Fare reduction on public transport

Effective on 3 Jul 10, commuters could be paying lesser when taking public transport. This was the great news reported a few months back. On 3 Jul, many commuters wecrying foul, angry, that instead of paying less, they were paying more, some by as much as 50%. This scheme of fare cut was like robbing Peter to pay Paul. Commuters who have to switch services will pay a little lesser. This will be subsidised by those who need not change services and this group will have to pay much more. Actually it is like robbing grandpa and grandma, and school going children to pay for the savings of those that need to switch services. This is indeed a well thought out plan by our supertalents. Simply brilliant. Can't be better.

Pay cut for Singaporeans

Singaporeans who are taking public transport are effectively getting a pay cut. And the most hurt are the oldies, the senior citizens, who now have to pay as much as 1.05 from 68c according to an oldie. This is a whopping 54% increase in fare. Holycow, they don't give a damn about the oldies where quite a big number are cleaners and daily rated workers earning less than $1000 pm. At an increase of 37c per trip or 74c daily, times 22 days, this will work out to be $16.28 a month. I know that this is at most equivalent to 5 plates of char kway teow and people can laugh it off, but if the oldie's income is $1000 pm it is a pay cut of 1.6%. And if the pay is $500 pm, it is 3.55% pay cut. I am not sure how much more will the students be paying. If each student is paying half of the increase the oldies are paying, and if they happen to be the children of the oldies, two school going children could mean another 2% pay cut. Just too bad. The transport operators need to subsidise those commuters who have to transfer from one service to another, and the oldies/students just happen to be there to do the subsidising. I am sure the Public Transport Council who approved this great scheme must have thought through all these issues and are comfortable with it. I hope with all the supertalents working on it, they are not going to say they did not know how it would impact the oldies and students.

Another dangerous scheme brewing

The ERPs and COEs were designed to control the number of cars on the road and to ensure that traffic flow in the highways is smooth and of an acceptable speed. Looks like these objectives are going to be forgotten soon with the thought of using satellites to monitor cars on the road, for effective and efficient collection of revenue. Now the thinking seems to be on how to charge motorists for road usage. Does this mean that motorists will be charged regardless of whether they are travelling in the highways or in little roads in the estates or in Kranji or Sembawang? Hey, driving inside the HDB may also be charged if we are not careful. So, motorists not causing congestion, or trying to take smaller roads, travelling longer distances, will not escape the dragnet. I am seeing the goal posts wavering as if they are going to be moved.

Fare cut to fare increase!

A few months ago it was reported loudly that there will be a fare cut in public transport when the new system kicks in. Only a few will suffer a little increase. It has since kicked in and this is what was reported in CNA. Source: Channel News Asia, 05 July 2010 SINGAPORE: Monday was the first work-day after the public transport operators started calculating bus fares based on distance travelled on 3 July. Those travelling to Malaysia by bus were in for a surprise. The Land Transport Authority (LTA) has said that under the new system, one in three commuters would see a fare increase. For those affected, LTA estimates the average weekly fare rise to be about 30 cents per commuter. However some commuters have called the Channel NewsAsia hotline, saying the fare for the journey from Kranji MRT Station to Johor is up by 40 percent – from $1 to $1.40....

Becoming Third World

We were not only having Third World Thinking, we are becoming Third World. We used to be First World for many years in the sense that everything works. Turn on the tap and there is drinking water. Press on the switch and there is light. The trains and buses ply the roads regularly. The traffic lights work. People go to work on time and return home on time. Streets are clean and there is social order. We took all these things for granted. We were First World and these are expected. Recently we have floods everywhere on increasing frequency with a little rain. We used to have heavy thunder storms for hours. We have fallen trees, pedestrain bridge knocked by crane, and serious traffic jams. And our biggest bank suffered a serious glitch when its computer system gone down for hours. The standby system didn't work as well. This time no one was caught off guarded. It was unexpected. Where do we go from here? Can we still take it for granted that everything works? Or are we going back to the Third World? We would have arrived there if we see people clinging tightly to buses and trains, hanging outside the doors and windows. We are approaching there when the trains and buses hit their crushed load. And we would be there if our women folks become maids in neighbouring countries. Don't worry. We won't go back there. These are minor glitches and would not happen again. Everytime when any such things happened, there will be a thorough investigation to fix it. They will not be allowed to be repeated. We are First World after all. But don't be complacent and take things for granted.

Arm crushed for theft

I received this photo of an 8 year old boy being punished for stealing. Following photos showed his arm being crushed by the wheel of the car. I just hope that this is fiction. Definitely it was not a miracle show on how powerful is the arm of the boy which looks even younger than 6.

Singaporeans need to reclaim their country

Unhappy Singaporeans are talking about taking back control of their country, to decide what and where they want the country to go. Taking back the country would mean changing the policies to favour Singaporeans, like the number of foreigners in the country, housing prices, taking back their money in CPF, among many other things. The importance of taking back control of our own country is becoming more important and of greater urgency. And the next GE could be a time of reckoning and tough decision making. Failing to take back control of the country would mean another 5 years of policies that they are unhappy with. The above are views and expressions of unhappy Singaporeans in some quarters. The happy Singaporeans will definitely want the status quo to continue. The ratio of happy and unhappy Singaporeans is anyone’s guess. From past records, the number of unhappy Singaporeans translated into votes for the opposition, for a new party in power, was low. Is it because of the lack of option or could it also mean that the number of unhappy Singaporeans is in fact small. Who knows better?

