CPF class action: Phillip Ang’s “reply’ to fellow cybernut

Here I wrote about a real cybernut demanding accountability and transparency from Lim Tean about the funds being raised “to launch a class-action suit against the government”.

To recap, Phillip Ang had posted

Lim Tean and I have set up a crowdfunding account @https://www.facebook.com/tean.lim.75. (POSB Savings 198-91842-3) Please keep a record of your transaction as your particulars will be required before the launch of the class-action suit. Unused portion will also be returned, pari passu.

https://likedatosocanmeh.wordpress.com/2017/10/15/class-action-suit-only-option-for-cpf-members-to-right-a-sorry-situation/

Well todate, neither Phillip Ang nor Lim Tean has responded to the cybernut, so I tot I’d draw the cybernut’s attention to what Phillip Ang had then said:

Once the required resources, not just financially, are in place and before the suit is launched, there will be more updates. Action speaks louder than words.

He’s saying “Trust us”. So PAPpish. So like the way the PAP administration manages the CPF and our reserves. But what to expect from a cybernut?

Seriously I’m surprised that someone like Lim Tean would go about raising serious money in such a slip-shod, non-transparent and unaccountable way: pay money into a private POSB account.

The proper way to go about the raising of millions of dollars needed to fund a class action law suit would be to use the services of a reputable fund raising site. This means there will be the need to have a detailed explanation on the the purpose of the funding raising, the target amount, the minimum sum needed and what happens to the monies collected if the minimum sum cannot be reached.

Now as Lim Tean is a seriously rich guy, meeting the out-of-pocket expenses of using a professional site should not be an issue, I’m left wondering why he liddat lor? Using a POSB account.

Still not to late to reorganise the fund raising, if he’s serious about bringing “a class-action suit against the government”.

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Diabetes: The real reason PM is worried?

In his NatDay Rally speech he worried that 22% of the population will get diabetes (from the present 11%). Maybe he worried that if that happens, then CPF Life Standard Plan will be in trouble?

The Standard plan surely will go bust because the Standard plan covers until death and diabetics could live longer than those without diabetes. There’ll be a public backlash because of the “Fund go bankrupt, yr problem”.

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CPF Life die, Yr Problem

There is a provision in the law governing the CPF Life Plans which states that payouts are contingent on the Plans being solvent. This is because premiums that are paid in to get the annuities are pooled and collectively invested. If the plan you chose doesn’t have enough money to pay out, you die. This is unlike the MS scheme, where account holders are legally entitled to the monies in their CPF accounts.

More details. Note that there are now only two plans, not the menu first offered. Of the two existing plans, the Standard Plan, is the less attractive one because there is a lot KS in favour of the annuity provider. Of course if u  are confident u’ll live to 150, opt for it. But u still got the worry of “Fund insolvent, yr problem”.

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There will also be problems at the Basic Fund that pays out annuities until people reach 90 if everyone lives longer because they got diabetes. And there could be a lot more 90-year old destitute S’poreans who are unlikely to vote PAP.

Diabetics live longer

Seriously, PM’s NDP rally speech on diabetes reminded me of shumething I read last year from which I concluded that diabetics are likely to outlive those wihout it, if the diabetics manage to keep their diabetes under control. Diabetes cannot be cured in most cases, but it can be controlled.

So it’s a good thing to have because the medication also works to prevent cancer, heart disease or cognitive impairment.

Metformin, the most basic medicine prescribed for diabetes, seems is a miracle drug helping those with  cancer, heart disease or cognitive impairment.

There is already a candidate anti-ageing drug, a generic called  that has been widely used by diabetics around the world. It works to lower insulin levels in the blood and triggers a range of other molecular pathways that are likely to influence the ageing process. The way it works inside the cell is not completely understood but it is thought to favourably influence metabolic and cellular processes associated with the development of age-related conditions such as inflammation, autophagy (when broken bits of cell are recycled) and cell senescence (when they are unable to grow and divide any longer). In humans, those who take metformin seem to have improved risk factors for cardiovascular disease. Epidemiological work suggests that its use is associated with reduced incidence of cancer and mortality. There is some evidence it may reduce the risk of mild cognitive impairment.

Nir Barzilai of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York wants to test the drug in thousands of people who already have, or are at risk of, cancer, heart disease or cognitive impairment.

http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2016/08/economist-explains-8

Another problem for Anti-PAP websites

Last year I reported how FB’s algo tweaks affected anti-PAP sites sites like TOC and The Idiots Anti-PAP sites lose traffic after Facebook tweaks algos.

Well things could be getting worse if FB’s latest “experiment” comes to S’pore or is introduced globally.

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-41775010

Facebook panics publishers

In any newsroom around the world these days, the air will be full of mentions of Facebook and Twitter. Publishers know the readers and viewers they want to reach are increasingly spending their time scrolling through those apps on their smartphones. And many publishers have come to rely on the social media giants to give their articles and videos maximum exposure.

So a limited experiment by Facebook in six countries – Sri Lanka, Bolivia, Slovakia, Serbia, Guatemala, and Cambodia – to take unpaid news posts out of the main feed and put them into a separate “Explore” tab, raised serious concerns about the financial importance of Silicon Valley to the news media. Slovakian journalist Filip Struharik documented the impact, writing that publishers in his country were seeing just a quarter of the interactions they used to get before the change.

Joshua Benton, who runs the Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard University, told me that Facebook and Google together are responsible for around 80% of external traffic to news organisation websites, so publishers are right to be worried.

However, he also said that Facebook has its own worries. “They’re in a tough position because Facebook users prefer posts from their friends and family, but at the same time Facebook has become an absolutely critical source of traffic for news organisations. And Facebook’s business is selling ads.”

So, I asked him, is Facebook trying to distance itself from being treated as a news publisher itself by regulators worried about fake news and foreign political interference? “Facebook did sort of stumble into being the main distributor of news on the planet Earth by accident,” said Benton. “I think a lot of folks at Facebook would be happy if this was just something they didn’t have to worry about.”

Meanwhile Adam Mosseri, Facebook’s head of News Feed, tried to calm frayed nerves. “There is no current plan to roll this out beyond these test countries or to charge pages on Facebook to pay for all their distribution in News Feed or Explore,” he wrote in a blog. But perhaps his use of the word “current” won’t allay every publisher’s fears.

 

PM, Khaw, SMRT: Apologise like Zuckerberg

Recently, Mr Zuckerberg observed Yom Kippur, the Jewish festival of atonement. He wrote on Facebook: “For the ways my work was used to divide people rather than bring us together, I ask forgiveness and I will work to do better.”

I think Khaw, Desmond and the chairman of SMRT should have followed him Where’s Khaw? (cont’d) instead of doing a pale imitation of Japanese-style apology over the “ponding” problem.

PM and the PAP should also do a Zuckerberg for creating disharmony to ensure the “right” person became president by

— going against the national aspirations of meritocracy and multiracialism by wanting a Malay as president, and

— selecting as the Malay president someone whose i/c says “Indian”.

But let’s be fair. Maybe this is why Why PAP thinks we need a Malay president?

And after the recent London terror attack, only the anti-PAP TRE cybernuts will say that the PAP administration is wrong to try to prevent terror attacks.

 

Cybernut twice asks Lim Tean good question

But no answer from Lim Tean.

On one of Lim Tean’s FB posts supporting Philip Ang’s call for a class action on CPF, on 27 October C Sing Ow  asked

So…can we know what was COLLECTED for THIS CLASS ACTION to date…

There was no response.

On 28 October C Sing Ow KPKB

For a small sum …everyone is ready n willing to contribute but They need ACCOUNTABILITY AND TRANSPARENCY in this CLASS ACTION on the funds collected.

Later on 28 October, he asked again

Collective ACCOUNT with details of collection n expenditures too. TQ

When I last checked there was still no response.

As Lim Tean is already supporting Philip Ang’s call for another class action, this time to sue SMRT for the delays and inconvenience caused by SMRT’s failures, this failure to respond to a reasonable question could show that Lim Tean’s moved on to another cause.

Not that I blame him: a CPF class action suit based on the “reasoning” of Philip Ang is a lot of bull.

But at the very least Lim Tean say to C Sing Ow, “Let u know, still counting”.

As to C Sing Ow’s cybernut credentials, whenever he posts on Chris K’s FB Wall he screams at the top of his voice. No small caps, all big caps. And worse he screams BS. He sounds a lot like TRE’s Oxygen: TRE grave dancer doesn’t deny grave dancing.

Coming back to Lim Tean, as a top gun-slinging lawyer he should know:

For want of a nail the shoe was lost,
for want of a shoe the horse was lost,
for want of a horse the knight was lost,
for want of a knight the battle was lost,
for want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
So a kingdom was lost—all for want of a nail.

He should mobilise the team of cyber-Amazons that have joined him to help him keep tabs of comments on his FB wall. Seems these women got tired of Goh Meng Seng’s BS. In casu u’ve forgotten who Goh Meng Seng is What Amos and Meng Seng have in common? Con’td.

SPH journalists so free meh?

The anti-PAP TRE cybernuts were crying for the SPH journalists and other staff that were retrenched, calling mgt “heartless”. Funny they forgot these people were enablers of the sytem they so hated. But then that’s why they are TRE cybernuts: brainless morons.

No need to cry for SPH journalists. They so free that got time to write novels (during working hours one assumes)

Two journalists have made the shortlist for the Epigram Books Fiction Prize 2017, Singapore’s richest literary prize.

Straits Times arts correspondent Akshita Nanda and assistant news editor at The New Paper Andre Yeo will be vying for the third edition of the $25,000 prize, Singapore’s only one for unpublished English-language novels.

They will be up against office executive Sebastian Sim, who is on the shortlist for a second time, and writer Judith Huang.

ST

The PAP administration will not be amused with these journalists because Epigram is quai lan being the publisher of two books that the PAP administration hates:

The National Arts Council (NAC) has withdrawn a publishing grant for the graphic novel The Art Of Charlie Chan Hock Chye on the eve of its Singapore launch because of “sensitive content”.

The council declined to elaborate on the reasons behind the decision to revoke the S$8,000 grant.

Charlie and Edmund …

 

And

The National Arts Council (NAC) withdrew a grant from Singaporean author Jeremy Tiang because the content of his book changed from his original proposal, said Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Grace Fu.

In a written response to Parliament on Tuesday, Ms Fu said that in Tiang’s case, “the project did not meet the funding requirements mutually agreed upon as the content in the book deviated from the original proposal”.

ST

Jeremy Tiang’s “State of Emergency,” is about a family caught up in the Communist insurgency in Malaya after World War II, and S’pore’s often brutal crackdown on suspected leftists during the Cold War.

Worse from the perspective of the authorities, Epigram is laughing all the way to the bank. Charlie Chan has old more than 14.000 copies here (Projected sales was max of 1000 copies a year). And it’s selling well overseas.

Whatever the publisher Edmund Wee is an RI boy. Makes up for fact that Tan Jee Say, Tan Jee Say and Kee Chui Chan are also from RI.

