MH370 – The crime of deceiving the world

What can be more wicked than deceiving the families of the victims of a tragedy and leading them into a wild goose chase? The act of shooting down a civilian aircraft or hijacking it, or murdering all its passengers is already a barbaric act. But it is worse to mislead the families and govts to send their search parties in God knows where and telling them that was where the aircraft sank. How could people with no idea of where the aircraft is be so confident to tell the world that they knew what was happening and where to find the wreck?
 
It is almost one year since the disappearance of the MH370 with 239 passengers on board and a lot of mangosteens. In today’s ST, an Australian, Martin Dolan, now in charge of the search, confidently said the wreckage of MH370 would be found in 3 months. How did he know? John Abbott was equally confident on what he knew and now, after one year, he looked like a clown.
 
Is this Martin Dolan going to be another John Abbott? What did he know, what kind of information did he possess to be cocksure that the wreckage would be found? Why made so many govts spent their resources to go searching in the God forsaken Antarctic Ocean for an aircraft missing in the South China Sea and had no reasons to be there?
 
All the creepy and foolish theories of a mad pilot, suicidal pilot that got nothing better to do than to want to fly to the Antarctic to ditch the aircraft must have been looking very silly today though grudgingly accepted at a time when everyone was grapping for whatever straw available.
 
The real cause of the disappearance of the MH370 and its whereabout are likely to be further from the truth and further from the Antarctic Ocean that the Australians wanted the world to believe in. Come on, what is the logic of the aircraft to be there? Is there any believeable reason for the pilot to want to fly there?
 
What is the truth of this tragedy? Only the wicked people will know and hopefully someone pricked by his conscience would squeal to let the truth be known.
John Abbott and Australia, are you doing the right thing or doing something wicked and criminal to lead those sincere and earnest people on a wild goose chase? Spare a thought on the families of the victims of MH370. If you do not know, please do not mislead the world.
 
One year has passed and the only logically reason, when not a trace could be found, is that the aircraft could be lifted into hyperspace by aliens. This would be a more logical reason than the mad pilot theory.
 
Why is the world’s most sophisticated nation in aviation and space technology keeping so quiet? Why is this little upstart in the Antarctic Ocean thinking it got all the answers? The facts, after one whole year, is that there is not a single thread of evidence to confirm that MH370 was down, sank or blown apart in midair. And there is this assumption that it is lying in the floor of the Antarctic Ocean. How believeable is this?

SGX – a victim of conflicting demands and interests

Sivanithy of Business Times has an article in the Mypaper today discussing about the conflicting interests of shareholders and stakeholders and between the pull of derivatives and equities. The shareholders want more profit and derivatives are the instruments to do just that while equities are no longer able to provide the meat for the profit hungry shareholders. Equities are old fashion and no longer serve their purpose to the profit oriented shareholders in the SGX. In that case would it be a simple solution, remove the non performing equity market and consolidate all resources to the derivatives market for best returns. I am sure the SGX shareholders would love that.
The question is, can the derivatives market exist on its own without the equity market? Possible if the derivatives contracts are written on iron ore, rubber and mickey mouse. There is no need for equities and there is no place for an equity market. Is that true?
 
Why is there a stock market for equities in the first place? What was the primary role of the stock market and is this role no longer relevant and no longer needed? In theory Sivanithy said, ‘the equity market I sof paramount importance as,…at least it provides the economy’s link with the future by allocating scarce resources to their possible uses. What is this paramount role and possible uses? Other than the collateral benefits of an equity industry and the supporting services, the stock market is a source of fund for the industries, to support the growth and expansion of industries. Is this no longer necessary?
 
What are the major contributions of derivatives to the economy other than as another form of gambling chits? The derivative market can exist on its own steam by selling gambling chits based on fictitious non existing commodities, good and services or products. It is a pure gambling business once the link to equities is delinked.
 
The SGX is like a forlorn girl undecided which guy to go with, one stable, solid and conservative but lack the vibrancy and extravagance, and the other all hyped and very lucrative, all glittering tinsels but no substance. Actually the dull and conservative equity market could also be glittering and exciting as it was before. Its attractiveness and usefulness have been hijacked by the advent of derivatives that rode on it but relegated it to the backdrop as old furniture.
 
