Before the plague of 900,000 locusts hit our shores, it is urgent that the people, the stakeholders of this piece of rock, make their stand clear to the servants of the people that they do not want to be swarmed and die of suffocation.
When we were 1m there was fear that we were too small to survive. We survived. When we were 2m, the same fear was repeated. We survived. We survived when we were 3m, 4m, in fact we prospered even with the smaller population. Now at 5.5m, one corner of the truth is that we need more, 6.5m maybe 7.5m or more to continue to grow the GDP. What about economic growth at the expense of quality of life and living conditions?
Is there an option for smaller GDP growth, or GDP growth without the plague of another 900,000 locusts? There must be a way, lower GDP from lower influx of foreigners but maintaining the quality of life. There must be alternative models to development and a better life for the people.
It is time to call for a referendum. The people and the opposition party representatives must take the initiative before everyone has to jump off this piece of rock. This high population policy is like the high cost of living and high housing price policy. They must go together. With a huge population, other plagues will fall in line, concrete jungle, need for jobs, infrastructure, services, energy, water. The nuclear option is a consequence of this high population policy. If population goes up, nuclear option becomes a Hobson’s Choice, or no choice.
The masters must have the final say, not the self serving servants. This is our country, for our children and their children. Why should we allow a few elected politicians to determine the future of our children? The people must tell the govt where it must not go before it is too late. The people must pre empt the influx of another million or more foreigners here. Say no to the ballooning of our population.
6/03/2011
Self serving logic
Is there such thing as self serving logic? It is the kind of justification that people used to do silly things that they would not do without having some defensive arguments to justify their actions. An accident victim lying unconscious on the road and his money bag was on his side. The self serving logic would say, take it, if not, someone else would take it.
If we don’t go nuclear, our neighbours will. So the decision to go nuclear is made. QED. We don’t need to pay super talents to make this kind of decision with this kind of logic do we?
In the Singapore context there are plenty of such wonderful logics in use. The people will be corrupt. So how, pay them to prevent them from being corrupt. I also get paid by the way.
The people will squander their CPF savings. For their own good, lets lock it up for as long as possible. The people will all go for C Class hospital wards. So introduce mean testing to prevent such abuses. The higher income will all rush to buy HDB flats. So introduce an income ceiling to keep them away, so that they will go to the private market. Now my private property prices will definitely go up.
Water is a precious item. We must teach the people not to waste water. Charge them a higher fee and higher taxes for consuming too much. Is this self serving logic too?
The daft Singaporeans do not see these as self serving logic. They went along happily for decades. The not so daft Singaporeans remain reticent. But they turned them into party and private jokes among close friends. They are not that daft not to see walla when there is walla. Yes, not all Singaporeans are daft. The betterer dafters will be out there defending the self serving logic with all their might.
If we don’t go nuclear, our neighbours will. So the decision to go nuclear is made. QED. We don’t need to pay super talents to make this kind of decision with this kind of logic do we?
In the Singapore context there are plenty of such wonderful logics in use. The people will be corrupt. So how, pay them to prevent them from being corrupt. I also get paid by the way.
The people will squander their CPF savings. For their own good, lets lock it up for as long as possible. The people will all go for C Class hospital wards. So introduce mean testing to prevent such abuses. The higher income will all rush to buy HDB flats. So introduce an income ceiling to keep them away, so that they will go to the private market. Now my private property prices will definitely go up.
Water is a precious item. We must teach the people not to waste water. Charge them a higher fee and higher taxes for consuming too much. Is this self serving logic too?
The daft Singaporeans do not see these as self serving logic. They went along happily for decades. The not so daft Singaporeans remain reticent. But they turned them into party and private jokes among close friends. They are not that daft not to see walla when there is walla. Yes, not all Singaporeans are daft. The betterer dafters will be out there defending the self serving logic with all their might.
6/02/2011
A futuristic Stock Exchange
Looking at my crystal ball and from the inputs of what are being implemented in the western model of stock exchanges, I have this vision of what the future stock exchange will be like. As desired, it will be a state of the art computerised system with minimal human beans involved, and superbly efficient.
In short, traders and remisiers can be excused from the system. They will not be able to compete with the machine. What will evolve will be high speed trading by computers and machine. Every big fund will roll out its state of the art computer system to trade for them, programmed by the best programmers applying the most complex algo logic to profit from every trade. To make a winning trade, they only have to beat the rest of the competitors by a micro sec faster or by a bid of 0.1c. That is all it takes. It is not about investing but a battle of machine. No need to bother about fundamentals or real values of the stocks. And all these will be done at extremely high speed by the supercomputers.
The game will be so sophisticated and super fast that no retail investors/traders will be able to play, or to think of making a profit. They will all pack up and call it a day. Trading houses too will not be in business when there are no investors/traders to pay them the commission to cover the operating cost.
Companies and business organisations too will find listing meaningless as the stock prices will hardly move, controlled by machine to minimise risk and making brisk profits in micro seconds and with marginal changes in prices. With the high cost of listing and listing fees, and unable to raise funds in a virtually lifeless market, many will delist from the stock markets.
