Singapore Notes

The minister sticking to the nonagenarian like a leech in the photo op gave a longer speech than Lee's two minutes at the microphone. After stating that the aim of the Government is to ensure every Singaporean owns an asset - a HDB flat - so that everyone will have ~~an albatross hanging about his neck for the span of the 35 year mortgage~~ a stake in the country, he proceeded to advise against borrowing against the future, so that a financial burden is not passed on to future generations.

Ngiam Tong Dow once said George Yeo can weave magic with words. The context was the request from the MITA minister to build the Esplanade theatres and concert halls for $600 million. Before this, the highest ever request from MITA had been for $50 million to reconstruct and refurbish the Victoria concert halls, and even that was approved only because Goh Keng Swee personally placed his "considerable power of persuasion" behind the proposal. At the launch of Ngiam's book "Dynamics of the Singapore Success Story", Yeo confirmed the story: "When I was in MITA, Mr Ngiam was Permanent Secretary in the Finance Ministry. He almost killed the Esplanade project about which he paid me a high compliment years later."

The "high compliment" paid by Ngiam: "MOF was defeated by this ingenious procedural innovation," which was to use the Totalisator Board to finance the capital expenditure outside the Budget, using future revenue streams. Then Finance Minister Lim Hng Kiang has another variant of the ingenious scheme, giving Yeo less effusive credit for deploying future revenue streams, but the money was still spent.

Behind the cascade of words, more schemes must have been hatched. Why else is the current generation feeling the burden of financing the strained infrastructure, such as the $1.1 billion freebie for SMRT and SBS Transit? On Tuesday (Aug 12) SBS Transit reported a 57.2% increase in net profit for the second quarter; will they ever return anything to the taxpayers? The future's a tricky business, when the guys in charge weave magic with words.

They say if you open the windows, expect flies to come in. Certainly not Ebola, unless you have a open door policy for all things foreign.

There was a mild scare yesterday when a Nigerian woman in her 50s was identified as a possible Ebola case by doctors at Gleneagles Hospital and transferred to Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH)'s Communicable Diseases Centre. She had flown into Singapore recently and arrived at Gleneagles's emergency department with a fever. What we do not know is whether she is one of many African foreign talents welcomed into the country by the liberal immigration policies or just another high valued individual landing here with lots of cash to park at our banks.

According to latest update (14 August) issued by the World Health Organisation (WHO), 128 new cases of Ebola virus disease, as well as 56 deaths, were reported from Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone, bringing the total number of cases to 1,975 and deaths to 1,069.

Ebola is a scary viral illness with initial symptoms of a sudden fever, intense weakness, muscle pain and sore throat. Then it gets worse - vomiting, diarrhoea and - in some cases - both internal and external bleeding. The incurable disease infects humans through close contact with infected animals, and then spreads between humans via direct contact with infected blood, bodily fluids or organs, or indirectly through contact with contaminated environments.

It's so scary that WHO has warned that there is "no early end in sight" to the severe health crisis and called for "extraordinary measures". Measures such as the Korean Air decision to suspend its return flights from Incheon, South Korea, to Nairobi, with effect from August 20.

India's health minister Harsh Vardhan said 500 Indians are in the Republic of Guinea, 3,000 in Liberia and 1,200 in Sierra Leone, from where the maximum cases have been reported. Nigeria has a much larger presence of nearly 40,000 Indian citizens. "If the situation worsens, there is a possibility of these people returning home," Vardhan said. Hopefully not with the disease.

The Ministry of Health (MOH) claims that the risk of Ebola in Singapore remains low as there is limited traffic between West Africa and Singapore. Just in case, they carried out a mock "preparedness" exercise at Changi Airport, coincidentally, yesterday. All we need now is a tweet from Singapore Airlines declaring that they do not have connecting flights from Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone.

Quite a few viewed the National Day Rally speech on Youtube, at 9.15 pm the visitor count was 6,093. Maybe they were hoping to capture a personal video of another "mee siam mai hum" moment for posterity, the type of glitch that seem to pepper his public performances. He did mention the Minimum Sum was going to be raised to $161 twice, but the staid non-reaction of the selected audience in attendance let that pass. However, it was difficult to miss the saga of the fishball stick.

Once upon a time, there was an entity that went by the acronym of PWD, which stood for Public Works Department. If you had a mosquito problem that needed defogging, a pavement that needed to be resurfaced, or a road that needed to be dug up, you had only one number to call. Think of it as the ghost-busters of public space, the sentinels of a well maintained environment, once upon a time.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong told the captive audience he found out (what we all already know) that it took 3 government agencies to address one miscreant piece of wood, presumably used for piercing fishballs. Mercifully it was not bagged and sent to a government laboratory to determine whether it could have been satay or yakitori.

