Xi Jinping – Basic salary $2450 per month

Xi Jinping’s salary got a big boost, a 62% increase from 7,020 yuan to 11,385 yuan($2,450). It was about $1,500 pm before the raise. In the most expensive city in Asia, Singapore, $1,500 pm is below poverty line. Ok, Ok, some said $1,000 can buy a public flat. So feel free to listen to whoever you want to believe in. But a household income of $3,000 pm will qualify for govt assistance in many things in Singapore.
 
Just wondering how would Xi Jinping, the President of PRC is going to survive with that kind of salary if he is to come here for a holiday. Our minister will quit if they did not get their million dollar salaries. Why would Xi Jinping accept this kind of pittance salary and will to work happily without telling the Chinese people that he is making a huge financial sacrifice for accepting the job?
 
I would like to suggest to the Chinese people to petition their govt to pay their President at least $10,000 pm. It may not be much, but at least he would be able to live more reasonably if he wants to retire in Sin City. Of course at $10,000 pm it would not do much for his dignity here. But he can remain anonymous and live quietly in a public flat.
 
It is outrageous to pay the President of PRC $2,450 pm as basic salary. My part time MP’s allowance is $16,000 pm, not counting his proper income and the director’s fees he is collecting.

Hng Khiang: Singapore will benefit from lower oil prices

This must be true. How can it not be went the cost of oil goes down and industries paying for lower oil cannot benefit from it? SIA is a big beneficiary of low oil prices. All transportation companies using oil as fuel will have lower operating cost which will translate to higher profit margin. Taxi operators, bus and train operators. School buses, heavy industries that uses oil and electrical power must also enjoy big savings.
 
On a personal basis, car owners must by paying must lower petrol prices at the pump. I can vouch for that as my petrol bill is coming down. And surely train and bus commuters must also be direct beneficiaries of lower oil prices.
 
Everyone must be waiting eagerly for bus and train fares to fall. Petrol companies have been slow but eventually have to lower pump prices. Just wait, the bus and train companies are slow but the prices must come down. This has proven not to be with this morning’s announcement that public transport fares will rise by 1 ot 10 cents.
 
I think it will need a super genius to explain why bus and train fares must go up when oil prices gone down by almost 50%. And it would need an exceptional idiotic people to believe the reasoning is sensible and logical. It can only happen in a country where the leaders are gifted with super intelligence and the people are so daft that they would believe and accept every disingenuous reasons coming from the leaders. And the leaders knew they could get away with it and the people would not be able to do anything about it, not even voting them out of the govt. Because the leaders knew that the people idolized them and wanted them to be the rulers come what may.
 
And some people are very happy with the increases, especially those that are not taking public transport or are high income earners. What is a few cents? See, the commuters are benefitting from lower oil prices by having lower fare hikes. And they are exclaiming, 'Heng ah, or else they will have to pay much more.' So lucky, so grateful for the little mercy.

ISIS – A chilling message

Reuters and AFP reported that ISIS is demanding $270m for the lives of two Japanese captured by them, a Haruna Yukawa and a Kenji Goto. The message, ‘To the Prime Minister of Japan: Although you are more than 8,500km away from(ISIS), you willingly have volunteered to take part in this crusade.’
 
According to the newpaper report, ‘Abe has pledged around US$200 million in non military assistance for countries battling ISIS.
 
Fighting a war is fun when one is on the winning side and with a lot of heroes and heroic stories to tell and to cheer. When you have your own people captured and waiting for their throats to be slit on TV, it is no fun any more.
 
This is a very chilling message to all the heroics and war advocates. Of course Abe will not be fighting and neither his children will be fighting and risking their lives. Neither will be the children of Japanese politicians be sent to fight the ISIS, like the American boys and girls.

Let Freedom Reign – Paris 2015

By MIKOspace

Freedom Speaks: “I am not Charlie; My name is not Charlie”.

