Empire dying – Synchronicity of events

When an empire is dying, many events will take place to bring the empire to its knees. Some called it a confluence of events, some called it a synchronicity of events. History always repeats itself, without failed. Some human beans think they are above this law of nature, that they can change the rule of the game, that they are above nature. As long as they can control and manipulate things to their advantage, they will live happily forever ever after.
 
All the empires came and gone, no matter how powerful and brutal they were to suppress and oppress the people to remain in power. The evil empire is no difference. Militarily it is supreme, unchallenged and can wipe out any country it wants within a few minutes. This is no joke. The overwhelming power of the evil empire is frightening. But it is telling the world that some little countries are threatening it and coerced its allies, some willing, some unwilling, to go along with the farce, to bully and threaten those that are not willing to compromise their independence, with boycotts, sanctions and threats of war.
 
Never the evil empire believe that whatever it tries to fix, eventually it would fix itself and bring its own downfall. All the signs are there that the evil empire is falling apart. At the top it is run by a bunch of crooks and greedy people masquerading as angels, virtuous, righteous and selfless, but evil by all counts. Many of these charlatans are passing themselves off as talented leaders when reality said they are duds, hopeless in what they are doing, pretentious and hypocrites in their own rights. Many are bankrupt of ideas, unproductive except for making silly comments that are worthless and useless.
 
And the economy is running to a halt except for a few isolated industries, notably selling arms and weapons of destruction. The real economy is gone or reduced to a rubble. The banking and finance industry is anything but a farce, churning and producing worthless papers to con and cheat the unthinking, without producing anything of value. Derivatives is a swear word that they made it out to be the thing going forward. The gullible around the world swallowed it with gusto. When the ability to print paper money to be accepted as currency for exchange no longer holds, it will be the end of the empire.
 
The broader picture, a synchronicity of events would take place beyond the control of the evil men in charge. Bad and idiotic leaders will rule unchallenged. Accidents will keep happening, keep repeating. The spate of accidents involving the evil empire’s navy is a point to note. Why would such accidents happen to the most advanced and supposedly best trained and best equipped navy, with sophisticated technology and very clever people cannot go unnoticed. There is a designed to make these events happened. Nothing the dying empire does will stop these events from happening.
 
The most powerful evil empire cannot be defeated militarily. They are so advanced that they need not send their soldiers to fight and be killed in the battle field. But their soldiers should die, by a synchronicity of events that should not happen at all, unexplainable and uncalled for.
 
A dying empire will be brought down to its knees, no matter how powerful, how manipulative, how cunning, and how ruthless it is. There is no where to run or to hide. What must come down must come down. Surely and steadily.
 
The empire will try to impose more repressive and oppressive measures to keep the empire alive, believing that these would work. They would keep to their old ways of doing the same old thing when the world is changing rapidly in their face. They would not accept the change, cannot believe that it is changing to their detriment. If they would, all the empires of the past would still be around and be as ruthless as they were in their dying days.
 
There is no escape for the dying empire. It is a matter of when or how fast it would come crumbling down.
 
PS. What if everything is breaking down but pretending that everything is fine?

Productivity would increase if supertalents are engaged in productive work in the private sector

For several decades, the crème ala crème of little Red Dot were given scholarships to be educated in the best universities around the world only to return to be employed in unproductive works, mostly administrative and policy making and in devising clever schemes to tax the people. What would it be like if these talents are released into the private sector instead, in manufacturing, in engineering, in financial services etc etc instead of becoming top civil servants and politicians?
 
The sinking feelings in the industries, in manufacturing are ringing loudly in the ears of many when productivity is at rock bottom, also thanks to the influx of dubious foreign talents into the island. Fortunately or unfortunately, the industries are supported and saved by the less talented, academically. What happened to the once very productive Singapore with the best workers in the region? When suddenly all are duds, unproductive and practically useless, only good enough to drive taxis and be security guards? Even first class honours from NUS are booted out by dubious foreigner with likely fake degrees and credentials. And these foreigners mostly came from sick countries and sick economies.
 
If only there is a change in policies to redeploy the best brains and talents in productive works, in the industries, things would likely change for the better, and productivity must go up instead of down and down. No? I stand corrected on this as some may continue to resort to sophistry to con their way instead of working and being productive. The only difference is that in the real economy, they do not have the political power to shaft shit into the people’s throat. Any incompetence would not last another day.
 
