Recently, there seem to be so many earthquakes in Asia.
It is good that Singaporean should be advised on what to do during the earthquake.
“Today” paper published an article aim at educating Singaporean on this action plan (Attachment #1).

After looking through the article, I remembered reading something about what the China earthquake experts advice to hide during an earthquake (Attachment #2).
If the China experts are right, then the “Today” article is probably “Not Correct”.

In the article by the China earthquake experts (Attachment #2), they believed that hiding under the table is not safe.
This is because table is usually not strong enough to sustain the weight of a collapse ceiling.
If the table collapse, the victim will be injured and trapped .

China experts advise the correct way of doing this is to hide beside the table or bed.
If the ceiling collapse, the table and bed will create a triangular spacing that may keep the victim alive until rescue arrive.

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Attachment #1: Today, 6 Oct 2009, Page 20

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Attachment #2: My Paper, 3 Jun 2008, Page B8

The topic of Singaporean vs Foreigner is getting pretty hot recently, not just in the cyber world.
I also believed most of the coffee shop topics will be revolving around it for quite some time.

Singapore Department of Statistic released the official figure that Singapore population is going to hit 5 millions (Attachment #1).
Whoa ! 5 millions, that’s a lot of people to be squeezing in a small little red dot like Singapore.
All these happened all thanks to our foreign talent.
Thank you very much hor !

A few issues that I like to “BigTalk” below..

