India has outdone everyone in building the world’s largest statue of its
leaders, twice the height of the Statue of Liberty in the US. And it
costs only $560m. This is small change for the next super power in the
making. This Sardar was also known as the Iron Man for united a feuding
India of many states, something akin to what Mao Zedong had done for
China. For such a great feat he rightly deserved to be so highly
honoured, a very tall order.
Asians have traditionally been associated with glorifying their dead
leaders and for building huge monuments to show their love and affection
for their leaders. India is no exception and little Singapore is also
following this trend. Though Singapore is more seen as a western country
with western thinking, this Asian trait is still deeply rooted in the
psychic of its western educated natural Aristocrats.
Singapore is going to build a monument for its founding leaders. 560
hectares of prime land, the most expensive land in the island, has been
carved out for this purpose. How much would this land cost, plus the
buildings it could build on it? Priceless!
Before this Sardar statue, Singapore has no good western role models to
fall back on to build gigantic monuments. To imitate what the North
Koreans did would definitely attract criticism that Singapore is
becoming a small replica of North Korea. This $560m statue in India is a
welcome news. India is Singapore’s role model,Indian fever, the biggest
democracy. Singapore aspires to be like India and is importing millions
of Indians here to transform the culture and DNA to be more Indian like
and to benefit future generations of Indian’s super talent gene pool.
An ideal Singapore family is an Indian husband and a Chinese wife as in
many advertisement. Use to be an European man and a local girl.
Now Singapore can say India is doing it, and spent $560m on it.
Singapore can definitely do better if not at least equal what India
spent for its monument to honour its dear leader. Just wondering if
Singapore would put up a statue as big and tall as India to be the
tallest in the world, all for a good cause of course. It would be money
well spent, every cent of it.
What do you think?
11/02/2018
Para athletes – Against all odds. What about masters athletes?
Our team of para athletes returned from the Asian Para Games in
Indonesia with 3 golds, 2 silvers and 5 bronzes. This is a much improved
performance over their last outing. Understanding their disabilities
and limitations and how hard they have to work to overcome their
physical handicaps, their efforts and results are very admirable.
Yip Pin Xiu had two golds in swimming and a special award for the ‘World Para Series’ Best Female Athlete for high support needs athletes. The other two gold medal winner was swimmer Toh Wei Soong.
The govt has been very positive in supporting and encouraging the para athletes to engage in sports, which is a good thing. Every sport needs encouragement. The normal athletes too were given support by the govt.
Masters athletes – Nobody’s child
The only group that is receiving only lip service support is the masters athletes. This group may not be as normal as the young athletes as many of the masters athletes are ageing. Their physical parts are ‘rusting’ and getting brittle and stiff. They need many kinds of supplements and exercises to keep their muscles ‘supple’ and their joints less ‘rough’ to be able to perform the same feat as the younger and normal athletes. They are handicapped in their own ways, and some of their physical conditions are not too far from the para athletes.
Imagine uncles and aunties in their 60s, 70s, 80s and more running the sprint, doing high jump, long jump, hurdling etc etc. These activities at these golden ages demand a lot of training, endurance and pains that needed all kinds of pain killers to keep them going. Would the govt seriously consider giving them at least the same support as the para athletes to encourage them to keep on running, jumping and throwing? It needs a lot of drive, determination and training for a 60-90 year old to be running the 100m dash, something the younger athletes took for granted.
Some of the masters athletes have spoken to Grace Fu but so far nothing has happened. The masters athletic associations too had made their cases for some support, but it seemed to have fallen on deaf ears. Why is the govt/SportsSG not showing much concern or interest in supporting the masters athletes other than lip service?
For so long, the masters athletes are like nobody’s child. They are left to fend for themselves and to amuse themselves at their own time and cost, living in the fringes of the athletic community. The darlings of the govt/SportsSG are the para athletes. For the record, a total of $250,000 cash rewards were given up in the recent Asian Para Games.
Next year there will be an equivalent Asian Masters Athletic Meet in Sarawak, Malaysia. Would the govt think of including this masters athletic competition in the same category as the Asian Para Games and reward the senior athletics with some cash awards for the honours and glory they bring to the country? Or masters athletics can do what they want, nothing to do with the govt or SportsSg, non of their business?
This time there will be qualifying time trials for the Asian Masters Meet. Does this mean that SportsSG is changing its mind and taking the masters athletes more seriously? Would the masters athletes be recognized finally? Many have been running for years without any recognition from the state while carrying the nation’s flag.
