China’s new opium and the Gweilo selling it

China’s government is trying to tackle its obesity problem. More than a quarter of Chinese adults, or roughly 350m people, are overweight or obese. Among children, the proportion is one in five, up from just one in 20 in 1995.

From the Economist (Emphasis mine)

Most public-health initiatives—such as “Happy Ten Minutes”, a programme which encourages youngsters to exercise for ten minutes a day—emphasise the importance of physical activity but say little about diet. This may not be an accident. Some academics have pointed to the influence in Chinese public-health campaigns of research institutes financed by Western multinational food-and-drink firms such as Nestlé and Coca-Cola. Cutting out junk food would mean slimming down their sales. Instead, ever more Chinese are turning to bootcamps, liposuction and diet pills.

https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2019/10/28/china-worries-about-its-bulging-waistlines

Advertisement

HSBC: West not tua kee

In fact ang moh sui jee.

HSBC recently came up with a worse than expected set of results. Despite a US China trade war (HSBC is world’s largest trade financier and China’s the wotld’s workshop) and HK riots, its Asian businesses performed in line with analysts’ expectations.

Ang moh countries under-performed as usual but disappointed the already low expectations

HSBC’s cost-to-income ratio is 104% in Europe, compared with 43% in Asia, where it generates nearly 90% of its profits. The bank makes only a quarter of its lending in Britain, yet the country generates 35% of its non-performing loans … Its $98bn of risk-weighted assets allocated to America produce only $527m in annual profit.

https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2019/10/28/as-profits-dwindle-hsbc-plans-a-radical-overhaul

Ang mohs are expensive, useless deadbeats. The only Asian country in HSBC’s empire like ang moh land is Ah Neh Land.

Related posts

HK: Why HSBC can still smile: Money withdrawn from mainland banks are deposited into Hang Seng Bank. Majority-owned by HSBC but has its own listing and distinct identity and brand. Google up images of its branches. More on Hang Seng Bank: HSBC, Superman and another Cina superhero.

Why HSBC is really Hongkong Bank

 

 

Forgot (ignored?) asset inflation?

(Scroll down to read My Comments, if you are adverse to bullshit, from our constructive, nation-building media as they add spin to a MoF report .)

Singaporeans in their 40s better educated, earn more than past cohorts

Constructive, nation-building ST screamed

MediaCorp’s free BS sheet said

Younger Singaporeans in their 40s are more educated and better able to find jobs, they are earning and saving more, and they are on track to longer healthier lives than citizens between the ages of 50 and 79, a new report has found.

The report, released on Tuesday (Oct 22) by the Ministry of Finance (MOF), tracks how socio-economic outcomes have shifted across generations. The study tapped data from the Department of Statistics, and the Health and Manpower ministries.

The report, titled Key Socio-economic Outcomes Across Cohorts, studied a repertoire of socio-economic indicators: Educational attainment; employment and savings; residential-property ownership; health; and family support.

Younger Singaporeans fared better than those in the preceding generations across the majority of these indicators.

Read more at https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/younger-sporeans-better-able-find-jobs-earn-and-save-more-older-citizens-mof-report

My Comments

So what all this gushing to do with the price of eggs? Or rather with the standard of living when the price of assets go up a lot more than salaries?

Here are two examples.

When I started work in the late 70s, I my monthly salary was slightly more than $1000. If I had been married, we would not have been eligible for an HDB flat. If I were starting work today, my starting pay would be around $5,000. HDB’s eligiblity is now $15,000 a month (I think) for a married couple.

With $15,000 entry point the for “affordable” public housing, waz the point of faring “better than those in the preceding generations across the majority of “educational attainment; employment and savings; residential-property ownership; health; and family support”?

The rocketing costs of housing (public and private) have way exceeded the increases in salaries. A new HDB flat in the early 80s in Eunos was $30,000 or thereabouts. Now a BTO four room (actually smaller) could be between $300,000 and $500,000, depending on the locality. Have salaries increased like that? Only for PAP ministers.

And don’t get me started on car ownership. When I joined the workforce, the price of cars had just gone thru the roof (Remember COV?) but I could juz about own one on the never-never. My friend recently told me that his daughters, one a recently graduated doctor and the other an admin service officer (she’s a overseas merit scholar who graduated three yrs ago) can’t afford to own cars. They and their future husbands are saving for the deposit for HDB flats

Read Election goodies: proves the point that PAP needs to be spurred?, written before 2011 GE and remember to vote wisely.

Why S’poreans don’t trust the constructive, nation-building media

Constructive, nation-building is full of BS produced by BS artists. Here’s a recent example.

Constructive, nation-building CNA’s headline screamed

RGS staff confirmed ‘ordinary Singaporean’ quote, asked for it to be attributed to ‘spokesman’: TNP editor

Read more at https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/tnp-editor-says-rgs-staff-confirmed-ordinary-singaporean-quote-12035906

Scroll to below the picture of the Nine Immortals, if you are not familiar with how the constructive, nation-building media tried to undermine S’pore’s meritocratic education system: details from the constructive, nation-building CNA, quoting the equally constructive, nation-building TNP. The latter got taken to the cleaners by ex-deputy prime minister for saying he was involved in a traffic accident when it was actually another Toh Chin Chye.

My question to the constructive, nation-building media is:

Why no check if the said person was entitled to call himself a “spokesman” before using the quote?

Surely a good reporter would check and a good editor would ask the reporter if the person was really a “spokesman”? Was the quote too good to be spoiled by the checks required by good reporting or good editorial practices?

And what about being fair to the member of staff? I mean how many teachers or teaching administrators know the meaning of “spokesman”? That the term in the article screams “official view of RGS that its students are not ordinary S’poreans”.

What this story does confirm is the view that our constructive, nation-building media is full of useful idiots helping the likes of Mad Dog Chee (product of ACS, place where other rich kids like PJ Thum also go to even if like Mad Dog they end up living in three-room HDB flats meant for the plebs) undermine our meritocratic school system, even if RGS is not really an elite school. There are only four elite schools: RI, MGS, SCGS and TKGS. The rest of the so-called elite schools are nothing more than glorified neighbourhood schools. But then “Every school is a good school” says the MoE minister even though the 9th Immortal disagreed.

SPH should be culling more people from its newsroom:  ST’s BS about WeWorks Cont’d. And MediaCorp should also do so.

———————————————

Details of TNP (and CNA) failure to think straight

The editor of The New Paper (TNP) Lim Han Ming said on Friday evening (Oct 25) that a controversial comment in an article about Raffles Girls’ School (RGS) moving away from Orchard Road was confirmed by a member of the school staff.

TNP had published a report on Tuesday titled Raffles Girls’ School Moves To New Home, which included a quote attributed to an RGS spokesman: “Moving away from the luxurious condominiums in Orchard Road will allow our girls to reach out more to the ordinary Singaporean.”

The comment drew widespread criticism.

Responding to queries from CNA, RGS had said earlier on Friday that the TNP report had “referenced an informal conversation with a staff member who was not the school’s spokesperson”.

The employee “had also not identified himself as such to the reporter”, RGS said.

The comments were “off-the-record” and had been “intended to convey that the move would allow students to engage more deeply with the local community, given the school’s proximity to the Braddell area”, RGS added.

“At no point of time did he say ‘ordinary Singaporean’,” it said.

Read more at https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/tnp-editor-says-rgs-staff-confirmed-ordinary-singaporean-quote-12035906

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Ang moh publications would have handled this differently from TNP . The FT or NYT would say that the quote came from someone not authorised to talk to the media. TNP that cock meh?

