Sinkies’ ‘chap cheng’ mentality

Heard that Singapore is promoting the Songkran festival at the Padang. Now which organization is spearheading this event? I think it is a good start for a ‘chap cheng’ city. The meaning of ‘chap’ is ten and ‘cheng’ is tribes, together they men ten tribes. With so many tribes here we should have more festivals. Now let’s see what China, India, the Philippines, Myanmar and the rest of the foreigners here have in their home countries. We can celebrate all their festivals here so that they don’t have to go home and can feel at home here.

We can have more holidays in our calendars as well. We can change our official languages from 4 to plenty to make our city more global. Please don’t complain about 6.9m. And please don’t complain about being Sinkies. Sinkies will no longer be called Sinkies if we keep globalizing in this way. We can proudly call ourselves the ‘Chap Cheng’ country and our citizens or residents be called, yes, you got it right, ‘Chap Cheng’.

We have nothing of our own to be proud of and we can keep coveting other people’s culture and festivals and even talents to make us feel better, to be more global and some self assurance that we are ok. After creating so many fakes for the locals and tourists, at least a festival like Songkran is real. We can have the colour powder festival of India and the bun festival of Hongkong. We can have bullock racing at the padang as well. And not to forget the smashing of tons of edible tomatoes on the streets for fun. Let’s celebrate, let’s party as the world in a chap cheng City, or a more marketable and sleek name like the City of Chap Chengs.

Kopi Level - Red

Little India riot COI – A voice of wisdom and reason

Finally we are hearing a voice of reason from not only a very experienced ex commissioner, but one who uses his wisdom to think before making a subjective assessment. If you are following the comments of experienced, so called experts in the MH370 case, you will know that many of them were just spouting nonsense. They may have the experience and in senior positions, but they were the proverbial one eyed jack during a time when everyone was blind. Intelligence and wisdom will show when one does not have them in the first place.

Back to the COI. We have several sessions when the COI was more about a contest of opinions between the police on the ground and the COI committee. It was about who is right and smarter in handling the riot. The police’s view was not using excessive force, waiting for the SOC to reinforce their position was the right thing to do as any wrong move could inflame the already bad situation that could be life threatening. The COI’s view, the police should have acted swiftly with a bit more assertiveness or use of force to disperse the crowd. It wasn’t life threatening and going after the rioters would prevent more violence or the burning of more vehicles. These two views were what I read from the media and the police or COI may want to dispute and say I am misreading the whole hearing. Just my view, feel free to disagree.

In this morning’s paper, ex Police Commissioner Khoo Boon Hui offered some very sensible and reasonable views of what he thought, and how the police handled the situation. He did not outrightly claim which side was right as the situation was fluid and volatile and could turn any way. Whatever actions the police could do otherwise, could lead to lowering the tension and lesser rioting, or it could be worse. Who could be wiser to claim for sure that doing A would end up with B or doing C would end up with D unless he is omniprescient. A mob is unpredictable.

Khoo Boon Hui also spoke about different times, different values and different methodologies. The old tactics of meeting force with force is less desirable in today’s context unless the situation warrants it. How the police handled the situation in Little India was in line with their new doctrine and a new reality. He wisely stayed away from committing himself into a ‘I am right and you are wrong’ situation. No one in his right mind should be making such a judgemental pronouncement without looking pompous and silly.

The COI would definitely benefit from Khoo Boon Hui’s statement of reasons.

MH370 – A confluence of Incompetence

I may be jumping the gun to say this as no one is really in the picture and those in the know would be smiling quietly. For all the while goose chase, there is a pattern, like they say, even madness has a pattern. Who knows, from the very next day the Malaysian Govt was already in contact and negotiating with the hijackers and the rest of the chase was just a big wayang kulit.

Putting this aside, the incompetence of those managing this affair is showing. When MH370 first went missing, the first thought that it could be a crash or an explosion was reasonable and the search for a crash site and debris a very logical thing to do. The stupid part about this was that though there were other possibilities mentioned, there was no serious effort to follow up in those directions. The most important of which was a hijack scenario. Instead, all efforts and resources were ploughed into searching for debris in one location. And when this was fruitless, everything was turned towards the Indian Ocean to follow a new lead.

The authorities should have dovetailed the search, from just looking for debris and a crashed aircraft to looking at where the hijackers could possibly take the aircraft to at the same time. Before ruling out a crash, a hijack cannot be ignored and ruled out.  It could not simply ignore other possibilities while sitting on one. Ok, I am saying this assuming that they did not know and were not negotiating with the hijackers. Without chasing this possibility and other possibilities, without looking at possible landing sites, many precious days were lost and now it is as good as impossible to locate them except for the hijackers to call.

In the case of a hijacking, and not a suicide bomber mission, the plane would have to be flown to an airstrip or some islands where it could land with minimal damage to the aircraft and loss of lives. It could be a friendly airport controlled by sympathetic forces, or an island prepared for this mission, fully secured by members of the hijacking team.

In the first couple of days, the aircraft and passengers could be at the landing site. By now they would have been dispersed to far away locations from the landing site. The aircraft could have been camouflaged or hidden or dumped somewhere else. If it landed in an airfield, it could be inside a hanger or even be repainted. All clues would be gone.

I am afraid by now any searches to locate where they could have landed would be in vain. There would be no traces of their presence or where about.  One possibility, as in the case of the debris in the Antarctic, is that after off loading the passengers and doing all the necessary, they would be dumping the aircraft as far away as they could to hide their tracks.  

The initiative is now with the hijackers and everyone could just wait patiently for the phone to ring. The last lead is for the intelligence services to make contacts with their sources for information. If it is state terrorism, it would be a very different proposition. Do not expect them to tell you even if they are openly offering assistance.

All the search parties can now make a last ditch effort with the Australian lead in the southern Indian Ocean before going home for a good rest and hope for more leads.  For sure, whatever that could be found from the latest lead would not lead to the passengers or the hijackers unless the passengers are sacrificed and buried with the aircraft.

For so many days, everyone was just reacting to news and would rush to wherever something was seen moving. It was funny but pathetic. Everyone was waiting for something to fall onto their laps but nothing came. They were not using their heads to look at other possibilities. To anticipate what could be and looking in different directions.

What theory are they going to explain for a pilot or hijacker to dump the plane in the Antarctic if this is the case?  The aircraft was airlifted by alien spacecraft and dropped off in the Antarctic Ocean? Or could it land in a remote airfield in Australia or Diego Garcia, off load the cargoes and passengers, refueled to fly to the Antarctica and dumped into the deepest corner of the ocean, not to be found again?

Kopi Level - green

MH370 - The 10 ‘NOs’ that tell a story

This is a summary of the 10 NOs we know of the missing MH370.
 
1. The pilot did not make an emergency call.
2. The pilot did not switch on the emergency squawk.
3. There is no radar contact or no confirmation of radar contacts but only believed to be seen on radars.
4. There is no visual sighting of the aircraft.
5. There is no mobile phone call/message from the passengers.
6. There is no sign of wreckage or debris, no explosion.
7. There is no signal from the black boxes.
8. There is no claim of responsibility by any terrorist groups.
9. There is no demand for ransoms or negotiation.
10. There is no news of the aircraft’s where about.
 
The above may be NOs but they also tell us a lot of things about what happened. Every NO is saying something. Piece them together it gives a picture of what had possibly happened and even said that the passengers are likely to be still alive. But if the silence goes on for another couple of weeks, then things will look really ugly. At this point, no news is still good news and keep the fingers crossed that whoever had taken the aircraft and its passengers would be contacting the authorities soon. Maybe they had already done so.
 