Nearly 2 weeks after the 7 January attack on Charlie Hebdo [or Weekly Charlie], the French satirical magazine, my good friend Freedom finally spoke: “My name is NOT Charlie!” [French: “Mon nom n'est pas Charlie”]

In the aftermath of the terrorist attack on Charlie Hebdo office killing 12 people and injuring another 11, a Police Officer was also killed by the same gunmen.

On 11 January, a Paris rally for national unity was attended by about two million people, and 3.7 million people also joined similar demonstrations across France. The phrase “Je suis Charlie” (French for "I am Charlie") was a common slogan of support at the rallies and in social media.

A Clash of Fanatics
Charlie Hebdo is a satirical weekly magazine that features cartoons, reports, polemics, and jokes. The publication is intentionally irreverent to shock and offend, and is strongly secularist, anti-religious and left-wing; and publishes articles that deliberately mock far-right politics, every religion, politician, and social group.

The Truth of the murders in Paris on 7 January and the days following has little to do with the courage of freedom fighters or the fervency of extremist religious defenders. It is about both violence and blasphemy, or more accurately, a violent response to blasphemy. A celebration of Charlie Hebdo is nothing more than a celebration of the clash of fanaticism when freedom fanatics meet extremist religious fanatics.

It is unfortunate that this clash of fanatics is elevated to the high moral ground of freedom and democracy.

The greatest exercise of freedom is the exercise of self-restraint. Self-restraint is not censorship. Self-restraint is wisdom acting out of common human decency and consideration. While free speech is a natural right, self-restraint should be regarded as a virtue.

Forgotten Hero of Paris’ Attacks
In the misdirected frenzy to celebrate free speech, few journalists and newspapers remember French National Police Officer Ahmed Merabet, 42, who was shot in the head in cold blood outside the magazine offices. Ahmed Merabet, a Muslim, was the first police officer at the scene of the Charlie Hebdo attack.

One Twitter [ID@Aboujahjah] said: “I am not Charlie, I am Ahmed the dead cop. Charlie ridiculed my faith and culture and I died defending his right to do so.”

And in celebrating Ahmed Merabet’s sacrifice in the line of duty, killed by gunmen who profess to share his same religion, and in the cause of free speech and democracy, Charlie Hebdo as well as the many Journalists, Newspapers, Politicians and others who should know better decided that the best way to honour Ahmed is to blaspheme his beloved Prophet, again!

Such is the twisted and contorted understanding of freedom, free speech and democracy even as one enters Charlie Hebdo’s warped personality full of resentment, disdain and contempt for French aristocracy, power elites and privileged class, and even its rejection of God.

The Cartoon World of Charlie Hebdo
Charlie Hebdo’s world is its own cartoon world created out of the freedom it enjoys. It has no real world reference. Charlie Hebdo does not have the freedom to insist that others living outside its world must accept its worldview interpretation of the true reality out there where the vast majority of us live, albeit in our own self-constructed worlds. At the very least, our worlds are NOT cartoon worlds. In our worlds, real people live, love, laugh, play, work, get angry with one another and eventually die.

Charlie Hebdo: “… every time that we draw a cartoon of a prophet, every time that we draw a cartoon of God, we defend the freedom of religion” is a good example of its cartoon-world’s convoluted logic.
Charlie Hebdo further added: “We only defend but one thing: Freedom, our freedom, secularism, freedom of conscience and democracy”.

How sad indeed when one defines freedom so narrowly to limit freedom’s boundless imagination by excluding the spiritual and humanistic values and beliefs which have created commonwealths of nations and races based on the rights and freedom bitterly and bloodily won in the French Revolution upon the founding values of “Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité” or “Freedom, Equality and Brotherhood (or Community)”.

Fortunately for most of us, but unfortunately for those who died in the attack, we do not live in the narrow Charlie Hebdo’s world of limited Freedom. Outside Charlie Hebdo, ours is a free world that embraces a more holistic freedom to respect and appreciate diversity and differences, exercising restraint to recognize their individual sensitivities and to leverage our cherished freedom rights to build up goodwill and harmonious relationship within and among our communities regardless of race, language and religion.

