Trump: Why tails not wagging in happiness?

NYT’s Dealbook’s Andrew Ross Sorkin asks a big question that wasn’t answered in last night’s debate: Donald J. Trump has tried to project himself as a successful businessman throughout his campaign. So where is his business backing?

His plans to lower corporate taxes and remove regulations should make him a chief executive’s dream and yet, many successful businesspeople refuse to support him or do business with him.

Perhaps the self-described great negotiator isn’t so great at striking a deal after all?

All this reminds me of the following exchange:

Gregory (Scotland Yard detective): “Is there any other point to which you would wish to draw my attention?”

Holmes: “To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time.”

Gregory: “The dog did nothing in the night-time.”

Holmes: “That was the curious incident.”

Silver Blaze by  Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

 

Incentive schemes: Three insights

The basic principle for any incentive scheme is this: can you measure everything that matters? If you can’t, then high-powered financial incentives will simply produce short-sightedness, narrow-mindedness or outright fraud. If a job is complex, multifaceted and involves subtle trade-offs, the best approach is to hire good people, pay them the going rate and tell them to do the job to the best of their ability.

Tim Harford UNDERCOVER ECONOMIST writing in FT

Months ago I saw this gem of a comment in FT

“For a bonus system to work, the measurable outcomes should not be known by the employee so that, theoretically anyway, they would be expected to apply maximum effort and standards throughout their work. The basis being, it is difficult to game a system if you don’t know what to game. Of course the need for transparency renders that a non-starter!”
By Trecar on “Burger flippers deserve bonuses, bankers do not”

Finally, Compliance v Front-line, rows that incentives are the cause of, from NYT Dealbook sometime back

NUNS WITH GUNS: THE STRUGGLES BETWEEN REGULATORS AND BANKERS Lenders have bolstered their forces with people to interpret and enforce a wave of new regulations, bringing striking change to banks’ internal cultures, The Wall Street Journal reports. The 2010 Dodd-Frank law, intended to prevent another financial crisis, is one of the most complex pieces of legislation ever. It is the length of about 15 copies of “War and Peace” and covers matters like how much capital banks must set aside or how they can advertise.

Banks have hired tens of thousands of new employees and federal agencies have dispatched thousands of their own minders to watch over them.

The new regulatory environment has changed the way banks work and forced them to push back their offerings. It has also been costly. Spending on regulatory compliance by the six largest banks in the United States rose to $70.2 billion in 2013, from $34.7 billion in 2007.

The change can be maddening, with regulators, internal compliance executives and employees all operating like rival tribes, people who worked on the issues told The Journal.

When bank compliance executives at Barclays shared images of how each group thinks of the others at a town hall, bankers were represented by cowboys on horses with guns. Compliance officials were depicted as nuns carrying guns. Barclays declined to comment.

Compliance employees told The Journal that they felt like hallway monitors, with people dropping what they were doing when they entered the room.One former Consumer Financial Protection Bureau deputy said he gave examiners pep talks, reminding them to “never let it be personal” and not to go in “with a chip on your shoulders.”

 

 

More on StanChart’s latest problem with the US

From NYT Dealbook Standard Chartered Under Investigation

Standard Chartered has been accused of potential wrongdoing by officials at an Indonesian power company in which it is an investor.

The United States Justice Department is looking into the accusations, a person briefed on the matter said. The investigation was related to accusations that officials at the company, MAXpower, had paid bribes to win contracts, according to The Wall Street Journal, which earlier reported the inquiry.

A recording of a conversation with the company’s chief executive, who used to work at Standard Chartered, featured discussions about illicit payments and joking references to soccer balls stuffed with cash, The Journal reports.

The situation is particularly tricky for the bank, which is based in London but does most of its business in Asia, because of the settlement it reached after an investigation into accusations that it had transferred money for countries affected by United States sanctions.

Misconduct could prompt prosecutors to re-evaluate whether to revoke the deferred-prosecution agreement and force the bank to plead guilty.

It’s also a blow to William T. Winters, the chief executive who has been trying to overhaul the bank.

What Trump and our Harry have in common

 

LKY didn’t want anything to be named after him, while Trump wants his name on anything  “big” like Trump Tower (see pix). The Republican foreign policy establishment said nice things about Harry, while they cry at Trump’s comments.

LKY had life-long marriage, Trump is into his third marriage.

You’d think that there would nothing that LKY and the Donald have in common or would agree on. But you’d be wrong.

Children

They have two sons and one daughter, though Trump’s daughter is married and by all accounts is a normal person even though she admires (not worships) her father. His children work for the family business.

Attended elite universities

LKY was a graduate of Cambridge. The Donald graduated from the Wharton Business School.

Super Salesmen

Trump talks about “truthful hyperbole”. Before Harry became lord and master of all he surveyed from his Oxley Road house (built on a hill), he had to persuade the British and the voters to trust him and the PAP.

Recovered from knockdowns

Some of Trump’s businesses went bankrupt and he lost serious money. But he reinvented himself as a reality tv star. Our Harry failed to persuade the Malayan Malay and Chinese elites of a “Malaysian Malaysia” with him in charge.

The result was independence for S’pore, something he had argued was bad for S’pore’s prosperity.

Well he had a good cry on tv, then did his best to ensure that he and S’pore could prosper.

Use or the threat of  litigation 

No need to say much about our Harry’s love of litigation. But did you know Trump also is litigious?

Five years ago, I was part of a discussion panel on the popular Morning Joe talk show in the US when the issue of Donald Trump came up. A rowdy debate erupted and I cheerfully joked that Trump was a great businessman “barring a few bankruptcies” — and blessed with charisma even “with that hairpiece”. A few minutes later, Trump telephoned the show and demanded an on-air apology. Apparently, he was not just upset about the bankruptcy quip (he wanted to clarify that he has never personally gone bankrupt but “only” seen some of his companies go bust); he was also angry about the hair joke.

So, as we sat around the table on the TV set, one of the show’s hosts read a straight-faced legal apology to camera. “He might sue,” a reporter later explained to me, as I squirmed with embarrassment and wondered whether to laugh or cry.

(Gillian Tett in an FT magazine article)

Finally,

Views about Muslims

The most neutral thing that can be said about their views on Muslims is that they seem suspicious of people who happen to be Muslims ie people who profess Islam.

Trump had said Muslims should be barred from the US. He later dropped the idea when it was pointed out that this was unconstitutional. He changed it to ban anyone from a country where terrorism was rampant. He calls for the profiling of Muslims in the US.

LKY’s views on Muslims are on record. But if anyone forgot what they were please read on.

LKY’s views on Muslims as documented

Wikileaks released a cable by the US Embassy in Singapore reporting on the visit of Senator Hillary Clinton to Singapore in Jul 2005. The cable claimed that in my meeting with Senator Clinton, I had “characterized Islam as a ‘venomous religion’”.

This is false. I looked up MFA’s filenote of the meeting. Nowhere does it record me describing Islam as “venomous”, nor did I say anything which could have given that impression.

I did talk about extremist terrorists like the Jemaah Islamiyah group, and the jihadist preachers who brainwashed them. They are implacable in wanting to put down all who do not agree with them. So their Islam is a perverted version, which the overwhelming majority of Muslims in Singapore do not subscribe to.

I also pointed out that our Muslim leaders are rational, and that the ultimate solution to extremist terrorism was to give moderate Muslims the courage to stand up and speak out against radicals who have hijacked Islam to recruit volunteers for their violent ends.

(TOC)

And

Singapore’s presiding genius, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew, on the failure of Muslim integration:

In the book, Mr Lee, when asked to assess the progress of multiracialism in Singapore, said: “I have to speak candidly to be of value, but I do not wish to offend the Muslim community.“I think we were progressing very nicely until the surge of Islam came, and if you asked me for my observations, the other communities have easier integration – friends, intermarriages and so on, Indians with Chinese, Chinese with Indians – than Muslims. That’s the result of the surge from the Arab states.”He added: ”I would say today, we can integrate all religions and races except Islam.”He also said: “I think the Muslims socially do not cause any trouble, but they are distinct and separate.”(Can’t remember the source of this quote)

But to be fair he then

issued a statement last night and said he stands corrected on how well-integrated Malay-Muslims are in Singapore, according to a Straits Times report.

He referred to the comments he made in the new book, Lee Kuan Yew: Hard Truths to Keep Singapore Going.

He said: “Hard Truths was a book based on 32 hours of interviews over a period of two years.

“I made this one comment on the Muslims integrating with other communities probably two or three years ago. Ministers and MPs, both Malay and non-Malay, have since told me that Singapore Malays have indeed made special efforts to integrate with the other communities, especially since 9/11, and that my call is out of date.

“I stand corrected. I hope that this trend will continue in the future.”

Since the book was published, reactions from some Muslim groups were negative. Some said his remarks were unfounded while others called for him to apologise.

But Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said that his perspective differed from MM Lee’s, which were the latter’s personal opinions.

During a breakfast session at the Yio Chu Kang Community Club on Jan 30, PM Lee said: “Muslims are a valued and respected community, who have done a good deal to strengthen our harmony and social cohesion.”

PM Lee added that his own views were that of the Government’s.

http://news.asiaone.com/News/AsiaOne+News/Singapore/Story/A1Story20110308-267055.html

Btw saw this http://singapore.coconuts.co/2015/03/27/outrage-ensues-muslim-community-over-praise-lee-kuan-yew-during-friday-sermons.

 

 

More about Autism

SGDaily has a real life story about an autistic person. I Tot I’d add some more background to autism.

Autism became a trending topic in S’pore’s social media a few years ago because of Amos the Infamous.

At the time I wrote

Reading TRE, one would think that he has already been diagnosed with autism, and that autism is a mental illness. Cybernuts are living in the wrong century, not only the wrong country. The real world has moved on from the 19th century, when autistic people were considered lunatics, and were locked up in lunatic asylums.

He hasn’t been diagnosed with autism yet, despite mother Mary saying he has Asperger*, a “high class” form of autism, and SDP member and former ISD detainee Teo Soh Lung saying she has heard from Amos’s sympathisers that he is autistic.

Autism is not a mental illness like M Ravi’s bi-polarism**.

---

Different brain chemistry

Autistic people may have a mental illness but autism, by itself, is not a mental illness. Their brain chemistry is different from that of “normal” people: for example “normal” tranquilisers may not work on them: they may make them more hyper.

And there are times when the chemistry goes berserk resulting in them doing bizarre things like self-harm.

I know all this because I know a couple who has a child with severe autism, She’s in her 30s but the law considers her incapable of being behaving like an adult. But mentally ill, she isn’t.

————————–

While the UK’s Nation Health Service website says says that “autism is not a learning disability or a mental health problem”, it goes on to say that “some people with autism have an accompanying learning disability, learning difficulty or mental health problem”. http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/Autism/Pages/Autismoverview.aspx

What is autism?

The NHS website describes autism thus:

Autism is a serious and lifelong developmental disability

…

Autism is a spectrum condition. This means that while all people with autism share certain difficulties, the condition affects each person differently.

…

While some people with autism live independent lives, others may need a lifetime of specialist support. Autism can have a profound and sometimes devastating effect on individuals and families. However, getting the right support makes a substantial difference to the person who is diagnosed and their loved ones.

 

The SGDaily article shows the truth of the above paragraph.

---

*Something she, the cybernuts and the ang-moh tua-kees have conveniently forgotten. A leading wannabe-be politican is rumoured to have this form of autism. There is speculation that Abraham Lincoln and Einstein may have had it.

**Cybernuts who claim Amos is being fixed cannot explain why the same doctor that said Amos may be suffering from autism is also M Ravi’s personally chosen doctor treating him for his bi-polar condition https://atans1.wordpress.com/2015/06/24/psychiatrist-behind-amos-report/.

 

StanChart got caught again

Standard Chartered said it was being investigated by the US Department of Justice over claims that an Indonesian subsidiary had paid bribes to secure contracts.

The London-based but Asia-focused bank said it had referred the matter to the “appropriate authorities” and launched its own review.

The Wall Street Journal newspaper said that an internal audit at Indonesian energy company Maxpower Group found evidence of possible bribery and US prosecutors were examining whether the bank was culpable for not stopping it.

Two years ago I wrote Double confirm StanChart’s rogue bank & PAP apologist is a fool

Remember a “PAP is always right” man KPKBing when StanChart was charged that the reulator was a “rogue regulator”. StanChart then made the dean of LKY School look dumb, really dumb, by pleading guilty.

Double confirm that StanChart is a rogue bank and the PAP apologist is a fool because now: The management of Standard Chartered is facing renewed pressure after being placed under fresh scrutiny by US regulators.

Two years after being fined more than £400m for breaching US sanctions towards Iran, the bank revealed that a two-year deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) that was imposed at the time was being extended for three years.

The US authorities are now investigating whether Standard Chartered breached its sanctions rules beyond 2007, the period when the previous offences for which the bank was penalised took place.

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/dec/10/standard-chartered-management-us-regulators-investigation-sanctions

 

Feds treat as bribery US bank’s programme for PRC White Horses

JPMorgan’s efforts to hire the children of China’s ruling elite seem to keep coming back to bite it. NYT Dealbook (JPMorgan hired friends and mamily of leaders at three-quarters of major Chinese firms it took public in HK under the Sons and Daughters program, which ran from 2004 to 2013, JPMorgan took referrals from a broad spectrum of China’s business and political elite, according to a document compiled by the bank as part of a federal bribery investigation) NYT Dealbook continues

The bank is preparing to settle with federal prosecutors and the Securities and Exchange Commission after being the subject of a federal bribery investigation.

But it is now also facing scrutiny from the Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, two agencies that were not previously known to be involved.

The Fed is seeking a $62 million fine, while the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency will seek to mete out its own punishment, according to people briefed on the investigations. The two regulators are focusing on a breakdown in controls and practices that allowed the improper hiring to take place, rather than the bribery aspect.

JPMorgan is expected to pay federal prosecutors and the S.E.C. about $200 million.

Ah Mu’s silence is deafening

But first, guess which PAPpy said this, “I think race informs culture, informs society, informs our world views.”? Answer at the end of this piece.

Back to Ah Mu. Referring to Ong Yee Kung and his comments that to ensure a minority president given that S’poreans vote along racial lines there must now and then be elections where only ‘minority” candidates can stand, someone posted on Facebook

This idiot should be sacked asap for inciting racial hatred.! How did Ah Mu ( Indian Singaporean) win the Bukit Batok recent by-election against Dr. Chee Soon Juan if the electorates are racially biased.??