Now the answers to all the 10 NOs, ‘WE ARE IN CONTROL.’

High-Speed Traders Face Scrutiny In the U.S

Regulators are taking aim at the relationship between high-frequency trading firms and major exchanges, examining whether the preferential treatment market operators offer the firms puts other investors at a disadvantage....
 
The probe is focused on complicated, often opaque incentive programs that give high-volume trading firms financial benefits such as discounts on fees the exchanges charge to execute trades, the people said.
 
Separately, Securities and Exchange Commission enforcement officials are investigating whether stock exchanges provide advantages to certain clients, including high-frequency traders, by designing software programs that can give preferential treatment to their orders, and whether such details have been fully disclosed, people familiar with that inquiry said.
 
The probes come amid heightened concerns among institutional investors, lawmakers and regulators that superfast traders have access to advantages on stock and futures exchanges not typically available to regular investors.
 
Regulators are concerned that less-savvy or less-influential investors aren’t aware of the benefits and advantages that exchanges are providing to certain clients, making it difficult for them to compete fairly, according to people familiar with the investigations.
High-speed firms use sophisticated computer systems to move rapidly in and out of markets in fractions of seconds.
 
So far, market watchdogs have done little to curb such trading, which has boomed and now makes up about half of all stock-market volume....

Quality of Singapore University going up

I posted this chart in Mar last year.




 

Universities fees were raised in concert last year. And they are doing it again this year, in concert again. Is there anything wrong when merchants acted together to raise prices, like the price of a cup of kopi in the kopitiams? My apologies, universities are not merchants.
 
This time they cited higher costs of talents, supplies and services and the expectations of students and the fee hikes are to defray these costs. So our students must be the best in the world by now with the frequent hikes to improve the quality of university education. Why are the employers still running to 3rd World countries to employ their talents and our graduates are found to lack the skills and talents needed? Or is it that the quality of our universities has always been sub par and we are still playing catching up with the 3rd World universities?
 
The fee hikes are in the region of 2.6% to 7.9% for NUS, 2.5% to 5% for NTU, 2% for SMU and 4% for SUTD. In monetary terms the increases range from $200, $850 and $1150 in NUS. The increase for PRs and international students will be higher. As an example, in SUTD, Singaporeans will pay 4% more while PRs 12% and international students by 16%. Polytechnic fees also go up with this hike.
 
Singaporeans are so lucky that the universities are upgrading their teaching quality every year with higher fees to buy better talents to teach them. At the rate it is going, all the top academic talents in the world will be bought by our universities and our graduates will be the best in the whole world that money can buy.
 
I only hope that this is true. I only hope that the employers stop rushing to 3rd World countries to employ their graduates and complain that our graduates are not good enough. I hope to see one or two of our local graduates be found fit to be the CEO of a local or foreign bank.
 
What to believe? You tell me lah.

Singapore is the most successful car manufacturer

Singapore manufactures practically every top brand cars in the world, from Rolls Royce, Mercedes, BMWs, Bentley’s, Lamborghinis and Ferraris to all the Japanese and Korean brands. And the profit margin is so high that it is becoming the envy of other car manufacturers. For every Mercedes or BMW sold, what the OEM and distributors earned is a pittance of what the Singapore Govt earned.
 
Now this is productivity Singapore style. We manufactured cars without having to do the difficult and dirty work. And our cost is practically zero with no overheads. Just ask Mercedes and BMW how much they make for each sale and go and find out how much the Singapore Govt makes. It is mind blowing.
 
Singapore is the most successful car manufacturer in the whole world.

Leong Sze Hian’s comments on the Medishield Life

Leong Sze Hian asked several questions on the Medishield Life Scheme following Gan Kim Yong’s comments in Parliament in his article, ‘Alternative daily news(81) Affordable Medishield Life?’ posted in the TRE. His questions would help many to have a better understanding of the things not said about the Scheme and is a compelling read, highly recommended for all Sinkies who are still not aware of what this Scheme is all about and how it would hit them when it comes into force.
 
I would just want to expand on a couple of points made by Sze Hian. He quoted Gan Kim Yong saying these:
 
1. “The premiums that lower- and middle-income households will have to pay for the new Medishield Life insurance that kicks in next year, will be the same or lower than what they now pay. That is after taking into account the Government’s permanent subsidies and Medisave contributions and top-ups.
 
2. “… a typical Singaporean household, comprising a working-age couple with two school-going children, will take up no more than half of their annual Medisave inflow to pay for their MediShield Life premiums.
 
In point 1, the meaning is that the gross premium would be higher but would be offset by permanent subsidies, Medisave contributions and top ups. Gan had said that the net amount to be paid would be the same or lower than what they are paying now. Would this be the same as time goes by? Would the permanent subsidies match any increases in future premiums? Would future premium hikes eat up all future Medisave contributions? Would top ups cease in the future or varies?
 
For the initial stages of the Medishield Life’s implementation, the net premiums paid could be reasonable if they are lower or the same. But there is no guarantee what the amount will be like when the gross premium will definitely be much higher.
 
As for point 2, the base reference is a typical household of two working adults and two children, and the premiums paid will be no more than half their annual Medisave contributions. Sounds fair and good. The problem comes when there is only one working adult. The problem will be further compounded for families with more than two children and only one working adult. For those single parents with 4 or more children, tough, take my word for it.
 
And the most important part that is yet to be made known, what will the Medishield Life cover and what not covered?

Kopi Level - Green

MH370 – Australian sighted debris

The plot thickens

I had this very bad feeling that the two pieces of debris reported by Australia are parts of MH370. I hope they are not as there is no reason for MH370 to be there. The distance is beyond its fuel range even if it was to fly straight through Singapore to the spot. The plane could not fly through Singapore and Indonesia without being picked up on radars. The only way was to fly through the north of Sumatra and that would make the distance even further. It would thus need to make a stopover, refuelled and continued to the location. It definitely could not make it directly. The 12 days could explain this mystery. And very likely no passengers were found among the wreckage.

There would be many questions to be asked as the Antartica was the last place anyone would think the aircraft would be, and why would they want to fly to crash in a remote corner of the deep ocean? The aircraft deliberately evaded all the radar stations and it is simply meaningless to want to do all the manoeuvres only to crash into a corner of the Indian Ocean away from civilisation. And it is also very strange, sheer coincidence that the Australians thought it could be there and found it so quickly.

Then there are questions like why weren’t the black boxes beeping? Given the time lapse, could the aircraft actually be flown somewhere first, got its black boxes stripped, passengers off loaded and then flown there to crash into the ocean? Because of the depth of the ocean at that spot, recovering it would be impossible and would be abandoned. Who would want to do it and pay for it? No one would know that the black boxes were already removed from the aircraft.

For the pilot/crew to fly and ditch the aircraft, they must then be picked up by another aircraft or ship to bring them to safety. After successfully pulling off such a stunt there was no need for them to die there.

The whole episode of the hijack was so meticulously executed and now another piece of well planned evacuation of the pilot/crew that could only be done with great resources. It is not a simple piece of terrorist work. It is a very difficult thing to do to fly from where it disappeared to where the debris appeared, assuming it is the aircraft. The mastermind must have great expertise, technological knowhow, manpower and hardware like ships and aircraft at his disposal to get this job done. It is mind boggling to think through the whole process.

The eagerness of the Aussie PM to call Najib and the media conference said that they knew something already even before any confirmation by the lab. This is the Freudian slip.

