Highway robbery in Sin City

The entrance of Uber and Grabtaxi was supposed to bring in more competition to the local taxi industry and the immediate benefits taxi users are thinking off must be cheaper and better service. With more players on the road, these must be the case. After all the operating cost of these new players are very much cheaper than the traditional taxis.

There was this user who took a taxi at peak hours and hit by price surge. In the 27 minute trip, she paid $169! This is as good as a budget air ticket to Kuala Lumpur that is 500km away.  How could this happen? Sure it can happen and Uber explained how it works. The service has different rates for different level of services. The base rate or cheapest rate could be as cheap as the traditional taxi fare at $18 for a similar trip.

Taxi users better get use to this kind of cost for taking taxis. We are not the most expensive city in the world for nothing. The only think lacking behind is our taxi fares which is still very cheap compares to New York, Paris and London or other big cities. And many khongcums have been cheaping and cheaping and telling everyone our fares can go up higher to keep pace with the big cities. Cheap, cheap, cheap will soon be no more.

We are starting to see highway robberies on our roads when innocent taxi users could have their wallet emptied, legally.

 

The most significant cabinet change

The appointment of Heng Swee Kiat as the new Finance Minister is perhaps the most significant move by Hsien Loong to put the house in order. Too many things had happened in the banking and finance industry that were worst than the escape of Mas Selamat but not spoken and pretended that all is well. In fact all is not well in the banking and finance industry.

The unthinking embrace of derivatives as the business model for rapid growth to boost the dying stock market despite all the warning signs of a big derivative bubble waiting to collapse is not getting noticed by the people that should know how serious this could be to the banking industry. No one is taking heed and worse, plunging head long into this time bomb waiting to blow up. When it does, not only the whole banking and finance industry will be shaken, the whole economy will be affected and no one will get away unscathed by the ripple effect. It is like a weapon of mass destruction, to quote Warren Buffet, like the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the dead will be dead, the undead will be burnt and scarred for life.

The problems in the banking and finance industry are not limited to playing with fire and fraudulent products. When it was announced that we don’t have local talents to fill up the top management positions in the banking and finance industry, no one understood the seriousness of this development. How could a financial centre ended up with no financial talents? And the next big blurp, we will need another 30 years to develop our local talents for such positions. And everyone regard this statement as normal. What have we been doing all these years as a financial centre? Lost sheep not knowing what was happening?

And the frightening thing about these developments is that these are taken so lightly, as the new normal. No one sees anything wrong with it. No one sees any urgency about it. How did the local banking and finance industry degenerated to such an appalling state where there is a dearth of local talents? Wait a minute, this also means that the banking and finance industry is run and controlled by foreigners, not Singaporeans.  Does this ring a bell? Does anyone know how serious it is when the country’s banking and finance industry is in the hands of foreigners? Would they wait for the foreigners to pull the rug under our feet before they know how precarious this situation is?

Heng Swee Kiat has an enormous task to do, to reclaim the banking and finance industry to be run by Singaporeans, not by foreigners or new citizens. He better consults Koh Beng Seng and pull out the blue prints of Goh Keng Swee to rebuild our now non existence banking and finance industry. How can there be a banking and finance industry if it is controlled by foreigners?

If you take out the Wee family, take out Wee Ee Cheong, the whole banking industry is in the hands of foreigners. Is this a brilliant strategy or there is no strategy at all, no vision, no plans, let things happen, let the foreigners take control of our country, our banking and finance industry?

What do you think?

Breaking the cardinal principles of Total Defense

I read Darkness’ article on his lamentation on how the Israelis went about the defense of their country and people and why a Paris or Mumbai style attack is highly unlikely to succeed or even take place in Israeli cities. There are a homogenous people honed by circumstances to be consciously alert to any sign of trouble and everyone is trained to take ownership and responsibility of the surrounding. A bag left in the train or anywhere that it should not be would receive immediate attention by an Israeli nearby, not necessarily a uniformed officer. The Israelis practiced Total Defense to the hilt.

