S’poreans overwhelming trust PAP govt over fake news bill

That’s my take after

Nas: 2000, Terry: 200+

The KPKBing about the so-called draconian effects of the pending law on fake news in cyberspace and social media is really, juz “noise”, if only 200 plus S’poreans turned up at TOC’s rally against the bill last Sunday.

NAS’s crowd the previous Saturday at his”S’pore’s a great place” would amount to 24,000 in a city in the UK or 120,000 in the US, while TOC’s crowd last Sunday amounted to 2,400 or 12,000 in the US. (How calculations made: Pink Dot: Why was govt spooked?/ Pastor Khong try matching the numbers)

The masses have spoken by their absence, voting with their absent feet: so progressives and their cybernut allies should sit down and shut up. .

So cut out the BS, anti-PAP progressives and their anti-PAP cybernut allies, especially those ranting on TRE, social media and TOC.

As I wrote last Sunday before Terry’s do:

Whatever, if the progressives and their cybernut allies cannot muster a decent crowd of about 1,000 people, time to sit down and shut up, and stop talking down to the 70% of the voters who vote for the PAP at GEs. They should be trying to persuade those who voted for Tan Cheng Bock at last PE (35% of voters) that they are right, rather than juz diss the PAP.

The law of politics:

You either have the numbers or you shut up.

(Tito Mboweni, ANC freedom fighter who became cental bank governor, finance minister and corporate fat cat)

Nas v Terry Xu

No wonder TOC jealous of Nas: TOC, cybernuts juz plain jealous isit?. But to be fair to TOC: TOC recovering from its anti-Nas fever.

Btw, Nas not only FT who thinks S’pore is a great place.

 

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StanChart: More unhappiness

Another influential shareholder advisory influencer, Institutional Shareholder Services, has recommended that investors vote against Standard Chartered’s pay policy at its annual meeting next month and described the bank’s method of calculating executive pension allowances as “disingenuous”.

ISS said that investors should cast their ballot against the emerging-markets bank in a binding vote on its pay policy on May 8 because of a change in how it calculates executive pension allowances.

Glass Lewis published a similar recommendation earlier.

Together,Glass Lewis and ISS usually influence over roughly a quarter of votes in any listco: a sizeable number. But Temasek is relaxed about the bank’s pay policy: StanChart mgt think they like PAP ministers isit?

Meritocracy? What meritocracy? How our PMs are chosen

But first, where Heng and Tharman failed.

Further to  what was reported in London trashes S’pore, London in 2019 is still the king of the offshore renminbi payments market according to the Chinese.

The UK (i.e. London) accounted for 37% of renminbi foreign exchange transactions outside of China in January.In the final quarter of 2018, average daily trading volumes of the Chinese currency in London reached £76.6 billion, up nearly 50% on the same period in 2017, according to a report published on Wednesday by the City of London Corporation and the People’s Bank of China’s Europe Representative Office.

I ask again

Tot PAP govt said we had plans to be a leading off-shore renminbi trading centre.

What went wrong? After all we are already a leading global FX trading centre.

London trashes S’pore

And Heng is DPM and PM presumptive? While ang moh tua kees and some anti-PAP types want Tharman as PM?

Failure is being rewarded?

Thinking about it our PM became PM after failing big time:

Another decade, another restructuring report?

In the 80s, one Lee Hsien Loong as trade and industry minister headed a committee to recommend changes in the economy. In the early noughties when DPM he headed another committee on the same issue.

In 2010, one Tharman and his committee produced the 2010 Economic Strategies Committee (ESC). And now there’s the CFE. It’s a bit early, but then there wasn’t a report in the 90s: so maybe making up for lost time?

If Lee Hsien loong’s 1980s plan was so successful, why keep needing plans every decade? Plan succeeded, but circumstances change said people from constructive, nation-building media like Balji and Bertha then. Really?  Since that plan, new plans that are a copy and paste from the previous one: Economic restructuring: This time, it’s really different.

(And anyway can believe Bertha and Balji, now that they telling us how they helped PAP govt fix JBJ?)

Meritocracy? What meritocracy?

Related articles

Connecting SMRT failures, 4th gen ministers & change of PM (Another Heng cock-up)

Why do we keep getting mediocre ministers?

Why cabinet can’t do bold new ideas

 

Don’t ministers get paid millions so that they get things right?

Isn’t that the argument the PAP used when they said ministers had to be paid like CEOs?

I tot these tots when I read

Tough to get ‘balance right’ when pricing HDB flats: Lawrence Wong 

(Headline from constructive nation-building media)

Looks like Ah Wong wants to get millions for doing bugger all.

And cybernuts want ministers from non elite schools? Lawrence Wong attended non elite schools.

Still he talk cock, sing song king, like ministers from elite schools.

Lawrence Wong: a PM-in-waiting

Lawrence Wong talked cock

Tharman has a point, but Lawrence Wong missed the plot

Fixing Sabo King minister

Will resale flat owners still vote for PAP in next GE? contd

Will this resale flat buyer vote for PAP in next GE?

Nas v Terry Xu

Last Saturday, Nas attracted a crowd of 2000 at the Botanical Gardens.

Later this afternoon at Hong Lim Park, Terry of Terry’s Online Channel is organising a response against Nas’ positivism about S’pore

Voicing the people’s concern over the proposed fake news law

Our speakers confirmed for the event are Leong Sze Hian, Kin Lian Tan, Khush Chopra, James Gomez, Chan Wai Han, and Brad P Bowyer. 🎤

The event will be moderated by Kwan Yue Keng.

See you all there, and do bring along your mats, umbrellas, and cardboard papers so you can write what you feel about the proposed law on “fake news”! 🇸🇬

For those who can’t make it, you can catch the live streaming of the speeches here on our Facebook page.

https://www.facebook.com/events/448166205961727/

Who will have the bigger crowd?

Das had 2,000. This is pretty decent because this would amount to a crowd of 24,000 in the UK or 120,000 in the US. (How calculations made: Pink Dot: Why was govt spooked?/ Pastor Khong try matching the numbers)

Let’s see if the progressives and their cybernut allies can match Nas in getting feet on the ground. He’s an internet celebrity who juz happens to love S’pore, while they juz happen to hate living in it and diss him for promoting S’pore to his fans in other countries. See:

TOC recovering from its anti-Nas fever/ Why TOC keeps on making “honest mistakes”?

TOC, cybernuts juz plain jealous isit?

Whatever, if the progressives and their cybernut allies cannot muster a decent crowd of about 1,000 people, time to sit down and shut up, and stop talking down to the 70% of the voters who vote for the PAP at GEs. They should be trying to persuade those who voted for Tan Cheng Bock at last PE (35% of voters) that they are right, rather than juz diss the PAP.

The law of politics:

You either have the numbers or you shut up.

(Tito Mboweni, ANC freedom fighter who became cental bank governor, finance minister and corporate fat cat)

Related posts:

Nas not only FT who thinks S’pore is a great place

Why ang mohs will vote for the PAP

Nas not only FT who thinks S’pore is a great place

So do the otters.

OK, to be fiar most of our younger otters are born here, but the older otters are FTs like Nas.

If you have been following OtterCity and OtterWatch on FB, you will notice we only publish and write about our otters in the wild.

For those whom have had the opportunity to see and observe our otters here, they will know how free-spirited the animals are; they require lots of social and family support from their own kind and need lots of space to move around – they have been observed to swim up to 10 km from Bishan Park to Marina reservoir in a single morning.

We are glad that in Singapore, we enjoy seeing our otters in the wild, watching how they roam, feeding and socialising as a family. We feel happy when they are in such happiest state of freedom, mind and space.

“There’s something about otters moving together as a family – squeaking, diving and catching fish – that really excites people,” Sivasothi (aka Otterman) said. “Singaporeans are beginning to look at the water again.”

And here’s why they’ll vote for the PAP. It’s all Goh Meng Seng’s fault (With enemy like him, PAP need not worry: think the last presidential election where he persuaded Tan Kin Lian to stand thereby helping PAP get it’s preferred candidate elected. Our very own Wu Sangui see Silence of Goh Meng Sen):

As to why the Bishan and Marina families hate Goh Meng Seng, it’s because because if he had his way there wouldn’t be today’s Bishan Park. After GE 2011, he KPKBed that the PAP town council running Bishan was squandering money which the town council didn’t have to develop Bishan Park.

As usual the talk cock, sing king promised to monitor developments there and highlight the cock-ups. He never did, But to be fair to him, he may have realised that he was wrong about the lack of money. But that would be a first, Meng Seng realising that he got things wrong.

Coming back to the otters: Pa and Ma Bishan otters who migrated from Johor would never have had Bishan Park as a home base if the PAP hadn’t developed the park against Goh Meng Seng’s advice.

For those who don’t follow the otter tales, the Bishan family (FT Pa, Ma and their S’pore born kids) kicked the Marina Bay family (true blue S’poreans though descended from FT otters also) out of Marina Bay and moved there Eventually the Marina Bay otters found their way to the Lower Peirce Reservoir and now regularly visit the now vacated Bishan Park.

Coming back to Meng Seng. The adult Bishan and Marina otters tell misbehaving pups that if they are naughty Meng Seng will eat them.

Why otters support the PAP and (some) hate Meng Seng

Lesson for S’pore and SGX from HK, NY

Talking about tech IPOs

when the time comes to go public, London usually loses out to New York and Hong Kong — places where locally tethered funds are fatter, exogenous effects are less esoteric and armies of private punters can be relied on to buy on hype.

FT

S’pore has the same problems as London. Most of the institutional money here is from overseas groups, while our retail investors only want safe securities like Hyflux perps and preference shares.

PAP genius at work

The middle classes in developed nations are under pressure from stagnant income growth, rising lifestyle costs and unstable jobs, and this risks fuelling political instability, a new report by the OECD has warned.

FT

As we are a “developed” city state, while S’pore’s middle class has stagnant income growth relative to “affordable” public housing, rising lifestyle costs (think CoEs or public transport fares), and unstable jobs (all those retrenchments and “new age” “sharing economy” jobs), no sign of political instability here despite the attempts of TOC and other cybernut publications, Mad Dog, and Lim Tean.