The National Environment Agency (NEA) would only budge if the offending litter was on a grassy slope, the National Parks Board (NParks) if it was on the park connector, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) if it was on a pavement next to a roadway. Imagine the big inter-agency quibble over a pavement running down a slope, along a park connector, abutting a roadway.

Why the need for NEA, NParks and LTA when PWD was doing a good job for the price of one? Quite simply, that kind of bloat translates to justification for 3 sets of offices, 3 sets of permanent secretaries and 3 sets of superscale civil service officers. First rule in government spending: Why build one when you can have two at twice the price?

Lee's solution is to set up a fourth agency, the Municipal Services Office (MSO) under the Ministry of National Development. Grace Fu must be glad to finally have something to do, to justify her million dollar paycheck. After all, she must feel lost among the numbers of Minister-in-the-Prime Minister's Office, which used to be more accurately called Minister-without-Portfolio.

While Brazil has denied links with property firm EcoHouse, a developer who claimed to be working with a Brazilian government social housing programme, it has not refuted reports that GIC Private Limited (formerly known as Government of Singapore Investment) has acquired an 18.5 percent stake in Brazilian education services company Abril Eduacao.

Opaque as ever, GIC did not disclose how much was shelled out for Brazil's primary and secondary school market. Reuters is guessing that the investment is worth about $330 million. How much of that has been tapped from the Central Provident Fund ("GIC pays no regard to what the source of funds is" - Tharman) is more difficult to decipher. We know CPF can be used for our children's education, but spending it on Brazilian kids?

Skip to 49:50 of the video (Lee Kuan Yew speaking in October 1998 at the Shell Distinguished Lecture Series: "The Origin of the Meltdown in East Asia") where he says, "I'm not wanting to defend unorthodox ways of doing business," just after defending Suharto and family for stashing away $42 billion of a nation's wealth. It's okay, he said with a straight face, because Suharto and his family had vested $42 billion and their enterprises in Indonesia, "they didn't put their money outside". 30 years of "corruption, cronyism, bribery and the rest of it" was justifiable in his eyes "because they made growth". What brought the country down was foreign debt, and he blamed IMF for highlighting the financial morass.

We may not have to worry about foreign debt, but the local debt could bring us down to our knees. The composition of government borrowings outstanding as of March 2013 was S$396 billion (comprising T-bills ($60 billion), SGS Bonds ($87 billion) and SSGS ($249 billion)). We now know what SSGS is. We now know where the SSGS ends up. What we don't understand is why they are still saying our CPF is risk free.

When the taxi driver appeared to have difficulty with our destination, we suggested he use the GPS system in his cab, but he said the LCD display was not a navigation system. It was just a digitised map, and yes, his rental did go up after it was fitted. We then taught him how to enable turn-by-turn voice guidance navigation with Google maps on his android smartphone.

ComfortDelGro recently installed in-vehicle cameras for its fleet of more than 16,000 taxis, purportedly as an added safety and security measure for drivers to identify passengers who evade fares, as well as to provide video evidence for accident situations. If rentals also did increase, it is not public knowledge.

ComfortDelGro is now testing a new smart camera on 30 taxis for the next 6 months that it says can determine real-time traffic risks while a vehicle is in motion and prompt the driver with audio and visual warnings. Mobileye® is a “smart” camera located on the front windshield and uses proprietary pedestrian detection technologies to measure the distance to vehicles, monitor lane markings, speed signs and hopefully avoid collision with objects being scanned. Nothing is mentioned about prevention from being rammed from the side by a speeding Ferrari trying to beat the lights at Rochor Road. The installation for the fancy camera, which retails for S$2,300, will be done for free for the cabbies. Who has to end up paying for the expensive accessory is not disclosed.

Yang Ban Seng, ComfortDelGro’s chief executive for its taxi business, said “This device acts as another ‘eye’ for our cabbies, who spend a large part of their days and nights on the road.” What we really need is someone to keep an eye on the costs of operation, and work towards reducing exorbitant taxi charges, not find another excuse to hike fares.

When a member of a certain profession tries to discourage you from going into the same field, chances are that he is protecting his turf for ulterior motives. The law of supply and demand is immutable, or as Law Minister K Shanmugam pointed out, the juicy starting salaries and annual increment of past years won't last forever. Budding lawyers will have to understand that the market may change based on laws of economics, not fine points of law.

