Welcome to compassionate and caring Singapore, when no one is left behind

Single mum with 16 year-old son stayed in police lock-up for 10-hours for not paying accumulated S&CC bills of $2150

Felt shocked to realise that a single mum with a school-going 16-year-old son was arrested at her office for not paying accumulated S & CC bills of $2150. She stayed in the police lock-up for close to ten hours before being release.

The S & CC fees were unpaid for 18 months since April 2018.

I told her that she is fortunate they didn’t put her in jail outright. Prolonged non-payment of S & CC bills can land a person in jail here and she still has to pay up the default after the prison discharge. It’s probable that the single mum may have ignored numerous court orders triggering a warrant of arrest as a result.

Out of the total default owed, a massive 40% or $937 went to other miscellaneous costs such as penalty charge $310 and legal fee $627. The town council is willing to waive the penalty fee of $310 but not the legal charge.

The single mum, who is working as a promoter with a monthly salary of $1000 plus, told me that each time she couldn’t pay the monthly installment of $159, the town council will send in a legal reminder which costs about $200 – further aggravating the S & CC default. It’s akin to paying a loan shark but this time it’s a legalised one.

With such atrociously high legal charges levied on errant defaulters, the law firm representing the town council must have racked in tens of thousands of dollars each month on legal fees alone.
Moreover, besides paying the monthly installment of $159 for the default owed, she has to cough up another $78.50 for fresh monthly payment for S & CC charges. This is on top of the many other bills Singaporeans are currently paying.

Our town council sinking fund has reached close to $2 billion and some estate has pooled resources to derive benefit from economy of scale but none of the savings have being passed to the residents so far. Residents also are rather clueless as to how the town council uses the S & CC fees collected which could run into millions for each estate per month.

We also realized that in the past, some town councils used the excess sinking funds to dabble in risky financial investments but they have now stopped.

As for the single mum’s financial trouble, I asked her why she didn’t rent out one of her room to alleviate the situation – she told me that she is uncomfortable living with strangers under the same household.

The small single-parent family does not receive any maintenance from the ex- husband and the mum is working 12-hour shift for seven days a week trying to keep up with all her bills especially the S & CC one which may invite a jail sentence if not properly paid.

Gilbert Goh
Editor’s note: If you wish to help the single mother by transferring funds directly into her AXS account, you may contact Gilbert at goh_gilbert@yahoo.com

PS. Just have to repost this in full to show how caring Singapore is as a country. And this practice, long standing practice of sending legal letters that cost more than the sum owed must be good practice and would not be changed. So if someone owes $20, he would still be issued with a legal letter that would cost $200 and this would add to his debt. Nice! 

In my business, when a client owes me a sum that is lesser than the cost of sending legal letters, I will treat it as bad debt and write it off instead of incurring more cost to myself and to the client.

Lessons from KMT losing the Republic of China

The KMT rode to power under the popular leadership of Sun Yat Sen, the father of modern China, from a colonial Empire. KMT became the ruling govt, the legitimate govt and the elites of the day were nearly all with the KMT. And the power of the KMT resided in the thousands of generals that they promoted to rule China. The reasons for KMT to lose power were unimaginable then when they were in power.  The CCP was too weak, peasants with little support initially and mainly from the farmers and workers, not highly educated elites and aristocrats. The businessmen, the landlords, the politicians and generals were all KMT or KMT supporters or sympathisers. But eventually KMT lost China to the supposedly very weak opposition, with few talents and no experience in running a country.

When the foreigners ie Japan and the West were carving out China, KMT did not see that as a problem. When the Japanese started to occupy the eastern part of China, the KMT ceded the territories to them, withdrew to the West. The main preoccupation of the KMT was not foreigners or foreign occupation of Chinese land, but the opposition, the CCP. They believed that as long as they were the govt, controlled the govt and the military, the business elites, intellectuals, aristocrats and landlords would be with them and they could rule China forever, even with foreigners everywhere.

So the KMT spent all its resources and time oppressing and suppressing the opposition while ignoring the growing presence of the foreigners. It was ok for foreigners to occupy parts of the country as they were seen as lesser threats than the local opposition. In many ways the KMT was colluding with the foreigners, even helping the foreigners to fight the CCP and ignoring the plight of the people. It was great time for the foreigners as they increasingly encroached into China, even when they were occupying all the major cities and eastern part of China, they were literally left alone to do as they pleased.

