‘The police came down took our statements separately and this is what Officer Lynkamillah told me:
1. They cannot arrest Sonuvabitch because it's not in the rulebooks, despite having assaulted a girl.
2. They issued me a medical form to go to the hospital for check ups.
Best part? I HAVE TO PAY THE BILL! No compensation whatsoever.
3. I have to go down to the central police station to speak to whoever I
need to speak to in order to pursue the case IF I wanted to. Which
means at the moment there are no investigations whatsoever and they
cannot charge Sonuvabitch for anything.
4. Since Sonuvabitch holds a pink IC, the case would take about a year before anything is done.
Excuse me?
That is the biggest insult I've heard all night. I was assaulted and
nothing can be done. I put my trust in the police because I thought they
would protect a normal citizen like me. Never have I been more wrong.
The way Officer Lynkamillah was so apathetic and not the least bit
apologetic, about not being able to haul Sonuvabitch's ass to lock up,
really disappoints me.
And I quote them, "You will not be arrested if you or your friends punch Sonuvabitch back."
The above is posted by a Etterorua Red in The Real Singapore in her
post, ‘I was punched twice by some guy and police said they can’t arrest
him.’ The two girls were insulted by a stranger who made them up to be
prostituted and insulted them by taunting them for $20. She slapped him
and got punched twice. Called the police and regretted for wasting her
time.
If the police are not there to protect innocent citizens from being
beaten up, who is there to protect the citizens? Is it now a sport to
beat up Singaporeans and walk away? Just make sure it is not grievous
hurt and it will be fair game. The police will come if summoned, take
down the statements and you got to say thank you to them. You have to
pay for justice by engaging a lawyer to sue the attacker, provided you
have his particulars and the money to pursue the case. For the not so
rich Sinkies, tough.
What is happening to this City? Can the citizens feel safe any more? Can
anyone blame her for saying, ‘I have lost complete faith in humanity
and in the police?’ What do you think? Should the citizens be protected
from assault, from being beaten up?
Would we be facing a situation when the bullies would say, 'I beat so what? Sue me lah, sue me lah!'
7/15/2013
You can play the game, so can I
WASHINGTON: The United States told China in talks on Thursday it was
"very disappointed" that Beijing did not hand over US intelligence
leaker Edward Snowden when he fled to Hong Kong. (Quoted from CNA)And
elsewhere around the world people are standing up to defend Snowden. In
Germany, the Germans too are calling to defend and protect this man.
‘Demonstrators stand in front of Berlin's Brandenburg Gate to show their
support for US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden. (AFP/Ole Spata)
The Americans were furious. This is how it feels when another country harbours or protects your dissidents. China has been furious for too long and for too many times when the Americans snubbed them in their face by protecting and even smuggling Chinese dissidents out of China and hosting them in big publicity events in the US to embarrass China. Of course the Americans could not remember how many times they did this to China and other countries. And now they are furious over Snowden, they are feeling hurt!
This is the beginning of a game that if the Americans can play, others too can play. If the Americans can spy and snoop at other countries, conduct cyber espionage and attacking other countries computer systems, other countries too can do the same to them. American exceptionalism is now international exceptionalism. Everyone has the right to play the same game. And there will be more Snowdens and Assanges coming out of America.
America must get use to being on the receiving end from now and going forward. Just like cyber hacking, the US can hack China and China can hack at the US. It is two way traffic. The days when American can do anything to any country as it liked is over. America can no longer fly U2 spy planes over the territories of other countries to photograph whatever they fancied freely. They may be tempted to fly drones instead. But be warned that other countries can do likewise.
The world has changed and America no longer can dominate and dictate to the whole world. So, would America now hand over Chinese dissidents to China?
The Americans were furious. This is how it feels when another country harbours or protects your dissidents. China has been furious for too long and for too many times when the Americans snubbed them in their face by protecting and even smuggling Chinese dissidents out of China and hosting them in big publicity events in the US to embarrass China. Of course the Americans could not remember how many times they did this to China and other countries. And now they are furious over Snowden, they are feeling hurt!
This is the beginning of a game that if the Americans can play, others too can play. If the Americans can spy and snoop at other countries, conduct cyber espionage and attacking other countries computer systems, other countries too can do the same to them. American exceptionalism is now international exceptionalism. Everyone has the right to play the same game. And there will be more Snowdens and Assanges coming out of America.
America must get use to being on the receiving end from now and going forward. Just like cyber hacking, the US can hack China and China can hack at the US. It is two way traffic. The days when American can do anything to any country as it liked is over. America can no longer fly U2 spy planes over the territories of other countries to photograph whatever they fancied freely. They may be tempted to fly drones instead. But be warned that other countries can do likewise.
The world has changed and America no longer can dominate and dictate to the whole world. So, would America now hand over Chinese dissidents to China?
Vivian Balakrishnan: Help hold down health costs
Vivian spoke to a batch of graduating medical students about the higher
callings of medicine and the need to hold down medical costs. Though the
call is genuine it is only going to be another vain effort just like
the rising cost of properties and the general high cost of everything.
The high medical cost is something that the new graduates cannot do anything about. They are like someone caught in a high speed treadmill and unable to stop running. The high cost is partly contributed by their seniors in the profession who more or less set the standard for pricing their expertise. But they too are victims of a vicious cycle of high inflation.
Who is the culprit for high and ridiculous medical cost? The medical professionals have to foot the bills for their practices and also to earn enough to live well and with dignity. A large portion of their cost is property cost either in rentals or in acquiring the property for the practice. And property is also needed for the medical professionals to live well. In other words, the main culprit is high property prices. Who is the bugger causing high property prices?
And there is a whole lot of other prices and costs going up and passed to the consumers. The high cost of owning a few luxury cars, the expensive lifestyle and holidays etc etc will be borne by the consumers for sure. The sad part is that many consumers of medical services are the average Sinkies that barely have $10k in their savings and medical bills can come to tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands.
How can medical cost be brought down? How can young medical graduates help to bring down medical cost when they have to quickly earn enough to cover their investments in the medical education and the overheads, properties for practice and living, and all the trimmings of a good life they are looking forward to? We cannot expect the doctors to live poorly can we?
What has happened to this noble profession that was once so highly regarded to one that is no different from another money making profession? Who contributed to this devious state of affair? It is easy to make such a call to keep medical cost down, or any cost down. Does the high inflationary system allow it to happen? Who is responsible for the high inflationary system?
The high medical cost is something that the new graduates cannot do anything about. They are like someone caught in a high speed treadmill and unable to stop running. The high cost is partly contributed by their seniors in the profession who more or less set the standard for pricing their expertise. But they too are victims of a vicious cycle of high inflation.
Who is the culprit for high and ridiculous medical cost? The medical professionals have to foot the bills for their practices and also to earn enough to live well and with dignity. A large portion of their cost is property cost either in rentals or in acquiring the property for the practice. And property is also needed for the medical professionals to live well. In other words, the main culprit is high property prices. Who is the bugger causing high property prices?
And there is a whole lot of other prices and costs going up and passed to the consumers. The high cost of owning a few luxury cars, the expensive lifestyle and holidays etc etc will be borne by the consumers for sure. The sad part is that many consumers of medical services are the average Sinkies that barely have $10k in their savings and medical bills can come to tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands.
How can medical cost be brought down? How can young medical graduates help to bring down medical cost when they have to quickly earn enough to cover their investments in the medical education and the overheads, properties for practice and living, and all the trimmings of a good life they are looking forward to? We cannot expect the doctors to live poorly can we?
What has happened to this noble profession that was once so highly regarded to one that is no different from another money making profession? Who contributed to this devious state of affair? It is easy to make such a call to keep medical cost down, or any cost down. Does the high inflationary system allow it to happen? Who is responsible for the high inflationary system?
Setting the agenda, calling the shot and making monkeys running around
Just when the cleaning of the hawker centre dispute was fading away,
Vivian Balakrishnan threw down the gauntlet in Parliament, calling
Sylvia Lim and Pritam Singh and the WP names and challenging them to sue
him in court. Initially some might have thought that this was the
position of a minister trying to make his mark. Then the PMO issued one
statement after another to support the stand of Vivian and confirmed
that it was the stand of the Govt to hold the WP to account for what
they said and done in the hawker centre cleaning issue. The Govt is
questioning the integrity, honesty and trustworthiness of the WP. The
Govt is taking the fight to the WP and demanding the latter to pick up
the gauntlet and do battle.
Low Thia Khiang has replied that he would not pursue this matter and have a run in with the PAP that would be time consuming, energy sapping and financially draining on the limited finance of his party. A drawn out battle is something that the WP would not want to be dragged into. They would rather continue with what they have to do to serve their constituencies and not politicking to win a battle with the time and place and agenda set by the PAP. They would want to leave the matter as it is and let the people decide whether they have done wrong or whether they are worthy to be voted in again.
The PAP has in a way decided that the WP is guilty and wanted this to be confirmed in this chosen battle, preferably in court, to be judged by the court. They are taking on the roles of judge and executioner. The WP chose to have the issue be judged by the people like in Hougang and Punggol East. Let the people be the final arbiter of who is right or wrong, or who is good or bad.
The question is how important is this issue over the other major issues that are left in the air and the many national issues that the people are unhappy about? Obviously the PAP would think that this is of paramount importance and needs to be settled. The WP may disagree and want to move on to deal with other more pressing and important matters, and would see this as simply politicking and bickering for votes.
At the recent DBS Insights Asia Conference, Hsien Loong was quoted to advise whoever governs Singapore to ‘try very hard to keep the politics clean and straight, constructive,’ and, ‘where you’re solving problems and not just slogging it out, fighting with one another’. There are two points here, keep politics clean and straight, and avoid bickering and politicking to score political points. How would these points measure up with the PAP upping the temperature on the hawker centre cleaning issue and not to let it pass and not to move on?
Low Thia Khiang has replied that he would not pursue this matter and have a run in with the PAP that would be time consuming, energy sapping and financially draining on the limited finance of his party. A drawn out battle is something that the WP would not want to be dragged into. They would rather continue with what they have to do to serve their constituencies and not politicking to win a battle with the time and place and agenda set by the PAP. They would want to leave the matter as it is and let the people decide whether they have done wrong or whether they are worthy to be voted in again.
The PAP has in a way decided that the WP is guilty and wanted this to be confirmed in this chosen battle, preferably in court, to be judged by the court. They are taking on the roles of judge and executioner. The WP chose to have the issue be judged by the people like in Hougang and Punggol East. Let the people be the final arbiter of who is right or wrong, or who is good or bad.
The question is how important is this issue over the other major issues that are left in the air and the many national issues that the people are unhappy about? Obviously the PAP would think that this is of paramount importance and needs to be settled. The WP may disagree and want to move on to deal with other more pressing and important matters, and would see this as simply politicking and bickering for votes.
At the recent DBS Insights Asia Conference, Hsien Loong was quoted to advise whoever governs Singapore to ‘try very hard to keep the politics clean and straight, constructive,’ and, ‘where you’re solving problems and not just slogging it out, fighting with one another’. There are two points here, keep politics clean and straight, and avoid bickering and politicking to score political points. How would these points measure up with the PAP upping the temperature on the hawker centre cleaning issue and not to let it pass and not to move on?
7/14/2013
Politics is about power
In PS 101 the wet behind the ear political science students will be going everywhere talking about power in politics. Power is everything in politics. First year students will be made to think so as that was the first book on politics that they would be reading. And that would probably be their first assignment to submit.
As one progresses through the course, he would find that politics is about power but also about many other things. Any political leader that believes only in power will end up as a dictator, often a ruthless one who only thinks of himself and the power he wields. Familiar names like Marcos, Hitler, Mussolini, kings and military junta everywhere, all ruled for power and for their self preservation. The people are secondary or far down the line of importance.
Politics is about the well being of the people, the citizens of the country, not just about power and non citizens, not about the well beings of foreigners, not just about the existence of a state at the expense of its citizens.
When naïve political leaders got the formula wrong, thinking that politics is about power, about self preservation, about vested interests, about the well beings of foreigners, it is about time the people abandon ship and start to think of their own interest and own good.
Political leaders are like a ship and the people the water that keeps it afloat. The water can support the ship and sink the ship if they wanted to. Make no mistake about it. Political leaders that think they are there for the power to rule the people are in the wrong place and for the wrong reasons. Western democracy is afraid of the politics of power and has built in mechanisms to prevent the domination, control and abuse of power by political rulers.
One man one vote, 4 or 5 year term of office, limitation of tenure of the Chief Executive to two terms in office, separation of power, rule of law, the constitution etc etc, are all created to curb the power of power crazy politicians whose main interest is political power and monopoly of power.
