Philip Ang wrote a piece with figures to support to warn Singaporeans
about the risk of the CPF Ponzi scheme blowing up. How reliable were
the numbers he put up is debatable as what he could do was to
extrapolate from the limited data available. The truth or data as to the
financial health of the CPF money is not readily available. The
soundness of the CPF savings is as good as the govt’s words, trust me,
everything is professionally managed by the best managers money can buy,
in good hands, and the money is safe. And it is secret. This is the
most frightening part. When the data or truth cannot be told or
concealed, should you be worried? Knowing how people like to parrot
their achievements, and when there is no achievement to gloat about and
no data to show, you better read between the lines and make your own
conclusion.
The CPF is now like a secret maze, guarded with top secrecy and the
public don’t really know what is going on except for some numbers put up
occasionally. Is Philip’s concern valid, that this Ponzi scheme is
about to blow up? If Philip is right, no Singaporean is spared and the
consequences are grave. Imagine a whole life time of earnings of a few
million people disappeared in thin air. Just hope Philip is wrong and
everything is fine. Trust the govt that everything is fine.
There is another Ponzi that cannot escape the passage of time. This is
the 99 year lease on HDB flats. Singaporeans are expected to celebrate
SG100 in 2065, ie less than 50 years away. By then, many HDB flats would
be at the end of their leases and many Singaporean HDB owners would see
the value of their flats becoming zero. There is no way to cover up or
avoid this rude awakening. The million dollar asset rich Singaporeans
would turn penniless overnight comes SG100.
Not only that, many would have to be evicted from their flats when the leases expired.
Still there is another immigration Ponzi scheme going on when more and
more foreigners would have to be brought in to shore up the property
market. The influx of more and more people cannot go on and on. It is
unsustainable and must come to a halt. Then what? Another big bust.
With these 3 Ponzi schemes awaiting to explode, is the future really that comfortable, good and secure for Singaporeans?
8/01/2017
Another stupid article - Is Malaysia next after Sri Lanka falls knee deep in China’s debt trap?
This article appeared in The Independent site written by a Veasna Var, a
PhD candidate and a Sovinda Po, a masters student. The gist of the
article is that many countries are heavily in debt to China for
borrowing to build infrastructure and commercial projects in their
respective countries. Sri Lanka is supposedly drowning in debt to the
tune of US$64b of which US$8b is owed to China.
Cambodia also owed 80% of its bilateral debt of US$3.9b to China. Next comes Malaysia, with Chinese firms investing some US$35.6b in projects in Malaysia and another RM56b for a high speed railway linking KL to Singapore. And after signing for RM143b worth of projects last November, Najib is back in China to ask for more funds and more projects. It is China’s fault again! Najib is so gullible and is begging to be duped again and again to get Malaysia into bigger debt? The bomohs in China must be working very hard on Najib to make him fall into China’s debt trap.
What is important and often ignored is that the debt is made up of concessionary loans or grants to these countries which means at very favourable interest rates. What is also not mentioned is that these countries are the beneficiaries of investments and infrastructure developments as a result of the loans and grants.
The big question, why is this China’s fault? Did the authors understand that it is these countries that went to China to ask for cheap loans to rebuild their countries and to ask China to invest in their countries? Are the leaders of these countries idiots that blindly went to China to ask for cheap money and investment only to end up in huge debts? Did these leaders know what they were doing, why they were taking such huge loans and grants and would end up in big debt if they mismanaged the funds? Is this the fault of China for being generous and helpful to offer cheap loans and investments at the requests of these countries?
Did China put a knife at the throat of the leaders of these countries to accept the cheap loans and grants? Who is doing who a favour in such deals and agreements? Who are the beneficiaries of the cheap loans and grants? With the hundreds of millions or billions of dollars, did these countries benefit anything at all?
And if these countries mismanaged or make losses as a result of these cheap loans and grants and investments, why is it China’s fault? All these silly academics only see one side of the picture, China is benefiting and the countries enjoying cheap loans and investments are the losers, not gainers?
Why did not the leaders of these countries go to the West to ask for cheap loans and grants for the same reasons, for more investments? The West would not lend them the money? Or the West would charge them higher interest rates and higher development costs?
