On 24 October 2006, Mr Tan Jee Suan, 46, was killed at Chinese Garden MRT station after being hit by a train going towards Boon Lay.
After news broke that he committed suicide due to financial difficulties and depression, Singaporeans once again showed their compassion with their wallets and donated around $500K to his family.
When the donated amount grew that huge, it was proposed to put the amount under a trust of sorts to ensure it is well managed and truly help the family bring its still schooling kids through to adulthood. This kind intention was rejected and the wife opted to handle the money herself. It is money donated to her family and she has all rights to manage it the way she wanted.
But yesterday night's news is a shocker. She actually offered $100K to the undertaker, 郑海船, who had generously offered to take care of the funeral for free. The undertaker has no need for such money and even if she was trying to thank him, a sum of $10-20K to reimburse him for all the expenditure will have suffice. The way the funds are being spent, I doubt it will last for long before the family falls back into financial difficulties.
I must applaud the kindness of the undertaker for offering to return the family the amount, not once but twice, and donating it to charity instead when the offers were rejected. A wonderful show of the true nature of big-heartedness!
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Public Transport System Comprehensive Review
The Land Transport Authority intends to up the trips made on public transport from 63% to 70% over the next 10-15 years.
Do we really need to spend on a comprehensive review to know what the problems are? The frequency of the bus services is poor and the rationalisation of services to avoid duplication with MRT routes has resulted in people having to pay extra and make multiple transfers in order to get to their destinations. Short distances take far too long to cover, a distance that takes 30mins by car can take 1.5 hours by our affordable public transport.
Take a cab instead of driving! But our cab fares have risen significantly and I pay $20 per trip going to work in the morning. Assuming I take the cab to and fro work everyday, $20 X 2 ways X 5 days X 4 weeks implies I am spending $800. For slightly more than $800 a month, it is today possible to get a small car and you get the additional sense of ownership and convenience. Gone are the days of waiting to flag down a cab and realising they are all missing when you most need it.
High level committees are useless in solving these issues. How often do the policy makers take the public transport? Those who do not use the public transport on a daily basis will not understand the pains of public transport commuters.
The outcome of this review is inadvertently raising ERP and other taxes to make car ownership more expensive to force people to use public transport instead. It is time to truly consider opening up the transport system for more competition on a even playing field. Telcos and ISPs are perfect examples of price competitiveness and service improvements when competition was introduced.
Do we really need to spend on a comprehensive review to know what the problems are? The frequency of the bus services is poor and the rationalisation of services to avoid duplication with MRT routes has resulted in people having to pay extra and make multiple transfers in order to get to their destinations. Short distances take far too long to cover, a distance that takes 30mins by car can take 1.5 hours by our affordable public transport.
Take a cab instead of driving! But our cab fares have risen significantly and I pay $20 per trip going to work in the morning. Assuming I take the cab to and fro work everyday, $20 X 2 ways X 5 days X 4 weeks implies I am spending $800. For slightly more than $800 a month, it is today possible to get a small car and you get the additional sense of ownership and convenience. Gone are the days of waiting to flag down a cab and realising they are all missing when you most need it.
High level committees are useless in solving these issues. How often do the policy makers take the public transport? Those who do not use the public transport on a daily basis will not understand the pains of public transport commuters.
The outcome of this review is inadvertently raising ERP and other taxes to make car ownership more expensive to force people to use public transport instead. It is time to truly consider opening up the transport system for more competition on a even playing field. Telcos and ISPs are perfect examples of price competitiveness and service improvements when competition was introduced.
Wee Shu Min vs Derek Wee
Wee Shu Min has made it into The Straits Times today with her blog postings that got slammed by Netizens.
She is the latest blogger to gain notoriety after posting their views online. The well-to-do in Singapore experiences a disconnect with the people who are trying to make ends meet. In my words, those who own and drive cars do not understand the pains of utilising public transport.
If you are keen on her posting, I replicate it below and it does not represent my views.
------------ Posting from suchvividnothing.blogspot.com ----------
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 shitbags don't want anything without "manager" and a name card.
please, get out of my elite uncaring face.
She is the latest blogger to gain notoriety after posting their views online. The well-to-do in Singapore experiences a disconnect with the people who are trying to make ends meet. In my words, those who own and drive cars do not understand the pains of utilising public transport.
If you are keen on her posting, I replicate it below and it does not represent my views.