 

Comparing the Israelis, our Total Defense is a joke, a tragicomedy waiting to happen. Total Defense is not lip service and to be written on paper. The whole strategy must be understood by everyone, the citizen on the ground and the people at the top. A simple review of why the Israeli Total Defense is working and ours a farce would point to all the cardinal sins that we have committed to turn our Total Defense into a fishing net, full of holes.

 

For economic growth, for some silly theory that we need more foreigners to grow our economy, for coveting other people’s talent, for foolishly and dangerously embracing every foreigner into the country, into our social and govt organizations, and the nightmarish acceptance of foreigners to guard our entry points, sensitive organizations and even joining the police and armed forces, how can anyone talk about Total Defense? Even our commercial organizations, the IT and banking industries are controlled by foreigners. They could simply deactivate all the networks and commercial systems, collect all the sensitive information and data by now to do damage if needed.

 

How can we practice Total Defense when the potential enemies are living with us when more than 50% of our population is foreigners, when they are working side by side with us, eating and sleeping with us? If a bag or parcel is left in the train or a shopping centre, who is there to check on it, to alert the security when 6 out of 10 people are foreigners who have no interest in the safety and security of the people?

 

You cannot practice Total Defense, you cannot have Total Defense when the person beside you is not one of you and could be a potential enemy or terrorist. We have compromised our national security for the sake of economic growth. And some are so stupid to open their arms and legs to welcome every foreigner into their homes, into security and uniformed services.

 

How stupid can this country be? We have raised our security status due to the Paris attack and think we are now safer. How would it work, how can it work when the enemy is already with us? Who is going to guard against those that are guarding our security? Did they discover that one of the Paris attackers registered himself as a refugee in Greece and was allowed into France? How many are already in Europe? How many are already safe and secured in Singapore and waiting for the order to strike? We have more than 2 million foreigners here. You only need a handful of trained terrorists, 3 or 5 or 7, to strike terror deep in the heart of town.

 

Would someone want to rethink about Total Defense and the policy of bringing in foreigners by the millions? Did someone encourage these foreigners to integrate with us and betterer, other than joining RCs is to let them join the uniformed services, to be trained, to be armed, to put on our uniforms? And for sure, those recruited must be the most innocent looking and did not look threatening, did not look like terrorists. They have the fairest ladies to seduce James Bond not for no reasons.

Children, beware when people ask you for money

I would like to include adults in the word children as people will ask adults for money too. I do not want to say anything bad about any religion. But someone gave me this advice, when people ask you for money, be careful, think. And in particular, whatever religious groups or cults ask you for money, if there is a genuine reason say to build a place of worship, fair enough if you can afford and willing to contribute. But beware when after the place of worship is built and they are asking for more money to want to built a tower to heaven.

I feel that our children must be taught to think and to protect themselves from cheats and cons. I felt compel to write this after reading an article in the TRE and I would like to quote a few paragraphs of what the author wrote:

‘….they make you put the money into envelopes, then you put it into pouches...slowly I began to question – “Why was there is need?” …So the next service,…I didn’t give an offering…Then my mentor (everyone is assigned one) looked at me when I just passed the pouch over, asking why didn’t I give an offering. I said I have no more money left for the week, so can’t give anymore…After service at fellowship, the cell group leader requested to speak to me. He said it was my duty to put aside money for God every week, it was to show God my love and sincerity in worshipping Him….The following week onwards, they monitored if I gave offerings closely…. Yes, they monitor your tithings….’

Children, please, God has everything and does not need your money. God is not a greedy money grabber. God is not love deprived that you need to tell Him you love Him everyday to assure Him that He is loved by you or He will hate you or loses His self confidence that no one loves Him. God is not love crazy or love sick. God is not a conceited asshole that needs you to praise Him everyday. God has everything and does not need anything, if He is the God Almighty He has everything and is everything.

And parents of children, please do not allow your children to be pressurized by the con men and women to part with the little money they have. Speak to your children, educate your children. God does not need money. Those who have plenty and want to give, they can give. No one should be forced to give money to God.

