Have guns will travel

The Americans are stitching up a military alliance in the region and this time with eager beaver Singapore as the darling to project American military power in the region. Following closely on the heels are the Philippines, Vietnam and Malaysia, all very happy to put on the gun belt and become gunslingers.  Singapore has just raised its level of cooperation with the Americans to offer Singapore as a launching pad for American spy planes to conduct surveillance in the region. The concept of peace and neutrality for Asean is being diluted and forgotten. The 30 years of peace and prosperity have been taken for granted and maybe too peaceful for the liking and a bit more tension and perhaps war in the region would be interesting.

China has taken this news in a muted response but hinting that Singapore is trying to play with fire and may get burnt if not careful. The only export that the Americans are pushing to the world and its allies, other than the Apple mobile phone is the gun. The Americans are stoking the fires of war and furiously signing military alliances and offering to sell their military hardware as tension grows.

China has just offered $60b of economic aid to Africa and signing up with Indonesia and Thailand to build hi speed train and competing in India and Malaysia for a similar project. China is going around the world selling equipments and infrastructure development while the Americans are going around the world selling arms and signing up gangsters to control the world militarily. The Americans know that they have nothing else to offer to the world other than weapons of war. They are no longer competitive in the manufacturing and production processes for consumer goods for the good of the people.

Selling arms and stoking tension are the new businesses of the Americans. And to make sure there are buyers, they must make sure there are enemies and the need for their weapons. They must sign more military alliances and conduct more military exercises so that countries in the region will have to spend more on their military and buy more weapons. They need to be prepared for wars and need to buy better and better weapons.

Securities agencies need to clear China’s investment in India

I got this quote from an article in the Today paper on 11 Dec about India awarding a bullet train project to Japan.  Here it is, ‘In September, China was given the right to assess the feasibility of a high speed train link between New Delhi and Chennai, in the south, after getting clearance from India’s security agencies wary of Chinese involvement in infrastructure areas such as telecoms and railways.’

The above statement emphasized the important role played by the security agencies of India in guarding national interests and external threats. Foreign investors cannot simply get into India and do any business they like, building infrastructure, communications, strategic industries like power plants and water resources, IT and control of the banking and finance industry.

The big question is how involved are our security agencies in the trading of national assets, in the recruitment of so many foreigners here, in foreigners being employed in sensitive industries like national securities, IT, banking and finance?  Do we face the same external threats like India or other countries that our security agencies should be involved in approving strategic investments and industries and also the employment of foreigners to senior positions in govt and govt linked organizations? There is a standard practice in all countries for the security agencies to vet and clear even their own citizens for appointments in the uniformed services and other security sensitive services.

How are our security agencies involved in the commercial sectors like banking and finance, IT, communications and even the medical industries? Do these industries, and the employment of foreigners in senior appointments require a robust regime of vetting and clearance from the security agencies here? Are the security agencies too busy watching out for terrorists and anti national elements but employment in govt and the private sector, foreign investments etc are out of their purview? Should the security agencies be more closely involved in the influx of foreigners into the country?

Maybe they already are. Maybe we need not be so sensitive with such matters as they posed lesser security concerns. No countries will be interested in taking over this little red dot.  Just wondering aloud.

Freedom of a Rising Sun from the East (FARSE)

With the Chinese increasing their activities in the South China Sea Islands by building more man made structures in the islands, there is a big risk that the Chinese might block the sun from rising. The US govt is very concern about the Chinese construction activities in the South China Sea. You just can’t be sure that the Chinese would not block the sun from rising in the East. In order to protect the freedom of a rising sun from the East, the Americans have sent their warships and war planes to threaten the Chinese and demanding that the Chinese stop reclaiming more islands and building man made structures on the islands. The mission in short is called FARSE, to protect Freedom of a Rising Sun from the East.

This Chinese threat to the freedom of the sun rising from the East has been a key topic in all the regional meetings with the countries in the region. And some of the countries believe truly that there is a real threat that the Chinese will obstruct and prevent the sun from rising in the East. They too are moving closer to the Americans and signing more military pacts with the Americans to protect and defend FARSE.

Singapore is the latest member to upgrade its military cooperation with the Americans and is reported that it would allow the Americans to deploy P8 Poseidon surveillance plane from the island to survey the South China Sea. There have been conflicting reports whether the deployment of P8 is to defend FARSE and a part of the enhanced military pact.

Whatever, FARSE is going to play a big role in the American’s relations with the Asean states and China. Some are still wondering aloud, ‘What the FARSE is all about?’ Is this FARSE real or imaginary? Can China really block the sun from rising in the East? The Americans said it is real and will zealously want to make sure the sun will rise from the East. Their intent is to sign up all the Asean nations and form a new military alliance called FARSE Organisation and all the members will be called FARSE members, to protect the rising sun from the East. Every mission will be called FARSE mission and every meeting will be called FARSE meeting.