Thinking Third World

Unconsciously or consciously we have quietly been sliding down the road to Third World and expecting the people to live with it. Our streets are dirtier, our shopping centres, places of interests, places where families gathered or socialised, are filled with Third World people with Third World habits, mannerism and antics. In contrast, we built the finest buildings, theatres to be a bit snooty like upper class gentries and aristocrats and ignore the parallel existence of the other world. What is disgusting is that the snooty upper class is barricading themselves in upper class comfort and niceties and telling the lower class to live with it. The crush in the MRT trains is a good example of what this upper class' Third World mentality is all about. Only in the mentality of the Third World is being squeezed like sardines in public transport found acceptable. The situations in Tokyo, Beijing and Hongkong are Third World standards of commuting. It is a shame to think that they are world class. They have made many advances, but treating their citizens by shoving them into little tubes is definitely not worth emulating. They are bad examples. Only in the Third World that commuters needed to be crushed, to hang and dangle outside buses and trains, clinging dangerously to get from point to point. And excess baggages in the form of human beans could be moved to the roof of buses and trains. Would these be acceptable standards if the Japanese and Hongkongers practise them as well? A world class public transport system must be fit for first world people. Commuters must be able to dress to their nines to attend a concert by taking public transport, with room and space to feel cool and comfy. Look at the good examples of the old European rich societies and see what good living condition is all about. Australia with 22 million people living in a continent is feeling the squeeze. Here we are planning to squeeze in more Third World people into the little standing room we have. Or is our public transport system there to ferry Third World people who are expected to live like that, both foreigners and locals? The First World people here, both citizens and foreigners, shall enjoy their First World standard of living in their comfortable lifestyle and environment. The rest shall be grateful to share a bit of the comfort. Where did this Third World mentality originate?

Coming to terms with Communism

Communism was as good as Satan in the days of the Cold War. It was revolution and armed struggle to overthrow existing govts which were often dictatorships or colonial powers or decadent monarchies. The success of Communism in USSR and China was an affront to Western Imperialism and domination of the world stage. When hot wars could not be fought, Western powers resorted to Cold Wars. As a legacy of Western Powers and ruled by colonialists, we naturally took the side of the Western Imperialist and made Communism a national enemy. I am musing at the moment as writing a statement like this will reward me with a communist sympathiser badge to wear and probably a place behind the Blue Gate in the early years. The political climate has changed today. Communism has proven to be a failed economic and political model of govt. Communists and ex communists and their sympathisers are tolerated and to a certain extent accepted. Some countries have communist parties running in elections for the govt. The release of the Marxist Conspirators and the freedom granted to them mark the ending of one chapter of our political history. Why were the Communist so feared and ISD so zealous in the pursuit of this group of political activists? Other than the Cold War mentality and to be on the right side of Imperial West, Communism stands for the violent overthrown of incumbent govts. Armed struggle was their proclaimed modus operandi to power. Would our govt of today accept a communist party standing for election and accepting the electoral process of free election? What if a communist party declares in its manifesto that they renounce armed struggle and willing to play by the accepted rules and procedures? Would ISD still be relevant and set to go after them? ISD played a vital role in the early stages of our independence and political process. They were the front soldiers in the fight against a militant communist force challenging and attempting to be the govt of this country. The current govt and political system owe a lot to the role of ISD in removing the militant communist equation from our political process. With Communism in the wane, with armed struggle no longer an option to political parties, the role of ISD in quelling political unrest could be put to the back burner. Or should it continue to chase the shadow of a militant past? The threats to national security has taken a different form and possibility more violent and deadly. International terrorism, religious extremism, espionage etc will demand a lot of attention from ISD. They will have their hands full. Would there be a new role and priorities for ISD and would these divert their resources from internal political rivalry to the new threats to national security and survival?

Yesterday still got flood!

Flooding seems to be a regular occurrence nowadays. Every torrential rain of a couple of hours could see some area flooded. Yesterday was MacPherson and Tai Seng/Paya Lebar area. Where would it be today if it rains? This is bringing me back to the 1960s when flood was a common thing. Quite fun actually, with cars stalling in the middle of the roads.

Fifth straight hikes in Electricity prices

'Electricity prices will rise by an average of 2.4 per cent this quarter – from 1 July to 30 September. The new rate for households will be 24.13 cents per kWh, up from last quarter’s 23.56 cents per kWh. This is the fifth straight quarterly rise in electricity rates. Compared to Apr 2009, electricity tariff for households has increased by 33.8 per cent.' The above was copied from Temasek Review.

To celebrate or to kick asses?

HDB resale prices up another 3.8% for the second quarter. Private housing up 5.2% for the same period. Analysts are revising the annual increase to 12-15%. This means that HDB owners will have a paper gain of more than 10%. A $500k property will appreciate by $50k, $400k property by $40k. Correspondingly the property tax next year will be up. To keep pace with the rapid rise in price of HDB flats, buyers must have pay increases of the same percentage just to stay even. Those who have lower pay increases will find the price running away faster. For existing HDB owners, getting paper windfalls, shall they celebrate or cry? For those who have to buy resale flats, there is only one option, pay more. So, shall the Minister in charge of housing be given a big bonus or a big kick in his ass? It all depends on whether one is benefitting from this glorious rise in prices or having to pay more.

Affordable Sultan Fish

'...a 35-year-old diner, Mr Liu, and four friends who feasted on a steamed fish dish called the white sultan fish at the high-end Feng Shui Inn restaurant on June 12 at Resorts World Sentosa (RWS). ' This is quoted from Yahoo News. Wow, Singaporeans are truly one of the richest people in the world. A 1.8kg fish, called Sultan Fish and reputed to have silky white meat that tasted like fruits cost S$1,224! The fish is noted to be vegetarian as it eats fruits fallen from trees. That is why it is so exquisite in taste and price. Each mouthful will cost $100! Must be more expensive than the best caviar.

