She puts the mamas in their place by being the first ethnic Asian to win the best actress award. And her team adds insult to injury bt making sure that it’s an all East Asian sweep.
And what happens?
The Fed and allies saves the world on the same day.
Btw, my friend was her school mate in the Ipoh convent school. Could have even been in the same class.
Singapore’s total fertility rate hit a historic low of 1.05 in 2022, down from 1.12 in 2021
Constructive, nation-building media
And both govts have the same answer, offer more money. But money not enough. Literally because the $ on offer are “peanuts”. And there are other non-monetary reasons.
This year HK residents will each get HK$5,000 (US$637) in vouchers. Last year they got HK$10,000.
Very generous compared to the crumbs our millionaire ministers throw our way. Maximum a S’porean (elderly and very poor) can get is S$750 (US$560)
From an MoF press release
Community Development Council (CDC) Vouchers, GSTV – Cash (Seniors’ Bonus) and Assurance Package MediSave
6 On top of the GSTV – U-Save and S&CC rebates in January 2023, eligible Singaporeans will receive the following benefits in the upcoming months of January and February 2023.
I always tot that Starbucks coffee lacked the caffeine kick. I wasn’t wrong. According to a UK consumer survey, Starbucks coffee is caffeine challenged (OK lite) compared to other high street coffee retailers .
Source: Which?
BBC article: https://www.bbc.com/news/business-64472214
And this chart came out the Fed chief said last night that he’s relaxed about bullish markets. Game on until April. A perma bear says the markets will keep on rising until April before correcting. Jeremy Grantham is a perma bear whose calls on market rallies are better than the average bear, or even bull.
The legislators are Christians.
Almost 88% of the members of the 118th session of Congress say they are Christian, but only 64% of Americans identify as Christian.
Economist
From November 2021 to December 2022 he lost around US$165bn, reports the Guinness World Records (https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/94151-largest-loss-of-personal-fortune)
The figures are based on data from Forbes, but Guinness said other sources suggested Mr Musk’s losses could have been higher.
May the 2023 recession be shallow and short.
But don’t count on the traditional Chinese New Year rally. Santa, in a break of tradition, didn’t visit Wall St. There was no Santa rally. No resents for the traders.
(Netflix is no tech giant, the others are. Btw, its market value has dropped by 50% this year.)
Meta has nearly two-thirds of its value was wiped out, leaving its market capitalisation at just over US$300bn.
Interest expectations don’t align with Powell’s words.
They keep ignoring his words Jerome Powell said that policymakers had no plans to start lowering rates until they were confident that inflation was moving down to 2%. “The historical record cautions strongly against prematurely loosening policy,”
When the stockmarket peaked in America on January 3rd, bond markets thought that the upper bound of the Fed’s policy rate of 0.25% would rise by just 0.75 percentage points by the end of the year. In the event, it stands at 4.5%.
https://www.economist.com/leaders/2022/12/20/the-year-of-the-rate-shock
Ok, OK not us but the whinging, lazy Australians.
Further to Rain, rain go away, here’s why the Australians are not happy that its raining heavily
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-63382895There’s the biological impact: overcast weather blocks sunlight, lowering serotonin – dubbed the body’s happy hormone – and affecting sleep.
Then there’s the behavioural effect: rain can stop people from getting outdoors and doing activities that give them a sense of wellbeing, achievement, or social connection, Prof Felmingham says.
“All of these contributing factors compound each other. If you’ve got really relentless rain, we have got clear evidence that can lower mood, lower energy levels and bring a sense of frustration, loneliness or boredom at times,” he adds.
What a bunch of lazy, laidback bums.
I mean look at us: it rains heavily in SE Asia.
Australians want to play
In Sydney
More than 2.3m (7.5 feet) of rain has fallen on the city – three times the annual average in London.
It’s been a similar story across the rest of Australia’s eastern states. Repeated, widespread flooding across all four of them has left thousands of homes uninhabitable and killed more than 30 people this year. Just this past week, two people died as towns in central western New South Wales (NSW) went underwater.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-63382895
More rain in Sydney than in S’pore
HK scientists from the Chinese University of HK have developed a gut microbiome to reduce the risk of Covid-19 infections. The biome, SIM01, improves gut microbiota balance and boosts immunity.
Maybe got lost in SPH’s/ST’s new digital platform.
The price of pasta, cooking oil, chips and bread rose sharply in the UK.
Item-level price changes of lowest-price option of 30 selected everyday groceries, September 2022 compared with September 2021 (%)
Last year, there were lots of reports that productivity had increased because people were working from home because of Covid. Reasons given were the absence of commuting and distraction, and so on.
Now we are told, there’s a problem with not working in the office: Fortune reports under the headline
BlackRock CEO Larry Fink thinks he has a solution to inflation: Bring people back to the office
that
BlackRock’s drive to get people to return to the office “is going to be a key element in bringing down inflation: rising productivity.”
So what’s the truth?
Maybe, there’s too much BS and that results in lower productivity.
A study by the World Weather Attribution Group has found that recent flooding in Pakistan was 50 per cent more intense due to climate change. Heavy rain has affected more than 33mn people in the region.
Actually my only reason to report the above is to use this wonderful illustration from the Economist showing the devastation and the map of the area
The past few days brought dramatic movement when a counter-offensive by Ukraine’s armed forces broke through Russian lines in the east. It has been very successful, Between 6-10 September, 3000 sq km were regained.
The president said it’s now actually 6,000 sq km.
The territory regained is not the important factor. It’s the swift defeat of the Russian army. This victory gives Ukraine a massive morale boost to its own troops and to its western partners, while severely denting Russian confidence. The recent Russian offensives took months and seized less territory.