Anyone thinking of conspiracy theory? I already have an outlined of how Hollywood would have scripted it. The big question is, what is the motive or what is it all about? Would they spare the lives of the passengers while trying to get what they want?

PS. The possibility of it flying through Singapore, say to Australia, is to file a flight plan ahead, disappeared from radar cover at the edge of KLIA radar cover, change the transponder code, reappear in the civilian flight corridor like any legitimate aircraft with the transponder squawking a new identity. No air trafficker would know anything unusual. The truth could be more dramatic than fiction.

MH370 – Abbot called Najib to report on rubbish found in the sea

Australian PM Abbot found it important enough to call Najib to inform him of some floating rubbish he found in the sea and had satellite pictures of it. And the Australian govt also found it so important to call a press conference on the discovery. Unbelieveable.
 
I am putting my neck out on this, that the area being search by the Australians would be the last place for the plane to be in. Using the logic of a reasonable man and all the facts available till now, MH370 cannot be in that region.
 
Why would the pilot make all the clever manoeuvres to evade radars just to fly the aircraft into the Antartics and ditch the plane there? It is effort all for nothing. If they wanted to ditch the aircraft, it could be done easier in any part of the South China Sea. And if the plane has ditched in the water, the black boxes would be beeping and this would be picked up by the satellites long ago, or by the Aussie planes in the area.
 
The fact that the hijacked aircraft was flown from where it was means that they wanted to bring it to a place of their own choosing. And they are not going to dump it anywhere. There are 239 lives on board, including the hijackers, and could be more. So far there has been no indication of the hijackers intending to kill themselves or the passengers.
 
To find the aircraft in the Antartics would be the most baffling thing and defy all reasons and logics. Still I can be logically wrong. Yes I can be logically wrong and cannot rule this slim possibility out.

Hays – Contract jobs benefits employees

Hammering the new moral code into the heads of daft Sinkies. Yes, this is what an article posted in TRE was all about. They are telling the Sinkies that contract jobs is good for them just like living in mickey mouse flats will not affect the quality of living. And permanent jobs are reserved for foreigners and locals, meaning PRs. Sinkies are being brainwashed daily to downgrade their lifestyle and expectations as progress and good for them, taking public transport, owning smaller size flats, and now to live with contract jobs. Sinkies with a big housing mortgages and family commitments cannot afford to work on contract basis. This is like living dangerously. This must be stopped. To rub salt into their wounds, companies are giving permanent jobs to foreigners, which should be the other way.
 
According to Hays reports, it conducted a survey of 2,600 employers for the 2014 Hays Salary Guide. The report said ‘that 43 per cent of employers use temporary and contract staff for special projects or workloads, and a further 24 per cent employ them on a regular ongoing basis…
 
Chris Mead, Regional Director of Hays in Singapore & Malaysia, explains…, “Candidates are gaining more confidence and acceptance of temporary roles, aided no doubt by the higher compensation package they offer.”
 
“This is a fortunate trend since more employers are turning to a flexible staffing approach and almost one quarter now use temporary and contract staff on a regular basis. Temporary assignments are no longer seen as simply a quick fix, but a long-term staffing solution that also offers headcount flexibility.”
 
According to the recruiter, there are many benefits of temporary assignments – for both employers and candidates….
 
“And for candidates, temporary assignments offer exposure to varied workloads, systems and industries, allowing them to expand their skills base. Candidates also make valuable new contacts while on assignment, and often improve their work-life balance through the flexibility of their working arrangements.”…. And certainly, not all Singaporeans are getting a “higher compensation package” by accepting a “temporary role”.
 
Engineer retrenched from $60,000/yr permanent position works as contract technician at $1,600/mth.’
 
So Sinkies are being prepared to be contract workers in their own country while foreigners are getting all the job securities, career development, promotions and benefits as permanent staff. What is happening? Is this what Sinkies bargained for? Is this their country or foreigners’ country?
 
Should Sinkies continue to tolerate this kind of discrimination and live with it? What should Sinkies do to change their fate from owners to squatters and lepers in their own country?

Buffett lost nearly $900 mil

Buffett lost nearly $900 mil in one bad investment. He liquidated to cut his losses. Is losing $900 mil a big sum or is it just peanuts to some? Or would someone be saying, ‘What is $900 mil?’ For sure, Buffett did not think it is a small sum and is very grouchy about it. He must have felt bad that he had let his investors down. From his comments he came out very apologetic and assuming the responsibility for making a wrong bid. Well he wins some and loses some but overall he made a lot of good calls.
 
In the same thread posted in TRE, a blogger posted this:
• Say NO to GAMBLING:
 
March 18, 2014 at 11:33 am (Quote)
How can we be sure that the “SURPLUS” on accounting is still there in reality?
To prevent further gambling losses, all CPF should be returned to citizens when they turn 55.
 
Now who is gambling and why such a comment? The very reason to keep the money in the CPF and delaying withdrawals and all the minimum sum schemes is to prevent the CPF savers from gambling or squandering away their money. CPF is very safe. And I can quote Lim Swee Say for it. Why would bloggers make such a comment as if the CPF money is at high risk from gambling losses?
 
Can someone explain this to me? I still have some money caught in the CPF that I cannot afford to lose. I need to know that my money is safe.

MH370 – Calling the bluff

We are now on the 12th day of the MH370 disappearance and no one is wiser. What is funny is that everyone seems to have seen the aircraft either on radar screen or with their naked eyes. The latest ruse came all the way from Maldives where some islanders were swearing that they saw a low flying aircraft in the MAS colours of red and white. Of course it is now confirmed that it was another imagination of the people eager to locate the aircraft.

There are still many bluffs hanging in the air. If one is to look at the effective range of a long range surveillance radar, the radar at KLIA cannot see the aircraft from where it was reported missing unless they locate the radar on top of the mountain range in central peninsula. Neither can the Thai military or civilian radar see the aircraft at the same location. Both sightings can be ignored as spurious and red herrings.

The only possibility for Malaysian and Thai military radars to see MH370 is for their radars to be located near the east coast of the Thai Malaysian border. Did the Malaysians have any military radar there when they kept quoting KLIA? Did the Thais have any military radar in the Pattani region? If both answers are no, then, like a judge in a court would to say, please ignore all radar sightings of MH370 claimed by the Thais and the Malaysians in that area.

The sightings nearer to Butterworth and in the Straits of Malacca are within the range of Butterworth military radar. It is credible but the information given has to be reliable and not another cooked up story or imagination. The Thais are unlikely to see anything in the Straits of Malacca except those that came within the range of air traffic radar in Phuket. All must remember that the Malaysian govt has not confirmed anything but said the radar blips could be MH370. It could be anything else.

The claimed sightings in the Maldives are likely to be a case of putting 1 and 1 together to get 2. In the case of MH370 landing at the Maldives, it could fly like a normal civilian aircraft at normal height without anyone knowing there was something unusual as long as the air traffickers are under the command and control of the hijacking team. There was no need to fly low level except to make a landing in a remote airfield. Gan comes to mind as it is at a small island at the tip of an atoll and could easily be isolated and concealed or the aircraft kept out of sight of the islanders.

We have ruled out a crash or an explosion after the first few days of search. Now we can rule out the radar sightings in the north eastern cost of peninsula Malaysia. The last clue, if real, was the sighting around Pulau Perak heading northwest. If this is eventually proven to be false, we are back to square one and the last quarter that has been ruled out is east of the South China Sea.

