The war in Syria going to blow up

The Turks down Russian SU24 fighter jet yesterday when both sides were supposed to be fighting the ISIS. Putin called this a stab in the back while the Turks are claiming that the Russian jet entered their territories.  Such silly behavior is very typical of some Asean countries, thinking they could pull the whiskers of a sleeping tiger. The Russians with Putin in charge would not let this event go unpunished. Turkey can expect a few bombs at their radar stations or airbases or a few F16s to be shot down by the Russians.

Turkey is behaving like little pesky countries thinking that with the US behind them they could go around shooting at anyone, including a nuclear power like Russia. There is no way they are going to get away with this silly act. The Russians are prepared to take on the Americas and Turkey is a push over.

This is a lesson that the Philippines and some Asean states must take note. Don’t try this silly trick on China. They will give them a blue black even if it risks the Americans joining the fray. There are things that silly pesky countries can do, there are things that they better not do.

The war in Syria will cross over to Turkey and the innocent people of Turkey will be the next war collateral. It is really baffling to think that leaders of a country could act in such a silly manner and think they could get away with it.

Well done Turkey, welcome to the war zone.

Tapping solar energy

Everyone is tapping solar energy. PUB is conducting a 9 month test to see its impact on the environment and reservoir. Solar panels need a lot of space and installing them means some space much go. Not a good way to use our limited space. We need more space for more foreigners to come in, 6.9m or 10m. So the reservoir with it wide expanse of water surface offers a perfect setting for solar panels. Really? Would it eat into the space of water activities?

Actually there is a lot of unused space that would not be put to use and when used for solar panels, no space will be wasted. In fact it is maximizing space that would be wasted anyway. Look at the new sound barrier panels SMRT are erecting on the side of tracks to cut down noise level. Why can’t they install solar panels instead, killing two birds with one stone? The panels could also act as sound barriers. And the long stretches of tracks can definitely take in a good number of panels without wasting any extra space.

If SMRT were to line all the tracks with solar panels, it may be able to turn it into another business, selling electricity with the surpluses or at least be self sufficient in energy consumption.

What do you think?

Enemy within

Today paper on 24 Nov published an article from Financial Times titled, ‘Enemy within is the biggest threat in cases of cybercrime’. It does not need a super talent not to see the truism in the title of the article. The article went on to say that most cyber attacks, more than 80%, was inside job, committed by people within an organization. However, many of the cases were simply deflected intentionally or otherwise to outside sources. Notably the massive attacks on US govt and commercial organizations were claimed to come from North Korea or China. What is the truth? The 81% statistics that such attacks were from within needs no further explanation.

How is this serious threat relevant to Singapore? Obvious isn’t it? With the IT industries dominated or even overtaken by foreigners, with many foreigners taking over important and financially or strategically sensitive institutions and corporations, would these people within be a threat to the interest of Singapore as a country?

The answer is a BIG NO. Singapore is very comfortable with foreigners, and foreign talents to take over our institutions and maybe even our countries. Just issue them a pink IC and they will not be foreigners anymore but Singaporeans. So simple.  Did anyone say so silly? We have complete faith and confidence that the foreigners coming here, given important appointments and CEOs, even sitting in Parliament, are all for Singapore and will not betray the trust the ever trusting Singaporeans took them in, hired them, to run our show. It is all about faith. We trust them and they would reciprocate our trust. Nothing to worry about. Do not be hysterical over such things. All is well.

Have no fear of foreigners doing inside jobs to compromise our security and interests. Singapore is an exceptional country in that every foreigner coming here will be good, like angels.

In the Today article, Tommy Helsby, the Chairman of business investigation firm Kroll said this, ‘Cybercrime is one of those things where the insider is the dominant threat…You have all these clever defences against people on the outside, but people on the inside are already on the inside.’

What nonsense, this kind of things would never be a problem in Singapore or in Singapore’s institutions. We are absolutely safe from inside attacks. We have many experts and security organizations overseeing our security from such attacks. If there is a risk, they would have opened their mouths. So far they are very comfortable with the situation.

