Is Singapore a smart city for real? What kind of talents are behind this smart city aspiration?

CNA Explains: What causes GIRO errors and what you can do if it happens

The Consumers Association of Singapore received 10 complaints relating to unauthorised GIRO deductions from Jan 1 last year to Mar 16 this year.

SINGAPORE: To pay for their children’s student care, some parents set up GIRO arrangements with Little Professors Learning Centre, expecting routine monthly deductions of fees.

Instead, they got a rude shock. Some were charged the wrong amount in certain months – and charged twice in others.

One mother, who was supposed to pay S$30 (US$24) a month, was charged S$196.80 on three occasions and S$68 once.  CNA

Hearing this kind of news I can only shake my head. What kind of software talents are we using to write such apps? I just came back from a short holiday and have been using Alipay, Wechat, Trips.com and also have been using Shopee for online shopping. Think of the hundreds of billions of transactions that these Chinese apps are handling daily! One mistake and the whole system will collapse, and no more trust in using them. Think of the complexities that these apps are managing, providing all kinds of services, not just one or two functions!

When one 'was supposed to pay S$30 (US$24) a month, was charged S$196.80 on three occasions and S$68 once', this is serious. This is not a mistake! This is more than a mistake. How can anyone trust such a system? 'Professor Sumit Agarwal of the National University of Singapore’s business school also said GIRO errors are rare.' “There are very small issues that happen, very few and far between, but systematic problems are very rare,” he said. This is unacceptable. Financial system must have zero defect. Can you imagine what will the impact of such errors in Alipay, Wechat or Shopee? We just shrugged it off as normal, as rare, small issues that will happen? Are we supposed to live with such errors?

Why is Singapore, bragging about being a smart city, bragging about all the foreign talents or fake talents that were brought in, facing so many glitzes in the software being used by the banking and financial industries when the usage is just a trickle of what the Chinese software were handling?

Are we getting the best talents, the real stuff to work for us? Why not hire the best but go for fakes and 9th or 10th best, or rejects that cannot go to America or anywhere and have to land in Singapore?

No oil for you ... if you dare to send warships to the Strait of Hormuz

DUBAI: More than 20 countries on Saturday (Mar 21) said they would contribute to efforts ensuring safe passage in the Strait of Hormuz, condemning Iran's closure of the vital waterway.

"We condemn in the strongest terms recent attacks by Iran on unarmed commercial vessels in the Gulf, attacks on civilian infrastructure including oil and gas installations, and the de facto closure of the Strait of Hormuz by Iranian forces," said the 22 countries, mostly European but also including the UAE and Bahrain."

We express our readiness to contribute to appropriate efforts to ensure safe passage through the Strait. We welcome the commitment of nations who are engaging in preparatory planning," they said in a joint statement. CNA

Who are the silly countries that are going to send warships to the Strait of Hormuz because the American terrorists said so or being coerced by the American terrorists to do so? Would any silly Asean country 'volunteer' to do so, on grounds of principle? One thing for sure, No oil for you, your tankers will NOT be allowed to get through the Strait. For the moment only the tankers of the terrorists countries are being blocked. Stay out if you are smart, if you can. Stop being the silly pawns of the American and Israeli terrorists, to help them fight and kill Iranians.

Asean must take a stand, make an official statement, to stop any silly Asean country from doing the silly thing. Period. Let the white savages continue with their massacre of the Iranians. Let them destroy the economies of the Arab and Muslim states to awaken the Arab and Muslim states and the world who are the real culprits to this insane and evil attack against the Iranians in particular and the rest of the Arab and Muslim states in general.

And dumb Trump is calling American allies, Europeans and Japanese, and even China, to send warships to protect their tankers crossing the Hormuz. He thinks everyone is as stupid as him. Why would China want to do that when its tankers are moving freely through the Strait? As for the Europeans and Japanese, their tankers can still go through and they are still getting their oil. The moment they sent in their warships, there will be no oil for them. Period. The blockade is against American, AngloSaxon and Israeli tankers!

Dumb Trump is trying to drag everyone into the his idiotic war that he cannot win and not standing up like a sore prick. The war is turning against the Americans and Trump is desperate, wanting to bring in more American boys and girls to the meat grinder, threatening to nuke Iran, escalating the war. Iran will respond just as hard. Israel and Diego Garcie are the hostages waiting to be destroyed.

The intent and purpose of the American and Israeli terrorists are to destabilise the Arab and Muslim states, to continue with their 'mowing exercise' to keep the population of the Arab and Muslim states down, to destabilise the region, destroy their economies, keep them poor and their economies dysfunctional. This is a war to destroy the Arab and Muslim states in the Middle East by forcing Iran to hit its neighbours. Iran has no other choice with the Americans operating from Arab lands to hit Iran. Trump is escalating the war intentionally to blow up the Middle East against the interests and well being of the Arab and Muslim states. The more destruction the better and making the Arab and Muslim states to blame Iran, to fight Iran.

The American and Israeli terrorists will make war in the region, regularly, unending, to destroy the Arab and Muslim countries. Period. This time it is Iran's turn to be pruned and trimmed down. Who is next?

