Water price hike and new social behaviour

The govt is taking proactive actions to warn the hawkers not to raise prices to benefit from profiteering. And very likely, in my dreams, that the hawkers would follow this call religiously. Some hawkers even said they would not pass down the hike to the consumers and would absorb the increase in cost. This is something you can only hear in heaven when everyone is so saintly and angel like.

Let’s believe that the hawkers and food sellers would not pass the burden to their customers and everything will be as before. Look at the other areas where this price hike would hit the people. Maids in the condominium would likely be asked to bath in the common bathrooms beside the swimming pools or gymnasium. All public facilities like toilets would be doubly well patronized for sure. I have seen office workers brushing their teeth in the office toilets. Soon more will follow suit and they may even bath in the office bathrooms if available.

In the case of public toilets, would they start charging for usage? Oh, toilet facilities in shopping centres would also be a hot favourite place, in Changi Airport too.

Would employers start to restrict the number of times a worker can bathe, how long they can bathe because of this water hike?

Then there are the wet markets, hawker centres, foodcourts that required daily wash up. Would the frequency and duration be shortened? Water is not cheap now and these operators must be made to feel the heat of higher water prices. And when the heat is on, would they stinge on washing up their stalls and the hawker centres and food courts? Would they stop washing their food during preparation, would they cut down on water when washing the crockery and eating utensils? Would the hygiene of food preparation be compromised, would the eating places be less washed and deteriorated into waste land?

Would buses and trains be more smelly when people cut down on personal hygiene, bathe less, use less water, don’t wash their clothings that often? Water festivals would be banned I supposed which would not be good for integrating the foreigners here, not respecting their festivals.

One good point is that human noses are very adaptable and soon everyone would be used to the smell and get on with their lives with the new normal.

The greetings of 'jiat pah buay' would be changed to 'chang chui buay'.

American strategy for world hegemony

Trump is no difference from other US Presidents. He has been sold the same idea that the war industry is the most profitable American industry of all industries. All the Americans need to do is to create troubles around the world, raise tensions, provoke wars, and all the silly nations would come crawling to buy more weapons to kill each other in the name of defence. The American war machine is the biggest in the world, its nuclear arsenal could wipe out all life forms with many to spare. But the Americans are not contented. Trump is going to increase the budget for the American military, to build more advance weapons, for PEACE.  From US$600b to US$650b. You believe that?

After one month in office, Trump has been convinced by the war merchants that the only industry that is keeping America going and paying enough taxes for the good life is the war industry. And Trump is sold. All the ministries’ budget would be cut to give more money for the military to spend.  This is not just about hegemony but also about making money. It serves a dual purpose, keeping the world busy quarrelling and fighting among themselves and making the Americans not only rich but in control, in charge, as the self appointed policeman of the world, creating troubles so that it has a job to police the world.

But there is a cheaper strategy to dominate the world, to keep the American Empire as the only hegemon. This is simply done by pointing fingers. Yes, the Americans has used this strategy all the time and very successful. All the Americans need to do is to brand someone or country as evil, accuse them of all kinds of crimes, war crimes, currency manipulation, dumping, freedom of navigation, human rights violation, a threat no matter how ridiculous it is, and the silly unthinking people of the world would believe so and start to echo what the Americans and the western media are saying, without wasting a moment to ask if it is true. This is especially true among the bananas in Asia, particularly in Sin City.

By branding and attacking other people or country, and with all the unthinking and silly people believing in it, the victims or countries would be kept busy trying to defend themselves and explain that they are not what the Americans claimed they are. And they would have no time to accuse the Americans of their evil deeds. Every silly bugger would forget to look at the real devil in the Americans for creating wars everywhere, violating international laws, committing genocide of the innocents and calling them war collaterals. Many heads of state were murdered, their countries invaded and ran to the ground by the Americans, but no one is asking or accusing the Americans of these war crimes and crimes against humanity.  

The strategy is so simple and so effective, accuse, brand, shout, scream, use the western media, point the finger and the result is the same. Every silly asshole would just listen and behave accordingly as the Americans want them to be. And the evil hegemon would just rule them like their angel, like their God, so magnanimous, so kind, so generous, so peace loving. The evil hegemon just simply said this country is bad, is the enemy, is a threat, and the sillies would go crazy saying aye, aye sir. Please come and protect us.

Syonan Gallery achieved more than it set out to do

According to Hsien Loong, the Syonan Gallery was to ‘evoke that dark and traumatic period in Singapore’s history’. In my view this episode evoked more than that. Within a matter of two days, Singaporeans were given a history lesson that they would not forget. I don’t think the school text books and lessons could be told in such personal and dramatic way to touch the raw nerves of the people, young and old. Many old wounds were opened, many old and painful memories were invoked for those who suffered, their children and closed ones to feel the pain once more. It was hurting to many of the victims.
 
How’s that for achieving the task of evoking the horrific and traumatic period of a forgotten chapter of our history? But more, many old stories of betrayals were retold and some crying out for blood. Many of the younger generations would not have known of the hideous past, of hooded men acting as informers to betray the victims that were eventually led to their death in the hands of the butchers, the Kempeitai and the Japanese Imperial Army. Many would now get to refresh their memories of how heinous were the crimes of the barbaric Japanese invaders.
 
A big thank you for this timely reminder to arouse the anger and hate for the Japanese invaders of our country. Many would have forgotten and would love everything Japanese. Many stories are being retold in the social media. Now anything Japanese would come with a distaste. Some may want to ‘pui’ and would look at the Japanese more closely to see the evil lurking behind that disarming smile and that polite bow.
 
This is a good way to learn history and to relive history, to remind the millennial not to take things at face value. Know your past, know your history and be wiser for your own good. The past cannot be forgotten. This unintended result is the only good thing coming out from this dreadful episode. Now the name Syonan can be dumped into history and good riddance.

What India done right

What India done right and Singapore failed miserably is the emphasis on IT. Singapore seems to have lost a generation of IT programmers/analysts/software specialists through its neglect in teaching these subjects in schools, polytechnics and the universities. Everyday I am reminded of the army of IT professionals in MBFC. My whole floor is flooded with these IT people from India, a testament that India has done right in foreseeing the future, planning and educating a whole generation of such specialists for the industry worldwide. How could we have missed this boat?

The dearth of IT specialists is seriously felt in the banking and finance industry and they have no choice but to go to India where they are armies of them waiting eagerly to be hired. If only Singapore's education has done it right, today all the IT specialists being hired to work in the banks would have been Singaporeans and not foreigners. Our university graduates would be gainfully employed and not be dumped into taking up part time jobs or unrelated contract jobs earning a pathetic pay not enough to live on.

This is what careful planning and doing the right thing is all about at govt level. They called it foresight, the ability to look into the future like the CFE is doing. This is also proof that the govt's proactive and crystal ball gazing ability is greatly lacking.

How I wish the number of IT specialists employed in MBFC are Singaporeans and not foreigners and our graduates need not waste their time and money to study irrelevant courses and ended with degrees that cannot be eaten.

Please learn from India and start to educate our graduates in useful and relevant courses and not courses that no employer wants. I feel so sorry for our graduates and their parents that foot the bills for their education whenever I see the happy faces of the foreigners here. These faces could be the happy faces of our young graduates.

Where is the clever thinking and planning for the future? Would the recent CPE end up 10 or 20 years in the future with more pathetic problems like what we are seeing today when a whole industry needing an army of IT specialists and has to import them, unable to find any local to fill the vacancies?

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