Guderain, Manstein, Hoth, Kleist, Rommel and the other panzer generals would be proud of the way the Russians were beaten: hot knife through butter.
A friend in need, is a friend indeed.
A recent comment by a Ukrainian officer, “They abandoned their tanks and equipment ”. They did this before at the gates of Kyiv. Sounds like Russian soldiers are helping Ukraine defeat Putin’s “special military operation”.
Check this out at Cynical Investor’s takes on S’pore’s History: Not the People’s Princess, but the People’s Queen.
The Workers’ Party leadership has convened a disciplinary committee to look into my Facebook posts on their handling of the Raeesah Khan matter in Parliament. The committee has called me up for an interview:
“to hear the reasons and rationale behind the above public statements made by you as: 1) Your posts had revealed the inner workings of the Parliamentary caucus of the WP Members of Parliament, and allowed our political opponents to have an inside understanding of how the WP operates; 2) Your posts had cast a cloud over the character of the leadership of the WP.”
Daniel PS Goh on FB
Can’t stop laughing at this
“Your posts had cast a cloud over the character of the leadership of the WP.”
Who made fools of themselves and the WP? And who are being investigated? Certainly not Daniel.
Many moons ago, I posted
Excuse me, Mr Singh, you Wankers have something more important to do.
The WP needs to regain public credibility that it lost when you admitted that you, Auntie and Feisal had kept quiet for three months after you and the other two knew that she lied. The three of you have to explain to the WP and public why the three of you were so stupid. I mean all of you are graduates, and you and Auntie have legal qualifications. Where were your legal brains? In your asses?
Pritam beyond his level of competency
Since then, the Committee of Privileges (Cop) recommended that Singh be referred to the Public Prosecutor “for his conduct before the Committee” because further investigations are needed to decide if criminal proceedings ought to be instituted. Faisal was also referred to the Public Prosecutor for further investigations into his refusal to answer relevant questions by the COP. Auntie got away because she ratted on the other two though WP doesn’t think she ratted on them.
And the Public Prosecutor referred the cases against Pritam Singh and Faisal Manap to the really cops for investigation.
We are awaiting to see whether they’ll be charged. I’ll be posting soon a post on what a retired senior DPP thinks about the cases. He’s no PAP man.
Btw, is the PAP trying to “save” Pritam by raising the fine threshold for MP disqualification from $2,000 to $10,000? And if so. WHY?
All in all, its my opinion that the actions of the three stooges in the RK saga are prejudicial to the public and WP’s interests. Yet the Wankers are going after a cadre who publicly asked the Wankers for public accountability. Public accountability (co-driver) is the reason why many S’poreans vote for the WP.
Maybe the Wankers led by the three stooges really don’t wish S’pore well. They really are like Kirsten Han and friends: Kirsten Han trying to defecate herself and PJ out of self-made crater and Kirsten Han and friends are White Lefts.
Maybe I should be crying? And not laughing.
Or at least like Americans, Swedes or Icelanders.
Make it compulsory for the men to do at least 30% of the housework or chores.
Look at S Korea where data released by the government showed the fertility figure had dropped to 0.81 – down three points from the previous year, and a sixth consecutive decline. Ours is1.14 births per woman (2019).
Why we need more babies or more FTs
A declining population can put a country under immense strain. Apart from increased pressure on public spending as demand for healthcare systems and pensions rise, a declining youth population also leads to labour shortages that impact the economy.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-62670717
This is not BS or the PAP’s Hard Truth. It’s Demographics 101.
The storm in the tea cup over the repeal of s377A of the Penal Code and same sex marriage had me asking myself the above.
After all, he believed in free lunches: all that free bread and fish. And in free wine at weddings. And he despised rich people, especially the “banksters”. Remember him beating up the money lenders at the temple? And the Jewish establishment didn’t like him.
Doesn’t sound like a PAP voter does he?
Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed by the merciful and benevolent God of the Old Testament by way of “sulfur and fire” because of their wickedness. The wickedness was believed to be anal sex.
Could we go the way of Sodom and Gomorrah, now that the PAP govt will decriminalise sex between men?
Our dear leader last night told a rally that his PAP govt will repeal section 377A of the Penal Code. This colonial-era law punishes acts of “gross indecency” between men with up to two years in jail. The law is not “proactively enforced as PM once put it. So why bother?
Because the LGBTs have money and will be a new source of tourist dollars?
Btw, our “destruction” will come by way of higher inflation, slower growth and a GST rise.
Recently, the constructive, nation-building media continued its reporting about the lawyers who cheated in law exams with an update on what’s happening to some of them: nothing good and still being publicly named and shamed.
But at least five of them deserve whatever is thrown at them because they are so post-modern and post-truth:
Five of the law students had communicated with each other and shared answers in six of the papers for Part B of their Bar exams, including one for “Ethics and professional responsibility”, through WhatsApp.
https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/6-more-bar-exam-cheats-withdraw-1969466
Bet you they were laughing and proud that they cheated in “Ethics and professional responsibility”, showing how cynical they are on the ethics and professional responsibility of the legal profession.
As a legal trained lawyer who worked in leading corporate law firms before becoming a barrow boy and M’sian equities specialist, I have cynical views about the legal profession, but I don’t mock the profession like these idiots.
When Raffles landed here in 1819, there were 150 residents, thirty of whom were ethnic Chinese. There is no evidence of there being any ethnic Indian resident.
But we know Raffles brought one in: Naraina Pillai. Our very first FT. More on him at What the 2019 statues tell us.
Came across this on FB. Happy to attribute it if I know the source.
Around 160,000 Conservative Party members will choose the next British PM
They are the more well-off British.
In terms of GDP.
And we still tops in Asean by this measure.
But I suspect the Jardines Group (Think Hong in Hong Kong) is included in S’pore’s data
The rich keep the economy ticking along.