My FB avatar posted in reply: PAP should get Ah Mu to come out and say without his Chinese comrades he wouldn’t have won.

To be fair to Murali (Ah Mu) if he opens his mouth, either way the PAP is put in a bad light, and he’ll be in trouble.

If he says he won because of the PAP machine (ie his Chinese comrades got out the Chinese vote), the Indian supremacists in that community would consider him a pariah (“Indians punch above their weight,” they would rightly say and “If S’pore is a meritocracy all the top jobs would be held by Indians: juz look at the judiciary and legal service.” They would also say rightly that Tharman would make a popular PM.).

And the PAP doesn’t look good because a Hard Truth is that it’s the “Song not the singer Stupid!” People vote for the PAP not its candidate. Ah Mu would be disciplined.

If he said he won his seat because he got the Chinese to vote for an Indian and whipped Dr Chee’s ass so hard that he had brain damage, he would be going against the Hard Truth that voters vote on racial lines, all things being equal. Again he’d be disciplined.

So silence is the better of valour.

All this reminds me of the following exchange:

Gregory (Scotland Yard detective): “Is there any other point to which you would wish to draw my attention?”

Holmes: “To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time.”

Gregory: “The dog did nothing in the night-time.”

Holmes: “That was the curious incident.”

Silver Blaze by  Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

————————-

*Well given the PAP’s Hard Truth that voters vote on racial lines and hence the need as Minister Ong Yee Kung put it

for proposed changes to the Elected Presidency that could safeguard minority representation, saying that the primary purpose of the President is to represent Singapore as head of state, and that it is as such important that all races have a chance to be elected.

it’s interesting that Trump’s Alt Right supporters share similar views on race

Richard Spencer invented the term and told me: “The Alt Right stands for a markedly right-wing orientation, and for us, race matters, and race is the foundation for identity.”

I asked him if he was racist.

“The word ‘racist’ is a kind of an insult,” he said.

“It’s like saying, ‘Are you evil?’

“I think race informs culture, informs society, informs our world views.”

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-37431509

“I think race informs culture, informs society, informs our world views.”

Isn’t this emphasis on race so PAPpish?

But to be fair to the PAP read this: Dr Chee played up race in Bukit Batok.

 

How the mighty are fallen

On market capitalisation Deutsche Bank now ranks 78th among global banks, just below the likes of Malaysia’s Public Bank [a sua kee in M’sia] and Brazil’s Itausa Investimentos Itau. FT

And if u are wondering our three local babks are a lot bigger on this measure than Deutsche.

Whatever happened to ” Deutscheland uber alles*”?

---

 

*above others

Trump, media manipulator extraordinaire

(Images of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump on a television vehicle at Hofstra University, in Hempsted, New York, venue for the first Presidential debate. Sums up where I think they both should be.)

Later today, Trump the Donald and the “truthful hyperbole” King, and Lying, Crooked Hilary will debate or rather talk cock sing song.

Expect Trump to win big by entertaining the audience like one Reagan did many yrs ago: Mr Trump grasps a truth about today’s low-trust democracy that still eludes others. People want to be entertained. His mangling of the facts and distorting of the truth sadly won’t matter. It didn’t matter then, But Reagan ended up as a great president, though I doubt the Donald will.Reagan was a good governor of California, something the liberal media ignored.

A few weeks ago the FT carried a piece on Trump the media manipulator

“It was clear to me that Trump had his own vision of how to be nominated. It was not a vision I shared. He never took a single poll, he was shooting from his gut the entire time — no analytics, no targeting, no paid media of any kind. He decided to bet the ranch on a communications strategy that consisted of doing as many interviews as you could jam in one day, then framing his rallies as media events that enticed the cable channels to cover them in a kind of commercial worth millions of dollars that we don’t have to pay,” he says. “I didn’t think that could work.”

Roger Stone, Trump’s longest-surviving confidant tot it wouldn’t work and he’s an expert. Stone was a self-described “dirty trickster” for Richard Nixon’s infamous Creep (Committee to Re-elect the President), a campaign that culminated in the Watergate scandal.

But Hilary has done on a comedy show to get a little practice on entertaining the audience. http://www.bbc.com/news/election-us-2016-37443618

Btw, the FT article had this bit about Nixon whom LKY admired (actually so do I too)

that in life when things don’t go your way, when you get knocked down, again and again, instead of quitting, you dust yourself off and start again.

“That’s the way Nixon was. He does not come from privilege. His gangster, bootlegger father is not buying him the presidency [as Stone alleges that Joe Kennedy did for JFK when he defeated Nixon in 1960]. Elites are soft — they don’t have the belly for the long fight. They didn’t want to see Vietnam to the end. There is also the subtext of inherited wealth.”

Minister wants his cake and eat it/ PAP doesn’t get the Internet

But first what the PAP doesn’t get about the Internet :

In this internet era where many are literate, the government and their ministries are still assuming that people reach out to them to get info, which are already available on the net. It’s time they learn that the public reach out to them to get action, solution not info.

Coming back to the minister, my avatar responded to a post by Daniel Yap of TMG who had responded to a minister’s BS excusing his failure (“We can’t do miracles”) (Btw, my post on Accountability the PAP way posted yesterday)

Nope. A govt that tries to micromanage and social engineer its citizens has to accept that the other side of the coin “is the expectation that the G can make anything happen. LOL”.

Daniel Yap had posted

One of the side effects of big government is the expectation that the G can make anything happen. LOL

Tan Chuan-JinLike Page

Yesterday at 6:21am ·

Some of you ask me about issues we deal with. This is one. We have an ongoing dispute between two neighbours about a tree between their two properties. W asked …

See More

Two other good comments were

Our G wants us to think like consumers during elections with “vote us to get…”; but after elections, they want us to think like citizens in term of a civil society? It’s very hard to do so. 🙁

There is an expectation that the G comes in and lay down the law instead of mediate. Instant results over dialogue, understanding, and trade offs.

And

Too bad, PAP founders created the myth, now they can’t keep up.

Then there was this really totful comment about how MND works and how the internet has changed people’s expectations (People want action, solutions, not info):

There are lots of areas that the public assume the authorities are in control but they are not even monitoring at all. That leads to the great disillusion when the public realise their government ineffectiveness.

Worse, recently i heard MND’s intention to decentralise control and the joke is they delegate the jobs to those not qualified… nearly fainted when i heard their rationale. It’s incredible, their assumption and naivety.

MND should set up its own “police team” to manage all building related disputes, be it involving developers, contractors, owners, tenants etc. Many people are resorting to MPS and SPF that cant do a thing, wasting MP resources, reducing the SPF to mere scouts, trying to pacify and take notes and exasperating the affected residents.

In this internet era where many are literate, the government and their ministries are still assuming that people reach out to them to get info, which are already available on the net. It’s time they learn that the public reach out to them to get action, solution not info. TCJ needs to feedback to MND to get its house in order, all the loopholes covered and manage all these issues proactively. It’s meaningless to go through these again and again. Imagine 81 MPs handle 10 such cases each, thats 810 weekly…

Accountability the PAP way

“Your definition of accountability is to push this on your low-level employees. This is gutless leadership.”

– Senator Elizabeth Warren NYT Dealbook She was castigating the CEO and chairman of Wells Fargo at a recent hearing on the bank’s abuse of customers’ trust. It was all the fault of a few underperforming junior staff and managers the CEO claimed. Doesn’t the CEO’s comments ring a bell? Think of the SGH tragedy where no one senior was publicly held accountable, and think of the repeated SMRT problems (Example). “Your definition of accountability is to push this on your low-level employees. This is gutless leadership,” Describes PAP’s accountability post Harry. Hmm maybe the good doctor should post on this instead of on her house? The senator has also called for the bank to be “criminally investigated” after regulators found that thousands of Wells employees secretly created as many as 2m accounts and credit cards. In the case of the SGH tragedy, the police opened a file, and then closed it saying there was no evidence of any crime having been committed.

“People are unsatisfied, but we’re afraid of change”

True here too? Especially the bits about “Power and the state … are one and the same,” and “And any citizens’ participation in politics is not expected.”

Think of waz happening to the post of elected president here? The voters use a presidential election when there is one to cock a snook at the PAP administration. In return, the PAP has drawn up more convoluted fixes (think Nathan) rules, and tied itself in knots or avoiding the issues raised when arguing the case for changes in the qualifications to be a candidate.*

MARINA, a middle-aged Muscovite with dark hair and piercing eyes, is unhappy—about rising prices, rampant corruption and even Russia’s confrontation with the West. But she is not ready for a change of course. “People are unsatisfied, but we’re afraid of change,” she declares. “Gorbachev had some nice ideas, but see how that turned out? I don’t want Russia to be destroyed.” So it comes as no surprise that Marina, and most of her compatriots, voted for more of the same when they took to the polls on September 18th for elections to the Duma, the national parliament.

http://www.economist.com/news/europe/21707388-reshuffle-russias-security-services-may-follow-parliamentary-elections-vladimir-putins

And

Many complain of rising prices and falling wages. “You go into the store and your money gets you nothing,” says Marina (who declined to state her last name, quipping, “Tomorrow they’ll burn my car”). 

Doesn’t this reflect what many S’poreans in the 70% that voted for the PAP feel?

And

The new ministry and United Russia’s dominance of the Duma ought to end any illusion that the Russian system could allow resistance from within, argues Oleg Kashin, a prominent columnist. “Power and the state in Russia are one and the same,” he writes. “And any citizens’ participation in politics is not expected.”

Think of waz happening to the post of elected president here?

——————————————————————————–

*U/m quotes from the constructive, nation-building MediaCorp whose website suspiciously looks similar to N Korea’s internet: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-37426725

The Minister for Pets said:

The commission highlighted the “tension” between the President’s two roles and suggested that an appointed body of experts could take over the custodial functions, while Parliament could appoint a President to serve as a unifying symbolic figure. But Mr Shanmugam pointed out: “If you look at the commission’s report, the commission recognise that if a person or body is not elected then they cannot really say no and block the Government.”

Among other recommendations, the commission recommended that the President be obliged to consult the Council of Presidential Advisers (CPA) before exercising his discretion on all fiscal matters. Nevertheless, the Parliament can override the President’s decision, with the level of CPA support making a difference to the Parliament majority needed. Referring to the CPA, Mr Shanmugam reiterated that the commission recognised that “this body of experts, because they are unelected, the best (they) can (do is) only delay (the decision) and Parliament can still override”. He added: “If you want to give real power then they have to be elected as the commission itself recognise”.

In his letter to the commission, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong had said he appreciated the commission’s reasons for making the suggestion to consider reverting to a President elected by Parliament. But he stressed that “it would be difficult for a President to exercise custodial powers over the reserves and public service appointments, and veto proposals by the Government, without an electoral mandate”.

… also responded to critics who claimed that the EP changes were politically motivated. “All sorts of statements can be made but (I think they should) get back to basics and look at logic,” he said …

He said that people can disagree with the report, including whether elections are needed to choose a President. If there is a need for elections, it would be sensible to put in requirements for the candidates because the President will have to make important decisions that involve huge sums of money, for instance, he noted. “If you agree that there should be qualifications, I think most people will agree (the Government) should also review the criteria, so the debate and discussion will become better if we deal with the specific issues and questions that I have asked,”..,

Ong Yee Kung said:

“In the end, I think whether the president is (considered to be chosen based on merit) and seen to (have done a) good job has to be judged after he has done the job – and not before he is elected.”

Huh? What cock is this?

Queen Jos said

that the President plays a “hugely important role” in being a custodian of the reserves. “He needs to have the financial oversight and decision-making ability, That is the basic criteria he must fulfill,” she said. His ability to command respect still depends on the people’s mandate, she said. She noted the role of former President S R Nathan – who died last month – during the 2008 global financial crisis. Mr Nathan agreed to the Government’s request to draw funds from the reserves to help companies. The decision ultimately helped “save many rice bowls”, she noted. “When it comes to crucial times like this, he has to make a critical decision, and to answer to the people.

What has this to do the changes, Jos never said.

 

 

Tots of an anti-PAP cybernut

When TRE republished something of mine a few days ago, certified cybernut Oxygen screamed SO I SAY CHANGE FROM WITHIN IS WISHFUL THINKING – it won’t happen

Now he has posted this implying that change can come from within when the economy collapses:

oxygen:

September 22, 2016 at 10:16 pm  (Quote)

PHILIP ANG, I SEE ECONOMY is the decider in the next GE. If it flips over into a downward spiral, I don’t think even all civil servants vote one-way if they got siblings walking the street with underwater mortgage and begging them day and night at the door to save them.

Deutsche bank said 35 years of bond bull market has ended – I see a lot of evidences that speaks of the same conclusion.

Sinkieland craze for properties is just impossibility of believing for me – AFTER PAST TENSE WARNED IN JANUARY 2010 – WE GREW THE LAST 5 YEARS SOLELY BY IMPORTING FOREIGN LABOR.

In crude terms, we live in ICU survival fed by foreign cheap lab – our is a structural quagmire of EXISTENTIAL CRISIS – threatening us since 2005.

And yet without the basic minimum economic fundamental of a viable economy generating income and sustainable growth, HOW CAN PROPERTY PRICE RISES in a fiction except by artificial stimulation of restricted supply which PAPpy did successfully?

Just ask those who bought in 2007 @Reflections at Keppel Bay or Oceanfront@ Sentosa who bought in 2007 to 2010 this question – HOW DID YOU LOST SO MUCH MONEY AFTER HOLDING FOR 6 TO 9 YEARS when the economy was growing FASTER THAN CURRENT?

They all bought into the INFLATED BUBBLE!!

We got the GFC 2008/2009, the Government pumped in $20.6 billion or roughly 9.6% of our GDP base then – to prevent the economy sinking 9.6% or more. How? The politically-euphemistic war cry of “resilience package” HELPS WHO?
It was wage/costs of business subsidies to EMPLOYERS so that they won’t sink and retrenched massively with dire collateral damage of the economy. It is like a house on fire and the entire fleet of fire engines from all stations were sent into the rescue effort. The economy barely breathing of survival – which is what PAST TENSE WARNED IN 2010.

YET CRAZY SINKIES CHASED PROPERTIES AGAINST, like a new dawn of heaven..and it is party on again. GFC was a circus show.