PS. Was Japan also called the rising sun from the East? Are the FARSE members also be protecting and ensuring that the rising sun from the East will rise to become the new Imperial Japan?

What can the govt of the people, by the people, for the people do?

I do not know how many Singaporeans out there are still trying to send out their resume looking for a job and after 6 months or a year or more and still could not land a job. I do not know how many are so stressed up, depressed and lost all confidence in themselves and how many are feeling so worthless and ashamed of themselves that they have withdrawn from society and hiding in some corners in despair. I do not know how many could have gone bonkers and how many just try to make ends meet with whatever jobs, temp jobs or part time jobs or manual labour jobs to get by.

Perhaps Gilbert Goh could dedicate a column in his Transitioning.org to list down the names of Singaporeans that are struggling for months or years and still unable to get a job. With the identity verified, the person can be identified with a pseudo name but with other details like qualifications, experience and duration of unemployment made known. Jobless and underemployed Singaporeans must be encouraged to put their names on the list. The numbers would get the MOM thinking.

The number of these unemployed and underemployed could be quite substantial while some silly Singaporeans are sneering at them as useless, too demanding or choosy or whatever shit they could shit on them.  Would someone want to do something to take care of these educated, some highly educated and experienced Singaporeans when there are more than 1m foreigners, many fakes and cheats, are having a good time here, fully employed, gainfully employed, over employed and depriving these Singaporeans from their right to be gainfully employed?

MOM could set up a task force to compile an inventory of these Singaporeans who are desperately in need of a decent job. Freeze approving Employment Passes and when an organization put in an application for foreign talents, send them a list of qualified Singaporeans for them to pick. Until these jobless and unemployed Singaporeans are employed, no approval shall be given for Employment Passes except on very highly skill jobs. In fact all the middle level management jobs should be closely monitored and given Singaporeans the first right of employment. Any job that a Singaporean can do should be given to a Singaporean.

And make it a law that the Human Resource dept must be headed by a Singaporean. New citizens of less than 10 years and PRs not acceptable to be head of HR dept. This would really help the Singaporeans left in the lurch and no need for silly and worthless talks of compassion and a caring and inclusive govt. And there will be no need for silly training courses to train to be underemployed. Make it happen, make it real.

Swee Say, what do you think? Can do or not can do?

PS. There are some glitches in Blogger and I can't get the font to the size I want. Those having problems can click on the gear like icon on top right of screen to change the size of fonts to your desire. 150% would be just right.

Defending SGX CEO Loh Boon Chye

Below is a comment by a TKSS in TRE

TKSS:
December 8, 2015 at 11:46 pm  TKSS(Quote)
The problem lies with the choice and finding the right man/woman to run the business.
Look at SMRT, do we have the right CEO?

He is probably the one that is pushing the idea of nationalising SMRT
Look at SGX, Loh Boh Chye (sorry I mean Boon Chye) who replaces Magnus Bocker
The present incumbent maintains status quo to the demolished exchange left by his predecessor.
What does the present CEO do. He make changes to Organization Structure.

Its like rearranging the deck chairs or running around redecorating the passengers cabins when Titanic has struck the iceberg and is sinking fast to the Atlantic seabed.

I am not sure about the comment on SMRT. I think the comment about Loh Boon Chye is unfair. I think he is doing all the right things. And actually there is nothing much needed to be done as SGX is in the pink of health. The market is so vibrant, the derivative trade is doubling or tripling in volume and the profits of SGX is growing. Why should Loh Boon Chye want to do anything when there is nothing wrong with the market? When it is not broken, do not fix it. The SGX is not broken yet.

Maintaining status quo is the best thing and the right thing to do. Changes to organization structure like changing deck chairs is normal when a new man is on board. Maybe he is cutting cost to save some money or making the SGX more efficient. Must be good.

I think Loh Boon Chye knows what he is doing. Everything is just fine. Don’t worry, SGX is in good hands. Magnus Bocker had done a fantastic job in improving liquidity and the volume is getting better and better.

What is this thing about the Titanic hitting an iceberg and sinking? Rubbish. This is not the Atlantic Ocean and our sea bed is not very deep, cannot sink one. Even if sunk it will still look like floating.  Nothing to worry about. Trust me. Oops, I mean trust him.

I saw on the news that SGX is going to be more targeted when it advises investors to ‘Trade with caution’. What does this mean when SGX has to put such a cautionary message? Does SGX know something is wrong, and if there is something wrong, would it be better to let the investors know what is wrong?

What about telling the investors the exact workings of super computers being plugged into the SGX? What are these computers doing, how are they taking advantage of the information they are accessible to? How many of these computers are plugged into SGX and if they violated SGX’s principle of fair play? Having such data that the public did not have, would it constitute front running or insider trading? What are the risks faced by the innocent investors trading against these computers?  It would be good if SGX could educate the public on the workings of these computers.

PS. The typo errors in the above quote of TKSS is inherent in the original comment.