May the new year be the BEST YEAR Yet and this year is the best year.
Oh, YES!
Friday, December 31, 2010
an old man
we have been staying in the same area for 27 years and met many familiar faces.
this morning was no particular.
he always worn t-shirt and shorts and took a seat at the void deck when i was surfing interent.
the last time when i met him, he was in good shape, it meant that he did not have any scars and his face was healthy looking.
however when we saw him this morning, there are two or three red scars on his left lower neck area.
he has became old then, and from the way he changed, it is not a good thing.
things always change, and i have accept the fact that he has grown old.
well, that is life.
Monday, December 27, 2010
Thursday, December 23, 2010
on the road, again.
after hearing what our fellow colleagues' situations, we understood that things changed eternally.
so, we will be on the road, yet again.
really will be missing our dearest colleagues.
Friday, December 17, 2010
stagnant wages over the past decade, high cost of living and youth violence
The high cost of living coupled with inadequate wages in Singapore have serious – sometimes deadly – consequences for the people. The recent spate of violence involving teenagers are a manifestation of the economic problems that is impacting society.
One of the biggest factors contributing to such an escalation of youth violence and waywardness is the lack of firm parental guidance.
The obvious question is: Where are the parents?
Most of them are working, of course. Wages in Singapore are so low that without both parents earning incomes, it is impossible for households to meet the family’s expenses.
YPAP's member took 200 upskirt videos and burned CD
Danny Soo Ee Hock took 200 upskirt videos with a camera pen and was charged with 9 months jail, according to the papers.
what was left out was his background linked with YPAPand he was recipient of Public Service Medal, a PBM, just this year at the 2010 National Day.
and also
Danny Soo Ee Hock was the Chairman of YPAP Punggol South and Punggol Park Community Club.
The Singapore media deliberately omitted the fact that he is a YPAP leader roped in by Teo Ser Luck in all its articles on his conviction.
Teo Ser Luck has so far kept mum on Danny Soo’s conviction and pretended as if nothing has happened.
WHEN Mr Teo Ser Luck became an MP in 2007,
he wanted Mr Danny Soo to head one of the grassroots organisations in his ward.
The MP for Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC, now 39, felt the sales manager, a grassroots volunteer for 12 years, had the heart to serve others and had the support of grassroots leaders, including the seniors. and today, the Punggol Park Community Club Management Committee (CCMC) is led by one of Singapore’s youngest grassroots leaders.
He convinced Mr Soo
Said Mr Teo, on his choice of Mr Soo: ‘He cares for others. He had been volunteering for many years and earned the respect of others to be…
a potential leader.
Monday, December 13, 2010
many Singaporeans may not be better off over the last decade
please refer to the Ministry of Manpower’s (MOM) Singapore Workforce 2010 Report ,released on 30 November.
The real nominal median income for all employed residents rose by only 1.1% to $2,500 in 2010.
After two consecutive years of negative real income growth in 2009 (- 1.8%) and 2008, six years (2001 to 2006) whereby median income hardly moved, and just one year of significant rise in 2007, the bottom line is that real wage growth for the last 10 years or so,
With inflation running at 3.5% now, and the Minister of State for Trade and Industry’s (MTI) recent announcement in Parliament that inflation is expected to hit 4% by the end of this year,
The real median monthly income from work of residents in full-time employment only increased by 1.8% to $2,710 in 2010.
Part-timers’ real median monthly income increased significantly by 11% to $700 in 2010.
Since the definition of a part-timer was changed from 2009, from working 30 to 35 hours a week, this increase in income may be due to some extent to more people not being able to get work of more than 35 hours a week.
If someone works seven hours a day, for five days a week, would you consider this worker as a part-timer?
Also, how does one survive on just $700 gross income (which includes the employee’s CPF contribution) a month in Singapore?
In this connection, from 1999 to 2010, the median gross monthly income of part-timers increased by only 1.4% per annum, from $600 in 1999 to $700 in 2010 (not adjusted for inflation yet).
If we adjust for inflation, the
There were 400,100 residents who earned up to $1,200 and below per month from work, forming 21% of the workforce. This was slightly lower than 401,600 or 22% a year ago.
Why does the MOM keep using the same $1,200 benchmark, year after year, for the last 10 years, without adjusting for inflation.
After adjusting the $1,200 for inflation, I estimate the percentage of residents earning less than $1,200 to be over 25%.
In 2001, 25.1% earned less than $1,200. So, I believe more people today earn less than $1,200 (inflation-adjusted), compared to 9 years ago.
If we include the non-seasonally 4.1% or 84,400 unemployed as of June, and the 10,900 discouraged unemployed, I estimate that
Discouraged workers are persons outside of the labour force who were not looking for a job because they believed their job search would be in vain.
176,700 or 9.0% of employed residents in 2010 were part-timers, up from 156,200 or 8.4% in 2009. Around half or 49% of the part-timers in 2010 were willing and available to work additional hours (i.e. underemployed), down from 52% a year ago.
However, the number of underemployed residents rose from 80,500 or 4.3% of all employed residents to 86,600 or 4.4% over the year.
Once out of work, mature residents were more likely to stay unemployed for extended periods. Close to three in ten (28%) resident job seekers aged 40 & over had been looking for work for at least 25 weeks in June 2010, higher than two in ten (20%) for all job seekers.
Of all the categories of workers, Service & Sales workers had the highest unemployment rate of 5.5%. Even Cleaners, Labourers & Related workers had the third highest unemployment rate of 5.3%.
Aren’t these the jobs that we have been constantly told that Singaporeans don’t want? If so, then why is the unemployment rate so high for these workers?
Does this mean that even Cleaners and Labourers who lost their jobs, had difficulty getting re-employed in the same jobs?
To what extent has our liberal foreign worker policy contributed to this?
In my view, the above statistics clearly indicate that
Median” I have explained above. It is the figure that is the halfway mark: half the population would be below the figure and half above it.
“Mean” is what the layman calls the “average”. In the case of incomes, it is naturally weighted by the number of persons within the same income band.
Because the distribution of incomes in virtually all societies is skewed, with lots of low-income earners and few higher-income people, there’s always a gap between median and mean. Generally speaking, the more skewed the income distribution, the larger the gap.
Now, look back at Singapore’s figures for 2009 and 2010. Last year, the mean income (S$3,609) was 49.1 percent higher than median income (S$2,420). This year — 2010 — the mean income (S$3,819) is 52.8 percent higher than median income ($2,500). The gap is increasing. Again.
The real nominal median income for all employed residents rose by only 1.1% to $2,500 in 2010.
After two consecutive years of negative real income growth in 2009 (- 1.8%) and 2008, six years (2001 to 2006) whereby median income hardly moved, and just one year of significant rise in 2007, the bottom line is that real wage growth for the last 10 years or so,
is only about slightly over one per cent per annum.
With inflation running at 3.5% now, and the Minister of State for Trade and Industry’s (MTI) recent announcement in Parliament that inflation is expected to hit 4% by the end of this year,
it is likely that workers may see a third consecutive year of negative real wage growth.
The real median monthly income from work of residents in full-time employment only increased by 1.8% to $2,710 in 2010.
Part-timers’ real median monthly income increased significantly by 11% to $700 in 2010.
Since the definition of a part-timer was changed from 2009, from working 30 to 35 hours a week, this increase in income may be due to some extent to more people not being able to get work of more than 35 hours a week.
If someone works seven hours a day, for five days a week, would you consider this worker as a part-timer?
Also, how does one survive on just $700 gross income (which includes the employee’s CPF contribution) a month in Singapore?
In this connection, from 1999 to 2010, the median gross monthly income of part-timers increased by only 1.4% per annum, from $600 in 1999 to $700 in 2010 (not adjusted for inflation yet).
If we adjust for inflation, the
increase per annum is near to zero.
There were 400,100 residents who earned up to $1,200 and below per month from work, forming 21% of the workforce. This was slightly lower than 401,600 or 22% a year ago.
Why does the MOM keep using the same $1,200 benchmark, year after year, for the last 10 years, without adjusting for inflation.
After adjusting the $1,200 for inflation, I estimate the percentage of residents earning less than $1,200 to be over 25%.
In 2001, 25.1% earned less than $1,200. So, I believe more people today earn less than $1,200 (inflation-adjusted), compared to 9 years ago.
If we include the non-seasonally 4.1% or 84,400 unemployed as of June, and the 10,900 discouraged unemployed, I estimate that
over 30% of residents earn less than $1,200 (inflation-adjusted)or are unemployed.
Discouraged workers are persons outside of the labour force who were not looking for a job because they believed their job search would be in vain.
176,700 or 9.0% of employed residents in 2010 were part-timers, up from 156,200 or 8.4% in 2009. Around half or 49% of the part-timers in 2010 were willing and available to work additional hours (i.e. underemployed), down from 52% a year ago.
However, the number of underemployed residents rose from 80,500 or 4.3% of all employed residents to 86,600 or 4.4% over the year.
Once out of work, mature residents were more likely to stay unemployed for extended periods. Close to three in ten (28%) resident job seekers aged 40 & over had been looking for work for at least 25 weeks in June 2010, higher than two in ten (20%) for all job seekers.
Of all the categories of workers, Service & Sales workers had the highest unemployment rate of 5.5%. Even Cleaners, Labourers & Related workers had the third highest unemployment rate of 5.3%.
Aren’t these the jobs that we have been constantly told that Singaporeans don’t want? If so, then why is the unemployment rate so high for these workers?
Does this mean that even Cleaners and Labourers who lost their jobs, had difficulty getting re-employed in the same jobs?
To what extent has our liberal foreign worker policy contributed to this?
In my view, the above statistics clearly indicate that
many Singaporeans may not be better off over the last decade or so.
Median” I have explained above. It is the figure that is the halfway mark: half the population would be below the figure and half above it.
“Mean” is what the layman calls the “average”. In the case of incomes, it is naturally weighted by the number of persons within the same income band.
Because the distribution of incomes in virtually all societies is skewed, with lots of low-income earners and few higher-income people, there’s always a gap between median and mean. Generally speaking, the more skewed the income distribution, the larger the gap.
Now, look back at Singapore’s figures for 2009 and 2010. Last year, the mean income (S$3,609) was 49.1 percent higher than median income (S$2,420). This year — 2010 — the mean income (S$3,819) is 52.8 percent higher than median income ($2,500). The gap is increasing. Again.
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Top Singapore officials trash the neighbours
WikiLeaks releases files containing highly controversial comments made by S’pore diplomats (AFP file photo)
A fresh batch of diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks containing comments allegedly made by high-ranking Singapore diplomats threatens to heighten tension in the region.
Among the explosive comments reportedly made by them:
– Malaysia is a “confused and dangerous state” due to “incompetent politicians”
– M’sian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim did “indeed commit the (sodomy) acts he was indicted for”
– Thailand’s political elite is dogged by corruption and its crown prince is “erratic” and “easily subject to influence”
– Japan and India were struggling to deal with China’s influence due to their “stupid” behaviour
Singapore’s past and current Foreign Affairs senior diplomats Peter Ho, Bilahari Kausikan and Professor Tommy Koh were named in the confidential diplomatic cables, which were leaked to Australia’s The Sun-Herald and The Sunday Age by WikiLeaks.
Sun-Herald andThe Sunday Age:
MALAYSIA'S "dangerous" decline is fuelled by incompetent politicians, Thailand is dogged by corruption and a "very erratic" crown prince, Japan is a "big fat loser" and India is ''stupid''.
So say some of Singapore's highest ranking officials, according to leaked US State Department cables which are likely to spark intense political controversy in the region.
The cables, leaked exclusively to The Sun-Herald by WikiLeaks, detail separate meetings between senior US officials and Singapore's Foreign Affairs chiefs Peter Ho, Bilahari Kausikan and Tommy Koh.
