Honour is priceless

I wanted to take a dig at Donald Trump and his appointees for diminishing their dignity by accepting incredibly low monetary rewards when they take up their posts on 20 Jan 17. Trump has declined his presidential salary which understandably is worth less than a peanut and instead opt to take a token pay of US$1. Some may find this action stupid, demeaning and insulting the great office of the Presidency of the USA. How can the responsibility and power of the highest and most important office in the world be worth US$1, or how could Donald Trump be worth US$1? He is worth even less than our cleaners. What kind of dignity is he going to garner, what kind of respect is he going to get when he met up with other heads of state and govt or with business leaders that earn in the millions? would Trump feel undignified, ashamed of his low pay, a meagre US$1? I am so tempted to buy him kopi if he visits Singapore. Poor chap, how could he afford Starbucks?

And his team of cabinet secretaries are mostly billionaires and multimillionaires. Take the CEO of Exxon Mobil, Rex Tillerson who has accepted the post of Secretary of State, our equivalent of Foreign Minister. Tillerson is being paid tens of milllions by Exxon but would suffer a huge pay cut in his new appointment, maybe getting something less than US$200k! He is just as insane as Trump to give up his millions, like all the other milllionaire appointees, to become political leaders. Why would these men and women willingly and honourably accept such a huge pay cut without claiming how much they have to sacrifice for the country? And they would have to face greater challenges in their new jobs, one of which is how to adjust their lifestyle with so little pay, how their family members would have to suffer for their bad decisions.

The only answer that I can think of is the silly concept of honour. These men and women are going to serve their country and see that as a great honour that is worth more than anything in monetary terms. Honour is priceless, even if they have to lose a lot of dignity for have a low pay. Yes, honour to some people may be just a useless aspiration that would not bring food on the table. But to these men and women, honour is everything they live for. They would not be caught talking foolishly about how great a sacrifice they have made for the loss of their income, ie money.

Honour cannot be measured by money alone. Honour is simply honour, priceless. It is something that either you have it or you don't. Which is more important, priceless honour or dignity that can be bought by money?

Shall I say dignity is more important than honour?

China - From friend to foe

Lee Kuan Yew spent half his lifetime building, cultivating and developed a special relationship with China. It took less than two years of his passing and China is now more a foe than a friend. Dunno who to thank for this sorry state of affair. It is definitely not Singapore's fault, not the MFA's fault, Singapore has done nothing to China or against China to cause this. Vivian could even said he can sleep well, with no prick of conscience. Not sure about Hsien Loong but he has been very happy going about doing his things without having to say a word about the deteriorating relationship with China.

This is a queer case of stupidity in diplmacy. It is either the Chinese are so stupid that they are angry with Singapore when Singapore did not do anything to badmouth China, to hurt China or to undermine China's core interests. Or the Singapore side is so stupid that they have done all the things against the interests of China but has no clue that they were against China. The latter is really quite frightening. It is worst than the Emperor and his new clothes. It is someone having diarrhoea without knowing it and happily walking around with the stench of shit but could not smell a thing.

The Terrex Incident has just started and who knows how long it will be dragged on and how serious it could turn out when more things were revealed. And before one could say let's move on, 20 DBS staff in Hong Kong have been arrested for breaches to good conduct and banking practices. They have violated the law for releasing confidential data of their clients. Has this got anything to do with the declining relations with China? Or is it just a coincidence, nothing to worry about. No one needs to lose any sleep.

The special relationship and access Lee Kuan Yew had with China is now passe. And it also means the special relationship Singapore enjoyed with China is also history. No western leaders would not be able to call on the Oracle to learn a few wisdom in dealing with China. Out line to China is cut, dead, no one is going to pick up the phone on the China end.

How did we do it so quickly after one and a half years after Lee Kuan Yew's death? All his good work and effort have gone to waste. There is no turning back, at least not under this govt. Singapore still thinking it can ride on the Chinese growth engine, to bid for projects in the OBOR big scheme of things? Would any minister think he or she would be invited to Beijing after this diplomacy mess?

Life goes on, nothing really happened, Singapore is still China's good friend or China is still Singapore's good friend. Singapore did not poke at China. Either the Chinese are so dumb that they did not know they were being poked or the people doing the poking are so daft that they did not know they were poking and poking at China. What insanity!