Hope they could find something in the Maldives or Mauritius, or even central Asia. This jigsaw puzzle is still missing alot of pieces and no clear picture has taken shape.

What the authorities should be doing now is not to search for a crash site but a landing sight. The probability of the aircraft being hijacked is now very high. They should be thinking like the hijackers and looking at possible landing sites be it on land or in the sea where the aircraft could ditch safely. It is obvious that the hijackers are not going to kill themselves or the passengers. Where would they bring their aircraft to should be the starting point for this phase of search. The Australians searching near the Antartic is simply unthinking. They are still thinking of a reckless crashing of the aircraft.

Kopi Level - Green

New York official seeks curbs on high-frequency traders

I hope PM, Dep PM and MAS read this.

New York official seeks curbs on high-frequency traders
Tue Mar 18 15:02:13 UTC 2014
By Karen Freifeld
 
NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York's attorney general urged U.S. stock exchanges and other venues on Tuesday to limit services that he said provided unfair advantages to high-frequency traders and undermined confidence in the markets.
 
The stock exchanges allow traders to locate their computer servers within trading venues, armed with extra network bandwidth and high-speed switches that give them access to pricing, volume and order information ahead of others, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said.
 
"Rather than curbing the worst threats posed by high-frequency traders, our markets, as structured today, are increasingly too focused on catering to them," he said in prepared remarks at a symposium hosted by New York Law School.
 
Schneiderman has begun meetings with the exchanges and alternative trading venues to discuss reforms, according to a person familiar with the situation.
 
A spokeswoman for the New York Stock Exchange declined comment. A Nasdaq spokesman did not immediately return a call for comment.
 
Among the practices Schneiderman called into question were "co-location," which allows firms who pay a fee - typically thousands of dollars a month - to locate their computer servers within the exchanges' data centers.
 
Co-location reduces by milliseconds the time it takes to transmit, long enough for "predatory" high-speed traders to benefit and for the markets to suffer.
 
For instance, he said, the traders look for arbitrage opportunities between and among venues to capture momentary differences in stock prices.
 
The firms also artificially inflate prices, he said, by detecting a big trade from an institutional investor and positioning themselves on the other side.
 
Institutional investors have been forced to develop strategies to hide their orders from these traders, such as by routing the orders into alternative venues known as "dark pools," which are less regulated, Schneiderman said.
 
He suggested reforms for stock exchanges, such as a proposal by University of Chicago economists that they process orders in batches rather than continuously, to ensure that price trumps technology in deciding who obtains a trade.
 
Schneiderman has been conducting a sweeping investigation of early access to data. Last month, Berkshire Hathaway's Business Wire said it would no longer sell potentially market-moving press releases directly to high frequency-trading companies after months of discussion with his office....

MH 370 – All the false theories

 An article in the internet reported on several of theories that have been circulating in the media. I have listed them down and discredit most of them as spurious and not sensible.
 
1. SOURCE: Chris Goodfellow, who describes himself as an experienced pilot.
THE THEORY: Goodfellow has posted on Google Plus that he believed the pilot on MH370 may have been heading to the Malaysian resort island of Langkawi to land after the transponders were knocked out by a fire on board.
"The left turn is the key here. This was a very experienced senior Captain with 18,000 hours,'' Goodfellow wrote.
 
My comment: There is no urgency to make an emergency landing just because the transponder is not working unless there is a big fire. If that is the case, the pilot would have all the time in the world to make his emergency calls, switch on the emergency squawks, and the passengers too would be able to make some calls out. This is obviously false.
 
2. SOURCE: Desmond Ross, an Australian commercial pilot and aviation security expert.
 
THE THEORY: Captain Ross offers a similar theory to Goodfellow's. He said the aircraft might have depressurised for some reason, possibly due to an explosion causing a hole in the fuselage.
 
"The pilots quickly recognise the need to descend,'' said Captain Ross, who conducted a security review of Kuala Lumpur's international airport in 2005.
 
My comment: False. Same as above.
 
3. SOURCE: Keith Ledgerwood, who described himself as a hobby pilot and aviation enthusiast from the US.
 
THE THEORY: This theory was based on the premise that someone hijacked the plane.
Ledgerwood said MH370 could have switched off its radar, then "shadowed" another plane - Singapore Airlines flight number 68 en route from Singapore to Barcelona - before landing north of India or Afghanistan.
 
"It is my belief that MH370 likely flew in the shadow of SIA68 through India and Afghanistan airspace," wrote Ledgerwood on Tumblr.
 
My comment: Sound logical and possible. But the part when the pilot, supposedly trying so hard to avoid detection but flew into radar zones to be seen by everyone makes this theory a suspect. On the one hand the pilot wanted to hide but then exposed himself naked for all to see.
 
4. SOURCE: Described in The Independent newspaper.
 
THE THEORY: The plane may have been hijacked and flown to a Taliban base.
The Independent has reported that full diplomatic permissions were being sought in order to rule out the theory that the plane could have flown under the radar to areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan that were not under government control.
 
My comment: No aircraft can fly through India and Pakistan without being picked up on radars.
 
5. SOURCE: Investigators
 
THE THEORY: Authorities were investigating whether pilot or passenger suicide could explain the plane's disappearance.
 
There was a historical precedent for this.
 
6. SOURCE: An email to journalists claiming to be from the Chinese Martyrs' Brigade.
 
THE THEORY: A shadowy group called the Chinese Martyrs' Brigade claimed responsibility for the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 in an email to journalists in China.
 
The encrypted email read: ''You kill one of our clan, we will kill 100 of you as pay back.''
 
My comment: Too little to work on. Probably a hoax. If it is real, there would be followup comments and claims of victory or success.
 
7. SOURCE: Malaysian police were said to be investigating this theory.
 
THE THEORY: An explosive may have been hidden in the plane's huge cargo of exotic fruit.
 
Malaysian officials have said that the only cargo on MH370 was a load of mangosteens, a fruit popular in south-east Asia.
 
Malaysia Airlines CEO Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said that "three to four tonnes" of mangosteens were on the aircraft
 
My comment: Possible to have explosives smuggled into the cargo haul. But where is the explosion? No signs of any so far. No wreckages, no debris, no black box signals.
 
8. My Theory. Aircraft was hijacked by a professional team of experts and flown to some uninhabited or sparsely inhabited islands like those in the southern Philppines. Gan Island is also a possibility as it has an airstrip and not heavily populated. A gag order could be imposed on the islanders not to tell the world. In the case of the Philippines, the pilot would have to ditch the aircraft in the coastal seas. So far the black boxes have been silent. And so were the passengers.
 
On the other hand, the whole thing could be a very simple and baffling incident like the aircraft landed somewhere in a Malaysian state. But of course everyone on board is either dead or over powered and cannot make contact with the world.

MH370 – Another ridiculous search into nowhere

Australia is claiming to be searching the ocean to the southwest of Perth. Now where on earth is that place? It may be trying to cover all corners on earth but let’s be reasonable, is there any reason why the pilot would want to fly MH370 to that corner of the Indian Ocean?
 
Heading towards the Maldives or Mauritius has a logical explanation. There are islands and landing strips to put the aircraft down. Why fly to nowhere to ditch? If the intention of the pilot is to ditch the aircraft, it can ditch anywhere in the South China Sea or nearby in the Indian Ocean. Why ditching in a corner of the earth as good as God knows where?
 
Maybe the pilot wanted to bury himself and everyone in a watery grave that cannot be found. Logical?
 
