05/04/2012

Watz Buzzing - 5 Apr 2012

Be A Man, Do The Right Thing



With the latest racial hullaballoo on smell and the subsequent apology [Link], I thought it'd be good to share the above video for all to see. According to this gentleman, it is the food that's is consumed, not the hygiene factor that caused the smell.
Regardless of race, nationality, gender, political party, culture or religion, there are the good, the bad and the ugly. Though there may be more of one kind (good, bad or ugly) in any group, there will always be a mixture in each. I'm a Singaporean of Chinese descent and I find Peter to be great a entertainer who lightens me up and makes me happy.



This just reminded me of Teo Chee Hean [Link] asking civil servants especially those expensive elites to do the right thing!
Mdm Vellama Marie Muthu of Hougang and her lawyer M Ravi has asked the court to declare if the Prime Minister has the option to decide on the by-election and when it is held [Link]. The judgement is reserved and I bet very soon our local favourite Kumar will crack a joke on it.
Meanwhile, instead of pussyfooting, PM Lee should 'do the right thing' and declare the date for the by-election in Hougang soonest possible. I just hope that the experts in the AG Chambers who are challenging Mdm Vellama will not come up with a letter like this to make more Singaporeans "buay song". The law? The logic? The self-preservation of one's position at the expense of one's honour and integrity? The right thing to do?
The Ministers' obscene salaries were raised to the millions after 2006 GE at their whims and fancy without any COI. Why the silly COI and wastage of $860,000 to pay Mercer to do Gerard Ee's job of recommending the right salaries is beyond me. If decision makers could bring the salaries up, why couldn't the same decision makers bring the salaries down. Why put on an expensive show?
I just hope the PM will 'do the right thing' this time by not outsourcing or abdicating his duty to the AG Chambers on the decision to have the by-election. Let's not waste peoples' time and money. Let's not neglect the residents of Hougang.
Yeah, be a man, "do the right thing and do the thing right" by having the By-Election soon!
video
feedmetothefish


Established in 1854, Chijmes was once the original site of the Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus. Chijmes became a lifestyle destination after a $100-million makeover was completed in 1996. Archbishop Nicholas Chia of the Catholic Church in Singapore took offence with the planned "sacrilegious night of partying” scheduled there for Saturday 7 April, eve of Easter Sunday. Naturally police reports were filed, and letters went out to various ministries with the alphabet soup acronyms like MHA, MCYS and MICA.

Director of organiser Creative Insurgence, Aaghir Yadav, pleaded in vain, “The overlap with Easter weekend was not intended to be offensive. We have since been in touch with the Archbishop’s office to explain our position and have apologised for offending anyone unintentionally,” he said. According to his AngMoh mindset, there was also nothing offensive with the "nun-inspired Cosplay costumes". Nice try, but no cigar.

Landlord Perenial Retail Management, through counsel, asked the sacrilegious parties involved to cease and desist, threatening legal action to ensure enforcement if necessary. He may not fear God, but lawyers are more scary in Singapore. Yadav capitulated:

Singapore Notes


The Escape Chapel Party, described as a “sacrilegious night of partying” scheduled to be held tonight right inside the chapel at Chijmes has been cancelled.

NOTE: This post is not meant to insult or denigrate any racial group or religion and if you are easily offended, please do not scroll down. There are pictures which you may find disturbing.
An image allegedly shared by Aaghir Yadav, with the intent of promoting the event.

Among those who had called for the party to be cancelled was Archbishop Nicholas Chia, who heads the Catholic Church in Singapore.

Yet posters like this were used:
Not a good habit to get into.

Of course, there are many who think that Catholics and Christians are making a mountain out of a molehill. After all, the last religious service was held in the old chapel in November 1983.

Lohcifer


We are the third richest country in the world according to Forbes on a per capita income basis. This means real money on the head of every Singaporean. And it could be more if we have not imported and bloated up our population with foreigners. But never mind, we are still very rich and should make full use of our money to create a utopian Singapore. How and what is a Utopian Singapore?

My idea of a Utopian Singapore is one that Singaporeans do not need to work any more, or at least no need to work till they die. The third richest country in the world working its citizens to death! Can you believe it? Singaporeans only need to enjoy life, go to school to study anything they want. Go to learn arts and sports and study the sciences for fun. Why not, with the kind of money we have?

