All Singapore Stuff(ASS)

Singapore - Statutory Board Media Development Authority (MDA) has axed 33 full-time staff today, ST has learned

- More at AllSingaporeStuff.com http://www.allsingaporestuff.com/article/stat-board-mda-retrenches-33-full-time-staff-after-trs-closure
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A MDA staff "Amanda" who declined to give her real name as she was not authorised to speak with the media informed ST that MDA has 41 full-time staff to monitor Fabrications About the PAP Facebook page, Calvin Cheng Facebook page, Mothership.sg and SMRT (Feedback).

"But MDA also hires good honours graduates from local universities. We have 67 full-time graduate staff on superscale pay on 24-hours shift to monitor sonofadud.com and straitstimesreview.com".


The above posted in All Singapore Stuff and reposted in several aggregator sites revealed that the MDA is employing a substantial number of staff just to monitor the social media. I am not sure how true or accurate the information is, assuming that it is true, just to monitor the above mentioned, 108 staff are employed.
 
Assuming the average pay of the staff is $4000 pm, annually each staff will cost at least $60,000 minimum. The 108 staff would thus cost more than $6m annually and likely to be much higher given the fact that many are superscale grades.
 
It is not sure how many sites are being monitored, but the number could go up to the hundreds or thousands. Assuming that 100 sites are being monitored, conservatively, that would mean a budget of $600 million annually! Can this be true? Is this too much to pay just to monitor the social media? How much was actually spent to do this kind of thing and how necessary, and is the money worth spending?
 
How many staff are employed by MDA to do this unproductive work?

Asean - 50 years of peace and stability

The Asean region enjoyed 50 years of peace and stability and the countries made good with the time to pursue economic development that made Asean the up and coming new rich nations of the world. The only blemish during this period of peace and prosperity was the Vietnam War where the Americans attempted to maintain their military presence in the region and to keep Vietnam as a semi colony, replacing the French, Fortunately they were defeated by the Vietnamese and chased out of the region. This was followed up by the nationalists in the Philippines. They took back Subic Naval Base and Clark Air Base from the Americans, leaving the region free of American military bases and free from warfare for the last 50 years.

The founding fathers of Asean were wary of the rivalry between big powers and adopted a policy of neutrality, formalised under the concept of peace, freedom and neutrality or Zopfan. The big powers were kept out of the region and dealt at arms length to prevent them from doing mischief and inciting interstate rivalry among the Asean countries. Asean leaders played the game well and enjoyed the fruit of peace and stability without the big powers messing around in the region.

Today, with silly and ambitious leaders that have forgotten how Asean came about, and the hardearned peace, some of these jokers are itching to go to war, to be heroes and to make dead heroes of their people. War and glory appear to be a very attractive fancy and with the money they wasted on all the military hardware, they wanted to give a good display of the destructive power of the weapons they have paid for, believing that they could kill others and would not be killed. To them war is fun and a very macho thing like in Hollywood. Some have shown tendencies of being trigger happy by shooting at fishing boats and even provoking other countries to engage in arm conflict.

Some Asean states have willingly invited the Americans back to boss around in the region, demanding acceptance as the de facto Empire and calling the shot on regional affairs, appointing themselves as the uninvited policeman of the region, a role that the founding fathers of Asean had rejected and would not allow it to happen. Asean countries can look after themselves and do not need big powers to come here to dictate to them. For the last 50 years this was the case.

What is happening today, with some Asean states happily offering to host American soldiers and unashamingly calling the Americans masters, have turned Asean into the pawns of big power rivalry again. Asean’s neutrality has been compromised and the consequences of forgetting how they got here is to see open military conflict in the region, something that Asean has avoided for so long. The stupidity and shallowness of the Asean leaders would find Asean caught in the crossfire of big power rivalry, a price they have to pay for prostituting to the big powers.