As for the people, they were treated as non entities, to be taxed and bullied, to be robbed of everything. The people of China then had nothing, no land, no homes, as land and homes were owned by the govt and the rich landlords. And they carried the burden of the KMT govt and their wars against the local opposition, not the foreigners.

The KMT also relied a lot on the Americans to protect their interest as the govt of the day. They thought that with the American support, they could continue to rule China and the poor and helpless and jobless Chinese people. And why not when the people were powerless and allowed themselves to be bullied and ruled by the KMT without resistance.

It took many years of abuses of power and corruption in the KMT govt before the people realised that the opposition CCP was their real saviour, not the corrupt govt of the day. And it took the full force of the foreigners and their intent to conquer and take over China before the KMT realised that the foreigners could not be ignored. By then it was too late. The foreigners had taken over nearly all the eastern part of the country and the people had fled to join the opposition.

The only thing left for the KMT, the legitimate and powerful govt with many incompetent generals and the corrupt administration and landlords was to run away. And they ran across the strait to Taiwan, with the loot and treasures of China, leaving China and the Chinese people ever poorer. The KMT warlords, generals and the rich businessman and landlords continued to enjoy their wealth overseas, in Taiwan and in the USA.

The big question, how could a legitimate ruling govt, with all the elites, rich landlords and businessmen and all the talented but corrupt generals and govt officials eventually had to flee China, and ran away in defeat? Did they not see their corrupt ways, their bullying and exploitation of the people leaving them homeless, with no land and no homes, poor, jobless and hapless, and also allowing the foreigners to enter China freely, with little resistance, and the people at the mercy of foreigners, would eventually lead to the lost of trust among the people and the people turning against them? Mind you, till today, the KMT still clings to the image of Sun Yat Sen as the father of modern China to lend them credibility. Other than the father of modern China, the KMT has no more legitimacy as an ex govt of China. There is a huge memorial in Taiwan of the father of modern China.

Can history teach us anything about powerful govts falling and having to run away with their loot? All corrupt govts that bullied and cheated their people and in cahoot with foreigners at the expense and well being of the people of their country would lose the support of the people and their right to rule.

The liars exposed and admitted

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States treated 11 of its troops for symptoms of concussion after an Iranian missile attack on an Iraqi base where U.S. forces were stationed, the U.S. military said on Thursday, after initially saying no service members were hurt.

The attack was retaliation for a U.S. drone strike in Baghdad on Jan. 3 that killed Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the elite Quds Force of Iran's Revolutionary Guard.

President Donald Trump and the U.S. military had said there were no casualties after the strike on the Ain al-Asad air base in western Iraq and a facility in its northern Kurdish region.

"While no U.S. service members were killed in the Jan. 8 Iranian attack on Al Asad air base, several were treated for concussion symptoms from the blast and are still being assessed," Captain Bill Urban, spokesman for U.S. Central Command, said in a statement.... Yahoo News

The Americans have been lying to the world daily for years. They have made use of the main media to propagate their lies to the daft and willing to hear only what they wanted to hear. Many of the war statistics were outright lies and this attack on American bases was the most recent lie exposed. Iranians firing dud missiles that would not hit at American soldiers, all 15 of them hit their targets with no casualties. The last part was the American lie.

In many of the rocket and missiles attacks by the Arab and Muslim forces, especially by the Palestinians, the Americans would claim no casualties or the rockets/missiles did not hit their targets or were intercepted. These were furthest from the truth. No defence system can intercept even half the in coming rockets/missiles unless the enemy fired one at a time. When they rained the targets with rockets and missiles and artillery, many would get through and hit their targets and inflict casualties for sure.

This is the same as how they boasted about their Iron Dome defence and Patriot system. All hogwash. Even the capabilities of their F22s and F35s were mostly on paper and not what would be in real situation. The propaganda war using western media on English educated willing to believe the American lies have been very successful so far. But this is not going to go on forever.

Even the American believers are starting to know that they have been fed of daily doses of American white lies and are turning sceptics and questioning and feeling silly to believe the rubbish churned out by the Americans and American proxy and crony media.

