Full time MP not a good idea

A very strange article by Rachel Chang in yesterday’s ST made me wonder why she wrote it and what made her came to such a conclusion. At the end of her piece she finally said, ‘MPs here rarely draft laws, and the scrutiny process over government Bills is brief and uncomplex compared with other legislatures…no need to travel long distances to get back to their home constituencies from the capital, nor are they required to raise huge amounts of funds for political activities…’ She took note of the Meet the People Session and the increasing workload but not enough to justify full time MP.

There is also a lack of interest among MPs and potential MPs who are successful professionals to want to give up their profession to be full time MPs. The $16,000 is just not attractive enough for the big income earners to want to become full time MPs.

So, which is the more important justification to say that full time MP is not a good idea, not enough meaningful work or the income of professionals is too good to forgo? It is understandable that top income earners would have little inspiration to want to go into politics and to sacrifice their huge personal income. But this can be resolved in two ways, one, make them ministers or ministers of state when the multi million dollar package will be fairly compatible. The other golden goose that could be a good alternative is to allow them to take up as many directorships as they like. After all the workload of an MP does not need the attention of a full time MP. A caveat is that high earning professionals will make good MPs or even ministers. The reality has proven otherwise. Professionals with their hearts misplaced can caused more harm than good.

There are other views of why people want to become an MP. Some see it as a calling, to serve the people and country, and money is not the most important thing to them. A good example is Chen Show Mao. Some may have made enough bucks and would want to do something more meaningful than just trying to fatten their bank accounts for several generations to feed on.

Seriously, who gave Rachel Chang the idea that MP’s workload is nothing more than a part time job? Actually, an MP’s job can be a part time job and also a full time job. It depends on how much the person is willing to put himself into the affairs of the state and the welfare of the people. If an MP thinks his job is to just spend a little time to meet the people, have a few walkabouts, shake a few hands and kiss a few babies, and suka suka attend a few parliamentary sessions since they are not much legislative work to do except to vote yes or no, then it is indeed a part time job. A machine could do just as fine and cheaper for sure. A machine also does not have a heart.

On the other hand an MP could be so involved in the affairs of the state and the people that there is just not enough time even for a full time MP. It is relative and how one looks at the MP job and how important is his role to better the lives of the people in his constituency and across the nation. Voting in parliament without having to think does not need much time, just 30 seconds to raise the hand.

In a way, a PM or a Minister too can be a part time job. But some will need 25 hours a day to do his job well, or still cannot do his job well. And there are MPs that are so free or so efficient that they can take on as many directorships as they like, advisory roles and full time jobs and still got time to spare to play golf or engage in their favourite past times.

What do you think, MP should be part time or full time?

Kopi level - Yellow

MOM hiring Indian agency to check on CVs and certifications

Dataflow Services has been engaged by the MOM to do random checks on the certificates of Indian professionals working here. About 500 to 600 checks will be conducted annually at $100, and each search must be completed within 4 weeks. With about 200,000 Indian PMEs here, at 500 a year, a complete inventory checks, assuming no more new PMEs arriving, it would take about 400 years to do the job. Maybe Dataflow is not the only agency doing the job. Also maybe a sample check will do as not the whole 200,000 PMEs will be submitting fake qualifications and CVs.

And of course the cost to conduct such investigations is going to be a multi million dollar business with such a high volume of traffic. It becomes a case of want to do or not wanting to do and how much to spend to be effective. What is certain is that hiring foreigners is not going to be a cheaper option anymore. This hidden cost, other than other social and security cost, and the cost of making fools of local PMEs and making them jobless and affecting the soundness of our society, all added up to make this option not that simple or desirable. The best way out is to pretend that everything is ok, don’t check and bury the head in the sand.

How effective will this move be, it is something that has to be done, when the employment of foreigners has become a highly complicated system of fraud with many layers of supporting services to hide the fraud? The problem is so complex that it would need a whole series of counter measures to remove all the fakes that have gone pass our immigration doors. It is becoming a spy vs spy or spooks vs spooks game. And many of the fakes have been so deeply buried that by now they would have chalked in a series of genuine CVs that they could erase their fake CVs of the past. It is like a successful and rich criminal walking around in suits and being driven around in limousines without a trace of their dirty past lingering around them.

We have let this problem to fester for too long and the damage done is so serious and damaging to the citizen PMEs and even the lives of the innocents who have to go under the hands of the fakes. It really beats me to think that it takes so long to realise that we have been cheated by lowly 3^rd cheats. And now the problem has grown so huge that it will literally take hundreds of man years to unravel the mistakes of the past.

There may be a new profession, something like who is to check on the watchdogs assigned or paid to be watchdogs?

The big bangs that went poofs

There were several big bangs that were supposed to cause a big excitement or causes for jubilation. The first was the attack on the WP in the cleaning of hawker centre ceilings. If the accusations stick, it will definitely undermine the credibility of the rising political star party. Unfortunately the story had to come to a premature ending when some notes in the minutes were not in order. Nothing was heard since then.

Next came the PAP’s end of the year party caucus that was meant to be a battle cry, to raise the tempo ahead of the next GE. The young turks led by Chan Chun Sing declared that the party would take the fight to the people, to every corner of the island, to win the right to be the ruling party again. Again things did not go that way when the whole campaign was hijacked or thrown aside by the once in 50 year unexpected riot in Little India. That event shook the very core of the social fabric and got everyone’s attention. The pronouncement at the party caucus became a non event, forgotten, pissssed.

More bangs were lined up but fizzled out along the way. The Media Corp big bang at the Marina Bay year end celebration was meant to be another big PR event on how far and how successful we have been. It suffered the fate of another failed event when it was attacked for having too many Channel 8 artistes present and the use of Mandarin in a Channel 5 event even though Mandarin is an official language. It just did not go down well with the Channel 5 viewers and ended with many excuses and damage control measures.

A big party was also arranged in the 8^th Wonder of the World, though a miniature one in the form of the most expensive stretch of expressway cutting under the sea. It was touted as a great engineering feat and architectural wonder only to be bashed by the most massive traffic congestion the next morning. A great PR event, never mind the money spent, to create free flow of traffic ended with a 3 hour traffic jam and many angry motorists paying to be in the jam. No more harping about how great it was meant to be.

There are several other big bangs that were worth crowing about but faded into oblivion. Just to mention another piece, the wonder Jewel to be built at Changi Airport, touted as a game changer with a billion dollar price tag to propel Changi as the choice destination for air travelers was shot down by many quarters for a failed concept. A weak attempt to deflect the negative comments soon faded away as well.

These big bang potential events marked the closing chapter of 2013 and the new chapter of 2014. The big bangs went poof. Nothing much to cheer about or to jump in joy.

The latest follow-ups, the farmer festival in Little India, yesterday’s Thaipusam and the coming Chinese New Year could bring a little joy and normalcy back to a city trying to celebrate and party the whole year round, signs of more good years and more good times. A nation in perpetual celebration and joy.

Kopi level - Green

Anarchy in Thailand

In Sin City, anyone heard mumbling about burning or beating up an MP would see the law coming down on him fast. No one can simply harass or threaten an MP by words or actions and get away with it.

In Bangkok, the protesters openly announced that they will arrest or kidnap not only the Prime Ministers but also all the ministers. And nothing can be done about it. The protesters are now acting like they are above the law or there is no law. Some are throwing bombs at politician’s houses and some taking pot shots at protesters and killing them and nothing happened to them.