And we have the strongest armed forces to guard against external attacks. We got Total Defense also. Where got problem? Insiders, 2 million foreigners here? So what? We need growth and they are here to help us grow our economy and provide jobs for our people, plus the talents that we are sorely in need of.

We have all the holes covered. Fear Not. Just build a strong defence force against enemies coming from outside. Buy more F35s to frighten them away.

PS. The enemy within did not wear a tag saying he is the enemy. He probably wears a smiling face full of innocence and a tag saying ‘I love you, trust me’.

Time for lighter moments

I quote some comments from a new citizen posted in the TRE trying very hard to be like a Singaporean. Here you are from a guy called Rayban.

‘I volunteer help PAP and got one yr I donate $250 only. I get invite go up stage hand shaking by MP Foo Mee Har. Below stage, people clap me so loud. I feel so hapy…I receive pretty MP hand shake me. Which better? You go answer.’

I must say he wasn’t trying to be funny. That is how he speaks or posted in TRE. A new citizen, a foreign talent. Please excuse him as English is not his first language, probably learn it from our integration programme.  Looks like he needs more integration than hand shaking.

The contrasting style of Modi and Deng Xiaoping

Narendra Modi is in Singapore on a 2 day official visit starting on 23 Nov. Globe trotting Modi has been awarded the Asian of the Year by the ST for having met the most leaders in his first year in office, his greatest achievement as a PM. By now he probably has met all the leaders of the world several times over and probably a Guinness Record is in order for this great feat.  Modi’s visits anywhere is always met by large crowds of the India diaspora and an air of great expectations with his eloquent speeches of great promises of India become the next superpower and an economic powerhouse.

Modi’s visit to Singapore is no different and a 100,000 diaspora is awaiting him at Chennai Business Park, oops, I mean Changi Business Park. He is like a rock star and will be received with all the pomp and pageantry of a rock star.

In contrast, Deng Xiaoping was like a hermit, a leader that hardly made any trip overseas. Deng also did not make spectacular speeches and though his visit to Singapore did not end up speaking to 100,000 Chinese diaspora, the media did give him a good coverage, but not in the scale of Modi. It was strictly business, he came, he saw and he noted.

In that strategic trip to Singapore, great ideas were formed in the minds of Deng. If Singapore could do it, China could do better. And in Singapore he saw a working model that could kick start a new China that he was opening up to the world. After his return from this rare trip out of China, he sent delegations after delegations of Chinese officials to study what Singapore did and took the blueprints home for more analyses. The rest is history.

From what he saw in Singapore, it gave him enough ideas and motivation on what he wanted to turn China into. The rest was true grit and execution. Not many people would want to acknowledge it, that a single trip out of China could have such a great impact on the redevelopment of China. To a good mind, it only takes a spark, to ignite a dream and turn it into a reality. That is the difference. Deng launched a powerful wave of reforms never seen in anywhere else for centuries.

Modi would still be travelling around the world to make eloquent speeches of great promises. Would this trip to Singapore ignite in him a spark to transform India into a modern nation like what China is today? Maybe Modi could do more, with many more ideas he collected from all this overseas trips and the inspirations from many more countries.

Apologies for those who think Singapore should take full credit for the modernization of China. No, Singapore was just a catalyst to spark a dream. The rest are hard work and due diligence to turn a dream into a reality, to motivate a nation of 1.3b people to work for the China Dream.  Only the Chinese could do this to rebuild their country to what it is today. If it is so easy, all the countries that wanted to emulate Singapore would also be great successful stories. Other than China, no one could do it the way China did, and in a scale unmatched over a mere 3 decades..

Turning a country into an economic powerhouse of modernity is not about eloquent speeches and copying a model. It is not so simple as that. When would Modi stop travelling, return to India and start working, to rebuild India into another economic powerhouse? Perhaps Singapore will be his last stop to build up all the ideas he needed to create another mammoth Asian economic giant.