US gangster behaviour in the South China Sea and the PACIFIC OCEAN

Communication key to avoid sea incidents

Global Times | 2013-12-16 0:43:01 By Global Times

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The US media has reported, citing sources from the American military, that on December 5 the Cowpens, a US guided missile cruiser, was forced to take evasive action to avoid a collision with a Chinese warship when the Cowpens was near the Liaoning aircraft carrier in the South China Sea.

Anonymous sources from the US side called it a "dangerous maneuver" and said the US has made protests to China through diplomatic and military means. A statement issued by the US Pacific Fleet said that the State Department has taken the issue up with China and thinks the acts of both "not uncommon." As of last night, the Chinese military has not responded. This is not the first time that Chinese and American warships have confronted each other in the South China Sea. Airborne confrontations have also occurred often.

It is a fact that China has already announced three regions in the South China Sea as its military areas. The outside world knows that they are used for scientific research and training of the Liaoning aircraft carrier. Meanwhile, many areas in the South China Sea are China's exclusive economic zones. Clearly, the US missile cruiser has come to China's threshold and posed a threat to China's military security.

If the American navy and air force always encroach near China's doorstep, "confrontation" is bound to take place. In 2001, the collision between an American spy plane and a Chinese fighter jet was such an accident resulting from constant confrontation between the two.

The US side demands the Chinese navy and air force abide by "rules." Such rules are only served at American convenience to conduct inspections and show off its military strength. They do not belong to international laws. With its overall strength as the backing, the US forces the world to abide by them.

But the US should not go too far. Especially, it should show respect for China's legal interests and concerns for its own security and should not harm China's security at will.

We don't think the South China Sea is a stage where the US 7th Fleet flaunts its prowess. We try to avoid friction because we wish for a new type of major power relationship with the US rather than being pressured by this fleet.

The China-US crisis management system should be based on past rules on the one hand. On the other hand, China should also participate in rule-making. American leaders have welcomed China's peaceful rise, but they didn't actually respect the fact that as China's interests expand and its strength increases, its concern for security also deepens.

As China's strength grows, the US should learn to communicate with and respect China if it doesn't want a collision on the sea or in the air.

China should speed up empowering itself. Only when the US feels China is a well-matched adversary, will it deal with China in a reasonable way. China is trying to avoid friction with the US. But it should also be firm about safeguarding its own interests.

This has nothing to do with the "China threat" theory. Only when the world acknowledges China's deterrence, could the South and East China Seas stay in peace. We will bear every risk involved in this process.

Samurai in the train

A man or was it a boy, dressed up in a samurai attire complete with a samurai sword boarded a train in Paya Lebar and went to town. Some passengers were wondering if he was involved in some cosplay event until he unshielded his sword which looked very real. Then panic struck.
 
Apparently the men jumped over the gate at Paya Lebar station and the MRT staff alerted the police. Inside the train the passengers kept a safe distance from the man while the police stood in front to protect them. After the man left the train, the police went into pursuit and eventually arrested him after a struggle. Presumably the man was of unsound mind at this moment.
 
There is a photo of the man in the train in the ST. His face and hand were blurred, very likely he is a juvenile and there is a need to protect his identity. It cannot be a case of the media protecting a potentially dangerous criminal or too shy to show who he was.. It is a practice to protect the identity of young people caught in violation of the law. This guy must be very young. It is so thoughtful of the media.

Crooked bridge and crooked expressway

When Mahathir insisted on building his crooked bridge everyone had a good laugh. For whatever crazy reasons, he wanted to demolish a land bridge in the form of a solid causeway just to build a bridge in its place, presumably more efficient in that way and awe inspiring. Fortunately the Malaysian govt had the commonsense not to believe him and his crooked bridge.

How can a bridge be more efficient that a piece of land with relatively little maintenance and could easily be expanded to take in more load? How could a straight causeway, with shorter distance to travel be less effective than a crooked bridge with more distance to cover and high in the air? And there would be the cost of demolition and relocation cost of the causeway and the water pipes and all the businesses in JB town to account for.

