Healthcare: I’m thankful we have a prudent SG govt

“No matter how much the government raises taxes, there is no consolidating the budget unless social welfare spending is curbed,” said Robert Feldman, head of Japan economic research at Morgan Stanley MUFG in Tokyo. “If the government continues to let the spending swell, it will get out of control.”….
National budget outlays on social welfare spanning health care to pensions climbed 23 percent over the five fiscal years through March 2015. Medical-related spending, which accounted for 32 percent of social welfare outlays in fiscal 2012, is forecast to soar 54 percent to 54 trillion yen in fiscal 2025, according to the welfare ministry.
Abe needs to put more priority on social-welfare reform to prevent the system from becoming unsustainable, said Hitoshi Suzuki, a senior researcher of Daiwa Institute of Research in Tokyo….
I am thankful that we have a very prudent govt in Singapore. You should all be thankful too. Our govt spend prudently and ensure that basic healthcare services are provided without burdening the whole system.

By Concerned Citizen on unfettered bashing of our govt

This Concerned Citizen wrote an article posted in the TRE with the above heading on the excessive healthcare spending by the Japanese govt. He quoted a Washington Post/Bloomberg post with the above comments. The gist is that Japan was overspending on healthcare and this is becoming unsustainable even if taxes continue to go up. And this is the reason why this Concerned Citizen felt so appreciative of our Govt for not overspending in healthcare. He is very concerned that our Govt will go down the road of welfarism.

I can share his concern and agree with him that we have such a prudent govt that did not spend excessively in healthcare. But he is only right in knowing a little of the truth. Our Govt had sent two study missions to Japan led by Boon Heng and Gan Kim Yong, one to study how to solve the ageing problem and the other about healthcare. From the dearth of information on these two trips after their returns, I can only hazard a guess that they found that there was nothing much that we could learn from the Japanese.

The revelation by Concerned Citizen and the Bloomberg report confirmed that the Japanese experience was nothing useful and maybe irrelevant to our case. If the report is true, then Japan is facing a crisis that would get graver by the days. We must not go along that path. And we don’t have to. We are in a very superior position financially as we did not spend much in healthcare. The people are paying their own medical bills. Now the Medishield Life Scheme will make sure that the people would foot their own bills without burdening the Govt.

The end result is that the Govt would have a lot of money for other pursuits from the savings in healthcare. We are so comfortable that we could use the money to party and party like there is no tomorrow. Next year we could see the country partying the whole year round, with big budgets for celebrations within the country and with countries around the world. We can invite foreign dignitaries here to party and they will invite us over to party in their countries.

We are very rich. We have so much money to spend on happy things. We could spend billions and billions on mega projects that would require hundreds of millions of dollars for annual maintenance. We bought top universities almost lock, stock and barrel. We owned think tank schools with scholars from the world, paid by us handsomely of course, to come here to think.

Notice that I use the word, ‘We’? Yes, we the people are paying for it. See how comfortable we are? We could have such a good healthcare scheme and with so much money to spend in other good to have glorious and fun stuff. Wait for the next National Day when we parade the F35s and our aircraft carriers.

By being prudent in healthcare spending, we can afford not to be prudent in other areas. Don’t worry, be happy. Money is not an issue. Prudence? When we have so much money to spend, there is no need to be prudent. We only have to be prudent in healthcare.

Kopi Level - Green

Ee Hoe Hean Club - Pioneers Memorial Hall

I visited a few millionaire clubs in Chinatown with a few friends yesterday. The most famous of these clubs is the Ee Hoe Hean Club at Bukit Pasoh. This is the place where many political activities took place in the early 1900s and during the 2nd World War. Tan Kah Kee made this his centre for the anti Japanese movement and to raise fund for the Nationalist army fighting the Japanese in China. This was where he hid during the Japanese Occupation before escaping overseas.

In honour of Tan Kah Kee and the pioneers, the Club has converted the ground floor into a museum called the Pioneers' Memorial Hall. Tan Lark Sye, the founder of Nantah and who contributed a handsome sum of $5m at that time to the University, Lee Kong Chian and several others were mentioned with exhibits of their history in display. Below are some photos that I took during the brief visit.

The pics from top to bottom. The Club Building, Main Entrance used for the Pioneer's Memorial Hall, Side Entrance to the Ee Hoe Hean Club, Tan Kah Kee exhibits, Tan Lark Sye and Lee Kong Chian exhibits, Other Pioneers, Plague on the Pioneer's Memorial Hall. The last pic shows visitors taking photo with a wax figure of Tan Kah Kee in the Hall.

When your heart beats with the rhythm of the drum

This phrase from the French Revolution song strikes a cord to many oppressed people around the world for decades and will go on to drum the heartbeats of more oppressed people in the future.

