Survival in the most expensive city the daft way

On The Job as a heartland waste collector: A rancid, repulsive and sobering experience

In the series where Channel NewsAsia journalists try working in some of Singapore’s essential but undervalued jobs, Aqil Haziq Mahmud gets his hands dirty as a waste collector. He comes away with a deep respect for the workers who deal with the relentless flow of trash.

I don't know which was worse: The smell or the creepy crawlies. The stench of rotting food was like vomit mixed with dank, dirty laundry. I struggled not to retch. Then there were the bugs which scuttled everywhere as I bent down to pick up the trash.

Read more at https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/on-the-job-as-a-heartland-waste-collector-a-rancid-repulsive-and-9390486

The above are paragraphs of a report in CNA. This kind of jobs is never pleasant and very few Singaporeans would want to do unless they are desperate. But in this stupidity has no cure island, once I read a glowing report of a young professional claiming that he could retire in this most expensive island without having to work. And all he needed to do was to go crawling around the estates scavenging for leftovers and 'throwaways' to live by. I think this was shown on TV, giving it some kind of approval.

The most stupid of it all was that he was able to impress, convince and attract a bunch of young people to follow him around to dig into rubbish bins for rejected and leftovers or rotten/expired food items. The rancid stench and all the slime did not deter them from this nightly prowl in the wee hours of the morning.

I hope the young people have some common sense to know that this is not how to live their lives. They are not the uneducated Ah Bengs, some looked like undergrads. This is how stupid Sinkies have become, unthinking and anything novel is stylo milo.

Would this article in the CNA change their minds, or would they be more encouraged to go scavenging the rubbish bins at night as a new lifestyle?

Frank talks and evil schemes in Washington

"Trump praised U.S.-Australia ties on Friday.

The relationship we have with Australia is a terrific relationship and probably stronger now than ever before," Trump said in brief public remarks at the Oval Office ahead of his meeting with the Australian prime minister.

Turnbull told the news conference that he and Trump had agreed on new initiatives to deepen security and economic ties....."

Above is a comment reported by Reuters during the visit by Turnbull to Washington in Feb this year. The two leaders have agreed on a common stand to deal with China. The two countries have many similarities and common interests and both regard China as enemy Number One. They would like to congratulate each other for conquering and occupying native countries in Australia and North America and for terminating the natives to near extinction. And both would be sharing their European heritage, that they are white Europeans and they should work together against China. 

White blood is thicker than water, better than coloured Asian blood. They must have signed a blood pact, to be the rulers of Asia and Asians and would oppose China in every way they could, even to go to war. For starters the Australians would increase its incursions into the South China Sea. In the home front Australia would limit and restrict China's economic interest and trade with Australia. The latest attack is to prevent Huawei from entering the 5G mobile phone market.

Turnbull and Trump must be thinking that they have all the cards to play and the Chinese are hapless and would be pushed around and be beaten. Just wait for the Chinese to take counter measures. The time is near for China to stand up to these white supremacist and invaders and occupiers of foreign land and countries. And China has started to bash the Aussies. No political leaders would be allowed to visit China. China has stopped or cut down its imports of Aussie iron and other raw material. Being the biggest importer of Australian mineral resources, this stoppage has caused a big slum in the Aussie economy. Chinese tourism and students to Australia also went down drastically. Chinese buying of Australian properties also gone to zero causing a property crash. Australia went crying to the US, Japan, Europe and India to buy its products, but none of them could help as their appetite for such raw material are minimal. Even at greatly reduced prices, the Chinese refused to buy Australia.

Asians must be united against the neo invasion and domination of Asia and the rest of the world by the white men. It is time to stand up to the bullying of Asians. Not only Kim Jong Un has stood up, Duterte has stood up, Hun Sen has stood up, Aung San Suu Kyi has stood up, Assad has stood up, and of course Putin and Xi Jinping and many others in Asia, Africa and Latin America have stood up. The latest is Erdogan and his Turkey. Many countries in central Asia and Africa have shown their middle fingers to the Americans and the Europeans in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) of China.

The days of European Empires and dominance is numbered. They are fighting to cling on to the last few footholds but not for long. The rest of the world are not stupid, though some leaders are still beholden to the evil Americans, the little USAs. There is a new dawn rising.

Ever caring govt scheming to help Singaporeans

Recently there has been a spate of caring for the people policies and schemes by the govt to help the people. And as usual, following every one of these caring schemings is how much more the Singaporeans have to pay or to cough out from their CPF savings. There are now 4 compulsory insurance schemes that Singaporeans have no choice but to pay.

Gan Kim Yong has floated the sugar balloon, to discourage Singaporeans from eating more sugar. The next policy change will be higher taxes on sugar and sugary stuff.  See how caring and frightening is the govt when they voluntary schemed in the name of helping the Singaporeans, and the Singaporeans ended paying for the schemes?

