For the last week, I keep getting on my FB wall an ad that begins
Motley Fool Singapore CEO David Kuo has just opened up an extremely limited number of seats to his private, invitation-only investment club, Stock Advisor Gold.
If so limited, why do I see this ad every day?đ¤ŁÂ
Talking cock this fool David Kuo.
He took a $3000 bribe. What a cheapskate.
MAS also served notice of its intention to issue POs against the Chief Executive Officer of NRA Capital (NRA), Mr Kevin Scully, and its former Head of Research, Mr Lee Chee Waiy.
Through Mr Ang*âs introduction, NRA was appointed to perform the valuation of PetroSaudi Oil Services Limited (PSOSL). On 24 May 2017, Mr Ang was convicted of an offence under the Prevention of Corruption Act for bribing Mr Lee with S$3,000 to expedite the preparation of the valuation report on PSOSL.
MAS said Mr Lee had been the primary person in NRA working on the valuation. Apart from accepting the bribe, he was also found to have applied inappropriate methodology and assumptions in the valuation of PSOSL. As CEO of NRA, Mr Scully had failed to ensure that his analyst, Mr Lee, had exercised sufficient care, judgment and objectivity in the valuation of PSOSL, MAS added.
Read more at http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/financial-penalties-imposed-on-credit-suisse-and-uob-for-1mdb-8894194
*Mr Ang Wee Keng Kelvin, a former remiser at Maybank Kim Eng Securities.
Related post on financial people doing risky but unluctative things that have negative consequences for their careers.Â
They’ll demand to be benchmarked against the top executives Apple and other tech cos, not juz Peter Lim and local bank CEOs?
From NYT Dealbook
Apple is 40 percent more valuable than Chicago. Technology companies have grown so large that theyâve surpassed the economic value of major American cities, according to data from Bank of America-Merrill Lynch, which compared company market capitalizations to metropolitan gross domestic product. â Marketwatch
Especially in S’pore unless u are paid like a PAP minister.
According to the financial-ratings agency Fitch, the average car spends 96% of its usable life parked in a garage or on the street. When maintenance, depreciation, insurance and running costs are totted up, cars are the most underutilised asset most consumers own.
Economist blog
There is little point in seeking to convert voters who are committed to another party, or indeed strong supporters already on your side.
Instead, parties are increasingly focused on the “waverers” and “undecideds” – the people whose votes are going to win elections.
But it’s hard work and needs money. The latter is a real problem here for Oppo parties unless they have MPs and a town council to milk.
Campaign techniques which focus on big data usually begin long before polling day – maybe six or nine months before.
Finding ‘Essex Man’
To do this, the parties go to great lengths to combine a whole range of data sources.
First, they use their own canvass returns – information about voting intentions – collected on the doorstep and the telephone over the course of a few years.
The most recent information collected from voters is now uploaded in real time.
This tells the parties if the would-be voter is a committed supporter, “waverer” or “undecided”.
They then combine this with market research data, which tells them more about the individual – demographic characteristics such as age, sex, education level, income and family size.
This is the information which has led parties to create key target groups at past elections – so-called “Essex Man” or “school gate mums”, for example.
In turn, these are then combined with further information the parties have gathered on the doorstep, from telephone calls and social media engagement.
Tailored leaflets, Facebook posts and other messages reflecting the voter’s interests and concerns can soon follow.
So, while a family with young children might receive a leaflet about what has been done for primary schools in the area, their retired neighbour may receive a different circular about what is being done to help pensioners.
But the PAP and WP are right about one thing:
Over the last six elections, the one approach that works better than all others when persuading voters is face-to-face contact.
It’s a lesson the SDP is finally learning. No more “Parachuting in on nomination day”. They leave that to the Parachutist Extraordinaire (Three GEs, three different parties and decreasing share of the vote), the No Substance Party and the Chiams.
The ST report see below is BS because at the end it reports a WWF person saying “there are no shark fisheries that have been independently certifies sustainable”.
How much did the shark fins’ sellers association pay for this ad?
đŚThank goodness for WWF’s Janissa Ng weighing in at the end of the article about how “there are no shark fisheries that have been independently certifies sustainable”. Can only hope people read this till the end..
In cyberspace, from the early noughties onwards, S’poreans were telling him and his millionaire ministers that we needed better quality FTs, not Trash by the cattle truck load. Err we were “unhappy” people according to him.
Only yesterday did he agree with us saying
“We have to manage the inflow carefully, and make sure that the people who come can integrate into our society, make sure they have the abilities and skills to contribute to our economy, and make sure their hearts are in the right place and they will become good Singaporeans. We are a country, not simply a city or an economy.”
Read more at http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/singapore-has-to-manage-population-growth-carefully-pm-lee-8888750
What took him so long?
Worse, despite his double first in Maths, he got problem in counting, a bit like Uncle Leong:
About 30,000 babies are born as citizens every year and, to top up, about 20,000 foreigners become new citizens annually.
With about 50,000 new citizens every year, Singapore can “almost sustain a stable population”, he added.
Err what about the PRs and those on employment passes? Why they not included in the 50,000 bodies needed to “sustain a stable population”. After all, PRs are part of the resident population.
(Yup it’s pak Mad Dog time: fourth Mad Dog piece in a row.)
Mad Dog and other anti-PAP nuts donât tell us (Because they don’t know? Or they like PAP, like to “hide” inconvenient facts?) that thereâs a 2016 Chinese agreeement to invest in three new megaberths here which will ensure Sâpore maintains its position as a major port along One Belt One Road and global maritime routes.
Hong Kong-based COSCO Pacific and PSA Singapore have signed a new investment agreement in Shanghai, China today to co-invest in three new mega berths at the Phases 3 and 4 expansion of the Pasir Panjang Terminal which was opened last year.
The investment will be implemented through a joint venture Cosco-PSA Terminal (CPT) and allow for the arrival of mega container ships at the new container berths in anticipation of trade growth and growth in size of boxships plying the international waters.
The new mega berths are slated to begin operations from 2017. According to PSA, they will be fully integrated with PSAâs infrastructure and supported by the automated and intelligent port technologies.
âThe co-investment agreement is strategically important to both partners and will help them up their competitive game. It is also a clear demonstration of China COSCO Shippingâs confidence in Singapore as a well-connected transhipment hub. I believe the project will also contribute positively to Chinaâs Maritime Silk Road initiative and âOne Belt, One Roadâ vision,â said Singaporeâs Senior Minister of State for Finance and Transport, Josephine Te0.
The above is dedicated to chief TRE cybernut “Oxygen” who says “Dr. Chee is right of âa nation stolenâ”.
He also thinks Bill Ng (Remember him?) is a greater investor than Warren Buffett: he has a point, Warren Buffett’s investments never paid rent at 10x the going rate to his wife. Bill’s Tiong Bahru FC did (and is doing).
MANY THINGS SEEM TO HAVE GONE WRONG SINCE HIS PASSING.
Ex SDP Chairman talking cock, juz like Dr Chee. LKY was very specific.
Even from my sickbed, even if you are going to lower me to the grave and I feel that something is going wrong, I will get up.
He had to be buried in a grave to return. He was cremated and put in urn. Actually taz why the Russian and other Eastern churches oppose cremation. Cannot rise on the day of judgment.
Maybe his children and the PAP didn’t want him rising from his grave and starting a revolution against the PAP (Shades of Mao) and so cremated him and sealed his remains in an urn making sure super strong industrial glue was used to seal the lid.
Btw, a better way than cremation:Â dissolving the body in an alkaline solution. More eco friendly. I hope S’pore introduces this. The water used can be recycled via the reservoir.
In Indonesia, save in Acheh, gay sex is not prohibited yet 141 men at a gay sauna were arrested in the capital, Jakarta, and similar arrests in the city of Surabaya were made, shrinking the space for Indonesian’s LGBT community.
Here u only cannot get foreign money for Pink Dot and your foreign anal buddies cannot join u at Pink Dot, a once a year LGBT picxk-up event.
Otherwise s377A criminalising yr anal activities is ignored.
Vote PAP.
And don’t ever vote SDP. While the party is supposedly gay friendly: at election time, it regularly fields hard line Muslims who openly attack LGBTs. One of them was even SDP chairman. The PAP doesn’t do such things. But then SDP is led by Mad Dog Chee.
Guess we now know why Jack decided to use M’sia, not S’pore, as a logistics base despite Alibaba owning a stake in SingPost. Alibaba knows who Beijing considers a friend.