------------ Posting from suchvividnothing.blogspot.com ----------
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 shitbags don't want anything without "manager" and a name card.
please, get out of my elite uncaring face.
Monday, October 16, 2006
Financial Reviews Blog
I need to find more money to meet additional financial needs in my life and since I cannot really look forward to a sudden pay increment, I have to seek the additional income from elsewhere. While I do not have the time to commit to some part-time/freelance job, I believe I have the ideas to share that will greatly benefit others.
After racking my brain for ideas, what better way to try to earn some money then by making use of blogging and monetise it with advertisements? As such, I managed to find a good name financialreviews to start a blog on reviewing financial products so as to provide people out there with the consumer point of view instead of relying on the product's promotional materials that highlights only the good points.
FinancialReviews has been born as of 15th October 2006!
After racking my brain for ideas, what better way to try to earn some money then by making use of blogging and monetise it with advertisements? As such, I managed to find a good name financialreviews to start a blog on reviewing financial products so as to provide people out there with the consumer point of view instead of relying on the product's promotional materials that highlights only the good points.
FinancialReviews has been born as of 15th October 2006!
Sunday, October 15, 2006
行家出手 (City Slickers)
行家出手 is listed as a variety show on the television programmes guide but should it actually be labelled as an advertisement instead? What variety is there in the show when it is so blatantly advertising the products that are featured on the show? This feel that it is a 30 minutes disguised commercial is further reinforced when the final credits show the featured products/retailers as being the sponsors of the show!
Obviously, this disguised commercial is a good money spinner for the media company since it actually has other incarnations of the same concept in shows like 美疗专家.
I consistently vote with my remote control on these shows that I do not like. Only by demonstrating a visible viewership ratings drop can we force the broadcast companies to provide higher quality programmes.
Obviously, this disguised commercial is a good money spinner for the media company since it actually has other incarnations of the same concept in shows like 美疗专家.
I consistently vote with my remote control on these shows that I do not like. Only by demonstrating a visible viewership ratings drop can we force the broadcast companies to provide higher quality programmes.
Friday, October 13, 2006
User ID and Secret PIN
User IDs and PINs are the common authentication mechanisms for online services these days and companies are taking pains to try to provide the information to clients in more secure ways. These efforts of theirs are truly commendable but the actual way in which it is done really leave much to be desired.
Just today, I found 2 mailers in my letterbox and when I opened them up, one contained user ID while the other contained the "secret" PIN. Checking the date of postage, the 2 are the same! What sort of security is there when both mailers are sent at the same time and ends up together in my letterbox?
Companies implementing security should seriously evaluate if the measure they had put in place are sensible. This company had good intentions but ended up with a useless implementation.
Just today, I found 2 mailers in my letterbox and when I opened them up, one contained user ID while the other contained the "secret" PIN. Checking the date of postage, the 2 are the same! What sort of security is there when both mailers are sent at the same time and ends up together in my letterbox?
Companies implementing security should seriously evaluate if the measure they had put in place are sensible. This company had good intentions but ended up with a useless implementation.
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
North Korea Nuclear Test
Why is a country that is so impoverished still so keen to go nuclear? The recent North Korea nuclear test appears to be yet another move that smacks of craziness.
The country is already so poor and relies heavily on foreign aid to sustain its citizens but the leaders are enjoying a much better quality of living. Isn't this ironic when North Korea is supposedly one of the last pure communist states? All citizens are equal but some are more equal than others.
The country further maintains a huge standing army! How can one justify keeping such a big army when the citizens are finding it hard to make ends meet? Anyone who has played war-theme RPG computer simulation games know that there is a need to balance resources with army size.
The international community is perhaps being too humane to North Korea. The citizens of the country are at no fault and should not be punished for all these. Yet, if we take a leaf out of our experiences in war-simulation games, if we choke the flow of resource flows and the nation is unable to provide for itself, a natural attrition of its population will happen, consequentially affecting the army size that is maintainable.
The problem is that the North Korea issue is not a game. It is politically far too damaging to allow the innocent citizens of a country to die by withdrawing much needed aid. NGOs will protest, the more meciful ones amongst us will protest, media will beam tragic scenes around the global and evoke sympathy for the innocent. But will be being merciful eventually backfire on the rest of the world?
North Korea's actions have been consistently aggressive and out-of-line with norms. How are we to know that its leadership will not put nuclear options into play in its next brinksmanship? Is the world going to be continually threatened by this rogue administration or it is going to come together and finally put a stop to the unreasonable demands of North Korea?