WRONG.

THOSE WHO BOUGHT PROPERTIES IN 2011 ARE MOSTLY UNDERWATER AGAIN and it is downtrend since.

Ask yourself this question – when the next GFC comes, how many of those underwater property still underwater or they died from drowning if retrenchment escalates?

When that moment comes, a lot of voters still surviving and living hands to mouth will finally wake up – WE NEED CHANGE AND FIND NEW DIRECTION FOR SURVIVAL or DIE.

THE STATUS QUO IS GOING INTO THE DUSTBIN OF HISTORY. This is my easiest bet with anyone.

WATCH THE ECONOMY SPACE.

Rating: 0 (from 0 votes)

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These rants remind me of following I read in a letter to the Economist

the content is mostly low-cost opinion pieces, while the “facts” upon which those opinions are based are copied from outside sources. Quoting “facts” from other mainstream media, and assuming they have done their research, is the media equivalent of Donald Trump’s post-truth line: “A lot of people are saying…”

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Looks like he has mood swings like that certified looney M Ravi. Is Oxygen bi-polar too?

Philip Ang had criticised this saying that the PAP had an inbuilt majority of 50 something % that could not be broken (He obviously forgot about Aljunied Hougang and Punggol East). A response which never got an answer was

Cybernut Investor:

September 23, 2016 at 5:09 am(Quote)

The logical conclusion of this cybernut’s rant is that the PAP cannot be defeated via the ballot box.

So why doesn’t this nut either emigrate (even PRC doeasn’t want him?)or take up arms or just sit down and shut up/

Answer, he’s a cybernut.

Rating: -1 (from 1 vote)

I asked Philip Ang this question, to which I never got a reply:

Why do u lie Philip Ang? U wrote: “(I am quite amused by CI who seems more irrational by the day when he expects Dr Chee to retire because “the problem is that 60 -70% of S’poreans have problems with Dr Chees’s history and character””

Why did u leave out the next sentence: “Sad really that Dr Chee refuses to retire.” which shows I don’t expect him to retire. U related to that other liar Ng Kok Lim who misquoted Chin Peng to slime me?

Or maybe u jus plain illiterate in English juz as u are in finance. Remember u once said the yield from London properties can be ignored in computing returns, at a time when Arabs and others were buying London properties for the yield?

 

Not a fishy tale

Water revelation: Fish can actually sing: Fish, just like birds, mark sunrise and sunset with a song, scientists in Western Australia suggest in a study reported in the journal Bioacoustics – Times

BBC Onlibe

Chinese visited London 1,800 years ago

And died there.

Not your average Roman Londoner

Finally, the Times carries news of an archaeological discovery relating to Roman London which could change our view of the history of Europe and Asia.

Analysis of remains found during a dig in a former cemetery site in Southwark discovered two skeletons, dated to between the 2nd and 4th Century, were probably ethnically Chinese.

There was trade between the Roman empire and Chinese but to date only one east Asian skeleton from the era has been found – and that was in Italy.

The new discovery, described in the journal of Archaeological Science, has been hailed as a “total surprise” by historians.

Rebecca Redfern from the Museum of London tells the Times: “In this cemetery they’re Mr Average Roman Londoner… We have no inscription evidence or anything to suggest people of this ancestry were present in Roman Britain.”

BBC Online

Does this work here?

To be served quickest at the supermarket checkout, you should follow the shopper with the full trolley, not the line of people with a few things in their baskets.

Find out more (New York Times)

NYT Dealbook

I don’t think so based on my experience of using the “express” checkout and observing the checkout counters where there are trolleys.

 

 

Cyber Jedi’s dark night of the soul

The night isn’t really that dark.

But seriously, my Friend Terry Xu of TOC (The Online Citizen not Terry’s Online Channel despite attempts by some at TISG or The Idiots — S’pore to slime him.) posted this on FB last weekend.

Do read it, as in some ways, it’s the opposite of what I say here, here, here and here about trying to persuade the swing voter.

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Terry would seem to say this about the voters

Some would say any insult is better than this one. “Hong Kong pig” refers to people who don’t care about politics at all, and only eat and sleep.

BBC Online

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It’s a very pessimistic analysis and conclusion from a cyber Jedi who has been fighting the good fight with his cyber sabre. So why does he bother fighting given his pessimism about changing the minds of those who vote PAP?

Question of

Mind must be the stronger, heart the bolder, courage must be the greater, as our might lessens.?

“Battle of Maldon Hill”: A warrior chants as he and his companions face defeat and death*. They didn’t do surrender, and their foes didn’t go mercy or compassion.

Or is Terry thinking like Joe Slovo who said that being a revolutionary was being optimistic that change was coming but realising it might take longer than one’s life-time.

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Joe Slovo (23 May 1926 – 6 January 1995, full name Yossel Mashel Slovo) was aSouth African politician, an opponent of the apartheid system. He was a long-time leader of theSouth African Communist Party(SACP), a leading member of theAfrican National Congress (ANC), and a commander of the ANC’s military wing Umkhonto we Sizwe.

Wikipedia

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Or maybe he’s realised like certified cybernut Oxygen that

SO I SAY CHANGE FROM WITHIN IS WISHFUL THINKING – it won’t happen

and is preparing to move on?

If I were SAF, I’d check the armoury of the unit where Terry’s does his reservist training. It’s an elite almost operational unit. So plenty of arms and explosives lying around.

Whatever here’s something to keep Terry going if he decides to remain a cyber Jedi

“In the last days of December 1916, a small group of Swiss university students had an evening meeting and an exiled Russian politician living in Switzerland gave them a talk on the coming revolution. He said, ‘The revolution’s bound to come. You younger people will live to see it. We older people (he was in his forties at the time), we shan’t see it.’ Ten months later this same man, his name was Lenin, was dictator of one of the greatest empires in the world,”

AJP Taylor, historian, in a lecture on Btritish tv many yrs ago.

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*”Courage shall be the more resolute, heart shall be the braver, spirit shall be the greater, as our strength grows less.”, is another translation of the Old English verse.

 

China’s plans to rule tech & finance

“It is the goal of Chinese outbound industrial policy programs to replace foreign technology leaders in the medium term — not just in China but also in global export markets.”

— Sebastian Heilmann, president of the Mercator Institute for China Studies, a think tank based in Berlin, on China’s strategy of investment.

 

China’s Wealthy Help Bolster European Capital By BLOOMBERG Asia’s high net-worth individuals, whose wealth has surpassed counterparts in North America, have been major investors in regional bank bonds.

 

From NYT Dealbook

“CHANGE FROM WITHIN IS WISHFUL THINKING – it won’t happen”

The above from a certified cybernut could sadly be prophetic.

The way the PAPpies are behaving (Think the changes to the contempt of court laws and the proposed changes to the elected presidency. Think of the Pet minister’s, Queen Jos’s and Ong Ye Kung’s comments on the latter. They make “Lying Hilary’s” untrustworthy and shifty explanations of emailgate sound pretty straight forward and simple to understand.), Oxygen, a certified cybernut may be a looney who just happens to have a prophetic insight.

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Oxygen is a Nantah grad who fled to Oz in the 70s or early 80s  but because he regrets not getting a cheap HDB flat (he can’t get over the injustice), he still has S’pore in his mind despite becoming a New Citizen in Oz many yrs ago. He’s not poor and he’s no cheap skate. He donated $10,000 to keep TRE going before GE 2015.

If he really believes that change from within is impossible, why did he donate money to keep TRE alive? He should have used the money to buying arms and bombs for the S’pore Liberation Army.

He had a Pauline conversion since then? Before the GE, he believed that change was possible.

Opps I forgot, cybernuts are like M Ravi, moods always changing.

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In response to this, he wrote

oxygen:
September 18, 2016 at 9:16 pm (Quote)
CI, FOR ALL YOUR DECEPTIVE DANCES OF THE WOLF is great when you agrees with this call from Dr Ang Yong Guan

Dr Ang Yong Guan:You spoke about building a compassionate and inclusive nation in your speech. Make it happen. Bring the 30% on board not by pushing them to a corner and create an “us” versus “them” mentality. Embrace their diverse views, engage them in robust debates and create an even-playing political field. Win them over. As I have said before: “People are patriotic, keep that patriotic flame going strong by including them and NOT excluding them.”

The only problem of inevitable trapped dilemma for the PAPpys must be if they grudgingly relent to robust debates and even-playing political field in the public space is this quagmire and quicksands

– their rubber tyre of lies, fantasy and propaganda wear out faster on the road of truth faster than they can change their wheel of meandering river of endless lies, scams and deception

– even secondary school kids can trap them into embarrassed corner of no reply or disingenuous response of “what do you think”

– each can of worms unveiled opens up more cans of worms

– no political saints in their own tribe will sacrifice his paychecks on the altar of their own catcalls of hara kiri demands for unacceptable momumental policy design and implementation disaster

– voters lose respect for the whole tribe such that they may find it uncomfortable to wear the hypocritical virginity white in future election walkabouts and replace that with vibrant red of change advocacy instead (SDP needs to register for copyright protection now)

History needs to be re-written and legacy shamed and

finally of course, entrenched corrupt interest of “meritocratic” cronies of super mortals cultivation within the same tribe will revolt of change necessary for progress – some even think peasants “bo tua bo soy” (no big no small) almost sounding like scolding soya sauce.

SO I SAY CHANGE FROM WITHIN IS WISHFUL THINKING – it won’t happen

 

 

 

Entrepreneurs are like ant-PAPpies?

Hamid Hashemi: A Good Entrepreneur Is Never Happy

By ADAM BRYANT

Hamid Hashemi, C.E.O. of iPic Entertainment, who immigrated from Iran with $700 in his pocket, says dissatisfaction with the status quo drives success.

NYT Dealbook

Well Low was a businessman before he became a well-paid MP, and Chiam and JBJ had their law firms even when they were MPs. Yes only Dr Chee remains out of work since he was fired from NUS all those years ago. and his wife doesn’t work. If S’pore had social security, they’d be welfare king and queen laughing all the way to the bank.

The next row with Indons

Haze is Indonesia’s retaliation for helping Google avoid Indon taxes

Taz the line that the Indon VP or Indon minister will take soon.

Because Google uses S’pore as tax haven to avoid paying Indon taxes, Indons will keep on burning and killing 2,200 S’poreans a year*, a senior Indon official is sure to say. Never mind a lot more Indons are killed by haze.

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Btw, expect the cybernuts from The Idiots – S’pore (or TISG) and TRE to start screaming that the PAP govt is allowing S’poreans to die so that Google can make money. And they’ll cheer on Indonesia as they cheered on Pinoy chief gangster for dissing S’pore.

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This is what CNA, part of the constructive, nation-building media reported

Indonesia plans to pursue Alphabet Inc’s Google for five years of back taxes, and the search giant could face a bill of more than US$400 million for 2015 alone if it is found to have avoided payments, a senior tax official said.

…

Most of the revenue generated in the country is booked at Google’s Asia Pacific headquarters in Singapore. Google Asia Pacific declined to be audited in June, prompting the tax office to escalate the case into a criminal one, Hanif said.

“Google’s argument is that they just did tax planning,” Hanif said. “Tax planning is legal, but aggressive tax planning – to the extent that the country where the revenue is made does not get anything – is not legal.”

The tax office will summon directors from Google Indonesia who also hold positions at Google Asia Pacific, Hanif said, adding that it is working with the Indonesian police.

Already Google  has come under scrutiny from Australian authorities for paying tax in Singapore on advertising revenue generated in Australia, where the corporate tax rate is 30%.

Btw, Indons are saying Nasi Goreng is not a S’porean dish. http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-37408343

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*A study that estimates there were 2,200 premature deaths in Singapore due to the 2015 haze crisis is “not reflective of the actual situation”, the country’s Ministry of Health (MOH) said on Monday (Sep 19). The study by researchers from Harvard and Columbia universities in the US also said there were more than 100,000 premature deaths caused by transboundary haze from Indonesian forest fires. 

CNA

 

 

 

 

 

Perils of being an “atas” investor

Mom was “medium risk” investor but junk bond sold to her 

When Elaine Tham signed an “accredited investor” form with her bank in Singapore two years ago, she took a fateful step toward losing all the money she had set aside for her children’s education.

Based on her financial profile and investment priorities — her need for S$150,000 ($110,000) to pay university fees — a local branch of HSBC Holdings Plc had initially categorized her as a “medium risk” investor. But because the value of her property and car entitled her to “accredited” status, a category reserved for wealthy investors, Tham says she was persuaded to take a riskier path. She agreed to invest S$250,000 in the bonds of a small Singapore energy-services company, Swiber Holdings Ltd., which said in August that it won’t be able to repay its bondholders.

Tham is one of many Singaporeans who lost money by investing in Swiber, which sold an unusually high proportion of its bonds to the wealthy clients of banks in Singapore. Amid signs last week that more local energy-services companies are being dragged down by the prolonged slump in global oil prices, some are urging quick action to plug loopholes in Singapore’s investor-protection rules.

Man didn’t know he was “accredited investor”

The revisions to the law proposed by the MAS might have helped another Singaporean bondholder, Sandeep Kapoor, who says he is facing losses after buying S$250,000 of Swiber bonds in 2014. The 50-year-old engineer said he only found out he was an accredited investor last month, some two years after the purchase, via his relationship manager at DBS Group Holdings Ltd. 

Under the proposed revisions, he would have been given the chance to opt in to accredited investor status, rather than being automatically assigned to the category because of his wealth.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-09-19/bond-losses-show-vulnerability-of-singapore-s-not-really-rich

Why access to the truth has not set S’poreans free

Knowledge is supposed to be power in one-party states and the internet gives people access to knowledge. But the internet has not done much to change S’poreans’ views of the PAP and its manifold, snarky machinations.

It was thought that the PAP administration’s control of the mainstream media was an important element in preventing S’poreans from understanding the reality of PAP rule here. The constructive, nation-building media helped shape the perception of reality by, among other things, filtering out inconvenient facts and framing the issues in a way that put the best spin on PAP policies.