Are the authors of the article thinking individuals or thinking but with flawed logics, as good as unthinking? Or they have different agenda to paint the generosity of China as black?
What do you think? Why are the leaders of these countries forming a beeline to China for cheap loans and grants voluntarily if these are bad for them? Should they be running away? Are these leaders fools and willingly be conned by China? China is not their colonial masters and did not put a gun on their heads and tell them to sign or else as the West did in the past.
Cambodia also owed 80% of its bilateral debt of US$3.9b to China. Next comes Malaysia, with Chinese firms investing some US$35.6b in projects in Malaysia and another RM56b for a high speed railway linking KL to Singapore. And after signing for RM143b worth of projects last November, Najib is back in China to ask for more funds and more projects. It is China’s fault again! Najib is so gullible and is begging to be duped again and again to get Malaysia into bigger debt? The bomohs in China must be working very hard on Najib to make him fall into China’s debt trap.
What is important and often ignored is that the debt is made up of concessionary loans or grants to these countries which means at very favourable interest rates. What is also not mentioned is that these countries are the beneficiaries of investments and infrastructure developments as a result of the loans and grants.
The big question, why is this China’s fault? Did the authors understand that it is these countries that went to China to ask for cheap loans to rebuild their countries and to ask China to invest in their countries? Are the leaders of these countries idiots that blindly went to China to ask for cheap money and investment only to end up in huge debts? Did these leaders know what they were doing, why they were taking such huge loans and grants and would end up in big debt if they mismanaged the funds? Is this the fault of China for being generous and helpful to offer cheap loans and investments at the requests of these countries?
Did China put a knife at the throat of the leaders of these countries to accept the cheap loans and grants? Who is doing who a favour in such deals and agreements? Who are the beneficiaries of the cheap loans and grants? With the hundreds of millions or billions of dollars, did these countries benefit anything at all?
And if these countries mismanaged or make losses as a result of these cheap loans and grants and investments, why is it China’s fault? All these silly academics only see one side of the picture, China is benefiting and the countries enjoying cheap loans and investments are the losers, not gainers?
Why did not the leaders of these countries go to the West to ask for cheap loans and grants for the same reasons, for more investments? The West would not lend them the money? Or the West would charge them higher interest rates and higher development costs?
Are the authors of the article thinking individuals or thinking but with flawed logics, as good as unthinking? Or they have different agenda to paint the generosity of China as black?
What do you think? Why are the leaders of these countries forming a beeline to China for cheap loans and grants voluntarily if these are bad for them? Should they be running away? Are these leaders fools and willingly be conned by China? China is not their colonial masters and did not put a gun on their heads and tell them to sign or else as the West did in the past.
7/31/2017
Would Boon Wan be twitting like Trump?
Half way through a prepared speech on the reliability of the train, Boon
Wan could not tahan anymore and went off the cuff to berate the
negative reporting of the breakdown of public transport by the main
media. ‘I don’t like the media reporting…Even our main media have turned
tabloid. Yes, exciting and so on…frightening figures, headlines.’
According to Today’s readers comments, the media were reporting the truth, what were happening exactly on the ground and these were very helpful to commuters who needed to know the real situation and to plan their travel. It would be terrible if the media were to report average of breakdowns over24 hours like the reporting of haze situation and the commuters would be like lost sheep, not knowing what to do.
Some comments from interviews conducted by Today, ‘The media is basically reflecting the sentiments of regular train commuters….the updates provided by the media have helped commuters such as herself to plan their commute…I don’t think the media has (exaggerated) recent train delays and breakdowns….)
Professor Lee Der Horng of NUS has this to say, ‘…that mainstream media coverage of the recent train delays was an accurate reflection of the situation, and it played a role in getting train operators to come forward and explain to the public the cause of those delays….The media cannot be so blind that when the re-signalling work casuse delays, they’re not reported. I think (in that case) the public would be furious.’
Now the media is caught in a vice, between a hard rock and the deep blue sea. How and what should the media be reporting? Or should the media be telling the people just to hear the good stuff…and ignore the bad news?