Or at least the high million dollar salaries of these super talents would be paid by the private sector, by their organizations, instead of the public services and the govt having to tax and tax and raising taxes in every opportunity to feed these million dollar gang of super talents. If their average salary is $1m, and if there are 3,000 of them, that would be $3b annually. How to find such money, how to earn such money from profits in services like MRT and bus fares and selling products? You need to earn $1 from 1 million trips to get $1m to pay a million dollar man.
 
When the best brains are not in productive businesses but in unproductive public service, how can productivity go up?
 
What do you think?
 
PS. The weaknesses of the mandarin system would be exposed, especially in the dying days of a dynasty when instead of working for the people, it is all about self aggrandizement and self interest. It will snowball into dreaded case of 升官发 财above everything else. How many more millions would be enough?

Foreign recruitment firm survey said more Singaporeans seeking contract jobs

If one is to believe the result of Robert Walters, more people, presumably locals, are seeking contract jobs instead of permanent jobs as such positions offered more flexibility or work life balance. Randstad Singapore, another foreign named recruitment agency confirmed that ‘the year on year growth for contract roles is 35 percent. Randstad has seen a 40 percent growth in such roles in the information technology industry, while the banking industry has seen a 30 per cent increase.’
 
Though contract jobs are growing, more workers, presumably locals or Singaporeans here remain keen to secure permanent positions. For foreigners or locals that are not citizens, it makes sense to have contract jobs, after all their homes are not here and they would not be here for good. For Singaporeans, with the albatross housing loan hanging over their neck, it would be foolish to think that they preferred contract jobs. Equally foolish is to say that Singaporeans prefer part time jobs and temporary jobs. These are Singaporeans that are forced to take up part time and insecure jobs out of no choice because permanent and better jobs are taken by foreign talents. Randstad’s country director confirmed this, ‘In Singapore, employee expectation is still on securing permanent employment because the salary is tied to long term debt.’
 
Any clown wants to say otherwise, that Singaporeans prefer contract jobs, part time jobs, temp jobs? Some clowns said Singaporeans preferred to be taxi drivers so that they are their own boss, and ending spending most of their time fetching maids and foreign workers around in their taxis. These irresponsible clowns would continue to tell their lies that all is well for Singaporeans unable to secure a permanent job and having to service their expensive mortgages, providing for their families in this most expensive place in the world.
 
The pathetic Singaporeans unable to secure permanent jobs would be buried in a mountain of debt that they would not be able to service. Thanks to the free influx of foreign talents with dubious and questionable qualifications and experience.
Who should these jobless or underemployed Singaporeans thank for their plight in this most expensive city in the world? There must be many very happy Singaporeans working part time or in contract jobs, not counting those that could no longer find a job. The pain has not hurt yet.

Preserved quarters of old Rugao City

Below are some pics of the old quarters of Rugao in the days of Ming and Qing Dynasties about 400 years ago. The area is still occupied by some residents and commercial shops. The houses are small and the roads and lanes are very narrow. The floors are layered with bricks.

The eastern entrance to the old city.

The western entrance where I started my discovery journey. It was just off the main road.

A short distance into the preserved quarters.

This was about 2pm and this part was quite quiet.

There were several of these 3 storey houses in this corner.

Behind this row of low houses were the new buildings.

The other side of the street.

Old houses, new uses.

The narrow backlane with brick floor.

An entrance that led to a few homes.

This is a wider lane.

This does not look like a backlane with a main entrance here.

This lane led to a pavilion sitting on the edge of a river dividing the preserved quarters into two halves.

One side of the river with willows.

The other side of the river.

This looks like a wealthier home.

An elderly man with a pack of lunch on his way home, a right turn about 12 feet in front of him.

These are authentic homes other than the few modern fixtures around them.

This is not a backlane.

The height of these homes are really low.

These are real modern city folks from Beijing visiting the town.

Looking from the other side of the river.

Another lane with very old brick walls.

The water supply for the folks.

A narrow backlane.

Another narrow main street.

An old bridge.

A wide angle view of the east entrance to the ancient quarters from the main road.

