Jokowi to put out fires in two weeks

‘JAKARTA: Indonesian President Joko Widodo said authorities target to put out forest fires burning in parts of the country in two weeks, with the help of other countries.’ Channel News Asia

Indonesia has found the solution to the fire burning across Sumatra and Kalimantan. The answers will come from 6 countries in the form of big and bigger aircraft that can carry more water to douse the flame. With these aircraft, Jokowi is confident that Indonesia would be able to end the fire in two weeks.

Actually there is no need for such aircraft and fire fighting equipment. The raining season is coming, and the fire will go off by itself just like a bout of flu. But Indonesia is so impressed by the big planes and their capabilities that they are planning to acquire some of them to fight the next fire in the next haze season. And if the planes proved effective, they would probably buy more to continue to fight the fire annually till eternity.

Would it not be cheaper to think of ways and plans to prevent the fire starters from starting the fire? If the fire fighters can be stopped, there is no need for more expensive planes and logistics to fight fires. The present inventory of planes and fire fighting equipment would be more than adequate if there is no fire or only a few fires that could and should be killed in the early stages. Prevention is better than cure.

By the start of the raining season, there will be no more fire. The Indonesian govt only needs to ensure that no one starts the fire in the next season. There could be bush fires started naturally by the heat of the day. I am sure the planners would be able to come up with ways to prevent these fires from starting. The fleet of fire fighting equipment could be deployed to throw water in vulnerable areas even when there is no fire to prevent fire from starting. Oops, apologies for suggesting this weird way of pouring water when there is no fire.

Would it be better, be more cost effective to set up a fire prevention force than a fire fighting force? For a start they can set up a review committee or a BOI. If they did not know how to set up these committees, ask Singapore, we are the experts in setting up BOIs and review committees. We have such committees after every fiasco that occurred in our little island. We just have one for the hepatitis C outbreak. We have had committees for the Little India Riot, the Mt Kinabalu earthquake too. We can even lend them the experienced officers who have sat in such committees as advisors.

What do you think? Chicken and egg problem?

All roads lead to China

While the Americans continue to flex their muscle all over the world, and now in the South China, to show who is the biggest gangster, China continues to dedicate all its effort and resources to build a new world. The Chinese planners and strategists have done a great job in rebuilding ancient agricultural China into a modern China with hundreds of cities bigger and more sophisticated than anything you can see in any part of the world. The latest city, Liangjiang (two rivers) in Sichuang is twice the size of Singapore, 1,200 sq km of modern city complexes that rivaled anything you see in Singapore. Forget about our Jurong Industrial Park. The student has excelled the master. Any Singaporeans still thinking that they can go to China to teach them about building modern cities must be still in dream land.

When the once richest man in America, Vanderbilt, built the railroads across North America, it was a feat of enormous proportion, of continental scale. And he deserved to be the richest man then. What Vanderbilt had done then is miniscule compared to what China is planning to do, and some parts are already completed, with the rest in the blue prints. China is building railroads to connect the whole world. Yes, connecting the whole world on land, by railroads. The lines will go out from China to Singapore, the southern tip of the Asia continent, South West to India and the Middle East and forward to Africa, West to Europe, with Germany in the first phase and ending in London, off the European continent. The next major road will go North East through Siberia, Alaska to Canada and North America, onwards South to Latin America.

This ambitious plan was never thought possible for a long time. To conceptualise this plan itself is unthinkable. But with today’s technology, political stability and the resourcefulness and industry of the Chinese people, and the financing muscle, the whole world can be linked by railroads.  Well almost, as the Pacific Islands, the Southeast Asian island states and continental Australia would be a bridge too far.

The programme currently being screened on Channel News Asia, ‘The New Silk Road’, gives a very good view of this grand and mammoth initiative of modern China. The Chinaman has remastered their railroad building skills and enterprise to build a railroad complex that would connect the five continents of the world together. All roads will lead to China and to the rest of the world.

While the Americans continue to waste their money and resources, including their best men and women, in the pursuit of war, instigating war, provoking war and conducting war, and telling the world that America is the most peace loving country, China is dedicated to rebuild a new world in commerce, trade and cultural integration of the communities of the world. China is building a new world of peace, to uplift the standard and quality of life of the peoples of the world.

A new world is emerging with China as the main architect, minus the bullets and the guns, in the New Silk Road Plan, an intercontinental project beyond the imaginations of the Americans and Europeans. And all roads or railroads, will lead to China.

NEA takes great pains to explain why not to give hourly PSI

The mounting pressure on NEA to provide hourly or live PSI so that people can use them to make life choices decision have led to the Agency coming up with a long grandmother story on why they are not going to accede to the people’s request. The explanations are all in the media yesterday. I just dunno want to laugh or want to cry or want to use the four letter word.

Ok, the NEA has valid reasons not to want to tell the people the current truth. They said the information is complex and people could not understand what they meant like water vapour and dust particles. They forgot to say that the pollutants in the haze could also have poisonous gases in it if there are foul intentions. Nevermind, the accepted practices by those agencies and institutions and academics and professionals are to rely on averages of 24 hours, 3 hours or whatever but not on hourly or live indices. So?