It would be a sad day when the region is embroiled and engulfed by the fire and destruction of war. Asean countries got only themselves to blamed for betraying the principles of their founding fathers. The last 50 years were peaceful. The next 50 years could be war and conflict and their money would be needed to buy more military hardware, their people would become collaterals of wars, and the stability for economic development gone. Asean countries could end up like the Middle East, thanks for inviting the Empire to roost and incite tension and war in the name of peace.

NUS and NTU needs a washing machine

Singapore is very proud of NUS and NTU that have been ranked among the best universities in the world. As an alumnus it is a good feeling to be a member of prestigious institutions even if the rankings have been the subject of ridicules and uncomplimentary remarks. What is important is the aspiration to want to be the best, and for doing so there are many things that must be put right in the process of getting there, even if we are not there.

In brief, without going into an academic discourse, there are four main factors that contributed to the quality of a learning institution, the academic staff, the students, the culture of learning, and the infrastructure. The most difficult to achieve good and respectable quality are the students and the culture. The latter is a complex issue that can prove to be evasive and defeating. As for the students, it is an issue of that is all we got. But today, good students can be bought or brought in from all over the world. If the responsibility of educating the children of the country is secondary, we can buy all the top students from the world to be here. But this is unlikely except when the govt is made up of silly asses that think this is a non country, where the interests of the citizens are expendable. If the children of our citizens are not top material we will give the places to the gentiles of the world.

The quality of the academic staff and the infrastructure are easier to manage. We have the money and can build and provide whatever that is needed. The most advance leading edge equipment and facilities would be made available. As for the academic staff, if we want the best from the world, we have the money, we can even relocate Yale, Princeton, Harvard or Cambridge lock, stock and barrel here. It is only a matter of price.

While we are in blind pursuit of quality and reputation, to create the best learning institutions here, we must not be so blind to bring in the shit and fakes as well. We have our embarrassing moments of fakes in our midst and held in high regards by other fakes who could not tell the difference between a fake and the real stuff. And we also have a lot of creeps and rogues that are hired to beef up the quality of our institutions. Unbelievable! How can the institutions live with fakes, shits and character flawed professors and teaching staff to teach our students?

Some organizations, even govt related, can dismiss fakes and degree mills as no crime, as part and parcel of importing foreigners and living the fakes. But for institutions that are being pep up to be the best among the best, any slipshod or shits must be gotten rid of immediately. There is no room for mediocrity or fakes and flawed personalities if we want to be the best. And one by one the fakes and freaks and shitty characters are revealing themselves. The latest as reported in the TRE, and I quote, ‘NUS assistant law professor Sundram Peter Soosay was convicted by the court yesterday (29 May) of assaulting a 70-year-old cabby, Mr Sun Chun Hua, while drunk.’

Other than the aspiration to be the best institutions of learning, it is madness to have fakes and shits among the academic staff to teach our students. The thought of their existence, and they are given the responsibilities to teach our young undergraduates/post graduates, is simply disgusting. How many of such fakes and shits is still hiding in our world best institutions and being paid world best pay and doing damage to our students? Eventually the reputation of these institutions would cave in. It is very unflattering to be infamous for having fakes and shits as teaching staff and very embarrassing for graduates to have been taught by them.

I recommend the two institutions to buy the best washing machine, those with fuzzy logic, to clean up the shits and fakes in them. Please don’t swear that all is well. We pay top dollars and should be getting the best, not freaks and sluts to shit on our young and impressionable minds. The two institutions have a grave responsibility to do due diligence to the public funds given to them to ensure that we have the best to teach our young. Please do not just believe in the papers and testimonials. I can buy tons of them for a song. Not only there are degree mills, there are also testimonial mills.

When weakness is strength

Goliath took on David and lost. The PAP has recently taken on two Davids and won. Roy and Amos were two little midgets clashing with a behemoth and no one would expect them to do a Goliath killing act. First battle and both lost badly, no fighting chance, no contest. Many would think that would be the end of the two young men, They have absolutely no capital or resources to mount a serious challenge even if given a second chance. This assumption is only partially right. Their lack of capital is in fact their strength. When they have nothing else to look forward to, nothing to lose, and with a nerve tough as steel, they would not accept defeat and crawl away. They stood up to fight, with everything they got. Nothing is going to stop them now.