Josephine Teo has joined the fun, oops, I mean caring for Singaporeans. She now realised that Singaporeans are living longer, so must raise retirement age so that Singaporeans would continue to contribute to the CPF to have more money for retirement.  

"Minister Josephine Teo: Time to pay more CPF and increase Retirement Age

July 29, 2018

Claiming that Singaporeans are living beyond 90 years old, Manpower Minister Josephine Teo yesterday (Jul 29) told state media Straits Times in an interview that she will be raising the CPF payment rate and Retirement Age. The current Retirement Age is 62, raised from 55, while the current payment rate is 37%.
According to the newly-appointed “4G” Minister, Singaporeans will need to pay more CPF because they live longer:" thestatestimesreview

There could be many reasons why there is a need to raise CPF contributions and retirement age. According to the statestimereview article, it is because sovereign debt fund or is it sovereign wealth fund, is losing money and the hole needs to be patched up. Josephine's narrative is that people are living  longer, so must work longer and contribute longer and more to their CPF. Is this a linear thing, an unending thing? It looks like it. Singaporeans can be 80, 90 or 100 year old and still have to work and contribute to their CPF. Do you think this is ludicrous?

I have another hypothesis. Singaporeans really don't have much money left in their CPF for retirement and the oldies are more vulnerable. Why?

Think of where their CPF money is going and how much left for retirement. A 3 rm HDB lease holder would have to cough out something like $500k from his CPF. Those in bigger flats would have to cough out more. Then there are 4 compulsory CPF insurance schemes to pay for, and maybe more schemes coming. Then the hundreds of thousands in jail house rock under the various minimum sum schemes. The oldies, if they are going to live longer, would be in dire straits with not much money left in their CPF for retirement and also to pay for many more caring schemes to help them to live to 100 years and have money to spend. I recap the last two points on the need to raise retirement age and CPF contributions, money not enough to retire and not enough to pay for more compulsory schemes.

Going forward, not only those in the 70s and 80s would need to work, they would need to contribute more to their CPF. Can you believe this? People in their 70s and 80s, on paper can live to 90s and 100s, must continue to work and to contribute to their CPF for their retirement, when the unpredictability of life could mean they could die tomorrow?

But this is besides the point. The important thing is that these people elected their representatives to scheme up more schemes to care for them. And the people they elected are doing exactly that, to appear to be very caring. How can you fault anyone when open mouth shut mouth says he/she is doing it to help the daft, the helpless and the unthinking? Well, er, since everyone is so mediocre, the immortals, if not the natural aristocrats, must help the mediocre right?

Turkey - This is what would happen to an American crony

North Korea, Iran, Venezuela and Turkey are all victims of American coercion and sanctions. Their economies are held at ransom for not willing to do the bidding of the Americans and become their cronies or proxies or little USAs. And why are the little USAs not standing up to object to the American bullying of these countries? Because being little USAs they are being spared and so happily kept their mouths shut. Compare the harm done to these countries to 'devious' China being accused of manipulating countries to be pro China.

The Gang of 4 in Red Dot (in China when they said Gang of 4 they showed all 5 fingers) also kept very mum, not whispering a word. But they were very vocal and even took centrestage, like a great duty to warn the Singaporeans how  'devious' China was in manipulating countries to be pro China.This influencing of a country's policies is commonly done in the diplomatic circle and is something very normal, like the media publishing fake news to influence the thoughts of innocent readers. In diplomatic affairs, everyone involved is fully aware of such activities and only a very silly govt leader would be influenced without knowing it or being forced into being influenced. It is fair game that Singapore as a state also indulges in. So what is the fucking big deal about a country wanting to influence another country through diplomatic and official means that it is necessary to use the loudspeaker to tell the people? What is the real motive and agenda behind such an act?

And we have the evil Empire openly and aggressively threatening countries, imposing sanctions and coercion on countries to do its bidding, threats of war, but none of the Gang of 4 would dare make a whimper. Are such aggressive coercion acceptable to the Gang of 4 and so there is no need to warn the people about it, no need to say anything about it, and perhaps better to write love letters to the CIA like Najib hoping to be spared by the evil Empire? Or for good measures, just be a lap dog of the evil Empire, be little USA and be very safe from being attacked by the evil Empire.

The fate of Turkey, once a lap dog of the Americans but now wanting to be more independent to drive its own foreign policies, is there for all little USAs to see and to learn. Any little USA that thinks that it can change course, not to do the bidding of the evil Empire, will suffer the same fate as Turkey, North Korea, Venezuela and Iran. This is a warning that Singaporeans must take note of. Once you slept with the Devil, you cannot run free again.