 

PAP has lost “output legitimacy”

We all know the failures of SMRT and MRT. So no need to elaborate.

But the problems at SMRT and MRT and the failure of the PAP administration to hold anyone to account except “the maintenance team” (Though to be fair the team failed to empty the holding tanks beneath tracks so they can absorb rainwater without jamming the service.) shows that the PAP administration has really lost “output legitimacy”.

I wrote this four years ago between GE 2011 and 2015. The results of the two elections showed not that the PAP regained “output legitimacy”; but showed that the PAP spent more of our money on ourselves in between Are you better off now than you were in 2011?(Death of LKY also helped):

The ST has for several weeks been writing about the loss of trust between the people and the govt, and laying the blame on the people (“daft”) who are distracted by the new media’s DRUMS beating the RAVII theme ( OK I exaggerate but juz a little). (BTW, here in a different context, I’ve looked at the role the new media plays: amplification, not distortion of the dissenting, inconvenient voices to the PAP’s narrative which the local media propagandises, while suppressing the former.)

Actually, the loss of trust is due to the PAP govt’s loss of “output legitimacy” since the 1990s.

“Output legitimacy” is the idea that elected leaders make decisions that are unpopular in the short term but will be approved by voters once their success has been demonstrated.  A govt aiming for “output legitimacy” (most govts don’t, but the PAP is an exception) is a bold, self-confident govt because the govt and the politicians need to be proved right by events.  Sadly for S’poreans and the PAP, the record doesn’t look that great for one LHL. He had been DPM, and in charge of economic and financial issues, and the civil service, since the 1990s, until he became PM in 2004.

Yet events have showed that S’poreans are discontented, not happy with the achievements of his govt. The PAP only polled 60% (lowest ever) in the 2011 GE, and three cabinet ministers lost their seats, with the WP winning for the first time ever a GRC. In the subsequent PE, the PAP’s “preferred” candidate and a challenger (ex PAP man too) polled 35% each. The preferred candidate won by a very short nose.

This yr, the PM promised to meet our concerns (housing, healthcare and public transport will remain affordable, and on education) is like that: “Crashed the cars, trains and buses we were on – and then wants us to thank him for pulling us out of the wreckage using our own money, by voting for the PAP”.

— https://atans1.wordpress.com/2013/08/16/analysing-pms-coming-rally-speech/

— https://atans1.wordpress.com/2013/08/23/govt-needed-natcon-survey-to-find-these-things-out/

After all S’poreans’ concerns that housing, healthcare and public transport will remain affordable, and on education are the result of govt policies

His dad introduced the concept “output legitimacy” to S’pore (although not the term: too highfalutin perhaps?), partly because it suited LKY’s personality (intellectual thuggery, the belief that “leaders lead” and shouldn’t be governed by opinion polls, and micromanaging**), and partly because while S’pore was a leading Asian city in the 50s and 60s (as LKY and PAP haters like to remind us ad nauseam), that wasn’t saying much for most S’poreans: err bit like now, one could reasonably argue. Examples:

— When the PAP came into power in 1959, unemployment was over 10%; and

— in 1960, 126,000 man-hours were lost in strikes as compared to 26,000 in 1959.

Source: book reviewed here

There were then things that had to be done that would upset many people most of the time for a while. But if the policies worked, then the results would be visible. Well, at the very least, the voters were prepared to give LKY and the PAP, over 70% of the popular vote and all the parly seats for over a decade.

The world’s now a bit more complex since then, and S’poreans’ expectations have rightly risen, so whether it is ever possible that the PAP govt can ever recover “output legitimacy” is open to question even if it has the ‘right” people leading it. But at least it’s willing to spend more of our money on making life a more comfortable for ourselves. Maybe that should be its articulated goal, to frame our expectations of its “output legitimacy”.

Maybe the constructive, nation-building media, and new media outlets that believe in constructive criticism, like the Breakfast Network and the Independent*** can help the PAP govt? Better than flogging the dead horses of trust, daft people and that the internet beats DRUMS to the RAVII theme.

—

*Recriminations, Accusations, Vilifications, Insinuations & Insults

**Remind me of the bible verses: “Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God?” or “Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father.”

***Independent sucks because it got its branding wrong. Name is so traditional media. In fact there is an established UK newspaper by that name.

Names with a whiff of the establishment seem old hat. Chris West, founder of Verbal Identity, specialists in linguistic branding, says that “they appear to be hankering after a debased culture of corporate magnificence”. Consumers think of them as pompous, self-serving, impersonal. The advantage of calling your business Wonga and GiffGaff lies in the rejection of superfluous formality. We perceive them as younger, more in-touch, less “corporate”. As Mr West concludes, “they sound like words we might hear at the pub”.

Then there is the quality of its writing. But that shows up the pedigree of two of its founders.

As for BN, it’s a work-in-progress, and it’s a gd training place for budding journalists: got ex-TOCer who has learnt to write proper, readable English. So I wish it well, even if I’ve heard allegations about its funding. And it has a great name. Spent a lot of cash getting its name right?

The PAP govt has lost “output legitimacy”: Discuss

Btw, Breakfast Network morphed into TMG which has just announced that it’s closing. No money. The Independent has morphed into The Idiots.

Related post: Parable of the contented dog/ No need to be grateful to the PAP

Atas website closing

Yikes there are even bigger cheapskates than the born-loser TRE cybernuts.

TMG (One of its founders was a paper general in the Imperial Stormtroopers. She tot she could be ST editor, a Sith Lord post. She left the Dark Side after her retirement from ST.) is closing down.

Although it has 50,000 – 1000,00 regular readers a month, it has only 200 regular donors contributing about $3,000 each month.

“We have just over 200 patrons on the platform, contributing about $3,000 each month, and the choices we made meant that we were not as attractive as other platforms when it came to sheer traffic and viral content – the lifeblood of ad campaigns. Unfortunately, the overheads for a solid news editorial team run into the tens of thousands, and TMG wasn’t an operation we could sustain long term, not without departing from the core values that we hold dear.”

http://themiddleground.sg/2017/10/28/thank-just-cant-go/

And they had claimed implicitly that their readers were upper crust types, not the ratty nuts infesting the anti-PAP sites.

Well the richer people claim they are, the more cheapskate they are

a survey suggests a huge number of the better heeled have also been browsing the aisles and may have a product from at least one of them lurking in their larders and fridges.

Retail researchers Mintel have found that 77% of households earning £50,000 or more have bought from the stores.

That is a higher proportion than UK shoppers on much lower incomes.

Among those with a household income of less than £15,500, 73% use discounters, according to Mintel.

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-41652423

So maybe the TRE cheapskates are really rich.

 

 

The world in 2027

No “smart homes” and driverless cars in cities.

From http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-41694991

Back in 2001 a book called “The Future of Wireless Communications” predicted the following technology developments by 2020:

• A personal communicator that would book flights and allow you to check in at airports.
• A personalised news feed delivered to your communicator.
• A robot that mows the grass.
• A function allowing you to pre-order your cappuccino from a coffee chain and then direct you to its location.

Those predictions look pretty accurate and now the book’s author, William Webb, a telecoms consultant, is publishing his vision of how the world will look in 10 years.

His predictions include:

• Virtual assistants like Siri or Alexa will play bigger roles in our lives.
• AI will have become extremely good at specific tasks.
• In the workplace facial-recognition technology replaces security staff and robot vacuum cleaners take away cleaning jobs.
• Retailing will be almost entirely online.

But mostly he is very cautious about the pace of change. He does not believe we will all have smart homes – “the benefits are not that great but the price is quite substantial” – and he is not convinced that autonomous cars will soon be cutting congestion in cities.

“It’s a nice vision,” he says. “I think we will see a very limited autonomy. In 10 years we might well see cars on the motorways but I don’t think we will see that in city centres – it’s just too complicated.”

And as for general artificial intelligence able to complete a variety of tasks, he thinks that is a long way off.

We are told that technology is advancing at breakneck speed. But if William Webb is right it may take something of a breather over the next decade.

Oh and in S’pore PAP still in power much to the frustration of the anti-PAP cybernuts who lost their nest when TRE closed because the cybernuts were too cheapskate to fund it. TeamTRE got tired of being taken for a ride by the cybernuts.

ST editor admits failing in reporting and analysis

“Our goal must be (to) produce reliable and credible political news as well as thoughtful and insightful commentaries on Singapore politics and policy affairs,” said Warren Fernandez ST editor and editor-in-chief of the English/Malay/Tamil Media (EMTM) group at SPH. Reference: https://sg.news.yahoo.com/sumiko-tan-promoted-key-editorial-role-sph-073324356.html

Wow what an admission that ST and SPH in general are not producing “reliable and credible political news as well as thoughtful and insightful commentaries on Singapore politics and policy affairs”.

Interesting this admission because many S’poreans (self included), not juz the anti-PAP ang moh tua kees and their fellow cybernuts, think that the nation-building and constructive SPH group and MediaCorp are just part of the propoganda department of the PAP administration.

So producing “reliable and credible political news as well as thoughtful and insightful commentaries on Singapore politics and policy affairs” remains only a goal i.e. an aspiration like multi-racialim in S’pore.

(Oh I forgot that having someone whose i/c says “Indian” as the “Malay” president is multiracism at work, a bit like “Calling a deer a horse”?)

Whatever, it looks as though Warren Fernandez accepts that S’pore’s 151st ranking  in the World Press Freedom Index is about right.

A report by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) reflected Singapore being in the 151st place this year. In 2016, Singapore was in the 154th rank.

This year, other Asian countries above Singapore includes:

Taiwan – 45th rank (up two ranks from 51 in 2016)
South Korea – 64rd rank (up six ranks from 70 in 2016)
Japan – 72nd rank (maintaining the same rank as in 2016)
Thailand – 136th rank (up six ranks from 142 in 2016)
Indonesia – 124th rank (up six ranks from 130 in 2016)
Philipines – 127th rank (up 11 ranks from 138 in 2016)
Burma – 131st rank (up 12 ranks from 143 in 2016)
Malaysia – 144th rank (up two ranks from 146 in 2016)

Hong Kong fell to the 73rd rank from 69 in 2016.

TOC

Or maybe he juz feeling punch-drunk after learning that Sumiko Tan is his new deputy. A lot of people in ST, and ex-ST (think wannabe Sith Lords) think she’s an air-head.

Related post: LKY’s favourite editor

 

 

Foreigner praises S’pore’s healthcare

In the film, Dr Maran asks why a country like Singapore levies “lower GST and yet provides free healthcare while India has a GST of 28% and yet cannot provide quality medical care”.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-41718074

 

Khaw, Desmond would have appreciated this

After Khaw, and the chairman and the CEO of SMRT did a pale imitation of Japanese-style apology over the “ponding” problem, and were jeered in cyberspace by many S’poreans (not juz the usual anti-PAP cybernuts from TRE and Chris K’s FB wall), they’d have appreciated this if something like this was available here last week.

A smartphone game in which players can “applaud” Chinese president Xi Jinping has gone viral.

The app, released in the week of the Communist Party Congress, lets users clap for Mr Xi by tapping their phone screen as many times as possible in 19 seconds.