What Boon Wan could do is to follow Donald Trump and go twitting and instruct the train operators to twit as well. Just keep twitting and ignore the main media. It would be better if he could tell the main media to stop reporting on the train delays and all news on public transportation and delays would be available on twitters. That would make the job of the main media easier and commuters would only hear the good news, the good stuff, the right stuff, from twitters.
What is fake news and real news is a fine thin line. I am being generous.
According to Today’s readers comments, the media were reporting the truth, what were happening exactly on the ground and these were very helpful to commuters who needed to know the real situation and to plan their travel. It would be terrible if the media were to report average of breakdowns over24 hours like the reporting of haze situation and the commuters would be like lost sheep, not knowing what to do.
Some comments from interviews conducted by Today, ‘The media is basically reflecting the sentiments of regular train commuters….the updates provided by the media have helped commuters such as herself to plan their commute…I don’t think the media has (exaggerated) recent train delays and breakdowns….)
Professor Lee Der Horng of NUS has this to say, ‘…that mainstream media coverage of the recent train delays was an accurate reflection of the situation, and it played a role in getting train operators to come forward and explain to the public the cause of those delays….The media cannot be so blind that when the re-signalling work casuse delays, they’re not reported. I think (in that case) the public would be furious.’
Now the media is caught in a vice, between a hard rock and the deep blue sea. How and what should the media be reporting? Or should the media be telling the people just to hear the good stuff…and ignore the bad news?
What Boon Wan could do is to follow Donald Trump and go twitting and instruct the train operators to twit as well. Just keep twitting and ignore the main media. It would be better if he could tell the main media to stop reporting on the train delays and all news on public transportation and delays would be available on twitters. That would make the job of the main media easier and commuters would only hear the good news, the good stuff, the right stuff, from twitters.
What is fake news and real news is a fine thin line. I am being generous.
Well done North Korea, now safe from the evil Empire
The latest missile test by the North Koreans has drawn immediate
response from the world's number one outlaw and its fellow gangsters.
The Americans not only responded by more military exercises to threaten
the North Koreans, Trump also added this rhetoric,
'By threatening the world, these weapons and tests further isolate North Korea, weaken its economy, and deprive its people,...The United States will take all necessary steps to ensure the security of the American homeland and protect our allies in the region.'
This is the normal reaction of the outlaw, to show the other party that it has bigger guns to hit them and also to fool the world that the North Koreans are threatening them and the outlaw is there to protect the rest of the world from the North Koreans. Now, who would be fooled by the American rhetoric, who would believe the North Koreans would be firing nuclear weapons at them for no good reason? Or is there any country been poking at the North Koreans and now felt guilty about it and thus has good reason to know that the North Koreans would not be happy with their big mouths?
The North Koreans are doing the right thing, to make sure it could give a few deadly blows at the outlaw should it tries to nuke them. The best part is that attention is directed at North Koreans' ability to hit the US homeland. Should the Americans nuke NK, Japan would be the first target for the short range missiles from NK. Japan would go up in smokes as the North Koreans have plenty of short range missiles to cover all the big cities and American bases in Japan.
The first victim of a nuclear war between the US and NK would be Japan. They better don't play with fire and tell the Americans to back down from their madness.
And why is North Korea becoming China’s problem and China has to solve it? What has China got to do with the affairs and defence capability of another sovereign state? Who is poking the North Koreans and threatening the North Koreans and demonizing the North Koreans?
China should show its middle finger to the Americans and tell them to deal with the problems they created, or was there really a problem in the first place? Just stop provoking and harassing the North Koreans and they would not threaten to blow up American cities. Stop your war games and flying nuclear armed bombers over the Korean Peninsula.
The Americans are the real problem, the threat to North Korea and world peace.
'By threatening the world, these weapons and tests further isolate North Korea, weaken its economy, and deprive its people,...The United States will take all necessary steps to ensure the security of the American homeland and protect our allies in the region.'
This is the normal reaction of the outlaw, to show the other party that it has bigger guns to hit them and also to fool the world that the North Koreans are threatening them and the outlaw is there to protect the rest of the world from the North Koreans. Now, who would be fooled by the American rhetoric, who would believe the North Koreans would be firing nuclear weapons at them for no good reason? Or is there any country been poking at the North Koreans and now felt guilty about it and thus has good reason to know that the North Koreans would not be happy with their big mouths?