What is happening in Bangkok is that the PM is not allowed to act or cannot act, for any action against the protesters will lead to violence and the army will just step in to remove the PM and the govt. Not doing anything by the govt will also give the army the excuse to do a coup anytime it sees fit that the govt is hapless and ineffective.

It is a strange mind game with the chess players playing behind the scene. The game is played by very powerful forces and calling on all the tricks in statecraft and treachery to outdo the opponent. The devil or the angel is now so well disguised and distorted that no one really knows what is real. How long would Bangkok remain lawless, with no govt? How long will Yingluck’s govt last?

The game plan of the army is quite clear, waiting to take over in a coup for any misstep of inaction by the govt.

What is the game plan of the Yingluck govt? She can be arrested or force to flee anytime. She is now even under investigation for corruption on her rice programme for the poor farmers. When that happens, it is likely that the army will take over. When that happens, the Red Shirts would likely to flood the streets of Bangkok. Another possibility is for the Red Shirts to abandon Bangkok and declare a breakaway with a new independent state in the North and North East.

When this happens, the likelihood of a civil war is very high unless the military is also divided and both sides agree on a truce and a parting of the country into two states. And there is also a likelihood that amidst the chaos, the southern muslim states would also want to break away and form their own state.

Is the army strong enough, united enough, to hold Thailand together? Is the military, the combined arms, willing to take the same path or they are all having different dreams?

The accusation of Yingluck’s govt as being incorrigibly corrupt is gaining momentum. The support and turnout of the Red Shirts would tell if they believe what the Bangkok power elite are claiming or they believe that the Yingluck govt is there to uplift the life of the poor farmers. Which truth will survive?

Whither Thailand?

The latest bombing of the protesters is forcing the hands of the army. It is unlikely that the Yingluck govt will want this to happen to bring to its downfall. It is unlikely that the police that support the govt will be the culprit to do the govt in. The evidence, unfortunately is that the police or the anti protesters are behind the bombing, to provide the reasons to bring down the govt. 

False flag theory anyone?

Lucasfilm’s crazy gambit

When George Lucas decided to plant his Asia regional HQ in Singapore, many thought he was crazy, maybe just as crazy as Sheldon Adelson of Marina Bay Sands. In the latter, with so many strings attached against gambling and a govt of priests and priestesses, how could a casino make money here? And as for Lucasfilm, a country that is so uptight and hell bent on media control and so stifling for creativity, how could Lucasfilm make any headway with a population of proverbial nerds?
 
The success of Lucasfilm here with its signature seven storey complex called Sandcrawler speaks for itself. There is no lack of creativity, and real talents are allowed to shine in their fields of expertise. George Lucas has no regrets and full of praises on his new ship here.
 
This is the kind of industry that the govt should be encouraging, creative, innovative, high tech and high value add. Not those cheap and low cost set up with low tech, low skill, low talent, and those labour intensive cheap labour sweatshops found in some of the business and industrial parks here.
 
We have a good place, good environment and infrastructure for the world’s best companies to operate here. I won’t add good talents since our talents are called daft and need to be replaced by 3rd World talents.
 
We don’t have to sell ourselves cheap, like Geylang prostitutes, selling to 3rd World fake talents and low skilled and cheap labour intensive shops. We must know our real worth and market our facilities to quality companies around the world. We should not go for quantity and turn our island into another 3rd World slum.
 
Lucasfilm can provide the necessary pivot for us to move into higher gear and higher value add industries. We may failed to be the Silicon Valley, but we can be a digital media valley supporting the film industry. Let’s have more of such businesses here, let’s welcome them and not the scums and low value shops and waste our valuable land and to crowd our city with undesirables. We need to reinvent ourselves up the high tech world and get out from our reliance on cheap 3rd world factories and sweat shops. If not will may spiral downwards to become the next call centre in the region.

Fare hike, no point crying over spilt milk

The fare hike came as they intended and planned for. You can expect the same of 6.9m. No amount of natcon or kpkb will change anything or change their minds. They are the masters and they shall decide what is best for the people. No matter what is being said or how much is being said, nothing will change until the next GE when they will be crying and begging for forgiveness.
 
Today they are in charge and the logic is their logic. What they think is logic, what they think is good, must be logical, good and the best. Period. It is the logic of power.
 
The fare hike is adding another $53.5 m profit to the transport companies. What was the profit last year and how much more will it be with this $53.5 m? Why is a monopoly public transport system be guaranteed of profits, handsome profits every year, and still be given a cash grant of more than a billion to buy new fleet of buses, put aside the increasing frequency of disruption? Why can’t the transport companies be run on more or less a breakeven basis or smaller profit margin? Why can’t the MRT raise its revenue from its retail rental and other businesses rather than squeezing more money from the commuters, many of whom are not the filthy rich, some scrimping for a living?
 
Why are there now more differentiation of price mechanism and season cards? Why are they still feeding on the students and seniors that are mostly non income earners?
For so many years, with so many models to pick from, why are these ideas not thought of? The answers are obvious. They did not send overseas missions to study their systems.
 
Would they really refine their thinking of what a public transport system’s main mission is? Would they ever think of not making money from those that are not economically productive or living on handouts or charity from parents or from children’s generosity?
I think they are more concern with helping people to buy the latest sports cars to test the road system. No use kpkb. Nothing will be heard. Natcon, listening to the people? Tan ku ku.
 
Wait till nearer the GE and maybe there will be some pretensions of wanting to listen to the people.

PS. Kopi level - Green

Spending OPM is so easy

Singapore would be spending more than $2b to upgrade the fleet of F16s in service now. With better avionics and weapons system, would the upgraded F16s be good enough to stand in for the trouble stricken F35s until they are proven to be as good as they are made out to be? Or would this $2b plus be on top of the several billions earmarked for the f35s? It would definitely be a nice fit to have the most expensive fighter aircraft on earth to match the most expensive salaries of the ministers.
 
Sure it is no problem when a fake garden cost easily just as much and a 5km expressway cost more than double the amount. It is chicken feat. And if money not enough, the citizens are always there happy to contribute to the kitty. A lot of money in the CPF, really, no joke, just spend.
 
Why would not Singapore consider the Russian MiGs and Sukhois that have proven to be as good, or even better than the trouble infested F35s? The Russians not willing to sell? Or there is no choice and we must give the money to the Americans? Or we are just a part of the American pivot strategy and must operate the same aircraft to fit into their game plan? If this is the case, shouldn’t the Americans be subsidizing the cost of our aircraft as they are the one getting a free ride from us, a safe and dependable base and probably with our flyboys at their disposals?
 
Are the F15s, F18s, F22s, all inferior to the Russian fighters? If so, why not buy Russians? Would the $2b plus allow us to buy brand new Russian fighter aircraft that are superior to the F16s and the whole lot of American aircraft? Would it be better to have another brand new top of the range Russian fighter aircraft and diversified our defence needs to more than just one source?

It is easy to demand the best when it is not your money you are spending. What if the best is not the best and why pay so much for something that is not the best?

Ghost cities versus ghost buildings

We have heard of ghost cities in China when whole estates were built in anticipation of occupants taking over after being relocated from their villages. The Chinese are no fools and the empty cities are not built simply by opportunists developers who built without knowing if there is a demand for them. The cities will be filled by resettlement cases from the villages, to replace the old homes, just like what we did to our old shanty villages in Bukit Ho Swee, Ang Mo Kio and many other old estates.
 
Many reports have been written on these ghost cities in China but the Chinese govt is not unduly worried as there are more than a billion people waiting for new and better housing as the country goes into a nationwide rebuilding and renewing programme.
 
