The Singapore Spinning Wheel

For those who have kept white mice as pets they must be familiar with the sight of white mice peddling furiously on a spinning wheel in the glass enclosure. When the mice are tired, they could hop off the wheel to take a break. It is a kind of exercise for the mice in a small enclosure. In some experiments, the white mice were entrapped and will run themselves to death.
 
Singapore is like a large invisible spinning wheel to many of its residents. Other than the super rich, the rest of the inhabitants would have to mount the wheel and keep running. Anyone who stops would fall off and may be squashed. The thing about this spinning wheel is that it must keep running on the steam of the residents and falling off is like falling into self destruction.
 
For the majority of the Sinkies, they would have to run on the wheel non stop for life, no retirement. There is no other option. And they are prepared from very young to be fit and strong, not lazy and weak. Everyone is born to run this race, and the govt demands more children to be put on the wheel to keep it spinning ever faster and faster.
The people that are exempted from this race are the rich and super rich locals, citizens or PRs. They are the privileged class that is spared this ordeal.
 
The not so well off foreigners are also brought in to run on the wheel to keep it spinning. The only difference, these foreigners could jump off the wheel and run back to their home countries, cashed out to live a life of plenty. They know what they are doing, they are willing to run on the wheel. And they know that when they have had enough, they sort of jump ship and say good bye to the wheel and those running on it.
 
The Sinkies have no choice but to run and run until they drop dead. They cannot afford not to run. And they have been told that it is also their responsibility to give birth to more babies to run on the wheel like them. No one is questioning the goodness of running on this wheel and the ever faster and faster speed needed. No one can slow it down. It is expected to run faster, not slower, a happy and desirable thing, a no choice thing, for the Sinkies. They are born to run on the unstoppable spinning wheel.

Kopi level- Green. Thank you.

Tan Kin Lian angry with LTA spending $68m on bus management system

I was very angry when I read the news that the Land Transport Authority (LTA) has awarded a tender of $68 million for an intelligent bus management system. Link. The benefit to consumers is described in this sentence, “ With more accurate bus arrival information, commuters can better plan their journeys and travel options.”
 
Actually I have the same feeling when I read that but did not want to blog about it. Well, since Kin Lian is talking about it, might as well put in my 2c worth. One thing, $68m is just a bigger peanut. In this obscenely rich city, everything is about a few hundred millions or in billions. So what is $68m? Just add a few cents hike to the fare and it would be paid by the commuters. What is so big deal?
 
Incidentally I checked my MRT fare yesterday and found that it has gone up by 3c for my daily trip. I am going to check on this to confirm that there is an increase and to find out when it happened and why it was not announced. I need to confirm this evening with the machine. Anyone notice the increase as well? Please check and see if it is true.
 
The bus management system is not going to cost only $68m. You would need people to manage and maintain the system and add to the overheads of running the buses. There will be installation cost as well, or is it already included? Then the promotion and educating the public cost as well. How much more would it cost and how much goodness would it give or benefit the operators and the commuters? Or is it just another thermometer to read the temperature?
 
What would be the total cost for this great management system and is it really necessary? Many countries could run an efficient bus system without having to pay for such a multi million dollar management system so that the academics and analysts got more data to analyse. I remember about mapping the topo of the island to know where the next flood is going to be. Dunno if they paid for it.
 
But, what the hell, it is only $68m. All small change lah.

Bangkok, the clock is ticking

Bangkok is living under the tickings of a time bomb. The impasse between the govt of Yingluck and the protestors led by Suthep is heading for a grand explosion. The pressure is mounting with the anti govt using every ruse they could find to frame charges against PM Yingluck. And National Anti Corruption Agency and the Judiciary are anything but neutral govt institutions bent on removing Yingluck.
 
Yingluck has been accused by Suthep that she is only a puppet of her brother Taksin. Who else are also puppets in Thai politics? Ahbisit has wisely stayed away and not be pulled by a string attached to his back. And so has the Army. Is Suthep also a puppet of some forces or political master? Is the National Anti Corruption Agency or the Judiciary also puppets acting and kicking when the strings are pulled? Who is this powerful puppeteer that has the power to pull the strings behind Suthep, NACA and the Judiciary? Or are these three elements really independent political powers acting on their own to remove Yingluck and her families from Thailand, and to confiscate their family businesses and fortunes for the good of Thailand? Is this not robbery?
 
