The American bully at it again

Since the downing of an American reconnaissance plane in Hainan Island in 2001, things got quiet down for a while. The Americans have always been flying spy missions over China and only stopped after several U2s were shot down in the 1960s. Spying missions were than restricted to the coastal waters and airspace of eastern China and have been going on continuously as if telling and taunting China that it can’t do anything about it. The seas and airspace around China are the playground of the American military aircraft and ships, so said the Empire.
 
All these hostile military missions were hardly reported by the western media, a self censorship not to highlight the provocative acts of the Americans. What would happen if the Russians or Chinese were to fly their spy planes along the western American coasts? China has always been branded as becoming more assertive when it flies its military craft, air and sea, in its territorial waters and airspace. If China would to fly its aircraft along American coast, would the Americans be crying war? Of course they will, and the whole western media will be thumping down China as a hostile nation.
 
What the fuck are the Americans doing, flying spy missions along the Chinese coasts like it is their playground and think it is acceptable? China is now able to take them down and would not allow the Americans to go on spying and teasing them. The bullying of China is coming to an end. The whole world must know that the real bully is the Americans. And the Americans are not doing it only to China but to the rest of the world, spying on them in all ways and thumping their nose at the rest of the world.
 
The recent confrontation in the airspace of Hainan Island is being trumped by the Americans that it was the fault of the Chinese. That the Americans can fly along Chinese territories to spy on China and China must not do anything about it. This kind of unfriendly acts would have to come to an end. The Chinese will increasingly push back the Americans to the Americas. This is Asia and China will guard its airspace and territorial seas like the Americans will guard theirs.
 
Whatever the Americans are doing to China, China will do the same to the Americans one day. The Chinese and the Americans are meeting to talk about this incident. It is best that the American bully starts to stop such unfriendly acts to another superpower. China must tell the Americans both can play the game. If the Americans persist in such unfriendly acts, China would do the same. Would the Americans be happy if the Chinese would to fly their planes and sail their ships along the American coasts? Yes, the Chinese is catching up with the Americans militarily and would catch up with the Americans in their unfriendly acts as well if the Americans do not stop their nonsense. The days when the Americans can bully the Chinese are over.
 
What occurred a couple of days ago over Hainan will be repeated until the Americans stop their unfriendly acts. The bully must not be allowed to keep on bullying other countries. The bully must be stopped. The bully does not own the world. Pax Americana is coming to an end. America would have to retreat to be the bully of the Americas, and perhaps Europe and Africa. East Asia will not be its playground with impunity for long.

Kopi Level - Green

In praise of non grads – What’s the agenda?

University degrees not necessary have been trumped around for a while with ministers talking about better prospects as hawkers and crane drivers and being more desirable. What’s the point of a degree when you cannot eat it or cannot get a job? After what was spoken at the NDR, the praising for non uni grads, particularly poly grads, took on more steam. It is like everything about university education is wrong and the future is in poly grads and non grads. There is no doubt that poly grads have an important role in the economy and some could do very well. They were the stars during the semi conductor era when Singapore was a manufacturing hub and many rose to become CEOs of multinationals.
 
Things have changed, jobs have changed, the employers have changed, govt policies have changed, and the new animal, foreigners, have dominated the employment scene as employers, recruitment agents and as the preferred sources of talents. We have seen many PMEs being booted out of their jobs in their primes and unable to find another job as the foreigners took over. Our local university grads are found to be either dumb, not smart enough or trained to unemployment or with unsuitable marketable skills.
 
And we have something like 6 universities and more joint universities instead of just the Singapore University and NTU. This could be just one of the reasons, over production of graduates. Like Douglas Chua said in the ST forum, education policy needs a rethink, ‘it has either been overdone, resulting in an oversupply of graduates, or its current benefits are not as relevant to our open, pragmatic economy’. This is a most surprising statement from a forumer.
 
What the hell is going on? The govt does not know what it was doing and messing up education again? On one hand, so many universities were set up and on the other hand saying there is an oversupply and we don’t really need graduates from the universities but poly grads or non grads?
 
I can think of another reason. Since our local graduates are not marketable or employable, and our citizens are good only in technical and lower management jobs, and only foreigners are good and preferred for top jobs, yes, it is only pragmatic to cut down on university education. We don’t need so many local graduates and universities. We only need to import all the talents that we need. I think this is a good policy. We can then either close down a few of the universities and save some money and land. Or perhaps these universities can be turned strictly into commercial enterprises, be self funding and self sustaining, with the highly paid foreign lecturers and professors being paid by the fees from foreign students. The scaling back is good and natural. We would be self sufficient in having local hawkers too, not dependent on PRC hawkers. And we can go back to the days of SU and NTU to provide the few grads we need.
 
Do I make any sense? Are we really going to go the non uni road, to produce more non uni grads and be dependent on foreign uni grads for our top jobs, management jobs?
 
What do you think? What is the new education policy? What are the employment opportunities for our average local talents, the Ah Bengs, Ahmads and Aruns?