Earlier this yr,
Alibaba kicked off its grand plan for global trade without frontiers with a bilateral deal designed to ease the passage of goods shipped by smaller businesses between China and Malaysia. The pact, established as a public-private partnership in Malaysiaâs digital free trade zone, will focus on infrastructure, including a fulfilment centre and co-operation on electronic payments and financing. So far, it is strictly logistics: favourable tariffs are still under discussion.
FT
Maybe Tan Kin Lian isn’t that whacko after all because some of the ideas he farted out during the PE2011 campaign seem to resemble some ideas that work for M5S. So maybe Goh Meng Seng not that nutty to associate himself wuth TKL.
***
The populist Five Star Movement (M5S), has become Italyâs biggest opposition group in about seven years. At the last general election in 2013, the M5S took a quarter of the vote. One other main Oppo party has imploded, and another is like our SDP, unelectable, M5S in government is no longer unthinkable.
It all began when an IT man persuaded an unemployed comedian to start a blog; yes a blog.
Neither of the two men who founded the movement in 2009 was a politician at the time. One was Beppe Grillo, a comedian in the mould of Michael Moore or Russell Brand. Mr Grillo has lent the M5S visibility and celebrity charisma. But it was his co-founder, Gianroberto Casaleggio, an IT executive, who gave it its distinctive character. Mr Grillo wrote that he first took the shaggy-haired internet buff to be a lunatic, but soon concluded he was a visionary. Mr Casaleggio persuaded the comedianâbanished from television because of his attacks on the powerfulâto start a blog. He then encouraged devotees of the blog to use the Meetup platform to form the local cells that laid the foundations for the M5S.
M5S sees the internet as the reason for its existence:
a medium remorselessly eliminating mediation of all kinds that will eventually destroy parties and make possible a form of direct democracy if the people control the government through constant voting over the web.
It doesn’t see itself as a political party
At the core of the movementâs philosophy is the view that it is not a party, but an organisation set up to get rid of parties, which many in Italy view as sources of patronage and graft. This is one of the things that distinguishes the M5S from other disruptive political groups such as Podemos or UKIP. The latter use the internet to rally support. The M5S sees it as the very reason for its existence: a medium remorselessly eliminating mediation of all kinds that will eventually destroy parties and make possible a form of direct democracy if the people control the government through constant voting over the web. This idealistic, almost Messianic, vision explains some of the Movementâs other distinguishing traits: its refusal to do deals with the pre-existing parties, its cult-like nature (dissidents are regularly purged in online ballots) and its insistence that it is neither of left nor right (since it aims to embrace the entire electorate).
http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2016/10/economist-explains-22
GIC’s sale of at a loss of part of its stake in UBS reminded me that one Harry Lee boasted that S’pore was even more long term than Buffett: it had a 30 yr horizon. Well he said that in 2007 or 2008 after GIC bot UBS and Citi and Temask bot Barclays (sold) amd Merrill Lynch (disappeared), so it turns out he was talking cock: like on being a good friend of China? He was a running dog of the US going by the quality of the US crowd versus that of the PRC crowd at his funeral.
Now this is serious long term
— Jardines (controlling shareholder of Hongkong Land where the land in Central now resides) first bought freehold land in Central in 1901, and
— HSBC has owned its nearby site since 1866.
And that’s nothing. The Duke of Westminster has properties in central London dating from the 17th century.
But first, it looks as though he’s not been taking his medicine and so is looney once more.
Two FB posts on the issue
I just watched M Ravi’s FB live. Wished he said more about his application on EP. But he got it wrong about Tan Cheng Bock being a Cabinet minister. And despite what anyone says about who can be PM, it’s up to the party in power to pick, as is the case in the Westminster system. His constant Tharman for PM refrain…I think it’s embarrassing for the poor man. I mean Tharman, not Ravi.
And
He appears to be entering one of his periods of mental instability … for example he just boasted about taking out an application to declare his bank mortgage void for uncertainty and unconscionable … He also criticised the Law Society of Singapore (not again …) I gave up listening after about 5 mins.
With enemies like him, the PAP doesn’t need friends. It can even afford MPs to go “rogue” after becoming ex MPs doing haram things.
Whatever, he’s not the only lawyer going bananas.
From NYT Dealbook
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Or dear, so Noble’s fell another third and the shares were suspended on Tuesday after S&P lowered its rating by three grades to triple C plus on Monday. The rating remains on a negative outlook.
Well things got even cheaper ,“Noble trades at less than a third of book value and its bonds below half their par value.”, if auditors can be trusted.
It needs to roll over US2bn in credit facilities by the end of May. And next yr, it has another US$1.5bn to refinance: US$700m in cash and US$400m of unused credit lines and some of this is  now collateral for hedges.
But how to refinance when there’s a lack of hard assets that can serve as collateral and when it’s difficult to independently value its portfolio of contracts to source and supply commodities?
Time to call in the knackers? After all Paul Brough, a former partner at accounting firm KPMG,  is now the chairman and has started a “strategic review”.
When a billionaire is US Commerce Sec, there’s out of the box thinking
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross suggested the White House would aim to boost LNG exports not just to China, but other nations with whom the United States posts a trade deficit, including Japan, the world’s top LNG importer.
http://www.cnbc.com/2017/05/19/trump-just-gave-china-a-sledgehammer-to-smash-the-lng-monopoly.html
Interesting tot.
Time for PM to appoint a billionaire to his cabinet (Kee Chui Peter Lim?). At the very least it’ll save tax-payers a million dollars or so a yr in ministerial salary.
From NYT Dealbook
 |
When Power Makes Leaders More Sensitive
Control doesnât always corrupt. With cultivation, it can make leaders more compassionate.
My FB avatar posted in response to Teo Soh Lung’s FB post (see below):
đGood sign for S’pore that young are interested in hearing the “unauthorised” narrative. Failed: MoE social studies curriculum.
The crowd at The Projector waiting to see 1987 Untracing the Conspiracy.
The anti-PAP cybernuts have been circulating Mad Dog’s “analysis” about GIC’s investment in UBS on social media.
What he doesn’t tell S’poreans is that when the deal was announced, the shareholders of UBS especially the Swiss retail investors were publicly complaining to the int’l and Swiss media that the deal was a sweet deal for GIC, short-changing them. They wanted a rights issue which they didn’t get and which they were really grateful when the shares tanked. They got on their knees and thanked mgt.
Why liddat Dr Chee? It’s an inconvenient fact that doesn’t fit yr “PAP are incompetent”analysis? Or u didn’t know? That blur isit?
Yes, GIC got the UBS investment wrong. But I didn’t hear Mad Dog or other anti-PAP activists, or cybernuts pointing out that it was a bad move at the time.
Dr Paul, can u and Wee Nam increase the dosage? Triple it at vey least. Maybe time to try something new? His relapses are getting a bit too frequent. Maybe call in Dr Ang Yong Guan to help? He specialises in nut cases doesn’t he?
Troubles never come singly for PM. After China showed what it tot of Harry’s son and S’pore by not inviting him to a big Beijing party
So why no invite our PM to big do?
đ¤Ł
(My FB avatar’s response to ass licking by a member of the PAP IB)
we are getting unwanted deputy national security person as US ambassador
It was also announced that the former Fox News pundit KT McFarland would leave her position as deputy national security adviser to be ambassador to Singapore. McFarland, who joined the White House with Flynn, had reportedly been at loggerheads with the national security adviser, HR McMaster.
Guardian
As troubles come in threes (as the saying goes), what next? Price of UBS goes threu roof, after GIC sold?
OK, Putin in 1991 when he was working for the mayor of St Petersburg.
Harry believed in the iron fist but in 1991 Putin said it would lead to  “totalitarianism”.
“But the danger lies not in the law enforcement organs, nor in the state security services nor in the police – and not even in the army. The danger lies in our own mentality. We all think – and even I think it sometimes – that if we bring order with an iron fist, life will be easier, more comfortable and safer. But in reality, we won’t be comfortable for long: the iron fist will soon strangle us all.”
But when Putin became top dog, he too believed in the “iron fist”.
Why liddat?
Many yrs ago the BBC asked LKY (when he was about to step down as MM) why he changed his views on issues like freedom of speech. He replied, laughingly, that there was a difference in running a country and juz talking about running a country. And that he learnt this the hard way courtesy of the British.
I remember the “peanuts” made by the S’pore MD of Rothschilds here who got into trouble in the late 80s or 90s with the law over a risky trade.
Lost a cushy job and his reputation for “peanuts”.
From NYT Dealbook
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Why People Persist in Risky Trading
When they have good careers, and their questionable deals donât even make that much, why do they do it? Perhaps itâs hubris, mixed with the lure of easy money.