Whose interests shall prevail? Can the SGX survive and be viable without the equity market or can both exist separately without the linkage that is damaging the primary role of equities and the reason for its existence? Can the SGX have its cake and eat it as well, without destroying the whole equity market and industry and thrives on the fictitious gambling chits called derivatives? Or should it be, can the SGX continue to exist if it does not serve its original purpose to begin with?
 
Why should companies list their shares in an equity market that is dysfunctional and be used as objects of little value to support the derivative market at their expense. Why should the companies pay high listing fees for nothing or even risk losing control and ownership when the value of shares reaches junk status? Why should the supporting investors keep throwing money into an equity market to see the value being eroded by derivatives and algo trading that have no interest in the fundamentals of a business and the intrinsic values of the stocks?
 
I think it is not so much as a conflict of interests between shareholders and stakeholders but an issue of greed with no responsibility on the consequences inflicted to a whole industry, the viability, sustainability and the main reason for the existence of a stock market.

Good news for property/asset owners

The Australian Govt is planning a slate of hikes in fees for foreigners buying properties in Australia. They believe in a level playing field for Australians and to protect the interests of Australians in property ownership. I quote Abbott, ‘This govt is determined to ensure that the aspirational people of our country get the fairest possible go.’ To the rest of the world such policies are short sighted, protectionist, nationalistic and anti free trade but Abbott and the Aussies are going to show them their middle fingers. To the Australians, the world can go to hell. They will protect the interest of Australians first. (Now you know why quitters are crawling back here to praise how good this Sin City is?)
 
If every country is to follow the Australian policies, and many are except the silly ones, Sin City will stand to make a lot of gains when property speculators have no where else to park their money with Sin City stretching out its open arms to receive them. Now Sin City need not even have to make its policies and regulations more attractive. All the rich property speculators will descend onto Sin City and snap up everything they could lay their hands on. Everything is for sale in Sin City.
 
Sinkie property owners and assets owners can be reassured that all their hoardings would go quickly and at very high prices. HDB flat owners too would benefit from seeing their properties appreciate in value as well when the private property prices shoot to the sky. With this golden opportunity opening up, everything could be put on sale. And when all the residential and commercial properties are sold, other national assets could also be tabled, like the MRT, the buses, the ports, the reservoir, the banks, etc etc. I think no more power stations left if I am not mistaken, all already sold.
 
When everything is sold, the islands too could come on board and would fetch really good prices. Sin City would be a haven for property speculators when everything can be bought. And the whole world will look at the Sin model as a great example of free trade, allowing the free market mechanism to determine the value of anything and everything. And all the Sinkies would be sitting on HDB flats that are worth millions.
 
The opportunities to getting rich are so plentiful and so easy that there is no need to work anymore. Just trade assets and sell properties to whoever has the money and offering the highest bid.
 
Boom town coming to Sin City. Just pray that more countries would be like Australia, chasing away investors from buying properties and they will make a beeline here, the shoppers paradise for properties.

A degree course for politician wannabes – Lesson 2

After the first lesson on what is democracy and what is the meaning of serving the people, the second lesson for this course in govt for politician wannabes is about the differences between a republic, a monarchy and a dictatorship.

A monarchy is simple, the right to rule is by birth or by the mandate of heaven. The monarch and his family will rule forever. The people and country and everything in the country are owned by the monarch and his family. His children will become princes and princesses and become monarch to succeed him. And relatives would become dukes, duchess, lords etc etc and paid living expenses as an entitlement.

A dictatorship is simply a country and people seized by an individual or a group of individuals by force and the gun. Should be easy to understand when the dictator or dictatorship just ruled for their own interests and benefits and the people are merely another form of slaves or subjects.

For politician wannabes, the simple descriptions like the above are good enough.

A republic is very different. The country is owned by the people, the citizens, and if they adapt a democratic political system, then the people will elect their representatives to help them run the country on a contract basis, renewable every four or five years. Many citizens of republics know that power corrupts and put a limit to the number of years the elected representatives can be in office. They would also have many rules to prevent any scoundrel from usurping power and turn the republic into a dictatorship or a monarchy.

Politician wannabes in this country must be hammered into them the meaning of a republic, that this island is a republic and is not owned by any party, dictator or dictatorship or any family or individual. The people own this island and are the true masters of the island. And politician wannabes when they are elected to political office must remember that the people who put them into power can remove them from power. And don’t they dare usurp power to treat the republic as their own property.

And they must not forget to write the 1,000 lines, ‘A democracy is a govt of the people, by the people and for the people’ everyday.