Who could dictate and exercise such sweeping objectives, to remove families and clanships, businesses and fortunes of a group of Thai citizens from the country above the laws? Whoever that be, the clock is ticking too. And the pro govt Red Shirts are not going to let their chosen govt be removed from office. A street battle for the right to rule Thailand is being prepared by both sides and it looks like bloodshed, very serious blood letting, is going to happen on the streets of Bangkok, very soon.
 
The death of the Thai people seems to be the least of concern of the leaders on both sides. It is all an issue of political power and supremacy. The losers in this battle will lose real bad and there will be no way to make a comeback once violence breaks out till a victor is announced. Thailand is going to pay a very heavy political price in blood.

MH370 – A tragic comedy or shall I call it a circus?

More than a month has passed since MH370 gone missing. There are still many ships and aircraft in the Antarctic scouring the freezing waters for signs of debris or the black boxes. They may even take in a whale as MH370 if it makes the sound similar to the black boxes. It is so tragic and so comical. I must say that given the disinformation or misinformation, they just have to go through the motion. The wise ones, or those who knew where the aircraft is, would be quietly smiling and stay away from the circus.
 
How many of you really believe that MH370 was flown there to be sunk into the icy water of the Antarctic? I for one would not believe in this myth. Even if they found the black boxes, I doubt they will, I would not believe the MH370 is buried there. There is no logical reason for the aircraft to be there except for a devious plot, a deliberate act of planting information to deceive everyone that it is there.
 
That aircraft cannot plunge into the ocean without leaving any traces of debris or dead bodies floating as living proof that it was there.
 
When would the truth surface? Are the passengers still alive somewhere? When would the wicked ones be unmasked and brought to justice?

Kopi level - Yellow

Roy Ngerng, I disagree that Sinkies are selfish

Roy Ngerng wrote a piece in TRE titled, ‘Time to agree we have been played out’, and has this as his leading paragraphs:
 
‘As our country grows richer, we become more selfish as people. But this doesn’t have to be the case. In other developed societies, as they grew richer, they learnt to care more and looked out for one another.
 
If I were to tell you the reason why we’ve become more selfish, would you believe me?’
 
No Roy, I don’t believe you. In fact I totally disagree with you that Sinkies are selfish. Not at all, and I can prove it to you. But I agree with all that you said in your subsequent paragraphs. So, let me quote some of the facts to prove how generous Sinkies are or made to be.
 
1. We share our little island with people from the 3rd World to the level of 50% or more of our population. It could be very much more if we fished out the number of these foreigners that are now called new citizens.
 
2. We spent hundreds of millions or billions over the years to offer scholarships and living allowances to thousands of 3rd World hungry students to study in our world best universities at the expense of our own children. Some parents have to sell their homes in order to get their children educated overseas so that we can be very generous and selfless to the foreign students.
 
3. We gave many good jobs, at least half a million jobs, to foreigners, to displace our highly educated and experience citizens. We let them have the good jobs while our PMETs drive them around as taxi drivers. How more selfless do you expect Sinkies to be?
 
4. We gave opportunities to train their doctors, their bankers, their IT specialists and many more, so that they can gain all the experience required to put into their CVs, and to be promoted to top management and CEOs in our country. We don’t mind depriving our own talents from such opportunities to be trained, to gain the experience so that they can take on more senior positions.
 
5. We gave employment agency licences, student recruitment licences, housing agent licences, insurance agent licences to the foreigners freely and happily. We do not mind if they eased out our own citizens in these industries.
 
6. While we have serious shortage of land and good homes for our citizens, we do not mind selling all the good homes to foreigners to live in this paradise we have built so that they can enjoy their wealth in peace and comfort.
 
7. When they rioted and burnt our police cars, we blamed it on our citizens for making them angry, for pushing them and yelling at them. We blamed it on our police officers for not being forceful enough to keep them under control. It is our fault.
 
8. We help them to integrate into our community not just be words but by spending millions on them to make them feel at home. We even help them to celebrate their festivals and turn our country to be more like theirs. How can we be called selfish?
 
9. We allowed foreigners to set up companies here and employed mainly foreigners with only a handful of Sinkies. And they enjoyed all the perks of being in this fine city but acting like parasites, sucking all the good things and shitting and peeing everywhere. We don’t mind. We are not selfish.
 