Roy has declared war and going for broke. Amos had refused any probation and refused to be sent to reformative training. He demanded to be sent to jail. This is something the authority never expected. He is fearless. When a jail sentence is nothing to fear, what else can frighten him, what will he be afraid of, who will he be afraid of? Roy and Amos are like two droids programmed just to fight, with their minds focused to take their enemies down, and to go down with their enemies.

The suicide bombers are fearless and cannot be stopped when they chose to die with their enemies. Roy and Amos are in some ways like the fearless suicide bombers. You may call them fanatical, so what? They know what they are up to, they know the stakes involved. The ordinary guys would have many things to hold him back, many things to think about and would end up as kiasu, kiasi and kia cheng hu. Anyone thinks Roy and Amos would fit into this mould to be cowed and go down on their knees?

Roy is talking more and louder. He is doing a lot of research and has just posted another long article in his blog and reposted in the TRE titled ‘How the PAP turned against the Singaporeans from the mid 80s’. This is a fairly long piece but interesting to read. And so is Amos, and his postings. He refused to be gagged. He will keep talking and talking as freely as he wants, to say his peace. It is unbelievable for a boy of his tender age to take on the establishment and the masses of unthinking adults baying for his blood, and making everyone looking so evil.

The PAP must have regretted picking on these two young men thinking it would be a piece of cake, They are sinking into a quagmire. The most they can do is to keep suing them and keep mounting on the pressure, hoping that they would break or run away. They didn’t and are standing their ground to fight on with everything they got. Using the law and legal institutions against two young men whose crimes are questionable in the eyes of the public would backfire.

The two are turning their weaknesses into strength in a never ending battle against all odds. They will go down, but not pulling the behemoth down with them.

Asia and Asean beware – The Americans are here to start a war

The peace in Asia and SE Asia is at risk. The Americans have shown their
true intent in its pivot to Asia, to dominate the region as the Empire.
They are claiming the right to meddle in the affairs in the region, to
bully the countries here, to throw their weight around to show that they
are the Number One Gangster in the region. Accept American hegemony or else
get a black eye.

The Americans tried the insidious way of allowing their running dogs like
Japan and the Pinoys to do the barking and biting. They tried to rope in
the South Koreans, the Indians, the Indonesians, the Malaysians and other
Asean countries, to be part of the gang to go against China and any other
country challenging their supremacy. They failed to get these countries to
be part of their pointman in a war against China.

Asian and Asean countries do not want war. They know how destructive and
dangerous war can be to their countries and people. War means the Americans
would triumph and they will forever be under the control of the American
Empire. They would not want to be used and manipulated by the Americans to
fight and die for the Americans. They are staying out.


Now the Americans are showing their hand, having failed to get the hands of
other Asian and Asean countries to do their fighting. It is now all hands
on the table, the Americans, the Japanese and the Pinoys against China who
would likely bring in the Russians and the North Koreans. After setting the
Middle East on fire, the Americans are here in South East Asia to start
another fire. This time this fire is going to be very big and could burn
the whole world when it is lit.

The Americans are dangerous, and are telling the Asian and Asean states
that it would use brute force against anyone refusing to acknowledge the
Empire is in charge.  They are demanding that China stopped their land
reclamation immediately. China would show them their middle finger for
sure.

The situation now is Redcon 2. The gangsters have spoken. Their warships and weapons of war are here.

The Americans are here to rule. Forget about the pivot. Forget about the
crap of protecting freedom of navigation and over flight.  It is Pax Americana that they are here for. And they are daring China for a fight in China's backyard. This is a declaration of war.

Asian and Asean countries must prepare for war in the region, a war brought
about by the Evil Empire that claimed to come in peace and for peace, but a
peace under its domination.

Bow everyone or be flattened. You are with me or against me. Now is the
time for the Asian and Asean countries that have been buying and upgrading
their military arsenal to see if they are of any use in the face of a big
bully.