The Quad – New terminology built on vanity and past glory

The Americans and the little self appointed sheriff in the southern hemisphere have cooked up a new term called the Indo Pacific Region, in short, the Quad, helmed in the north by Japan, in the south by Australia, in the east by India and the west by the USA. The whole intent and purpose is to contain the growing military and economic power of China in the centre.
 
Just a few years back the common terminology was the Pacific Century dominated by an emerging super power in China and a fading super power in the USA. This term does not bode well for the Americans as it is a matter of time before they fade away as a ‘has been’ super power to make way for China. This is unacceptable. The American Empire is not going to go away and is clinging tooth and nail to hold on to its dominance in the Pacific region. But knowing the painful truth in the making, out comes the new terminology, the Indo Pacific Region with two pretentious powers and a defeated WW2 power wanting to remilitarize to bring back its past military glory.
 
The little arrogant upstart in the southern hemisphere, with a population of barely 20 million, is acting as if it is a force to be reckoned with, punching above its weight when it could be easily swallowed by Indonesia if push come to shove in a war on its own without the American Empire. It is no more than a little pimple in geopolitics with barely enough hardware or soldiers to be even the equal of Singapore.
 
The Japanese are trying very hard to make a come back after its barbaric invasion of Asia and SE Asia failed miserably with the dropping of two atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It was a pity that the Americans did not complete the job by dropping a dozen atomic bombs and there would not be another militarized Japanese threat to the world. Despite the pain and suffering brought about on the people of Asia, SE Asia and its own natives in Japan, the Japanese are embarking on a new military path for glory and fame again. In terms of military might, only China could out match the Japanese in numbers and military technology. Forget about the dwarf in the southern hemisphere, insignificant militarily.
 
In the case of India, the Americans are playing on the vanity of this dysfunctional, ’democrazy’ state claiming to be a super power to be. India has been bragging about itself as the super power of tomorrow when its economy is not only miniature in size but also third world in technology and maturity. It is in all counts a backward country but masquerading as a developed super power in the making. The Americans know very well what the Indians are up to and its state of development that it would take another century if it is to outgrow even the economy of Japan. But it is good to rope in the willing, no matter how pretentious, to form a chain around China hoping to contain the growth of China. Anyone willing, dead or alive, crippled or sick, would be of some use as cronies in the struggle for world supremacy.
 
The Quad is basically a two legged chair held up by the USA and Japan and two weak legs in India and Australia, if at all Australia is a credible and meaningful military power. For the time being, the Americans would be trying to make the world think that this Quad is indeed a formidable force to ring in China and to hold on to its lead as the leader of the Old World Order.
 
This is as good as the saying a dying man would grasp a straw even knowing that it is in vain. But vanity knows no bound. And arrogance and fiction of greatness would make great recipe for self deception of power and glory.
 
The Quad is going to be a formidable force to ring China in this Hollywood fiction Made in the USA after the failure of pivot to Asia. Goodness me. If only talks can be real.

Need to rethink on housing policy

Leong Sze Hian wrote an article in the TRE on the rejection of an appeal by single parents to allow them to own HDB flats. Here is a quote from his article,
‘… “A parliamentary petition by an MP, on behalf of seven single parents, calling for a reform of the public housing policy for single parents has been turned down.
 
Nee Soon GRC MP Louis Ng wants the authorities to recognise unmarried parents and their children as a family nucleus, so that they can be eligible for public housing schemes.
 
The ministry, which oversees public housing, said it has no intention to amend the law and introduce exemptions for unmarried and divorced parents.”…
 
As to “It said the Government is committed to housing the nation, and ensuring the well-being of children.’

My basic instinct on reading the above is that you do not go to beg a rich man for pity. In a documentary on the rich in India, a reply from a very rich man was that the people begging in the streets were idiots. I can understand where he is coming from. When one is very successful, one feels that one earns his keep, one is very talented and deserved everything while those that were failures deserved to be failures. I can only hope fortune will keep smiling on these ‘clever and very rich people’. They have little compassion for the poor. They did not know that in life, many things are beyond the control of the down trodden. It is life and fortunes can change within one’s life time.
 