There are many other things we did selflessly to be generous to the foreigners to the disadvantage of our own citizens. Many of our citizens were even forbidden to buy public flats but the foreigners, turning new citizens, have a choice of flats served on a silver platter to them. And we will voluntarily serve two years of national service for a pittance, pledging to fight and die to protect the foreigners and their properties.
 
How can we be accused of being selfish? How can we be accused of being xenophobic?
 
Tiok boh? No matter how I look at it, I still think we are very generous, very selfless, to the point of idiocy. True or not?
 
PS. I think Sinkies are quietly saying to themselves, ‘Let’s move out and let the foreigners take over our paradise island.’ Let’s be generous and let them have our country.

Kopi level - Still Yellow for so many days.

The STB promotion video says it all

A promotional video commissioned by STB, created in the Philippines by the Philippine network ABS-CBN and must have been approved by the STB for circulation, says it all. It is all about reversed integration. We are getting to think and see things the Pinoy way. We have confidence in what they do, pay them to do it, agree and happy with the production. And we fly it to the whole world proudly as a class act. Must be right?
 
Now this great video production is withdrawn. Hopefully it didn’t cost very much since it was produced in the Philippines and can be written off. This could be a small start to the dilution of our thinking, mindset and values by the foreigners. Our core strength is the Singaporean spirit and our way of life. If we are not going to be more Singaporean but more of the 3rd World then we will be drifting into trouble in the future. And it is going to be. When foreigners are a minority, they would subject themselves to our way of life, like in Hongkong, even the British colonial masters had to learn to speak Cantonese. In our case, with foreigners in such great numbers, we would likely be made to be more like them, to speak, think and behave like them.
 
The change in the way Mandarin is spoken is a sign of more to come. Many words are now pronounced differently, in the Beijing style, sounding so alien an uncomfortable. I believe this would also affect Tamil or many will eventually start to speak Hindi, and the children brought up by the Pinoys, Indonesian, Myanmese maids would be speaking their tongues, and assimilate some of their cultural traits. Good for diversities but not sure how it would affect our social values and the things that made Singaporeans so successful in the past.
 
Shall we encourage more integration and reverse assimilation?

Finally, China standing up to the American bully

Chuck Hagel, US Defence Secretary, went to China to tell the Chinese that they have no rights to unilaterally designate their ADIZ but must consult the Americans. He also warned the Chinese that the US will protect the Japanese and the Philippines in any dispute with China.
 
China’s Defence Minister Chang Wanquan replied in no uncertain terms that Japan and the Philippines are the provocateurs and China would not yield an inch on its national core interests. China would not be the first to start a war but is prepared to take the Americans as well if the two forced China into a war and the USA wants to join the fight. Chang said, ‘We will make no compromise, no concession, no trading, not even a tiny…violation is allowed. The Chinese military can assemble as soon as summoned, fight any battle and win.’
 
The Americans have been bullying the Chinese for more than 60 years, always threatening and warning China of an American attack if China would not heed the American threats. It would be a matter of time before China adopts the same stance against the Americans. China is warning the Americans to rein in the Japanese and not be permissive and supportive of Tokyo’s aggressive provocations.
 
The rhetoric of China is getting to sound very similar to the Americans. China is telling the Americans that not only Americans can warn and threaten China anymore. China can warn the Americans and would one day thump table with the Americans when it is as strong as the Americans. Both can play the game. 

Gen Fan Changlong, vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission was quoted in the ST to have said this in full view of the press 'that he took personal offence at his remarks in Japan last weekend and at a meeting of Asean defence ministers in Hawaii last week. "I can tell you frankly, your remarks made at the Asean defence ministers meeting and to the Japanese politicians were tough and with a clear attitude," said Gen Fan. "The Chinese people, including myself, are dissatisfied with such remarks."'

Today the Americans still have an edge over China but nothing more than that. China is not able to attack the Americans in conventional warfare but could more than adequately defend itself against an American conventional attack. The first salvo when war is declared, China would take out all the American and Japanese bases in Japan and South Korea and secure the China seas. No American ships or aircraft carriers would be allowed to be within striking distance of mainland China.
 
The next phase would be nuclear warfare which both sides would not dare to play with. There will be no winners in a full scale nuclear war between the two superpowers.