Silver bonds: HK govt loves its old people

As someone who has problems diversifying cash generated from dividends and capital gains (Can’t put into my CPF account but topped up my 98 yr old mum’s MediSave to the full amount. It pays 6% interest per annum.) into non equity assets, I wish our govt would have something similar to what HK has for oldies with cash.

HK at regular intervals issues “silver bonds” for oldies

The HKMA announced the issue of the fifth batch of silver bond targeting Hong Kong residents aged 65 or above. It will be available for subscription from 1st December.
• The tenor will be 3 years and the minimum guaranteed interest rate will be 3.5%, the highest since record. The total issue amount will be HK$10 billion and could be increased to as much as HK$15 billion, depending on the response. This is much more than the previous issue amount of HK$3 billion.

OCBC Securities

HK like us has an old age problem. It’s even worse there.

OCBC says that HK’s population aged 65 is about 1.38m and accounted for 18.3% of total population as of mid 2020, up from 15.3% as of mid-2015 and higher than the 17% for OECD members in 2019. Population aged 65 and above (% of total population) here was reported at 12.39 % in 2019, according to the World Bank.

OCBC says that Given the worsening aging problem in HK, “it is good to provide some asset management tool for the elderly to grow their assets to ease future financial burden.”

Dare say this HK but dare not say this about S’pore. LOL.

Btw, the issuance of silver bonds are not for the purpose of financing any budget deficit but mainly for promoting the development of retail bond market. Like govt here, HK govt has lots of cash.

Give me decent interest income from govt bonds, not freedom to riot. Here Pay And Pay means neither alternative is available. SAD.

Why humans will become extinct/ Being cruel to be kind

We are doomed because we are getting to be real wimps, allowing the weak to survive, unlike our ancestors.

To save humanity from extinction bring bring back Genghis Khan, Mao, Stalin and Hitler.

A S’porean died shortly after LKY. He was met in the afterlife by a spirit and was offered a tour of the place after he was shown his HDB flat situated in a slum.

He was shown round the grand mansions and palaces of the leading residents and he asked to be taken to LKY’s mansion. He was brought to a shabby run down bungalow near his HDB flat. It was a bit like LKY’s Oxley house.

He expressed surprise as he said he tot that LKY deserved better.

The spirit told him “There’s not enough blood on his hands. By the standards of Genghis Khan, Mao, Stalin, George Bush, Churchill and Hitler, he’s a mediocrity.”

Btw, the S’porean found that in his block of flats, there were flats reserved for LHL and Goh Chok Tong.

Myth PAP cares more for GDP than for Sporeans?

Millionaire ministers prefer to lock down economy to save lives seems to be the implication of u/m.

What do you think?

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Dr Goh and his merry men

For all their academic brilliance Ah Loong and team have not advanced beyond tinkering with the framework that Dr Goh Keng Swee, Hon Swee Sen and Albert Winsemius devised. Evolution is fine to a point. But surely the world has undergone revolutionary change. When they were constructing their model of serving MNCs as a path to grow the economy, serving MNCs was “neo-colonialism”. Today even Red China serves as as the MNCs’ factory.

Problem S’pore, PAP face

Related posts

— Why S’pore’s economic progress went downhill after Dr Goh retired

— Dr Goh’s HK counterpart had similar views on MRT and other major issues

— Why S’pore industrialised in the 60s

— SG50: Three cheers for Goh Keng Swee

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Remember, the 4G leaders failed their legitimacy test: Why PAP aiming for 65% of the popular vote. (Btw, written in 2018: Why even with 4G donkeys, PAP will retain power.)

And based on what PM, Lawrence Wong and Shanmugan said the PAP is very aware that their legitimacy is waning: Legitimacy problem for the PAP as 9% of voters get smarter

But the bad, sad news is how they are trying to fix the legitimacy problem. Instead of listening to Tharman’s views (see below), the PAP are trying to shift the goal posts, lowering the high water mark of success: now only aiming for 65% of the popular vote as their high water mark of popularity and success, not -70%+ mark of the past: How the PAP plans to fix its legitimacy problem.

And we must be a more tolerant democracy, with greater space for divergent views, and a more active civil society, without the public discourse becoming divisive or unsettling the majority.It will be good for Singapore if we evolve in these three ways. They will each help ensure stability in our democracy in the years to come. And they will tap on the energies and ideas of a younger generation of Singaporeans and their desire to be involved in public affairs.