• The number of non-resident (Working Permit) increased by 4.8% this year.
  The previous two years was over 10% (Attachment #2 Tag#1).
  And there’s also the ever increasing foreigner turned PR and Citizen (Foraporean).
  Is it until now that problem are surfacing ? Some sort of a process or immigration lag ?
  I don’t think so, this problem/issue have been existing ever since the “Great  Singapore Sales” open its door (Sale of Citizens, PR and working permit certificate).
  I think that they (Government and its media) are bringing it up because of the coming election.
  If they don’t bring it up now, it will still re-surface during the election, unless they issue an order to stop discussion on this topic during the next election.
  Hopefully, the public can vent their frustration before the election and then the storm can pass so that the damages will be minimized during the election.
  If this frustration drags on, then they may consider pushing back the election to a better date.
  .
• The main reasons that started the “Great Singapore Sale” and push open the  immigration door so wide is the aging population and diminishing young work force.
  Our Government have come up with many policies to entice Singaporeans to make babies.
  But it seem that their efforts have resulted in minimum impact.
  Have they really understand the real problems behind their policies to make more babies ?
  I’m not smart, but in my opinion there are two main problems.
  Housing and Education.
  .
  Housing is so expensive in Singapore that setting up a families in Singapore is a daunting task.
  Our “Heavily Subsidies” HDB flat is still so expensive that we have spend our life to pay for it.
  Singapore is so small, if you put in more people, housing is going to be more expensive. More expensive housing make families setup more difficult which in turn lead to less babies and much more foreigners.
  This is like a vicious cycle that keep repeating itself.
  My suggestion is to create a HDB price distinction between Singaporean vs PR and Foreigner.
  Example, there should be a significant price discount (like 20%) of  HDB flat for Singaporean who applied for it for reason of setting up a family.
  Of cos, there may be a certain criteria for the price discount to encourage Singaporean to set up family and make babies.
  .
  Then there’s the education cost that demand parents to spend a large portion of their income.
  I would suggest that education for all Singaporean kids to be free in public school until they reached a certain level (Eg. After secondary education).
  Hopefully, by the time Singaporean children finished that certain level of schooling (secondary education), their parents would have completed much of their housing debt. Then they can redirect their resources to their children University education (Local or oversea).
  .
  Then there’s the issue of diminishing young work force.
  It should be time for them to review the National Service and Reservist system.
  National Service, Reservist Training and IPPT/RT is talking up too much of our Singaporean time and reducing our local work force power.
  So, it is natural that most employers prefer to hire a foreigner and PR (Permanent Resident) than male Singaporean with reservist commitment (http://thestar.com.my/columnists/story.asp?file=/2009/9/26/columnists/insightdownsouth/4777881&sec=insightdownsouth).
  We can’t really blame them for that because employers objective is to ensure smooth running of their company operation (Attachment #8 Tag #1).
  There have been some recent proposal whereby they are setting up a office space for reservists during in camp training  to do their work over the internet. But have they consider this, if the reservist is doing his company work and reservist training at the same time, the reservists mind will probably be on his company work. Lack of concentration during training can result in accident. If there’s live firing involve, the result may be deadly.
  We don’t want that to happen, do we ? ….  really we don’t right ?
  My suggestion is this.
  Cut the National Service period further from 2 years to 6 months (3 months BMT plus 3 months Post-ORD preparation training).
  After the ORD, release our young men to the work force to fill the industry or university education.
  A new system of recalling our reservist to training should be created to allow them to book their reservist training according to their work schedule.
  For example, the reservist training can split into many different modules (Eg. various weapon/equipment operation modules, range live firing modules, Infantry operation modules and etc.).
  Reservist have to complete all the modules within a certain period of say 10 years.
  Module may be conducted during weekend where the reservist is free.
  Weekday can be done on a 2 to 3 days time slot. Reservist need to take SAF leave from the company during which impact to company operation is minimum.
  Additional monetary reward should be given after the completion of each module.
  After the 10 years, if the reservists have not complete all the modules, then it will continue until he finished.
  Those that completed the modules within the 10 years will be considered to have completed their reservist commitment.
  For those highly motivated reservists, they can opt to take up more modules than those assigned to them. For example, an infantry reservist can opt to take up the medic module to learn about first-aid application. In this way, we can cross train them and it may come in handy in time of crisis.
  At the age of 30 year old, all reservist training should stop unless the reservist request to continue until their 40.
  Those reservists who cannot complete their modules before their age of 30 and still want to leave their reservist status can pay back monetary.
  The reason to release our reservists at age 30 is because at this age some of the reservists would have accumulated enough industry experience to start their own business. If they don’t want to start a business, it is time for them focus on their career (Usually will not change much) and starting a families with no army interruption.
  Lastly, start moving our National Service from a Enlistment to Employment system.
  By employment, I refer to the current regular signed up army personnel.
  An employed (Signed up) soldier is more motivated and will do a better job than an enlisted one.
  .
• The issue of first generation PR to serve National Service and Reservist keep popping up.
  Our PM Lee comment “If we make it (NS and Reservist for PR) a requirement, we would not get the people we wanted. Secondly, if they did serve NS at 30, 40 and 50 years old. I would not like to be their platoon commander.”
  I can think of two different interpretation to the meaning.
  One, if the PR serve NS and reservist training at 30 years old, they would be too old to take the training. We don’t want to over exert our PR because they may injure themselve or just die off. We already got Singaporean soldiers dying off for no reason at all. If he become their platoon commander, he would have a hard time explaining it to their families, and imagine the reports and investigation that he need to do. If this is the reason, and if  Singaporean and PR are equal, then Singaporean should not be doing any more reservist training, IPPT/RT after 30 years old.
  Two, if the PR serve NS and reservist training at 30 years old, they would not get use to the army regiment and discipline. Many of them will resent and complaint. Some may even give up and leave Singapore. Or maybe they may band together in large number and stage a street protest in the middle of orchard road. Worst if some of them turn their gun toward their Platoon Commander. Then he will be in deep shit. On the other hand, male Singaporean get enlisted around 20 year old, at this age it is easy to train/condition their mind so that they follow order and don’t dare to complaint (At least not challenging their Platoon Commander publicly).
  These PRs are probably not loyalty driven, they’re mainly using Singapore as a launching pad (Attachment #5 Tag #1).
  So Platoon Commanders are afraid to trust our guns with them.
  .
  My suggestion is this, we should create a different classification for our PR.
  The first class of PR would be those with lots of money to bring into Singapore (They’ll need to bring in at least S$5m to Singapore), I’ll call them “PR Elite”.
  The second class of PR are for those with very very exceptional skills that Singapore need but cannot be found, I’ll call them “PR Professional”.
  The third class of PR are for the remaining foreigner, I’ll call the “PR General”.
  We may not want to push our “PR Elite” and “PR Professional” away from Singapore, so these two groups may be  exempted from NS and Reservist training.
  The third class, “PR General”,  should have no excuse to skip NS and Reservist training. They should be shouldering the burden of our male Singaporean and compete with them for jobs on equal footing.
  If we are concern about our “PR General” loyalty to Singapore, we can implement a screening process. Conduct an evaluation of each “PR General” after the first 5 years. See how they perform during their NS and Reservist training. If their performance is good and loyalty assure, then they can continue their “PR General” status. If not, revoke their “PR General” status and let them go back to their country.
  To be more transparency to Singaporean, Singapore Department of Statistic should not lump the “PR Elite”, “PR Professional” and “PR General” as one number. These figures should be separated so that citizens understand the situation clearly.
  .