These articles show why there’s political stability here even though Double confirm, ground not sweet for PAP:

Merdeka Package shows how smart scholars are

Great IB riposte to Mad Dog and P Ravi etc

6,400 senior citizens each get $312.50 hongpao from a TLC

Did u know S’pore graduated to “Flawed democracy”?

Why Milliennals will vote for the PAP

Keeping power in a one-party state

Why ang mohs will vote for the PAP

Why 37,000+ sure to vote for PAP

So what if S’pore is very low on democratic accountability?

 

When giving a second chance worked

After reading the BS from our police on why it and the AGC gave a peeping tom a conditional warning, I read an interesting article on how a man who was given a second chance, benefited British footie.

Archibald Leitch designed and built a football stadium for Rangers. He was a fan (Like Bill Ng Billy Boy to own Rangers? who is still under investigation: In trouble: Must be Bill Ng’s footie club again LOL)

But on the very first occasion the ground was tested by a capacity crowd, disaster struck.

Scotland were playing a match against England in April 1902 when a short section of timber terracing behind one of the goals gave way, sending 25 fans to their deaths.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-48028660

He not only narrowly escaped prosecution, possibly because he was well connected, but also managed, because of his connections, to get Rangers to allow him to design and build the new stadium.

He never looked back

Between 1899 and his death on 25 April 1939, the Scottish architect built stands for Rangers, Chelsea, Fulham, Spurs, Liverpool, Everton, Manchester United, Arsenal, Aston Villa and many more.

Today two of the stands he built for Everton are still in use.

2 must reads: NUS voyeurism balls-up

Or is it cock-up?

Sorry. Can’t help the flippancy. What happened is really black comedy at it’s blackest. After the police, AGC and NUS washed their hands (OK sort of) over a voyeur (Maybe taking the attitude “From poor family; must pang chance.”?), the unhappy victim got the voyeur crucified on the day the Christ was crucified or thereabouts.

If the system fails her, she cannot be expected to behave like a meek and mild lamb, can she? Power to her for having the balls to demand publicly that she gets her retribution. Note I said “retribution”, not “justice”.

Here’s a link to a very good commentary on the perspective that the police, AGC and NUS missed: a damning indictment of their failure to understand how gals feel.

Commentary: Here’s what zero tolerance towards sexual misconduct looks like

The NUS voyeurism incident offers lessons for all education institutions, says AWARE Executive Director Corinna Lim.

Read more at https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/commentary/nus-sexual-misconduct-zero-tolerance-toilet-filming-monica-baey-11472002

Even better is this comment from someone who seems to know how prosecutorial discretion works in practice. What he says bring back memories of the days when the then head of Crime section in the AGC and I chatted about the role of his team. Where he is wrong, is the person making the decision is supervised and the head of the crime division has to sign-off.

Heng Choy Yuen

I agree with the contents of your article. But the OVER-dependence on protocols and routine thinking may become too dogmatic. Here’s why I say so …. the RESULT of any interview by counsellors, investigations led by the SPF depends on whose desk the case file lands inside the AGC. He/she at AGC is the one who decides whether the legal process stops at his/her desk or be sent for arraignment. Due to the peculiar nature of sex-related and sexual crimes (stealing underwear, peeping tom, filming videos, physical outrgae of modesty, rape), sometimes a less-experienced AGC legal officer may make an error of judgement, not due to lack of factual evidence but simply because the analysis of cases involving sexual crimes require a deeper and thorough understanding beyond what is written in the Penal Code and statutes. Yes, there are more than sufficient precedents to guide towards a judgement (from 2015-2018 there were reportedly 20 cases of sexual misconduct handled by NUS alone) but I think in MIss Baey’s case, the person at AGC charged with deciding the punishment of MIss Baey’s offender perhaps made an error of judgement – by showing leniency (protecting the offender’s future) by itself is not ‘wrong’ when weighed against the evidence and facts gathered – but the ‘high probability of being remorseful” is an ASSESSMENT, not a fact. THe AGC officer in this case should have also considered a more potent FACT backed up by global research on the mental health of sex crimes victims – the FACT that Miss Baey, along with countless victims of similar sex crimes, will live with her mental trauma, fears and anguish. In all probability for the rest of her life. No amount of remorse, a single letter of apology can erase the mental scarring that has already occurred. Therefore while it is commendable to show leniency for ‘remorseful first-time offenders’, the LIFE-LONG irreversible mental damage on the victims of sexual misconduct MUST be prioritised – the victim had no say but … the perpetrator (unless mentally ill) made a wilful, perhaps even premeditated, decision. He was also reportedly under the influence of alcohol but how drunk he was we do not know …. so how does a drunk man summon enough soberness to go from cubicle to cubicle (captured on CCTV) ostensibly to film a naked woman bathing? Obviously his vision was not impaired by alcohol in making his directorial debut …. Isn’t it ironical that the efforts by the law enforcement authorities and NUS to show leniency just so the offender’s future is not destroyed, is producing the very opposite aftermath? Did they anticipate that their ‘merciful’ punishments would generate such public uproar and media attention? A few days ago, Great Eastern put the perp (who was working there) on suspension, but he chose to resign. But while he may recover some semblance of normalcy say after 4-5 years, the mental trauma he caused to MIss Baey is etched in her memory perhaps forever. THAT is a LESSON no victim would ever want.

(Emphasis mine)

Redefine “old age” and there’s no longer an aging problem

TOC’s Correspondent latest rant on Heng reminded me that Heng implies we need FTs by the cattle truck load, the presumptive PM because because the population is ageing and not reproducing, while we need a 10m  population.

Well recently the FT had a piece headlined

Demographic time-bomb: Finland sends a warning to Europe

Facing a rapidly ageing population, the country’s difficulty in passing reforms highlights the hurdles ahead

But interesting it reports in the article that “experts in Finland say the debate on ageing needs to be rethought”.

An expert

Prof Vaarama says that it is wrong to classify all people aged over 65 as “old”. She argues true old age starts at 80-85. Before that, people could still be working and be consumers in the new so-called “silver economy”. “Society doesn’t yet understand what longevity is. We should look at how we can benefit from this population,” she adds.

Time for the policy thinkers in the SDP and people like Tay Kheng Soon to think more about issue. The PAP won’t change their mind about a Hard Truth.

Roy’s got a point/ Good description of life in Animal Farm

No not this

“In defending the man who filmed a female student while she was showering, the Singapore police said: “A prosecution, with a possible jail sentence, will likely ruin his entire future.”

When the Prime Minister sued me, did the government think about how it would “ruin my entire future”?

Part of Roy Ngerng’s wallowing in self pity

Earlier this week in Uncle Leong’s journey to Calvary, I posted a rant from that windbag of a born loser. He went to Taiwan to get married after the Taiwan supreme court said gays could get married, but Taiwanese voters refuse to allow gay marriage legislation to pass: us ethnic Chinese are very conservative. But among all that verbal diarrhea, there’s this gain of truth

Do you remember the story of the bundle of sticks? When the father in Aesop’s Fables got his sons to break the sticks individually, the sticks broke easily, but when he got his sons to break the sticks when bundled together, they could not.

What Singaporeans do not realise that together you are the bundle of stick, and you will always be.

The PAP takes a stick out now and then from this bundle, break it, and the rest of you sticks shudder.

But what you do not realise is that when you shudder, you are shuddering with the other sticks next to you. You are in that bundle of sticks, and that makes you strong.

They cannot break all of you, so they break one stick now and then. And if you stop letting them break you one by one, you can stop them.

This is what Singaporeans do not realise. You are powerful and you are strong.

I wish you would remember that.

This is why Goh Meng Seng spends more time criticising the Oppo rather then the PAP? And promoted Tan Kin Lian as a presidential candidate? He wants a disorganised oppo that the voters despise?

Onto life in S’pore Animal Farm

“Your self-censorship, conniving with power . . . has created the situation we have today.” They went on to compare the situation to sheep shut in a slaughterhouse. When one nudges a brick from the wall in order to flee, “half the sheep complained the sunlight hurt their eyes, and the other half said, ‘If we run away, they’ll cut tomorrow’s rations in half.’”

Above is by Yuan Yang, the FT’s Beijing correspondent. This is from a story about what was discussed on GitHub’s discussion forum attached to the Fuck-XueXiQiangGuo project. Btw, person who US posted this is based in the US of A.

Vote wisely. Vote tactically. Never vote for Goh Meng Seng or his gang.

 

 

Hyflux: Don’t know if to laugh or cry

For the perpetual securities and preference shareholders, they get nothing if there’s no plan. They wanted something reasonable so the company will now keep (them) whole on the book and they will not be asked to take a haircut.

David Gerald of SIAS (Emphasis mine)

Read more at https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/business/hyflux-has-credible-revival-plan-to-file-for-moratorium-11468284

Given that there’s no white knight on the horizon (David Gerald said so), MayBank deciding to appoint receivers and managers over the assets of Tuaspring (Hyflux: Good Friday cruxification), and the desalination plant set to be taken over by PUB for free in May, what is David Gerald going on about? A credible restructuring plan without a white knight after the last one rode away? Pull the other leg, it’s got bells on it.

Super massive rights issue with pref and perpetual securities allowed to take part? Ownself pay ownself?

Another wannabe stand-up comedian, like Tharman (Tharman talks cock yet again)? Indians like to be comedians it seems?

TOC recovering from its anti-Nas fever/ Why TOC keeps on making “honest mistakes”?

Further to TOC, cybernuts juz plain jealous isit?, I was about to KPKB that TOC was becoming xenophobic citing as evidence its nasty comments on Nas, especially harping that he’s a foreigner. Doesn’t sound like the Terry I know.

But I changed my mind when TOC responded to this on FB

Another foreigner telling us how good our Gahmen is. Just what we need…..
VTO

by saying

I need to defend Nas on this. He actually answered it very well in his reply to a question posed by a member of public. The guy from Pakistan who is based in Singapore, asked if Nas will be talking about the good and bad in Singapore, since he is settling down here for the time being.

Nas said that he recognises that he is still a foreigner in Singapore and it is not his position to tell what is good and what is bad but he tries to bring out the best of whatever he gets in touch with. Will put up the video of that if I can.