Self appointed observer of SMRT breakdown contingency plans

With the train breaking down getting to become a daily affair, it is only a matter of time before I get to have a first hand taste of what it was like being caught in such a situation. And it would be a good opportunity to see how the SMRT staff copes with the demands during a breakdown and how the commuters could be quickly transferred to the shuttle bus services to their destinations.

I boarded the train from Buona Vista on Friday evening towards Jurong East. Everything was normal. Changed to the NS train at Jurong East and was offered a seat by a young lady. Said thank you for the kind offer and waited for the train to move on. An announcement came on that an intruder on the track earlier was cleared and the train would resume normal service. Oh, I didn’t know that, and good that service was resuming.

When the train reached Bukit Batok another announcement came on apologising that there would be no service between Jurong East and Yew Tee as the intruder incident was still not settled. The train cabin light went off and all disembarked.

An intruder was on the track. Hmmm, if no explosive or fireworks, he would be apprehended in no time. Not to worry. Half an hour or so would be over. Not a technical problem. After 10 minutes the platform was almost empty with only a few hopefuls like me eagerly waiting for the train to resume service.  It was 10 pm.

The station control announced that a free shuttle bus was available from Bukit Batok to Yew Tee for commuters. Well, nothing seemed to be moving might as well. Outside the station control room a lady officer was surrounded by angry commuters. She was relieved when I budged in to ask about the shuttle bus, giving her a break. She said no shuttle bus from Batok, only from Jurong East. What the f…! Never mind, small error. Went back up to the platform. Another announcement, same as before, of a shuttle bus available. Went down again, asked the same officer who again said no. Told her this was the second announcement, asked her to check with the male officer inside the office. She checked and confirmed that there was indeed a shuttle bus at the bus terminal.

So some commuters went to the bus terminal, but no sign of a shuttle bus, no waiting point sign, no officer there, no one knew what the hell was happening, where to wait, where was the shuttle bus. The interchange office was closed and no one to ask. All trooped back to station control. Told the officer what was going on, that they must have an officer or a sign telling people where to wait for the bus. She went back into the control centre to check her files. Thought she found the SOP and went to another office trying to get the signs and whatever out. She was trying to sort things out for the next 15 minutes without anything happening while the commuters were getting agitated.

The best part, the male officer kept himself locked in the station control room and placed whatever card boards he could find over the counter window to avoid communicating with the commuters who wanted to know what was going on. He was lucky that the commuters did not throw bricks at the control station. There was a big crowd of commuters getting angrier every second.

By 10.40 pm the lady officer was still struggling to sort herself out with the shuttle bus procedures and another officer arrived to join her, but still getting no where. They simply did not know what to do. The male officer still locked himself in the station control room and looking very busy with his phone. I looked at the TV screen and saw the messages of train arriving/departing and looking normal. Told the lady officer no need to bother, the service should be back to normal soon. And yes it came back a minute later and the gantries were opened for the commuters to resume their journey.

With trains breaking down becoming a normal daily affair, it was unacceptable, and unbelieveable that a SOP was not available, or available but the staff were unfamiliar and did not know what to do. The male officer was happily making his announcements of free bus service but had no clue where and when the shuttle bus would be. And no one thought it was necessary to brief and guide the commuters to the pickup point of the shuttle bus.

Hello Sir, I think a section leader or a platoon sergeant would be able to do a better job managing the commuters and directing them to the shuttle bus pick up point. It does not even need an officer to be present to give orders. But what happened at Bukit Batok was a dismal failure.  The intruder incident started at 9.30 pm and luckily the train service could resume by 10.40 pm.

No one took charge and no one knew what was happening and where the hell was the SOP. The officers sure did not know anything about the SOP or what to do. Maybe that was the reason the male officer hid himself barricaded inside the control room from the commuters. The only plus point was the lady officer, keeping her cool despite angry commuters all over her and trying to do what was necessary. But she must be properly briefed of the shuttle bus service procedures if she is to do her job well.

What is happening, Desmond? No SOP? Or got SOP but officers not briefed or did not know what was in the SOP? Train stoppages are now a routine and the procedures must be have honed to perfection by now given so much real life practised sessions. It was fortunate that many of the commuters took their own initiatives to switch to public buses and paid extra for the journey. Some commuters were also angry for the fares being deducted and wanting to know when they could get their money back.