Can Singapore retain its unique selling points?

What are the unique Singapore selling points that made it so successful and attractive as a city state? This is Hsien Loong’s reply to Malcolm Rifkind in Chatham House.

"It's a first world system in a very complicated and non-first-world part of the world. Things work, the country is stable, the society is cohesive, people are well-educated, the government is incorrupt and efficient, and we deliver on what we promise and we try to head in a consistent direction over a long period of time.

"So if you come to Singapore, and you want to do business, you can count on what we promise you, and what you see is what you get and that's not bad."

We all know that. But what contributed to the stable society and made everything works? The govt is incorrupt and efficient because of a very disciplined and well educated workforce. No rioting or burning police cars.  Would the Singapore workforce still be the same disciplined and well educated workforce as before when the 3^rd World foreigners are brought in to replace them? Would they keep everything working, support an incorrupt and efficient govt?

What do you think when the original Singaporeans are replaced and we have a new Singaporean population from the 3^rd World?

Kopi level - Yellow

Are we having a very dangerous govt?

 In an article on unemployment posted in TRE by a Dr Tommy Wong, titled ‘Hidden unemployment in Singapore’, it attracted this comment from a blogger.
 
• Pink Panty Loong - "Wussy Doormat LEEderSHIT!":
April 4, 2014 at 9:54 am (Quote)
Yes, just send the 175,000 EP holders back home and our older PMETs with good experiences should not have any problem getting employed! So if you tell me there isn’t a ethnic cleansing of Singaporeans by the PAP government for new foreigner-turn-citizen voters, than WHAT IS IT?! That is why I keep repeating and I’m going to repeat tirelessly that we have a very DANGEROUS government here! Please vote them out in the coming GE to save Singapore and ourselves!
 
Pink Panty Loong is talking about ethnic cleansing of Singaporeans and pointing the finger at the PAP govt….that we have a very DANGEROUS govt here. How many of you see the unemployment problem in the same light or disagree with Pink Panty Loong?

Is your life getting better?

Sure, definitely better. Swiss standard of living is nothing when one is earning millions every year. Swiss standard of living is nothing when one is living in a house worth tens of millions and owning a few more to rent out. Swiss standard of living is nothing when buying a Ferrari or Lamborghini costing more than a million is small change.
 
For those who cannot afford to send their children to university, cannot afford to have more children, cannot afford to pay medical bills, downgrading to smaller HDB flats, can only afford to buy smaller HDB flats, cannot afford a car, are your life getting better?
 
Talking Point on 2 Apr telecasted live on the topic of the middle class and whether their lives are getting better. My impression after listening to the panel and callers is that Sinkies do not deserve to be called Sinkies. They should be called daft Sinkies. The Hongkies, Taiwanese and PRC Chinese did not call Sinkies stupid for nothing. It is a well deserving title.
 
Now why do I say that? The views from the forum is all about adapting to your means and downgrading. I can accept that when one is an idiot, one should not aspire to anything more than 3 meals and a pair of shorts. But when one is talking about the middle class, the 50 to 60 percent sandwiched between the lower income and the rich, what kind of life or aspiration should they be expecting other than downgrading?
 
In the 70s and 80s, everyone was talking about upgrading, getting bigger flats and private properties if possible, and going for that super convenience called a car. And the people aspiring and attaining such level of comfort were not even the middle class but the workers, the taxi drivers, the supervisors, the technicians, the young graduates. Life was getting better for everyone, including those below the middle class.
 
Today, it is very normal for a young family to have at least a graduate, or both are graduates. They spent millions and a life time studying to get to that position. Is it too much, unreasonable, for them to aspire to live in a bigger HDB flat or condominium? Forget about private landed properties, these are way beyond their means today but not within the means of their lowly educated parents. Is it too much for them to aspire to own a small Japanese car to make living that much more convenient and pleasant, eating out once a week or a month?
 
What transpired in the forum is that daft Sinkies should be happy with public transport, if not even go on bicycles. Forget about small cars, cars are not necessary. When have daft Sinkies been fed with this kind of stupid ideas? And a small HDB flat should do, live within your means. Is that what daft Sinkies are contented after spending a third of their precious life pursuing tertiary education and spending a fortune on that to live in stupid small HDB flats and go around taking public transport? Is this what the future holds for the Sinkie middle class?
 
But the daft Sinkies that were airing their views found this acceptable, the type of life they feel reasonable and happy to be. Who said Sinkies are unhappy? Most of the views expressed by the daft Sinkies was that they were happy not owning a car. They did not want to know why the roads are so heavy with traffic and the prices of cars and COEs so high. They are very happy if public transport is satisfactory and they can live without a car.
 
This message of no need for a car has been successfully stuffed and buried in the daft Sinkie mind. They are all talking about downgrading and living within their means. I can accept that if they could not even make it to tertiary education and should not be asking for too much. Why would a minister find it difficult if she could not be earning a couple of millions a year to live a ‘decent’ lifestyle?
 
I must say the daft Sinkies are easily contented with life and are a very happy lot, living, adjusting and adapting with the quality of life without cars, without a decent job, smaller HDB flats and eating out lesser.
 
Is this what Sinkies are living for? No more ambition for a better life, no more aspiration that things can be better? Oh, the new aspiration, to own and ride a bicycle, and perhaps become his own boss, driving a taxi and with a few degrees to hang inside the taxi..

Kopi Level - Yellow

China must act against the Pinoys

The wreckage of a rusty WW2 ship sunk and rotting in the Chinese island is being used by the Pinoys and the USA to spike the Chinese and challenging their claims to the island. The wreck ship has been there since 1999 and is home to 9 Pinoy marines. They lived on provisions supplied regularly by the Pinoy fishing boats that played a game of hike and seek with the Chinese Coast Guards. The latest event happened a few days back with some reporters in the fishing boats to report on the event. And the Americans expectedly came out in support of the Pinoy ruse.
 
China may be thinking that it is a matter of time before the scrap metal of the wreck would be inhospitable and the Pinoys would have to swim back to Manila. This has taken 14 years and it is still there and causing so much embarrassment to the incompetent Chinese. It is time that they take action and remove the wreckage and the Pinoy soldiers in them from the island.
 
If China believes that the island belongs to China, it must assert its right of ownership and declared the Pinoys as trespassers, arrest them and put them in jail in Hainan. They should then send a bill to Manila to pay for the cost of the operation and to take their soldiers back. Failing to do so is not only a sign of weakness but an indirect admission that the island is disputed and China is not the owner yet.
 
There is no need to worry about the Americans and the Pinoys as they are expected to act and behave accordingly. And China can show the middle finger to them as well as the western media as all three are in cahoot to show China in a bad light. It is better to deal with the matter in a clinical manner, remove the rusty piece of shit and the illegal occupiers immediately to tell the Americans and Pinoys and the rest of the trouble makers that China would no longer tolerate their nonsense. China must be firm and resolute in maintaining and protecting its territorial sovereignity. There is no room for dilly dallying and to encourage the Pinoys to dance around like clowns in Chinese territories. 

Inaction on the part of China is bad.