Going by Nominal Value Added, we are told the legal services sector has grown from $1.5 billion in 2009 to an estimate of $2.1 billion last year. It helps when professionals like Senior Counsel Alvin Yeo and Member of Parliament for Chua Chu Kang GRC have no qualms about billing $46,729 to $77,102 for each day in court, and as much as $100,000 per hour of hearing. A friend had a taste of cowboy town when he was quoted $500 for a simple transfer of title for a 2-room flat after his mother passed on. Fortunately someone within the housing board was prepared to do the same paperwork for $38.50.

The total number of lawyers churned annually out by local universities NUS and SMU in the last 3 years range from 334 to 369. The third law school, at SIM University, is expected to take in 50 to 75 students yearly. Compared to the estimated 1,142 Singaporeans reading law in the United Kingdom, one can see a big squeeze ahead if the number of local training contracts fail to absorb the potential flood of applicants.

Then again, not every young legal mind may want to practice law here. Not when we have rulings like it's okay to be found inside a prohibited zone, but not if caught loitering within 200 meters of it. The advantage of an overseas education is that one can be tutored by first world legal expertise, instead of third world partisan practitioners. Hopefully we can look forward to a future generation who will champion the rule of law, instead of rule by law.

After being on the run since his escape from a toilet window of the Internal Security Department's Whitley Road Detention Centre on 27 February 2008, Mas Selamat bin Kastari was finally apprehended in Skudai, Malaysia, on 1 April 2009. By the Royal Malaysian Police. The Singapore media got wind of the capture by the Malaysian authorities only on 8 May 2009. Mas Selamat was transferred back to Singapore on 24 September 2010. Since then, if the Singapore Police Force (SPF) ever managed to find out how a limping terrorist could evade the "largest manhunt ever launched in Singapore" and cross a body of water, we are none the wiser.

Meanwhile the Malaysian police have been busy again and thwarted a plot hatched by radical Islamic militants influenced by Iraq's extremist jihad group, Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). The 19 suspected militants arrested from April-June had plans to blow up pubs, discos and a Malaysian brewery of Danish beer producer Carlsberg, revealed Ayob Khan Mydin, deputy chief of the Malaysian police counter-terrorism division.

Ayob Khan told AFP the group, all Malaysians, had visions of establishing a hard line Southeast Asian Islamic caliphate spanning Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines and Singapore. "From interrogating them, they talk about [Islamic State] ideology, including the killing of innocent people and also Muslims who are not in their group," he said, demonstrating that the Malaysian authorities are better at eliciting information from captured terrorists under detention. Thanks to folks like him, Singaporeans can sleep nights. Ayob Khan has to be grossly underpaid.

This man definitely deserves a beer (Calsberg of course)

This is plain disgraceful demeanor. Barely a week has passed since her great commission, and the minister is already shirking her responsibility and redefining her own job description.

The Prime Minister had made it crystal clear at the nation wide broadcast her million dollar portfolio was a bao-kar-liao assignment - that's dialect for "all encompassing" or "everything-but-the-kitchen-sink". Right off the bat, of course she should expect her phone to be ringing off the hook. If the PM decides to dedicate expensive prime-time television to a fishball stick instead of housing, transportation, health care or immigration issues, it has to be a national priority, right?

Grace Fu begs to differ. By her own definition, the newly launched Municipal Services Office (MSO) is not a "catch-all body, but for complex cases" only, a direct insinuation that a fishball stick does not deserve national attention. Never mind that past attempts to address the "tai-ji" malaise in the system has failed miserably. There was the "Zip-in-Process" (ZIP) initiative in 2000, "No Wrong Door" approach in 2004, "Walls Coming Down" promise in 2006, "First Responder Protocol" improvement in 2012, and the new "Department of Public Cleanliness" set up in 2013. But when a member of the public called the NEA about a serpentine intruder in October 2013, he was asked whether aforementioned snake was slithering in a public park, or in a building, and whither direction it was heading for. If the snake could talk, they would probably quiz it and ask if it preferred to be attended to by NParks, PUB, AVA or the friendly neighborhood police.

Here's how Grace Fu envisages her scope of responsibility: "So, if one knows who to call, of course he can just call the number. But if he doesn't know who to call, I'm hoping to see if I can make it easier for them." Think of it as a high class call center girl, with a compensation package to drool for.

Finally, former prime minister Lee Kuan Yew's memoirs, "The Singapore Story" and "From Third World To First", are now available in electronic book format. In the author's note to the eBook edition, Lee wrote, "It is my hope that the experiences of my generation find relevance with a generation that grew up with digital literacy and technology."