Part of Tharman’s FB post

Time for India to ban Paytm, Zomato, Byju and Dream11?

India has banned 43 more Chinese apps, including Alibaba’s online shopping site AliExpress. The Electronics and Information Technology ministry said the apps were blocked for “engaging in activities which are prejudicial to [the] sovereignty and integrity of India”. More than 200 apps have been banned since relations with China deteriorated in June.

FT

I hope Modi and his Electronics and Information Technology minister know that Alibaba invested in Indian payments company Paytm and food delivery start-up Zomato, while Tencent invested in education app Byju’s and fantasy sports platform Dream11.

The cunning Chinese could have installed spyware and malware in these Indian apps to fix India? Remember how the British conquered India? There were Indians happy to be paid “peanuts” help the British East India Co.

Related post: Covid-19: India trying to reinfect China?

Why I’m light on office space list cos

In future, 85% of employees would prefer to work remotely at least two to three days a week, according to a survey by CBRE a commercial real estate services company.

And there’s this:

If a white collar job here can be done from home, it can be offshored somewhere cheaper. Could someone else do it more cheaply from KL, JB, Bangkok, Mumbai or Manila? 

Another big problem looming for S’pore

Another big problem looming for S’pore

Can $4G can solve this problem or not?

The shift to remote work carries an inherent risk. If a white collar job here can be done from home, it can be offshored somewhere cheaper. Could someone else do it more cheaply from KL, JB, Bangkok, Mumbai or Manila? 

No need for MNCs to employ overpaid, unhappy, lazy and ungrateful TOC or TRE reading PMETs in their regional HQs. Can sack all these ingrates and employ hardworking, cheap labour working in KL, JB, Bangkok, Mumbai or Manila. And they can save on FT salaries here: no need to pay condo rents for mamas who then give their employers a paid reputation by sneering at S’porean uncles and aunties for being poor.

Juz saying.

For the record, the 4G leaders failed their legitimacy test: Why PAP aiming for 65% of the popular vote. (Btw, written in 2018: Why even with 4G donkeys, PAP will retain power.)

And based on what PM, Lawrence Wong and Shanmugan said the PAP is very aware that their legitimacy is waning: Legitimacy problem for the PAP as 9% of voters get smarter

But the bad, sad news is how they are trying to fix the legitimacy problem. Instead of listening to Tharman’s views (see below), the PAP are trying to shift the goal posts, lowering the high water mark of success: now only aiming for 65% of the popular vote as their high water mark of popularity and success, not -70%+ mark of the past: How the PAP plans to fix its legitimacy problem.

And we must be a more tolerant democracy, with greater space for divergent views, and a more active civil society, without the public discourse becoming divisive or unsettling the majority.It will be good for Singapore if we evolve in these three ways. They will each help ensure stability in our democracy in the years to come. And they will tap on the energies and ideas of a younger generation of Singaporeans and their desire to be involved in public affairs.

Part of Tharman’s FB post

“Police have a right to kill you”

Who said this?

No not this guy, Zheng Yanxiong: Hong Kong’s security chief appointed by China in July

(The above paragraph and pix added on 25 November at 10.52am)

Nor you are wrong if you, like our ang moh tua kees, think it must be our very own

It’s Uganda’s Security Minister Elly Tumwine who said this after 37 people were killed on Wednesday and Thursday last week following clashes with supporters of opposition presidential candidate Bobi Wine.

In a media briefing, the BBC reported Mr Tumwine as saying:

Quote Message: Police have a right to shoot you and kill you if you reach a certain level of violence. Can I repeat? Police have a right to shoot you and you die for nothing.”
Police have a right to shoot you and kill you if you reach a certain level of violence. Can I repeat? Police have a right to shoot you and you die for nothing.”

SAD.

What a lot of hot air

No wonder the planet is warming rapidly, endangering in particular Changi Int’l ( Another headache for Changi Int’l) and S’pore in general (Ever wondered why PM wants to build polders? and 2025: LKY’s memorial unveiled)

No, not the usual hot air from millionaire ministers like Kee Chui (RCEP: Kee Chiu minister talks cock) trying to justify their salaries (Did LKY ever have to justify his salary when he was in charge?). Or loonies like Lim Tean or M Ravi (who really is a looney).

