A story of a country - posted in TRE by a blogger called BK

Below is a story of what a country means and what it is like to be a citizen of a country that looks after its citizens.

January 12, 2016 at 1:56 pm  BK(Quote)

Just wanted to share this amazing story:

How a country prioritises the needs and rights of its individual citizens says a lot about how much it values their contribution to society. And Japan is a living example of such a country.

Some three years ago, the Kami-Shirataki train station in the northernmost island of Hokkaido, Japan, was about to be shut down by Japan Railways —the group that operates the country’s railway network.

At that time, ridership at the train station had dramatically fallen down because of its remote location and even the freight service had ended there as well.

However, when Japan Railways noticed that it was still being used every day by a single passenger: A high-school girl, on her way to school, they changed their minds and decided to keep the station open just for her until she graduates.

While it may sound like an unbelievably strange thing to do, according to CCTV News, it was a decision that Japan Railways made in order for the lone girl student to complete her education

The company even adjusted the train’s timetable according to the girl’s schedule.

The train stops there only twice a day — once to pick up the girl and again to drop her off after her school day is over. The unnamed girl is expected to graduate this 26 March 2016, which is when the station will finally be closed.

And the Japanese government’s this act of making education a priority hasn’t gone unnoticed as social media users are all praise

“Why should I not want to die for a country like this when the government is ready to go an extra mile just for me,” one commenter wrote on CCTVNews’s post. “This is the meaning of good governance penetrating right to the grassroots level. Every citizen matters. No Child left behind!”

http://says.com/my/news/kami-shirataki-train-station

PS. This is the type of country worth defending and dying for.

British expat spared jail for assault against Singaporean student

Below is a post in the statestimesreview, http://statestimesreview.com/2016/01/15/singapore-court-foreign-expat-escaped-jail-term-after-brutal-assault-on-singaporean-student/

A foreign expat from England, Alan Benjamin Maybury, has been excused jail term for his brutal assault on a 19-year-old Singaporean student. At 1.30am on the morning of 30 Nov 2014, the 34-year-old former consultant was travelling in a taxi with his Singaporean wife along South Buona Vista Road. 19-year-old Singaporean polytechnic student Lum Kwok Weng was driving in the opposite direction and lost control of his vehicle when he approached a sharp bend and crashed into the taxi.

Alan Maybury then got out of the taxi and started shouting expletives at Lum Kwok Weng, and began brutally punching the student in the face several times. He was only stopped when a motorist confronted him and called the police. The victim suffered swelling on the right side of his mouth with a visible cut.

However in a weird twist of event, the Deputy Public Prosecutor Mansoor Amir actually spoke on behalf of the aggressor and merely asked for “an appropriate fine”. The Government prosecutor actually faulted the accident for the attack:

“It was the accident that caused the accused’s momentary outburst of violence.”
Currently, all punching-related road-rage assault cases involving Singaporeans as an aggressor have resulted in a jail term. The Singapore judiciary have always emphasized on a jail sentence to deter road rage incidents, but clearly isn’t applicable in this case. The sentencing of Alan Maybury have fueled discussions of unequal treatment against Singaporeans and preference treatment for foreigners from the Singapore judiciary.

PS. I feel very disgusted. Soon would it be no dogs and Singaporeans allowed on the streets.

ISIS threat to hit American establishment worldwide

On 13 Dec 15, I posted an article War of Words and in one para I mentioned that the ISIS was threatening to hit American establishments world wide, ‘The most effective warfare today has turned out to be the War of Words. ISIS have just warned the Americans to withdraw its troops and involvement in the Middle East or else  they will hit at every 7 eleven stores around the world, or at any MacDonald or Kentucky fastfood outlets, or every Apple stores, Coffee beans, Starbucks or any American brand establishments worldwide.’

The attack on a Starbuck in Jakarta would make govts around the world take the threats of ISIS more seriously going forward. There will be more demand for security officers all over the world to protect American establishments. There will be more worries about patronizing an American outlet like Starbucks or MacDonald. How would this going to affect the business of such establishments?

Taking it easy, ignoring the threats would be compromising on security and safety of the customers and the staff. The threats have been carried out. Would it be repeated again, somewhere in some corners of the world?

Things are going to be very messy and life is going to be very inconvenient. Singapore better not take such threats lightly. The Indonesians learnt a bitter and painful lesson for not taking the threat seriously. Chinese New Year is around the corner. Would our security checks and patrols be stepped up? Do we have enough manpower and resources to provide such security covers? In an open society like Singapore, with so many American and western establishments it is not a small job to do.

