Author: Grievous

Daily Discourse – Agnes Lin

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One of the most talked about person these days – other than Barack Obama – must be Agnes Lin. She gained notoriety because of an infamous Straits Stooge Times report on how unaffected she might be by the recession and how she unabashedly continue her alleged extravagant lifestyle in spite of it while spending her parents’ money. In the report, she allegedly called one of her less fortunate classmate – silly. (You can find the reproduced Stooge Times article in Xtraliciou’s blog post here..

Really, it is good enough to either make you weep or see red after reading the Stooge Times report. And like DK, I had wondered just where on earth did they managed to find this kind of people?!

This, is not yet another post to bash Agnes Lin, since there are already enough people bashing her. It is merely necessary to report that the girl herself has written on her blog that she was misquoted. This is not an attempt to takes sides with her, but rather to present what may not be widely known so everyone can draw their own conclusion whether Agnes Lin is really as hopeless as the Stooge Times has portrayed her to be and whether her parents has spoiled their child by failing to teach her the value of money.

Anyway, if it is true Miss Lin is misquoted, it really came as no surprise. This has happened before to an online friend of mine. Read about Xtralicious’ own experience here.

In Xtralicious’ case, it is a case of omission resulting in her being misquoted. Somehow, I also suspect to a certain extent the same happened to Miss Loi too, in which a detailed explanation on what she meant when she said she would ‘sack’ students from her tuition classes, might have also been removed resulting in that little annoyance on the Stomp forum which was reported here. (Miss Loi has declined to confirm my suspicions, and she mentioned that she did not want more publicity on this matter. I believe she might be concerned that if expressed badly in my writing, it might sour her relations with the reporter in question and also the Stooge Times.)

But Agnes Lin’s case is different. It was not a case of omission. If what she wrote on her blog is true, this is a case of putting words in her mouth. In fact, she claimed that she didn’t even say her classmate was silly!

This is not any worse or better compared to what happened to Xtralicious. However, when I consider that there are many whose only source of information is the Stooge Times, and even Yahoo Singapore would publish some of these articles, I shudder to think of the impact if the credibility of the report is questionable. Consider first the image of our youths presented to foreigners after they read the Stooge Times article about Miss Lin, if it was reproduced on Yahoo Singapore. We can only speculate about the damage this report has done to our national image.

Then, consider the hypothetical situation in which a political figure – especially an opposition one – ends up with words put in his mouth during our General Election and as a result caused him to lose votes or even his parliamentary seat.

Seriously, something has to be done to deal with the apparently rampant misquoting by the Stooge Times. Or will they only do something when people start avoiding an interview by the Stooge Times, or when it turns into permanent damage to Stooge Times’ reputation?

As for the matter of the young taking money from their parents, it is my considered opinion that there is no reasons whatsoever why anyone should be mad with anyone spending their parents’ money. Just because you may not be doing it or having received lesser from your own doesn’t earn you the right to bash anyone. As a Cantonese saying goes: 牛耕田，马食毂。老豆揾钱，仔享福。[Translation: As the cow tills the land and the horse eats the grains from the harvest, thus the father earns the money for his descendants to enjoy life.], it is thus the natural order of things as long as she didn’t threaten them with her life or at gunpoint for them to give her that money.

On top of which, as long as she spends money in Singapore, she will be contributing to GST, and thus our government’s gahmen’s so-called plan to help those in need. On top of which, someone has to paid into the state coffers so some of us can enjoy any gahmen credits there is.

The only sensible thing we should do about this is to find a way to earn the easy money off the ‘Agnes Lin’ reported on the Stooge Times if she truly exists. In fact, the more of them the merrier so some of that wealth can be redistributed. If you feel sorry for her parents, then you can buy something with the money you earn from her and contribute to GST because when the gahmen gives out goodies, they will get something back too.