No, the headline was provoked by UK officials working on climate change abatement. They point out that unnecessary emails have a carbon cost: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/shortcuts/2019/nov/26/pointless-emails-theyre-not-just-irritating-they-have-a-massive-carbon-footprint

But as the FT points out “Everything is relative. Just one small hamburger has the same carbon footprint as sending 10 emails every day for a year.”

RCEP: Kee Chiu minister talks cock

At the the signing of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP)

After what has been a challenging year, the signing of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement “will be the bright spot that points the direction ahead”, said Trade and Industry Minister Chan Chun Sing on Sunday (Nov 15). 

“The signing of the RCEP agreement is a timely boost to the longer-term prospects of the region. It will be the bright spot that points the direction ahead,” Mr Chan told the media after the signing.

Constructive, nation-building CNA

Bright spot? What bright spot?

The RCEP does bugger all for S’pore. No expected impact on real income. SAD.

Money talks, bull shit, like Lim Tean, walks is juz noise.

Any wonder that S’poreans have little confidence in the $4G leaders?

The 4G leaders failed their legitimacy test: Why PAP aiming for 65% of the popular vote. (Btw, written in 2018: Why even with 4G donkeys, PAP will retain power.)

Better still for S’poreans, based on what PM, Lawrence Wong and Shanmugan said the PAP is very aware that their legitimacy is waning: Legitimacy problem for the PAP as 9% of voters get smarter

But the bad, sad news is how they are trying to fix the legitimacy problem. Instead of listening to Tharman’s views (see below), the PAP are trying to shift the goal posts, lowering the high water mark of success: now only aiming for 65% of the popular vote as their high water mark of popularity and success, not -70%+ mark of the past: How the PAP plans to fix its legitimacy problem.

And we must be a more tolerant democracy, with greater space for divergent views, and a more active civil society, without the public discourse becoming divisive or unsettling the majority.It will be good for Singapore if we evolve in these three ways. They will each help ensure stability in our democracy in the years to come. And they will tap on the energies and ideas of a younger generation of Singaporeans and their desire to be involved in public affairs.

Part of Tharman’s FB post

Tai tai’s luck runs out, heading for Woodbridge?

DBS shares are really doing well while UOB’s shares juz doing OK reminded of the misfortunes of a tai-tai.

Earlier this yr, a 50-something tai-tai I know sold her DBS shares and bot UOB shares because she said UOB paid more in dividends. The brainless twit (not that brainless because when she was in her 20s, she married an ATM twice her age) didn’t realise that DBS pays its dividends quarterly, while UOB pays its dividends half yearly.

To be fair to her, she was most probably also shell-shocked when she did the switch because during the market collapse in March, she finally sold SPH shares that her ATM machine gave her many yrs ago and bot DBS shares in their place. She remained more faithful to her SPH shares than to her ATM machine: she’s estranged from her hubbie for years.

Her latest problem: the ATM machine stopped paying out.

She’s trying to stay sane by insisting that men still desire her and that she’s a savvy investor not to have sold her SPH shares until recently. Talks of her guardian angels, despite not believing in God or Gods.

Time to be warded in Woodbridge. She may not have the $ to pay for private treatment.

Covid-19: India trying to reinfect China?

I’ve reported that in revenge for China humiliating India in the Himalayas (All those dead Indian soldiers) India has been exporting sending Indians with Covid-19 to HK (Covid-19: Indians going to be banned from going to HK?) and S’pore (Covid-19: FTs from India reinfecting S’pore)

In a change of tactics, India is now sending direct to China packaging of frozen cuttlefish frozen infected with Covid-19. The packaging is infected with Covid-19, not the cuttlefish.

Seriously, the Chinese authorities have detected Covid-19 in the packaging of frozen cuttlefish from India,

Talking cock, growing rich

Between 2001 and 2015, the Clintons earned US$154m for speaking engagements: U$132,022,000 for him, US$21,648,000 for her. This tit bit came from a recent article in the Economist’s 1843 magazine.

Why Europe is sucking up to China

China has surpassed the US as the EU’s main trading partner this year for the first time on the back of strong Chinese demand after its relatively swift recovery from pandemic. European luxury and manufacturing have led the rebound according to new data.

TOC’s Ghui no ak East Coast GRC voters isit?/ Everything also must complain

As usual TOC’s star writer Grace Hui is talking cock. In a piece “Who made the decision that Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong should not retire yet?“, she ranted

“People talk about needing checks and balances within Government so that the People’s Action Party cannot “ownself check ownself”. But within the PAP itself, are there checks and balances? Clearly, not all are equal within the party – so whose decision ranks supreme?