The wealthy play an outsized role in the U.S. economy, which skews the overall picture. The top 10% of earners, which the Census Bureau says aligns with an annual income of at least $200,000, account for about half of consumer spending read more . The bottom 20%, who make less than $30,000 a year, account for less than 10% of such expenses, and most of that goes towards basic needs like housing and food.
https://www.reuters.com/breakingviews/us-growth-is-eroding-bottom-up-2022-07-28/
Vote wisely.
Yesterday, after publishing Will Fairprice lower the price of its bread? , I went out to buy a roast duck using my CDC vouchers.
As it was a Monday, I also popped into Fairprice because I could use my 98-yr old mum’s Pioneer Card to get a 3% discount on goods purchased. The cashier gave me the discount (12 cents) but told me that the discount can now only be claimed in person. I said my mum was 98 years old and she needed a wheel chair when going out, hence my use of the card. She told me to collect a form from the information counter for me or the helper to get the discount.
Seems that we will get a card to present when we present the Pioneer card if the application form is approved. But we need a doctor’s letter saying my mum is immobile. I’m sure I can get the polyclinic doctor to certify this, but not all Pioneers get such certification.
Fairprice allowed family members and helpers to use the cards when Covid was a problem. So maybe with the lifting of restrictions, and rising prices maybe it’s right to insist on in person use? Us Merdeka card holders lost this choice a few months back.
But with the cases of Covid rising again (12,000 new cases as of last Thursday) will the anti-PAP mob KPKB when a Pioneer falls ill or dies because die die the Pioneer wants the discount?
I’m sure our millionaire ministers have done their calculations and reached the Pay AND Pay conclusion, like when they did in the ongoing AMK Sers debacle and the coming GST rises. Our 4G leaders are so predictable in their inability to understand the concerns of the plebs. Or is it contempt for the plebs?
It’s becoming Little India, not Little China
India has overtaken China and New Zealand to become the third-largest country of birth, behind Australia and England.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-61961744
Much mocked Imelda Marcos has the last laugh.
On Thursday Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos will take over from Rodrigo Duterte as president of the Philippines. Among the onlookers at the inauguration will be Imelda Marcos, mother of the new president and widow of the first Ferdinand Marcos to hold that position.
…
The rehabilitation of the Marcos dynasty has practical as well as symbolic meaning. Mrs Marcos, who turns 93 on Saturday, is free on bail while she appeals against her conviction for graft in 2018, part of a $200m corruption case stemming from her husband’s two decades in office. But once in office, her son will have the authority to pardon his mother.
Economist’s The world in brief
Great cartoon from the Economist
And they don’t like Biden.
Germany offers €9-a-month public transport ticket
Cut-price deal allows nationwide travel as Berlin acts to soften the impact of rising inflation and expensive fuel.
Where got rise like this in S’pore despite the millionaire dollar salaries our PAP ministers getting?
Rising mortgage rates and property prices mean it is 55% more expensive to purchase a home than it was a year ago
FT: Part of headline in recent Lex column
This is in the US of A.
Our millionaire ministers only know how to raise GST to protect our reserves in an inflationary environment: adding fuel to the fires of inflation.
Who better to portray Queen Elizabeth II than a 22-year-old Singaporean dancer? On June 5th Janice Ho will play the future monarch as a young princess, dancing with a 21-foot-tall dragon puppet, in an elaborate pageant in central London to mark the climax of the platinum jubilee celebrations. Ms Ho was selected for the role, say the organisers, to reflect the “make-up of Britain and London today”.
Economist’s World in Brief
How consensus politics or governing from the centre works.
On Sunday residents in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany’s most populous state, went to the polls.
In a televised debate on Thursday the candidates of the Social Democrats and the Christian Democrats vying to be the state prime minister were both unable to identify whether passages from their respective election manifestos were theirs or their opponent’s.
For the record, the CDU “won” the election, but the SDU could still lead a coalition govt if the Greens team up with them, rather than the CDU.
North Korea fired three ballistic missiles into the sea off its coast, according to Japan and South Korea. More unusually, after going the duration of the pandemic without reporting a case of covid-19, North Korean state media announced the country’s first infections. The ruling party blamed the outbreak on the “carelessness, laxity, irresponsibility and incompetence” of those responsible for keeping the virus out of the country.
Daily briefing Economist
North Korea confirmed its first death from Covid-19 on Friday, with state media adding that tens of thousands more are experiencing fever symptoms.187,000 people with a fever were being “isolated and treated”.
Six people died after suffering a fever with one testing positive for Omicron, state media reported.
“At the moment, bad data is bad and good data is also bad,” says a fund manager quoted by the FT. The person was saying market sentiment was generally bearish.
This leads me to remember this gem from either the FT or Economist
Monetary policymakers everywhere are promising that their decisions will be “data-dependent”, but how they interpret incoming data is what matters.
This in turn reminds me that our technocratic millionaire ministers interpret data and other facts from the perspective of Hard Truths.
On Wall St, the S&P 500 index closed 0.6% higher, having dropped as much as 1.7% earlier in the afternoon.
Related post: Why Wall St is a cowboy town and Cowboys riding the S&P and NASDAQ broncos
No fan of Napoleon IV aka French President Emmanuel Macron.
The UK’s Sunday Express reports that HE has become a household name in Russia. It says a new verb -“macronit” – has entered Russian slang.
The paper explains that it can mean to talk endlessly without achieving anything. Another definition given is “to appear very worried about a certain situation, show this to everyone, but do nothing”.