Lee once said he will call it a day when the retelling of his experiences and stories can fit into a thumbdrive. Capacities for thumbdrives are now in the order of gigabytes (GB), yet the nonagenarian was last seen leading a team for the Tanjong Pagar Group Representation Constituency (GRC) in the 2011 elections. Maybe they were trying to physically squeeze two hard cover volumes into a tiny solid state device. It may sound ridiculous, but we are dealing with folks like his son who recently declared that the "human society was not designed with the Internet age in mind."

The eBook format takes the wind out of that argument. The 2 volumes of Hitler’s Mein Kampf take up only 1 megabyte (mb), 7 books of the Harry Porter series add up to 6 mb, and the Oxford Complete Works of Shakespeare occupy only 7 mb of disk space. Even “The Untold Story of Mao” by June Chang and Jon Holliday, which includes 1780 pages of text and photographs, require only 6 mb of storage. It is doubtful all of Lee’s books can even fill up a 2 GB thumb drive.

Produced and sold under licence from Singapore Press Holdings (who else?) which owns the publication rights, the memoirs started retailing at $34.99 each from major e-book distributors from Monday 25th August. It's cheaper online. But you can't use it as an expensive door stop.

Bill Gates and Steve Jobs are two glaring examples of how to be successful without benefit of a university degree. Forbes magazine published a list of college-dropout billionaires on March 11, 2009 and noted that the average net worth of billionaires who dropped out of college, $9.4 billion, is approximately triple that of billionaires with Ph.D.s, $3.2 billion. Then again, what is the purpose of education?

John Goodlad ("In Praise of Education", Teachers College Press, 1997) wrote that educational stimuli stirs and prods the maturing individual to engage in a process or self-transcendence from narcissism to identify with and assume responsibility for humankind and for all species of flora and fauna on which humankind's own survival depends. Quite a mouthful to say that it's better to stop and smell the flower bouquet than swipe the free toothpicks from a restaurant table.

The journey of education, he said, is endangered by alternatives lushly advertised in travel folders that offer more and earlier self-gratification for less discipline and sacrifice. We see that in our variant of meritocracy, where an 18 year old has his path to obscene wealth chartered by the type of scholarship he is anointed with. Never mind if the skillset calls for obfuscation and dereliction of accountability, the legions of minions can always be counted upon to be exploited to the hilt.

The contention that education is a moral endeavor is a frightening prospect for these people. Goodlad cites the British philosopher John White, who believes there are moral positions that should be made available to everyone in a democratic society, such as fairness, caring, justice, equality and community. Tragedy is a leadership populated by amoral individuals.

It is obvious that education has been corrupted to lesser ends than guiding the delicate process of self transcendence. No wonder the discussion of education is tainted by discourses of starting pay and competitive salaries. Society has no room for ruminations about higher aspirations when the earthy needs of affordable housing, transportation and job security are not met.

News like this is enough to turn any one into an atheist. First we have this wife of a mega church pastor cavorting semi-clad in a music video to win more converts, and giving geishas in general a black eye in the process. For the record, real geishas do not provide pleasures of the flesh. They are highly skilled professionals, traditional female entertainers dedicated to performing various Japanese arts such as classical shamisen music, dance and games, appreciated for their subtlety, strength, and grace.

There's nothing subtle about the females travelling to the Middle East to offer up themselves as sex objects for the insatiable Islamic State fighters in Syria and Iraq. Not just the 3 Malaysians mentioned by Malaysian Insider, Sunni women from Australia and the United Kingdom are also participating in the Jihad Al Nikah (Arabic: جهاد النكاح‎, often translated as Sex jihad or Sexual jihad), draining the energies of the combatants who probably need it more on the battlefield. It's enough to give the comfort women of World War II a bad name.

Apparently it started after the fall of the town of Mosul, and people were ordered to send their unmarried women to jihad for sex. Note the unabashed request for virgins - these nuts should kill themselves and collect their entitlement of 70 unsoiled maidens in the after life. During WWII businessmen shipped willing prostitutes overseas to service the troops. It was only when the supply ran out that local females were "recruited" to staff the pleasure barracks. Cruel as it may be, at least the Japs didn't invoke a religious entity to justify their atrocity.

When we adopted a rabbit from the SPCA, we were told to pay for the spaying and neutering fee, on the understanding that a neutered male rabbit will live longer. Also, altered rabbits are supposed to be calmer, more loving, and dependable once the undeniable urge to mate has been removed. All we remember was that the poor creature was sad and forlorn for at least a fortnight. You would be sad too if your family jewels were surgically nipped off.