‘Has PM Lee Hsien Loong unilaterally decided that he should stay? Did he seek counsel from anyone else within the party? If so, who?

In addition, does this mean that the 4G leadership are far from ready to take power? While former Senior Minister S Jayakumar has tried to say that this is not the case, it remains a fact that PM Lee feels (for whatever reason) that the timing is not right to relinquish power.”

It is also noteworthy that 4G leaders like Lawrence Wong and Josephine Teo had both (on separate occasions) appeared teary-eyed in public, giving the impression that the pressure has gotten to them.

The decision for PM Lee to stay might well be right. Be that as it may, the public still needs to be told of why and how the decision is reached. Last I checked, Singapore is not supposed to be a dictatorship.”

https://www.onlinecitizenasia.com/2020/11/16/who-made-the-decision-that-prime-minister-lee-hsien-loong-should-not-retire-yet/?fbclid=IwAR0i6hCf2cjOEYlBE4trfMoPPOTwSFPkGWKyGwErpkfs7V5l1j13qH1d8Zo

She obviously has forgotten that the voters in East Coast GRC were very lukewarm toward Heng, giving him only a 53.4% electoral margin in East Coast. 

This promoted Reny Choo, one of the founders of TOC, to write after the GE:

It is difficult to see how Heng Swee Keat can take over as PM. Not with a 53.4% electoral margin in East Coast. There is no way to spin this. Singaporeans cannot confidently see our lives and the future of our country in Heng’s hands. 

https://www.onlinecitizenasia.com/2020/07/11/ge-2020-what-the-electorate-said/

So to reply to the talk cock queen who asked “Who made the decision that Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong should not retire yet?”, the answer is the voters of East Coast GRC: go ask one of the founders of TOC wrote.

And the PAP it seems listened. That also cannot isit? Die, die talk cock queen must insist that “the public still needs to be told of why and how the decision is reached”.

Maybe she also sees Remy Choo no ak?

Btw, tots on GE

that 4G leaders failed their legitimacy test: Why PAP aiming for 65% of the popular vote. (Btw, written in 2018: Why even with 4G donkeys, PAP will retain power.)

Better still for S’poreans, based on what PM, Lawrence Wong and Shanmugan said the PAP is very aware that their legitimacy is waning.

Legitimacy problem for the PAP as 9% of voters get smarter

And How the PAP plans to fix its legitimacy problem:

But the bad, sad news is how they are trying to fix the legitimacy problem. Instead of listening to Tharman

And we must be a more tolerant democracy, with greater space for divergent views, and a more active civil society, without the public discourse becoming divisive or unsettling the majority.It will be good for Singapore if we evolve in these three ways. They will each help ensure stability in our democracy in the years to come. And they will tap on the energies and ideas of a younger generation of Singaporeans and their desire to be involved in public affairs.

Part of FB post

, the PAP are trying to shift the goal posts, lowering the high water mark of success: now only aiming for 65% of the popular vote as their high water mark of popularity and success, not -70%+ mark of the past.

Why China has Trump by his balls

The fifth and most recent translation in China of Donald Trump’s “The Art of the Deal”.was published in 2016 by the Communist Youth League.

No wonder Trump Corp has a Chinese bank account. LOL.

Why China is afraid of its tech cos

Chinese regulators have drafted new antitrust rules aimed at technology firms like Alibaba and Tencent. They will target a range of practices, including treating customers differently based on their spending behaviour and data. The move follows the suspension of the initial public offering of Ant Group, a fintech firm, days before its flotation in Hong Kong and Shanghai.

What all this shows is that Chinese tech groups such as ecommerce group Alibaba have become a little too western for the liking of Xi and other Chinese leaders.

Covid-19 vaccines: India backed the wrong horses

India backed the loser by a country mile.

Modi’s gang backed Novavax’s vaccine, ordering lots of it. But it didn’t bother with the two likely winners: the vaccines from AstraZeneca/ Oxford University and Pfizer/ BioNTech.

Tai tais’ guide to banks’ earnings

Every tai tai and her toy boy have invested in our banks because of the yield.

But when the results come out, they don’t understand what they mean.

Here’s a cheat sheet. Look out to see if there’s

A rise or fall in net interest income

A rise or fall in fee income

A rise or fall in provisions (allowances) for loans turning bad

A higher or lower cost to income ratio. The cost to income ratio measures the level of expenses the bank incurs to its revenue.

