Patrick Tay – the only voice to the PMET’s plight

Is there really a problem that Singaporean PMETs are running out of jobs and hitting the wall? It is no joke in this most expensive city in the world to be unemployed and at a critical age when the financial burden of bringing up children and housing loan are at their peaks. And after this stage, the twilight years are not going to be a bed or roses when the children could not get a good job even with a degree and savings for old age are not enough.

How many of the elected leaders are listening and seeing the problems faced by the PMETs who voted them to power and would want to look after their interests? Don’t seem to hear much from the political leaders about this, maybe they have more important things to do than to worry about the PMETs becoming unemployed or under employed.

For those who took notice, the recommendations are hardly of any help and often very demeaning and undignified. The funny training courses that the PMETs have to put up with are quite insulting and a big waste of the talent and experienced that the PMETs have acquired for a whole life. The rubbish brought into the country to replace the PMETs are anything but rubbish and glossed over as valuable talents.

The lone voice calling for something to be done for the Singaporean PMETs came from Patrick Tay, supposedly responsible for workers welfare, not PMETs, but understood how serious the problem has become. Many of these PMETs have another 20 or 30 years to get by.

So what’s up Patrick? Short of ideas other then training and retraining? One simple suggestion, go to Parliament and tell them to stop the ministries and stats boards from employing foreigners for the interim years and get them to hire the PMETs. And foreigners mean PRs as well. Get the problem of unemployed Singaporeans solved first, and this include young graduates, before relaxing to hire foreigners. Is this so difficult to do?

Another thing, get the MOM to freeze issuing EP and SP passes until things get better for the PMETs and young local graduates.

Is the welfare and interest of Singaporeans going jobless not important enough for the govt to have a new policy to hire Singaporeans first? And watch out on those GLCs that are still hiring foreigners, especially those that hired foreigners to run their HRs.

Patrick should go to Parliament and shout like auntie Bee Wah. What is so difficult? Singapore must be for Singaporeans. Singaporeans must come first. Hire Singaporeans first. MOM, please stop issuing those EP and SP passes so freely like Santa Claus to foreigners.

Who is in charge of MOM?

The best scheme so far that could offer the PMETs a more respectable option after being replaced is the trading courses proposed by IE Singapore this morning. But all the measures are not addressing why PMETs are being discriminated and replaced by foreigners and companies continue to do so with easy access to EPs and SPs issued by MOM. Who is the cock that allows this sad state of affair to continue unabated?

What has Asean become today?

It was created at a time of big power rivalry and Cold War between the Americans/West on one side and the Communist bloc led by the Soviet Union on the other. The wise leaders of Asean knew then that this is not their cup of tea. It is better to stay out when elephants fight, and not get trampled. There was nothing to gain to be on either side. So the created Asean and refused to be roped into the American creature called SEATO. And Abdul Razak came out with the concept of ZOPFAN, Zone of Peace, Freedom and Neutrality.

This concept served Asean well for several decades. Today, Asean is becoming more like the feared SEATO, an American creation to contain China. And some members of Asean are screaming that there are Chinese Trojan Horses in Asean and wanting to boot them out of Asean. Would Asean then be renamed as SEATO, the nightmare the founders of Asean tried so hard to avoid?

Asean is now infiltrated with many little USAs and they are calling the shots. They did not see themselves as little USAs. They did not see that their sugar daddy is the USA while pointing the fingers at the Trojan Horses and accusing them of playing by the dictates of their sugar daddy in China.

This is the height of hypocrisy in Asean today. Oops, should Asean be called SEATO? How many Asean states would want to be in SEATO to be dictated by the American sugar daddy?

The funny thing is that while some of these little USAs are sleeping with their sugar daddy, they are putting up pretences to want to curry favours with their ‘enemy’ sugar daddy and wanting to enjoy the market and economic opportunities China is creating for them. And they think China could not see through their pretences and would continue to let them ride on the Chinese gravy train while shitting on them behind their backs.

How neutral is Asean today? Has Asean changed or is it transforming itself into another American satellite organization? Who are the main drivers working to turn Asean into SEATO? Who is behind the ejecting Cambodia out of Asean agenda?