PS101 and the politics of power is only a small part of politics. The political science students will go on to learn about different political philosophies, about govt, public administration, national interests, development economics, about benevolent leadership, about the well being of the people, about distribution of wealth, about jobs and the economy and a whole lot of other things. By the end of the course, a political science student would have all but forgotten about the politics of power unless his ambition is to be a dictator. And there will still be those who are obsessed with power and power is their only reason to be in politics.
No, politics is about people. No it is not about the people but about the citizens, the well being of its citizens. I must admit that this assertion about what is politics is youthful idealism bordering on being naive.
Vivian is right. In realpolitik, it is about power, about the contest for power and nothing else.
As one progresses through the course, he would find that politics is about power but also about many other things. Any political leader that believes only in power will end up as a dictator, often a ruthless one who only thinks of himself and the power he wields. Familiar names like Marcos, Hitler, Mussolini, kings and military junta everywhere, all ruled for power and for their self preservation. The people are secondary or far down the line of importance.
Politics is about the well being of the people, the citizens of the country, not just about power and non citizens, not about the well beings of foreigners, not just about the existence of a state at the expense of its citizens.
When naïve political leaders got the formula wrong, thinking that politics is about power, about self preservation, about vested interests, about the well beings of foreigners, it is about time the people abandon ship and start to think of their own interest and own good.
Political leaders are like a ship and the people the water that keeps it afloat. The water can support the ship and sink the ship if they wanted to. Make no mistake about it. Political leaders that think they are there for the power to rule the people are in the wrong place and for the wrong reasons. Western democracy is afraid of the politics of power and has built in mechanisms to prevent the domination, control and abuse of power by political rulers.
One man one vote, 4 or 5 year term of office, limitation of tenure of the Chief Executive to two terms in office, separation of power, rule of law, the constitution etc etc, are all created to curb the power of power crazy politicians whose main interest is political power and monopoly of power.
PS101 and the politics of power is only a small part of politics. The political science students will go on to learn about different political philosophies, about govt, public administration, national interests, development economics, about benevolent leadership, about the well being of the people, about distribution of wealth, about jobs and the economy and a whole lot of other things. By the end of the course, a political science student would have all but forgotten about the politics of power unless his ambition is to be a dictator. And there will still be those who are obsessed with power and power is their only reason to be in politics.
No, politics is about people. No it is not about the people but about the citizens, the well being of its citizens. I must admit that this assertion about what is politics is youthful idealism bordering on being naive.
Vivian is right. In realpolitik, it is about power, about the contest for power and nothing else.
Sinkies now allowed to let go some steam
Did
anyone remember that there were two protests regarding the 6.9m population held
at Hong Lim Park? Briefly I could still
recall being there and taking some photographs and mingling with other Sinkies
that made it a point to be there, to protest. Ok, the Sinkies had their
chances, two in fact, to say their piece about the population issue. Now
everyone back to work, case closed.
Sinkies
should be grateful that today they are given a chance at least to let go some
steam. And they too went to Hong Lim one more time to release another fart on
the MDA regulation to license websites reporting on Singapore affairs.
With
the protests out of the way, with the issues of foreigners discriminating
against Sinkies and Sinkie PMETs having difficulties finding appropriate
employment forgotten, life goes on as normal. Nothing really changed, nothing.
The
6.9m population will be a reality. The MDA licensing means those affected will
have to apply for a licence. The discrimination against Sinkies and PMET
unemployment issue, … never mind, never mind, no more issues already. No one is
talking about them anymore. Let’s move on.
Does
anyone remember about HDB’s affordable pricing and not disclosing the cost of
building a flat? Does anyone remember about all the HDB policies discriminating
Singaporeans and disqualified Singaporeans from buying HDB flats but allowing new
citizens to do so? Does anyone remember that their CPF savings, their hard
earned savings, are locked up because some jokers decided to do so? The list
can go on and on.
Singaporeans
should called themselves lucky and be very grateful that they are now allowed
to complain, to kpkb for a while. And the Govt is listening, but nothing will
change. The Govt will do what it thinks is good for the Singaporeans, including
not selling them HDB flats and keeping their hard earned savings by all kinds
of schemings.
7/13/2013
Poll results as an indicator of public opinion
The result of the earlier poll on whether the govt is a proactive one or just merely reacting to the haze problem is obvious. And the perception of the public across cyberspace is equally unanimous and there is no need to belabour the point.
This new poll has just started and 95 people have read and the perception is unanimous as well. One may claim that this is only the views of a small segment of the population that is highly critical of the govt and will see it this way. But if this is translated to 60% of the overall population's view, the govt is going to be in for a rough ride. And the harder the govt is pushing for this thing called 'integrity and trust' the more ridiculous it will look.
When a govt has lost the trust of the voters, no matter what it says or does, it is not going to be believed or accepted by the people. It will backfire if the heart of the people is no longer with the govt.
Unlike in the past when the people were fully behind the govt, anything the govt said will be accepted, even reluctantly. The people would just go along even if the policies were tough.
This is the stark and unpleasant difference between the current govt and the govt of yesterday. Perhaps the govt may want to hold a similar poll in reach and find 95% giving the exact opposite result and can feel good about it.
This new poll has just started and 95 people have read and the perception is unanimous as well. One may claim that this is only the views of a small segment of the population that is highly critical of the govt and will see it this way. But if this is translated to 60% of the overall population's view, the govt is going to be in for a rough ride. And the harder the govt is pushing for this thing called 'integrity and trust' the more ridiculous it will look.
When a govt has lost the trust of the voters, no matter what it says or does, it is not going to be believed or accepted by the people. It will backfire if the heart of the people is no longer with the govt.
Unlike in the past when the people were fully behind the govt, anything the govt said will be accepted, even reluctantly. The people would just go along even if the policies were tough.
This is the stark and unpleasant difference between the current govt and the govt of yesterday. Perhaps the govt may want to hold a similar poll in reach and find 95% giving the exact opposite result and can feel good about it.
The PMO has spoken on the hawker centre issue
Today, 12 Jul, the PMO has issued a 9 point justification on why Vivian Balakrishnan had to take the WP to task on the issue of integrity in Parliament. I just quote the second point here and to use it for a poll I set up on the top right of this page.
‘Good politics is first and foremost about integrity. Singapore
has succeeded because we have honest, upright people in politics: people who
can be trusted to uphold the public interest, to speak the truth even when it
is inconvenient, and to admit mistakes when things go wrong. This is how we
have built trust between Singaporeans and their leaders, worked together to
build the nation and improved everyone’s lives.’
How many people believe that we have honest and upright
people that can be trusted to do the right thing? Please indicate your take in
the poll on the right.
I want to clarify here that whatever a person votes, it may
be right or wrong, but it is definitely what the person perceives or thinks so.
For example if everyone thinks that the govt does have honest and upright
people, it can be a statement of truth. And that is good. On the other hand,
the majority may not think so, and this can also be a statement of truth, which
then is bad. But if this is false, and if the govt has honest and upright
people but the people do not believe so, this in itself is another problem. It
simply means that the people do not trust the govt and have a very bad
impression of the govt. And the govt really needs to conduct an investigation
as to why it is like dat.
The best result is for the majority of the people to think
that the govt has honest and upright people that can be trusted to do the right
thing for the people, and that this is also the truth.
So please vote accordingly on what you perceive or think.
Cheers.
Let me add further that this cleaning of hawker centre thing
is really a very small issue. It is nothing compares to the AIM issue and was
best put away and moves on.
And I think it is a horrible mistake for Vivian to thrash it
out in Parliament thinking that he can score a winning goal against the WP.
More horrible is for the whole cabinet to think that this was a good idea to
throw at the WP.
What is going to happen now is that this supposedly minor issue
is going to open the Pandora Box and allow the critics of the govt to dig into
a can full of worms and that may become quite embarrassing and difficult to put
away. It is like the proverbial saying that people living in glass houses
should not throw stones. Unfortunately things are heading in the wrong
direction now. Unfortunately the emperor did not know that he is not wearing
any clothes and is strutting around very confidently in his new clothes.
How would this minor issue (of course some people think it
is damn big issue) end eventually and who would land with more mud on the face?
7/12/2013
Obama, please step aside
All our ministers are earning more than Barack Obama, the President of
the USA. They are all carefully talent scouted, men and women of great
abilities. It is a waste that they should be made to deal with petty
problems like cleaning hawker centres, haze, dengue, public
transportation, primary school education, problems with childcare
abuses, and what else.
We are not making full use of our talented ministers and insulting them with such menial tasks. They are made for bigger things. If we keep asking them to solve mundane daily chores don’t be surprised that they will lose interest soon. 大才小 用。It is like putting a gifted child in primary one when he should be in the university. That was the same problem Einstein faced when he was in school and was thrown out. Boredom trying to do simple things when his intellect was meant for bigger stuff like understanding the universe.
I think our ministers should easily fit into the seat in the White House. Obama, please step aside. I am sure they will shine in the right environment and the right challenge. The tougher or more challenging the situation or problem, the more they will excel. In a way we are abusing our multi talented ministers.
There is a problem though. The Americans would not be able to pay them. What a pity.
We are not making full use of our talented ministers and insulting them with such menial tasks. They are made for bigger things. If we keep asking them to solve mundane daily chores don’t be surprised that they will lose interest soon. 大才小 用。It is like putting a gifted child in primary one when he should be in the university. That was the same problem Einstein faced when he was in school and was thrown out. Boredom trying to do simple things when his intellect was meant for bigger stuff like understanding the universe.
I think our ministers should easily fit into the seat in the White House. Obama, please step aside. I am sure they will shine in the right environment and the right challenge. The tougher or more challenging the situation or problem, the more they will excel. In a way we are abusing our multi talented ministers.
There is a problem though. The Americans would not be able to pay them. What a pity.
Did anyone say the WP was sleeping and not doing anything?
The hottest issue in cyberspace these few days is not the haze or the
near epidemic dengue situation with record numbers of people having
dengue. The hottest issue is who should pay for the cleaning of a hawker
centre’s high ceiling. And this has led to the WP being grilled by the
PAP and how hard they had to work to defend themselves. And mind you,
they had to work very hard and very smart and had to be very careful as
the debate in Parliament would be in the air after the 9.30pm news.
Can’t imagine what would be shown if the WP made a mess of it and could
not defend themselves effectively.
For the few hours in Parliament, I believe both parties would have spent a lot of time and resources preparing their positions, how to attack or defend the points raised. For the amount of money they are getting, it is really hard work. It is a tough battle with 7 fairly new WP MPs other than Low Thia Khiang, against the full force of the PAP MPs and the veteran ministers. And the last session on the cleaning of the hawker centre must be so important that it was nearly full house in Parliament. This is quite a rare experience.
Let’s put our hands together for the parliamentarians on both sides for working so hard to debate on these national issues for the good of the residents.
Did anyone say that the WP MPs are not working, or the PAP MPs are not working? To be a WP MP means a lot of pressure. Doing too little for the people sure kena walloped. Saying too much of the wrong thing lagi chiat lat. Go to Parliament means one month cannot sleep, got to prepare to ward off attacks from all corners. Must wear protective gears just in case.
For the few hours in Parliament, I believe both parties would have spent a lot of time and resources preparing their positions, how to attack or defend the points raised. For the amount of money they are getting, it is really hard work. It is a tough battle with 7 fairly new WP MPs other than Low Thia Khiang, against the full force of the PAP MPs and the veteran ministers. And the last session on the cleaning of the hawker centre must be so important that it was nearly full house in Parliament. This is quite a rare experience.
Let’s put our hands together for the parliamentarians on both sides for working so hard to debate on these national issues for the good of the residents.
Did anyone say that the WP MPs are not working, or the PAP MPs are not working? To be a WP MP means a lot of pressure. Doing too little for the people sure kena walloped. Saying too much of the wrong thing lagi chiat lat. Go to Parliament means one month cannot sleep, got to prepare to ward off attacks from all corners. Must wear protective gears just in case.
Japan, the international thug shouting ‘robbery!’
Japan is accusing China of not playing by international law and becoming
more aggressive in its actions in the Diaoyu Islands dispute. The
Japanese Defence Ministry said, ‘China has attempted to change the
status quo by force based on its own assertion, which is incompatible
with the existing order of international law.’ The Japanese are also
infuriating the Koreans by blaming them for heighten tension in the
Korean Peninsula.
