How important is fake news to our govt?

The length and time spent on this fake Bill could sum up how important is fake news to the govt. No issue in Parliament has had such an extensive discussion and coverage in the main media. Think of the time and manpower expended to explain this bill, the cost involved has been quite staggering.
 
What is the outcome of the debate so far? Govt’s power in fake news Bill not absolute, govt must make first call but there is legal safeguard for those who disagree with the decision. This is the headline in thenewpaper. Also in the same paper is a comment by a former US Secretary for homeland security, Michael Chertoff who said, ‘when it comes to laws against fake news but there are no easy answers’. It was also reported that ‘he refrained from commenting directly on the draft laws Singapore introduced on Monday to combat fake news, he said it was useful to draw a distinction between a “clear falsity” and opinion.
 
Was it out of respect or caution that this former US secretary refrained from commenting on our fake news Bill? Americans are well known for shooting their mouths with no respect for anyone or country when they think something is not right. Freedom of expression is a core American value that would not be easily challenged or cast aside. But he did said that one has to be careful about a clear falsity and to respect or recognize opinions if I read him correctly.
 
Chertoff was quoted to have said, ‘Rather than debate aspects of misinformation that are outright deceptive – such as impersonation and intervention by foreign entities – the harder question to answer is what constitutes fake news.’ Not difficult at all when Singapore is concerned. In Singapore, fake news is when chenghu said it is fake news. Period. If you don’t agree, go to court, provided you have the money to pay for expensive legal fees.
 
Another taken for granted fake news is political propaganda and agenda in the main media. These are accepted as the conventional truth without the need to question where it is coming from, especially when it came from the Americans or the West. Our silly bananas would swallow them hook, sinkers and line as the gospel truth. In Singapore, the official position is that main media never lies, never spread fake news. So, other than chenghu said so, what you read in the main media are by professionals, all well researched, verified and documented and must be real, including from foreign journalists and wildlife. There is no need to question what is printed in the main media, only question the suspected social media that are supposed to be telling lies and spreading fake news, like mysingaporenews.
 
Ok, this is my opinion, just my opinion.

'UOB fit' or foreigner fit

Not Asian, so no job? No proof UOB discriminated against London banker, but there was unfair dismissal A former senior officer with the United Overseas Bank (UOB) who accused the bank of denying him a new job because he is not Asian has lost a racial discrimination claim at a London employment tribunal. The above is reported in Today online. Can you believe this angmoh has the audacity to sue UOB for dismissal on the ground of him being non Asian? Did he believe that Singapore is still a British colony and angmoh tua kee, that he could walk around thinking he was 10 foot tall because he was an angmoh? Asian companies, particularly Singapore companies, must take note of this risk of being spuriously sued by angmohs and foreigners for providing jobs when they could not find jobs in their home countries. Singapore companies do not owe these foreigners any duty or obligation to solve their unemployment problem and should not be unduly stressed by employing them and to be treated exceptionally because they are foreigners. Why risk having such silly problems when they could hire Singaporeans and provide jobs for Singaporeans and take care of Singaporeans? Hope UOB and other Singaporean companies learn from this episode and avoid and reduce their employment of foreigners. Foreigners are not really tua kee. Most of them are rejects from their countries, could not find employment in their own countries, so have to run away to this corner of the world to look for jobs. There is no need to bend backwards to hire these wildlife. The wildlife think they are special and Singaporeans are stupid, Singapore owes them a living. And they think they can come here to beat up daft Singaporeans as and when they like.  Who is creating this wildlife problem in Singapore? Who is putting the safety of Singaporeans at risk? The day when Singaporeans walk the streets in fear of wildlife would be the day Singaporeans lose their country.

Investing in junks is gambling, $713m is placing big bets

The Asia Times reported last week (8 Mar) that Singapore’s Government Investment Corporation will subscribe to 50 billion rupees ($713 million) worth of Bharti Airtel’s rights issue in exchange for an approximately 5% stake in the latter. The Delhi-based Telecommunications Company is the second largest mobile network operator in India and the third largest in the world with operations. It has operations in 20 countries across South Asia and Africa.
Airtel said that the rights issue was initiated to “further strengthen our balance sheet with desired financial flexibility so as to meet future opportunities, particularly in the rapidly transforming Indian mobile market.””....


Just last week, Moody’s has lowered the credit rating of Bharti to “junk” grade Baa3 as it has concerns over weak cash flows over the next few quarters.
In the same article, Moody’s forsees that this would increase Airtel’s cost of borrowing by 30 to 50 basis points.
As at 31 Dec 2018, Airtel’s net debt stood at more than $15 against a Market Value of around $17.5 billion.
Would you invest in debt-heavy Airtel?

Above is TRE Editorial article.

Over a longer time frame of 25 years, the Indian rupee and Indonesian rupiah have fallen against S$ by 62% and 87% respectively.  Philip Ang

People reading the above would have the impression that this kind of investment in junk status companies is bad. No need to think further. Why would anyone throw good money after bad money? This is the view of the common laymen, taking things superficially.  This investment made good sense, just like buying all the junk American and western banks during the world financial crisis. It is a rare opportunity to be able to buy once good companies at junk prices.