The trio, who at the time of the 2008 and 2009 cables occupied some of the most senior positions in the foreign ministry, all give US officials damning assessments of Malaysia. According to one cable detailing a meeting in September 2008, Mr Kausikan told US Deputy Secretary of Defence for East Asia David Sedney there was a "distinct possibility of racial conflict" which could see ethnic Chinese "flee" Malaysia and "overwhelm" Singapore.
Mr Ho's assessment of Malaysia in March that year, given to another US official, is also unflattering and includes claims that former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad had been "throwing stones" at his replacement, Abdullah Badawi.
In his September meeting with Mr Sedney, Mr Kausikan savaged Thailand's political elite, labelling Thaksin Shinawatra as "corrupt" along with "everyone else, including the opposition". Mr Kausikan was also critical of Mr Thaksin's relationship with the Thai crown prince, saying he "made a mistake in pursuing a relationship with the crown prince by paying off the crown prince's gambling debts".
In a September 2009 meeting, Mr Koh savaged Japan and India, describing Japan as ''the big fat loser'' in the context of improving ties between China and ASEAN, a cable says, adding: "He was equally merciless towards India, describing his 'stupid Indian friends' as 'half in, half out' of ASEAN."
The cables documented remarks made by the three officials, who all gave damning assessments of Malaysia and the region during separate meetings in 2008 and 2009 with US officials.
Mr Ho and Mr Kausikan were both permanent secretaries at the MFA at the time, and the latter still holds that position. Mr Koh is the ministry’s ambassador-at-large.
One cable that deals with Malaysian opposition leader Mr Anwar’s sodomy case, dated November 2008, reveals that Singaporean intelligence officials told their Australian counterparts that Mr Anwar engaged in the conduct of which he is accused, a claim he has steadfastly denied.
It read: ”The Australians said that Singapore’s intelligence services and Lee Kuan Yew have told ONA (Australia’s Office of National Assessments) in their exchanges that opposition leader Anwar ’did indeed commit the acts for which he is currently indicted’.”
The document said the Singaporeans made this assessment on the basis of “technical intelligence”, a term likely to describe intercepted communications.
The ONA is also recorded as saying that Mr Anwar’s political enemies “engineered the circumstances from which the sodomy charges arose”.
“ONA assessed, and their Singapore counterparts concurred, ‘it was a set up job and he probably knew that, but walked into it anyway’,” the cable states.
Malaysian PM Najib Razak is labelled an "opportunist". (AP Photo)
Another cable at a meeting in September 2008 detailed Mr Kausikan telling US Deputy Secretary of Defence for East Asia, David Sedney, that there was a “distinct possibility of racial conflict” which could cause ethnic Chinese from Malaysia to “flee” and “overwhelm” Singapore.
“A lack of competent leadership is a real problem for Malaysia,” said Kausikan.
He added that ruling Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak needed to prevail politically in order to avoid prosecution in connection with the murder of Mongolian model Altantuya Shaariibuu.
“Najib has his neck on the line in connection with a high-profile murder case,” he said.
In a cable earlier the same year, Mr Ho reportedly described the Malaysian PM as ”an opportunist” who would ”not hesitate” to be critical of Singapore if it is “expedient for him to do so.”
Thailand's political elite is dogged by "corruption at all levels". (AP file photo)
Damning assessments of other nations’ politicians were also made.
In the same September 2008 meeting with Mr Sedney, Mr Kausikan condemned Thailand’s political elite, indicating that Thaksin Shinawatra is “corrupt” along with “everyone else, including the opposition”.
Mr Kausikan also criticised Mr Thaksin’s close relationship with the Thai crown prince, saying that he “made a mistake in pursuing a relationship with the crown prince by paying off the crown prince’s gambling debts”.
In a September 2009 memo, Mr Koh made damning comments about Japan and India, labelling Japan as “the big fat loser” with regards to improving ties between China and ASEAN, with another cable saying, “He was equally merciless towards India, describing his ‘stupid Indian friends’ as ‘half in, half out’ of ASEAN.”
Mr Koh is also recorded praising China’s ”investment and intelligent diplomacy in the region”.
He is reported to have said, “I don’t fear China. I don’t fear being assimilated by China” while he also hailed its decision to invest in Africa ”without lecturing them about human rights and democracy as the West does”.
A fresh batch of diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks containing comments allegedly made by high-ranking Singapore diplomats threatens to heighten tension in the region.
Among the explosive comments reportedly made by them:
– Malaysia is a “confused and dangerous state” due to “incompetent politicians”
– M’sian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim did “indeed commit the (sodomy) acts he was indicted for”
– Thailand’s political elite is dogged by corruption and its crown prince is “erratic” and “easily subject to influence”
– Japan and India were struggling to deal with China’s influence due to their “stupid” behaviour
Singapore’s past and current Foreign Affairs senior diplomats Peter Ho, Bilahari Kausikan and Professor Tommy Koh were named in the confidential diplomatic cables, which were leaked to Australia’s The Sun-Herald and The Sunday Age by WikiLeaks.
Sun-Herald andThe Sunday Age:
MALAYSIA'S "dangerous" decline is fuelled by incompetent politicians, Thailand is dogged by corruption and a "very erratic" crown prince, Japan is a "big fat loser" and India is ''stupid''.
So say some of Singapore's highest ranking officials, according to leaked US State Department cables which are likely to spark intense political controversy in the region.
The cables, leaked exclusively to The Sun-Herald by WikiLeaks, detail separate meetings between senior US officials and Singapore's Foreign Affairs chiefs Peter Ho, Bilahari Kausikan and Tommy Koh.
The trio, who at the time of the 2008 and 2009 cables occupied some of the most senior positions in the foreign ministry, all give US officials damning assessments of Malaysia. According to one cable detailing a meeting in September 2008, Mr Kausikan told US Deputy Secretary of Defence for East Asia David Sedney there was a "distinct possibility of racial conflict" which could see ethnic Chinese "flee" Malaysia and "overwhelm" Singapore.
Mr Ho's assessment of Malaysia in March that year, given to another US official, is also unflattering and includes claims that former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad had been "throwing stones" at his replacement, Abdullah Badawi.
In his September meeting with Mr Sedney, Mr Kausikan savaged Thailand's political elite, labelling Thaksin Shinawatra as "corrupt" along with "everyone else, including the opposition". Mr Kausikan was also critical of Mr Thaksin's relationship with the Thai crown prince, saying he "made a mistake in pursuing a relationship with the crown prince by paying off the crown prince's gambling debts".
In a September 2009 meeting, Mr Koh savaged Japan and India, describing Japan as ''the big fat loser'' in the context of improving ties between China and ASEAN, a cable says, adding: "He was equally merciless towards India, describing his 'stupid Indian friends' as 'half in, half out' of ASEAN."
The cables documented remarks made by the three officials, who all gave damning assessments of Malaysia and the region during separate meetings in 2008 and 2009 with US officials.
Mr Ho and Mr Kausikan were both permanent secretaries at the MFA at the time, and the latter still holds that position. Mr Koh is the ministry’s ambassador-at-large.
One cable that deals with Malaysian opposition leader Mr Anwar’s sodomy case, dated November 2008, reveals that Singaporean intelligence officials told their Australian counterparts that Mr Anwar engaged in the conduct of which he is accused, a claim he has steadfastly denied.
It read: ”The Australians said that Singapore’s intelligence services and Lee Kuan Yew have told ONA (Australia’s Office of National Assessments) in their exchanges that opposition leader Anwar ’did indeed commit the acts for which he is currently indicted’.”
The document said the Singaporeans made this assessment on the basis of “technical intelligence”, a term likely to describe intercepted communications.
The ONA is also recorded as saying that Mr Anwar’s political enemies “engineered the circumstances from which the sodomy charges arose”.
“ONA assessed, and their Singapore counterparts concurred, ‘it was a set up job and he probably knew that, but walked into it anyway’,” the cable states.
Malaysian PM Najib Razak is labelled an "opportunist". (AP Photo)
Another cable at a meeting in September 2008 detailed Mr Kausikan telling US Deputy Secretary of Defence for East Asia, David Sedney, that there was a “distinct possibility of racial conflict” which could cause ethnic Chinese from Malaysia to “flee” and “overwhelm” Singapore.
“A lack of competent leadership is a real problem for Malaysia,” said Kausikan.
He added that ruling Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak needed to prevail politically in order to avoid prosecution in connection with the murder of Mongolian model Altantuya Shaariibuu.
“Najib has his neck on the line in connection with a high-profile murder case,” he said.
In a cable earlier the same year, Mr Ho reportedly described the Malaysian PM as ”an opportunist” who would ”not hesitate” to be critical of Singapore if it is “expedient for him to do so.”
Thailand's political elite is dogged by "corruption at all levels". (AP file photo)
Damning assessments of other nations’ politicians were also made.
In the same September 2008 meeting with Mr Sedney, Mr Kausikan condemned Thailand’s political elite, indicating that Thaksin Shinawatra is “corrupt” along with “everyone else, including the opposition”.
Mr Kausikan also criticised Mr Thaksin’s close relationship with the Thai crown prince, saying that he “made a mistake in pursuing a relationship with the crown prince by paying off the crown prince’s gambling debts”.
In a September 2009 memo, Mr Koh made damning comments about Japan and India, labelling Japan as “the big fat loser” with regards to improving ties between China and ASEAN, with another cable saying, “He was equally merciless towards India, describing his ‘stupid Indian friends’ as ‘half in, half out’ of ASEAN.”
Mr Koh is also recorded praising China’s ”investment and intelligent diplomacy in the region”.
He is reported to have said, “I don’t fear China. I don’t fear being assimilated by China” while he also hailed its decision to invest in Africa ”without lecturing them about human rights and democracy as the West does”.
Friday, December 10, 2010
our labour ministar insist that we will be "uncompetitive" if we pay any more than what we are doing now.
I am the only local born Singaporean in my engineering department.
The rest are Bangalas, PRC Chinese, Burmese and Malaysian.
I came from a family of 10 siblings living in a 1 room flat at the demolished Blk 81 Redhill Lane with my dad taking home abt 200$ a month. We were poor.
Yes, I do care about the poor.
Local borns as well as poor Bangalas who paid $8k to come here. PRC Chinese who paid rmb 50k to come here.
I always ask myself how the European, American and Aussie construction workers can build all those buildings and are properly paid while our labour ministar insist that we will be "uncompetitive" if we pay any more than what we are doing now.
I personally think this is a big lie.
The fact is that we are shifting these wages from the workers to the bosses and landlords. Let's not begrudge the capital land bosses for drawing million dollars salaries and bonuses.
But let's give to the construction workers their rightful salaries. For this land belongs to local born Singaporeans, not just politicians and their appointed elites. Singapore for local born Singaporeans.
Foreign workers should be welcome to work and make a decent living here. But they should not be given new citizenships so easily. Just like I cannot get a Bangala citizenship easily in order to buy up the cheap land available there. DT
The rest are Bangalas, PRC Chinese, Burmese and Malaysian.
I came from a family of 10 siblings living in a 1 room flat at the demolished Blk 81 Redhill Lane with my dad taking home abt 200$ a month. We were poor.
Yes, I do care about the poor.
Local borns as well as poor Bangalas who paid $8k to come here. PRC Chinese who paid rmb 50k to come here.
I always ask myself how the European, American and Aussie construction workers can build all those buildings and are properly paid while our labour ministar insist that we will be "uncompetitive" if we pay any more than what we are doing now.
I personally think this is a big lie.
The fact is that we are shifting these wages from the workers to the bosses and landlords. Let's not begrudge the capital land bosses for drawing million dollars salaries and bonuses.
But let's give to the construction workers their rightful salaries. For this land belongs to local born Singaporeans, not just politicians and their appointed elites. Singapore for local born Singaporeans.