The problem is that audience of his videos, think that he can cover all aspect of a matter within one min and if he says it is good, means nothing is wrong.

(Sounds like Terry of Terry’s Online Channel, not one of his goons.)

 commented

Good to see that TOC is recovering from it’s anti-Nas bout (that almost became xenophobic fever). I suppose Kirsten Han’s article helped the recovery.

Readers will know that I’m no fan of Kirsten Han but she got this right:

Nas Daily might not be playing politics—I seriously doubt he knows that much about Singaporean politics, anyway

She went on

—but the PAP is

Obviously, she doesn’t believe

Nas Daily fan meet a ‘non-cause based’ event, Public Order Act permit not required: Police
Read more at https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/nas-daily-fan-meet-a-non-cause-based-event-public-order-act-11462242

But then she wouldn’t believe anything the S’pore govt or any govt agency says, would she? To be fair, if an ang moh publication like NYT or the Guardian says that the PAP govt is right, she’d agree thru gritted teeth: she is one of those ang moh tua kee types. Read this if you want to know more about what else she said: https://www.kirstenhan.com/blog/2019/4/19/tfw-its-not-actually-about-nas-daily?fbclid=IwAR2PCtBGdK9kunMTEbC_5jM-Z42q1tJ4YpS02kH_vr4KnNo0qKuvsMmWLTo

Sad that cybernuts active on social media can’t distinguish between Nas and the PAP govt, and attack him personally when they should be focusing their attacks on the PAP govt for using him (as they perceive it) for its own agenda (as they perceive it). But with enemies like the cybernuts, the PAP doesn’t need friends. For that many S’poreans are grateful.

Whatever, Terry should investigate why his team keeps making “honest mistakes”, this year:

Wah lan! TOC praises PAP govt

Terry and his Correspondent taking wrong pills again

Maybe some ISD or PAP operative working in TOC is giving Terry and others the wrong pills or slipping drugs into their drinks. But most likely, Terry and his team need to consult Dr Ang Yong Guan. They could be going nuts.

More evidence that being anti-PAP is bad for yr mental health

Spending too much time in TRELand is bad for one’s mental health

He’s expensive. But I’m sure, he’ll give a hefty discount to comrades still fighting the good fight. For the record, he’s not retired from the good fight: juz resting between general elections?

 

Hard Truth about MSM

They reflect the conventional wisdom of the society they live in.

Most pundits in elite media know they don’t know much; their historical function is to be the mouthpiece of accredited establishment experts. If economists had told us Brexit would work, or climate scientists had dismissed global warming, we’d have believed them. But they didn’t.

FT’s footie corespondent

So let’s be a bit kind to the ass lickers (and worse) in ST and other constructive, nation-building publications.

Uncle Leong’s journey to Calvary

Last Thursday, I had lunch with some friends near Arab Street. Looking out of the window, I tot I saw Uncle Leong walking on the street below. My friends said it was him.

He looked depressed and walked as though he was carrying a heavy burden: a cross perhaps? Last Thursday was after all Maundy Thursday, or Holy Thursday, the day before Good Friday.

I tot of him carrying a cross on his shoulders on the way to his crucifixion when I read this yesterday (Feel free to skip to my further tots after the bit about Leong: writer’s a windbag who also suffers from verbal diarrhea):

This is what Singaporeans do not realise

I was sued by the Singapore prime minister, fired from my job for political reasons and later the police ransacked my home for supporting the opposition.

I was made out to be a bad person.

Then in 2017, academic Donald Low was threatened with his job.

Then last year, the prime minister sued Leong Sze Hian.

Then, the police also ransacked Terry Xu’s home.

Are all these bad people too?

After I’ve been sued, sacked, charged, had my home ransacked and persecuted from 2014 to 2016, I have since then seen more and more Singaporeans go through what I did.

With each of them, I understand their pain and the injustice they had to go through.

Because it was what I had to go through too. From once being valued at work and school, I became disavowed.

But then, the people I mentioned above aren’t as bad as the person I am. They are people who continue to be respected in what they do. Yet they have had their lives hurt and slammed by the PAP.

They won’t be the last. I’ve seen people been hurt by the PAP every year since I was persecuted, and I know it will keep going on.

Then it reminded me, before I was persecuted, I had thought about the “troublemakers” before me. Why are they so stupid to get into trouble? Why can’t they do things in other ways?

Why did they have to get themselves sued by the prime minister? Why did they have to get themselves jailed? Opposition politicians like JBJ and Chee Soon Juan, lawyers like Soh Lung Teo, church workers like Vincent Cheng why must they find trouble with the government?

But then one day, after I was sued, someone asked the same question to me, someone very close.

Why must you go and find trouble with the government, she asked me.

And then I became the “troublemaker”.

It was funny listening to the “troublemaker” label used on me. I remembered that when I attended talks after I was sued, people saw me and thought I was going to start throwing chairs. The look in their eyes, it was funny.

But of course, I asked serious questions. You can ask Tharman at one of the CPF talks I attended. He answered back quite stably too. Well, he wasn’t threatened, was he?

But after going through all these, knowing how the government can come after you and make you a such a bad person, even beyond what you’ve ever known of yourself, and to even make me question myself, this made me finally understand what these other “troublemakers” were going through, and who they are.

When I first met Vincent Cheng, he was such a soft-spoken and sincere person, when I first met Soh Lung, such a passionate and helpful person! Chee Soon Juan also came across very smart and measured.

After going through what I have, I began to understand the lives of others who had gone through what I have before me.

And I also understand the pain of others who have gone after me. And I still see people being hurt by the PAP year after year. People who have to leave the country, people who have to try to fight to clear their name, people who had live their lives honestly.

You don’t really get it until you become one of the people where overnight, you are given a new label, where you become a criminal simply for standing up for what you believe in.

Does it make me angry? Maybe. Does it make me sad? Maybe. But much of this is all in the past now.

But it does make me wonder when Singaporeans will ever realise their power. It does make me angry that Singaporeans do not want to think about this.

If I do not think about society, nothing will happen to me. Exactly what they wanted.

To keep you quiet. If you keep quiet, I don’t have to change policies to make lives better.

Do you remember the story of the bundle of sticks? When the father in Aesop’s Fables got his sons to break the sticks individually, the sticks broke easily, but when he got his sons to break the sticks when bundled together, they could not.

What Singaporeans do not realise that together you are the bundle of stick, and you will always be.

The PAP takes a stick out now and then from this bundle, break it, and the rest of you sticks shudder.

But what you do not realise is that when you shudder, you are shuddering with the other sticks next to you. You are in that bundle of sticks, and that makes you strong.

They cannot break all of you, so they break one stick now and then. And if you stop letting them break you one by one, you can stop them.

This is what Singaporeans do not realise. You are powerful and you are strong.

I wish you would remember that.

Roy Ngerng

In addition to the burden of a defamation suit, Uncle Leong is also carrying the burden of the BS of Lim Tean, his lawyer. The legal basis of what Lim Tean is accusing PM of doing (that the libel suit is an abuse of court process) has been frowned upon in English courts. Yet Lim Tean thinks our court of appeal will agree with his line of reasoning.

Christ rose on Easter Sunday and is now sitting on a throne on the right side of god the father in heaven. Somehow I doubt Uncle Leong will escape as lightly as Christ did, even if he has a son of Ah Kong rooting for him: only the younger son leh. But then miracles do happen and if anyone deserves a miracle, it’s Uncle Leong for juz sharing an article (Albeit one that he should have known was fake and defamatory). Btw, why is Ah Kong’s daughter not publicly rooting for Uncle Leong?

 

UK got this right, S’pore wrong

Recently it was reported on FB that a scooter user who ran into a a boy, punched the boy and his father.

This reminded me that in the UK, electric scooters are illegal on British streets and pavements under a law dating back to the 19th Century. The regular reports of collisions in S’pore between pedestrians and electric scooters show that something must be done about the use of electric scooters. What about banning them? UK is no less hip for banning them.

Or COEs are needed to use them? Or making users pass a test like car drivers and motor cycle riders? Maximum speed is fixed by manufacturer or importer.

Registering them is not enough.

Two very serious accidents

In 2016: A 19-year-old electric scooter rider who collided into a pedestrian, leaving her with brain injuries and in a coma, was given a short detention order and community service in 2018.
Read more at https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/e-scooter-rider-who-landed-woman-in-coma-in-accident-given-10537074

In 2018, a woman was knocked down by a man riding an e-scooter along Bedok Reservoir Road. The woman sustained head injuries as a result of the accident, and was admitted to the intensive care unit at Changi General Hospital.

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/bedok-hit-and-run-e-scooter-rider-suspect-arrested-10045606

Hopefully stricter measures will be taken before a pedestrian is killed.

It’s not as though normal regular S’poreans will be affected. Morocco Mole’s second cousin removed in the traffic police says that all the above three offenders and others are known readers and ranters on TOC, TRE and FATPAP.

 

Tharman talks cock yet again

In the big IMF/ World Bank pow-pow where central bankers were talking aloud about the dangers of govt’s interfering with their central banks’ independence, our very own Tharman Shanmugaratnam, a deputy prime minister and the chairman of its central bank joined in this concern about independence with, “Populism on the left and the right is also encroaching on central banks.” And the political pressure, “does pose a very real risk of central banks being encouraged, urged and forced into new and much larger quasi-fiscal roles”.

Like real, the fact that he’s both a DPM, and chairman of the central bank shows that there’s no independent central bank here. And he’s trying to join the conversation about central bank independence?

Or is Tharman telling a joke to the ang mohs? He trying out to be the next Joker? Or at least a stand-up comic?

Related posts:

Property: Tharman trying to crack jokes again

Tharman trying to tell jokes again?

Tharman joking again? Or trying to BS us?

PAP ant oppo can learn from world’s richest man

Our PAP govt is very risk adverse (Got to check with list of Hard Truths or call up Harry’s spirit before proceeding?) and everytime something does do wrong the anti-PAP types are out screaming at the PAP.

In his latest annual report to shareholders, Bezos is keen to remind investors that failing one reason for long-term success at Amazon: https://ftalphaville.ft.com/2019/04/11/1554989596000/Bezos-on-why-failure-is-not-failure/

Maybe the anti-PAP types scream at govt failures because they want S’pore to fail? They hope that that by screaming, they can prevent govt from experimenting its way to success for S’pore.

