Teach not thy parent’s mother to extract
The embryo juices of the bird by suction.
The good old lady can that feat enact,
Quite irrespective of your kind instruction.
There he was, the Singapore Foreign Minister K Shamugan telling the United Nations how to eradicate poverty and ensure sustainable development. He must presume that the august gathering never heard of our Gini coefficient of 0.478 (highest income inequality compared to the OECD countries), or the title of the Population White Paper justifying a 6.9 million squeeze into 710 square kilometers, "A Sustainable Population for a Dynamic Singapore".
It was Ed Meese who once said an expert is somebody who is more than 50 miles from home, has no responsibility for implementing the advice he gives, and shows slides. Shanmugam was not the first to teach the U.N. how to suck eggs. Kishore Mahbubani, former Permanent Representative to the U.N. and dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, also said earlier, "There are no homeless, destitute or starving people (in Singapore). Poverty has been eradicated."
And there was this boast that Singapore has trained over 80,000 government officials from 170 countries in areas including sustainable urban development. In the light of our world famous flash floods and mass rapid transportation system mishaps, those students had better take a second look at the lesson notes. Or walk into any public toilet of the city who tabled a resolution to designate November 19 as World Toilet Day, at the risk of puking at the level of sanitation that can be found.
As for the pompous advice to the world body to "rethink, retool our economies and societies," someone should repeat that while looking into a mirror. Better still, reflect on what Aung San Suu Kyi said during her recent visit here, "I want to learn a lot from the standards that Singapore has been able to achieve, but I wonder whether we don't want something more for our country."
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All these LKY wannabes. Sigh! Trickle down arrogance?
ReplyDeleteSemantics is very important you know. You must re-label is correctly. Is Trickle down "wisdom", luckily only from a one man's pov.
DeleteAgree that semantics is very important but disagree that it is trickle down wisdom. LKY is, in my opinion full of cunning and cleverness but lacks wisdom. You can see his schemes falling apart one by one.
DeleteLittle Napoleons.
ReplyDeleteIs ok lah. Even the real Lightning God is telling them who is the real expert here.
ReplyDelete--
[Media Statement] A south bound train experienced an electrical failure as a result of a lightning that struck somewhere in around Kranji station area during this morning's thunderstorm. The affected train stalled at Woodlands MRT at about 0640 hr and was later pushed back to the depot by another empty train.
The incident caused an approximate delay of 35 minutes, affecting approximately 3,500 passengers.
[SMRT Media Statement] A south bound train experienced an electrical failure as a result of a lightning that struck somewhere in around Kranji station area during this morning's thunderstorm.
Delete[ST Online Report]
In a statement on Facebook, SMRT said the fault was caused by lightning that struck somewhere around the Kranji station area during the morning thunderstorm.
Looks like the SAF colonel they hired as PR expert needs tuition in English.
Really? Only 3,500 passengers affected? 35 minutes = 3,500 passengers. Therefore 1 minute = 100 passengers only. Do the Math and go figure that out.
Deletefish 'n' chips
Toronto once measured that $3.3billion per year in productivity. OECD should come to Singapore and help our paper Generals how to measure their KPIs, since our Spring Singapore is a one-trick pony that knows only to measure poor cleaners and workers on their productivity with $60 pay increases.
DeleteCan experts give a lesson on how buying and dredging up sands from our cambodia neighbor and its disappearing coastline is sustainable to the fisheries, villages and communities there at the gain of Singapore's 6.9m sustainable population?
ReplyDeleteAh, you too have read that very sad report in TOC.
DeleteBTW, the havoc being wreaked in Cambodia in the quest for sand follows the irreparable damage caused in Malaysia and Indonesia.
Meanwhile, in Singapore, the plan is to remove all secondary forest by 2030, a move that should help drive up temperatures and generally clear the island the island of wild life outside bars and night spots.
To continue to allow residential developments to go en bloc the moment they receive their TOP, so they can be pulled down and new ones - which will need sand - be put up.
To allow gardens to shrink or completely disappear in the effort to squeeze more housing and other development into limited space.
To keep on growing the population, and to do so lickety split, so even more infrastructure and homes are needed. Etc etc etc.
It seems like a most unsustainable way to approach being sustainable. But what would I know.
No worry. In the words of the (Mc)Khaw himself, "You ain't seen nothin yet".
DeleteThey'll give you your greenery back in the form of narrow grass patches lining canals and drains ala Seletar and Punggol park connectors and claim world credit for ingenuity!
Then we'll be made to feel deeply indebted for the grass tuft to rub shit off the soles of our shoes. :)
ReplyDeleteI think this is what E&Y means when they there is a disconnect between theory and practical. The people already know, so rest our case.
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//While the EY Asia-Pacific Fraud Survey revealed a disconnect between theory and practice, it also highlighted methods and tools available to senior management to help them tackle complex fraud and bribery issues.
