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
And the Gahmen says it hasn’t lost touch with the ground… I believe them, they haven’t. They’ve lost touch with reality instead, not just the ground.
Now, don’t hit me, but I think what GCT said had a grain of truth in it — that that’s life: you take risks, you stand to lose some — but he should be mindful of the fact that many lowly educated and old folks have lost their money because the banks mis-sold the products to them, promising the sky and not explaining the risks to them in detail. They didn’t go in with both eyes wide open and full knowledge of the risks involved. Even with consumers who bought a faulty product there’s some form of redress — CASE or the Small Claims Tribunal, much less something that wiped out much of the savings of these folks!
As for the job situation, the Gahmen, while saying that the interests of Singaporeans come first, has not instituted a locals-first policy like Australia. In the coming bad times, it’ll be practising a bad case of giving a fish to the man instead of teaching the man to fish. I don’t need the measly hand-outs that I’ll get after queueing up for hours to see my MP so that I can pay the Gahmen back for my utility bills; I need a job that so my family can eat and I can pay those bills on a regular basis.
Isaiah´s last blog post: God Saves Sinners
It was Tan Lee Choo (SM Goh’s wife) who made the peanut comment. Typical of the elitists in this country.