The recent fire at the Marina Bay Suites exposed an untold story of blocks of new housing development, all sold but with few occupants. These ghost buildings, a smaller scale than the Chinese cities, are likely to be spread around the islands. Or maybe the Marina Bay Suites is only an exception. If it is a common phenomenon, then property prices are primed to crash when so many flats have been bought and unoccupied, waiting to be flipped for a profit, for the next sucker to come along.
 
This is a good topic for the reporters to do some investigative journalism to tell the full story on the housing bubble and speculative play, to warn unsuspecting Sinkies from taking a plunge and avoid being caught in a sinking property market.
 
How many more homes are coming into the market and how many are bought and waiting to be resold? What is the combined total or supply available for sale? The supply is not just those under construction but those in the unoccupied ghost buildings waiting for buyers.

The implications of Asean Economic Community or FTA

In 2007 Summit ASEAN leaders affirmed their strong commitment to accelerate the establishment of an ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) by 2015.
The AEC aims to make ASEAN a more dynamic and competitive economic block by making it a single market and production base by 2015 governed by the principles of an open, outward-looking, inclusive, and market-driven economy.
 
As a single market and production base, the AEC comprises the following five core elements:
1. Free flow of goods
2. Free flow of services
3. Free flow of investment
4. Freer flow of capital
5. Free flow of skilled labour
 
The above paras were copied from a post in TRE by a Honest Singaporean. Presumably the 5 core elements are true. This is another FTA in the same nature as CECA that is starting to destroy the very fabric of our society and causing many PMEs to lose their jobs as well as social and security problems. The more serious implication is the flooding of foreigners to replace the true blue Singaporeans if not managed carefully.
 
The AEC has good intention and is meant to help all the Asean countries to grow and prosper together. What if the result is the reverse or what if there are adverse consequences that outweigh the benefits? We have seen how destructive the CECA is. We are at the verge of signing the American initiated PPT with so many hidden terms that are unable to see the light or they did not want the people to know. Anything that cannot be known or must be hidden is unlikely to be good. When people say I can’t tell you, it is likely to be bad.
 
Now this AEC, in particular item 5, Free flow of skilled labour, will undermined the whole foundation of our meritocracy and education system. We have set a very high standard for our students and they are now being forced to compete with the graduates of other countries with doubtful and funny education systems and standards. Are their qualifications equivalent to ours? Are we going to recognise any backlane universities or degrees from the degree mills? Are we being fair to our graduates that sloppy and questionable papers will not be accepted wholesale as equivalent to our local universities?
 
Further, we are only 3.5m people and we can be easily overwhelmed if we blindly open our legs even wider. We can dream big but we must also know that we are small and have a lot of limitations and weaknesses. We are already feeling the pain of uninvited forced entry, being raped unknowingly and unwillingly. The AEC could amount to legalised raping across the whole island in all industries and at all levels if there are no restrictions placed on them.
 
If not skilfully managed, we will be absorbed into a sea of humanity from the Asean countries and be lost completely. The govt needs to explain the implications and consequences to the people before committing to the AEC. We do not want to be a Britain standing out like a sore thumb in the EC and after messing it up has to quit the community with scars and wounds that would take a long time to repair.
 
What is this AEC? What is CECA? What is PPT? Do the people know what they are in for? Does the govt think it owes the people a responsibility to explain the demerits of joining and not just about how good they are, like the Medisave Life, only telling the good stuff, the influx of more foreigners and 6.9m population, again only saying the good stuff.
 
Tell us the whole truth, the whole picture. How many of our professionals would want to work in the Asean countries to earn pesos, rupiahs, ringgits, dongs, bahts or whatever? They are plenty of opportunities for business and jobs, but to earn less. Is that what we want to trade our professionals with their professionals? It is likely to be a one way traffic and our PMEs being left on the shelf.

China strengthening its hold onto its territories

This is the right thing for China to do, to make sure the world knows that the islands in the South China Seas belong to China. Failing to do so would encourage more adventurism from near and far to make claims to the islands. If they are Chinese territories, China better makes doubly or triply sure that they are in control. Don’t be like the Diaoyu Islands, half hearted attempt to regain control only encourages the Japanese to act more aggressively thinking that China is too weak to make its claim a reality. There must be no doubts to ownership.
 
The South China Sea islands were long claimed by China with historical records and maps. If China is not going to do so, it would be a free for all affair with all the littoral states and the United States or European states coming in to stake their claims. India too may want a piece of the action. This will make the region even more volatile for inter state rivalry. By putting its foot down, it makes it clear to all that the islands were taken. Do not have wild ideas. Stay off. The Americans have claimed their continent across the Atlantic Ocean. The Australians have claimed their continent across the Indian Ocean and across the continent of Africa. They cannot dispute the claims by China outside its front yard when the precedents have been set by them.
 
Once the dust settles, the lines drawn clearly, it will be better for peace in the region. The tension in the East China Sea between Korea and Japan, Russia and Japan, China and Japan, is due to the muddling policies of these countries against a fallen Empire that is reasserting itself. Of the three countries, Russia is handling the issue the best by being very firm to the Japanese. The Koreans and the Chinese are still showing weak hands and the Japanese read that and continue to force the hands of these two countries leading to higher tension and allowing the Americans to play its dirty hand to reap while the neighbours quarrel among themselves.
 
China must not allow the situation in the South China Sea to be like the East China Sea or it will have endless troubles with the Americans pulling the strings from behind. The new status quo will stabilize with time and so will the tension subsides.

The immigration door closing in Europe

A personal experience by AM Bakalar in NYT and reposted in mypaper yesterday told of the rising misgivings of having too many immigrants in European countries, not only in England and France but also in Poland.
 
‘You are not from here.’ This was what another Pole told him in his home town. When he replied that he was born there, the Pole said, ‘but there’s something (different) about you’. Bakalar wondered if he was becoming an immigrant in his own country. Don’t worry, many Sinkies are already having that same kind of feeling in the train, becoming a minority in their own little island.
 
Bakalar accepted that ‘every country has the right to control its borders and the flow of immigration’. But objected to the heightened fear of immigrants. And this was made more stark by Cameroon, the British PM, who introduced several measures to discouraged new immigrants into Britain. The British were horrified by the new immigrants exploiting the public services and benefits systems.
 
Nothing can compare with the monetary rewards that foreigners are reaping the moment they became Sinkies. Instant cash rewards in tens of thousands from public housing and all the subsidies for medical, education and other handouts from the generous govt that do not think why new citizens should reap instant financial rewards while some citizens are suffering in pain from deprivation of public housing and other goodies.
 
What kind of immigration numbers is Bakalar talking about that are alarming? The Poles, with 521,000 in Britain, are the second largest ethnic immigrants after the Indians. For a country with 60m people, it is just a drop in the ocean. We have at least half a million PRC and Indians each, a few hundred thousands of Pinoys and Myanmese here, not counting the rest. Half a million against a citizen of 3.5m is 1/7th or 14% of the population of the locals. This is not a small number to be easily brushed aside.
 
The social and security impact to the foreigners are starting to show signs of stress on the small population in a small piece of rock unlike Britain. When would it erupt into a major crisis is only a matter of time. Only fools will thing it will not.
The Europeans are finding the number of immigrants flowing into their countries getting unbearable and we have fools keep harping on our immigrant history and must let in more immigrants.
 
There don’t call Sinkies daft for nothing. The ignorance of history be several decades of not teaching the subjects in schools have created a citizenship of ignoramus who did not know when they will be booted out of their country by the sheer numbers of foreigners coming ashore. Would Singapore become a state of China, India or the USA? We have been under the British, Malaysia and Japan before. A change of nationality is not really a far fetch idea. The only difference is the pain of losing it once for all and never having it back again this time round.

