Changing the DNA of Sin City

We acknowledged the pioneer generations for building this great city into what it is today. And this is a one time exercise for a good reason. We are paying our debt to the pioneer generation once and for all and good riddance. We don’t need these coolie stocks anymore and by making this payout we have settled our debt to them.
 
We are going to start a new Sin City with good stocks, not coolie stocks anymore. We are having our own formula for Year Zero, unlike those of the Pol Pot regime that massacred their adults to start a new generation of people without the old thinking. We are doing differently from Mao who started the Cultural Revolution to delete centuries of superstitions but also in the same stroke, wiped out centuries of wisdom and historical treasures.
 
We are going to do it better than Mao but not as vicious as Pol Pot. We would not commit genocide. But we will replace our coolie stocks with good and clever stocks of the rich and famous all over the world to start a new city of Sin. (Shsssssh, 3rd World also can lah. But please don’t mention about fakes). We would only take in all the talents of the world, we will called them foreign talents. This would form the immediate need and the current elite.
 
We would spend money to buy other sporting talents also for our immediate needs in these areas. At the same time we would spend money to train and educate foreign talents in our schools and universities to be our new citizens of the future. We will budget hundreds of millions annually for this goal. We would ignore the coolie stocks and would not use the budget to nurture their poor stocks when we could have better foreign stocks.
 
Our open door policy to immigrants is to prepare the ground for them, too lure them to breed here with their good genes, make them comfortable and wanting to sink roots here. It is their children that we are coveting. This forms the third part of a three part strategy to fill the island with good stocks.
 
By Year 2050 we should have a new population of good stocks forming the bulk of the population and Sin City will be the model of the world, a City of sinfully intelligent people with super talents.
 
What do you think? Good idea or not?

Kopi Level - Yellow

Singapore Turf Club - My personal collection of Singapore's history

I just saw the Channel News Asia programme called Treasure Hunt with the items being exhibited at the National Museum. And I recollect that I have this scrip of paper which is a betting slip of the Singapore Turf Club dated 4th October 1958. It is quite a long time for a worthless piece of paper to survive that long. Its reason for longetivity is the herbal prescription written on its back, I think. I am not sure what it was for.

This is something I found left behind by my mother. A little legacy of the past.

MH370 – More misinformation

The more people questioned the information coming out from the Malaysian Govt, the more they corrected what they said and the more misinformation came forth as a result. The latest from General Rodzali Daud, ‘the military received signals on Saturday that, after the plane stopped communicating with ground controllers, it turned from heading north east to heading west, lowered its altitude and flew hundreds of kilometres across Peninsular Malaysia and over the Straits of Malacca before the tracking went blank.’
 
First point, under which radar was the aircraft tracked? Kota Bahru, KLIA or Butterworth? At the last spot quoted, none of the radars could pick up the aircraft signal. The second point is that if it were to head west from that point, it would be heading to the Isthmus of Kra, towards the direction of Phuket. It would not have been travelling hundreds of kilometers across Peninsular Malaysia unless it was heading southwest. Then it could possibly be picked up by KLIA if travelling at high altitude. If it was flying low, all the residents along its flight path would have been awaken by the noise it caused early in the morning.
 
What is the truth? Why all these misinformation?
 
Hishammuddin said Malaysia was transparent and had nothing to hide. Are they really not hiding anything? Could the aircraft have turned back and landed in Kota Bahru and they are negotiating with the hijackers all the time?

Water rationing, a wake up call for Sinkies

A Christopher Teo Kian Lam wrote to the ST forumer on the dry spell and how water rationing would be a wake up call to Sinkies who still treat the water supply as a God given right. They need a taste of what water rationing is like to take water conservation seriously. He said, ‘Do we need our reservoirs’s water levels to deplete further, or wait for a NEWater or desalination plant to malfunction under the increased production, before reality sets in?’
 
I agree with him the Sinkies must not waste water unnecessarily. But who is the real culprit in excessive water consumption? Wait till the population hits 6.9m, another 1.5m people in the island, then you won’t need a dry spell to ration water. You may have to ration water daily throughout the year.
 
Do we really have enough water sources to feed the need of 6.9m or more? Maybe the wake up shall be addressed to the govt. Do we need 6.9m population to feel the squeeze on our water supply? At the moment we have just about enough for 5.4m people and this applies to many other facilities and infrastructure. Can we really cope with 6.9m? Maybe we can, and by then, we will have to live with ERP on our water supply as well.
 
Is this dry spell a wake up call on the Govt to think thrice about the 6.9m population rather than on the Sinkies?

Little India Riot- Was it life threatening?

This question popped up in the COI hearing after people questioned if the Chairman was seen to be more concern with the burning of police vehicles than the safety of police officers. Selvam came out to explain that he did not mean that and the situation was not life threatening then and that was why the burning of the vehicles became an important issue. Or, if it was a life threatening situation, then the burning of vehicles would not be such a vital point in his comment.
 
‘A lot of people (have asked me that). I never said that. What I said in the proceedings was, on that day, it was not a life threatening situation. That means these rioters weren’t after the lives of anybody,’ said Selvam.
 
‘So what the responders were faced with was a simple rioting situation, where rioters were burning property, overturning cars. They never threatened the life of anybody, so there was no justification to pull out the gun and fire.’ This second quote did not mention who said it but presumably must be by Selvam, or is it, as the content was contrary to what he said and doubting that the rioters were not going to threaten lives. And it was reported that ‘the retired judge agreed that if the police had pulled out the guns, it could have changed the situation.
 
The judge continued to insist that it was not life threatening, ‘The situation you have was purely confined to property damage, not life damage. Fact of the matter is, they is no evidence of them wanting to kill anybody.’ Someone seemed to know what were in the minds of the very nice rioters who were behaving like spoilt children burning their toys and had no thoughts of killing anyone.
 
Really? I remember one of the earlier witnesses who understood Tamil was saying the rioters spoke in Tamil saying they wanted to kill the bus attendant. And in a situation like a riot, can anyone be so sure that it was not life threatening? All it needed wa a police officer to make the wrong move like charging into the crowd alone and you wanna bet that no life will be threatened?
 
I am just thinking aloud. But they are the experts the ‘knows all’. So the experts must be right. Let me guess, it is, it is not, it is, it is not....

What do you think?

Kopi Level - Green

From Sin City to City of Ruffians

Anton Casey was an angel. He only made some funny remarks and faces, did not hurt anyone physically. In today’s report in MyPaper, a petite Singapore young lady, Dawn Ho, was punched in the nose by a Caucasian man twice her size for trying to stop him from bullying a taxi driver. This Caucasian ruffian is called Aaron Jeremiejczyk. His female companion, not sure a SPG or a foreigner, hit Dawn’s friend, a Munir Alsagoff with a beer bottle.
 
The police were called and it was reported that they were investigating. Not sure if the Caucasian ruffian and his woman ruffian were arrested. Very likely not. And very likely the two Singaporean victims would now have to get their own lawyer to sue them. Otherwise they would just be a punching bag and nothing could be done about it. And if the ruffians’ passports are not withheld, they could be on the next flight out of Ruffian City and laughing their guts out for having a good time punching daft Sinkies.
 
And the daft Sinkies would continue to invite more of such ruffians into the city to punch them. They would even spend millions to integrate them to be like timid and meek Sinkies. Can it happen? Would it work? Would wild Caucasians be turned into meek and daft Sinkies? What a joke?
 
No, they are saying it is not a joke. The Sinkies are serious, spending real good money to embrace these ruffians to be one of them.

Are Singaporean PMETs hungry enough?

Below are parts of a post by a ‘Return Singaporean’ on his experience and advice to Sinkies to go seek employment elsewhere to gain the overseas exposure. I removed a few paras to make it shorter to read.
 
The first point I like to make is that not all jobs required overseas experience. How many jobs needed that? The second point is that from what he said, Sinkies are just poor workers and those foreigners he recruited are good workers. Presumably he is getting all the good candidates with genuine qualifications. And this is possible as they came from the world pool where there are hundreds of millions out there.
 