How far from the truth is this Japanese lie? In the first place China has not resorted to force to retake the islands seized by Japan in violation of international law in the late 19th Century. They took the islands from China by force. China could retake the islands by force too but refused to do so and sought to settle the issue by diplomatic means. It is the Japanese that have been resorting to the use of force, ramming Chinese civilian ships, arresting Chinese fishing boats and scrambling fighter aircraft against Chinese surveillance ships and aircraft in the area. More than 300 such missions were flown against 41 times when Chinese surveillance ships were in the area, including Chinese aircraft. Such acts of provocation could easily lead to a breakout of warfare.
The Japanese even mocked the Chinese by enacting a bogus sale of the islands from one Japanese to another when the the islands are Chinese territory. The provocations and aggressive show of force by the Japanese were hostile in all counts and they are blaming the Chinese for raising tension in the area.
Did the Japanese obey international law and international norms when it aggressively took advantage of Korea and China in the 19th and 20th Centuries leading to its seizure of the Chinese islands? After it has violated Chinese territories, taken Chinese islands, it is demanding that the Chinese must accept the fait accompli and observe international norms.
And it is rattling its sabre daily, even siding with the Philippines in the latter’s dispute with China, promising military assistance against China. It is rearming itself by increasing its military expenditure using the Chinese as the strawman.
Who is the aggressive country and who is not following international laws and norms in international relations? The Japanese under PM Abe is on a war path, raising tensions and provoking the Chinese to retaliate militarily.
Japan is following the path of the Americans. After seizing the North American continent from the Red Indians and committing the biggest genocide in the history of human kind, it preaches human rights and rule of law. Not forgetting the scale of slavery against the African blacks, it called itself the protector of human rights.
Japan had violated all the international laws and human rights against Asians and Southeast Asians but is accusing the Chinese and Koreans for not observing international law. Why should they when their territories are still in the hands of the Japanese. But the Japanese and the Americans will keep shouting China is bad, Korea is bad. And you have unthinking media willingly printing such news on the front page, to support the claim, to make the unthinking readers to believe a white lie.
How far from the truth is this Japanese lie? In the first place China has not resorted to force to retake the islands seized by Japan in violation of international law in the late 19th Century. They took the islands from China by force. China could retake the islands by force too but refused to do so and sought to settle the issue by diplomatic means. It is the Japanese that have been resorting to the use of force, ramming Chinese civilian ships, arresting Chinese fishing boats and scrambling fighter aircraft against Chinese surveillance ships and aircraft in the area. More than 300 such missions were flown against 41 times when Chinese surveillance ships were in the area, including Chinese aircraft. Such acts of provocation could easily lead to a breakout of warfare.
The Japanese even mocked the Chinese by enacting a bogus sale of the islands from one Japanese to another when the the islands are Chinese territory. The provocations and aggressive show of force by the Japanese were hostile in all counts and they are blaming the Chinese for raising tension in the area.
Did the Japanese obey international law and international norms when it aggressively took advantage of Korea and China in the 19th and 20th Centuries leading to its seizure of the Chinese islands? After it has violated Chinese territories, taken Chinese islands, it is demanding that the Chinese must accept the fait accompli and observe international norms.
And it is rattling its sabre daily, even siding with the Philippines in the latter’s dispute with China, promising military assistance against China. It is rearming itself by increasing its military expenditure using the Chinese as the strawman.
Who is the aggressive country and who is not following international laws and norms in international relations? The Japanese under PM Abe is on a war path, raising tensions and provoking the Chinese to retaliate militarily.
Japan is following the path of the Americans. After seizing the North American continent from the Red Indians and committing the biggest genocide in the history of human kind, it preaches human rights and rule of law. Not forgetting the scale of slavery against the African blacks, it called itself the protector of human rights.
Japan had violated all the international laws and human rights against Asians and Southeast Asians but is accusing the Chinese and Koreans for not observing international law. Why should they when their territories are still in the hands of the Japanese. But the Japanese and the Americans will keep shouting China is bad, Korea is bad. And you have unthinking media willingly printing such news on the front page, to support the claim, to make the unthinking readers to believe a white lie.
7/11/2013
Hawker centre cleaning – The mysterious quotation
In Parliament, Vivian referred to a quotation by the AHPETC’s contractor, ATL Maintenance Pte Ltd to the market association as evidence that the Town Council is asking for double payment for the cleaning of the ceiling of the hawker centre.
“The first irregular event is ATL’s quotation delivered by hand on the 19th of February 2013… the hawkers have never asked for a quotation. Mr Low (WP’s chief, Low Thia Kiang) has met with the hawkers. They have told him the same thing. Secondly ATL is your own private contractor. When your own contractor issues a quotation for $7,200 to the hawkers asking for payment for work which you say is already covered by your contract – that amounts to a demand for double payment for the same quantity of work.,” Balakrishnan said, adding that he also had witnesses from meetings who could verify events. Quoted from YahooNews Online
Sylvia Lim said the quotation was requested by the market association:
“This quotation was requested by the market association and does not coincide with their annual obligation to clean the high areas under the town council contract.” Quoted from YahooNews Online.
What is the main issue here? A quotation by AHPETC’s contractor, ATL Maintenance Pte Ltd delivered by hand to the market association. Why did ATL send a quotation to the market association? Was it a request for quotes by the association or ATL voluntarily sent them a quotation? Sylvia Lim said the quotation was requested by the market association.
What is the truth? Is this so difficult to prove? Did or did not the market association asked for the quotation? If yes, why? If not, why should ATL send them a quotation? Who instructed the ATL to send an unsolicited quotation?
Could someone provide the answers to solve the mystery of this red hot quotation? Who asked for it or who instructed for it to be sent to the market association?
One possibility, ATL sent it under instruction from AHPETC which could lead to the assumption that AHPETC is expecting the hawkers to pay for it. And this is likely to be Vivian’s position.
The second possibility is that the market association asked for it. This will mean that ATL just responded to a request for quotes and this has nothing to do with the AHPETC’s intent to demand for payment unless they have already told the market association and this gave them the reason so ask for a quote. One point to ponder, the market association can ask for quotes from other maintenance company as well. Is this the only quote they asked for and received?
A third possibility, nobody asked or instructed ATL to send the quotation to the market association. They just sent the quotation without knowing why? And they know who to send the quotation to. This will be another mystery to solve.
The above questions would be an interesting puzzle for Sherlock Holmes to solve. Let’s see who is the first to come up with the full answers to complete the puzzle.
Another job offer – Sales Manager
[Company – European but told not to reveal name.
Salary – 18k to 20K rmb + sales commission
To setup new sales department
Accommodation + home trips given
Requirements
Must have solid sales track record (preference given to those with China sales experience)
Technical and Product training will be provided.
Future potential – to handle Asia Pacific sales (means more money)
Anybody interested – ask them to write to me at:-
steven.sum@hotmail.com) and I’ll provide the link.
This post is open to Taiwanese, Malaysians and Singaporeans. (Expat position).
I know the Taiwanese won’t be interested because usually they get 4 home trips and they like to work for Taiwanese company.
Singaporeans and Malaysians will be able to compete on equal terms.
The company is looking for someone who has solid selling skills + China experience rather than looking for a cheap salesman.]
The above is put up by the same Steven that offered a job of Lab Assistant in his company. He said that job was given to a Malaysian whose qualifications are more suited for the job. Only one Singaporean applied but not only qualifications do not matched, the applicant already had a job paying much more in Sin. He has to reject him.
It seems that Steven must be talking to his contacts to help Singaporeans and is offering any job from another company. Overseas Singaporeans helping Singaporeans here. If only more Singaporeans can do that then things can be better for the PMETs here. The drawback is that more FTs will keep coming in to replace Singaporeans who have to find greener pastures overseas.
Salary – 18k to 20K rmb + sales commission
To setup new sales department
Accommodation + home trips given
Requirements
Must have solid sales track record (preference given to those with China sales experience)
Technical and Product training will be provided.
Future potential – to handle Asia Pacific sales (means more money)
Anybody interested – ask them to write to me at:-
steven.sum@hotmail.com) and I’ll provide the link.
This post is open to Taiwanese, Malaysians and Singaporeans. (Expat position).
I know the Taiwanese won’t be interested because usually they get 4 home trips and they like to work for Taiwanese company.
Singaporeans and Malaysians will be able to compete on equal terms.
The company is looking for someone who has solid selling skills + China experience rather than looking for a cheap salesman.]
The above is put up by the same Steven that offered a job of Lab Assistant in his company. He said that job was given to a Malaysian whose qualifications are more suited for the job. Only one Singaporean applied but not only qualifications do not matched, the applicant already had a job paying much more in Sin. He has to reject him.
It seems that Steven must be talking to his contacts to help Singaporeans and is offering any job from another company. Overseas Singaporeans helping Singaporeans here. If only more Singaporeans can do that then things can be better for the PMETs here. The drawback is that more FTs will keep coming in to replace Singaporeans who have to find greener pastures overseas.
The stock market – from a child to a Frankenstein
Not too long ago, there was this official wisdom floating in the air.
Invest your money in stocks, in the long term, do not speculate, and
your money will grow faster than any kind of investments. It will
definitely be better than keeping it under the pillow or in the banks
earning a small interest.
Stock market volatility is scorned upon. So were syndicates ramming the market up and down. Stock market was not meant to be traded in that way, in a frenzy. Investors are there for the long term. Syndicates were seen as robbers and criminals and were watched under the microscope for any wrong doings. In double quick time they were got rid off, or many were gotten rid off for creating too much volatility in the market.
And their absence left a void to be filled by hedge funds and other bigger fund managers to trade the market in greater ferocity. The market mechanism was redesigned to allow the big boys to trade in greater volumes, to scalp the market, through mini bid size, for intraday trades, for fast trades by the minutes and by the seconds. High volatility is now welcomed because the snake oil sellers and conmen said it is good for the market. High turnovers, small bids, churning big volumes are good. Scrip lending facilities were created for the big boys to trade even more madly. What happens to the old wisdom of long term investment?
The health of the stock market today is as sick as a dying patient in the ICU. But no one wants to acknowledge this sad state of affair. Everyone is pretending that it is very healthy. Just encourage more retail investors to come in and trade. Create more products, more derivatives, cut the commissions to make it cheaper. Where got white elephant in the room. The stock market is so healthy!
The volumes are definitely much higher, always in the billions. There was a time when hitting a billion shares in a day was a rare phenomenon. Now hitting 3b, 5b is no problem. Anything less than 3b shares daily is bad, too small. And funny thing, where are the investors. No need investors. Just let the computers to do the trading and generate clearing fees for the exchange.
The brokerage are encouraged to under cut one another with lower and lower commissions to force the competitors out of business. In the meantime, in their childlike innocence, they are wiping themselves out of the business too when the commission is so low and unable to sustain the operation and pay for the overheads. And they are still scheming to reduce the commissions to even the bare minimum. Are they nuts?
But computer trading is not fast enough. The volumes are too small. The next big thing is to bring in High Frequency Trading where a trade can be executed in micro seconds without anyone knowing that millions of trade were done with the blink of an eye. And this is good.
What happens to long term investment? Long term investment is no longer about buy and hold for ten or twenty years. Long term is now measured by the seconds. Anything more than a second could be long term.
So what is going to happen to the stock market? If it survives in the long term, ie, more than 6 months, with HFT, it would have serve its purpose. Can anyone expect the market to be around in 3 years, 5 years or 10 years? Yes it will still be around, but no more retail investors.
Stock market volatility is scorned upon. So were syndicates ramming the market up and down. Stock market was not meant to be traded in that way, in a frenzy. Investors are there for the long term. Syndicates were seen as robbers and criminals and were watched under the microscope for any wrong doings. In double quick time they were got rid off, or many were gotten rid off for creating too much volatility in the market.
And their absence left a void to be filled by hedge funds and other bigger fund managers to trade the market in greater ferocity. The market mechanism was redesigned to allow the big boys to trade in greater volumes, to scalp the market, through mini bid size, for intraday trades, for fast trades by the minutes and by the seconds. High volatility is now welcomed because the snake oil sellers and conmen said it is good for the market. High turnovers, small bids, churning big volumes are good. Scrip lending facilities were created for the big boys to trade even more madly. What happens to the old wisdom of long term investment?
The health of the stock market today is as sick as a dying patient in the ICU. But no one wants to acknowledge this sad state of affair. Everyone is pretending that it is very healthy. Just encourage more retail investors to come in and trade. Create more products, more derivatives, cut the commissions to make it cheaper. Where got white elephant in the room. The stock market is so healthy!
The volumes are definitely much higher, always in the billions. There was a time when hitting a billion shares in a day was a rare phenomenon. Now hitting 3b, 5b is no problem. Anything less than 3b shares daily is bad, too small. And funny thing, where are the investors. No need investors. Just let the computers to do the trading and generate clearing fees for the exchange.