S’poreans love to talk cock and BS

According to the latest Black Box’s survey of S’poreans, cost of living increases are most likely to impact their vote: https://www.blackbox.com.sg/2019/10/18/ge20-whats-impacting-voting-intentions-2/?utm_source=yka&utm_medium=edm&utm_campaign=sep19.

If so, with GST rises coming up after GE, why is the PAP still expected to win at least 60% of the popular vote and have another super majority in parly?

In How PAP can win 65% plus of the vote, I pointed out that postponing the GST rise is the best to ensure a 65%+ share of the popular vote for the 4G leaders. But the 4G leaders think that the goodies doled out are sufficient for a 62% victory, if not more. (Btw, article lists most of the goodies)

Well this gives the Oppo a good chance to KPKB about the folly of increasing GST when the global and S’pore economy are weak, if not in recession (“Only cold spell coming, but not Winter,” says Heng). But will they do it? I have my doubts.

Where PAP is most vulnerable

Do read the BlackBox piece linked above for interesting insights into the cock S’poreans talk and their BS: including the experts at BlackBox. I can’t stop laughing at what the BlackBox experts said:

 At this point in time, about three in ten still say they are completely undecided as to who they will vote for which means a lot of votes are still up for grabs.

Whatever, no wonder Dr Chee, Lim Tean and other members of the Spastics League , and cybernuts like TRE’s Oxygen are very happy. They think they’ll soon be millionaire ministers.

Related BlackBox article: https://www.blackbox.com.sg/2019/08/28/upcoming-general-election-what-are-the-key-issues/?utm_source=yka&utm_medium=edm&utm_campaign=jul19

Hoping for Perkatan Harapan type victory here?

Then expect bad economic growth. Look at the chart below and realise that it was the economy that did it for Najib. It tanked badly during his last year

Btw, why rational S’poreans should be afraid, very afraid that a Coalition of the Spastics wins: My predictions about Spastics’ League, False Hopes: Coalition of the Spastics and Election manifesto of Spastics League?.

Learning to cope with mortgages and grief

Talking to friends’ kids and their friends and neighbourhood kids, learning about mortgages and dealing with grief is something that schools should teach

Schools should teach more life skills to avoid producing “A* robots with no knowledge of the real world”, the Welsh Youth Parliament has said.

Its first major review suggested life skills such as dealing with grief and arranging a mortgage should be part of children’s education.

It called for the new curriculum to be amended on the basis of its findings.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-50126863?intlink_from_url=https://www.bbc.com/news/education&link_location=live-reporting-story

The problem is that in S’pore, there always be an examination to test whether kids know the “right answer”.

HOHOHO: Temasek invested in WeWorks’ flea ridden dog

In July 2018, the FT reported that SoftBank, its Saudi-backed Vision Fund, private equity firms Trustbridge Partners and Hony Capital, and our very own Temasek invested in a WeWork subsidiary in China. It was valued at US$5bn.

A year before, after Softbank and Hony put $ into it, it was worth US$1bn.

Great investment that naturally TOC’s M’sian Indian goons never reported. To be fair neither did other alt media publications. I think our constructive, nation-building trumpeted this investment.

Now?

China has emerged as one of WeWork’s worst performing markets as a local operation once seen as critical to the office provider’s global growth suffers from ultra-low occupancy rates and is “bleeding cash”, said people with direct knowledge of the business.

FT

What “ultra-low occupancy rates” mean. FT reported: WeWork locations in October in

Shanghai had a vacancy rate of 35.7% in October,

Shenzhen 65.3% (in Hong Kong only 22.1%  vacant) and

Xi’an, had a vacancy rate of 78.5%.

As reported in ST’s BS about WeWorks Cont’d, WeWorks is exiting China.

Wonder if our constructive, nation-building media will report this fiasco? It trumpeted its success last year.

TikTok data stored here

TikTok said all US user data is stored in the United States, with a backup in Singapore

BBC report

Beijing-based Bytedance owns TikTok, a video-sharing app popular in the US. TikTok says it “does not remove content” based on Chinese sensitivities.

This follows concerns raised by US lawmakers over whether Beijing censors content on the app and data collection.

Eat your heart out Indian supremacists

Andrew Yang is ahead of Kamala Harris (She got mama blood) in her home state of California.

 

Black Panther’s homeland shows the way for equitable telco data plans

Sounds like a great idea for infrequent or not so frequent users of data but who want it on tap when wi-fi is not available. Mad Dog should include it in Election manifesto of Spastics League?

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More on Spastics’ League

My predictions about Spastics’ League

False Hopes: Coalition of the Spastics

——————————————————————————————–

Seriously, it’s a good idea. But then this is Pay and Pay Land.

In February, South Africa’s Independent Communications Authority started enforcing new data expiry rules that allow subscribers to roll over unused data. Operators are also barred from charging out-of-bundle rates for data when it is depleted.

A few days ago, the Ghanaian government directed phones operators in the country to scrap expiry terms on data bundles bought by subscribers.

Now, the BBC reports

A Kenyan lawyer has sued the country’s three biggest mobile phone operators over the expiry of unused data bundles, the Daily Nation newspaper reports.

Lawyer Adrian Kamotho has filed the petition at the Communications and Multimedia Appeals Tribunal.

He wants the tribunal to order the three telecom firms – Safaricom, Airtel and Telkom Kenya – to allow their subscribers to extend the expiry of unused data at no costs, the newspaper reports.

“Data bundles should not have an expiry date until used up‚ as long as the SIM card is active and the consumer keeps recharging,” his petition is quoted.

Mr Kamotho also wants operators to enable consumers to transfer unused data to other users on the same network.

 

ST’s BS about WeWorks Cont’d

In ST’s BS about WeWorks, recently, I grumbled about ST’s gushing coverage of WeWorks expanding in S’pore while it was facing financial meltdown.

Looks like it’ll close shop here after Softbank’s bail-out:

WeWork is also looking to prioritise three markets — the US, Europe and Japan — and will pull back from other regions including China, India and much of Latin America. It has already begun looking at building closures in parts of its portfolio including in China and other regions.

FT

Morocco Mole (Secret Squirrel’s sidekick), tells me that his cousin, twice removed, working in a leading real estate broker, tells me the landlords that leased space to WeWorks are drowning their sorrows in beer, bracing themselves for terminations. Damages are meaningless because there’s no money to pay them: non recourse to WeWorks.

Time to cut down its newsroom further, SPH?

What riots can achieve

Chilean President Sebastián Piñera announced reforms aimed at ending days of violent protests sparked by a rise in metro prices. The protests grew into something bigger as thousands took to the streets over austerity and inequality.

He planned to increase the basic pension by 20%, increase the minimum wage and introduce a new higher tax bracket. Electricity rates will also be cut under the reform plan. He also proposed a law that would see the state cover the costs of expensive medical treatments.

Mr Piñera said he had received a clear message from Chileans, saying he hoped to turn recent violent protests into an “opportunity” for Chile “to make up for lost time, pick up the pace and take concrete and urgent steps”.

(The following was added on 24 October at 9.30am)

Related posts:

Stop being fascinated with HK riots, look closer home

Indonesian riots prove minister’s point on zero tolerance of racist remarks?

 

Greta Thunberg: Juz another entitled ang moh kid talking cock

Greta Thunberg, the puppet of Woke progressives says that on a finite planet unlimited economic growth is a fairy tale. Juz like that condemn poor Asian kids to servitude to ang mohs isit?

This what a “Climate change is real and a clear and present danger,” conservative adult says:

Is unlimited economic growth a fairy tale?

Mark Carney is asked whether he agrees with Greta Thunberg that on a finite planet unlimited economic growth is a fairy tale.