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Why PAP keeps a tight grip on the MSM

only suggestive, the study is cause for concern. The media can set the agenda, but also distort it. There is some countervailing evidence, that relative rankings of corruption do have some validity: diplomats from countries where corruption is seen as more pervasive are less likely to pay parking fines, for example. But if perceptions are heavily influenced by the media buzz, then levels of corruption might be exaggerated. In other words, measures of corruption could themselves be corrupted.

http://www.economist.com/news/business-and-finance/21696162-perceptions-corruption-seem-be-more-sensitive-claims-facts-bad-press

Also read this article about how media owners in Eastern Europe’s use the media they own to manipulate public opinion and to help friendly politicians and u can understand why the PAP controls the MSM the way it does here. http://www.economist.com/…/21707125-politics-central-and-ea…

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So those opposed to the PAP’s hegemony (self included) had thought that the internet (in particular social media and new or alternative media) would make it easier for S’poreans to be aware of or learn of or ferret out inconvenient facts, learn the truth, and draw the “right” conclusions.

It’s now easier to be aware of or learn of or ferret out inconvenient facts, and learn the truth, but sadly many S’poreans still are incapable of or resist drawing the “right” conclusions.

Partly this is the fault of alternative media outlets like The Idiots — S’pore (Or TISG as it prefers to be known which at times seems to be trying to imitate fake news websites ), the antics of the anti-PAP cynernut rats, and pro -PAP outlets like Mothership and FATPAP. Their disinformation and loudhailing services for the PAP causes problems when trying to establish the facts or the truth. (In fact TISG is proud that it is a “useful loudhailer” for the govt and its agencies.)

But a lot has to do with human nature (emphasis mine):

[H]umans do not naturally seek truth. In fact, as plenty of research shows, they tend to avoid it. People instinctively accept information to which they are exposed and must work actively to resist believing falsehoods; they tend to think that familiar information is true; and they cherry-pick data to support their existing views. At the root of all these biases seems to be what Daniel Kahneman, a Nobel-prizewinning psychologist and author of a bestselling book, “Thinking, Fast and Slow”, calls “cognitive ease”: humans have a tendency to steer clear of facts that would force their brains to work harder.

In some cases confronting people with correcting facts even strengthens their beliefs, a phenomenon Brendan Nyhan and Jason Reifler, now of Dartmouth College and the University of Exeter, respectively, call the “backfire effect”. In a study in 2010 they randomly presented participants either with newspaper articles which supported widespread misconceptions about certain issues, such as the “fact” that America had found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, or articles including a correction. Subjects in both groups were then asked how strongly they agreed with the misperception that Saddam Hussein had such weapons immediately before the war, but was able to hide or destroy them before American forces arrived.

As might be expected, liberals who had seen the correction were more likely to disagree than liberals who had not seen the correction. But conservatives who had seen the correction were even more convinced that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. Further studies are needed, Mr Nyhan and Mr Reifler say, to see whether conservatives are indeed more prone to the backfire effect.

http://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21706498-dishonesty-politics-nothing-new-manner-which-some-politicians-now-lie-and?fsrc=permar|image3

The good news is that so long as there are sites like TOC (Its 10th anniversary fell in August this year), TMG and SgDaily (I got posting rights on its FB page); bloggers and commenters like Alex Au, Chris K, Wandering Vagabond, P Ravi, Uncle Leong, Donald Low and Yeoh Lum Keong; and cyber Jedis like Terry Xu and Andrew of TRE, inconvenient facts and inconvenient truths cannot be kept out of the public domain.

So I’m optimistic. Slowly but surely more S’poreans will draw the “right” conclusions after learning the “right” facts. And with a bit of luck by 2033 or 2055, at the latest, Harry will only be a bad dream.

But as S’poreans are exposed to more info, we (including the PAP) face a problem in this brave new world

Given such biases, it is somewhat surprising that people can ever agree on facts, particularly in politics. But many societies have developed institutions which allow some level of consensus over what is true: schools, science, the legal system, the media. This truth-producing infrastructure, though, is never close to perfect: it can establish as truth things for which there is little or no evidence; it is constantly prey to abuse by those to whom it grants privileges; and, crucially, it is slow to build but may be quick to break.

http://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21706498-dishonesty-politics-nothing-new-manner-which-some-politicians-now-lie-and?fsrc=permar|image3

Remember that given the dominance of the PAP, we don’t have the institutions which allow some level of consensus, absent the hegemony of the PAP. It’s going to be an anarchic jungle when S’poreans break the mind fetters.

But not to worry, the ang mohs who S’poreans (including the PAP) use to validate their actions will still be pontificating and BSing, and sometimes getting the facts and truth right. And S’poreans will listen to them, as they always have. Ang mohs will take the place of local institutions in the building of consensus of what are the facts and the truth.

Still better than consensus based on the PAP’s hegemony. At least liberal, socialistic and conservative ang mohs hold different views.

How managers encourage abusive behaviour

but ensure that their staff suffer the consequences Wells Fargo Warned Workers Against Sham Accounts, but ‘They Needed a Paycheck’ By MICHAEL CORKERY AND STACY COWLEY Former employees say that their managers warned them not to bend the rules, but they felt pressured by the bank’s aggressive sales culture to create fake accounts anyway. NYT Dealbook

Harry’s daughter should move her ass out / Dishonouring Pa & Ma

Below* is Dr Lee Wei Ling’s latest FB post KPKBing about Harry’s house not being allowed to be demolished. WTF, I mean her parents’ wish was that the house be demolished after she moves out. Hey she’s still living there. So how to demolish?

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What Harry wanted:

“It is my wish and the wish of my late Wife Kwa Geok Choo, that our house at 38 Oxley Road, Singapore 238629, be demolished immediately after my death or, if my Daughter, Wei Ling, would prefer to continue living in the original house, immediately after she moves out of the House.”

More on Harry’s house.

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Seriously, she should declare that she intends to move out and together with her younger  brother (they are the executors of Harry’s will) publicly announce that they are starting the demolition process.

If the govt tries to stop the process, then she has legitimate and reasonable grounds to KPKB. And S’poreans will agree with her. Polls have shown that S’poreans want LKY’s wish to be respected.

So long as she stays in the house, the govt can say it is acceding to LKY’s wish for her to remain: “Waz wrong with that? She being a spoiled brat isit? Why liddat?”

She wants to stay in the house and yet demolish it? Mana ada logic? Anyway taz not what her parents wanted.

If she has problems articulating her views about what she really wants, I’m sure “The Idiots — S’pore (Or TISG as it prefers to call itself) can help her, even if the boys there don’t do grammar.

She should reflect on this FB post:

LWL should put an end to this. Surely you don’t protect your father’s legacy by telling the world he couldn’t even raise 3 children properly without them squabbling with one another in public.

(To be more accurate, she’s the one KPKBing in public. Her brothers maintain dignified silence. But then, rumour had it that she was the “spoiled” brat, “indulged” by her parents. Her brothers were not indulged.)

She is dishonouring both her parents by her behaviour. I’m sure they’ll be hanging their heads in shame that she’s a cybernut hero, alongside M Ravi (certified loonie), Amos Yee, Roy Ngerng and New Citizen Han Hui Hui.

The only excuses  one can make for her behaviour are her grief and loneliness. She should a dog or two or more from SPCA, say my dogs. The Oxley Road house can home a lot of dogs they say.

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*Papa would be 93 today if he were still alive. He lived a full life, committing most of his time and energy to advancing Singapore and Singaporeans’ welfare. He did so with no ulterior motives, abjuring any personality cult in spite of well-meaning intentions of his fellow Singaporeans. He is a rare politician and statesman who dedicated himself to his nation because it was the right thing to do. He did not want to be hero worshipped, and throughout the last years of his life, he tried to get a promise from the Singapore government that his marital house would be demolished, so that it would not become a relic for veneration, and also because he knew how strongly Mama wanted her private life to remain private. Because the Cabinet refused to do so, he added a last paragraph to his will, “It is my wish and the wish of my late Wife Kwa Geok Choo, that our house at 38 Oxley Road, Singapore 238629, be demolished immediately after my death or, if my Daughter, Wei Ling, would prefer to continue living in the original house, immediately after she moves out of the House.” In this age where prestige and power attract unscrupulous people to enter politics, Papa’s wish should be honoured as an example of an outstanding Singaporean who did not want to be hero-worshipped. To preserve the house sends a wrong message to Singapore’s politicians and aspiring politicians. It is also impossible to say we honour him and dishonour his only request of Singaporeans.

Cut the BS about being resource poor

But first, the cubernuts keep harping that when the PAP took power, S’pore was the second most important port in Asia so what happened next was no big deal. Well Rangoon was pretty big then but look at it today. It’s the place that the PAPpies should send kids to to show what life would have been without the PAP.*

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A WALK AROUND battered, ramshackle Yangon, Myanmar’s biggest city and former capital, quickly makes it clear how far the country has fallen behind the rest of Asia over the past half-century. In large part the place is but a ghostly reminder of former glories. Under British colonial rule, before independence in 1948, Rangoon (as it was then) was a thriving, cosmopolitan entrepot, the capital of Burma, one of the region’s wealthiest countries. All that came to an abrupt end in 1962 after a junta of army officers, led by the brutal General Ne Win, seized power and launched the country on the quasi-Marxist “Burmese Way to Socialism”. Private foreign-owned businesses were nationalised, prompting the exodus of hundreds of thousands of people, many of Indian origin. https://atans1.wordpress.com/2013/07/13/why-young-sporeans-should-be-sent-to-yangon/

http://www.economist.com/blogs/banyan/2014/01/yangons-heritage

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The nutters would be better-off focusing on the PAP’s claim that it made S’pore into a first world state despite S’pore being resource poor.

“In the modern world,” wrote Keynes in the Manchester Guardian in the autumn of 1922, “organisation is worth more in the long run than material resources.”

As Mr Norberg a Swesiah economic historian puts it, “The most important resource is the human brain…which is pleasantly reproducible.”

He bases his commen on the performance of places like London NY and Silicon Valley.

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*Such a visit would be better than revising the upper secondary social studies syllabus with the proclaimed objective of promoting “active citizenship and critical thinking”.

A good critique:

The MOE has revised the upper secondary social studies syllabus with the proclaimed objective of promoting “active citizenship and critical thinking”.

Part of the updated content include a case study of the Little India Riot in 2013.

As the account conjured up by MOE goes, within minutes of the outbreak of the riot, the police was informed and the Civil Defence Force was activated. Subsequently, Special Ops Command was deployed and the crowd dispersed.

The authorities’ swift action, according to MOE, shows the importance the PAP Government places on maintaining internal order in Singapore.

Anyone who has followed the COI in the aftermath of the riot would have noticed that a large chunk of the events is missing in MOE’s account.

This chain of events revolves around how the initial police response team had failed to act resolutely when it arrived at the scene despite threats among the onlookers to kill the timekeeper whom they blamed for causing the death of their fellow countrymen.

Their lack of action emboldened the crowd causing it to spiral out of control with the scene of some of the officers fleeing the scene an indictment of the deficiencies of the Home Team.

The result?

25 emergency vehicles damaged, 5 set on fire, 39 police, four civil defence and auxiliary officers injured.

The above glaring gap in MOE’s account begs the questions: is it more interested in brainwashing than encouraging active citizenry and critical thinking?

If it is sincere about promoting critical thinking, shouldn’t it lay out all the facts and let students question and think about what went wrong?

Source: The Alternative View

(January 2016)

 

 

 

Hard Truths still relevant in 2033 and 2055?

Eaelier this month, China marked 40 years since Mao Zedong’s death on September 9 1976.Mao Zedong’s greatest worry was that a capitalist revival would take hold in China and wipe away his utopian vision of communism. Well it happened hasn’t it?

And

A mere 18 years after the death of Mao Zedong, it was possible for a notable Sinologist to give his book on Chinese reforms the title of “Burying Mao”.

So hang in there those who hate Harry and his legacy. Eighteen and 40 yrs is not too long to wait to have the last laugh.

But there’ll still be prople will who worship him, like they still worship Mao.

Wonder what his daughter, his chief devotee will think if she’s still alive in 2055?

Btw, in 2025, the PAP will unveil Harry’s Great Wall https://atans1.wordpress.com/2015/08/25/2025-lkys-memorial-unveiled/

 

 

 

 

Sounds so Pay And Pay

But it’s in the UK.

Oxygen machine patient on pay as you go meter A man who relies on an electricity-powered machine to breathe has been moved into a council flat with a meter he needs to keep topped up Daily Express.

BBC Online

Airports in Britain look set to expand a scheme allowing them to charge passengers to get through passport control more quickly. Flyers arriving at Edinburgh will soon be able to pay £5 ($6.59) to use the FastTrack service (Gatwick and Heathrow already offer something similar). And the Home Office has confirmed that it will allow the scheme, which is run as a joint venture between the airport operator and the UK Border Force, to be rolled out across the country. Airports could charge up to £17.50 to join a queue restricted to perhaps 50 passengers an hour.

http://www.economist.com/blogs/gulliver/2016/09/time-money

 

Be our our first Wang Hongs, Amos, and Serena Wee

Role model for Amos?

Wang Leyu broadcasts himself live for five hours, and sometimes all night. While he talks on camera about his life or hums a tune or dances, viewers watching on their phones write messages that pop up on his screen. Occasionally a bright icon flashes, meaning a fan has paid money to send him a virtual sticker as a tip.

,,,

Live-streamers entertain and inform in a variety of ways, from playing video games—so that viewers can watch their on-screen action—to giving English lessons. But the majority are young women who stream video of themselves as they flirt, sing or dance. Such diversions are a big hit among Chinese men. The most popular streams are viewed by over 100,000 people at a time.

http://www.economist.com/news/china/21707070-authorities-wish-they-wouldnt-chinas-netizens-love-sharing-live-video-themselves

Too bad he’s a male, the gals make great money.  This gal

pls note.

Ling Ling, a 29-year-old living in Shanghai, has gone to great lengths to curate a picture-perfect life on social media. Her photos on micro-blogging site Weibo show her glamorous and leisurely life.

Dressed in fashionable clothing and with immaculate make-up, Ling Ling is seen dining at fancy cafes and restaurants; attending parties and social events with her girlfriends; travelling to places like Boracay, Tokyo and Dubai.

But she does not cultivate her online image just to make herself feel good or her friends jealous. She is one of the new internet celebrities, known as Wang Hong.

It’s a lucrative business, with Zhang Dayi, one of China’s best known Wang Hong, reportedly earning 300m yuan (£35m; $46m). This compares favourably to top Chinese actress Fan Bingbing, who according to Forbes, made about $21m last year.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-36802769

Our very own Serena Wee should become a Wang Hong like Ling Ling and Zhang Dayi. After all she has a “shop” selling clothes.