PS. Kopi level - Blue
Many thanks

New York Times fabricate lies about Singaore

I refer to red bean's article,  " America , we are your friends "

The Americans have always and since time imemorial been constantly fabricating lies to run down other countries. Their whole fabric of government in the White House, The Senate and Congress , the CIA, the military via The Pentagon  and their private sectors like banking , finance and stock markets are run by super intelligent crooks , rogues and scoundrels from the most prominent universities like Harvard, Princeton, Yale and California universities. These crooks and scoundrels are highly intelligent but lack wisdom and conscience and though they claim to worship god , they are the most ungodly and capable not only of the most blatent lies but also the most wanton acts of terrorism , murder and genocide. The native American natives have long ago taught us never to trust the white American invaders as friends. To the American natives white men always twisted facts to suit their own purpose and agenda and when they sign treaties they are meant to be broken at their point and time of convenience. When white men send you a gift you got to beware because the gift is meant to poison and destroy  you. This is exemplified by the gift of blankets to the native American Indians which resulted in the death of whole villages of thousands of the natives because the blankets were once used by white men who were afflicted with small pox or plague and had died from the disease. So it is no difference when the Americans claim so many silly Asian countries as friends and allies. To the Americans, friends and allies are meant to be made use of as tools for their insidious plots against other countries which do not toe their lines or follow their dictates and friends and allies are to be subservient to their overall plans of world hegemony and conquest.

We Singaporeans have our own pride and dignity. We should not let New York Times get away with its fabrication of lies about the riot in Little India to defame Singapore.  Is our government doing nothing about the case?  Why are the MPs, the ministers, the prime minister and foreign minister so quiet? Why are our local Indian brothers not feel outrage by the mischief and misdemeanour of New York Times and come out to refute the lies and misinformation which can be quite detrimental to the national interest of Singapore and cast a spell of bad relationship between Singapore and India. Singapore government should protest to the American government and demand an apology .  Singapore should following the official protest demand an open apology in the New York Times and all other  prominent American newspapers like Washington Post, The Herald Tribune and the Wall Street Journal as well as a printed apology in Singapore Straits Times. On top of it Singapore shoud demand through legfal means that New York Times pay Singapore an indemnity or a fine of sixty-nine million dollars and promise never to fabricate lies and defame Singapore and Singaporeans again in future.

If the US government and the New York Times refuse to apologise then the least Singapore can do is to tell the Americans to pack off and stop using Singapore as its military base and as a spy post to snoop on Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand , Myanmar , India and China. It would be good riddance of a festering and troublesome friend.

Southernglory1

Bed crunch has reached crisis level

Salma Khalik wrote an article on the bed crunch and wondering how this super efficient forward looking govt with the best talents paid out of this world salary could let the shortage of beds in public hospitals reached this chronic stage. And Professor Pauline Straughan concurred that this is now at crisis level.
 
Come on, don’t panic. There is nothing of this sort. Where got crisis? If got crisis the people will be protesting in the streets. No?
 
If there is a crisis the govt will be calling for a board of inquiry or setting up a committee to investigate why it has happened. And the Minister has said that more beds will be added to the tune of 3,700 beds by 2020. What is the problem? These extra beds should definitely be enough even with the population growing to 6.9m in 2030 right? Hope by then the situation is going to be the same and they claimed they did not know the population will go up to 6.9m. Salma, please don’t ask why not now.
 
No need to fear. The bed situation is in good hands. It is all in the plan, all the new hospitals and beds will be in place when we have 6.9m people. It is in the White Paper, including the number of nurses needed. Did the paper mention anything about the number of doctors? Nothing is left to chance when we have all the planners planning ahead of the problems. We don’t pay them so much for nothing you know.
 
Did Salma say that the hospitals are cutting corners, early discharge, two day surgery becomes day surgery, homecares also increased instead of keeping patients longer in the hospitals? They need to erect ERP when the holiday season arrives next year.
 
These are only temporary measures to create more beds for those who need them today. Let me see, 17,000 bed days annually were created by such measures. Good for the hospitals or else the bed crunch would really be a crisis.
 
Relac lah, take it easy man, no one is dying because of this temporary bed crunch. In the long run all the problems will be solved. Now don’t ask embarrassing questions like who have caused this bed crunch to become a crisis. There is no crisis. Period. If there is, a new minister would be moved in to take over and to clear the shortages just like the housing crisis. No change in minister means no crisis.

PS. Kopi level - Green
Thank you.

America, we are your friends. Please tell NYT

The NYT is publishing unfavourable reports on the recent riot in Little India. The paper is claiming that our govt is ill treating the foreign workers, abusing them, poor pay and poor living environment. How can that be, many of the dormitories are nicer than the homes of poor Sinkies. And some dormitories are like country clubs with recreation facilities that the foreign workers can never ever dream of in the little shanty huts in their villages.
 
Come on NYT, we are giving the foreign workers a life they can never have and an opportunity to be rich, to feed and uplift their families from poverty. And the riot is not due to exploitation or abuses. It is due to alcohol.
 
Our Ambassador has been trying very hard to explain and tell the true story that you have distorted. We agree that you have the right to your own news and opinion. At least allow us the right to reply. This is a sacred right that we offer to anyone or newspaper in our city. At least you should reciprocate. At least you must remember that we are your best friend, your most reliable friend to help you with your pivot to Asia, provide you with military base facilities here. If you don’t know, our people are angry that we are part of this military arrangement.
 
We even want to buy your crap futuristic aircraft that is not up to specs and willing to pay your country billions of dollars for something that is so inferior and will be rejected by other thinking countries. At a few hundred millions a piece, my God, you think we are that stupid?
 
Please, let our Ambassador put in his reply to give a balance view of the Little India Riot. We are your friend, don’t forget that. You scratch our back we scratch yours. And the last thing we can expect from a good friend is for you to print misinformation to hurt our reputation.

PS. Kopi level - Yellow

A daft understanding of Democracy

What is happening in Thailand must have annoyed the daft here. How can the Thais protest against a popularly elected govt? How can they demand that the democratically elected govt steps down and be replaced? This is not democracy.
 
The democracy in Sin City is one that the elected govt can do anything it wants. The citizens are not supposed to question, to oppose or to disagree. The govt can simply take a vote in Parliament, and the majority votes carry the issue. Once it is passed in Parliament that’s it. The elected govt is elected by the people to run the country for them anyway it likes as long as it claims it is for the good of the people or country. I choose to separate people or country as the good of the country is not necessary good for the citizens. A country can prosper with all the citizens being replaced by foreigners, and it is good for the country but very bad for the citizens.
 
The govt has all the right and approval and consent of the people to increase the population to 6.9m. The daft agree this is so because it has been passed in Parliament. That is how democracy works here. By the same logic, if the govt decides to sell the country away, it is the right of the govt to do so. They are elected by the people man, notwithstanding that many were walkovers, so they have the people’s consent to do as they pleased. No one, no citizens, can object to what the govt is doing, no protest or civil disobedience.
 
How many daft Sinkies out there interpret democracy this way? How many daft Sinkies believe that the elected govt has unlimited power to do as it pleases? How many daft Sinkies think that the govt can suka suka pass laws to lock your life savings away and force you to buy their insurance schemes? Forced purchase, forced consumption!
A democracy is meant to be of the people, ie representatives comes from the people,… by the people ie elected by the people, … for the people, ie to serve the interest and good of the people, and not to serve the vested interests of a political party or their cronies or the interests of foreigners or foreign countries.
 