The game, from Tencent, has racked up 1.2 billion plays in three days.

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-41693817

Never mind, some state agency will fund such an app so that at next year’s Nattional Day when PM says we have the greatest public transport system in the world, PAPpies (having eaten their atas dog food from a company financed by Temasek) can applaud PM in cyberspace.

Make cyberspace safe for the PAP.

Xi’s an interner sui kee

Mr Xi has

more power than any Chinese leader since Mao Zedong. He is the first living leader to be mentioned in the party’s charter since Mao.

https://www.economist.com/news/china/21730590-does-mean-no-one-can-challenge-him-xi-jinpings-thinking-ranked-alongside-maos

But he and China were nowhere to be found last week when

Tech giants Microsoft, Facebook, Twitter and Google have agreed to do more to remove extremist content within hours of it being posted.

The accord was decided at a two-day meeting between the G7 nations and the tech firms, hosted on the Italian island of Ischia.

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-41693777

Where’s China, Alibaba and Tencent? Not tua kee enough isit?

Xi and Jack Ma and the head of Tencent must be banging their balls balls that despite China’s billions of internet users it and its  leading cos are not an internet super power, unlike Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States, and Microsoft, Facebook, Twitter and Google.

They just like Putin and Russia: internet pygmies.

Temasek into PAPpy food

FT reports that Hosen Capital, New Hope (a Chinese agricultural group) and Temasek have bought the Real Pet Food Company. They paid A$1bn for the Australian pet food group.

The plan to is to sell dog food in China.

And it’s not juz ordinary dog food that this company produces. It’s gourmet dog food.

In the S’pore context, it’s food meant for PAPpy dogs like ST and Mothership journalists, not the pariah dogs that pee, crap and bitch on TRE.

How PM honours “Pa”

The hermitess of Oxley, or the husband of lawyer got liddat mah?

PM rereads LKY’s speeches and “can hear his voice in” his head.

 [W]e think of him often, we read his old speeches and we say, “well, that’s still relevant to us today.” The way he puts it still has a ring to it. At the same time, we have to build on that and move forward, because if we just remained with what he had imagined and what he had done and nothing more, I think he’d have been very disappointed.

CT: If he were alive today, what advice do you think he would have given you?

PM Lee: I think he would have said, “Press on, move on. Don’t be looking at the rear view mirror. Remember what has happened, understand how you got here, but look forward and press forward.”

CT: You can hear his voice in your head?

PM Lee: (laughs) Yes, we can imagine that.

http://www.asiaone.com/singapore/cnbc-transcript-lee-hsien-loong-prime-minister-singapore

To be fair to the hermitess, she keeps the ashes of her parents in the Oxley Road House.  I had tot that the ashes were scatterd in the sea, or from an aeroplane over S’pore. I didn’t expect the ashes to be in urns in the Oxley shrine Road House. Wonder if she practices shamanisitic rituals to channel “Pa”?

That’ll be one up on tai kor who only reads pa’s speeches and hears his voice in his head.

 

MRT: Pouring petrol on the waterborne flames of discontent

That’s what the chairman of the Public Transport Council did last week, a few days after Khaw, and the chairman and the CEO of SMRT did a pale imitation of Japanese-style apology over the “ponding” problem. 

The Public Transport Council (PTC) will consider the rising cost of maintaining new rail infrastructure as it goes into its annual fare review exercise, PTC chairman Richard Magnus said on Thursday (Oct 19).

…

Mr Magnus wrote in a blog post, titled Balancing Sustainability and Affordability, that the council “cannot turn a blind eye” to rising costs as it has to ensure the “viability of the public transport system”*.

Read more at http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/fare-review-adds-to-rising-costs-of-public-transport-magnus-9325772

He obviously isn’t singing from the hymn sheet as the other three because the last thing the PAP administration wants, is to remind the commuting public that once the trains run like clock-work again there’ll be fare rises**. (Funny that the trains were on time when ran by a Ferrari-owning FT retailer, who also owned a Mercedes sports, not a paper general.)

Whatever, somehow I think that even if the problems at SMRT and the other MRT lines are fixed by this time next year next year, way before the next general election (latest possible date is in early 2021), there won’t be fare increases until after the general election. (And if the problems ain’t fixed by 2021, I wouldn’t be surprised if PM declares a state of emergency, delaying GE until after the MRT problems are solved.)

Btw wonder who are the

— turkeys voting for Christmas,

— suckling pigs voting for Chinese New Year, and

— the sheep voting for Eid al-Adha,

in the focus groups that tell the PTC that “fares are affordable”. Must be the die-die must vote PAP PAPpies.

————————————————

*The report contined:

He detailed the cost of investments in public transport, such as the new Downtown Line and bus contracting subsidies.

The Government’s investments in new rail infrastructure will cost S$20 billion over the next five years, and comes on top of S$4 billion to renew, upgrade and expand rail operating assets, he wrote. Another S$4 billion will be spent on bus contracting subsidies over the same period.

“While these investments are a necessary part of the Government’s push to improve the public transport experience, they raise operating costs and impose a heavy cost burden on taxpayers,” he said.

**Chris K, no fan of the PAP, points out that by first world-standards, public transport fares are low. Funny on this pro PAP occasions, he doesn’t point out that salaries here are not Swiss standard. Btw, his FB wall is becoming the home of TRE’s cybernuts. Comments by the likes of Albert Tay and Es Nolan could have come TRE cybernuts like Oxygen and Rabble-rouser. Chris K will steal eat the lunch of TeamTRE. He doesn’t ask them for funds.

Update on Lim Tean’s video and rally

Further to Whatever happened to Lim Tean’s defamation video? And his jobs rally? Lim Tean replied saying the video’s coming out in early November and the job rally some time in November.

Glad that he raised the funds because this shows shows that not all anti-PAP S’poreans are as cheapskate as the freeloaders and born losers from TRE.

Dear Cynical Investor ,

The defamation video is in the process of being finalised . We are adding animation so it is taking a bit longer than expected . But we should be able to release it in the 1st half of November . Apologies for the delay .

As for the jobs rally , that was postponed because of the anticipated Presidential Elections and the ensuing outcry following the walkover . We are planning to put on the rally in November and have an exciting lineup of speakers . We intend to have a jobs rally like never before and will be informing Singaporeans of details soon !

I’ll report on whether he meets the deadlines.

Whatever happened to Lim Tean’s defamation video? And his jobs rally?

(Update on 7 January 2019 at 6.35am: Last day for giving Christmas presents was yesterday, the day that the Wise Men gave the Christ child their presents. Lim Tean never bothered to show up with his present.)

(Update on 19 December 2018 at 5.45pm: Better more than 14 months late than never. Defamation video released earlier this afternoon at around 2pm on Lim Tean’s FB page. Good for himVideo promised for Christmas.)

So Lim Tean and cybernut Philip Ang are raising money to sue someone about our CPF:

Lim Tean and I have set up a crowdfunding account @ https://www.facebook.com/tean.lim.75. (POSB Savings 198-91842-3) Please keep a record of your transaction as your particulars will be required before the launch of the class-action suit. Unused portion will also be returned, pari passu.

https://likedatosocanmeh.wordpress.com/2017/10/15/class-action-suit-only-option-for-cpf-members-to-right-a-sorry-situation/

While this blog had been impressed by Lim Tean, this blog must point out that S’poreans are still waiting for his jobs rally Update: “Fair Jobs for Singaporeans” rally/. Has he raised the full $20,000 he asked for? No $20,000, no rally isit?

And then there’s the defamation video which should be out by now but again “not picture, no sound”. Also cannot raise the money isit?

14 August

Donations needed! With your help Defamation 101 video can be released in 3 weeks. Please donate today.
PayPal.Me/ProjectFreedomSG
or bank transfer to CIMB bank, Lim Tean 1000 769 876

 

  8th August

************Make “Defamation 101” video happen! ****************
We are crowdfunding for Lim Tean’s new video project, a thorough exploration through Singapore’s strict defamation laws. He will guide us through what we can and cannot say so that we may have a stronger and more confident voice when speaking our truth.
Donate via PayPal (paypal.me/ProjectFreedomSG or use email teanlim1964@gmail.com).
Contact Lim Tean or Project Freedom for more info.

Will his Sue CPF campaign go the way of these two earlier projects? No picture, no sound. Anti-PAP S’poreans not responding to funding calls isit? And so Lim Tean not doing anything, but keeping quiet? No money no more talk isit?  Typical lawyer at work isit?

If he cannot raise the monies he wants to for the video and the rally, he should say so. No shame on him that he’s again double confirmed that the anti-PAP S’poreans are a bunch of freeloaders, cheapskates and born losers. everything must be done for them for free.

And it’s no shame on him that he can easily fund these two projects but won’t. These projects are meant to galvanise the masses, but if the masses are not interested in doing anything, why throw money away?

Btw whatever happened to the monies already raised? Will they be refunded if the rally or video don’t materialise.

Why our Oppo so small and weak

They are like our wild animals. They enrich the PAP-created environment without endangering the PAP or S’poreans. Think s/o JBJ, the two Ravis, the Chiams or the Wankers.

Big, dangerous Oppo figures are “sued” to extinction (JBJ, Roy etc) or detained (Teo Soh Lung, Amos Yee etc). But then Mad Dog Chee is still roaming the streets, so beware.

“THE WILD ANIMALS WE HAVE IN SINGAPORE ARE GENERALLY SMALL AND CAN THRIVE IN OUR WOODS AND GARDEN CITY. THEY ENRICH OUR ENVIRONMENT, MAKING SINGAPORE A NATURAL CITY AND NOT A BARREN ONE. THE PRESENCE OF SMALL, WILD ANIMALS IS A TRIBUTE TO OUR ABILITY TO BALANCE URBAN LIVING WITH NATURE.”

HE ADDED: “OCCASIONALLY WE MAY RUN INTO LARGER AND POTENTIALLY AGGRESSIVE ANIMALS SUCH AS WILD BOARS, SNAKES AND CROCODILES. THEY ARE BEST LEFT ALONE AND REPORTED TO THE AUTHORITIES WHO ARE TRAINED TO HANDLE THEM SAFELY. NOT WORTH PUTTING ONESELF AT RISK OR STRESSING THE WILD ANIMAL FOR THE SAKE OF A SELFIE OR VIDEO.”
(ESM GOH CHOK TONG)

Above posted by real life friend on FB.

Would Mata Hari love our paper generals?

“I have loved officers my whole life. I would rather be the mistress of a poor officer than of a rich banker. I gladly go to bed with them without thinking of money.”

————————–

Margaretha Geertruida “Margreet” MacLeod (née Zelle; 7 August 1876 – 15 October 1917), better known by the stage name Mata Hari, was a Dutch exotic dancer and courtesan who was convicted of being a spy for Germany during World War I[1] and executed by firing squad in France.[2]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mata_Hari

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What do u think? Afer all our paper generals have money too.