• While announcing the new population statistic, the Manpower Ministry took the opportunity to announce that they have shutdown 11 employment agency for illegal wrong doing on employment of foreign workers.
  Gee, what a good coincidence.
  I guess it’s a damage control tactic knowing that the new population statistic is going to draw public fire.
  .
• Guess what ? GIC (Government of Singapore Investment Corporation) took the opportunity to sneak out news of their 20% loses on their portfolio.
  Why ?
  They probably knew that the foreign population issues is going to draw public attention.
  Perhaps, while the people attention is on the 5 millions population figure, they can escape being fire upon by public.
  Tell you what, they’re probably right. I think they done it ! Clever maneuver.
  .

Attachment #1: My Paper, 29 Sep 2009, Page A1
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Attachment #2: My Paper, 29 Sep 2009, Page A1
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Attachment #3: My Paper, 29 Sep 2009, Page B4
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Attachment #4: My Paper, 29 Sep 2009, Page B4
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Attachment #5: Today, 29 Sep 2009, Page 3
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Attachment #6: Today, 29 Sep 2009, Page 8
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Attachment #7: Today, 29 Sep 2009, Page 1
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Attachment #8: Today, 26 Sep 2009, Page 45
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Attachment #9: Today, 16 Sep 2009, Page 1

Confusing ? Or have I finally gone Peanut ?…I mean “Nuts”.

Take a look at the two news articles below (Attachment #1 and #2).

Taken from Today (http://www.todayonline.com/index) and My Paper (http://mypaper.sg/), on the same day (24 Sep 2009).

There should be nothing wrong with the number.
The trick is that they presented the number with different perspective.
The first one was done by comparing CPI between Aug 2009 and Aug 2008.
While the second one was between Aug 2009 and Jul 2009.

I can only BigTalk this…
“The numbers will tell all…all kind of pictures. Just tell me what kind of picture you want to paint”

Attachment #1: My Paper, 24 Sep 2009, Page A16

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Attachment #2: Today, 24 Sep 2009, Page B2

]]> http://bigtalksingapore.wordpress.com/2009/09/25/singapore-consumer-price-fell-0-3-percent-and-rose-0-4-percent/feed/ 0 bigtalksingapore 20090924C1_SingaporeConsumerPriceRiseOrFall_MyPaperPgA16 20090924C2_SingaporeConsumerPriceRiseOrFall_TodayPgB2 http://bigtalksingapore.wordpress.com/2009/09/08/chartered-semiconductor-singapore-going-down-the-drain-finally/ http://bigtalksingapore.wordpress.com/2009/09/08/chartered-semiconductor-singapore-going-down-the-drain-finally/#comments Tue, 08 Sep 2009 07:28:23 +0000 bigtalksingapore http://bigtalksingapore.wordpress.com/?p=1180 ]]>

The news headline on Singapore paper was “A multi-billion dollar deal that could help turn  Chartered Semiconductor’s fortunes around is in the works.” (See Attachment #1)

Sound pretty positive right ?
In fact it sound like it’s money drop from heaven and everyone will benefit !

I like to look at it in different angles from Singapore media.

Here is my BigTalk point of view….

1. Temasak Holdings has 62 percent stake in Chartered Semiconductor and they fully support the deal (See Attachment #2, Tag #1).
   I am guessing that Temasak Holding is probably thinking “Thank god, we can finally off-load this money losing business. We already got lots of problem explaining to Singapore tax payers about the billions we lose. Some more, once we off load it, they can retrench all the staff they want and it’s not my fault.”
   If Chartered Semiconductor is really losing big buck, does it mean that Temasak Holdings has been holding it up all these years with Singapore tax payers money ?
   if Chartered really fall with Temasak Holding still in control, it will be another big tight slap.
   Not good considering Singapore next election is coming.
   .
2. I think ATIC (Abu Dhabi’s Advance Technology Investment Company) is mainly looking to acquire the business deal of Microsoft Xbox (See Attachment #3, Tag #1).
   Why ? Because they already admitted, there are lots of overlap (Attachment #3, Tag #4).
   .
3. JP Morgan  said “We believe the acquisition does present potential threat for TSMC and UMC in the advance technology foundry business” (See Attachment #3, Tag #2).
   First of all, look at a comic strip from Straits Times back in 2002 (Attachment #4)
   Chartered Semiconductor has been in the losing since 2002, what make you think it can catch up with the money infusion. Back then, Temasak Holding already got lots of money to spend and they still lose.
   Unless of cos, they replace majority of the people in Chartered Semicon and change the whole culture.
   By the way, who’s JP Morgan ? Are they the same group of people who help to bring down the US market by giving good rating for sub prime loan ?
   Can they be trusted or do they really know their stuff ? Ha Ha Ha…
   .
4. DBS analyst, Ms Tan,  said that the equity price could be higher if the market gets better (See Attachment #3, Tag #3). But still she advised the shareholder to accept the offer.
   I always get the feeling the analyst said one time and act another.
   I think the analyst, Ms Tan, is thinking that the situation is not getting any better but reluctant to say it outright.
   .
5. Chartered CEO Mr Chia said “The vast majority of employees will not be affected” (Attachment #3, Tag #5).
   But then he also said that “..putting two existing businesses together with a lot of overlap and trying to squeeze out cost” (Attachment #3, Tag #4).
   Another contradiction.
   If there is overlap and you want to reduce cost, the only way out is to retrench people.
   Do you think ATIC will want to retrenched their own people ? Slowly wait hor..
   So why is Mr Chia saying this, I can only guess that he do it to calm his own Chartered people.
   If not his people will not have the mood to work and affect their product quality and quantity.
   When the retrenchment come, I doubt Mr Chia would be around to be “Hantam” by his people.
   I think the retrenchment will not come until the next Singapore election is over (Probably beginning next year).
   .
6. Chartered already retrenched 600 staff  (540 from Singapore) early this year (Attachment #3, Tag #6).
   Gee, was it done in preparation  for this take-over by ATIC ?
   .