The PAP administration is not singling out for bullying those with different sexual tastes. They are targeting all S’poreans who do not hold the “right” views.
So the LGBTs should stop KPKBing that they are being victimised, and trying to appease the PAP by saying some gays are “politicising” the movement, not them.
Hey guys by taking ang moh money and then successfullyraising funds locally when the ang moh avenue was closed, u guys were taking on the PAP authorities:
(Related post: Would this happen in a one-party state?)
A wannabe Jedi (from NTU’s School of Journalism who trained under a wannabe Seth Lordess turned traitor) posted this recently. Give him a fistbum.
A friend wrote this:
“Having read others’ criticisms of the prohibition of non-citizens from participating in this year’s Pink Dot, I am worried as much by the legislative amendment as the responses to this news, which seem to have comfortably but troublingly framed this as yet another example of how the LGBT community is targeted/ discriminated.
It isn’t. The amendment will affect every single assembly at Hong Lim Park. What this means is, when a rally is organised in solidarity with the Bersih, umbrella or saffron movement, the Malaysians, Hong Kongers and Burmese living in Singapore will not be able to participate. What this is is not so much an example of discrimination against the LGBT community but an example of the state flexing its muscles against civil society, narrowing the already-narrow space we have to contribute to a participative democracy.
The more fundamental question here is whether non-citizens deserve the right to freedom of assembly, to participate in political free speech and expression. This goes back not only to the November 2016 amendment of the Public Order (Unrestricted Areas) Order, but the framing of our Constitution: Article 14 is the only fundamental liberty that is reserved to citizens. In comparison, such constitutional rights, like the freedom of religion, are conferred to every person.
While emotive and appealing to get people up arms, I think it is troublingly distracting and unhelpful to characterise the current circumstances as discriminatory against the LGBT community.
Firstly, Pink Dot itself was an enactment of homonationalism itself and it just seems confusing to me that one can be outraged that foreigners are prohibited from participating when the meaning of that thing they are now prohibited from was never meant to include them. The colour pink was selected because as explained in Pink Dot’s About page, it is “the colour of our ICs and the colour when you mix red and white â the colours of our national flag”. (This issue definitely merits much deeper analysis, but I’ll just leave it for now.)
Secondly, if the attendance at Pink Dot was meant to convince the state of the increasing support for the LGBT community so that it would more likely repeal s 377A, this upcoming Pink Dot will provide, if well-attended, the strongest evidence yet. In my view, previous years’ participation by non-citizens and giant MNCs served a different purpose: to signal to the population, not the state, of the changing global attitudes. Seen in this way, isn’t the new amendment more helpful to the movement strategically? Of course, the only caveat is that citizens and PRs must now do their “civic duty” to participate in Pink Dot.
Lastly, the state has repeatedly emphasised its reasons for maintaining this less-than-balanced balance between the LGBT and conservative religious communities through pronouncements by Ministers and MPs alike in Parliament, at public talks and international interviews. The maintenance of religious harmony is of utmost and critical importance to the state, and it is not as much bigoted or malicious towards the LGBT community as it is striking a balance or compromise it deems fair to sustain the precarious “social stability” it has achieved thus far.
It seems therefore counterproductive for us to play into the imagined dichotomy of the state – that we are against “we are against pinkdot”/ FCBC/ Wear White as if we are two monolithic categories that are irreconcilably at odds with each other. It does not have to be this way; I believe this binary can be dismantled through a more mindful engagement with both the state and other parts of society. The goal cannot be to silence, convert or ‘win over’ these more oppositional groups in society (as we would do with the more ambivalent/ apathetic 80%) that they have to or should accept that homosexuality is not a sin but to live in a plural society where we can live with differences and disagreement.
Ultimately, this incident was yet another example of the reactionary character of our movement and as much as such tactics have served us well over the past many years to gain attention and raise awareness, it might be time to move towards a more calculated mode of advocacy. The “other side” might think that we are engaged in the culture war of this decade, and that is precisely how it succeeds in preserving the status quo. I believe we would be mistaken to do the same; rather, the only way we will win this “war” is when we can show that this is in fact not a war.
(I may have missed out other important aspects in my analysis and would love to hear what others think about this, as I have been mulling over it since the news broke to much agony!)”
Global oil services companies, including Halliburton of the US, still talk of the the patchy nature of the sectorâs recovery from the oil price crash of a few yrs ago. And we also have had a fall from the mid US$50s to the 40s to the 50s again recently.
So don’t play play with our offshore marine tiny tots.
Ravi and our other ang moh tua kee lawyers kanna brainwashed by ang mohs like this?
China human rights lawyer Xie Yang ‘admits being brainwashed’
Lawyers Like M (No, doesn’t stand for Mad) Ravi, Jeannette Chong and Teo Soh Lung  like this meh given their anti-PAP credentials and views on the rule of law? The first two got their law degrees in the UK.
A Chinese court says a prominent human rights lawyer, Xie Yang, has admitted being “brainwashed” overseas at his trial for inciting subversion.
It released transcripts in which he says he was trained in Hong Kong and South Korea to “develop Western constitutionalism in China”.
And while Mad Dog Chee, s/o JBJ and Kirsten Han are not lawyers, they do come across as having been brainwashed when they studied overseas what with their stance on human rights which 70% of the voters have no interest in. But to be fair to them, the cybernuts of TRELand also believe in these anti-PAP ideas even though they were educated in local (cha tor) neighbourhood schools.
============
M Ravi posted on FB a few weeks ago
Just spoke with the Legal Aid and Human Rights Centre in Tanzania ( LINK ) Â which will be challenging the mandatory death penalty regime in the country. Iâm honoured to be invited to be part of the legal team and to be working with the team led by lawyer Fulgence Massawe.
The Attorney General will be mounting a preliminary objection to the challenge to be heard next Monday. If we clear this preliminary objection, the matter will proceed to main hearing within 3 months and I will be attending the hearing to assist.
Looking forward to sharing my knowledge and experience of mounting the challenge against the mandatory death penalty here in Singapore.
===========
The Chinese lawyer is now repenting:
“My actions go against my role as a lawyer,” he said in the video released by the Changsha Intermediate People’s Court.
“I want to take this opportunity to express to other rights lawyers my view now that we should give up using contact with foreign media and independent media to hype sensitive news events, attack judicial institutions and smear the image of the nation’s party organs while handling cases.”
Time for local apers to repent too? And worship the 9th Immortal by kow towing and burning incense.
As an anglophile, I’m glad to see that elitism and meritocracy still go hand in hand in England, unlike in S’pore where there’s elitism but no meitocracy even if unlike in England there’s supposed to be only two classes, not many like in England
An Oxford University student who stabbed her boyfriend with a bread knife may not go to jail because it could damage her prospects of a medical career, a court has heard.
Aspiring heart surgeon Lavinia Woodward, 24, punched and stabbed her boyfriend during an alcohol-and-drug-fuelled row at Christ Church College. She admitted unlawfully wounding the Cambridge University student, who she met on the dating app Tinder.
Judge Ian Pringle QC, sitting at Oxford crown court, said he would take an âexceptionalâ course and defer sentence for four months, hinting that Woodward will not be jailed because of her talent. âIt seems to me that if this was a one-off, a complete one-off, to prevent this extraordinary able young lady from not following her long-held desire to enter the profession she wishes to would be a sentence which would be too severe,â he said.
Update at 2.45pm:Â he Daily Telegraph quotes her defence lawyer as saying that his client is not being offered “a soft option” but a chance to get her life back on track.
I was wrong. PM wasn’t invited to the summit meeting on the above, it seems, going by what Lawrence Wong is quoted as saying. He wasn’t aping Western leaders by declining the invitation and sending ka kiah instead.
When asked why Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong did not attend the Belt and Road Forum, which was attended by 29 heads of state and government, including many from South-east Asia, Mr Wong said the invitation was decided by the Chinese.
ST
So reasonable to assume that the Chinese did not invite Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.
Dad must be spinning in his coffin. He tot of himself as an old friend of China. How China treats old friends.Â
Noble trades at less than a third of book value and its bonds below half their par value.
Sounds a value propisition if the auditors can be trusted.
Whatever, the catch is that banks are cutting back even further their exposure to this trader. And traders need credit like vampires need a regular supply of fresh blood.
Right now Noble’s a zombie.
Phew, consulting my I-Ching made me hold off a decision to buy into this before the share consolidation.