Ask not what Freedom is.
Freedom is not just a sweet and desirable concept, it is also pure energy. Like the sun, it can give life. It can also be even more destructive than a tidal tsunami or an erupting volcano.

Freedom is what Freedom does. It is not about what Freedom can do. Freedom can do anything and everything! Rather, it is what you can achieve with Freedom. Using Freedom to tear down whatever delightful, endearing, inspiring affection, meaningful, cherishable, or even beguiling, appealing and enchanting without any constructive regard for the sensibility of the beholder is a blatant misuse and abuse of Freedom. One should simply speak or propagate whatever the greater Truths with great Love and Compassion. The impact of Freedom in enlarging the awareness of Truth assures its own longevity. Remember Freedom says: “My name is NOT Charlie!”


Read Full Article:
Paris 2015 – Let Freedom Reign

Medishield Life – A laudable effort but…

I would like to applaud the govt and the committee tasked with the job to come out with a reasonable, practical and affordable national medical insurance scheme. I still have many misgivings but this is a good start to protect the people from the robbers holding them at ransom, demanding money or their lives. There are just too many frightening and frivolous stories of ‘sick’ people being cheated and fleeced by medical professionals for their ‘medical’ conditions. The Medishield Life Insurance scheme would give the people some peace of mind and comfort in an otherwise uncontrollable medical industry with runaway fees that it will end up like choosing between staying alive and be bankrupt or die.
 
The available details on the premiums payable and the coverage look reasonable and fair without being extravagant on either side but still need some fine tuning. Below are a few points that I hope the govt would address or be accused of using the Medishield as an excuse for money grabbing and raiding the CPF.
 
1. There must be a cut off age for payment of premium. The govt cannot expect people to keep on paying premiums if they live to 100 years or 200 years. A reasonable cut off age like 80 should be applied and those above this age should still be covered without having to continue paying the premiums. Not everyone is a minister or chairman of GLCs and can collect millions to 80 or 90 years old. Many would have retired or lost their jobs by 55 or 60. How are they going to pay the premiums when they have no income and every cent in their savings is needed to tie over their daily living expenses?
 
2. There would not be many living after 80 and not many would need expensive medical treatments. The state must take over the responsibility of looking after the very senior citizens. The state can afford to. Senior citizens are not going to go for expensive heart by pass or organ transplant. Or certain exclusion clauses can be added to exclude such treatments but still provide the basic medical needs for free.
 
3. Excess premiums collected should be ploughed back to the scheme to lower the premiums payable.
 
4. It is necessary to have laws to ensure those who can pay to pay. But the govt must know that a medical insurance is unlike a vehicle insurance. The latter is needed as the driver can hurt and kill. The only person that can be hurt by not paying medical premium is the payer himself. Why criminalise the non payment of premiums across the board? Many of the jobless seniors would become criminals as many would not be able to pay without an income. This part needs to be carefully reviewed to avoid turning the seniors into criminals. Heard of compassion and honouring the grandpas and grandmas?
 
5. There is also a need to control medical fees charged by govt hospitals or the Medishield will become like a dog chasing its tail. The medical profession must not have a free hand to write their own pay cheques, particularly in govt hospitals. If there is no cap on this, a rogue govt can manipulate rising fees to raise premiums as and when they want.
 
6. As a compulsory universal insurance scheme, the premiums must be much lower than a normal premium or the existing medishield premium. It must be with the whole population paying for it. And it must be able to modify the coverage for those 80 and above and not needing them to pay for their entire life. This is simply unacceptable. It is crippling to the finances of the oldies and is as good as robbing the grandpas and grandmas. How can anyone conceive of such an action without feeling mean and evil? Where is your conscience?
 
I would just raise these few points and let the MPs that are supposed to be looking after the interest of the people to do the necessary. They cannot be seen as against the people. This is not a party issue and they must speak freely, speak their minds for the people, for once. The voters must watch every MP/Minister closely to see if they are for the people or against the people and giving lip service to serving the people. Watch those who vote for making the oldies pay and pay until they die.