TOC, cybernuts juz plain jealous isit?

I couldn’t help laughing when I saw this headline from Terry’s Online Channel: “Why is a controversial foreign blogger allowed to organise a massive gathering at the Botanic Gardens?”

I laughed even more when I read

Why is a foreign vlogger who has consistently stoke controversy allowed to involve himself in Singapore’s domestic issues? Doesn’t Singapore have law specifically designed to prevent that foreigners from influencing local social and political issues?

This is pure BS from TOC: nowhere in the TOC rant does it give details of

— how he involves himself in Singapore’s domestic issues; or

— how he’s influencing local social and political issues?

TOC is juz publishing fake news.

NAS’s juz a guy organising a do for his fans, and hoping to use them as props for his next mega dollar video, as far as I’m concerned.

And Terry Xu and TOC is not happy that S’poreans can have a bit of fun, while helping a FT make money.

TOC has explained its KPKB

No, seriously the question is whether a video is considered political when it is negative and when it is positive, it is not. Because by answering that question, you can realise what is political and what is not, particularly under Singapore’s govt’s definition.

FB comment on the article

Go read the article again and tell me if it got across that point. It didn’t. It was rant against an FT. The comment was damage control.

Btw, the sliming continues, TOC posted a copy of his Israeli passport and told us he can’t go to M’sia because of it. What has this to do with the price of eggs?

To be fair to Terry and his bunch of TOC idiots, a lot of anti-PAP types are expressing their unhappiness on FB and other social media.

What a bunch of kill-joy born losers. And juz because Nas said some nice things about living here. I mean after all there’s lot of free things here: Fake News: S’pore is Pay And Pay/ Truth: Plenty of gd, free stuff.

These grumpy, anti-PAP losers should organise an anti-Nas protest or a protest against all foreigners who say nice things about S’pore (After all if they hate Nas because he says nice things about S’pore, they must hate all foreigners who have nice things to say about S’pore) at Hong Leong Green and see how many people turn up.

Btw, I’m no fan of Nas but I know people who enjoy his stuff. Live and let live.

TOC and other anti-PAP types have scored an own goal on this issue. And they keep wondering why the PAP keeps winning?

 

 

Hyflux: Good Friday cruxification

Christ and the two thieves were not the ones crucified yesterday.

Yesterday (yes on a public holiday), Hyflux said that MayBank had decided to appoint receivers and managers over the assets of Tuaspring, except for the desalination plant and shared infrastructure, and not to extend an agreement whereby it would not enforce its rights over Tuaspring to allow Hyflux to time to conclude a binding agreement with a successful bidder or investor for the plant. The agreement had been extended several times and expired on 16 April.

The integrated asset’s desalination plant is set to be taken over by PUB at zero dollars in May, after PUB issued a notice to Hyflux on 17 April to terminate the parties’ water purchase agreement.

But Hyflux is not dead. It’s juz hanging onto life on a cross

Hyflux said the termination of the collaboration agreement “is expected to have a material impact on the financial performance of the group”.

In the interim, the power plant at the Tuaspring integrated facility is expected to continue operations as usual, it added.

Read more at https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/business/sm-investments-moves-to-terminate-hyflux-rescue-deal-in-11460852

Btw, can’t stop laughing:

Hyflux said the termination of the collaboration agreement “is expected to have a material impact on the financial performance of the group”

The “financial performance of the group” is one fat zero before this event.

Further reading:

Hyflux: Sue those with money

Hyflux: “going concern” BS/ KPMG again and again

Hyflux on investor losses: “Not our fault, banksters at work”

 

 

 

 

BSing academics protected from fake news law?

OMG. Our local academics can continue producing fake news without getting into trouble.

But let me begin at the beginning. On 11 April, 83 academics (only two based here, although there were 30 over S’poreans based overseas) signed a letter of concern about the proposed Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (POFMA). They sent it to the education minister*.

In a public reply, the education ministry assured academics that the proposed law will not affect academic work. The group behind the letter, Academics Against Disinformation, said that they are unable to accept that assurance from the Ministry until it is reflected in the language of the bill.

Here’s what I posted earlier about our very own local academics producing fake news:

Local academics propogate fake news?

Our brown-nosing constructive nation-building academics presented at the recent Select Committee hearings on Deliberate Online Falsehoods,

an alarming scenario of disinformation campaigns launched by foreign actors bent on attacking the island state, of cyber armies in neighbouring Malaysia and Singapore working as proxies for other countries in undermining national security.

Did they produce any evidence?

But the actual examples of fake news which have come up during this national debate have mostly been prosaic; a hoax photo showing a collapsed roof at a housing complex, which sent officials rushing unnecessarily to the scene; and an erroneous report of a collision between two trains on the light rail transit line.

As the BBC reporter wrote

Irritating and worrying for some, for a while, but hardly likely to bring Singapore society to its knees. In any case both Singapore and Malaysia already have plenty of laws capable of penalising false, inflammatory or defamatory comment.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-43637744

So, as far as I’m concerned the row on Coldstore between PJ Thum and our brown-nosing constructive nation-building academics is “The unspeakable in pursuit of the uneatable!” (Re Oscar Wilde)

Or  “A plague o’ both your houses!” (Shakespeare)

Btw, have to tell u that the reporter also said

It also gave Singapore academics and officials an opportunity to snipe at the US belief in free expression, the “marketplace of ideas”, which had allowed the abuse of personal data on Facebook to take place, in contrast to Singapore’s “better safe than sorry” belief in a more tightly regulated society.

Thinking about it, it’s reasonable to conclude that our academics (save two) didn’t sign the letter because they know they are producing BS aka fake news. Our local academics can continue producing fake news without getting into trouble.

Among academics in Singapore, it is an open secret that work is circumscribed by the government’s desires. At conferences and workshops, academics awkwardly and regularly “joke”, tilting their heads to glance over shoulders, about their remarks being heard by “the government”. Students and younger scholars regularly ask if they should avoid certain topics because of “sensitivities”.

https://newnaratif.com/…/eaaab05200f0645e4451f748dc85ef7a

Since you have read this far, you may be interested in

Why the PAP is really afraid of Facebook?

Silencing fake news and inconvenient voices: two sides of the same coin

Fighting fake news while raising revenue

What is “news”?/ “Fake news” is not “fake” says Harvard expert

—————————————————-

*The letter outlined concerns over the law, in particular POFMA “will have unintended detrimental consequences for scholars and research in Singapore and for the global academy”. The letter went on to say that that the Act “discourages scholars from marshalling their expertise in precisely the areas where it is most needed – namely, pressing questions and challenges for which there are no clear answer or easy solutions”.

 

Will TOC ever report this about ringgit?

But to be fair, neither will any of the usual suspects in the anti-PAP alt media universe. Why? Because Tun is the Greatest and Regime change is always good?

Malaysian ringgit into Asia’s worst performer this month.

FTSE Russell said Monday it may drop Malaysian debt from the FTSE World Government Bond Index because of concern about market liquidity, roiling the nation’s currency and bonds. And less than two weeks ago, Norway said its sovereign wealth fund will cut emerging-market debt including Malaysian securities from its index.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-04-16/malaysian-ringgit-staggers-after-blows-from-ftse-russell-norway

Neither will they report

The Singapore dollar rose to a 17-month high against the Malaysian ringgit on Wednesday (Apr 17), as demand for the Malaysia currency weakened amid concerns the country’s debt may be removed from a key global bond index.

The Singapore dollar rose to an intraday high of RM3.0632 on Wednesday, the highest since the Singdollar touched RM3.0724 on Nov 20, 2017, according to global financial portal investing.com.

Year-to-date, the Singdollar has risen 0.74 per cent against the ringgit, according to Bloomberg.

Read more at https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/business/singapore-dollar-rises-17-month-high-against-malaysian-ringgit-11456122

 

The one-party state and fake news

In Why I no ak the Select Committee hearings on Deliberate Online Falsehoods in April last year, I wrote about the above. I tot that as this is the season about

disaster and even death as the doorways for redemption. It’s about apparent failure and ultimate success. It’s about vivid appearances and unsuspected realities.

Tom Morris

, I’d resurrect the piece given that a very draconian law is going to be enacted soon (Fake news law: Ownself judge ownself)

The problem about lies or “fake news” is who gets to decide what is or is not a lie or “fake news”.

In liberal democracies, even the president of the US cannot get his view of what is or is not a lie or “fake news” accepted by even a majority of the voters. There’s some sort of consensus (“conventional wisdom”) driven (manipulated?) by the elites and media about what is or is not a lie or “fake news” in which facts often play an important part.

In a one-party state (de facto or de jure) the ruling party decides what is or is not a lie or “fake news”

— Keeping power in a one-party state

— Would this happen in a one-party state?

— Coldstore: Why Harry’s narrative or the highway

The planned tackling of “fake news” is a smokescreen for muzzling further netizens, not juz cybernuts. The internet and social media has made it a lot easier for S’poreans to share facts, ideas, and criticisms of the way we are governed by the PAP.

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

— Ingratitude, uniquely S’porean? Blame the internet? Not really

— Us Netizens: Comancherios of the Internet?

This freedom (relative) to share facts, ideas, and criticisms of the way we are governed by the PAP worries the PAP (juz like the CCP worries about the internet and social media in China), hence the plan to further muzzle the internet and social media.

In a recent FB post, I commented that I can see the good of getting Lim Tean and Goh Meng Seng (Meng Seng: fake news propogator) off the air: Chris K that my view was the equivalent of thinking the SS were right to kill everyone in a village when a few SS troops were killed nearby. He has a point.

Since you have read this far, you may be interested in

Why the PAP is really afraid of Facebook?

Silencing fake news and inconvenient voices: two sides of the same coin

Fighting fake news while raising revenue

What is “news”?/ “Fake news” is not “fake” says Harvard expert

Local academics propogate fake news?

 

Only in Japan

Japan bans dual citizenship. But, “The law creates a duty to remove your other citizenship but failing to do so is not a crime,” FT quoted an expert as saying.

What about the pink elephant in the corner, DPM Teo?