Putting Organising Committe’s asses on the line. As my FB avatar put it “Forcing organisers to check ics isit? Then if one FT there, arrest organisers isit?”. (Explanation below for the blur.)
Siew Kum Hong (Remember him?) replied “those are the implied threats”.
But let’s begin at the beginning,
Here I wrote after congragulating the Pink Dot othanisers of getting rid of their ang moh tua kee mentality and trying to raise money from locals only
But the LGBT community should not be taking their pants off and treating themselves to a sexual orgy as a pat on the back. Thereâs trouble ahead. Iâll talk cock about this some other day.
I never got round to talking cock on the issue, but we now know how the Empire Struck Back
My foreboding was because in words of FB comment by someone
“Pink Dotâs success* is an indication that we need to reconsider the traditional approach towards the relationship between the government and civil society, and recognize the importance of civil society in bringing forward meaningful change in a pluralistic world.”
Or as my FB avatar responding to the news that Pink Dot met its funding target*
Well done Pink Dot organisers for getting rid of idea that only ang mohs tua kee. And well done local donors for showing that not all S’poreans are cheap skates. And the LGBT community should get on their knees and thank the PAP. Without the actions of the PAP administration, there would be many S’poreans (self included) who doubted that Pink Dot had local roots. But beware everyone, in a de facto one party state, the ruling party hates other groups that can organise without its co-operation.
As I wrote in Keeping power in a one-party state
Again, while not exactly true here âFear of competing narratives makes it drive some of Chinaâs brightest and best into exile or jailâ the PAPâs fear of competing narratives has stifled society here largely thru self censorship and self blinkered minds.
A successful NGO is a threat to the PAP or the CCP.
( Related post: Would this happen in a one-party state?)
BBC report on the exclusion of FTs: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-39916201 and this from 2013 on growing official and community acceptance of LGBTs http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-22088852
————————————–
*In just six weeks, Pink Dot has surpassed its own targets, raising over $201,000 and attracting 103 local sponsors. It was forced to turn to local funding after the government introduced a controversial ban on foreign sponsorship, which threatened the eventâs success.
Is S’pore the West’s running dog on the issue of One Belt One Rd?
Let me explain.
Delegates from more than 100 countries, including Putin and 27 heads of state, attended Xi’s recent summit on One Belt One Rd.
Mr Najib’s long-scheduled trip to Beijing next week, following President Xiâs personal invitation to his One Belt One Road summit …
(FT last week)
Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and Indonesia sent their leaders. Thailand may not have been invited. Why, I don’t know.
But Lawrence Wong represented S’pore. So our PM not invited isit? Why lidatt China?
Or, as is more likely, he was invited, but like many ang moh leaders, declined theinvitations to attend? Why liddat then PM? FT reports “that the largest economies in Asia and the west sent lower-level representatives.”
PM and PAP administration another bunch of amg moh tua kee wankers isit?
Looks like in S’pore, PAP and anti-PAP got plenty of ang moh tua kees. Aping the West is the in-thing among the PAPpists and anti-PAPpists.
And yet S’pore keeps saying it wants S’pore and S’porean to participate in the One Belt One Rd projects. Think China that stupid isit?
Wht don’t the ang moh tua kees don’t tell us that the USA has the equivalent of the Internal Security Act of detention without trial. They that stupid meh? Or their CIA masters order them not to diss the US of A.
Seriously, more evidence that Amos is a really dumb young adult to seek asylum in the land of the free “where the buffalo roam & the deer and the antelope play,Where seldom is heard a discouraging wordAnd the skies are not cloudy all day.”
Material witness warrants originate in the early 1800s, when getting hold of a witness who had left a jurisdiction before trial might involve a long day on horseback. They allowed lawmen to lock up key – “material” – witnesses at their convenience.
Sporadic use of the warrants caused little controversy until 9/11, when law enforcement seized on them as a means to detain terror suspects without probable cause. At least 70 men were held as material witnesses in the aftermath of the attacks while the Justice Department looked for evidence, according to a 2005 report by Human Rights Watch. A third of them were in prison for more than two months, some for more than six months, and one witness detainee spent more than a year in prison.
Someone arrested on a material witness warrant can in theory be detained indefinitely, and in most states detainees are not granted the basic constitutional protections afforded to suspects under arrest, such as Miranda rights, the right to a public defender, and the right to a prompt appearance before a judge.
Emphasis mine.
While our ang moh tua kees are KPKBing about hanging drug mules, detention without trial , LGBT rights and other ang moh preoccupations, they are missing something that will soon come here.
Beijing wants to give every citizen a credit rating for everything. Â Citizensâ ratings are to be linked with their identity-card numbers. The rating will be based on behaviour such as spending habits, turnstile violations, filial piety and “assembling to disrupt social orderâ. These scores can be used to blacklist citizens from loans, jobs and air travel.
It’s experimenting with
a âsocial-credit systemâ (see article). It says the idea is to harness digitally stored information to chivvy everyone into behaving more honestly, whether fly-by-night companies or tax- and fine-dodging individuals. … But the government also talks about this as a tool of âsocial managementâ: ie, controlling individualsâ behaviour. This is a regime that already tries to police how often people visit their parents. How much further could it go? Citizensâ ratings are to be linked with their identity-card numbers. Many fear that bad scores might result in sanctions, such as being denied a bank loan or permission to buy a railway ticket, even for political reasons. They have reason to worry. The government decreed this year that the system should record such vaguely defined sins as âassembling to disrupt social orderâ.
Economist
Already about 30 cities are experimenting with this system (Let a hundred flowers bloom?) and providing feed back to Beijing.
I sure that the PAP administration is monitoring developments closely with a view to making this âsocial-credit systemâ part of the smart city. programme.
After all the PAP administration has traditions of coercion and paternalism. It feels that it has a right to intrude on citizensâ lives. Even TLCs think they have the right. In the early days of the internet here (circa 2000) SingTel was “testing” customers’ security.
Public resentment has made no difference to Chinese and S’porean attempts to control dissent, Hard Truths say must crack down.Â
In China The routine succession of threats any government faces is more likely to lead to oppression than to a free, informed debate or a decision that the state should forsake the digital tools available.
Likewise here.
When “social credit” comes here, it will be a shock to the S’porean apers of the West.
We kept getting told that we got to adopt the Finnish education system by progressives. Here’s why we can’t suka suka import practices from other societies. When a UK school tried Chinese methods using PRC teachers
[A]s early as the second day reports were coming in that the pupils were behaving badly – disengaged with the lessons, chatting and not listening to their teachers.
Chinese teaching methods were on a collision course with teenage British culture and values. Our pupils are used to being able to ask questions of the teacher – they expect their views to be considered with respect.
Furthermore, British pupils expect to have variety in their learning. They are not used to being incarcerated in a large group and in the same classroom studying a very narrow curriculum.
But after some tweaks and
Perhaps as a result of the amount of time spent together, teacher-pupil relationships got better and some pupils began to express a preference for the Chinese style.
They liked having to copy “stuff” from the board as they thought this would help them remember it. Some more able pupils also liked the lecture style of the Chinese classroom.
is tweaking the algorithm that picks posts for feeds to do a better job of spotting “low quality” web pages.
Instead, the algorithm will seek out more informative posts.
It said the change was part of broader work it was doing to make Facebook less profitable for spammers.
The change was aimed at sites that contained “little substantive content” and were set up only to profit from users’ attention, it said.
When I saw this in http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-39873020
Did he really think he could have got away with an attack on Shanmugan that was based on a headline that misrepresented Shan’s nuanced views on the delicate relationship between public opinion and judicial punishments.
When I saw the headlined, I tot someone from Mothership or The Idiots — S’pore (Or does the “I” stand for “Indians”?) had joined Today. I didn’t read the article because no way a minister of law would say such a thing as “Penalties for crime must reflect public opinion: Shanmugam” without qualification. It was a click bait headline. Btw, I hear that some asses in Today have been badly bruised. So Donald Low shouldn’t feel that bad.
Seriously, only Judge Dredd would say, “Penalties for crime must reflect public opinion”.
Btw, it seems the opinion of senior faculty members of the LKY School is that, “Donald must go for anyhow slimimg a minister, a minister that helped him get in after he lost his private sector job*.”. So why u think he offering to suck XXXX after offering to lick ass?
Money talks, BS walks: rice bowl is that important leh even for a scholar with a double first from Oxford.
*My dogs agree that he got to be punished severely for biting the hand that fed him.
You get an additional scoop of ice cream, and additional sauce, and a different salad.