Think long term, in the long run or long term, junk companies would turn from ashes to gold. The rupee too in the long term would turn up as India is the next super power. They claimed they had shot down a Pakistani fighter aircraft, which the Pakistani have proven to be a lie. They also claimed to have shot down a satellite, no one has proven that this is also a lie.  Lie or truth, in the long term everything would be right or alright.

It takes geniuses to invest in junks and hoping to turn them into gold. It requires exceptional talent and foresight. This is better than venture capital investment where they hope to  make one good killing after hundreds of failures. The principle of investing in junks or failed companies is the same.

The advantage of investing in junk stocks over venture capitalists is that one is investing in a failed company that was once successful. The other invested in companies that are just starting from scratch and has yet to see success. Sure one would be lucky after a few hundred misses and the one good junk stock could earn back all the monies lost. So do not worry about the hundreds of millions lost or billions lost in failed investments. In the long run, all the losses would be recouped with a few successes in junk stocks.

This is just my view, please feel free to disagree.

When telling the truth is outrageous

LONDON: Britain and Gibraltar reacted with fury to a European Council document published on Friday (Feb 1) that described the British overseas territory as a colony.

The document, laying out proposals to give British nationals short-stay, visa-free access to the EU's borderless Schengen area after Brexit, contained the description in a footnote.

"It is completely unacceptable to describe Gibraltar in this way," British Prime Minister Theresa May's spokesman told reporters.

"Gibraltar is a full part of the UK family and this will not change due to our exit from the EU," he said.
Gibraltar, home to 33,000 people, was ceded to Britain by Spain in 1713, in perpetuity.

Read more at https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/world/britain-outraged-at-eu-s-gibraltar-colony-reference-11196706

To the Brits, Gibraltar is not a colony.  Saying that it is a colony is outrageous. Were Singapore and Hong Kong former colonies of the British Empire? This is how white men create their lies and demanded the rest of the world to accept them as the truth. How did the British seized Gibraltar from Spain? Spain willingly gave Gibraltar to the Brits? Gibraltar a part of the British islands in the north Atlantic Ocean?

Oh, the bananas in Gibraltar are also angry that they are called a colony of the Brits. I think Singapore bananas and Hong Kong bananas would not share the same feelings. They would want to be know as a full part of the UK family and sing God save the Queen and fly the Union Jack, colony or no colony never mind. This is what would happen when people has no pride in themselves, in their ability to govern themselves and would want to be governed by the white men despite being treated like second class, subjects of an Empire.

Singapore is going to celebrate big time on the bicentennial colonisation of Singapore.

Medhi Hasan - What is the human cost to USA's economic miracle?

My title to this article is inspired by Medhi Hasan’s Head to Head programme with a similar title, What is the human cost to China's economic miracle? Broadcast by Al Jazeera on Mar 15, 2019. The Medhi Hasan programme had these paragraphs as an introduction,
 
‘In this episode of Head to Head, Mehdi Hasan challenges Charles Liu, Senior Fellow at Peking University, seasoned Chinese entrepreneur and informal adviser to the Chinese government, on Xi Jinping’s record in power so far, the government’s crackdown on the Uighur Muslim minority, and what role for China if it becomes the 21st century’s military and economic superpower….
 
But the economic boom has been paired with an increase in state surveillance and crackdowns on dissent, as well as the repression of the Muslim Uighur minority. So at what cost has China’s economic miracle come? And what’s the future for civil liberties of the Chinese people?....’
 
To cut matter short, Medhi Hasan’s main agenda was about China’s treatment of the Uighur minority problem and the militant Uighurs being detained in reeducation camp in Xinjiang. He claimed that according to western analysts, American sources and satellite images, there were 1m Uighurs arrested and detained in the reeducation camp and treated cruelly by the Chinese authorities, suffering from interrogation and harsh treatments. Mehdi Hasan loved what he was doing and acting so smug as he read out his prepared questions to humiliate his Chinese panel of experts on how bad China was in treating the Uighurs.
 
I have only a few questions to ask him. How reliable were his sources of information on the 1m Uighurs in detention camp produced by the Americans and western sources? Could satellite photographs really show 1m detainees? How much land or buildings would be needed to house 1m detainees? 1m people is more than a small city or a big town.
 
Anyway, I would want to put him on the stand and ask the same questions he asked the Chinese on the American economic miracle and the human cost involved. If I can remember, several tens of millions of native Americans were terminated under the fire power of white American invaders called soldiers. Many were terminated, especially the womenfolks, the old and the young by European diseases planted into the villages which they had no exposure and resistance to, thus wiping out thousands of native Americans in the process.
 
That was not all. The survivors of this nationwide genocide were sent on a long march to the reservations, ie poor desert land, to thrive and survive on their own. No, the white Americans did not send them to reeducation camps. And the number of surviving natives from the genocide was still in the millions, not 1m Uighurs.
 