Why do I call him Napoleon IV? Charles-Louis Napoléon Bonaparte (Napoleon’s nephew) was the youngest man to be France’s president, until Macron became the youngest man to be French president
Charles-Louis Napoléon Bonaparte became Napoleon III. He reformed France for the better but on the international stage he was a walking disaster. His end came when he started a war with the Prussians that the French lost badly.
Macron is trying to reform the French economy and make France Great Again on the international stage.
Bill Ackman has sold his stake in Netflix at about a US$400mn loss just months after acquiring the position, in yet another blow to the streaming company whose market value collapsed on Wednesday following a decline in subscribers.
The New York billionaire investor bought 3.1mn shares in Netflix, the world’s largest streaming platform, in late January at roughly US$360 per share. The shares had tanked but he said this was a good time to buy for the long term. His purchase cost him US$1.1bn.
Ackman’s decision to cut his losses closed a painful 24 hours for Netflix, which lost close to 40% of its market value, a decline of almost US$60bn, after it revealed that its once-blistering subscriber growth had gone into reverse.
It’s about the same distance from Europe to the US east coast as it is from the US east coast to the west.
No, not from S’poreans, but from Sleepy Joe.
U.S. President Joe Biden is highlighting what countries can gain if they stand against Russian President Vladimir Putin. The White House is hosting Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Tuesday after the city-state backed sanctions against Russia. Lee’s visit could also include announcements on expanded U.S. economic ties, a nice carrot.
https://www.reuters.com/breakingviews/singapore-gets-dc-gold-medal-treatment-2022-03-29/
Grandpa Xi will not be happy. Will he send the Wolf Warriors to blow up buildings here? Someone from FB is suggesting this:
Hopefully Singapore PM and his entourage will not be pressured into agreeing to new demands by Biden and Company. This may become detrimental to our People’s safety.
Do remember that it’s less then 50 years (1974) when the Japanese Red Army (JRA) and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) attacked Pulau Bukom’s She’ll Refinery before hijacking the ferry Laju and allowed by Singapore Government to fly to Kuwait into freedom.
The then raging war between South and North Vietnam has a connection.
Instead of Esso, She’ll got hit.
The above is an interesting subject and bring back lots of memories.
FB post by someone who spells “Shell” as “She’ll”.
On the day that I read a wannabe Sith Lord now a wannabe Jedi {Or juz pretending to be one?) KPKBing about the forthcoming S$100 payout each for all those who have done NS, I also read
Many feel that conscription during peacetime not only forces people to fight against their will, but also makes little economic sense. It costs a fortune and pulls people away from their preferred jobs. That line of thinking helped persuade America to end conscription in 1972. (Of course, it was not fighting a war of survival against a larger invader.)
https://www.economist.com/europe/the-strange-role-of-conscription-in-ukraines-war/21808446
The Chinese people have stood up.
And the economy is outperforming the American one:
The Chinese economy has expanded by 10.5% in the past two years, compared with 2.4% in America and 0.4% in advanced economies generally.
https://www.economist.com/leaders/2022/03/26/china-must-eventually-learn-to-live-with-the-coronavirus
And so
China’s covid controls “demonstrate the advantages” of the Chinese Communist Party’s leadership and the socialist system, boasts Xi Jinping, the president. All the signs are that his people tend to agree.
https://www.economist.com/leaders/2022/03/26/china-must-eventually-learn-to-live-with-the-coronavirus
But HK shows what can go wrong: What HK-based anti-vaxxer Goh Meng Seng doesn’t tell us.
And there’s the example of S’pore. At one stage, the PAP millionaire ministers were lauded here and abroad for the way they were handling the pandemic: Covid-19: Relax S’poreans, PAP govt is doing a good job and Covid-19: HK and S’pore tops in slowing spread.
Then the Indian variant came along: PAP govt squandered our efforts in obeying the Covid-19 rules and PAP govt’s idea of living with Covid-19.
Remember this?
Whenever the PAP government gives you a chicken wing before the elections, you can be sure they will try and take the whole chicken back
SDP version of a S’porean joke that S’poreans have to Pay And Pay
Well in the UK, the Chancellor of the Exchequer (finance minister for u plebs) has introduced a new version of the PAP trick.
He takes away the whole chicken and then gives back a wing, a year later, claiming that he’s giving away chicken wings (i.e. tax cuts):
As the official number crunchers at the OBR put it: “The chancellor has undone just over a quarter of the overall value of the personal tax rises he announced last year, and around a sixth of the overall net tax rises he has announced since becoming chancellor.”
In other words, he’s giving a pound back for every six that he’s already taken.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-60846553
Even Tory leaning newspapers like the Telegraph, Express and Mail are unhappy with his antics: https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-the-papers-60856333
OK, OK, he’s no billionaire. He married a billionaire’s daughter.
In Russia,
holding a blank piece of paper can land you in jail. A handful of such cases have been documented, in which people have been arrested at anti-war protests for carrying empty placards, deemed to be symbols against the invasion of Ukraine.
https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2022/03/22/more-than-15000-russians-have-been-arrested-in-anti-war-protests
Related post: PAP S’pore “R” Putin’s Russia
If aliens came to earth they’d think that mobile phones are the superior species controlling human beings. And it’s not going to stop, it’s only going to get worse.
Kaiwei Tang https://www.bbc.com/news/business-60763168
2%, Hong Kong’s covid-19 case-fatality rate. For unvaccinated people over 80 it is 12%.
And
Hong Kong, which was previously almost untouched by the virus, is now seeing 30,000 cases and more than 200 deaths a day. The city’s healthcare system has been overrun, with shocking images of people in need of hospital care receiving rudimentary treatment outside medical facilities.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-60762032
He’s in HK. He ran to HK because he was afraid of catching Covid here (Anti-vaxxer Goh Meng Seng regretting leaving S’pore). And until recently, he was praising how well HK was coping with Covid-19. He was forever dissing S’pore’s efforts in getting us vaxxed.