I couldn’t but think the above, when I read in the constructive, nation-building CNA:

Despite their vast difference in size, Singapore and China have common issues to tackle, Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean said on Monday (Apr 15) as he hailed the good bilateral ties between the two countries.

These issues cover areas like economic transformation, skills retraining and managing an ageing population.

Read more at https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/singapore-china-have-common-issues-to-tackle-dpm-teo-chee-hean-11447412

Funny he doesn’t mention the area where both ruling parties have a common interest: suppressing fake news.

Our very own, pending, draconian law on fake news ( Fake news law: Ownself judge ownself) sounds very much like what China already has: the ruling party decides what is fake news. But to be fair to S’pore, the PAP govt says that there’ll be an appeals procedure making the judiciary the decision-maker. In China, the judges are subordinate to the party. According to our Constitution, our judiciary is independent.

The CCP way is the PAP way: The PAP way?

 

Americans love Chinese food

Chinese cooks were exempted from anti-immigration laws aimed at the the Yellow Peril.

In the 1880s, the US passed legislation barring Chinese workers from immigrating to the US. Only a few categories were exempt – including restaurateurs – and historians say this contributed to a boom in Chinese restaurants in the US.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-47892747

Hyflux: Sue those with money

This means going after the directors and mgrs (Remember MD Oliver Lum has a Dalvey Rd house and her motorcycles), the auditors, and the valuers of Tuaspring.

I was inspired to suggest this after reading the very droll Mr Lombard

Get claws in to auditors

A probe into Grant Thornton’s audit of collapsed contractor Interserve suggests a scandalous anomaly, and a possible deterrent. Advisers to the company were paid more in fees than its market value before administration. It happened at Carillion and Patisserie Valerie, too. If fees could be clawed back in the event of shareholders being wiped out, it might improve the quality of both audits and advice.

Here’s why the directors, mgrs and auditors could be liable:

So in the light of the loss in 2017, it’s reasonable to ask why the book value of Tuaspring was not looked at again before the auditors blessed the 2017 accounts in March 2018,

Hyflux directors, mgt & auditors kooning from 2016 onwards?

Here’s why the valuers are worth shaking down.

When Hyflux was first awarded the Tuaspring project in 2011, based on the financial model which modeled the cashflow projections from the project, the power plant was expected to generate profits from day one. This financial model was audited by an external financial model auditor and furnished to the offtaker. In 2013 when Tuaspring was able to secure a non-recourse project financing loan, the lender commissioned an independent market study of the project which arrived at similar conclusions supporting the book value of approximately SGD1.4 billion.

Hyflux fiasco shows why “book value” is BS

But

“This valuation [Done in 2018 which showed that the book value was BS: my comment]  is based on the most recent market study conducted by K4K Training & Advisory SL, the same consultant who did a similar market study in 2016 (which supported the valuation then). The view taken in this most recent market study is significantly different from that in 2016 due to . . . the losses in the electricity market in the recent years and the projected lower spark spreads for the remaining concession period.”

Noting that the current valuation is “significantly lower” than that adopted in 2016, Hyflux said that it intends to commission a further valuation to be undertaken by a different valuer for the purposes of finalising the 2018 full-year financial results.

“As the carrying value is a reflection of the current depressed market, in the event that the Singapore power market recovers to provide generation companies with sufficient spark spread margins, the valuation might then be revised.”

Hyflux as reported by BT

Hopefully, ACRA do more than watching (but don’t hold yr breath): Hyflux: “going concern” BS/ KPMG again and again.

 

Microsoft & Chinese workers make Jack Ma eat bitter

Enabled  by US technology (See How Microsoft is subverting China), young Chinese tech workers make Jack Ma eat his words about working overtime ( In China, the 996 schedule means working 9am to 9pm, six days a week) being a “huge blessing” for young workers.

Alibaba Group founder and billionaire Jack Ma again weighed in on the Chinese tech industry’s gruelling overtime work culture on Sunday, this time calling enforced long hours “unsustainable”.

Ma’s comment followed his remarks on Thursday that working overtime could be a “huge blessing” for young workers who found careers they were dedicated to.

He was responding to a debate that has emerged in recent weeks among Chinese tech workers over the 996 schedule, which means working 9am to 9pm, six days a week. Industry workers set up a discussion group called “996.ICU” on the code-sharing platform GitHub, suggesting that anyone working those hours all the time could end up in a hospital intensive care unit with burnout.

“If you find a job you like, the 996 problem does not exist; if you’re not passionate about it, every minute of going to work is a torment,” Ma said in a post on his Weibo account on Sunday.

“No one likes working at a company that forces you to do ‘996’. Not only is it inhumane, it’s unhealthy and even more unsustainable for long periods – plus workers, relatives and the law do not approve of it,” he said. “In the long term, even if you pay a higher salary, employees will all leave.”
Ma added that companies that thought they could profit by forcing staff to work overtime were “foolish” and doomed to fail.

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3006127/alibaba-founder-jack-ma-says-companies-forcing-staff-work

Grandpa Xi will not be happy.

Young Chinese workers are “Making America Great Again” by preventing “China from Rising”. Green cards for them, and not for Indians.

Three cheers for TOC

TOC’s Correspondent has done a very gd piece. He and TOC should do more of this kind of factual stuff, and less of the anti-PAP BS aka fake news. There are a lot of inconvenient facts that a few clicks of the mouse can reveal. Don’t juz BS, juz do the searches.

Massive cost overrun in infrastructure projects in Singapore in recent years

Yes, I’ve been hard on TOC, Terry and “Correspondent”

Terry and his Correspondent taking wrong pills again

Cybernuts can relax: TOC resumes normal anti-PAP service

TOC now part of constructive, nation-building media?

but it’s because I know they are capable of doing better than juz mindlessly attacking the PAP, or mindless praising it (Wah lan! TOC praises PAP govt).

 

StanChart mgt think they like PAP ministers isit?

Glass Lewis, a proxy advisory group, recommended that shareholders vote against the company’s pay policy at the coming AGM. The influential advisory group said it was concerned by the bank’s decision to change its methodology for calculating the pensions of executives including chief Bill Winters.

However the FT had reported earlier that Temasek doesn’t have an issue with Stanchart on the matter: HoHoHo: StanChart CEO learning from our ministers.

How to? Given our ministers earn so much but their performance is only so-so. Their only credible claim of success is that things have not regressed to the standards of one-party states like Cuba, N Korea, California, New York and Venezuela. Hey what about Vietnam and China? They also one-party states.

Make S’pore Great Again. Summon Harry, Dr Goh, the other Chinese Old Guards and Ahmad Ibrahim. The Indians, other Malays and Eurasians in the Old Guard can remain in their graves.

How Microsoft is subverting China

We read a lot in reputable Western media about how China is attempting to subvert Western liberal democracies. But we don’t hear there about how the US (the Europeans, Antipodeans, Canadians and Japanese juz roll over and play dead ) is striking back, or that China may actually be only defending itself against US subversion.

TrumpLand is using a tactic that Sun Tzu would approve: providing tools to enable lazy, unpatriotic, entitled young Chinese tech workers to demand shorter working hours.

FT headline:

China tech worker protest against long working hours goes viral

Online campaign against working 9am-9pm six days a week hits nerve with youth

It reported that the Chinese organisers are rallying support via a project on GitHub, the Microsoft-owned collaboration platform for coders and developers. The project is called 996.icu, because by working 9am-9pm, six days a week , as the English version puts it, “you might need to stay in an Intensive Care Unit someday”. They insist this is not a political protest.

The movement is being organised by volunteers on collaborative platforms — primarily Microsoft’s GitHub, used for code-sharing, as well as Slack, used for messaging. Both are US tech cos.

JD.com said in response to media reports of employees complaining that their 996 schedule was a way of forcing resignations, “We will not force employees to work overtime, but we encourage everyone to fully invest themselves.” Define “fully invest themselves” please.

Workers of China unite against Chinese tech giants and Make America Great Again.

Why ang moh luxury brands lick Chinese p***ies

Further to China is Great Again

Chinese consumers account for about a third of the world’s $1.2tn luxury goods sales, according to consultancy Bain, which predicts Chinese luxury sales will grow at a “mid teens” rate this year, down from 20 per cent last year.

Much of that growth is driven by “new wealthy female consumers in their 20s who are purchasing for the first time”, said Erwan Rambourg, an industry analyst at HSBC, which predicts China luxury sales growth of 12 per cent, about half that of 2018.

FT

China is Great Again

A UK royal (Duchess of Cambridge) and the UK PM wear clothes owned by a Chinese company.

Most of the UK assets of LK Bennett, the fashion and shoe retailer that went bust recently whose customers include prime minister Theresa May and the Duchess of Cambridge, have been sold to a company controlled by its Chinese franchisee.

 

Hard Truths about working life

Came across this review in the FT of NINE LIES ABOUT WORK: A FREETHINKING LEADER’S GUIDE TO THE REAL WORLD, BY MARCUS BUCKINGHAM AND ASHLEY GOODALL

People care which company they work for. The best people are well-rounded. Work-life balance matters most. These are three of the nine lies that [ the authors] believe create a disconnect between the way people know they work best and the ways they are told to work.

They believe that how we think about, talk about and structure our work is ineffective and so through anecdotes, data and their own personal research, they offer insights on how to break these ingrained practices that hamper us.

Taking the example of “work-life balance matters most”, the authors explain that while humans have had a thing for balance since the year dot, work-life balance itself is almost impossible to achieve because of the way work and life are approached. A new method is needed, and in this case it is learning to find “love in what you do rather than simply ‘doing what you love’”.

The book at times can take a little too long to get to the point, but it certainly leads to some free thinking about the way we do our jobs and how we can approach what we do in a different way.

So what if S’pore is very low on democratic accountability?

The KPKBing about very draconian laws further restricting the space on the internet and social media is evidence, anti-PAP activists say, that the PAP govt is very authoritarian with very little democratic accountability. Very true: look at the area shade pink. Among developed “countries” only HK (Remember Goh Meng Seng thinks HK is paradise), is worse.

So what? Look at the area shaded pink in these two charts, and vote wisely and tactically.

 

 

 

 

London trashes S’pore

Not reported by constructive, nation-building media. Not unusual. But anti-PAP alt media is silent too. Why? Sad.