President Trump after hours. With the salad course, Mr. Trump is served what appears to be Thousand Island dressing instead of the creamy vinaigrette for his guests. When the chicken arrives, he is the only one given an extra dish of sauce. At the dessert course, he gets two scoops of vanilla ice cream with his chocolate cream pie, instead of the single scoop for everyone else. â Time
NYT Dealbook
No not our beloved Harry
but Yeoh Lam Keong retired chief economist of GIC whose initials FB mangles into LKY
Actually i think the govt got an A+ till end of 1980s
After that the immigration inflow was clearly excessive
It dampened wages for the working class and created working poverty for the bottom 10%
A more calibrated immigration intake would have resulted in higher productivity and real wages and a truly first world economy
Also the population increased to 5.5mln and threatens to be well above 8 not well below 6.9 by 2050
My verdict on the 1990s and 2000s?
Grade E
(Err didn’t ask permission)
What had happened is that in the 90s S’pore became an expensive place to do biz. My then M’sian boss complained that here, landlords and employees got the better of capitalists like him. One of Yeoh’s pals, Manu Bhaskaran, wrote in BT after the regional 1998 financial crisis, that the advantages of being based here for MNCs was no longer that attractive given the costs of being based here. S’pore no longer offered value for money.
The PAP administration’s solution: repress wages by allowing FTs in by the cattle-truck load rather than restructure the economy. There wasn’t a restructuring the economy report in the 90s.
Not that these reports are worth the time and effort of cutting and pasting the previous reports
Another decade, another restructuring report?
In the 80s, one Lee Hsien Loong as trade and industry minister headed a committee to recommend changes in the economy. In the early noughties when DPM he headed another committee on the same issue.
 In 201o, one Tharman and his committee produced the 2010 Economic Strategies Committee (ESC). And now thereâs the CFE. Itâs a bit early, but then there wasnât a report in the 90s: so maybe making up for lost time?
Ditching the ex generals (combat not paper) who turned politicians and political leaders and turning to successful tech entrepreneurs to run the country (see extract from Economist below).
Err there’s a problem. The last (and only) successful tech entrepreneur was one Sim Mong Hoo (Remember him?).
Err what about turning to successful CEOs or other senior managers (not failed ones like Tan Jee Say) from the real private sector, not from the pseudo ones? Err any around living here?
From Economist
For over half a century, the Israel Defence Forcesâ high command was a breeding-ground for Israelâs political leaders. The first of dozens of retired generals to enter politics was Moshe Dayan, less than two years out of uniform, in 1959: he went on to serve as defence minister and as foreign minister. Since then 11 of the 20 former chiefs of staff of the Israeli army have gone on to serve in the Knesset. Most reached senior ministerial positions; two, Yitzhak Rabin and Ehud Barak, became prime minister.
But Israeli politics has changed dramatically in recent years. The main partiesâ leaders and candidate lists are no longer decided in smoke-filled rooms, but in party-wide primaries. Senior officers, used to having thousands of soldiers carry out their orders unquestioningly, are ill-equipped for the media circus and patient lobbying that accompanies political advancement …
the high-tech entrepreneurs are now the shining Israeli success story and it could be their moment.â They also have independent sources of income to finance glitzy primary campaigns. But they also have a lot to lose. âWe succeeded in business by detaching ourselves from the old establishment and learning a new way of doing things. Going into politics means taking on that establishment again,â says Mr Margalit. Only a few have braved the waters so far; more might make for new ways of thinking about economic problems like poor labour participation rates and political ones such as the deadlock in the occupied territories.
‘My first apology was insincere’: Donald Low to Shanmugam
Read more at http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/my-first-apology-was-insincere-donald-low-to-shanmugam-8833228
I have spent several days reflecting on my conduct, in putting up a commentary that was neither accurate nor honest.
I made a FB post on 24 April which misstated Minister Shanmugamâs views. I attributed to him views the very opposite of what he held, and then criticized him in a sneering tone.
When the Minister pointed out (through his FB), that I got my facts wrong, I sent him an apology that was a non-apology. The apology was insincere, and self-exculpatory â I tried to claim I was commenting on the headline and not his remarks, when my comments clearly showed otherwise. [When I sent the apology, to make my apology appear true, I also deleted some comments I had made in my FB, which showed that I was in fact commenting on his remarks].
Having thought further, I have written, as below, to the Minister, to convey my unreserved apology:
âDear Minister,
On deeper reflection, I realize my first apology was insincere. I am therefore writing now to apologize unreservedly. I had misrepresented your views in the Today article, and had presented them in a careless, thoughtless and flippant way. To make things worse, my apology was self-exculpatory. I accept that my criticism of your views was untruthful, unfair and unsubstantiated. I have let the LKY School down. But above all Iâm sorry for my original post; it was impulsive and reckless.â
Many do not know this, but when I was out of a job in 2012, it was Minister Shanmugam who spoke with me and offered his help. He then put in a good word for me with LKYSPP, and gave me a recommendation. I decided that I should come clean about someone who had in fact helped me, and I should set out the facts in public.
He said at his yearly fearival that it was âpro-socialâ for companies to lay off staff, given that productivity gains were crucial to advancing the economy.
Itâs all about using CPF to pay off the bank mortgage. And don’t count on an en bloc sale to keep the value of flat up. The older the group of flats, the more the developer has to pay to govt to top up to 99 years. He’ll bid accordingly. He’s not like Bill Ng, the ATM (or one-armed bandit) that keeps on paying and paying.
Sometime back I featured this great graphic from ST on how the value of a HDB flat will fall over a cliff after the first 35 years. Extracted from http://www.straitstimes.com/opinion/will-you-still-love-your-hdb-flat-when-its-over-64.
But private 99 year old properties are different right?
The reasoning of the salesmen is that banks usually finance leaseholds if the property to have a remaining lease of 30 years on the maturity of the loan
According to OCBC, when it comes to financing of leasehold properties, the requirement is for the property to have a remaining lease of 30 years on the maturity of the loan. âThe quantum of loan to be granted is dependent on the bankâs credit assessment, which includes assessment of debt servicing capacity,â says a spokesman in an email response.
https://www.theedgeproperty.com.sg/content/perils-owning-ageing-leasehold-properties
But what these people don’t say is that banks only do this if borrowers can use CPF monies. Banks generally provide financing for the purchase of a leasehold property if home buyers are able to use their CPF.
This is the tricky bit because according to the article I linked to above
CPF has several ways to calculate this [eligibility]…
The first formula is based on the sum of the age of the applicant and the remaining lease on the property. The total must be equal to or exceed 80 years, says Huang. For instance, if the buyer is 40 and the remaining lease on the property is also 40 years, the total is 80 years. This means that the buyer is eligible to use his CPF contribution for the purchase of the leasehold property.
If the buyer is only 30, however, and the remaining lease on the property is 40 years, the total equals 70 years. In this case, the buyer will not be eligible to use his CPF contribution towards the purchase of the leasehold property. âThis implies that young people cannot use their CPF to buy old leasehold properties,â says Huang.
And
CPF also requires that a property have a remaining lease of at least 60 years. If the lease on a property is below 60 years, but more than 30 years, a valuation limit is set on the amount of CPF contribution that can go towards the payment of the property.
… the numerator in the ratio will be the remaining lease on the property when the purchaser turns 55. Assuming the buyer is 40 today and the remaining lease on the property he wants to buy is also 40 years, when he turns 55, the remaining lease will be 25 years. The denominator will be the remaining lease today, which is 40 years. The ratio of 25 years/40 years is equivalent to 62.5%.
This means if the property purchase price is $1 million, the buyer can withdraw from his CPF up to a limit of 62.5% of the value, that is, $625,000, explains Huang. âAnd that percentage is the valuation limit.â
What all this means is that there’s a restricted pool of buyers for older flats if there are problems using CPF monies.
So what? Can always have collective sale right? The article helpfully disabuses
JLLâs Tan advises owners of private residential projects on leasehold sites to be aware that, as the lease gets shorter, the differential premium that developers have to pay gets higher. âThis will eat into their sale price,â he says.
Using a recent HUDC enbloc sale
For Rio Casa, if the differential premiums were included, the total land cost would amount to $649.8 million, according to SLP Research (see chart). SLPâs Mak points out that the differential premiums account for about 30% of the total land cost for some of these HUDC estates.
So why are cybernuts not commenting on the links between Bill Ng and Zainudin Nordin even though there’s paper trials galore about their connections? Because they that stupid isit? Or they think ex-PAP MP is really a good guy?
Before the FAS elections, the cybernuts of TRELand and other cyberspots where nuts and vermin infest, were cheering on Bill Ng’s Game Changers. The cheering has got even louder after the trashing Bill and gang got from the “We know nothing, nothing” side.