So what’s the beef? In the Sinkie context, in many cases it is not because the Sinkies are not good and the foreigners better but Sinkies were simply sacked and replaced by foreigners. Two, in many cases, even with my eyes closed, many of the foreigners faked their qualifications and CVs. Three, many jobs don’t need overseas experience or exposure. And fourth, the most important, why are Sinkie running away from home and be willing to be replaced by fakes or people that are not better than them? By doing so, Sinkies are losing their homes and country by default when the foreigners keep coming in to replace them by cheating and Sinkies running away without a fight.
 
Returning Singaporeans may be writing his piece with good intentions but his reality is an illusion. The reasons for Sinkies losing their jobs are not because they are not good enough. And with so many jobs that don’t need overseas exposure, it is something good to have but not necessary most of the time.
 
The most important thing for Sinkies is to get their house in order and kick out all the fakes and foreigners that are practicing discrimination against the Sinkies. Ideally the govt should take the lead. If the govt is not going to do so and condoning the discrimination and alienation of Sinkies in jobs, that a new govt must be voted in to do the right thing for Sinkies, to protect their jobs, their homes and the country. Running away or going overseas is a defeatist thing to do and very dangerous, as Sinkies will lose their country by default. All Sinkies must look at the bigger picture of country and the people as a whole and not at individual cases. If one is looking at each case individually, I would suggest we replace the whole cabinet with more competent and cheaper foreigners.
 
What do you think? Should Sinkies just run away and be replaced by fake foreigners and ruffians in their own country?
 
You may now read what Returning Singaporean wrote below.
 
‘….Most of the locals lack overseas exposure/s and a rather severe skill-set mismatch with what the market currently needs (or will need in the future).
I’ve to confessed that I’d “lower” the benchmark for a couple locals, hoping that I was wrong in my initial assessment and that they will turn out to be a gem in the later stages of the selection.
 
Boy was I wrong! Not only do all the Singaporean applicants lack in-depth experience and knowledge, they also lack that sense of aggression, enthusiasm and that desire (or should I say… “hunger”) to succeed.
It almost felt as though as if, they are “entitled” to the job, because of the mere fact that they are….. Singaporeans.
 
I’d fought inch & tooth to increase the headcount in Singapore and not move it to lower cost bases in India or China. If this new hire is a poor match and does not succeed, it will be my neck on the chopping board….
 
This decision wasn’t made because of a “Foreigner-vs-Singaporean” conflict.
It was made because of the candidate’s suitability to the role. I’d to choose the best person, who can succeed and help us achieve the firm’s targets. It was just painfully sad that it was not offered to a Singaporean instead….
 
I strongly urge Singaporeans to widen their horizon. Go out to the world, try something new.
 
Increase your knowledge base, consistently venture out of your comfort zone/s and make this a habit….
 
If we do not make ourselves worthy of every single penny/cents, it is really that easy for firms to just unplug from Singapore and move on to the next “lower value cost center”.’

Kopi Level - Yellow

MH370 – Why radars cannot see and where it could be?

The MH370 disappeared from radar contact about 120 nm East of Kota Baru. At this point in time there is still no trace of debris to confirm a crash or explosion and both possibilities could be ruled out. Other than the Bermuda TriangleTheory, my view is that the aircraft was likely to be hijacked. The fact that there was no radar contact means that it was deliberately flown under radar coverage to avoid detection and leaving no trails as to where it was heading. The other point to note is that none of the passengers could make a call out with their mobile phones, a sign that all their phones have been confiscated and they are under duress.  Given these assumptions, my point is that the aircraft is hijacked by a team of professionals who knew exactly what they were doing and had a meticulous plan to fly the aircraft to a destination without being tracked or seen on radar.

How could the hijackers do it? How could they fly the aircraft without appearing on the radar screens of any radar or air traffic control stations? To do that the hijackers must have knowledge of the locations of all the radars in the region. The commercial radars of air traffic control towers are in Kota Baru, Penang/Butterworth, Bangkok, Phuket and Ho Chi Minh City. There could be some military radar stations in the area which I am not familiar with. The radars in the south would be Singapore and to the east would be in Sabah, Brunei and Manila.

Given the presence of these radars and putting aside the unknown military radar stations, the hijackers must chart a course from its last known position to their planned destination without entering a radar zone.  Two possible headings, 280 to the west or 100 to the east, would keep them out of the radars in Bangkok and Ho Chi Minh City in the north and Penang/Butterworth and Kota Baru in the south.

The aircraft needed only to travel at below 10,000 ft in either direction for 30 minutes to be out of radar detection. Going west, however would not go far as the path would enter into Phuket if it tries to avoid Penang/Butterworth radars. The eastern flight path is safer, after 30 minutes heading 100, it could turn to 060 on a north easterly direction, climb to cruise level and fly for two hours while avoiding radars in Singapore and East Malaysia.  The aircraft would have to turn to a south easterly direction if it were to avoid the radar in Manila. Assuming that the hijackers are muslims, just assuming, they are likely to head towards the southern islands in the Philippines where they could find friendly forces to accommodate them or their fellow hijackers awaiting them.

The above are just speculations of what the hijackers could do given where they were and where they could fly to, and to stay away from radar detection. This is one of many possible explanations why the MH370 could not be seen on radar other than a total eclipse due to a mid air explosion or sinking into the ocean. If this theory is proven right, MH370 is likely to be in the southern islands of the Philippines.

Just a theory, an educated guess.

Japanese lie and western conspiracy

In a Reuter report yesterday titled, ‘No sign’ Japan’s plutonium stocks risk being diverted to military use, the IAEA Chief, Director General Yukiya Amano said, ‘there was no sign that nuclear material in Japan “has the risk of being diverted” to military applications.’ How assuring is this confession? How convenient for the IAEA Chief to be a Japanese overseeing the Japanese nuclear programme and guarding the weapons grade plutonium in Japan?
 
Can you believe and trust the Japanese that they needed to buy 300kg of weapons grade plutonium for research purposes when this could produce 50 nuclear bombs? Can you believe the Japanese for hunting and killing millions of whales annually for research purposes? The West believe it.
 
The Japanese have kept the 300kg of weapons grade plutonium since 1960 and finally gave in to US demand to hand over to the US. And this is done now with Japan having acquired 159 tonnes of its own plutonium from its nuclear plants as at 2012. And how many kg is 159 tonnes? It is 159,000 kg, which means Japan has enough plutonium to make 26,500 nuclear bombs! So what is the returning of 300kg back to the US?
 
And the question, what is Japan going to do with the 159,000 kg of plutonium in her possession? Amano declared, ‘All the plutonium…in Japan is under IAEA safeguards.’ So, Japan has never touch the plutonium and has not done anything to it and, ‘There is no reason for concern that plutonium held by Japan could be diverted to nuclear arms purposes,’ said the United Nations watchdog in Vienna.
 
How many of you trust and believe the Japanese have no nuclear bomb and have not done anything with the plutonium, including those acquired in 1960 for research. Maybe they were trying to convert plutonium to green tea.
 
Can anyone see this gigantic conspiracy between the West and Japan? What is the truth? The Americans believed that Japan was not going to declare war in WW2 and lived to regret their naivety and stupidity. Now they believe the Japanese have no nuclear weapons and would not strike America a second time.
 
How Japan is behaving towards China and towards its war crimes are testimonies to the character to the Japanese people and what they would do if they are allowed a free hand to do as they please, and with military might.

Mercedes sales getting a boost

The golden Mercedes Benz crashing through the cat claw barrier at Woodlands Check Point is something to watch and envy. The security officers must be stunned and in awe to see that machine smashed through the security barrier meant exactly to bring cars up to 6 tonnes to a stop. And here was a less than 3 tonnes Mercedes Benz running through the barrier like walking on tahu and drove off unscathed. Can you believe it? And no puncture on the tyres! And the car disappeared into the horizon like magic.
 