New magic space in F&, retailing

“Affordable luxury brands like Blue Bottle are pricing their coffee high enough that consumers feel like they’re splurging, but low enough that that splurge can be rolled up into their weekly budget,” Taylor Palmer, an analyst at the research firm IBISWorld.

Blue Bottle is an atas coffeee chain in US that Nestlé is buying a controlling stake in.

2033: Real reason why PAP rule will really end

When I wrote Today SMRT, TOM Resale Public Housing which tells readers living in HDB flats how much time they have to enjoy “asset enhancement” after paying off their “affordable” 25-year mortgage (before the value of their HDB flats collapses according to calculations made by the constructive, nation-building ST not anti-PAP cynernuts), a regular reader linked my tots to an earlier piece Why 2033 will be the yr PAP rule ends.

By then the problem of large swathes of HDB estates’ (not just blocks here & there) impending demise to zero value will be front & center.

this fat cat rentier pointed out referencing Why 2033 will be the yr PAP rule ends

So u really think Ah Loong wants his son to be the 5th generation PAP PM? Something his siblings and anti-PAP cybernuts allege?

When China refuses to take FTs from the West

The West has a problem.

Imagine the world as a global waste disposal system. Now imagine it with a blockage.

And what if that waste is backing up around the world, reappearing in places where you really don’t want it to be.

That blockage is about to happen in China and the flood is going to start seeping out into waste disposal operations around the world.

Three months ago, China decided to ban 24 different grades of rubbish as part of its “National Sword” campaign against foreign garbage.

Until now China has been importing millions of tonnes of the world’s waste every year to feed its recycling industry.

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-41582924

Today SMRT, TOM Resale Public Housing

But first, why a good public housing system is good for society.

Housing is the first of the social services. It is also one of the keys to increased productivity. Work, family life, health and education are all undermined by crowded houses. Therefore a Conservative and Unionist Government will give housing a priority second only to national defense.

1951 Tory conference: Economist

(Note the Tories won the UK general election and ruled until 1964 despite several debacles like the Suez crisis and not getting into the EU.)

Like the Tories, Harry and the PAP Old Guard when they came to power in 1959 also understood the importance of housing in building a cohesive society .

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Related articles

“Housing is Affordable”: The real truth

Recognise this ang moh description of our HDB system?

From conception to death, the PAP looks after S’poreans

—————————————————

But things started going wrong when HDB flats on 99-year leases became “assets” to be manipulated for political gain (Think “asset enhancement”). The result: “affordable” public housing now means HDB “owners” having to take out mortgages of 25 years. Not a big problem if one buys a BTO flat from the HDB. After paying off the mortgage, there’s 39 years to go before the value of the flat falls over a cliff.

http://www.straitstimes.com/opinion/will-you-still-love-your-hdb-flat-when-its-over-64

Note, it’s not the anti-PAP cybernuts pointing out the fall in value when the flat is 65 years old. It’s the constructive, nation-building ST.

But if one bought a 30-year old HDB resale flat, by the time the mortgage is paid up, one only gets 9 years before the value of the flat falls over a cliff.

In between a BTO and a 30-year old flat:

— If one bought a 20-year old HDB resale flat, by the time the mortgage is paid up, one gets 19 years before the value of the flat falls over a cliff.

— If one bought a 10-year old HDB resale flat, by the time the 25 year mortgage is paid up, one gets 29 years before the value of the flat falls over a cliff.

One by one, the icons of PAP rule are showing their feet of clay. First was and is the MRT system run by SMRT, next will be resale public housing.

——————————————-

Feet of clay

Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and the form thereof was terrible.

This image’s head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass,

His legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay. (Daniel 2:31-33)

…

And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters’ clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay.

And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken.

And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay. (Daniel 2:41-43)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Only in the Trump administration

So surreal.

From NYT Dealbook

Recalcitrant lawmakers may have more ammunition for their stance from an unusual source: a Harvard University economist whose work has been cited by the White House in its assertion that lower corporate taxes could raise household incomes by as much as $9,000.

Jim Tankersley, NYT:

The top end of that estimate was based on work by a trio of researchers, and on Tuesday one of them, Mihir Desai of Harvard, said Mr. Trump’s team had misread the research. The actual income gain implied by his study, he estimated, would be $800.

Mr. Trump’s economic team disagreed — saying Mr. Desai had erred in interpreting his own paper.

Making MRT Great Again

“Win back our trust”. Taz what Khaw, and the chairman and paper general CEO at SMRT should be doing to make Our MRT Great Again.

First world country.
First world transportation.
First world ethics.

Not the usual suspects KPKBing “PAP is always wrong”.

Someone by the name of Eugene Weeposted u/m on FB. Although he isn’t at present living overseas, he’s spot on on his take of SMRT and what needs to be done.

I think Singaporeans are an understanding bunch.

Yes, we complain like mad when the train service is delayed because in more ways than one, it affects our daily lives and jobs.

But this does not mean we are on a witch hunt to get people fired.

We have been brought up in a culture of honesty and responsibility, and we expect the same from the highest levels of management or government. I believe we are simply looking for an honest response, admission of the issue and a credible solution.

We are more than happy to move on.

But what is unacceptable is when problems remain unaddressed, and worse still, its getting more common.

In light of these, of course there is a swelling ground discontent. but what makes me really uncomfortable is the responses to the public are nothing more than PR spins… get the public to be grateful, look at the hardworking people, to empathize with the workers etc etc.

These PR stunts are not only failing to address our concerns but also basically missing the point, not to mention eroding public trust.

We are not blaming the workers; what we are saying is that the only affordable form of public transport (that the majority of Singaporeans relies on for their bread and butter) is not reliable and please fix it – that is the management’s role.

Yes, we get it. Transportation is not an easy role, and we are not saying it is. But please don’t whitewash or brush it over with some convenient statistics of how more reliable it is when it is not.

If we believe Singapore’s education is top notch; we too, have to believe that Singaporeans are not that gullible to believe in selective statistics, and ignore the day to day disruptions.

If we aim to uphold our values as a first world country that takes pride in what we do, then please don’t give third world responses.

Take issue with the problems at hand, fix it, stop pushing the blame and definately not passing the buck down the line.

We are better than this.

Please don’t take aim at the ground workers, it is not only an appalling display of poor leadership but a clear indication of a lack of moral courage to be there for your people.

And please don’t talk about increasing public transportation fares or increasing salaries till you can increase reliability.

We know it’s an uphill climb, but important sacrifices have to be made in the higher echelon and communications have to be more sincere.

Win back our trust.

First world country.
First world transportation.
First world ethics.

Why PAP doesn’t do accountability, meritocracy.

How to win over PAP voters

Online rows cannot be settled by quoting facts, suggests research.

Instead focus on the benefits that voting against the PAP will bring like having getting rid of the paper generals and other scholars. And that the PAP will throw more of our money at us.

But whatever don’t follow Oxygen and his other nutty and ratty TRE pals. They think that the 30% must rule over the 70% because the cybernuts are more intelligent than the avewrage voter.

Facts don’t matter online

There’s a well-known cartoon featuring a woman asking a man when he’s coming to bed who then says: “I can’t – someone is wrong on the internet.” It sums up just how we can be drawn into arguments online with people who seem to be immune to reason.

But a neuroscientist at University College London says we are probably wasting our time if we think facts will change people’s minds. Tali Sharot has written a book called The Influential Mind about how the methods we use in argument don’t work because they don’t fit with the way the mind operates.

She says the sheer volume of information now available on the internet is actually making things worse: “You can find information that supports anything you want to – and people do.” So if you believe the world is flat or that vaccines cause autism, you can find material online to back up your beliefs.

“What we need to realise is fighting the confirmation bias is not very helpful,” says Dr Sharot. “We can’t change millions of years of evolution – our brains work in a certain way.”

It seems a counsel of despair for anyone who believes that facts matter. But there is a cunning way of getting people to change their minds.

Dr Sharot points to a group of scientists who took a different approach when trying to convince parents that vaccines were not linked to autism. Instead of confronting them head on with studies that showed there was no link, they accepted the parents’ beliefs and instead talked to them about the good things vaccines did – such as keeping children safe from measles or mumps.

“They highlighted something everyone agreed on,” she says. This approach proved far more effective at changing minds than just a bald laying out of facts.

And do not feel smug in the belief that you are far too smart to be dogmatic about your beliefs even when you are shown evidence to the contrary. Dr Sharot says the research shows that the more intelligent you are, the more likely you are to have a confirmation bias.

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-41206533

ElderShield: KS, opacity at work

There’s a big reduction in the premium for the my ElderShield renewal premium for 2017- 2018.

My usual premium is slightly more than $200, but I’m paying only $31 this time only because “ElderShield claims have been lower in the last 5 years of the scheme.”

What this means is that ElderShield people were too conservative in their projections. Btw, no other details given.

Reminds me of CPF Life. Kia sumism and opacity at work.

Will PM, tonite, give peace of mind on CPF Life Standard?

CPF Life payouts: Why liddat?/ Save and save

 

 

Where the money is

Blackstone Seeks Retail Cash: “The logic is simple: There were 7½ times more U.S. households with $1 million to $5 million in assets at the end of 2016 than there were households with $5 million to $25 million, according to market research firm Spectrem Group.”

NYT Dealbook

Same reason why Goldman Sachs has done into internet banking Debt is good

Where’s Khaw? (cont’d)

Since I wrote Where’s Khaw? on Sunday, he’s resurfaced like a submarine. From a flooded MRT tunnel isit?

And he’s not blaming the constructive nation-building media or new media or even commuters for misrepresenting the truth about the “ponding” at Bishan. Instead

In his first comments on the unprecedented flooding-induced train outage on Oct 7, Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan apologised to commuters but pinned the blame squarely on operator SMRT’s maintenance regime.

But there’s more:

Chairman of SMRT Corporation and SMRT Trains Seah Moon Ming bowed and apologised to the public for the underground flooding incident along the North-South Line (NSL) on Oct 7-8 that resulted in a 20-hour disruption. 

But SMRT’s president and group chief executive officer Desmond Kuek, while expressing regret, did no apologies or bowing:

“Much progress has been made with the inculcation of a positive work culture, but there remain some deep-seated cultural issues within the company that has needed more time than anticipated to root out.”

Hello he became the President and Group Chief Executive Officer of SMRT Corporation Limited (SMRT) on 1 October 2012.

So it’s been a good five years since he took charge. He now owns the culture and all other bits of SMRT. SMRT’s history pre October 2012, is no longer an acceptable, reasonable excuse.

But in S’pore scholars don’t get sacked do they? Meritocracy? What meritocracy? Why PAP doesn’t do accountability, meritocracy.

Here life is good for scholars. Multi-millionaire salaries but not accountable for results: juz for trying hard it seems.

 

What made America great in WWII

Its workers, their managers, and the manufacturing systems.

From Quora

There is a joke of a German tank commander who was captured and was talking to a GI captor.

GI: So I heard a German tank could kill 5 American tanks for each German tank

German: No, a German tank could kill 10 American tanks for each German tank.

GI: So how did we capture you then.

German: the Americans always brought 11 tanks for 1 of ours.