Attachment #1: Today, 8 Sep 2009, Page 1

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Attachment #2: My Paper, 8 Sep 2009, Page A14

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Attachment #3:  Today, 8 Sep 2009, Page B1

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Attachment #4: The Straits Times, 9 Oct 2002

“Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan said health screenings are a good way to identify chronic conditions early. ” Quoted from http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1001575/1/.html
(See Attachment #1, Tag #1)

I’ve got a better suggestion, why not allow Singapore citizens to use their Medisave to pay for one annual medical and dental  checkup (at subsidies rate)  per year.
And dental checkup should be included because lots of medical problem can start from dental problem.
In the long run, I think it would help to cut down lots of medical expenses by our citizens.

I assume that Singapore Government are very clever and should have considered this options.
If they are not implementing it, there must be some reasons.
I’ll do a “Big Talk” analysis on my proposal below…

Strength

1. Standing from a Singapore citizen viewpoint, CPF Medisave are usually not utilize until they are sick.
   If the government allow Medisave to be used for annual medical and dental checkup, I think many citizens will make full use of it.
   .
2. Singapore citizens who used their Medisave for annual medical and dental checkup will become more health conscious.  This translate into healthier population and lesser medical leave from work. Singapore citizen will become relatively more competitive.
   .
3. Illness can be detected earlier and it may still be treat-able with new medical procedure and lifestyle adjustment.
   Life can be saved.
   .
4. In the long run, Singapore citizen save money, Government save money and taxpayers are happy.
   .
5. Less resources are needed for medical treatment, this also translate to better environment protection.
   .
6. As more Singapore citizens go for medical and dental checkup using their Medisave, we will create a huge database of our population health.
   In  crisis like the bird and swine flu, we will be in a much better position to fight it.
   With these information on our population health, we can truly be a medical hub and attract foreign medical investment.
   .

Weakness

1. More CPF fund will need to be opened up for citizens.
   I don’t think there should be any cash flow problem, but Government will need to monitor the fund carefully.
   They got so many “Experts” and “Scholars” in the Government sector, I think they can manage.
   .
2. If every Singapore citizens go for medical and dental checkup every year, our medical facilities may not be enough.
   One alternative is to divide the citizens into two group based on their NRIC number.
   Group 1 can refer to those with NRIC number with last digit being even (0, 2, 4, 6, 8).
   Group 2 can refer to those with NRIC number with last digit being odd (1, 3, 5, 7, 9).
   For even years (Eg, 2010, 2012, 2014…), Group 1 can utilize their medisave for that year.
   For odd years (Eg, 2011, 2013, 2015…), Group 2 will go for their medical and dental check up.
   .
   If this is still no enough, we can divide our citizens into more groups.
   Example, Group 1 (Last NRIC digit is 1 or 2), Group 2 (Last NRIC digit is 3 or 4) and so on…
   .
3. Another problem that may arise is that as more Singapore male citizens go for health screening yearly, we should see an increased in medical problem detected. If this happened, there will be less healthy citizens to go for reservist training.
   So they are probably going to see a decreased in soldiers fit enough for combat. Bad news for SAF.
   While having medical problem detected for Singapore male citizen is definitely not good news, at least they don’t drop dead during their training.
   .