In other words, stop being self-righteous and stop justifying your indignation already! Just come up with a brilliant business plan to earn that money. And I don’t mind if you share it with me so I can invest in your business too – as it is [allegedly] recession proof as long as the likes of the ‘Agnes Lin’ reported on the Stooge Times really exists.

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Random Discourse

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The only constants these days appear to be the beating the financial market is taking almost daily, the news barrage of jobs cuts in every sector and economic slowdown in every country. It is clear that economic conditions will continue to deteriorate at least until the end of the year. In fact, the Singapore government’s gahmen’s amendment of the constitution allowing it to draw on more returns from investing the reserves says a lot of what is ahead. Is this going to be the worst economic recession this country will face since Aug 9, 1965? And how long will it last? When companies downsize to stay lean, will jobs created by this country stay with the more capable citizens and not the cheaper economic refugees aka foreign ‘fallen talents’? Certainly, when our own people are qualified for these jobs, why should these jobs be given to foreigners? After all, unemployed locals is Singapore’s problem while unemployment of these foreigners should be their own country’s problem!

Anyway, it is reported the extra funds would be spent on research and development projects and medical care for the aged, will all of these funds truly just come from the returns on investing the reserves, or will there be yet another GST raise? If that happens, it will only add on to the burden of those who becomes unemployed and even an income tax cut will be meaningless because when you have no income, income tax is the least of your worries. Unfortunately, you still need to spend money on utilities and certain daily necessities which are all subjected to GST.

The only good news to come of this entire mess is that DBS has finally agreed that it will now buy back all that High Notes 5 shit from those who are more than 62-year-old, having less than a primary school education when they * erhem * so-call invested their money into that junk. (Though I didn’t know if that’s going to be a 100% refund or a 50% – 80% thingie).

Frankly, it doesn’t require too much brains to determine that as far as this particular group of is concerned, they possibly won’t understand the possible risks and my suspicion is that they aren’t even told! In fact, I would dare challenge any of DBS’ branch managers to read all the clauses, and then explain to me in simple English what they all really meant. I won’t be surprised even they would be stumped by all that lawyer-like mumbo-jumbo. And if they passed this test, they can then translate that into the dialect these old people understands and explain one more time. Game?

Next, there is a report that firms are studying the feasibility of very large floating structures such as floating dormitories for foreign workers. In a casual discussion I joked with a friend that the best thing to built will be a floating boot camp for our army recruits. After that we can take Pulau Tekong back and let the PSA develop it into a port. Following that, whether Malaysia wants to build a straight bridge or a crooked one wouldn’t be a matter of concern to us anymore. As a second best alternative, we can also build dormitories for foreign workers all along the Straits of Johor on our side of the border or high tech kelongs to ensure a steady supply of fish!

Finally, it is clear that some of our men-in-white has a lot to work to wash away their out-of-touch image. Start off with Lim Swee Say Shee-Shee who says that he is happy looking at his monthly CPF statement, and then to Senior Senile Mini$ter Goh – also MAS Chairman’s – insensitive c’est la vie statement below:

“That’s life, if you want good rewards, you have to take risks. Otherwise, leave your money with the CPF.”

Wow! That sure beats the one made by some other person that TT Durai’s pay is peanuts. Were they related? * snickers *

But let me first talk about Lim Shee Shee’s comment. I have definitely never receive a monthly CPF statement from the CPF board. If I do, being the usual whiny and complaining Singaporean, I would have protested the waste of money and paper. Perhaps Shee Shee checked it online using his Singpass account and then make a printout every month to look at all those numbers? Makes me wonder why he is so happy about some numbers he can’t touch until 55.

Now on to Senile Goh. I wondered whether he is even aware the conditions in which some of the people – especially senior citizens who are enticed to commit their entirey life-savings – are even clear about what they are getting into. This is not like me punting on a stock using my CPF monies and then losing it alright?