Now all he posts on FB is the effectiveness of TCM in combatting Covid-19.
Nothing about the pandemic in HK.
With enemies like him, the PAP doesn’t need friends.
“We will provoke the collapse of the Russian economy,” France’s finance minister said. The West is waging “total economic and financial war against Russia, Putin and his government,” he added.
Experts say the Western financial sanctions amount to full-scale financial warfare of an unheard-of nature and scope.
The package will squeeze living standards.
These sanctions have already disrupted day-to-day life in Russia badly.
There are queues to withdraw money from ATMs. There will soon be runs on the banks.
The sanctions against some Russian banks include cutting them off from Visa and Mastercard, and consequently Apple Pay and Google Pay.
Buying foreign currency costs Russians about 30% more (this is a recovery from 50% than before the invasion), assuming they can get hold of it at all.
At the start of 202, one dollar traded for about 75 roubles and a euro for 80. But the war has helped set new records – at one point a dollar cost 113 roubles and a euro, 127.
People can’t pay mortgages because interest rates have doubled to 20%.
Western media reports that a Pentagon official said that the Pentagon had not detected any change in Russia’s nuclear force posture after Putin declared Russian nuclear alert
Wall St isn’t afraid that Putin is threatening to go nuclear (Putin only hinting of going nuclear, the West has gone “nuclear”). S&P 500 closed 0.24% down and NASDAQ 0.41% up (albeit after wild swings). Remember Wall St had a good friday: Russian markets tank while US markets say “What’s the big deal?”
America is Great Again.
Or it’s another US plot to destabilise Russia?
Related: Russian markets tank while US markets say “What’s the big deal?”
for theirs is the kingdom of God. Why? Read the penultimate paragraph.
So, if you are young and a billionaire, you are the Elect of God?
This looks pretty generous.
But last week,
President Biden has signed an order to split the seven billion dollars in frozen Afghan government assets held in the United States since the Taliban seized the country last August. Half will be used to settle compensation claims against the Taliban filed by American victims of terrorism.
BBC Newshour
Being the Hegemon has its privileges. Any wonder why Xi and his sidekick Putin want their countries to become co-hegemons.?
The Russell 2000
Or so I’m told by his friend. He’s even contemplating returning here from HK to hide from Covid-19.
He’s worried because
Hong Kong recorded 986 covid infections on Thursday, after reporting more than a 1,000 the day before, when it also saw its first covid-19 deaths in six months. The surge is despite the territory’s draconian restrictions, which are some of the most severe in the world. The health system is ill-equipped to deal with rising cases, with isolation wards already at 90% capacity.
Economist Expresso
And
Hong Kong reported 351 cases of covid-19 on Saturday, the highest daily toll since the pandemic began two years ago. The especially infectious Omicron variant has proved especially difficult to contain, despite the territory’s impressive previous record of keeping covid at bay through the use of strict quarantine and social-distancing rules and limits on immigration. Cases are expected to rise further after families mingled during the recent lunar new year.
Economist Expresso
He’s scared because it seems like him, most elderly Hongkies refused to be vaxxed. Younger Hongkies vax rates are comparable with Western rates. Only 30% of Hongkies aged over 80 are vaxxed.
Related post: Goh Meng Seng can’t hide from Covid-19
The world trembles at the words of this man who is doesn’t have hard power.
[A] variant that causes severe disease at half the rate of Delta and twice as many infections in total will cause about the same number of severe cases. Hospitals in many countries are feeling the strain.
https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2022/01/10/the-omicron-wave-in-new-york-looks-worse-than-in-england
Can you imagine the problems Europe will face if more than half of the European population is infected with Omicron within the next few months? A senior World Health Organization made this warning a few days ago.
The West (and S’pore) is rightly trying to live with Covid. But Covid may not want to be merely endemic. It may want to be remain a pandemic.
Man proposes, Nature (or the Supreme Being?) disposes.
Day 9: Sun shield is fully deployed.
Few more nerve wrecking days to go.
I’m really, really surprised that Bayee didn’t say “Your call S’poreans” in his New Year message to S’poreans. Instead according to ST
Cost of living likely a major pressure point in 2022, says WP’s Pritam Singh
https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/politics/cost-of-living-likely-a-major-pressure-point-in-2022-says-wps-pritam-singh?fbclid=IwAR3OWdiNbkm2TfpmEwlHemcbzZcSxrJU9qFTErumLLBUeFZvN99Y5lLGkRA
Whatever, if the Wankers’ Party don’t want to go back to the days when JBJ was leader (i.e. a joke), time to change Sec Gen and throw out Auntie and Faisal.
Low has asked for feedback from the cadres, and they are all waiting for the CoP report. He’s got two good men he can anoint as Sec Gen. Dennis Tan (a member of CoP) and Daniel Goh who Bayee wants to discipline for criticising him and the other leaders over their calls of Ms Khan: Preparing to hang Bayee, Auntie and Faisal.
But losing on points.
It’s another Thriller in Manila. Not a Foreman versus Frazier fight.
Must say this for constructive, nation-building ST, they do great graphics. Too bad about quality of the journalism.
Omicron cases much less likely to need hospital stay, says England health body
People catching Omicron are 50% to 70% less likely to need hospital care compared with previous variants, a major analysis says.
The UK Health Security Agency says its early findings are “encouraging” but the variant could still lead to large numbers of people in hospital.
https://www.bbc.com/news/health-59769969
Omicron cases less likely to require hospital treatment, studies show, the int’l media reports.