To all the daft Sinkies, kee chiu please if you believe that an elected govt has unlimited power to do as it pleases.
 
Remember what is happening in Bangkok.

Fake certificates widespread in India

TRE reported an article from AFP that job applicants in India are so desperate that they have resorted to all kinds of sophisticated scams to get a job. This is the first 3 para of the article in TRE,
 
‘AFP published a news report [Link] on 12 Jan highlighting widespread use of fake CVs flooding the Indian job market.
 
In fact, the scam is so sophisticated that even when companies attempt to call the previous companies listed by the errant job applicant who said he had worked there before, there will be people answering calls and giving illustrious testimony about the person.
 
The scam was uncovered when an IT company in New Delhi was puzzled that 30 of the job applicants had listed the same employer which they said they had worked in….’
 
Singapore is so lucky that all the Indian job applicants coming here used genuine certificates and CVs. I am confident, 101%, that all those in employed here are worth every cent they are paid. I have not heard of a single case of false CVs from India been discovered here. I swear.
 
With our first world talents and the sophisticated technology and smart people in charge, if there are any cheats, they would have been caught. The fact that practically none is caught is testimony to the good credit of our regulators and the authenticity of all the India graduates working here.
 
We shall celebrate this clean record and bring in more talents from India that used only genuine certificates and CVs. Maybe the Indians know that we are an honest and clean society, so only the honest and qualified Indians would want to come here.
 
Well done Sinkies, for having the top and genuine talents from India working here. Only the frauds and cheats remained in India or elsewhere. We have an excellent and dependable system and talents to fall back on. I really feel very good, very safe that we are in good hands. It is a good feeling to know that we are not cheated by 3rd World cheats.
 
The MOM must be credited for the clean record.

GDP increases when productivity decreases

This is the new contradiction that is keeping Singapore ticking and its GDP growing. While Thomas Friedman is grappling with the combination of exponential, digital and combinatorial growth in technology, high brow stuff, our govt is approaching economic growth in another way, simple cheap labour. Some called it KISS, ie keep it simple, stupid.
 
The equation is simple. One man needs a bed, 3 meals, a little extra like alcohol, a little entertainment, a little sex, clothing, transportation, communication, medical etc etc. Increase to 4 men you can add in a roof, a car, education for children, insurance, banking, leisure and all kinds of services for a family. Multiply these by 1m, by 2m, by 6.9m, what would you get on an exponential, digital and combinatorial formula? Add the tax or levy elements to this, and you have a colossal sum of money flowing and criss crossing in many ways.
 
You don’t need the brainy and highly intelligent talents. That is only a red herring. The consumption of goods and services by big numbers of lowly skilled and cheap labour will generate enough economic activities to keep the GDP growing. No need to think too hard, just keep adding the numbers to keep the trick alive. The population will keep the economic activities winding non stop. The additional headcounts are for growth on top of organic growth. Just keep adding and enjoy the multiplier effect of consumption without having to think too hard, to be creative, innovative or productive.
 
It is a simple number game. Who cares about productivity if growth can be achieved by simple addition of numbers, of people? The productivity of low skilled labour can fall or stagnate, no sweat. This can easily be overcome by quantities, not in the work they do, but the bigger picture, contribution to the overall GDP through all the other services and consumption.
 
No need to be too clever, no need to work so hard. Why bother with high technology, with frontier science, with KBE? Many would have forgotten what KBE meant. That is why the call not to pursue tertiary education but to be hawkers and labourers, as cogs to the matrix of growth. Low productivity but in increasing volumes would still lead to higher GDP.
 
It is elementary Watson. The more cogs you have, pronounce as cocks, the bigger will be the GDP.

Ok to print half truth?

An article in the ST yesterday by its editor Yap Koon Hong more or less says this is excusable given certain conditions when factual reporting is difficult. The article is in response to the criticism across the world, in the main media and social media, on Ching Cheong’s infamous report on the 120 hounds used to devour Jang Song Thaek, the uncle of Kim Jong Un and the second in Command.
 
What Ching Cheong set out to do, by quoting the report from a China source, Wen Weipo, to infer that China was showing its disapproval of the young Kim is understandable and acceptable. Many analysts adopt this methodology to understand the nuances in the news coming out from China to get a feel of the thinking in Zhongnanhai. What is unacceptable is to convey the false information as truth. Did Ching Cheong’s article did that or did he in some way conveyed that message or simply did not dispute or qualify the authenticity of the news?
 
The negative reactions to Ching Cheong’s article by so many sources, including reputable western media, say it all, that he did wrote in such a way that the misinformation could be construed as the truth by many readers and thus the rebuke.
But why is Yap Koon Hong trying to justify that a fifty fifty case is acceptable? His reasoning, it is difficult to get news or the truth out from North Korea. So half truth or misinformation can be published or else there will be no news to report. His second reason, unbelieveable, is that many truths would also be questioned or be reputed by the readers and not believed. Does this mean that since truth is not well received, what’s wrong with printing half truth, or to stretch the reasoning further, untruth?
 
There is a world of difference between printing half truths without qualification and can be read by the unsuspecting readers as truths, and printing them with qualifications that their authenticity is unclear or unsubstantiated. The readers demand a very exacting standard from the main media to print the truth and nothing but the truth. Half truths or rumours must be stated clearly as such.
 
Would the readers be willing to compromise the quality of news on the excuse that unverified news can be passed on as truth without qualifications? If this is the standard for news reporting in the main media, you can expect fictions to be all over the pages to sell papers for sure.
 
There cannot be compromise on truthful reporting. Even then, selective reporting is already the norm. When would the main media lower its credibility to report on questionable truths and facts and claim it is alright to do so? What is the meaning of integrity of news and professionalism of the reporters and agencies? Where is the point of morality if main media are allowed to report half truths as news and truths?
 
Shifting morality and integrity to fit the circumstances cannot be reasons to compromise on the responsibility of main media to report the truth for sure.
 
What do you think?

Do we have a good country?

Josephine Teo shared her chit chat with a foreign leader who came here quite often. And this was what she commented. ‘ I had dinner with a well-regarded government leader from our region. This person comes to Singapore for private short breaks. I asked this person: “Why do you come?” (He said): “To be encouraged and to be inspired.” People always say you must appreciate your own home. There’s truth in that.’
 
I fully agree with her that we have built a great place to live in. And why are Singaporeans so angry, she asked. I won’t want to comment why she asked such a question. It is like some MP asking, why got poor people in Singapore meh? Ignorance, living in cloud nine, refusing to come to terms with what is around her, and worse, thinking that all Singaporeans are bathing in a lap of luxury like her is simply unbelieveable. A politician is supposed to be well connected with the people, understands the people and their aspirations and their woes and concern.
 
Ok, enough of that. Now, why are Singaporeans angry? Why do I sound angry about the happenings and policies affecting the people when we live in a city that is an inspiration to many leaders around the world? Many leaders would want to create a country like ours no matter how corrupt they are. It is an achievement and a pride to be able to do a Singapore.
 
The people are angry simply because they fear losing this great country they have built. Not that the country will crumbled and become another normal 3rd World city. It can happen. The chances of it happening in the short term are remote. But the chance of losing it to foreigners and Singaporeans struggling to earn a living, to fall victims to foreigners who seized the country as their own is so high. It is happening. Many parts of the island have already been taken over by the foreigners. Many jobs and industries have been captured and controlled by foreigners. Dunno meh?
 