The Housing Board recommendation to some Ang Mo Kio dog owners about debarking noisy canines seems to have upset some animal lovers. The Action for Singapore Dogs organisation claims on their Facebook posting that "This is an extremely cruel and painful procedure of removing the vocal chords which can cause constant physical pain." Sounds a thousand times more scary than the Isis "FGM edict"hoax in Iraq about enforced female genital mutilation.

Charlotte McGowan, a dog breeder for over 40 years, provides some alternate perspectives at her "Myths and Facts" presentation about debarking (bark softening):

Q: Does debarking remove the dog's ability to bark?
A: No. Debarked dogs continue to bark. What debarking does is to lower the volume of the bark so that it does not carry for miles around.

Q: Is this a "cruel and barbaric procedure?"
A: No. People with little or no experience raising naturally noisy and talkative breeds may tell you this. People with breeds like Shetland Sheepdogs (Shelties) can tell you that this procedure is simple and that it saves lives of dogs that might otherwise be dumped in the pound for their barking. Debarking is a more simple procedure than removing the uterus in spaying or removing testicles in neutering.

Q: Do dogs suffer emotionally from debarking?
A: It is a huge myth to suggest dogs are emotionally disturbed by debarking. Debarked dogs can bark. Even if reduced sound comes out of their mouths, they don't seem to notice at all! Debarked dogs that are not being constantly disciplined for barking, in fact, tend to be much happier dogs!

Before you join the throngs of unhappy people who go on the internet to research additional viewpoints - satisfied people don’t have time to go on the internet, we are told - consider the relative lack of reaction when the minister tried to debark the vociferous online voices. It is a sad day when the activists pay more attention to barking dogs than complaining citizens yapping for the return of their CPF.

It was obvious the hike for the non-graduate civil servants was not meant to address the shameful Gini coefficient. The management executive officers - specifically those who work on policies and oversea operations - who are benefiting from the 5 pay cent increase this month are, by one account, in the over $10,000 a month salary bracket. The beneficiaries of this largess include 6,500 management executive officers and 5,300 management support officers.

This unexpected generosity comes after the 5 to 12 percent increases announced for Home Team officers recently, and public sector nurses have been promised 5 to 20 percent over the next two years.

The Public Service Division (PSD) cited factors like economic growth, despite the published fact that GDP growth is nowhere within smelling range of 5 percent.

Based on advance estimates in July 2014, the Singapore economy grew by 2.1 per cent on a year-on-year basis in the second quarter of 2014, slower than the 4.7 per cent growth in the previous quarter. On a quarter-on-quarter seasonally-adjusted annualised basis, the economy contracted by 0.8 per cent, a reversal from the 1.6 per cent growth in the preceding quarter.

Another line used is the keep up with the Joneses in the private-sector argument. At least one dissenting voice shot this down, "I don't think civil servants are lagging behind the private sector." The CEO of the Center for Executive Education felt the PSD should "clearly articulate and provide the information on how extensive its private-sector salary data study was and what industry level it benchmarked salaries to."

The Home Team showed its true colours at Little India. The nurses' hard work are marred by horror stories of how a woman died because her aspirator was not switched on, and a grandma with an assigned ward and bed number who had to spend the night in a hospital corridor. Nobody really knows what the non-graduate civil servants do, since we assume policy making is in the powerful hands of the superscale permanent secretaries. However, we do see lots of helpers manning the balloting centers during a general election.

The letter writer asked for a waiver of the 3 year waiting period for a HDB flat after downgrading from private property ownership. Instead of being free to hop about happily in the garden, his rabbit will probably be confined to a hutch in the balcony. And poor doggy may have to be debarked to maintain the silence of the lambs housed in high rise pigeon holes with 99-year leases. Such is the fate of those who swallowed the sugared blue pill of asset enhancement.

Talking on the Chinese language station 95.8FM radio call-in , even the prime minister admitted that there are retirees who are asset-rich cash-poor. "We should take a close look at this problem.... ", he said, without venturing any solution.

The Reuters report of another quiet group highlighted the eerie silence at night in Sentosa Cove, the only place in Singapore where foreigners can buy landed property. Spurred on by the 2004 Financial Investor Scheme (FIS) that allowed foreigners with a global net worth of $20 million to become permanent residents (PRs) if they parked $5 million (raised to $10 million in 2010) in country, $2 million of which could be put into property, the gold rush was on.

