The New Standards For Poor
Temasek Holdings Pte, which managed $223 billion (US$166 billion) of assets as of last March 2015, was riled when Standard & Poor (S&P)'s new criteria lumped Singapore with riskier nations such...
View ArticleClik here to view.
We Wuz Robbed
Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam told the television audience: "We have got to be careful that we don't think we are Robin Hood, where you can simply take money from the rich and give it to...
View ArticleThere Goes The Quiet Weekend
Now that M Ravi has been suspended from practice, he's worried about some of his clients who "have no prospects of obtaining other legal representation". He could have been thinking of the lady who...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Bad Luck All Around
Do you see a circle or an octagon?Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam said in his Budget speech that the rise in petrol duties is meant to encourage less car usage and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Running Wild In Singapore
I want my 5 minutes of fame tooSomebody is paying big bucks for Sir David Attenborough to narrate the two-episode "Wild City", Channel NewsAsia's first documentary on Singapore's wildlife. The first...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Fate Of Princelings
The disgraced Bo Xilai was the fourth child and second son of prominent Communist Party leader Bo Yibo, one of the Eight Great Eminent Officials (Chinese: 八大元老; pinyin: Bā dà yuánlǎo), a group of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Is It Really Our Money?
The first thought that comes to mind: what's a nice girl like that doing in politics? Chia Yong Yong was diagnosed with peroneal muscular atrophy at age 15. As her muscle tissue progressively...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Where There's Smoke, There's Fire
Jusuf Kalla, vice-president of Indonesia, has denounced neighboring Singapore and Malaysia for complaining about the severe haze caused every year by Indonesian forest fires."For 11 months, they...
View ArticleThe Real Meaning of Angst
Angst is German for “neurotic fear, anxiety, guilt, remorse,” from Old High German angust, the root of anger. It is usually applied to a deep and essentially philosophical anxiety about the world in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Gender Wars
At a "Supper Club interview" in January 2014, Senior Minister of State for Transport and Finance Josephine Teo was talking about her work as an MP for Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC and personal life:"Every...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Cool Smart Vests
Plenty of pockets galoreThis has to be another Brompton Bike saga in the making. The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) put up a tender on last Friday (Mar 6) for a prototype of a “smart vest system”. MHA...
View ArticleThe Artful Dodger Is Asking For More
Member of parliament for Moulmein-Kallang GRC Edwin Tong’s question was whether it was timely to review the framework by which political salaries are determined. It was just a subtle reminder that U.S....
View ArticleSpectre Of Zero Car Growth
With some children, they are best seen and not heard. Senior Minister of State for Transport Josephine Teo is one over grown kid who just does not know when to zip her lips. Even before we have a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Going Wild In Singapore
The provision for active election campaigning as permitted by law question is covered by the Parliamentary Elections Act (‘PEA’).The term election advertising is defined in section 2(1) of the PEA as:...
View ArticleMoney And Marriage
In classical Greek mythology, Pandora was the first woman on Earth. Pandora was also the one who opened a jar containing death and many other evils which were released into the world. She hastened to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Laws Of The Jungle
The headline of a 21 October 2014 online post in the People's Daily, China's Communist Party mouth piece, captured Xi Jinping's place in history after only 2 years in office: "Mao Zedong made Chinese...
View ArticleHidden Meanings
In his swan song address to some 500 social workers at the annual Social Workers’ Day Symposium convened at the fancy Concorde Hotel, Social and Family Development Minister Chan Chun Sing didn't...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Rumors Have Been Greatly Exaggerated
CNN quickly corrected its initial report after Farah Rahim, senior director for the Singapore Ministry of Communications and Information, dismissed it as a hoax. Nobody likes to be wrong, so the dagger...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Poor Putin
Ouch! That is so NOT the kind of epitaph to die for. The Business Insider write up of 19 Mar 2015 is proof that we are not alone in begrudging an installed princeling for helping himself to the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Legacy Of Great Leaders
When Indonesia's former dictator Suharto finally gave up the ghost on 27 January 2008, it was 3 long weeks after being admitted to Pertamina Hospital in South Jakarta. Despite the gallant efforts of...
View Article