What kind of car and how was it made to withstand the special steel spikes designed to cripple any cars and even bigger ones like a 6 tonner? At least the tyres would be in shreds. Kudos to the tyre makers. Steel tyre tubes or what? The Benz was better built than James Bond’s Aston Martin I think, or that BMW.
 
Mercedes Benz has earned itself the right to call its Benzes indestructible or at least unstoppable. Good German engineering. Sales must have taken a boost with this life test, not a controlled experiment in the lab.

Roy Ngerng is taking you for a ride – Randall

There is this article by a Randall posted in the TRE with the above title. The author assured everyone that contrary to what Roy Ngerng had written, the money transferred from the Town Council to the Sinking Fund is safe and sound. No need to worry or be frightened, the money will not run away, and will always be there. This is what Randall said,
 
‘The accumulated surpluses are transferred into the Sinking Fund after every GE to safeguard the money from willful spending by the next MPs who come in, no matter which party they are from. It is to ensure that the Town Council is able to continue doing its duties to the people, even after a change in party.
 
So where does the Sinking Fund go? If Mr Roy is to be believed, then the PAP makes regular trips to the Town Council counter after every GE to cart away boxes of hard-earned resident’s cash. It cleans out the vaults, leaving Singaporeans and the Town Council bereft every 4 years. Never mind, we’ll just get the peasants to pay. Pay up you swine! You got millions to replace!
 
The answer (and try not to be too shocked): Nowhere – the Sinking Fund stays with the respective Town Councils itself.’
 
I must say I feel very assured that the Town Council is safe, very safe if they did not try to invest in any bonds again, just like my CPF savings. They are just transferred to the minimum sums accounts and would be there, would not go away. Oh, just a little refinement, Town Council Sinking Fund does not have Medishielf Life to deduct from your Medisave Minimum Sum Account. Other than this, the minimum sums for Retirement and Medisave Accounts are very safe. Don’t worry, they will be there even after you die as no one can touch them.
 
Smile, your money in the minimum sums and the money in the Sinking Funds are in good hands.

Kopi Level - Green

MH370 – No news is good news

To all those who are suffering from having loved ones in the flight MH370, the waiting for news on what really happened to the aircraft and the fate of the passengers is like a living nightmare. Every moment, every second is pain and agony. In despair and desperation, let there be hope. As long as there is no confirmation that the aircraft had crashed or exploded in mid air, as long as there is no evidence of any debris in the sea or on land, there is a possibility that the aircraft is safe somewhere with all its passengers and crew.

The possibility of the aircraft being hijacked and flown to an unknown destination cannot be ruled out, until such a time when the wreckage is found and confirmed. Let me hazard to try to create a possible scenario of what could have happened given the sparse information available. This is just a theory and could be proven totally wrong when the truth is out. Assuming that this is a hijack, it is a very professional job done with meticulous planning and expertise in aviation knowledge.

At the moment many have in mind that this is likely to be the works of the Uighurs or the same group of people that struck at Kunming Railway Station. I would like to differ from this view given the complexities of this operation that is showing all the signs of familiarity in the operations of air traffic, flight path, aircraft and radar performances. The people involved in this operation cannot be unsophisticated Uighurs, or if indeed committed by them, they must have received professional training and technical support from experts in insurgency. And there are a handful of western expert organisations that could conduct this operation the way it was done.

The first point to note is the location where the aircraft went missing. It was at the edges of both Malaysian and Vietnamese air traffic control zones and also at the limits of their radar coverage. It was like a no man’s land or space. The second point is that the aircraft could fly east or west in airspace that are not under radar surveillance. The western route would be the Gulf of Thailand and at the fringes of Malaysia and Bangkok air traffic control zones. Towards the east into the South China Sea is wide open space, away from Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines air traffic control zones. The aircraft could fly at normal cruise level undetected. The third point is the lost of RT and radar contact in almost an instance, indicating that it was likely a deliberate act to get out of radar surveillance, to shake loose it trails, and this could only be done by diving down and flying low level. This is a reflection of the intimate knowledge of radar performance and how to avoid radar surveillance. Once out of radar range, the aircraft could then return to its cruising flight level and on its way unknown to anyone. Fourth, the fact that it broke away just an hour from take off meant that it would have another 5 to 6 hours of fuel left and can fly off to a chosen destination quite a distance away, a lot of room to play with. The islands in southern Philippines look very attractive.

What could happen inside the MH 370 prior to the hijacking could be the most unsuspecting to the crew members. The hijackers could put the crew at ease with things familiar and lower their guards before crashing into the cockpit and immediately restrained the pilot and co pilot. They could even be invited and shown around the cockpit if they could win the confidence of the crew members. Taken by surprise, the pilot and co pilot had no chance to send out any distress signal and became captives of the hijackers.

At this point there were two possibilities. The hijackers could have been trained to fly the aircraft and simply took control from the pilot. Alternatively, the pilot could be under duress to do as the hijackers wished, and flew the aircraft as commanded. And the aircraft disappeared from the radars of Malaysia and Vietnam, destination unknown, but safe.

The intent of this hijacking is still unclear but could be narrowed down to a few possibilities. One obvious objective is to make demands from China by the separatist group in Xinjiang. This is top in the list of speculations. It is less likely to be targeting Malaysia as the dominant active terrorist groups are not hostile to Malaysia at this moment. It could also be groups that are supported by state agencies that are hostile to China and intent to give China some severe headache to deal with.

Hopefully this is the scenario and the passengers and crew are still safe and sound and waiting for the next chapter of this drama to unfold. And this could be the most optimistic picture for those hoping that their loved ones are still alive. Would there be any announcement from a terrorist group to confirm that this is indeed what the whole mystery is all about? Any other scenario would likely be a confirmation of an unfolding tragedy.

Let there be hope that things could still turn out not as bad as it is now. The fact that the black boxes of MH370 are not beeping is a good sign that all is well. This is just an imagination of what could have happened but could be furthest from the truth.

Pray all is well.

The mysterious disappearance of MH370

There are many theories regarding the disappearance of MH370. The aircraft was flying a normal route from KL to Beijing and nothing untoward is expected. It was a routine commercial flight. It took off and was in contact with the Malaysian air traffic control until prior to the handover to Vietnam’s air traffic control when radio and radar contact were lost. Malaysian sources claimed that their radar showed that the aircraft was turning back before it disappeared.
 
In normal cases of aircraft developing engine trouble, the pilot would have time to contact air traffic control or send out emergency signal. The absence of distress signal indicates that the pilot did not have the time to do so, for whatever reasons. What could these reasons be, an explosion, no one in the cockpit to trigger the distress signal or the pilot was restrained from doing so.
The question then is, how could the aircraft disappear from radar contact? And the transponder was not on or switched off too? Without radar contact means it was not there or had descended quickly to be out of radar envelop. This possibility could mean that the aircraft has been hijacked and went low level to escape radar detection…and a glimmer of hope that it would appear somewhere.
 
The fact that no debris was found so far is a good sign that the aircraft did not crash into the sea. Even with an air explosion, there must be plenty of pieces floating in the sea. An aircraft of that size cannot plunge into the sea in one piece unless it successfully dived to sea level before entry into the water. In that case the pilot would have time to make an emergency call.
 
And the black boxes are not transmitting location signals. It is very unlikely that the two boxes would be quiet if an accident had happened. This added to the mystery. Could the aircraft still be around somewhere after being hijacked by professionals who knew how to fly the aircraft outside of radar coverage and landed somewhere, intact, in one piece? The aircraft has enough fuel to fly to Beijing and thus could be flown to another destination as well.
 
The crash or explosion theory is not confirmed by the absence of debris and the transmissions from the black boxes. The Malaysian report of the aircraft turning back indicated that the aircraft had changed course. Could it make a turn and a steep dive to low level and flown to another destination under the radar cover? As long as no debris is found, the probability of the aircraft in one piece somewhere cannot be ruled out. 