Would the Gang of 4 think it necessary to warn the Singaporeans of the evil American Empire? Turkey's economy is going to be ruined. Its currency the lira is under attacked and lost 20% over a couple of days. For the year it has lost nearly 50% of its value. Turkey is at the verge of a collapse. But the pride of the Turks, not to become semi colony of the evil Empire, is seeing President Erdogan standing up to the Americans, not to be cowed or oppressed. They would turn to Russia and China for help. Erdogan is calling on Europe to stand up to the bullying of the evil Empire. He is warning them that everyone of them would suffer the same fate as Turkey. He is encouraging them to drop the American dollar and trade with other countries using their respective currencies and not be held at ransom by the evil Americans.

The evil Empire has been using all the levers of force to coerce countries to do its bidding for decades since the end of WW2. It is not going to let up. It forces little USAs to go to wars unwillingly, to fight in the Middle East and the little USAs pretend that they were doing it willingly. It forces little USAs to take sides in big power confrontation for influence and domination. And little USAs quietly just do the bidding of the evil Empire, even forced to buy super expensive war toys that they don't need, as protection money to the evil Empire.

More and more countries are standing up to the evil Empire, to break free from the clutches of the Americans. This is the new alternative to the otherwise no choice submission to the evil Empire. The evil Empire is also not going to let free its historical allies in Europe and Nato. They are all victims of the evil Empire fighting its last breath, desperate to cling on to its dominance as the unchallenged super power but not having the money to do so any more.

The countries of the world must stand united against the bullying of the evil Empire. The gang of 4 is very quiet lately. Maybe they have been gagged for causing so much harm to our relations with other countries through their stupidity and pro American views and rhetoric.

Chinese exclusion policy of NASA turning on its head

The Chinese Space Station will be fully operational in year 2022, two years before the International Space Station will be decommissioned and close shop. Many countries are now scrambling to Beijing to want to be friendly with China to buy a ticket to the Chinese Space Station when the International Space Station is closed down permanently, may be destroyed in space.
 
The American scientists are also trying to make peace with China to buy their ticket to the Chinese Space Station. Whether the Americans would be welcomed and given a ticket would depend on the charity and generosity of Beijing. The likely answer from Beijing is likely to be strongly influenced by the Americans’ Chinese exclusion policy of NASA. Here is a short write up of this policy in Wikipedia.

‘Due to security concerns, all researchers from the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) are prohibited from working bilaterally with Chinese citizens affiliated with a Chinese state enterprise or entity. In April 2011, the 112th United States Congress banned NASA from using its funds to host Chinese visitors at NASA facilities….
 
Despite growing trade ties between both countries, a close scientific partnership with China has been rejected by several American politicians including Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA), who in 1999 stated:
 
They [China] are the evil empire.
 
In 2010, Rep. John Culberson (R-TX) urged President Barack Obama not to allow further contact between NASA and the China National Space Administration (CNSA). In a letter addressed to the President, he wrote:
 
I have grave concerns about the nature and goals of China’s space program and strongly oppose any cooperation between NASA and CNSA’s human space flight programs without Congressional authorization.
In April 2011, the 112th United States Congress banned NASA from engaging in bilateral agreements and coordination with China. As stated under Public Law 112-55, SEC. 539:
 
None of the funds made available by this Act may be used for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) or the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) to develop, design, plan, promulgate, implement, or execute a bilateral policy, program, order, or contract of any kind to participate, collaborate, or coordinate bilaterally in any way with China….’

Such anti China policy and thinking built on the premises of white supremacy and to prevent China from access to space technology would now be coming full circle. The Americans in their arrogance and pride, would never believe or expect that the Chinese would be able to acquire space technology without the assistance of the West and would always be left behind as backward a country.
 
The Chinese have found their way to space and would now have the monopoly of a Space Station and could now do exactly what the Americans have done to them. They would exclude the Americans from the Space Station for the very same reasons the Americans excluded them. The Chinese would have their American exclusion policy of CNSA written in the same vein as NASA’s exclusion policy.
 
It would be very silly of the Chinese should they do anything else to allow the Americans on board their Space Station. The evil Americans have been doing everything possible to exclude the Chinese from acquiring advanced space technology and all other technologies, treating China as enemy. It is only natural for China to return the Americans the same favour and brand them as the evil Empire.
 
What goes round would come around. Let the Americans die cock standing, be the outcast, the pariah of the space community of nations. This is justice and must be seen to be done, on the real evil Empire, the Americans.
 
Good riddance.
 
China can continue with its space programme with countries that are friendly to China like Russia and some European countries on the basis of quid pro quo. The International Space Station was built and financed by a group of western countries and Russia, pulling resources to make it happened. China built its space station on its own resources and technology. The Chinese did it by themselves.