Seriously, you two ‘cocksters’ should either be replaced by some new blood unless you get down from the ivory tower and find out what real life as a common Singaporean is really like. While the Tali-PAP gahmen is doing most things right, Singaporeans still don’t appreciate such insensitive – if not foolish and uninformed – comments. Yes, not when you take 3-million dollars of pay a year! You can fxxking do better than that or gracefully say – next better player, please!

I would expect the opposition to take note of all these gaffes and remind the electorate in the next election. At least even if they end up losing the contest, that would probably help reduce the majority votes, and hopefully wake up these ‘cocksters’ and cause them to be a little more down to earth.

Comics:

Recommendations:

Good reads:
Xtralicious: The Degree Obsession
Cobalt Paladin: Diary of an Entrepreneur

Christianity Today:
Word And Verse: Ten Indictments (A Historical 21st Century Message)
Paul Washer: Regeneration vs The Idolatry of Decisional ‘Evangelism’

The Melamine Contamination Issue:
It’s safe to eat! – Hong Kong Health Secretary cornered on TV

The Lehman Brothers ‘Implosion’:
C’est la Vie? – See Hong Kong’s Equivalent of MAS Chairman grilled in Legislative Council

The American Presidential Elections 2008:
Gutter Politics: The Lies of John McCain

Commentary: Career Guidance

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While browsing the articles on The Singapore Daily I come across an article titled ‘Lack of Career Guidance in the Singapore Education System’. The blogger basically lamented about the lack of guidance given to young students as far as their career path is concerned after they complete their secondary school education – which generally means obtaining a good enough pass in their GCE ‘O’ Level exams to either proceed to Junior College or to enter the specialisation stage of their education in the Polytechnics. She pointed out the usual factors driving a student’s choice and what are some of the outcome on making the wrong choice. She then claim that those who end up hating their course is proof that students lacks career and education guidance.

I too have my gripes about the education system. Basically, they are mostly about the lack of choices. I felt it concentrates too much on the science and technical fields, with too little on the humanities and the arts. As a result, we have a well-trained and possibly well-qualified workforce, without anyone particularly outstanding. To put it in an analogy, Singapore’s Education System is like a PC manufacturer, which will ensure that its products are competitive. That means it will attempt to produce hardware with the latest CPUs, the best RAM etc. Unfortunately, Singapore’s Education System does not ‘preload’ these computers with software, and you are left to ‘install’ them on your own.

The other thing I am also unhappy about is with the streaming system. While I can understand resource constraint means putting all the ‘bright sparks’ at one place would be a more effective use of resources, the streaming system makes our Education System very unforgiving to late boomers. And that is the very reason why a brother of a good friend of mine has remained in the U.S. to this day, even after a close shave with the collapsing WTC in New York City back in 2001.

However, while I resent the system, I could not find fault with it. A well-trained and qualified workforce is what I considered a pillar of Singapore’s economy. The government gahmen ensures there will be a ready pool of trained manpower for companies encouraged to set up shop here and also fulfill their promise of creating job opportunities for the citizens. Otherwise, the jobs will end up going to foreigners like the very blogger who wrote I am talking about. Thus, it is natural the gahmen actively promotes certain courses from time to time (e.g. Mechatronics in the 80s, IT in the 90s and Life Sciences in the early 21st Century).

Anyway, one must always remember that ultimately, no one is forced into taking up the course they have chosen. If they end up disliking their choice, is it really a lack of career guidance? It would be rather natural that one would pick up course which enhances their chance of future employment. Just who would want to be left out of where the gahmen is taking the nation’s economy? And which agencies are to take up the effort to give advice to the teenager, and be responsible for the advice which might affect their lives forever? No matter how neutral such an agency, I would find it unlikely it would be giving an advice different from what their parents or peers are giving. In fact, at the tender age of 16 or 17 (depending on whether you are ‘Express’ or ‘Normal’ stream), it would take a partial genius to take the risk in going down a path less trodden.