Data from Denmark, South Africa and the UK point to reduced severity from infection with the coronavirus strain
Three new studies suggested that the Omicron variant of covid-19 may be less severe than its predecessors. One, conducted in Scotland, found that current infection numbers would have resulted in three times as many hospitalisations were the virus to behave like Delta. A South African study indicated that Omicron sufferers were 70-80% less likely to go to hospital than those with other variants. A third, conducted in England, was more sanguine, suggesting that people with Omicron were 15-20% less likely to be hospitalised than those with Delta, but 40-45% less likely to stay there for a night or more. Even if infections prove mild, Omicron could still do grave damage given how quickly it is spreading.
Economist Expresso before it knew of Danish study
On the last sentence in quote more at: Remember this about Omicron
This is from the UK, but it’s most probably universal.
And Faisal gave them the rope, admitting
that as an MP, he also had a duty to ensure that no untruth remained on the record in Parliament and that it was important to clarify Ms Khan’s lie as soon as possible, but he did not do anything, nor did he speak with anyone about it
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/raeesah-khan-faisal-manap-cop-lie-parliament-workers-party-2373841
I told a friend weeks ago that I did not understand why the so-called experts interviewed by the constructive, nation-building media never raised the point that the Wankers Three could be in contempt of Parliament and in breach of the law by keeping quiet for so long.
Auntie and Bayee are lawyers. Going by their actions, they are “half-past six lawyers” like M Ravi. At least M Ravi has the excuse of being mentally ill when he doesn’t take his medicine: Law Society should stop indulging M Ravi.
That’s all the poor will get from God in this pandemic.
Because despite “I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”: The really rich get a lot richer in this pandemic.
But then:
“For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.”
Time for wealth taxes?
No not Grandpa Xi, Putin or even Sleepy Joe the POTUS.
Former Non-Constituency MP Daniel Goh, who is a WP cadre member, had posted on Facebook twice on his personal thoughts of how his party leaders handled the controversy.
Mr Singh said at Thursday’s press conference that the party would look into his actions.
Read more at https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/analysts-disagree-wps-handling-raeesah-khan-matter-some-party-members-say-leaders-did-what
Excuse me, Mr Singh, you Wankers have something more important to do.
The WP needs to regain public credibility that it lost when you admitted that you, Auntie and Feisal had kept quiet for three months after you and the other two knew that she lied. The three of you have to explain to the WP and public why the three of you were so stupid. I mean all of you are graduates, and you and Auntie have legal qualifications. Where were your legal brains? In your asses?
But thank you for showing S’poreans that there’s a reason why RI boys rule S’pore, not normal stream people like you. As I wrote in Pritam shows why RI boys rule OK, RI boys would have thrown Ms Khan under the bus when they learnt she lied. In fact, they’d have driven the bus to make sure she was killed.
Interesting stat: those going to Normal (Academic) has remained between 20.6-21.4% of PSLE students and about 10.6% to 11.2% of pupils went to the Normal (Technical) stream.
I’m sure readers are aware that “Liar. liar pants on fire” Ms Raeesah Khan has now accused Bayee, Auntie and Feisal of telling her to keep on lying (Page 15 or B5 of https://sprs.parl.gov.sg/selectcommittee/selectcommittee/download?id=435&type=report&fbclid=IwAR2tVtm3bARuR7Thj_DAUIxMr2kwRN_aUo3BsEEgZELbpySrSkwbbxfBDHc)
Earlier Bayee had said publicly that he and other two had known for months that she had lied but had advised her to repent in parly which she did, albeit after a long delay.
This shocked many S’poreans and attracted adverse comments on social media from people who are not rabid PAP supporters.
Us RI boys would have thrown Ms Khan under the bus once she confessed to us. LOL. Difference between RI and normal stream students. Bayee is praised by the woke and progressives (all not from RI) for being a normal stream student made good. Well they are pretty quiet now. Juz like about their hero Amos Yee.
Well he has driven the Wankers into a serious car crash.
Seriously, for the record:
1 The funny thing is that I was sceptical about Bayee for a long time. Only after the last GE did I change my mind and think that I was wrong about him. An ex-WP senior cadre also changed his mind about Mr Singh. We were wrong. Dead wrong, he’s a wanker.
2 I had in August heard about a cover-up from the above ex-senior cadre who heard it from party insiders. We discussed this and came to the conclusion that Pritam and the other leaders were not that stupid to hush the matter up. We were wrong. Btw, it’s alleged by insiders that her pa was a big donor to the defence fund for Low, Sylvia and Pritam. That was cited as a possible reason for the cover-up.
Oh and I think Pritam, Sylvia and Feisal should temporarily step down. Low should return temporarily to take charge. My ex-WP friend disagrees. He thinks Low is just as bad as the three of them.
(Update: Since this was published, it’s been reported that his doctor has given him an MC lasting six weeks. He can’t practice law for six weeks because he’s mentally ill.)
A judge has ordered M (No M doesn’t stand for “Mad” but for “Madasamy”) to personally pay the Attorney-General $10,000 in costs over death row prisoners’ court application which he made, refused to withdraw when it was pointed out that he was talking cock, but then which he withdrew at the last minute.
Last week, the Law Society said it was closely monitoring matters relating to Mr Ravi after his antics in a trial turned it into a well publicised circus performance. The client repudiated his actions and behaviour, replacing him with Lim Tean.
It’s time for the Law Society to stop indulging him. It has over-indulged him because he has a treatable mental illness and more importantly (I suspect) because he is an icon for ang moh tua kee S’poreans and their overseas allies because of his well publicised antics in trying to help death row prisoners.
For the record in his autobiography, he boasts that he doesn’t take his prescribed medicines. He prefers to meditate. He gives us meditation practitioners a bad name. We are not that stupid to think meditation is a cure all for mental illness.
Time for the Law Society to start proceedings to get him disbarred.