Common Australia, do something logical and fruitful. This is worse than a wild goose chase. It is idiotic and a waste of time and resources. Are they thinking and knowing what they are doing?

Little India Riot COI – not life threatening

More evidence from eye witnesses to support the claim that the little India Riot by very nice foreign workers was not life threatening. In the latest report, Staff Sergeant Yaacob Kamis remembered that the rioters told him and his fellow officers to run, ‘You all run, you all run.’ This was when the rioters were about to turn over the ambulance and set it ablaze. The rioters were so kind, they just want to burn the ambulance and telling the police officers to run. Should they not run when they torched the ambulance, it must be their fault as the rioters were only interested in burning the vehicles and not to kill anyone. Swear not life threatening.
 
‘The auxiliary police officer in the ambulance told the committee previously that he had heard the foreign worker say in Tamil: “I want you all to die today.”’ I think this statement was just to frighten the officer and they have no such intent to kill anyone. Remember, they are very nice people and would fall down like little school children when a woman bus attendant gave them a little shove. How could they have such deadly intent? Cannot be!
 
All those people who think the rioters have intent to kill and the riot was life threatening were all wrong. They only wanted to riot, to throw stones, bottles and whatever they could lay their hands on at the police officers. Should any of the objects hit their head, it was not meant to kill them. Just an accident if they died.
 
I am so confident that I am right because I am so knowledgeable. I know the psychology of the rioters. I can read their minds. I am omniprescient. Please feel free to disagree with me. I am not God.

Recipe to take over a small country

The Russians have done it in Crimea. Send in the troops and hold a referendum and you can have a country in your hand. But this recipe requires military might and a majority of the population consisting of people from your country or similar to your country. And one must be prepared to fight with the Americans and the European powers.

There is a simpler and more peaceful way of taking over a country without resorting to arms and with the leaders happily doing your bidding, and the people ignorant of what is happening to their country. Take for example a small island country like Mauritius or the Maldives, small islands with small populations and an innocent but eager govt to want to bring economic growth to their people. The leaders will think that they are progressive and doing everything for the good of the people. Just feed on their ambition and egos and they will behave like deaf frogs.

Step One, encourage their leaders to go all out for economic growth. Help them to sell the idea to their people. If it doesn’t work, use a bit of threat or reverse psychology on the people. You want growth or you don’t want growth. This type of statement sure works on their kiasu people. Once the people and leaders are hooked on this growth drug, everything will fall into place.

Step Two, send in the money. Offer them economic aid in terms of foreign investments to create jobs for the people. This is a formula they cannot refuse. Send in our talents to assist them. And convince them that they did not have enough talents.

Step Three, sign a free trade agreement with them to allow our talents and non talents freedom to migrate and work there. The first batch will be our companies and industries setting shops there. And don’t forget to set up our own schools too. And give the reason that the local talents are not suitable then start to export our people to fill up these companies as foreign talents. If needed to, just employ a few local clerical staff as show of providing jobs for their locals.

Step Four, cultivate the ‘gong gong’ leadership to use our talents in their private and public sectors. Better still, make sure our talents are employed in their stats boards and ministries. Once these people are in place, start to recruit our people to occupy key positions in these institutions and eventually filling them with our citizens. Once our citizens are in control, these institutions, including ministries will be as good as ours.

Step Five, advise the local govt to offer citizenships to our people. If no citizenship, PRs also can. The main goal is to fill the country with our citizens to be their new citizens or PRs. Of course this may lead to some problems with their citizens. Teach them how to disguise our presence by classifying PRs as locals and the daft locals would not have any clue what is going on to their country. For those who have become citizens, pretend to be good citizens and start to buy up their properties, estate by estate. With so much money at our disposal, we can eventually buy up the whole island or at least their prime estates.

Step Six, let time to take care of the rest. With our citizens controlling their industries and ministries, and continuing to employ our citizens, it is a matter of time when we will be the real majority there. And without knowing anything, without doing anything, that island will be ours in half a generation.

Step Seven, our citizens that have become their citizens can start to participate in local politics as rightful citizens. Join or form political parties to contest to be the elected govt. Oh, there is something I missed. Educate the locals there to believe in meritocracy so that our more meritocratic talents can rise to top positions without protest from their people. Because of our high education standard, we don’t need to use fake certificates and CVs. And if possible, convince their locals that they are daft and they need foreign talents like ours to help them and create jobs for them.

Not only will their ‘gong gong’ govt be helping us to take over their country, they will be very grateful that we are sharing with them our growth formula and our talents. They will have all the economic growth they desired. And make sure their local elites also benefited from our presence and investments. Make them very rich in the process so that they will support everything we do. For their average citizens, they may lose out, but never mind, they are too daft and inconsequential to do anything. There may be a few small protests, but no matter. Once they become an absolute minority, there is nothing they can do to overturn our takeover.

And in conclusion, we could own a few islands like the Mauritius and the Maldives to expand our territories and influence.

Not a bad recipe right? We have a growing population and we need to expand. We cannot do that to our big neighbours, but to smaller countries with goondu leaders, there are great opportunities to make such friendly and benign takeovers a success.

Kopi Level - Yellow

Olam – Is it a bail out using public fund?

The acquisition of Olam by Temasek is raising eyebrows and frowns from many quarters. Kenneth Jeyaratnam has commented negatively on it. Below is Christopher Balding’s article on the buy out of Olam. Temasek seems to be very bullish in this commodity trading company. It came out in full support when it was shorted down by Muddy Waters a year ago. Now it is making an offer with the possibility to buying over the company at a high price of $2.23 when it could have had the company for a song when it was under attack. Why? Why buy at such a huge premium and not when it was about 90c? Another case of buying high? OPM?
 
Why is Temasek supporting a foreign owned company to want to commit $2b on it when it could buy it for less than half the present price? Another long term strategy stuff?
 
‘Just had to write about this interesting little tidbit I saw today about Temasek and Olam. According to news reports, Temasek through a subsidiary is going to buy Olam at a 12% premium to the current share price. This is an interesting development and to me raises a couple of questions. First, I am intrigued that Temasek is paying a 12% premium after the stock has already increased 30% since the first of the year.
 
This means that Temasek is either paying nearly a 45% premium to what it could have paid just two months ago and is really slow to spot a value in its own portfolio or insiders were buying the stock in advance of a buy out offer they knew was coming. This 30% increase is even more abnormal considering the Straits Times (Index) is essentially flat for the year. Neither scenario is particularly attractive.
 
Second, this seems like a very oddly timed buy out. Prior to the first of the year, Olam had traded primarily in the $1.50-1.75 SGD range and this follows on the announcement that profit declined 13%. If Temasek felt this strongly about Olam and its long term business prospects, it would seem to be a better proposition to buy at the bottom of the market because you know the business well and believe the market is undervaluing the business. Not wait until there is a 30% increase in two months and then offer a 12% premium. The general philosophy of long term investors is buy low and sell high. I am just a professor though, so what do I know.’

Christopher Balding

MH370 – Another theory on where it could be

Many of you reading the media and its explanations on primary and secondary radars would get the impression that once the transponder is switched off, the radar would no longer see the aircraft. This is not true. The aircraft will still be on the radar screen as a blip minus the squawks. A transponder, when it is switched on is like the aircraft wearing a name tag to say this is who I am. Without the transponder/name tag on, it will appear as a blip just like any other aircraft on the radar screen. And if the emergency switch is on, four squawks will appear behind the blip to indicate an aircraft having an emergency situation.
 
