Is Singapore a state of the USA?

The media has reported widely about the corruption case involving Keppel O&M and a Brazilian company. And somehow the US Justice Dept is the authority on this case as if it has jurisdiction over Keppel O&M operating in Brazil or jurisdiction over commercial crimes in Brazil. Below are some details of the case posted by Kenneth Jeyaretnam in TRE.
 
‘Quietly over Christmas the US Justice Department announced that it had reached a deferred prosecution agreement with Keppel Offshore and Marine. Under the agreement Keppel O & M, a unit of Keppel Corp, will pay $422 million to resolve charges that it paid $55 million in bribes to Brazilian politicians to win business from the state oil company Petrobras, an offence under the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
 
According to the WSJ, “Keppel admitted in court documents that it paid about $55 million in bribes to officials at Brazilian state-owned oil company Petróleo Brasileiro and the then-governing party in Brazil from 2001 to 2014 to win 13 contracts with Petrobras, as the company is also known, and another company. It paid the bribes through outsize commissions to an intermediary, who in turn made payments to the officials and the political party, prosecutors said.”’
 
Keppel O&M committed an offence under the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act? OK, one of the parties involved in the corruption is a US citizen. This person could be charged under US law. Does this mean that Keppel O&M, a Singaporean company operating, maybe registered in Brazil would also come under an American Law, governed by an American Law? How could this be? How could this happen? Is Singapore or Brazil a subject member of the American Empire that an American Law can be applied over them?
 
I can’t believe this. This is just like the Americans legislating a law to conduct relations with Taiwan and telling China to obey and respect this American Law. Like that the Americans can fabricate all kinds of laws to govern all the countries in the world.
 
Can other countries also legislate laws to govern citizens and organisations of other countries including American citizens and corporations? Can China, Russia or Singapore come out with their own Foreign corrupt Practices Act to apply to everyone, including Americans?
 
If the crime of Keppel O&M were committed in US territory, there is no question about US jurisdiction. This offence was committed in Brazil, why would Keppel O&M subject itself to American laws and sheepishly and willingly admit to the crime, accept the fines of an American court?
 
I don’t see why Keppel O&M should submit itself to American jurisdiction, to be judged by the American courts, with no objection, no protest as if this is a right and normal thing to do, and so happy about it. Are Singaporeans subjects of the American Empire?
 
The American Empire rules! Singapore has to accept the rule of the American Empire? Singapore and Brazil are sovereign states, not states within the USA.

Khaw Boon Wan acting PM

Khaw Boon Wan was appointed acting PM while Hsien Loong was on leave. He assumed the position for one week while Teo Chee Hean stood in for the other week. Tharman was not mentioned or appointed as the acting PM while being the second DPM like Chee Hean.
 
This move has caused an uproar in the social media speculating that Tharman was by passed. One even said in the TRE that this is a signal to Tharman that he was not going to be the next PM. I disagree. I think it was very likely that Tharman was also on leave during the same period as Hsien Loong. So it was a non issue at all.
 
Even if my reading is not right, it does not matter to Tharman as he has made it clear many times, that he is not interested in being the PM and not the right man for the job. He has vehemently denied that he wanted the job.
 
So what is all this noise about, except for nothing. It is not what the social media think who is best suited to be the PM. It is not what I think who is the best person to be the PM. It is not what Cheng Bock thinks who is the best man for the PM.
 
Though the situation is such that Tharman appears to be the best man for the PM job, he is not interested. Period. What if the inner circle of the PAP thinks that he is the right man and voted for him to be the PM? This would be tricky. Would Tharman then reluctantly accept his fate, as the chosen one, as the reluctant PM of Singapore?
 
For the time being, this so called message to Tharman is just pure hogwash. The most probable reason as I said, was that Tharman was on leave. There is no reason to read more to it than just a matter of coincidence. Nah, it is not a matter of a confluence of events. Hsien Loong would not do such a darn thing to Tharman. Singapore is a democracy and the people choose the PM. Oops, sorry, the people do not choose the PM. Only the inner circle of the PAP chooses and decides who should be the PM of Singapore.