Just a possibility until a crash is confirmed.

Foreign job seekers taking their chances in Sin City

It is reported that many foreigners arrived in Sin with only a suitcase and hope to land a job here. And quite a number made it as jobs for foreigners seem to be quite easily available. Compare this to jobs for the locals, be they experienced PMEs or new graduates, and going by the MOM statement this is going to be tough for them. Why is this so is still a mystery, or should it be?
 
Many of the recruitment agencies are run by foreigners who somehow have a penchant to recruit foreigners for jobs here. The locals are more like aliens to them and the employers who gave the contracts to these recruitment agencies. In Sin City, the citizens are the aliens and the foreigners have taken over as the locals. And it is all legal and in a way supported by the govt. The proliferation of foreign employment agencies and their successes here speak for itself. Of course the familiar statement of hard truth is that these agencies must also be run by more talented foreigners recruiting more talented foreigners for jobs that Sinkies did not have the talents to do. Looks like the Sinkies are going the way of the dodos.
 
As it goes, it is far easier for foreigners to land jobs in this island with low unemployment and many jobs available. And they came from all corners of the world. The only people that cannot find jobs or good jobs are the local graduates, and if the comments by the minister are a harbinger for things to come, the intake of universities would have to be cut to avoid having too many unemployed local graduates. Alternatively the places would be filled by foreign students.
 
Now is this a joke or what?

Gap in skills or too many graduates?

Just a couple of days back Chuan Jin was quoted to have said that the reason why Sinkies are losing out on jobs is due to ‘gap in skills’ or Sinkies do not have the required skills for the jobs. And 3rd World talents have all the skills needed to work in a 1st world metropolis. How could a 1st World education system failed to produce the right skills for its economy while 3rd World education systems could do so and with all the experience needed in a 1st World economy is a big puzzle. Should we send a team of educationists to learn from the 3rd World on how to produce talents for 1st World economy? Looks like they are much smarter than out super talents in training their graduates for our economy and we did not have a clue what is going on.
 
In today’s paper, Chuan Jin is again quoted that we are producing too many graduates who could not find jobs and creating a new problem. We have already a pool of experienced graduates that are no longer good enough for employment and are driving taxis. Now we are producing new graduates, or over producing graduates that could not find jobs.
 
Why are these new graduates unable to find jobs when jobs are aplenty, when the whole world is queuing up outside our gate to apply for jobs? What is the truth? Didn’t our economy provide a million jobs with many very well paying to foreigners? Why is there a problem providing jobs for a few thousand new graduates? Oh, skill gaps, and lack of experience working in 3rd World economies that are more sophisticated than our 1st World economy.
 
And we are still so short of talents that we are recruiting all over the world except that we don’t have enough jobs for our local graduates. So?
 
The solution is not to train too many local graduates. Then they can become crane drivers and hawkers and cooks. And the talents we need can come from the rest of the world, and the best talents are those from the 3rd World.
 
The more I write, the more confused I become. Maybe only the super talents can understand what is happening. We are producing too many local graduates that are unfit for employment and we need to take in more foreign talents that are very fit for employment even if the CVs and degrees are suspect.

Kopi Level - Yellow

Bigger, better heart centre

A new $266m heart centre to accommodate twice as many patients as the present one will open for business on Monday.  The 12 storey building can house 38 outpatient clinic rooms and a capacity to see 1000 patients daily or 200,000 patients a year.

Wow, this is a great improvement. It is quite surprising that so many Sinkies have bad hearts and needed such a big facility. And the good news is that many will have their bad hearts treated and go on living with a good heart, or a new heart.

It must be the affluence and too much money and too good a life that result in Sinkies having bad hearts, or it is the other way? Sinkies with bad hearts need not fear anymore and can live fearlessly.

Pioneer Generation (PG) versus Inheritance Generation (IG)

I was choosing between Inheritance Generation (IG) or New Generation(NG) to describe the generation of leaders we have today. I finally decided on IG instead of NG as NG is often used to mean No Good. Historically every dynasty or empire had their PG or the founding fathers, the people who fought to own what they had. The leaders and the people of PG were not only dynamic but also doers. They just did what they had to do as everything was virgin territory. They wanted a country they had to fight for it.

Our first batch of PG fought for self rule or self govt. Today we took that for granted and no longer cherished it as it came too easily, inherited. We are happily giving it away to foreigners to take over and rule us if we are not careful. We became independent through a twist of events, hardly called fighting for it. But subsequently building the country was everything from scratch. We build our industrial estates to form our industrial base, our economy. We built homes that we did not have or to replace the wooden huts. We built an army to defend our island. We created jobs when we had few. We educated and trained our young to be the new talented workforce that built this modern city.

The PG just did it. We built a modern city when others continued to live in 3^rd World environments as they were inept, not talented or organised enough to develop their countries. Today these unorganised and untalented people are swarming over here as talented, with fake certificates or certificates from third rate universities to replace us and no one questions the silliness of it all. The mindset of our PG was to do it by all means, to overcome all difficulties with our own talents. There is nothing that we could not do. Our IG only think of bringing in the unknowns but with papers to show they are talents and believe they are talents and more talented than our own. We don’t even trust our own people and talents. Who built this modern city? The foreign workers and foreign talents?

In a way we can understand the exasperation of Tee Tua Bah on the slow response to the Little India Riot. He came from a generation of doers. ‘There is a problem, deal with it and get it done.’ This was the mantra of those days. I am not saying that his way would be right and the result would be better in this riot, but that was how the PG worked. And they worked for very demanding and tough task masters of the early days that gave authority to those in charge and expected them to solve problems and not to talk about problems or bring problems to them.

In TRE there is this article on the hiring of foreign PMETs. And I quote: ‘In Parliament on Friday (7 Mar), Acting Manpower Minister Tan Chuan-Jin told the House that at least 50 companies have been found to have recruited too many foreigners since MOM started began investigating such firms at the start of 2014.
These firms have been found to be filling PMET positions with too many non-Singaporeans, Mr Tan said.’
If Chuan Jin were to tell LKY this, the reply would be ‘So’, meaning what are you going to do about it. If he would to tell Goh Keng Swee about it, he is going to feel very sorry. Keng Swee would have told him off, ‘get it done young man’. The last thing any officer would want to do was to bring a problem to a minister or permanent secretary without a solution. They better not think that the minister or permanent secretary was going to solve the problems for them unless it was not within their authority to do so.
The following statement was more ridiculous. ‘Mr Tan said however that the issue for some companies was not unfair hiring practices. Rather, they faced difficulties employing Singaporeans because of a “gap in skills” in the local workforce.’  So unfair hiring practices are not a problem anymore? Did Chuan Jin believe that our world class and world best education system could not produce the workers needed but the cheapo 3^rd World education systems could and the employers have to look to these 3^rd World countries for their talents? If these 3^rd World disorganised countries are so good, their people would not be begging at our doors for jobs. They messed up their economies and we expect them to come here to replace our talents to improve on what we have done? And obviously the minister is not thinking about fake certificates and CVs.
How could these 3^rd World misfits be better than our local talents, even if they have genuine certificates from their unrated universities. Or is anyone trying to confirm that the high rankings of our universities are fakes and are no better than those unranked universities from 3^rd World countries? Our graduates are not worth the papers they received from our universities?

You tell me what is wrong with this kind of situation.

Kopi Level - Yellow

Singapore the most expensive city? So?

What is the fuzz all about that Singapore is the most expensive city in the world? To me everything is fine and nothing changes, really. I still have my breakfast and whatever, dining in whatever chic joints that I fancied. My Lamborghini is still running fine and attracting all the attention that I need. If it feels jaded, I can always jump into my Ferrari for a change. So, what’s the big deal?

The cars are so cheap that I could buy a new one with my salary every month. The landed properties too are affordable, really, only a year or two years income will be enough to pay for one, with spare change.