He says: “I’m afraid I do not agree with that… There is carbon-light growth, there is asset-light growth. If you think about the nature of much of consumption, how it’s shifted over time… towards experiences including virtual entertainment – that’s also growth.”

“So I don’t think they’re exclusive.”

However, he says the market is “pricing the transition” away from carbon as being at least 3.75 degrees, “probably north of 4” degrees in terms of global warming.

“That tells you something in terms of the sum of global climate policy,” Mr Carney says, with the implication being that it is not moving fast enough.

BBC

Why Greta will soon be history

Almost 50 years before Extinction Rebellion, a British-born protest movement, exported its brand of climate activism to the world, young Americans did so on Earth Day, April 22nd 1970. The youth then was more bell-bottomed than nowadays but felt no less “bamboozled and cheated” (as The Economist put it at the time) that their elders were bequeathing them a wrecked planet.Economist

HK: Why HSBC can still smile

In Why HSBC is really Hongkong Bank

I wrote

I’m very surprised that BoC is a distant second in terms of deposits. I tot the gap was much narrower. And this was in 2018. I’m sure BoC lost a lot of deposits.

Well since then, there have been reports that BoC branches have been targeted by the rioters, as have the branches of other mainland controlled banks.

Sure HSBC is suffering because HK is its biggest and most profitable market

But the attacks and withdrawals from the Chinese banks must bring a smile to the quai lows at Hongkong Bank.

 

 

Honkies behaving like spoiled brats adopted by ang mohs, then abandoned

(I hope FT doesn’t sue me for this copy and paste.)

This is a thread in an FT article on HK. Doesn’t Passeby’s first two paragraphs remind you of the typical S’porean response to the unrest in HK?

Passerby
I wish the parents of the teenager rioters lose their job and have to tell their rioter children they can no longer afford school and data plan and food for them. And these spoiled brats have to actually go out and live life and earn money. Yeh, maybe then they would appreciate a little more having stability in the society and the economic benefits the motherland China provides.

But then it would be too late, as this is not some kind of game. Macau is setting up their stock exchange. Shenzhen is taking over HK. Hong Kong will forever have lost its lustre.

As someone aptly described to me, to BJ, Hong Kong is like a kid who was adopted by western parents when she was young and now rejoining the birth family. But then she doesn’t want to rejoin, she thinks she’s too good for them. She wants to go back to the adopted family, who has left. BJ sees all these in her eyes, and will promote the other kids. HK has fallen out of favour.

The cost of these few months is immeasurable, and irrecoverable.

Hong Kong burns, and no one else burns with Hong Kong.

The responses were pretty good too

concerned n america
Maybe the HK kid sees the Muslim Uigher kid Getting their organs harvested and clearly doesn’t want to rejoin the evil family.

Aloha
@Passerby

Deep in the psyche of every Wumao is this shame that they have to justify and defend the death of hundreds of unarmed college students in Tiananmen in 1989 with jobs and economic growth. That if the Chinese Communist Party has not shot those protestors, their lives would somehow be worse off. That is the argument they have to repeat to themselves and to others.

South Korea had also had its ‘Tiananmen’ and people also died. But South Korea have confronted the past and is able to talk about it. Consider that South Korea is a country smaller than some Chinese provinces and what it has achieved economically. It’s a lie that the Chinese communist party wants people to buy in: that only the Chinese communist party can provide stability and economic growth.

Also no more Hong Kong means no more Chinese communist party members able to hid their ill gotten money off shore from mainland China.

Related posts:

Stop being fascinated with HK riots, look closer home

Financial aspects of protests

Attempt to bring down HK’s financial system fails: yet again

Why HSBC is really Hongkong Bank

China says it needs HK as a financial centre

What Tun and our alt media don’t tell us about the water supply from Johor

I’m sure you know:

Under the 1962 Water Agreement, Singapore can draw up to 250 million gallons of water a day from the Johor River, and Singapore is obliged to provide Johor with treated water up to 2% of the water we import. The 1962 Water Agreement will expire in 2061.

PUB

And that we pay 3 sen per 1,000 gallons and are required to supply Johor with 5 mgd of treated water at cost under the agreement.

And that Tun keeps KPKBing that it’s an unfair agreement that he says must be changed.

—————————————————-

So funny that in 1987 when he could taken action to have the agreement reviewed, he didn’t bother. Actually to be fair to him, it seems he wasn’t told that in 1987 there was a window for review . Secret Squirrel says that there’s a view in M’sia that someone was bribed. It was not some Bumi incompetence or carelessness.

——————————————————

But did you know an area about a third the size of Singapore (21,600 ha) is leased from Johor?

Constructed by PUB under a 1990 agreement with Johor supplementary to the 1962 Water Agreement, the Linggiu Reservoir is located upstream of the Johor River Waterworks and releases water into the Johor River to supplement its flow. This enables reliable abstraction of raw water at the Johor River Waterworks which is owned and operated by PUB for treatment.

https://www.pub.gov.sg/watersupply/fournationaltaps/importedwater

PUB

built the Linggiu Reservoir at a cost of more than S$300 million to enable reliable abstraction of water at PUB’s Johor River Waterworks (JRWW).

PUB (This sentence added on 22 October 2019 at 4.55am)

We paid Johor RM320 million (S$208 million at 1990 rates) for the potential loss of revenue from logging activities, and as a one-time payment for the lease of that land for the land up to 2061. We pay annual land taxes: but this is “peanuts”.

Do you know that despite leasing the land and using it as a catchment area, Malaysia, can, built water plants upstream of the JRWW?

These

have further added to the abstraction of water from the Johor River.

PUB. See Water: M’sia takes us to the cleaners

Also, did you know we have been supplying more than 16 mgd of treated water to Johor at the state’s request? Only obliged to supply 5 mgd.

PUB revealed that from Sept 23 to Sept 27, it has been supplying an additional 6 mgd of treated water, on top of the 16 mgd that it already supplies. This is upon Johor’s request, as the state had seen a disruption in production at its water plant in Skudai, PUB said.

Water: M’sia takes us to the cleaners

 

 

 

M’sian stocks: eagles and dogs

Interesting tables from https://www.theedgesingapore.com/capital/tongs-portfolio/good-bad-and-ugly-our-malaysian-portfolio-reaches-its-fifth-anniversary

From the late 80s until the late 90s, I used to specialise in M’sian equities. These stocks are Mandarin to me. LOL.

 

Two cities, two systems

Singapore and Hong Kong have long offered rival political models. Singapore, put crudely, is an illiberal democracy; Hong Kong a liberal autocracy. One has a freely elected government but strict laws limiting, for example, public protest and some political debate. The other has a chief executive “elected” by a few hundred officials, a partially elected and weak legislature, but robust traditions of freedom of speech and assembly. Singapore has been pointing, discreetly, to its relative stability. On October 4th the foreign ministry advised Singaporeans to “defer non-essential travel” to Hong Kong.

https://www.economist.com/asia/2019/10/10/singapore-stands-to-gain-from-hong-kongs-troubles?fbclid=IwAR0v8guoxejGop67vdUO8Q7I5h_tqQfl6GU-R-sbIf0ysKxJJMJDGPBjQUs

HK still top dog vis-a-vis S’pore: China says it needs HK as a financial centre

Got this  right: HK: Who Beijing really blames for the protests and riots

Got this wrong: but HK’s CEO has announced that govt will seize back unbuilt land from tycoons to build public housing. This was a no-no since colonial days.

HK: Trumpets pls/ Next prediction

SAF can really detect and neutralise drones?

After the attack on Saudi oil installations, in what seems to be warning to Tun not to try anything funny (Morocco Mole, Secret Squirrel’s side kick tells me that his second cousin removed working in Tun’s office tells him that arms dealers have promised him Iranian drones that hit the Saudi installations.)

