The thing about expecting

Wait, my wife is not expecting.. that's not the post topic.. haha

Sometimes i wonder, do i expect too much? Perhaps in the line of work, i expect more from people.. being the lowest ranking civilian in the division, everyone else is earning more than me.. the "older" folks for example, have been in the force for at least 5 years, most are already promoted..

is it not correct then, to expect that these very same group of "oldies", should be au fait with the ongoings in the unit and should have mastered, or at least learned, about simple organisational work and planning skills..

poor planning, bad execution, and yet, the smile can be there, the mood seems alright, i do wonder if any sense of guilt or incompetency creeps up her mind when darkness falls and she is alone.. does she strive to overcome her weakness, or she just forgets the whole thing and continues to mismanage another event? Sure, the event, the exercise is new, but the basic of planning and execution remains, so what's the problem?

Maybe, i am just expecting too much, maybe she has already done all she could and has already given her heart and soul in expanding her capabilities and given her all to cover the short ends..

Or maybe i'm just having her come up with too many excuses.. don't get me wrong, i have no personal vendetta against her.. it also wonders me how someone can keep that smiling face when so many mistakes are made and people are quite naturally unhappy towards her.. for all her smiles, she has became my "best friend"..




A "friend" in need is a "friend" indeed

The thing about what's outside

Pardon me, but after being exposed to the international media as well as analysing how the local press reflects certain issues.. i have less faith in the local media now, the newspapers, the news, are pretty much bais.. all in my opinion only..

the Mr Brown saga was another good example of what CAN and CANNOT appear in local newspaper, who decides? We all know.. but the mere mentioning of the that "group" can be risky..

With all the recent announcements on civil servant pay rise, their 2.2month bonus, the increase of GST, the "Wee Shu Min" episode, the lowering of corporate tax.. there hasn't been much talk in town or in the news..

this article seem to sum things up quite nicely..

and for those who are so used to the floral and nice smelling articles that we get in ST and Today, take a change, and see what the world writes about us and what we do..


*The content of the article does not represent Klayhead's view

The thing about GST - Part II

Quote from Channelnewsasia(15Nov06):

SINGAPORE: The reason for the proposed rise in Goods and Services Tax (GST) is to help lower income groups and to grow the economy.

Defence Minister Teo Chee Hean said the purpose of having GST is to direct more resources towards lower-income groups.

He said the goal is to make the economy grow and the government can do that by having flexibility in setting the rates of taxes.

"We also want to make sure the economy grows and we have the flexibility to be able to reduce company taxes and personal income taxes to encourage more people to be more innovative and to create businesses," Mr Teo said.

"With a good growing economy, we will be able to deal with the increases that may come with the increases of 2 percent in GST. The lower-income group is really our target group and we want to look after them." - CNA/so

The rise in GST is to help the lower income groups? Wait wait, read more: "to make sure the economy grows, we have the flexibility to reduce company taxes and personal income taxes"

Increase GST, help the poor
Decrease Company and Personal Income tax, help the economy

Bullshit

Economics, simply, is much more complicated than i can truly explain, so i shall skip the information and arguements on regressive tax etc..

Budget, is the gahmen spending in order to fulfill its various functions daily. So in order to increase spending, gahmen must increase revenue. Gahmen's main source of revenue are taxes.


Now lets see, with a need to increase spending to help the poor, where will the money come from? Increase GST from 5% to 7% then.. sound arguement

However, what diss me off is the fact that they are talking about reducing Income Tax and company tax too. Soon, the leaders and elites will start saying things like this is necessary measure to make Singapore competitive, for businesses to grow, to grow the economy.

Therefore, to me, the system looks like this:

Revenue:
Comes from higher GST that EVERYONE must pay
A, who earns $100, buys $10 worth of rice, paying $0.07 cents of GST.
That's 0.070% of A's income to the GST
B, who earns $500, buys $10 worht of rice, paying $0.07cents of GST.
That's 0.014% of B's income
C, who earns $1000, buys $10 worht of rice, paying $0.07 cents of GST.
That's 0.007% of his income
A can be you and me, earning about $1000-$2000 monthly
C? They are earning about 10times our pay, which is $10,000 to $20,000 a month
Who are these? Directors, Senior Managers, and yes, most of them are our MPs and Ministers


The rich pays less of his income on necesscities such as rice

Expenses:
Lower revenue from Income Taxes
Lower revenue from Company Taxes
Higher Spending on to "help the poor"

Income tax, poor people don't need to pay, because they are often non-taxable. The middle to middle-low income pay less than the high income, so a reduction will benefit who?
Company tax affects company profits, shareholders, bosses, must be happy to hear this

The only good thing is the gahmen is finally making more effort to help the poor, but to get them to help co-pay for their offset package? This is dumb. Poor people are poor, and therefore unhappy. But by making them pay more so as to get a short-term offset? They hate it more.