Fast forward to July 2014, a four-bedroom apartment in Sentosa's Turquoise condominium went under the hammer at a mortgagee sale for $1,400 per square foot. In 2012, a similar flat in the same block went for $2,450 per square foot and in 2007, it fetched $2,800. "The rental can't even cover the mortgage for these high-end investments - they want to offload but there are no takers," said the head of research at property consultancy OrangeTee.

No pity for this lot. Without a doubt, they helped pushed the COE to untenable levels. Last month United Overseas Bank (UOB) reported a doubling in its bad debt charges for the second quarter, attributing to a group of investors struggling to service high-end property loans. Inevitably, the banks will have to hike interest rates, and even those flat buyers who opt for the Housing Board's fixed concessionary loans may not escape the bloodbath ahead. Be afraid, be very afraid.

The Pioneer Generation Package (PGP) was introduced in February with much fanfare at Budget 2014. Since then, we have been inundated with the spare-no-expense publicity tsunami, the most obnoxious being the mahjong game video which tarred our senior citizens as compulsive gamblers. A none too subtle excuse for why our CPF is not returned at age 55.

From June 16, letters were sent out to inform those who qualify for the PGP, supposedly to spell out clearly the lifetime benefits they will be entitled to.

In August, the first sign of the roll out of promises came in the form of Medisave top ups.

The PGP welcome pack was sent out in late August, which contains the key Pioneer Generation Card, to open the door for special subsidies at general practitioner (GP) and dental clinics under the Community Health Assist Scheme (CHAS), polyclinics, and Specialist Outpatient Clinics.

Senior Minister of State for Health Amy Khor, and Senior Minister of State for Finance Josephine Teo were on hand at the PGP Taskforce production site on July 22 to check on the progress of the promotional material. Khor was clear with her mission: "We will also work closely with the grassroots and other groups, VWOs included, besides our frontline staff, to explain the package to them. The welcome pack is the PG card but the benefits itself, we will have to explain to them probably in more detail."

Someone else who had to be familiar with the details of the package was the prime minister who personally presented the PGP to some 200 elderly Singaporeans at the Teck Ghee Community Club on Saturday evening, August 30.

Come September 1, the pioneers trooped to the participating polyclinics and specialist outpatient clinics to enjoy the additional 50 per cent off subsidised services such as consultation and blood tests. Some, like 82 year old Ang, reportedly postponed treatment last week to take advantage of the subsidies, "My daughter wanted to bring me here on Friday as I was feverish, but I wanted to wait till today to get the discount."

Only to discover that the discount does not apply for prescribed drugs or medication, which comes into effect only from January 1. In non-clinical terms, batteries are not included. Hopefully, other PGP qualified senior citizens will not be rescheduling their medical appointments till January next year, or kick the bucket in the interim. As to why this little detail was not publicised, it's anybody's guess. One clue does come to mind: "What's wrong with collecting more money?"

... the devil is in the details

Somebody must have peed in their pants. The national library put the books back on the shelves, the housing board apologized before animal rights groups could bite, and now the Ministry of National Development (MND) is hastily revamping the lease buyback options. Haste makes waste, as suggested by the Century 21 CEO, "I thought the scheme is trying to support asset-rich cash-poor families. Why would a family with a household income of $8,000 to $10,000 a month be considered poor?"

That question came about in the light of the changes proposed for the unpopular lease buyback scheme, to be implemented only from April 2015. Plenty of time to get it right - so much for the general's boast about one shot one kill. So what's new?

More Eligible
- extended to 4-room flats, currently stopping at 5-room and private properties
- household income ceiling raised from $3,000 to $10,000, which is dirt poor compared to those planners drawing $100,000++ per month
More hard cash upfront
- top-up requirement for CPF Retirement Account reduced to half the prevailing Minimum Sum (MS), confirming full MS is going overboard
Variable Lease Period
- standard plain vanilla 30-year lease now available in 15-, 20-, 25-, 30-, or 35-year lease options. A household must have at least 20 years of lease to sell, and only 80+ seniors can select the minimum 15-year lease option. And you thought ordering a Starbucks coffee was complicated.

According to MND figures, 250,000 HDB flats are owned by seniors aged 55+, and 80 percent are fully paid. The lease buyback scheme is good only for those eligible participants who have reached the current CPF draw-down age of 63, so it's still guesswork how many of those public housing flats will be unloaded. The previous scheme had only 800 takers since its introduction in 2009. Also interesting is the fact that the original premise concerning flat ownership was about having a stake in our country to fight for. With so many aliens brought onboard, the will to defend that stake have been shakened to the core.