Getting carried away with delirium

A housing agent, Vincent Kang, was so piss off with the way the policy on public housing is heading that he wrong a personal letter to the Today forum to vent his anger. To him, and I agree with him, public housing is to provide a roof over the heads of the average citizens that could not speculate on properties to get rich. That was the original objective which people were generally happy with though there were a few of grouses for not being able to speculate with public housing. Now, when the policy has changed, anger is coming out instead of grouses. For every dollar someone speculates on and profits, someone is gonna pay for it. And that someone is also a Singaporean. The down spiralling of a good policy started when things got to go wrong, when CPF savings was not enough, high cost of housing and high cost of living. This led to finding new ways to squeeze money from nowhere. So the most precious item, the HDB flats, become a commodity, to be traded, to be used to generate income, to keep up with the high cost of living. Some thought it was clever. And clever it was indeed. Those who profitted were laughing, for a short while. Then when the little windfall was not enough, they could end up living in the beaches or the parks High public housing prices and high cost of living are never good. They put stresses and demands for higher income to sustain the useless and unproductive assets appreciation. The people must not be misled into thinking that they are wealthy when in fact they got poorer instead.

When god did the darnest thing

More than 20 years had passed since the Marxist Conspiracy gang were arrested. They were mostly young professionals in their late twenties and thirties. I think all have been released with a few abandoning this shore for good. And it is quite unbelieveable that Teo Soh Lung was allowed to write a book, 'Beyond the Blue Gate', about the whole sordid affair, got it printed and published here. There was also a book launching ceremony where some of her previous conspirators and well wishers were present. This must be a sign of civility, maturity. With age and growing confidence, people tend to become more comfortable and less reactionary, and less hysterical over schemes and conspiracies. Wisdom or trying to bury the hatchet? The Marxist Conspirators are now given a chance to tell their side of the story. Maybe the authority should also tell its side of the full story, on why this group of young conspirators were so dangerous and needed to be put away at the prime of their lives. Were they so dangerous that leaving them to conspire in the open could destroy the country or a threat to national security? The book was launched and the reaction from the public was a mute nonchalance disquiet, or disinterest. There was no revolution, no public outcry, no street demonstration. Hardly anyone care a dime of what actually happened. The open wound is up for dressing and will heal. But will there be forgiveness and reconcilation? Can the human beans forgive if god had done the darnest thing?

What kind of stupid values do we want to impart?

The advert on the abusive and unreasonable grandmother is getting praises daily in the media. The part on filial piety and looking after the parents is reasonable. But shall we encourage the oldies to be abusive, unreasonable, difficult and be a bully? In the early days of ignorance and feudal values, many suffered very badly under very harsh and authoritative oldies. Being abused, ill treated, beaten, starved, ostracised etc were very common. The oldies saw it as their right. Can modern society continue to accept such abuses and cruelties inflicted by the oldies and to accept them meekly as filial piety? Only a feudal mind, unemancipated mind, a sick mind, could sing praises on such bad practices. To respect and care for the oldies are good things. But they cannot be taken for granted as a given. Oldies that are suffering from dementia or mental illnesses are exceptions. But oldies that are still vivid in their mind processes have to behave reasonably. It is not a right to abuse the children or grandchildren. And it is not their damn right to abuse daughter in laws. Such oldies need to be bungled and sent to some desolate homes to throw their tantrums and be difficult with whoever they want. It is oppression and mental torture to the victims of such abuses.

No more joblessness

The most happy piece of news today is that job applicants are turning down job offers and waiting for jobs that are paying more and with better benefits. It is now an employee's market and organisations looking for employees would have to pay more if they want to get a worker. This shall be good news for the oldies as well. Those oldies who are still unemployed can go job hunting again. Just tell the employers that they don't mind being paid a little lesser than the yuppies. I am going to find my resumes and try sending them out. Maybe I can land a job paying half a million if the incumbent is getting $1m. I can survive with half of that. Gilbert Goh's blog on unemployment in Singapore is going to be history. Happy times are here again.

So long never heard of CPIB

It has been quite a long while since we last heard of CPIB. Today there is a report involving a police officer taking bribes of $300 a month for facilitating the operation of a massage parlour. Actually it is not like that. The police officer was paying rather than receiving. He paid someone to stand in for him in getting a massage parlour licence. The lack of CPIB in the news is good news. It is the best statement that corruption has been totally wiped out, or nearly wiped out from this place. We are very clean. No more corruption, especially in high places. Another feather in our cap.

The Australians are dumb for sure

This is what the new PM Gillard said. "I think we want an Australia that is sustainable. This place is our sanctuary, our home." And this is what Labor politician Kelvin Thomson said. "Australians have expressed their concern about the impact of rising population on food and water supplies, on rising housing affordability, on traffic congestion, on the quality of life in our cities, on carbon emissions and on our endangered wildlife." I don't believe that the Australians could not cope with doubling their population with a continent that they have. It is not an island like the place called Singapore. They are worried about rising cost of living, food, water supplies, housing affordability, traffic congestion, quality of life, endangering wildlife? Come on, please come to Singapore and we will show you how to do it. We have solved all these problems and are going to keep on increasing our population. You see, rising population means economic growth. Stop the population growth is stopping economic growth, which is a nightmare. After 6 million, we will be talking about 10 million. And housing is a piece of cake. Our public flats are so affordable. Now they are talking about capping it at $1,000 psf or it will go higher. But no worry. The people are rich and will be able to pay for them. The Australians must send their govt officials here to study how we did it. Maybe we can loan them some of our super talents. But they must be able to afford to pay for them. Nothing is for free.