The reason why the transponder was switched off has a purpose if one is knowledgeable about how the radar works. A Keith Ledgerwood wrote about a theory of radar evasion only those who are in the business would know. Let me explain this theory. All commercial aircraft are expected to switch on their transponders to identify themselves when they are airborne. On the radar screen you will see a blip followed by a couple of squawks or a numeral identifying the aircraft.
 
When two aircraft fly very close together, in formation, the radar may only see one blip for the two or more aircraft in close formation, giving the impression there is only one aircraft. Another way is to fly above or below the other and the radar, being two dimensional, will only show one blip instead of two. Get the picture? So, if MH370 were to switch off its transponder and fly beneath another aircraft, the radar will pick up one aircraft and one transponder signal. And MH370 could fly under the shadow of another aircraft without being detected.
 
According to Keith Ledgerwood, there was a flight SQ68 flying from Singapore, passing Penang and onwards over India, Pakistan to Europe. MH370 could intercept SQ68 and fly beneath it to conceal its presence to the radar controllers and break away somewhere in Pakistan or Afghanistan towards central Asia and no one will know anything amissed.
 
And the westerly path taken by MH370 to Penang then starboard on a northwesterly direction fits this theory. And MH370 could be in central Asia.
 
The unexplained and questionable part of this theory was the path of MH370 towards Penang evident to radar and its subsequent flight under SQ68 would also be seen by radar. This defeats its intent to hide its presence and radar controller could see what it was doing. If it could avoid the Butterworth radar altogether by flying 280, it might be able to sneak under SQ68 undetected, then it makes sense.
 
So, this theory requires expertise knowledge of radar operations and radar coverage in the area. The flaw is that MH370 flew into radar cover and was seen and tracked, which made a fool of what it was doing. If its intent was to hide, why showed its face to everyone? Why conduct a stealth manoeuvre for all to see?

Fixing the Govt

I am sure everyone reading this will have their eyes popped out and couldn’t believe what they are seeing. I don’t think anyone can fix the govt intentionally as they would likely to be fixed instead if they dare to try. I don’t think any opposition party could do this either. We all know how the game is being played, the odds and what would be the consequences. And definitely not for me to fix the govt.

But the govt is being fixed and appears to be ignorant of it. Perhaps they could not see it in this light. Who then could be doing the fixing? We have all been kpkbing about the job market and how Sinkies have been fixed real bad by the foreigners and foreign owned recruitment agencies. But the real culprits include the CEOs of local and foreign companies who are condoning this practice of not hiring Sinkies and replacing Sinkies with foreigners and their own kind. They deliberately, either with one eye closed, or just turn and look the other way, or worse, even promoting it, to discriminate Sinkies in employment.

So the end result, many Sinkie professionals lost their jobs. When the number was small, they blamed themselves, thinking that they were really no good and the foreigners were really better. Today, when the truth is out, many are feeling very sore. And who would they blame? No need to give you this simple answer. Their unhappiness and anger, their feeling of being cheated and short changed, would be directed at the govt for sure. You can read it in the social media. And this will cost the govt dearly and the political price to be paid will be very high. Yes, the govt is being fixed when the people are being fixed. And the fixers are those employers who discriminate against Sinkies in employment.

The lackadaisical attitude of the govt to fix this problem only adds to the grievance of the victims. They may not see the correlation or did not think the people would turn against the govt. They would think that it is not the govt’s fault! From the way they are happily embracing the foreigners and sleeping with them, and keep welcoming them without hesitation speak for itself. It looks like they are blind or choose to be blind to what is happening and feeling very comfortable and secure with the situation. Yes the proverbial deaf frog, always doing the right thing.

As the anger grows against the foreigners for taking their good paying jobs away while they downgraded to underemployment, with many even forced into retirement, unable to find employment, it is a matter of time when they will be break free from their slumber and hapless state to make those who helped in condemning them to pay for it.

Those who fixed them will have to pay for their crimes. They would not be going after the employers and the recruitment agents. They would not want to know that it was the employers and the recruitment agents’ faults.

Who do you think they will go after or put the blame on? This is a simple case of being fixed by others and thinking they will get away with it. The govt appears to be a willing party to be fixed by the employers.

Kopi Level - Green

MH370 – Explaining the bizarre, strange and questionables

The information flowing out from Malaysia over the weekend made many people saw red and at times shocking to know that Malaysia had the information but chose not to tell.
 
MH370 was seen and tracked by military radars. Why did Malaysia take so long to tell the world? And the Chief of Air Force General Daud was reported to have made a trip to Butterworth to find out what they saw on that fateful morning. It was also reported that there was a military radar at Kota Bahru. This fact is not confirmed. At the point where the plane disappeared, Butterworth was unlikely to have it on radar. Even if they were plotting it, they would have erased it off as it was going away, off their radar coverage. Why did the information came out so late?
 
Let me make a guess. Butterworth or whichever military station was stood down for the weekend or manned by a skeleton crew. And very likely all were ‘kooning’ or on a very relax mood and did not see anything or track anything. How embarrassing to admit that this was the case. So they need to piece together a story, that they saw and were tracking the aircraft from the moment it turned back and disappeared. But they did not know that this was discredited by the aircraft flying at normal height to be tracked all the way to Penang/Butterworth.
 
Why was the pilot flying to Penang/Butterworth to be seen on radar when he was trying to avoid it? One possible reason, he thought by switching off the transponder the air traffickers could not see the aircraft and he could fly anywhere and at any level he liked. Unfortunately, the radars used by the air traffickers could also see the blips even when the transponder was switched off, and the radar operated like any primary radar and picking up any aircraft in the air. The second reason, the pilot somehow became stupid that he did not know his flight path could be tracked by military radars. He did not know of the existence of military radars! This could not be as all experienced Malaysian pilots would know the existence of military radars in Malaysia.
 
Why fly towards Penang/Butterworth to be picked up by radars when his destination was Northwest? I dunno. Maybe he was mad. Maybe he wanted to show his face to the military radar controllers.
 
And the new theory, he was a political fanatic and decided to hijack the aircraft after attending Anwar’s trial. So he made up his mind to hijack an aircraft full of passengers in a fit of a moment. Did he plan anything, where to go and where to land? You don’t fly an aircraft like driving a car and could park anywhere. And if it was just the pilot who was angry and doing the flying, what about the second pilot and what about the rest of the crew? They could not be sitting there doing nothing. The passengers too would not be sitting idly by and let the pilot do whatever he wanted. They might not know anything. But the fact that none could send out a mobile message or attempted to was an indication that they were restrained or prevented from doing so. How could the pilot restrain 238 passengers alone?
 
Oh the decompression theory of flying to 45,000 ft. If I am not mistaken the aircraft cabin pressure is designed to maintain at a certain level, normally about 10,000 ft, independent of the height the aircraft was flying. There would be no decompression just by flying at 45,000 ft. When there is a decompression due to malfunction, the aircraft is designed to drop the oxygen masks for the passengers.
 
Anyone wiser?

Boon Wan the Sweeper

When the housing problem reached a stage that was waiting to blow up, Boon Wan volunteered to take on the task to clean up the mess. Actually it was no mess as far as his predecessor was concerned. It was all expected, prices determined by market forces, prices were affordable, and there was no queue and no demand even. It was a beautiful situation except that the home buyers were making nonsensical noises.
 
If a junior minister were to tell the MND Minister that there was a serious problem, he would be shooed out of his office. When the MND Minister said no problem it meant just that, no problem. Who had the audacity to tell him otherwise? Luckily Boon Wan was heavier and could use his weight to shove the MND’s objection aside and to do what was necessary.
 