Foreign workers should be welcome to work and make a decent living here. But they should not be given new citizenships so easily. Just like I cannot get a Bangala citizenship easily in order to buy up the cheap land available there. DT
Saturday, December 04, 2010
Wednesday, December 01, 2010
wages increased by 4% 2010
it is noted the wages for singapore has risen by 4%.
the inflation rate for 2010 is 3%.
so, we have the real wage increased by just merely 1% for our strong growth of 15% GDP.
strong GDP growth did not necessary translate higher wages.
and our wages just barely cover all the cost with just 1%.
where did all the money goes to?
the inflation rate for 2010 is 3%.
so, we have the real wage increased by just merely 1% for our strong growth of 15% GDP.
strong GDP growth did not necessary translate higher wages.
and our wages just barely cover all the cost with just 1%.
where did all the money goes to?
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
falling in love
falling in love, yet again.
did not think of anything about it, and just follow the flow.
and found ourselves falling in love again.
yes, remembered the same old feelings again, the same aching pain.
so familiar, and yet so real.
alas.
recalled i have fallen out of love at the beginning of this new year.
it was the most painful moments in my life, and now i could laugh at those hurtful days which has come to past.
but when i was in those dreadful times, it was unbearable, and for the first time, i did not know what to do.
again, she offered me hope, warm and important of all: love.
i really cherish this beautiful moments which may not last forever.
alas.
i always informed her of my reasons of not being with her so as to reassure her.
not to keep her hanging in the air, wondering what has happened.
Saturday, November 27, 2010
Thursday, November 25, 2010
fresh start
after seeing the worst of the management in the company which i was working, i have decided to call it a day and begin my hunt for new position.
enough is enough.
of course, i do have the longing to the place i so used to, but have to remind myself that i could not tolerate anymore.
i have already decided and shall move on.
Good luck and best wishes to me.
it has good for the past few years and we had thought nothing of having a fresh start elsewhere.
it suddenly strung on mind, and it just could not get away.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Mikhail Khodorkovsky: Full Transcript of his Final Words
I can recall October 2003.
My last day as a free man. Several weeks after my arrest, I was informed that president Putin had decided: I was going to have to “slurp gruel” for 8 years. It was hard to believe that back then.
Seven years have gone by already since that day. Seven years – quite a long stretch of time, and all the more so - when you’ve spent it in jail. All of us have had time to reassess and rethink many things.
Judging by the prosecutors’ presentation: “give them 14 years” and “spit on previous court decisions”, over these years they have begun to fear me more, and to respect the law - even less.
The first time around, they at least went through the effort of first repealing the judicial acts that stood in their way. Now - they’ll just leave them be; especially since they would need to repeal not two, but more than 60 decisions.
I do not want to return to the legal side of the case at this time. Everybody who wanted to understand something – has long since understood everything. Nobody is seriously waiting for an admission of guilt from me. It is hardly likely that somebody today would believe me if I were to say that I really did steal all the oil produced by my company.
But neither does anybody believe that an acquittal in the YUKOS case is possible in a Moscow court.
Notwithstanding, I want to talk to you about hope. Hope – the main thing in life.
I remember the end of the ’80s of the last century. I was 25 then. Our country was living on hope of freedom, hope that we would be able to achieve happiness for ourselves and for our children.
We lived on this hope. In some ways, it did materialise, in others – it did not. The responsibility for why this hope was not realized all the way, and not for everybody, probably lies on our entire generation, myself included.
I remember too the end of the last decade and the beginning of the present, current one. By then I was 35. We were building the best oil company in Russia. We were putting up sports complexes and cultural centres, laying roads, and resurveying and developing dozens of new fields; we started development of the East Siberian reserves and were introducing new technologies. In short, - we were doing all those things that Rosneft, which has taken possession of Yukos, is so proud of today.
Thanks to a significant increase in oil production, including as the result of our successes, the country was able to take advantage of a favourable oil situation. We felt hope that the period of convulsions and unrest – was behind us at last, and that, in the conditions of stability that had been achieved with great effort and sacrifice, we would be able to peacefully build ourselves a new life, a great country.
Alas, this hope too has yet to be justified. Stability has come to look like stagnation. Society has stopped in its tracks. Although hope still lives. It lives on even here, in the Khamovnichesky courtroom, when I am already just this side of 50 years old.
With the coming of a new President (and more than two years have already passed since that time), hope appeared once again for many of my fellow citizens too. Hope that Russia would yet become 2
a modern country with a developed civil society. Free from the arbitrary behaviour of officials, free from corruption, free from unfairness and lawlessness.
It is clear that this can not happen all by itself, or in one day. But to pretend that we are developing, while in actuality, - we are merely standing in one place or sliding backwards, even if it is behind the cloak of noble conservatism, - is no longer possible. Impossible and simply dangerous for the country.
It is not possible to reconcile oneself with the notion that people who call themselves patriots so tenaciously resist any change that impacts their feeding trough or ability to get away with anything. It is enough to recall art. 108 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation - arresting businessmen for filing of tax returns by bureaucrats. And yet it is precisely the sabotage of reforms that is depriving our country of prospects. This is not patriotism, but rather hypocrisy.
I am ashamed to see how certain persons - in the past, respected by me - are attempting to justify unchecked bureaucratic behaviour and lawlessness. They exchange their reputation for a life of ease, privileges and sops.
Luckily, not all are like that, and there are ever more of the other kind.
It makes me proud to know that even after 7 years of persecutions, not a single one of the thousands of YUKOS employees has agreed to become a false witness, to sell their soul and conscience.
Dozens of people have personally experienced threats, have been cut off from family, and have been thrown in jail. Some have been tortured. But, even after losing their health and years of their lives, people have still kept the thing they deemed to be most important, - human dignity.
Those who started this shameful case, - Biryukov, Karimov and others, - have contemptuously called us “entrepreneurs” [«kommersanty»], regarding us as low-lifes, capable of anything just to protect our prosperity and avoid prison.
The years have passed. So who are the low-lifes now? Who is it that have lied, tortured, and taken hostages, all for the sake of money and out of cowardice before their bosses?
And this they called “the sovereign’s business” [«gosudarevoye delo»]!
Shameful. I am ashamed for my country.
I think all of us understand perfectly well – the significance of our trial extends far beyond the scope of my fate and Platon’s, and even the fates of all those who have guiltlessly suffered in the course of the sweeping massacre of YUKOS, those I found myself unable to protect, but about whom I remember every day.
Let us ask ourselves: what must be going through the head of the entrepreneur, the high-level organiser of production, or simply any ordinary educated, creative person, looking today at our trial and knowing that its result is absolutely predictable?
The obvious conclusion a thinking person can make is chilling in its stark simplicity: the siloviki bureaucracy can do anything. There is no right of private property ownership. A person who collides with “the system” has no rights whatsoever.
Even though they are enshrined in the law, rights are not protected by the courts. Because the courts are either also afraid, or are themselves a part of “the system”. Should it come as a surprise to anyone then that thinking people do not aspire to self-realisation here, in Russia? 3
Who is going to modernise the economy? Prosecutors? Policemen? Chekists? We already tried such a modernization - it did not work. We were able to build a hydrogen bomb, and even a missile, but we still can not build – our own good, modern television, our own inexpensive, competitive, modern automobile, our own modern mobile phone and a whole pile of other modern goods as well.
But then we have learnt how to beautifully display others’ obsolete models produced in our country and an occasional creation of Russian inventors, which, if they ever do find a use, it will certainly be in some other country.
Whatever happened with last year’s presidential initiatives in the realm of industrial policy? Have they been buried? They offer the real chance to kick the oil addiction.
Why? Because what the country needs is not one Korolev, and not one Sakharov under the protective wing of the all-powerful Beria and his million-strong armed host, but hundreds of thousands of “korolevs” and “sakharovs”, under the protection of fair and comprehensible laws and independent courts, which will give these laws life, and not just a place on a dusty shelf, as they did in their day - with the Constitution of 1937.
Where are these “korolevs” and “sakharovs” today? Have they left the country? Are they preparing to leave? Have they once again gone off into internal emigration? Or taken cover amongst the grey bureaucrats in order not to fall under the steamroller of “the system”?
We can and must change this.
How is Moscow going to become the financial centre of Eurasia if our prosecutors, “just like” 20 and 50 years ago, are directly and unambiguously calling in a public trial for the desire to increase the production and market capitalisation of a private company - to be ruled a criminally mercenary objective, for which a person ought to be locked up for 14 years? Under one sentence a company that paid more tax than anyone else, except Gazprom, but still underpaid taxes; and with the second sentence it’s obvious that there’s nothing to tax since the taxable item was stolen.
A country that tolerates a situation where the siloviki bureaucracy holds tens and even hundreds of thousands of talented entrepreneurs, managers, and ordinary people in jail in its own interests, instead of and together with criminals, - this is a sick country.
A state that destroys its best companies, which are ready to become global champions; a country that holds its own citizens in contempt, trusting only the bureaucracy and the special services – is a sick state.
Hope – the main engine of big reforms and transformations, the guarantor of their success. If hope fades, if it comes to be supplanted by profound disillusionment, - who and what will be able to lead our Russia out of the new stagnation?
I will not be exaggerating if I say that millions of eyes throughout all of Russia and throughout the whole world are watching for the outcome of this trial.
They are watching with the hope that Russia will after all become a country of freedom and of the law, where the law will be above the bureaucratic official.
Where supporting opposition parties will cease being a cause for reprisals.
Where the special services will protect the people and the law, and not the bureaucracy from the people and the law.
Where human rights will no longer depend on the mood of the tsar. Good or evil. 4
W
I am not at all an ideal person, but I am - a person with an idea. For me, as for anybody, it is hard to live in jail, and I do not want to die there.
But if I have to - I will not hesitate. The things I believe in are worth dying for. I think I have proven this.
And you opponents? What do you believe in? That the bosses are always right? Do you believe in money? In the impunity of “the system”?
Your Honour!
There is much more than just the fates of two people in your hands. Right here and right now, the fate of every citizen of our country is being decided. Those who, on the streets of Moscow and Chita, Peter and Tomsk, and other cities and settlements, are not counting on becoming victims of police lawlessness, who have set up a business, built a house, achieved success and want to pass it on to their children, not to raiders in uniform, and finally, - those who want to honourably carry out their duty for a fair wage, not expecting that they can be fired at any moment by corrupt bosses under just about any pretext.
This is not about me and Platon – at any rate, not only about us. It is about hope for many citizens of Russia. About hope that tomorrow, the court will be able to protect their rights, if yet some other bureaucrats-officials get it into their head to brazenly and demonstratively violate these rights.
I know, there are people, I have named them in the trial, who want to keep us in jail. To keep us there forever! Indeed, they do not even conceal this, publicly reminding everyone about the existence of a “bottomless” case file.
They want to show: they – are above the law, they will always accomplish whatever they might “think up”. So far they have achieved the opposite: out of ordinary people they have created a symbol of the struggle with arbitrariness. But for them, a conviction is essential, so they would not become “scapegoats”.
I want to hope that the court will stand up to their psychological pressure. We all know through whom it will come.
I want an independent judiciary to become a reality and the norm in my country, I want the phrase from the Soviet times about “the most just court in the world” to stop sounding just as ironic today as they did back then. I want us not to leave the dangerous symbols of a totalitarian system as an inheritance for our children and grandchildren.
Everybody understands that your verdict in this case - whatever it will be – is going to become part of the history of Russia. Furthermore, it is going to form it for the future generation. All the names - those of the prosecutors, and of the judges - will remain in history, just like they have remained in history after the infamous Soviet trials.
Your Honour, I can imagine perfectly well that this must not be very easy at all for you - perhaps even frightening – and I wish you
My last day as a free man. Several weeks after my arrest, I was informed that president Putin had decided: I was going to have to “slurp gruel” for 8 years. It was hard to believe that back then.
Seven years have gone by already since that day. Seven years – quite a long stretch of time, and all the more so - when you’ve spent it in jail. All of us have had time to reassess and rethink many things.