On top of that the economy is never static, and changes happens pretty rapidly once it pushes past a certain point. Back in mid-1988 when I was entered the Polytechnic, the choice of that time was Mechatronics – which generally deals with automated production. I repeated one semester and by the end of 1994 when I entered the workforce, certain companies have started to move their production lines to Johor, Batam and by the start of 1997 to Suzhou in China. In short, it has become a sunset industry in Singapore, production facilities are moving out of Singapore and unless you are in the management or R&D level, a particularly sought out individual, or you are willing to work overseas, there’s basically not much of a prospect left in this line.

Now, this change didn’t happen rapidly and it took almost a decade. By then everyone I knew have either shifted to doing sales of products for the company they already worked for, or they have changed line entirely. I changed line in 1998 to work for my friend who is dealing primarily with network and computer setup. None of us would have expected this, and I doubt anyone who happens to be giving career guidance would have expected this back then either.

Either way, it is not entirely true that there is no career guidance given. My mei xinyun did a quick search and came up with the following links:

NJC Career Guidance
MoE Guidance Branch: Career and Educational Guidance

Do also note that it wasn’t so long that IT, and then Life Sciences was the in-thing. But with the coming IR, it is now all about Entertainment and Services!

So I must ask, was it ever the responsibility of the Education System to ensure everyone have a successful career? In fact, is it even relevant or necessary to offer career guidance when the nature of Singapore economy changes ever so rapidly? Or are we just finding it convenient to blame someone or some perceived lack when conditions in life don’t go the way we want? How are we to expect our very own Bill Gates or Steve Jobs when we expect everything to be spoon-fed?

Sure, I would really like to blame my current employer too. The wise guys with coats and ties in the Head Office making the decisions thought it would be better to sell the entire firm to a competitor. Ya right… and no one advised me this was coming.

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Daily Discourse – DBS High Notes 5

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DBS has said it would take responsibility if customers are able to give evidence of mis-selling in relation to products affected by the collapse of Lehman Brothers.

Now, let’s look at the profile of some of these poor souls who lost their money. These are a few of them which I gathered from searching Google:

  1. 60-year-old retiree Tham Wai Wah (who has only an O-level education): S$ 125,000.

  2. 59-year-old retiree who only wanted to be known as Mrs Lim: S$25,000.

These are just the reported cases. Ask around and you will find friends telling you that their own elderly parents have been approached to invest in some of these products. In fact, ask your own elderly parents if they have been approached when they go down to the bank to either withdraw their matured Fixed Deposit (FD), or to start a new one. Mine has been, and I thanked God none of these products they are ‘advised’ to put their money in are Lehman related. Better still, some of these products are maturing in 2 months.

Now, can anyone honestly dare said these old folks understood what a structured product is and all the risks behind it? Why do we hear that some of these people lost their entire life savings? Why, is it even sold to old folks whose original idea was simply to earn some honest interest from fixed deposits?

I spoke with my dad on one of the products he has placed some money into, and all he could tell me was that the guy who sold it to him told him this: Principal guaranteed, and even if the markets is doing badly he could earn 10%.

And this appears to be the same thing I am reading about these old folks who lost their money. To me, it is obvious that this is mis-selling. But solid proof of this will be hard to come by. I am quite sure some of these old folks probably couldn’t even remember who sold the product to them, nor could they find that particular staff anymore and ‘interrogate’ them. Just how on earth are investors going to prove the mis-selling without a full recording of the entire series of events leading up to their decision to invest into that product?

No wonder my friend’s comment said this when he was told of the above news: “如果我呃你，我老咗会死！” [It losely translates as – If I have bluffed / cheated you, I will die when I get old.]

And I can’t help but agree with his comment.

By the way, I heard Hong Kong, Macau and Australia have all guaranteed 100% of deposits in banks. When will Singapore, with its immense reserves do the same? With all the money around for the GIC and Temasek to invest everywhere, can’t the government gahmen even do this little bit to assure its citizens?