While the crooked bridge is now history, Singapore has built a crooked expressway in Marina South and capped with an undersea tunnel and earning the accolade of being the most expensive stretch of road on earth. While Mahathir failed to get his pet project off the ground, Singapore got its pet project underground and under the sea.

In many ways, the crooked bridge and the crooked expressway have a lot of similarities. Cost is definitely one. A simple surface road plus a bridge could be much cheaper than the elaborate and highly geared tunnel with so many electrical and safety gadgets attached to it. And it is crooked, and its existence led to a stretch of ECP being chopped off. The trade off is a bigger piece of land to build more highrise buildings. Driving through a straight expressway from Tanjong Pagar to Fort Road must be faster and more economical on fuel and tyre wear for sure. Could a straight tunnel work and still create additional space?

Suffice to note these similarities, and there are many more that are obvious to everyone. Both are state of the art engineering feats, and monuments of achievements for whoever desired them, a legacy of sort.

And one thing for sure, the crooked bridge and crooked expressway would cost the users that much more in tolls to be paid and time to travel for the unnecessary distance added on. To the masterminds of these two projects, there must be great reasons and benefits to build them crooked instead of straight. Crooked is definite better than straight in both cases.

1.1m foreign workers, not 500k

In a Bloomberg report today, it is stated that the number of foreign workers here is 1.1m and not 500k. In the same report it quoted Chuan Jin as saying that the govt is slowing down the number of foreign worker intake in view of the riot in Little India.
This change in policy would invite criticism from the same bunch of idiots accusing Singapore of racism, discrimination and exploitation of foreign workers. Now when lesser workers are allowed, they will change their tune and would demand that more workers be allowed to work here. These double headed snakes would always have their say, that Singapore owes them a living but they could not do anything to provide better jobs and decent standard of living for their fellowmen in their own dastard countries.
 
1.1m or 500k is still too big a number for a highly densely populated island to absorb. And the risk of rioting, in bigger number, is always there. With more than 1m of them here, there will be 1m reason to trigger a riot. With 500k, there will be 500k reasons to do the same.
 
Are our police prepared and equipped to deal with a mob of 50,000 on the street? Do we have the manpower, equipment and resources to be mobilized when there is an outbreak of violence? How many men will be needed to quell such an unrest? It only takes 20 minutes to set the city and the housing estates ablaze. It is not easy to mobilize so many uniform men to take on such an urgent task even if this is carefully planned and with many drills conducted to get the men ready. I have not seen such an exercise carried out in a scale that may be warranted one day.
 
We have been playing with fire for so long and getting away with it through our good fortune. After the Little India Riot, the reality of such an eventuality is getting very real and the risk that much higher. As of today, if a massive riot occurs, I am very pessimistic of the outcome. I don’t think our police are ready for it. And the likelihood is that they would not have enough troops on the ground and a joint operation with the support of the military must be in order.
 
How fast can the govt mobilize enough men in a short span of time to deal with a major unrest is a big question. The root of the problem is the big number of foreign workers in our midst. Would we get away a second time with minimal life lost, injured or equipment and buildings razed?
 
Oh, it is an isolated incident that would happen once in 50 years. Not to worry. The next one will be another 50 year.

Foreign workers in Little India

This is a photo of foreign workers relaxing and having a drink with friends in Little India. Photo courtesy of Singapore News Alternative.

Are these workers having a hard time in Singapore? Look at their dressing, the enviroment they are in, would they be better off in India? These are not the well educated professionals. Would they be able to enjoy such comfort in such a fine and clean surrounding? If they are back in India, would they have the money to enjoy their drinks or would they be jobless, poorly clothed and could not even afford a drink?

Who is claiming that they are being exploited and living in drudgery, in a fearful environment and being discriminated by the Chinese majority in Singapore? Look at their faces, are they unhappy, in pain, in fear, being harassed? Or are they free and relax and happy, enjoying their drinks in the company of friends?

They may not be making a lot of money. But they are getting on well and with the freedom to do as they pleased in their off days.

How the rich get richer and the poor get poorer

The infamous photograph posted in Baey Yam Keng’s facebook is going on its second round of circulation. A plate of nasi padang with fish, chicken and cuttlefish I think, and probably with vegetables, cost $2.50. And there is the even more infamous $8 open heart by pass, and free serving of quality grade tooth picks in boxes, are privileges of the rich and famous. They seemed to know how to get things cheaper than the common folks.
 
