A shocking case in ST forum

A Lim Beo Thiam, 52 years old, and have been unemployed for the past 18 months. Business collapsed and lost a leg to diabetes. He was taken to court for arrears of $432 owned to Town Council for S&C charges. His debt kept ballooning. He wrote to the ST hoping that help is on the way. He must be one of those guys who have slipped out of the safety net. He must be desperate. It is shocking that such cases actually exist. I thought all the craps of people falling into hard times were fiction. Got such things in paradise meh?

I am terribly disturbed

I am very disturbed by the way Singaporeans look at problems and their inability to shift out the truth from all the information available. Many Singaporeans are complaining about the high property prices, especially of HDB flats. And we all know what is the main cause of the high prices. Now what is the problem? I have read letters and suggestions that in order to bring down the prices, HDB should build smaller size flats or build basic flats with bare concrete and bare fixtures like in the 60s/70s. Are these the cause of high prices? Don't Singaporeans know or understand that the high prices are caused by market pricing and the notion of affordability? If the supply and demand, and market pricing dictate so, if the affordability fiction says so, no matter how small is the flat, or how basic it is, it can go to $1m for a 300 sq ft unit. Come on Singaporeans, stop being silly. Stop being foolish.

Yes, we have destroyed her

Ris Low has resigned from the Miss Singapore World title. Let's pop the champagne. But wait, let's go one step further and burn her on the stake. This is the power of the pen. Having said that, I think Ris Low deserves to be the Miss Singapore World. Despite the persistent and vicious attack on her character, she took every blow gracefully. She stood tall among all the small people thowing shit at her. She smiled. She did not show any sign of anger, befitting her choice and status as a Miss Singapore World. She did not succumb to the pressure and break down. She resigned gracefully from the title and her parting words, 'This is actually the best for everybody...I just feel that it 'd be better for everyone, including the Singaporeans who are not very supportive of me going to this pageant.' She knew she had done wrong and accepted her fate. How many 19 year olds or even adults have not done wrong, or more horrendous wrong than Ris Low? The campaign against her was cruel. It was airing dirty linen at the lowest level in public. Why couldn't this be sorted out confidentially? Oh, it must be of great public interest. The ERM also handled the case well without adding more fuel to the fire. For the way Ris Low stood up and face the harsh attacks by some of the letter writers, she is every inch deserving to be Miss Singapore World. Many would have crumbled and suffered under such intense pressure. There was no kindness in the attack. She stood tall and took the blows.

Electricity tariffs up 12.7%

This is the amount of increase household has to cope with in their electricity bill from October 09. I have lost track on how much housing prices, both public and private, have gone through the roof. But thank god, the people are saved by the subsidies provided by the govt. So the high property prices are still affordable.

GIC $59b loss

The Wall Street Journal, 28 Sep 2009 SINGAPORE (Dow Jones)--Government of Singapore Investment Corp. suffered a loss around S$59 billion in the fiscal year ended March, making it one of the worst years for the sovereign wealth fund since it was established in 1981, a person familiar with the situation said Tuesday. "The equities investments suffered the most, followed by falls in property valuations. It was one of the worst years ever," the person told Dow Jones Newswires. Does anyone got a feel of what $59b means? If a private condo costs $1m each, $59b can buy 59,000 unit man. My guesstimate is that the sum of money could buy up all the HDB flats in Ang Mo Kio or Toa Payoh. That is what $59b means when translated to purchasing power. But no one is battling an eyelid for the loss of such a hugh sum of money. It is just paper money, some digits churned out by the accountant. On hindsight, GIC should have put in more money in CitiBank. If the investment in CitiBank was 10 times of what CIC put in, it could recoup $46b worth of profit in one go. Wouldn't that be nice? Ok, the initial collapse would mean many sleepless nights and shivering in cold sweat. But it would be worth it.