Redbean Soup serving anytime soon

Everything is settled and the book is in the process of being printed. The printer has promised to deliver by 15 Jul or earlier, which means at the latest early next week.

There will be 54 articles as planned but not 200 pages. My intent was for 200 pages and I had to remove several articles earlier to fit to size. The printer has somehow redone the layout and squeezed the text all into 132 pages, very compact. I should have put back the articles I removed earlier but it would delay the completion date further. Inexperience makes a big difference. Will learn from this and not to repeat it in the next few books in the series, if the sales are good and I get to publish them.

For those who have ordered the book, I will autograph them and mail them to the addresses given. Anyone who need to make any changes, please email me at redbeansg@yahoo.com. For those who ordered multiple copies, please let me know how you want them to be autographed.

The book should be available by next week latest. I only print a small limited copies, for those who have not ordered, please make your orders asap as it would be on a first come first serve basis.

The book is recommended reading for politicians of all parties, colours and stripes as well as civil servants and uniformed services. University students and those taking their A and O levels will find it helpful in their  GP and English papers. And all Singaporeans who are interested in the affairs of our country, the book will set you thinking about what is going on and how things should be.

Cheers
Redbean

PS. Printer said the book will also be available at the National Library. I think this is a standard requirement.

Shanghai and Hongkong stock exchanges, a time to learn the hard way

The recent run up in the Shanghai and Hongkong stock markets and the tumbles they took in the last few days are exactly the kind of things they should be wary of and to avoid at all cost.  It is elementary, set pieces that do not need much intelligence to know that it will crash.  When PEs are too high, when there is irrational exuberance and a big bubble, what would you expect?

The high manipulation of stock markets, when the big boys are able to use their war chests, working in cahoot as a gang, to drive up and down markets, are dangerous to stock market operators and small investors. The big sharks are there to gobble up everything, including the bones if they are left free to do as they liked.

The Shanghai and Hongkong exchanges have been under tremendous pressure by the western manipulators using the excuse of liberalization and non interference as the new international norms of exchanges, to allow them to do as they pleased. Both exchanges should not be seduced and conned into allowing these international financial bandits to run wild in their exchanges. They should not forget the basics of a stock exchange and proper supervision to stop wild manipulations of the market.

The most dangerous things to come, and they are knocking at the doors, are derivatives and computer assisted tradings like algo and HFT. The former is anything but rigged gambling and the latter is simply unfair trading. Both are crimes against the innocent investors.

Take heed, learn from the current upheavals and steer a path that is fair and sustainable for the growth and proper functioning of stock markets. Do no allow the stock market to be turned into free wheeling casinos under the full control of these financial bandits. They are very destructive and will drive stock markets to their early demise. Never allow the bandits a free hand to do as they pleased.

A good example is the Singapore stock market. It still does not know what is going on or in a state of denial.

NTUC to help PMEs to be competitive? MOM also in the picture

‘Speaking at the launch of a Master Class series by NTUC’s Employment and Employability Institute (e2i) last Friday (3 Jul), NTUC Secretary-General Chan Chun Sing told the audience that NTUC is keen to help Singapore professionals, managers and executives (PMEs) improve their skills and widen their networks so that they can compete better on the international stage.

“As our economy transforms, more and more of our people will be in the PME sectors, and (it) is also NTUC’s job to make sure that we help our PMEs remain competitive and stay ahead of the competition,” he said.

I copy this paragraph from an article in the TRE titled, ‘Chan: NTUC to help PMEs compete internationally. And my immediate reactions were, what was he smoking, where did he come from? Does he know what is happening on the ground? Does he know what he is saying?

Our PMEs are losing out to fakes and cheats and foreigners with dubious qualifications from funny universities. Do they stand a chance competing internationally? It is like unable to compete in a pond and wanting to compete in the ocean?  What is this e2i magic? Is it recognisable by the world, better than degrees from top universities?

I am dumbfounded.

The comments following the article said it all. And all I can say is ‘笑话’, he can’t be serious? Or is he trying to say competing with international talents here?

Swee Say appears to have a better grasp of the problems. He is going after companies with a poor Singaporean core. The MOM is going to scrutinize the employment pass applications and the qualifications of the applicants. Fakes and forged degrees will not be tolerated. IDA please take note. There are several other measures Swee Say is doing that may work, some temporary like stop gap measures, but generally he is looking in the right direction.

It is discrimination and fakes, stupid. Unless these two devils are pulled out with their roots, every measure will be superficial and will be seen as a gimmick to appease the people in lieu of the GE.

What I would like to see is a 3 month amnesty for all the fakes and forged degree holders to resign and go home. After this grace period, the MOM would go down hard on fake degrees, degree mill degrees and forged degrees. Anyone caught will be subject to heavy fines and imprisonment. The heavy fines are needed to crawl back the amount of dubious salary earned from their crimes. And they could pay directly from their pockets or sell their properties. Many fakes and cheats have already sunk roots by buying into properties here thinking that the MOM would not be looking into history as they have been here for a long time and their trails have been well covered. Fakes and forged degrees are just that and have to be combed and removed no matter how long they have been here and hiding under a thick layer of new legitimacy.

And to mean business, all organizations with 200 staff and above must employed Singaporeans as their HR managers to ensure that govt policies are not swept under the carpet or just paying lip service and mugging around with the numbers and distortions.

Is Swee Say up to it to implement serious and real measures to rid this scourge once and for all? If these two evils are removed, there is no need for the NTUC e2i training to compete internationally. There will be plenty of jobs awaiting our very own PMEs. PME unemployment rate only 2.7%? Who’s kidding? What about giving up searching or underemployment?

The foreign cheats and fakes are watching. So are the Singaporeans. Any half baked measures, half hearted measures, and wayang for the sake of the GE would stand up sorely like a sore thumb. The govt, the MOM and Swee Say need to regain the trust of the people and not be a joke to the foreigners, thinking they can continue to cheat them like before, silly buggers didn’t know what is happening and so easy to con..

Let’s see what Swee Say and his MOM will do to up the stake.

Notable quotes :Lee Kuan Yew 1984 National Day Rally

'Every thing works, whether its water, electricity, gas, telephone, telexes, it just has to work. If it doesn't work, I want to know why, and if I am not satisfied, and I often was not, the chief goes, and I have to find another chief. Firing the chief is very simple.'

Changing times and changing ethos, work ethics and expectations.

Amos Yee – A few pertinent questions

'The psychiatrist who conducted the court-ordered evaluation of the youth at the Institute of Mental Health, Dr Cai Yimin, is also Emeritus Consultant, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Institute of Mental Health.’ This is extracted from a post by Andrew Loh in TOC.

The first question many have been asking is the need for someone to be remanded in IMH for a suspected case of Autism Spectrum Disease which is not a mental illness. Is this the case for all patients suspected of ASD to be locked up in IMH and in Ward 7? Or is Amos Yee the first such suspect to be held in IMH?

The second question is the time needed to make a thorough test on Amos Yee to determine his condition? Does it need 2 weeks to do so? As the final finding has shown that the psychiatrist had found Amos to be normal, no mental illness, was this conclusion made at the end of 2 weeks or the result was known earlier?

If Amos Yee was found to be normal earlier, would it not be the duty of the examining psychiatrist to remove him from IMH at the soonest possible? Isn’t it right not to keep a normal person a day or an hour or a minute more in Ward 7, a place used to hold serious mental patients?

When was Amos Yee diagnosed to be clean and normal and when was he removed from IMH Ward 7? Is there anything wrong to keep him a minute longer in Ward 7 when he should be moved out as quickly as possible?