The only thing that I am complaining is that the roads are too congested. They should raise the ERP charges to $20 a pass or even $50. And for those wannabes who cannot afford to buy a decent car, they should take public transport and stop hogging the roads by limping around at 90 kph on the expressway. They are real irritants and always seem to be blocking my right of way. Shitty drivers who think their little cheap sedans are a status symbol to show off on the roads.

Everything is so affordable here and nothing is expensive. I am very comfortable with my level of contentment without being complacent and lazy. Life is a bliss and for enjoyment, and this city just is about everything that I need. Oh, I am no big entrepreneur taking high risk with my investments. I am just an ordinary employee with a decent income to boot.

Now who is complaining? 

Kopi Level - Greeen

PS: I need to clarify here that this is a satire or else stupid people cannot understand and think that I am talking about myself earning million dollar salary. Then the daft will think he is smarter to call me daft.

COI – The Altar of Sacrifice

The COI is set up to investigate the causes of the Little India Riot and probably with recommendations to prevent such an incident from happening again. And if it does, this time the police will be in a better position to deal with the mob. And the possible causes could be things like alcohol consumption, too many people concentrated in a small area, congestion, (didn’t they said 4 is illegal assembly?), narrow roads, rude bus attendant or bad bus driver or something like that.

What has happened over the last few sessions has turned into a grilling of the men in blue. It is looking more like an Altar of Sacrifice and a sacrificial lamb would be presented eventually to satisfy the gods. Now who is going to be the culprit or rogue of the Little India Riot? Would it be the rioters, the policemen or would it be the govt, definitely not the COI?

At the moment it looks like it is the police that is on trial. Or is it? Who else is also on trial? Looking from outside the fishbowl, it looks like everyone is a possible candidate on trial, from the right side to the left side, from those in front of the bench and those behind the bench, and those outside the bench.
This is truly a contest to prove who is the cleverest of them all on the basis of if? And which lamb will be offered on the Altar of Sacrifice? It is nice drama pitting the wits of the witnesses with those of the committee with accusations of all kinds thrown up in the air. Some say it is amusing, some capricious, some say it is conceit and egos and bundled into one.

What do you think?

China should show the middle finger to the Americans

The American defence budget is US$600.4b compares to China’s US$132b. And the Americans are unhappy and questioned China’s intention in raising defence spending! Is it the right of America to have a super big military force and no one else can have their own big military force, even spending at a fraction of what the American’s are spending?
 
China should just ignore this kind of nonsensical question. In fact China should ask the US why they need to have such an enormous budget. Ok, the American will reply, ‘We want to be the Number One Super power to rule the world.’
 
Should China wish to respond to the Americans instead of showing them the middle finger, China could tell the Americans that it also has the aspirations to be the Number One Super Power. Can or not? Or China could tell the Americans that it must have a force sufficiently big to deter an American attack, one that is big enough to keep the Americans away but not too big to attack the Americans.
 
At the moment, the Americans are maintaining an overwhelming superiority to allow it to attack any country including China and know that China would not hit back. So the Americans can adopt an adventuristic policy like striking at China’s Embassy in Belgrade for no reason and pretending that it was a mistake or flying B 52 bombers towards China. China must have a defence force strong enough to keep American adventurism and cowboy mentality at bay. And China can only do that when it is at parity with the Americans in terms of military might.
 
Does that answer the American’s question? Or are they so stupid and still want to ask again?

World’s most expensive and cheapest cities- Trading place

‘IBNlive.in.com, 4 Mar 2014
Singapore has topped a list of 131 cities globally to become the world's most expensive cities to live in 2014, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), reported by the BBC. India's major cities - including Mumbai and New Delhi - were found to be among the least expensive in the world.’
 
This piece of news is really funny and I am going to write funnily. You see, the talents from India are taking over many of the top jobs in Sin City to help the City to grow. And they are getting all the plum jobs and paid better than the Sinkies.
 
On the other hand, the daft Sinkies, after building this great City, are getting less talented. I think it will be a good thing to switch places. Let all the daft Sinkies sell their HDB flats and move over to Mumbai or New Delhi while the Indians move over to take over Sin City.
 
Hopefully, this will put a big spur on the daft Sinkies’ hide and they could rebuild Mumbai and New Delhi into a new and prosperous Sin Cities with all the first world attributes like this most expensive city today. It will give them the drive badly needed but lost through years of affluence to be like their forefathers were, to build a new city for themselves.
 
What do you think?

The new moral code of the elite

The elite are living life in their ivory towers and would do all they can to convince or coerce the masses that the new status quo is either good, natural or inevitable, and nothing can be done about it.
 
The first myth they are selling is that the wide income gap is normal and that’s it, live with it, meaning they keep their high income and the masses keep their low income. They are so talented and the average guy is so untalented. They need to pay themselves so high or they will be poached by MNCs that are willing to pay them more. The income of the masses has to be kept low as the whole world is waiting outside our door to take the jobs at lower pay, and they are willing, hungry and more talented.
 
Another myth is the price of public housing, even when it is a 99 year lease, is affordable and reasonable at the kind of price they are selling and to be repayable over 30 or more years. And they are forcing young people to incur huge debt to service, while those with a little more income are forced to take even bigger debt in private housing. They want it that way, for whose benefits? Definitely not for the young home buyers who would be burdened for almost their entire working lives.
 
A new myth they have created is that taking public transport is gracious living, reduces jams on the roads. They are also saying the roads are congested and to reduce the jams, high car prices, including $100k COEs are necessary. And who will be enjoying the jam free roads? And they pay themselves crazily to make sure the high prices of car ownership look cheap and affordable. And what is the main cause of more cars on the roads? Is it high population? You dunno meh? And they are going to make the population density go even higher and higher.
 
Who would have to pay the price for the big squeeze? Not the elite for sure. They even try to con the daft Sinkies that living in dog kennel size flats would not affect the quality of life and to have more children, to have 3 generations living in the little kennel called home.
 
What else have they fiddled with to their advantage and to the disadvantage of the masses? They told you GST is good and meant to help the poor. How many of you believe in this new moral? They abolished estate duties to encourage the rich to get richer. The rationale is not to discourage the rich from becoming more enterprising, and their talent should not be punished. They deserved to be rich for generations as they are so talented, or talent breeds in the same pool of genes. My eye balls are rolling all over.
 
What else are the elite telling the masses? Keep more money in your CPF and be happy knowing you have so much money in their safe keeping. Only clever people will put their money in the CPF to grow and the money will not run away. It will be there forever, even after you die. Great moral wisdom isn’t it?
 
Oh, I nearly forgot, $600,000 is peanuts. Many peasants would never even see $6000 in their bank accounts in their life time. And housing prices drops by 1% they started to kpkb. But when housing prices went up by 200% or 300% they did not bother. They laughed all the way to the banks.
 
Another interesting new moral is for poor young men and women to defend the riches of the elite, to protect their mansions when the young men and women are paid not even peanuts but more like pittance. And they expect the young men and women to be valiant and to die defending their wealth without thinking or questioning. ‘Si beh kiang or si beh gong’?
 
Then there is this new wisdom or moral code, that it is the right thing to do to bring in foreigners to replace the citizens in good jobs and allow the citizens to be underemployed or unemployed. It is called meritocrazy! And the citizens are threatened to buck up or their wives and daughters would become maids. Why is there a need for a defence force, and what is there to defend when foreigners are invited to feast themselves at the expense of citizens, to boss over the citizens, to cheat the citizens?
 
Would the deregulation of the financial industry to allow the banks to do as they pleased, to create money out of nothing, be the new moral code of the elite? You tell me.
 
This new moral code is not exhaustive. You could have seen and heard even more than are written here. This is the new morality of the elite. And they would tell the daft that these are the hard truths and they have to accept it, like it or not.

6.9m is not the target, only for planning

This is true. The 6.9m population for 2030 is only a part of the planning process. Grace Fu announced in Parliament that population growth for 2013 was 80,000, 30k from newborns, 20k from new citizens and 30k from PRs. And this is the slowest growth in the last 10 years, a pull back after the unprecedented protest at Hong Lim Park. What would it be like without the protest is left to your own imagination.
 