Take heed.

Obama has a lot to learn from Singapore

I went through Obama’s final speech before his Presidency expired and found many similarities and many shortcomings with Singapore. There are really many things that Obama could learn from Singapore and before quitting his Presidency on a high note. Alas, it is a bit too late now. Let me just mention a few points and maybe the next American president could pick up the cue from Singapore’s success.

The first point, Obama felt that ‘many Americans feel frightened and shut out of a political and economic system they view as rigged against their interests.’ How can the American political and economic system be rigged against the Americans? I only know that the American stock market system is highly rigged and they knew but not doing anything, allowing the cheats to cheat the innocent investors with their super computers. It is a crime that many silly countries are copying without thinking of the consequences. As for political and economic system, the Americans need to look no further. Come to Singapore and learn from our unrigged, fully transparent and fair system. Obama also called for an end to gerrymandering. This one he can also learn from Singapore, definitely no gerrymandering here. Then the American system will become fairer and more transparent.

Losing jobs and continuous training are also affecting the Americans.  Obama also told the Americans that they must retool and retrain but ‘they shouldn’t lose what they’ve already worked so hard to build in the process.’ This one I am not too sure if the Americans should learn from us with our many good lifelong training systems and SkillsFuture stats board helping the people to be retrained to be taxi drivers and security guards and many well paying jobs. I pass on this one.

Oh, one thing the American system is different from Singapore, they have unemployment payments which we don’t have. This one maybe we have to learn from the Americans.  Obama also wanted to raise minimum wage and strict immigration laws. Yes, the Americans should have more lax immigration policies like Singapore and let in more immigrants for more growth. No wonder their economy is not growing. Donald Trump would disagree and I can understand him.

Obama also advised the Americans to get more involved in politics. This one is the same as us. We also want our Singaporeans to get more involved in politics of the right kind, not the Hong Lim Park kind or the opposition kind. We need to vote and support a one party system, a ownself checks ownself system, the best kind of political system in the world that brought us from 3^rd world to 1^st World. The proof is in the pudding. We have proven that this system of one party ownself checks ownself works very well.

The Americans must come more often to learn from Singapore even if the Oracle is no longer around. We have many super talents that are paid in many millions not for nothing. They are really super talented and can offer the American presidents many good advices. It is a wisdom to learn from people earning more money than you. Talent and wisdom are measured by the money one commands and earns.

Investing CPF monies in Singapore stock market is bad

The proposal by the SBF for the two govt funds to invest in the local stock market to revive it before it goes into comatose is a good idea to some and bad to others. There is a debate going on with two sides offering differing views. I am of the view that investing CPF monies in the local market is bad for several reasons, some of my reasons are the same as those mentioned and I have a few to add.

Investing in the moribund stock market is a big risk. Don’t forget the foreign big funds have their super computers plugged into the SGX system and to trade against everyone. If Temasek and GIC were to put more money in the local market, would they also lose their pants like the other investors?

What I think many people did not know or could not see, but not Temasek and GIC, is that they are managed by very expert people and they should know better where to put the people’s life savings. They must have reckoned that investing in the local stock market is more dangerous than investing in foreign countries, including hazy dazy and funny 3^rd World stock markets. Of course the returns are higher as well in these funny countries and their stock markets. Not sure about the risk element. But after considering the two, it must be worth it and safer to invest anywhere else than in the local market.

This principle is the same like investing in foreign students, giving billions of dollars as scholarship to foreigners instead of to Singaporeans. Foreigners are the best. Foreign talents are the best including replacing our locals in jobs, top jobs. This is a very consistent policy. Foreign degrees from God knows where are better than our world class university degrees.

So, in the same line of thinking, any foreign company or stock market must be safer than our local stock market. Our stocks, degrees, our everything, is overhyped, over priced, over paid. Go overseas, everything is cheap and good. Investing in our local companies in the stock exchange therefore must be a bad idea, poor returns, higher risk and over priced. Investing in 3^rd world stock markets is the best. No risk, did I hear people saying no risk in 3^rd world stock markets? Or did I hear investing in American stock markets is safe? What about investing in top American and European banks, safe or not?

I have put up a very clever and solid case to invest everywhere except our stock market.  I rest my case. I also support giving more scholarships to foreigners, giving more jobs to foreign talents.

PS. Please forgive me for not knowing what I was writing. I think I must have taken something funny or I am thinking like our super talents. Did they say go with the flow?