The brokerage are encouraged to under cut one another with lower and lower commissions to force the competitors out of business. In the meantime, in their childlike innocence, they are wiping themselves out of the business too when the commission is so low and unable to sustain the operation and pay for the overheads. And they are still scheming to reduce the commissions to even the bare minimum. Are they nuts?
But computer trading is not fast enough. The volumes are too small. The next big thing is to bring in High Frequency Trading where a trade can be executed in micro seconds without anyone knowing that millions of trade were done with the blink of an eye. And this is good.
What happens to long term investment? Long term investment is no longer about buy and hold for ten or twenty years. Long term is now measured by the seconds. Anything more than a second could be long term.
So what is going to happen to the stock market? If it survives in the long term, ie, more than 6 months, with HFT, it would have serve its purpose. Can anyone expect the market to be around in 3 years, 5 years or 10 years? Yes it will still be around, but no more retail investors.
Giving a helping hand
How many Sinkies need a helping hand from the more successful Sinkies?
Count the Govt out as they don’t believe in a welfare state. So charity
to the less able Singaporeans should be left to the Singaporeans, to
NGOs and charitable organizations to do the necessary. And there are
many kind souls among the Sinkies who are willing to do their parts to
share with the other half of the Sinkies that find it tough to get by.
Some do it quietly, some with aplomb, some with great fanfare like on
TV. Nonetheless, the objective is commendable.
Over the weekend I was involved in one of these big hearted event to share a little of material needs with those who really needed them. The list for the recipients came to more than a hundred families. Everyone was so enthusiastic to help, to give and to share, including the primary school children. The intent is genuine. And everyone felt good too, to be able to do their little bit even for a small amount and a little relief for a few days.
The desire to give, especially for those who know that they have done well, or at least are more fortunate than others that are not doing well, is a common feeling among many Sinkies. And this has helped to keep many charitable events going and helped many in the process.
By the end of the programme over the weekend, we were saddled with a bigger task. More than half of the goodie bags were not claimed. More than half of the recipients did not turn up for their goodies. And it was not that they did not need them or did not want them. The programme for the morning were like a little neighbourhood party with performances from the school children to entertain the invited guests, live shows, for free, and with lunch provided.
Now we were humbled by our thoughtlessness, by our callousness. We thought by telling the needies to come and collect their little goodie bags they will come forward. There must be many more sensitive ways to help the people in need. In our eagerness and enthusiasm to share, we forgot to put ourselves in their shoes. We forgot what it would be like to be on the receiving end. Mind you, it is no fun for sure. We trampled through the different floors on a door to door delivery mission to distribute the lunch boxes to everyone willing to open the door. Not many did and even for some who did, they declined our gesture and our lunch boxes. We were left with a lot of lunch boxes, decent food, with no takers and a used by date.
There must be better ways to reach out to the other section of the community. There must be. While we want to reach out, and knowing that they needed a little assistance, a little kind gesture, we must find a way to bridge the wide gap between the two parties. We fail to see the elephant that was keeping us wide apart. Never shalt the Twains met.
Could this be the reason why Rebecca Loh and Gabriel were alone in their struggle to live a normal existence?
Over the weekend I was involved in one of these big hearted event to share a little of material needs with those who really needed them. The list for the recipients came to more than a hundred families. Everyone was so enthusiastic to help, to give and to share, including the primary school children. The intent is genuine. And everyone felt good too, to be able to do their little bit even for a small amount and a little relief for a few days.
The desire to give, especially for those who know that they have done well, or at least are more fortunate than others that are not doing well, is a common feeling among many Sinkies. And this has helped to keep many charitable events going and helped many in the process.
By the end of the programme over the weekend, we were saddled with a bigger task. More than half of the goodie bags were not claimed. More than half of the recipients did not turn up for their goodies. And it was not that they did not need them or did not want them. The programme for the morning were like a little neighbourhood party with performances from the school children to entertain the invited guests, live shows, for free, and with lunch provided.
Now we were humbled by our thoughtlessness, by our callousness. We thought by telling the needies to come and collect their little goodie bags they will come forward. There must be many more sensitive ways to help the people in need. In our eagerness and enthusiasm to share, we forgot to put ourselves in their shoes. We forgot what it would be like to be on the receiving end. Mind you, it is no fun for sure. We trampled through the different floors on a door to door delivery mission to distribute the lunch boxes to everyone willing to open the door. Not many did and even for some who did, they declined our gesture and our lunch boxes. We were left with a lot of lunch boxes, decent food, with no takers and a used by date.
There must be better ways to reach out to the other section of the community. There must be. While we want to reach out, and knowing that they needed a little assistance, a little kind gesture, we must find a way to bridge the wide gap between the two parties. We fail to see the elephant that was keeping us wide apart. Never shalt the Twains met.
Could this be the reason why Rebecca Loh and Gabriel were alone in their struggle to live a normal existence?
7/10/2013
Stylo mylo Vivian in Parliament
The most impressive part of the 10 minutes broadcast on Parliament after the news last night was all about Vivian. At least that was the only thing I could remember. He was a class of his own. He dressed very well, dressed to kill, looked very good and spoke damn well. Indeed he was a very polished debater. He peppered his lecture in Parliament with well measured tone and body language. This is fine art. Great stuff. I gave him full marks for presentation.
When he was speaking the floor listened intently in silence. No one moved. Hsien Loong and all the ministers were there, in deep thoughts, listening or maybe thinking very hard about something else more important, that I am not sure.
It would be nice to know what were in their minds. Were they so impressed and overawed by the articulate performance of Vivian, the smooth talking minister? Or were they thinking that he should cut it off as such matters of ‘I said this, he said that, I am more honourable, he is not, he is lying, she is untruthful’, though well executed, should be said somewhere else and not in Parliament?
It is really interesting to know what were in the minds of the ministers and MPs then. Unfortunately there will be no answers to this. But overall it was a great performance by Vivian. In oratory skills, none in Parliament could come close to him. His parting shot to Low Thia Khiang was superb one upmanship, a little patronizing, but he got away with it.
Dependency Syndrome in Sin City
Sinkies have often and regularly been bashed for having a Dependency
Syndrome, always depending on the Govt to do the right thing or to offer
a little charity.
This sickness is deep and widespread, from the bottom to the top. The worst affected are those right at the top, thinking and living dependency instead of being self reliant.
No, don’t get me wrong. The people in general are very hardworking and are depending on themselves to make a living or to eke a living. Look at the oldies parading the roads and those in the foodcourts? They know that they have to depend on themselves, not the Govt. Some even got their savings ‘gantong’ or confiscated in the name of ‘for their own good’. So they continue to struggle to live on. Self reliant, though they could live a bit better if their CPF can be released to them and not held at ransom by all the minimum sum schemes just in case they need to use them.
Yes, the sickness is affecting the people right at the top. Still don’t get it? They want sports talents, where do you think they are looking? Of course they are looking elsewhere for foreigners to bring us the medals. Is this not dependency on foreigners?
And sports is only a very small part of this Dependency Syndrome. The whole economy is dependent on foreigners. Our population growth is also dependent on foreigners. We cannot reproduce, so bring in the foreigners to make up the numbers. 6.9m to be made up for by bringing in more foreigners.
Now we can’t even create jobs for ourselves. We need the foreigners to be here to create jobs for us. We tempt and invite millionaires and billionaires to be here and hopefully they can drop a few morsels from their tables for us. We hope that they can create jobs and opportunities for our people, open doors for us.
Is this not Dependency Syndrome then what is? Why are we so dependent on foreigners for everything? Why can’t we be self reliant and do things for ourselves, create jobs for our own people by ourselves?
Coveting thy neighbour’s wife and talent and belongings? We do not want to work anymore if we can bring in foreign talents to work for us. The Govt has shifted from having go getters going out there to fight for jobs to one that is praying that foreigners will be here to help us. It openly said so. We need foreigners to create jobs for us.
This sickness is deep and widespread, from the bottom to the top. The worst affected are those right at the top, thinking and living dependency instead of being self reliant.
No, don’t get me wrong. The people in general are very hardworking and are depending on themselves to make a living or to eke a living. Look at the oldies parading the roads and those in the foodcourts? They know that they have to depend on themselves, not the Govt. Some even got their savings ‘gantong’ or confiscated in the name of ‘for their own good’. So they continue to struggle to live on. Self reliant, though they could live a bit better if their CPF can be released to them and not held at ransom by all the minimum sum schemes just in case they need to use them.
Yes, the sickness is affecting the people right at the top. Still don’t get it? They want sports talents, where do you think they are looking? Of course they are looking elsewhere for foreigners to bring us the medals. Is this not dependency on foreigners?
And sports is only a very small part of this Dependency Syndrome. The whole economy is dependent on foreigners. Our population growth is also dependent on foreigners. We cannot reproduce, so bring in the foreigners to make up the numbers. 6.9m to be made up for by bringing in more foreigners.
Now we can’t even create jobs for ourselves. We need the foreigners to be here to create jobs for us. We tempt and invite millionaires and billionaires to be here and hopefully they can drop a few morsels from their tables for us. We hope that they can create jobs and opportunities for our people, open doors for us.
Is this not Dependency Syndrome then what is? Why are we so dependent on foreigners for everything? Why can’t we be self reliant and do things for ourselves, create jobs for our own people by ourselves?
Coveting thy neighbour’s wife and talent and belongings? We do not want to work anymore if we can bring in foreign talents to work for us. The Govt has shifted from having go getters going out there to fight for jobs to one that is praying that foreigners will be here to help us. It openly said so. We need foreigners to create jobs for us.
Crocodile population increasing
There used to be one, and then two crocodiles in Sungei Buloh Wetland.
Last Sunday I was there and I counted 6, two adults, two young adults
and two baby crocodiles. The river is rich in fish and is a very safe
and fertile sanctuary for the crocodiles to breed. At the rate the
crocodiles are breeding, soon there will be a football team and then
many football teams.
At the moment things are pretty quite, a lull before the storm. The crocodiles are free swimmers and could get out of the wetland into the surrounding areas when children and beach goers frequented. The closest is the mouth of the embanked Kranji River where there is a popular beach for picnickers. And if there is some nasty incidents waiting to happen, this must be the first spot to happen.
I hope the Parks and Recreation Dept is watching this development and has put in place some monitoring and control measures to check on the crocodiles before they snap their jaws on some children or human beans.
This is clear and present danger. Let’s hope a committee is formed now to tackle this potential threat and not after someone lost a leg or his life. Crocodiles are nice to watch from the comfort of elevated bridges or ground. But they can turn very nasty and the damage is beyond just regrettable.
Immediate action is needed from the ministry in charge. Maybe no ministry is in charge. Or maybe there are more immediate problems to tackle and this has yet to be a problem. No one got bitten by a crocodile yet. Would those in charge of catching pythons and wild boars be the best to take care of this problem akan datang? Maybe someone can give them a call. Maybe better to wait until the haze and dengue problems are solved before bringing this matter up.
At the moment things are pretty quite, a lull before the storm. The crocodiles are free swimmers and could get out of the wetland into the surrounding areas when children and beach goers frequented. The closest is the mouth of the embanked Kranji River where there is a popular beach for picnickers. And if there is some nasty incidents waiting to happen, this must be the first spot to happen.
I hope the Parks and Recreation Dept is watching this development and has put in place some monitoring and control measures to check on the crocodiles before they snap their jaws on some children or human beans.
This is clear and present danger. Let’s hope a committee is formed now to tackle this potential threat and not after someone lost a leg or his life. Crocodiles are nice to watch from the comfort of elevated bridges or ground. But they can turn very nasty and the damage is beyond just regrettable.
Immediate action is needed from the ministry in charge. Maybe no ministry is in charge. Or maybe there are more immediate problems to tackle and this has yet to be a problem. No one got bitten by a crocodile yet. Would those in charge of catching pythons and wild boars be the best to take care of this problem akan datang? Maybe someone can give them a call. Maybe better to wait until the haze and dengue problems are solved before bringing this matter up.
Hawker Centre cleaning – Politics is about scoring political points
It is amazing but not surprising that the cleaning of a hawker centre
and who should pay for it could drag on for months and wasting so much
of Parliament’s time and the time of Ministers and MPs.
Should not this be a simple case of administrative procedures? The cleaning of a hawker centre is not something new and has been going on for years. All the precedents are there as to whether the hawkers should pay or it is part of the cost that the hawkers have been paying monthly.
is this dragging on and on, and after yesterday’s Parliament session it does not seem to end and many more months of scratching at each other will go on. Is this an in thing, to bitch over such issues in Parliament when it should have been settled over a few meetings in the Minister’s office or in the Town Council?