When your heat beats with the rhythm of the drums in The Miserables is like the mass consciousness coming together to think like one and act as one. When the consciousness of the people becomes one, an uncoordinated thought of the people somehow becomes the thought of everyone in the masses, it is a kind of mass awakening. It is a rare event, but often happened in the historical pasts to move a people in a common direction, with a common purpose, for a common goal.

The actions of the unruly and uncoordinated masses gelled together with an unconscious consciousness of what is best to do and what is the right thing to do. No one could envisage what really went on in the minds of the people in the Hougang and Punggol East by elections. No one was there to tell the people how to vote for the best result for the interests of the masses. Even if someone tried, the people would not necessarily do as told.

The strange thing about Hougang and Punggol East was that they all thought and acted in the same way, as one people in a calculated move of sophistication. The way the masses came together to vote in a similar manner, as if they were thinking as one, was a very powerful force. It was like the force was with them and they were the force.

When the unconsciousness of the people is one, their hearts beat with the rhythm of the drums and they move as one, act as one. The unconsciousness is emerging and becoming clearer as the people becomes one people. Some call it people power. It is here and growing, a strange phenomenon that arises like being guided by the invisible hand. The force is here, you can feel it in the air. The moment has come for a momentous change.

Kopi Level - Yellow

3rd World saving 1st World jokes

Chris K:
 

A retired German engineer told me last month that he could not believe that a first world infrastructure is being serviced and maintained by cheap third world workers. They do not have the necessary skills or standards of diligence, he said. Can’t but keep laughing these days as these apologists are scrapping the bottom of the barrel by comparing us to third world standards in their pathetic attempts to hold up the government’s well-remunerated posteriors.

The above joke was posted by Chris K in TRE. Let me reword the above quotes to apply to the 1^st World Singapore. Some super talented politicians here said this 1^st World city must import 3^rd World talents to run its 1^st World banking and finance and IT industries. And they have the necessary skills and standards of diligence to take over from the 1^st World Singaporeans.

And some also said, the 3^rd World talents are here to help the 1^st World talents and to create jobs for them.

And some 3^rd World recruiting agencies were quoted to have said they could not find the talents needed for this 1^st World city from its 1^st World talent pool, graduated from its world class 1^st World universities, but could find all the talents from 3^rd World countries with the skill sets and experience to fill the 1^st World jobs in this 1^st World city. And none of the first world super talents would stand up to object to this silly thought. Maybe they agee and believe that it is not silly.

Now tell me which is the better joke? 

Kopi Level - Green

MH17 – The wisdom of hindsight

Many questions are being asked about why MAS continued to fly the route taken by MH17 when there is a war going on. Until it was shot down, no one was clever enough to ask such questions. And everyone, including ICAO, thought it was safe to fly that route.  Today paper reported, ‘“We’ve flown this route for many years; it’s safe and that’s the reason we are taking this route,” said Mr Liow Tiong Lai at a news conference in which reporters questioned why the airline had chosen to fly over a war zone.’ What else could he say?

Liow Tiong Lai is not going to get away from this explanation. So would the MAS when the mood is to find a scapegoat, when all the clever fingers were pointing at everyone that could possibly take the blame. I would not blame anyone of them.

Everyone was just following the conventional wisdom. If one monkey can do it, so can all the monkeys. No all the monkeys are scattering for safety. This kind of group think can justify murders in broad daylight as well. You often heard of govts justifying their actions because one monkey was found to be eating shit, so they made use of that solitary example to make their people eat shit as well. What’s wrong, so and so had done it. We are not the first one to do it.

It is not often that a maverick would stand out to say something different. When the chief monkey said so, all the monkeys would join in to sing the same song. Look at all the clowns involved in the search for MH370, they still believe that a crazy pilot or an aircraft on autopilot would fly it to the Antarctic. Can you believe it? And the second theory is that it must be done by the mad pilot. Why would he want to fly to that God forsaken place? Oh, to bury the aircraft so that no one could find it? Is that a reasonable explanation? And how could a single pilot managed to control an aircraft full of passengers and crew and even prevented them from making a single call out? Can a single pilot do that?

Anyway, sometimes it is a blessing to have someone who could think differently, who could challenge conventional wisdom, proactive thinking, without being a genius, to avoid a crisis. Often such a person would face a lot of opposition and resistance from the conventional thinkers and may even be seen as a trouble maker with whimsical thoughts that is best to be ignored.

The blame game will go on and on and will be repeated over and over again. No one would want to think tangentially, or to think unconventionally. The MH370 party is the best example. Everyone is still listening to the chief clown. No one is willing to think different and look at alternative and more logical explanations. Yes, they will continue to waste time and precious resources playing in the Antarctic like silly boys in search of a red herring.

Kopi Level - Green