The foreigners have taken more than a beach head and will expand their foothold rapidly at the expense of Sinkies. And she asked, ‘Why are Singaporeans angry?’ Ask that again.
 
The leaders are living such a contented lifestyle that they are oblivion to the dangers facing this country and in a way working towards losing it for the citizens of the island. And this is only one aspect that the people are angry. If politicians do not know that the people are angry and do not know why there are angry, it simply means they are sleeping or living in Alice’s Wonderland. Life is too good for them to know anything is amiss. Do they want to know why the people are angry?
 
We have a great country. Don’t lose it. Don’t give it away on a silver platter to wolves in sheepskins. Don’t condemn our citizens to become maids and taxi drivers and security guards or become statistics of unemployment. Every year we produced thousands of very smart children. Please don’t make them servants to fakes, non talents and average talents from the 3rd World.

A noose within a noose

Bangkok starts a Monday with mass protest to shut down all business activities. To the protesters it is sheer fun and delirium, anarchy of sort. No one cares how this will impact the business in Bangkok and how businesses will be affected.
 
Several agencies are turning against the Yingluck govt. The Election Commission wanted the govt to postpone the election. The Anti Corruption Agency is filing charges against hundreds of lawmakers of the ruling govt. The Army is taking a ‘not my business’ position, and the protesters in Bangkok are in the streets. The noose is tightening on the Yingluck govt. They are forcing the govt to resign.
 
Where are the Red Shirts, the majority rural people in support of the Yingluck govt? They are forming another noose around Bangkok, a kind of the rural people encircling the urban people. There is a ring around the Yingluck govt and a bigger ring around this ring outside Bangkok.
 
And the Democrat Party who believes in democracy and democratic principles is stopping the people from electing their representatives to form a democratic govt. They do not want an election to be held. They refuse to recognize a popularly elected govt and wanted to appoint their own people to be the govt without being democratically elected by the people.
 
What is going on? Great strategies are being in play. We are seeing the art of war in real life happening at this very moment. Who shall triump, the Thaug or the Thak? Don't forget the real thug behind all these.

The sampan mentality

The nearly doubling of the population, the hospital bed crunch, the housing shortage, the employment problems of PMETs, the jams on the roads, the overloading of the trains, the crowds of restless foreigners on weekends, are not things that happened like the flash of lightning. They are built up day by day over a long period of time, and often with known policies and intention. All you need is a calculator, no need a computer, to tell you that all these will happen if the population keeps growing at this pace by letting in immigrants. Why is it so difficult to see these things happening? There is only one reason why all these can be missed. That reason is the sampan mentality. If one keeps thinking that one is in a sampan, one would think that there are only so many people in the sampan and no need to think too much. Everything will be manageable. The problem comes when the reality is more than a sampan. The sampan is ten times overloaded and you dunno meh? Still thinking you are in a sampan when there are more than 5m people in it and could be exceeding 6m if all the transit visitors are included you will be in trouble.
 
How many people are still stuck with this sampan mentality and going about merrily that the sampan can carry so many people without any problems?
 
If one refuses to break out from the sampan mentality and think is no problem like before, everything can be seen within arms length, how to anticipate the problems of a population that has outgrown even a cruise ship?
 
On one hand keeps thinking small but on the other hand keeps having megalomaniac dreams. The two dreams just won’t match. It is like dreaming big and thinking small. The sampan is simply too small and the problems too big.
 
Please get rid of the sampan mentality. We need an ocean going ship and the space to hold all the people and all the associated problems of a big population in a limited space. We have outgrown our sampan. Don’t believe ya?

PS. Do you know what they do in a sampan? There is always someone with a tin in his hand to scope up water creeping into the sampan and throw it out. Small problem, simple solution.

As long as you are an employee, be very afraid

Yes, you are an employee, in the private sector or in govt service, as long as you earn a living by working for an organisation, you must take note of the predicament you can be in. Even if you are a top civil servant or a CEO in the private sector, if you did not accumulate enough wealth for your children to live off the inheritance, think of what would happen to them when they cannot compete for a job with foreigners. Think of what would happen to them when they can’t even get a decent job to live a decent life. This is the plight of Sinkies in the coming years when the island is filled with foreigners and foreigners turned citizens. They are not going to be kind to you or your children and grandchildren if you do not stop this trend of letting the foreigners to take over your country. Your generosity is idiotic. It is critical time and time is running out if we do not put a stop to the influx while we still can.

Increasing population is NOT the only way to growth and well being of a people. That is a sure way of self destruct. Everything just go up with the rise in demand. So the cleaners should be laughing and very happy that they are earning 4 figure salary. Of course you know that it is a delusion. The money is shrinking rapidly by this unsustainable formula of inflation, of inflating the price of everything with the influx of more and more people. There are other ways to provide a better life to the people than population growth.

Every Sinkie that is a working person has to do his part to stop this spiral to oblivion. It is destroying the lives and future of the true blue Sinkies. The only people benefiting from this idiotic scheme, other than the super rich, are the poor and average foreigners. This make belief 1st World city is only good for poor 3rd World people and a few passing by from the developed world who are making hay while the sun shines. Even some 3rd World so called talents would have to be offered top jobs to accept the pink ICs or PRs which they could easily change again when the going is rough, when the eventual collapse comes.

You, working class Sinkies, even if you are top civil servants or CEOs of private sectors must learn to protect your country, yourself and your children from the dangerous path that this game is leading us to. It is not only unsustainable, it is a sellout of the true blue Sinkies. You will lose everything eventually when being true blue becomes a curse, and instead of bumiputra the country, the country will go to a new master. With only 3m plus people, it is so easy to become a minority and be overwhelmed.

Sinkies must wake up to save themselves and their children’s future now. Don’t ever think that you are having a good job and a good income so it is not your problem. You need to help yourself and your children or you and your children will be replaced. It is also your problem. Your vision of good life cannot be just you and now unless you are single or have no children to think of.

Insurance schemes – When conscience pricks

Han Fook Kwang politely asked a few questions in his column with the title, ‘Insurers should treat customers better’. He just received a notice by his insurer that the premium for his medical insurance would be doubled to keep pace with the changing landscape of medical insurance. The Medishield Life, before even being implemented, is already showing its true colours and claiming its first casualty. Everyone, got money no money, life worth living or unworthy of living, healthy or unhealthy, young and old, there is no where to run. Get your cash ready to pay and pay for your medical insurance.

Han Fook Kwang wants the insurers to explain why should be the premium be raised and doubled. He expects a little civility like informing the payers and talking to the payers. He only asked to be treated better.

Wait a moment, is he compelled to pay for his private medical insurance? In a way, since he has been paying for several years and changing an insurer is not the convenient thing to do so for people with the money to pay. His main worry is the road ahead. How often would this doubling of premiums be done as he ages and when he retires and there is no income? He theoretically has another 30 years to pay and each doubling of premiums can be awesome. And mind you, Han Fook Kwang is no ordinary average Sinkie. If he is concerned, the average Sinkies with no savings, no jobs and no income are going to have an interesting time paying for compulsory Medishield Life. They can avoid the private insurers but not the one that would use the law to force them to buy insurance and to pay for it.

Now the bigger question, can anyone, even the govt, force the people to buy and pay a life time of insurance premiums? Do the people have a choice not to buy medical insurance? There are people who do not wish to live another day longer and a medical condition is welcomed to take them out of the drudgery of a meaningless and moneyless life.