But of course, this is all about politics, about scoring political points, about integrity, about being honourable, about bitching in Parliament over an administrative and procedural matter, and about everything and about nothing.
Should the Speaker of Parliament tell the contending parties to sort it out over a meeting outside Parliament? Or should the issue continue to be aired in Parliament to see who is the more honourable one or who has more integrity over this matter? Or is Parliament a venue to see who is better in debating?
Should not this be a simple case of administrative procedures? The cleaning of a hawker centre is not something new and has been going on for years. All the precedents are there as to whether the hawkers should pay or it is part of the cost that the hawkers have been paying monthly.
is this dragging on and on, and after yesterday’s Parliament session it does not seem to end and many more months of scratching at each other will go on. Is this an in thing, to bitch over such issues in Parliament when it should have been settled over a few meetings in the Minister’s office or in the Town Council?
But of course, this is all about politics, about scoring political points, about integrity, about being honourable, about bitching in Parliament over an administrative and procedural matter, and about everything and about nothing.
Should the Speaker of Parliament tell the contending parties to sort it out over a meeting outside Parliament? Or should the issue continue to be aired in Parliament to see who is the more honourable one or who has more integrity over this matter? Or is Parliament a venue to see who is better in debating?
7/09/2013
What do you want?
Sinkies are most happy when their property prices keep going up. Sinkies
are even happier when they own more and more properties. Sinkies are
happiest when they look at their bank accounts and see the number of
zeros behind the digits keep growing.
Are these what Sinkies are happy about? Would Sinkies be happy to have more babies and children in their homes? The Govt think so but for the wrong reasons. There are different kinds of joy in life. Some want more money and properties, some want more power, some want more children. What do Sinkies want?
The way it is going, many will leave this world without having children or maybe one or two. Many may want to have more as having children is another kind of happiness, another kind of wealth that money cannot buy. Many Sinkies spent a lot of money going on holidays, visiting this place and that place, taking photographs of the places they visited. Some choose to stay at home to enjoy their children and grandchildren. Different interest, different joy, different happiness.
The govt also want children but of an unrelated kind. Strangers from all over the world are welcomed just to push up the economy, for economic growth. Is that a really good thing or a foolish thing to do?
While the social economic system in the country is designed to make the citizens childless or unbearable to have children, and the Govt could not understand why, and choose to import foreigners for economic growth that brings little or no joy to having your very own children and family, and the joy of seeing them grow.
Is there something not right somewhere? What is the purpose of this country if it is not to make the people, the citizens, happy and enjoy a fruitful life of abundance, not only in owning more and more expensive properties, but also having more children and a growing family?
Many will end up leaving behind all their material riches, money and properties, with no children to inherit them. When they pass away, it is all over. What is life and what do we live and strive a life time for? Some are contented that they lived well and do not bother after children after they are gone. It is life, our lives, not the lives of foreigners and people that have nothing to do with us. As a country, the Govt should be talking and thinking about how to make lives worth living in this island for its citizens, and having children and happy children must be a major goal in living. What is the point of having so many properties when there is no one going to live in them when the owners die? Oops, we shall invite the foreigners to take over this island and everything there is in it.
Is that the purpose of it all?
I am just rumbling.
Are these what Sinkies are happy about? Would Sinkies be happy to have more babies and children in their homes? The Govt think so but for the wrong reasons. There are different kinds of joy in life. Some want more money and properties, some want more power, some want more children. What do Sinkies want?
The way it is going, many will leave this world without having children or maybe one or two. Many may want to have more as having children is another kind of happiness, another kind of wealth that money cannot buy. Many Sinkies spent a lot of money going on holidays, visiting this place and that place, taking photographs of the places they visited. Some choose to stay at home to enjoy their children and grandchildren. Different interest, different joy, different happiness.
The govt also want children but of an unrelated kind. Strangers from all over the world are welcomed just to push up the economy, for economic growth. Is that a really good thing or a foolish thing to do?
While the social economic system in the country is designed to make the citizens childless or unbearable to have children, and the Govt could not understand why, and choose to import foreigners for economic growth that brings little or no joy to having your very own children and family, and the joy of seeing them grow.
Is there something not right somewhere? What is the purpose of this country if it is not to make the people, the citizens, happy and enjoy a fruitful life of abundance, not only in owning more and more expensive properties, but also having more children and a growing family?
Many will end up leaving behind all their material riches, money and properties, with no children to inherit them. When they pass away, it is all over. What is life and what do we live and strive a life time for? Some are contented that they lived well and do not bother after children after they are gone. It is life, our lives, not the lives of foreigners and people that have nothing to do with us. As a country, the Govt should be talking and thinking about how to make lives worth living in this island for its citizens, and having children and happy children must be a major goal in living. What is the point of having so many properties when there is no one going to live in them when the owners die? Oops, we shall invite the foreigners to take over this island and everything there is in it.
Is that the purpose of it all?
I am just rumbling.
My First Skool – Sack all of them
When I first suggested the idea that all the staff in the childcare should be sacked, I thought I was over reacting and a bit harsh. Now with more cases of abuses being revealed, with more children have scratches and signs of abuses on their bodies and with a child having nightmare and unable to sleep, my call is not overreacting.
If Yusuf’s case has not surfaced, the poor children would continue to be in living hell, being bullied and abused daily. I really feel very sorry for the children there, daily being harassed by their caregivers without anyone having a clue of what was going on and with all the staff keeping quiet about it. It is not a childcare but a horror chamber.
At least two parents have made police reports of their children being abused in the same centre. And you have jokers saying that it was not abuse but mishandling. And you have asses who could not differentiate between disciplinary actions or the normal knocks and tumbles of children. Even disciplinary action is uncalled for at such tender age. How many of the children really know what they are doing and that their behavior is unacceptable and deserved to be punished?
The school administration must do a thorough investigation, review all the video recordings to get to the bottom of the problem. How painful it is to subject the children to such terrifying experience? The children need to be counseled and helped to forget this dreadful experience to grow up as healthy and well adjusted children. Hopefully the scar will go away fast. The whole thing is so sickening.
When so many cases of abuses are being reported, it only shows that Yusuf is not an isolated case and it did not happen overnight but could be ongoing for too long. Sack everyone of them for allowing the torture chamber to go on for so long and to put so many vulnerable children through such an ordeal. Every child will be adversely affected psychologically seeing how their playmates are being harassed and beaten daily.
Can you believe that this is happening in our neighbourhood? And no one seems to be concerned about the harm done to the children except their parents.
Should HFT be allowed in SGX?
Below is part of an article appearing in ‘TABB Forum, Where capital
markets speak’, in response to Congressman Markey’s call for an
immediate ban on HFT.
‘Congressman Markey, in a letter to the SEC on January 18, declared that HFT “represents a clear and present danger to the stability and safety of [US] capital markets and that it should be curtailed immediately.” Direct and to the point.
Congressman Markey backs this assertion with evidence drawn from market events, such as the Flash Crash and Knight Capital, as well as academic studies on the impact of HFT on markets and, therefore, Main Street. If I can synthesize his argument, essentially he states that:
1. The speed of HFT disadvantages other styles of trading.
2. HFT exacerbates volatility in the market.
And as a result …
3. ‘Other’ investors are scared away; and
4. Volume traded by HFT is therefore a dangerously high proportion of overall traded volume.
While I favor “working with HFT to address perceived dangers,” I have to say I see a thread running through the Congressman’s letter that I both agree with and, like the Congressman, find disturbing:
While most HFT is actually just normal-but-very-quick-trading, HFT strategies typically profit from very short-term pricing anomalies between two or more products or liquidity sources. Volatility in the market as well as market fragmentation and the lack of adequate consolidated price feeds in some (many?) markets generate these anomalies and make it easier for HFT strategies to succeed. In fact you might argue engineering volatility -- at the very least, exacerbating it -- is in the interest of HFT strategies.
As someone who is primarily concerned about the performance of long-only funds and future planning, this sounds unnerving; but it’s actually OK (just about OK, that is) if the volume traded by HFT is a small percentage of the total market. It’s a faint background noise. However, when HFT becomes a large, or even dominant, force in the market, then ‘other’ investors genuinely do have a reason to stay away. Who wants to play in a market where movement for movement’s sake has overtaken fundamentals? No thanks -- I’ll let the HFTs spar in a zero-sum game or volatility ping pong and stick my cash under the mattress....’
The position of Hildyard and some supporters of HFT is that it should not be banned but be controlled and managed. Presumably HFT can be controlled and managed. Below are a few comments to his article.
05 February 2013
any part of our industry that has a market share over 50 % is alarming and wrong .Here is where the exchanges board delivers correct governance to balance the correct order of play . Finally an automated kill switch is very simply applied as you refuse his key entry.
wsteetpro
05 February 2013
I fully agree. It's a matter of time before the markets go into another tailspin - HFTs produce zero economic output. Just skimming off other market participants. Capitalism at it's best!
Anonymous
05 February 2013
if they are using other investors as a profit engine (my perception) then there are real problems with the current market structure. Why would anyone want to invest in something when they know that others are embezzling their money out of the other side of the building?
John Harris
05 February 2013
Yes, by all means, let's have more government mandates. We can't have businesses deciding for themselves how to interact with their customers. If left to their own devices, exchanges and other market centers are certain destroy themselves, bankrupt their shareholders, and leave U.S. capital markets with no secondary markets at all....
crammond1964
05 February 2013
the problem being that a number of exchanges are lying in the same bed as the HFT ; therefore making a debate rather futile .
Exchanges deny their manipulation and HFT survive off the exchanges ridiculous rebate system .
shamlet76
05 February 2013
i think the market is broken. you have phony financials because of the off-balance sheet arrangements, you have market "gaming", which is fraud. shortselling and HFT is dominant. both shortselling and HFT is a capital outflow from the stock market. regulators have disregarded the investors' concerns, which is aiding and abetting shortselling and HFT. banks have become the enemy of their customers. current rules are not enforced. this isn't capitalism. it is a plutocracy.
if HFT was not harming the market, then they should explain where their $ is coming from? we know where it's going to - their pockets.
neither HFT nor shortsellers are investors. they are speculators, traders. but the global economy won't be able to get on it's feet as long as those money movements are taking place. when speculators become dominant, the markets lose.
honestman
05 February 2013
It is unfortunate that so many people offering comments have not read even the most fundmental text on direct digital control of processes used in any undergraduate Chemical Engineering curriculum in any accredited university. In something called closed loop control, a computer calculates the difference between the desired value for a process output and the actual value for the process output. Using that difference the computer makes a change in what is termed a "manipulated variable" that afffects the value of the process output. The process output is the price of a share of the stock whose price is being manipulated, the manipulated variable is the quantity of the stock offered for sale in a naked short sale. The computer can monitor the price of the stock as it is sent downward and can enter a buy at the appropriate point to avoid triggering a stock market "time-out" on the stock.
To increase the price of a stock, consecutive orders for a large number of shares are placed.
A computer program can monitor the effect of the sell orders and decide what action to take. The problem is compounded when large, privileged customers can see the order book and know what orders are out there. To help the manipulation along, rumors and half-truths can be instituted by "analysts".
Ignorance of basic control of chemical reactors is not an excuse for being stupid and saying the same jibberish over and over again in a meaningless diatribe that is full of sound and fury and signifies nothing but stupidity.
There are pro and against HFT camps. The reasons are obvious. The small investors will be outclassed and stand to lose their pants. It is like putting in a few vacuum cleaners to suck clean the small investors.
In a small market like SGX, the most fear factor mentioned, ie the dominance of HFT trades in volumes, will kill all the small investors for sure. Can the small investors of SGX survive the overwhelming presence of HFT and the huge volumes they created and monopolised the trading in the market? This unfair trading practice is dangerous to the big markets like NYSE. How can it be safe to a teeny weeny market like the SGX? The small investor will surely be mauled and the market will go ‘bonk’ for sure.
MAS and the Govt must seriously look into the introduction of HFT in SGX and don’t end up in a bigger mess than the Lehman bonds crisis. Knowing the risk, the unfair advantages and dangers of HFT, and to allow it to be introduced into our market is simply irresponsible and inexcusable.
If the MAS is adamant in wanting to have HFT in SGX, then it should be well advised to listen to Liquidnet founder and CEO Seth Merrin.
‘Merrin proposes the SEC create "HFT-free zones" to protect retail investors who wish to trade in a separate and slower lane while allowing HFT to continue. Retail investors, he says, should have the option and the opportunity to decide if they want to interact in the HFT zone.’