On the other hand they were and are still are dissing ex-PAP MP Zainudin, even though the evidence is that the two are close (and that’s even before the fact that both were arrested and out on police bail in connection with the same case.)
First there’s a donation of $200,000 that Bill arranged for LionsXII after a request from FAS (don’t know who in FAS made the request).
We also know that there is documentation “proving” that Bill donated $500,00o to AFF at the request of Zainudin. He disputes that but even Zainudin is not backing hi on this, see below.
Paper trails
TRE documented by way republishing my posts how close they were
— Tiong Bahru FC: Gambling not haram meh?: Zainudin is chairman of the mgt committee of TBFC and was originally slated to be TB’s chairman.
—Â What weed is ex-PAP MPÂ smoking?: He’s adviser to one of Bill’s investments, and was once listed as a director (mistake lah it seems).
————————————————————–
And oh there’s a report that he got Bill to donate $100,000 to the PAP or it’s charity (Article not very clear on which but the word “PAP” appears prominently in the article). Google for it.
Then there is the allegation of grass-roots footie leaders (now retired) that Zainuddin was behind Game Changers. Ande we know Bill was spending money like water during the campaign (makan at Fullrton Hotel etc)
So it really does look like Bill was the ex-PAP MP’s personal ATM, or is it jackpot machine that kept on paying and paying?
So the ex-PAP MP’s silence on Bill’s claim that the ex-PAP MP had nothing to do with the $500,000 donation to AFF (despite documentary evidence to the contrary) is surprising, and reflects badly on the ex-PAP MP. Don’t help buddy isit? Despite buddy’s ATM or one-armed bandit paying and paying?
After all Billy did for him, the ex-PAP MP kept silent when a word from him could have helped Bill regain some credibility. Instead Bill had to spew this BS: http://www.todayonline.com/sports/football/bill-ng-replies-winston-lees-evidence-full-statement-here
But this ingratitude is not as surprising as the claim of cybernuts that Bill’s the good guy, but Zainudin’s the bad guy. The two have worked together as the above links show.
So either both are good guys or both bad guys. But then cybernuts are cybernuts.
Mr Macron will become the youngest-ever French president, beating the previous record held by NapolĂŠon Bonaparteâs nephew, Louis-NapolĂŠon, elected in 1848 at the age of 40.
Oh dear. That’s a really bad precedent.
Louis-NapolÊon soon got himself crowned emperor NapolÊon III and history records he was a weak, useless leader. Even the Mexicans defeated the French army he sent to occupy Mexico.
Then Prussia defeated the French in a war started by NapolÊon III and had to cede several provinces and pay Prussia the costs of invading and conquering France. In the palace of Versailles, a symbol of French power, the Prussian king was proclaimed the  emperor of Germany German Emperor by Prussia and the other German states.
—
BBC’s Hugh Schofield (http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-39839044) analyses
Will his charm still work?
Aye, but there’s the rub.
Usually when someone is described as “plausible”, that is when the first alarm-bells start sounding. “Plausible” is only a short step from “too plausible”. And suddenly we are in the land of snake-oil.
Emmanuel Macron’s central brilliance is built on a self-belief which would be narcissistic were it not directed at public life.
…
But often with Macron one fears that (in a way that is very French) it is words that are doing his work.
Words that are bridging the divides; words that are flattering his opponents; words that create the devotion that among some he inspires.
In the campaign, it became a joke among journalists how often his answers included the words “en mĂŞme temps” (at the same time). It was his way of marrying everything and its opposite, of reconciling every contradiction.
He got away with it because he is who he is.
But in the real life of running a fractious, angry, divided country – will his words have the same effect? Will his solitary self-belief create the structures of political support which he needs in the rough-and-tumble of government? Will his charm still work?
Everyone hopes the amazing victory of Emmanuel Macron is the triumph of optimism over decline, of energy over atrophy, of willpower over resignation.
Everyone hopes it is not the triumph of the salesman over the dupe.
In the case of NapolĂŠon III, history’s verdict is that his rise to power was the triumph of the salesman over the dupe.
It’s juz that some are ingrates.
Let me explain.
More than 80% of Singapore’s resident population live in HDB flats https://data.gov.sg/dataset/estimated-resident-population-living-in-hdb-flats.
———————————————-
Btw too bad we are not in this survey http://www.bbc.com/news/world-39512599. In China 70% of millennials are homeowners, and I’m sure we are pretty close to that figure.
————————————————-
So you would think that
— After the MND minister double confirming that when the leases for HDB flats run out, they have to be returned to the state; and
— Chris K and others (self included) asking “So waz this BS about asset enhancement?”
you’d think he and the PAP will be running scared.
No so.
He turns around and says HDB “good store of value”. Huh  “good store of value” when zero value in 99 yrs is the response from Chris K and the others (self included).
What weed is he smoking? The Minister for pets and police should investigate?
But there’s a logic to this complacency (or madness?) about this self-perpetuating machine.
Let’s come back to the fact that more than 80% of Singapore’s resident population live in HDB flats, means that most young S’poreans were and will be conceived (Queen Jos’ comments on sex in confined spaces), born and grow up in HDB flats.
Then when they grow up and get married:
âTake for instance a 30-year-old couple, with a combined monthly income of S$5,000, looking for a resale flat in Woodlands near their parents. They can get up to S$75,000 in grants off the resale flat price, and should easily afford a flat with a lease of 90 years.
âThirty-five years later, the couple will be 65 and the remaining lease of the flat will be 55 years. They still have an asset which can be monetised for retirement,â he said.
He also noted that elderly couples can opt to sell their flat and âright-sizeâ to a two-room Flexi flat with a shorter lease, to enjoy the Silver Housing Bonus of S$20,000 in cash and use their sale proceeds for their retirement.
Those who prefer to stay in the same flat can apply for the Lease Buyback Scheme and sell part of the remaining lease back to HDB, Mr Wong said. They also have the option to rent out a room, he added.
These examples are simple, but typical of many HDB households, he said.
âThe general point is that the HDB leasehold flat is not only a good home, but also a nest-egg for future retirement needs. That’s what we have achieved and that’s what we will continue to ensure – both now and in the future.â
Either CNA or Today
Lease Buyback Scheme offers value: really
Even TOC (writer Chris Kuan contributing) says âThe reply by Housing Development Board (HDB) on resale prices and Lease Buyback Scheme (LBS) sums donât seem to add up to resale buyers overpaying.â https://www.theonlinecitizen.com/2017/04/28/hdb-reply-on-resale-prices-and-hdb-lbs-example-show-resale-buyer-are-not-overpaying/
The LBS is value for money, is what Chris K wrote. Err wondering if Terry knew what he was publishing: a pro PAP piece?
Caveat: [Lease Buyback Scheme]  suffers from the same problem as CPF Life â opaque internal workings & computations and subject to unannounced changes in computations & internal assumptions. E.g. CPF Life internal annuity calculations have changed a couple of times since it launched â the monthly payouts as calculated by the CPF Life calculator has changed even with same parameters in just a few short years. Previously, the Basic CPF Life option was the better no-brainer choice. Now the default Standard CPF Life is arguably better with a significantly higher quantum in monthly payouts. Imagine those old folks that took up the Basic plan earlierâŚ
What us critics* are missing is that the HDB system is a self-contained eco-system for the people living in it. One is born into it, grows up within it, reproduces and nurtures the next generation of HDB dwellers, and dies within it. But’s it’s an escapable system if one wants to leave it; private housing, migrating.
So no surprise, 70% of voters vote PAP. They realise (and are grateful) that the PAP looks after them from the moment of conception to death. And beyond because there are places for urns too even if these are not exactly inside in the ecosystem. Meanwhile, normal people (even professionals) in London, Vancouver cannot afford to get on to the property ladder.
And the balance who don’t vote PAP but live within the system (about 10 points) are ingrates. But what to expect? They don’t even donate funds to keep TRE (their online home) going.
*But to be fair to Chris and me, we are not part of the eco-system.
Here I reported that a far cat rentier (once a doctor) says that the Standard could now be better given âtweaksâ over the yrs that were not made public
I said I’d asked an expert to check.
He hasn’t responded but Chris Kuan while no financial planner but a now an ex-capital markets guy who I quoted here a few yrs ago as saying that punters should opt for the Basic not the Standard plan did some calculations.