The Sherman was in service when there were better options because it was a great tank to mass produce, and it was produced to a huge extent and the Germans couldn’t keep up with the American production.

SPH: Blame previous CEO

It’s fashionable to berate scholars for incompetency especially ex-generals, especially the present Kim Jong-un look-a-like CEO of SPH. After all he did preside over the decline of NOL and its sale juz before the shipping market turned.

But take a step back and look at how SPH was managed before he became CEO.

Low hanging fruit left to rot

Why weren’t these things only done now, not earlier?

— Newsroom consolidation: “The New Paper sports desk will move to ST in November, and ST money desk will move to BT.” (Atas version of Petir)

— And “the AsiaOne team, comprising about 10 members of staff, will be re-deployed to the Straits Times Digital team,” (Yahoo)

These actions should have been done years ago, not last Thursday. After all, revenue from ads and circulation have been declining for years, so why wwere these simple acts of newsoom and tech consolidation not done earlier?

Only scholar can think of these actions isit?

Retrenchment

The original plan by the previous CEO was to cut jobs over two years. The Kim Jong-un look-a-like accelerated the culling, and rightly so.

Here’s something that someone I know wrote on FB

I’ve honestly never seen a retrenchment exercise (and it’s happened to me before) where the retrenched staff are not asked to leave immediately. OK locking out of computers is not the proper way for the staff to find out, but sad as the news is, what’s happened is pretty much the norm. Once a retrenchment exercise is decided on (and one can debate whether it is good or bad), there is no point delaying.

I was at a local bank when they did a major retrenchment. They said they would do it in two months’ time. It was a terrible time waiting and wondering who would be hit. In the end they did it in a week. It was still bad, but there was no point waiting.

Where’s Khaw?

They seek him here, they seek him there,
Those MRT commuters seek him everywhere.
Is he in heaven?—Is he in hell?
That demmed, elusive Khaw*.

I mean until last weekend, whenever there was a breakdown in SMRT service, Batman Super Khaw would come out swinging defending SMRT.

Kerpow! The constructive, nation-building MSM for pointing out that commuters were delayed.

Thwack! Social media for posting commuters’ complaints.

Zap! Commuters don’t appreciate SMRT when it doesn’t breakdown

Crunch! Kick all the above in the balls for KPKBing.

But, he’s been silent (MIA? AWOL?) since rainwater flooded tunnels on the North-South Line and causing a disruption between Ang Mo Kio and Newton MRT stations between Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon.

He posted on FB but on other things.

Meanwhile

Vivian Balakrishnan

on Thursday

Our bus and train staff from SBS and SMRT work tirelessly to provide good service for us all. Some of them even wake as early at 3 AM to catch the company shuttle so that they can start the daily services bright and early. They work six days a week for long hours. Their jobs are difficult and challenging.

Mayor Teo Ho Pin, Mr Liang Eng Hwa, and I hosted breakfast for them as a small gesture of appreciation this morning. Remember to give them a smile the next time you see them 🙂

 Maybe there’s going to be a new transport minister? And VivianB is the chosen one?

But maybe Khaw had other things to do. He hosted the 23rd ASEAN Transport Ministers meeting on 12 October.

Or maybe, SMRT is preparing to announce something major? Like the CEO committing hari-kiri. But don’t hold yr breath. Scholars and other PAPpies do not do Japanese despite GCT telling us to follow the Japanese Learn from Japanese — set example leh elites

————————————-

*Apologies to the original

We seek him here, we seek him there,
Those Frenchies seek him everywhere.
Is he in heaven?—Is he in hell?
That demmed, elusive Pimpernel.

Sir Percy Blakeney, Baronet

Old told homes are not ‘assets to pass on to offspring’

No not a PAP minister or MP telling S’poreans that yr HDB flat is not really yrs.

According to the UK’s media, the UK social care minister has suggested pensioners’ property is not “an asset to give to their off-spring” but could instead be sold to pay for their care needs.

Maybe she’s the kind of person, the PM should offer citizenship to and promise to fast track her into the cabinet? After all, the recent fiasco on what the AG advised the cabinet to do showed what a cock, Kee Chui Chan, one of candidates to be PM is.

Btw, we don’t have this problem In the Daily Mail newspaper, UK’s justice minister Phillip Lee warned that the UK is a “selfish” society where families shirk their duty by “outsourcing” the care of their elderly relatives.

Here we got laws to make sure that S’poreans, not the state, have to look after their elderly relatives, one reason why taxes here are “peanuts”.

Then there’s this:

But if you transfer your CPF to your parents’ or grandparents’ CPF, you could be solving a problem (their need for money) in a way that creates another problem (your retirement needs) worse. Ownself sabo ownself.

Worse the PAP administration will be laughing all the way to the bank if yr parents or grandparents die earlier than expected and they are on CPL Life, not the old CPF Retirement Sum Scheme. The bequest should be much lower compared to if they opted-in to CPF Life.

CPF changes: Rob Peter to Pay Paul and worse

In Switzerland, there’s gold in the drains

Where got like this here?

From NYT Dealbook

And Finally: What Is It With Swiss Toilets?

People in Switzerland this summer were so flush that they were literally putting money down the toilet.

Now it turns out that there are more valuables to be found in the country’s drainage system. About $1.8 million of gold passes through it wastewater each year, Bloomberg reports.

(The high-priced waste come from the country’s gold refineries.)

PAP: Chinese defecate in public, Indians clean up

When I read the u/m TOC FB post, I couldn’t help but think of stereotypical Indian roadsweepers (the “hewers of wood and drawers of water” or “thambies” as they were once derogatorily called ) cleaning up after their stereotypical arrogant, entitled Chinese masters were caught defecating and urinating in public.

A video recap of what was said in Parliament by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean, Minister, Prime Minister’s Office, Chan Chun Sing, Workers’ Party MP, Ms Sylvia Lim and Minister of Law and Home Affairs K Shanmugam Sc on the issue and allegations of the counting of Mr Wee Kim Wee as the first president for the purpose of the Reserved Presidential Election.

Based on what the PM, DPM and Kee Chui Chan said (see below) it was reasonable and legtimate that there were reasonable S’poreans who tot that the AG had advised that “counting” must start from the time of Wee Kim Wee, and that the govt had no discretion on when to start “counting”. In other words, it was a legal issue, not a policy issue.

“We have taken the Attorney-General’s advice. We will start counting from the first President who exercised the powers of the Elected President, in other words, Dr Wee Kim Wee. That means we are now in the fifth term of the Elected Presidency.”

PM

“Are you saying that the Prime Minister has falsely told the House that this was the advice he received from the Attorney-General’s Chambers? And yes, we will be passing a law, the Presidential Elections Act to state so, that these are the designated races, and so forth.”

DPM Teo

“The Government is confident of the advice rendered by the Attorney-General. We proceeded on that basis during the debates on the constitutional changes in this House. Prime Minister Lee explained to all why we needed the hiatus-triggered mechanism, and we passed the Constitution (Amendment) Bill. We are here today to put the nuts and bolts in place for a decision made clear by the Prime Minister during the debates in November. And we will not go through this again.”

Kee Chui

Kee Chui added for good measure something to the effect, “Not happy isit? Sue leh. Dare u”.

Note that nothing was said by these ministers to disabuse those S’poreans who tot that the AG had advised that “counting” must start from the time of Wee Kim Wee.

As usual the Wankers’ Party sat down and wanked at the challenge. It took Dr Tan Cheng Bock to pick up the gaunlet and take legal action.

The Deputy AG (an Indian) told the Court of Appeal: “PM never said that the AG advised PM to start the count from President Wee. What PM said is that the AG advised (that) what the Government was proposing to do was legitimate” and the AG never advised the Government that President Wee was the 1st Elected President. The start of the count was purely a policy decision, which the Court cannot review. AG’s advice to the PM was ultimately irrelevant.”

The courts held that the advice of AG was irrelevant saying that “counting” could begin from Wee if that was what the govt wanted to do.

But even the AG conceded that costs should not be awarded to the AG because the matter was one of “public interest”.

Former presidential candidate Tan Cheng Bock said on Tuesday (26 September) that his constitutional challenge against the term count of the Elected Presidency (EP) has ended with no legal costs payable to the government.

The government had wanted the court to order $30,000 costs against him initially, Tan said in a post on his Facebook page.

Last month, Tan lost lost his appeal case against a High Court ruling on his constitutional challenge to the timing of the reserved PE.

“But my lawyers vigorously resisted and argued for a “public interest cost order” instead. After reading our submissions, the Government changed their mind and consented to “no order as to costs”, Tan added.

For such an order, the court can spare an unsuccessful plaintiff who has filed a legitimate complaint, from paying costs to a government defendant in a case of general importance and public interest, Tan highlighted.

https://sg.news.yahoo.com/tan-cheng-bock-no-need-pay-30000-costs-government-elected-presidency-case-123542863.html

Now we are told by Shanmugam in parly:

“What Ms Lim is saying that we start, we are starting to count from here because of AGC’s advice. That was never suggested. We start counting, we are a careful government, we make a policy decision, but we take advice to see whether there are any impediments. And this government as a rule, generally, does not publish legal opinions that it gets.

If it can be done according to the law, we do it. If the law has to be changed to achieve policy objectives, we do it. And I said it upfront well before the Parliamentary proceedings.

So why only now say this in parly? After

— daring those who dared question its argument to sue without clarifying what it meant when it talked about acting on AG’s advice;

— the Government changed their mind and consented to “no order as to costs”; and

— trying very hard to ensure that Sylvia Lim could not raise the issue of what the AG had advised: or at least that was the perception.

Why so cock?

It was so easy to defuse the issue right at the beginning. All it needed was a minister to explain in parly what PM really meant to say but didn’t. I don’t blame PM for messing up the explanation because we now know he was in the midst of a very bitter family row that later went public. And to be fair to him, his phrasing was ambigious and could have meant what Shan said it really meant.

But DPM Teo’s and Kee Chui’s “explanations” seemed to say that PM meant to the govt had no discretion on when to start “counting”. They seemed to say,  it was a legal issue, not a policy issue.

But then maybe DPM Teo and Kee Chui didn’t understand AG’s advice and didn’t ask Shanmugam what it meant?

Why so cock? After all Kee Chui is one of the next gen leaders touted as a future PM.

 

Ministers will claim credit for good economic growth

This year, economists are talking of 2.5% GDP growth (from last year’s 2%).

As sure as day follows night, PAP ministers will be claiming credit for this good growth: PAP’s “right” policies make this good growth possible.

Well just remember that there’s good global growth which is good for S’pore

In its latest World Economic Outlook, the IMF has revised its forecast for the global economy and is now expecting slightly stronger growth.

It now predicts growth of 3.6% this year and 3.7% in 2018.

BBC

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[Since]

election day last year, the S&P 500 has delivered a total return of more than 20 per cent …stocks outside the US have gained even more in the America-first era, at 22.8 per cent.

FT

————————————————

And also remember what UOB and HSBC are saying: domestic consumption and investment remain weak.