Singaporeans alternative career opportunities

It used to be getting a degree and finding a cosy executive or professional jobs as the career choice. In the early years of our independence, getting a degree would mean a relatively comfortable life afterwards. The pursuit of education was then the right path to a better future, to own the 5Cs. Parents poured in thousands of dollars, hundreds of thousands of dollars, for their children to get that much coveted degree.
 
While the cost of education has risen to a point when the returns, financially, for the money spent becomes a diminishing return as in economic theory, this did not deter the parents from their hopes of a better life for their children. Why spent so much just to earn so little in a part time job, in contract job, or in driving Uber or Grab taxis? It just doesn’t make sense anymore.
 
Ministers have chipped in to say a degree cannot be eaten and some even say a degree is not necessary. The young are encouraged to take on skilled jobs, like crane drivers and hawkers. The cosy jobs should go to the foreign talents from the third world armed with fictitious or fake degrees or fake work experience. These are the talents that are deserving of the cosy jobs that Singaporeans are no longer fit to be employed, even if they get their degrees from the two native world class universities. Don’t laugh, when a country is run by silly people this is the end result.
 
The new graduates and undergraduates understood the new realities and the advices by the ministers. They no longer expect to be employed in the cosy jobs they once longed for. They know that they are not good enough and these jobs are reserved for foreign ‘talents’. There is an article in Channel News Asia highlighting the latest choice of our young undergraduates doing interns, as hawker assistants.
 
Here is the report, ‘The 'hawker interns' selling prawn mee: Choosing the hawker life over the tried and tested route
 
Joanne Heng and Chan Kheng Yee were about to graduate from university, and were looking for a full-time job. But a "random" job ad online set them on the path to hawker life.’
 
The young Singaporeans, the generation XYZ are practical people, just like their parents and grandparents. They are not choosy about the jobs they are doing, as long as there is a job. Now who are the silly guys that said Singaporeans are choosy and difficult to please when jobs are concerned? And these young people are also just as obedient (read dumb) as their parents, and would listen to the wise govt on their career choices and life style. They understood that a degree cannot be eaten. A skilled is more important to get a job. So more and more will be turning to become hawkers, crane drivers and Grab and Uber drivers. They know that they could not compete with the best of the best of foreign fake talents possessing genuine fake and fictitious degrees or degrees from half past six universities.
 
There is hope, a different kind of hope, and a different kind of future for our young graduates from our world best universities. Their expectations in life are simple, realistic and not over demanding. Any job is better than no job or part time jobs. Did they ever think of the disappointments in their parents, their dreams crashed when after spending thousands of dollars, getting a degree from world best universities, their daft children would end up as hawkers and drivers? Could they feel the pain of their dejected parents, their pride of having children graduated from universities only to become manual workers?
 
Welcome to the brave new world. The parents should save their money. There is no need to put their children to universities if the expectation is to be hawkers, crane drivers and cab drivers.
 
PS. If cooking to be a hawker is good enough, they could learn all the tips from their mothers or grandmothers, at home. No need to pay expensive tuition fees and mug for examinations.
 
Dunno to laugh or to cry. Stupidity has no cure. Oh, this is the kind of things that our reporters and journalists are assigned to write about. So intellectually stimulating. Though they may not get a Pulitzer, there are many prizes that the local media industry could dish out for them to be recognised as best reporters and journalists. This is progress. Our graduates should be encouraged to become hawkers and Uber or Grab drivers. Our reporters can write about them as the new and desirable lifestyles of graduates. It is a dream job to be Grab or Uber drivers and also to be hawkers.

Trump declares national emergency - Obama on the run

There is a video discussing about the fate of Obama, that he is wanted for committing felony, and could serve time behind bars. Just watch this, https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=obama+on+the+run&&view=detail&mid=ECA436FE9D9066B1EE7BECA436FE9D9066B1EE7B&rvsmid=A7BC92DBD2C8F2257668A7BC92DBD2C8F2257668&FORM=VDQVAP
 
Though this video is a bit dated, the latest declaration of a state of national emergency is still unfolding. Trump is out for the blood of Obama, Hillary and Comey, the trio that abused the power and expertise of intelligence agencies to listen to phones of presidential candidate Trump and also in hacking election results. Yes, election results can be hacked. What does this means? It means they could jig the results of an election to favour a candidate. Obama did that in 2008 and they did the same thing for Hillary against Trump. But this time it did not work. Why?
 