When money is all the ‘God’ needs, he is not God. Run away as fast as you can from him. Do not go near him.

PS. For those who are interested in the article I quoted, you can go to TRE to read the details. The lesson is applicable to all religions, sects and cults. Obsession for money is a tell tale sign that things are not right. Don’t be cheated or deceived. Children must beware of people asking for money.

Of civilized and uncivilized wars

The war has come to Paris. To be politically correct, this cannot be called war but terrorism. If it is to be called war, it is must be called uncivilized war. There is a civilized way to conduct wars, called civilized war. Uncivilized war is an attack against humanity. I must also condemn this war to be politically correct. How can these terrorists, not soldiers as they were probably not paid, did not wear proper uniforms and ranks on them but suicide bomb belts, attacked innocent people in a football stadium watching football, people attending a rock concert or people having a good time drinking in a bar? I will join the civilized world to condemn this uncivilized war in the streets of Paris.

But the terrorists are shouting God is great. They never think it was a bad thing. They never think that it was uncivilized. Do you want to know why they thought that way? Ok, I must say this again in case people think I am supporting them. No, I am on the side of civilized people and would only support civilized war. Where am I, oh, why did these people think they are fighting a just war in the name of their God? It is unbelievable that people can invoke the name of God to fight wars. Only imbeciles did that, going to war and praying to God and said God help me.

Did anyone want to know why were these terrorists shooting innocent people in Paris and then blew themselves out? Not important, no need to know? But let me explain a little, without supporting them of course. You see, these people lived in countries in the Middle East and Africa, maybe in Syria, Iraq, Libya or some of those countries that the civilized people are conducting civilized wars. The civilized people did not kill people in sports stadium or in concert hall. These countries are at war and there were no concerts or football matches to watch. But many of them, and their relatives, were killed staying at home, having dinners or just passing their time, not sure they got TV to watch. Hundreds of thousands of these people, not sure if they were innocent but very likely not as innocent as the 150 people killed in Paris, had been killed in the civilized wars in their countries.

Did anyone know that many hundreds of thousands of them, including women and children had been killed in civilized wars? I think no one knows as no one ever sent condolence to their leaders or condemned the civilized wars that killed them. No, they were not the deads in wars but collaterals of civilized wars.

What is a civilized war by the way? A civilized war, my guess, is a war conducted by paid soldiers carrying flags and wearing proper uniforms and with the blessing of their govts. And they not only carry automatic rifles and small bombs, they have tanks, warplanes, warships, very big guns and very big bombs to kill many, many people at one go, innocent or not innocent not so important. What is important is that the bombs are very smart and only killed the not innocent people. And the war is so civilized that they don’t used soldiers in some cases to fight the wars. They sent drones, cruise missiles with smart bombs, like playing computer games, absolutely civilized way of killing people. They don’t hear the cries of fear, of shock and pain and despair. They just pushed buttons to conduct civilized wars.

And when countries conduct civilized wars, they can kill by the thousands, tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands, and it is ok. No one will condemn such killings, because the people were killed in a civilized war. And the best part, civilized wars are conducted in other people’s countries so the civilized people at home are very safe, like in Paris.

Is my explanation on civilized wars right? Or is there a different explanation, like wars conducted by the Americans and their allies are civilized wars and cannot be condemned. When the Japanese invaded Asia and South East Asia killing hundreds of millions, it must be civilized war also. Are the French also active participants in civilized wars? Who are fighting civilized wars? Only those who are fighting civilized wars have the right to condemn those who are fighting uncivilized wars because they are on high moral grounds.

I also condemn uncivilized wars like the one in Paris. I am on high moral grounds too. And the French have vowed to respond with appropriate force, and will continue their bombings in Syria and other Middle Eastern and African countries in their civilized wars, fighting on the side of the Americans and their allies.

PS. When one stirs the hornets nest and get stung by the hornets, please do not curse the hornets for being uncivilized.