You can't lie to all the people all the time. The Iranians would sink the US warships and aircraft carriers in the region if war started and all American bases, including those in Israel and Europe could be hit. It would not be a walkover, a cake walk like the invasion of Iraq and Libya.

Chan Chun Sing - 80% of jobs created went to Singaporeans

SINGAPORE: Of the nearly 60,000 new jobs created for the local workforce between 2015 and 2018, about 50,000 went to Singaporeans and more than 9,000 went to permanent residents (PRs), Minister for Trade and Industry Chan Chun Sing revealed on Thursday (Jan 16).... CNA

This statistics looked quite favourable to those who want more jobs to Singaporeans than to locals. When I look at the numbers it looks fine to me. Singaporeans are taken care of when new jobs are concerned. What about old or existing jobs are concerned? The main complaint is that Singaporean PMETs were sacked or asked to resign from their jobs and foreigners were hired to take their places. These are not new jobs, so would not be in the statistics I supposed. What is the number in such cases?

There is another number that I think is missing? What about employment of foreigners that are not PRs, foreigners that are foreigners but on employment pass and work permits? No, no new jobs created for them or these are not counted? Of course those that came under CECA schemes like inter company transfer would not be counted I supposed.

I have a question, what is the total number of jobs created in the period mentioned, ie including those that went to foreigners that are not PRs but EP and WP holders? Or what is the total number of additional number of people employed during this period, ie new employment, including Singaporeans, PRs, non PRs? How would these change the percentage of Singaporeans employed versus others ie PRs and non PRs?

And why only talked about 2015 to 2018, the years when there were some changes in govt policies after public outcry about the incessant inflow of foreigners by the thousands annually earlier and Singaporeans losing their jobs to foreigners?  Selective selection of data is selective truth.

There are many ways to craft data and churning out numbers in statistics. What is the purpose of Pritam Singh asking the question? What is his intent? Simple, he wants to know if Singaporeans are being shortchanged in employment vis a vis foreigners, ie PRs and non PRs. Is this a bad intent, sinister intent? Any Singaporean who cares for fellow Singaporeans would want to know this, would want to ask such questions. Cannot meh? Wrong meh? What is wrong with asking such questions?

What is the intent to ask for the intent of Pritam Singh for asking such questions?

Kim calling Trump -- No more meetings

By Humeyra Pamuk and Jonathan Landay

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday said Qassem Soleimani was killed as part of a broader strategy of deterring challenges by U.S. foes that also applies to China and Russia, further diluting the assertion that the top Iranian general was struck because he was plotting imminent attacks on U.S. targets.

In his speech at Stanford University's Hoover Institute, Pompeo made no mention of the threat of imminent attacks planned by Soleimani. It only was in response to a question that he repeated his earlier assertion that pre-empting such plots was the reason for the Jan. 3 American drone strike on Iran's second most powerful official.

His speech, "The Restoration of Deterrence: The Iranian Example," focused on what he called an administration strategy to establish "real deterrence" against Iran following earlier Republican and Democratic policies that encouraged Tehran's "malign activity....

On Sunday, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said he had seen no intelligence forewarning of imminent attacks on embassies.

Trump on Monday added new fuel to the controversy by saying "it really doesn't matter" whether Soleimani posed an imminent threat.

Pompeo said there was "a bigger strategy" behind the killing of Soleimani, the commander of the Quds Force, Iran's elite foreign espionage and paramilitary force.

"President Trump and those of us in his national security team are re-establishing deterrence – real deterrence ‒ against the Islamic Republic of Iran," he said."

The above comments were from an article in Yahoo News telling the world how this international terrorist country is going to kill leaders of other countries at their whims and fancy, they called it a new strategy of assassinations. Kim Jong Un better be very careful.  All that is needed is for these rogues to fabricate some intelligence threats and then kill him. And yes, the American terrorists also said this applies to China and Russia, which means any other country in the whole wide world.  China and Russia should do the same and kill those Americans that are plotting to create unrest in other countries especially in Hong Kong. Just kill them in the name of national security.

What would the UN say? What would the western countries say? What would the cronies and lackeys of the evil Empire say? The USA is a law abiding country, respects International Law, a rule of law country, good and deserving to be the policeman of the world especially in South China Sea?