Judging by the prosecutors’ presentation: “give them 14 years” and “spit on previous court decisions”, over these years they have begun to fear me more, and to respect the law - even less.
The first time around, they at least went through the effort of first repealing the judicial acts that stood in their way. Now - they’ll just leave them be; especially since they would need to repeal not two, but more than 60 decisions.
I do not want to return to the legal side of the case at this time. Everybody who wanted to understand something – has long since understood everything. Nobody is seriously waiting for an admission of guilt from me. It is hardly likely that somebody today would believe me if I were to say that I really did steal all the oil produced by my company.
But neither does anybody believe that an acquittal in the YUKOS case is possible in a Moscow court.
Notwithstanding, I want to talk to you about hope. Hope – the main thing in life.
I remember the end of the ’80s of the last century. I was 25 then. Our country was living on hope of freedom, hope that we would be able to achieve happiness for ourselves and for our children.
We lived on this hope. In some ways, it did materialise, in others – it did not. The responsibility for why this hope was not realized all the way, and not for everybody, probably lies on our entire generation, myself included.
I remember too the end of the last decade and the beginning of the present, current one. By then I was 35. We were building the best oil company in Russia. We were putting up sports complexes and cultural centres, laying roads, and resurveying and developing dozens of new fields; we started development of the East Siberian reserves and were introducing new technologies. In short, - we were doing all those things that Rosneft, which has taken possession of Yukos, is so proud of today.
Thanks to a significant increase in oil production, including as the result of our successes, the country was able to take advantage of a favourable oil situation. We felt hope that the period of convulsions and unrest – was behind us at last, and that, in the conditions of stability that had been achieved with great effort and sacrifice, we would be able to peacefully build ourselves a new life, a great country.
Alas, this hope too has yet to be justified. Stability has come to look like stagnation. Society has stopped in its tracks. Although hope still lives. It lives on even here, in the Khamovnichesky courtroom, when I am already just this side of 50 years old.
With the coming of a new President (and more than two years have already passed since that time), hope appeared once again for many of my fellow citizens too. Hope that Russia would yet become 2
a modern country with a developed civil society. Free from the arbitrary behaviour of officials, free from corruption, free from unfairness and lawlessness.
It is clear that this can not happen all by itself, or in one day. But to pretend that we are developing, while in actuality, - we are merely standing in one place or sliding backwards, even if it is behind the cloak of noble conservatism, - is no longer possible. Impossible and simply dangerous for the country.
It is not possible to reconcile oneself with the notion that people who call themselves patriots so tenaciously resist any change that impacts their feeding trough or ability to get away with anything. It is enough to recall art. 108 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation - arresting businessmen for filing of tax returns by bureaucrats. And yet it is precisely the sabotage of reforms that is depriving our country of prospects. This is not patriotism, but rather hypocrisy.
I am ashamed to see how certain persons - in the past, respected by me - are attempting to justify unchecked bureaucratic behaviour and lawlessness. They exchange their reputation for a life of ease, privileges and sops.
Luckily, not all are like that, and there are ever more of the other kind.
It makes me proud to know that even after 7 years of persecutions, not a single one of the thousands of YUKOS employees has agreed to become a false witness, to sell their soul and conscience.
Dozens of people have personally experienced threats, have been cut off from family, and have been thrown in jail. Some have been tortured. But, even after losing their health and years of their lives, people have still kept the thing they deemed to be most important, - human dignity.
Those who started this shameful case, - Biryukov, Karimov and others, - have contemptuously called us “entrepreneurs” [«kommersanty»], regarding us as low-lifes, capable of anything just to protect our prosperity and avoid prison.
The years have passed. So who are the low-lifes now? Who is it that have lied, tortured, and taken hostages, all for the sake of money and out of cowardice before their bosses?
And this they called “the sovereign’s business” [«gosudarevoye delo»]!
Shameful. I am ashamed for my country.
I think all of us understand perfectly well – the significance of our trial extends far beyond the scope of my fate and Platon’s, and even the fates of all those who have guiltlessly suffered in the course of the sweeping massacre of YUKOS, those I found myself unable to protect, but about whom I remember every day.
Let us ask ourselves: what must be going through the head of the entrepreneur, the high-level organiser of production, or simply any ordinary educated, creative person, looking today at our trial and knowing that its result is absolutely predictable?
The obvious conclusion a thinking person can make is chilling in its stark simplicity: the siloviki bureaucracy can do anything. There is no right of private property ownership. A person who collides with “the system” has no rights whatsoever.
Even though they are enshrined in the law, rights are not protected by the courts. Because the courts are either also afraid, or are themselves a part of “the system”. Should it come as a surprise to anyone then that thinking people do not aspire to self-realisation here, in Russia? 3
Who is going to modernise the economy? Prosecutors? Policemen? Chekists? We already tried such a modernization - it did not work. We were able to build a hydrogen bomb, and even a missile, but we still can not build – our own good, modern television, our own inexpensive, competitive, modern automobile, our own modern mobile phone and a whole pile of other modern goods as well.
But then we have learnt how to beautifully display others’ obsolete models produced in our country and an occasional creation of Russian inventors, which, if they ever do find a use, it will certainly be in some other country.
Whatever happened with last year’s presidential initiatives in the realm of industrial policy? Have they been buried? They offer the real chance to kick the oil addiction.
Why? Because what the country needs is not one Korolev, and not one Sakharov under the protective wing of the all-powerful Beria and his million-strong armed host, but hundreds of thousands of “korolevs” and “sakharovs”, under the protection of fair and comprehensible laws and independent courts, which will give these laws life, and not just a place on a dusty shelf, as they did in their day - with the Constitution of 1937.
Where are these “korolevs” and “sakharovs” today? Have they left the country? Are they preparing to leave? Have they once again gone off into internal emigration? Or taken cover amongst the grey bureaucrats in order not to fall under the steamroller of “the system”?
We can and must change this.
How is Moscow going to become the financial centre of Eurasia if our prosecutors, “just like” 20 and 50 years ago, are directly and unambiguously calling in a public trial for the desire to increase the production and market capitalisation of a private company - to be ruled a criminally mercenary objective, for which a person ought to be locked up for 14 years? Under one sentence a company that paid more tax than anyone else, except Gazprom, but still underpaid taxes; and with the second sentence it’s obvious that there’s nothing to tax since the taxable item was stolen.
A country that tolerates a situation where the siloviki bureaucracy holds tens and even hundreds of thousands of talented entrepreneurs, managers, and ordinary people in jail in its own interests, instead of and together with criminals, - this is a sick country.
A state that destroys its best companies, which are ready to become global champions; a country that holds its own citizens in contempt, trusting only the bureaucracy and the special services – is a sick state.
Hope – the main engine of big reforms and transformations, the guarantor of their success. If hope fades, if it comes to be supplanted by profound disillusionment, - who and what will be able to lead our Russia out of the new stagnation?
I will not be exaggerating if I say that millions of eyes throughout all of Russia and throughout the whole world are watching for the outcome of this trial.
They are watching with the hope that Russia will after all become a country of freedom and of the law, where the law will be above the bureaucratic official.
Where supporting opposition parties will cease being a cause for reprisals.
Where the special services will protect the people and the law, and not the bureaucracy from the people and the law.
Where human rights will no longer depend on the mood of the tsar. Good or evil. 4
W
here, on the contrary, the power will truly be dependent on the citizens, and the court – only on law and God. Call this conscience - if you prefer.
I believe, this - is how it will be.
I am not at all an ideal person, but I am - a person with an idea. For me, as for anybody, it is hard to live in jail, and I do not want to die there.
But if I have to - I will not hesitate. The things I believe in are worth dying for. I think I have proven this.
And you opponents? What do you believe in? That the bosses are always right? Do you believe in money? In the impunity of “the system”?
Your Honour!
There is much more than just the fates of two people in your hands. Right here and right now, the fate of every citizen of our country is being decided. Those who, on the streets of Moscow and Chita, Peter and Tomsk, and other cities and settlements, are not counting on becoming victims of police lawlessness, who have set up a business, built a house, achieved success and want to pass it on to their children, not to raiders in uniform, and finally, - those who want to honourably carry out their duty for a fair wage, not expecting that they can be fired at any moment by corrupt bosses under just about any pretext.
This is not about me and Platon – at any rate, not only about us. It is about hope for many citizens of Russia. About hope that tomorrow, the court will be able to protect their rights, if yet some other bureaucrats-officials get it into their head to brazenly and demonstratively violate these rights.
I know, there are people, I have named them in the trial, who want to keep us in jail. To keep us there forever! Indeed, they do not even conceal this, publicly reminding everyone about the existence of a “bottomless” case file.
They want to show: they – are above the law, they will always accomplish whatever they might “think up”. So far they have achieved the opposite: out of ordinary people they have created a symbol of the struggle with arbitrariness. But for them, a conviction is essential, so they would not become “scapegoats”.
I want to hope that the court will stand up to their psychological pressure. We all know through whom it will come.
I want an independent judiciary to become a reality and the norm in my country, I want the phrase from the Soviet times about “the most just court in the world” to stop sounding just as ironic today as they did back then. I want us not to leave the dangerous symbols of a totalitarian system as an inheritance for our children and grandchildren.
Everybody understands that your verdict in this case - whatever it will be – is going to become part of the history of Russia. Furthermore, it is going to form it for the future generation. All the names - those of the prosecutors, and of the judges - will remain in history, just like they have remained in history after the infamous Soviet trials.
Your Honour, I can imagine perfectly well that this must not be very easy at all for you - perhaps even frightening – and I wish you
credit card
We have spent S$1200 for ebay purchase and luckily brother had stopped us, else the amount will be higher.
The temptation was great and we have fortunately that we did not have dredit card.
Just like gambling, it was an addiction.
Just imagine we have been saving, and in such short time, we have chalked up to S$1200
Saturday, November 13, 2010
space
it has been sometime that i wrote.
well, during this period of time, many things have happened and we really surprised by the change of events.
of course, i have made a decision and sometime i also changed my minds too often as i knew it will a chance went past and will never come back.
but i could not do that.
well, during this period of time, many things have happened and we really surprised by the change of events.
of course, i have made a decision and sometime i also changed my minds too often as i knew it will a chance went past and will never come back.
but i could not do that.
Wednesday, November 03, 2010
top ten criteria to help you decide whether a property
the top ten criteria to help you decide whether a property would be a good investment or not.
1. Location
It’s important to reiterate how important this is. The location will determine a property’s price, risk and returns. An average property, for example a three bedroom HDB, in Holland Village, can expect to fetch more on the resale market than a two-floor mansionette that’s twice the size in Jurong West.
2. Developer’s philosophy and standards
Does the developer have a track record of producing quality products? If it’s a new project, do your homework and tour previous developments built by them. Don’t be overawed by a big name. A travel writer acquaintance of mine stayed in a new five-star villa resort in Bali recently, and reported that, while beautiful, the unit’s fittings were substandard with tiles falling off the bath and sockets loose in the wall.
3. Management
What level of oversight will be provided by the management of the development? If you’re staying in the property as an owner-occupier, this is less critical, but as a landlord, especially in absentia, it’s vital.
4. Future prospects
For property as an investment, the bottom line is how much income it can generate for you. Again, research the market, getting different opinions on what the capital appreciation and rental returns will be for this property.
5. Practicality / Design / Layout / Usability / Desirability
Who is this property going to appeal to? I looked at the Urban Lofts project, located on Rangoon Road next to Farrer Park MRT. While its location is fantastic and the lower floor flats had their own hot tubs, the extremely limited floor space would make it unsuitable for any but childless couples and singles. Always consider who would live here before you purchase?
6. Comparative prices for comparable product
If you can, try and see how similar properties in the area have done in the past in terms of price per square foot and capital appreciation in order to compare and work out whether the property is an attractive investment opportunity.