Our public housing policy is just as brutal as the comment from the rich man in India. It is as good as you die your business. You are given two chances and if you squandered it, you blame yourself. This kind of heartless and arrogant view about life and the losers could only come from people that have not experienced hardship or thought that they were blessed with talent and their lives would always be smooth sailing, even for their children.
 
Life is not as simple and predictable as the high and mighty would want to believe. But that is their private life and they can go on believing that they would always have a good life because they are very clever. On the other hand, a govt is to look after the well beings of the people. And there would be many people that ended up as losers and failures financially, some by self destruct, some by circumstances beyond their control, some due to bad luck.
 
We have screwed up our public housing programme due to high and mighty thinking. It is time to review the cruel and ruthless rulings and to really think of building homes for the people. A roof on the head is basic necessity. No one can go without it. The parents may be failures or losers, their children are innocent. Stop the rubbish about double your asset price. A home is a home and is not a gambling chip.
 
The govt must go back to basics and see it as its primary duty to provide affordable, I mean really affordable homes, not one that you have to pay a whole life, with your limbs for it. The policy of two bites of the cherry is inadequate for a life time. And it is very cruel for civilised people to think that it is ok, a right thing to do.
 
The govt should build as many HDB flats as needed for the people. No limits to how many times a person buys and sell his flats. When there are enough of flats readily available, no one can go on buying and selling public flats or even private properties. For public housing, just limit it to one at a time and no ownership of more than one at any one time. Maybe a 3 to 5 year time bar would be more than adequate to prevent abuses. When everyone has a home, and can have a home from HDB at short notice, there will be no inflation of prices like what is going on now. A caveat, stop the crazy unrestrained influx of foreigners to artificially jack up property prices or at least banned foreigners from public housing.
 
Everyone needs a home, a roof over his head. Single parenthood, divorced, broken families, etc etc, no difference. This is the basic responsibility of the govt. Period.
 
Go and rethink and reflect on this unfeeling public housing policies and think of serving the people and the needs of the people. Not everyone is so fortunate to lead a life of plenty. There will always be the unfortunate. Public housing policies must be caring and compassionate and all inclusive. No one should be left behind. No Singaporeans should be left behind. Forget about the foreigners or the so called locals. They came here on their own because things are better here. They are not the responsibility of an elected govt by the people. The govt is responsible to the people that elected them to run the country, not to serve the foreigners and non citizen locals.
 
Did I get my points across to the high and mighty, the uncaring gods and immortals? The insincerity of it all is that they can turn a blind eye to the sufferings of the single mothers or broken families without a roof over their heads. They simply don’t care. This is my system, accept it or lump it, you mess it up, not my problem. You voted for it, you voted ME to make these policies. You asked for it.

Great opportunities beckoning from North Korea

Everytime I read about little Red Dot sending a delegation to the world's biggest economy in purchasing power terms and bragging about what they could learn from us, I can't stop shaking my head. There is absolutely nothing left that China can learn from Singapore except the bad things that they have rejected from the start. Our legal system or rule of law? Makes me laugh more heartily. If someone can tell China to obey the rule of a kangaroo court, unable to differentiate a kangaroo court and a court of justice, what credibility does such a person have when talking about legal system and rule of law? Not wanting to add more comments on this stupid stance by stupid people.
 
Now where was I? Oh, opportunities beckoning from North Korea! Can anyone see what I am seeing? It does not need a genius to see the great opportunities North Korea is offering to little Red Dot that is running out of ideas and craving for some openings to do some good businesses. They are not blind, but blinded by the blinkers put on them by the Americans, telling them what to read, what to see and what to say, what is good and what is bad. North Korea is like South Korea in the same way China, Taiwan, HongKong and Singapore are alike, the same DNA. If South Korea can be what it is today, North Korea will be the next South Korea, maybe even bigger and more prosperous once they adopted the Chinese system of separation between political ideology and economic reality.
 
