Paris the new war zone

More than 140 declared dead and the number is growing. A series of terrorist attacks hit Paris, at a concert hall and a football stadium and the streets of Paris. Guns were fired, bombs exploded, people died.  The war in the Middle East has opened a new front, on the streets of Paris. The lesson, you can’t go shitting everywhere and think the shit would not come flying home.

The opening of borders all over Europe to accommodate the refugees running away from their war torn countries is a good thing on humanitarian ground. It is very heart wrenching to see grown men and women with children in tow and in desperation for a place where they can seek peace and safety, perhaps settling down to live life all over again, to get their children to school, to get a shelter over their heads and a job to feed the family.

But the problems the refugees are fleeing from would not leave them. The problems of war, ethnic strife, religious hate and what else, would find a new fertile ground in Europe to ferment and fester. The Americans and their western allies may think it is a good idea to stir enough shit and hate in the Middle East, to keep these countries in a constant state of war, to ferment animosities and to benefit from the pains and sufferings of these people, and the best part, their homes in the USA and Europe are free, peaceful and safe for themselves and their children. Such simplistic viewpoints, that wars could be isolated in this interconnected global community are simply foolish. The wars you stoked and created will come home to roost.

What is happening in Paris is only the beginning of a long and protracted state of terrorist warfare that would spread across the rest of Europe, London, Berlin, Copenhagen, Rome, Madrid, the list can go on, will not be left alone. Starting wars and fanning hatred are easy. Stopping them and preventing them from spreading are not that easy. And Europe would not be alone, the USA and even Asia, South East Asia, the Australia will not be spared.

A state of emergency has been declared in France.

Would Singapore be so lucky?

Similarities between how Singapore deals with unemployment and how Indonesia deals with the haze problem

We have seen how the haze problem is being tackled by the Indonesians. They are making a big show of fighting the fire that set off the haze. Large resources were applied to fight fires with really little effect on the haze and to relieve the people from being affected by the haze. It is like we are doing something, a lot, to help but not really helping.

The real solution is to prevent the fire starters from lighting up. If no one is allowed to light up, there will be no fire and no haze. There will be no necessity to frantically trying to put out the fire. Tackle the source of the problem, not the symptom the problem. This is very similar to stopping people from smoking and getting cancer. If you don’t stop the sale of cigarettes, you are not solving the problem but dealing with the symptom of the problem.

How are these examples similar to how Singapore tackles the unemployment problem of Singaporean? By now you should be quite clear in the similarities. Yes, we are also tackling the symptoms but not the causes of the unemployment of Singaporeans, our own children brought up in the best education system but unemployable. And every clown is crowing about how good are the ‘talents’ from funny universities with funny education systems. And they are sending an army of recruiters to recruit these funny graduates and flagged them as ‘talents’, better than our children that not only have no skill sets but daft.

And no turkeys would dare to breathe a word to dispute this silly myth. So, with their acceptance of this myth, it means that Singaporeans are really daft and unemployable and need help. And they set up agencies frantically trying to help unemployed Singaporeans to get a job.  More skills training and skills upgrading needed, making Singaporeans not only wasting time and money for such courses but looking silly and stupid.

But funny foreigners from funny village universities got all the skill sets and no need any skill upgrading. And if Singaporeans cannot get a job here, they will help Singaporeans to work in 3^rd World countries to earn cheap currencies.  They could not see the causes of Singaporean unemployment in their home country!  They did not even know that they have been duped by 3^rd World confidence tricksters and snake oil sellers and made a fool in broad daylight, telling them Singaporeans are useless. And the useless Singaporeans built this great city for these tricksters and snake oil sellers to take over when they could not build their own.

What is the real cause of Singaporean unemployment? No, it is not the education system. If it is due to the failure of the education system, then the last few education ministers must be sacked, including everyone in MOE.

Still unclear what is the cause of Singaporean unemployment? It is treachery! It is cheating our own 

children of their jobs by allowing fake foreigners to be employed in their places.

With a stroke of the pen from MOM, we would have solved the unemployment and unemployable Singaporean problem. But no, they still want to believe the foreign snake oil sellers and cheats that Singaporeans are no good and foreigners are best. And these foreigners are still filling the local companies with more fakes and cheats.

