55 – The age of Insanity

A research paper from the trash bin came to me for my reading on a Sunday morning. Its title, ’55 – The age of Insanity’, is quite mysterious and provocative. It has a list of professors and doctors attached as co contributors to the article. The main author apparently is a young genius but his name, like the rest, has been erased from the paper and I could only briefly make up the initial Dr AS. Even the institution has been struck out from this mysterious paper from the trash bin.

The theme of this paper is about a defective gene PME55 found in true blue Singaporeans born after the war, ie the post war babies or baby boomers. This gene is practically non existent among the generations before the war. The effect of this gene is that it will be activated at the biological age of 55 and anyone with such a defective gene would be morphed into a new person minus all the skills, knowledge and experience of life. It is like a Trojan Horse virus that wiped out the memory and turned the brain into a clean brain or ‘unprogrammed’ brain with no user software inside.

At the critical age of 55, whole generation of true blue Singaporeans would suddenly turned into walking zombies. They could not perform the jobs they were doing yesterday, become completely useless. Regardless of their professions, they will be immediately terminated for the good of the organisations and quickly bungled out of their jobs. And these people, mostly PMEs, because of their blank brains, did not know what is happening to them due to their reduced mental ability. So they left their jobs as a matter of fact and retired from life, neither happy or unhappy and not knowing why.

Some may find jobs that are more suitable to their lower mental ability. According to the paper, the best jobs that are suitable for people affected by PME55 are security guards and taxi drivers. Some may not even be suitable for such jobs and will be retired permanently. No employer would want them. Those who could still find some brain cells tickling could be retrained, put on courses to re-educate them with simple knowledge for some low level jobs. This is about the best that can be done to people affected by this disease.

There are also changes to the characters of these sick people. There will be personality changes. From being highly respected individuals in positions of authority, responsibility, ability and trustworthiness, some would become philanderers, some amorous, some gamblers and some will simply not be able to manage their money and their lives.

The govt knew about this disease. The employers too knew about this. Anyone who knows about this defective gene and its effect will be able to understand what is going on in this city state. Govt policies like retirement age, CPF minimum sums, training programmes, not wasting resources to provide tertiary education to these people, influx of foreign talents, reversed mortgage, annuities etc etc begin to make sense. They are answers and solutions to PME55. Even employment policies are adjusted to take care of PME55.

Fortunately or unfortunately not many people knew about this defective gene and could not understand why certain policies and things are happening in the way they are happening. The defective gene is a state secret. Perhaps that is the reason why the paper was not published and ended up in a thrash bin.

The good thing, the govt is coming out with a slew of policies to take care of the true blue generations of Singaporeans with this gene. Their life savings are protected. There are strict rules against them going to the casinos. There is the Pioneer Generation Package to take care of them too. New manual jobs that are less demanding and taxing on their blank brain cells are created for them so that they can continue to work if they want to enjoy their dignity. Their retirements have been carefully planned to ensure that all their financial needs are well taken care of. They have nothing to worry about even if they lose their jobs at 55. The country will continue to prosper with their replacement from overseas to support them.

In the research papers, the pages on recommendations were all blanks. But now the picture is clearer. Though the recommendations may be missing, the knowledge of the existence of this defective gene clears all the doubts about why things are happening the way it is. There is a new urgency to replace the population with new migrants that don’t have this defective gene that will self destruct true blue Singaporeans at 55.

I am going throw this piece of paper back into the trash bin. No one should be reading it. It is a national secret of this unique city state. Time for kopi.

 Kopi Level -  Yellow

When the dogs forgot that they are dogs

Darkness wrote this story about his Doberman that he brought up from a pup. The Doberman was his best pal and he treated it like a close friend and they had a special relationship, fully confident and trusting each other. One day the dog growled at him for no reason while he was feeding the dog.

This was unacceptable behavior. A dog must never ever think that it could growl at the master. A dog must not be allowed to think it can decide and take matters into his own hand. It could bite if the owner is not careful. You just do not know what is in the mind of a dog. The first sign of disobedience is a signal that the dog could just act and behave like dogs do, and the master could lose control.

He did the right thing. He gave the dog away for his own safety.

The lesson to learn is that when dogs are let loose in the cyberspace, they must still behave like dogs and not to exceed their authority to go wild and bite recklessly at anyone. Once a dog starts to think it can behave wildly like a dog in the wild, it must be taken out, put on a muzzle at least, or like Darkness, put away for good.

Dogs cannot be allowed to run wild and do as they pleased. The master must always be in control, not the dogs. Dogs will always be dogs and will behave like dogs. They are not human and will not have the good qualities of being human. They can be vile.

Kopi Level - Yellow

Sim Lim Square – Singapore’s Wild Wild West for shopping experience

A woman who bought an over-priced phone at Sim Lim Square demanded a refund and was given a bag full of $1,010 coins.

The woman, Miss Zhou, bought an iPhone 6 Plus for $1,600. She was shocked when the shop demanded that she pay another $2,400 for a two year insurance for the phone. You only get this in some unique shops in Singapore.

The shop, Mobile Air, was only willing to give her a $1,000 refund. The Small Claims Tribunal ordered the shop to refund Miss Zhou $1,010.

Miss Zhou was given the money in a bag full of coins. The bag was thrown onto the floor and the shop staff embarrassed her with nasty remarks when she was picking up the coins.