Singapore ‘quite confident’ of detecting and neutralising drones used in Saudi attacks: Ng Eng Hen

Headline from constructive, nation-building CNA

Read more at https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/singapore-confident-detect-neutralise-drones-saudi-arabia-uav-11976108

Is he talking cock?

Because remember the drone intrusion at Chamgi Int’l? Why isn’t Changi Int’l not protected against drone intrusions?/ Paper weapons?

and Where’s SAF and police when Changi Airport needs them?.

But let’s be serious

But it would be a mistake to confuse the use of drones or UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) in this attack with other incidents where off-the-shelf drones have disrupted airports, football matches or political rallies, says Douglas Barrie, an air power fellow at think tank the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

He says this attack was carried out, in part, by sophisticated UAVs – small, pilotless, winged aircraft – nothing like the quadcopter drones flown in suburban parks.

Instead, they can cover hundreds of kilometres and be pre-programmed to fly around navigation points on the ground, allowing them to approach a target from an unexpected direction.

“The level of complexity in this attack is above anything we’ve seen before. Using a mix of cruise missiles and unmanned air vehicles (UAVs) that arrived all at the same time calls for a serious level of planning and proficiency,” says Mr Barrie.

The attack has raised a question-mark over the quality of the protection available against UAV assaults.

Criticism of Saudi Arabian air defences is wide of the mark, says Mr Barrie. The fact is that complex networks of air defence radars linked to guided missiles and squadrons of advanced fighter jets are not designed to counter this relatively cheap and disposable technology.

“Digital technology has made a huge difference to what smaller UAVs can do. Suddenly you can pack a lot into a UAV, you can almost turn it into a precision guided weapon.”

By programming a UAV to fly around numerous points before arriving at its target it can avoid the obvious directions from which an attack is expected. This may explain why existing radars failed to spot the drone formation which attacked Abqaiq.

Which is why this got rushed into the area

The US Air Force has just taken delivery of Phaser, a microwave-based weapon from defence giant Raytheon. Firing from a disc resembling a giant satellite dish atop a sand-coloured container it wipes out the digital elements inside a drone.

Raytheon cannot say where the rapidly purchased Phaser has been sent, but the Pentagon has stated that it is being deployed overseas.

Perhaps Phaser’s biggest strength is it operates at the speed of light. That is the rate at which it fires out bursts of microwave radiation. And that can bring an approaching UAV down in a split second.

The beam emitted by Phaser is 100 metres broad at a distance of one kilometre. That translates into a lot of dangerous space for an attacking UAV. Targets are tracked by an electro-optical sensor converting images into electronic signals and working in tandem with the microwave beam.

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-49984415?intlink_from_url=https://www.bbc.com/news/technology&link_location=live-reporting-story

Grandpa Xi’s biggest headache

No it’s not the quai lan Hongkies. or Mad Dog Chee’s cousin Trump. He has a much bigger problem which means he can’t focus on HK or US China political and trade relations.

The price of pork, the most popular meat in China, jumped by 69.3% compared with September last year. The rapid rise in pork prices means that China’s consumer price index is up by 3% year on year in September, the largest increase since November 2013. The rise in pork prices contributes nearly half a percentage point to headline inflation.

The outbreak of African swine fever has cut China’s pig population by 39% and led to led to rationing and price controls in at least one Chinese city.

The govt has started releasing frozen pork from its reserves, starting with 10,000 tonnes. There are subsidies for new pig farms and plans to breed bigger pigs. (Btw, frozen pork is tenderer than chilled pork according to a S’pore study reported by our constructive, nation-building CNA)

Meanwhile, pork related stocks are cheong.

Alfian is no knight in shining armour fighting the PAP dragon

Or for truth and justice. He’s more like an identity-challenged knight in rusty armour rowing with his enemies (think PAP govt) and his inner demons.

I’m not defending what the PAP minister said about Alfian (Because unlike the constructive, nation-building media I’ve not been paid my 30 pieces of silver, and unlike the PAP IB, I don’t work for free.), but I hope his critics had read some of Alfian’s stuff that the anti-PAP Woke don’t publicise, when criticising the minister. Anti-PAP cybernuts are a different breed of low life: “PAP is always wrong.”

I speak as someone who read some of his stuff years ago. In the poems I read, I sensed his unhappiness about living in a Chinese dominated multi-racial society. He was really not happy that his race was not top dog, like in KL, and he was not getting the goodies like M’sian Malays that he felt he was entitled to. He wanted to live in a multi-racial society where the Malays dominated. I must stress that this is only my reading.

A lawyer and PAP member (who yet again hasn’t been selected to be an MP) seems to share my view, though he put it more menacingly

I find Alfian’s actions anti Singapore. The combination of his poem and his pro Malaysia sentiments reflect a longing for a situation where his race is not the minority.

He is not a critic. He does not feel he belongs in Singapore.

Ong should add to his statement by using this PAPpy’s turn of phrase. Silly of Ong not to have said this in first place. But then GE coming and he doesn’t want to offend the Malay voters, who are not exactly fans of the PAP govt. Neither does he want Tun to take offence.

Oh, and do realise that Alfian is biting the hand that protects him.

He will have problems if he is a Malay living in M’sia: his preferred country. He’s a self-proclaimed gay, atheist Muslim. That is haram in M’sia and other Muslim countries. In Saudi Arabia he could be executed. In S’pore, minister Shan rightly says that LGBTQs will be protected, like other S’poreans

And remember what happened to Anwar? The authorities tried to destroy his career by portraying him as a homosexual because being gay is haram in Islam.

Doubtless if he was M’sian, he’d be spurning the privileges of being a Malay, and bemoaning that he couldn’t reveal his inner self. He’d be writing about hidden identities, like Oscar Wilde. Or maybe, he’ll be looking at his bank statement and smile.

—————————————-

“Malay race” created by ang mohs, not the Malays

Academic talking cock/ Got such thing as “Malay” race meh?

Watain fans: Muslims cannot be, but can Malays be ?

——————————————————————————-

I’ll end by saying that the the minister roughed up Alfian for wrong reasons, doing no good for his reputation: https://sudhirtv.com/2019/10/14/the-day-singapores-education-minister-lost-some-credibility/?fbclid=IwAR2fHLaLLKIAUmC_BPqWaj6V6VyNOkFd_qGKk3Z1qTQ2sl0TxPiJL0Dxns4.

But I never had a high opinion of him: Ong Ye Kung: “Is he the 4G leader with the killer instinct?”

We threw money at this guy?

To buy properties here?

EDB gifting billionaire money to cheong properties

Buying homes the billionaire way: two luxury homes are better than one

Ang moh who bot S$73.8m flat

Or employ S’poreans?

Only a few months ago I wrote

But if one is a fan of the PAP govt, one can argue that by giving him financial incentives to build his car in S’pore, EDB gets him to manufacture here (creating jobs and expertise), move his HQ here, and buy two properties: killing four birds with one stone.

EDB gifting billionaire money to cheong properties

A few months ago, our constructive, nation-building were trumpeting that S’pore’s a great place because Dyson decided to build his electric car here. Now the media is spinning like hell that his cancellation of his plan to build electric cars here is no big deal. Example CNA says:

WHAT IT MEANS FOR SINGAPORE

With the shuttering of Dyson’s automotive unit, plans for its maiden car plant in Singapore will be scrapped.

If Dyson’s plans had materialised, the plant could have brought about some benefits, said Maybank Kim Eng economist Chua Hak Bin.

“It was a different kind of manufacturing investment,” he said. “Dyson was a lot more futuristic and new tech so we wondered if it would bring parts of the supply chain, in terms of supporting industries, to Singapore.”