What say you Grace Fu?
Yip Pin Xiu had two golds in swimming and a special award for the ‘World Para Series’ Best Female Athlete for high support needs athletes. The other two gold medal winner was swimmer Toh Wei Soong.
The govt has been very positive in supporting and encouraging the para athletes to engage in sports, which is a good thing. Every sport needs encouragement. The normal athletes too were given support by the govt.
Masters athletes – Nobody’s child
The only group that is receiving only lip service support is the masters athletes. This group may not be as normal as the young athletes as many of the masters athletes are ageing. Their physical parts are ‘rusting’ and getting brittle and stiff. They need many kinds of supplements and exercises to keep their muscles ‘supple’ and their joints less ‘rough’ to be able to perform the same feat as the younger and normal athletes. They are handicapped in their own ways, and some of their physical conditions are not too far from the para athletes.
Imagine uncles and aunties in their 60s, 70s, 80s and more running the sprint, doing high jump, long jump, hurdling etc etc. These activities at these golden ages demand a lot of training, endurance and pains that needed all kinds of pain killers to keep them going. Would the govt seriously consider giving them at least the same support as the para athletes to encourage them to keep on running, jumping and throwing? It needs a lot of drive, determination and training for a 60-90 year old to be running the 100m dash, something the younger athletes took for granted.
Some of the masters athletes have spoken to Grace Fu but so far nothing has happened. The masters athletic associations too had made their cases for some support, but it seemed to have fallen on deaf ears. Why is the govt/SportsSG not showing much concern or interest in supporting the masters athletes other than lip service?
For so long, the masters athletes are like nobody’s child. They are left to fend for themselves and to amuse themselves at their own time and cost, living in the fringes of the athletic community. The darlings of the govt/SportsSG are the para athletes. For the record, a total of $250,000 cash rewards were given up in the recent Asian Para Games.
Next year there will be an equivalent Asian Masters Athletic Meet in Sarawak, Malaysia. Would the govt think of including this masters athletic competition in the same category as the Asian Para Games and reward the senior athletics with some cash awards for the honours and glory they bring to the country? Or masters athletics can do what they want, nothing to do with the govt or SportsSg, non of their business?
This time there will be qualifying time trials for the Asian Masters Meet. Does this mean that SportsSG is changing its mind and taking the masters athletes more seriously? Would the masters athletes be recognized finally? Many have been running for years without any recognition from the state while carrying the nation’s flag.
What say you Grace Fu?
11/01/2018
Singapore #7 most giving country?
According to British Charities Aid Foundation, Singapore is the 7th most
generous countries in the world. What utter rubbish. This is the most
biased and unfair poll, from a bunch of ignoramus. They really did not
know what they were talking about. The top 3 generous countries were
Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand. Can you believe this nonsense?
Singapore is definitely #1, many many times more generous than any
country in the world. #7???? Nonsense.
The criteria used, giving of time, money and helping a stranger. So simplistic terms. This kind of criteria is best to use on individuals, not on a country. But never mind, let’s use these to see how generous Singapore is compares to the other countries.
Helping strangers, do they know that Singapore has been offering thousands of scholarships annually, for at least the last 20 years, to complete strangers, children of other countries, to study in Singapore schools and universities, up to doctoral level? You know how much this costs and how many strangers benefitted from this generous policy? Several billions of dollars and several thousands of students that otherwise would not have world class education. Not generous enough? And this was done at the expense of many Singapore children that have to give up their school and university places for these foreigners and their parents have to cough up their savings, some selling their homes, to pay for their education fees overseas.
And if you think this is not enough, not significant, think of the more than 2 million strangers allowed into Singapore, to take over the jobs of Singaporeans, to steal the lunch of Singaporeans. The 2m may not look big, but it is more than 50% of the Singapore population and to date they are a majority in Singapore. And over the years, several times this number have benefitted and got richer when they come and go, all at the expense of Singaporeans.
And what did the daft but generous Singaporeans do after losing their jobs? They either retired, and got themselves out of the unemployment statistics, or become taxi drivers or security guards, and kidding themselves that these are jobs of choice, freedom, independent, being your own bosses. Ah Q mentality or self delusion or being generous? The latter is not recognized or Singapore would be listed as the most generous country. They probably think Singaporeans are all daft, anything but generous.