Should I suggest that the NEA provide whatever appropriate data to the agencies and organizations that needed those data professionally and provide the people, the masses, the data that they want? The data, 24 hr or 3 hr, make sense to those professionals but no sense to the masses and the public. The 24 hr data or even 3 hr data are totally useless to people on ground zero but important to the analysts and academics and institutions that need to study and record them and to write fanciful reports for the records. What would someone that wants to play football or bring the children to the park want those data for?

The public are not dumb asses and did not know the limitations of live data and the complexity of the air and the haze. All they want is a guide, to go out or not to go out. Is it therefore too much to ask the NEA to give the people the live data to act as a guide? What is the fear? Is there any life threatening issue if the NEA is to broadcast live data of the haze? Is it so difficult to produce the data? Hey, no need to collate or do complex computations, just the raw data. And if needed the NEA can add in all the backside covering clauses to say they are not responsible for anyone acting on those data and got into trouble.

Why provide data that the people did not want and not to provide data that the people want? Khaw Boon Wan should talk some sense into these PGO nuts.  Oops, we got a new minister in charge. Would he be able to see the farce and tell the NEA to give the data the people want? Or is it the similar to employment data, we only tell you what we think is good for you to know, give data on locals and not to show how many are Singaporeans and how many are PRs? Does the providing of live or hourly PSI data have the same secrecy considerations?

What do you think?

1MDB, Tony Pua and Bilahari Kausikan

The 1MDB affair has spilled over across the causeway with Bilahari calling the Malaysian Chinese delusional. And Tony Pua is furious and rebutted Bilahari just as furiously as he could. Sometimes such spate is unnecessary and uncalled for. When commenting about Malaysian politics, if possible it is better to be more discreet. A wrong word said or used could mean temperature shooting into the empty cans between the ears. For calling the Malaysian Chinese delusional, what did Bilahari hope to gain? I can see that he is trying to tell the Malaysian Chinese to back off and not to invite a May 13. The expected effect is exactly what Tony Pua did, mind your own business and don’t act smug.

In a way I agree with Bilahari that the game is over for the minorities in Malaysia. The Malays have absolute control over everything and their dominance is not only unchallengeable but cannot be challenged. The threat of the Red Shirts running amok, burning down Petaling Street and killing the people there must not to be taken lightly. And the another slightest provocation will lead to it. The fate of the minorities has been sealed long ago since the May 13 of 1969. That is the ultimate weapon and could be unleashed for the right or wrong reason, or for no reason.

The minorities in Malaysia can at best hope to have a more progressive Malay leadership that would work with them and tap on their industry and commercial skill to grow together to benefit the country and people. Pushing the boundaries of race and religion is inviting a massacre. Pushing for a non racial and religious issue would come to the same end. The minorities may want to think that 1MDB is not a racial or religious thing. I too agree with that. It is about bad govt and corruption. But by now they must have learnt their lesson, that anything can be changed into a race and religion thing. Even if it is not, they will make it so.

Malacca could be in chaos if the planned Red Shirt protest is shifted to downtown Malacca. Thanks to the police for killing it. And thanks to the Malaysian court for ruling that there is no wrongdoing in the 1MDB case. Najib’s position is now safe and has no reason for a diversion and a racial bloodbath.

The so called tussle for Malay leadership will go on. Let the Malays choose their leaders. The minorities can only watch from the sideline and give some support, but not to be seen as a force de majeure. They would be taken down, they will be turned into target number one.  The top political leadership will not change hands to the minorities for the next century or forever. That is Malaysia today and likely forever.

There is no need to huff and puff between Bilahari and Tony Pua. Venting anger and letting off steam would not change the realities in Malaysia. This is the new normal of Malaysian politics.

Singapore students brightest in the world

Can you believe it? Of course I can.  And not I said one. The Mypaper reported this on 8 Oct 15, ‘In a  programme this week, American television station CNN examined an official finding that named Singapore’s  secondary school students as the brightest in the world, by interviewing international experts.’ Can this be bluffing? No, Singaporean students have been consistently topping in international assessments and competitions and scoring very well in top American and British universities and universities across the world.

Only fools in Singapore believed that Singaporeans are talentless, no skill sets, unemployable and unfit to fill top management positions. Don’t ask me who are the fools? And they believe in the comments and remarks of 3^rd World trash that Singaporeans are unfit to work in Singapore and should be replaced by 3^rd World villagers that are mostly fakes and cheats.

I do not want to elaborate more. We have the best education system and universities but producing duds. How to explain that? Ask the fools. And our PMEs, with years of experience and track records to prove, are now only good enough to drive taxis or to be retrained to be counter sales people or security guards? How did this happen? Don’t ask me, ask the fools.

I believe the assessments of the experts mentioned above and we have all the track records to prove that our students are the best in the world. Not duds! So what is wrong? Either our universities and education system are so flawed and designed to produce duds, or our PMEs and graduates are being cheated in the employment market. And the fools continue to believe that the Singaporeans are daft and unemployable, and they will continue to go to the whole world to hire less talented people, cheats and fakes to replace our real talents.

The fools in Singapore believed in the fools of the 3^rd World and not in the talent of Singaporeans. Or I shall put it in another way, the fools in Singapore are easily conned by the fools of the 3^rd World.

This is Uniquely Singapore.