Most ordinary people would be charged at least $6 or $7 for a plate of similar nasi padang. Most people would be broke or have their Medisave savings emptied and probably not enough if they have gone for a heart by pass. And if they need some tooth picks, probably will get the ordinary ones and comes in a few pieces.
 
While the poor have smaller incomes got to pay more for what they need, the rich with million dollar incomes could get things so much cheaply. Now you understand why the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.
 
And this is just a natural thing in life, one of those hard truths. Some are born more equal than others. And some don’t even know what $2.50 can get for a nasi padang lunch. And some don’t even know there are poor people in this rich city. This is uniquely Singapore. And you can’t blame them. They don’t eat in hawker centre like the poor do. They don’t walk in the company of the poor or when they did their walkaround the poor might have been shooed away, not to be seen.
 
Heard of the story that there are only 3 seasons and not four?

500,000 march with their feet

DNAIndia.com, 14 Dec 2013
‘While it is no one’s case to condone Sunday’s violence, Singapore would do well not to treat the incident as an aberration, and not be dismissive about the larger sociological implications. It would be wrong to ignore the underlying simmering resentmentand frustration of Singpaore’s imported labourers. It is Singapore’s worst-kept secret that most of the lowly jobs (housemaids, construction workers, garbage removal and sewer maintenance personnel, so on) are performed by non-Chinese immigrants from South/Southeast Asia. Stories of worker abuse, intimidation and exploitation are aplenty : employers lodge thousands of imported workers in poorly provided cubbyholes, subject them to long work hours and confiscate their passports during the contract tenures….’
 
The above is a comment in DNA India which reflects the kind of thinking in India over the plight of the Indian workers here. Many of the claims are true, but things are improving dramatically and many dormitories are now like little country clubs with facilities that the workers would never dream of at home. Some of the dormitories are quality housing, better than HDB flats, and thousands of time better than the broken sheds they had at home with poor or no sanitation. Once the full programme dished out by the MOM is implemented, the quality of living condition in dormitories would be like heaven and hell from where they came from.
 
The proof of all these is that 500,000 of them are voting with their feet and more are craving to be here. There are exploitations, sure. Who are the exploiters? Who did the workers took their loans from? The Singapore side of the equation is no angels, but the law is coming down fast on them. Would the Indian media and their heart wrenching journalists and reporters offer these ‘exploited’ workers jobs that are better or at least the same as what Singapore can provide, with the same decent income? The answer is a big NO. They could not give these workers decent jobs, decent income and decent lodging and they are blaming Singapore for providing them a decent alternative! If these workers are thrifty and not exploited by their agents and employers, many of them would not only provide well for their families, some would return fairly rich, much richer than the reporters writing their nonsense.
 
If India is so good, these 500,000 workers would not be here. If the terms of their employments and life are so bad, they would not pay thousands to their agent to be here. And not only the workers are here, many of the professionals that India could not provide them with decent jobs and incomes are escaping from India to the West, with many coming to this island that are victimizing them on racist grounds. Many of their top brains are here to be exploited. Either their top brains are fools or the reporters are talking rubbish.
 
The truth is that they are exploiting Sinkies and the good infrastructure here for their own good. The people that are exploited are the Sinkies, particularly the PMEs. Wait till these local PMEs find life unbearable and unsustainable when they could no longer provide for their families. Just wait for their wrath.
 
And a final word, if the Indians, professionals and the workers, find it so bad here, exploited here, discriminated by the racist Chinese here, please get lost, go back home to the great comfort of your great country.
 
If our relations with India are so good, why are the Indian media so hostile to Singapore? Remember Sun TV. Who is spreading the myth that relations between the people of the two countries are so good that it deserves a big celebration in 2015 using public money? How much of the people’s money would be spent on this make belief while the Indians are cursing us everyday in their media?
 
Do we still want to spend public fund on this 150th Anniversary? For those people who believe that relations are so good and it is deserving of a big celebration, can they please use their own pocket money for it and not the people’s money? It is so easy to spend OPM ya.