9 dash lines versus many straight lines

One of the major objections to the Chinese 9 dash lines in the South China Sea is that national territories cannot be written like that on a map.  National boundaries must be drawn as extension from the coast of a country out to the sea, 12 nm and the EEZ should be a further extension to 200nm. The 9 dash lines must be a joke. Where got borders drawn like that one?

Or can national boundaries be drawn in straight vertical lines or straight horizontal lines? Would straight lines drawn on a map, a flat piece of paper using rulers more legitimate? Where got such things, national boundaries cannot be straight lines lah.  Straight lines are like the 9 dash lines, simplistic geometrical lines, not natural, cannot be like that one.

Has any of the boys and girls seen the maps of African or Middle Eastern states that were drawn up by the colonialists? Anyone bother to look at the borders of Libya and Egypt and many other African states, yes, they are straight lines, drawn conveniently by the colonial masters, with rulers on a map on the table. That was the reality of the time. 

Times changed, the development of pens and papers did not happen over night, did not exist in the beginning of civilizations. The ancient people cut marks on pieces of woods, on stones, on tortoise shells as official documents then. Many ‘books, maps and documents’ were done in those primitive forms.

Not counted? Cannot be like that, must be in thick voluminous books, like what we have in the libraries, or the law journals in the courts of law then got count? You think the bible was written on paper like what you have now, that you can buy them from the bookshops? No, they were written on plant fibres, leaves etc.

Now, what is so different between China drawing 9 dash lines on the map and the straight lines drawn by the colonial masters as national boundaries in Africa? Do you know how the British and the Dutch divided the region up as their colonies? They drew lines on the maps then, like the 9 dash lines.

The European colonialists cheated the natives of the land they conquered by asking for documentary proof of ownership of their land. The colonialists demanded signed legal documents. What do you think the natives showed the British the Europeans? Signed documents like those printed in London, or pieces of barks or wood or stones?

The world yesterday was not like the world today.

Money laundering the most lucrative banking business

The big American and European banks are making really big money in money laundering and fraudulent banking practices or selling questionable derivatives and products.  Money laundering seems to be the most profitable business for many banks. And they have been fined handsomely by the US Federal Courts to the tune of billions. The total came to US$150b by some 10 big banks, including BoA, Citi, JP Morgan, Wells Fargo, BNP, Deutsche, Credit Suisse, UBS, Barclay and HSBC to name a few.

These banks are willing to pay the fines happily, for good reasons, as none of their CEOs were found guilty, or would be found guilty, or made accountable for the offences. The banks continue to run as per normal, and so were the employments of the CEOs, all sitting tight and happily as if nothing had happened. Surely they did not know the banks were involved in money laundering. With such latitude, would they be back to their monkey businesses again? There don’t seem to be any accountability or responsibility. It is business as usual and the banks are going to continue to make more monies laundering more money and selling fraudulent derivative products.

Actually the biggest winner of all the bank fraud is none other than the US Govt. They pocketed US$150 billion practically doing nothing, and doing something very legal. How many businesses can make this kind of profit with nearly zero cost? Is there a conspiracy between the Federal Court/US Govt and the big banks, with the banks allowed to do what is profitable but illegal but willing to pay the fines and the courts to enrich the US Govt’s coffer, like I scratch your back you scratch mine?

Who are the big gainers and who are the big losers in this game of money laundering? What a great game to play for the CEOs of these big banks. No responsibility when caught, only pay fines. If not caught, can chalk up big profits to justify big bonuses.

ASEAN - CHINA Meeting In Laos and the anti China mass media and obsequious pro American research writers

Subject: CHINA - ASEAN Meeting in LOAS


The  mass media of some ASEAN countries and some recalcitrant obsequious pro American research fellows of institute of studies centres insist on parroting the western mass media on referring to the recent 'Bogus court of arbitration ' as

'international' and 'United Nation backed'. By this time everybody should know the PCA is a fake, a sham, bogus and illegal and not backed or supported by the United Nation and so the tribunal is a farce and its verdict

is rubbish,  'Null and Void.' The tribunal is neither legal nor international. The fake court and phony tribunal had broken the laws of the United Nations and its five pro American judges were appointed by a jingoistic high 

court Japanese judge who was instrumental in getting Abe to change the Japanese pacific constitution to a new pro war militant constitution.Where is that internationalism when all the judges were from America and where is

that legality for arbitration when China stated from the outset that under United Nation laws it cannot pass judgement on a country's sovereign territorial rights and China would not take part in the arbitration but preferred as

earlier agreed with the Philippines to settle through bilateral talks and negotiations? In unilaterally taking the issue to the private PCA , Philippines had broken faith with China and committed a breach of trust and agreement.