Cut out the politics of the Americans. The Americans are running a brutal empire for world domination and anything that is against them or not for them is bad. They will demonise everyone and make the stupid believe in their demonisation. They wanted monopoly of nuclear weapons and WMD and to use these as threats against small nations and would not allow small nations to find ways to defend themselves against this evil Empire. Now is this familiar?
 
Singapore is a small country surrounded by bigger neighbours and must arm to its teeth, the poison fish theory. Isn't North Korea doing the same, arming itself to the teeth so that the evil Empire cannot threaten to obliterate it at will, to invade the country at will, by developing its own nuclear arsenal to prevent an invasion by the evil Empire? Little Red Dot has been practising the same principle to defend itself from bigger neighbours. North Korea is not going to threaten any country with nuclear weapons. North Korea is not going to attack any country with their nuclear weapons. It is the evil Americans that are threatening to do that. Get the shit off your numbskull and stop behaving like fools and allowing the Americans to make a fool of you.
 
Now that we have gotten rid of this American shit, let's think business and do business. Let the Americans continue with their political bickering and warmongering. Look at the potential of North Korea and what little Red Dot can offer to NK to complement each other. The NK capability in rocketry is something that little Red Dot can capitalise on, to market to the world to send satellites to space. Little Red Dot does not have the technology nor the space to be a provider of such a service. Little Red Dot can do the marketing and selling of this service to the rest of the world. Work with NK, cooperate with NK to sell this service. There is first mover advantage. And they are many areas that the two countries could cooperate economically, even sell them the idea of rule of law, open up NK like LKY helped to open up China. This is a role cut out for little Red Dot while there is still time. China is over as far as little Red Dot is concerned. There is no more value add that little Red Dot can offer to China. North Korea is where opportunities lie and the door is just opening.
 
Little Red Dot should say the same thing to the evil Empire. It would determine its own foreign policies to serve its own national interests, not the interests of the evil Empire. It would not allow a foreign power to dictate its foreign policies and will befriend whoever it wants if it serves its national interest. Before the rest of the world rush into North Korea, little Red Dot must act quickly or be left behind.
 
North Korea is a peaceful country and hungry for development, not for war. The country that is about wars and hungry for wars is the USA. They are talking about wars every day, sleeping, eating or shitting wars. The evil Empire should not be allowed to limit the freedom of little Red Dot to do business with NK. Remove the blinkers and start working, and be real.
 
NK is not going to bomb the shit out of little Red Dot. Little Red Dot is insignificant, irrelevant, non existence to NK, but little Red Dot can make itself relevant by doing the right thing or the wrong thing to NK.
 
In a way, little Red Dot can fan the lies spread by the Americans that NK is going to bomb everyone with nuclear weapons, for what reason no need to ask, no need to know. Then little Red Dot can go and sell them ‘Iron Domes’ to protect them from nuclear attacks. But first little Red Dot must produce the ‘Iron Domes’ for sale. This is exactly what the evil Empire is doing, create demons, create fears, create tension and threats of wars and then sell weapons. QED.

Would Asean turn into a tool of the American Empire?

It is funny to read in the media that Singapore is seeking public opinion on its role as the Chair of Asean and whether it is the right thing to push the agenda on Rohingya and North Korea. Asking this question is a sign of insecurity. They are not even sure of what they are going to do. Perhaps they know that they are stirring controversies, things that are not only unpopular but a waste of time to the rest of the Asean members.
 
The Rohingya issue is serious and definitely something that Asean members, or at least quite a number would be affected, notably Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. The fate of the refugees and their outflow into the region impact some Asean countries directly and it is a subject that must be discussed in Asean. It is a job cut out for the Asean Chair.
 