The  two chinese gals sell. clothes and cosmetics on Taobao, China’s leading online shopping site. They post pictures of themselves modelling the clothes they sell, and some of their followers become their most loyal customers.

More on Serena http://mustsharenews.com/serina-wee-facts/

Come on Serena, get off yr ass. Go for the bucks like Kong Hee and Sun Ho.

 

 

British army is still in the 19th century

The Times says there are calls for more tanks for the Army, which has just 168 of them – fewer than it has horses.

Hard Truths on connecting with the 70%

Activists (anti-PAP, Oppo, alternative views or social) must realise or be aware that

— The 70% (especially the swing voter, 35% of the voters ) know what they are doing when they vote for the PAP; and

— that some anti-PAP, alternative etc views are more equal than others i.e. the cybernuts must not be given the space to talk cock, sing song. They must not be given publicity, and rebutted.

WP knows these Hard Truths and have used this knowledge to win and hold Aljunied GRC. Trouble is that others don’t. Yes, I thinking particularly of Mad Dog. (And sadly, retaining Aljunied was all the WP was interested in until recently.)

Voters know what they are doing

Those who think the decisions voters make are ignorant or even irrational do them a disservice. The judgments rendered by the electorate are sometimes misinformed, and often harsh, but rarely irrational …

Many experts on the issue despair at the ignorance voters display: they seem hopelessly wrong about the numbers coming, the reasons they come and the impact they have on the economy. Yet although they are muddled on the details, voters are remarkably responsive on the big picture. Concern about the issue tracks numbers closely: when migrant numbers go up, more voters cite it as a concern. Voters noticed the pledges by successive governments to bring numbers down, they noticed when these pledges failed, and they noticed that one important reason for that failure was rising immigration from the EU. The growing number of voters who wanted immigration reduced drew the logical conclusions from all of this: the old parties had failed on the issue, so they turned to a new one (Ukip); controlling migration looked close to impossible within the EU, so they voted to leave.

This pattern of behaviour – ignorant about the details, but responsive on the big picture – is one we see quite often. It has a lot to recommend it. When a room gets too cold, we respond by turning up the heating. When the room gets too hot, we turn it off. We usually manage to do this without knowing the precise temperature. Voters often display a similar thermostatic logic. Of course, voters aren’t consistently rational even on the big picture stuff. But usually when they apparently go off the rails, there is an interesting logic underlying what they do, throwing light on the strengths and weaknesses of how we reason more generally.

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/aug/27/secret-life-of-british-voters-revealed

In the S’pore context this translates into as Chris K commented in response to this post

Slightly less the oppo but the social activists and their non nutty cyberspace allies are framing the free and liberal society in terms of ideals of human rights, civil society and democratic process. IMHO this don’t work in the peculiarly utilitarian mindset of the voters, shaped by one party rule. The free and liberal society needs to be framed in terms of access to public goods and redistribution, the nuts n bolts or bread n butter of that kind of society. Singapore is no totalitarian state, the social activists n their non nutty cyberspace allies take the easier route of wearing their hearts on their sleeves but this is putting the cart in front of the horse.

The SDP has a set of policy proposals that tries to frame its arguments for a “free and liberal society” in  “terms of access to public goods and redistribution, the nuts n bolts or bread n butter of that kind of society.”. The problem is that 60- 70% of S’poreans have problems with Dr Chee’s history and character. Sad really that Dr Chee refuses to retire.

Why not publicising the cybernuts is a must

Not all anti-PAP, alternate views are equal. Some are more equal than others. The editors of alternative media and activists who are influencers must curate wisely. Allow the likes of Chris K, Donald Low and Yeoh Lum Keong free rein, but don’t spread the views of nutters like Roy Ngerng, Philip Ang and M Ravi.

The nutters taint those rational S’poreans who want change, making it easier for the PAP to persuade the swing voters that anyone who wants change must be as nuts as M Ravi.

And rebut them or get others to rebut them, even though the time spent on this activity can be seen like doing NS, the time can ne better used to inform and persuade the swing voters, a difficult task which I will post on next week. One way to look at rebutting is that it helps built up cred with the swing voter.

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once a solid consensus has been reached through thorough testing, this must take precedence in responsible media discussion: as he says, “it would not be impartial, but irresponsible to give a smoking enthusiast equal time with the Chief Medical Officer or Surgeon General”.

The media’s dysfunctionality is structural. They must get audiences — public service broadcasters are increasingly exposed to that imperative — and they seek them, like politicians, in the privileging of emotion and personal experience. During the MMR vaccine debate, in which one rogue and inaccurate article on the dangers of the vaccine led to an insistent press campaign, interventions of “I’m just a mom and I want to keep my baby safe” could have more force than the arguments of the scientific establishment, especially if the latter were obscurely framed or contemptuously delivered.

In one of his many dissections of an anti-scientific consensus position, Thompson takes a statement from the social anthropologist Benny Peiser, director of Global Warming Policy Foundation, a sceptical climate change think-tank. In 2011 Peiser had argued: “Fundamentally these are social, ethical and economic questions that cannot be answered by science alone but require careful consideration by economists and social commentators.” It sounds broad-minded until you realise what the word “fundamentally” implies: as Thompson puts it, “that the layer of policy consideration which addresses social, ethical and economical questions is somehow weightier or more critical than the scientific layer”.

Yet the veracity of the scientific consensus is the determinant of the whole issue: everything else, including the ethical dimension, hinges entirely on it. You either believe that the scientific community, for all its neglect of comprehensible speech, has evolved a trustworthy discipline of verification through robust challenge — or you do not, in which case you must take some time to advance a reasonable case as to why. “I’m just a mom” doesn’t make the cut.

The former director-general criticises those of his former BBC colleagues who insist on absolute balance, even if it goes to the point where a sage must be countered by an idiot. The issue has moved some of those who voted Remain in the June referendum on the UK’s European Union membership, who argue that distinguished economists were given equal time with undistinguished shopkeepers: a complaint that might not have surfaced had the close result been reversed. Thompson wrote too early for that debate, but does argue that once a solid consensus has been reached through thorough testing, this must take precedence in responsible media discussion: as he says, “it would not be impartial, but irresponsible to give a smoking enthusiast equal time with the Chief Medical Officer or Surgeon General”.

(Emphasis mine)

Extract from FT review of Enough Said: What’s Gone Wrong With the Language of Politics?, by Mark Thompson, Bodley Head, RRP£25 / St Martin’s Press, RRP$27.95, 384 pages

The author  of the extract is John Lloyd. He is an FT contributing editor and a co-founder of Oxford university’s Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism

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“Don’t be a cheapskate”, Buffett says

The trouble is that there are very few people who knows what is a “wonderful co.” and what is a “fair price”.

So being a cheapskate may be a better option for most of us (self included).

Failed: Obama’s Asian policy

On the eve of Obama’s recent trip to Asia, the FT analysed his “Pivot to Asia” policy. It was not a flattering piece.

In the comments these (among money) appeared pouring more scorn on him and his Asian policy.

NCFOM

I hardly believe that anyone of substance will pay much attention to Mr. Obama and his seemingly thoughtful comments knowing fully well that he cannot deliver. Rhetorics like those of Mr. Obama usually falls flat in Asia amidst basic bread and butter issues. When you load polluted air and water into the equation, the place started to resemble cesspool of human existence. It is hardly a place to nod your head in agreement with in appropriate Pbama speech laced with lofty ideas. He never learned that and that’s why most of these leaders would be either resentful being in his company or laughing behind him. This is a tragedy of Greek proportion.

I feel bad for the guy but I cannot offer any sympathy for his gross leadership failure across the board. His ill-preparation and execution of the US presidency will go down as one of the worst. His cowardice is astounding. If I were him I would not speak about any pivot business. I would just attend some social and philanthropic functions.

He has become the ultimate symbol of unfulfilled promise.

Hear, hear.

 Hollow Man 

 

@NCFOM Nicely said! As someone who voted for him in 2008 (but stayed home in 2012) I’ve thought back to what made me do it. I’ve concluded it was just the brazen mendacity of the GWB Administration, nothing more. McCain, then still foaming in the mouth with war lust, was a variant of that.

But of Obama himself, I knew little. I have watched in disbelief as he moved gradually, incrementally, professorially, unimaginatively, unexceptionally, these last eight history-bending years. Even his “lofty”, “soaring” oratory is really cut-rate stuff, just curlicues in the air that dribble away no sooner than they have been uttered. (There isn’t a line from any of his speeches that can compare with the best from FDR, JFK,even  RR.) He has spent all of 2016 polishing his unmemorable legacy. And he leaves the country in a sourer, more mean-spirited mood than at any time I can remember.

Or this may be all I can expect from my adoptive country. I only have to remember the seventeen candidates who stood on the stage in the Republican primary debates…

But Obama poked China in the eye wuth this comment when China failed to give him VVIP treatment.

“We’ve got a lot of planes, a lot of helicopters, a lot of cars and a lot of guys,” he said. “If you are a host country, sometimes it may feel a bit much.”

http://www.economist.com/news/china/21706433-lows-and-highs-worlds-most-important-bilateral-relationship-g20-leaders-meet-china

This is interesting: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-37269719

MU: Thrilled I’m sure fans are

MU  has become the first British football club to earn more than half a billion pounds in a year.

Manchester United has recorded record revenues of £515.3m for the 2016 financial year, the first UK football club to do so.

In a year when it won the FA Cup, the Old Trafford club also signed 14 sponsorship deals, and saw commercial, matchday and TV revenues all rise.

It is now predicting 2017 revenues of up to £540m, even though it is not in the Champions League this season.

…

The club’s accounts up until 30 June 2016 confirm that the Premier League club was the first British team to break the half-billion mark, but the figure is short of Barcelona’s €679m (£570m) revenue revealed in July.

The Premier League giants also revealed operating profits of £68.9m, and adjusted core earnings of £191.9m, both also records.

“Our record fiscal 2016 financial performance reflects the continued underlying strength of the business and the club is on target to achieve record revenues in 2017, even without a contribution from the Champions League,” said executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward.

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-37339740

A very Jewish achivement.

Too bad about the major trophies and playing in Europe. )))))

Lest I be accused of anti-Semtisim, I’m proud of the fact that I worked in Rothschild S’pore and shook the hand and had dinner with the then owner, Sir Evelyn. Actually it is the firm that in hindsight I regretted leaving for greener pastures. It was a really nice place to work in. Too bad about the pay though.

Btw, Rothschilds is the regular adviser to MU, and at times to its owners, the Glazers. The relationship to MU predates the Glazers.  Rothschild has had an office in Manchester since the 19th century.

And btw2, I’m sure you have read that Goldman Sachs made good money in M’sia before running into problems with the US marshalls.

Well in the 1970s when Dr M became PM and started buying ownership of plantations and mines from UK-based investors, Rothschild was the go-to bank for M’sia. It wasn’t that Dr M was supportive of the Jewish houses in London. But the central bank governor, Tun Ali, had good ties with the London Rothschilds. He was btw also a brother-in-law of Dr M. A character. Shook his hand and helped look after him during one of his visits here for a conference.

70% are pigs?/ Dr Ang don’t ghettoise yourself

 

Some would say any insult is better than this one. “Hong Kong pig” refers to people who don’t care about politics at all, and only eat and sleep.

BBC Online

TRE and TISG cybnernuts would say that the 70% who voted for the PAP are pigs based on the above definition (They would wouldn’t they?) and so it would seem too the very smart Dr Ang Yong Guan, an RI boy and chairman of SingFirst.

Dr Ang wrote a very eloquent FB post in response to the PM’s NDR speech.

It’s a good post (see below) and I agree with most of his sentiments. But he made two big mistakes.

And one minor one:

Bring the 30% on board not by pushing them to a corner and create an “us” versus “them” mentality.

Look, let’s face it, of most of the 30%, roughly about 20- 22% of all the voters will die, die never say anything good about the PAP or vote for it. They are the opposite of the 35% of voters who will eat faeces and say it’s good, because the PAP supplies the faeces and says it tastes good. Likewise there are those who will say that PAP supplied abalone tastes like faeces because it’s supplied by the PAP.

His first major mistake are is that it seems he is ghettoising himself , living only among the anti-PAP voters, and thereby ignoring the swing voters in his comments.

The sentiments expressed in his post do not necessarily only belong to the 30% that voted Oppo. I’m sure, based on Facebook comments, many of the sentiments are shared by the swing voters; but that they decided that in a binary choice, they preferred the PAP. I’ve indicated below in my comments on Dr Ang’s FB post which are the sentiments that many swing voters care likely to agree with.

Next, it seems his underlying assumption is that the 70% die die, will support the PAP. He forgot that the 70% were only 60% in 2011 and 67% in 2006. And he forgot that 35% of the voters supported Tan Cheng Bock in PPE 2011, and the PAP knows that there are PAP voters who are willing to vote against the PAP , hence the contortions wannabe Squealers undergo about in justifying the need to change the eligibility rules of being chief jaga. Think of the Pet minister’s, Queen Jos’s and Ong Ye Kung’s comments. They make “Lying Hilary’s” untrustworthy and shifty explanations of emailgate sound pretty straight forward and simple to understand.

Dr Ang’s FB post with my commentary.

Dear PM Lee, On the surface, your speech was impressive especially the last stretch when you returned to speak after your “collapse”. You were candid, spontaneous with a touch of humour; deviating from your prepared speech at times. You reminded Singaporeans what you and your government have done for the nation in the last 15 years; citing examples after examples and showing them on slides of how our physical landscape has changed and how much our economy has grown. You wanted us to take pride in our nation.

However, you have forgotten that a nation is not judged by its landscape or economic development alone. [Based on comments I’ve seen on Facebook, I’m sure these sentiments are shared by many of those who voted for Dr Tan Cheng Bock.] The political space counts too. In your speech, you too realise the importance of managing this space well.

However, you and your government have continued to use the law to tighten an already small political space. In recent months, it has gone even tighter. The passing of the Contempt of Court law is an example. The impending change(s) to the Elected Presidency Scheme is another. Changing the laws is very convenient given that the overwhelming majority of seats in Parliament belong to your party and that Singaporeans, as what your sister Dr Lee Wei Ling had said “have gotten used to an authoritarian government…..and so when another new action is taken, they do not even bother to think whether it may be against their welfare.” She even felt that the Contempt of Court bill “gives the government the right to comment whilst denying that to people…is inconsistent with equality before the law and is an attempt to muzzle public opinion.” [I’m sure these sentiments are shared by many of those who voted for Dr Tan Cheng Bock.]

