A Goh Cher Choh waited for 9 months just to see his dentist for the chance of getting a subsidised denture. And he has resigned to this new normal of efficiency in this super efficient island. The normal time for waiting is 10 months for root canal treatment, 7 months for dentures, but his case must be an exception, and 5 months for crowns and bridges. Not forgetting a year or more for braces.
But what do they expect, 1 month, 2 weeks or 1 week? Just go to a private clinic and pay for it if one cannot bear to wait. You can choose world class clinics, neighbour clinic or polyclinic, no need to complain.
Looking down memory lane, the kind of free dental care we had in the 50s and 60s was world class, heavenly, actually out of this world. And it was a time when our country was really poor, and probably not enough dentists too. Imagine, every week without fail, the Institute of Health’s bus would be at the school to pick up the students for dental treatment, including free dentures. Where got such thing as waiting for 7 months or 9 months?
Then again, if one wants something that is subsidised, what is a little waiting? The good old days are gone and that kind of experience would never be repeated in this money minded world. Compare to those waiting 3 to 4 years for their housing flats, these dental patients must count themselves very lucky.
The applicants for public housing are paying good money, in the hundreds of thousands, and they too have to wait. And the mantra is that it is their problem caused they did not plan when to get married and when to buy a flat. In my dream I heard someone saying, ‘I build only if there is enough demand. And they just have to wait 3 to 4 years.’ Is this the mentality of serving the people or the other way, I master, you servant?
Thank God that Hsien Loong had reminded his politicians that they are the servants and not the master of the people. Really, why would Singaporeans elect politicians to be their masters and happily live with it as the normal state of affair?
Iskandar, you have a golden opportunity to bum up your dental industry and what are you waiting for?
11/25/2011
The world’s most peace loving country
I can’t help it but to repeat this quote from dear Hilary.
‘…Washington is “very strongly against any nation using coercion or intimidation instead of using the law to try to resolve these issues.’
The US together with its peace loving friends in UK and Canada are imposing more sanctions against Iran for believing that Iran is building nuclear weapons which the US and UK have plenty of. And they are not using threats or intimidation against Iran. Just friendly sanctions.
And there is another level of peaceful means to resolve the issue. Both the US and Israel are openly telling the world that they are going to attack Iran’s nuclear plants. Now, please don’t get it wrong. This is a peaceful gesture to resolve the Iran nuclear issue. There is not a little hint of coercion or intimidation at all.
The Americans don’t believe in coercion or intimidation. They are so friendly and peaceful. The whole world knows about it. And they are begging the Americans to be the policeman and now the policeman is bringing in more soldiers and weapons to the Asia Pacific region to police the area for peace of course.
The weapons and soldiers are, incidentally, not to coerce or intimidate anyone. They are friendly soldiers and friendly weapons, for peace.
It is good that China is conducting a big scale naval exercise off its seas. China should conduct more of such exercises and make its stand clear about conduct in its surrounding seas, especially when other pesky countries think they can go around arresting Chinese fishermen with impunity. And also countries that happily shot at Chinese sailors and killing them.
China has to take a tough stand on such provocations or the provocations will continue to test its will. With so many provocations and if China continues to show them the other face, China will forever be slapped left and right and still be branded as an assertive and rogue nation by the rogue nations. I say wallop them when they do it.
All the pesky nations, including the rogue Americans, only understand the language of force. Obama is reminding the world that the Americans can still project its power. And it is up to China to say, hey, this is how far you can go. No more cruise missiles into Chinese Embassies or Chinese missiles can also make the same mistakes on American assets.
When dealing with thugs and gangsters, China needs to speak the same lingo and behave like them. No need to worry about the opinions of pesky nations. They have already taken sides. And the message will also get through to them.
‘…Washington is “very strongly against any nation using coercion or intimidation instead of using the law to try to resolve these issues.’
The US together with its peace loving friends in UK and Canada are imposing more sanctions against Iran for believing that Iran is building nuclear weapons which the US and UK have plenty of. And they are not using threats or intimidation against Iran. Just friendly sanctions.
And there is another level of peaceful means to resolve the issue. Both the US and Israel are openly telling the world that they are going to attack Iran’s nuclear plants. Now, please don’t get it wrong. This is a peaceful gesture to resolve the Iran nuclear issue. There is not a little hint of coercion or intimidation at all.