Attachment #1: Screen shot from http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1001575/1/.html

More video below…

I saw an article in the “Today” (13 Aug 2009, Page 31), see attachment #1.
I think the writer is right that it is time to change our NDP balloting system.

Attachment #1: Today, 13 Aug 2009, Page 31

I would propose the following changes….

I’ll take a simple scenario, let say we are balloting for Singapore NDP ticket for her 44th birthday and there are four person balloting for 2 tickets.

Tom – A very lucky fellow who has successfully gotten his hand on the NDP for 20 times.
Sherry – Another lucky gal who has won NDP for 2 times.
Donald – Tried his hand on NDP ticket for ten years, unsuccessful.
Jimmy – First time trying his hand on the NDP ticket balloting

What I would propose is to assign the number of balloting chances by subtracting the number of times the applicants has won the NDP ticket from Singapore’s birthday (44 years old).
For example, Tom has won the ticket 20 times, so he should be allocated with (44-20) = 24 chances.
By this logic, Sherry will have (44-2) = 42 chances.
Poor Donald will have maximum of 44 chances.
Jimmy, being the first time balloting will be in the same maximum chances as Donald.

Total ballot ID = 24+42+44+44 = 154

Tom ballot ID and chances : 1 to 24 (24/154 = 16%)
Sherry ballot ID and chances : 25 to 66 (42/154 = 27%)
Donald ballot ID and chances : 68 to 110 (44/154 = 29%)
Jimmy ballot IDand chances : 113 to 154 (44/154 = 29%)

I think this would be a pretty simple system to implement.
I can probably run it on my laptop using a simple excel worksheet with some macro programming.

]]> http://bigtalksingapore.wordpress.com/2009/08/13/national-day-parade-ndp-balloting-system/feed/ 1 bigtalksingapore 20090813D1_NdpTicketingSystemIsFlaw_TodayPg31 http://bigtalksingapore.wordpress.com/2009/08/11/will-tsunami-in-indian-ocean-hit-singapore/ http://bigtalksingapore.wordpress.com/2009/08/11/will-tsunami-in-indian-ocean-hit-singapore/#comments Tue, 11 Aug 2009 07:00:33 +0000 bigtalksingapore http://bigtalksingapore.wordpress.com/?p=1133 ]]>

Earthquake “Hat-Trick” hit Asia today.
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/448028/1/.html

One of the quake was in the India Ocean off the Andaman Island with a strength of 7.6 ! Luckily, there was no danger of tsunami.

All these quake may sound like a distance problem for people like us in Singapore.
But when I took a look at the location of the quake, I have a question.

If there was really a tsunami from the 7.6 quake near Andaman Island, how will it affect Singapore ?
Let’s take a look at the map below (Attachment #2)

If a tsunami wave was created near Andaman Island, I can image the wave will travel directly toward the Straits of Malacca. As the wave enter the strait, it will be compressed.
If this happen, a superwave may be formed as it approach Singapore.

Malaysia west coast will probably be hit hard.
If the wave managed to reach Singapore, it could be superly amplified due to the compression between the two land mass (Malaysia and Indonesia).
The effect will be very hard to imagine.

I hope I’m wrong but I wondered if our Government has taken this scenario into perspective.

Attachment #1: Screen capture from www.channelnewsasia.com

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Attachment #2: My Tsunami Scenario, Map taken from google maps

]]> http://bigtalksingapore.wordpress.com/2009/08/11/will-tsunami-in-indian-ocean-hit-singapore/feed/ 0 bigtalksingapore 20090811B1_EarthquakeHitJapnIndiaAndIndonesia_ChannelNewsasia 20090811A1_EarthquakeAndTsunamiScenarioOnSingapore http://bigtalksingapore.wordpress.com/2009/08/08/worst-of-first-h1n1-wave-in-singapore-could-be-over/ http://bigtalksingapore.wordpress.com/2009/08/08/worst-of-first-h1n1-wave-in-singapore-could-be-over/#comments Sat, 08 Aug 2009 01:50:19 +0000 bigtalksingapore http://bigtalksingapore.wordpress.com/?p=1129 ]]>

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/447618/1/.html

Hurray ! The worst is over !

…..Hey………tomorrow is Singapore National Day,  is it kind of coincidence ?

Attachment #1: Screen capture of Channel News Asia Website

Just look at the following article taken from “Today” on the same day.

Am I the only one who is  confused ?

Attachment #1: Today, 5 Aug 2009, Page 1

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Attachment #2: Today, 5 Aug 2009, Page B1

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