UOB

lack of a convincing recovery in the broader economy, with strength coming “only from pockets of Singapore’s economy”, according to UOB economist Francis Tan.

Beyond key growth segments in the manufacturing sector such as semiconductors and precision engineering clusters, Mr Tan noted that growth in other clusters including the offshore and marine, continued to be limp.

Domestic consumption and investment also remained weak. In particular, the latter’s 7.3 per cent year-on-year decline over the second quarter “nearly rivals the weakness last seen during the Global Financial Crisis” – a fall of 7.7 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2008.

“Real GDP growth is only showing the first signs of green shoots. It is better to err on the side of caution and for monetary and fiscal policies to remain accommodative,” Mr Tan added.

Read more at http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/business/worst-has-passed-for-singapore-economy-but-mas-in-no-rush-to-9296294

HSBC’s chief ASEAN economist Joseph Incalcaterra had a similar view: “The cyclical recovery appears convincing… however, when we dig a bit deeper, it becomes clear the economy is far from firing on all cylinders.”: that any recovery in the labour market will likely be “very gradual”. Translation: Don’t expect wage rises or more jobs for local PMETs.

And longer term there’s What should really frighten S’poreans

But in the very short term, things could be even be better than expected:

In a note released on Wednesday (Oct 10), DBS economists said there could be a “pleasant surprise” of 4.8 per cent year-on-year growth, up from 2.9 per cent in the previous quarter, with “another stellar performance” from the manufacturing sector on the cards.

On a quarter-on-quarter, seasonally adjusted annualised basis, the economy could expand 7.3 per cent during the July to September period, accelerating from 2.2 per cent in the second quarter.

While the pick-up in GDP shows that recovery is broadening out, DBS noted that third-quarter figures could be the strongest set of growth data this year.

“Growth could ease a tad in the coming quarters as the economy shifts from a recovery to a normalisation phase. Moreover, it is only logical to expect growth to moderate against the backdrop of a normalisation in global monetary policies,” wrote DBS economists, who added that GDP growth is expected to come in at 2.8 per cent this year before softening to 2.5 per cent in 2018.

Read more at http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/business/worst-has-passed-for-singapore-economy-but-mas-in-no-rush-to-9296294

 

The silence of the Malay Minister

Yaacob AWOL or MIA isit? Jus like Khaw on the flooding of the MRT tunnel isit?

Seriously I find it very disturbing that a non-Muslim minister makes the following important comments at a religious seminar, not the minister responsible for Muslim and Malay matters.

Noting the declining trend of younger Muslims going to the mosques for religious guidance, Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam said more can be done to engage millennials online in a bid to win over their hearts and minds.

…

Speaking on Saturday (Oct 7) at a seminar on strengthening religious resilience, Mr Shanmugam said that amid the racial and religious strifes in neighbouring countries such as Myanmar and the Philippines, Singapore cannot let its guard down.

And Islamic religious scholars and teachers, he noted, play a critical part to provide religious guidance and advice to the youth.

http://www.todayonline.com/singapore/essential-engage-millennial-muslims-online-less-them-go-mosques

Shouldn’t this speech be made by Yaacob, the minister responsible for Malay and Muslim issues? As the minister responsible for Malay and Muslim issues he should be at the forefront of Muslim issues especially when the topics are relevant for all S’poreans.

Why liddat?

He’s uncomfortable talking about the declining trend of younger Muslims going to the mosques for religious guidance, and about Islamic religious scholars and teachers playing a critical part to provide religious guidance and advice to the young? And so a non-Muslim minister has to raise these issues.

If so, why is he uncomfortable talking about these issues?

Related posts:

NLB is very sensitive about Malays and Muslims

Religious harmony: PAP’s, Putin’s way

 

Why 2033 will be the yr PAP rule ends

Recently, I wrote

The USSR lasted for 74 years from 1917’s October Revolution. Counting from 1959, PAP has until 2033.

Here’s the real reason why PAP rule will end in 2033: 2033 will be the time when the 5th generation of PAP leaders take charge.

Here’s the detailed reasoning.

Tay Kheng Soon posted on FB on Sunday

Cherian George’s prediction or expectation that there will be 20 exceptional young people who will emerge to form singapore’s 5th generation leaders is too optimistic. Unlike the first generation leaders of the 60’s who had a socialistic world view the young today have been destroyed by post modern philosophy which combined with a good life has inbued in them a hyper subjectivist mentality. Its old radicals that need to step up to the challenge of a disrupted world. The 4th generaltion leadership are on cruise mode.

Cherian George had earlier been interviewed by Mothership (the PAP’s atas version of Petir) as saying:

“What the PAP and their supporters celebrate today is the creation of a small band of exceptional young Singaporeans. Lee Kuan Yew and less than 20 other people. So I asked myself, is it reasonable to hope that in Singapore today, among teens among 20-somethings and 30-somethings, that there are 20 Singaporeans with exceptional intelligence, ability, sense of public service, empathy, and conscience, to make Singapore what it can be? Yeah, of course I have hope! You can’t find 20? Please!”
— Cherian George on why there’s hope for Singapore to become a better country.

After publicising the article: Cherian George (Malay Minister’s brudder-in- law, and his wife was ex tua kee in ST) commented  on FB

… be able/willing to rise
to the top. That’s why I don’t talk about 4G. More realistic to place hope in 5G (a long time off).

Coming back to the USSR, depending on how one decides to count the leadership changes in the USSR, it was the 5th generation of Soviet leaders that presided over the collapse of the USSR.

Already things like the continual breakdown of MRT services and the failure to find new engines of growth despite a restructuring plan every decade (Economic restructuring: This time, it’s really different) shows that like the USSR after death of Stalin, S’pore is going to the dogs after Harry’s death.

How anti-PAP websites can raise $

Something for TOC, TRE, TISG(The Indians) and the SDP website to think about. They get the bulk of their traffic from really cheapskate born-loser anti-PAP cybernuts and cyberrats.

These sites can use Coin Hive mining script and others, such as JSE Coin, legitimately to generate some money from their steady stream of visitors. Metrics published on the Coin Hive site suggest that a site that gets one million visitors a month would make about $116 (£88) in the Monero crypto-currency by mining. (BBC report).

Better still, Hackers have managed to install code on the sites that uses visitors’ computers to “mine” the cyber-currencies. http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-41518351

So these sites should start mining their cheapskate fans. They owe the sites for keeping them dreaming the dream that the end of PAP rule dream is just around the corner.

As for TMG and Mothership, they don’t have the traffic and besides it’s alleged that pro-PAP sympathisers fund them.

Greatest pair trade of the decade

Few hedgies

made what would have turned out to be the best sectoral trade of the decade. Anyone who sold short mortgage companies and thrifts at the market top in 2007 (prices collapsed during the crisis and the sector index was discontinued in 2015), and put the proceeds into the internet retailers who would revolutionise US retailing (led by Amazon), would have turned an initial $100 into almost $20,000.

FT today

CPF changes: Rob Peter to Pay Paul and worse

When I read earlier this month about the changes proposed to make it easier to transfer CPF payments to parents or grandparents in the constructive, nation-building media,  I tot of the old English saying “Rob Peter to Pay Paul”.

---

Rob Peter to Pay Paul

To use resources that legitimately belong to or are needed by one party in order to satisfy a legitimate need of another party, especially within the same organization or group; to solve a problem in a way that makes another problem worse, producing no net gain.

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/rob_Peter_to_pay_Paul

———————————————–

To recap, changes to the Central Provident Fund (CPF) Act have been proposed to lower the minimum amount that members must have in their own CPF accounts before making transfers to their parents or grandparents.

At present, CPF members must have the prevailing Full Retirement Sum – which is $166,000 for CPF members aged 55 this year – before they can transfer extra savings to their parents’ or grandparents’ accounts. Members aged above 55 need to meet the retirement sum specified for their cohort.

The changes proposed by the Ministry of Manpower (MoM) will allow CPF members to make such transfers if they have at least the Basic Retirement Sum – which is half the full sum – and a sufficient property pledge or charge to make up the rest of the full sum.

But if you transfer your CPF to your parents’ or grandparents’ CPF, you could be solving a problem (their need for money) in a way that creates another problem (your retirement needs) worse. Ownself sabo ownself.

Worse the PAP administration will be laughing all the way to the bank if yr parents or grandparents die earlier than expected and they are on CPL Life, not the old CPF Retirement Sum Scheme. The bequest should be much lower compared to if they opted-in to CPF Life.

Uncle Leong explained it well in a TRE article:

Since the minimum amount that you need to keep in your own CPF, in order to do the transfer has been reduced from $166,000 to $83,000 if you are able to pledge say your HDB flat – with the recent confirmation that the value of HDB flats may decline to zero at the end of the 99-year lease – will you have enough for your own retirement?

Whilst you may be tempted to top-up your parents and/or grandparents’ CPF because as long as they are age 65 and over – they can immediately take monthly payouts.

This is akin to turning your own CPF to cash which your parents/grandparents can use, and arguably your cashflows may improve because you may not need to give them as much cash as you are doing now.

However, under the old CPF Retirement Sum Scheme (RSS) – the monthly payout that your parents/grandparents may be able to withdraw, may be much lesser than if they opt-in to the CPF Life Scheme.

However, the downside may be that if they die early – like within the next five to 20 years – the bequest may be much lower compared to if they had not opted-in to CPF Life.

Let me illustrate this with an example.

If you transfer $123,000 to your mother who is age 65 (date of birth 1.9.1952) – the CPF Life Estimator calculator shows a monthly payout of $654 – $691 and very low bequests of $40,658 – $45,124 at age 75 and $0 – $5,859 at age 80 under the Standard Plan, compared to getting the actual balance in your Retirement Account upon death under the old RSS.

In contrast to the very low bequests under CPF Life above – the actual balance upon death under the old RSS is estimated to be $93,851, $73,272 and $47,254, at age 75, 80 and 85, respectively.

 

HoHoHo: Rogue bank and the Indon military

NYT is the first media publication to report that the inquiry StanChart faces involves clients with links to the Indonesian military.

Standard Chartered Faces Inquiry Over $1.4 Billion Transfer by Indonesians

By CHAD BRAY

The London-based bank told regulators about the issue after the money was moved in 2015 by clients with links to the military.

NYT Dealbook

Property: Freehold rules OK

In Property dev, S’pore style,I reported that CityDev build Amber Park 34 yrs ago and sold each unit at about S$360,000. Now they are buying back at more than S$4.3m per unit, spending S$906.7m in total. Owners are expected to receive between S$4.3 million and S$8.3 million in gross sale proceeds.

If u are wondering why CityDev is prepared to pay so much, it’s because the land it sold and bot back is freehold. No need to top up to renew lease because there’s no lease to renew. Btw, a retired social activist (honourably discharged) must be feeling good. Ten years ago he bot ia newly developed freehold condominium apartment in the Joo Chiat area . He was saying that the market priced the project at a slight premium to a similar 99-yr leasehold project.

Bet u CityDev will now sell the flats on a 99-year lease, keeping the freehold for itself, juz like the govt aka HDB flats.