Comics:

Recommendations:

Good reads:
The Online Citizen (Rachel Chung): How much does the Government care?
Communplugged: Metrics Are So Yesterday!

Other news:

Local blog aggregator ping.sg pR0n.sg has gotten a face lift and new features. Lycan Times gathered that users who contribute their posts to it may now choose to keep ‘ponging’ of their posts private. This means registered users who read the posts which are not well liked and yet fears repurcussion will now be hidden from the public.

Either way, it’s a useless feature when one look at the current state of the Top 10. It is clear that few are really concerned with being exposed for ponging the lar sup (dirty) aka ‘NSFW’ (Not Safe For Work) posts. The fear of ‘exposure’ was nothing more than a speed bump previously. Allowing them to pong anonymously now simply means they will now be ponging such post with abandon and bring the domination of NSFW posts in the Top 10 to new heights.

On top of this change, there is now ‘community based’ features so only blog posts of friends will be listed. It maybe a wonderful feature so you don’t miss your friends’ post, but you can do the same using an online RSS reader such as Google Reader. Either way, after looking at the screen shots on some of the blogs reporting this feature, the layout reminded me of either blogcatalog or mybloglog.

Personal Opinion: It’s to pR0n.sg just as Aero is to Windows Vista.

Daily Discourse – Starbucks

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Recently Starbucks hit the news for wasting water – 23.4 million litres of water a day to be exact. If I am not wrong, someone actually made a calculation and came up with the estimation that this means they can refill an Olympic-size pool several times in an hour or something.

I am appalled that Starbucks is wasting that much water. Please note that while 70% of our water is covered with water, only 2.59% of that is freshwater [1].

And the drinkable water is unevenly distributed and shared by other land animals and plants, and also industrial and agricultural usage. And if this hasn’t been obvious to you in the past, that is why certain parts of the world are suffering from water shortages. Not to mention some of this water is now so polluted that we can no longer drink it without processing it first.

Here in Singapore, we go through much pain to ensure a steady supply of fresh water. At times, that even become an international dispute with our neighbouring country up north. Other example of international disputes over water involves Israel and Jordan, and also China and India. In fact, it is also rumored that the civilisation that built Angkor Wat collapsed as a result of water management failures. (You can read up some of that in Jared Diamond’s book, Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed.)

Now, water management is not the only point in Professor Diamond’s book on sustainable use of our planet’s resources. Thus, while Starbucks should get the boos for wasting water, let’s also look at what Starbucks has done right in being environmental friendly:

  1. Grounds for your Garden: A year round program that gives leftover coffee grounds to anyone requesting it for composting, though not all stores and regions participate.

  2. Reducing the size of their paper napkins and reducing the size of their store garbage bags: Reduced over 1.8 million pounds of solid waste in 2004 alone.

  3. Paper napkins made of recycled paper: Just take a look at them when you take one. There’s a fine print that says no bleach was used in its production. Now that’s one less chemical being dumped into the rivers.

  4. Recycled content in food packaging for Starbucks coffee cups: First-ever to be granted by U.S. Food and Drug Administration

  5. Gets all of their coffee beans from farms: Ensures that farmers are not negatively affecting the environment while producing coffee beans for Starbucks.

Most, if not all of the above facts are found here.

Now, this is not an article to justify Starbucks. But are you aware of the above environmentally friendly measures Starbucks have taken? In fact, when you bash Starbucks, have you also check up on some of the environmentally unfriendly conduct of certain allegedly ‘green’ companies? For e.g. In one of HP’s LCD product, there is a label that says something to this effect: Dispose carefully, lamp contains mercury. On top of that, just how environmentally friendly are the million of iPods sold all over the world, when they are all made of plastics? Also, there is a rumor that Apple will be producing laptops made of aluminum – a non-renewable resource that is mined from the Earth. Will anyone be making a lot of noise about that?

So, while Starbucks should do something about this water issue and maybe even do more to improve it’s environmental record, why are we letting some of the others go scot free?

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Good reads:
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