‘Congressman Markey, in a letter to the SEC on January 18, declared that HFT “represents a clear and present danger to the stability and safety of [US] capital markets and that it should be curtailed immediately.” Direct and to the point.
Congressman Markey backs this assertion with evidence drawn from market events, such as the Flash Crash and Knight Capital, as well as academic studies on the impact of HFT on markets and, therefore, Main Street. If I can synthesize his argument, essentially he states that:
1. The speed of HFT disadvantages other styles of trading.
2. HFT exacerbates volatility in the market.
And as a result …
3. ‘Other’ investors are scared away; and
4. Volume traded by HFT is therefore a dangerously high proportion of overall traded volume.
While I favor “working with HFT to address perceived dangers,” I have to say I see a thread running through the Congressman’s letter that I both agree with and, like the Congressman, find disturbing:
While most HFT is actually just normal-but-very-quick-trading, HFT strategies typically profit from very short-term pricing anomalies between two or more products or liquidity sources. Volatility in the market as well as market fragmentation and the lack of adequate consolidated price feeds in some (many?) markets generate these anomalies and make it easier for HFT strategies to succeed. In fact you might argue engineering volatility -- at the very least, exacerbating it -- is in the interest of HFT strategies.
As someone who is primarily concerned about the performance of long-only funds and future planning, this sounds unnerving; but it’s actually OK (just about OK, that is) if the volume traded by HFT is a small percentage of the total market. It’s a faint background noise. However, when HFT becomes a large, or even dominant, force in the market, then ‘other’ investors genuinely do have a reason to stay away. Who wants to play in a market where movement for movement’s sake has overtaken fundamentals? No thanks -- I’ll let the HFTs spar in a zero-sum game or volatility ping pong and stick my cash under the mattress....’
The position of Hildyard and some supporters of HFT is that it should not be banned but be controlled and managed. Presumably HFT can be controlled and managed. Below are a few comments to his article.
05 February 2013
any part of our industry that has a market share over 50 % is alarming and wrong .Here is where the exchanges board delivers correct governance to balance the correct order of play . Finally an automated kill switch is very simply applied as you refuse his key entry.
wsteetpro
05 February 2013
I fully agree. It's a matter of time before the markets go into another tailspin - HFTs produce zero economic output. Just skimming off other market participants. Capitalism at it's best!
Anonymous
05 February 2013
if they are using other investors as a profit engine (my perception) then there are real problems with the current market structure. Why would anyone want to invest in something when they know that others are embezzling their money out of the other side of the building?
John Harris
05 February 2013
Yes, by all means, let's have more government mandates. We can't have businesses deciding for themselves how to interact with their customers. If left to their own devices, exchanges and other market centers are certain destroy themselves, bankrupt their shareholders, and leave U.S. capital markets with no secondary markets at all....
crammond1964
05 February 2013
the problem being that a number of exchanges are lying in the same bed as the HFT ; therefore making a debate rather futile .
Exchanges deny their manipulation and HFT survive off the exchanges ridiculous rebate system .
shamlet76
05 February 2013
i think the market is broken. you have phony financials because of the off-balance sheet arrangements, you have market "gaming", which is fraud. shortselling and HFT is dominant. both shortselling and HFT is a capital outflow from the stock market. regulators have disregarded the investors' concerns, which is aiding and abetting shortselling and HFT. banks have become the enemy of their customers. current rules are not enforced. this isn't capitalism. it is a plutocracy.
if HFT was not harming the market, then they should explain where their $ is coming from? we know where it's going to - their pockets.
neither HFT nor shortsellers are investors. they are speculators, traders. but the global economy won't be able to get on it's feet as long as those money movements are taking place. when speculators become dominant, the markets lose.
honestman
05 February 2013
It is unfortunate that so many people offering comments have not read even the most fundmental text on direct digital control of processes used in any undergraduate Chemical Engineering curriculum in any accredited university. In something called closed loop control, a computer calculates the difference between the desired value for a process output and the actual value for the process output. Using that difference the computer makes a change in what is termed a "manipulated variable" that afffects the value of the process output. The process output is the price of a share of the stock whose price is being manipulated, the manipulated variable is the quantity of the stock offered for sale in a naked short sale. The computer can monitor the price of the stock as it is sent downward and can enter a buy at the appropriate point to avoid triggering a stock market "time-out" on the stock.
To increase the price of a stock, consecutive orders for a large number of shares are placed.
A computer program can monitor the effect of the sell orders and decide what action to take. The problem is compounded when large, privileged customers can see the order book and know what orders are out there. To help the manipulation along, rumors and half-truths can be instituted by "analysts".
Ignorance of basic control of chemical reactors is not an excuse for being stupid and saying the same jibberish over and over again in a meaningless diatribe that is full of sound and fury and signifies nothing but stupidity.
There are pro and against HFT camps. The reasons are obvious. The small investors will be outclassed and stand to lose their pants. It is like putting in a few vacuum cleaners to suck clean the small investors.
In a small market like SGX, the most fear factor mentioned, ie the dominance of HFT trades in volumes, will kill all the small investors for sure. Can the small investors of SGX survive the overwhelming presence of HFT and the huge volumes they created and monopolised the trading in the market? This unfair trading practice is dangerous to the big markets like NYSE. How can it be safe to a teeny weeny market like the SGX? The small investor will surely be mauled and the market will go ‘bonk’ for sure.
MAS and the Govt must seriously look into the introduction of HFT in SGX and don’t end up in a bigger mess than the Lehman bonds crisis. Knowing the risk, the unfair advantages and dangers of HFT, and to allow it to be introduced into our market is simply irresponsible and inexcusable.
If the MAS is adamant in wanting to have HFT in SGX, then it should be well advised to listen to Liquidnet founder and CEO Seth Merrin.
‘Merrin proposes the SEC create "HFT-free zones" to protect retail investors who wish to trade in a separate and slower lane while allowing HFT to continue. Retail investors, he says, should have the option and the opportunity to decide if they want to interact in the HFT zone.’
7/08/2013
The rise of the Indian elite class in Singapore
The Indian community used to be one of the most powerful elite class in Singapore during the colonial days. They are second only to the Seranis or Eurasians in power and influence. They were initially transferred from the East India Companies, the unofficial trading arms of the British Empire. And they spoke and wrote English which gave them that special advantage over the non English speaking locals. They were like the extended arm of the British colonial masters.
After the British departed, the Indian elite continued to dominate the civil service and occupied most of the senior positions, in politics, in the judiciary, in the uniform services and in many of the ministries and stats boards.
The dominance of the Indian elite was challenged when the other races took up English education and started to use English as the medium for communication. The public service employment pie was subsequently shared more evenly relative to the racial composition of the population. Even then, the Indian elite still enjoyed a much bigger share of the pie relative to the size of their population.
Today, the Indian elite is entering its golden years in this city. They are everywhere in the top echelon of management, from politics, the govt ministries and to the industries. The Mediacorp has just appointed Walter Fernandez as the Group Editor In Chief. And there is Warren Fernandez, the Editor of the Straits Times and Patrick Daniel as Editor in Chief of the Straits Times. The three of them would have a big say the in content of the Media and wield great influence on what the readers shall read.
In the Cabinet there is the Dep PM and Fin Minister in Tharman, Law and Foreign Affairs Minister in Shanmugam, MEWR in Vivian, and another minister Iswaran in the PM’s office, also Second Minister in Home Affairs and Trade and Industry.
In the judiciary the Chief Justice is Sundaresh Menon and Indian high court judges have always been a part of the bench. Then there are many prominent senior counsels in practice.
The Chief of Army is MG Ravinder Singh.
Most notable is that the Indian elite distinguished themselves in finance. Other than Tharman as Finance Minister, there is Ravi Menon as MD of MAS. And the CEO of DBS, the national bank, is Piyush Gupta. There are many top Indians in the foreign banks as CEOs or in top management, and also in GIC and Temasek, including Dhanabalan as the latter’s Chairman. Their dominance in finance is unchallenged and this will grow bigger over time.
In the academia there are many prominent professors heading many departments. So is the field of medicine. The Indian elites are everywhere stamping their influence and authority in their respective fields.
The field of IT is more or less dominated by Indian professionals mainly from India. There is however a strange phenomenon, that the local Indians are somehow not very good in IT. And there is an increasing community of very rich Indian PRs and new citizens finding residence in the City. And they brought along their businesses, now the biggest group among the foreign investors here.
The Indian community is now a very formidable force to reckon with in all fields of enterprise in the island and will play an increasing role in the growth and development of the country. Not forgetting we had two past presidents in Nair and Nathan, not counting the numerous very rich individuals among them. Singaporeans will have to be better acquainted with this development and acknowledge the bigger role played by the numerically small Indian community. But this is set to change with CECA and the India Indians finding this island a very conducive and good place to do business and bringing up children.
After the British departed, the Indian elite continued to dominate the civil service and occupied most of the senior positions, in politics, in the judiciary, in the uniform services and in many of the ministries and stats boards.
The dominance of the Indian elite was challenged when the other races took up English education and started to use English as the medium for communication. The public service employment pie was subsequently shared more evenly relative to the racial composition of the population. Even then, the Indian elite still enjoyed a much bigger share of the pie relative to the size of their population.
Today, the Indian elite is entering its golden years in this city. They are everywhere in the top echelon of management, from politics, the govt ministries and to the industries. The Mediacorp has just appointed Walter Fernandez as the Group Editor In Chief. And there is Warren Fernandez, the Editor of the Straits Times and Patrick Daniel as Editor in Chief of the Straits Times. The three of them would have a big say the in content of the Media and wield great influence on what the readers shall read.
In the Cabinet there is the Dep PM and Fin Minister in Tharman, Law and Foreign Affairs Minister in Shanmugam, MEWR in Vivian, and another minister Iswaran in the PM’s office, also Second Minister in Home Affairs and Trade and Industry.
In the judiciary the Chief Justice is Sundaresh Menon and Indian high court judges have always been a part of the bench. Then there are many prominent senior counsels in practice.
The Chief of Army is MG Ravinder Singh.
Most notable is that the Indian elite distinguished themselves in finance. Other than Tharman as Finance Minister, there is Ravi Menon as MD of MAS. And the CEO of DBS, the national bank, is Piyush Gupta. There are many top Indians in the foreign banks as CEOs or in top management, and also in GIC and Temasek, including Dhanabalan as the latter’s Chairman. Their dominance in finance is unchallenged and this will grow bigger over time.
In the academia there are many prominent professors heading many departments. So is the field of medicine. The Indian elites are everywhere stamping their influence and authority in their respective fields.
The field of IT is more or less dominated by Indian professionals mainly from India. There is however a strange phenomenon, that the local Indians are somehow not very good in IT. And there is an increasing community of very rich Indian PRs and new citizens finding residence in the City. And they brought along their businesses, now the biggest group among the foreign investors here.
The Indian community is now a very formidable force to reckon with in all fields of enterprise in the island and will play an increasing role in the growth and development of the country. Not forgetting we had two past presidents in Nair and Nathan, not counting the numerous very rich individuals among them. Singaporeans will have to be better acquainted with this development and acknowledge the bigger role played by the numerically small Indian community. But this is set to change with CECA and the India Indians finding this island a very conducive and good place to do business and bringing up children.
My First Skool child abuse…No, I am innocent
After viewing the video clips on the child abuse at My First Skool Toa payoh, one cannot but feel the pain of the poor child and the parents. Shit, how could such wickedness still happened in this first world city? How could it happen in broad daylight in front of so many adults and none of them feel any sense of responsibility and guilt to care and protect a helpless child? How could a child be left in the hands of a cruel adult while the rest turned to look the other way?
This incident is the same as the intern that was slapped in front of so many colleagues for so long. And the child abuse will continue if the parents did not have the presence of mind to check on the CCTV, or for some reasons the CCTV tape was not shown to them.
There is no point talking about this any more. The sickness of this society must be put right immediately. Every adult in the school must be sacked right away to put a message across that they cannot turn a blind eye to cruelty against children, helpless and vulnerable children. Not only parents must be made to feel safe when they left their children in schools or childcare centres, the children must be protected from being bullied and tortured behind the backs of their parents. How can parents be at ease to put their children in the care of others, supposedly trained and professionals?
The message that everyone in the school must be responsible for the well being of little children must get across. Not reporting abuses is as good as being accomplice to the vicious attack and guilty of the act.
And the torturers of children must be put behind bars, just like employers beating and torturing maids and foreign workers. This City is sick to the core if such cruelties are not nip in the bud and allowed to continue in childcare centres or schools, or in workplace again and again. Even one more case is one more case too much.