7. Connectivity / Convenience
We have written before on the importance of a condominium’s proximity to schools, work places, and shopping and leisure facilities – but transport links are often the biggest drivers of value. Research has shown that condos near MRT stations often gain the most capital appreciation in Singapore.
An MRT train pulls into the station. (Photograph: Singapore Tourism Board)
8. Security
Less of an issue in Singapore, where crime rates are amongst the lowest in the world, in Malaysia and Indonesia – while crime levels are perhaps overstated by the media – the range of a development’s security options – gated communities, 24-hour guards, first-response alarms, etc – are an important factor.
9. Facilities
A property’s facilities do add value to a unit – a landed property with a pool, for example, can add around 8% to the value of the property – while many condo facilities now include gyms, spa facilities and games rooms.
10. Rentability
A rented property can produce a greater passive income than simply investing it in a bank but you need to ensure that is attractive to renters.
1. Location
It’s important to reiterate how important this is. The location will determine a property’s price, risk and returns. An average property, for example a three bedroom HDB, in Holland Village, can expect to fetch more on the resale market than a two-floor mansionette that’s twice the size in Jurong West.
2. Developer’s philosophy and standards
Does the developer have a track record of producing quality products? If it’s a new project, do your homework and tour previous developments built by them. Don’t be overawed by a big name. A travel writer acquaintance of mine stayed in a new five-star villa resort in Bali recently, and reported that, while beautiful, the unit’s fittings were substandard with tiles falling off the bath and sockets loose in the wall.
3. Management
What level of oversight will be provided by the management of the development? If you’re staying in the property as an owner-occupier, this is less critical, but as a landlord, especially in absentia, it’s vital.
4. Future prospects
For property as an investment, the bottom line is how much income it can generate for you. Again, research the market, getting different opinions on what the capital appreciation and rental returns will be for this property.
5. Practicality / Design / Layout / Usability / Desirability
Who is this property going to appeal to? I looked at the Urban Lofts project, located on Rangoon Road next to Farrer Park MRT. While its location is fantastic and the lower floor flats had their own hot tubs, the extremely limited floor space would make it unsuitable for any but childless couples and singles. Always consider who would live here before you purchase?
6. Comparative prices for comparable product
If you can, try and see how similar properties in the area have done in the past in terms of price per square foot and capital appreciation in order to compare and work out whether the property is an attractive investment opportunity.
7. Connectivity / Convenience
We have written before on the importance of a condominium’s proximity to schools, work places, and shopping and leisure facilities – but transport links are often the biggest drivers of value. Research has shown that condos near MRT stations often gain the most capital appreciation in Singapore.
An MRT train pulls into the station. (Photograph: Singapore Tourism Board)
8. Security
Less of an issue in Singapore, where crime rates are amongst the lowest in the world, in Malaysia and Indonesia – while crime levels are perhaps overstated by the media – the range of a development’s security options – gated communities, 24-hour guards, first-response alarms, etc – are an important factor.
9. Facilities
A property’s facilities do add value to a unit – a landed property with a pool, for example, can add around 8% to the value of the property – while many condo facilities now include gyms, spa facilities and games rooms.
10. Rentability
A rented property can produce a greater passive income than simply investing it in a bank but you need to ensure that is attractive to renters.
Tuesday, November 02, 2010
the foreign talent: young people no longer felt a sense of ownership in Singapore.
This is not my country, anymore.
thanks to the foreign talent policy
“When I was younger, I was very proud of being a Singaporean,” said Lim as reported in The Straits Times.
“But that was about five, ten years ago. Five years later, with all the changes in policies and the influx of foreign talent, I really don’t know what I’m defending any more.”
He said this was a view that many of the men he served with during National Service also held.
he went on:
“I feel that there is a dilution of the Singapore spirit in youth… We don’t really feel comfortable in our country any more,” he said.
Mr Goh replied, “‘This is one early sign of danger… If this is happening, it is very serious.” He went on to ask Mr Lim why he felt disconnected.
Mr Lim told SM Goh, ”‘I’m still serving as an officer and I definitely would love to defend Singapore.”
But he said the key difference between him and his foreign friends was, “I tell them, this is my country. I can’t just leave here whenever I want to. You can come and play and work here, but I have to stay here.”
Monday, October 18, 2010
why you should buy a property now
With house prices on the rise, despite the new cooling measures, is now really the right time to buy a property? Award-winning property agent Kelvin Fong thinks so. Here are his five reasons why buying a property today could be the best decision you ever make.
1. Low interest rates
People with money to invest can use the current low interest rates – which are as low as 0.88% at present – to leverage a passive income from their purchased property. In fact, the returns from a property can be more than what a bank’s fixed deposit account can offer.
2. Property is an appreciating asset (eventually)
Barring any dramatic economic upheavals, property prices will likely stabilise or slowly, but progressively, increase from now till 2011. Most sellers will not want to sell at a lower price today, and will not suffer when paying a relatively high mortgage due to low borrowing costs. The 30% down payment rule will actually act as an incentive because purchasers, having come up with this capital, will not want to sell.
Provided you do not sell your property during the downturn – as you will almost inevitably lose money on it – the value should increase. The key is that the buyer must have holding power when the market deteriorates and should not buy until they have the holding power to weather any market conditions. Prices will eventually rise again – as witnessed in 2008, when prices were down but did eventually rise to and, in some cases surpass, the 2007 peak.
3. Assets beat playing the market
Many people will choose to purchase an asset like property because the market liquidity – essentially the asset’s cash value – is still strong and, due to the last financial crisis in 2008, people felt safer putting the money in asset rather than financial instruments. The asset will always be there, and even when market conditions are not as good, as long as you do not sell it, you will not lose money.
4. Market conditions don’t matter
Buyers who are looking at property as a long-term investment will be less concerned about the market’s movement up or down.. Property will – nearly always – appreciate in the long term in Singapore due to the scarcity of land and available real estate. While having a diverse portfolio is preferred, as a long-term investment, property is generally going to make more money than other comparable instruments. Investing in bonds, for example, is a safe investment instrument, but capital appreciation is weak.
Property is not the ideal market for speculators though – not only has the government introduced measures to discourage property speculation – but you will be much more at risk of market fluctuations.
5. Property keeps on giving
Buying public housing in today’s market is not cheap, with HDB’s executive condominiums going at around $600 – 700psf, close to mass market private property prices. A HUDC unit has already reached the $1 million mark, and the trend looks set to continue. Parents may see buying an asset, not only as a hedge against inflation, but also as an eventual inheritance to their children. If house prices continue to rise – and with the cost of construction materials inevitably going to rise too – there is the fear that the younger generation could be priced out.
1. Low interest rates
People with money to invest can use the current low interest rates – which are as low as 0.88% at present – to leverage a passive income from their purchased property. In fact, the returns from a property can be more than what a bank’s fixed deposit account can offer.
2. Property is an appreciating asset (eventually)
Barring any dramatic economic upheavals, property prices will likely stabilise or slowly, but progressively, increase from now till 2011. Most sellers will not want to sell at a lower price today, and will not suffer when paying a relatively high mortgage due to low borrowing costs. The 30% down payment rule will actually act as an incentive because purchasers, having come up with this capital, will not want to sell.
Provided you do not sell your property during the downturn – as you will almost inevitably lose money on it – the value should increase. The key is that the buyer must have holding power when the market deteriorates and should not buy until they have the holding power to weather any market conditions. Prices will eventually rise again – as witnessed in 2008, when prices were down but did eventually rise to and, in some cases surpass, the 2007 peak.
3. Assets beat playing the market
Many people will choose to purchase an asset like property because the market liquidity – essentially the asset’s cash value – is still strong and, due to the last financial crisis in 2008, people felt safer putting the money in asset rather than financial instruments. The asset will always be there, and even when market conditions are not as good, as long as you do not sell it, you will not lose money.
4. Market conditions don’t matter
Buyers who are looking at property as a long-term investment will be less concerned about the market’s movement up or down.. Property will – nearly always – appreciate in the long term in Singapore due to the scarcity of land and available real estate. While having a diverse portfolio is preferred, as a long-term investment, property is generally going to make more money than other comparable instruments. Investing in bonds, for example, is a safe investment instrument, but capital appreciation is weak.
Property is not the ideal market for speculators though – not only has the government introduced measures to discourage property speculation – but you will be much more at risk of market fluctuations.
5. Property keeps on giving
Buying public housing in today’s market is not cheap, with HDB’s executive condominiums going at around $600 – 700psf, close to mass market private property prices. A HUDC unit has already reached the $1 million mark, and the trend looks set to continue. Parents may see buying an asset, not only as a hedge against inflation, but also as an eventual inheritance to their children. If house prices continue to rise – and with the cost of construction materials inevitably going to rise too – there is the fear that the younger generation could be priced out.
Friday, October 15, 2010
basic communciation course
In basic communciation course, you are taught how to communicate appropriately depending on who is the audience and what is the occasion.
So the PAP manifesto in the 2006 election is all about the above. Nothing wrong with that.
Also if I say "...am concerned about.." and "...worry for..", it may mean just that. It doesn't mean I will do something to resolve the concern or worry. But it shows I empathise, which can sometimes make the target audience feel good and connected.
That's what good communication is all about, not just in politics but also daily interaction.
Get this right and let nature take its course.
So the PAP manifesto in the 2006 election is all about the above. Nothing wrong with that.
Also if I say "...am concerned about.." and "...worry for..", it may mean just that. It doesn't mean I will do something to resolve the concern or worry. But it shows I empathise, which can sometimes make the target audience feel good and connected.
That's what good communication is all about, not just in politics but also daily interaction.
Get this right and let nature take its course.
Saturday, October 09, 2010
A surge in immigrants: Indians
OVER the past decade, more Chinese mainlanders flocked into Singapore as permanent residents than any other nationals, right?
Wrong – and by a long shot!
Contrary to widespread perception, the Chinese are not on top of the list.
In fact, they totalled only 13,000 – or 3.88% – of the estimated quarter of a million new permanent residents (PRs) who arrived since 2000.
This was a lot fewer than PRs from Malaysia (81,000) and India (68,300), according to official figures just released.
These statistics appear to have put paid to a widespread notion that Singapore is being flooded by Chinese immigrants.
The figures do not include the estimated 1.3 million non-resident foreigners on short-term work permits or professional visit passes. If they do, the Chinese would probably outnumber others.
Another caveat is that the figures were for a 10-year period and might or might not reflect trends of more recent years. The Chinese bulk started coming in 2005.
“This whole idea that we are being overwhelmed by mainland Chinese has no basis,” said Associate Professor Eugene Tan of Singapore Management University.
“The numbers should tell us that many from China are here only as foreign workers,” he told the local press.
The government has been careful not to let the foreign intake upset Singapore’s ethnic balance, especially against the minorities.
While a large army of Chinese arrived to work here, the authorities were apparently keeping a lid on their numbers when granting them immigration rights.
This was borne out by the latest ethnic breakdown, which showed Singapore’s ethnic Chinese population proportionately in decline – 77.8% in 1990 to 76.8% in 2000 and 74.3% currently.
So is the ratio for Malays, which fell slightly from 14% to 13.4% over 20 years, while ethnic Indians rose from 7.1% in 1990 to 9.2%.
Maintaining the ethnic balance has long been a national tenet virtually carved in stone.
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has reassured Singaporeans, especially the minorities that new immigrants would not be allowed to upset the current mix of races.
The city would remain open to immigrants of all ethnic groups, so long as they can contribute to the national economy, he added.
Despite this, maintaining the balance may likely become tougher – even impossible – in the face of Singapore’s huge appetite for skilled immigrants.
However, he admitted to the difficulty of attracting more Malays or pribumi talent from South-East Asia. Malays make up only 3% of PRs.
A senior leader said Singapore would not actively head out to woo ethnic Malay immigrants from the region, relying instead on scholarships and job opportunities.