The generosity of Singaporeans is at the nationals level, not just a few individuals that happened to be counted. And the policies of being generous are ongoing. It is even institutionalized in free trade agreements like CECA to benefit foreigners most and Singaporeans last and least.
How’s that? Still deserve to be ranked only #7 and not #1? Singaporeans are so generous until they are being regarded as stupid, daft, giving away so much but not recognized. Singapore and Singaporeans deserve a Nobel Peace Prize for their generosity in helping others, strangers and suffering in silence, becoming jobless and becoming taxi drivers and security guards while foreigners are allowed to come in and take on top jobs paying hundreds of thousands of dollars or millions of dollars. And the official excuse, these are jobs that Singaporeans did not want to do or have no experience of skill sets to do. Only third world people have the required qualifications, experience and skills sets to do these high paying jobs, with dubious and even degree mills degrees.
Daft Singaporeans must protest to this unfair ranking of Singaporeans. The ministers must also object to this ranking. Singaporeans must be number One, no less.
PS. On record Singapore must have provided scholarship and educated a few thousand students all over Asia and given jobs to several millions of the jobless from Asia. If this is not generous, what is? Which country could do better to look after foreigners at the expense of its own citizens?
The criteria used, giving of time, money and helping a stranger. So simplistic terms. This kind of criteria is best to use on individuals, not on a country. But never mind, let’s use these to see how generous Singapore is compares to the other countries.
Helping strangers, do they know that Singapore has been offering thousands of scholarships annually, for at least the last 20 years, to complete strangers, children of other countries, to study in Singapore schools and universities, up to doctoral level? You know how much this costs and how many strangers benefitted from this generous policy? Several billions of dollars and several thousands of students that otherwise would not have world class education. Not generous enough? And this was done at the expense of many Singapore children that have to give up their school and university places for these foreigners and their parents have to cough up their savings, some selling their homes, to pay for their education fees overseas.
And if you think this is not enough, not significant, think of the more than 2 million strangers allowed into Singapore, to take over the jobs of Singaporeans, to steal the lunch of Singaporeans. The 2m may not look big, but it is more than 50% of the Singapore population and to date they are a majority in Singapore. And over the years, several times this number have benefitted and got richer when they come and go, all at the expense of Singaporeans.
And what did the daft but generous Singaporeans do after losing their jobs? They either retired, and got themselves out of the unemployment statistics, or become taxi drivers or security guards, and kidding themselves that these are jobs of choice, freedom, independent, being your own bosses. Ah Q mentality or self delusion or being generous? The latter is not recognized or Singapore would be listed as the most generous country. They probably think Singaporeans are all daft, anything but generous.
The generosity of Singaporeans is at the nationals level, not just a few individuals that happened to be counted. And the policies of being generous are ongoing. It is even institutionalized in free trade agreements like CECA to benefit foreigners most and Singaporeans last and least.
How’s that? Still deserve to be ranked only #7 and not #1? Singaporeans are so generous until they are being regarded as stupid, daft, giving away so much but not recognized. Singapore and Singaporeans deserve a Nobel Peace Prize for their generosity in helping others, strangers and suffering in silence, becoming jobless and becoming taxi drivers and security guards while foreigners are allowed to come in and take on top jobs paying hundreds of thousands of dollars or millions of dollars. And the official excuse, these are jobs that Singaporeans did not want to do or have no experience of skill sets to do. Only third world people have the required qualifications, experience and skills sets to do these high paying jobs, with dubious and even degree mills degrees.
Daft Singaporeans must protest to this unfair ranking of Singaporeans. The ministers must also object to this ranking. Singaporeans must be number One, no less.
PS. On record Singapore must have provided scholarship and educated a few thousand students all over Asia and given jobs to several millions of the jobless from Asia. If this is not generous, what is? Which country could do better to look after foreigners at the expense of its own citizens?
10/31/2018
Saudi Arabia squeezing Trump’s balls
Trump has been flip flopping over the savage killing of Khashoggi. What
is the relationship of Khashoggi with the USA? Never mind, this is not
that important anymore. What is important is that the Americans cannot
do anything about it and Saudi Arabia and MBS would move on as if
nothing has happened.
Why, why are the Americans and even Trump, could not do anything against the Saudis?
Listen to these threats coming from the Saudis.
1. Saudi Arabia will switch from petrodollar to petroyuan. Americans mati. The end of the American Empire.
2. Oil price will shoot to US$400.
3. Saudis will invite the Russians to set up military base in Saudi Arabia.
4. Saudi Arabia will ally with Iran and join the Russia/China camp. When this happened, Israel will no longer be able to control and mess around with the Arabs applying their divide and rule policy.