The Americans don’t believe in coercion or intimidation. They are so friendly and peaceful. The whole world knows about it. And they are begging the Americans to be the policeman and now the policeman is bringing in more soldiers and weapons to the Asia Pacific region to police the area for peace of course.
The weapons and soldiers are, incidentally, not to coerce or intimidate anyone. They are friendly soldiers and friendly weapons, for peace.
It is good that China is conducting a big scale naval exercise off its seas. China should conduct more of such exercises and make its stand clear about conduct in its surrounding seas, especially when other pesky countries think they can go around arresting Chinese fishermen with impunity. And also countries that happily shot at Chinese sailors and killing them.
China has to take a tough stand on such provocations or the provocations will continue to test its will. With so many provocations and if China continues to show them the other face, China will forever be slapped left and right and still be branded as an assertive and rogue nation by the rogue nations. I say wallop them when they do it.
All the pesky nations, including the rogue Americans, only understand the language of force. Obama is reminding the world that the Americans can still project its power. And it is up to China to say, hey, this is how far you can go. No more cruise missiles into Chinese Embassies or Chinese missiles can also make the same mistakes on American assets.
When dealing with thugs and gangsters, China needs to speak the same lingo and behave like them. No need to worry about the opinions of pesky nations. They have already taken sides. And the message will also get through to them.
A good cause to support PAP
It was so rare that I have to support a cause promoted by the PAP in recent years. Now there is really a good cause for all Singaporeans to support the PAP. Why is it good, it affects Singaporeans in general, some directly, some indirectly.
The PAP Youth Wing or Young PAP is going to the Speakers Corner this Saturday to speak up for lowering of transport fares for polytechnic and university students. These students, still not working and have no official income, are paying twice what college students are paying for MRT and SBS fares. They are still not financially independent and many would need support from their parents. Reducing their transport cost will help to alleviate the burden of their parents albeit in a small way. It still counts over the 3 to 4 years when they are studying.
It is good that the Young PAP is pushing for this cause. It is a cause that all Singaporeans regardless of their political inclination can share and support. Though the Young PAP has called for people turning up at Hong Lim to wear white, a symbol of cleanliness, incorruptibility and everything that is good, some have been peeved by this. I say never mind. The WP supporters can go there in their reds, some in blue, some in orange, some in pink, but all with a common goal, to fight for the lowering of fares for these students.
It will be an opportune time for all the parties to unite and tell the people that they can support a righteous and good cause no matter who raises the issue. And that all the parties will not bicker unnecessarily just because someone else and not themselves brought it up. It will show to the people that the politicians and their supporters are growing up.
I hope all the parties, PAP, NSP, SDP, WP, PKMS, SPP, SDA and any other party that I could not remember and mention, could go to Hong Lim Park this Saturday and make enough noise to support this good cause. It will be a moment when all Singaporeans are united, to stand as one.
Would that be nice?
The PAP Youth Wing or Young PAP is going to the Speakers Corner this Saturday to speak up for lowering of transport fares for polytechnic and university students. These students, still not working and have no official income, are paying twice what college students are paying for MRT and SBS fares. They are still not financially independent and many would need support from their parents. Reducing their transport cost will help to alleviate the burden of their parents albeit in a small way. It still counts over the 3 to 4 years when they are studying.
It is good that the Young PAP is pushing for this cause. It is a cause that all Singaporeans regardless of their political inclination can share and support. Though the Young PAP has called for people turning up at Hong Lim to wear white, a symbol of cleanliness, incorruptibility and everything that is good, some have been peeved by this. I say never mind. The WP supporters can go there in their reds, some in blue, some in orange, some in pink, but all with a common goal, to fight for the lowering of fares for these students.
It will be an opportune time for all the parties to unite and tell the people that they can support a righteous and good cause no matter who raises the issue. And that all the parties will not bicker unnecessarily just because someone else and not themselves brought it up. It will show to the people that the politicians and their supporters are growing up.
I hope all the parties, PAP, NSP, SDP, WP, PKMS, SPP, SDA and any other party that I could not remember and mention, could go to Hong Lim Park this Saturday and make enough noise to support this good cause. It will be a moment when all Singaporeans are united, to stand as one.
