Space station politics and retribution

The Americans have been putting all the road blocks to stop China from participating in the International Space Station programme since its completion in 2011. On the excuse of preventing the transfer of technology, the Americans have enacted many laws to inhibit and curb cooperation or communication with China in all national and commercial organisations and in space technology. China was forcefully locked out of the ISS programme to the clappings of the Americans and its anti China allies.

China then decided to go on its own to develop its own space programme and space stations. To date China has operated two space stations, Tiangong1 and Tiangong2.  Tiangong3 will be launched either this year or next. In the meantime the Americans have lost confidence in their space shuttle programme after the explosion of the last launch in 2003 killing all 7 astronauts. Another 7 were killed in another explosion in 1986. Since then they have no faith in developing a working model to send their astronauts to space on the space shuttle or their own rockets. The space shuttle programme has been decommissioned in 2011 and the Americans have to rely on Russian rockets, for safety reasons, to send their men to the ISS.

What is significant in the space station programme is that by 2028 the ISS would be shut down, ending its useful life. It was supposed to be closed down in 2024 but its shelf life extended to 2028. By then the only space station in the sky would be Tiangong3, Made in China. China would be the owner and in control of the only space station in the sky. The Americans are desperate and have made overtures to send their men to the Chinese Space Station.

Here is the retribution. China is saying a big NO to the Americans. To hell with all your anti China transfer of technology scam. China would cooperate and allow every other country to send their astronauts to China's space station but NOT the Americans. It is not a matter of how much the Americans are willing to pay. It is politics, the politics of retribution.

You block me, I block you. That's what meanness meant and what meanness would get. The Americans would be the only man left behind just like when they made China the man left behind in the ISS. What goes around would come around.

The bigger retribution would be for China to pass more laws to protect its technology from being transferred to the Americans. China has been leapfrogging the Americans in many fields and it is a matter of time when the Americans would have to do the catch up and it would be China's turn to keep the American's at arm's length.

Just an example, the Americans are trying to build their own high speed train. The process of erecting a section of the train track took 120 days and hundreds of men on site, to fabricate, put up wooden frames, tie the steel bars and to pour concrete on the set up. It then took several weeks for the concrete to form and dry. For the same job China took just 1.2 hours and less than 20 men, with their own heavy crane designed specially for the job of laying the prefab concrete track. Everything else is done off site.

Things would get stranger when the American astronauts got caught in an ageing ISS and begging China for help. China may want to but could not as the parts were not designed to fit, China was locked out from their scheme of things and have developed their own system, and the ISS could not dock to the Chinese space stations to migrate the crew over.

PS. The Chinese GPS system is now so accurate that the Russians have abandoned the American and European system. The USA is also begging to work with the Chinese system. The EU cheated the Chinese investment in their system and this time will not be allowed to work with the more advanced Chinese system.

Malaysian GE – Lessons to be learnt

The Malaysian GE is exciting simply because the politicians are politicians, not school boys and school girls that would not talk to each other or would not want to friend with those that belonged to other parties and indulged in talking bad about each other. Being politicians, the main objective is seizing power, through the ballot box to set the agenda of the country, is above everything. They did not go into politics to stand for election just to run a constituency or a town council, and be bashed around by the ruling party. In politics it is either you win or lose, especially in third world countries when political power resides in the hands of political gangsters.
 
What can the school boy and school girl politicians in Singapore learn from Malaysia? The first thing is to be able to put aside their differences and work together to win political power. There is no political enemy forever, but the unchanging object to win political power.
 
Look at how Mahathir and Anwar and the non bumi parties jumping into bed together to fight Najib and UMNO, they were sworn enemies at a time. Moral principles? In politics, moral principles are used only to con the people, to look good. In reality, many were the most devious crooks you ever know, putting on a façade of decency and high morals, honour, justice and fairness. These are only to deceive the people. What the politicians said and do are two entirely different things. Look at Donald Trump and all the women he knew and all the lawsuits. What morality is one talking about, honourable, respectable, dignity?
 
When would the Singapore politicians grow up and fight the political contest as politicians and put aside their egos, their differences and personal dislike of one another and be real politicians? Of course there are genuine scoundrels that should be kept far away. In Singapore, the school boy and school girl politicians are angels compare to those across the causeway. There is no reason why our little angels cannot get together, hold hands and kiss each other for the sake of fighting an election.
 
Do not be contended with just selling lemonade in a school carnival. Go for the real stuff, with one goal, to march into parliament in force, if needed to, with other politicians from different parties. If they cannot see this goal, cannot put away their differences, then every GE will be the same, school boys and school girls playing adults and pretending to be politicians.
 
Would the next GE be the same as before? They still have a couple of years to think it through. Look at the Malaysian GE carefully and learn what there is to learn from the real politicians, grow up and stop kidding yourself.