Selling in bits or all in one go

What is the difference in selling our land to foreigners in bits and pieces or all at one go? At the rate we are selling them, it is just a matter of time before we hit 20%, 30% or 50% of what we have, if the process is not stopped. I don't think any Singaporean will think that it is acceptable if someone is to announce that we sell 30% or 50% of our land away. Unthinkable. But if the selling is in bits and pieces, 500 sq m here and 1000 sq m there every other day, no one will notice or feel a thing. How much of our freehold residential land is now foreign own? This shall include the high rise freehold properties that can be sold to foreigners as well.

The Americans got it all wrong again

They said big banks that are too big to fail are bad. They are not going to have anything that is too big to fail. Now they have passed another bill of historical proportion since the Great Depression to rein in the free wheeling of Wall Street. They are not going to let their supertalents do as they pleased, to make millions and billions for their organizations and for themselves. This is going to be disastrous as their supertalents will be head hunted to use their talents elsewhere. How stupid can the Americans be? Two wrongs don’t make a right. All their funds will flock to enlightened city like Singapore to do their businesses. Their supertalents will set up bases here. In fact many have already came to this free wheeling financial centre of the East that will soon rival New York and London. And some of the bright financial engineers will do a big merger and acquisition just like Prudential trying to take over AIA. Now, if they do something like this, to create the biggest global bank in the world, they are likely to succeed. Our govt is likely to give them the full blessing. And we will join in the fornication for having the biggest global bank in the world, with no more DBS, UOB or OCBC, maybe no Standard Chartered and HSBC as well. All is one. And it will be a roaring success, a role model bank for the world to salivate. Of course the bankers will be the best paid employees in the world, and be allowed to continue with their free wheeling and dealing operations. It will be so impressive that all the big banks in the world will be dwarfed. Imagine, I am already wet at the thought of it, the biggest global bank operating from here, and the major shareholders are Singaporean entities. We will indeed become the freest and biggest financial centre in the world, the centre of the world. A fleeting dream in Alice's Wonderland.

No property bubble yet!

'Even if we cap our excess, people in Hong Kong, Indonesia, will say, compared to what I have to pay, Singapore is cheap, let's buy it,' he added. 'And apart from landed properties, they can buy into any condos.' Mr Lee, who was speaking at a dinner hosted by the Association of Banks in Singapore, said that the Government is convinced that there is real underlying demand for residential property. 'So it's probably not a bubble yet,' he added. The above comments by MM was reported in the ST. So foreigners want to buy even at much higher prices and we sell. They can buy into landed properties and condos. Would their buying raise the prices of other properties and in turn raise the cost of living here? Just because they want to buy, must we sell? Who sets the rules to allow them to buy condos and landed properties? Are these rules good for Singaporeans? For sure, it is good for developers and taxes. My gut feel is that one day we will regret this thoughtless selling of our precious land to foreigners. By then it will be too late to unwind the clock. And we can't do it like Mahathir, introduce laws to be effective retrospectively. Once the land is sold, freehold land, it is gone forever.

Britain and Australia curbing entry of new citizens

They cannot afford to keep growing their populations. Both are little islands and have limited space and they fear that land will run out on them. The Australians are particularly worried that the people in the Gold Coast got no where to go if more new citizens are minted. And the Big Australia policy of Kevin Rudd was his down fall, for wanting to bring in more migrants. Maybe we shall offer our supertalents as their consultants on how to squeeze more people into every inch of their precious little islands. Australia, if under our management, could easily take in another 1 billion new citizens quite easily. Another revelation is that the majority of the migrants are Europeans. Asians are still restricted. And Britain is taking one step further to only allow Europeans into their little island. Africans and Asians got to wait long long now. We can capitalise on the restrictions in Britain and Australia and open our door wider. Immigrants that can't go to them can apply to come here. Our island has more space for them and we welcome them with open arms.

Brace up for more floods

Floods are unavoidable. We had three real big ones recently starting from the Bukit Timah flood to Orchard Road and last Friday's across the island. Why should we be looking for more floods? First it is unavoidable. Two, as we keep building up infrastructure, to provide for 6 million population, more land will be needed. But land for big canals is expensive and not productive. So if we will plan for a city of 6m million or more but skimp on drainage, flood will happen and more will happen. Can we really cope with 6 million people if we can't provide land for drainage? Or that is something that we have to live with, big floods to become our daily routine?

HDB cleared PAP activist

Sinha Shekhar, an outspoken PAP activist and one of the good catch from the new citizen pool, has been cleared by HDB for subletting his HDB flat. He has asked for HDB's permission and has qualified under the number of years of occupation to sublet his flat. He is now living in his private property and let out his HDB flat. I also read somewhere that HDB's ruling requires the owner of both a private property and a HDB flat to physically live in the HDB flat. If this is the condition, Sinha must live in his HDB flat and rent out his private property and not the other way round. Can someone confirm on this as it means he is either contravening HDB rulings or he is not.