Btw, can you hear the deafening silence from the ang moh tua kees. They were also silent about their other icon Amos Yee. Something minister Shan noted in a FB post.
Related posts:
M Ravi’s behaviour shows why in early 20th century, bi-polar sufferers were locked up
I’m sure if LKY were alive and in charge of handling the Covid-19 situation, I’m sure he’d say something along the lines of
When we talk – as many do these days – about ‘living with Covid’, it is important that we don’t think of it as simply giving in to the virus. Instead, it is about making sensible changes that allow us to return to greater normality and better health. from
Nicola Sturgeon First Minister of Scotland
Instead, we get the mealy mouthy comments of the MMTF and PM. SAD.
And he’d throw Goh Meng Seng into jail or as Meng Seng is hiding in HK, (Goh Meng Seng can’t hide from Covid-19), he’d cancel him.
According to an Edelman survey, 75% of the institutions surveyed believe that cos are BSing: they won’t be able to meet their net zero targets.
According to the i weekend, three scenarios have been drawn up by the UK government for when the coronavirus pandemic might end globally.
The most optimistic prediction is that the virus becomes a routine disease late next year or in 2023.
The second scenario – seen as the most likely – is that vaccines, testing and antiviral drugs would help the world get back to normal in 2023 or 2024.
The most pessimistic forecast – regarded as highly unlikely – is for mass infections until 2026.
As PM said, the Delta variant (known as the Indian variant because it originated in India until the WHO changed the name) was a game changer in the fight against Covid-19. It is more infectious than the Kung Flu or the renamed Alpha, Beta or Gamma variants.
[T]he emergence of the Delta variant has put us in a changed situation.
The Delta variant is highly infectious, and has spread all over the world. Even with the whole population vaccinated, we still will not be able to stamp it out through lockdowns and SMMs. Almost every country has accepted this reality.
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/pm-lee-full-speech-covid-19-path-new-normal-2232531/ The variant of Covid-19 from India threatens more than lives
So it’s poetic justice that
They say around 60% of people from South Asian backgrounds and 15% of people of European ancestry carry the high-risk version of the gene[that doubles the risk of lung failure and death from Covid-19].
…
They estimate the risky version of the gene is present in about 2% of people from African-Caribbean backgrounds and 1.8% of people of East Asian descent.
https://www.bbc.com/news/health-59165157
I’m really surprised that “Liar, Liar Pants on Fire Khan”* has not KPKBed that the PAP govt chooses to live with Covid-19 because the Chinese are a lot less likely to die from it than she and her fellow mamas.
Remember her rant against the judiciary claiming a Chinese RI boy and other Chinese got off relatively lightly vis-a-vis a Malay Muslim? She forgot to add that it was another Malay Muslim reported his fellow Muslim. In the other case, the church members didn’t think their pastor and his gang did anything wrong. It was the authorities that initiated action.
Surprised that the two Ravis (Political and Mad) are not KPKBing also about the danger to Indians of living with Covid-19, rather than suppressing it.
*MMTF: “Buy Raeesah a beer, give her a Tiger” and Sums up what WP must be thinking
Further to Sums up what WP must be thinking,
Or maybe she’d prefer 30 pieces of silver? She’s damaged the Wankers’ brand, refuses to resign and Bayee has still not sacked her.
Related posts:
MTF: It’s Time for a Tiger” and “Give MTF beers, give them Tigers”
Hurry up Wankers: fire her. What are you waiting for? Christmas?
Related article: https://askivan.medium.com/what-data-analysis-shows-about-raeesah-khans-apology-for-lying-about-rape-story-16a66760a47c
In S’pore
The number of new Teslas on Singapore roads has risen more than ten-fold to 487 in the third quarter, from just 30 in the first half, data from Singapore’s Land Transport Authority (LTA) showed.
https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/tesla-ev-sales-boom-singapore-pushing-rivals-models-off-streets-2021-10-28/
And globally
This week, Tesla surpassed $1 trillion in market value, overshadowing the combined value of five of its biggest rivals, Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T), Volkswagen AG (VOWG_p.DE), Daimler AG (DAIGn.DE), Ford Motor Co (F.N) and General Motors (GM.N).
Reuters
It actually is more valuable than the other top nine carmakers, ending with Ford.
People who
wilfully decide not to vaccinate will have at some point bear the consequences of their decisions
Ho Ching
When I read the above, my tots turned to one Goh Meng Seng, the anti-vaxer wuo conflates opposing the PAP govt with opposing its attempts to keep us safe from Coivid-19 (Forward this to Goh Meng Seng and other S’poreans who wish us ill). With him opposing the PAP, no surprise the majority of voters prefer the PAP.
He cut and ran to HK when the govt announced that S’pore was planning to live with Covid-19. And he very shy to tell people he quit S’pore despite being active on FB propagating his message against vaccines. Subtly of course to avoid getting thrown off FB.
Rumour has it that he left his daughter and wife (a senior HK trade official) here telling them to vaccinate if they must.
The truth is sadder. Refusing to vax (and ordering his wife and daughter not to vax) but afraid of catching Covid-19, he and his family fled to HK. OK “return”.
They had to give up an expat life style here (Wife’s job as a senior trade official based here meant that they lived in a condominium and the daughter attended an int’l school. HK paid these expenses. Meng Seng was free loading off his wife.)
Back in HK, they live in a tiny flat (a three-room HDB flat is more specious) and the daughter’s private school fees have to paid by her parents.
Worse in early October, there was a case of the Indian variant in HK: the first since August.
People who
wilfully decide not to vaccinate will have at some point bear the consequences of their decisions
Ho Ching
Nuclear power is good for a world that wants to decarbonise fast to avoid frying to death.