When Dyson announced its Singapore plans last year, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong took to Facebook to describe it as “one of the companies creating new and exciting opportunities here” and urged local engineers to “rise to the challenge”.

Trade and Industry Minister Chan Chun Sing also posted on Facebook that he was “happy” about the announcement, as it reflected Singapore’s attractiveness as a base for investments in innovation.

The Economic Development Board, in its yearly report published in February, highlighted autonomous vehicles and smart mobility as one of its key priorities ahead, in a bid to ride on the crest of Dyson’s announcement.

The government agency was in “active negotiations or discussions” with a couple of other electric car makers so as to “build clusters”, its managing director Chng Kai Fong told Bloomberg during an interview in April.

In response to CNA’s queries on its strategy moving forward, EDB’s assistant managing director Tan Kong Hwee said Singapore remains interested in advanced manufacturing activities, including electric vehicles.

“We believe Singapore is well-positioned for activities that leverage on the deep skills of our workforce, the use of advanced technologies such as robotics and automation, and ecosystem of suppliers locally and in the region,” said the emailed response.

“Singapore’s proximity to the markets in Asia will also enable companies to capture growth opportunities in the region.”

The U-turn in Dyson’s plans is set to affect about 20 employees in Singapore. The company told CNA that it has “sufficient vacancies” to absorb most of those affected.

Dyson currently employs about 1,100 people in Singapore, with 350 of them being engineers.

While it may be a lost opportunity for Singapore to produce electric cars, economists think the scrapping of the plant will bring about minimal impact.

“Since the project was very much on the drawing board, I think there will be fairly minimal disruption to local labour force and supply chains,” said Mr Song.

He added: “It would have been a nice feather in the cap. But even without it, we haven’t done too badly going by the investment commitment numbers for the first half of the year.”

At almost S$8.1 billion, Singapore’s fixed-asset investment commitments during the first six months of 2019 already fall within the EDB’s full-year forecast of S$8 billion to S$10 billion.

This despite trade tensions and other global uncertainties slowing down economic growth.

Mr Rajiv Biswas, chief economist for Asia Pacific at IHS Markit, said Dyson has signalled its intention to continue expanding its operations here in Singapore.

“Dyson is expected to continue to develop R&D and technology segments related to electric vehicles, such as battery technology, robotics and artificial intelligence.

“Therefore Singapore’s manufacturing sector may continue to benefit from Dyson’s future R&D in a range of key high technology sectors,” he told CNA.

Read more at https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/business/dyson-hits-brakes-electric-car-what-the-shift-means-singapore-11992980

 

TeamTRE doesn’t know when school holidays begin?/ How Wankers can hold Aljunied

I couldn’t stop thinking the above and laughing when I read a TRE editorial dated 11 th October

Are we less than a month away from the General Elections?

…

Now that we have more information, we can make an educated guess. Given the above, the EBRC report could potentially be released already – we would not know given the lack of details – or is about to be released. Assuming the fastest scenario wherein the EBRC report has already been released and the fastest scenario for parliament to be dissolved, a GE could take place in less than a month’s time?

What do TRE readers think?

School holidays begin on 16th November. So election going to be held before school holidays begin? Traditionally, general elections are held during school holidays so that schools can be used as voting and counting centres.

Why does TeamTRE think this yr is different? Or they that blur? Or because they don’t have kids studying here? Or maybe no kids at all: infertile due to stress of running TRE for a bunch of ingrate cybernuts?

On to a serious matter: I wrote PAP confident of winning back Aljunied  earlier this yr, and in ending wrote how the Wankers can retain Aljunied

But if WP has Faizal, Show Mao and three new faces (I’m assuming that they’ll be the usual credible WP candidates, one of whom will be Lion Man: Will WP MPs walk the talk of Lion Man Leon?), I think that the swing voters will give the Wankers the benefit of the doubt, especially if Dr Tan Cheng Bock endorses the team. Interesting that Bayee is in this photo (Blackface Chee/ Tan Cheng Bock etc): Auntie and Low would rather be dead then be seen with Mad Dog.

(Yes I assumed that the three would lose the case and that “Peanuts”: WP MPs’ liability)

Voters in Aljunied, hold yr noses and vote for the Wankers if Low, Sylvia and Bayee don’t stand.

Think of S’pore. Vote wisely.

Asean experts in infowars

(Two excerpts from a very long BBC article)

No, the Asean experts in infowars are not our our very own Terry’s Online Channel or Kirsten Han and PJ Thum minister who are minister Shan’s demons (Praying for minister Shan), but the Indonesian govt.

Indonesia’s Papua province has become the focus of a well-funded social media campaign using bots to promote a pro-government agenda, the BBC has found.

A long-running Papuan separatist movement has flared in recent months, sparking fresh calls for self-rule.

But with access to the region heavily restricted, social media has become a key source for the foreign press.

One expert told the BBC the apparently co-ordinated campaigns were seeking to skew international views of Papua.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-49983667?intlink_from_url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world/asia&link_location=live-reporting-story

Here’s how it’s done

[A] network of automated fake accounts spread across at least four social media platforms and numerous websites which could be traced to a Jakarta-based media company, InsightID.

The bots would jump on to hashtags being used by groups supporting independence, such as #freewestpapua, so they swamped negative reporting with positive stories about investment in the region, a process known as “hashtag hijacking”.

This technique was also used on Facebook. One such message, in English, said Indonesia had invited the UN to Papua to assess the situation. But the UN has complained that, despite an agreement more than a year ago, an official visit has still to take place.

The company pushed out content on Facebook with paid ads targeting users in the US, UK and Europe.

“The risk of a campaign like this, in a place with so little access to truly independent media, is it skews the perceptions and understanding of the international community in a way that doesn’t reflect reality,” says ASPI cyber researcher Elise Thomas.

“That appears to be the goal, one which someone is willing to spend hundreds of dollars and many months to achieve.”

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-49983667?intlink_from_url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world/asia&link_location=live-reporting-story

Related post:

Indonesian riots prove minister’s point on zero tolerance of racist remarks?

And since the post’s publication:

A new wave of violence has hit the restive Indonesian region of West Papua after hundreds of protesters, mostly high school students, set fire to several buildings in a town on Monday.

At least 23 people died in the regional capital Wamena, some of whom were trapped inside burning buildings.

The protests were reportedly triggered by a teacher’s racist comments – an allegation the police called a “hoax”.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-49806182?intlink_from_url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world/asia&link_location=live-reporting

So what if we are the most competitive economy globally?

What has this to do with the price of pork?

Allianz CEO recently said: “S’pore market is a pond”

This put the ranking that S’pore is now the most competitive economy in the world, something our constructive nation-building media, and even anti-PAP alt media like TOC are trumpeting, into some kind of context and perspective.

Allianz is one of the world’s biggest reinsurers. The CEO was recently interviewed by the FT (Emphasis mine).

The group continues to be linked with more deals. In the last two weeks, it has been touted as a potential buyer for some of the Asian businesses put on the block by Aviva as well as insurance operations being sold by Spanish lender BBVA.

Mr Bäte is quick to play down any interest in Aviva’s Singapore operation. “The Aviva business is a good one but it is the smallest of four large ones in Singapore,” he said.

“Why would I buy a small follower business in a small country that is fully consolidated?”

FT

My point is that its meaningless to compare the economies of city-states (HK was third after the USA) to the economies of countries the size of continents, just as its meaningless to compares the economies of medium sized countries with those of city-states and continental countries like the USA, Russia and India.

Compare apples with apples, not with durians.

ST’s BS about WeWorks

WeWork to expand to 12 locations in Singapore by year end despite global woes 

ST’s headline screamed today.