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PAP would agree? They would wouldn’t they?

“Across the African board, the winner-takes-all aspect is common almost everywhere, including South Africa, which has the most advanced economy and strongest institutions. Yet Mr Zuma, its president, was roundly criticised a few years ago for saying, “You have more rights because you’re a majority; you have less rights because you’re a minority. That’s how democracy works.” Economist

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Many of us feel that we are being pushed to a corner, our rights further curtailed. We respect the rule of law but the laws must be fair and worthy of our respect. If the laws are easily and conveniently changed or amended and worse still, perceived to be consolidating the power of the ruling party, we cannot help but lament that your government is not interested in engaging its citizens in healthy political debates whether it is over television, radios or other media. [I’m sure these sentiments are shared by many of those who voted for Dr Tan Cheng Bock.]

You spoke about building a compassionate and inclusive nation in your speech. Make it happen. Bring the 30% on board not by pushing them to a corner and create an “us” versus “them” mentality. Embrace their diverse views, engage them in robust debates and create an even-playing political field. Win them over. As I have said before: “People are patriotic, keep that patriotic flame going strong by including them and NOT excluding them.” [ How true]

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Try persuasion, not abuse

And here’s something that the PAP, Oppo and social activists should bear in mind: Don’t keep accusing people who disagree that they are ignorant and dismiss their views

“Perhaps most importantly Blue Labour believes that when the people of Britain tell the party to change, it cannot keep telling them that they are ignorant. When people vote for Brexit, it must be respected; when they say they are concerned about immigration, it cannot be dismissed as bigoted; when they are worried about the breakdown of social values such as neighbourliness, fatherhood or faith, politicians have to listen and change.”

BBC analysis.

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You concluded your speech by mentioning that what you would like is “that we be blessed with a divine discontent – always dissatisfied with where we are; always driven to do better… yet have the wisdom to count our blessings, so that we know how precious Singapore is, and we know how to enjoy and protect it.” May that divine discontent include the political space too so that Singapore can continue to grow in all spheres to become a greater nation. [Based on comments I’ve seen on Facebook, I’m sure these sentiments are shared by many of those who voted for Dr Tan Cheng Bock.]

Politics aside, please remember to go for your medical check-up as you have promised to do.

Related post: Get off yr asses activists

 

 

Our banks are sway kees even in SE Asia

I’m surprised to learn that the State Bank of India is bigger than DBS. And that Bank Central Asia is bigger than OCBC and that ICICI Bank and Bank Rakyat Indonesia are bigger than UOB.

Oppo and social activists get off yr asses

Edward Snowden said this when he was interviewed over lunch by the FT

“We don’t allow police to enter and search any home. We don’t typically reorder the operation of a free society for the convenience of the police — because that is the definition of a police state,” he says, mopping up the last of the rice. “And yet some spies and officials are trying to persuade us that we should. Now, I would argue there’s no real question that police in a police state would be more effective than those in a free and liberal society where the police operate under tighter constraints. But which one would you rather live in?”

60 — 70% of the voters agree with Harry’s protection racket that life in a police state is better than life than in a free and liberal society. They most probably assume that a police state is a safer place than a free and liberal society. Blame this largely on PAP scaremongering, aided and abetted by the constructive nation-building media and the trade unions.

More, a lot more, Oppo and social activists, and their non-nutty cyberspace allies should get off their asses, move out of their comfort zones, and try to persuade the 35% of voters that voted for Dr Tan Cheng Bock that they should prefer to live in a free and liberal society, joining the voters who voted for Tan Jee Say and Tan Kin Lian. Though one can understand why most Oppo and social activists (and their cyberspace allies) are reluctant to try. How to explain why 30% of the voters voted for an opportunist and a clown albeit both from RI, because they wanted a free and liberal society. How would a clown and an opportunist help that aim?

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To be fair to Tan Kin Lian, he was a good CEO of NTUC Income. He only went whacko over his presidential ambitions and I suspect most of the blame for his clownish behaviour can be blamed on the company he kept between 2009 and 2011. Remember Goh Meng Seng was his campaign adviser? Since the PE, he’s lost his whackiness . Go visit his blog and hudge for yrself. He’s no cybernut. He’s a S’porean who decries socxial injustice, has an analytical mind (he’s an actuary) but who sometimes thinks differently.

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So maybe they should start trying to persuade Tan Cheng Bock’s supporters that giving the PAP the two-thirds majority to suka suka change the constitution is a bad idea. I’ll becoming back to this theme another day

Oppo and social acticists and their non-nutty cyberspace allies should not accuse people who disagree with them on the need for a free and liberal society that they are ignorant and dismiss their views. They need their votes. The anti-PAP vote can be taken for granted as the WP has shown.

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Perhaps most importantly Blue Labour believes that when the people of Britain tell the party to change, it cannot keep telling them that they are ignorant. When people vote for Brexit, it must be respected; when they say they are concerned about immigration, it cannot be dismissed as bigoted; when they are worried about the breakdown of social values such as neighbourliness, fatherhood or faith, politicians have to listen and change.

BBC analysis

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Don’t be like the PAP who can afford to diss people who disagree with them. The PAP has the power of incumbtency.

And most importantly don’t only try to persuade S’poreans only at election time. As the PAP’s Organising Secretary said on the day after the 2011 GE, the campaign for the next GE has begun.

More Oppo and social activists, and their non-nutty cyberspace allies must get off their asses, move out of their comfort zones, and try to persuade the swing voters to vote against the PAP in order to deny the PAP a two-thirds majority.

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In HK, the Legislative Council (LegCo) is the body that passes and rejects laws, and approves the government’s budget. It’s HK’s parliament.

Like in S’pore, major constitutional changes, including changes to the voting system, need to be passed by a two-thirds majority in the council (parly here). Pro-Beijing parties always win more seats but the “democrat” lobby always have at least 24 seats so they can veto changes they disagree with. And they’ve used this power repeatedly

In the latest LegCo elections on Sunday, the “democrat” lobby retained its veto power. They now have 30 seats.

More about the “Rubbish Council” (punning on how the words “legislative” and “rubbish” sound similar in Cantonese), arguing the legislators are all talk and no action. 

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But I’m pessimistic that they’ll even bother. Easier to remain among “friends” who agree with them and smoke dope with them, all dreaming of a PAP-free S’pore that appears by magic:

The mechanisms of these new media are only now beginning to be understood. One crucial process is “homophilous sorting”: like-minded people forming clusters. The rise of cable and satellite television channels in the 1980s and 1990s made it possible to serve news tailored to specific types of consumer; the internet makes it much easier. According to Yochai Benkler of Harvard University in his book “The Wealth of Networks”, individuals with shared interests are far more likely to find each other or converge around a source of information online than offline. Social media enable members of such groups to strengthen each other’s beliefs, by shutting out contradictory information, and to take collective action.

http://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21706498-dishonesty-politics-nothing-new-manner-which-some-politicians-now-lie-and?fsrc=permar|image1

 

FTs: Blame who?

Other than the PAP administration, who else should be blamed for the flood of FTs here

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What if workers are unprofitable?

Here’s something else to think about. Mike Ashley the boss and controlling shareholder of UK sports retailer Sports Direct is getting a lot of bad publicity in the UK because the co paid workers less than the minimum wage at the warehouse the co operates. Working conditions were also bad. Adding to these problems,  the co awarded lucrative contracts to his relatives.

But many of the people employed in the warehouse are not doing profitable work, reports the FT.

The  popularity of internet shopping is forcing retail chains to supplement their shops with large-scale industrial operations, where the economic calculations are uncertain and the best employment practices have yet to be worked out.

Some retailers, such as Sports Direct, have opted to build rudimentary facilities and employ an army of low-paid workers to take on the laborious task of picking low-value products from miles of warehouse shelves.

Some are automating but that involves huge amounts of capital up-front.

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And are locals really that good?

Here I listed the problems that The Idiots — S’pore, or TISG as it prefers to be known, had in only employing locals and only paying them wages that mean they can only afford economy rice meals.

Well in addition to these problems: the locals can’t proof their work

The following is a Facebook post by Madam Ho Ching, head of Temasek Holdings and wife or Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

And are hopeless in grammar

Mr. Soon Chwee Guan – who is unemployed – had married Ms. Diao Yanmei in a marriage of convenience sometime in October 2012 for an initial sum of $4,000. Guy is dead.

His resignation was confirm by the party’s Secretary-General Low Thia Khiang, who asked that all queries pertaining to the resignation be directed to Mr Chen personally.

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Who to blame? Greedy employers? FTs are cheap. Or lazy bums reading TISG or TRE and posting comments instead of working or looking for work.

Or both?

No need for PRC FTs or senior citizens

Several Tuesdays ago, I read in ST that SBS had no issues about the retirement age being raised to 67. It has lots of oldie drivers.

I also read on the same dat that SMRT will raise its basic starting salary for all its Singaporean and Permanent Resident (PR) bus captains by 20 per cent to S$1,950 from Sep 1, it announced in a press release on Monday (Aug 28). 

SMRT said the revised salary package will see new bus captains earning a monthly gross salary of up to S$3,540. Existing bus captains will also have their basic pay increased by at least S$300 “in recognition of their service to the company”, SMRT said.

This comes on the heels of similar pay hikes by Singapore’s two other public bus operators as competition for local bus captains intensifies.SBS Transit increased its starting salary from S$1,775 to S$1,950 in June while UK-based bus operator Go-Ahead increased its starting salary from the S$1,865 it announced in February to S$1,950 in July. 

(CNA)

This reminded me that LTA is exploring the use of self-driving buses*. No for SBS or SMRT to employ oldies or PRC FTs, and no need to compete on wages. They both had to taise wages because of an ang Moh bus operator “spoiling” the market. More FT operators pls.

But technicians to service these self-driving buses sure to be FTs. Cannot blame companies or govt given situations like this? Employing locals can be problematic.

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*But pls keep SMRT away from this project. Look at its problems with self-driving trains on the Circle Line. I mean self-driving trains work in other cities.

Why the PAP fears Dr Tan Cheng Bock

The guy is shrewd, classy with a great sense of PR: see below.

Ada standard as a natural aristocrat and as a president.

With him as an elected president, the PAP administration will have to take account of his views, no matter what the legal position is on the powers of the president. He’ll signal his unhappiness or displeasure even when he has to follow the advice of the cabinet.

Well those who voted for Tan Jee Say and Tan Kin Lian, I hope you are repenting for doing the PAP’s dirty work for them. Each of you didn’t even get yr thirty pieces of silver.

And Tan Jee Say and Tan Kin Lian were the rewards of preventing him from becoming president worth it?

This appeared on Facebook

Message to my friends and supporters

Many Singaporeans including Netizens, have expressed their concern that the Constitutional Commission’s report has excluded me from the 2017 Presidential Election.

I have been kept busy assuring them that the Constitutional Commission Report will be tabled in Parliament in the form of a White Paper on 15th Sept.

Parliament will debate it, make amendments, support it, or even reject it.

We should not jump into conclusion that the whole exercise was to prevent me from running.
After all, the people in charge are men of virtue and integrity and would not resort to doing this.

Let us wait for the coming debate before jumping into conclusion. 

 

Judge right about Amos’s ability

Recently, I posted that Amos could crack great non vulgar jokes.

Last yr the High Court Judge in dismissing his appeal said that Amos is “obviously not a person without talent”, given his command of the English language, Justice Tay said: “I hope that Mr Yee will wean himself away from his preference for crude and rude language. Real debate and rational discussion on social issues can flourish in an environment of goodwill, reasoning and civil language.” CNA

To which I can only say “Heat, Hear”. And that the judge is spot-on on his judgment on Amos.

And there’s $ for slit-eyes doing up stand-up routines in Oz: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-37162293

 

Temasek’s China banks perform better than ang moh counterparts

Temasek has meaningful stakes in China Construction Bank, Industrial and Commercial Bank (ICBC) and Bank of China  and they are doing well. Something the ant-PAppyists cybernuts don’t tell.

As they say an info graphic (esp from the FT) is worth a lot more than a A380 filled with BS.

Since Feb’s lows, these three (and Agri Bank  have delivered a total return upwards of 40%)

And dividend yields are attractive, at over 5%.

But ant-PAppyists will always KPKB,.

Statins work

Side-effects exaggerated says study published in the Lancet, the leading UK medical journal

The truth about the cholesterol-fighting drug statins has finally been revealed, according to the front page of the Daily Mirror.

The paper reports on the findings of a major review published in the Lancet into the drugs which says claims they could cause problems including liver disease have been exaggerated.

It says fears over the side effects have led hundreds of thousands of patients to ditch the pills, “putting their lives at risk”.

Meanwhile the Daily Express says the number of people taking statins could rise to 12 million if the majority of men over 50 and women over 60 now took the drug as a precautionary measure.

The Times says people should be “reassured” by the review but adds the decision to take them should be “up to patients and their doctors”.

The paper says the study is “an attempt to lay to rest a long-running controversy”, but adds that “the credibility of medical science publishing is also at stake” to ensure patients get the right information.

BBC Online

World food prices climb to a 15-month high

But relax, hawkers will not be raising their prices soon. Advancing dairy and palm oil markets outweighed weakness in grains. The index has been up all this year except in July.

The truth about the loss of IT jobs

Here’s one TRE poster that I hope doesn’t join the migration to The Idiots  — Singapore or TISG as it prefers to be known. He wrote:

Good News:

September 5, 2016 at 11:58 pm(Quote)

This is good news, the Indians will return to India. IT department here all belongs to Indians already, no longer a Singaporean job. We got sold out long ago.

Rating: +18 (from 20 votes)

He’s right up to a point. The IT industry here belongs to FTs from India and locals are discriminated against in the sector according to people like Gilbert Goh and TRE posters.

He was responding to a Bloomberg report carried by TRE that said Barclays intends to cut approximately 100 IT jobs here

The report said that the employees are part of the Information Technology Operations team.The IT function will be moved to India to save on costs.

Barclays has since confirmed in a statement that it is in the process of cutting jobs here saying “identified a number of additional roles that carry out global activity in Singapore which can be relocated”

As I’ve reported before, in the early noughties, the PAP administration allowed the likes of Merrill Lynch, Citi and Beutsche to import cattle truck-loads of Indian IT FTs, in return for the banks promising to set up big chunks their global back office IT ops here.