According to Swift , the payments company, more than 36% of renminbi transactions were carried out in the UK in December last year, compared with about 6% each in France and Singapore.

Tot PAP govt said we had plans to be a leading off-shore renminbi trading centre.

What went wrong? After all we are already a leading global FX trading centre.

 

Why S’poreans migrating to Antipodes or Canada

Totful, caring or juz KS pushy parents want their children to more easily move up the economic ladder.

This is something that our constructive, nation-building media wouldn’t dare tell u about. Funnily neither does alt media (TRE excepted, if it republishes this piece).

The Great Gatsby curve illustrates the connection between concentration of wealth in one generation and the ability of those in the next generation to move up the economic ladder compared to their parent. Shows that in S’pore very difficult to move up the economic ladder. We are in same boat as UK, USA, France, Italy and Switzerland.

No wonder S’poreans migrate to Australia, NZ and Canada. They hope their children can be more mobile economically.

Equal Opportunity in S’pore? What equal opportunity?

What our alt media can learn from Sweden

Dagens Nyheter the leading Swedish newspaper was losing money. It’s now profitable again.

Since taking charge in 2013, editor-in-chief Peter Wolodarski, encouraged his reporters and editors to view the social media platforms as sources for ideas and stories.

Its journalists then do what most social media users are unable to do

[U]se the grist from social media to badger politicians, question police departments, pose awkward questions to business leaders, and set fresh ideas in a broader context. Scanning social media also allows editors and reporters at Dagens Nyheter to pay close attention to the way their stories echo through their online communities.

FT

FT also reported that Dagens Nyheter is now offering products and services to its readers.

It offers an SKr11,495 electric bicycle emblazoned with the newspaper’s name (150 sold in the first week). It is also running two chartered train journeys through Europe at SKr25,000 per person (the 680 places sold out within a week).

Maybe TOC and other alt media publications can pick up ideas from Dagens Nyheter: especially setting fresh ideas in a broader context (not juz repeating “PAP are always wrong”, and organising trips. They could organise trips to failed one-party states like Venezuela or Cuba, dysfunctional democracies like PeenoyLand or India, or prosperous democracies like Taiwan and NZ.

 

DBS should take leaf from Temask’s book

Too bad Hyflux and DBS (the bank issuing it’s securities) didn’t have in 2016, Temasek as a precedent to follow. Temasek in a letter to ST’s Forum (Ownself praise ownself) talked about its disclosure format for its bonds’ issues in 2018

The question is: Do people read those disclosures? Are they accessible and understandable to a lay reader?

Our research led us to a different approach in respect of our first Temasek Retail Bond.

We took a leaf from the issue of Astrea IV Private Equity Bonds, and made a special effort to provide a more accessible format of risk disclosures via a gatefold.

The gatefold supplemented the offering documents, and was intended to be retail-friendly and easy to understand.

In particular, the gatefold highlighted the associated risks in an accessible manner.

Feedback was very positive on the presentation of pictorials, flowcharts of fund flows, credit ratios and FAQs for both the Astrea IV and Temasek gatefolds.

…

We believe it would be a welcome step if issuers and their advisers consider an accessible style of gatefold, to highlight the key credit risks of their businesses, especially when they issue bond and bond-like offers to retail investors.

Temasek letter to ST’s Forum (Full text below)

Now go tell DBS how to try harder make sure greedy people read: though pigs will surely fly first. Perp investors were warned: Hyflux: Don’t cry for the investors

The letter in full:

Bond issues should be easy to understand for retail investors

Dr Jeremy Teo Chin Ghee raised interesting points in his letter (Timely to encourage retail bond market, April 5).

Our research showed that Singapore retail investors have very different risk capacities and appetites.

Younger investors look for growth, while older retirees may prefer a steady income stream. Others seek higher risk-reward opportunities.

We believe retail investors should have access to a wider range of risk-reward products, rather than be cut from riskier products through tighter regulations – the current regulations already require comprehensive disclosures of risks.

The question is: Do people read those disclosures? Are they accessible and understandable to a lay reader?

Our research led us to a different approach in respect of our first Temasek Retail Bond.

We took a leaf from the issue of Astrea IV Private Equity Bonds, and made a special effort to provide a more accessible format of risk disclosures via a gatefold.

The gatefold supplemented the offering documents, and was intended to be retail-friendly and easy to understand.

In particular, the gatefold highlighted the associated risks in an accessible manner.

Feedback was very positive on the presentation of pictorials, flowcharts of fund flows, credit ratios and FAQs for both the Astrea IV and Temasek gatefolds.

No two businesses will be the same, and all will have different risk and credit parameters.

We believe it would be a welcome step if issuers and their advisers consider an accessible style of gatefold, to highlight the key credit risks of their businesses, especially when they issue bond and bond-like offers to retail investors.

Stephen Forshaw

Head, Public Affairs

Temasek International

Temasek cares. Vote wisely.

No need to worry about climate change

Trump is right about that even if he’s wrong about the reason

There’s a silver bullet that the climate Nazis (his most bitter enemies are legion among this bunch of progressives) don’t talk about because they want us to cut back very drastically energy use. They want the third world to remain third world.

Around the world, a number of companies are racing to develop the technology that can draw down carbon. Swiss company Climeworks is already capturing CO2 and using it to boost vegetable production.

Carbon Engineering says that its direct air capture (DAC) process is now able to capture the gas for under $100 a tonne.

With its new funding, the company plans to build its first commercial facilities. These industrial-scale DAC plants could capture up to one million tonnes of CO2 from the air each year.

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-47638586

Will TOC dare report this about M’sia?

Voters, especially the young, are not happy with the new govt. They also think that economic prospects are as bad as when S’pore’s friend was in power.

Kajidata Research tracked the political leanings of 9,071 Malaysians aged 21 years old and above from before the 14th general election, and found that overall satisfaction for PH had slipped by 16.4 points in December, with the biggest fall seen in the 20-29 age bracket at 20.6 points.

It found that economic confidence had dropped of 6.5 points since GE14, and as of December 2018, the score was almost back to the level of when Barisan Nasional was in power.

“Though the decline in economic confidence was true for all age groups, the large drop within the youth bracket suggests that they may have become disillusioned with Pakatan Harapan’s management of the national economy,” Kajidata said in a report accompanying the study results.

https://www.todayonline.com/world/youth-support-pakatan-harapan-dips-economic-dissatisfaction-rises

Somehow, I doubt TOC and other anti-PAP alt media publications will dare report this because this report is evidence against their narrative “M’sia Yesterday, S’pore Tomorrow. Change is coming. and for the good.”

Vote wisely, vote tactically.

HoHoHo: Rogue bank kanna fined again

(Updated on 10 April at 5am:  StanChart will pay US and UK authourities US$1.1bn to settle charges that it violated sanctions and ignored red flags about its customers: more than expected. It’s deferred prosecution deal with the US marshals extended until 2021. Ho Ho Ho.)

Standard Chartered is bracing itself for a bumper fine this week that could total hundreds of millions of pounds as it settles US charges over Iranian sanctions violations.

The London-headquartered but Asia-focused bank is expected to draw a line under a long-running investigation into sanctions busting by Wednesday when a six-year deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) with US authorities is set to expire.

DPAs allow firms to settle charges with state authorities without facing criminal prosecution. The companies must agree to specified conditions, which can include a fine and their conduct being monitored for a set period.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/apr/07/standard-chartered-readies-for-huge-us-fine-over-iranian-activities

Related posts:

StanChart: Yet more problems for “rogue bank”

HO Ho Ho: What Temasek forgot when it bot into StanChart

HoHoHo: Time for StanChart’s CEO to go?

HoHoHo: StanChart’s CEO is worse than our paper generals

 

Hyflux: “going concern” BS/ KPMG again and again

The constructive, nation-building media report that the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (Acra) is watching the Hyflux fiasco closely. And this is newsworthy? It’s ACRA job to investigate, not watch, cock-ups like these.

But then being a regulatory bureaucrat is one good way of getting a very expensive free lunch. The other is being a minister.

ACRA is watching because Hyflux investors (who never bothered to read the issue documents or Hyflux’s financials) are asking why Hyflux’s auditor KPMG failed to flag the risks of Hyflux earlier. Like real given they didn’t bother to read: Hyflux: Don’t cry for the investors. So even if accounts were qualified, what could the investors do? Only KPKB earlier because the shares etc would have been suspended on a haram certification.

Seriously, this “news” reminded me that UK’s accounting watchdog Financial Reporting Council (FRC) made public, several weeks ago, plans to make auditors apply more robust checks when reviewing whether a company was likely to continue operating in response to several high-profile corporate failures that have undermined confidence in business.

Two recent UK corporate failures were similar in nature to what happened at Hyflux.

To recap: KPMG on 22 Match 2018, said the 2017 accounts were halal, but on 22 May 2018, the company sought court protection from its creditors: Did Hyflux’s auditors mislead? and Hyflux directors, mgt & auditors kooning from 2016 onwards?.

——————————————

Hyflux’s BS explanation:

“When KPMG issued an unqualified opinion on the full year results for the Hyflux Group in March 2018, there were no events or conditions that individually or collectively, cast significant doubt on the going concern assumption as at the balance sheet date of 31 December 2017, or at the audit report date of 22 March 2018.”

Then according to Hyflux, everything went wrong when in May, there was a run on Hyflux by its banksters. Because of its bad (and unexpected?) Q12018 results announced on 9 May: “certain financiers expressed concerns over their ability to continue with existing credit exposures to the group.”* They tot halal Hyflux had transmuted into haram Hyflux.

Hyflux on investor losses: “Not our fault, banksters at work”

Hyflux should have remembered

A Banker Lends You His Umbrella When It’s Sunny and Wants It Back When It Rains

(Often attributed to Mark Twain)

———————————–

Coming back to the FRC: it wants auditors to do more when reviewing whether a company was a “going concern” and likely to remain in business for another year, highlighting the collapses of construction group Carillion (auditor KPMG) and retailer BHS as key factors behind the decision.

It said auditors should challenge corporate management teams “more robustly” and “thoroughly test” the adequacy of the evidence put forward by company directors. It also wants auditors to say whether they believed management assessments with respect to going concern judgments were appropriate, and to explain how they came to that conclusion.