The nuclear threat from North Korea is at best a red herring. The North Koreans are not going to send their ICBMs tipped with nuclear warheads flying all over Asean. Only fools in Asean believe in this piece of shit and rushing to hide under their beds. As far as Asean is concerned, North Korea is as good as irrelevant. Why waste precious time talking about it when there are better things to do? North Korea testing its own defence weapons is a defensive act. Conducting massive wargames outside North Korea to simulate an invasion is an aggressive and provocative act.
 
North Korea is an issue affecting South Korea and Japan and the American Empire. The immediate neighbours like China and Russia are going about their lives as if nothing has happened. Only the Americans cannot sleep, or not really, only the devils in Washington cannot sleep. The rest of the Americans can sleep very well unless they allowed the devils in Washington to attack the North Koreans. This is a self inflicted problem they invited themselves. Leave the North Koreans alone and nothing will happen. The North Koreans are no fools to invite a total annihilation of their country to start a war with the Americans.
 
So what is this shit about North Korea in the Asean agenda? Why must Asean be embroiled in an American agenda? Is Asean an American pet dog? The Americans have their empire problems, let them sweat their small stuff. Asean should be an innocent not participant bystander minding its own business. Asean must not be hijacked by the Americans to do the dirty work for the Americans and to make an enemy out of North Korea.
 
For goodness sake, Asean is an economic organisation and should be talking to North Korea for more trade and economic cooperation. Why should Asean by involved in the politics of the American Empire? Asean has nothing better to do and becoming willing partner and running dog of the American Empire? Let's hope there are wise leaders in Asean to steer Asean away from the sea of turbulence and threats of war cooked up by the Americans. Let the Americans go and fight and die. It is none of Asean's business.
 
It would be a very sad day for the people of Asean if Asean turns itself into an American tool, serving American agenda and interests and making enemies of North Korea and China to please the Americans, and without the Americans paying a single cent for this submissive role.

Why need to raise taxes when so many taxes have been raised?

The govt is taking it for granted that it is its right to raise taxes whenever it likes. The people must ask the govt to justify for the numerous taxes that it has raised and more to come, especially the monstrous GST which some clowns are still saying that it is good for the poor. If that is the case, some cynics suggested that it should be raised to 100% so that more poor people can benefit. Sophistry at works. The people voted for a govt to run the country efficiently, not to raise taxes. The people did not pay the politicians in the millions just to raise taxes. If that is what a super expensive govt is good for, might as well vote for a cheaper govt and pay lesser taxes.
 
The govt must explain to the people why there is a need to raise taxes, what are the taxes for, and how much is needed? It must not be a blank cheque without justification. And when the need and amount are logically explained and accepted, ie for public good and necessary and essential, not fake gardens, F1s, F35s, paying foreigners to study here with billion of dollars, paying millions in PA activities for PRs and foreigners, or building crown jewels. The latter is a business and should not be paid with taxes, should be self financing and profit generating from viable business models.
 
When the sum needed is justified, and before going the convenient route to tax the people, should not the govt first look at the reserves and see how much can be used? What is the point of having reserves for the sake of reserves and everyday thinking of raising taxes?
 
How much reserves we have and how much should be used first before resorting to increase the tax burden of the people should be discussed in Parliament. The people have been told that the country’s reserves are in the hundreds of billions if not trillions? Really ah? If we have so much money in reserves, why can’t some be used to lower the tax burden of the people?
 
Or we have so much reserves that it is so frightening to tell the people, that if the people know how many trillions we have they will die of shock! So better not tell the people, just keep on taxing the people and pretend the reserves did not have enough money and the govt must raise taxes and taxes and taxes to help the poor people.
 
What the hell does the govt need to raise taxes for, how much does the govt need, to do what, raise taxes for what? Boh lui is it? Didn’t the govt brag or said the reserves got so much money, chiak buay leow? Why every now and then think of raising taxes, fees, charges to burden the people already living in one of the most expensive places in the whole wide world?