“What we cannot do is go overseas and target specific ethnic groups to come to Singapore,” said Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng.
The increase in Indian arrivals has been visible in everyday life but the margin has caught many Singaporeans by surprise.
Indians today make up a quarter of the 1.79 million foreigners in Singapore that include PRs and foreign workers.
The number of new arrivals doubled from 200,000 to 400,000 in the past two years, according to the Indian High Commission. In 2007, some 10,000 professionals arrived in the one year alone.
Once felt mainly in Little India, the Indian presence is today visibly established in Shenton Way, Suntek City and the central parts of the city.
The new arrivals are almost everywhere – in trains, shopping malls and hawker centres.
The wealthy Indians bought new homes along East Coast Road or set up businesses here.
The professionals are mostly in engineering, finance and computers, some of them moving into grassroots politics to serve the ruling People’s Action Party.
I stopped by at VivoCity Kopitiam food court during lunch hour last week and caught a glimpse of Singapore’s new trend.
By local size, it is a rather large place. As much as a quarter of the crowd were Indian professionals, many of whom could be seen queuing up for northern Indian food.
They then sat down to eat among themselves, few mixing with locals.
Like the Chinese and others, the Indian settlers have stirred resentment among a large segment of Singaporeans who regard them as usurpers of jobs and other opportunities.
Others, however, say their presence is helping to create a buzz and improve competitiveness. It is changing lives.
“Recently I put an advert to rent out my father’s flat and all the callers have been from India,” said a Singaporean. “No other nationalities have called so far.”
Other comments include:
* “Some Indians now want to go to Tao Nan primary school (an elite school strong in Chinese language). There are really a lot of Indians now.”
* “I overheard one Indian saying Singapore is an outpost of India, and only fours hours away by plane.”
* “As a Singaporean Indian, I feel insulted when some of my classmates asked me if I was from India. The record shows my ancestors first came here in the 1800s.”
A few are speculating why the government is controlling the granting of PR status to Chinese while allowing them to come in large numbers to work.
One writer said: “Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew is concerned that Singapore will become a satellite city of China.
“I think the huge increase in the number of Indian PRs and new citizens is deliberate filtering by the government.
Wrong – and by a long shot!
Contrary to widespread perception, the Chinese are not on top of the list.
In fact, they totalled only 13,000 – or 3.88% – of the estimated quarter of a million new permanent residents (PRs) who arrived since 2000.
This was a lot fewer than PRs from Malaysia (81,000) and India (68,300), according to official figures just released.
These statistics appear to have put paid to a widespread notion that Singapore is being flooded by Chinese immigrants.
The figures do not include the estimated 1.3 million non-resident foreigners on short-term work permits or professional visit passes. If they do, the Chinese would probably outnumber others.
Another caveat is that the figures were for a 10-year period and might or might not reflect trends of more recent years. The Chinese bulk started coming in 2005.
“This whole idea that we are being overwhelmed by mainland Chinese has no basis,” said Associate Professor Eugene Tan of Singapore Management University.
“The numbers should tell us that many from China are here only as foreign workers,” he told the local press.
The government has been careful not to let the foreign intake upset Singapore’s ethnic balance, especially against the minorities.
While a large army of Chinese arrived to work here, the authorities were apparently keeping a lid on their numbers when granting them immigration rights.
This was borne out by the latest ethnic breakdown, which showed Singapore’s ethnic Chinese population proportionately in decline – 77.8% in 1990 to 76.8% in 2000 and 74.3% currently.
So is the ratio for Malays, which fell slightly from 14% to 13.4% over 20 years, while ethnic Indians rose from 7.1% in 1990 to 9.2%.
Maintaining the ethnic balance has long been a national tenet virtually carved in stone.
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has reassured Singaporeans, especially the minorities that new immigrants would not be allowed to upset the current mix of races.
The city would remain open to immigrants of all ethnic groups, so long as they can contribute to the national economy, he added.
Despite this, maintaining the balance may likely become tougher – even impossible – in the face of Singapore’s huge appetite for skilled immigrants.
However, he admitted to the difficulty of attracting more Malays or pribumi talent from South-East Asia. Malays make up only 3% of PRs.
A senior leader said Singapore would not actively head out to woo ethnic Malay immigrants from the region, relying instead on scholarships and job opportunities.
“What we cannot do is go overseas and target specific ethnic groups to come to Singapore,” said Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng.
The increase in Indian arrivals has been visible in everyday life but the margin has caught many Singaporeans by surprise.
Indians today make up a quarter of the 1.79 million foreigners in Singapore that include PRs and foreign workers.
The number of new arrivals doubled from 200,000 to 400,000 in the past two years, according to the Indian High Commission. In 2007, some 10,000 professionals arrived in the one year alone.
Once felt mainly in Little India, the Indian presence is today visibly established in Shenton Way, Suntek City and the central parts of the city.
The new arrivals are almost everywhere – in trains, shopping malls and hawker centres.
The wealthy Indians bought new homes along East Coast Road or set up businesses here.
The professionals are mostly in engineering, finance and computers, some of them moving into grassroots politics to serve the ruling People’s Action Party.
I stopped by at VivoCity Kopitiam food court during lunch hour last week and caught a glimpse of Singapore’s new trend.
By local size, it is a rather large place. As much as a quarter of the crowd were Indian professionals, many of whom could be seen queuing up for northern Indian food.
They then sat down to eat among themselves, few mixing with locals.
Like the Chinese and others, the Indian settlers have stirred resentment among a large segment of Singaporeans who regard them as usurpers of jobs and other opportunities.
Others, however, say their presence is helping to create a buzz and improve competitiveness. It is changing lives.
“Recently I put an advert to rent out my father’s flat and all the callers have been from India,” said a Singaporean. “No other nationalities have called so far.”
Other comments include:
* “Some Indians now want to go to Tao Nan primary school (an elite school strong in Chinese language). There are really a lot of Indians now.”
* “I overheard one Indian saying Singapore is an outpost of India, and only fours hours away by plane.”
* “As a Singaporean Indian, I feel insulted when some of my classmates asked me if I was from India. The record shows my ancestors first came here in the 1800s.”
A few are speculating why the government is controlling the granting of PR status to Chinese while allowing them to come in large numbers to work.
One writer said: “Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew is concerned that Singapore will become a satellite city of China.
“I think the huge increase in the number of Indian PRs and new citizens is deliberate filtering by the government.
how do they survive?
I just gave a talk to my son on how not to be in debt when he starts work in a few years time after university.
I told him that when I graduated, after 3 years, I was able to save 40k enough to buy a 5 rooms HDB flat. But for him, after 3 years, he may be able to save around max 150k if he live in with me and I pay for everything and he can pay 1/3 of a 5 room hdb flat if he buys direct from hdb!
Frankly, I just do not know how they can survive as I told him that I really do not want him to be in debt to the extent that life is like being put on a pedestal like a rat running to turn the wheel till it drops dead.
And we are talking about the life of a young professional starting life with full support and not incurring debt either in uni study and the first few years of working life. I do not know how people who would earn less, how do they survive?
I read from the papers that someone planning to buy the govt condo meant for income of 8 to 10k commenting that $750 per sq ft is cheap maening getting a 1,000 sq ft 2 bedroom apartment for 750K is cheap? How on earth can the couple pays for the unit paying probably 150k down payment and taking a debt of 600k likely to be paid over 30 years!This is insane.
I told him that when I graduated, after 3 years, I was able to save 40k enough to buy a 5 rooms HDB flat. But for him, after 3 years, he may be able to save around max 150k if he live in with me and I pay for everything and he can pay 1/3 of a 5 room hdb flat if he buys direct from hdb!
Frankly, I just do not know how they can survive as I told him that I really do not want him to be in debt to the extent that life is like being put on a pedestal like a rat running to turn the wheel till it drops dead.
And we are talking about the life of a young professional starting life with full support and not incurring debt either in uni study and the first few years of working life. I do not know how people who would earn less, how do they survive?
I read from the papers that someone planning to buy the govt condo meant for income of 8 to 10k commenting that $750 per sq ft is cheap maening getting a 1,000 sq ft 2 bedroom apartment for 750K is cheap? How on earth can the couple pays for the unit paying probably 150k down payment and taking a debt of 600k likely to be paid over 30 years!This is insane.
Tuesday, October 05, 2010
reposition
each time there is a crisis, we should treat it as a turning point instead.
reposition ourselves, let go our old self and change to a new person, let go and move on.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
each his/ her own to do what it's best for survival
No win situation for all except, each his/ her own to do what it's best for survival.Now a days, because the political stakes and rewards are so high, even those who claimed to champion the cause of poorer citizens have been looked upon with skepticism.
Giving in to the simplistic ideas of the opposition may, in fact will, ultimately compromise the economic and social standing of the middle class and above.
The way to taking over the present government is to attack the standard and quality of lives of two third majority who are basically please with life here.
Helping the plight of the poorer citizens without giving due consideration of those have worked hard( the majority) to secure a comfortable life for themselves - eg bringing down asset values so it becomes cheaper for the younger generation - will worsen the state of the nation for everyone or worse off for more.
Question is: do we want to be fooled into improving the lives of a minority group, with simplistic ideas, and compromise the standard of living for the majority?
Some people tend to think so.
Giving in to the simplistic ideas of the opposition may, in fact will, ultimately compromise the economic and social standing of the middle class and above.
The way to taking over the present government is to attack the standard and quality of lives of two third majority who are basically please with life here.
Helping the plight of the poorer citizens without giving due consideration of those have worked hard( the majority) to secure a comfortable life for themselves - eg bringing down asset values so it becomes cheaper for the younger generation - will worsen the state of the nation for everyone or worse off for more.
Question is: do we want to be fooled into improving the lives of a minority group, with simplistic ideas, and compromise the standard of living for the majority?
Some people tend to think so.
Monday, September 27, 2010
healthcare
UK ranks the best in your chart so I thought that I should give my two cents worth.
Firstly, you are assuming that the level of healthcare is the same as in UK and Singapore. I can assure you that it's not true.
UK healthcare isn't free
Let's be honest, healthcare isn't free in the UK, a sizable portion of our paycheck goes into paying for the NHS (National Health Service) and that's regardless of whether you use it eventually.
While you could head to a GP in S'pore for common ailments (fever, cough, flu etc.), you'll have to make an appt in NHS to see a GP. Depending on the area you live in, it can take up to two weeks. That's why Brits call it a 'postal lottery'.
Else you can head to the 'private' GP, which cost £60 (ard S$120) for the first 15min of consultation and extra costs every minute thereafter. That doesn't come with medicine. You'll have to pay extra for that at the pharmacy.
Standards just can't match up
Stories of midwives and medics leaving patients bleeding in their beds are not unheard of here in the UK (at least in the London hospitals). The level of hygeine can be so bad that inspectors are shocked in a recent review. The elderly are left to fend for themselves and many were starving and dehydrated due to staff shortage and incompetency.
Of course, there are instances of competent staff and clean hospitals. Then again, should that be the case in the first place?
As a result, many who can afford it head to private hospitals, which can cost a small fortune. Of course, that's on top of the NHS contribution that they have already made through their paycheck.
then again...
However, I must admit that the NHS does take care of those who can't afford any healthcare otherwise. That comes with a price of course - the rest who can afford to will have to pay over and above what they will eventually use, that's if they use NHS in the first place.
Not only that, emergency free healthcare is also available for every foreigner (tourists etc) in NHS if they happen to be in the UK. As a tax payer, I have absolutely no issue with that personally as I think that everyone should be entitled to emergency care, so long that it's not being abused.
the million dollar question...
Question: would you be willing to fork out up to 40% of your salary so that every Singaporean receives free healthcare?
Firstly, you are assuming that the level of healthcare is the same as in UK and Singapore. I can assure you that it's not true.