We have plenty of money and we can use the money to hire really talented people to create and make more money for us. We can pay for the lower skill people to do manual jobs and the higher skill people to make money. We pay them to do everything for us, but most important thing is to make us richer. Why aren’t we doing this? Aren’t we spending millions and millions to the most talented to make money for us? Or are we spending millions and millions on the most talented to make us work for them? If this is the case, then something is very wrong somewhere. The formula is wrong. The outcome is wrong. There is no need for Singaporeans, the third richest people in the world, to work and to work to death........

redbean

That S$10,000

In 2005, I landed my first job in Singapore. That was the year Jen went to Perth for her studies. I was dejected but I channeled my negative energy into work. It was tough working as an IT helpdesk. We hardly left our seats, even for toilet breaks. Our eyes were constantly glued to the monitor and our minds were always pre-occupied. Handling complains thrown our way every single minute was the name of the game. A few months into it, my perfect eyesight deteriorate to a state I couldn't even read the number of an oncoming bus. Along with the splitting headaches after work, it wasn't funny.

That year, my friends hardly saw me. I had virtually zero social life. One reason was fatigue. The nature of the job gave me a phobia of hearing a phone ring. I hardly pick up calls outside work, unless it was from Jen, calling from Perth. The second reason was that I had no money to socialise.

When I started work, I set myself a very tough goal. To gather S$10,000 worth of cash by the end of 12 months of my first job. To do that, I derived a simple plan. I needed to put aside S$834 on my pay day. I set up an additional account to do that. Every month $834 will be transferred to the account without fail. By 12 months, I would have accumulated S$10,000.

No sweat - for many no doubt but considering that my gross pay was S1,800, it was some feat. Let's just see how much I took home after the CPF deduction.

1800 x 0.8 = 1440
My expenses............................?

asingaporeanson

Marriage by Cue Cards

My cue card says you'll need to let me feel your G-spot next! Voilà!

Acting Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports, Chan Chun Sing announced at Marriage Convention 2012 recently that Marriage Central – a National Family Council initiative – has launched a course kit that includes cue cards to “get couples to open up and better understand each other.”

Isn’t this pathetic? Has the state of marriage in Singapore come down to this? Does the kee chiu major general who is in our face all the time nowadays  – perhaps as part of the media campaign to make him more likeable since it is widely believed that this “blue-eyed boy” is likely to be a future prime minister, and since he had such a unimpressive start as a fuddite when first introduced to the public for the first time in the last elections (remember his comical “in the last 20 years, there were many occasions when we had to stand our ground and stare down the competition” comments?) – really believe that cue cards produced by American “relationship specialists” who have values that are decidedly different from those of ours would work? (By the way one of their books is entitled Single Men are Like Waffles, Single Women are Like Spaghetti.)

Is this how we run things? By cue cards?...........

Lohcifer

PHOTO: The alleged PRC driver who ran over 66 year old Singaporean aunty at Sengkang

A shocking accident happened yesterday morning in Sengkang where a SBS Transit bus simply ran over a 66 year old woman crossing the road when making a right turn, dragging her under the bus for half a minute and killing her on the spot.

He was obviously ‘dreaming’ as the brake lights were not even on after he hit the woman.

According to the Straits Times, the SBS driver then spoke in a thick Chinese (PRC) accent to the passengers to disembark from the bus as if nothing has happened:


He appeared to be calm and composed when he was led away by the traffic police. It is not known if he has been arrested for dangerous driving.

SBS Transit has so far refused to divulge the name and nationality of the driver. It has been actively recruiting drivers from China in the last few years due to ‘shortage’ of local workers.......

NYP Racist Remark

No society or group should be judged by how some of its members behave. That is unfair.”

Hri Kumar Facebook, 29 March 2012:

https://www.facebook.com/notes/hri-kumar/nyp-racist-remark/346447995401804

My initial reaction to the report Ms Shimun Lai’s offensive post was of anger, disgust and exasperation.

She has rightly apologised and withdrawn the remark. This will be a tough learning experience for her, and I hope she emerges the better for it.