Juz spreadsheet up the present MS of 166k compounding at 4% with 1st 60k extra 1% and 1st 30k additional 1%. Then use the 1.28k per month payout from 65 onwards on a ror of 4.25%. The Standard Plan break even age remains at 89 where it was when I did the same calc a couple of years back. So I was wrong â nothing has changed. The difficulty in assessing the Basic and Standard Plan is while we know that at age 85 there is no more bequest under the Standard Plan and there is under the Basic Plan but what we donât know is at what age does the bequest actually cease under both plans.
So “Basic good, Standard bad” still stands.
The goal is to convince voters that your candidate is trustworthy, empathic, and capable of strong leadership, and to raise doubts about the opposition along one or  more of these dimensions.
This worked worked for JBJ and Chiam personally but sadly they couldn’t get it to work for WP and SPP. At least Low (for all his faults) got it to work for himself in Hougang and for the WP in Aljunied.
As for Mad Dog Chee, he failed to use it to win anything because he wasn’t trusted, always being remembered as the guy that stabbed Chiam in the back, and then the front when they were both in the SDP, and for leading the SDP into the Wilderness when they were contenders.
No wonder the cybernuts think he’s the best thing since sliced bread.
The political brain
is not a dispassionate calculating machine, objectively searching for the right facts, figures and policies to make a reasoned decision.â Feelings predated thoughts in our evolutionary development, and occupy more cerebral space. The art of persuasion, he wrote, âis creating, solidifying and activating networks that create primarily positive feelings toward your candidate or partyâ. Â Emotion, not argument, wins the day. For strategists:
The goal is to convince voters that your candidate is trustworthy, empathic, and capable of strong leadership, and to raise doubts about the opposition along one or  more of these dimensions.
Barack Obamaâs run for the American presidency in 2008 was a fine example: âyes we canâ ran the slogan …
Read more at http://www.economist.com/blogs/speakerscorner/2017/05/sounds-science (after the video)
1905 Worldwide boycott of US products by Chinese merchants in opposition to discriminatory laws in the US. Action was taken by Chinese communities from Shanghai to Singapore and San Francisco
(FT)
In 1907, the US made it more difficult for everyone (not just Chinese) to immigrate to the US.
So in a way the boycott worked.
Bottles of a popular gin have been recalled across Canada after a batch was found to contain nearly twice the amount of advertised alcohol.
Officials said the 1.14 litre bottles of Bombay Sapphire London Dry Gin should have had 40% alcohol content by volume when the actual figure was 77%.
This is the bit that had me laughing:
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency said the recalled gin should be thrown out or returned to the shop where it was bought.
I’d keep the bottle if I had bot one and am still alive. Will be valuable as a collectible.
But the Candy boys love over doing the strength.
It is the second time this year that Canada has had to recall a brand of liquor because the alcohol content was too high.
In March, bottles of Georgian Bay vodka were pulled from the shelves after inspectors found a batch with an alcohol content of 81% instead of the advertised 40%.
“We do not tolerate any others criticising our style of socialism and we believe in the choice we have made,” Mr Han replies.Vice-Foreign Minister Han Song-ryo.
“The masses are the centre of our state and their security and human rights are guaranteed.”
(BBC report earlier this year)
Err don’t the u/m from PAP administration on Amos the Fantastic really show that the views of the PAP administration and that of the N Korean administration are as teeth are to lips?
Seriously they show that often Silence is Golden and that it’as better to sit down and shut-up than appear to be like a product of Kim Jong Un.
Letter to the Economist
The law in Singapore
You imply that Amos Yee was prosecuted in Singapore for political dissent, and not for making vicious statements about Christians and Muslims (âNo place for the crassâ, April 1st). That is not true. In 2015 Mr Yee insulted Christians, saying Jesus Christ was âpower hungry and maliciousâ and âfull of bullâ. In 2016 he said: âThe Islamics seem to have lots of sand in their vaginasâŚBut donât mind them, they do after all follow a sky wizard and a paedophile prophet. What in the world is a âmoderate Muslimâ? A fucking hypocrite, thatâs what!â
The Economist may agree with the American judge that such bigotry is free speech. But Singapore does not countenance hate speech, because we have learnt from bitter experience how fragile our racial and religious harmony is. Several people have been prosecuted for engaging in such hate speech.
Contrary to the suggestion in your article, Singaporeâs laws on contempt do not prevent fair criticisms of court judgments, as the article itself demonstrates. Singaporeâs court judgments, including on Mr Yeeâs case, are reasoned and published, and can stand scrutiny by anyone, including The Economist.
FOO CHI HSIA
High Commissioner for Singapore
LondonAnd
MHA’s Comments on Amos Yee’s US Asylum Application 1.    In 2015, Amos Yee was charged for engaging in hate speech against Christians.
 2.    He had said âChristians ⌠are ⌠power hungry and malicious but deceive others into thinking that they are compassionate and kind. Their impact and legacy will ultimately not last as more and more people find out that they are full of bullâŚ.. Similar to the Christian knowledge of the bible, and the work of a multitude of a priests.â
 3.    He was convicted on the charge. He was also convicted on another charge for publishing an obscene image. He was sentenced to a total of four weeks imprisonment for these charges.
 4.    In 2016, Yee was charged again for hate speech, this time against Muslims and Christians.
 5.    He had said âthe Islamics seem to have lots of sand in their vaginas tooâŚ. But donât mind them, they do after all follow a sky wizard and a pedophile prophet. What in the world is a âmoderate muslimâ? A f*****g hypocrite thatâs what!âŚâŚ. With all due respect, Christians, you can shove that faith up your ass. Faith! Faith! Iâd be damned at this retardation of humanity. F**k you, Christian shitsâ
 6.    He pleaded guilty to the charges, and was sentenced to six weeks imprisonment and a fine of $2000.
 7.    He was represented by counsel in both the 2015 and 2016 proceedings.
 8.    Yee had engaged in hate speech against Christians and Muslims.
 9.    The US adopts a different standard, and allows some such hate speech under the rubric of freedom of speech.
 10.   The US for example, in the name of freedom of speech, allows the burning of the Quran .
 11.   Singapore takes a very different approach. Anyone who engages in hate speech or attempts to burn the Quran, Bible, or any religious text in Singapore, will be arrested and charged.
 12.   The US Department of Homeland Security had opposed Yeeâs asylum application, on the basis that Yee had been legitimately prosecuted.
 13.   It is the prerogative of the US to take in such people who engage in hate speech. There are many more such people, around the world, who deliberately engage in hate speech, and who may be prosecuted. Some of them, will no doubt take note of the US approach, and consider applying for asylum in the US.
Not the Basic one.
But really who knows, if the PAP administration decides to make “tweaks” that are not made public?
This blog and others has alwats argued that punters should opt for the Basic not the Standard plan.Â
A reader (smart guy, trained as MD) now says that the Standard could now be better given “tweaks” over the yrsthat were not made public. I’ve asked an expert to try to confirm or deny the validity of the claim.
Meanwhile what this doctor (now fat cat rentier) says is the truth, the absolute truth: the PAP can suka suka “tweak” things in private and change the facts:
[Lease Buyback Scheme]  suffers from the same problem as CPF Life â opaque internal workings & computations and subject to unannounced changes in computations & internal assumptions. E.g. CPF Life internal annuity calculations have changed a couple of times since it launched â the monthly payouts as calculated by the CPF Life calculator has changed even with same parameters in just a few short years. Previously, the Basic CPF Life option was the better no-brainer choice. Now the default Standard CPF Life is arguably better with a significantly higher quantum in monthly payouts. Imagine those old folks that took up the Basic plan earlierâŚ
So rather focus on the “Marxist detainees” and their unhappiness, those opposed to the PAP should focus on rice-and-veggies issues. But then they look down on those who can afford only these basic Asian foods.
Whether the president is a wimp or Bozo doesn’t really matter
The greatly respected political scientist and TV election analyst Anthony King, who died in January, observed last year that the best-governed countries “owe their good government in large part to the fact that their political institutions and political culture obviate the need for strong leaders”.
He concluded: “A successful liberal democracy is liable to be one that is effectively “leader-proofed”, one in which… it is made difficult for a strong leader to acquire and wield power and in which the government does not rely on strong leaders for its long-term success”.
He was surely right.
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-39748185
So there’s no way that the PAP will ever allow S’pore to become a democracy, let alone a liberal democracy, lest it becomes a successful one, making the PAP surplus to needs i.e. redundant.