Finally is the CEO optimistic, guarded or worried about the prospects for the bank until the next reporting

Btw, I’m wrong so far in being bearish on our local banks: Can local bank stocks fall by 37%? (cont’d) and PAP a socialist party again?/ Banks doing NS.

Related post: Weath mgt is not the treasure chest local banks think it is

The science behind Pfizer’s and BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccine

The vaccine trains the immune system to fight coronavirus.

It is a new type of vaccine called an RNA vaccine and uses a tiny fragment of the virus’ genetic code. This starts making part of the virus inside the body, which the immune system recognises as foreign and starts to attack.

It is given in two doses – three weeks apart – and early data suggests it protects more than 90% of people from developing Covid symptoms.

https://www.bbc.com/news/explainers-54880084

https://www.bbc.com/news/explainers-54880084

Pay And Pay at work in air bubble with HK

Pre-departure tests will cost HK$240 ($30) in Hong Kong and up to S$200 in Singapore.

FT report

Well HK$240 is only S$41.73. Yet S’pore is charging up to S$200.

An honest mistake? Or our preflight Covid-19 tests manufactured in the US of A and HK’s made in China? That explains why HK test is less than 25% of ours?

(Last sentence added on 12 November at 5.00am)

How bad losers behave

Lessons Trump learnt from other bad losers

[S]pit and stamp like Rumpelstiltskin? … [P]rotest about the unfairness of the universe, like the water-soluble Wicked Witch of the West? “Oh what a world, what a world,” she wails, on discovering that she occupies a reality in which little girls can liquidate regimes that run on black magic and flying monkeys.

https://www.economist.com/1843/2020/11/09/lessons-in-losing-from-cleopatra-to-thatcher

Logistics of Covid-19 vaccine

How the vaccine will reach a village in Africa or the Amazon region from the place where its manufactured.

M Ravi’s behaviour shows why in early 20th century, bi-polar sufferers were locked up

To us today, it seems cruel that for many centuries, bi-polar sufferers, like M Ravi, were locked up in lunatic asylums like Gotham City Arkham. .

Well the periodic but regular outbreaks of M Ravi’s ramages helps explain the cruel behaviour meted out to people like him in the past.

Recently, M Ravi made news in cyberspace twice in as many days.

He alleged that lawyer Eugene Thuraisingam had told him that Law and Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam had said he “wields influence over the Chief Justice” and “calls the shot and controlls (sic) Sundaresh Menon”.

Eugene has denied the allegations, pointing out that M Ravi had made these allegations before in 2017. Then, as we later found out (Finally, M Ravi in Woodbridge and Trials and tribulations of an anti-PAP super hero), M Ravi, had stopped taking his medicine and this was the reason he was behaving like the Mad Hatter in Alice In Wonderland.

For the record M Ravi worked for Eugene until M Ravi walked out in anger over a financial dispute, he alleged. The matter was thought to have resolved amicably after M Ravi was forced to take his medicine.

(Btw Ravi later pleaded guilty to attacking a lady partner of the firm. He also apologised to her: M Ravi apologises for assaults after pleading guilty)

The police have confirmed that they are investigating M Ravi for an offence of criminal defamation.

M Ravi also pubicised on FB a lunch he had with Terry Xu and LHY and his wife. He made nasty remarks about the couple.

And that’s not all.

In September, a disciplinary tribunal had determined that he should be ordered to pay a penalty of at least $10,000 for verbal attacks against several govt prosecutors and a distict judge, which were contained in a media statement published by Mr Ravi and posted online in July last year.

Mr Ravi was also ordered to pay $3,000 in costs to the Law Society which prosecuted the case.

Looks the recent landmark victory that M Ravi made in saving someone from hanging over a drug offense has made him think he’s superman. And decided that he didn’t need to take his medicine.

SAD.

Btw, when I was a junior lawyer (I’m now 65), I doubt the legal authorities and the PAP govt would keep on indulging someone like M Ravi. He’d not be allowed to practice law on the grounds that he was a clear and present danger to his clients, and a bad ad for the legal profession.

SAD.

But we live in more enlightened times partly because of the advances in medicine and treatment methods.

Btw, I know a kid in NUS Law School who was exempted from NS because of his autism: they couldn’t find a safe vocation (for him and fellow soldiers) in the SAF. Yet in a few years’ time, he’s going to be let loose on clients, or law students (I suspect being an academic is the safest choice for him: practicing law is more brutal than NS).

