Weekend Discourse – Town Councils and Lamer Brothers

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Below is an excerpt from pg. A25 of Mypaper [我報] on Friday, 7th November 2008

I was surprised to read that town councils sank part of their funds into Lehman Brothers-linked minibonds.

Dr Teo Ho Pin, coordinating chairman of the 14 People’s Action Party town councils, has said that the investments make up a small percentage of the town councils’ total funds…. – Gilbert Goh Keow Wah

As my colleague and best friend showed me this article, I was once again incensed and brought back to the day when the town council said operating costs have increased and thus there is a need to raise conservancy charges.

And then I got more incensed when I remembered the day when I discovered that they have actually accumulated millions of dollars in sinking funds. And I have always asked this question, Where did all these extra money come from if the town councils are not already overcharging us?

We cracked some jokes and speculated on how that money came about over lunch, but I am not free to share them as they can be potentially libellious. None of us wants to clean our asses to do time and get free ‘kari rice’ in a Tali-PAP jail.

Anyway, as the news that they have lost money in LehmanLamer Brothers-linked minibonds sink in, more questions begin to form in my head. And the first question I have to ask will be directed at Teo Ho Pin. How much of public money meant for the maintenance of the town is lost? Which town council is hit the worst?

My next question, will be at the two opposition town councils, What about you guys?

My third question, whom one of my other colleague having lunch with me pointed out, is directed at the MAS and the banks. How can anyone now even say that those individual investors who are seasoned or better educated should know the risk and thus they should expect nothing back from their bad investments?

The reason this question must be asked is because when the town councils which would be better advised than any single individual can be on matters of investments have also screw up, how can we expect individual investors who have less resources and are probably even less informed to know the risks?

My fourth question, is at the town council. Who is making these investment decisions? Shouldn’t someone be held responsible for this fiasco now?

Or is it like Wall Street where CEOs takes their nice little bonus and share option packages while things are well, and just throw up their hands, declare bankruptcy and leave the mess for the taxpayers to clean up? Frankly, I must say, from the NKF to our town councils, the continual justifications to maintain a large amount of reserves is becoming annoying. Is it not a time to decide on what that figure should be – revised every few years – and give a proper accounting on them, even when we understand why it is even needed?

And my final question, is also at the town council. With so much freaking sinking funds, and in view of the impending economic downturn, should the town council not now use some of that money to alleviate the burden everyone have to bear, by lowering conservancy charges?

Frankly, just when the hell did you clowns become some kind of bank or profit-orientated organisation? Is your main job to maintain our town and serve us, or just another big ass organization that cares only about your Profit & Loss sheets? Or perhaps town councils are really un-necessary, but just another unemployment sink where jobs are created the unemployment figures don’t look so bad, while at the meantime clean up some figures from the gahmen spendings so it doesn’t have to make provisions for the ministry / department for city maintenance on their annual budget?

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Daily Discourse – Singapore Taxi Drivers

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The Taxi Driver is one of the most protected profession in Singapore. And I am not saying this lightly. I am sure you would agree with some of the examples I am giving below as support to my statement.

  1. They complained it is ‘unreasonable’ to expect them to enter the CBD with an empty cab because of the ERP charges, and a CBD surcharge is argued as a form of incentive for them to ply the streets in the CBD.

  2. They complained it is not fair for them to pay ERP charges for commuter alighting at the IBM towers, and commuters end up paying even when they are alighting outside the CBD.

  3. They complained that the diesel costs is too high, a 30cents diesel surcharge is slapped on commuters!

  4. And this is the best part… when we complained that it is difficult for them to get a cab in CBD during peak hours, a peak hour surcharge of 30% is slapped on the commuters – victims of cabbies who refused to pick up street hires – so cabbies can be enticed to enter the CBD.

  5. When we complained that even calling a cab is difficult as a result of the above, call charges during peak hours are also increased! Just why are passengers made to pay for telling cabbies where to get business is beyond me!