Something is not working

I was not working, took a little break and just came back. Heard that there was a heavy downpour this morning, and a pleasant surprise, no flooding. Is the system working or the amount of rainfall fell short of the 100mm in less than 3 hours? It seems that we have had two of such 100mm rain within 2 hours and flooding occurred. I still remember someone saying that the Marina Barrage is not only a reservoir but a flood control system and that there would be no more floods. It is a very expensive piece of equipment and it better works. And I think it is supposed to work in auto mode, or is it? Maybe the parameters were wrongly set and thus it did not trigger to release water from the Marina Bay Reservoir fast enough, or enough in volume to avoid the flood. or maybe there have reset it right now and this morning's rain would be easily taken care of by the system. Or maybe we have an expensive piece of equipment but failed by the minor blockages of culverts and drains here and there. Let's hope that another 100mm rainfall within a few hours will not do the same damage again. I was shocked by the picture of Bishan Park.

A better advert

This one is about filial piety. The mother was curt, aloof, insensitive, rude, abusive, arrogant etc etc. The son was so filial and pampered her with tender loving care despite her ill treating and bullying his wife, the daughter in law, in front of his son. The daughter in law suffered in silence like all good and suffering daughters in law were supposed to be. The grandson could not take the bullying and abusing thrown at her mother but were convinced by his father that the grandmother took very good care of him when she was his mother. There were gratitude and filial piety all thrown together. The moral of the story is that grandmother can be abusive and disgusting as long as she had taken good care of her son. Daughter in law must take the abuses and ill treatments and suffer in silence to be exemplary. And grandson should not be thoughtless and must appreciate that the grandmother was once good. Oldies can be arrogant, rude, abusive and must be tolerated. My moral of the story, don't ever marry a filial son unless you want to suffer in silence.

Where is the next flood?

There is a heavy down pour going on now. Are we going to see another flash flood in some corners of town? Haha, not in a million years.

City of the World

Take one step further, as suggested by Matilah, do away with citizenship and race. We should seriously consider taking a dramatic leap to the future, of Citizens of the World, where nationality no longer exists, and racial differences be erased. We shall be the innovator of the new world and show the world what it should be. How people of different races can live and co exist peacefully and happily. Since we have come this far to open up our country to everyone, why not make our city the City of the World and our citizens the Citizens of the World, in short, COW? In such a city, everyone is a citizen, equal, no nationality, but a world citizen. All the ablest can come and reside here. They can even stand for election to be part of the govt as long as they are good enough to be elected. No protection for any group, no quotas or restrictions. And no need for citizen soldiers or NS. We just employ mercenaries to guard this place, and pay them well as deserving mercenaries. The economy will be completely open and free, the ideal laissez faire for the entrepreneurs and biz people to be at their best. No govt intervention. The govt shall leave the people alone to do what they are good at and those not able to shall find their own means to support themselves. They are free to go anywhere else, and the able and clever ones can come and replace them. This will be the best experiment for this island, to show the countries of the world what the new world can be. No petty differences to quarrel about, no race and no nationality. And no social welfare. The only guarantee is one's ability to look after oneself. The COWs will be the richest and happiest people in the world. A role model of free enterprise, a role model for living happily together regardless of race and nationality. I don't think religion can be erased, so the COWs can practise their religions freely. I admit this last one is hard to please and may be disturbing with more religious conflicts. But let our mercenary soldiers and police deal with them. Welcome to the city of Cows.

Best advert on TV

Lately there is a very exciting advertisement on TV. I think it is in Channel 8. It goes something like this. A celebrity asking a young girl if it was her boy friend's birthday and whether she needed a birthday gift. Then she recommended her to go to a pawn shop to get some loan for the gift. Given that we are in the midst of the Big Singapore Sale, it sure fits into the spending mood of the shoppers nicely. Now not only they can shop with credit cards, there is also the pawn shops available. Good for the economy. And an attestment to our shopping culture.

The most disgusting act of Today paper

Arrrggghh....! Ptui!. I can't stand it. There were a couple of pages in today's Today paper covered with filthy and disgusting looking cigarette butts. I just cannot stand the sight of them. They really pissed me off. What was Today's message? To piss off non smokers or smokers? I think it will have no effect on smokers as they love them. Some silly women even collect them and fill them in big transparent bottles to admire at them. And occasionally they will uncork the bottle of cigarette butts to enjoy a whiff of the stale stench. Yak. Today, please, don't piss of the wrong audience. I threw the paper away immediately. It is so offensive. Stupid idea.

Hsien Loong's follow up visit to KL

Hsien Loong met up with Najib again to follow up on the Tanjong Pagar land swap deal. They had a joint press conference and both were beaming broadly giving the impression that they are steaming ahead. Did I detect a little misgiving? Hsien Loong led a high level team including George Yeo, Mah Bow Tan and Shanmugam. On the other side the faces were not recognisable to me except Abdul Ghani of Johore. Where were the other ministers, notably Muhyiddin and Hishammudin? Is their absence an indicator that strong disagreements within UMNO is surfacing? I hope my concern is unfounded.

The end of the Mahathir's story

He chose his date for his last battle, May 13. They rejected him. Still, a month later, he spoke with the same venom. He tried to incite the Malays against the other races. Thank God, they ignored him. That was his last show and he failed. During his reign, a speech like that would have UMNO leaders kissing the keris, UMNO Youth supporters on the streets of KL and Kampong Bahru, threatening to run amok. And further south, Johore UMNO branch will be shouting across the causeway at you know who. These could only happened in a coordinated move by an edict. This time no edict and the event slipped away. So hopefully will Mahathir. But his legacy and the mindset he helped to nurture over the 20 over years of his leadership will continue to drive the thinking of conservative and ultra Malays. Vincent Tan may not get his toto booth licence with the conservative Malays threatening to organise a 100,000 men protest. A Chinese group attempted to take over a bank but the Malays protested that banks should be Malay owned. I am not sure if there is still a Chinese owned bank in Malaysia.

