Rip Van Winkle awakes

Winkle has just woke up from his long slumber and he told me of his astonishment at the changes he saw in the island. When he took the train he said he was surrounded by foreigners all over. He tried very hard to find a familiar Singaporean face but could hardly see one. He said he felt strange and uncomfortable. Where are the Singaporeans?

He went shopping  and found out that all the sales staff serving him were foreigners. The only consideration was that they were very helpful and friendly. He still asked to be served by a Singaporean by the sales staff could not find one and did not know where have they been to.

He went for his favourite bak kut teh and char kway teow and could not help to notice that the hawkers were all foreigners. Where are the Singaporeans?

Then he went to see his banker to check on his deposits. The bank manager was also a foreigner, the counter staff also foreigners. Where have all the Singaporeans gone? He tried to contact his old kakis but could not find them as well.

After thinking over it for a while then he started to smile. The Singaporeans are so lucky. No need to work, no need to study, all on holiday. And all must be very rich, no need to take public transport. What a great life for Singaporeans. Now the foreigners are here to do all the work, even struggling to get a degree in the university while Singaporeans party and enjoying themselves.

He saw the big advertisement about the big party called SG50.  That must be a party to attend where all the Singaporeans would be there having a ball. Life is so good for the Singaporeans.

GE2015 is a very critical GE for Singaporeans

Singaporeans must take a step back and think very seriously about this GE. It is a life or death situation for Singaporeans. This is the time to determine the future you want for yourself and your children. It is no joking matter and not something that can be left to fate or to fools. If Singaporeans think that we have a good govt in charge and the direction the govt is taking the people forward is the right path, vote for the govt.

If there is doubt, if you are not happy with what you are seeing, not happy with the direction you are moving, it is time to reclaim your country. You cannot afford to wait anymore. Going forward can be the end of the good life for many Singaporeans.

Can we continue to pay the ministers and the elite in the millions? Where do you think the money is coming from? Who can afford to pay hundreds of millions or more to upkeep a bunch of elite with pay that is out of this world and keep mounting up, in numbers and in pay?

Can we afford to keep adding foreigners at such a rate to this little piece of rock? Are you happy with 5.5m, 6.9m or 10m people in this island? What do you want? You must decide, this is your country. This country belongs to every ordinary Singaporean, not to foreigners, not to any one person, not to the nobles and aristocrats. You want this country to be given away without a fight?

Do you want to pay outrageous money for a small little flat for 99 years as your prize possession in life? Do you want to pay half a million or more for something that would revert to zero value?

Do you want to be a minority in your own country? Do you want to have a say about the future of your country, to shape your country or to allow a few individuals to do as they pleased?

Do you want to save for a life time only for your savings to be locked up or to be forced to pay for insurance that you cannot say no to?

Do you want the country’s reserves or surpluses to make your life better or to make the life better for foreigners?

Singaporeans must stand up and make this election counts. You have no room or time for error. You cannot afford to sleep and think that your future is in good hands. But if you do, God bless.

For those who did not like what they are seeing, it is action time. Do something, talk to everyone of your fears and what should be done for the sake of your future and your children’s future. You cannot afford not to do anything if you want a change for the better, to take charge of your life and your country.

You know best what is good for you. Do not let anyone con you into complacency. It is now or never. Not doing anything is not an option. Make your vote counts.

SMRT disruption – Commuters are so lucky

After the biggest train disruption in the history of SMRT, the original suspicion on the root cause of the problem was an ageing train system. And there were recommendations that it was time to replace the train system with a new system and have a fresh new start. A brand new system would likely to be free from breakdowns for the first 20 years. The present system is starting to breakdown after 30 years.

Thankfully  or not thankfully, the team of experts have found the root cause of the disruption. I quote from Business Times, 

‘LTA, SMRT and five overseas experts carried out comprehensive system-wide checks across more than 200 km of train track and components such as the third rail, power cables and the signalling system to identify the root cause of the disruption. They also checked all 141 trains and analysed train logs from the day of the incident.

Their conclusion: a confluence of factors triggered the incident.

In the tunnel between Tanjong Pagar and Raffles Place, water was found dripping onto the third-rail cover near an insulator. Tests on a sample on the cover and on water collected from the tunnel leak found mineral deposits with a high chloride content. The presence of chloride on the insulator, coupled with a wet environment, would have significantly reduced the effectiveness of the insulator.’

Let me put it simply, rain water dripped on the third rail cover near an insulator, or was it over an insulator, and the water contained high level of chloride that caused a power leakage, reducing the effectiveness of the insulator.  And the solution,

‘To minimise the possibility of a similar recurrence, it has started replacing third-rail insulators, starting with those showing signs of electrical resistance weakness. The remaining insulators will be changed under a planned renewal of the third-rail system, to be completed by the first quarter of 2017.’

I confess that I am not an engineer and find it difficult to rationalise the solution to the cause of the problem. There was water seepage, which means either the cover was not covering properly or there was a hole somewhere for water to seep through. If this was an isolated incident, not all the covers were affected, and there was no other seepage of water elsewhere, would it be sufficient to just replace the cover or ensure that the cover is covering the insulator properly to prevent a seepage, or to make sure rain water did not leak into the insulator. Also, how come rain water contained so much chloride or salt equivalent? Normal, natural?

What I don’t understand is that why were there so much salt in the rain water just after a rain? Could it be someone or animal urinated on it? How many pieces were affected? Why not replace the cover at fault? Why the need to change all the insulators if it was the cover that was giving problem? Wasn’t the root cause due to water that contained too much chloride, and if no chloride, even the water would not affect the insulators? Why was it necessary to change all the insulators if the insulators were functioning well without chloride? I heard some comments about weak resistance of the insulators. Are these insulators meant for heavy duty works? A little water or chloride can cause severe system breakdowns?