Han Fook Kwang asked the rights of the insurers to suka suka raise premiums. But he has a choice to stop his medical policy if the price is not right. Do the rest of the people have the choice to say no? Why are the people being forced to pay against their will for something they do not want?

Did the people vote for a govt to compel them to buy medical insurance for life, for a life not worth living and when they don’t have any income or savings to pay for?

Does anyone see anything wrong with this concept of forcing people to buy medical insurance? Next time they may even force you to buy your coffin beforehand or pay for your cremation and a place at the columbarium.

This is the only country where an elected govt, not a dictatorship mind you, could suka suka decide how to spend the people’s money, to compel them to buy things that they did not want or wish to. And it thinks it has the right to do so. Anyone understand the meaning of daylight robbery?

I think it is kind of a habit. When the people get used to it, when the govt gets used to it, it becomes a new normal, to make things compulsory for the people to pay. Not paying becomes an offence or a crime. All those who cannot pay will become automatic criminals, violators of the law.

What’s happening Thailand

Thailand is seeing a nation crippled when anti govt forces strutted around like they own the country and given the blessing to protest, to riot and to bring down a popularly elected govt. And the govt just cannot do anything as any attempt to stop the mass protest is likely to lead to violence and gives the military the excuse to declare martial law.

This leaves only the military to bring peace and order to the country. And for whatever reason, the military chooses not to do anything while the police knew they must not do anything as their very action is being watched by the military and waiting to pounce on them. Is the military under some sort of order not to act?

The biggest anti govt protest is now scheduled to bring down the govt on Monday. The Yellow Shirts are all ready on a do or die battle. The rich elite and office workers have no fear of death or injury should violence breaks out. Hope it stays that way. The Red Shirts comprising farmers and the poorer Thais have been staying away and avoiding a clash are now faced with a no option. For them not to do anything will see Bangkok and the govt brought to a standstill, a state of shutdown and finally the removal of Yingluck govt.

They too know that it is time to act if they want the govt to stay in power, if they want democracy to survive. With both sides taking a position that they have to fight against each other, how would Bangkok become, how many lives are waiting to be sacrificed for the cause of who? The masterminds are adamant in wanting to push this through and the innocent and ignorant masses will become the sacrificial lamb.

Thailand is divided. Thailand has never been so divided in this way when there is no other way out. Unless those in power step in to defuse this confrontation, one can safely conclude that there will be a bloody clash next week. The grandpas and grandmas and the children and babies better avoid joining the crowd as it is not going to be a tea party. Suthep has called his movement a revolution. No revolution has succeeded without bloodshed and martyrs.

The blood letting had started in the last couple of days. This is despite the Red Shirts avoiding a direct confrontation with the Yellow Shirts. They have announced that they would protest away from the Yellow Shirts to avoid a clash. It would not work. The people who wanted bloodshed to provoke a military intervention would see to it that people would be shot and die. Who would do such an act of treason against its own people? The Yingluck govt and the Red Shirts know very well to keep peace, to avoid any violence. But violence will be created for sure, and people will be shot, will die.

So strange that the Thais are so happy to walk down this road of violence that would never heal after the event. Can anyone predict the death toll and what will come out of this if it becomes a full fledge street battle? Or do they believe that with a few hundred thousand protesters on each side facing each other there will be no violence? Anything can be fabricated by the puppet master. Who is responsible or irresponsible for letting this to happen? And the law enforcers seem so hapless or not their business, and waiting to see how it all goes.

Will Bangkok burn?

A President with little dignity

Like all presidents, he does not have many things to do. He is a part time farmer and lives in a farm with his wife and a dog named Manuel, the only 3 legged thing around him. He attends meetings or meets other presidents and prime ministers in a casual shirt and a pair of sandals. Of course he owns a car, an old Volkswagen beetle that could be probably half his age. His only trapping of power are two security guards outside along the road to his farm house. There was a palace for him but he did not deem fit to occupy such an extravagant place.

And because he practically has not much to do as presidents often do, he is only paid and equivalent of S$12,000 a month. And because he knew that he did not do much he probably feels ashamed to take that money. So he donated 90% of the money to charity. No, he did not attend charity shows to raise fund, to make other people donate money to charity in his name so that he can use his fat salary to buy houses and more houses. When 90% of his $12,000 is donated, there is not much money left for himself and his wife. So they grow flowers to sell in the market to earn some pocket money.

President Jose Mujica of Uruguay is no meek and spineless individual. He was a guerilla fighter, fought for freedom of his people, not against his people. He was imprisoned twice and shot 6 times for trying to escape.

Though he is a hero in Uruguay, he is unlikely to have much dignity in countries when a person’s worth is measured in how much he is taking home, no matter if he is working or not, no matter if he is deserving of the money he takes. This is a simple man with simple dignity and earns an honest day’s work, with his own dignity, and to be honoured by his people as a national hero. You can say that every cents paid to him is worth it.

Singapore worried about Finlayson squirrel

This is a foreign specie squirrel that was imported by pet lovers and could have been let out or escaped into the wild.  Presumably this was an accidental act without knowing the consequences when the squirrels multiply and took over the parks and forests. No one see that far to think that the local squirrels would be in danger in the long run. The Finlaysons are found in Bidadari that is scheduled for redevelopment. The nature enthusiasts are concerned that they would be driven to other parts and threaten the existence of local species of squirrels. What makes the Finlayson squirrel a menace is that these foreigners are more aggressive and could replace the meek local species.

What the nature enthusiasts did not know is that the Finlayson specie has spread to other parks and not only in Bidadari. While everyone thinks they are only found in one area, they are in fact all over the island. And their numbers have grown to a size that any attempt to violate their habitat would turn them violent and they would riot against the locals.

The ignorance that there are not many around to be a threat is unbelieveable. Like the foreigners gathering in other parks of the island, they are everywhere and big in numbers. When they feel threatened, they could turn violent and devour the meek locals. The locals would be easy meat and their meek nature would surely see to their own destruction. The locals no longer know how to fight against the more aggressive and hungrier foreigners.

At least the nature enthusiasts can see the dangers these foreigners posed to the locals. The Finlaysons will keep their peace as long as they free to go on growing and expanding their population undeterred. Now, because of their size and their integration and adaptation to the local environment, they are a serious threat to the locals. They would take over the island in a matter of time and they will claim they are part of the locals.

But the true locals are oblivious to this threat. Only the people looking from the outside, like the nature enthusiasts, could understand and see the danger. It is only a matter of when, the locals will be forced out of their habitats with no resistance. They would probably feel the new specie is more deserving to live here. Ignorance is bliss.

A generation screwed

Over the last few decades, thousands of straight A students went through the mills. At least a thousand of them got straight As annually for their A level exam. How many of them could have been doctors and educated in our local unis? Oh, the capacity was only for a couple of hundreds. That’s it, nothing could be done to change this number. The rest of the straight A students either switch to other courses or, if they have rich parents, can go overseas for their medical degrees.

The situation today, our hospitals are infested with doctors from dunno where. Could these foreign doctors be as good as our straight A students? Or are they just the average, not counting those with fake qualifications? If we have not wasted our straight A students, we would have more of our best in the medical profession and at least reduce the shortfalls and need not take in doctors from God knows where and what.

For those who left on their papa mama scholarships, many would not want to return and would be lost for good. Why should they when on returning they would have to cough out a million or more to buy a decent small little private flat when they could own big landed properties overseas and a better quality of life? Why should they come home?

The number of such talents that have made homes in other countries must be pretty big. And we ended up shortchanged with you know what and from you know where.

