Stupidity has no cure

Good news for remisiers and investors. The SGX has signed an agreement to bring in more red chips to improve the vibrancy of the stock market with more new and promising stocks from China. With the experience we had with CLOB shares and the first generation of red chips, SGX must have learnt a lot of good practices to introduce into the system before bringing in more red chips into the market. I am very sure they knew the risks involved and have done their homework to make sure history does not repeat itself and Singaporean investors would not be robbed once again. I am very sure many safeguards have been put in place by now. No? Doing the same thing all over again?

Let me try to recall what happened. My memories are fading fast, maybe getting dementia soon, how many red chips were IPOed here and how many left, yes left got two meanings, left the market, delisted or simply disappeared, or left in the market that you need to scratch with a changkol to find them? And how many are left with prices that are more than 10c, how many are left with prices that are 1c or less than 1c like 0.1c or 0.2c?

Don’t get me wrong for bringing up such memories. I know some are making good money by trading in these micro value stocks that can double in value by moving just one bit like from 0.1c to 0.2c. From a $1m investment it can become $2m if the stock moves by 0.1c. This is very, very attractive, better than buying Merrill Lynch, City Bank, Goldman Sach or SBC.  If more stocks in SGX are 0.1c, there will be more opportunities to double your money.

Another point, when new IPO red chips are brought in, there is likely to be a new round of euphoria and with more suckers coming in to chase up the prices. My advice, oops, cannot advise, just my wild guess, if new IPO red chips are in play, it may lead to a secondary play in the tired and retired micro chip stocks of 0.1c. When the attention is turned to these micro chip stocks, there will be good opportunities for some to double their money for sure.  This is the silver lining in brining in more red chips into the market.

And for sure, the stock market will be more vibrant with more new investors rushing in with their money to invest in the red chips, for the long, long term. Just be warned, investment in stocks is for the long term and one must be prepared to hold out for 20 or 30 years and 0.1c stocks could turn into diamonds and worth like diamonds.  Oh, let me balance my views, micro chips of 0.1c can run up to several cents, those new red chips of several cents or dollars can also run down to 0.1c. Historically this has proven to be possible. Must be the work of gravity I think.

Trade with care and make a lot of money if you can. Get your savings ready to invest in the red chips that are coming this way. Just be prepared for the long haul.

I have a suggestion, not sure if this is good or not. All the new red chips should have a prefit CE in front of their names, eg Spring Chicken should be listed as CE Spring Chicken.  CE is not meant to be abbreviation for China Equity or Cum Entitlements. It is meant to be Caveat Emptor, ie buyers beware.

Singaporean Winsemius trained to become dish washers and security guards

Does anyone bother to think how many Singaporeans out there that have enough training, education and experience to become the equivalent of Dr Winsemius to many third world developing countries? We have a very big pool of experts in many fields that would be most welcomed by developing countries to offer them advices in national development, infrastructure building, city planning, setting up govt agencies, setting up industrial parks and businesses. These experts were directly involved in the building of a world class city, not the so called experts from third world countries that ran rundown third world cities and infrastructures and continue to run them like slums and shabby towns and being called experts and invited to run first world cities.

At the next level, many of these senior managers, CEOs, engineers etc, could become resource people to developing countries, to UN agencies, where they could contribute productively to these countries and their people. What is happening is that many of these experts and their expertise are not recognized or treasured, and instead they are being herded like no brainer sheep to be retrained to be cashiers, sales workers, taxi drivers and of course security guards.

Many of our oldies are real treasures like the Chinese saying, 家有一老，家有一宝. It is so sad that these treasures are wasted by the fools who could not see any use in them. A friend said many of the pioneer generation seniors are already trained by the military and the police during their NS days and reservist obligations. In times like this, when more manpower is needed to keep a look out and prepare for terrorist threats, who would be better and more cost effective and dependable, safer to trust than the pioneer generations to take on these roles?

It would need some organization, some retraining, reskilling and mindset, to organize the pioneer generations to guard our country and homes, to protect our own people, our families instead of depending on queer foreigners whose backgrounds are unknown and pose greater risk than security to our country and people?  The naivety of Singaporeans to be so trusting of foreigners is a danger to the security of our country.  When redeploying the seniors, do not expect the seniors to work for free but they would not be demanding millions to serve the country, to protect the country.