Would that be nice?
The perplexing discovery of Sinda
Sinda did a review on the performance of Indian students in the PSLE examination. And horrors, the Indian students are underperforming in mathematics, achieving only 73% pass rate against a national average of above 80%. And many Indian students dropped out of secondary school for being unable to cope with mathematics.
This discovery is more startling given that Indians are well reputed to be maths wizards. Many of the American banks and Singapore’s financial institutions are headed by Indians, be they Singapore Indians or Indian Indians. They must be very very good in mathematics to get into those positions. Just depending on the gift of the gab would not get them that far. Their mathematical talents must have proven to be really good.
Now, what is this nonsense that Indian students are having serious problems coping with mathematics? I am scratching my head. Is our schools and teaching methodology for maths the reason for the Indian students poor grade? Cannot be, we have the best teaching methods for maths and our methods are being copied and adopted even by the Americans.
There cannot be any doubt in the genes of Indian students as there are many fine examples of top Indian finance professionals like Tharman, Gupta, and the MD of MAS just to mention a few.
What is happening man?
This discovery is more startling given that Indians are well reputed to be maths wizards. Many of the American banks and Singapore’s financial institutions are headed by Indians, be they Singapore Indians or Indian Indians. They must be very very good in mathematics to get into those positions. Just depending on the gift of the gab would not get them that far. Their mathematical talents must have proven to be really good.
Now, what is this nonsense that Indian students are having serious problems coping with mathematics? I am scratching my head. Is our schools and teaching methodology for maths the reason for the Indian students poor grade? Cannot be, we have the best teaching methods for maths and our methods are being copied and adopted even by the Americans.
There cannot be any doubt in the genes of Indian students as there are many fine examples of top Indian finance professionals like Tharman, Gupta, and the MD of MAS just to mention a few.
What is happening man?
Communal living back in Singapore
The idea of communal living was thought to be dead since Singaporeans got richer over the years. Those hand to mouth years of living in cubicles or sharing a flat with several families, sharing kitchen, toilets and common facilities were just a bad dream best to be forgotten. Those were times when most Singaporeans were poor and they had to make do with strangers living within the same four walls.
With today’s affluence and with Singaporeans owning or leasing their own flats, it is like coming full circle to see more and more Singaporeans renting out and sharing their homes with strangers. And with flats that are built smaller and smaller, having more than one family inside a flat is like reliving the past once again.
With more retirees having to remortgage or sublet their flats, living with strangers is going to be more popular for the losers in life. But it should not affect the quality of their lives. Having more people in the flat means more company, more people to chit chat and to look after each other.
There must be some draw backs in communal living. I was reading the case of this Chinese national who killed three women and seriously injuring one in roughly one hour, in the same flat. I am not going to speculate how all the screaming and crying and shouting and banging could go on for so long without anyone barging in to stop the killing.
What I am going to say is that living with strangers can pose high risk, very high risk, for the weaker sex and the old. And the stranger could be very disarming with his friendly smile and pleasant disposition. Not to worry, this kind of things don’t happen too often. It is a risk worth taking. A few cases like this are quite normal as more and more people start to rent out their flats to strangers.
And there are many happy and warm stories to tell of communal living, of friendship built, of help and assistance given, and kindness and gratitude repaid. They get to know more people, make more friends, and help to show how friendly Singaporeans are. They will benefit from the richer experience in life.
Just a wonderful experience to many, except bad luck to a few losers. Forget to add, the quality of life will be so enriching.
With today’s affluence and with Singaporeans owning or leasing their own flats, it is like coming full circle to see more and more Singaporeans renting out and sharing their homes with strangers. And with flats that are built smaller and smaller, having more than one family inside a flat is like reliving the past once again.
With more retirees having to remortgage or sublet their flats, living with strangers is going to be more popular for the losers in life. But it should not affect the quality of their lives. Having more people in the flat means more company, more people to chit chat and to look after each other.
There must be some draw backs in communal living. I was reading the case of this Chinese national who killed three women and seriously injuring one in roughly one hour, in the same flat. I am not going to speculate how all the screaming and crying and shouting and banging could go on for so long without anyone barging in to stop the killing.