Kopi Level - Green

Singaporean First Party - A new party is formed

PRESS RELEASE

Dear fellow Singaporeans, friends and supporters,

I am pleased to announce that SINGAPOREANS FIRST has been successfully registered as a society by the Registry of Societies. Following the registration, we submitted our proposed party symbol for approval. We expect the process to take a few weeks. Until it is approved, we cannot make use of the party logo.

We can now conduct activities of an approved political party. We need members to help us. If you share our beliefs and values (as stated in our Manifesto here), please join us by filling up this SINGAPOREANS FIRST MEMBERSHIP FORM

In the months ahead, we will be planning a series of activities leading up to the next General Election. We welcome ideas from all Singaporeans. You can approach any of the members of the protem committee listed below:

Chairman : Dr Ang Yong Guan,
Vice chairman : Tan Peng Ann,
Secretary-General : Tan Jee Say,
Assistant-Secretary General : Loke Pak Hoe,
Treasurer : Dr David Foo Ming Jin,
Assistant Treasurer : Fatimah Akhtar,
Members : Michael Chia, Fahmi Rais, Winston Lim, David Tan.

We look forward to your support.

Tan Jee Say
Singaporeans First Party

Kopi Level - Green

The Singapore Dream

I am not calling this the Singaporean Dream for good reason. Some Singaporeans have their dreams fulfilled and living very very well indeed. For the majority of the Singaporeans, the Singapore Dream is beginning to turn into a bad dream. For a start, many would need govt assistance in order to make life bearable. Their life savings will not be enough to sustain them to their last days. Their dreams of car ownership, private properties are as good as day dreaming. Their dreams of happily retired with little worries to watch the sunset would not happen as they would need to work to have money to live after retirement age. And their dreams of dying in their own homes could also be in jeopardy.
 
The Singapore Dream is meant for foreigners. Many foreigners are here to live their Singapore Dreams, from the rich westerners to the workers of the 3rd World countries. Many have their Singapore Dreams fulfilled. Many came here poor and returned home rich. Many could not find employment at home but got good jobs here to live a life they could never dream of in their home countries.
 
At the rate it is going, millions of foreigners will be thankful for the opportunities to live out the Singapore Dream. Unfortunately many Singaporeans would have their Singapore Dream dashed, or made so much difficult to become true. To every foreigner stepping foot on this island there is hope, and many will succeed in varying degrees, to better their lives. Many Singaporeans will live their lives disappointed and full of regrets at the end of the day. Many will come nothing and leave nothing, not even have a HDB flat to bequeath to their children after all the downgradings. They need to trade the HDB flat for some stipends for their last days.
 
What an irony. Singaporeans could work for a whole life, save for a whole life, but ended up with nothing. Foreigners could be here for a few years and return home rich. Look at the queue of fortune hunters outside the door. And some of these foreigners are threatening to go elsewhere, to give up their Singapore Dream if the govt introduces more favourable policies for the citizens to make the Singapore Dream bearable.

Kopi Level - Green

CPF – Still didn’t get it

After two protests and a third last week, and a fourth in September, the Govt does not seem to get the message that the CPF is the people’s money and they want it back, not another miserable 20%. The Govt is still thinking that it has the right to take over the management of the people’s life savings, and can do as it pleases.
 
Why is the Govt adopting this deaf frog attitude and ignoring the people’s cry and risking losing the support of the people? Let me guess. It really does not think there is anything wrong with taking over the people’s life savings. The Govt has the right to do so. Another possible reason is the arrogance that the people cannot do anything about it no matter how wronged and how angry they were. We are the Govt and the people have to live with it, at least until it is booted in the next GE. Of course the Govt does not think so and must believe that the majority of the people would not mind at all.
 
The third reason is that it is desperate and in need of money despite the claim of having hundreds of billions in the reserve. The persistence to hold on to the people’s money is wrong, but the Govt has no choice. Returning the money to the people at 55 is no go, not an option. Die die it must grab hold to the money. It can ‘no hew’ the people and even alienating a big number of voters. So be it. The situation is dire if the CPF money is returned to the people. It is a case of no choice, no way out.
 
What could be the real reason behind this aloof and arrogant decision to hold on to the people’s money despite the growing anger is puzzling. Politically it is unsound and unwise, and suicidal. The party cannot afford to take such a high risk at this moment and pretends that it is alright to do so.
 
What about the stand of the various ministers and MPs? Do they agree that this is an acceptable thing to do, a right thing to do, or an expediency that is a do or die option? Several ex MPs and top civil servants have this habit of saying that they did not agree to some policies when they were in office but only saying it out after leaving office. With the CPF issue a hot potato now, the ministers and MPs do not have the luxury to remain reticent and thinking that they could say their piece when out of office. They are in it, agree to the policy and supporting it, or they are not. By keeping quiet, they are telling the people they are for the policy. They support the withholding of the people’s life savings without the consent of the people, and saying yes when the people are protesting and saying no. This violation of a fundamental principle, that the Govt can unilaterally take hold of the people’s money and do as it likes, under whatever flimsy excuse, is indefensible. There is no good reason, no justifiable reason, to take the people’s money from them.
 
The next GE would see this principle being put to the test. It would be the main issue in the election with the people voting for or against it. It would be the deciding factor.

Kopi Level - Green