The govt is ‘pulling back’ its plan for population growth! Really? At this rate, with a population of 5.4m, and if the govt is to add 80k every year, in 10 years, the population will be 6.2m. By 2030 it will add in another 560k to make it to 6.67m, a whisker away from the 6.9m planned.
 
So, would we have 6.67m or 6.9m in 2030? And after 2030, if growth is a necessity, would the population still continue to grow at the same rate and where will it end?
Anyone wondering why is there such an obsession to grow the population by hook or by crook. No population growth means no economic growth, no jobs for Sinkies but plenty of jobs for foreigners? It is like a drug addict, no matter how many rounds of cold turkeys, or how many times thrown into jail, die die must have the fix. No matter how many times the people protest, the population must grow as planned.
 
Does it mean that the country will collapse or something worse will happen if the population is not boosted? What is so critical that the govt must ignore the complaints and wishes of the people that it must go against the people?
 
Why? What is the intent of the govt? What is the real reason for this outrageous and unacceptable policy to be pushed with total disregard of the people’s will? There must be something very serious that the govt is not telling the people for wanting to go ahead with the population growth that the people did not want and opposed to it.
 
Or is this the best this one trick pony can do with the millions they are paid? They just cannot think of any better alternatives?
 
Why? Would the govt tell the people why it is so desperate for population growth? Where is the transparency and accountability? Why the secrecy? Tell the people the alternatives, but not the kind that our women folks will become maids.

Kopi Level - Green

China should not apologise for defence budget

Though China’s defence budget has been increasing and now second only to the Americans, it is only a fraction of the American defence budget. Why is it that no one is complaining about the Americans having an obtuse defence budget that allows them to invade countries after countries but instead complaining about China’s small budget? Why are the Americans and some silly countries complaining about the Russians using force to invade a smaller country like Ukraine when the Americans have been doing the same and in bigger scale in Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan and Pakistan?
 
China is a big country and needs a big military to defend its national interests. China had been a victim of western and Japanese aggression and invasion for more than a hundred years when it was militarily weak. It must learn from its history not to be weak again and be victims of foreign aggression.
 
At the height of Japanese militarism, the Japanese pointedly told the Chinese Viceroy, Li Hong Chang, that it was China’s fault for being weak and invited aggression. And Japan was the biggest culprit in taking advantage of China’s weakness to invade China and Korea.
 
What is Japan complaining about China’s bigger military budget? Is Japan thinking that China must be militarily weak so that it could take advantage of China’s weakness once again to invade China?
 
China should remind the Japanese of their aggression and pointly tell the Japanese that China must be stronger militarily than Japan to stop Japanese from adventurism. And should Japan dare try to invade China, China would return the favour by invading Japan. The Japanese only understand the logic of military power. And it has rearmed itself to the teeth though it was against its pacifist constitution to do so.
 
China should not apologise to any country to be a super military power. It has to be strong to prevent any country from thinking it is ok to invade China or to mess around with China or claim Chinese territories as theirs. A strong China would bring peace to the world as it would stop any country from making mischievous plan against China. A weak China will make itself sexy for foreign invasion, and would make smaller countries easy targets for the Americans to invade as well, without China to say No to the Americans. Countries in the Middle East, Africa and SE Asia particularly the Asean countries will have to bear with the naked use of power by the Americans without a powerful China.

A new moral code, a new legal system

Ross Ashcroft said this in his documentary called The Four Horsemen, ‘When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men living together in society, they create for themselves in the course of time a legal system that authorises it and a moral code that glorifies it’.
 
Some of you may miss the significance of this statement on the state of decadence. It is a truism that transcends time, society, culture and ideology. Remember what happened to the Animal Farm in the final chapters? I had a rude reminder of this kind of mindset last night over Channel News Asia in the programme SG+ hosted by Melanie Oliveiro. It was all about the idealism of a young socialist and the thinking of a decadent establishment. The topic was about the widening income gap between the rich and poor and the standard replies of the decadent mind to brush aside the youthful ideas of socialism.
 
Every misgiving was quickly brushed away by shallow excuses. The points that the income gap should be closed and the rich taxed more were casually rebutted by well rehearsed replies of a new moral code. The growing income gap is a normal thing in capitalism, must be accepted and nothing should be done to curb it. We must not kill the initiative and entrepreneurial spirit of the rich. Let them grow richer. We don’t want to be all poorer like in communism.
 
Did anyone suggest to kill their entrepreneurial skill? Did anyone want to tax them to run away? Did anyone want everyone to be poor communist? Actually this is an outdated mindset. You need to be communist to be rich. The new rich are the communist. Ask the comrades visiting the shopping paradise of the world’s fashion capitals and they will tell you they are communist. The capitalists are living in debt except for the super rich.
We can help the poor by education and a level playing field. We should not bring back estate duties. There is nothing wrong with the rich passing their wealth to their children. We will help the poor to be rich, would that not be better? Why rob the rich to give it to the poor? The polite socialist corrected this by saying, no, it is not so silly to just take from the rich to give to the poor. Why make such a silly argument like daft children? The taxes could, yes, go to help the poor in education and assistance schemes to make them help themselves.
 
There are rich not because they were entrepreneurial and investing in industries and taking big risk. There are many that turned rich by collecting salaries and passive incomes for doing nothing or doing very little. But this part must not be spoken. The new moral code is to facilitate some people to get rich by association without much contribution, or just by bullshiting.
 
And everything is legally right, supported by a new legal system. The Americans went much further by allowing the banks to gamble their clients’ money or gamble against their clients, totally legal. Their laws have been changed and new laws passed to allow such crimes to become not crimes. Their stock exchanges were supposed to operate under a fair system and a level playing field but no more. The unfairness and unlevel playing field were not spoken, nobody wants to know or talk about it. When crimes are no longer crimes, the decadence has reached its peak.
 
It is only a matter of time when the system is brought down on its knee and the perpetrators be put behind bars. A new social moral code and legal system that are more equitable would be brought in to replace the decadence legal system and moral code the rich elite have created for themselves, to protect their vested interests.
 
You guys should watch the repeat broadcast of this programme these few days or view it at CNA’s archive to know what I mean. It is a classic production. The rich elite will justify their wealth and their robbery by false and shallow pretences, sophistry that only they believe in.

Open letter to MAS's Consultation Paper

Below is my letter to MAS in response to their open call for feedback from stakeholders in the stock broking industry.

PM Lee Hsien Loong
DPM/Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam
The MD MAS R Menon
CEO SGX Magnus Bocker

5 Mar 14

The Stock Market is NOT fine. It is no longer a level playing field and has been redesigned for unfair trading in favour of computer trading. (This two line statement is a summary of this paper)

This is an open letter to the above gentlemen and will also be posted in my blog, www.mysingaporenews.blogspot.sg/.

The Stock Market is not fine contrary to what was stated in the discussion paper issued jointly by the MAS and SGX. The condition of the stock market is dire, in a state of denial and slipping into a coma. Yes, the trading volume gives an impression that it is healthy and active. The revenue and profit of the SGX suggested that all is fine and presumably the market will continue to function in this manner for a long time to come, with the SGX chalking up good revenue and profit as it gets along. It is NOT. There are hardly any retail traders in the market. Why?

The Stock Market is not only the SGX. It has other players and stakeholders. And all is not fine except for the SGX and the computer traders. Some of the front line soldiers, the remisiers, are earning less than what a cleaner or security guard is getting. Younger remisiers have already left the industry or seeking employment. Only those that could not find alternative employment are sticking it out and waiting for the broking houses to ask them to leave.

The retail traders have fled from the market.

With this pathetic level of commission, the broking houses too would not be able to sustain their operations at the current scale and would soon have to downsize and retrench staff. The supporting staff will have to go and overhead cuts. Some may want to get out of the business too.