The whole drama was contrived by the number one world trouble maker , USA and its Japanese poodle with the false notion of supporting the Pinoys but were actually making use of them as a pawn for America's excuse

to meddle in the South China Sea affairs . The whole insidious idea was to lend support to the Pinoy and Vietnam's robbery of some Chinese islands in the mid 1970s under a cloak of legality and ultimately to rob off

Chinese historic rights and sovereignty over the Paracels and the Spratley islands. It is shocking that the mass media and the few research fellows persist on wrongly referring to the bogus tribunal as "international court of

arbitration" and "backed by The United Nations". They have thus exposed themselves to the fact that just like the phony judges of the bogus tribunal, they are utterly incompetent and show a total lack of integrity . What

they wrote shows that they represent the mouth piece of USA which is adamant on creating trouble and instability in the region and to instigate and provoke confrontation among the South China Sea littoral states and

China. They are not qualified to comment on the South China Sea issue.

Creating wars in the the region just as creating wars in the Middle East and other parts of the world will richly benefit American war industries and America's ailing economy.Trouble started and tension began to rise with the

American pivot to the region and East Asia in 2010. The whole world sees the evil hands of the warmongering America behind the South China Sea issue. USA hopes to ultimately take full hegemonic control of the region

and thus to deprive China of its lawful historic rights and sovereignty and thereby deprive China of the rich oil and mineral resources in the Paracels and the Spratly islands and the relevant territorial seas. In short America

wants to contain China and stop her peaceful development.

For too long China's stance has been too soft and peaceful  but now it is prepared to take on American aggression upfront. China will fight and defend every centimetre of her territory. Will some of these pro American

Asean countries and the obsequious pro American mass media and research writers be happy now to see the new scenario? Good luck to them.

Instead of blaming America for being the source of the trouble the mass media and the few research fellows in a twisted fact of actuality persist on accusing China for the wrong reasons. The South China Sea issue is

between China and a few Asean countries viz Viets and Pinoys and not between China and ASEAN as a block per se. Cambodia and Laos are able to distinguish truth from twisted facts and acted correctly and

righteously. But  he mass media and the few fellow strategic reseachers refused to accept the actual facts and truths and insist on bending to the directives from Washington. This defies understanding and decent conscience

that is if they have any. They resort to unfriendly words and insulting terms, calling and naming Cambodia and Laos as Trojan Horses.  They are clearly portraying themselves as representing some of the Asean countries as

American lackeys or running dogs. They are suspects and what they are up to is yet to be seen. Instead of mediating and helping ASEAN and China to talk and negotiate and arrive at a harmonious peaceful conclusion,

they prefer to play into the hands of USA in creating flash points in the South China Sea.

What kind of strategic research have these few fellow researchers been indulged in? Either they are suspects of being American fifth column or they just have to write some hogwash to justify the security of their fat paying

jobs. In any case they are a disgrace to society and an insult to people's intelligence.

Southernglory1

Wednesday, 27th July, 2016
   

A nation of shopkeepers and taxi drivers…and natural aristocrats

Below are two comments I picked up from TRE.

 

1. Sinkieland will be reduced to become a nation of shopkeepers and hawkers. By Oxygen
2. Israel…are able to produce top scientists and top info tech engineers…while SG …of PAP rule have reduced us to be shopkeepers and taxi drivers and foodstore vendors and security guards. By ‘empty ricebowl for us’.

 

How true or meaningful are these two statements? Look at our economy and ask, what are the industries that are of high tech in nature, what are the industries that are making great profits? The industries that are really churning the fake growth, mostly due to inflation and inflated prices, are housing/properties and the service industries like finance, legal and medical services.