So Boon Wan went on a ramping programme to ram through all the barriers against building more flats. Eng Hen was full of praise for Boon Wan for decisively tackled the housing problems created by his predecessor who would not admit that there was a problem in the first place and thus no actions needed.
 
With the housing problems stabilized, Hsien Loong should move Boon Wan to the MOM to tackle the growing problems of foreigners, fake degrees and discriminations against our own PMEs, to remove the term ‘local’ to tell the real story of how Sinkies are fairing in the job markets, to ram through the walls of local and foreign owned companies that are refusing or discriminating against Sinkies for employment.
 
Here again, Boon Wan’s weight as a senior minister would come in handy to bang his way through. He could decisively tackle the employment of PMEs and the fake qualifications problems just like he tackled the housing problem. He could order the CEOs of foreign companies to wait outside his office instead of crawling to their offices to beg them to be nice to Sinkies looking for jobs.
 
I support Boon Wan to take on the MOM and deal with the crisis immediately. No more dilly dallying. The mess is real big, bigger than the housing problem and growing by the days.
 
What do you think?

Kopi Level - Red

MH370 – Misinformation and fuzzy logics

A few days after the disappearance of MH370 and the failure to locate any debris in the surrounding seas, the possibility of it being hijacked became very real. And the few evidences available pointed to a highly sophisticated team of hijackers who were doing everything they could to avoid detection by radars. And it took 6 fruitless days to discover nothing, absolutely nothing to tell anyone where it could have gone to.

Then on the 7^th day after its disappearances there was a flood of information, even confirmed to be genuine, coming out to tell everyone a completely different story. The aircraft did not disappeared but was seen all over the sky and making all kinds of illogical manoeuvres to tell the world where it was and where it was going.

When such things happened, when logic becomes illogical, when the information made available, volunteered even by normally reliable sources, even by friendly sources, one must raise the antenna of doubt. If the information does not make sense, and telling some wild stories, one has to be suspicious and to question its validity and reliability.

Often information can be offered for the wrong reasons, mischief, misinformation, spurious, given under duress or circumstances that are unacceptable. And why, when this information was supposedly known, was not made known earlier and led so many nations on a wild goose chase in the South China Seas for almost a whole week?

The new information that was withheld and now made public include: Aircraft flying to 45,000 ft and descending to 23,000 ft. Aircraft flying to the west and under military radar screen. Aircraft flying at 29,500 ft and towards Penang into the centre of Butterworth and Penang radars with no attempt to hide its position. And subsequently aircraft flying towards the direction of India, presumably towards central Asia, where it would be seen by civilian and military radars. It was like the hijackers telling the whole world here I am, see, come and catch me. Why no longer trying to avoid radars?

All the information is saying that the first premise that the aircraft was manoeuvred to avoid radar detection is not true. The aircraft did not have that intention and was on the radar screens of military radars. Why didn’t the military raise an alarm and scramble fighters to intercept an unknown aircraft flying into Malaysian airspace? If it had hostile intention, it would have succeeded in whatever it wanted to do.

MH370 was claimed to have climbed to 45,000 ft when its max ceiling height is only 43,000 ft. It is not easy to fly an aircraft beyond its height ceiling. The pilot would have to fly it like a fighter aircraft, accelerate on descend to max speed and pull it up to hit a new high. A commercial aircraft doing such a manoeuvre would subject the fuselage to excessive stress and the wings could fall off. Is it believeable?

And the aircraft was happily flying into Penang and Butterworth radar zones at a height that it could not be missed. How ridiculous could this be? Are the hijackers suddenly became that stupid?

In my earlier posts though I mentioned a westerly route, 280 to avoid the Butterworth radars and staying at the verge of Phuket air traffic radar, I ruled this out as flying further would make it visible to radars in the west, unless it is hitting some deserted islands in the Indian Ocean. The best route to take is the easterly direction where there were no radars to pick it up on their screens.

The new information throws all the earlier premises into disarray. It suggests that the hijackers are likely to be associated with the Uighurs and their destination is central Asia. They could not fly there without being picked up and it was exactly that way, it was not picked up by anyone at the level they were supposed to be flying. They could not fly low level without burning out fuel for that kind of distance and not seen across India or countries in the region.

Najib spoke as if the latest information were gospel truths, unquestionable.  Really? Could the information offered, that were concealed for so long, be misinformation, fabricated information or spurious information?

A new dream, not owning a home

Nina Brown lost her townhouse to foreclosure due to recession. That was not the only house she lost, but another three. She now lives in a rented home. The American Dream of home ownership is crumbling. With recession, foreclosure, and more recession in the pipeline, more Americans are giving up on home ownership. This seems to be a new trend in the world’s biggest economy.

Could this be something that Sinkies would be looking forward to, renting their homes instead of home ownership, though some are saying that we have been renters all the time, at least 80% of them living in HDB 99 year leasehold flats? This is another story.

At the moment many are still in the property speculation game when money makes money and lots of money without having to work. Would the same outcome in America hits us the same way when a major recession comes along? Would our young and new home owners, with their massive debt from housing loans ended like Nina Brown, facing foreclosure and become the statistics of a new fad, renters?

We are following closely at the heels of the Americans in everything they do. When they got a cold, we will surely have one as well. How long can we hold before the next wave of recession and foreclosure hits the City? The only way to avoid such a crisis is to push property prices higher and kick the can further down the road.

But if we are to listen to what came out of Parliament, the problem crisis is over and we should be congratulating the ministers and ourselves that all is well. No longer a problem, all problems solved. In fact it is time to raise the prices of properties or else the developers would start to kpkb again.

What do you think? The next dream will be not owning cars.

Kopi Level - Yellow

MH370 – Many questions to answer

At this point in time, all fingers are pointing to a hijack. This prompts many questions on how a hijack could take place. Presumably there must be a pretty big team of hijackers to be able to over power and control 239 passengers. And they must be heavily armed.

So, how could so many hijackers board the aircraft and were they in the passenger’s list,  and went about unnoticed? Also, how could the firearms be smuggled into the aircraft? I am presuming they have firearms to be able to control so many passengers. Were they aided in some way by the ground crew? It is not easy to bring so many pieces of weapons on board.

And on Mar 8, when was the aircraft discovered to be missing, and what were really seen on the radar screen? Were they really detected on the radar screen, civilian air traffic radar or military radar? Could someone be telling lies and misleading everyone?

KLIA’s radar is unlikely to see the aircraft. Military radars could be off for the weekend or on skeleton crew, and in a relaxing mood as it is peace time and no intrusion is expected. It would be pure good luck for an operator sitting in front of a screen and monitoring all the happenings to MH370, a routine flight when there could be other civilian aircraft in the air.

What was real and what were speculation and misinformation?

While I was pondering over the above, I heard over the news that Najib had more or less confirmed that MH370 flew towards Penang and then northwest towards the Indian Ocean at about 29,000 ft. The information seemed to be confirmed and the aircraft actually was seen on military radars, probably one in Kota Bahru and then seen again by the radar in Butterworth. He also said that it was confirmed that someone deliberately switched of ACARS and the transponders in the aircraft.

What he did not say but implied was that the aircraft was deliberately flown to wherever it wanted to and to be seen on military radars and to be tracked. This is something that is contrary to the view that the aircraft was doing all it could to avoid being seen on radars. Over the last few days it was reported that the aircraft was not seen by radars at least from the spot when it last disappeared and all the way to Penang and only appeared over Pulau Perak. Now it is reported that it was seen flying from where it last disappeared, yes reported disappeared but was seen flying to Penang, tracked by military radar!