For companies listing in the SGX, soon they will realise that it is a waste of time when the value of their shares are near to worthless. It is a joke that the prices of stocks in the main board of a regional financial centre with big ambition can be less than 5 cents or even worse, less than 1 cent. And this is not an exception.

What is happening to the Stock Market? What are the causes that led to this dismal state of affair? Some stakeholders will still swear that it is fine. They will not want to see the elephant in the class room. What is that?

The culprit that is causing the demise of the Stock Market is not contra trading as they would want you to believe. Excessive contra trading and speculations need to be moderated but not to be wiped out. They are the soul and spirit of a small market. Without contra trading and speculations you will have a market the size of a pea.

The Stock Market today is not the traditional stock market that we knew before. All the principles and fundamentals of a traditional stock market have been violated and cast away. The Stock Market we have today is nothing but a casino in disguise but without the strict regime, regulations and controls of a casino.

The SGX has been reorganised and redesigned to allow computer traders using high speed sophisticated computer systems to trade against unsophisticated investors or even big funds still trading on fundamentals and believing that they are investing in the long term. Rules and processes have been changed to facilitate computer trading to be more effective and efficient, taking full advantage of computer power, time and speed, and financial resources to cream the market, to trade against investors without the benefits of these computers. Continuous trading with no lunch breaks, small board lot size, minimum bid size, script borrowing, keying in of short positions, etc etc were all created to favour computer trading against other traders.

High speed computers of computer traders are plugged into the SGX system to have access to information of other traders and their positions and simply trading against them with no regards to the fundamentals of the stocks. Computers trade for profit by buying and selling against the rest of the investors, often depressing prices of stocks against their real values. They have cleaned up the traders, big and small, and not many are left with money to lose.

Put it simply, computer trading is unfair trading, unfair advantage. It violates all the fundamentals, principles and regulations of the SGX to provide a level playing field and fair trading to all the players. How could this be allowed by the SGX? This is criminal.

I am not making any suggestion or recommendation as to how to save the Stock Market. The solutions are obvious but no one wants to see or do the right thing. The invitation for the public, the uncles and aunties for their recommendations to improve market activities, but creating an unfair and uneven playing field, reflects two things. One, they do not see anything wrong with the current system. Two, they are not serious.

The problems in the industry and the Stock Market are very serious and highly technical. You need experts and professionals who can understand what is happening and the complexities of the market mechanism to know what is wrong and what are needed to put things right.

If you get the picture, and see the problem and want to do something about it, it is best to set up a COI of experts who not only know what they are doing but have the heft and confidence to change what really need to be changed. You would need people like Paul Volcker or some real foreign talents who are critics of the existing flawed stock market system to tell the truth about the unfairness of the system. The advocates of the system will not volunteer to tell you what is wrong with the market and the system. They will say it is fine. This is how far I am prepared to comment.

For a ‘nobody’ to make suggestions is not only rude but a waste of time when the believers and converts of the current system could simply throw the paper into the waste bin. You need a COI of professionals to make real changes, failing which you can wait to bury the Stock Market in a year to two.

If you have bothered to read this far, there is some hope that the stock market industry can be saved. And I thank you for your patience and trouble to hear me out.

Thank you.

Kopi level - Green

Why Russia invades Ukraine?

The ouster of pro Russian Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych was unacceptable to Putin. He cannot accept the loss of another pro Russian state to the hands of the USA. Putin needed a good excuse to move in to keep Ukraine under the sphere of Russia.
His excuse was simply to protect the ethnic Russians in Ukraine, comprising 50% of Ukraine’s population. This may or may not be a legitimate reason but a good enough reason for a powerful state to use as an excuse to invade another nation.
 
We have a large foreign population among us, all in hundreds of thousands from the PRC Chinese, India Indians, Malaysians, Indonesians and the Pinoys from the trigger happy and most powerful Asean country, the Philippines. Any of these countries, if powerful enough, could use the excuse of protecting their citizens here to invade us.
 
We are lucky that this would not happen. Not that they cannot find an excuse. We have the most powerful military force in the region and we can take on anyone. And we also have the backing of the Number One superpower, the USA behind us. So we are safe as long as the Americans don’t have a reason to want to invade us. Anyway, they are already here, so there is really no need to do so.
 
The only time when we have to worry about the Americans is when we become too close to China or Russia. Then the Americans could use the same excuse, to protect their citizens and also their investments here to invade us.
 
In the game of big power politics, we can become a pawn to any of them. The current geopolitical equation may make some think that an invasion is very unlikely, just like the invasion by the Japanese from Northeast Asia, so far away, and not really that powerful compares to the big powers today.
 
We are very safe, even with so many foreign nationalities living here. Our presumption is that it is exactly because they are here that their countries will not invade and destroy their investments here. Makes sense right? No? It gives them more reasons to covet the island, a prime asset without anyone interested in wanting ownership. In fact it seems that the owners are so willing to share, to give it away.

Let me quote  Bilahari Kausikan in his article in the ST today. 'Do not just listen to the sweet words of foreigners, however pleasing to the ear. We must calculate our own interests as clinically as we can and not let anyone beguile us into believing they know better.'

More coverage on the Little India COI?

We have had several days of furious reporting on the proceedings and revelations of the Little India riot by the COI. The committee had a field day expressing great admirations to individual bravery and frowning at some acts of ‘cowardice’, not sure if this is an appropriate word to use. And there were suggestions of what would or could be done better. It was all about how the rioting could not have happened if the accident was properly handled, nipped in the bud by properly trained personnel who somehow failed to do so. There were so many disappointments on how the men in blue handled the incidents. And one striking moot point was the choice of not firing a warning shot that could have made a great difference.
 
Then the reporting in the media stopped. No more coverage. No more revelations of bravery and shortcomings and misgivings. What happens? No more COI, or is there an adjournment and we would hear more of juicy details later on? I am really looking forward to the interesting revelations and commentaries from the eye witnesses and the experts. And I must say I am not disappointed.
 
There was an adjournment and the COI continued with more aggressive bouts of verbal tussle between the committee and the witnesses. Yesterday was more between former Commissioner Tee Tua Bah and current DAC Lu Yeow Lin, a contest between the veterans who have been there, seen it and done it, full of valour and experience on one side, and top scholars, full of talent, meticulous and well honed technical skills and with modern management skill and expertise on the other side.
 
The veterans believed in actions, go in and get the job done quickly. Think later or think quickly. The new technocrats, careful, measured, situation appreciation, considered the lives of bystanders, officers and not wanting to aggravate a bad situation. It was all cool, calculative and thoughtful decision making. The veterans did not favour such an approach. Too slow and could even be the cause of emboldening the rioters. The new talents disagreed.
 
How would the situation be like should the veterans be in charge is a iffy thing. It could lead to even bigger riot or the rioters could scamper and all arrested on the spot with minimum fuzz.
 
The outcome could actually be extrapolated from the assumptions of the rioters. One view is that the rioters are like innocent and nice school children. If this is so, the aggressive and swift ‘nip in the bud’ approach of the veterans would surely do the job. Actually, if the rioters were like school children, they could send in a team of police women, as long as they are tougher than the female bus attendant, would do the trick. Just give the rioters a few pushes and they will all fall on the ground.
 
On the contrary, if the rioters were wild and untamed beasts, like how they beat up the bus attendant and driver and some policemen, and burning of police vehicles, a rough handling could actually go the way as described by the new talents, bigger riot and burning of Little India.
 
Between the veterans and the new talents, who is wiser? Which approach is the better one? Can we develop a computer game to offer the different possibilities and scenarios and see how they run out?
 
What do you think?

World’s most expensive city!

We are the most expensive country in the world to live in. And we are trying to attract our citizens overseas to return to sink root here. I am wondering aloud if this is another wayang or for real. We are so expensive in two big ticket items, housing and cars. How are we going to tell our Singaporeans to come back home to live and work here when they have to pay a ransom just to get a roof over their head and a decent car to enjoy the good life? Or maybe the target group is the low earners that are eligible to buy HDB.
 