The North Koreans are doing the right thing, to make sure it could give a few deadly blows at the outlaw should it tries to nuke them. The best part is that attention is directed at North Koreans' ability to hit the US homeland. Should the Americans nuke NK, Japan would be the first target for the short range missiles from NK. Japan would go up in smokes as the North Koreans have plenty of short range missiles to cover all the big cities and American bases in Japan.
The first victim of a nuclear war between the US and NK would be Japan. They better don't play with fire and tell the Americans to back down from their madness.
And why is North Korea becoming China’s problem and China has to solve it? What has China got to do with the affairs and defence capability of another sovereign state? Who is poking the North Koreans and threatening the North Koreans and demonizing the North Koreans?
China should show its middle finger to the Americans and tell them to deal with the problems they created, or was there really a problem in the first place? Just stop provoking and harassing the North Koreans and they would not threaten to blow up American cities. Stop your war games and flying nuclear armed bombers over the Korean Peninsula.
The Americans are the real problem, the threat to North Korea and world peace.
7/30/2017
Miss Singapore Universe Imported
The controversy over the new batch of representatives for the Miss
Singapore Universe contest is turning very sour and distasteful. Some of
the comments were outright discourteous and nasty and uncalled for.
What is this beauty contest all about? It is all about beautiful and intelligent lasses representing their respective countries to show off to the world. It started off as an innocuous event but now becoming more political and commercialized and as fake as one can get.
While being fake is acceptable, let’s go one step further by doing what Singapore is good at, buy, buy, buy. Just like our dream of buying a football team for the World Cup and our embarrassing displayed of foreign players winning medals for our country to prove that we have talents, why not go the extra mile and buy the most beautiful girls from around the world to represent Singapore in the Miss Universe or Miss World contests? When money is everything, when money can buy everything, let’s use our money to its fullest advantage and tell the local lasses to step aside, we are going to import beautiful girls from around the world to represent Singapore.
This would add another plastic layer to our everything beautiful country, a country full of foreign talents and no local talents. But never mind, as long as it is good for the country. Never mind if it is good or no good for the people. Anyway we are already deep in the process of replacing all the unwanted, untalented and now unsightly Singaporeans with better foreigners. It is just part of the process of renewal for the better. Let’s fake this one as well.
What do you think?
Next on the list to be replaced by foreigners would be the top military and police officers, the top civil servants, the judges and of course, last on the list, the ministers and Prime Ministers and the President. Singapore must pay for the best foreigners to take over jobs that Singaporeans cannot do better. And there are billions of foreigners out there that can replace every Singaporean, from the toilet cleaners to the President and PM of the country.
Let's not kid ourselves that what we have the best in the world. The best in the world are out there, the foreign talents.
What is this beauty contest all about? It is all about beautiful and intelligent lasses representing their respective countries to show off to the world. It started off as an innocuous event but now becoming more political and commercialized and as fake as one can get.
While being fake is acceptable, let’s go one step further by doing what Singapore is good at, buy, buy, buy. Just like our dream of buying a football team for the World Cup and our embarrassing displayed of foreign players winning medals for our country to prove that we have talents, why not go the extra mile and buy the most beautiful girls from around the world to represent Singapore in the Miss Universe or Miss World contests? When money is everything, when money can buy everything, let’s use our money to its fullest advantage and tell the local lasses to step aside, we are going to import beautiful girls from around the world to represent Singapore.
This would add another plastic layer to our everything beautiful country, a country full of foreign talents and no local talents. But never mind, as long as it is good for the country. Never mind if it is good or no good for the people. Anyway we are already deep in the process of replacing all the unwanted, untalented and now unsightly Singaporeans with better foreigners. It is just part of the process of renewal for the better. Let’s fake this one as well.
What do you think?
Next on the list to be replaced by foreigners would be the top military and police officers, the top civil servants, the judges and of course, last on the list, the ministers and Prime Ministers and the President. Singapore must pay for the best foreigners to take over jobs that Singaporeans cannot do better. And there are billions of foreigners out there that can replace every Singaporean, from the toilet cleaners to the President and PM of the country.
Let's not kid ourselves that what we have the best in the world. The best in the world are out there, the foreign talents.
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