If the information is true, Malaysia is doing the right thing to search in the west and stop all searches in the South China Sea. But if the information was fake or misleading, it could be misled to search exactly away from where it should be searching.

Interviews with an ex FBI agent Steve Cutler and a Singaporean expert Paul Yap, both still believed that whoever was flying the aircraft he was trying to avoid radars. How to explain the new facts that the aircraft flew into the thick of radars in Penang and Butterworth and even seen by the one in Kota Bahru? They are now claiming to be seeing the aircraft all the while since it last disappeared or reported to have disappeared up to the Indian Ocean?

What is going on?

Policies Good, Politics can do better

This is what sums up the views of Chua Mui Hoong about what’s happening in Parliament and what the Govt has been doing. Before anyone starts to throw chairs and tables at her, let me make a point here. What she wrote is just her opinion. And this is what she called herself, Opinion Editor. Her title says it and you are free to disagree and also you may have your own opinions that may not agree with hers. I think that is fair.

How many of you agree with her that the Govt policies are good? I am stretched to find any. Maybe I will do a contortionist act by agreeing with a few that are good depending on who you are. High ministerial pay is good and helps to fight corruption too. And it gives our President a lot of dignity too.

High property prices are good as they turned Sinkies into millionaires without having to work and can collect higher rentals.

All the changes regarding CPF are good as they made Sinkies smiled at their monthly or quarterly statements that informed them how rich they are till they died. The money is guaranteed to be there, and would not runaway even if preventing the owners from squandering it.

Allowing medical cost to go unchecked is also a good policy as it means the quality must be damn good as good things don’t come cheap. Our medical fees are now like branded goods, paying for quality for those who can afford it. For those who can’t, just stand far far away to admire.

Our policies on foreign talents are even better, starting from paying for their education with generous scholarships to giving them high paying jobs to replace Sinkies that are not good enough despite world class university education that emptied their savings. And fakes are also excellent for the economies, don’t disturb them as long as the employers are happy with them, and the displaced PMEs are not complaining and happy driving taxis to be their own bosses.

I could go on with another long list of good policies, but that would become too boring.  Let me quote Ignatius Low on Housing. ‘It has been this resolve to move quickly without being encumbered by the decisions of his predecessors that has been the basis of Mr Khaw’s success.’ He went on to ask Boon Wan to take a bow for a job well done. I don’t know how many of you would agree but I don’t think it is such a difficult thing to do when someone shitted and vomited all over the place and one has to clean up the mess. But the stench stayed, a lot of money and effort wasted with many home buyers forced to buy sky high priced properties that would strangle them one day when they lost their jobs. They would be displaced PMEs as a matter of time. And there are many high income earners that were either forced to buy expensive private properties, migrated or still depending on renting properties, booted out from buying cheaper public housing.

The damage had been done and the prices are still in high heavens. Good job done?

And how many would agree that the report card for Health and Manpower be rated as satisfactory? As for Transport, appalling is quite appropriate though the report card said, ‘Can and must do better’.

Anyway it is all about personal opinions and it is good that we can share our opinions on things without being personal. A bit of civility will go a long way.

Kopi Level - Green

TRE – The shadow Parliament

In a way the TRE is looking like the shadow Parliament where national issues are discussed furiously by the people and their representatives. Every issue is hotly debated and reflected the real feelings of the people, the tension, the angst, the misery, the pain and the frustration and exasperation, all came out as real as you can get. Though there might be some fakings, but it is hundreds of times more real than the real Parliament.

Here not only genuine issues are raised, genuine questions are also asked, issues that really affect the lives of the people. There is no time for superficiality and no material issues raised for the sake of raising just for fun.

The people’s representatives here are really the representatives of the people. If they are not and speaking 

against the people, they will be ‘goreng’ and chewed to pieces.

You can imagine how the parliamentarians or MPs and ministers appearing here and talking nonsense or incomprehensible things or things they wanted the people to believe are right or good for the people when they are not? They will be striped naked and whipped and torched here. Oops, cannot say such things like whipped and torched or some people will take it literally. Only figuratively like all the good things they said in Parliament, figuratively also.

What do you think, which is the more real Parliament? Or which Parliament is a talk cock session?

Khobragade won against the American bully

She was an Indian diplomat in New York and accused of making false submission on her maid and even suspected of drug smuggling. To make things more embarrassing, she was arrested in broad daylight in a public area and subsequently subjected to the most humiliating search conducted on a woman by the American police.
 
This sparked a diplomatic row and the Indian govt cried foul, brought her home and then appointed her as a counsellor to India’s mission in the United Nation. This immediately raised her status and protected with diplomatic immunity. Though this was technically foul as it was done after the accusation and charges, so what? This is the only way to deal with American treachery and devious plots against their political target.
 
After months of diplomatic chest thumping, the Americans finally backed off and dismissed the charges. India has succeeded in facing up to the international bully by being tough, as tough as the Americans to win this case.
 
Well done India. Other countries must learn from this episode and take the Americans by the horns when they turned devilish if they are to get an even chance to shrug them off. China better learn from India in how to deal with the American bully.

MH370 and Mas Selamat similarities

When Mas Selamat disappeared from the detention centre, it was like falling out from the radar screen. Troops were activated to search the estates around Bukit Timah. And the search extended to all the parks in all corners of the island. The only area that was left untouched was the water catchment area around the reservoirs. Not a trace was found of the disappearing act.
 
MH370 had disappeared and all the searches were in the area around where it was last seen. This is perfectly logical on the assumption that it had crashed or exploded in mid air. Now these two possibilities have increasingly been written off and the theory of hijacking is gaining prominent. And the search started to cover a wider area and into the Straits of Malacca and Indian Ocean. And like Mas Selamat, the South China Sea is left practically untouched except for the vicinity of the last sighting. And like Mas Selamat, not a trace was found.
 
Both cases are like they have disappeared into thin air a la David Copperfield’s magic show. And there were even leads or false leads pointing towards the Indian Ocean and the Straits of Malacca. Could the aircraft be sitting somewhere safe in Peninsula Malaysia or somewhere in the east, in the islands of Philippines?
 
When a crash is ruled out, the next logical thing is to look at the possible destination of the hijackers and how much fuel the aircraft had and how far this would take it to. It is likely to be an isolated or deserted location that has little human traffic or activities to conceal its presence. And by now, if this theory is to be true, the hostages would have been splitted into smaller groups and scattered in many safe houses very far apart to avoid detection or rescue by any task force.
 
The aircraft and the passengers/hostages could be like Mas Selamat, sitting safely somewhere by now.
 
PS. If the aircraft would to fly another 4 hours as rumoured, the destination is likely to be the Philippines.

Medisave tweaks, to save pockets?

So many reports on how the Medisave is being tweaked and becoming more flexible to allow the people to use to pay for more medical services, including drugs. These must be music to the ears of the people who are short of cash.
 
One thing has been silent through out the reports and all these months when the cost of medical services were reported. It was all about how to pay, and even the buffet spread of Medishield Life is also about how to pay. Though the equation has two parts, the Govt seems to be only interested in how to get the people to pay and nothing much really was said on how to bring down medical cost.
 
Not a word, yes, not a word in this as if it is something that nothing can be done to it. Why? You think and tell me.

Kopi Level - Yellow