But the heat she and others like undergraduate Sun Xu have generated with their thoughtless remarks will not dissipate so easily.

Racism will not go away, however many apologies are uttered. It has been part of society since, well, society began.

Singaporeans says

Singapore bank takeover bid draws flak in Indonesia

LAWMAKERS from two of Indonesia's most powerful political parties voiced opposition on Tuesday, April 3, to a bid by Singapore's DBS Group to take over local lender Bank Danamon, and said they wanted to bar heavy foreign ownership of local banks.

But they signaled they may not be able to stop the US$7.2 billion deal that would be the largest ever foreign takeover in So utheast Asia's biggest economy, at least for now.
Local investors and bankers in Jakarta also told Reuters they would lobby against the bid by DBS, even though there seemed to be no regulatory obstacles. Several complained
Indonesian banks were not given a level playing field overseas.

"We will regulate banks in a reciprocal manner, with a limitation on foreign ownership," said Harry Azhar Azis of the Golkar party and the vice-chairman of the parliament's financial committee.....

Singapore Window

How Filipino talents have taken us for a ride in Singapore!

I’m a PR holder who is considering to convert to be a Singapore Citizen. However, I saw some information in certain websites which really discourages me. Some of them are on display here:

http://forum.singaporeexpats.com/ftopic86153.html

There is another person posted on pinoy’s forum:

http://www.pinoysg.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=49917

And this is a classic example of how some PRs are using Singapore as stepping stone to greener pastures elsewhere:

http://www.pinoysg.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=38021&highlight=work+singapore

And my friend (a Filipino) shared with me how a nurse in KKH also uses the same tactic – stay as PR in SG for 10 years, few years ago they revoked their PR status, took out their CPF to support them to go to Canada and recently they are back in SG to work as a EP pass holder! The reason they are back to Singapore is because her husband is unable to find an engineer job in Canada – she is the only one working there as a nurse.

It’s also common knowledge that most hospitals in SG employ Filipinos – last time I heard they comprise almost 75% of the overall nursing manpower here. Recently, if you notice, there are now more PRCs working in the restructured hospitals and private hospitals and they can’t even speak and write proper English! How terrifying it is for the patient or the parent of the patient.

I am going to convert to be a Singapore citizen soon and support my son when he goes to NS (I always believe military training is good for boys, so they will not grow up as a “softie”) and will contribute to the society in Singapore. I just hope that the government is able to differentiate between who truly has a heart for the country and who does not.

I really look forward to share with you my thoughts as a Singaporean soon – only need to show a pink IC. Don’t give up, encourage the young to fight for our country..............

TR EMERITUS

PR withdrawal

Step 1) clear all your TAXES first with IRAS (usually its your employer who will file online on behalf); just inform your HR ahead of time…based on my experience, my HR manager filed it within 2 days only…

Step 2) go to ICA, write a letter stating your intention/reasons for cancelling your PR status. (I just wrote mine manually in front of the officer at ICA ); then wait for the Letter of Renunciation of PR status issued by an ICA officer; usually takes about 10 minutes in total waiting time. they will stamp your passport with 1 month validity to stay here in SG; but may also extend for another month if needed, as advised:

At ICA: bring all relevant documents such as passport, PR card and yellow journey card.

Step 3) go to CPF website, do the online cancellation of your PR status. (its faster, only 10 working days) and manual application is 15 days.

Step 4) go CPF building at Tanjong Pagar, 2nd floor…inform the staff that you will submit the needed documents to support your online application. They will notarize all your documents there..so no need to do any notarization from any lawyer..(its a lot of money saved!). Again: THEY WILL DO ALL THE NOTARIZATION (they will even photocopy for you too!).

At CPF office they will ask for all originals….only 2 documents will be asked: 1) ICA letter, 2) passport (current and old).—yes…only these documents alone if processed online! no more! no less!…coz I bring all my stuff; from birth cert, marriage cert,and all….the CPF officer was laughing at me why I bring so many unnecessary documents.

Step 5) just within 10 days..and tananah-nah…! money will be transfered into your account with all the interests!..its money time! big money! so handle well…hehehe…and just enjoy your next journey wherever u may be

dream on!