It is time to put on the thinking hat and make use of the pioneer generations productively and in a meaning and useful way for the good of the country. Dad’s Army may be a comedy, but our pioneers, those that are still clear in thinking and physically able, could be a force to be reckoned with, given the financial and organizational support instead of being wasted away. Some can be Winsemius, some can be the guardians of our country, the country they built and will die for.

The amount of money wasted in the SkillsFuture Scheme can be more targeted and be made to be more useful and meaningful if more thoughts are put into it.

Water shortage, drought, Linggui water level lowest

There is a new awareness that there is a water shortage among the Singaporeans. Some are showing signs of panic and are demanding for more severe austerity drives from the govt. Make the people feel the pain!  A few forumers are parroting these same unthinking lines that the people must be made to feel the pain, make them pay more to know the value of water. Well this kind of stupidity is now in the DNA of daft Singaporeans. And they even quoted half baked foreigners to support their stupidity, wanting to pay more for the water they are consuming. Someone is quietly smiling in the corner, knowing that his million dollar paycheck would come in time with stupid people so happy to pay more taxes.

Didn’t these clowns know that Singapore is planning to double its population to 10m? If Singapore can afford to double its population to 10m, how can there be shortage of water? Do these people really think the govt are fools, not enough water still want to have 10m population? Cannot be right?

Now stop crying out loud for more restraining measures to control the use of water.  Understand how much is needed per person first. Don’t anyhow shout about the average and people must use less than the average. I bet the average for the foreigners are lesser, because they don’t bath like daft Sinkies do. They no need expensive shampoo and scented lotion to go with it. They don’t mind smelling like they are and daft Sinkies like that too. Once you get use to the smell you may ask for more, and not having them may have withdrawal symptoms and side effects.

This may be a good thing that the foreigners can teach the daft Sinkies, use less water by not bathing and get use to the smell. The pigs are very happy with the smell in the pig sty. They will ask, what smell, where got?

Oops, I digress. Come to think of it the daft Sinkies are really daft. There is a real need to increase the population to 10m. This will improve our water resources. Instead of 5m people peeing, we have 10m people peeing into our reservoir to provide more liquid for our Newater.  Such liquid is independent of rainfall. Got rain no rain, they would still pee.  Daft Sinkies are just too daft and cannot see further than their nose and the long term plans of the govt.

Last year new citizens increased by 20,815, PRs by another 29,955, netting  57,700 more head counts, plus our 30,000++  babies these will give a total plus side of nearing  90,000 in a year.  The govt is meticulously and conscientiously working towards the 10m population goal to increase our water supply. Not to worry, everything is planned for the good of the people. When the population is 10m, our water problem will be solved. No need to panic that we would not have enough water. No need to worry.  No need to increase water fee. Trust the govt.

Be smart, don’t be stupid. But if you are stupid enough and want to pay more for your water, go ahead. No one is stopping you.

Train, train, train…what, what, what?

Calm down Boon Wan, I am not talking about you. Neither am I talking about the train breakdowns that you are desperately trying to put them together. Really, no body really cares anymore about train breakdowns. This is the new normal of a 3^rd World country.  Everytime when people hear the announcement of train breakdowns, they burst out into laughter. It is now a joke.

The train I am talking about is this magic word or magic cure called training. Singapore can solve all its problems with training. We can even teach old dogs new trick by training them to be professors but to work as cleaners. What we need to do is to train. Never mind what kind of training, never mind if the training is relevant or irrelevant, never mind if the cost of training is too prohibitive for the little rewards, and never mind if the cost fee is too little for a course that is meaningless. Just send the people for training.

Training is now an obsession in this silly little piece of rock when inside the head is replaced by a piece of stone. Ok, let me be more generous, inside the head is a piece of computer chip that will respond to the input, GIGO. All it needs is for someone to mention the word training and training becomes a magical word, a magical cure for everything, better than Tongkat Ali.  Maybe that is the reason why they are sending the grandpas and grandmas for training. $500 can buy a lot of Tongkat Ali, I am told.