As I reported beforem one shop in Suntec City had to fold after Citi retrenched its Indian ITs during the financial crisis. The owner’s biz model was premised on Indian FT techies.

Carrefour also closed its section selling freshly made Indian food that it opened a year earlier.

These two businesses show the kind of spin-offs of having FTs here. And what happens when they leave.

In general, the benefit of FTs coming in is the money they spend on entertainment, rent etc. When they leave, this spending is lost.

Gold and EM Funds are cheong

The Oppenheimer gold fund (run by guy with Chinese name) invests in mainly small- and mid-cap gold mining stocks, to magnify the impact of changes in the gold price, which has risen 9.3 per cent over the summer. With rates staying low, the lack of yield on precious metals is less of a deterrent to investors, some of whom also see gold as a hedge against any inflation generated by loose monetary policy.

But Bank of America Merrill Lynch warns that fundamentals in emerging markets were so strong that, given extremely loose monetary policy in the developed world, a “bubble” is “highly possible” in EMs in 2017.

Zika: Blame the right ministry cybernuts

But first:

China government catches corrupt officials. US and Europe catch terrorists. The Philippines catch drug dealers. Malaysia trying to catch No 1 boss.
Singapore govenment trying to catch mosquitoes.

(FB post)

It got this reply from my Facebook avatar:

Taz’s why 70% vote for the PAP. LOL. Better to have to deal with mosquitoes rather than corrupt officials, terrorists or drug dealers. LOL.

Yes we have problems, not juz trivial ones like Zika and a dysfunctional MRT line.

There is the huge problem of effecting peaceful change in a de-facto in a one party state when the PAP goes the way of the USSR communist or Chinese Communist parties.

OK, OK I know the cybernuts from TRE and TISG say that the PAP has already gone rogue,

But do we really have problems with corrupt officials, terrorists or drug dealers? The cybernut rats of TRELand and TISG say we have. Just go read what they say.

Talking of Zika, just like the cybernuts from TRE and TISG to blame the wrong ministry. They are screaming at MoH. TISG even went to allege that the NEA was unprofessional in the fight against Zika. 

But given that Zika is transmitted by the Aedes mosquito, which also carries denguem if the Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources (MEWR) and its NEA had really done its work on dengue prevention (preventing mosquitoes from breeding and zapping them), I’m sure we wouldn’t be in the words of the FT,

at the centre of the largest single outbreak of the disease in Asia, with the number of cases in the city-state rising to 275 this week, according to an update on Tuesday. 

Harry rise from yr grave, the mosquito zappers need eradication. And the Circle Line needs fixing.

Fix these things, and we’ll forgive you for creating the mess that the elected presidency is today. One of these days, I’ll post on why he and the PAP were too clever by half on this issue.

Tech progress and bad times

Let us go into the weekend with an optimistic, questing spirit. Set aside your macro worries, the flippant or dangerous pronouncements of our political class, or portentous terms such as “secular stagnation”. Sometimes the grimmest times are also the most technologically fruitful, seeding multi-squillion dollar opportunities. Apple launched its iPhone just before the global financial crisis. The dire decade that was the 1930s has been called the most technologically progressive of all time, incubating inventions such as radar, the jet engine and nylon. And capital markets play a part in all this, sluicing funds towards where those great opportunities lie.

Letter from Lex a few months ago

LGBT flag has no pink and other Gay facts

The above is the LGBTs’ “rainbow” flag. No pink. So why got “Pink Dot”?

Pink was in the original flag:

The eight different colours of Baker’s original flag each represented a different aspect of life. These were:

• Pink – sexuality

• Red – life

• Orange – healing

• Yellow- sunlight

• Green – nature

• Turquoise – art

• Indigo – harmony

• Violet – human spirit

The number of stripes was later reduced to six. Blue replaced turquoise and pink and indigo were removed.

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-36538429

It seems pink mayerial was not easy yo get hold off. And so was dropped. Remember in those days. there were no fat cat sponsors like Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Google or Apple. Oayness was not respectable like today where big MNCs have to show that gay culture is part of corporate culture.

And why is “pink” associated with gays?

The pink triangle (German: Rosa Winkel) was one of the Nazi concentration camp badges, used to identify male prisoners who were sent there because of their homosexuality.

Wikipedia

Using bitcoin technology

Blockchain is the technology behinf bitcon. And banks are studying how to use it to transfer $.

 

Banks say the greater safety that will come with a “golden record” of trades — one ledger that updates in real time as trades are executed.

There will be cost saving, as a fully synchronised and digitised settlement operation makes cumbersome, labour intensive back offices redundant

There will also be capital saving, as the time delay between transactions being executed and settled is reduced,

The problem: no reversal for honest mistakes, or fraud: transfer is transfer

 

Gd Cantonese description of our parliament?

‘Rubbish Council’

The word rubbish also sounds like legislative in Cantonese so obviously….

In HK, the Legislative Council (LegCo) is the body that passes and rejects laws, and approves the government’s budget. It’s HK’s parliament.

Some call it “Rubbish Council” (punning on how the words “legislative” and “rubbish” sound similar in Cantonese), arguing the legislators are all talk and no action. BBC Online

Like in S’pore, major constitutional changes, including changes to the voting system, need to be passed by a two-thirds majority in the council (parly here). Pro-Beijing parties always win more seats but the “democrat” lobby always have at least 24 seats so they can veto changes they disagree with. And they’ve used this power repeatedly

In the latest LegCo elections on Sunday, the “democrat” lobby retained its veto power. They now have 30 seats.

Here the PAP can suka suka change the constitution because it has more than two-thirds majority, courtesy of 60- 70% of the voters.

Even if LegCo is Rubbish Council, the “democrat” lobby has a veto on constitutional changes.

Funny Goh Meng Seng and Uncle Redbean don’t praise the Hongkies for being smart enough to ensure that the pro-Beijing parties and China can be thwarted.

FYI, going in for cataract surgery on the right eye later today. After the final post op check-up (left eye) on Monday was offered an op on Tuesday on the right.

How govt can see everything on yr smartphone

But first, don’t use yr mobile overseas is what the Finnish Security Intelligence Service, Supo is telling Finnish residents

Supo is worried about gaps in the security of foreign networks, national broadcaster Yle reports. Supo says the best idea is not to travel with the devices at all, but if Finns decide that’s not practical, then they should exercise caution.

Spokesman Tuomas Portaankorva tells Yle that people “should not speak on the phone about confidential matters abroad”, because networks may not be secure. That might be an oversight, or deliberate, he says. There’s also a malware risk, and the possibility that foreign security services can access people’s phone and SIM card data when using a network abroad.

“The advice to leave phones at home especially applies to work phones, but I wouldn’t really want to take my phone to certain countries either,” Mr Portaankorva says.

http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-37255810

How Spy Tech Firms Let Governments See Everything on a Smartphone By NICOLE PERLROTH The NSO Group sells expensive surveillance tools for criminal and terrorism inquiries, but critics say they are also used to track journalists and rights activists.

Related BBC link

Security-savvy human rights lawyer Ahmed Mansoor found himself targeted by the attack when his iPhone received a message promising “secrets” about torture happening in prisons in the United Arab Emirates.

Had he tapped on the link, the phone would have been plundered. Huge amounts of private data: text messages, photos, emails, location data, even what’s being picked up by the device’s microphone and camera.

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-37192670

“The Idiots — S’pore” keeps on promoting divisiveness?

Previously TISG was causing divisiveness between FTs and locals. OK, OK it was what many (including self) tot TISG was doing.

This time isn’t TISG using the Zika outbreak to cause divisiveness between the WP and a govt agency, the NEA, and between S’poreans and the NEA? What won’t some people do for eyeballs?

Seriously, what does the “I” in TISG stands for?

“I” in TISG stands for “Idiots” or  at the very least “Incompetents”. It surely can’t stand for “Indians” as there are many intelligent, responsible Indians and there are now two non Indians at Team TISG.

Here’s the latest humorously sordid episode from the series The Idiots — Singapore. Aljunied GRC issued the following statement on FB following two articles in The Idiots — Singapore

There are some divisive stories going around online that NEA has not been assisting the Town Council in the fight against Zika. This is not true. We have been highlighting that Town Council and NEA are working closely to implement various control measures at the Bedok North Ave 3 cluster.

One main allegation is about NEA not giving MP Faisal informational brochures for Operation Kaki Bukit on Thursday, 1st September. This is not true. Town Council ran out of NEA brochures on mosquito-control and the 5-step Mozzie Wipeout for HDB flats, and only had brochures for private properties. One of our volunteers contacted NEA for urgent assistance and, despite being stretched by the situation, NEA specially delivered 500 copies of the HDB brochures to the Kaki Bukit Town Council office in the afternoon for the outreach operation.

Why then did we print our own flyers? Because we had to cover some 1,500 households in that one evening and we were afraid that 500 copies would not be enough. Our volunteers scrambled to produce a flyer putting together information from MOH and NEA website with easy infographics to get the message across. We printed 500 copies of this flyer, not to replace the NEA brochures, but to distribute them if we run out of the NEA brochures.

Mosquitoes don’t differentiate between blue and white; we all bleed red. We fight Zika together as one Singapore.

The Idiots  — Singapore responded

The Aljunied-Hougang Town Council released a statement referring to some divisive stories going around online that NEA has not been assisting the Town Council in the fight against Zika (reference:https://www.facebook.com/aljuniedcommunity/posts/1166117166782829).

Two articles appeared on TISG on the topic. One is an inhouse report (http://theindependent.sg/nea-assists-pap-mp-to-reach-out-in…), and the other is an op-ed (http://theindependent.sg/zika-endemic-shines-spotlight-on-s…). The op-ed referenced the in-house report.

After the in-house report was published, a Workers’ Party volunteer who was involved in the outreach in the affected cluster on 1 Sep, private messaged us requesting that we credit the pictures used in the article accordingly, and also to credit an ex-NCMP in the story. We did as requested. At no point in time did the volunteer, raise any objections that the in-house report was inaccurate.

We assumed that the active volunteer represented the town council and therefore the report was accurate. We are therefore surprised that AHTC would raise the topic of ‘divisive politics’, when they did not do so when its volunteer got in touch with us when the first report was published.

TISG welcomes all parties who may feel aggrieved in one way or another by what we publish to contact us at news@theindependent.sg.

We will be happy to amend our pieces, publish updates, publish corrections, and even publish apologies.

We want to build awareness, not animosity. We will grant you the right of reply if we feel that you have unjustly suffered.

What a lot of bull from The Idiots — S’pore:

— Why was the in-house report worded in the way it was? So easy to have written about the issue as viewed from a WP volunteer without making it sound as though WP had issues with NEA.

— And this is really trying to be too clever by half (but maybe the eyeballs $ worth the BS even though it’s “peanuts”: $9,000 a month at best.)

We assumed that the active volunteer represented the town council and therefore the report was accurate. We are therefore surprised that AHTC would raise the topic of ‘divisive politics’, when they did not do so when its volunteer got in touch with us when the first report was published.

The publisher and two senior editors are experienced citizen editors with pretty decent track records at TOC before it became Terry’s Online Channel.

---

A critical FB post

This is one of the most half-assed takebacks I’ve seen, and smacks of the “rush to publish”. Two points for the editors to consider. 1) Did you contact the Workers Party to seek their comments before you published the original in-house report, and if so, did you give them reasonable time to reply? I’m assuming the answer is no, because you took the WP quote in your piece straight from this Facebook post linked below. “happy to amend our pieces” is one thing; you should be confirming the facts of the piece /before/ you publish them. https://www.facebook.com/aljuniedcommunity/posts/11647457569199702) Just because a volunteer from the WP contacted you and didn’t correct the record fully doesn’t afford you the right to claim that as a defense against erroneous reporting. If an official spokesperson or senior MP from the party or its committee contacted you? Sure. But one volunteer? You could also have taken that contact as an opportunity to clarify the party’s official response/position on the matter – but I’m guessing you didn’t, either. It’s sloppy journalism all around, and the tone of your response’s last two paragraphs suggests you don’t think it’s sloppy at all.

—————————————————————-

And here I was, on Saturday, commending The Idiots — S’pore

Waz strange is that TISG is not using these facts to “attack” FTs to attract eyeballs; something that it was perceived to be doing in the recent past. Whatever, good that it is not trying inadvertently “to  promote feelings of ill-will and hostility between different races or classes of the population of Singapore”.

It’s getting very clear that The Idiots — S’pore is trying “to promote feelings of ill-will and hostility between different races or classes of the population of Singapore” so that it can attract eyeballs. And that the Zika outbreak is juz another opportunity “to promote feelings of ill-will and hostility between different races or classes of the population of Singapore”.

So The Idiots — S’pore should cut out the pretence: “We want to build awareness, not animosity. Juz say: “We want to promote feelings of ill-will and hostility between different races or classes of the population of Singapore so that we can make money.”

And seriously isn’t it time, given the allegations made by The Idiots — S’pore  against the NEA for the state to take action against The Idiots — S’pore? I mean Amos Yee was charged for a lot less.

But then remember this claim? P Ravi, while rowing with various people recently (mainly from TOC allied people) on journalistic and editorial standards of integrity said (boastingly?) on Facebook:“Government and related agencies see us as a useful loudhailer.” For the context in which he said this, scroll down to almost the bottom until you see his photo, the text is somewhere below: http://www.theonlinecitizen.com/2016/08/09/tisg-lashes-out-in-response-to-ncmp-daniel-gohs-remarks-on-its-article/.

 

 

Antidote to PAP scaremongering/ How elites see us

Next time any PAPpy tries to scaremonger us by saying that without PAP hegemony, the economy will collapse remember this extract from BBC Online on Brexit.

‘Booming economy’

“The economy is booming following the vote to leave the EU,” declares the Daily Express lead story about what it describes as “startling new figures” showing a record rise in manufacturing.

It says the “respected” Markit/CIPS UK manufacturing index unveiled the biggest month-on-month jump in its 25-year history.

The paper says it has “dealt a blow to the Remain campaigners Project Fear doom and gloom predictions”.

The Financial Times also carries the story, with the headline: “Busy factories fuel pro-Brexit MPs’ claims of Treasury scaremongering.”