What I am going to say is that living with strangers can pose high risk, very high risk, for the weaker sex and the old. And the stranger could be very disarming with his friendly smile and pleasant disposition. Not to worry, this kind of things don’t happen too often. It is a risk worth taking. A few cases like this are quite normal as more and more people start to rent out their flats to strangers.
And there are many happy and warm stories to tell of communal living, of friendship built, of help and assistance given, and kindness and gratitude repaid. They get to know more people, make more friends, and help to show how friendly Singaporeans are. They will benefit from the richer experience in life.
Just a wonderful experience to many, except bad luck to a few losers. Forget to add, the quality of life will be so enriching.
11/24/2011
East Asian stability at risk if US trashes its defence budget
The above is the title of Ng E Jay’s article in his blog. And I would like to say that I completely disagree with him. Come on E Jay, you are thinking like an American now.
‘Cuts to the US military budget on the magnitude projected if the Supercommitte’s political impasse fails to be resolved would inevitably results in a significant scaling down of US military commitments worldwide, include an enormous downsizing of its global naval capabilities. This would invariably lead to increased geopolitical tensions in the ASEAN region and beyond.’ Ng E Jay
‘US military commitments worldwide’ is an American terminology to mean conducting wars worldwide. East Asia and the world would be much safer than it is today. There will be little dictators trying to throw their weights around but these will be limited to local skirmishes and small warfare. Saddam Hussein and Gaddafi will still be running the shows. There will be no big scale wars like in Iraq and Afghanistan and in Libya. Don’t forget the Korean and Vietnam Wars. There will be smaller civil wars which dictators could easily suppress without the US and Nato interfering by supplying more arms and weapons.
And small pesky countries would not dare to agitate or provoke bigger countries to risk a war on themself. China, the non belligerent country that has been painted as the trigger happy one, will be even friendlier when no pests dare to irritate her.
The trigger happy Americans are able to conduct wars everywhere exactly because they have the money to do so. Without the military budget, the world would be much more peaceful and safer. The South Koreans would not dare to rattle their sabers daily at the North Koreans. Any Singaporean who thinks that the North Koreans are going to attack Singapore should go get admitted to IMH.
The pesky countries of Asean would not dare capture Chinese sailors or make nonsensical claims against Chinese territories or ever raring to go to war with China. There will be a new balance of power and a new status quo. Peace will have a better chance when little pests know that they cannot stir trouble and think they can get away with it.
An aggressive evil power is the temptation for small countries to destabilize the region, with the evil power nudging them from behind. Fear not, for the evil power is behind them. It is a good thing if the defence budget of the US is slashed drastically. Then calm and peace shall return. They would not have the money to start wars everywhere.
All the wars are started by the Americans. Make no mistake about it. Remove the blinkers to see the truth. They create the tension, the instability, the suspicion, and then invited themselves in to be the policeman, the peacemaker, the leader. And of course, to sell more weapons.
‘Cuts to the US military budget on the magnitude projected if the Supercommitte’s political impasse fails to be resolved would inevitably results in a significant scaling down of US military commitments worldwide, include an enormous downsizing of its global naval capabilities. This would invariably lead to increased geopolitical tensions in the ASEAN region and beyond.’ Ng E Jay
‘US military commitments worldwide’ is an American terminology to mean conducting wars worldwide. East Asia and the world would be much safer than it is today. There will be little dictators trying to throw their weights around but these will be limited to local skirmishes and small warfare. Saddam Hussein and Gaddafi will still be running the shows. There will be no big scale wars like in Iraq and Afghanistan and in Libya. Don’t forget the Korean and Vietnam Wars. There will be smaller civil wars which dictators could easily suppress without the US and Nato interfering by supplying more arms and weapons.
And small pesky countries would not dare to agitate or provoke bigger countries to risk a war on themself. China, the non belligerent country that has been painted as the trigger happy one, will be even friendlier when no pests dare to irritate her.
The trigger happy Americans are able to conduct wars everywhere exactly because they have the money to do so. Without the military budget, the world would be much more peaceful and safer. The South Koreans would not dare to rattle their sabers daily at the North Koreans. Any Singaporean who thinks that the North Koreans are going to attack Singapore should go get admitted to IMH.