Selfish, unsportsmanlike, small minded

Vivian Balakrishnan lashed out at people who attacked the foreign sports talents as selfish, unsportsmanlike, small minded and many more. He also stressed that our survival and prosperity are dependent on the foreign talents. So without foreign talents we are doomed. I am 100% sure that without foreign sporting talents, our survival and prosperity will not be affected a wee bit except for the lack of sporting glory. I am also very sure that many critics did not attacked the foreign talents for their contributions but more for the foreign talent policy. The foreign talent policy is like taking a short cut, coveting other people's talents instead of using the same money and resources to nurture our very own talents. Would it make any difference if the resources were given to our children instead of buying talents? Vivian also talked about the X factor present in the North and South Korean teams. Obviously you can't buy X factor with money. And I also believe that it is treacherous to place our future, survival and prosperity, on foreign talents that can be bought by money. A nation's survival depends hell of a lot on X factor which no amount of money can buy. Many will die not for money or glory but for a conviction to country and nation. But some may called them silly idealists. Then again it is the silly idealists that countries depend on in desperate time of needs. The talents that can be bought by money would have bought themselves an air ticket out at the first opportunity.

Terrorist attacks are a threat to national security

Are private organizations up to it in protecting themselves from terrorist attacks? The terrorists are not your daily thieves and robbers. They are well trained and well armed. Like Mas Selamat, some of them are experts in destructive warfare, and highly intelligent. What kind of staff do the private organizations have to defend themselves in the event of an attack? Are they trained and armed, as well armed as the terrorists, and as intelligent as them? The private organizations may be able to secure their place of work with technology and the handful of security guards which, unfortunate to say, many are from the Dad’s Army, some ex detainees for petty crimes, and some fat ladies. Pit them against the well trained experts of terrorist armies, well, the odds are like Argentina against Singapore in football. Shall the responsibility of defending against terrorist acts be the responsibility of private organizations? Terrorism has changed the face of security of private organizations and businesses. It does not draw lines and boundaries, no war or civilian targets or battle fronts. It is trained terrorists against untrained or superficially trained security guards. This is a new ball game.

Punished for being self employed

Many of the oldies are fully retired and living on whatever they have left in their savings, plus whatever they could withdraw from their CPF. Some oldies refused to quit and wanted to continue working. Getting a job is out of question unless you are a super human bean and indispensable. They may even pay you millions to keep you employed, happily. So the less talented and not so super human beans will try to be self employed. Some may sell things in pasar malam, some as agents of this and that, except secret agents, some may try driving taxis. Some may want to start a small biz. What they all wanted to do is to earn a living, post retirement. What they did not bargain for is that by being self employed, they must pay protection money to the CPF in the form of medisave contribution. They don’t care whether you have any other insurance to cover your backside, they don’t care whether you can afford to pay this protection money. They just say you pay if you want to be in business. And they will tell you that it is for your own good. What a ransom against the oldies who are trying to be independent and not drawing down on their little savings. What kind of business cost is this? Bloody shit! It is like being punished for trying to help yourself. And they are trying to help you by taking more money from you. Or are they making things more difficult for the oldies to want to be self reliant? If they sincerely want to help the oldies, self employed oldies should be exempted from contributing to Medisave to reduce their business cost.

Don’t be ungrateful

There is this line of thought with regards to employing foreign talents here. It goes like this. Our forebears were foreign talents too. We must not forget our beginnings and must appreciate foreigners as they were like our forebears before. We should therefore welcome foreigners and treat them like one of us. Is this the right thinking, the acceptable thinking to determine govt policies on recruiting foreign talents, especially to top positions, instead of true blue Singaporeans. Yes, I must agree that our forefathers were migrants. I must also say that they came to a no man’s land. There was no country but a British colony. The British only cared about the wealth they could bring back to England. What the migrants did, whether they survived, what happened to this colony and its future well being, were not too much of their concern. And in 1969 they decided that it was time to pack up and go home. The migrants were left to fend for themselves, find their own ways, and build this rock into a country. That was the beginning of a generation of migrants sticking together to make this island their home, a home for themselves and their children. They slogged in pretty harsh conditions, and very low pay, without knowing if they could succeed. No proper housing or infrastructure. Not much of a govt until they formed one. And through their hard work and sacrifices, we have this beautiful and wealthy island we called home. We are the descendants of these migrants. They were not welcomed here as foreign talents but labourers, coolies, transient workers. We are the inheritance of the island country that they willed to us. Let not anyone be ungrateful to the children of the poor labourers who laid the foundation of this country, with their blood, sweat and tears. They did not have a good time. They did not complained, for they were striving for a better tomorrow for their children. Today we have a country. We called ourselves citizens. We pledged to defend it by doing 2 to 2 ½ years of National Service. The descendants of these children deserve to inherit this country and all it can provide. We can welcome new migrants to share our wealth. But we must always think of ourselves first. The best must be given to our own children. It is ungrateful to shower Ginny comes lately with all the goodies and tell the descendants of the nation builders to step aside if they are not good enough. Don’t be ungrateful, don’t forget your roots and the works of your forebears. I am very sure they did not slog so that new migrants will come first and their descendants come second. If we proceed along this thinking that new and old citizens, and worst, PRs, deserve equal rights and equal chances, and better chances, soon the new citizens will tell the old citizens to get lost if they can’t make it here. If we forget the distinction between ourselves and others, we will soon lose our place in the sun, in the island our forefathers built for us. And no citizens will take their citizenships and responsibilities seriously anymore. What for?