But environmentalists hate it and want nuclear plants to be closed, and no new ones to be built. Opponents say that nuclear power poses numerous threats to people and the environment and point to studies in the literature that question if it will ever be a sustainable energy source. These threats include health risks, accidents and environmental damage from uranium mining, processing and transport.
They really hate nuclear power “Because It Means We Don’t Need Renewables”.
Investors also hate nuclear power
America is moving away from nuclear power. Though it is good for the planet, investors prefer cheap and abundant natural gas. In America only one reactor has come online in 25 years; 21 are being decommissioned. Nuclear power’s share of electricity generation is projected to fall from 20% today to 12% by 2050. America, it seems, will have to look elsewhere to achieve its net-zero goals.
Economist Expresso
“Trimmed-mean PCE” simply means the that the Fed excludes Personal Consumption Expenditures’ items with the biggest price movements or swings. It argues that just a handful of unusual goods were responsible for the increase: hence taking them out shows more clearly the underlying trend.
To others, this is cheating. Manipulating the data to show the result the Fed wants: inflation is not a problem.
They point to this:
At least the PAP govt only sues and make bankrupt dissidents.
This appeared in an FT article on S’pore’s property market.
So don’t anyhow believe what ang mohs say about S’pore. Don’t be like Kirsten Han and PJ Thum (Remember him?). Don’t be an ang moh tua kee.
Funny that while there are many anti-PAP S’pore’s like them, there are no Indian Indian tua kees among anti-PAP S’poreans to counter the Indian Indian tua kees in the PAP cabinet.
Racism?
No not our PAP govt. But the govt of the state that many Muslims want to destroy.
Just in
Health-care officials in Israel said that the country, an early leader in the global covid-19 vaccination race, was making plans in case it had to give people a fourth jab. The country, which is closely watched elsewhere for clues about the path of the pandemic, began giving out booster shots last month after a surge in new cases.
Economist Expresso
With this kind of planning, no wonder the Israelis beat the crap out of those Muslims (think the Iranians and their terrorist allies) who want to kill them and and destroy Israel.
(Note this piece was extensively edited after first publication.)
In other words, forward it to TRE, where the anti-vaxxers lurk. (To make it very clear, I don’t think TRE wishes other S’poreans ill or is anti-vaccine. But the anti-vaxxers congregate there.)
Over the past 28 days, the percentage of unvaccinated people in Singapore who became severely ill or died stood at 9.3 per cent, while the figure for the fully vaccinated is only 1.3 per cent.
FT reporting MoH data
Goh Meng Seng and his pals want the hospitals to be filled with unvaccinated, stressing our healyh system : Misinformation blamed for Covid admissions rise https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-58394702https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-58394702
They can then blame the PAP govt for not providing adequate healthcare.
To be fair to Goh Meng Seng, he Walks the Talk. He, his wife and daughter are not vaccinated. Seems he has said (I can’t confirm), he said he’d rather they catch Covid-19 because traditional Chinese medicine can cure them.
Despite getting lots of US aid, Pakistan was cock-a hoop over the Taliban victory.
Wonder if they’ll go crawling to the US of A when the refugees come across the border?
They have, sort of, now that the refugees are pouring in: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-58380551.
Now Pakistan is saying it would be dangerous for America and its allies to turn their backs on the new Taliban government. It wants the West to give aid so that more refugees don’t flood into Pakistan.
As Afghan districts fell this summer, one senior Western official said there was now a feeling of Schadenfreude in Washington over what Pakistan may be about to reap from the Taliban takeover. “This is what you wanted, boys. We’re off. Good luck with it all,” the official said.
https://www.economist.com/asia/2021/08/30/the-wests-withdrawal-from-afghanistan-is-complete
Maybe Grandpa Xi will help them?
Don’t count it out/
British eccentricity and love of animals at work. Only the British do things like this.
An animal charity’s founder has made it through Kabul airport’s security, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said.
Paul “Pen” Farthing was trying to get his staff and rescue animals out of Afghanistan when they became caught up in Thursday’s airport bomb blasts.
On Friday evening the MoD said Mr Farthing and his animals were assisted by the UK Armed Forces.
It added: “They are currently being supported while he awaits transportation.”
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-essex-58360419
There are reports (not from the BBC) that his Afghan staff have been left behind. And the defence secretary, Ben Wallace, did admit that about 1,000 eligible Afghans would be left behind.
Btw, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was founded in 1824 more than half century before the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children was founded in 1884. Note the absence of “Royal” in the latter. The Brits prefer puppies to children. And children to birds: The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds was founded in 1889. Animals and birds have royal patronage, not children. Because the upper class sent their boys to boarding school when the are eight?
In response to AZ vaccine is better than Pfizer against the Indian variant, a fat cat investor who was once a medical doctor explained (emphasis mine)
That’s coz AZ (and J&J) promotes more T-cells (the “memory” cells of our immune system) to find the virus on longer-term basis.
mRNA vaccines promotes more immediate production of antibodies, which are excellent fighters against the virus, but decrease over time.
That’s why combination of mRNA & traditional vaccines have shown strong empirical efficacy. Combination of 2 aspects of our immune system.
So if we get an AZ vaccine as our booster shot, you heard it here first.
Well the Indians are manufacturing the AZ vaccine and so have a vested interest in making sure the world buys it. LOL. We didn’t. Hence the need for a third dose something Israel and the US are doing. Doubtless the usual suspects will be KPKBing about the failure of our PAP govt.
US defeat? What US defeat?
US of A has won a famous victory.
Iran has surrendered to public anger and will import US-produced BioNTech/Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.
Iranians have expressed outrage via social media that tens of thousands could have been saved if imports of vaccines had not been delayed.
The people of I-ran have spoken: “American is best. Buy American.”
Thoughts of a Cynical Investor 