How are they going to tell them that when they returned, because of their higher incomes, they cannot buy public flats but pay a few millions to buy private properties? 
These overseas Sinkies are living in big houses, landed properties that cost less a HDB flat and owning cars that cost a fraction of a small Japanese car here. They could afford two or more cars in where they are living. Why would they want to trade their good life to live in the world’s most expensive city and pay a bomb for a tiny flat and a tiny car?
 
Are you people real? Are you people thinking? Are you people asking too much from the overseas Sinkies? Are you nuts? Or do you think they are nuts? Or maybe they are so excited to want to live in the world’s most expensive city.
 
A country that refuses to sell public housing to its own citizens for whatever silly reasons when housing prices are sky high is a SICK country run by sick people. Period.

Kopi level - Yellow

US militant doctrine of permanent warfare for world domination ( PART Two

USA evil doctrine of permanent warfare for world dominance.

Inbox

x

US militant doctrine of permanent warfare for world domination.                   

   (     PART    TWO     )

US state organised terrorism did not start only after the Second World War. American terrorism is and has been an extension of Imperial British terrorism which terrorised the whole world from the 1600s AD to 1960sAD. Under British terrorism , wars of aggression and harassment were carried out symstematically and natives of conquered lands were brutally massacred or genocided. When US got its independence from England it consisted of only thirteen states and it existed among the many self governing or semi-independent native Indian states in North America. However from the first day of its independence US systematically carried out brutal wars of aggression against these native Indian states and destroyed them one by one and killed , murdered or genocide eighty-five million or ninety-five percent of the native population. US brutallity knew no bounds and its savage and wanton treatment  of natives even outdone and  exceeded that of its  British  forbears. Thus the whole of North America with the exception of Canada eventually came under US rule. US then systematically and yearly carried out a mass system of populating the conquered native lands with millions of white immigrants from all corners of Europe.

US did not stop its wars of aggression after taking over all the native lands in North America. It justified its conquests and complete destruction of the natives by quoting the Bible in saying their Christian God did not keep these rich and resourceful lands  for the "savage natives" but God has meant it to be reserved for "civilised White Men". Now who are the savages and who are the civilised people? You judge for yourself.  US then turned its wars of aggression against Mexico. It always created border incidents to justify its aggression. Thus in between 1840s to 1890s US attacked and invaded Mexico and eventually occupied more than one million six hundred and sixty-five thousand square miles of Mexican lands which now comprise the states of Florida, Texas, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, Wyoming and California.

After annexing more than two thirds of Mexican lands US focus its wars of aggression across the Pacific Ocean. It attacked and took Hawaii by force in between 1905 to 1940s. The natives of Hawaii fought the barbaric Americans bravely and only gave up after hundreds of thousands of native Hawaiians were killed and slaughtered.  US then went on to depose the Hawaiian queen and eventually annexed the group of Hawaiian Islands to America. Just like in North America, Hawaii is now occupied eighty per cent by white men. There is another native islander kingdom called Guam across the other side of the Pacific Ocean in the east and this island kingdom would eventually suffered the same fate as Hawaii. Guam is now a major American military base. From Guam the Americans are now posturing its aggression against China. It had earlier used Guam for operation as a major military base for its war of aggression against Vietnam in the Vietnam Wars of 1965 to 1975. After taking Hawaii and Guam US went on to occupy and mopped up many other small islands in the Pacific Ocean.

Who and when will the Evil Empire's savage aggressions be stopped?

Southernglory1

Wednesday, 5th March, 2014

Did Cheng Bock disinvite himself again?

Someone pointed out to me that Cheng Bock’s name was not among the comrades listed in the Obituary for Chua Sian Chin. Practically every ex MP and minister’s name was on that list except Cheng Bock.
 
The question is whether Cheng Bock was not invited or disinvited himself from the comrades in arms. If he was not invited, is it a clear sign that he is no longer one of them? Unless of course someone took out the wrong list that was not updated.
 
What is happening?

Hospital tents as temporary buffers

Gan Kim Yong: ‘the tent used for the Admission Transit Area Extension at Changi General Hospital is part of the “buffer capacity” to respond to unexpected surges in demand. It was built in June last year.’
 
Well, in many services there is this occasional need for additional facilities when there is a surge in demand. Restaurants could put up side tables in any space available when needed. Our housing crisis over the last decade was due to the lack of tents to accommodate the influx of a million foreigners. The MND should learn from MOH to built tents as buffer capacity when the next population surge arises when they did not see it coming.
 
It is understandable that such buffer capacity wouldl be needed when there is an epidemic like the Sars crisis. Just wondering why there is a need to cater for a surge during the end of the year holiday season? If this is a seasonal thing, there must be better ways to cope with such demands and the number of additional beds could be fairly predictable after years of repeated demands.
 
When such buffer capacities have to be activated in a non crisis state or when there is no outbreak of a contagious disease, does it not say that our hospital capacities are already fully loaded or insufficient? One can imagine what the needs for beds would be like when there is a major outbreak like the SARS. The only good thing about this shortage is that it will be quite similar to the housing shortage and the huge demand could be translated to good profits with higher ward charges. Or maybe not since the ward charges cannot be subject to market forces and market pricing mechanism of supply and demand.
 
Incidentally, would patients housed in such temporary tents be charged the same rate as those in the normal wards? Oh, are these ‘Admission Transit Area Extension’ going to be a permanent temporary fixture of hospitals?

Protection from Harassment Bill, all the good intentions

The anti stalking and harassment Bill looks so innocent and angelic that the victims of such acts would be all too glad to receive it with open arms. And factually many innocents have fallen victims to the aggressive behaviors and acts of their harassers and stalkers and badly needed a law for their own protection. We have laws against physical body harm but most of the time the laws were proven useless as the victims of physical abuses are left to seek justice in the courts if they have the money to do so. No money means they should quietly accept being beaten, resign to their fate, it is a private matter.
So, we have this great bill, like the white knight coming to the rescue of people in distress. Would it be so or would the victims ended up like those being physically attacked and have to buy justice with their own money? No money no justice.
 
The other aspect of this Bill can prove to be more hazardous other than the tediosity in its implementation. You would need an army of police and judicial officers to enforce this Bill. And there will be the battles of definition as to what constitute harassment and to a lesser extent stalking. An example of the definition in the media, ‘ Speaking or acting in a threatening, abusive or insulting way such that a person becomes harassed, alarmed or distressed’ looks more frightening than good. A thin skin asshole will see himself being harassed, alarmed or distressed even by the look of another person that he disliked. He would feel ‘very threatened’ even by the person’s voice or singing or the sight of his post. How is the law going to protect the other party who actually did nothing to harass such a thin skin ass who could probably be faking?
 
The other danger provided by this law is for the so called ‘victims’ to harass and threaten the innocent party by invoking this law. It is so damn easy to fix anyone for harassment with the slightest and skimpiest excuse. This law could prove more deadly and dangerous to the innocents than its intent to protect the real victims of harassment. The men in blue will be very busy as every asshole that has an axe to grind, a hatred or grievance or dislike of another can go to the police post to make a police report. Would the police be in a position to throw out the wanton and spurious accusations? Would they be in a position to sieve out the nonsense? Or would they simply do the necessary to assist, facilitate and perpetuate another form of harassment using the police report as the tool? Would the police and the judiciary become the accomplice of harassment?
 
And, just another point without being exhaustive, is that this law could be the law that is needed to curb and gag the social media. Any damn thing spoken can be an act of harassment. It is only a matter of whose opinion and who feels harassed or ‘hurt’. There shall be no more criticism of the govt or any policies as that would tantamount to harassment. Political satire too would be harassment as someone would act and feel like a victim and seek redress from this law. How is this law going to differentiate fair discussion on social political issues without being slammed by this law?
 
With its comprehensive and wide ranging coverage, even covering the spurious, what is the real intent and purpose of this Bill? We will need another Bill to protect the victims of this Bill.

Kopi Level - Yellow