Hawker centre cleaning, time to move on

As more things are revealed in this issue of great national importance, perhaps it is time to move on as the points in question could boil down to some misunderstanding in what were said and what were written or between annual cleaning and not annual cleaning.

Can we call it a stalemate, both sides never win or never lose, call it a truce and everyone gets back to work? Some overseas blogs are even laughing at us for creating such a hooha with ministers and PMs involved. But I must respect those who think this is indeed a very serious matter of integrity and honesty and needs to pursue until every stone is turned and every straight and honest face turns crooked and red.

Shall everyone say peace? I also feel very embarrass to post about it.

South Korea begging the US to take control of its armed forces

Though the South Koreans have been bragging about how able they are to invade and fight the North Koreans, they are so afraid of losing the backing of their colonial master. This semi American colony is begging the Americans to continue to be their supreme military commander in case a war breaks out with the North. The agreement means that the Americans will have full control of the South Korean armed forces in war. The whole of South Korean military will be under the control of the Americans.

The Americans were supposed to surrender this right to control the South Korean armed forces in 2012 but this was delayed because of the sinking of the Choenan. The handover was then scheduled to be in December 2015 but the South Koreans willingly wanted to submit their armed forces to the control of a foreign power, the USA and is asking for a delay in the handover of power back to the South Koreans. It is unbelieveable that a sovereign state would willingly beg another country to assume command of its military. Where is the pride of the Korean people? Is this not a sign of a semi colony?

And now we know the reason why the Choenan was sunk in October 2010. The real reason, the South Koreans would be assuming control of their own military by December 2012. And there must be a strong reason to frighten the South Koreans to want to continue with the Americans as their military commander and colonial master. Who then has an interest to sink the Choenan to keep this status quo?

The North Koreans, the South Koreans or the Americans? Who sank the Choenan and the reason for its sinking is now clear as day light.

Malaysian University admission standard very high

It is reprinted in My Paper of a report in The Star/Asia News Network of a number of top Malaysian students with perfect scores for the STPM but either failed to get a place in Malaysian Universities or being given a course not of their choice, or courses that are unpopular or of lower economic values.

Chai Yee Lin obtained a perfect 4.0 CGPA score, applied for medicine, dentistry, pharmacy and bio medical courses but was given a veterinary science course in Kelatan University. Another student, Chong Yong Sheng, also with perfect score was not even good enough for a place in the universities. And another girl, Deveshini Uthani was devastated as well for not given a place. Her score was poorer, 3.96. She thought it was good enough and that she had done her family proud.

What all these students failed to understand is that there must be many many students with perfect scores, probably 10,000 or 20,000 or more. Thus, their perfect scores were actually average or below average. And the standard for admission must also be very high.

These students should work harder if they want to get admitted to Malaysian universities. On the other hand they may try their luck in Singapore Universities. Here the entry requirements would not be that high and they may even be good enough for an Asean or a Singapore Govt scholarship with food and lodging thrown in. And if they did well on graduation, they may even be given citizenship.

The competition of the local students is not so fierce as the local talents are deemed daft and would not have that kind of scintillating results. It has been proven that many third world students have done much better than the locals and even in employment. Even a youtube porn star was once a scholar in a Singapore university.

I will encourage these top Malaysian students to come down south. Oops, they are not tops in Malaysia but tops in Singapore, I think. They will be received with open arms.

MOM charged 25 FTs for forging certificates

25 fake FTs, 21 from Myanmar, 3 from India and 1 from the Philippines have been charged for forging certificates to get employment passes and very likely all will be jailed as none will be able to pay the $5000 fine. The jail sentence is for 4 weeks while those unable to pay their fines will be jailed for 20 days. The difference in the days for the jail sentence could be due to the cases being different.

These FTs were caught after being employed for less than a year. They are new applicants. Many enraged Sinkies are calling for tougher measures as the sentences were just too insignificant for the risk and reward considerations. It is a good start for the MOM and people are expecting more to come as this is only skimming the surface of a problem of several hundred thousands of FTs here.

To mean business, MOM should go after the employers and the recruiting agencies as well. They have to go for the source of the problem and not the foreigners that are trying their luck. And worse, they are not going to pay the fine and the govt would still have to feed and house them for the duration in jail.

Go for the jugular, and employers and recruiting agencies that failed to do the due diligence or actually in cahoot with the job applicants should be severely punished. And the employers and recruiting agencies are likely to have the finances to pay up and would avoid repeating the act.

Hope this is not just a show and the reaches of the MOM should extend to all the existing EP holders under employed and eventually even to new citizens who have gotten away. It is a long and tedious process and it is best that MOM signals its intention and how far it will go to nab the culprits and the cheats. MOM must issued a stern warning to all employers and recruiting agencies. In that way it could be seen as giving them a chance to get out while they can and for employers to clean their own houses before the net closes in on them.

By placing the responsibilities on the back of the employers and recruiting agencies will shift the burden to them as well. MOM just does not have the manpower and resources to deal with the few hundred thousand FTs here. Leave it to the employers and recruiting agencies to do the vetting and checking. MOM should just take on one company at a time starting from the big ones to send the message across that it means business.