As to the selling price, a fat cat reader says, “With an average 1000sf unit, that’s $2.6+M”. I’d round that up to S$3m a flat.

Given that CityDev is now so bullish about the property market, what will the cybernuts say now?

When I wrote this Property: TRE nuts will be getting more frus, chief TRE cybernut, Oxygen, went madder with rage, saying I was peddling untruths about a recovering property market.

---

Oxygen is so nutty that he

— donated $10,000 to TRE before GE 2015;

— despite living in Oz and KPKBing about wanting his CPF money, he still keeps (or cannot give up?) his S’pore citizenship and so still cannot withdraw his CPF money; and

— dances on graves of dead children, sneering at their grieving parents TRE grave dancer doesn’t deny grave dancing.

---

Now that City Dev has shown its faith in the S’pore property market, Oxygen must be banging his balls even harder. And so will his fellow TRE cybernuts like Philip Ang and Ng Cock Lim. Their predictions of a collapse in S’pore property prices remain dreams like their predictions of big losses in 2015 for the PAP.

Worse news for them: this year’s GDP growth is looking good at a forecast of 2.5%. Last yr’s was 2%.

Coming back to property, when u see the greedy residents of Laguna Park and Pine Grove put their flats up for en bloc sales, its peak market time again: Even greedier en-blocers.

That was written in 2011, when they were looking at each enbloc sale grossing S$1.4bn.

They should now remember this: JLL’s 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. “This will eat into their sale price,” he says. Old private flats’ value can also fall off a cliff

Seelan Palay: Sylvia Lim was right

Here I made fun of Seelan Palay’s latest attempt to test the OB markers: he crossed a red line after the police tried very hard not to arrest him, but he persisted, “After several failed attempts by the Police to persuade Seelan to leave the area, he was arrested by the Police at 3.20pm.” (TOC report)

Two years ago I wrote about how one person can be arrested for an illegal assembly

Jogging alone can be illegal?

If wearing the wrong tee-shirt or singlet?

Try walkng or jogging alone* wearing a “Free our CPF” singlet: remember that any public assembly of more than one person** needs police permission.

And jogging in a group of two or more”Free our CPF” singlets will be like jogging in groups in Burundi: illegal.

Running is a national pastime in Burundi, with hundreds of people out jogging on weekend mornings. But in March [2014] the authorities banned jogging in groups – unless permission was sought from the authorities. It affects all group sports in the capital, which can now only be played in designated areas.

The restrictions followed the arrest of some opposition members who were out jogging and chanting political slangs. Police officers tried to stop what they regarded as an illegal march and the situation deteriorated into clashes. More than 40 Movement for Solidarity and Democracy (MSD) party members received sentences ranging from five years to life.

Burundi: Where jogging is a crime

Wonder what about wearing a tee shirt with a Oppo party logo, drinking teh tarik as social media celebrities Ravi and Jeannette Chong used to do when they were NSP tua kees.

And what about the crowds assembling to pay their respects to LKY? What about the crowds at the National Museum LKY exhibition?

Seems anything the PAP administration or the SPF doesn’t like can be an illegal assembly.

Related post: PAP uses Lawfare against its opponents?

———‘

*Auntie Sylvia was absolutely right in 2007 and 2009 when she spoke out publicly:

“The change in definition of “assembly” and “procession” is more disturbing. As the Explanatory Statement to the Bill says, these words are no longer restricted to gatherings of 5 persons or more. This means even ONE person alone can constitute illegal assembly, thus giving the State complete control over an individual citizen’s freedoms.

‘First, to say that 1 person constitutes an assembly is certainly an abuse of the word. Secondly, is the government making the change because there had been incidents involving less than 5 persons which had disrupted public life? Unless there is compelling evidence to prove to us that expanding the definition of assembly and procession is needed, this expansion does not deserve our support,”  Sylvia Lim in parly in 2009.

Earlier, in 2007, she had said:

“This refers to clauses 29 and 30 of the Bill. By clause 29 of the Bill, we are removing the heading “Offences Against Public Tranquility” and replacing it with “Offences relating to Unlawful Assembly”. By Clause 30, we will be deleting “mischief or trespass or other offence” and replacing it with “to commit any offence”.

S 141 has been amended to bring it in line with a recent Court of Appeal case: PP v Tan Meng Khin [1995] 2 SLR 505. Now, an assembly will be unlawful if people intend to commit an offence punishable with imprisonment of 6 mths or more, even if it is peaceful and does not disturb public tranquillity. Under our law, a person who organizes a procession or assembly after the police rejection of a permit can be punished with max 6 months jail under the Miscellaneous Offences Act. Hence 5 or more people who gather to do so will become members of an unlawful assembly.

As our society continues to evolve, the time is surely ripe for us to allow peaceful outdoor protests as a form of expression. By all means, we can have rules about how, where and when such processions may be held, but wider law reform is needed. S 141 should be restricted to offences which threaten the public peace, and other laws such as the Miscellaneous Offences Act which require permits for peaceful assemblies should be modified.”

**Two men between the ages of 24 and 25 were arrested by police outside the Istana on Saturday afternoon (Apr 4).

Police said the duo had turned up in front of the Istana with placards at about 4pm. Channel NewsAsia understands that the men were holding signs that read “You can’t silence the people” and “Injustice” for about half an hour. They were clad in identical red hoodies and dark blue jeans.

Police also said both of them had refused to stop the activity despite requests from officers. As such, they were arrested for organising a public assembly without a permit, under Section 16(1)(a) of the Public Order Act, Chapter 257A.

 

 

PAP uses Lawfare against its opponents?

Is Lawfare the PAP’s weapon of choice against the enemies of the people the PAP?

Yesterday, I came across a word that JBJ, Dr Chee, Roy, Amos, Francis Seow and many other opponents of the PAP would have agreed as being the victims of, if they knew of the term. The word is “lawfare”.

The term is used by the Brazilian lawyers of ex-president Lula da Silva who was recently found guilty of corruption in a letter to the editor in the latest issue of the Economist . They define “lawfare” as “the misuse of law for political ends” and they accuse the Brazilian authourities of using lawfare against their client. 

What do you think? The PAP is using lawfare against its opponents?

Very related article: In S’pore we have rule by law not the rule of law.   

(Last para added at 6.20am)

Seelan Palay is really very happy

Don’t buy the BS that he’s been persecuted for protesting.

Don’t believe me isit? Then read the u/m by Martyn See (another anti-PAP activist).

When I read it, I realised how hard Seelan Palay was trying to getting himself arrested for a second time since his first arrest in 2006. It took him 11 years of provoking the authorities before the police arrested him again recently.

And even then, the police arrested him after really, really trying hard not to arrest him. TOC (no friend of the authorities especially the police) reported, “After several failed attempts by the Police to persuade Seelan to leave the area, he was arrested by the Police at 3.20pm.”

So let’s be happy that he was successful in getting himself arrested again after 11 years.

Martyn See’s post

Sept 2006 (IMF-World Bank Meetings): 21-year-old artist Seelan Palay is arrested by police over a plan to distribute flyers ahead of the IMF-World Bank meetings. Palay had earlier initiated an online campaign to capture photos of “400 Frowns” in protest against government policies.

Jan 2008: Artist Seelan Palay completes a solo five-day hunger strike outside the Malaysian High Commission in protest against the Malaysian Government’s detention of five leaders of ethnic Indian group Hindraf. Wearing a placard around his neck that said, “Give them fair trial,” Palay was briefly warned by police that he would be flouting the law. No arrest or charges are filed.

May 2008: Five Singaporeans, holding aloft a series of banners with messages such as “Censored News Is No News” and “Newspapers and Printing Presses Act = Repression”, stand outside the Singapore Press Holdings building to mark World Press Freedom Day. There are no reported arrests.

May 2008: Officers from the Board of Film Censors, assisted by the police, enter the Peninsula-Excelsior Hotel to seize a film which was undergoing its private premiere. Witnessed by about a hundred guests including foreign diplomats, organisers hand the DVD copy of the film to officials. Entitled “One Nation Under Lee”, the documentary was made by artist Seelan Palay and its premiere hosted by the SDP. Palay is currently under investigation for exhibition of a film without licence.

Jan 2009: Wearing red t-shirts and holding a banner that read ‘Stop ill-treatment of Burmese activists’, two protesters stood for an hour outside the Ministry of Manpower before being handcuffed and escorted into police vehicles. The two were protesting against the non-renewal of visas to some Myanmar expatriates, whom the Government says are “not welcomed in Singapore”. The two Singaporeans, Seelan Palay and Chong Kai Xiong, are being investigated for the offence of criminal trespass.

Oct 2017 : Artist and activist Seelan Palay marks his 32 years of age by holding a mirror in front of Parliament House to highlight the long-term detention of Dr Chia Thye Poh from 1966 to 1998. He is arrested and released 24 hours later.

http://singaporerebel.blogspot.sg/…/1994-2011-chronology-of…

Video:

“We are still colonised in Singapore, previously by white man, and now by men in white.”

https://m.facebook.com/story.php…

Trump must be doing something right? Right?

Stock Market hits an ALL-TIME high! Unemployment lowest in 16 years! Business and manufacturing enthusiasm at highest level in decades!

Trump tweet on 5 October

Fact

Since

election day last year, the S&P 500 has delivered a total return of more than 20 per cent …stocks outside the US have gained even more in the America-first era, at 22.8 per cent.

FT

PAP rule will end in 16 yrs time

There have been quite a few comments on FB recently comparing PAP ruled S’pore to the USSR.

The USSR lasted for 74 years from 1917’s October Revolution. Counting from 1959, PAP has until 2033.

 

Wankers’ Party still blur on audits and accounting

WP MP thinks MoH’s accounts is like that of AHTC isit?

Remember that AGO said (based on a report by int’l accounting firm PwC that AHTC’s accounts were not fit for purpose. Also KPMG, another int’l accouting firm said the same thing”KPMG report on AHTC: Notice the deafening silence?

Can’t stop laughing at MP Png’s attempts to compare MoH’s accounts to that of AHTC where readers will remember that an independent committee (whose members were approved by the AHTC) acting on behalf of AHTC are now suing Low, Auntie and others for breach of their fiduciary duties to AHTC.

Mr Png had questioned if the Ministry of Health (MOH), in its statement issued in July, could interpret the report as an “endorsement” that there is no fraud, as it is not forensic in nature.

The AGO report took MOH to task for inadequate oversight and weaknesses in the management of development projects under the ministry.

…

“The AGO report only highlights lapses – it is a selective audit. As such, the AGO report, when it came out, the language they used was also quite similar to what was also used previously and what we encountered before,” Mr Png said.

“It’s not a forensic thing, so no ministry should take for granted that because it is not mentioned that there is no fraud, that there is no fraud and that it does not warrant any further investigation.”

Read more at http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/ago-audit-of-moh-did-not-indicate-fraud-or-need-for-further-9270282

The AGO never said that MoH’s accounts were not fit for purpose, something that it said about AHTC’s accounts.

Whatever,

Ms Indranee said Mr Png had possibly “misunderstood the nature of an audit”.