The vicious cycle of the unemployable, underemployed and unemployed

Singapore has had 50 years of good fortune, with good leaders in the past planting the right trees to provide shade and bearing fruits for today's generation to benefit. The regional countries were not so fortunate and many of their people were unemployed or underemployed, ie unemployable for one reason or another. But they were lucky that they saw a rainbow with a pot of gold at the other end. And the rainbows all ended up in Singapore.

 

So all the unemployable, underemployed and unemployed took a flight to find their rainbow's ends and came to Singapore. The Singapore govt was and is very generous and employed all the unemployable, underemployed and unemployed of neighbouring and far off countries. Millions of jobs were given to these unemployable, underemployed and unemployed.

 

What the govt did not plan for is the creation of a Singaporean class of unemployable, underemployed and unemployed in the process. As time goes by, with the unemployable, underemployed and unemployed of other countries flooding here, the number of Singaporean unemployable, underemployed and unemployed increases proportionally. So the govt do the same thing, tell the Singaporean unemployable, underemployed and unemployed to go overseas to look for jobs like the foreign unemployable, underemployed and unemployed did by coming here. The solution looks so simple and neat. The unemployable, underemployed and unemployed can easily go overseas to find better employment and Singaporean unemployable, underemployed and unemployed should do the same and should not have any problem.

 

Unfortunately things are not that simple and straight forward. There are many obvious reasons, the govts of other countries are not so talented to know that foreign talents are good for them and their economies. They also did not have so many jobs to offer to the unemployable, underemployed and unemployed from Singapore, and they have many other good reasons not to do so.

 

So, while Singapore happily goes about hiring the unemployable, underemployed and unemployed of other countries, the Singaporean unemployable, underemployed and unemployed, though much more talented and well qualified and full of experience have no takers. The end result, Singapore ended up employing other countries' unemployable, underemployed and unemployed, but no one wants to employ Singapore's unemployable, underemployed and unemployed.

 

It was supposed to be a virtuous cycle, we take other countries' unemployable, underemployed and unemployed and other countries should be taking our unemployable, underemployed and unemployed. The realities did not turn out the way it was expected. If it does, it would just be a vicious cycle where we give better paying jobs, good jobs to the unemployable, underemployed and unemployed of other countries and do not mind them giving lower paying jobs to our unemployable, underemployed and unemployed. The end result is that it is a one way traffic. Singapore ended up providing all the good and high paying jobs to foreigners that were unemployable, underemployed and unemployed in their countries, but not to Singaporeans. The unemployable, underemployed and unemployed did not end up with anything but remain the unemployable, underemployed and unemployed Singaporeans..

 

A vicious cycle where Singapore exchanges its unemployable, underemployed and unemployed for the unemployable, underemployed and unemployed of other countries is already bad enough. Now it is worse, the other countries did not want our unemployable, underemployed and unemployed.

 

What a sick joke. And Singapore even prepares and trains its unemployable, underemployed and unemployed to accept lower paying jobs, lower level jobs, and cheap currencies and a less hospitable environment and lower quality of life style to work overseas, to replace the unemployable, underemployed and unemployed who came to Singapore to work in better paying jobs, strong currency and a better environment and better quality of life.

 

Whose silly formula is this? Or whose clever idea is this?

Duterte calling the American’s bluff

Pay us if you want American forces on our land. This is what Duterte told the Americans. This man is proving to be the smartest of all the Asean leaders. He could see how valuable a military base in the Philippines is to the Americans. The Americans are desperate to want bases for their soldiers to extend the reach of the Empire and making turning countries into semi colonies of the Empire. They need bases everywhere for the Empire. It has nothing to do with maintaining peace or protecting the countries where the bases are located, it is to protect the American Empire.

Now Duterte is telling the Americans, you want to station American soldiers and military hardware in the Philippines, you pay!  See, who needs who more? This was reported in Channel News Asia,

‘Hours after threatening to scrap the country’s Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) with the United States after the US-led Millennium Challenge Corp. deferred voting on its assistance to the Philippines, President Duterte imposed one condition on Washington if it would want the deal retained.

“You want to come back here? You pay us. You want bases here? Pay us. Transaction tayo, pera-pera na lang tayo, mabuti pa (Let’s enter into a transaction. Let’s make it all about money. We would be better off like that),” Duterte said in a speech delivered in General Santos City on Saturday night.

“There are no wars right now, why would I allow you here? You want to create World War III? If you do that, if all the nuclear explosives are really (used), this planet won’t be around tomorrow. It’s the end for all of us, so why would we pick a fight with anybody?” he added….’