5. Saudi Arabia will dump US Treasury Bills.
What would the above mean to the Americans and Israelis? The Middle East would all be part of a new alliance with Russia and China leaving the USA and Israel as the two lone wolves facing the might of the Arab world, and losing control of oil as a weapon of war.
So, what can Trump and the Americans do? Sanctions? Remove the Saudi royalties? No, they would turn their heads, start to whistle and pretend that nothing has happened. Let’s move on, human rights, abominable crimes, what’s that?
The Americans are increasingly facing such Hobbesian’s Choice and becoming hapless while their allies defied the Empire and do as they please. The Americans are losing control of their allies. All the chips they held over their allies are becoming meaningless. The end of the Evil Empire is near. In this Khashoggi’s case the Americans would look so ridiculous over their claims of moral superiority, or righteousness, of anything by hypocrisy. This will be like the Americans unmasked, the Devil will be exposed.
Trump thought he could have his ways by pushing everyone around. This time he is completely at the mercy of the Saudis. He could do nothing to bring justice for the savage dismemberment of Khashoggi, very highly and likely a CIA operative.
Why, why are the Americans and even Trump, could not do anything against the Saudis?
Listen to these threats coming from the Saudis.
1. Saudi Arabia will switch from petrodollar to petroyuan. Americans mati. The end of the American Empire.
2. Oil price will shoot to US$400.
3. Saudis will invite the Russians to set up military base in Saudi Arabia.
4. Saudi Arabia will ally with Iran and join the Russia/China camp. When this happened, Israel will no longer be able to control and mess around with the Arabs applying their divide and rule policy.
5. Saudi Arabia will dump US Treasury Bills.
What would the above mean to the Americans and Israelis? The Middle East would all be part of a new alliance with Russia and China leaving the USA and Israel as the two lone wolves facing the might of the Arab world, and losing control of oil as a weapon of war.
So, what can Trump and the Americans do? Sanctions? Remove the Saudi royalties? No, they would turn their heads, start to whistle and pretend that nothing has happened. Let’s move on, human rights, abominable crimes, what’s that?
The Americans are increasingly facing such Hobbesian’s Choice and becoming hapless while their allies defied the Empire and do as they please. The Americans are losing control of their allies. All the chips they held over their allies are becoming meaningless. The end of the Evil Empire is near. In this Khashoggi’s case the Americans would look so ridiculous over their claims of moral superiority, or righteousness, of anything by hypocrisy. This will be like the Americans unmasked, the Devil will be exposed.
Trump thought he could have his ways by pushing everyone around. This time he is completely at the mercy of the Saudis. He could do nothing to bring justice for the savage dismemberment of Khashoggi, very highly and likely a CIA operative.
10/30/2018
F35s - Influencing policy makers and the masses
F-35: How the fifth-generation fighter jet might take RSAF to the next level
Channel
News Asia ran a 3 part series article on how good the F35 is and how
relevant it is to the air defence of Singapore or should it be the air
offensive capability of Singapore with these aircraft. Lockheed Martin,
the aircraft manufacturer must have paid quite a bit for this
propaganda, oops advertisement to influence not only the decision makers
into paying for this ultra expensive toy, but also trying to change the
perception of the man in the street that they should not grumble should
the govt plough a few billions into this wonderful war machine. I read
the piece and am convinced that this is a really good piece of war
machine, maciam a Ferrari or a Lamborghini. Actually it is more, like a
F1 formual racing car.
Imagine the people driving their Ferraris and Lamborghinis on our roads and how stylo milo they looked, just crusing along at 110 kph without breaking the road speed limit. That is about what these super cars could do on our roads. And the competitors for attention or to out race them were practically zero.
The big question is who are we going to use these machine against? China, completely useless. They have radars that could render the stealth feature ineffective. And it would be silly for any Singaporeans to think of fighting China with these aircraft, totally out of line, out of the leaque, no contest. Perhaps the closest to fighting China would be to be dragged in by the Americans as their point man, as part of the American war plan for world supremacy. This is definitely not something we want to be in, not something we want to pay for.