I tot the above when I came across this extract on FB from what must be a post from either a ng kum guan or an ang moh tua kee type (I’ll attribute if I know where it came from)
“As the 30th anniversary of this event approaches, there is concern that the impact of Operation Spectrum can still be felt. Without an open and honest accounting of what took place, the uncertainty continues to perpetuate a climate of fear and nervousness. It creates barriers to Singaporeans engaging fully in civil society and civic life, and becoming the active, engaged citizenry that benefits every democratic country.”
There are lots of things wrong with the way S’pore is governed because it’s a de facto one-party state
Keeping power in a one-party state
Would this happen in a one-party state?
And “Yes” there’s a lot of righteous anger among the detainees, and their friends and allies.
But let’s fight today’s and tomorrow’s battles, not yesterday’s battles.
I mean can anyone seriously imagine PM (LKY’s son) or any leader (present or next generation) using the ISA to detain political dissidents? They have better means of fixing “the “enemies of the people”. Err OK the enemies of the 70%ers. Juz looking at the AHTC. Or Terry’s Online Channel.
Btw, the TREÂ cybernuts are calling PM and his ministers weak people when comparing him to LKY:Â They want LKY to be in charge again isit?
After all eating other people’s lunch is unhygienic.
Juz follow Trump.
He cut back the flood of the number of Indians that Indian IT cos, abusing the US visa system, were using to prefer cheap countrymen to real American, depriving real Americans of decent jobs.
Result: Infosys, the Indian IT services company that is one of the biggest losers from changes in how the US issues work visas , plans to hire 10,000 Americans in the next two years, according to the CEO.
Here’s a really long post I lifted from FB explaining how the MIWÂ allowed Indian Indians to screw S’poreans (It was posted in 2014) over visas for Indian FTs. It seems it was a negligent, honest mistake, not on purpose. What do u think?
For all the allegations of bias that have been made against sites like TheOnlineCitizen, there are benefits in reading these alternative sources in addition to mainstream ones. For example, you get to read things that would have otherwise “flown under the radar”. Let’s have an example.
Take this FB post here by TheOnlineCitizen:https://www.facebook.com/theonlinecitizen/posts/10152771544366383
It bring’s one’s attention to the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) signed in August 2005 between Singapore and India, and in particular, the bit on allowing free movement of professionals.
Now, have a look at the relevant bit (Chapter 9) of the CECA here. Don’t panic, it’s just 4 pages. “Above the Peanut Gallery” posts require a little more reading than your average bad photoshop, but I’m not expecting you to read whole legal judgements (yet).
http://www.fta.gov.sg/âŚ/india-singapore%20comprehensive%20eâŚ
in particular
(Article 9.2, Para 2f): The definition of intra-corporate transferee, with a nifty list of 127 professionals in Annex 9A
http://www.fta.gov.sg/âŚ/annex%209a%20-%20list%20of%20profesâŚ
(Article 9.3, Para 3): “Neither Party shall require labour market testing, economic needs testing or other procedures of similar effects as a condition for temporary entry”. Speaks for itself.
(Article 9.5, Para 1): “…each Party *shall* grant temporary entry to an intra-corporate transferee of the other Party…” Note the word *shall*. Not *may*.
(Article 9.6, Para 1): Yep, they can bring in spouses and dependants. Again, note the *shall*. Not *may*.
Now, look at the Fair Consideration Framework right here.
http://www.mom.gov.sg/âŚ/PâŚ/fair-consideration-framework.aspx
Notice the bit on jobs not needing to be advertised under the Jobs Bank for Singaporeans – Note intracorporate-transferees are exempt.
What this seems to mean is… An intra-corporate transferee from India is perfectly placed under CECA to “fly under the radar” to take a job here that is:
a) Not your stereotypical “we need foreign labour” construction worker (see that list of 127 professions)
b) does *not* need to be advertised in the Jobs Bank (see Fair Consideration Framework exception for intra-corporate transferees)
c) does not require “labour market testing, economic needs testing or other procedures of similar effects as a condition for temporary entry” (see CECA Article 9.3, Para 3)
d) AND can bring over his spouse and dependents to work as managers, executives or specialists (see CECA Chapter 9, Article 9.6).
I’ll pause here to let that sink in for you. For extra fun and games, do feel free to look at the 127 jobs, and see which one is most similar to yours.
===
Now, to their credit, the Singaporean (yes, the currently PAP) govt is doing their best by stalling full implementation of the CECA. I sense that they also know an “Oh crap, why did we sign that” moment when they see one. What I’m wary of, is that the stalling may not last past the elections in 2016, when political consequences of un-stalling the CECA are no longer an immediate concern.
The piper must be paid someday. India has been repeatedly raising this issue. The mistake was made already, back in Aug 2005, by policy writers and approvers who are now most probably beyond the reach of accountability. And to our chagrin, even voting in an Opposition government can’t stop this – not without going back on our word.
We can’t stop the train, but at least we know when and how it would hit us, and we know who set the train on that track.
Now, do you see the value in reading alternative media?
Despite what a S’porean Oppo politician living in HK says, life here is surely better (The quotes about HK and Hongkies come from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-38623439)
Hong Kongers enjoy free speech and a free press, but don’t have the right to democratic elections – meaning they can readily discuss what makes them unhappy, but have limited political means to change things.
We happier because we don’t enjoy free speech and a free press and so not frus (sans cybernuts like Oxygen) that our free but unfair elections can never change things. So why does Mad Dog Chee keep on banging his head against the wall? He doesn’t read his own analysis of S’pore isit? And what weed is he giving to smart people like Dr Paul to follow him? Police must investigate.
Hong Kong often ranks as having the least affordable housing in the world – and this “affects young people’s family planning, and their choice of future careers,” Dr Wong says.
Our public housing is affordable We got PAP looking after us from cradle to grave via the HDB system. More on this one of these days. Even TOC (writer Chris Kuan contributing) says “The reply by Housing Development Board (HDB) on resale prices and Lease Buyback Scheme (LBS) sums don’t seem to add up to resale buyers overpaying.” https://www.theonlinecitizen.com/2017/04/28/hdb-reply-on-resale-prices-and-hdb-lbs-example-show-resale-buyer-are-not-overpaying/
The LBS is value fot money, is what Chris K wrote. Err wondering if Terry knew what he was publishing: a pro PAP piece?
Jennifer grew up in a public estate with her parents and brother – but says after her brother got married, the small two-bedroom flat became extremely cramped.
“For almost a year, I had to sleep on a sofa in the living room.”
Not having a room meant she struggled to sleep properly after a long day at work, especially after her brother and his wife had their first baby.
We got more room for sex.
According to one study, Hong Kong’s young people are the unhappiest they have been in a decade – and the least likely, of all age groups, to agree with the statement “life is really worth living”.
Other surveys find that 60% of those aged 18-29 want to emigrate, and 80% are unhappy with the political situation.
If Hong Kong’s youth appear particularly unhappy, it might be because of the territory’s unusual situation. It’s technically one of the richest territories in Asia, but also has one of the worst wealth gaps.
We not that bad.
As my FB avatar pointed out to Chris Kuan when I read his LBS piece,
Glad to see u realise that the faith of the 70% in PAP is not misplaced. LOL. Seriously, bet u a lot of the cybernuts following u on FB will stop following u …
Btw, anyone knows what happened to that Oppo politician living in HK who used to tell us that everything in HK is a lot better than in S’pore. He gone AWOL? Or MIA? Or in detention in China?
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There’s no official definition of a marginal seat but people often look at constituencies where the majority – the gap between the first and second placed parties – is under 10%.
BBC
In S’pore only Ajunied GRC fits that description. LOL.
In S’pore “marginal” is a gap of about 15 points it seems. What do u think?
Update at 10.39am: An honest mistake. A 14 -year kid pointed out that Punngol East is also a marginal seat. Must be from RI. But then what’s an RI boy doing reading and posting at this time?
Update at 10.55am: Somehow I don’t think Punggol East is going to be WP’s in next GE. The PAP had to kick up a fuss to get back PE money from WP town council.
Prof Noriko Arai spent years training a robot to pass prestigious University of Tokyo’s entrance exams in 2015 and 2016, her Todai robot outperformed 80% of high-school pupils and was in the top 1% for maths.
“You might think I was delighted, but I was alarmed,” she said.
“This robot, which could not read or understand, was able to outperform thousands of high-school children.”
This led Prof Arai to investigate the reading and writing skills of high-school students, in conjunction with Japan’s ministry of education.
“Most of the students pack in knowledge without understanding, and that is just memorising,” she said.
What Sâporeans not told about PISA
Pisaâs defects as the benchmark of educational excellence
Waz wrong, waz right with East Asian education systems
Thoughts of a Cynical Investor 