WORRYSOME.

When Jack Ma was a born loser

The last minute cancellation of Ant’s IPO isn’t Jack Ma’s greatest humiliation.

Once upon a time, out of 24 candidates applying for a job with KFC, Jack Ma was the only candidate not to get a job.

That’s not all. He

struggled in school and failed his university entrance exams twice. When he tried to get work, he was knocked back by dozens of employers. He applied to Harvard 10 times, but never got in.

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-54838713

But his luck changed

He passed his university entrance exam at the third attempt and went to teachers college. He stayed on for several years afterwards as an English teacher. And it was on a trip to the US as a translator that he first discovered the internet.

After one failed internet venture, he founded Alibaba in 1999 with loans of $60,000 he cobbled together from friends.

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-54838713

Covid-19: India no longer generic pharm king

India role as “the pharmacy of the world” because of its role in supplying generic medicines to poorer countries, is under threat. China previously a supplier of cheap ingredients. it now formulating own drugs, Western countries now their increasingly protecting their own pharma industries to ensure drug security

Indians can counter better than Americans

In its general election last year, India counted 600m votes in a few hours, compared with the days it will have taken to tally about 140m votes in America.

Economist

No wonder Indians dominate the H-1B visas the Americans give out to techies.

Why we needed FTs by the cattle truck loads

From Nikkei Asia. It also part of constructive, nation-building media? Move aside SPH, MediaCorp running dogs. PAP govt now got FTs doing their propaganda for them. (Related post: Our education system that screwed up?)

Our education system that screwed up?

Reasons employers say they need FTs. Locals no got skills. From Nikkei Asia.

Covid-19: Vigilance is eternal

Virus can pop up anywhere

In NZ, authorities traced very recently a coronavirus cluster that emerged in an isolation facility in Sept to a rubbish bin lid shared between two neighbours.

How PAP can win 70% of the vote again

Rediscover what LKY, Dr Goh and the Other Guard instinctively knew. GDP growth is a means to an end, not an end in itself.

The PAP govt can no longer deny the fact that the fortunes of the rich, MNCs and even retirees like me (asset rich, cash rich and users of SingHealth and bus concession passes: LOL), and those of workers and the poor do not rise in tandem. 

So for starters the PAP should stop behaving like the old Wankers’ Party (now under new mgt and showing that the “W” stands for “Workers” not “Wankers”). The PAP should stop wanking and do shumething about helping the poor: Do the following show how of touch and uncaring are union leaders, PAP MPs and millionaire ministers?

Sadly it won’t as junior minister Zaqy Mohamad argues that take home pay is “not meaningful”. It’s meaningful if after employer and employee deductions, there’s not enough to pay the food and tpt bills.

But a millionaire like Zaqy Mohamad wouldn’t know this, would he?

“NUS’s Employment of Jeremy Fernando Looks Highy (sic) Questionable”: Ken J

I’m sure like me, many S’poreans wondered about this Jeremy guy and s/o JBJ, in another rant about the PAP govt (this time questioning the high rankings our unis get from one index: actually I also got questions about how come they are so highly ranked), makes some interesting allegations.

(Actually, I had already heard whispers from NUS academics, after the scandal broke, about the quality of his qualifications, so three cheers for Ken J for talking publicly about the the quality of Jeremy’s qualifications.)

I am concerned more here with how Jeremy Fernando was hired in the first place and how he was allowed to continue working for ten years. Certainly one would not expect him to be one of the faculty at a university with such a high ranking, albeit from one highly questionable index. His biography shows he got his PhD from the European Graduate School (EGS) which is based in Switzerland and Malta. Anyone can apparently be accepted to do a PhD or Masters provided they pay the fees and most of it is distance learning. EGS is not recognised by the Swiss University Conference and is regarded as a degree mill in the US. It is not ranked by QS, THE or ARWU. Perhaps its attractions to NUS stem from its association with academics like Slavoj Zizek, who has refined the old Communist criticisms of democracy as providing too much freedom in order to praise totalitarian state capitalist regimes like Singapore and China. I wrote about Zizek in “How Lee Kuan Yew and Hitler Both Love Authoritarian Capitalism”

EGS certainly seems to be a home for intellectual pseuds and frauds and Jeremy Fernando seems to have mastered the craft of using too many long and convoluted words and phrases to say nothing, or rather to deny that anything has meaning or indeed that there is any reality. He is merely following in the footsteps of his mentor, Jean Baudrillard (he is the Baudrillard Fellow at EGS), who denied reality, the most famous example being his 1991 book “The Gulf War Did Not Take Place.” Baudrillard was a member of the Deconstructionist School which originated with the French philosopher Jacques Derrida whose obituary in the Economist said:

“There were no arguments, nor really any views either. He would have been the first to admit this. He not only contradicted himself, over and over again, but vehemently resisted any attempt to clarify his ideas. “A critique of what I do”, he said, “is indeed impossible.”