On Saturday 30 Aug, three young men in Beirut protested by torching the extremist Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) flag, a black banner emblazoned with the Muslim tenet "there is no god but God and Muhammed is his prophet (Arabic: لَا إِلٰهَ إِلَّا الله مُحَمَّدٌ رَسُولُ الله)." The Lebanese teens then posted a video of the flag-burning online, exhorting others to do the same to demonstrate their opposition to the evil led by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. The flag-burning campaign, modeled on the viral "Ice Bucket Challenge," quickly took off on social media under the hashtag #BurnISISFlagChallenge.

Surprisingly, Lebanon’s justice minister, Ashraf Rifi, called for the “sternest punishments” to be applied to the young men because the flag had the Muslim Shahada (declaration of faith), written on it, “which has nothing to do with ISIS and its terrorist approach.” In response, Ibrahim Kanaan, a member of the Change and Reform parliamentary bloc, came forward to declare that he will represent the three boys accused of burning the flags if a case against them ever makes it to court.

It is difficult not to take sides over this incident, given the recent beheadings of two journalists, James Foley, 40, and Steven J. Sotloff, 31, and now a similar threat on David Haines, 44. It is also incredible that there are those who profit from the marketing of the ISIS flag and claim they are have nothing to do with the terrorists. Muhammad Saiful Alam Shah Sudiman, associate research fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, likens it to football fans buying team jerseys to show their support and solidarity. "While the IS certainly did not invent the black flag, they have appropriated it as their brand," explained Dr Haddad of the Middle East Institute at NUS. Just as our national flag has been hijacked by a certain political party, and reason enough for many not to hang it out on national day.

It's more serious in Germany, where the display of the swastika is verboten, tantamount to the display of the Confederate flag in the United States. Both symbols represent dark periods in each country's history. In Germany, even consumer products such as t-shirts and bumper stickers can be confiscated if they contain any depiction of a swastika. The penalty for ignoring the ban is either a fine or imprisonment up to three years. No thanks to Hitler, the symbol used by ancient Celts, Indians, Greeks, and in Buddhism, Jainism, Hinduism, is stigmatized as being associated with Nazism and related concepts of antisemitism, hatred, violence, death, and murder.

The Malaysian Police have done their part to make sure the ISIS wannabes are nipped in the bud. Our Home Team, however, seems to be less pro-active, burying their heads in the sand like ostriches after collecting the 5 to 12 percent salary increases. Unless you are legally blind, there's no mistaking the evil from these sample Google images:

According to an article in TIME magazine (August 18, 2014), there are 6% of Americans who identify with atheism (lack of belief in God) or agnosticism (knowledge of God is unknowable). The curiosity is that some of these are setting up "atheist churches", even in the Bible Belt, a concept that embraces the religious practice sans the theology.

There must be many reasons for the rejection of theism. In the introduction to his book, "The God Argument, The Case Against Religion and for Humanism", A C Grayling wrote that religions have often been cruel in their effects, and remain to this day:
"Homosexuals are hanged in Iran, adulterous women are beheaded in Afghanistan and stoned to death in Saudi Arabia, "witches" are murdered in Africa, women and children are subordinated in many fundamentalist households in the Bible Belt of the United States and in many parts of the Islamic world. Throughout history the religion-inspired suppression of women has robbed humanity of at least half its potential creativity and genius."

Nested deep in the theism-atheism debate is the nagging doubt about the source and content of our moralities: does morality come from a transcendent source or does it arise from our own intrinsic self reflection on human realities and relationships? This is a case for humanism as a powerful alternative to religious morality. Humanism requires no commitment to teaching beyond its two fundamental premises - that individuals should think for themselves about what they are and how they should live. There's no body of doctrines and prescriptions, backed by sanctions for not believing in the former (eternal damnation in hell) or rewards in obeying the latter (promise of heaven and the company of angels or virgins). Consider this fact: the institution that commissioned Michelangelo to paint the Sistine Chapel ceiling also ran the Inquisition that burnt thousands at the stake. Religious styles of morality were premised on a religious view of the universe and mankind's place in it, not always a pretty picture.

Whether we like it or not, religions are here to stay. Organised humanism can offer variants of the theatrical aspects of religion - baptism, weddings, and funerals - that celebrate the significant moments of the passage of life and pander to the social needs of companionship. Probably the best reasons for atheists to gather and mimicking church. Instead of going off on Crusades, or answering the call of jihadist martyrdom.