What is the problem, cover not covering properly, water or chloride and where did the chloride came from? Or was it the insulator that was giving problem? Would it be effective if the source of water is removed or the source of chloride is removed or prevented from contacting the insulators?

Why the need to change all the insulators? I am just asking layman questions. When a switch in the house does not work, you don’t have to change all the switches. If someone spilled water on the switch, you don’t have to change all the switches. I think like a layman and using a layman’s logic. If I want to use power logic or the logic of having a lot of OPM, I can change all the trains too because of some water found with high content of chloride that seeped through a bad cover.

Singaporean beaten by a foreigner

I copied this picture from TRE. This Singaporean was beaten by a foreigner when the foreigner shafted his car into a parking lot he was waiting for in East Coast Park. The case would be heard in court on 25 Aug.

It is so depressing to see Singaporeans being repeatedly beaten by foreigners in Singapore. Where is the Singaporean identity and where is the pride to be a Singaporean when foreigners coming here to make a living has no qualms and hesitation to beat up a Singaporean?

While we are going to celebrate SG50, think about this face.

It was reported that the attacker, a John Duncan Tasker, a PR, is a grassroot leader, a vice chairman of a Neighbourhood Committee.

Sino Indian relations – Time to wipe off the silly myth of a China threat

Bloomberg has this article ‘India sends China stern message with naval build up’ reprinted in the Today paper on 30 Jul 15.  What stern message? China must be shivering in its pants. Remember 1962? Anyway the message is very clear, India and China are military rivals and India is gaining on China and telling China not to mess around with India. The western media has been playing up the rivalry and hostility between two nations like they are arch enemies, China trying to swallow up India and India in a hurry to fend off an aggressive China? How true is this myth?

The Indian media and the mentality of its leaders did not help either to dispel this myth. They want to believe that China is going to invade and take over India like the Americans telling themselves of Chinese wading ashore along the western American states to take over America. What is the truth? It was America and western countries that invaded China and turned China into a semi colony. And the West has been bullying China and trying to contain China by building military alliances to ring China when not a single Chinese soldier is outside China. Modern China has never invaded any country but being invaded by the colonial powers of Japan and the West. But China is demonized by the West as an ambitious and aggressive power trying to conquer its neighbouring countries when it was the West and Japan that conquered and colonized these countries and China.

What about the fabricated fears of a hostile China invading India? Historically China had never invaded India nor conduct wars of aggression against India. There was this recognition that land over the other side of the Himalayas was not part of dynastic China. What about the Sino Indian border war in 1962?

The Indians have been harping till today that it was China who invaded India when they knew that it was the opposite. The invasion of China, to seize Chinese territories, was an Indian game plan with the formation of a 4^th Indian Army Corp specifically for this purpose. And to move back a few centuries in Indian history, there was really no India for centuries until the British conquered, colonized and consolidated all the loosely held kingdoms in the subcontinent under British rule. The British Empire went further to carve out Chinese territories as theirs at a time when China was weak and broken up.

A formal Indian state came into existence in 1947 when it was given independence by the British. And India claimed that all the land carved out by the British from China is part of India. The border areas were territory snatched from China. China did not attempt to reclaim the land by force. It was an ambitious and ego inflated India that thought it could seize the land by force when China was a weak new country under communist rule in 1962.  The rest is history.

Till today, the Indians are putting on a false front accusing China of invading India. The fact, China repelled the invading Indian 4^th Army Corp, marched to the outskirt of New Delhi, and then withdrew. Would an invading army do that, would an aggressive China harbouring an intent of conquering India withdrew from a defeated enemy on the run? China treated tens of thousands of Indian POWs like lost boy scouts, treated their injuries, fed and clothed them, clean and polished up all the captured weapons and returned the POWs and the weapons to India.  What did all this said about a hostile China?

India should stop its nonsensical accusation of China and the myth that China is waiting to invade India. In 1962 China could over run New Delhi in pursuit of the defeated Indian Army but did not, voluntarily withdrew without looting and raping or burning India along the way. India got away too lightly for its invasion of China.

In today’s geopolitics, conquest and colonizing another country is no longer acceptable and feasible as an option to global ambition. Only the Americans think so. China has no bad intent or ambition to want to have a war with India, to conquer India. All the Indian talks about building intercontinental missiles, aircraft and aircraft carriers and now submarines to defend an imaginary China running over India is simply hogwash. Too much toddy in the head.

India and China should continue to build economic ties and friendly relations and grow economically and military powerful as big countries. There is nothing wrong for the India to harbour wild ambitions to be the most powerful nation in Asia or in the world. But to build a straw man that China is its arch enemy and India must do everything it could to counter a China military threat is simply silly.

Stop drinking toddy and come to your senses, build your military machine for whatever purposes, but don’t create a myth that China is India’s enemy. There is no reason for China to want to invade India or any neighbouring country. North Korea, Mongolia, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, Myanmar and many central Asian states with common borders with China have not been invaded nor have any border dispute with China. The Indians should negotiate with the Chinese and return the land carved away by the British warlord from China peacefully.

China is not asking for more land, not an inch of an India created by the British Empire. If there is going to be war between India and China, it would be the Indians conniving with the Americans to attack China, not the other way. The hostile and aggressive country is India and its superpower ambition. China is already a super power in its own right by trading and manufacturing and helping countries building infrastructures, without having to go to war, not invading or conquering any country. China is now a superpower without having to grab any country’s land by force. What for?