UK healthcare isn't free
Let's be honest, healthcare isn't free in the UK, a sizable portion of our paycheck goes into paying for the NHS (National Health Service) and that's regardless of whether you use it eventually.
While you could head to a GP in S'pore for common ailments (fever, cough, flu etc.), you'll have to make an appt in NHS to see a GP. Depending on the area you live in, it can take up to two weeks. That's why Brits call it a 'postal lottery'.
Else you can head to the 'private' GP, which cost £60 (ard S$120) for the first 15min of consultation and extra costs every minute thereafter. That doesn't come with medicine. You'll have to pay extra for that at the pharmacy.
Standards just can't match up
Stories of midwives and medics leaving patients bleeding in their beds are not unheard of here in the UK (at least in the London hospitals). The level of hygeine can be so bad that inspectors are shocked in a recent review. The elderly are left to fend for themselves and many were starving and dehydrated due to staff shortage and incompetency.
Of course, there are instances of competent staff and clean hospitals. Then again, should that be the case in the first place?
As a result, many who can afford it head to private hospitals, which can cost a small fortune. Of course, that's on top of the NHS contribution that they have already made through their paycheck.
then again...
However, I must admit that the NHS does take care of those who can't afford any healthcare otherwise. That comes with a price of course - the rest who can afford to will have to pay over and above what they will eventually use, that's if they use NHS in the first place.
Not only that, emergency free healthcare is also available for every foreigner (tourists etc) in NHS if they happen to be in the UK. As a tax payer, I have absolutely no issue with that personally as I think that everyone should be entitled to emergency care, so long that it's not being abused.
the million dollar question...
Question: would you be willing to fork out up to 40% of your salary so that every Singaporean receives free healthcare?
Sunday, September 26, 2010
a thing about love
felt that love is a extremely strange thing.
when i was searching high and low for it, it could not be found.
just when i was about to give up and let go, it comes unexpectedly.
and then there was a sharp rumbling pain when you saw the person you liked.
there was no question about it.
you felt it and it was as if long time ago you have the same feelings for another person.
when i was searching high and low for it, it could not be found.
just when i was about to give up and let go, it comes unexpectedly.
and then there was a sharp rumbling pain when you saw the person you liked.
there was no question about it.
you felt it and it was as if long time ago you have the same feelings for another person.
the truth about insurance company
In Singapore, the pro-big-business complex and the pro-MNC complex are well established. The insurance-cum-govt cahoots have been established since 2000, but this is something new to most people.
I worked for couple years in a well known local insurance company. The standard operating procedure when we recieved an insurance claim is to investigate and look out for anything and any excuse that we can deny the claim. Makes good business sense and is best practice in insurance industry.
Insurance companies are authorised to dig up all your most personal and confidential medical records from hospitals, medical centres, polyclinics and GPs. Just spend a bit of money for the reports. So we know if you got psychiatric history at Woodbridge, or went to polyclinic for STD etc. The bigger your medical insurance claim, the more they will dig. The irony is that if you buy the expensive medical insurance, for sure they will investigate like siao when you claim, becoz you will have stayed in expensive private hospitals. If you go to Mt Elizabeth for open heart surgery and the bill is $200K, rest assured the insurance company will spend some money to dig out all your medical records from the time you born.
During my 2 years in the insurance company, I had to reject medical claims from some 10-12 people coz of some pre-existing condition. Some of the customers didn't even know they had pre-existing as they didn't feel anything. Most of them bought insurance plans for A-Class wards or private hospitals, and they kenna whacked with huge medical bills that we refused to accept.
I worked for couple years in a well known local insurance company. The standard operating procedure when we recieved an insurance claim is to investigate and look out for anything and any excuse that we can deny the claim. Makes good business sense and is best practice in insurance industry.
Insurance companies are authorised to dig up all your most personal and confidential medical records from hospitals, medical centres, polyclinics and GPs. Just spend a bit of money for the reports. So we know if you got psychiatric history at Woodbridge, or went to polyclinic for STD etc. The bigger your medical insurance claim, the more they will dig. The irony is that if you buy the expensive medical insurance, for sure they will investigate like siao when you claim, becoz you will have stayed in expensive private hospitals. If you go to Mt Elizabeth for open heart surgery and the bill is $200K, rest assured the insurance company will spend some money to dig out all your medical records from the time you born.
During my 2 years in the insurance company, I had to reject medical claims from some 10-12 people coz of some pre-existing condition. Some of the customers didn't even know they had pre-existing as they didn't feel anything. Most of them bought insurance plans for A-Class wards or private hospitals, and they kenna whacked with huge medical bills that we refused to accept.
Friday, September 24, 2010
never
Never believed that things happened for a reason.
But how this turned out, you moved all my doubts, All I went through, led me to you.
But how this turned out, you moved all my doubts, All I went through, led me to you.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
thinking
"To often, we lose sight of lifes simple pleasures.
Remember, when someone annoys you it takes 42 muscles in your face to frown, BUT, it
only takes 4 muscles to extend your arm and bitch-slap that mother....upside the head."
"This is exactly how it should feel when it's meant to be"--unthinkable
Remember, when someone annoys you it takes 42 muscles in your face to frown, BUT, it
only takes 4 muscles to extend your arm and bitch-slap that mother....upside the head."
"This is exactly how it should feel when it's meant to be"--unthinkable
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
letting it go
When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.
When I let go of what I have, I receive what I need.
Have you ever struggled to find work or love, only to find them after you have
given up?
This is the paradox of letting go.
Let go, in order to achieve.
Letting go is God’s law.
When I let go of what I have, I receive what I need.
Have you ever struggled to find work or love, only to find them after you have
given up?
This is the paradox of letting go.
Let go, in order to achieve.
Letting go is God’s law.
Monday, September 20, 2010
my best friend
i walked with my bestfriend today.
never thought that a simple walk will take us back from the scars of the past.
things have been said and done.
and it can't be undone.
we are surprised to find ourself smiling and laughing in our short nostalgic memory.
glad the rain was over.
forgive and forget as what they say=)
never thought that a simple walk will take us back from the scars of the past.
things have been said and done.
and it can't be undone.
we are surprised to find ourself smiling and laughing in our short nostalgic memory.
glad the rain was over.
forgive and forget as what they say=)
Sunday, September 19, 2010
she
THOUGHTS to PONDER:
"If shes amazing, she wont be easy.
If shes easy, she wont be amazing.
If shes worth it, you wont give up.
If you give up, you’re not worthy
"If shes amazing, she wont be easy.
If shes easy, she wont be amazing.
If shes worth it, you wont give up.
If you give up, you’re not worthy
Saturday, September 18, 2010
thinking
Oftentimes,
wishful thinking gives u perception of things that would or might have been if u can twist and turn back the time .
that's why it is called "wishful" it reminds u of what reality is and how some things wouldn't work if it wasn't yours in the first place
--anonymous
wishful thinking gives u perception of things that would or might have been if u can twist and turn back the time .
that's why it is called "wishful" it reminds u of what reality is and how some things wouldn't work if it wasn't yours in the first place
--anonymous
Friday, September 17, 2010
Singapore's competitiveness
n a recent survey of international competitiveness, Singapore comes out tops in labour wage competitiveness. I wonder if this is a double-edged compliment.
In the same survey, Singapore is ranked 30 or 40-something in business innovation/entrepreneurship. If you combine these two together, it just means the source of Singapore's competitiveness is not first-world brainpower, but third-world low wages and the willingness of its people to take such shit.
As for cost of living going up due to minimum wage, ask yourself whether cost of living has stayed low due to the lack of minimum wage?
No. The reason is low wages allowed things like rent, utilities, govt fees, company profits to go up.
By the same token, high wages may depress other cost factors.
Today it is quite ridiculous, you pay $10,000 a month to the landlord(often a govt linked GLC) for shop space and the worker manning the shop 10 hours a day $1600 a month...cost-wise it is the same if you pay $9K rent and $2.6k in salary.
In the same survey, Singapore is ranked 30 or 40-something in business innovation/entrepreneurship. If you combine these two together, it just means the source of Singapore's competitiveness is not first-world brainpower, but third-world low wages and the willingness of its people to take such shit.
As for cost of living going up due to minimum wage, ask yourself whether cost of living has stayed low due to the lack of minimum wage?
No. The reason is low wages allowed things like rent, utilities, govt fees, company profits to go up.
By the same token, high wages may depress other cost factors.
Today it is quite ridiculous, you pay $10,000 a month to the landlord(often a govt linked GLC) for shop space and the worker manning the shop 10 hours a day $1600 a month...cost-wise it is the same if you pay $9K rent and $2.6k in salary.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
i
Over again.
Don't make me change my mind.
Do i deserve to be the second option?
i think i deserve better,please prove me wrong if u dare to be right
and try to wake me up from the reality u have shown and created!"
Don't make me change my mind.
Do i deserve to be the second option?
i think i deserve better,please prove me wrong if u dare to be right
and try to wake me up from the reality u have shown and created!"
Saturday, September 11, 2010
DrEaM
On this cold cold night,in My small small ROOm,i Look At The Bright Bright
StArS iN tHe DaRk DaRk sKy & DrEaM of YouR sWeet sWeet SmiLe on your
CuTe CuTe FaCe!
Tuesday, September 07, 2010
special
There will not ever be anyone like me.
I am special because I am unique.
I am hugs and sometimes tears.
I am free.
I am me, and me is just right.
Monday, September 06, 2010
Saturday, September 04, 2010
the changing faces of singapore:one out of two is a foreigners.
The rapid growth in output could be fully explained by rapid growth in inputs:
expansion of employment,
increases in education levels, and,
above all, massive investment in physical capital.
Once those inputs were taken into account, the growth in output was unsurprising--or, to put it differently, the big surprise about Singapore growth was that when closely examined it posed no mystery.
Rapid Singapore economic growth was based entirely on one attribute:
the willingness to save,
to sacrifice current consumption for the sake of future production.
The singapore example offered no hint of a free lunch
36% of population are foreigners,1.84 million out of 5.08 million.
14.3% of Singaporeans are foreigners,540,000 out of 3.77 million Singaporeans.
there is no need to imagine: one of two people in Singapore is a foreigners.
Taking four 1st world countries whose per Capita GDP is way above ours and population is similar to ours, you can see that other 1st world countries don't subscribe to PAP's
"we need foreigners to grow" theory:
It was simply not possible for the Singapore economies to sustain the rates of growth of labor force participation, average education levels, and above all the physical capital stock that had prevailed in previous years.
singapore growth would predictably slow down, perhaps drastically
Per Capita GDP by IMF (2009)
Rank Country US$
2 Norway 79,085
5 Denmark 56,115
6 Ireland 51,356
12 Finland 44,492
*20 Singapore 37,293
[2008]
Country Population Non-Citizen%
Ireland 4,401,335 12.6%
Norway 4,737,171 5.6%
Finland 5,300,484 2.5%
Denmark 5,475,791 5.5%
*Singapore 4,839,400 34.6% <<<<
Population increase from 08 to 09
Ireland 1.1%
Norway 1.3%
Finland 0.5%
Denmark 0.7%
*Singapore 3.1% <<<<
PAP is discipline in using the same brute force method to stuff the economy with "bodies", thereby defying Krugman's prediction on the growth of Singapore.
Indeed, Krugman commented earlier that Singapore's miracle "turned out to have been based on perspiration rather than inspiration: Singapore grew through a mobilization of resources that would have done Stalin proud."
I think if Stalin had been alive today, PAP would have put him to shame. I'm sure even Stalin could not have foreseen PAP doing better than he could! Stalin would have awarded the PAP the "Order of Lenin"
We could have better well-being by peaking our population at 3 million. We can emulate Switzerland as she tries all her best kicking out foreigner.
Unfortunately, our elites cares only to create misery for Singaporean. It is in fact in their interest the damning Singaporean.
Wednesday, September 01, 2010
the pitfalls of FT:the tide has turned
Because of the ease in getting PRs in Singapore, it is difficult or even in the case of the government saying we are narrow minded, that a company can be 100% F owned.