My understanding, they fixed the results with certain percentages of the votes to favour their candidate. Unfortunately, after loading on the results, it still failed because the votes in favour of Trump were so huge, so overwhelming that the loading still could not help Hillary to win.
 
This kind of hacking or jigging of election could mean two kinds of results. The favoured candidate lost marginally because of an overwhelming votes for the other candidate. On the other hand, if the voters voted in favour of the favoured candidate, the result would show an overwhelming win for the favoured candidate as the votes would add to the already loaded results.
 
The Obama/Hillary/Comey camp was very sure that this could be done as they had done it, according to the video. So after losing, they were confident to accuse the Russians of hacking the results. It could be done. It could be done, and they knew it.
The key point, even in the USA, election results can be hacked, rigged, and fixed. The revelation of this truth is going to shock the world. Votings can be hacked if it is computerized, electronic hacking. Anything computerized can be rigged by the hackers if they can gain access to the data. And no one is wiser.
 
Now we should sit back and see how Trump bring the election cheats and put them behind bars. Obama is hiding in Tahiti, French Polynesia, with no extradition treaty with the USA. If Obama remains there, you know that he is damn guilty.
 
There is now news or fake news that Trump has ordered the seizure of properties and assets of Obama and Hillary. Now if only this is real, the world is going to see something really big.

I feel so sorry for our journalists/reporters

Many of you must have missed this fact and did not even think about it. Why is it that we don’t produce great journalists/reporters that could be nominated or won the Pulitzer Prize for journalism? Yes, we have many journalists, many very well qualified and I believe can write great stories and produce great journalistic works.
 
The answer, the environment. It is so stifling here for anyone or journalists/reporters to fully express themselves in their works, in their profession. If only the journalists and reporters could be given full reign to write what they want to write, the way the want to write, as journalists and reporters, I am sure many great names of journalists would be Singaporeans.
 
If SPH is thinking of writing about regional news, there is no need to recruit foreigners. Our very own journalists and reporters would be able to write much better than the foreigners. Maybe this going regional thing is a good thing for our journalists and reporters to write freely, without any restraints or constraints.
 
I remember an old story about a group of American tourists visiting Moscow Square. And they were bragging to their Russian guide about freedom of expression. This was in the 60s when Russia was the bigger USSR. The Americans claimed that they could say anything in America, even shouting ‘Fuck JF Kennedy, or Fuck Johnson’ in a public square.
 
The Russian guide looked at them and said, they could do the same in Moscow. The Americans laughed at him. What, we dared you repeat what we said right here. The Russian guide put his loud hailer to his mouth and blared out, ‘Fuck JF Kennedy, Fuck Johnson.’ Then he looked at the Americans and said, ‘See, freedom of expression.’
With freedom of expression, journalists and reporters can really be what they are and excel in their works. Now many mistook them as duds, unable to write or produce great literary works. But writing about the region would remove this constraint, I hope, to write freely. Let’s hear them write about the Mad Man or Rocket Man in North Korea. 

The only people allowed to write ‘quite freely’ in our media are some foreigners pushing their private agenda, like anti China or anti North Korea. These people are so privilege to write their rubbish as if they are authorities in what they are saying and feeding daft Singaporeans with their hostile views on China and North Korea. Some may be wondering if this is an official view or encouraged by the govt to publish such negative views on these two countries.
 
If our journalists were given such freedom, would they unthinkingly reproduced the same thing as the western media and addressed Kim Jong Un as the Mad Man or Rocket Man, regurgitating what the western media planted in their heads? If they do, then there would be no hope for them to rival AP, Reuters or whatever media from the West. They would not be producing anything new, original or refreshing.
 
This would be a test for them to be themselves, to think as individuals, not as unthinking robots, only parroting what is being programmed into their heads, consciously or unconsciously. Alas, this is unlikely to happen. Many would be writing about their pets and what they eat for breakfast.
 
I would recommend SPH to drop the stupid idea of hiring foreigners and let our own journalists/reporters loose and have a go at true journalism. Hey, provide jobs for Singaporeans man, not foreigners with Singaporean money or money made from Singaporeans. The govt has already been very generous in creating a couple of million jobs for foreigners here. There is no need to do more in this direction.
 
Maybe we will see a few Singaporean Pulitzer Prize winners in the making.