So, is it not correct to say that GST was increase to cushion the plans to reduce Company and Income Tax, oh, and by the way, spend more money on the poor so they will see that increase in GST is for their own good.

Ah boy ah, you must pay more school fees so that the school can teach you how to earn money ok? so that next time when school want to increase fees again, you will not have problem.

Our Gahmen is taking the Robin Hood spirit, "robbing"(GST) the poor to "give them back the money"(offset packages)

Oxymoronic spin






Now, we are paying for our Progress package

The thing about GST - Part I

GST, hot topic, period..

Once again, our GST is due to be increase from the current 5% to 7% in the near near future, this is after the recent bus fare increase in October 2006. Will bus fare rise again since Goods and Services Tax will going to be higher by 2%? 2% only they say, thats what the bus operators say, just 1 to 2 cents increase.. the bus operators i am referring to here is the big boss who are driving luxurious cars, or at least have a car and have hardly tasted morning traffic whereby the buses are crowded..

This might sound just like another angry rant at the ongoing increase in cost of living in Singapore, but why not? Were we not encouraged to speak up? To voice our views? Remember, however, that voicing your views might not actually have any impact on the decision makers?
Why? In my opinion, because the decision makers(read: elites) are unable to relate to the common folks, the heartlanders..

May i know how many people who were involved in the application of bus fare hikes right up to the approval stage are actually people who take buses to work in the morning? Are they also the ones who wait and wait at bus stops in the dead of the night, waiting up to 20mins for a bus and then be greeted by a frowning bus driver?

Back to GST..

The gahmen is saying that in order to widen the social safety nets, it needs to have additional revenue, one such way, is the increase in GST. Does the poor not pay GST? They are the ones who will be hit hard. 2%, 2cents of a dollar, $20 of a $1000, and $200 of $10,000. Little? No way..

lets not forget the increase is 2%, the tax is 7 freaking percent! thats 7cents of a dollar, $70 of a thousand and $700 of $10,000.

Buying 10kg of rice at lets say $10 will cost $10.70. To the poor man, $10.50 will not get him the rice from NTUC.. not even 5cents less..
To the rich, he can afford to drop 10cents and not pick it up because it is too dirty, the maid buys the rice anyway, why bother about 10-20cents?

Buying a PC set for a child in secondary school will easily cause a commonfolk $1000-$2000, lets say he finds an offer and gets one at $1000. He'll have to pay $1070 for the PC. Not a cent less. $70 will also allow the same man to buy 6 bags of the 10kg i mentioned earlier.. thats about 7month's supply worth of taxes for a PC

Paying for a customary chinese dinner will cost more than $10,000(after angbao). Without angbao, the misc cost and dinner itself will hit up to $20,000. For a $20,000 wedding, there are some $1,400 worth of GST payable..

To the average Singapore, the above purchases are just part and parcel of life, the list can go on and on.. HDB flat($200k), medical bills, university fees.. so much more..

The average singaporean draws about $2000 or less if he is armed with a diploma.. his take-home pay(after CPF) will be about $1,400 then.. thats the tax that he'll pay if he decides to wed.

So much about the gahmen's gameplan to encourage Singaporeans to wed and have babies




Stay tuned for Part II

The thing about Elite II

Guess the issue is over? Not really, guess what? Wee Shu Min, the elite girl that i mentioned in my previous post, got wikipedia-ed.. haha..

here's the link

guess we are just not so happy when the "smart" and "great" people turn around and look down on us. Some MP spoke in parliament about whether you are a farmer or scholar..

the farmers he was referring to where the SAF rank-and-file officers who worked hard and eventually got promoted

the scholars? well, overseas education, well-planned career path and progression channels..