The pesky countries of Asean would not dare capture Chinese sailors or make nonsensical claims against Chinese territories or ever raring to go to war with China. There will be a new balance of power and a new status quo. Peace will have a better chance when little pests know that they cannot stir trouble and think they can get away with it.
An aggressive evil power is the temptation for small countries to destabilize the region, with the evil power nudging them from behind. Fear not, for the evil power is behind them. It is a good thing if the defence budget of the US is slashed drastically. Then calm and peace shall return. They would not have the money to start wars everywhere.
All the wars are started by the Americans. Make no mistake about it. Remove the blinkers to see the truth. They create the tension, the instability, the suspicion, and then invited themselves in to be the policeman, the peacemaker, the leader. And of course, to sell more weapons.
Pension is 10% of annual salary at most
Hsien Loong has spoken on the impending findings of the Salary Review Committee, likely to be out in time for Christmas. He touched a bit on how the pension scheme works and that the max a minister will get is 10% of his annual salary. In his short revelation, everything is in percentages and nothing absolute was revealed.
What is 10% of annual salary? Or what is annual salary? Does this annual salary comprise the basic monthly salary, 13th month AWS, performance bonus and productivity bonus based on the GDP? If the annual total is $10m, 10% will be $1m, assuming that last year the bonus was really huge and the average was $10m per minister. And if the bonus was bigger, then the percentage will be smaller and vice versa.
If the pension is based on annual salary which includes many variable bonuses, presumably the pension should be variable over the years as well. But this is just too perplexing to compute. I would rather believe that the pension is based on the fixed monthly salary. Given a minister’s salary of say $3m a year, the pension of 10% should be about $300k. Right or not?
If the pension is computed using gross annual salary that includes bonuses, then something is not in order as the performance factor and GDP growth should no longer be applicable to a pensioner. As the pension is a monthly payment, even the 13th AWS should not be in the computation. It should be a simple computation based on the last drawn monthly salary and nothing else. Tiok boh? What about allowances?
The other problem about adding all the bonuses into the annual salary is that it is going to vary from year to year. So ministers retiring on a good year like George and his colleagues, the pension is going to be better than those who retire in a bad year. This doesn’t make sense.
So I would think the annual salary is based on 12 months or at most 13 months. And definitely all other allowances for all kinds of appointments other than the minister’s salary will be excluded. We will have to see what the final figure is, if it is not a state secret like the cost of building a HDB flat. If not at the very best, the figures given will be only a matter of percentages.
No self respecting human resource professionals will include performance bonuses and the country’s GDP performance as components in the computation of a person’s pension. Pension does not take into account individual or the country’s performance into the future.
What is 10% of annual salary? Or what is annual salary? Does this annual salary comprise the basic monthly salary, 13th month AWS, performance bonus and productivity bonus based on the GDP? If the annual total is $10m, 10% will be $1m, assuming that last year the bonus was really huge and the average was $10m per minister. And if the bonus was bigger, then the percentage will be smaller and vice versa.
If the pension is based on annual salary which includes many variable bonuses, presumably the pension should be variable over the years as well. But this is just too perplexing to compute. I would rather believe that the pension is based on the fixed monthly salary. Given a minister’s salary of say $3m a year, the pension of 10% should be about $300k. Right or not?
If the pension is computed using gross annual salary that includes bonuses, then something is not in order as the performance factor and GDP growth should no longer be applicable to a pensioner. As the pension is a monthly payment, even the 13th AWS should not be in the computation. It should be a simple computation based on the last drawn monthly salary and nothing else. Tiok boh? What about allowances?
The other problem about adding all the bonuses into the annual salary is that it is going to vary from year to year. So ministers retiring on a good year like George and his colleagues, the pension is going to be better than those who retire in a bad year. This doesn’t make sense.
So I would think the annual salary is based on 12 months or at most 13 months. And definitely all other allowances for all kinds of appointments other than the minister’s salary will be excluded. We will have to see what the final figure is, if it is not a state secret like the cost of building a HDB flat. If not at the very best, the figures given will be only a matter of percentages.
No self respecting human resource professionals will include performance bonuses and the country’s GDP performance as components in the computation of a person’s pension. Pension does not take into account individual or the country’s performance into the future.
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