We have a nation of trainees, from foetus to babies, to pre schools, kindergartens, primary school, all the way to universities, even to train retirees in their golden years. Now more professional academies are sprouting out to train professionals as if the universities did not do their jobs or the professionals are incapable of doing what they are doing, or obsolete. How much more training and training money must be spent before we maxed out in this training craze to know that no amount of training can cure stupidity?

Did anyone ask the foreigners, so called talents, how much training did they received in their entire lives, and why are they better trained than Singaporeans and better equipped with better skill sets to replace all the over trained Singaporeans?

Would there be a case when an over trained Singaporeans was replaced by an untrained, half trained or never trained foreigners with a fake degree? The big question, why are the half trained, poorly trained or untrained foreigners swarming all over the island replacing the over trained Singaporeans and the government’s only solution is to send the replaced and so called no skill set or obsolete Singaporeans, despite all their experience in what they were doing, for more training?

I am still very puzzled by this riddle. A nation of highly educated people, all found unsuitable for simple jobs, not highly technical and specialist jobs mind you, and being replaced by people from the third world who could not do anything good in their home countries, who could not find jobs in their own countries?

How silly can this state of affairs be? Yes, the once highly skilled, hard working and proud Singaporeans that built a modern city state good enough to be the envy of the first world, are now being replaced by the unknown herds from the third world countries. It is simply unbelievable! And the govt thinks the only solution to help these silly over trained Singaporeans is more training?

And of course there is the special elite core that does not need any training and can become experts overnight in any field, any industry and being paid millions, through political appointments to be CEOs or Chairmen, advisors and what not all over the island. This group does not need any training at all, the proverbial knows all or smart alecs.

But this funny state of development, whereby people get more stupid or useless the more education and training they received, has no exception. This may be what the believers of gods and fairy tales will say, it is heaven’s will or 天意。We are seeing the beginning or the end of this once proud and hardworking people. They are destined to be taken over and ruled by third world so called talents that they believed are better than them, people who can’t save their countries, unable to find jobs in their countries, unable to build their countries.

Is this a joke? How could this happen? I dunno what to say. Go train some more to become taxi drivers and security guards, to be trained to go to third world countries to compete with them in their home ground since they are useless in their first world country called Singapore.

Now, whose brilliant idea is it to train first world useless but highly educated people to work in the third world for small change? And these foreign talents are invited to live in the heartland to integrate with the heartlanders to improve the stock.

Dunno want to laugh or want to cry.

PS. Daft sinkies are on a perpetual training mode. Dunno training for what and how much training is enough. Actually the daft is at the top. The Singaporeans are made daft by the real daft at the top.

OBOR – Strategic irrelevance

Some Asean countries are still thinking of wrestling with China for barren rocks and reefs in the South China as their national priorities, and wanting to buy more weapons for a military contest, China is moving along with the One Belt and One Road strategy that would change the way trade will be conducted in the region and the whole world. The strategic importance of the Straits of Malacca and the Isthmus of Kra would become strategic irrelevance when China completes its international high speed train network across Europe, to Africa and to the Americas. There would be no more needs for a large sea going ocean fleet to transport goods to and from Africa and Europe to China and even to the Americas. The efficiency and cheaper cost of going by land in high speed train, cutting time and distance, would make transportation by ships obsolete. China could move goods to and from Europe and Africa by passing South and South East Asia completely.

The little consolation and consideration for the One Belt portion of OBOR is to cater for the needs of countries like Indonesia and the Philippines that trains could not reach them. The game of trade through sea ports would be totally changed.

What about Singapore becoming irrelevant in the game plan? If Singapore and Malaysia would play the game right, both could be playing a new role as the new trading centres and the terminals for high speed train. All goods from and to Indonesia could land in Singapore and go forth by land to Asia and Europe in double quick time. The caveat, if the high speed train terminal landed in Singapore. Missing this boat will mark the end of Singapore as a trading centre for the region.

China is playing on a chess board that is as big as the whole world while the Asean countries are bickering over the South China Sea and thinking that it could hold China to ransom by choking up the Straits of Malacca. The Chinese have thought through their strategic interests and have mapped out their plans, on land, by land and minimizing the need for sea transportation to a minimum.

The OBOR and the high speed train and road network across Asia to Europe and Africa are game changers to a new world of global commerce.