Maybe being elite just makes them lose touch with the common folks, the commoners, the heartlands(my vocab not bad uh?)

Thinking back, the hot issue now is, are we really judge by our merits? can there be a level playing field with overseas scholars around? Elistism? You judge




Elite elite, get out of my heartlander, oily face

The thing about another blog

Started another blog, hoping to win something from that effort. Can expect less post here unless something exciting and significant strikes once more..

Been selected to a join a big big WAYANG party, good results that can benefit some 13,000 people if the group wayang works well.. forced to study and need to talk and talk on money, hope my facts stays correct and the others do their part.. it's all part of the big picture..

Will reveal my other blog address once i have critical number of post in there.. still tuned, using another writing style there, experimenting





Wayang, they are asking me to

The thing about Elite

If u have been reading blogs and "know" the blogsphere.. you should already have known about this elite issue.. for those who haven't heard, its about a gentlemen's blog on the challenges and insecurity he feels as a Singaporean and another blog entry that seems to dimiss him completely.. so what's the big deal u say? The "reply" entry was penned by a certain girl which is the daughter of a certain MP in AMK..

so there we have, a typical worrying Singaporean talking about his problems and fears, and another typical "elite" with her views and insensitive replies.. funny how people is associating the girl with her father's status as an MP, and how her views are part of the "education" that she has been recieving..

see for yourself..

i present, the blog post by Mr Derek Wee:

By Derek WeeOct 12, 2006

When I read the Straits Times article (dated 24 Sep) on PM Lee calling the young to be committed and make a difference to Singapore, I have so much thought about the issue.

I am 35 years old, graduated from University and gainfully employed in a multinational company. But I cannot help but feel insecure over the future of Singapore. Lets face it, it’s not uncommon to hear, “when you are above 40, you are over the hill”.

The government has been stressing on re-training, skills upgrading and re-adapt. The fact is, no matter how well qualified or adaptable one is, once you hit the magical 40, employers will say, “you are simply too old”.

We have been focusing our resources and problem solving on low unskilled labour. But in reality, our managerial positions and skilled labour force are actually fast losing its competitiveness.

I travel around the region frequently for the past 10 years. It didn’t take me long to realise how far our neighbours have come over the past decade.

They have quality skilled workers, and are less expensive. When I work with them, their analytical skills are equally good, if not better than us.

It’s not new anymore. Taxi drivers are fast becoming “too early to retire, too old to work” segment of the society. I like to talk to taxi drivers whenever I am heading for the airport.

There was this driver. Eloquent and well read. He was an export manager for 12 years with an MNC. Retrenched at 40 years old. He had been searching for a job since his retrenchment.

Although he was willing to lower his pay expectations, employers were not willing to lower their prejudice. He was deemed too old. I wouldn’t be surprised if we have another No. 1; having the most highly educated taxi drivers in the world.

On PM Lee calling the young to be committed and make a difference. Look around us. How dedicated can we be to Singapore when we can visualise what’s in store for us after we turned 40? Then again, how committed are employers to us? But we can’t blame them. They have bottom lines & shareholders’ gain to answer to.

Onus is really on the government to revamp the society. A society that is not a pressure cooker. A society that does not mirror so perfectly, what survival of the fittest is.

But a society, where it’s people can be committed, do their best and not having to fear whether they will still wake up employed tomorrow. Sadly, Singapore does not offer such luxuries and security anymore.

On the issue of babies. The government encourages us to pro-create. The next generation is essential in sustaining our competitive edge. Then again, the current market condition is such that our future has become uncertain. There is no more joy in having babies anymore; they have become more of a liability. It’s really a chicken and egg issue.

Many of my peers, bright and well educated have packed up and left. It’s what MM Goh called “quitters”. It’s sad but true, Singapore no longer is a place where one can hope to work hard their lives and retire graciously. It’s really the push factor.

A future is something we sweat it out, build and call our own. Unfortunately, people like me, mid 30’s going on 40’s, staying put by choice or otherwise, we can’t help but feel what lies ahead is really a gamble.

To PM Lee and the Ministers, we are on a different platform. Until you truly understand our insecurity, the future of Singapore to me remains a question mark.