“The figures showed activity in Britain’s factories hit a 10-month high in August, the latest sign that the economy may be recovering its poise after the initial shock of June’s Brexit vote.”

According to the paper, Barclays analysts say business nerves have been settled by the “speedy formation” of Theresa May’s government, the interest rates cut and a signal that the chancellor will ease austerity.

However, the FT adds that Philip Hammond told colleagues it was “too early” to say whether the economy had emerged in good shape after the Brexit vote and he was awaiting further economic data.

Remember this letter to the Economist

Peggy Noonan summed up nicely the situation behind the rise of populism in America and Europe in her recent essay, “How Global Elites Forsake Their Countrymen”. For Ms Noonan, “Those in power see people at the bottom as aliens whose bizarre emotions they must try to manage”.

DON POWELL
Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida

Duterte receives horse’s head

OK not on his bed but in his home city of  Davao where his daughter is the mayor.

And OK it’s not a horse’s head but 14 dead bodies.

— At least 14 people have been killed in a bomb attack in the home city of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte. 

Dozens more were wounded in the explosion at a packed market in the southern city of Davao.

A presidential spokesman said investigators had found shrapnel from a mortar-based improvised explosive device (IED) at the scene.

— The Abu Sayyaf militant group was responsible for a bomb attack in the home city of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte which killed at least 14 people, the government has said.

BBC reports

Well it could easily be narco lords fed-up with him.

Let’s see if he really has balls or is like the film producer in the Godfather.

FTs and Zika/ The dog that didn’t bark

Did you know that FTs account for 35% of the Zika cases here? OK 34.78% leh

Taz the conclusion based on the u/m facts reported in the FT

— the total number of confirmed cases rose to 115 in the largest single outbreak of the virus in Asia; and

— 21 Chinese nationals, 13 Indian citizens and six Bangladeshi nationals among the Zika cases in Singapore, according to authorities.

Emphasis mine.

Waz strange* is that TISG is not using these facts to “attack” FTs to attract eyeballs; something that it was perceived to be doing in the recent past. Whatever, good that it is not trying inadvertently “to  promote feelings of ill-will and hostility between different races or classes of the population of Singapore”.

*Gregory (Scotland Yard detective): “Is there any other point to which you would wish to draw my attention?”

Holmes: “To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time.”

Gregory: “The dog did nothing in the night-time.”

Holmes: “That was the curious incident.”

Silver Blaze by  Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Uodate at 2.00pm: Reader pointed out that the mozzies don’t like FT blood: Considering that 40% of the total population is foreigner, and 55% of the working adult population is foreigner …. this means that a smaller proportion of foreigners compared to Sinkies are being infected. Either foreigners have stronger genes or they exercise better mozzie control than Sinkies or the local mozzies can’t stand the smell/taste of foreigner blood.

Your genes need regular 6-day holidays

Make sure u take regular 6-day hols.

BBC Online reports

Banish the blues

The Daily Telegraph reports on a study that suggests the physical and psychological benefits of a holiday can last for a month after returning home.

Scientists discovered that “just six days away is enough to trigger genetic changes which dampen stress, boost the immune system and lower levels of proteins linked to dementia and depression”, writes the paper of the US study.

“Although previous studies have shown that getting away has a positive impact on mental health, the new research is the first to prove that a break can actually change how a person’s genes function.”

California dreamin’

The study involved 94 healthy women, aged between 30 and 60, who stayed at a retreat in California for six days, the Daily Mail reports.

Researchers collected blood samples and interviewed participants before and after their stay and compared the activity of 20,000 genes for signs of any alterations.

“Genes that are normally needed for dealing with injury, wound healing and stress were far less active immediately after the holiday,” the paper says.

---

Dogs really smart

“They hitched themselves to us, which was a pretty good gamble as it turned out, because there are about a billion dogs in the world today and probably not even 10 million wolves.”

And this from BBC Online

Who’s a good boy?

It doesn’t make a front page lead, but it’s certainly a good tale.

Research from Hungary suggests dogs really do understand what their owners say – as long as they mean it.

“Scientists claim to have found proof that canines use both sides of their brains to understand the meaning and intonation of words in much the same way that humans process language,” the i reports.

The researchers tracked neural activity in dogs as they listened to commands from their owners.

Reward centre

The Times says that the study, published in the Science journal, revealed that when an owner said “good boy” or “well done”, the phrases lit up the reward centre in their dog’s brain much more powerfully if they were spoken in a gentle voice.

The i adds: “When meaningless words were spoken in an encouraging voice or praise was delivered in a neutral tone, the dogs did not register the same neural effect.

“Simply saying ‘good dog’ will not do the trick; the owner has to mean it.”

---

“Dollars and Sense” of a Hawker Stall

Here’s a really good post on the economics of starting a hawker stall and then running it http://dollarsandsense.sg/how-much-does-it-cost-to-run-a-hawker-stall-in-singapore/

But does the “Estimated Monthly Cost” include the “wages” that the two entrepreneurs pay themselves? If they had employees, the employees’ wages would be included under this heading. But as they are both bosses and workers, it isn’t clear if “Cost” includes their “wages”.

Makes a big difference on the real bottom line.

Initial Cost Of Starting Hawker Stall (Inclusive Of Opportunity Cost)

(Excluding Apprenticeship Fee)

$40,000

Monthly Operating Cost$11,000 – $15,000

Estimated Daily Revenue	$1,000	Based on assumption of 200 Customers, average spending of $5
Estimated Monthly Revenue	$22,000	22 working days per month
Estimated Monthly Cost	$13,000
Estimated Monthly Gross Profit	$9,000

 

 

Zika shows alternative media at its best and worst

Reading alternative media and the constructive nation-building media, would one know the following (on Tuesday morning) about the Zika outbreak?

The Singapore outbreak appears to be localised. Of the 26 new cases identified in Singapore on Tuesday, 22 live or work near the Aljunied neighbourhood in the south-east of the city where 56 cases were confirmed earlier this week. [OK FT had not heard about Bedok case]

At least 36 of the Singapore Zika patients are foreign construction workers …[They] live in dormitories separate from the local population, reducing the risks of transmitting illnesses.

You might just. Many in the alternative media, and the PAP administration’s media allies (or worse) have good reasons to complicate the facts and issues.

So three cheers for the WP, and people in the alternative media like Chris K ,  Daniel Yap and others in Team TMG, Terry and others in Team TOC (“All the measures now by MOH are only implemented after the first find” is more than fair comment) and Alex Au (a super piece on Zika), are doing the right thing by asking relevant questions or pointing out the PAP administration’s BS.

We need more citizen analysts and journalists like Chris K, Alex Au  Daniel Yap and his team at TMG (Yes even though there is there someone who wanted to be a Sith Lord until told the vacancy had been filled), Terry and his team at Terry’s Online Channel, SgDaily* and Forever Vagabond (If he keeps away from Nathan, OTC, investments, SMRT and DBS and focuses on social injustice here).

They believe like CP Scott “Comment is free, but facts are sacred”

---

Charles Prestwich Scott (26 October 1846 – 1 January 1932) was a British journalist, publisher and politician. Born in Bath, Somerset,^[1] he was the editor of the Manchester Guardian(now the Guardian) from 1872 until 1929 and its owner from 1907 until his death. He was also a Liberal Member of Parliament and pursued a progressive liberal agenda in the pages of the newspaper.

(Wikipedia)

———————–

And we need a lot less of those in Team TISG** and the TRE cybernuts now joining TISG. They make the likes of Mad Dog and Goh Meng Seng sound pretty rational. At least Mad Dog and GMS don’t pretend to anything other than partisan.

---

Cover-up? What cover-up?

My response to the almost similarly worded rants by the SDP and TISG (Sharing resources isit? That poor?) is

If there was a cover-up i.e, we’d not be told there was one case. And then told that there were 41 cases with more to come. We’d not be told nothing. And that the clean-op activity etc were “Juz precautions leh. Cannot isit?”

MoH was complacent and was “caught with their pants down” even if on the issue of “alarm” in the Zika case, I’m on govt’s side, like I was over haze and masks when a prominent blogger went bananas a few yrs ago.

I’m not the only one who has issues with the usual suspects. Here’s a non-partisan view from a person working in communications

Singapore had its first confirmed case of Zika on 28 August 2016, and the Singapore Ministry of Health (MOH) issued a press statement on the same day and called for a press conference the next day. Unfortunately, when it comes to managing issues concerning viruses (especially when the symptoms are mild and can be easily misdiagnosed) retrospective diagnosis is not uncommon. Thus when further testing on previously undiagnosed cases were done, the number of confirmed Zika cases rose literally overnight. When these additional numbers were subsequently made public, alternates were quick to accuse the MOH for deliberately hiding information from the public.

 

What is disconcerting is that these unfounded allegations against the Government hinders the proper and effective flow of important health information to the public. Instead of focusing the public on what they should and can do to protect themselves from the Zika virus, the public is distracted to focus on a non-existent witch-hunt. Valuable government resources are then diverted from dealing with the crisis to dispelling unfounded rumors.

 

As communications consultants, we constantly advocate for information to be released as soon as possible to stay ahead of the social media cycle. However, we also advise clients tobalance the need for speed with the need for accuracy. This is because false positives can cause unnecessary panic (especially in instances concerning public health) and this will affect the credibility of the organization and any subsequent message that is released.

 

Not being privy to what the MOH knew, or the thinking behind their decision, we can only speculate. What we do know is that when dealing with a crisis, there are usually trade-offs when deciding what to communicate with the public. In the case of Singapore’s first confirmed case of locally transmitted Zika, we assess that the MOH needed to decide whether to unnecessarily alarm Singaporeans (and visitors to Singapore which will impact the economy), or to allow the Government to be accused of a cover-up. Rightly or wrongly, we noted that the MOH chose to be responsible and opted not to cause alarm.

http://cwfong.blogspot.sg/2016/08/crisis-management-communications-zika-singapore.html

But let’s be fair. The PAP administration has in recent months shown yet again that its preferred option is to avoid telling S’poreans anything that is inconvenient to the administration. Think “Traingate” and “SGHgate”.

So reasonable people have grounds not to trust the PAP administration’s version of anything, giving TISG’s and the cybernuts’ rantings some credibility.

————————

What annoys me is the Goh Meng Seng’s, TISG’s, SDP’s etc rants are full of misleading information, allegations and wrong assumptions: “Facts are irrelevant when it comes to criticising the PAP administration”.

This doesn’t help the responsible people in alternative media and those of us opposed to the PAP’s hegemony connect with the swing voters. Worse, misleading or false  information, allegations and wrong assumptions, mean that the reality of the PAP administration’s cock-ups and misdeeds are often ignored by swing voters because the news and analysis comes from alternative media, and the swing voter associates alternative media with the likes of TISG and TRELand.

Finally, juz wondering, if the TRE turned TISG cybernuts will attract to TISG rabid TRE posters like Oxygen***, Dosh, GreatEagle etc? TISG must hope that Oxygen will migrate to a new and better rats’ nest. He was rumoured to have donated $10,000 to TRE in 2015. TISG sure can use that kind of money.

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*My Facebook avatar can post links on the SgDaily’s wall.

** The boast “Government and related agencies see us as a useful loudhailer.” is really surprising.

***Example: The 69% are TOO STUPID TO EVEN KNOW THEY ARE STUPID – some even clapping fictitious CPF returns of 2.5% to 3% per annum (really is MONOPOLY money credited to their imprisoned CPF accounts cannot be withdrawn) when global interest rate is 1.5% or negative for even 10-yr govt bond yields.

Other stupid Sinkies voted PAPpy looking skyward IMAGINING their property values will soar higher with municipal carrots dangling in front of their greedy eyes. ALL STUPID – even prime waterfront property hold for 10 years lost millions of dollars.

Here is my evidence.

https://sg.finance.yahoo.com/news/1-4-mil-loss-reflections-000000355.html

And there are also IDIOTS AMONG THE 70% Sinkies thinks PAPpy immigration policy of massive influx will bring in rich Ah Tiongs to chase their property value up.

WRONG!!! stupid again.

 

 

 

US tech giants in war with EU and BIC

As Apple “rages” over its13bn euros tax demand from the European Commission, the US Treasury is warning that the ruling against Apple “could threaten to undermine foreign investment, the business climate in Europe, and the important spirit of economic partnership between the EU and US”.

Earlier this yr NYT Dealbook reported

Why the World Is Drawing Battle Lines Against American Tech Giants. European efforts to rein in the largest American tech companies are only a taste of what countries like Brazil, India and China are likely to do.

• NYT »

Akan datang “Schooling the picture book”

Here I wrote that I hoped that the publisher and author of The Art of Charlie Chan would do two graphic novels on Schooling. One would be constructive-nation building (which would have MoE ordering the book by the container-load), the other subversive.

Well my sources in the publishing industry tell me that a reputable publisher (I deliberately nit names the pub;isher) has received a picture book manuscript about the Schooling story.

So hopefully there’ll be something classy to commemorate the Schoolings’ achievement, not something cheap and cheerful to cash in on his fame.

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Eurasians woz did it

His parents really believed that he could win an Olympic gold medal.

They borrowed money from the bank to fund his expenses.

Now race horse owners have been known to borrow to buy horses and train them, hoping that they’ll make money. But I’ve never come across an owner who’ll borrow the finance juz the one horse. They are not that reckless.

All this leads me to wonder what if the parents were not Eurasians (OK, OK I know May’s a true blue Chinese lady) but were Chinese, Indian or Malay: would Joseph have been funded? I suspect not.

Being a multi-racial and multi-cultutal society has its advantages.

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Coming back to a subversive version of the Schooling story, maybe a better way of doing one is for a story in which Ang Peng Siong wins a silver or bronze Olympic medal and for him to then train Schooling to win a gold. The twist would be that all this happens in a S’pore where Lim Chin Seong won the 1963 GE and his is the ruling party since then (as in the Art of Charlie Chan).

Amos on Schooling

Joseph Schooling info:

Left Singapore and his secondary school Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) at 14 to go to America
Lives in: America
Speaking accent: American
Secondary School: Bolles School in Florida (America)
University: University of Texas (America)
Trains swimming: In America
Swimming Coach: Eddie Reese (American)
Swimming Inspiration: Micheal Phelps (American)

Singapore shouldn’t be proud of Joseph Schooling for winning the Olympic Gold, America should

Hey Amos, in the US one Olympic gold medal is “peanuts”: nothing to get excited about.

Amos cracks great jokes.