 

But many silly Asean countries still believe that they need the Americans more and are begging the Americans to station their bases here and are willing to pay for it. And the naïve Donald Trump is going to ask all the countries having American military bases to pay for it? What a stupid joke. The Japanese and South Koreans would be most happy to get rid of the American soldiers and bases in their soil and free themselves from being the semi colonies of the USA.

 

Donald, please do the Japanese and South Koreans a favour, tell them to pay up and they would say, ‘So vely solee, we no pay, Yankees go home preeze.’

 

The Americans still wanting to con the stupid Asians that they needed to provide bases for the Americans, and the Asians must pay for the protection? Isn’t there enough proof that whenever and wherever the Americans are present there will be trouble, there will be wars, the Americans will raise tension, create instability, agitate and provoke wars. They will label another country as the evil one, provoke that country with threats of invasion, called war games, and telling the silly Asian countries that that country is a threat when that country reacts to American provocation?

 

Should Singapore be asking the Americans to pay for having access to base facilities here? Oops, they offer us training facilities too. Samula. In the case of the Philippines, the Americans would be on their knees begging Duterte to let them stay. And soon it would be the same in Japan and South Korea, please let our American soldiers and weapons stay in your land, we need to protect our Empire!

 

Who needs who more? Who is the stupid one, providing military bases for the Americans to protect the American Empire and paying for it? And also making enemies of countries that are enemies of the Americans.

 

In one stroke, Duterte has removed the blinkers from daft Asian leaders to see clearly a simple truth, that they were conned by the Americans without knowing what is happening. The devil started all the trouble, raise tension and then walk in as the protector to lower tension and maintain peace. Then they take control, take charge of everything including having their military bases in Asian countries. They write the rules and dictate everything, who is good, who is bad, which regime should be changed.

PS. My apologies for spending so much time on international issues but they are current and needed to be addressed. I have several local articles that I have held back but would post them asap.

China steals drone? What did the Americans and Europeans steal?

Trump has been trumping about China stealing an American drone in the South China Sea. Wow, he is standing on high moral ground, on strong legal grounds. How could anyone or China defend such an attack? China stealing an American drone, even used for espionage or collection of intelligence data, would be hard to justify or prove in The Hague Tribunal. China is now looking very bad in the eyes of the world.  Hishammuddin, the Malaysia Defence Minister is very worked up. He wants Asean to unite to confront China and the USA. Asean is very powerful when united. Dunno if other little USAs dare to open their big mouths again. But all the little USAs would be smiling, the Americans putting the Chinese in a spot.

Does anyone ever ask what did the Americans steal from the native Red Indians? If you do not know your history, the white Americans were originally from Europe, landed in the American continent and stole the whole continent from the native Red Indians.  But they need not have to explain or defend that as there was a Papal Bull issued from the Vatican called the Doctrine of Christian Discovery in which the native Red Indians, being non Christians, have no right to their land and the Europeans had been given the right by the white God to steal their land. Oops, cannot say steal. They just came and took the land.

And this same formula was used for the Europeans to steal the land of all the natives around the world and many of these former colonized natives are now little USAs, forgotten that once their land were stolen from them by the Europeans. Even today, many of these lands are still stolen and not return to the natives.

But do not underestimate Trump. He is a smart alec. He knew his history. So he generously told the Chinese to keep the drone the Chinese stole. Wow, the thief can keep the stolen property!  If not how, would Trump and the white Americans return the continent they stole from the native Red Indians? Would the Europeans return the land they stole from the natives around the world? Would the European colonialists returned all the loot they stole from the colonized people? Would the Queen of England return the golf ball size diamond to India? Would the British, Americans and all the Europeans return all the treasures and wealth they stole from their former colonies?

You see, while Trump point the finger at China for stealing an American drone, he quickly covered his backside by saying no need to return cause he remembered they stole the continent of North America from the Red Indians, and no need to return also. What about Canada, Australia, New Zealand and many other countries still being stolen? What about the islands they stole like Diego Garcia, the Marshalls, Guam and Hawaii? Would the Americans return them? By the way, China did not steal the drone. It was a suspicious object in the sea and posed a hazard to shipping. After identifying it, China is returning the drone to the US.

What is a drone compares to all the land mass and wealth stolen by Trump’s forefathers and the forefathers of the European colonialists?

PS. Does Hishammuddin remember what the British stole from Malaysia, then known as Malaya and the Straits Settlements and Sarawak and North Borneo?