A better use for Speakers Corner

We have just celebrated racial and religious harmony day after two incidents of religious leaders making insulting remarks at other religions and their practices. They have since repented and apologised for their wrongful acts, and hopefully they are sincere and would not do it again. I would like to suggest that anyone caught making disparaging remarks at other religions should be made to make an appearance at the Speakers Corner to explain his/her position and to make amends. This will inject more life to the sleepy corner of Hong Lim.

Our soldiers in Afghanistan!

We have a medical team in Afghanistan helping to treat the wounded under a Nato led International Security Assistance Force, a peace keeping mission. Wonder when have we become part of Nato? Our soldiers were brave. Risking their lives to save lives when artillery shelves were exploding around them. But the risk is very low, according to one of the brave soldiers. They used to say that brave soldiers are dead soldiers. But ours are alive and smart. The camp is so big, at least 11km wide. So the chances of a bomb hitting on them is very low. Maybe one in a million. I pray that none of them will get an equivalent of a purple heart. Why is this not a UN led mission but a Nato led mission? What's the difference? A UN mission is sanctioned by the UN, though the UN is not that respectable in neutrality, at least it is not part of an empire. Nato is part of an empire. And are we part of the empire? Or maybe this is a UN mission but commanded by Nato.

A once in 50 years scenario

With so many foreign workers here, all hungry and in a hurry to make the extra dollar, it is so easy for someone or some issue to agitate them into a riot. Their numbers can be frightening when organised or behave like a mob. The decent and law abiding locals will be easy meat to be hacked just like the recent case of 7 Sarawakians running amok. I just hope that no one will stand out to say that this is not expected and they were caught off guard.

We are in North Korea’s nuclear hit list

There was a very well written article in the ST yesterday written by Jeremy Auyong of SPH. It has this title, ‘A most glorious, victorious defeat’ and dressed up with a big statue of Kim Il Sung and a FIFA banner of the South African game. Half a page of the ST Life was devoted to this article. It claimed to be an intercepted report from the North Korean World Cup team to its Dear Leader. Readers are advised not to take this seriously as it was printed under the subgroup called ‘jay talking’. Let me give a little cut and paste brief of the article. It is too long for posting here. ‘All hail the Dear Leader of limitlessly rich and strong Democratic People’s Republic of Korea….On Wed, our noble team of drones stopped only a little short of a complete and total humiliation of Brazil. The final score, according to the counting system of Western liberal apologists, was Brazil cowards, 2; the great team of the People,1. …we outperform our evil scum neighbours to the south. The South Korean scoundrels managed only a miserable 2-0 scoreline against Greece, even though it is clear they were playing against a team of anti socialist conspirators that had been instructed beforehand not to try too hard…. The great victory was attained…We bowed before the life sized full colour framed portrait of Dear Leader that we have taken along at the expense of rations and a backup right back…. The noble team thank you limitlessly for authorising the temporary removal of the heavy tracking beacons that were strapped to their ankles…The players are so full of love for the Dear Leader that they now attempt to defect only once or twice a day…. As a reward for such an uplifting success, may I hereby suggest that daily team floggings be reduced from 15 strokes to 14 strokes. It would also be most magnanimous of Dear Leader if you would authorise the temporary decommissioning of the electroshock machine…. Yours humbly, Kim Jong Hun, coach of the great team of the People.’ I think it is funny and absolutely brilliant as a joke. And the editor must also agree that humour is good for the soul, never mind, the North Koreans are fun loving people and will not take offense at it. On a more serious note, if North Korea finds us singing like westerners and want to point a nuclear warhead at us, and put us in their hate list, I think we can’t blame them. They may think that we are intentionally provoking them. Maybe this is a reason why we need to fear North Korea and speak out against them at every opportune moment. After all they don’t belong to the ‘right’ camp. They are evil actually, one of the three infamous Axis of Evil that we have been told daily, and to believe it is true. We are really a blessed people with a good sense of humour. And we know how to choose the ‘right’ side. I better double check my storeroom cum bomb shelter to make sure it is same in case of a nuclear attack.

Latest technology in oil drilling

Has BP invented a new and cheaper way to drill for oil? The method is simple enough. Just plunge a hole in the sea bed and the oil will flow to the surface. Then apply a ring of vacuum cleaners and scoop up the oil into waiting tankers. Oil drilling has never been made easier.

Ngiam Tong Dow added his weight

Ngiam added his 2 cents worth to the foreign talent debate and shared his views that we need our own people to run our big corporations and country. This is nothing to do with being xenophobic. It is being natural, charity begins at home, and not being stupid. Philanderers can come in different forms. One of which is throwing good money to foreigners and leaving your own kind in the cold. It is also very insulting to say that your own kind is useless and incapable. It is so embarassing and shameful to take the position that all the supertalents that we crowed about daily and could not find one to run our big local banks. Maybe we have heard too much from Mahathir and agreed with him that our children cannot measure up to more superior foreigners. Bloody shit! Our talents graduated from Ivy League universities in the US/UK and many top their class or with first class degrees. What did the foreigners have to show? I remember one attended a Harvard or MIT one month programme, or something like that, and claimed to be from the universities. Wee Cho Yaw must stand firm and prove to the jokers that Singaporeans can do the job equally well. Make UOB the number bank in Singapore, bigger and more successful than DBS and OCBC, with footprints around the world. But make sure not to buy rotten apples and paid for them like real gold. There is an urgency to dismiss the myth that Singapore has no talents of its own and we need to depend on foreign talents to bring us forward. If we don't provide the chances to our own kind, who is going to give them the chances? Look at our artistes at MediaCorp. If MediaCorp did not use them, they would not get any offer from Hongkong, Taiwan or China. As extras for Hollywoods maybe. But with MediaCorp, they are now stars and celebrities in their own rights.