The constructive, nation-building ST went on

Co-working space operator WeWork has launched a new space in the Central Business District (CBD) and will add two more locations here in Singapore by the end of the year.

It will have a total of 12 locations in Singapore by this December, which will mark its two-year anniversary in the Republic.

Well FT juz reported

Two people briefed on the fundraising efforts said the office company’s cash crunch was so acute that it had to raise new financing no later than the end of November.

FT says JPMorgan is trying to complete an emergency debt financing package as soon as next week to buy time to restructure after the failed IPO.

Goldman Sachs who is an investor, IPO adviser (like JPMorgan) and customer, is sitting on its hands as JPMorgan tries to get other major banks to also lend money to WeWorks.

It had been tot “current funding arrangements might only carry it through another four to eight quarters unless it rapidly reduced the rate at which it has been burning cash.” LOL.

 

Athlete Soh thinks he PAP minister isit?

Recently Mr Soh Rui Yong, a long distance runner, has sued the Singapore Athletics (SA) and its executive director Syed Abdul Malik Aljunied, alleging defamation.

The cases

arose last month over Mr Soh being rejected from Team Singapore for the South-east Asian (SEA) Games in the Philippines, and defamatory comments allegedly made by SA in the wake of the decision.

Following that, Mr Soh threatened to sue SA’s executive director Syed Abdul Malik Aljunied for making allegedly defamatory comments on social media and filed a defamation writ against him.

Read more at https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/national-marathoner-soh-rui-yong-files-defamation-writ-singapore-athletics

Now

The legal spat between national marathoners Soh Rui Yong and Ashley Liew has intensified, with Mr Soh announcing on Wednesday (Oct 9) that he is filing a counterclaim against fellow athlete Ashley Liew, alleging defamation.

Read more at https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/marathoners-spat-soh-rui-yong-files-defamation-counterclaim-against-ashley-liew

Sounds like he behaves like he’s like a PAP millionaire minister: sue and sue.

Must be really rich to afford lawyers and be prepared to pay other side damages and legal costs if he loses. Didn’t realise our athletes are that well paid. Or maybe he juz stupid and so are his lawyers who might end up working for free. Sad.

Related post: Why PAP (and PMs) sue and sue

 

PAP govt ignoring home-grown violent Marxist terrorist threat

Recently I wrote PAP govt keeps us safe from terror killings, they really do, pointing out the good work the PAP is doing keeping Muslims and Kafirs from killing one another here, unlike in London, Paris and Brussels which have comparable numbers of Muslims (and consequently of potential Jihadist Joes and Jills like those in Bapak’s harem).

The PAP govt, never complacent, has turned its attention to those it considers propagators of ang moh tua kee BS, and fake news propagators. In its sights are ang moh tuas like Kirsten Han and BJ Thum (Do PJ, Kirsten and friends still want Tun to bring democracy to S’pore?), and the employer of foreigners,Terry Xu. Bit rich that Terry who castigates the govt for allowing FTs to steal locals’ lunches is very happy to employ foreigners working in M’sia to KPKB about FTs here because they are cheap labour: Terry and his “bunch of Indians”.

The attention is misplaced and a waste of resources. Kirsten Han and PJ are harmless BS artists who shit and piss publicly to attract attention, while Terry’s TOC has become an echo chamber where only cybernuts feel comfortable in. In TOC’s latest attempt to raise $, it showed a picture of amount its bank account: $900. When I was helping out in 2011 and 2012, TOC had $100,000 in the bank from donations. (This was when ads were banners.) The donors have left, leaving only the cybernuts, a mixture of cheapskates, and destitutes on PAP govt welfare, biting the hand that feeds them

The Home Affairs minister should focus on the real enemy, those in the vanguard of revolutionary change here killing for fun treasured and loved playthings of really really rich S’poreans. He should remember the problems the German Red Army Faction and Japanese Red Army caused. They were Marxist terrorists who targeted the rich.

Security for the rich here? What security?

And this attack is not the only one. There have been several attacks on the koi of the rich living in Sentosa.

But not all otters liddat. So before the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) starts culling otters indiscriminately like it did junglefowl

Fowl play: Cull in haste, repent at leisure

Fowl play: Juz tell us what the genetic tests say, 

let me remind the AVA, that most otters are law-abiding S’poreans.

More importantly for civil servants, they are natural PAP voters, if they could vote.

 

Why? The PAP govt looks after them:

TRE Cybernut says PAP has created paradise for otters not citizens

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

Bishan otters PAP members?

Parable of the Slumdog Otter 

And unlike the cybernut ingrates like Terry Xu, M Ravi and Teo Soh Lung who live in public housing while biting the hand that feeds them, and ex-SPH journalists (Think Bertha Henson and Balji) who start dissing the PAP govt, the moment they stop getting their monthly 30 pieces of silver, otters got a sense of decency.

They are loyal to those who treat them well. And the PAP govt has treated them well.

As for the Marxist otters, catch them and send them for rehabilitation. They are juz silly, misled otters.

This is what we should remember Chiam for

I’m glad for this article

“The opposition used to be undesirable and unelectable, and Chiam has made it more acceptable to Singaporeans. He really revamped the whole opposition’s image and brought in credible candidates,” says Loke.

“His contribution surpasses JBJ’s, in terms of changing the opposition’s image.”

https://sg.news.yahoo.com/chiam-see-tong-changed-the-face-of-the-opposition-analyst-065549351.html

As Mr Chiam gets more and more frail, the actions of Mrs Chiam in trying to bostler his image and the way the PAP manipulates her had me thinking that he was the PAP’s useful idiot

True Chiam wasn’t honoured in these ways [Soed and made bankrupt or disinvited from Istana functions] but maybe they didn’t think he was that dangerous an opponent? Maybe they saw him as a “useful idiot”?

Seriously, Chiam, was given a great honour by one Harry Lee. He was one of Harry’s honorary pall-bearers. Given Harry’s status in S’pore’s official narrative (Coldstore: Why Harry’s narrative or the highway), Chiam’s honour ranks higher than the Order of Temasek.

But I suppose P Ravi would rather forget about this great honour conferred on Mr Chiam because it could be interpreted as double-confirming to cynics that the PAP thinks Chiam is their useful idiot.

Nonsense: 1 Oppo leaders are not honoured by PAP govt 2 More adversarial politics won’t be good for S’pore’

I knew Chiam well from the mid 70s to the early 80s. He handled several civil matters for my father and his friends in the early 80s, very competently. Lost touch after I went walkabout for several yrs.

Thought highly of him even though by the late 1990s I realised that he was not capable of building an effective opposition party unlike WP Low because he had EQ: Chiam: The importance of EQ. But when he anointed first s/o JBJ as his probable successor as oppo leader (KennethJ: Dice not falling his way) and then Lena as his potential successor in Potong Pasir (Time for the Chiams to step back?), and failed both times, I’ve been a reluctant critic.

“You don’t need much space to have sex”

Well now you don’t need much space to have a queen bed, furniture and plenty of stuff.  They all can fit into a micro-apartment thanks to Silicon Valley.

Bumblebee Spaces, a robotics company, designs and builds storage and beds for compact living. Furniture and possessions are hidden away inside ceiling boxes, to be raised and lowered at the touch of an iPad. Suspension straps, able to hold up to 3,000lbs, support the boxes, while wall-mounted safety sensors are ready to hit the brakes if something — or someone — stands in the way. A queen-sized bed is lowered from the ceiling, quietly converting a sitting room into a bedroom.

FT

Pixs from a San Francisco rabbit hatch (Or is it chicken cdoop?).

 

Related post: Enough space for Queen Jos to have sex?