NUS’s Employment of Jeremy Fernando Looks Highy Questionable

I hope you caught this titbit

Slavoj Zizek, who has refined the old Communist criticisms of democracy as providing too much freedom in order to praise totalitarian state capitalist regimes like Singapore and China. I wrote about Zizek in “How Lee Kuan Yew and Hitler Both Love Authoritarian Capitalism”

NUS’s Employment of Jeremy Fernando Looks Highy Questionable

If you want to read about what else KJ says, click on the link. Note the TRE article will not be forever available: time limited.

Are Indians more immune to Covid-19? Or why the Chinese are laughing, sneering at the Indians

Seems Indians are more immune to Covid-19 .

But they wouldn’t like the reason why they are more immune. And that’s the reason why the Chinese are laughing and sneering at Indians.

It’s not not because Indians are more virile, with better genes. It’s because

[N]ew research by Indian scientists suggests that low hygiene, lack of clean drinking water, and unsanitary conditions may have actually saved many lives from severe Covid-19.

In other words, they propose that people living in low and low middle-income countries may have been able to stave off severe forms of the infection because of exposure to various pathogens from childhood, which give them sturdier immunity to Covid-19. Both papers, yet to be peer reviewed, looked at deaths per million of population to compare fatality rates.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-54730290

So Indians have better immunity because India’s a “shit-hole” country, a term used by Trump about African countries.

Chinese can’t stop laughing.

Double confirm, no GST rise until after next GE

Shumething I predicted recently: Why there’ll be no GST rise until after next GE.

Since then there’s these two headlines from last week

COVID-19 downturn to be more prolonged than past recessions, slow recovery for jobs market: MAS

S’pore’s recovery from downturn set to take 18 months, twice as long as earlier recessions: Economists

Recent headlines in the constructive, nation-building bmedia

Before these, there was what Heng said in mid October

A hike in Goods and Services Tax (GST) cannot be deferred indefinitely because it is necessary to support future needs such as preschool education and healthcare.

However, the Government will continue to study the timing of the increase in GST rate carefully. In doing so, it will take into account the pace of Singapore’s economic recovery, its revenue outlook and how much spending can be deferred without jeopardising the country’s long-term needs.

Read more at https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/gst-hike-cant-be-deferred-indefinitely-govt-will-carefully-study-timing-increase-dpm-heng

Going by the next PM’s choice of words,

Government will continue to study the timing of the increase in GST rate carefully. In doing so, it will take into account the pace of Singapore’s economic recovery, its revenue outlook and how much spending can be deferred without jeopardising the country’s long-term needs.

if there’s no V-shaped recovery, but a K-shaped recovery (What’s a K-shaped recovery? Recovery is K shaped), as is likely. there be no GST hike until after next GE. PAP doesn’t believe in suicide.

But next time GST rises, it might be up 4 points? Because

it is necessary to support future needs such as preschool education and healthcare.

PM Lawrence Wong circa 2028

S’porean: Having children detracts from the gd life

In Singapore the fertility rate the number of children that a woman can expect to have during her lifetime) is 1.14: way below the replacement rate of 2.1), and with people like Keith, it’ll remain that way.

From the Economist

[I]n wealthy Singapore, where contraception is easy to come by, young people who were already reluctant to start a family before the pandemic are even more so during a global recession. The government is trying to coax people into reproducing with a one-off grant of S$3,000 ($2,200) for having a child in the next two years on top of pre-existing payments and savings schemes. For Keith, even that doesn’t make up for the cost of becoming a father. “I know that me and my wife will have a very good time in the next 30, 40 years without kids,” the 36-year-old says. “Do we want to risk that?”

https://www.economist.com/international/2020/10/28/the-pandemic-may-be-leading-to-fewer-babies-in-rich-countries

Instead of having kids, couples spend $ on pets. Smart of them. I’ve had dogs, don’t miss a partner and kids.