Singapore - A very sad state of affair

Confession of a daft sinkie

Below is an article posted in TRE supposedly by an ex PMET. I presume that this is a real story. Please read it before it is took late, that you have been sold and your turn will be next, if you continue to choose to be another daft sinkie. Betrayed but did not know. Just blame your own stupidity. The death of a once proud people has begun.

This situation is widespread, has been going on for many years, and is still going on. Who are responsible for this sad state of affair? Who allowed this crime against Singaporeans to continue unabated? Do you want this to continue to affect you and your children?

Replaced by FT finally – I voted for it!

I worked for MNC for last 10 years, before I was in a GLC. I am First Class honours from NUS ComSc. I had it easy with my good grade, I joined a GLC and got a good head-start and pay. I was in IT software development and later became manager of the department. That was in the 2000s, FTs were streaming in but the numbers were not significant, I always believe that we probably need more IT talents, the brainwashing on media worked on me. But nevertheless, at that time, I was making good pay, I thought of nothing. Every GE, I voted PAP for sure, life was good and money was good. I never once thought of voting opposition except I thought WP was credible enough to consider. But then, since life was so good under PAP, why bother. Politics are politicians, we were just making a living and when living was so good, would you want to make any change? Over the 10 years, my pay tripled and I bought a condominium, living the 4Cs that many of us dream of.

2010 onward, the stream of FTs were too obvious, particularly from China and India. I made a switch from GLC to MNC, I did notice growing number of FTs. But well, I got another pay hike, so who cares!

One of my old colleagues called me to ask him to help him to look for a job. He was from Indonesia but came here when he was 13, became citizen. He had MBA from US and remained unemployed for 4 years, that was in 2013. I found it hard to believe his words because I had never experienced such incident nor heard from anymore. Perhaps I was sent overseas then, I rarely came back to the HQ in Singapore. But I did understand his Pinoy wife with a dubious degree was promoted so many times after joining the PA. So the Pinoy wife was the sole breadwinner and senior manager in PA. I never really thought of much, I thought he was lazy. As long as you want a job, you could get it easily. I also failed to realise, government had already started PRO FT policies, grooming and promoting FTs in ministries and government agencies. Yes the Pinoy wife took the cue and became new citizen.

I came back to Singapore HQ in 2014 after working for few years in Australia. Life was good, pay was good but coming back is for the family. And I heard on media that PAP wanted all the locals who are based overseas to come back. That gave me some kind of assurance that I did not apply for PR nor thought of migrating there. Once back in the HQ office, I discovered almost 60% of the workforce were FTs, mostly from India.

I was made to report to a regional VP from India who became a PR not long ago. Back in Singapore, the office politics became quite obvious, I felt that my boss was trying to find problems with me. Although I tried hard to please and work to the best of my abilities, there was always something to pick on. I had great records through the years of work and in my last posting, strangely back in Singapore I was branded as “non performing”. Then I realised there was nothing wrong with me, I was being targeted. I saw no point carrying on, I decided to resign. After my resignation, another FT Indian was hired quickly, and to my knowledge they seem to know each other.

Since the resignation, I had not landed any job for almost 2 years. For some reasons, even with good regional software experience and excellent academics, I had very few interviews. And when I met with FT managers, the outcomes had always been negative. It looks to me locals are heavily discriminated.

I also went to WDA, E2i and government organised events, I found that they were mostly “wayangs”, they just want to have put up a show that they are helping locals but it was purely bs.
Since then, I reflected the years when government decided the FT policies, I was too busy making good money. I never realised one day I would be hit. I always voted PAP and trusted that my future would be secured. But it looks to me, I had been too trusting and this has
caused me dearly. I am planning to downgrade and sell my condo to free up cash so that I can continue to live with dignity.

For many of us like me, we are all caught up with chasing career and money, we never really thought about government policies and gave blind faith and trust. I always voted PAP, no matter some of my opposition supporter friends who kept warning me.
Well I had to face the music and I had to say, my time is really over, the next generation will bear the brunt of our decision. If we continue to vote blindly, we are creating the black hole for ourselves and our children. My vote for PAP has come back to haunt me dearly. This is what I had to remind you.
Former PMET

PS. Did those betrayed know that they have been betrayed? Did those betraying the betrayed know that they are betraying the betrayed?