The FT policy has been around for a decade. In the engineering industry, F workers started flooding the industry since late 90s. After almost a decade or so, it has brought about the current situation in my opinion whereby F owned companies had sprung up, leaving the pioneer entrepreneurial SMEs which started out in the 70s and 80s in deep trouble. Many SMEs had no choice, but to conform. I would daresay the huge numbers of FT are actually the results of big, conglomerate GLCs. They do it indirectly through the issue of contracts to sub-vendors. Many sub-vendors, many of which are small firms forced to follow the trend of hiring FW.
Then increasingly, with limited budget and price competitiveness, many of the entrepreneurial SMEs could not build on talents and resources and found themselves increasingly dependent on the FT. These FT then set up their own business and thus replace our SMEs gradually.
Nowadays, these FT are holding hostage to certain areas especially in the engineering industry. Many young engineering graduates decided to venture into the so called greener pastures like finance and banking. The engineering and marine industries were the first to be affected in terms of the entrepreneurial spirit and innovation.
Slowly but surely, I think the trend will move on to industries like the IT, F&B or others. The real issue is not foreign entrepreneurship.
The real issue is that ultimately, these FT and PRs will not stay and build Singapore.I think that is the real underlying concern of Singaporeans. Maybe we should have a statistical study of number of PRs who stay and go on to become citizens or in depth analysis of real impacts of such policies.
Years ago, while in university, my friend commented on the increasing numbers of PRCs esp in business, computer science and engineering faculties. He said that the real motives of these F students were to get the local university degree as a stepping stone to US (favourite) or European employments or further study. It took several years before they took some action or make it more difficult for that to happen (at least that is what I was led to believe).
GLCs are not ideal for the economy of the country. At least based on what I have read is that SMEs are the ones that sustain the Japanese economy during the rough period. The government can always about the global competitiveness etc, but
the thing is that how you are going to compete lower exchange rates and people who have nothing to lose or with the mindset to 'plunder' and go home.
If you are going to set up a business whereby you are going to make sure that you earn money by ensuring a certain standard of integrity, honesty, quality and responsibility as compared to somebody who is going to wayang and get as much as money in as short time as possible, who will be the in a more advantageous position. Ultimately, it will affect everybody especially the honest, not so clever, but dilligent folks who depended on responsible bosses for a living.
That is one area that I feel we have definitely regressed and that due to Singapore unique circumstances especially as a small nation, the consequences will be felt more greatly and deeply by the common folks.
Sunday, August 29, 2010
in love with you, yet again
just for a second i want to close my eyes and bring me back to those days that all i do is dream how my life will be.
just for a second i want to escape from this reality.
What's on my Mind??
...only emptiness.
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Monday, August 23, 2010
Chekwa, Are You?
Ms. Shelly
Chekwa. Like the word Intsik, Chekwa is considered a pejorative term to connote a weird, provincial and scary Chinese of old. So imagine how flabbergasted I was when in a middle of a conversation with friends one day, a guy I considered as nice and sensitive suddenly blurted out the word “Chekwa!” It hit me like a ton of bricks.
The last time I heard the term was when my younger brother berated me like somebody fresh off the boat (referring to the spate of new Chinese immigrants to the Philippines). What can I do, I said, when the clothes I found to be nice and affordable at the Tutuban Center all happened to be made in China?
But the Chinese in the olden days had to endure more than being checkwa. Filipino children chanting "Intsik! Intsik Beho!" or "Kain Lugaw!" (congee eaters and, therefore, weak in the knees) used to throw firecrackers in their path. A number of our hardworking forebears, who eked out a living by pushing wooden pushcarts to collect recyclable materials or deliver plywood and lumber within short distances (in the absence of pedicabs then), had to suffer the policemen’s batons banging against their pushcarts with accompanying threats of bodily harm when they stopped the rest in no-parking zones.
These had left scars on their psyche. A number of Chinese refused to assert their rights despite the abuses heaped on them for fear of creating a scene and becoming the subject of racial castigation. One of them was my grandmother.
My grandmother, who was then still residing in a town up north, was at her favorite dressmaker’s place when the latter’s arrogant and racist son uttered something objectionable. He and my grandmother were soon locked in a verbal tussle that unfortunately ended with him bashing her on the head with a drinking glass. With the help of the horrified dressmaker and her daughter, my grandmother, all bloodied, managed to call for a kalesa (horse-drawn carriage). Enroute to the hospital, she had the presence of mind to stop by my grandfather’s place of work to inform him of her whereabouts. The police jailed the culprit, but my grandmother did not press charges on account of her dressmaker’s pleas.
It wasn’t until the mid 1970s when Marcos opened up foreign relations with China that people began to see the Chinese in a different light.
We like to think that we have come a long way from the Chinese immigrants of old, who probably annoyed the locals then by their strange language, manner of extracting their nasal blockages and habit of raising one leg while eating in roadside cafes. Yet have we really? I cringe every time I chance upon the column of Erwin Tulfo in a tabloid, and I’m reminded of the precarious state I am in in Philippine society every time I hear Noli de Castro spit out the word Intsik on TV. But I console myself that these two men don’t represent the entire Filipino population? Or do they?
At a personal level, the worst discrimination I have ever experienced were being refused a bus ride in 1994 and hearing “Ching-a, chong-a!” years ago from teenagers when they heard me speak Hokkien while walking in the streets. Should I have turned and hit them inn the face like a younger brother and his friend did to two guys when the escalator reached the top floor inside a mall? Is that the right solution?
But haven’t many of us also been guilty of mimicking the way others speak? In high school, I found classmates who speak rapid-fire Cantonese loud and irritating, as opposed to our slower and milder Hokkien.
And if it turns out that those who don’t speak Chinese were the righteous ones, shall we all just stop using the easier (yup, easier, because the easiest I think would still be Tagalog) language that rolls off our tongue just to keep the peace?
Since it is known that Filipinos, even during the 19th century, have as much as 10 percent Chinese blood, is it “Hurray!” or “Yahoo!” then for those who have forgotten their Chinese roots because they’re now more Filipino than ever?
On confronted with the fact that we can speak a different language on top of the English and Tagalog of every Filipino, are we not different, i.e. not Filipinos, after all? Would we look at a new Chinese immigrant approaching and think, “Ah, here comes a Filipino” simply because he has a passport that says so?
And since we’re in the thick of this Tsinoy being a Tsinong Pinoy thing, just how Filipino are we anyway? With what kind of delusionary light should we view ourselves? I mean, isn’t it natural to think, “Ay, Bumbay” whenever we see an Indian doing his or her rounds of collection on 5-6 loans? In the same light, shouldn’t we be resigned to our fate upon hearing “Ah, Intsik” or in some instances, “Chekwa!” thrown our way?
As for that guy friend, after I fell silent and wrote messages to somebody else beside me to show my displeasure, he was immediately contrite and apologetic (genuinely or not I wouldn’t know), saying he himself looked a lot like a true blue Chinese, what with his sunken eyes and fair complexion, and thus had borne the brunt of hearing “Ching, chang, chong.” But that’s just my point, I said. Knowing yourself to be non-Chinese, you won’t feel the sting of discrimination attached to the word “Chekwa” or “Intsik”. It was sad, I realized only a friend with Chinese upbringing will never ever say that to me and mean it.
But then, is it possible that my friend is right; that I’ve made a mountain out of a molehill on a word that has long ago lost its derogatory meaning and is now used to simply mean “Chinese”?
Sunday, August 22, 2010
what comes around goes around
Nobody really said that life is fair....
but i believe in good will....
do unto others what others should do unto you....
be good and good things will come.....
Saturday, August 21, 2010
i don't give a damn
i won't give a damn anymore!
im through with all the ungratefulness.
who cares!!!
Friday, August 20, 2010
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Mr Irrelevant
SENIOR Minister Goh Chok Tong last night called on Singaporeans to spin their own Singapore Dream and live it, rather than focus on what he termed the Singapore Gripe.
While gripes about current concerns such as floods, high home prices, crowded trains and distance-based bus fares were understandable, he urged people to not lose sight of the many more things which are going well for Singapore."
- Straits Times, 8 Aug 2010
Woody is no longer relevant because he is even worse than the Master he serves.
You know what, Singaporeans do learn from experience and you can fool them once but not twice.
Woody never learn from the lesson he got in the last GE when LTK won despite the goodies promised by Woody. He still thinks Singaporeans likes him. His promises were all blowing in the wind and what many policies he made, example, increasing the salaries of the ministers, are hurting the local citizens today.
The intakes of FTs and scholarships given to FTs all started during his watch.
Now he is spewing the 5Cs because that is all he knows, materialism, the alpha and the omega he lives by. This man has peanuts in his brains and totally out of touch with the aspirations of Singaporeans. He promised but cannot deliver because he does not know how. Let me get a quote from a comment made in another blog from Sir David Marshall in 1994:
"I've got nothing against money. I'd like to have money myself! I'd like to have a house and a garden and dogs and a car and a chauffeur but, look, I've got a flat. I've got a swimming pool attached to the flat. I've not even got a car but I use taxis. I have a dignified way of life without being wealthy.
I don't see the necessity of owning a Mercedes-Benz and a swimming pool and a couple of mistresses. I think we've got our values all wrong.
You know $96,000 a month for a Prime Minister and $60,000 a month for a minister.What the hell do you do with all that money? You can't eat it! What do you do with it? Your children don't need all that money.
My children have had the best of education. In fact, I'm very proud of them. One of them is a senior registrar to two major hospitals in Oxford.
Another of them is a consultant in European law to the Securities and Investment Board in the United Kingdom. They've had their education. There are no complaints.
I never earned $60,000 a month or $90,000 a month. When I was Chief Minister, I earned $8,000 a month.
Look, what is happening today is we are encouraged to and are becoming worshippers of the Golden Calf.
We have lost sight of the joy and excitement of public service, helping our fellow men. The joy and excitement of seeking and understanding of the joy of the miracle of the living the duty and the grandeur. We have lost taste for heroic action in the service of our people.
We have become good bourgeois seeking comfort,peace and security.
It's like seeking a crystal coffin and being fed by intravenous injections through pipes in the crystal coffin; crystal coffins stuck with certificates of your pragmatic abilities."
This is a man, a leader, we can respect.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
the thought counts
i opened my drawer.
found a box of ferrero,,
today is 17.
thanks for a box of chocolate.
although u know i don't eat still the thought counts,,
Saturday, August 14, 2010
2,24,7,12
1+1=2 eyes look at u...
12+12=24 hours thinking about u...
3+4=7 days in week missing u...
1+11=12 months I always need A SWEET PERSON like U.
Friday, August 13, 2010
Observing, Reading And Seeing No Hope.
I am been staying in Singapore for sometimes and have seen its' developments, physical, political, social and all.
Reading almost all the social-political blogs since they started, there is only one conclusion that the people of Singapore never and could not be cohesive in any endeavors. They are all for themselves. Even the social-political netizens have never worked with one another.
There has never been any attempt by bloggers, their readers and commenters to gather themselves to forge a stronger, better alliance to make their activism more potent and more effective. The Cyber communities are carbon copy of the Opposition Political parties, splitted, individualistic even within their own parties and communities.
Some bloggers are obviously highly intellectual, professionally qualified and successful in their careers and lives. One cannot help sometimes to suspect that within their successes they are still looking for fames that they have yet to achieve. So here they are in Blogoland to get some of that.
Putting up discourses in the Net to get the limelights without showing the ability to work with fellow netizens expose the sincerities of these bloggers to work for the holistic improvements in the livings of the people.
Another observation is that, in whichever blogsites, there are always another group of participants as well endowed as the bloggers singing discording tunes.
All considered, Singaporeans are all out of place with their own people. They should not blame foreigners.
Observing, Reading And Seeing No Hope.
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