PS. According to the Global Employability University Ranking, a joint effort by French and German organizations, NUS graduates rank 17^th among the most employable in the world! What is this? Aren’t our graduates unemployable in Singapore, lack of skills, good for part time employment or as temp staff?

My new profile in China Daily

My new profile in China Daily as a featured contributor

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/opinion/commentator.html

Money laundering the most lucrative business

The big American and European banks are making really big money in money laundering and fraudulent banking practices or selling questionable derivatives and products.  Money laundering seems to be the most profitable business for many banks. And they have been fined handsomely by the US Federal Courts to the tune of billions. The total came to US$150b by some 10 big banks, including BoA, Citi, JP Morgan, Wells Fargo, BNP, Deutsche, Credit Suisse, UBS, Barclay and HSBC to name a few.

These banks are willing to pay the fines happily, for good reasons, as none of their CEOs were found guilty or made accountable for the offences. The banks continue to run as per normal, and so were the employments of the CEOs, all sitting tight and happily as if nothing had happened. With such latitude, would they be back to their monkey businesses again? There don’t seem to be any accountability or responsibility. It is business as usual and the banks are going to continue to make more monies laundering more money and selling fraudulent derivative products.

Actually the biggest winner of all the bank fraud is none other than the US Govt. They pocketed US$150 billion practically doing nothing, and doing something very legal. How many businesses can make this kind of profit with nearly zero cost? Is there a conspiracy between the Federal Court/US Govt and the big banks, with the banks allowed to do what is profitable but illegal but willing to pay the fines and the courts to enrich the US Govt’s coffer, like I scratch your back you scratch mine?

Who are the big gainers and who are the big losers in this game of money laundering? What a great game to play!

When the axe falls in the banking industry

Stanchart, Deutche, HSBC and who else will be next to start downsizing in the banking industry facing hard times when the fictitious fraudulent products and practices are driving the banks to their knees? How many bankers and supporting staff in the industry will face the axe?

There is this belief that Singapore or Singaporeans will be well protected when there is an economic crisis and when businesses start to retrench and downsize.  The big foreign workforce in the city state would be the buffer that would be the first to be trimmed and thereby protecting Singaporeans from losing their jobs. The losing of jobs by Singaporeans is a nightmarish experience when everyone is heavily in debt, big housing mortgages up to their necks. Losing their jobs mean losing their income and ability to service the mortgages and thus their expensive homes.

The retrenchment exercise by the few banks affected should give an idea on how well the Singaporeans will be protected from such trimming exercises. The fact that there is no data to show how many Singaporeans are affected versus the foreigners in these banks is telling. When they can’t tell, refuses to tell, afraid to tell, it says something is not right or not pleasant for the Singaporeans. Why are the banks not willing to be transparent in their retrenchment policies? Are they retrenching the Singaporeans or are they retrenching the foreigners? If they are retrenching the Singaporeans more than the foreigners, would the govt have a say or would the govt want to have a say in this?

What would happen if the organizations retrenching staff are local companies or govt linked companies that employed a lot of foreigners? Would they be thinking of saving the jobs of Singaporeans or would they, like the many monkeys be saying, it will be based on meritocracy regardless of nationalities? So if the foreigners are more ‘meritocratic’, not sure what that word means, then it is ok to dismiss the Singaporeans first?

So far there is an uncomfortable silence in the air? The govt, MOM and the NTUC have not said anything about how the retrenchment of employees should be conducted, that the jobs of Singaporeans should be protected first. Would this be the case or would they come out in defence of meritocracy even in GLCs regardless of nationalities?

What do you think?  Is there a govt policy on this grave issue?

I pray that not many Singaporeans would be affected by such retrenchment as it would mean hardship for the families. Without an income in this most expensive city state in the world, my god, losing a job is not a simple matter when finding one can take several months or years unlike the lucky and ‘talented’ foreigners who could simply take a vacation here and ended up with a job in no time. For Singaporeans, getting a job, or even getting an interview is so difficult.

I hope everyone can join me to pray that Singaporeans would not lose their jobs first when the axe falls.