Why is it that no Sinkies will ever stand up to right a wrong, to defend the weak or a wicked act? After so many decades of being conditioned, better not to speak up, just obey, just do as being told, do not defy and oppose authority, this is what Sinkies have become. Not my business, and I did not do it, so I am innocent.
The people, a first world and well educated people, must be empowered to look after themselves, their environment and their neighbours and fellow citizens, especially the weak and helpless. But no, they are all kiasi, kiasu and kia tai chee. Don’t get yourself into trouble, into other people’s trouble. In this child abuse case, it is the wrongdoing of the offending teacher, so not their business.
There is a need to empower the people, educate the people to stand up for their rights and to stand up for what is right and against what is wrong. We are turning a nation of people into unthinking and unfeeling robots that only care about themselves and nothing else.
This incident is the same as the intern that was slapped in front of so many colleagues for so long. And the child abuse will continue if the parents did not have the presence of mind to check on the CCTV, or for some reasons the CCTV tape was not shown to them.
There is no point talking about this any more. The sickness of this society must be put right immediately. Every adult in the school must be sacked right away to put a message across that they cannot turn a blind eye to cruelty against children, helpless and vulnerable children. Not only parents must be made to feel safe when they left their children in schools or childcare centres, the children must be protected from being bullied and tortured behind the backs of their parents. How can parents be at ease to put their children in the care of others, supposedly trained and professionals?
The message that everyone in the school must be responsible for the well being of little children must get across. Not reporting abuses is as good as being accomplice to the vicious attack and guilty of the act.
And the torturers of children must be put behind bars, just like employers beating and torturing maids and foreign workers. This City is sick to the core if such cruelties are not nip in the bud and allowed to continue in childcare centres or schools, or in workplace again and again. Even one more case is one more case too much.
Why is it that no Sinkies will ever stand up to right a wrong, to defend the weak or a wicked act? After so many decades of being conditioned, better not to speak up, just obey, just do as being told, do not defy and oppose authority, this is what Sinkies have become. Not my business, and I did not do it, so I am innocent.
The people, a first world and well educated people, must be empowered to look after themselves, their environment and their neighbours and fellow citizens, especially the weak and helpless. But no, they are all kiasi, kiasu and kia tai chee. Don’t get yourself into trouble, into other people’s trouble. In this child abuse case, it is the wrongdoing of the offending teacher, so not their business.
There is a need to empower the people, educate the people to stand up for their rights and to stand up for what is right and against what is wrong. We are turning a nation of people into unthinking and unfeeling robots that only care about themselves and nothing else.
WP bashing – a smear campaign
Some of you may be aware by now of the consistent and daily bashing of the WP by anonymous bloggers in their comments here and in other blogs. I want to declare that I am not a supporter of any political party. The tactic used is the same as that of the Americans attacking their chosen enemies, schemed by the mind benders, to subtly plant negative thoughts into the heads of the innocent readers. No, the readers do not believe or agree with the bashings, but the idea is planted in their subconscious and will eventually influence their thoughts in the most unexpected moment.
These are the works of highly trained professionals and executed by the runners. Everyday without fail, they will post things like WP is sleeping, WP is not doing anything, WP has few good people, WP is incapable of forming the next govt etc etc.
The work is not done by one individual but by a brigade. The line of thought is similar in nature. Just read through the blogs and take notice of such vibes and vitriols. Be aware and conscious about them and build yourself a defence mechanism to ignore and reject such negative ideas consciously. This requires effort to do so. Not doing anything will open one to a long period of idea planting and mind bending and before one knows anything, the idea is imbedded in the some corners of the mind and will affect one’s decision at those critical moments.
Be aware of what you read. Be protected like being protected against the virus. Be vaccinated. The mind game is ongoing all the time.
Another thing that the brigade is doing is character assassination. They would not discuss or engage an issue but just go straight to attack the blogger. Such slimey people are simply shameless things that walked on two legs and calling themselves human beans. There are plenty of them out there, here and in other blogs. And the people who sanctioned their acts, paid for their acts are the bigger devils themselves, though many would put on a pretense that they did not know and are not involved.
These are the works of highly trained professionals and executed by the runners. Everyday without fail, they will post things like WP is sleeping, WP is not doing anything, WP has few good people, WP is incapable of forming the next govt etc etc.
The work is not done by one individual but by a brigade. The line of thought is similar in nature. Just read through the blogs and take notice of such vibes and vitriols. Be aware and conscious about them and build yourself a defence mechanism to ignore and reject such negative ideas consciously. This requires effort to do so. Not doing anything will open one to a long period of idea planting and mind bending and before one knows anything, the idea is imbedded in the some corners of the mind and will affect one’s decision at those critical moments.
Be aware of what you read. Be protected like being protected against the virus. Be vaccinated. The mind game is ongoing all the time.
Another thing that the brigade is doing is character assassination. They would not discuss or engage an issue but just go straight to attack the blogger. Such slimey people are simply shameless things that walked on two legs and calling themselves human beans. There are plenty of them out there, here and in other blogs. And the people who sanctioned their acts, paid for their acts are the bigger devils themselves, though many would put on a pretense that they did not know and are not involved.
7/07/2013
Bloggers Contest – World’s apart
The winner of the most popular blog contest organised by the
citizens of the city state is none other than TREmeritus with millions of hits
daily. Coming closely as first runner up is The Real Singapore. Second runner
up goes to LittleSpeck. Actually these are just figments of my imagination.
The real winner of the Spore Blog Award went to Ivan Kwan
whose blog, The Lazy Lizard’s Tales, whose article on the Pulau Ubin
conservation went viral. Altogether 19 bloggers were honoured in the contest
organised by the Singapore Press Holdings. Among the winners were bloggers on
travel, lifestyle, parenthood, makan stalls and poetry.
Some of the winners would be blogging on finance and health
matters soon. And one blogger commented, ‘It is also fantastic to see older
bloggers – it shows that the trend is quite mainstream, no longer confined to
the younger generation.’
Sorry uncles Seah Chiang Nee and Leong Sze Hian, not old
enough, and not mainstream. And sorry, to be winners of the contest, you cannot
blog about social political stuff. Mainstream bloggers don’t blog on such
sticky stuff. I am going to set up a few new blogs on kite flying and fighting
spiders. Maybe I will get a mention next year.
On the other hand it would be nice if TRE or some other
lunatic blogging sites could organised a contest for the best blog or best
bloggers on the lunatic fringe and we can reveal the fearful and frightening
faces of these weird beings that exist in cyberspace. Otherwise no one will
know of their existence or their blogs and the hot stuff they wrote. For sure
they would not be writing about poetry and the beautiful garden city.
7/06/2013
Ravi and Vellama shine through the constitutional haze
Last August a high court judge, Pillai ruled that the PM has all the discretion to call or not to call a by election when a single constituency seat is vacant. It more or less cast a big dark cloud over the constitutional rights of the citizens to be represented by an elected representative. Yesterday, light shone through the dark cloud to clear up this hazy matter. Three Appeal Court Judges, Chao Hick Tin, Andrew Phang and V Rajah, over ruled Judge Pillai’s judgement and re read what the Constitution really meant in a clear and logical way.
The Prime Minister may have certain leeway to decide when a
by election is to be held but he must call a by election within reasonable
time. A by election must be called to protect the rights of the people to be
represented by an elected MP. Otherwise it would lead to the disenfranchisement
of the people, an act contrary to the provision of the Constitution. Is not
this logical from the very start? Well, judges are human beans too and their
interpretations of the law sometimes left much to be desired.
The findings of the Appeal Court Judges in a way vindicated
the smear poured over Ravi as an erratic person flawed
by a bi polar sickness, meaning he is unreliable and may not even be fit to be
a lawyer. This case proved beyond any doubt that for all the harsh accusations
of a decent man in Ravi, his cranial faculty is still as
sound as anyone learned man, if not better. Ravi pushed
a case that was sound from the beginning and almost became unsound, which would
also implicate him as being unsound. Now it is very clear that Ravi
and his case are both as sound as they could be.
This judgement is a victory of the people, a victory of our
judicial system, of sound interpretation of the law, a victory for Ravi
and Vellama, two most unexpected individuals that took on the system to demand
an explanation and interpretation of the law. And the Courts of Law delivered.
And it also tells a story that judges do erred, particularly in the way laws
are written and the way words are used.
7/05/2013
Temasek Annual Report 2013
‘2009 News--Government will be able to issue more securities like bonds, after Parliament approved raising the limit of its borrowings from $250 billion to $320 billion.
This motion to increase the limit was passed yesterday.
Explaining the need for a higher amount, Second Finance Minister Lim Hwee Hua said the Government is close to reaching the current ceiling of $250 billion, with more securities likely to be issued.
There are $234.7 billion worth of outstanding government securities, she said, and the amount is expected to hit $320 billion in the next five years.’
The above was posted by an anonymous blogger as a comment. It is old news but may still be applicable when the next set of bond is due for redemption and wonder how much it would be.
I am no expert in this kind of numbers and I am not going to dig into them to figure out what is or what is not. Maybe Leong Sze Hian might have more to say on this. I think he must be banging away with his calculator at the moment to make sense of what is being published to day.
All I can say is that if Temasek’s net portfolio value is $215b and (if there is a $234.7b worth of bond expiring, hypothetically), the amount with Temasek would not be enough to redeem these bonds. Or maybe some of the bonds will be serviced by GIC. If Temasek is liable fully for this $234.7b, then the 16% annual return is going to be meaningless right? Anyone knows when will the next bond be due and how much would it be? I am just using the numbers as examples for discussion only.
And in order for Temasek to continue to hold on to this $215b, it needs to roll over the bonds by issuing more bonds to the tune of $320b. And this roll over is going to go up annually, while the value of Temasek’s holding may take a long time to catch up, which technically Temasek is operating on a negative asset basis. Tio boh? Please enlighten me that I am wrong and what Temasek is owning now a large portion of it is net profit, less bond redemption.
Oh, there are some economists here. Please help and explain to the laymen what the numbers mean, can?
Why are the Middle Eastern countries in perpetual turmoil?
The Middle Eastern region, including the north African states, are in perpetual turmoil, armed uprising, mass protest, regime change, civil wars and whatever you can name it, as long as it is about destabilizing a country, you can find it in the Middle East region. In the north you have Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, the Palestinian non state and Israel. In the south you have Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and to the east there are Afghanistan and Pakistan. And to the west, there are Egypt, Libya, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia etc etc.
There are two common factors in these countries, one is instability and war. The other, you guess.
The countries in Latin America used to be in a similar state with regime change and assassinations of their leaders a regular affair. These countries were also in a state of flux and instability. There were uprisings and rebel groups waiting to over throw the legitimate govts. Today, Latin American is like an oasis of peace. The turmoil and threats of regime change is past.
What are the two common factors that contributed to the peace and stability in the region? One is the absence of interstate conflict and subversion. The other factor, you guess?
OK, the other factor that is common in the Middle Eastern region that contributed to the existing state of constant turmoil and instability is the presence of the Americans. The Americans claimed that they have an interest in the region and thus have the right to put their fingers into the pot to stir shit, to promote regime change, to support rebel forces and insurgents against legitimate govts.
The other common factor that contributed to the state of peace and stability in Latin America is the absence of American interference. The Americans have been booted out of South America and with the door slammed shut in their face. As a result the Latin American countries could live in peace and concentrate on economic development, and to determine their own affairs the way they want it.
South East Asia has enjoyed four decades of relative peace after the Americans were forced to leave Vietnam and the Philippines. Today tension is again brewing in South East Asia with threats of war very imminent. What is the new factor that contributed to this new state of instability? You guess.
Ask why is the Korean Peninsula in a state of perpetual tension and at the brink of war? No it is not the North Koreans. They are just the straw men put up for bashing.
Singaporeans have forgotten how to protest
This seems to be the observations culled from the comments by some bloggers following the epic Egyptian protest and the Hongkie protest this week. I think in terms of public gathering, Singaporeans are more comfortable showing up for a celebration like the Pink Dot Movement or the National Day Celebration.
It is not that protest on the street is not a part of our history or not in our DNA. There were big protests against the colonial govt, industrial strikes, and some quite violent in a way. The students camped in the Bukit Timah campus of Chinese High. These were memories of the past.
The biggest protests in recent past other than the three in Hong Lim did not garner more than 20 people at most and in several cases less than 10. This is quite a phenomenon in our history. Maybe the law that defined 4 as illegal assembly may have conditioned the populace not to be seen in greater than 4 unless it is a govt approved protest.
