The couple couldn't have presented their message in any simpler terms:
"We read in the papers that the number of new flats completed each year by the HDB has been lower than the number of marriages in recent years. This means that the HDB is not building enough flats for the new households." Here are two responsible citizens ready to answer the nation's call for more births so that the original stakeholders in our country will not have to see their share diluted by outsider elements. All that is missing is a roof for the new family.
Instead of confessing his myopia, National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan spins a wild and woolly tale in TODAY about what a tough job he has, trying to outguess the real estate market. We already have an expensive self appointed oracle in the Minister Mentor, and even he could not read the crystal ball effectively for Temasek Holdings investments. Experts in the housing market are predicting a hard landing, with property values heading south by as much as 50 per cent. These, the same folks, who were recommending stocking up on premium properties not too long ago. "If you look at the developments over the last four years, you clearly see elements of exaggerations where it doesn't make sense to buy in terms of rental yields or expected capital gains," said Mr Beat Lenherr, global chief strategist of LGT Capital Management, who should have dispensed his wisdom 4 years earlier. It's a rehash of the Wall Street analysts who brazenly promoted dot com companies just before they bombed. Hardly the kind of playground for the likes of Mah.
With truth being a beleagured entity in the cabinet, we will never know if it was Mah or "population czar" Wong Kan Seng who first pushed the 6.5 million people target. What we do know, thanks to Budget Tai Tai, is that Singapore currently has a population density of 7,022 people per sq km, exceeding the Hongkong statistic of 6,480 people per sq km. Former HDB and URA CEO Liu Thai Ker must be bonkers to suggest the island has capacity for 7.5 million. Notice how the loonies are always put in charge of housing for the masses. How did Sigourney Weaver put it in Avatar? "They're just pissing on us without even a courtesy of calling it rain."
All the Singapore griping paid dividends in that HDB has now begrudgingly promised to raise its planned output from 12,000 to 16,000 new flats. But that's in the rosy future, and plausibly just another vaporware of an electioning sweetener. Whether the couple will have a room for the cot is yet to be confirmed.
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Higher ups only "get it" when they share the ambiguities and problems of the common folk. "Higher ups" are rarely on the wrong end of a "successful" social policy. Higher ups have no qualms about asking the their middle class brethren to defer gratification while they appear to enjoy the fruits of their labor NOW with disproportionately high salaries. This psycho-emotional disparity needs to be addressed and reducing minister salaries is a good first step.
ReplyDeleteOn the other end of the spectrum is the average Sporean who believes that the higher ups will fix their problems. They deceive themselves into thinking that everything is very complicated; only the educated higher ups know how to set right what has gone wrong.
The future however belongs to conscience stricken higher ups who identify with the common folk and an intelligent middle class who are not intimidated by statistics, pie charts and formulas.
oh yes, he got it alright. It's just that his plans are different and he's not sharing that with us. He also knows that his position is entrenched. There is no realisitic chance of a change in Singapore in his lifetime, at least. So he'll go on doing what he wants to do and ocassionally humour us with some "profound" quotes which we are supposed lap up gratefully.
ReplyDeleteSingaporeans simply lack faith in the leadership. This Island can easily accommodate 10 million people, Singaporeans have yet to see the abilities of our calibres who are able to build floating cities, buildings and castles in the air with flying mobiles, wireless power supply and water from the air. Be patient, nothing is impossible with the talented elites incharge, you all will be catered for with the bestest of the First World. Please be positive and look forward to a life of wonders.
ReplyDeleteFormer HDB and URA CEO Liu Thai Ker is just being political correct,the rest are acting.He is a pretty good actor
ReplyDeleteHigher ups tells us to accept competition from foreigner and not to expect the perfect life before having children. But the higher ups do not face competition from foreigners and their lives are perfect, what do they know?
ReplyDeletethere must be a chart in the registry of marriages, registry of birth and deaths and immigration department which will tell you that at least X number will be needed for homes this year and it would not be dangerous at all to build 80% of X in 3 years in advance. They think people are stupid and if they are elected at 66% , then they ARE REALLY stupid and they deserve what they get. enuf said. All they wanna to do is to increase the prices and make you work and work until you drop dead. This is after all capitalism at its very best. If you don like it ..vote it and if it does not work then migrate if you can.
ReplyDeleteFolks...
ReplyDeleteFrankly speaking...
The idiots who propose to "target" a population of 6.5 million has lost the plot or whatever marbles left in their heads...
Have the idiots in charge realized that in the unlikely scenario where food and portable water supplies are reduced or stop to this island due to external causes [i.e. sanctions, hostile countries, war, plague etc]....how long can the population on singapore island subsist on that finite supply of food and available portable water...want a lot of people to die of hunger or eat the barks of trees to survive is it!! Crazy basterds!
And if any of these idiots in charge think Malaysia or Indonesia will help...sorry lor...their priorities will be to their own country and people first...in singapore's case...we will see food and water riots before any order can help...and the idiots who cause this to run/fly away to safe havens...you can run...you can fly...but karma will still get you in the end...
So how you farktard idiots "in charge"...are you even thinking of this additional future scenario...a scenario where your "new" citizens or PRs "suddenly" complaining to their "home" countries like China or India that "they" are being "bullied" or may instigate "incidents" for their home countries government/entities advantage...and will Singapore and the farktards idiots in charge then have to go on its knees and give in to the demands of China/India then...and who pay ultimately in the end...the singapore people again...instead of using your own lives and resources to pay for your mistakes...use other people's blood to pay....how sick is that! Where is the conscience...where are the ethics you preach you misbegotten basterds.
As proof of such a "scenario"...Look no further at what is happening between China and Japan now...who cares if that Chinese Captain actually did a criminal and deadly action when he rammed those japanese patrol boats [other people lives not important is it?] and how fast this incident is being manipulate to cast to China's advantage again...so who is being the BULLY here and will become a BIGGER BULLY if it is not stop now...
It will only get worse as long as you give in to bullies and that is fact of nature and life itself.
So where are you gonna stand...when you have lose everything then make a stand...by then it is simply too late.
And you can take that to the "bank".