 

The govt has been working hard to reinvent ourselves, from a nation of shopkeepers to low wage industries, to high skilled knowledge industries, and now to services, financial services, legal services, medical services, and back to shopkeepers, hospitality services, hawkers and driving taxis. And everything has been maxed out and nothing new is on the horizon to drive the economy except to import more heads to balloon the housing/property sector.

 

The services are facing stiff competitions from around the world. Financial services are competing with lower and lower fees. Medical services would soon price themselves out of business and so is our hospitality and shopkeeper business. Even the taxi services are going to be priced out with new players flooding the market.

 

What’s next? Luckily the author of our next lap is out of ICU but his bags of tricks would have to wait as he is still out of action? Looks like we are running out of ideas and maybe a nation of shopkeepers and food vendors/hawker centres and food courts would be the last line of defence. But what’s wrong with being a nation of shopkeepers? We were doing very well as a nation of shopkeepers in the past, the shoppers’ paradise, the jewel in the East. Now a new Jewel rising in Changi Airport has risen.

 

Back in those days our cost of operation as shoppers was low. Housing and rents were low, labour cost was low, and we could sell quality products at competitive prices. Good and cheap. Today we are still good but not cheap. And shoppers can go anywhere in the world to buy good and cheap luxury goods. Why should they come here to buy good but expensive stuff?

 

The land and property owners still think they could raise rentals and the shopkeepers could go on raising their prices and the shoppers would continue to come to this shopper’s paradise of good but expensive goods. Would that be the case? Why is rental so high? It goes down the line, when the natural aristocrats everywhere demands to be paid in the millions. And someone must pay for them. It eventually reflects in rentals and all other costs that go to the price. The pay for a natural aristocrat can hire an equivalent of 100 workers or more. Imagine there are at least 10,000 natural aristocrats in the midst, maybe more. And the hefty rental cost, transportation cost, cost of living, how can the shopkeepers and the hawkers survive to sell their wares at competitive prices? We would even lose our shopper’s paradise industry if we cannot keep the cost and prices down.

South China Sea Dispute – The Devil exposed

The South China Sea island dispute has presented a golden opportunities for members of Asean to see at first hand how the Devil operates and how the devil is supported by little devils in its scheme to control the South China Sea by proxy. Superficially the western media have been consistently singing the tune that it was a dispute between China and the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Brunei. This statement has been repeated daily by the western media in every one of their posts to insidiously sink this message into the unconscious minds of its readers particularly the innocent Asians and Southeast Asians that find reading between the lines so difficult and to decipher the embedded thought even more difficult to separate from the truth.

There are disputes among the four countries in conflicting claims for islands and territorial waters. But many were distracted from the real dispute or contest between China and the US for control of the region. The Asean states may be quibbling over islands but not knowing that the big powers were after the whole of the South China Sea.

A valuable lesson for the Asean countries to learn from this episode, no matter which side they were rooting for, is to see how the Devil operates behind the veil, and how little devils were drumming and pushing for the interest of the Devil. The intense juggling and pushing by the Devil were all there to be observed behind closed doors. In the heat of tense negotiation to get what they wanted, the Devil has dropped his guard, and so too were the little devils. They stood there bare and naked to be identified. Their modus operandi too were on display, how they schemed behind the bright lights.

Asean leaders have learnt a valuable lesson on what the Devil is capable of doing should they be on the wrong side of the Devil. Countries like Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei must learn this lesson by heart as they could be the victims of the Devil. They too must recognized the little devils and their roles in this dispute and how they agitate as iittle devils for the Devil.

The leaders of Cambodia and Laos would have no problem identifying the little Devils and reporting them to China. After this episode, the little devils or little USAs need not put up their acts of pretence anymore. China will know who exactly is who and what they said and done behind the back of China. Would the little devils still think they could go to China, smile and tell China we are friends?

The hypocrisies must come off by now. There is nowhere to hide anymore. But more important is for all Asean leaders to see the truth and how the Devil pull the strings.

The biggest hypocrisy is that the Americans have built military fortresses in the islands of Guam and Diego Garcia with nuclear weapons and firepower to conquer nation states but demanding that China cannot put some military installations to protect its islands from pirates and rogue nations.