How then could Sinkies get used to be running down the streets again in protest of whatever they want to believe and protest about? Maybe a little training, a few trial runs or a few practices to get them used to be in a street protest may be needed. Hong Lim is a good place for such training and we had three or so over the few months. The two protests against the 6.9 populations were surprisingly well attended in our context though dismal even to those of our neighbours. Really no fun huh?
And the last call to protest against the haze met with near total silence. Maybe it was the haze and the protesters were there but hidden by poor visibility. Come to think about it, an anti haze protest or something similar could be a good practice round. The Hongkies had a good trial run when they protested against the TianAnMen in what, 1989? I think this is a good idea to start with. Try to protest against something external, like the haze. The temperature would not be so high and people will not be too edgy about it. It may even be encouraged. Have a few runs to get the people to get used to what a protest is like. It can also be fun if grandpa and grandma and the children can come along, like a picnic.
However, not all protests are like a picnic. The latest Hongkie protest surprisingly was like a picnic though the motion was serious and causing the govt some jittery moments. They must have practiced it to an art by now, peaceful protest and both protesters and the govt are quite comfortable and knowing no force will be used against the protesters. Don’t try the Malaysian version 1.01.
The drawback about protesting on external issues is that it may not be attractive enough to draw in the crowd. There are issues too that will make such a protest unattractive. Perhaps the govt could contribute some free chicken rice and free transportation to educate the Sinkies on how to walk the streets confidently for a good cause or at least for the right thing.
Sinkies are now like domesticated animals and have lost their instinct to act naturally, to learn to live off the land, to fight for food, to fight for their own survival and existence. An introduction course to learn how to protest may be good for the Sinkies and country as well. One day we may need this for our own good. It is also a tool that the Govt can apply to exert some pressure in a cause that the official line will not work. There are times when letting the people into the street to do the talking is necessary.
Protesting is a forgotten survival skill in this sanitized and emotionless City when nothing matters anymore. People can get robbed of their life savings and would not dare utter a murmur. It is quite unfortunate really, to lose this survival skill. The discrimination against Sinkies in employment caught the Sinkies totally off guard and not knowing what to do next. Helplessness is the word. The ministers actually thought that the best thing was to plead with the transgressors or recalcitrants by having a chat over coffee, and hoping that things will happen.
Did the thought of a street protest occur in their minds? Lim Boon Heng did one some years back by marching from the NTUC Conference hall to High Street, if I can remember. The Govt must take the lead if the Sinkies are to relearn how to protest once more. Forget about the picnics in Hong Lim, that is a walk in the park.
7/04/2013
4th July – The World in revolt against the American Empire
A world wide revolt against the American Empire is on the card. Today, the major internet players like Reddit, FireFox Mozilla, Wordpress, Google and Wikipedia among the biggies are calling for a mass protest against the American Empire for extensive surveillance on the conversations of individuals, violating their rights to privacy. According to BBC,
‘The Restore the Fourth movement - referring to the US constitution's fourth amendment - said it wants to end "unconstitutional surveillance".
Reddit, Mozilla and Wordpress are among the big web names backing the action, due to take place on Thursday. Almost 100 events have been planned across the US. An interactive map detailing their locations has been published.
The site quotes a line from the fourth amendment which pledges "the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures".
As well as the "real-world" protests, many influential websites plan to display messages of protest on their homepages on Thursday, co-ordinated by a group called the Internet Defence League (IDL)….
In reaction to the revelations made by whistleblower Edward Snowden, Mozilla, maker of the widely used Firefox browser, launched stopwatching.us - a petition calling for full disclosure of the US's "spying" programmes....'
In another corner, Bolivian President Morales is calling the European countries to rise and free themselves from the American Empire. His flight home from Moscow was disrupted and harassed by American intervention claiming that he was harbouring Edward Snowden in his plane. In a Bloomberg report,
‘South American leaders rallied to Morales’s side after the incident, with heads of state from countries including Argentina, Ecuador and Uruguay planning to gather in the Bolivian city of Cochabamba today in a show of solidarity. His plane was forced to land in Austria after Spain, France, Portugal and Italy refused to let his official jet fly through their airspace.
The detour was a “humiliation” for the region, Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner said yesterday. The Union of South American Nations, or Unasur, yesterday issued a statement expressing outrage over the incident, which it said put Morales’ life at risk….’
The European leaders were furious about such unabashed and mischievous surveillance and are up in arms demanding an explanation from the Americans. Germany, the leader of Europe and believing itself to be a closed ally of the Americans is red in the face for being classified as a third grade partner and subjected to intense surveillance in the same level as China and other ‘enemy’ countries of the Empire.
This 4th of July is a very unusual day for the Americans today. The whole world is so disgusted by the obnoxious and insensitive American conduct and is revolting on their feet. They are crying for independence from the American Empire. The Evil Empire has over committed itself in acts that are intolerable and embarrassing to its allies and enemies all over the world. And its boorish handling of the flight of the Bolivian President only confirmed the bad image of an arrogant and irresponsible Empire.
The World is in revolt on 4th of July. 4th of July is the Independence Day of the Nations of the World from the Evil American Empire.
Bigotry? Hahahahah….
‘The Restore the Fourth movement - referring to the US constitution's fourth amendment - said it wants to end "unconstitutional surveillance".
Reddit, Mozilla and Wordpress are among the big web names backing the action, due to take place on Thursday. Almost 100 events have been planned across the US. An interactive map detailing their locations has been published.
The site quotes a line from the fourth amendment which pledges "the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures".
As well as the "real-world" protests, many influential websites plan to display messages of protest on their homepages on Thursday, co-ordinated by a group called the Internet Defence League (IDL)….
In reaction to the revelations made by whistleblower Edward Snowden, Mozilla, maker of the widely used Firefox browser, launched stopwatching.us - a petition calling for full disclosure of the US's "spying" programmes....'
In another corner, Bolivian President Morales is calling the European countries to rise and free themselves from the American Empire. His flight home from Moscow was disrupted and harassed by American intervention claiming that he was harbouring Edward Snowden in his plane. In a Bloomberg report,
‘South American leaders rallied to Morales’s side after the incident, with heads of state from countries including Argentina, Ecuador and Uruguay planning to gather in the Bolivian city of Cochabamba today in a show of solidarity. His plane was forced to land in Austria after Spain, France, Portugal and Italy refused to let his official jet fly through their airspace.
The detour was a “humiliation” for the region, Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner said yesterday. The Union of South American Nations, or Unasur, yesterday issued a statement expressing outrage over the incident, which it said put Morales’ life at risk….’
The European leaders were furious about such unabashed and mischievous surveillance and are up in arms demanding an explanation from the Americans. Germany, the leader of Europe and believing itself to be a closed ally of the Americans is red in the face for being classified as a third grade partner and subjected to intense surveillance in the same level as China and other ‘enemy’ countries of the Empire.
This 4th of July is a very unusual day for the Americans today. The whole world is so disgusted by the obnoxious and insensitive American conduct and is revolting on their feet. They are crying for independence from the American Empire. The Evil Empire has over committed itself in acts that are intolerable and embarrassing to its allies and enemies all over the world. And its boorish handling of the flight of the Bolivian President only confirmed the bad image of an arrogant and irresponsible Empire.
The World is in revolt on 4th of July. 4th of July is the Independence Day of the Nations of the World from the Evil American Empire.
Bigotry? Hahahahah….
Anti mainland Chinese in Hongkong
“They grab degrees, they grab jobs – do HongKongers deserve to be the lower class forever?,” reads the headline of the ad. “We oppose the mainlandisation of HK universities and demand the rights of education and jobs returned to HongKongers.”
“Seventy per cent of students at Hong Kong’s graduate schools are from the mainland,” it continued, “They are allowed to stay in Hong Kong for a year even without a work permit. And they can apply to stay longer once they get a job offer or start their own business!”….
“Let’s look at Hong Kong’s professors – eight out of 10 are from the mainland,” wrote a Facebook user named Anita Wang, “Let’s drive all of them away”…. [Source]: http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1250368/hongkongers-raise-money-ad-against-mainlandisation-hk-universities?page=all
The Hongkies are protesting against the invasion of mainland Chinese into Hongkong, taking away university places and employments. This is quite similar to our situation here except that the mainlanders are actually citizens of the same country. If Hongkong were to be swarmed by foreigners like what is happening here, what will the Honkies do?
They would not send 5000 people to Hong Lim like Sinkies do. I think the Hongkong Govt would not last a single day without mass street protests daily if that is the case. Imagine having Indians, Malaysians, Pinoys, Thais, Indonesians, Myanmese and all the Southeast Asian people, Europeans and PRCs in Hongkong, and forming 50% of the population. Imagine the foreigners going in to take their jobs and discriminate against them?
Such thing can only happen in a City where the citizens don’t even think or believe that the island is their country and all only think of is emigrating, running away. And Hongkong did not have national service or nation building to teach the Hongkies that the island is their home. But somehow they know that it is their home and will fight to protect their home and interest.
Only people that have no homes will think of running away from their place of residents. No fighting spirit or dunno what to fight for. Sinkies are really sad, some said daft, some said stupid. When they are being replaced and discriminated by foreigners they can only think of running away. And the foreigners also told them to get lost if they could not compete with them.
The reactions of Sinkies to the invasion of foreigners are expected. They have been told that the foreigners are here to help them. So the more foreigners the better and they have to be grateful for that. And since they are so helpless and cannot help themselves, it is only natural to move out as they are no longer useful or unable to contribute to the City, or unable to make a living in the City.
After reading above you may want to know how contradictory the below statement posted by a blogger in TRE sounds.
• Nathan:
July 4, 2013 at 3:59 am (Quote)
Hong Kong is an inalienable part of China. This is a fact. Their fate is not in their hands. Whereas Singapore is a sovereign state whereby the people have the right of self-determination. We yearn to be master in our own land but instead have been enslaved by our Government. We are determined for real political change but not altogether so.
Housing bubble – Where got?
The 8th measure to curb property prices has been rolled out and everyone is clapping and slapping their backs for the big success in preventing a property bubble. The latest figure shows property prices still creeping up but in smaller increments.
Did anyone see the elephant in the classroom? No, where, where got elephant? A 99 year lease kopitiam is fetching $24m with probably 80 years of the lease left. And it is great value for money. How much was it bought initially? $2m or $3m?
Property prices are very stable after seven curbing measures and with this eighth curbs, everything will be ok. Thank God, there is no property bubble. Property prices are now what they should be, reasonable and affordable, and growing only a little bit at a time as it should be.
Well done.
Singapore’s property prices will never come down. Neither will Singapore face a housing bubble crisis like the Americans or in Japan. We have the most highly paid talents managing the housing bubble, oops, I mean housing prices, and they would not allow a bubble to be formed, thus no bubble to bust. Anyone see any housing bubble? No right.
The undeclared war of the Evil Empire
More evidence of what the US has been doing, spying and attacking other nations through snooping in cyberspace and conducting cyber warfare are surfacing after the revelation by Edward Snowden, an ex CIA agent. The Americans even tagged Germany, their closest ally in Europe in the same category as China, Iraq and of all the Arab countries, Saudi Arabia, as third class partners. Who is friend or foe of the Americans is getting a dose of American reality. The Germans and the Saudis must be thinking that they are sleeping partners of the Americans, without expecting that sleeping in the same bed also means getting screwed at the same time.
‘We can attack the signals of most foreign third class partners, and we do it too… On an average day, the NSA monitored about 20 mil German Phone connections and 10 mil Internet data sets, rising to 60 mil phone connections on busy days,…In France the US tapped about two mil “connection data” a day, Der Spiegel reported…’ This is quoted from a report by AFP/REUTERS in My Paper today.
There is a war going on out there, conducted by the Americans. The amount of resources engaged to conduct this war at such a scale world wide is unimaginable. Nearly every country comes under American surveillance and attack.
Believe me, this information is not fabricated by China or enemies of the Americans. It came from an American and reported by the western media. The Americans are the biggest culprit in cyber warfare and snooping around. And only they can do it. Any other country doing so will be condemned by the Americans and expected to explain to the Americans. They have recently rebuked China for doing so. What hypocrisy!
They can own the biggest arsenal of nuclear weapons for peace. Other countries trying to build one are forbidden, as it is claimed by the Americans that they are building nuclear weapons for war. The evil Empire owns the biggest military forces in the world, the biggest merchant of war and weapons of mass destruction. But the Americans claimed that all the weapons they owned, and the weapons they are selling, are for peace. They provoked and fought wars everywhere for peace. Believe that?
And many unthinking nations believe the Americans cause the Americans said them so. It is war out there everyday 24/7. What peace? Peace is in Asia and Southeast Asia, but not for long. The Americans are coming and they will bring with them a trail of blood and destruction.
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