It wouldn’t be so bad had any of these sweeteners translate into an improvement of the cab service for commuters. Yet, the problem commuters face remains the same, while these surcharges just continue to mount, and encourages cabbies to remain recalcitrant. How the LTA continue to justify maintaining this unwieldy system that punishes commuters is perhaps only understood by the high level car-driving civil servants serpents of the LTA in their air-conditioned offices – the modern day equivalent of an ivory tower.

It doesn’t freaking matter to taxi drivers that being self-employed, and thus ‘businessmen’ in their own right, these operating charges should part of the operational risks that they should bear, along with traffic fines, congestion and accidents! Frankly, who listens to the entrepreneur who complains about the rising electricity tariffs, or even SingTel raising the fixed line charges by $10? No one is going to give any of these guys a bail out, but here we have the taxi companies acting in concert to pass all of that costs downstream to you and me when it is no fault of our own. No wonder even other businesses now shamelessly pass all the costs to their customers – such as when there is a cost increase in sugar, rice or egg prices!

Thus, it is of no surprise that some cab drivers can afford to wander around the street and ignore passengers flagging frantically for a cab or ignore the long queues in taxi stands. It is also not a surprise to find some cabbies doing side trades as pimps. They can also afford to disappear from the streets until the fares are in their favor, or reject passengers citing a myriad of reasons ranging from having an advanced booking, servicing or changing shift! And if you know which coffee shop to look for them, you can at times listen in to their chats and hear them boast about their earnings. Yet at the meantime they play up to the media just how difficult it is for them to earn a living.

And if you are wondering just why they are so protected… the first reason is the well being of taxi companies are intertwined with the taxi drivers’. If taxi drivers quit, taxi companies will end up with a large fleet of cabs rusting away and they will have a tough time explaining the losses to shareholders. Thus, you will only see taxi companies help their drivers by collaborating to pass the cost to commuters, but never by cutting rental. But still, taxi companies is really not the main reason why taxi drivers are protected.

The most important reason is the taxi driver profession serves as the proverbial carpet where Singapore sweeps its unemployment problem under. A lot of folks in their mid- to late-thirties usually end up as taxi drivers during recessions. Taxi drivers are where a part of Singapore’s unemployment problem is hidden, along with homemakers and students. In short, as long as taxi drivers remained in their trade, they will not show up as unemployed!

I suspect that is the real reason why Singapore taxi drivers are always protected under a jumble of surcharges, giving the recalcitrant ones the loopholes to screw commuters several times over. Frankly, if the LTA is really into a people-centred land transport system, I reiterate again that the correct thing to do will be to raise flag-down charges for cabs substantially, and do away with the insane surcharges – except the airport and midnight charges, of course.


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Obama Wins U.S. Presidency

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Against all odds, 47-year-old first-term senator Barack Obama from Illinois has won the Presidency and will be the 44th President of the United States. History has been made, be it for better or worse.

The heavens here broke, as I read of McCain conceding to Obama while having my lunch at a coffee shop along South Bridge Road. Superstitious Chinese would have wondered if that was tears of joy, or weeping in sadness.

Whatever the future portends, let’s hope President-Elect Obama will have the courage and wisdom to do what is right for the U.S, and reverse some of the obvious idiotic policies of the George W. Bush AdministrationRegime. It is certain that with the impending global recession, any more foul ups in the US isn’t going to be any good for the rest of the world.

Regardless of my apprehension and disagreement with Obama’s liberal stand on homosexual civil unions, I hope I can really look forward to some change which can be believed in.


See also Senator McCain’s concession speech on Youtube. Applaud the man for his graciousness in the face of his defeat, a defeat that is no fault of his own, but that of George ‘Warmonger’ Bush.

Random Discourse

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“Work smart, and not work hard!” has become the slogan in the corporate world along with “It’s more important to be effective than efficient”.

Nothing so wrong with both, since to be efficient all you need is a robot and working hard also doesn’t mean you are a good worker. Unfortunately, some people have become quite ruthless in working smart. They ‘outsource’ even their thinking to you so you will be doing all the hard work and all the thinking, while they leech the end result off you. Just too bad they continue to receive their pay for doing nothing, while you get zilch for it.