The citizens are demanding that the govt must act thoroughly and seriously on such violations of the employment law and cheating the deserving citizens of their right to employment. Also it will save the embarrassment of being seen as a silly govt that claimed to be intelligent and sophisticated first world talents but got cheated easily by third world half baked non talents and fraudsters.

The Sinkies are not daft and are watching carefully to see how real is the effort of the MOM. There are many fakes hiding deeply in the banks and financial institutions and some may be holding very senior positions for many years here. It is also good that MOM has asked the public to whistle blow, to feed back on suspected cases to their hotlines.

MOM said it will not condone such acts of false declaration, and will take severe actions against offenders.

Members of the public who have information of persons or employers who contravene the Employment of Foreign Manpower Act should report the matter to MOM at Tel: (65) 6438 5122 or email mom_fmmd@mom.gov.sg. All information will be kept strictly confidential.

Foreign visitors to mysingaporenews.blogspot.sg

I just did an analysis of the origins of bloggers visiting mysingaporenews and it is a pleasant surprise that nearly all the English speaking countries are here, from the US, UK, Australia and Asean countries. What is surprising too is that the biggest English speaking country inside the Commonwealth, India, is not one of them. But from previous posts they have been shown to be here before. Perhaps they are using URLs from other Commonwealth countries.

The other notable countries with a big presence here are some non English speaking countries like Russia, Ukraine, France, China and Germany. And France and Ukraine are among the top 5 visitors that include US, UK and Australia.

The US at one time overtook Singapore with the top number of visitors but this has been halved since the verification facility was added. This is a clear indication that the number of spammers coming from the US and trying to mess around is pretty big.

Nice to know that this blog is quite well received internationally.

Redbean

White Robert Zimmerman acquitted of slaying black Trayvon Martin

This case has dragged on for more than a year. Trayvon Martin, a 17 year old black boy living in the same neighborhood as the burly 29 year old white man Zimmerman. On a night out to buy some food, he was racially profiled as a bad guy by Zimmerman. Martin was unarmed, Zimmerman armed with a gun. Zimmerman set upon Martin and in the struggle, neighbours heard the voice of the young black boy calling for help. But he was shot dead by Zimmerman claiming self defence. A jury of 5 white females and a black female found Zimmerman not guilty.
 
The blacks and Martin’s family are crying foul. Rioting has started in the district and several American cities in protest against the not guilty verdict.
 
In the past, many blacks were found guilty when innocent and hanged or lynched by white mobs and white courst. In the past, many white murderers and nigger killers were set free even with unquestionable evidence of guilt.
 
Now we are in the 21st Century and such racial and hate crimes against the blacks are still happening, and the white men who did the killing are acquitted. And the black leaders are calling for calm and peaceful demonstration like they used to do in the past when they became victims of such racial injustice.
 
Zimmerman may be free but admitted that he would have to look over his shoulder for the rest of his life. Some day, some guy may just pull the trigger on him to settle the score. Of course the guy will surely be found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment or death in some states.
 
How many think that Zimmerman is not guilty? How many believe that Zimmerman killed the boy in self defence? How many think this is not a racial profiling hate crime? How many believe the Martin family had the fair share of the law on their side or was it just another kangaroo court? How many think that racism is a thing of the past in the USA?

Moody downgrades our local banks

‘International credit rating agency Moody’s has downgraded the outlook for three Singapore banks – DBS, OCBC and UOB – to “negative” from “stable” for the next 12-18 months.’ Quoted from TRE.
 
Big, strong and friendly banks with triple A ratings are now rated as negative? What does it mean? How is this equated to the A, B and C rating scale? Are our banks now in the B grade or C grade? Getting a negative rating is no joke for sure.
 
Taking a peep into Moody’s full report on Stand alone Credit Strength, DBS is now rated as B/aa3 and Neg, OCBC is B/aa3, Stable, and UOB has the same rating as OCBC. Bank of Singapore, BOS is rated C-/baa1 and Stable as well. The overall average rating of Singapore banks is B/aa3. The Long Term Bank Deposit ratings for all the local banks are Aa1/Stable except for DBS with a Negative rating.
 
One of the main reasons given by Moody for this downgrading is the banks exposure to housing loans which stands at 77% of household debt. Moody also mentioned that ‘77% of Singapore banks’ non-performing loans (NPLs) were related to loans made by borrowers outside Singapore in 2012, compared to 65% in 2008.
 
With the uncertainties in the world economy and the risk of higher interest rates, the impact of a tightening of monetary policy in the US could trigger big movements in the flow of funds in and out of emerging countries and the local market. A big outflow could have adverse effect liquidity and interest rates and the housing market.
 
How serious would this be is still a grey area. The consequences of the US subprime crisis is still vivid to many and something that no one wants to see here and no one would believe such a scenario will happen. There is American exceptionalism and there is also Singapore exceptionalism. We are exceptional and we will not be in the same plight as the Americans and no subprime crisis will be allowed to happen here. Our situation is well under controlled by the most expensive talents available managing it. No worry, the Moody downgrade is just a paper downgrade and nothing untowards will happen and there is no need for fear mongering.
 
There will be no housing crisis here and those who think that people will be jumping from the flats are just talking nonsense. Our property prices will continue to go up as usual.