A generation of our talented young men and women has been lost through our shortsighted policies on not educating our very best in medicine. To think of being treated by fakes or half past six doctors is really scary.

6.9m – do you have the people’s consent?

The 6.9m issue is not what 77 MP/ministers think they are big enough to decide. It affects every Sinkie today and into the future. Do they have the consent of the people? Definitely a big NO. Do they want to ask the people for their consent? Another big NO. Do they think they have been given the right to decide for the people on this issue. They want to think so.
 
The people are saying NO. Would they listen? NO. They are simply snubbing the people, an act of defiance against the people. They know the people are against it and they stubbornly and arrogantly want to go ahead with their decision against the will of the people. Why? Why would they want to go against the people? Is this 6.9m something that must be done and if not something very serious will happen, more serious than losing the vote and confidence of the people that the PAP rather offend the people than not doing it? Did they know something that the people did not know?
 
This is a democracy, mind you. And a democratically elected govt thinks it can ignore the people, disregard the people’s wishes and still believes confidently that the people will elect them to power, to rule the people, no need to listen to the people, to control the people and to snub the people.
 
This is definitely uniquely Singapore.
 
What can the Sinkies do? Absolutely nothing. Come election they will still elect the same people to power and pay them out of this world’s salary and can only pray that the same people will be kinder to them. It is like the govt knows that no matter what, they will continue to be in power somehow. Very eerie.

India, how a big power should behave

India is still fuming mad over what the Americans had done to their consul in New York, Devyani Khobragade. The rough and humiliating handling of the consul were just too much to swallow. Despite several high level protests, the Americans are not backing off and not apologizing. India, an emerging superpower, is not going to take it with hands down.
 
The latest development to this ugly episode of American bullying is the curtailment of non diplomatic American staff visiting a club at the American embassy in New Delhi. India is putting a stop to this privilege that it had closed an eye for many years. The non diplomats will now not be allowed to enjoy the benefits of the American Community Support Association club.
 
This is how an emerging power should respond to bullying by the Americans, the Number One superpower. Countries of the world must not allowed themselves to be bullied by the Americans and must react and hit back at the Americans. If the international communities are firm and take concerted actions against the Americans, it would put a stop to their nonsense and bullying tactics.
 
China needs to learn from India. Its worst humiliation was the bombing of the Chinese Embassy by an American cruise missile in . China was and is still military very much weaker than the Americans and taking a tough stand against the Americans may be too premature and put it on a losing end. But it surely can mount pressure and kick the American’s ass by other means, like what India is doing. The Americans would definitely stop their nonsense or at least have to think very carefully before repeating the same humiliation against India.
 
China can only stop the American bullying by standing firm and be prepared to take counter measures. The flying of two B 52s heading into China during the ADIZ episode was another case of American bullying. China must put it in no uncertain terms that B 52s, because of their offensive nature and capability to launch nuclear bombs, will be shot down if they approach a certain distance from the Chinese coast. At the very least, Chinese fighters must be scrambled to intercept and force them to turnaround.
 
Every country in the world that is repeatedly being harassed and bullied by the Americans must adopt a united front to stop the Americans from their rogue behavior. Not doing so would only encourage the Americans to treat them like dirt. India shall take the lead and show the world how best to deal with the American bullying.

A novel idea to free up hospital beds

The hospitals have become a great place for R and R, great and comfortable environment, clean, sanitized and airconed. And there are so many pretty and young nurses to take care of the patients’ needs and recreation. Who doesn’t want to extend his stay in the hospitals when it is so luxurious and fun? The patients would be so happy and pampered in bed, why would they want to leave the hospitals?
 
I have a novel idea that is a win win for everyone. The nurses will be free to do other more important nursing work. The patients would not want to stay in the hospital for too long. And operation cost could come down too and with more beds to spare.
 
The magic formula, retrain and convert the uncles and aunties in the foodcourts who are very experience in cleaning tables, plates and bowls to clean the patients. They are so good in this cleaning job that with every swipe all the dirt will come off. And they can clean more patients in shorter time. And the cost of redesignating them as nurses will definitely be lower while they will get a higher income than be cleaners in the foodcourts and hawker centres. With better income they will be more enthusiastic and motivated to do a better job, better morale. Think they will also be more cheerful and less grouchy.
 
And the benefits for the hospitals will be higher turnover of patients, thus freeing the precious bed spaces for more deserving patients. And the Ah Mahs and Ah Kongs are less likely to be job hoppers and would work till they call it a day. This is a good case for raising productivity of the Ah Kong and Ah Mah nurses, the pretty nurses to doing real nursing jobs, and the hospitals with lesser problems of bed shortages since patients would be cleaned so fast that there would be no reason for them wanting to stay in the hospital a day longer.
 
What do you think, Gan Kim Yong?
 
PS. I got inspiration from Agongkia to write this piece.

Game of musical chairs?

The curse of public housing hurt many Sinkies real bad for at least a decade with the Minister of Housing claiming housing was affordable and drastically cutting down the building programme. A decade of denial finally succumbed to public pressure and anger that resulted in his departure from the cabinet. Many home buyers suffered for having to buy public flats at highly inflated prices. The damage caused by this foolishness will take its toll when the next major economic crisis hits.

Now where would the white knight be from to solve the housing crisis? No prize for guessing, the Minister of Health was the right man to solve a housing problem. Who says you need relevant experience in the right field to do a good job? What relevant experience was needed for someone from the Health Ministry to solve housing problems? Or shall I say the important factors are: right attitude, a little intelligence, a little common sense, and a will to do the right thing. A major part of the housing shortfall has been taken care of. The second problem is the high housing prices that were bloated during the decade of not building. How to solve this and who to solve this? Or it has become the new normal to be accepted by the young home buyers?

While Boon Wan is still working on the housing problem, a new problem surfaces, the shortfall of hospital beds. Of course, don’t expect the Minister of Health to solve this problem. Housing problem has to be solved by a Health Minister. So Health Ministry problem in the form of shortages of beds must be solved by someone from another ministry. Or should it be from the Housing Ministry, the Minister of Housing? Two Health Ministers have been on the seat and not knowing that there is a huge shortage of beds. They know or dunno? Maybe they know and waiting for it to go away with time or for a miracle to happen.

Now that the problem has exploded and cannot be hidden anymore, do they have other capable ministers to solve hospital beds problem? The Health Ministers are of no use as it has proven that under their watch the problem was not nipped in the bud.

There are also other big problems of immigration and employment waiting to be solved by the Minister of Manpower. Or should the white knight to solve this problem come from another ministry?

The public transportation problem is still not fully solved yet. How about getting the Transport Minister to solve Manpower and Immigration problems, and the Health Minister to solve transport problem, then the Manpower Minister can go and solve hospital bed shortfall problems?

Some of you may find this confusing but actually there is a simple logic to it. Those of you who have watch people playing chess will understand what I am going to say. Often the chess players are not as clear as the bystanders. People watching from outside often have a clearer picture of the mess and could see the problems clearer better than the incumbents. It is also called the fishbowl effect. The fish inside the bowl is part of the problem or are trapped in the problem. People looking at the fishbowl will have an overall view of what is happening. See, logical?

So this game of musical chair is good, really good. And no need whatever relevant experience or the usual craps. Just get someone with a little intelligence from the outside to deal with the problem. In a way it is like the foreign talent thing. The people inside cannot see or solve the problem, only foreigner talents can, even if they are faking the whole damn shit. Sorry I was exaggerating and being naughty on the shit part. And you can also see that Boon Wan now out of the Health Ministry could see the bed shortfall problems better than when he was there.

Get the picture?