An example of such people are those who come and tell you that there is this particular problem, what the suspected cause could be, and then ask you whether his suspicions are correct. This means that this person has been previously told what are the possible causes of a particular problem and possibly even the solution. This isn’t the same as someone having no knowledge whatsoever on what this problem maybe and where to look for the solution.

To be fair, while the reason he asked maybe a lack of experience in dealing with the problem, or is too timid to attempt the solution as it maybe tricky or hazardous, it is hard to view it as such when this person repeatedly shows no initiative in attempting to solve every problem on his own. It gives you the impression that this person is more than timid, he is simply being lazy!

Anyway, the usual outcome would be you verifying whether the conditions consistent with the suspected cause are present since this person apparently has done nothing whatsoever to confirm them. In short, they outsource the entire mental process to you while they sit back, relax and wait for you to give them the answer. And by the time you are done, you probably would have gotten to the solution as well and they would have done nothing. (Of course, one can always give this person a chewing out but then you will have no clue how this person would take it, or whether this person won’t deliberately screw it up to spite you.)

While thinking over it, I suspect it might not be a case that the person is being lazy, or timid. But rather, he’s effectively working smart! He makes you angry while you do all the work, and he sits back and just take earn his pay. And most of the time, everyone else would be too angry to even think of the possibility!!

And it has come to my notice that a lot of the people who works this way are usually of foreign origins. Now, is it of wonder why they are called ForeignFallen Talents, while we Singaporeans are looked upon as idiots by even politicians from Taiwan?

It’s perhaps high time we return some of these economic parasites the favor.

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Daily Discourse – Eugenics (II)

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The following excerpts should sum up my objection to the MinisterMonkey Mentor’s views on Eugenics, and also the use of academic achievements or knowledge as a measure of intelligence. In fact, it is also the basis of my argument against IQ tests as a means of measuring intelligence, my stand that there are no evidence to determine that intelligence can be passed genetically and thus my answer to iantimothy‘s question on Plurk: ‘So you think genes aren’t important?’

First, even our cognitive abilities as adults are heavily influenced during childhood, making it hard to discern any influence of preexisting genetic differences. Second, tests of cognitive abilities (like IQ tests) tend to measure cultural learning and not pure innate intelligence, whatever that is.

– Guns, Germs and Steel, Prologue: Yali’s Questions [p. 20]

… One day, when my companions of the Foré tribe and I were starving in the jungle because another tribe was blocking our return to the supply base, a Foré man returned to camp with a large rucksack full of mushrooms he had found, and started to roast them. Dinner at last! But then I had an unsettling thought: what if the mushrooms were poisonous?

I patiently explained to me Foré companions that I had read about some mushrooms’ being poisonous, that I had heard of even expert American mushroom collectors’ dying because of our difficulty in distinguishing safe from dangerous mushrooms, and that although we were all hungry, it just wasn’t worth the risk. At that point one of my companions got angry and told me to shut up and listen while they explained some things to me. After I had been quizzing them for years about names of hundreds of trees and birds, how could I insult them by assuming they didn’t have names for different mushrooms? Only Americans could be so stupid as to confuse poisonous mushrooms with safe ones. They went on to lecture me about 29 types of mushroom species, each species in the Foré language, and where in the forest one should look for it. This one, the tánti, grew on trees, and it was delicious and perfectly edible.

– Guns, Germs and Steel, Chapter 8: Apples or Indians [p. 143 – 144]

Thinking back, I would admit I had argued like a fool when I disagreed with iantimothy. I should have simply said when you point out my ignorance, would you not be kind enough to show me what I am ignorant about? instead of saying I don’t need to show you nothing to show there is nothing.. Thus, I will now revisit this matter and put it down on a blog post. That way, if iantimothy need to further elaborate on the matter in a blog post of his own, he will not have to guess or speculate on why I so violently object to the Monkey Mentor’s views.