For example, in Singapore - perceived as one of the least corrupt countries in the world - over 59% of the respondents say that their anti-bribery policy is good in principle but does not work well in practice, compared to the Asia-Pacific regional average of 48%.
“Organizations wanting to build a robust compliance capability should be sure to conduct anti-corruption due diligence when executing acquisitions, to support whistleblowing programs to uncover unethical activities, and to deploy forensic data analytics to detect fraud. Our survey shows that executives are willing to use these tools; for example, 81% of respondents said that they would be prepared to use a whistleblowing scheme, yet only 32% said their company has one in place,” commented Fordham.//
http://www.ey.com/US/en/Newsroom/News-releases/Disconnect-between-policies-and-practice-exposes-Asia-Pacific-companies-to-greater-fraud-and-corruption-risks
"There are no homeless, destitute or starving people (in Singapore). Poverty has been eradicated."
ReplyDeleteDid he say that 'before" or "after" those homeless has been swept off the camp sites in east coast, or those destitutes have been put up in homes or those starving people have been given hawker food vouchers? While HK has the highest billionaires and also gini-co index, at least their people are trying to look at draw a poverty line for the first time that is "evidence-based". Here in Singapore, glad to know our ivory academics draw their conclusions that is "appearance-based".
Now you might argue why it does not matter as long as you "eradicate" = "remove" them, it means your policy has succeeded, right? Well, ask yourself this, if "without" these provisions given by the govt, how many of these families can actually self-sustain and support themselves to a level that is above the poverty line? That, is what we call a spade a spade. Yes, the world is teaching us how to suck eggs here, unless you let those glorifying GDP gets into your head. Time to get off your clouds.
http://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1320690/sizing-poverty-hong-kong
nothing wrong with billionaires right? LHL wants to suck more of them in leh when he says if he could do it over again, he will have it his way. never mind the fact that they will push up cost of living, and let the poor get poorer.
Delete//I don't think it will make us a society where everybody is absolutely equal and I don't think we want to do that. In fact if I can get another 10 billionaires move to Singapore and set up their base here... I think Singapore will be better off because they will bring business, they will bring opportunities, they will open new doors, they will create new jobs, and I think that's the attitude with which we must approach this problem."//
For years our own GLC shipyards has been plying owner representatives with free food & beer in the name if public relations. Now tell me, if that is not another form of bribery, what is when they have to do it almost every weekend to please the ship owner's regenerative?
ReplyDeleteWhat is sustainable urban development that Singapore can teach the world? Turning sewage into drinking water? Constant tearing down and rebuilding, making Singapore a perpetual construction site? Cutting down park space to supply more land for booming property market? Go subterranean and cause surface buildings to crack and sink? Which of these rubbish so-call sustainable urban developments make our life better? But yet, "To make our people's life better" is an excuse used so frequently to justify their money-making ventures at the misery of gullible Singaporeans. The time to learn from Singapore is over, sad to say, unless you are talking about how to suck egg.
ReplyDeleteIf they are teaching how to suck balls, I'll concede the expert titles to them.
DeleteIn one of recent Technology & Governance Forum at Fullerton recently, they invited Professor Wang Shu
DeleteDean of School of Architecture, China Academy of Art who was the 2012 Pritzker Prize Winner.
During his talk, he makes lamented about how the "successful singapore model" is being replicated from Beijing to all the other 130+ cities around china these days without much thought by the "good students' of the chinese leaders (presumably made up a large chunk of the 80,000 officials). Because like SG, they started hiring foreign architects and designers to come in and every city trying to out-design each other with uglier and irrelevant infrastructure buildings. And in the process ruining and trampling upon its own deep cultures, history and identities.
His very candid parting words for SG is that while we may all look very look on the GDP metrics and other hard numbers, its society needs to question how * what they go about placing importance in their value judgments. I thought that pretty much sums up where the pathetic singaporeans are under the pathetic leadership of PAP. Something they only think once a year on world toilet day to ponder about.
how about ponding, can't the nea teach the world abt that? and ... ah they can also teach the world how to make you pay for their good class bungalows and still get 60% support.... and ah ....they can use your money to hire chinese contractors to dig holes everywhere and chase up gdp to pay them higher bonuses and they call that "upgrading" .... and ah....
DeleteToo bad. Our politician is indeed very good with cosmetic change. Even the new FCF means Foreigners Comes First.
ReplyDeleteAfter all, it is only targeting at the 11% of EP pass holder. Those 46% Work Permits holders are not affected means local middle class PMETs will continue to face the same shit and suck thumbs. So why talk like as if they are doing so much nudging when in fact, is nothing but just NATO.
Hear it from an ex-sinkie talent who can teach our leaders how to suck egg, aka british style.
http://limpehft.blogspot.sg/2013/09/will-fair-consideration-framework-make.html
The height of hypocrisy.
ReplyDeletePerhaps its a wrong choice of topic to preach. A more convincing topic , in the light of the many sex-related bribery cases lately, might have been committing adultery, sleeping around for benefits and how to getting "a-head" quietly
ReplyDelete