“An audit will highlight or precipitate a forensic enquiry if there is reason to do a forensic enquiry,” she said.

“So if you go in, and you find there is a conflict of interest – for example, payment related to third parties or if your system as a whole enables the same person to approve a payment, submit a request for payment and sign a cheque for payment – that would require a forensic investigation.

“But if you go in and you find that there is, in MOH’s case, a possibility of overpayment which actually has not even occurred, and you point it out and you can rectify it and if the nature for it is because I have explained earlier, human error, negligence or non-compliance – that in itself does not trigger a forensic audit.”

FORENSIC INVESTIGATION NOT NECESSARY: INDRANEE

Ms Indranee said one has to look at the nature of the lapse – whether it requires a “further and deep investigation”. She said that the financial statements of the Government were found to be “fair and accurate” as well as reliable.

The second part any audit would highlight is if the rules and processes are adequate and have been complied with.

“In this case, it would appear that the rules and processes are adequate but in some cases, they were not complied with, that does not necessitate a forensic investigation. So it is quite correct for MOH to say that the audit did not in this instance disclose evidence of fraud,” Ms Indranee said.

Mr Png also asked if the AGO would direct all the entities in the report to investigate improper payments made and determine the amount of money to recover.

Ms Indranee said it was important to note that there was no indication in the report of payments due to “fraud, misfeasance or dishonesty”. She said the cases highlighted in the report concerned overpayments made without prior approval, and they arose as a result of human error, negligence and a failure to follow established procedures.

She said the agencies highlighted in the report are taking “prompt actions to recover” any amount that might have been paid out in error. For example, the Singapore Corporation of Rehabilitative Enterprises had recovered the overpaid amounts, as noted by the AGO.

Ms Indranee said the Economic Development Board had also recovered the amount in the two cases of overpayments, while the Ministry for Social and Family Development is also taking “corrective actions to make good under-reimbursements and to recover over-reimbursements”.

Read more at http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/ago-audit-of-moh-did-not-indicate-fraud-or-need-for-further-9270282

 

Akan datang

My kind of films: “Premium quality content in short form, like “Game of Thrones” with a narrative arc of 10 minutes”. From NYT Dealbook Katzenberg’s Big Ask: $2 Billion Jeffrey Katzenberg, the Hollywood executive and co-founder of DreamWorks Animation, is trying to raise money for a television start-up and he’s doing it on a scale that dwarfs the kind of money initially raised by the likes of Facebook, Netflix and Uber. Virtually every large media and technology company, as well as several private equity firms, have shown some interest. Mr. Katzenberg’s idea? Premium quality content in short form, like “Game of Thrones” with a narrative arc of 10 minutes. Mr. Katzenberg explained some of his thinking to DealBook’s Andrew Ross Sorkin: “I would actually make the argument that one of the challenges for network TV has been that they’ve actually busted the form by asking people to watch 19 minutes of commercial time inside of 60 minutes,” he said. “Thirty-two percent of your watch time is watching commercials.” “This idea that Apple and Facebook and YouTube are now coming into Hollywood with these billions of dollars and are in fact going to change the enterprise of television is actually wrong,” he said. “They’re not doing anything new or different or unique.”

Property dev, S’pore style

Buy high, sell high, buy higher, sell higher.

CityDev build Amber Park 34 yrs ago and sold each unit at about S$360,000. Now they buy back at slightly more than S$4.3m per unit, spending S$906.7m in total. Owners are expected to receive between S$4.3 million and S$8.3 million in gross sale proceeds.

“The 213,670 sq ft residential site may be redeveloped to accommodate a high-rise apartment development of around 24 to 26 storeys, depending on the technical height controls, its sole marketing agent JLL said.”

What is going to be the selling price of the new units now?

S$5m at a minimum it would seem.

 

Asia’s Woman Problem

From NYT Dealbook:

Most of the richest men in China, Japan and South Korea run companies with few, if any, female board members.

Bloomberg’s Bruce Einhorn:

Many of Asia’s billionaires are less likely to have women on their boards because they control their companies through their own shareholdings or those of family members and family-controlled entities, according to Suken Bhandari, Singapore-based head of advisory for the region for ISS Corporate Solutions, a U.S.-based consulting firm.

This isn’t just about being fair. It’s about being responsible, argues Bloomberg’s Shelly Banjo:

Although women control the lion’s share of consumer spending, they’ve accounted for less than 10 percent of [Samsonite’s] net sales.

“Most of the people running the company are men and as a masculine brand, we were predominantly designing products and stores with men in mind,” C.E.O. Ramesh Tainwala explained. (Update at 2.40 pm) And then there’s this A report published by Credit Suisse last year said companies with at least one woman director received a better return on their investments compared with companies with all-male boardrooms. They say companies where women made up at least 15% of senior management were 50% more profitable than those where fewer than 10% of senior managers were female. http://www.bbc.com/news/41365364

Tharman talking cock? Or cracking a joke?

[R]ecently, a DPM said we are now more tolerant than in the 70s and 80s. I remember participating in a couple of demonstrations in the 70s organised by the student union without asking for permission – how do you square all this?

Tan Tee Seng, Operation Spectrum detainee, on FB

The preceding bit reads

From my perspective, the case is simple – an artist used a performance art to draw attention to a shameful chapter in our historical past, much like a one-man flash mob performance. There were 3 scenes – the first at Hong Lim Park was attended by about 30 – 40 people. Part 2 was in front of the National Gallery and Part 3 was outside the Parliament House (both are public spaces). About 15 odd people saw the performance with a few passers by. After the performance, the artist was arrested – handcuffed and bundled into a police car, some of the audience were told they were “witnesses” to a commission of an offence which the police could not ascertain. Artist was kept 24 hours for his part and may be charged. The “witnesses” may be rounded up later to assist in the “investigation” – all because there was no permission given and yet our constitutional rights provide us the freedom of expression, assembly and speech.

The whole post

 

Related post: Tharman the wannabe comedian

Update: “Fair Jobs for Singaporeans” rally

Lim Tean says on his blog that he and others still plan to hold a rally calling for Fair Jobs for Singaporeans.

As reported in Do Singkies want Fair Jobs for S’poreans? , it had been planned for the second week of September. But in September, he and Gilbert Goh organised a silent protest to KPKB about the presidential selection Good crowd at #notmypresident protest.

In answer to a query on whether the above rally will ever happen, Lim Tean said “Yes”. So it looks like there are S’poreans out there willing to walk the talk by donating and in the process show the displeasure of the neglect of the government in providing Fair Jobs for Singaporeans. 

Obvious Ng Cock Lim, nuttiest of the TRE cybernuts is banging his balls

Rabble-rouser:

September 3, 2017 at 8:53 am(Quote)

QUOTE:
“Money talks, BS walks.
If the crowdfunding response is lousy, time for him to move on: out of politics..”
PAP’s implementation of GST was supposed to gather a pool of money to help the poor. What happened to it & became of it? Was it their intention in the 1st place? or rather a revenue raising move?
Collecting all that GST for what purpose? Was it paying their million dollar salaries?
Collect for the poor or for the rich. NKF already a lesson on the golden tap issue – collecting $1.00 but spending less than 10 to 20 cents on the dialysis patients. The money raised was used for something else!
It’s all to benefit the elites & a pool of money for PAP system just like CPF! These money could be thrown to the SWFs to invest & lose in overseas markets.
Short of saying that S’pore is a lost cause! Even if the Public helps out the poor but the poor still votes for PAP – What then? It’s time for people to step out & be counted!
And CI’s affiliation is thoroughly suspect – he’s trying to get our financial details out into the open by making you guys donate – TO EXPOSE YOU.
Ask yourself how did the AG get details of Lee ShengWu ‘private’ facebook posts. Do you think there’s data privacy in S’pore? Or how did CPIB knew of SDF chief, their own CPIB head & even ex-Principal of River Valley School indulging in outside ‘makan’? There is ongoing surveillance in S’pore once a person had becomes a ‘person of interest’.

PATRIOT of TEMESAK: Actual Date & Time please…will be there personally to donate poor as I am towards a Justifiable Cause

@ Patriot:
Don’t go down personally! It’s a scheme to draw all the dissidents out into the open & note their particulars by the ISD officers. Keep your money & watch on the sidelines.
Even Lim Thean himself is suspect – why would an elite [practising lawyer] be on the opposition side & with political impunity? Remember Harbans Singh [another practising lawyer] – the wayang opposition leader who ran against JB Jeyaretnam in Tanjong Pagar elections to spoil/split votes.
Even the last PE; one or two of the Tans [Tan Jee Say, Tan Kin Lian] were planted to block Dr Tan Cheng Bock’s elected Presidency bid.
The PAP is slowly imploding within itself – the infighting already started among the fractions. But before that, they’ll (the top) make want to make examples of people who would go against the status quo.

Whatever, with enemies like him, no wonder PM can afford to upset voters.

 

Indians love Chinese smartphones

In the latest quarter, it was reported that almost half of all smartphones sold in India were from Chinese brands, such as Xiaomi, Vivo and Oppo.

Cheap and good.

Indian govt is not happy.

MoH that cock meh? Only know to cut and paste isit?

I didn’t think anything was wrong when I read

The Ministry of Health (MOH) is reviewing the residency programme for doctors, Senior Minister of State for Health Chee Hong Tat said on Saturday (Sep 30), acknowledging that some of the outcomes “have not been as positive in practice” as originally hoped for.

The residency programme was last revised in 2010 when MOH adopted the American residency system to provide trainee doctors with a more structured framework and regular supervision.

“As the residency system was adapted from the US, there were challenges to fit its different elements into our system in Singapore during implementation,” Mr Chee said.

“We have to be honest and acknowledge that while the residency programme has its advantages and good points, some of the outcomes have not been as positive in practice as what we had originally hoped for.”

Read more at http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/moh-to-review-doctors-residency-programme-9266378

I mean adapting an overseas benchmark or practice involves making modifications after the initial introduction to take into account some local quirks that were not thought about when the initial adaption was made.

But then I read this and went WTF!

One main problem of the current residency programme is that disease patterns in Singapore and the US are vastly different, said Associate Professor Chen Fun Gee, who is director of the graduate medical studies division at National University Hospital.

This means trainee doctors are assessed on diseases that are not common in Singapore, such as Rocky Mountain spotted fever.

“In Singapore, we have a higher diabetes rate compared to other countries; we have dengue haemorrhagic fever, which you don’t see in the United States … we need to make sure our doctors understand these diseases and should be assessed in their competencies in these diseases,” said Assoc Prof Chen, who is also a member of the Singapore Medical Council.

Read more at http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/moh-to-review-doctors-residency-programme-9266378

Surely MoH should have had more sense than to cut and paste wholesale when introducing the programme?

I mean adapting to local circumstances isn’t exactly rocket science. For example much of our financial and corporate law legislation are based on ang moh legislation. As is much of our accoutancy framework. As are our food and safety rules. And I can go on and on.

LKY, Dr Goh and other pioneer leaders must be spinning in their urns.