In summary, my entire premise is simply built upon these points – i.e. there is no sure method to measure intelligence (be it an IQ test or academic achievements), and that any research purportedly proving the link between genes and intelligence are questionable as a result of our cognitive abilities being heavily influenced during childhood.

I am not an expert in the field of intelligence studies so I do not know what is the best method to measure intelligence nor am I in the position to propose another. Talent and aptitude may somewhat prove intelligence, but where Xiang Yu (项羽) and Mark Anthony are talents when it comes to matters of conducting war, they definitely showed a lack of aptitude in matters political. In short, by saying that only graduates should marry graduates or else you should fear that your own offspring might not get to university is erroneous and myopic. What is the point of producing certain talented people whose aptitude is limited to specific fields? That is hardly going to give us an intelligent people as some freak occurrence in nature or rapid changing circumstances might render such talents and aptitude a handicap, much like a person who is nimble may become completely clumsy in the absence of light, where a blind man would out manoeuvre him. Would you thus consider blindness a positive trait and thus have them breed like wild rabbits?

Other than talent and aptitude, how fast a person learn a completely new skill and then put it to use to deal with the problems he face may also show how intelligent that person is… so does how one use his existing and even limited abilities to survive in the face of adversity may also prove it. And when we put all of these together, a person possessing all of these capabilities are far and few in between. In other words, the Monkey Mentor’s version of Eugenics may breed one kind with just a limited set of capabilities that he consider as being intelligent, while breeding out the rest of the ‘intelligent traits’ which are also useful.

And based on the above I object to the Monkey Mentor’s comments. And I reiterate, Eugenics is just plain dead wrong.

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集结号 (Assembly):

冯小刚导演的一部电影。画面的真实性和拍摄手法可以媲美好莱坞的《雷霆救兵》[Saving Private Ryan]。故事的背景是中国内战时期在汶河一带共军华中野战军 (中野) 对抗国民党军的一场战役。故事主角连长谷之地奉团长之命死守汶河一侧的阵地，主要目的是阻碍国民党军的进攻，让在华北的中野的主力能够有次序的撤退，不至于全军覆没。

结果是谷的部队完全被敌人全部歼灭，连发命令死守阵地的团长也战死。从昏迷中清醒的谷，由于身上穿着敌军的军服而无法证明他的身份。而且瞬息万变的战事以及部队不断的改编，使到上级无法证实谷的部队编号是否存在。唯一存活的谷由于无法证明部下的英勇牺牲和让他们得到应得的奖赏和追思感到的悲愤莫名、无奈和懊恼。无助的谷只好继续活下去，加入了援朝的自愿部队，希望他的忠诚能让上级调查他的背景来为他的部队平反。

虽然这换来了和他一起作战的部队的军官对他的信任和赏识，但这并没有令共党政治部撇开谷是穿着敌军的军服被发现的过去而给予他应得的礼遇。谷认为除非部队的遗骸被发现，过去的部下将永远得不到到应得的礼遇。所以谷回到了汶河，企图从记忆里找出当年埋葬部队尸骸的煤矿入口，把部队的遗骸挖出来证明他的过去…

《集结号》和《雷霆救兵》有许多相同之处。里面有面对战斗恐惧的指导员，有反对射杀战俘的士兵，有血淋淋的伤者和被炮弹轰掉了半身但还奄奄一息的士兵。电影的画面让人看到了战争丑陋的一面。但是谷的遭遇也让我们看到中国一贯对为国牺牲的人民如何的不重视。谷的遭遇让我想起了，过去几十年来大陆方面如何抹杀了抗日战争时期国民党部队的事迹。难道就因为政见不同，别人为国家为民族的牺牲就不算数了吧？国民党新一军阵亡战士的公坟今天被如何的糟蹋，让人痛心。

看看日本吧。就算战败，也虽败犹荣。当年的日本皇军今天还在靖国神社里被供奉为神呢。如果做不到对为国捐躯的死者尊敬，那么又让将来的国民为了什么来为他们的祖国上战场呢？

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