This is the kind of shopping experience one could enjoy from some shops in Sim Lim Square. The Tourist Board should promote this as a new exciting and unforgettable shopping adventure in Singapore’s Wild Wild West shopping centre where anything goes. There is no overcharging of course and no crime committed. Shoppers visiting the centre would have a memorable trip and a memory they would not forget, and will remember the exciting Singapore for a life time.

The full story of Miss Zhou is covered in a number of articles posted in The Real Singapore.

Kopi Level - Green

Tan Su Shan, the world’s best private banker

DBS’ group head of consumer banking and wealth management was voted the world’s best in private banking. This Global Private Banking Awards 2014 is presented by PWM and The Banker, a wealth publication by the Financial Times Group. It was reported that this award is for the best private banks in the world based on growth and performance. This award is certainly different from the World Best University rankings and would not be the subject of credibility discussion.

It is good to know that a Singaporean banker is good enough for such an award. The big question, would she be good enough for the Top Job as CEO of DBS or any local banks? Traditionally, over the last few decades, no Singaporean banker is found to be good enough to be CEO of a local bank, not even thinking of foreign banks. UOB is an exception for exceptional reasons.

Singaporean bankers are noted to be good enough only to be number 3 or 4 or 5 or 6, definitely not good enough to be number one. When Piyush’s time is up, would Tan Su Shan be the next CEO of DBS or would they go around the world, or to the 3^rd world to hunt for another CEO? It would be good if she makes it to the top and bring back some dignity for daft Singaporeans, better than gold medals in sports won by foreigners.

My guess is quite pessimistic. Tharman has acknowledged that we lacked top bankers among the Singaporean breed and they had taken measures to start to train them yesterday for the future, maybe another 20 years to see the fruits. The current ingenious formula is to bring in a foreigner, issued him with a pink IC and called him a Singaporean. Instant tree, instant talent, instant Singaporean.

How long would the dearth of top Singaporean bankers continue to plague this island that is the financial centre of the region and with big dreams of being the financial centre of Asia, but only capable of producing half baked Singaporean bankers that would lose out to bankers from 3^rd world villagers?

This is another Uniquely Strange feature of this strange island with 1^st world pretensions but suffering from a disease known as ‘no local talents’, but a nation of daft. Something is seriously wrong with the gene pool.

Kopi Level - Green

NTU’s Journey from Greatness to the TOP of a Bogus World Universities Ranking Standard.

By MIKOspace

One Summer day in 1987, I hired a fresh Engineering graduate (called him “James” here) from the Nanyang Technological University (NTU). James had graduated from NTU with a First-Class Honours Degree, which was truly outstanding during the 1980s. I vaguely remembered that he said he had actually topped his cohort. “James” was just one of several truly remarkable engineering graduates continuously molded and refined by NTU Engineering Schools. 

NTU began as Nanyang Technological Institute (NTI) in 1981 before becoming a full-fledged University in 1991 with the vision “To Be The University of Business and Industry”.  By April 2001, NTU's research has resulted in 20 spin-off companies with many funded by venture firms, 150 disclosures, 76 patents filed and 30 patents granted. The research papers of its staff and students in refereed international journals had also won numerous awards in international competitions and conferences. 

NTU’s Journey from Greatness began with the advent of “World” Universities Ranking, an essentially commercial profit-making venture by a British organisation.   

In 2008, NTU’s “World” Ranking plunged 16 places from 61 in 2006 to 77 in 2008, or 29 places from 48 in 2003, to join the ranks of relative unknown and undistinguished Universities. The subsequent shake-up of NTU appeared to be the inevitable effect resulting from these “world rankings”, which look at factors such as international outlook and how often other academics cite a faculty’s research.

So, what exactly did NTU do wrong?   Here’s a brief list of NTU’s “wrongdoings in the early 2000s to be relegated:

1. NOT ENOUGH FOREIGN Students - NTU had mostly (more than 94%) Singaporean Students.
2. NOT ENOUGH FOREIGN Professors – NTU had NOT hired more Foreign Professors.
3. TOO MANY STUDENTS – NTU had High Students-Staff Ratio.
4. TOO MUCH EMPHASIS ON INVENTIONS AND SPIN-OFF COMPANIES – NTU had too many Research Papers with Low Citations.
5. REPUTATIONAL SURVEY – NTU was Unknown to Many Academics Worldwide.

In the years that followed, so seduced were we by the New Clothes of “Global” Universities Rankings, a series of measures were embarked on to increase the number of foreign students (at the expense of local Singaporeans?), break various laws so as to reduce the number of Singaporean Professors, to hire even more Foreign Staff.  

Finally, by 2014, NTU was ranked as the Top Youngest University in the World by QS Ranker, and ranking just 39th Worldwide.  Indeed, what a “climb” from 77^th in 2008!  

NTU’s Journey from Greatness to the “bogus” Top of World Universities Rankings has been remarkably as relentless as her early rise from NTI into a NTU as a Great University in just 20 years. In her pursuit of the “bogus” world Universities ranking standards, we are reminded the Moral of Hans Christian Andersen’s story “Emperor’s New Clothes”.

Every child knows the Moral of the story is that one should not believe in every authority. The important thing is to let other people think whatever they want, and not to lose one’s self-esteem by letting others diminish the accolades of our genuine acclaims and true achievements, so that we can lend them our excellent reputation of authenticity and honesty to cover up their lack of credibility, validity and reliability.  

Kopi Level - Green

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Seduction of World Universities Rankings