Howe Yoon Chong (Chinese: 侯永昌;pinyin: Hóu Yǒngchāng) had a very brief sojourn as a minister in the cabinet (1979 to 1984) after an illustrious career history as CEO of the Housing and Development Board (HDB), Chairman of the Port of Singapore Authority (PSA), and Head of the Singapore Civil Service. Some attribute his abbreviated appointment to his controversial proposal in 1984 to raise the age for the withdrawal of Central Provident Fund (CPF) savings from 55 to 60 years. Under pressure from public ire, that part of the 54-page report of the Committee on the Problems of the Aged which he chaired was eventually dropped. Some blamed him for the controversial report, the loss of 12% of the overall votes in the 1984 election, and Chiam See Tong's vindication at Potong Pasir (Howe had dismissed the opposition candidates, including independent Chiam See Tong, as "court jesters" who had come out "to provide comic relief").

Urban legend has it that his acid tongue did not spare his political supporters. Looking at the grassroots leaders across the table in their eyes, he is rumoured to have castigated them, "I know why you are here", or words to that effect. Quite obviously, Action Information Management (A.I.M.) was not the first $2 company.

Demonstrating a kinder approach to her own cheer team, Intan Azura Mokhtar (Ang Mo Kio GRC MP) said yesterday, "The grassroots leaders... a lot of them are doing very good work but they don’t get time in the media." She was making reference to one who did make the headlines, Chinese national and Singapore permanent resident Yang Yin, who is accused of taking advantage of a retired physiotherapist diagnosed with dementia earlier this year. The niece of the elderly victim is applying to the court to suspend the Lasting Power of Attorney which has given Yang, self-styled professional music and dance teacher, control over her 87-year-old aunt’s assets.

Agence France-Presse (AFP) in Singapore quoted the South China Morning Post (SCMP) print edition in reporting that the court room drama unfolding will be reminiscent of the tussle between the estate of the late Nina Wang and self-styled fung shui practitioner Tony (now Peter) Chan Chun-chuen. Chan, who had claimed to be the sole beneficiary of her HK$100 billion fortune, was finally convicted of forging a will and sentenced to 12 years in jail.

Yang's instrument of choice was the Mental Capacity Act (“MCA”) which came into operation on 1 March 2010. This superseded the Mental Disorders and Treatment Act (“MDTA”), which had requirement that only a Committee of the Persons or Estate appointed by the Court may manage the personal welfare and finances of an individual of “unsound mind”. MCA supposedly sets out safeguards to protect vulnerable members of our society, such as the abuse of the new statutory document known as the Lasting Power of Attorney (“LPA”). It's perfectly legal, and the weapons are provided by the sitting parliament currently debating the use of handphones in moving vehicles.

Intan: He came to help out during grassroots events…

The author of the virulent diatribe against Singaporeans has degrees from Oxford University (Hertford College) in the United Kingdom, a Master of Arts in Philosophy, Politics and Economics, and a Master of Science in Management. ASPIRE (Applied Study in Polytechnics and ITE Review) couldn't have done a better job to dissuade one from pursuing a university education.

Then again, his day job is exhibiting human mannequins on the stage (also called a manikin, dummy, lay figure or dress form). Think cattle trade, fresh meat paraded on a catwalk.

When Cheng was President of Singapore's modelling association, his aim was to increase the pay and welfare of models in Singapore. Not protect the human dignity of a profession which is unregulated and relies on a compliant labor force of children. To this day, in an industry dominated by minors, there is no policy of informed consent for jobs involving full or partial nudity.

To be clear, we are not talking about scientific modelling, the aim of which is to make a particular part or feature of the anatomy, as in medical studies, easier to understand, define, quantify, visualize, or simulate. It requires selecting and identifying relevant aspects of a situation in the real world and then using different types of models to better understand, quantify, and visualize the subject. Modelling is an essential and inseparable part of scientific activity, and many scientific disciplines have their own ideas about specific types of modelling.

Cheng deals with the kind of model (from Middle French modelle), which is a person in a role either to promote, display, or advertise commercial products (notably fashion clothing). Acuity in mental faculties is not a prerequisite for the calling. Male, female or transgender models are valued for their clear skin, healthy hair, and attractive facial features. Sexual abuse in the industry is a pervasive problem. Consider just the last few years: in 2008, fashion designer Anand Jon was found guilty of rape and multiple counts assault on aspiring models, who ranged from 14 to 21 years old. Terry Richardson, one of the industry's most powerful photographers, has been accused of pressuring models to disrobe at castings and conducting shoots that involve what he claims are consensual sex acts performed on him by models.(Among Richardson's regular clients are H&M, Vogue, and GQ.)

Now you can appreciate why they are saying you don't need a university degree to succeed in life. All you need is a bit of guanxi, the right political connection, and maybe an amoral preparedness to go with the flow. Brains are definitely optional.

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