We were caught off guarded

Caught off guarded, a once in 50 years incident, an honest mistake, we did not see it coming, are these words enough or acceptable? We paid big bucks for super talent performance. We don't pay pennies for third world administrators. How many more caught off guard replies are we going to get before enough is enough? The people demand a higher standard of performance and accountability for the money that is being paid. We do not want to hear anymore off guards. We want to get life going without all the big mishaps falling onto our laps. Can we have an assurance that things will be better and no more once in 50 years flops? Two big floods, SMRT graffiti, football fiasco, trees and killer litters falling on people's heads, and what else?

What did football fans wear?

I was looking at the pictures forwarded to me and these were the things they were wearing. Bold 'Germany' written on their buttocks for Germany. The Italians painted their faces with the flag of Italy. So were the Koreans, with Korean flags on their faces as well. The Danes and Swiss wore the colours and crosses on their Ts. The British wore their Union Jacks. The Brazilians And Argentinians wore their national colours. What did the Singapore football fans wear?

Where are the ministers?

With the GE approaching, somehow they seem to have all disappeared. Where have they gone? Even those involved in all the controversies have not been seen. Let me guess. Preparing for the GE? Working very hard to eliminate the controversies? School holidays?

New brooms needed

The western economies are all in deep shit. Even those that have not announced anything, pretending that all is well, including France, Germany and UK, who knows how big are their national debt. They cannot be too far from what is happening to the other European countries and the US. They employed the same breed of people from the same school of thoughts and practicing the same flawed formula of spending now and pay later. And Japan is no exception. They had done well in the past from simple economies to huge complex economies. And they were applying the same old methodology of growth and management. Of course they thought they were damn brilliant by printing papers and trading papers to churn huge profits in double quick time, on paper, without real production growth. The best analogy will be our local banks. Starting from small little banks and grow to what they are today on hard work and low pay. The harder they work, the longer they work, the lower they pay, the bigger the profit margin. And they are now at a cross road. Old methods and old tricks don’t work anymore. What is the solution? It’s elementary. They need qualitative change, new thinking and new ways of doing things. In short, the old banks, the old economies, all need new talents. They need fresh minds and fresh ideas. These new talents will teach them how to make big profits by working less hard, working shorter hours, working smart and by paying more. Our local banks need to be managed by foreign talents if they want to transform themselves into big global players. The American and European economies need the same foreign talents to give them a new breath of life. The best talents should be those of different molds, from India and China. On the other hand, India and China would need the foreign talents from America and Europe as their economies are still in the adolescent stage. The developed economies and the developing economies should swap their talents and called them foreign talents. Then all will be well. Foreign talents will be the most innovative and successful formula for the future. The new economies are rich and can afford to pay more to their foreign talents. The old economies are poor and bankrupt and cannot pay much but what they pay to foreign talents from the new economies would still be considered a lot. Everyone will be happy with the exchange.

What happens DBS?

Peter Seah is talking about the next CEO of DBS that shall preferably be a Singaporean. For 20 years, DBS had 4 CEOs after Kee Choe, and all were foreigners. Why? DBS could not find a Singaporean to fit the shoe and only foreigners could? Does DBS have a succession plan to groom its local executives to fill the position? Or is it that all the local talents are simply not good enough? Both reasons are difficult to accept. There must be a succession plan. There must be good locals that can fill the CEO position. We will be a laughing stock if after so many years we still fail to find a local that can become the CEO of its biggest govt bank. The alternative to recruiting Singaporeans as DBS CEO is to find a foreigner and then give him a red passport. I think that could do. We could do likewise for our PM post if we can't find a good enough Singaporeans to fill the shoe.

SDP asking the govt to take full responsibility

SDP is asking the govt to take full responsibility for the graffiti breach. I think this is getting a bit too far. Can blame it on god or not? Eh, don't anyhow point finger can? SMRT may have the S before the MRT, but it is a private company run by private individuals. It has nothing to do with the govt. Temasek and GIC are also run by professional managers. Even privatised hospitals are privatised. Cannot anyhow blame the govt lah. And please don't put too much pressure on organisations to beef up security. Some jokers may just up the ante and go for the full works with private armies and a 20ft wall. And the cost will simply be passed off to the consumers and every commuter will be LL. Let's cool down and look at the problem objectively and don't politicise it. It is just a security breach, or just some cheeky artists trying to be funny.

Jong Tae Se moved to tears

He was born and brought up in Japan. He is a North Korean striker at the World Cup representing North Korea. He was in tears when the North Korean National anthem was played. This is the kind of national pride to be a citizen of a country. He needed not return to his 'poverty stricken country according to western reports.' He could stay in Japan and live a good materialistic life. But his heart is in his home country. He ached for not scoring a goal against Brazil. The great fighting spirit of the North Koreans has won the hearts of many around the world. Their Southern brothers are all in admiration of what they have done. They are one people and one nation but divided at the moment. And they never forget that they are one. I hope this World Cup will bring the two divided states and people closer and to reunite eventually. Let not the evil countries try to fix them up and make them go to war to kill each other. The world will be a better place if the two Koreas are reunited as one country. North Koreans and South Koreans should rise to the occasion to show the world that they are one people. They are Koreans, nothing more, nothing less.