The human cost of the American economic miracle did not stop at the massacre of the native Indians, to the tune of several tens of millions, but also include nation wide slavery of African slaves. These slaves had no protection of human rights from their white predators. They were hunted down like animals in Africa and brought to America in slave ships, chained and caged like animals.
 
What is the human cost of this black slavery of Africans? Could Medhi Hasan give an answer to the genocide of native Americans and slavery of Africans?
 
Another question I would like to ask Medhi Hasan is how to solve the violent problems of the Uighurs? They were conducting terrorist attacks all over Xinjiang and the neighbouring states, suicide bombers and attacking and killing people on the streets?
 
If he can’t find a good solution, I would suggest that he proposed to China to learn from the white Americans and do what they did to the native Americans. Then, after wiping them out from the surface of the earth, there will be no more problems from them. Then China can go all over the world championing human rights, without the native Indians and African slaves, just like the Americans are doing today.
 
What do you think, Medhi Hasan?

Unthinking Asian journalists perpetuating American agenda and narratives

‘This is why the two most watched diplomatic events of the past year or so - the negotiations between the United States and China to alleviate a trade war between the world's two largest economies and the two summits between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to avoid a nuclear war between the world's sole superpower and its most repressive communist state - have been so heavily intertwined…
 
Indeed, North Korea could not even survive without Beijing's support, let alone stand up to the might of America. Trump's key strategy on North Korea is to use sanctions to apply maximum pressure on the isolated country.’
 
The above is by Cary Huang from the South China Morning post. The bold emphasis is mine.
Why is North Korea a threat to the USA and not the USA a threat to North Korea? Simple, this is what the Americans and the West have been alleging and it has become a truth to unthinking Asians. North Korea is a threat to the USA is as good as what Trump has been drumming up about the immigrants from the Mexican border as a national crisis as if the USA is going to collapse immediately if Trump’s Great Wall of the USA is not built immediately. It is like the allegation that Huawei is a threat to the American’s and western countries national security because the Americans said so, no need any proof or evidence.
 
North Korea does not have a single soldier outside its territory. North Korea could not even survive without Beijing’s support, how could it be going around threatening the Americans? Punching above its weight? Only mad politicians would think this is possible and would brag about it like real.
 
The Americans are amassing thousands of troops on the North/South Korean border and conducting numerous military exercises simulating an invasion of North Korea by hundreds of thousands of soldiers. These are very offensive as the training exercises could turn real by changing the blanks with live bullets and moving across the border.
 
The Americans have always been threatening North Korea with a preventive strike against their nuclear and military facilities. And the Americans not only have soldiers and military bases in South Korea, but also in Japan and in Guam, that could hit the North Koreans at any moment.
 
The North Koreans could not do so and even if they do, it is sheer madness and inviting a total annihilation of the North Korean people. The North Koreans cannot be a threat to the Americans, only the Americans are the existential threat to the North Koreans, a clear and present danger.
 
Now why did the unthinking Asians keep on harping about the North Korean threat instead of the American threat? Why would the unthinking Asians be talking about debt trap of Chinese aid instead of the benefits China is offering to the countries receiving Chinese aids? Because the unthinking could not think, could not come up with their own agenda and narratives. They depended on the Americans to think for them, what to say, who to attack, who to badmouth.
 
When unthinking Asians have no ideas, the Americans would conveniently plant ideas into their thick skulls, to say what the Americans want them to say, to think and talk about what the Americans wanted them to. Without the American agenda and narratives, these unthinking Asians would not know what to write or talk about, except about what to eat and what to drink and how to take care of pets.

Shanmugam – A sensible speech in Parliament on hate speech

Seldom did we hear such an elaborate and detailed speech by Shanmugam on an issue being debated in Parliament. On the new bill being tabled on hate speech, Shanmugam spent time labouriously to explain the rationale of wanting this bill but also made a provision that even though it is being tabled, it is for discussion and may or may not lead to a new law.
 
What is pertinent is the way the govt will treat and judge what is hate speech which also includes offensive speech. Offensive speech can deteriorate and slide down to become adverse and may lead to ‘discrimination and eventual violence’ like hate speech. But before a judgement is passed on hate speech or offensive speech, the govt will look ‘at how offensive the materials or words are, and assesses its impact on the reaction of the different communities…depending on who says it and in what context’. It is thus not so simple to brand everything from the word go as hate or offensive speech. The govt will also look ‘at the nature of the event where the speech is made and its reach…the immediate reaction, and consider the security implications, both short and long term, such as the deepening of fault lines.’
 
All in all it is also about common sense and a bit of give and take. The govt will be neutral and recognize the different histories and traditions of various groups but would not ‘be directed by the viewpoint of people who are extremely sensitive’.
 
Hate speech and offensive speech is not simply black and white and every case must be carefully determined before the govt would take action, at least this is what I read from Shanmugam’s explanation.
 
Ok, you guys here, please avoid offensive speeches and comments that could lead to division and hate and eventual violence. Be very careful and sensitive towards others and their feelings. I know many of your comments border on offensive speeches. Please do not continue to repeat them.
 
Thank you.

PS. According to thenewpaper, 'Opinions, criticisms, satire and parody will not be considered illegal'.