Fund Management and Investment - How to cheat the daft fund managers?

Leo81 has posted a piece on Profit versus non profit using academic theories and principles which is all well and fine in the context of the classroom. A good real life example is the Singapore Exchange going all out to entice foreign companies to list here, based on simple assumptions that everything is fine from the angles of theories and principles. Everyone wins, the companies that listed here will win as well as the investors.

What is starkingly missing is the reality, the human factor. When there is big money to be made, 9 out of 10 will cheat, just like 9 out of 10 will be corrupt unless you pay them in advance and pretend that it is not corruption. What is real, what is academic and what is self delusion, you decide.

My topic is how to cheat daft fund managers to part with their money, especially OPM. Many fund managers are not fund managers and may read a few books on economic and financial theories and principles and think they are well equipped to be fund managers. And many lack experience and confidence to make the right decision as the information available to them are inadequate and often lies or misinformation. So to be safe, they wait for others to make the call and they tack along. If Warren Buffett said he is investing in a company and invites the daft fund managers to join in, 100% they would go along. Very safe, believing that Buffett has done the home work, cannot be wrong.

The easiest way to cheat the daft fund managers is simply to dress up a sick company with the help of branded auditing companies. The second step is to look for some big fund managers, not necessary Warren Buffett to pretend to show interest in the scam,  go then invite the daft fund managers to join the party. The whole thing is simply a scam by the management of the sick company and the 'fund management company', better still another sovereign fund to make it looked good, to be in cahoot to fix up the daft fund managers to invest in the sick company. When the money is in, everything will become history. The price will drop to rock bottom.

This is the very reason why some silly sovereign funds are repeatedly duped into buying high, buying very high, only to cash out at rock bottom when the price of the stock is worthless and losing their pants.

The sad part is that this is repeated over and over again. Why? Ok not all are daft, some may be really daft fund managers, but some pretended to be daft but were part of the scam and get their cut from the deal.

This is not taught in the schools of management. In the schools, they don't teach principles and theories about cheating and scams and scoundrels. They only teach high principles and brilliant academic theories.

See how easy it is to cheat the daft fund managers.

39th Singapore Masters Open - Athletics

Below are some photographs of the 39th Singapore Masters Open held on 5 May at the Homes of Athletics in Kallang, next to the National Stadium. More than 400 athletes came to participate in this friendly competition. They came from Mongolia, Japan, India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Malaysia, USA, UK, France and Switzerland to compete with our own masters athletes.

Here are some photos capturing the intense moments of the competition. See the determination written all over the faces of the mothers and fathers and grandpas and grandmas on the tracks.

A victorious smile comes after the intense struggle to win.

Below are photos of the athletes in action.

After the gruelling competition comes the medals.

And some moments of camaraderie.

Putin is a joke

Russian soldiers and weapons are in Syria to protect Assad and Syria from falling to the Americans or ISIS. The combination of Russian and Syrian forces was very successful in wiping out the American backed ISIS and rebel forces.
 
Just as the ISIS and the rebels were at the brink of complete annihilation, the Americans, UK and France struck to stop the attack by the Russian and Syrian forces. The remnants of the ISIS and rebel forces lived to fight another day.
 
Now what is this Putin or Russian joke? The Russians had made a deal with the Americans and the rogue nations of the West that they would not hit or shoot them down if these forces did not attack Russian soldiers in Syria. They could attack Assad or any military targets in Syria as they liked without the Russians hitting back.
 
See the joke, the protector of Assad and Syria, would allow them to be attacked as long as the attackers leave the Russian soldiers out of the picture, did not attack the Russian soldiers.
What kind of ally or protector are Putin and his Russian forces? What kind of a joke is this? The Americans, UK and France struck and went home safely without a scratch, simply because they did not hit the Russians and the Russians stood by with folded arms, did not fire a shot except a shouting match in the UN.
 
How reliable is this kind of protector or ally? Can Assad or any country rely on the Russians to protect them from the evil Empire and the rogue nations? The Russian weapons in Syria are there only to protect Russian soldiers, not Assad and Syrian soldiers. The Americans and the rogue nations can conduct war in Syria as if the Russians were not there, as long as they stay away from the Russian soldiers. And the Americans, Brits and French made sure that nothing will go wrong with their attack aircraft by informing the Russians in advance where they were going to hit so that the Russians would not hit them by mistakes.
 
You believe that? What kind of ally is this? Keep having secret deals with the enemies?
 
This whole farce is going to be repeated in Iran. The Americans and the Jews are preparing to attack Iran by heaping all kinds of false allegations against Iran. And they are going to attack, with another secret deal with the Russians. They would not attack Russian aircraft and soldiers in Iran, and the Russians and Putin would go to UN and make a few tough talks. That's it.

Iran will be invaded by the Americans and the Jews and a few more rogue countries. History will repeat itself. Putin will be a joker a second time.