It said the collapse of BHS, Carillion, and failed UK bank HBOS during the financial crisis, had “brought into question why such companies had clean auditor’s opinions, which included no warnings that the companies were at risk of collapse”. Sounds like Hyflux?

Mike Suffield, the FRC’s acting executive director of audit regulation

Recent corporate failures and the FRC’s own enforcement work has shown the existing [going concern requirements] needs to be strengthened.

Our proposals will significantly expand the work required of auditors — however, we believe this to be an important investment in the quality of the work that underpins what is a cornerstone of audit.”

Karthik Ramanna, professor of business and public policy at the University of Oxford’s Blavatnik School of Government

The implication of these proposals is that auditors missed key red flags due to weak auditing standards. The real issue isn’t that the auditors need more technical guidance but rather that they are conflicted in their dual roles as watchdog and consultant.

(Emphasis mine)

Hyflux shareholders should be angry to learn that KPMG (their auditor which audited Carillion and HBOS), said it had (in the UK) already increased how much information it provided in audit reports this year by highlighting the key risks the firm considered when “carrying out work on the going concern basis of accounting”.

KPMG added: “It is vital that as a profession, we examine all possible avenues to improve public trust both in audit, and the wider corporate landscape. We welcome the FRC’s consultation into the standards governing our work around going concern, and how we report on that work to shareholders.”

Will KPMG also provide this info for us natives for SGX listcos?

Btw, KPMG is the forensic auditor whose report the Aljunied Town Council is relying on in take the Wankers Three to the cleaners: “Peanuts”: WP MPs’ liability. KPMG is also Temasek’s auditor: TOC misrepresents facts yet again.

Chinese miss out on two of life’s greatest pleasures

One is enjoying diary products like fresh milk, butter and cheese because of lactose intolerance:

Approximately 65 percent of the human population has a reduced ability to digest lactose after infancy. Lactose intolerance in adulthood is most prevalent in people of East Asian descent, affecting more than 90 percent of adults in some of these communities.

Lactose intolerance – Genetics Home Reference – NIH

https://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/condition/lactose-intolerance

The other is not being able to enjoy booze by having a combination of genes that puts us off drinking alcohol. It causes an unpleasant reaction and makes them feel unwell.

Further to Fake news on alcohol and stroke, if you did not read the BBC article I referenced there, you’d have missed something the bit about alcohol intolerance:

East Asian countries are useful places to study the effects of alcohol.

Many people with Chinese ancestry have a combination of genes that puts them off drinking alcohol. It causes an unpleasant reaction and makes them feel unwell.

As a result, there is a wide variation of alcohol intake in China – one in three men doesn’t drink and very few women do.

But by comparing the health outcomes of drinkers and non-drinkers according to their genetic profile, scientists say they have been able to assess – with much more certainty than before – the direct effects of alcohol on stroke risk, distinct from any other factors.

Western populations don’t possess these genes, so it would be impossible to carry out a similar study here.

And most studies are observational, which makes it’s difficult to judge which factor is causing what effect.

Dr Iona Millwood, study author and senior epidemiologist at the University of Oxford, said: “Our genetic analyses have helped us understand the cause and effect relationships.”

https://www.bbc.com/news/health-47817650

No wonder, we Chinese compensate for these defects by eating sea slugs, chicken claws, sharks’ fin and other exotics.

 

Want to die? Fly FlyFirefly?

Singapore has withdrawn the Instrument Landing System (ILS) procedures for Seletar Airport while Malaysia has indefinitely suspended its permanent restricted area over Pasir Gudang, both countries said on Saturday (Apr 6).

Singapore’s Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan and his Malaysian counterpart Anthony Loke said in a joint statement that the agreement was made “in the spirit of bilateral cooperation”.

…

“With this agreement, the Transport Ministers look forward to FlyFirefly Sdn Bhd’s commencement of flights to Seletar Airport effective April 2019,” they added.

Read more at https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/singapore-seletar-airport-ils-malaysia-suspends-pasir-gudang-11418642

Wasn’t ILS introduced because FlyFirefly was going to use the airport? Will Tun or the M’sian transport minister say sorry when a FlyFirefly aircraft crashes, killing passengers and crew? M’sia objected to ILS after Tun and friends came into power.

Fake news on alcohol and stroke

A large Chinese study seems to debunk the theory that the odd drink can help safeguard against stroke. (The Lancet)

Even light-to-moderate drinking increases blood pressure and the chances of having a stroke, according to a large genetic study in The Lancet, countering previous claims that one or two drinks a day could be protective.

The UK and Chinese researchers followed 500,000 Chinese people for 10 years.

They say the findings are relevant to all populations and the best evidence yet on the direct effects of alcohol.

https://www.bbc.com/news/health-47817650

Downside of China-US trade deal for Asia and Europe

Citi says that should Chinese import capacity not increase and China imports up to an additional US$200bn worth of US goods — “the economies more exposed to China would be the most vulnerable to any adjustment in trade flows”.

Asian economies would be the most exposed if trade flows are adjusted from a proportional market share perspective, while European economies face similar losses across all scenarios.

Worse than smoking/ Eat like Jews.

Bad diets are riskier than smoking.

According to the Lancet, one in five global deaths are associated with a poor diet, because of its contribution to cardiovascular disease, cancers and diabetes. Key causes are too much salt and not enough whole grains or fruits. Israel has the lowest rate of diet-related deaths, while (mainly Muslim) Uzbekistan has the highest.

 

Indonesia: Temasek, Google & McKinsey singing from the same page

Only Indonesia is outpacing India digitally, according to McKinsey.

No wonder Temasek sees a bright future for e-commerce in the region.

In a report in November [2018], Google and … Temasek calculated the value of south-east Asia’s internet economy at $72bn in 2018.

Previous reports by the pair have predicted a regional internet economy worth $200bn by 2025, but last year they raised that projection to closer to $240bn.

“… south-east Asia’s internet economy hit an inflection point in 2018. Powered by the most engaged mobile internet users in the world, industries like ecommerce, online media, online travel and ride-hailing grew at an unprecedented rate,” they wrote.

“Investors have taken notice, pouring record amounts of funds into the region — now it’s time for everyone else to pay attention.”

FT

Temask has stakes in Indonesian start-ups Go-Jek and Warung Pintat (retail tech start-up). Grab where Temasek has an investment is a rival to Go-Jek in Indonesia.

M’sia getting “peanuts”; S’pore getting billions

In M’sian casino operator kanna do NS by Tun?, I speculated that Genting M’sia was forced to buy a yacht by the M’sian govt for US$126m when others were bidding much lower prices.

Here’s the real reason why: Genting will spend S$4.5bn to improve the facilities on Sentosa and pay more tax here, all this when Tun is trying to bully and intimidate us. So maybe Genting was paying US$126m to keep him from getting upset that a M’sian company was going to spend billions here and not in M’sia?

How theS$4.5bn will be spent:

The new attractions of Super Nintendo World and Minion Park, spanning over 164,000 sqm, will be gradually rolled out at the Universal Studios Singapore every year from 2020 and completed around 2025.

Minion Park, inspired by the Despicable Me movie franchise, will take over the Madagascar zone, now designated for rides and shows tied to the animated movie of the same name. Both Minion Park and Super Nintendo World, based on Nintendo’s popular games and characters, will feature new rides and attractions.

The SEA Aquarium will also be expanded to take over the Maritime Experiential Museum, to create a new Singapore Oceanarium.

Apart from these, RWS’ waterfront promenade will be redeveloped to include a free public attraction featuring a nightly show and multi-purpose event zone that can be adapted for different festivals and events, as well as new dining options.

RWS will also introduce a driverless transport system across the Sentosa Boardwalk, which links to VivoCity mall in Harbourfront.

As for the increased taxes

a tiered structure for casino taxes will be introduced after the current moratorium ends in February 2022. Currently, there is a flat tax rate of 5 per cent for Gross Gaming Revenue (GGR) made through premium gaming and 15 per cent for GGR made through mass gaming.

Premium gaming refers to the GGR made through players who open a deposit account with a credit balance of no less than S$100,000. Mass gaming covers players who fall outside of this category.

With the change, the first S$2.4 billion of GGR from premium gaming will be taxed at 8 per cent, while GGR which exceeds S$2.4 billion will be taxed at 12 per cent.

For mass gaming, the first $3.1 billion of GGR will be taxed at 18 per cent while GGR which exceeds $3.1 billion will be taxed at 22 per cent.

https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/irs-allowed-expand-casinos-exclusivity-rights-extended-end-2030

In the context of all these goodies for S’pore, paying US$126 to M’sia is “peanuts”.

Btw the price of Genting S’pore (owned by controlling shareholder of Genting M’sia) fell: investors and analysts are not happy about the taxes, and capital expenditure that have spent.

Silencing fake news: even SPH has concerns

Further to Silencing fake news and inconvenient voices: two sides of the same coin, when even the constructive, nation-building SPH is concerned

In a submission to Parliament, Singapore Press Holdings, the country’s largest media organization, warned that a broad interpretation of “fake news” could could lead to “fears among citizens about freely expressing their opinions or engaging in robust and constructive debates, or even to self-censorship by news outlets wary of falling foul of the law.”

https://edition.cnn.com/2019/04/02/asia/singapore-fake-news-intl/index.html?fbclid=IwAR22aU_0W-3Io4sCj03lopodZMWnS_95xaYgRcknGGIJkgdMI2KPlw4PQAg

, PAP voters who voted for Tan Cheng Bock as president should be concerned about the coming law’s powers to ministers: Fake news law: Ownself judge ownself.

Here’s something I came across sometime back, but can’t remember where:

Removing content is not the only way to shape our minds; the most powerful censorship tactics are those we never see – for good and ill.

The coming laws on fake news is nothing more than an attempt to ensure self censorship, something S’poreans are very good at, even Goh Meng Seng, for all his fake news skills:

— Meng Seng: fake news propogator

— What Meng Seng and TOC don’t tell us about dispute with Tun

— “Licking the ass of the enemy of my enemy”

M’sian casino operator kanna do NS by Tun?