Then what will the machines be trading? Derivatives, ETFs, CFD, ADRs, covered warrants, or any kind of papers that the funds could generate for the market. There will be virtual stocks created just for trading, with no need for a company and a profit generating business. A typical trading pattern for a penny stock like R2D2 will be: Buy 200m at 1c and Sell 200m at 1.1c. Or the higher value stock like C3PO Bank: Buy 20m at 8.00 and Sell 20m at 8.01.
And the industry will be so efficient that the management of a stock market would need not more than 20 staff. And the fund managers too will be operating with a handful of staff manning computers and machines. The whole industry could comprise of less than 100 expert financial professionals.
The broking houses will be a thing of the past, so are remisiers and traders and real stocks. It will be a real virtual world of stock trading, with stocks from non existent companies and machine trading for non existent traders and investors.
And the stock exchanges can churn in several trillions of trades daily from the handful of big operators and their machines. The stock market and exchanges of today will only be remembered and taught in schools as part of the syllabus in the subject called History.
In short, traders and remisiers can be excused from the system. They will not be able to compete with the machine. What will evolve will be high speed trading by computers and machine. Every big fund will roll out its state of the art computer system to trade for them, programmed by the best programmers applying the most complex algo logic to profit from every trade. To make a winning trade, they only have to beat the rest of the competitors by a micro sec faster or by a bid of 0.1c. That is all it takes. It is not about investing but a battle of machine. No need to bother about fundamentals or real values of the stocks. And all these will be done at extremely high speed by the supercomputers.
The game will be so sophisticated and super fast that no retail investors/traders will be able to play, or to think of making a profit. They will all pack up and call it a day. Trading houses too will not be in business when there are no investors/traders to pay them the commission to cover the operating cost.
Companies and business organisations too will find listing meaningless as the stock prices will hardly move, controlled by machine to minimise risk and making brisk profits in micro seconds and with marginal changes in prices. With the high cost of listing and listing fees, and unable to raise funds in a virtually lifeless market, many will delist from the stock markets.
Then what will the machines be trading? Derivatives, ETFs, CFD, ADRs, covered warrants, or any kind of papers that the funds could generate for the market. There will be virtual stocks created just for trading, with no need for a company and a profit generating business. A typical trading pattern for a penny stock like R2D2 will be: Buy 200m at 1c and Sell 200m at 1.1c. Or the higher value stock like C3PO Bank: Buy 20m at 8.00 and Sell 20m at 8.01.
And the industry will be so efficient that the management of a stock market would need not more than 20 staff. And the fund managers too will be operating with a handful of staff manning computers and machines. The whole industry could comprise of less than 100 expert financial professionals.
The broking houses will be a thing of the past, so are remisiers and traders and real stocks. It will be a real virtual world of stock trading, with stocks from non existent companies and machine trading for non existent traders and investors.
And the stock exchanges can churn in several trillions of trades daily from the handful of big operators and their machines. The stock market and exchanges of today will only be remembered and taught in schools as part of the syllabus in the subject called History.
The $24m race is on
If not for the silly exclusion clause that disqualified the majority of the population, I will also throw in my hat for the race. This clause must be deleted in time to come as it is the most discriminating clause against all citizens in the name of justice and equality. Reminds me of the Animal Farm where some are more equal than others. Who is to say who is more equal and has more right to be qualified as candidate for the Presidency except the people?
For the time being, only a select group of people who are rich and powerful are eligible to contest for this position. If not I would like to suggest that the Presidency be rotated on a monthly basis with each candidate selected from a pool of qualified senior citizens, excluding the unreasonable clause of being in high offices and running an organization of $100m. This will provide 12 high paying jobs of $400k per monthly term a year, or 72 happy presidents every 6 years.
The daft citizens will have to contend with the few candidates available today. Just be wise in casting the vote. Like Lim Boon Heng said, some are too close to political parties and may not be suitable. I fully agree with this kind of concern. The people must be guarded against incestuous relationship, and the elected President must be one that is not related to any political party.
Let’s hope there will be enough of neutral and decently qualified candidate to choose from. For those who are eligible under the present restrictive clause, they must know that there are very few around, they must stand up to contest as a service to the people and country. The people are hungry for an alternative choice.
For the time being, only a select group of people who are rich and powerful are eligible to contest for this position. If not I would like to suggest that the Presidency be rotated on a monthly basis with each candidate selected from a pool of qualified senior citizens, excluding the unreasonable clause of being in high offices and running an organization of $100m. This will provide 12 high paying jobs of $400k per monthly term a year, or 72 happy presidents every 6 years.
The daft citizens will have to contend with the few candidates available today. Just be wise in casting the vote. Like Lim Boon Heng said, some are too close to political parties and may not be suitable. I fully agree with this kind of concern. The people must be guarded against incestuous relationship, and the elected President must be one that is not related to any political party.
Let’s hope there will be enough of neutral and decently qualified candidate to choose from. For those who are eligible under the present restrictive clause, they must know that there are very few around, they must stand up to contest as a service to the people and country. The people are hungry for an alternative choice.
6/01/2011
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