**********
And here we have.. the post entry from the MP's daughter


mom’s friend sent her some blog post by some bleeding stupid 40-year old singaporean called derek wee (WHY do all the idiots have my surname why?!) whining about how singapore is such an insecure place, how old ppl (ie, 40 and above) fear for their jobs, how the pool of foreign “talent” (dismissively chucked between inverted commas) is really a tsunami that will consume us all (no actually he didn’t say that, he probably said Fouren Talern Bery Bad.), how the reason why no one wants kids is that they’re a liability in this world of fragile ricebowls, how the government really needs to save us from inevitable doom but they aren’t because they are stick-shoved-up-ass elites who have no idea how the world works, yadayadayadayada.

i am inclined - too much, perhaps - to dismiss such people as crackpots. stupid crackpots. the sadder class. too often singaporeans - both the neighborhood poor and the red-taloned socialites - kid themselves into believing that our society, like most others, is compartmentalized by breeding. ridiculous. we are a tyranny of the capable and the clever, and the only other class is the complement.

sad derek attracted more than 50 comments praising him for his poignant views, joining him in a chorus of complaints that climax at the accusation of lack of press freedom because his all-too-true views had been rejected by the straits times forum. while i tend to gripe about how we only have one functioning newspaper too, i think the main reason for its lack of publication was that his incensed diatribe was written in pathetic little scraps that passed off as sentences, with poor spelling and no grammar.

derek, derek, derek darling, how can you expect to have an iron ricebowl or a solid future if you cannot spell?

if you’re not good enough, life will kick you in the balls. that’s just how things go. there’s no point in lambasting the government for making our society one that is, i quote, “far too survival of fittest”. it’s the same everywhere. yes discrimination exists, and it is sad, but most of the time if people would prefer hiring other people over you, it’s because they’re better. it’s so sad when people like old derek lament the kind of world that singapore will be if we make it so uncertain. go be friggin communist, if uncertainty of success offends you so much - you will certainly be poor and miserable. unless you are an arm-twisting commie bully, which, given your whiny middle-class undereducated penchant, i doubt.

then again, it’s easy for me to say. my future isn’t certain but i guess right now it’s a lot brighter than most people’s. derek will read this and brand me as an 18-year old elite, one of the sinners who will inherit the country and run his stock to the gutter. go ahead. the world is about winners and losers. it’s only sad when people who could be winners are marginalised and oppressed. is dear derek starving? has dear derek been denied an education? has dear derek been forced into child prostitution? has dear derek had his clan massacred by the government?

i should think not. dear derek is one of many wretched, undermotivated, overassuming leeches in our country, and in this world. one of those who would prefer to be unemployed and wax lyrical about how his myriad talents are being abandoned for the foreigner’s, instead of earning a decent, stable living as a sales assistant. it’s not even about being a road sweeper. these ****bags don’t want anything without “manager” and a name card.

please, get out of my elite uncaring face.
posted at 12:08 PM

and her public apology on one of the blogs that were discussing her entry :

i apologise if i have distressed you with my tendency to rant. while i will not dispute some of the points you make in response to what i have written, i would like to bring to your attention the fact that the post in question was never meant to be a cogent response to the specific points raised in derek wee’s article. it is, quite obviously, a rant in the heat of the moment. in addition, i don’t believe that my blog has the wide readership of derek wee’s, or even your own, and my intention was more to vent my own frustrations than public denouncement.

i’d also like to clarify my use of the word “elite”. while i understand how misinterpretation may have arose, i intended to use it in irony, as a label that people assume i enjoy, and not one that i take particular pleasure in.

finally, i admit that i was harsher than i should have been, although the the crux of my belief in self-improvement and self-determination has not changed. once again, i apologise if my words have unintentionally offended you - i was under the rather naive impression that nobody reads my blog

Ahh.. the one who famously penned the words " Get out of my elite uncaring face" can also be naive enough to think that nobody reads her blog.

There are acutally some points in her entry that i would agree with, not that i would agree how thoughtless and insensitive she had been in crafting the entry.

Basically, i wonder how much this has changed her, does she really care more for others now? Or is she has become more careful in her expressions and modes of communications..

she also, in her apology, state that the term elite is something that she does not take particular pleasure in.. what an irony, at she prefers not to be in the same "elite" group of her peers and parents..

then again, based on her views, can she call herself an elite in the first place?




What the future holds, is a scary thought