M’sia’s government has sold a seized superyacht allegedly bought with money stolen from the 1MDB state fund for US$126m (£95.9m) the BBC reports. The buyer was Genting M’sia, the owner of the only legal casino M’sia.

Equanimity has been moored off the coast for the past five months, on show for potential buyers. The government said the pool of buyers was small, and while many offers were received, only a few topped US$100m. The price was short of the US$250m reportedly paid by Mr Low.

Wonder if Tun and his cabinet users will be regular users of the yacht as guests of Genting? Of course, all the rules will be followed. They don’t want to end up like Najib.

 

Fake news law: Ownself judge ownself

Or in posh English, not Singlish, “In the proposed fake news law, ministers are judge and jury.”

This is a seriously good reason to be concerned about the proposed bill introduced on Monday, which gives the government very sweeping powers in the name of regulating fake news propogators like Goh Meng Seng and TOC’s Danisha Hakeem.

My main concern is that it makes ministers the initial (and in most cases the final and only) arbiters of truth about claims regarding the PAP government’s performance: “Ownself judge ownself”.

That is most unfair and unnatural because it makes a minister the judge and the jury in his own cause. Worse although there is some sort of a right of appeal, the burden of establishing the truth lies on the appellant, not the minister. I do not think a minister should have the power to regulate comments made about them or their department in the same way as the government having the power to regulate hate speech or even seriously offensive speech against race or religion.

There is an obvious potential for serious conflicts of interest here, like “Ownself check ownself”.

Related post: Fake news laws give SPH biz advantage

 

 

Hyflux: Don’t cry for the investors

Perpetuals buyers were warned, while pref share investors made money in the 2011 pref shares issue.

Tan Kin Lian in Hong Leong Park on Saturday

shared that he was aware how some of them became Hyflux perpetual securities and preference shareholders despite not being financially “savvy”.

“They were just ordinary investors wanting to have a reasonable rate of interest without taking too much risk. If they wanted to take risk, they would have bought shares,” said Mr Tan, who donated funds to organise the protest event.

Read more at https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/we-have-not-lost-faith-hundreds-of-hyflux-investors-gather-to-11395566

He couldn’t be more wrong (as is usual) about “They were just ordinary investors wanting to have a reasonable rate of interest without taking too much risk.” But then he’s the talk cock, sing song king who (together with his partner in that crime, Goh Meng Seng) deprived us of President Tan Cheng Bock, allowing the PAP’s preferred candidate to win.

Well it seems he never bothered to read document offering the perpetual securities to the public. Pg 37 of the perpetual securities issue document had this warning (Emphasis mine) which the investors ignored

RISKS ASSOCIATED WITH AN INVESTMENT IN THE SECURITIES
The Securities may not be a suitable investment for all investors.
The purchase of the Securities involves certain risks including market risk, interest rate risk,
foreign exchange risk, credit risk and liquidity risk. Investors should ensure that they fully
understand the nature of all these risks before making a decision to invest in the Securities. Each potential investor in the Securities must also determine the suitability of that investment in light of its own circumstances. In particular, each potential investor should:
• have sufficient knowledge and experience to make a meaningful evaluation of the Securities,
the merits and risks of investing in the Securities and the information contained or
incorporated by reference in this Offer Information Statement and the Product Highlights
Sheet;
• have access to, and knowledge of, appropriate analytical tools to evaluate, in the context of
its particular financial situation, an investment in the Securities and the impact such
investment will have on its overall investment portfolio;
• have sufficient financial resources and liquidity to bear all of the risks of an investment in the
Securities;
• understand thoroughly the terms of the Securities; and
• be able to evaluate (either alone or with the help of a financial adviser) possible scenarios
for economic and other factors that may affect its investment and its ability to bear the
applicable risks.
The Securities are complex financial instruments. Sophisticated institutional investors generally
do not purchase complex financial instruments as stand-alone investments. They purchase
complex financial instruments as a way to reduce risk or enhance yield with an understood,
measured, appropriate addition of risk to their overall portfolios. A potential investor should not invest in the Securities which are complex financial instruments unless it has the expertise (either alone or with the help of a financial adviser) to evaluate how the Securities will perform underchanging conditions, the resulting effects on the value of such Securities and the impact this investment will have on the potential investor’s overall investment portfolio.
This Offer Information Statement and the Product Highlights Sheet are not and do not purport to
be investment advice. Investors should conduct such independent investigation and analysis
regarding the Securities as they deem appropriate. Investors should also consult their own legal,
tax, accounting, financial and other professional advisers to assist them in determining the
suitability of the Securities for them as an investment. Investors should make an investment only
after they have determined that such investment is suitable for their financial investment
objectives. Investors should consider carefully whether the Securities are suitable for them in light
of their experience, objectives, financial position and other relevant circumstances.

Pretty comprehensive and in reasonably simple English. So either the perpetuals investors ignored the warning or never bothered to read: just buy.

Kee chiu if you still sympathise with them? After all they must be PAP voters, Will Oliver Lum and other Hyflux investors still vote for the PAP?, because we know the cybernuts don’t have money to even fund their favourite alt media sites.

Interestingly (I stand corrected because I may have missed it because I was getting tired), I can’t find such a provision in the offer document of the Cumulative Non-voting Non-convertible Perpetual Class A Preference Shares .

Wonder why? An honest mistake? No, most likely because Hyflux pref shares had been issued before (Hyflux: Qns to ask?) to the public, and nothing went wrong: in fact investors made money. And preference shares are shares (“You die, yr problem”) while the Perpetual Securities could according to Chris K be mistaken for bonds, hence the warnings. Don’t anyhow say PAP govt don’t care?

Still, if I were a pref share holder, I’d ask SIAS to KPKB about the lack of warning: nothing to lose further, since lost everything except underwear. Anyway, Morocco Mole (Secret Squirrel’s side kick) tells me that his second cousin removed working in DBS’s investment bank tells him that most of the 2016 buyers had made money in the 2011 issue: issue traded above par. They were hoping for a repeat killing. Kee Chiu if you think they deserve sympathy.

Btw, an interesting read: http://thefinance.sg/2019/03/11/when-exactly-did-tuasprings-operational-problems-start-hyflux/

The is the kind of stuff TOC and other anti-PAP alt media publications should be publishing instead of the rants of anti-PAP types like Goh Meng Seng and his wind bag kaki. I did forward the piece to TOC: no pix, no sound. Sad.

Related posts:

Hyflux directors, mgt & auditors kooning from 2016 onwards?

Hyflux on investor losses: “Not our fault, banksters at work”

Hyflux fiasco shows why “book value” is BS

A really curious incident

========================

*Did TKL read the other offer document? And did Meng Seng, other anti-PAP cybernuts, and other alt media experts read the 2016 securities issue documents? Or even Hyflux’s recent reply to SIAS. Somehow I don’t think so going by their comments. Sad.

 

China tua kee, India sua kee

Last month the Nifty 50 index of Indian stocks gained nearly 8% last month to within touching distance of all-time highs. That beats China’s CSI 300, which rose 5.5% over the same period.

But this month

Where China leads, the hope is that others follow. Two measures of manufacturing activity for China shifted into expansion mode during March, rising above a reading of 50, helping offset disappointing news elsewhere. That sent the CSI 300 index up nearly 3 per cent and leaves the benchmark in positive territory over the past 12 months.

FT

Fake news laws give SPH biz advantage

So there’ll be laws to tackle deliberate online falsehoods (more below).

Maybe ST and other SPH publications can use their finely honed constructive, nation-building skills to make SPH a great investment again?

The People’s Daily is the CCP’s official paper, juz like ST is the de-facto voice of the PAP.

The rise of the internet has lost it readers it but it has found a competitive business advantage: providing censorship. China’s official newspaper is tapping into the censorship boom meant to clean up the Chinese internet by being the leading outsourcer in the booming censorship industry.

Coming back to S’pore. From the constructive, nation-building CNA.

The new Bill will give the Government the power to hold online news sources and platforms accountable if they proliferate deliberate online falsehoods, he said.

“This includes requiring them to show corrections or display warnings about online falsehoods so that readers or viewers can see all sides and make up their own minds about the matter.

“In extreme and urgent cases, the legislation will also require online news sources to take down fake news before irreparable damage is done,” the prime minister said.

Mr Lee said that today, there is no shortage of people and groups who conduct coordinated campaigns to produce fake news to misinform and mislead for reasons such as financial gain, to sow social discord or even to radicalise people.

Social media platforms propagate such fake news together with factual stories and are either “unwilling or unable” to take action to block the misinformation, he said.

Read more at https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/laws-deliberate-online-falsehoods-introduced-parliament-pm-lee-11393654

Can’t argue with PM that

there is no shortage of people and groups who conduct coordinated campaigns to produce fake news to misinform and mislead for reasons such as financial gain, to sow social discord …

Think TOC’s Danisha Hakeem.

Or The Indians Idiots

— TISG: “useful loudhailer” for PAP administration

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

But to be fair, TOC can be constructive, nation-building:

TOC now part of constructive, nation-building media?

Wah lan! TOC praises PAP govt

Terry and his Correspondent taking wrong pills again

 

S’porean Chinese parents will want this

Cameras in the classroom. In a “Only in China …” tech story,

http://www.sixthtone.com/news/1003759/camera-above-the-classroom?_branch_match_id=622364393810240664#_=_

about students being tracked by surveillance cameras in the classroom that identify if they are paying attention, with photos sent to their parents in weekly updates.

Ang mohs find it creepy, but S’porean Chinese parents understand why it’s done: out of love and concern. They’ll want it too.

But I’m not sure if our local Chinese women will agree with their mainland cousins about this

Creepy, uncomfortable and downright weird are just some things an advertisement starring Tom Hiddleston has been called, but none of that will matter as it’s found success with its intended audience – Chinese women, as the BBC’s Yvette Tan explains.

Imagine waking up in the morning, walking down to your stylish kitchen and finding actor Tom Hiddleston making breakfast for you.

It’s a fantasy vitamin company Centrum is cashing in on for its new Chinese advertisement.

It may have been widely mocked in the Western media, but the made-for-mobile ad has been remarkably well-received in China.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-47743791

I’m not too sure if Chinese women here will see it the way mainland women see it. What do you think?