Trump doesn't need help, but begging for help

Trump doesn't need help, but he is just begging only. Funny thing is if he cannot get help by begging, he will call those he begged as 'cowards'. Even better, when he said that any help from China over the Straits of Hormuz will be great. That is one puzzle that I do not know how to solve for someone professing not needing any help.

Now, why would China want to help to open up the Straits of Hormuz. Chinese vessels carrying oil are still passing the Straits of Hormuz, unmolested. China is not suffering. China and Russia are quietly celebrating the crippling of the USA military bases by the Iranians in the Middle East.

China and Russia are taking notes and learning from the Iranian experience over how to defang a mad dog. First take out the radar installations guiding those patriot missiles and interceptors. With the patriot and THAAD batteries shooting almost blind already, Iran can then take out those military targets and important strategic assets. Any retaliation will be met with equal retaliation, knowing that Iranian missiles can now target infrastructures and any interceptors fired will be exhausting the manufacturing capability of the Military Industrial Complex.

Aircraft carriers are no longer a projection of strength going forward, to enable the USA to launch fighter jets near to enemy strongholds. There is now a genuine fear of aircraft carriers being taken out by anti-ship hypersonic missiles, developed just for this purpose to negate the ability of aircraft carriers to project power.

History is in the making resulting from a war between 20th century aircraft carrier power against no power projection needed by just using hypersonic missiles and drones. Not even needing an expensive air defense force or a naval defense force. So much cheaper, so effective and so detrimental for the invaders.

Oh, not to forget, it also provides learning experience for China regarding it BeiDou effectiveness, plus free testing for Chinese hypersonic missiles and drones. Pakistan and Iran have done China a favor by testing its weapons for friendship's sake.


Anonymous

Trump wants to wind down killing Iranians? No, he just ran out of ammo

Having to move the THAAD batteries from South Korea to the Middle East earlier says a lot about the USA capabilities. It had been propagandized as a shift in posture. Laughable! South Korea paid an arm and a leg to the USA for those THAAD missiles, meant to protect them, from who I do not know. South Korea now needs no protection at all it seems. Fact is stranger than fiction.

What if Iran takes out those THAAD batteries again? What is the USA going to use to protect the Gulf states? Remember that the USA is already starved of rare earth magnets for making new weapons, having to move 20,000 patriot interceptors from Ukraine to Israel during the 12-day war. The shortage of interceptors is evident, even though the propaganda painted a different picture. Will we see a reverse of Ukraine providing weapons to the USA, since Ukraine has already boasted about producing 2,000 drones a day.
If that is the case, why is Ukraine still asking for help from NATO Europe, with Zelenskyy holding a begging bowl everywhere he goes. Strange world indeed.

But when the shit hits the fan and weapons are hard to come by, beggars cannot be choosers, even being the one and only USA, the only global superpower.


Anonymous

Trump is a rogue that loves war when he thinks he can win ... I am being too generous to use the words 'he thinks'

 Still being mesmerised by Trump and western rhetoric that Trump is a man of peace, did not like wars and knows what he is doing? A precis of what Trump is, he is a rogue that cannot think strategies, cannot see further from his nose. His actions and decisions were simply based on what fanciful thoughts first came to his numbskull, like a mafia boss. Oops, apologies, the mafia bosses are much smarter.  Trump acts at the spur of the moment. When it failed, did not work, he simply backtracked and forgot about it. Some may interpret this as being a smart ass, logical thinking and flexible. To Trump, everything can work or cannot work, doesn't matter. No need to sweat the small stuff. His ideas are the best or be forgotten, not mistakes.

The recent wild adventures of Trump speak clearly of what this lunatic is all about. He is everything, he is nothing. Some called him a man child. He is like an adolescent street bully, behaving like one, acting like one without any need for real deep thinking. His best moments when his numbskull goes wild are in the early morning hours when he could not sleep and has no one to talk to.

The invasion and kidnapping of President Maduro could not come from a sane thinker but a thug. It could turn into a disastrous war. The attack, actually the intent to destroy Iran and kill Iranians, is the behaviour of a beast. Trump does not think anything about going to war. As long as it fancies him and he thinks he can hit anyone as he pleases, he will do it. Now this attempt to wipe out Iran is dragging Trump into a quagmire and this mafia did not think it is best to pull out, for a person that supposedly is against war, but keeps digging in, double his stakes against all the good advices of his generals. This man is not just insane. He is incapable of understanding the consequences of his actions. How many Iranians, Jews and Americans and others have been killed because of his stupidity, his nonsensical whims and fancies?

Trump keeps bragging about bombing this and that, killing this and that, taking this and that, without thinking he is walking naked. America no longer can do as it wants to demand compliance and surrender from other states. His enemies are no pushover. Only a simple minded lunatic will jump into a war that he cannot win without totally destroying both sides.

Mad Trump is amassing more soldiers to deploy in Iran. Yes, this silly 'not for war' rogue is going in with boots on the ground. He is doubling down like a gamble in a losing streak. Trump is against war? If unrestrained, this lunatic will drag America in a war that all Americans will regret and end the evil American Empire for good.

Trump go Trump. Attack every country that you want, go to war with every country that you want. You are very powerful. Use all the power in your hands, swing your dick to hammer anyone you dislike. No need to think. A silly unthinking child can do it, so can you. Yes, children are much smarter, only the silly and unthinking ones like Donald Trump will go to war without thinking, no need to think.