 

PAP govt keeps us safe from terror killings, they really do

The Muslim ( He converted to Islam 10 years ago ) knife attacker who killed four of his colleagues at Paris police headquarters last week reminded me that London (Population of more than 8m) has more Muslims than S’pore, and Paris and Brussels have more in % terms : Muslims: Fun fact.

We know that violent Muslims have killed and maimed people (the Paris killings is just the latest example), and damaged property in all three cities and that in return there have attacks against innocent Muslims.

---

Over the past four years Paris has been hit by numerous large-scale and deadly attacks. In the deadliest Jihadist attack ever in France, Muslim extremists killed 130 people in an attack on the Bataclan theatre in November 2015.

—————————————————————– ————————

Meanwhile, things are peaceful here, despite being next door to Indonesia where there there have been Muslim terrorist killings and bombings.

The reason is that the PAP govt is very sensitive to the religious feelings of Muslims:

the PAP govt treats the sensibilities of the various religions: equal treatment of intolerant religious views.

Religious equality, the PAP way

A publisher said that the NLB didn’t buy a book because

NLB was concerned that the cover read “Why do Malays avoid pork?” Another problem was that the text implied that the prophet Mohammed founded Islam.

NLB is very sensitive about Malays and Muslims

The govt is also very careful about the feelings of non-Muslims

“You have a group of Malay young men, showing the one-finger sign, supporting the group,” CNA quoted the minister.

“If a group of Chinese went and showed the finger sign and said that we should allow it – how would you all have felt? It is the same.”

As the photo has gone viral “across the Christian community”, Shanmugam said that it was crucial to show that the picture does not represent what the Muslim community thinks. “They won’t realize that this a small group of Malays, but they may think, is this what Muslims think of us? So now we have to send the message that this is not what the Muslim community thinks. These are black metal group supporters, they are not the mainstream community.”

Watain ban: playing the easily offended game can backfire

Related posts:

Watain fans: Muslims cannot be, but can Malays be?

Indonesian riots prove minister’s point on zero tolerance of racist remarks?*

Another probable reason: very draconian laws work, though ang moh tua kees like Kirsten Han (Kirsten Han trying to defecate herself and PJ out of self-made crater) would disagree. They seem to be happy with mayhem so long as there’s freedom of expression.

[T]he Internal Security Act and the Criminal Law Temporary Provision Act.

They allow the govt to detain almost indefinitely people who never had the benefit of a trial. The former is nowadays used to detain alleged “Islamic” terrorists,  while the latter is used to detain Dan Tan (the guy alleged to have fixed footie matches) and alleged drug dealers …

Govt detains without trial S’poreans: No outrage meh activists?

I’ll end with why it’s not a good time to be a Muslim in America or in Oz and why there’s so much much fear of Muslims in these countries despite the lack of recent atrocities by Jihadists Joes and Jills.

An American Airlines mechanic charged with sabotaging an aircraft in July has possible links to the Islamic State (IS) group, US prosecutors say.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-49753151

He said he had wanted to cause a delay or have the flight cancelled to get overtime work.

And

Two men linked to the Islamic State (IS) group have been convicted in Australia of plotting to blow up a flight using a concealed bomb.

Mahmoud Khayat, 34, aimed to bring down the Sydney to Abu Dhabi flight in July 2017, a jury found on Thursday.

His brother, Khaled Khayat, 51, was found guilty of the same offence in May. Both men had pleaded not guilty.

Their plan failed when the bag carrying the bomb could not be checked in at the airport because it was overweight.

Prosecutors said they had aimed to blow up the flight carrying 400 passengers with military grade explosives concealed inside a meat grinder.

After it failed, the brothers also planned to carry out a chemical gas attack in Sydney, prosecutors said. They were arrested 11 days after the airport incident.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-49764450

All three are immigrants who became citizens of the countries they lived in.

Is it any surprise that “crew members did not feel comfortable flying with Muslim passengers on board”? Of course, in the land of the free, where the buffalo roam, there really shouldn’t be such discrimination, but still after 9/11 etc one can understand:

Muslim men blame racial profiling for flight cancellation

Two Muslim men in the US have demanded an investigation after they say they were subjected to racial and religious profiling on a flight home to Dallas.

Abderraoof Alkhawaldeh and Issam Abdallah allege their flight was cancelled because crew members did not feel comfortable flying with the men.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-49764305

Related posts:

Why Muslims in USA are right to feel oppressed

Ban Muslims from driving?

What Americans can teach Saudis on combating atheism

Bottom line: a little repression (By the standards of Kirsten Han, S’pore is an “authoritarian paradise, where critics of the government are squelched and drug traffickers are hanged”, sounds acceptable in keeping people of different religions from killing or being suspicious of people of other faiths: Religious equality, the PAP way

What do you think?

——————————————

*More recently in Indonesia,

A new wave of violence has hit the restive Indonesian region of West Papua after hundreds of protesters, mostly high school students, set fire to several buildings in a town on Monday.

At least 23 people died in the regional capital Wamena, some of whom were trapped inside burning buildings.

The protests were reportedly triggered by a teacher’s racist comments – an allegation the police called a “hoax”.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-49806182?intlink_from_url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world/asia&link_location=live-reporting

Stop being fascinated with HK riots, look closer home

Alt media and social media is fascinated with the HK riots. They want something like that to happen here isit?

Meanwhile, they ignore the riots in Jakarta where unpopular legislative changes have brought tens of thousands of demonstrators onto the streets

The protests were triggered by bills hurried through in the final days of the parliamentary session, before a new cabinet is appointed and Widodo gets sworn in for a second term. They include an effort to introduce a criminal code outlawing sex outside marriage, among other things, and changes to limit the powers of the country’s ranti-corruption commission, known by its Indonesian initials as the KPK.

What happens in Indonesia also affects us, ang moh tua kees and anti-PAP cybernuts.

 

Background to Trump’s appeal to China on Bidens

Trump had suggested on Thursday that the Chinese authorities could help dig up dirt on Mr Joe Biden and his son Hunter’s business dealings in China. Trump is already facing a  very rapidly escalating political crisis because of an impeachment inquiry.

The impeachment inquiry focuses on a whistleblower’s claim that the president put pressure on the Ukrainian president to investigate Joe Biden, the former vice-president and his potential rival in the 2020 presidential race.

Trump has now exacerbated the situation by asking for help from China, a nation that his own White House labelled a “revisionary power”.

Here’s what the BBC says:

What about the Bidens in China?

In 2013, then vice-president Mr Biden went to China on an official visit, where he met Chinese President Xi Jinping and other officials.

Hunter Biden and his daughter joined the vice-president, who had travelled with family members before.

During the two-day visit, Hunter met a Chinese banker, Jonathan Li, who would eventually become a business partner.

Mr Li founded a private equity fund shortly after the trip, and Hunter was on the board, although a spokesman for the younger Mr Biden told NBC News they did not discuss any business during the trip and the fund had been planned months earlier.

Hunter Biden was also not an equity owner in the fund during his father’s term as vice-president, according to the spokesman.

Hunter has denied meeting any Chinese officials about the business. However, he reportedly helped arrange for Mr Li to shake hands with Joe Biden during his trip to Beijing, which stoked claims of influence-peddling.

This August, Republican Senator and Finance Chairman Chuck Grassley questioned Hunter’s actions on the trip.

He said the younger Biden had a “history of investing in and collaborating with Chinese companies, including at least one posing significant national security concerns”.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-49924579?intlink_from_url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world/us_and_canada&link_location=live-reporting-story

There is also a story that a Chinese SWF invested a billion US$ in a hedge fund connected to Hunter. No credible evidence of this.