These war machine would be too good for our immediate neighbours. They too would not be our competitors even if they acquired them with American consent or acquiring the best Russian war machine. Buying these war machine is only the first step. You would also need clever pilots to fly them, not like the Ab Bengs in their soup up machine tearing down the road. These are highly sophisticated war machine to be used for war, not just swooping around in the sky. Not many would be able to use them as what they were made to do. Definitely not the pilots of our neighbouring countries. This is no bragging.
Then there is the bigger headache of maintaining them in flying and fighting condition. Our neighbours track record of their Russian and American possession has proven that afterF15s and F16s would be more than adequate to do the job needed, at a fraction of the cost.
Talking about cost, many would be better informed of the complexity of these machine, the use of satellite technology and GPS system to support them, ground control computer and radar system. It is not so simp0le as just buying the aircraft. Then there is also the weapons and avionics cost etc etc. The total cost would be enormous and something we could not afford and do not need to pay for.
Very likely these aircraft would not have to fight an air war and lost in battle. Many of them would be lost why flying in peace time due to engine or pilot errors. At the tune of $200m each, this is no small sum to fall out of the sky.
They are good to have, nice to have, like the Lamborghinis and Ferraris. But for practical reasons, the F15s and F16s would be able to perform just as well given the theatre and competitors. Can we afford to pay for such beautiful state of the art war machine or toys with public money?
Below are some extracts of the Lockheed Martin sales pitch in Channel News Asia. Very attractive and mesmerising. Spending OPM is so easy, for such machine, called game changer. Sure, why not. Who would end up paying for the super expensive toys? The enemies would not be able to take them down. But normal wear and tear, poor maintenance and mistakes would.
Imagine the people driving their Ferraris and Lamborghinis on our roads and how stylo milo they looked, just crusing along at 110 kph without breaking the road speed limit. That is about what these super cars could do on our roads. And the competitors for attention or to out race them were practically zero.
The big question is who are we going to use these machine against? China, completely useless. They have radars that could render the stealth feature ineffective. And it would be silly for any Singaporeans to think of fighting China with these aircraft, totally out of line, out of the leaque, no contest. Perhaps the closest to fighting China would be to be dragged in by the Americans as their point man, as part of the American war plan for world supremacy. This is definitely not something we want to be in, not something we want to pay for.
These war machine would be too good for our immediate neighbours. They too would not be our competitors even if they acquired them with American consent or acquiring the best Russian war machine. Buying these war machine is only the first step. You would also need clever pilots to fly them, not like the Ab Bengs in their soup up machine tearing down the road. These are highly sophisticated war machine to be used for war, not just swooping around in the sky. Not many would be able to use them as what they were made to do. Definitely not the pilots of our neighbouring countries. This is no bragging.
Then there is the bigger headache of maintaining them in flying and fighting condition. Our neighbours track record of their Russian and American possession has proven that afterF15s and F16s would be more than adequate to do the job needed, at a fraction of the cost.
Talking about cost, many would be better informed of the complexity of these machine, the use of satellite technology and GPS system to support them, ground control computer and radar system. It is not so simp0le as just buying the aircraft. Then there is also the weapons and avionics cost etc etc. The total cost would be enormous and something we could not afford and do not need to pay for.
Very likely these aircraft would not have to fight an air war and lost in battle. Many of them would be lost why flying in peace time due to engine or pilot errors. At the tune of $200m each, this is no small sum to fall out of the sky.
They are good to have, nice to have, like the Lamborghinis and Ferraris. But for practical reasons, the F15s and F16s would be able to perform just as well given the theatre and competitors. Can we afford to pay for such beautiful state of the art war machine or toys with public money?
Below are some extracts of the Lockheed Martin sales pitch in Channel News Asia. Very attractive and mesmerising. Spending OPM is so easy, for such machine, called game changer. Sure, why not. Who would end up paying for the super expensive toys? The enemies would not be able to take them down. But normal wear and tear, poor maintenance and mistakes would.
FORT WORTH, Texas: At the end of a highly sensitive assembly line, in the nave of an enormous aviation paint shop, lay a hulking lump of metal grey aluminium and titanium.
It was a war machine that showed some qualities of an expensive sports car, with sleek lines, perfect symmetry and a matte finish. But looks didn't mask the fact that this fighter jet is designed to be ultra deadly.
The F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter is so advanced, it can “talk” to other aircraft, see the enemy earlier and avoid being seen better than ever before. It can hunt discreetly in packs or be the all-seeing eye in the sky.
This fifth-generation fighter, according to defence experts, is also one of Singapore’s top choices to replace its ageing F-16s.
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