Is S’pore really Animal Farm come to life?

Or is it more like “Brave New World”? As elections are coming, sure got some cybernut sure to compare S’pore to Animal Farm.

But first, office workers are treated worse than animals in London:

“We don’t like the idea of animals in pens, but we’ve been happy to have people in them”, says Sir Stuart Lipton, the developer of 22 Bishopsgate.

Economist

(22 Bishopsgate is a 62-storey “vertical village” soon to be opened in London. 12,000 workers will work there.)

And likewise in Silicon Valley: Animal Farm circa 2017..

Coming back to S’pore and Animal Farm, read and decide.

“A really efficient totalitarian state would be one in which the all-powerful executive of political bosses and their army of managers control a population of slaves who do not have to be coerced, because they love their servitude.”

Brave New World – Aldous Huxley

And

S’poreans live pretty decent lives even if housing is expensive, cars unaffordable for most S’poreans, and the price of water is going up by 30%. Look at all those travelling overseas for hols during the recent school holidays. And all the tech gadgets S’poreans buy: I mean even the TRE cybernuts are not criticising the end of 2G next month (Buffett uses a 2G handset and so did I until Monday). No wonder the Pay and Party administration keeps raising prices. The money is there and the people are not unhappy to be fleeced.

S’pore: Not “Animal Farm” but “Brave New World”

Related posts:

Animal Farm: What if the pigs were public-spirited?

Good description of life in Animal Farm

“The Gatekeeper”: Our home-grown “Animal Farm”,

More on our home-grown “Animal Farm”

 

IRAS help line betterest

Recently, I had to reorganise my HSBC bank accounts: closing one, and opening another with access to e-trading.

One of the things that resulted from the reorganisation was that I had to move the giro deductions for property tax to the new account. I decided instead to move it to an existing historical account in OCBC because because it and DBS were the only two banks that allowed me to do set up a giro account with IRAS via the internet. Yes UOB does not have this privilege (Wonder why? After all Wong Kum Seng is the chairman and the previous chairman was Temasek’s president. Its finech and e-banking is rubbish?), and so using HSBC entailed downloading a form (I don’t have a printer), filling it in, and posting it.

But there were a few things I needed first to clarify with the IRAS. I was pretty depressed about calling the IRAS up because of my really bad experiences with SingPass: SingPass sucks, really sucks (Cont’d) and SingPass technical support versus that of OCBC and HSBC

But I was very pleasantly surprised. Getting thru to an officer was a breeze (Getting to talk to a bank officer via the help line is so bothersome).

And the officer was really helpfully, even telling me things I hadn’t tot about.

Fyi, I’m told Li Hongyi is responsible for SingPass. If so

Li Hongyi got a lot to do before he is PM material. And grandpa and GCT didn’t set the bar very high for Hongyi’s pa did they?

SingPass sucks, really sucks

 

 

Heaven publicly humiliated Xi on his big day

No, not the riots in HK or Hongkies stepping on his pictures of his face: How Beijing and HK celebrating today

No, it was a lot worse. Heaven rained on his parade. Not literally but on China’s National Day,  Beijing was under a blanket of smog. So, under hazy skies, Xi presided over the military parade on the 70th anniversary of the day Mao Zedong declared the founding of the People’s Republic in Tiananmen Square.

Don’t believe me, go look at the pixs of the parade. An example is above. Also look at the photos in https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-49891769?intlink_from_url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world/asia&link_location=live-reporting-story

Smog in Tiananmen Square on the 70th anniversary of the day Mao Zedong declared the founding of the People’s Republic is politically and symbolically important because on China’s National Day two yrs ago, Xi called for clearer skies.

Didn’t happen did it on the most important day in the Chinese political calendar? And on a landmark anniversary: the 70th anniversary.

The people of China are quietly taking note that Heaven doesn’t give face to Xi, unlike its treatment of Mao. A few months before he died, there was a massive earthquake that killed many people.

 

Water: M’sia takes us to the cleaners/ What? Shades of Oxleygate?

Over water issues with M’sia, the PAP govt is still playing nice guy. Or to be more accurate, roll over and play dead.

Our constructive, nation-building CNA reports (emphasis mine), not Terry Online’s Channel bunch of M’sian Indian goons trying to fix S’pore by destabilising bi-lateral ties by publishing fake news, reports this disturbing news:

“Singapore built the Linggiu Reservoir at a cost of more than S$300 million to enable reliable abstraction of water at PUB’s Johor River Waterworks (JRWW),” the agency [My note: PUB] said in a media release.

“However, Malaysia has built water plants upstream of the JRWW, which have further added to the abstraction of water from the Johor River.

“This challenging situation is exacerbated during dry weather, as PUB needs to discharge more water from Linggiu Reservoir to support water abstraction.

“In the event of a prolonged drought, a depleted Linggiu Reservoir will compromise Singapore’s right to abstract our full 250 million gallons per day (mgd) entitlement of water under the 1962 Water Agreement.”

Under the 1962 agreement, which lasts until 2061, Singapore has full and exclusive right to draw up to 250 million gallons of water daily from the Johor River at the price of 3 sen per 1,000 gallons.

Read more at https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/water-level-linggiu-reservoir-johor-falls-below-50-cent-pub

So why we playing nice guy? We continue giving Johor more cheap water then required to out of “goodwill” to ingrates (Johor officials always saying water agreement is unfair and should be cancelled):

Singapore is also required to supply Johor with 5 mgd of treated water under the agreement. But in practice, the Republic has been supplying 16 mgd of treated water to Johor at the state’s request, PUB said.

On Saturday, PUB revealed that from Sept 23 to Sept 27, it has been supplying an additional 6 mgd of treated water, on top of the 16 mgd that it already supplies. This is upon Johor’s request, as the state had seen a disruption in production at its water plant in Skudai, PUB said.

“Johor made similar requests this year in January and August. Last year, Singapore supplied additional water in excess of the usual 16 mgd for 20 days,” PUB said.

The water agency added that it has supplied all the additional treated water above 5 mgd on a “goodwill basis” at the same price as under the 1962 agreement of 50 sen per 1,000 gallons — a fraction of the cost of treating the water.

Read more at https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/water-level-linggiu-reservoir-johor-falls-below-50-cent-pub

Goodwill? What goodwill? With the M’sian and Johor authorities forever trying to cause trouble,

Tun manufacturing another row to stir his anti-PAP S’porean fans?

M’sian minister thinks M’sian drivers tua kee

Let’s gloat at Tun as he threatens us,

we should stick to the letter of the law.

PM should stand up to Tun. No more nice guy. No more rolling over and playing dead. Like he did over Oxleygate, where he should have sued his siblings: Riposte to “Blood is thicker than water” and other BS reasons not to sue.

What PAP and PMs always did before Oxleygate: Why PAP (and PMs) sue and sue.

And do remember that Mad Dog always says S’pore is unfair to its neighbours. Surely, not in this case?

 

Great GIC trade but there’s a catch

It invested US$1bn in the IPO Anheuser-Busch InBev’s Asia-Pacific unit: AB InBev Asia.

The shares were up 4% on the first day of trading yesterday.

Problem is that it can’t sell for six months because it’s a cornerstone investors. It got to invest so much for that reason.

Terry’s Team M’sia will never report stuff like this.

How Beijing and HK celebrating today

In Beijing, to celebrate the 70th anniversary of China’s liberation by the CCP, there is a big military parade presided over by Xi,

In HK:

[I]mages of Mr Xi will be glued on to walkways so that protesters can stamp on him as they pass by.

FT

Btw, FT’s great coverage of HK: HK: What MSM and alt media don’t tell us

Thicker than even blood: The PAP way is the CCP way.