The country is already so poor and relies heavily on foreign aid to sustain its citizens but the leaders are enjoying a much better quality of living. Isn't this ironic when North Korea is supposedly one of the last pure communist states? All citizens are equal but some are more equal than others.
The country further maintains a huge standing army! How can one justify keeping such a big army when the citizens are finding it hard to make ends meet? Anyone who has played war-theme RPG computer simulation games know that there is a need to balance resources with army size.
The international community is perhaps being too humane to North Korea. The citizens of the country are at no fault and should not be punished for all these. Yet, if we take a leaf out of our experiences in war-simulation games, if we choke the flow of resource flows and the nation is unable to provide for itself, a natural attrition of its population will happen, consequentially affecting the army size that is maintainable.
The problem is that the North Korea issue is not a game. It is politically far too damaging to allow the innocent citizens of a country to die by withdrawing much needed aid. NGOs will protest, the more meciful ones amongst us will protest, media will beam tragic scenes around the global and evoke sympathy for the innocent. But will be being merciful eventually backfire on the rest of the world?
North Korea's actions have been consistently aggressive and out-of-line with norms. How are we to know that its leadership will not put nuclear options into play in its next brinksmanship? Is the world going to be continually threatened by this rogue administration or it is going to come together and finally put a stop to the unreasonable demands of North Korea?
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
A Brief History of Singapore
I am not a fan of Hossan Leong but he really shone in this clip where he gave an overview of Singapore's history through a song. Posted as "Talking Cock in Parliament - Hossan Leong" in YouTube, I will share the clip here too since I like it so much :-)
Saturday, October 07, 2006
Great Offer from dollarDEX
dollarDEX has just released a great offer, paying investors to mange their money.
Transfer your unit trusts now and be rewarded with a loyalty bonus, equivalent to 1% p.a. return on your average investment holdings of transferred units between 3 October 2006 and 30 June 2007.
This offer applies to unit trusts which you may previously have bought elsewhere using cash, CPF savings or SRS. For example, you may have bought Aberdeen Pacific Equity Fund at a bank several years ago. If you transfer your holdings in this fund over to dollarDEX you can participate in the promotion, earning the loyalty bonus for the period those units are held at dollarDEX up to 30 June 2007. Even if you switch to another fund during that period you can still get the bonus.
Details...
This is a very aggressive move that I believe will make a noticeable dent on the market share that Fundsupermart has and will force Fundsupermart to counter with some other offers to avoid losing too many existing customers. However, Fundsupermart as been frequently slow to react to competitors' challenges and hence, existing account holders with Fundsupermart should seriously taking up this offer by dollarDEX in the meantime. 1% additional returns does make a difference when large investment amounts are involved.
Transfer your unit trusts now and be rewarded with a loyalty bonus, equivalent to 1% p.a. return on your average investment holdings of transferred units between 3 October 2006 and 30 June 2007.
This offer applies to unit trusts which you may previously have bought elsewhere using cash, CPF savings or SRS. For example, you may have bought Aberdeen Pacific Equity Fund at a bank several years ago. If you transfer your holdings in this fund over to dollarDEX you can participate in the promotion, earning the loyalty bonus for the period those units are held at dollarDEX up to 30 June 2007. Even if you switch to another fund during that period you can still get the bonus.
Details...
This is a very aggressive move that I believe will make a noticeable dent on the market share that Fundsupermart has and will force Fundsupermart to counter with some other offers to avoid losing too many existing customers. However, Fundsupermart as been frequently slow to react to competitors' challenges and hence, existing account holders with Fundsupermart should seriously taking up this offer by dollarDEX in the meantime. 1% additional returns does make a difference when large investment amounts are involved.
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
Holistic Financial Planning
How are we able to get the idea of financial planning through to those who do not understand it? When I was still in school, the family finances were quite tight and my parents had zero savings outside of CPF. Financial planning focused more on getting through each month with the limited budgets than longer term goals.
Today, I am already working and am contributing to the household and yet, my parents still have no savings. The month to month living has become so deeply ingrained that extra cash these days is used to go on casino trips, majung sessions, expensive meals, etc. There is no thought made on the impending retirement where disposable income will take a significant hit. Whenever I raise the issue to my mother, it never ends well, usually with her telling me to stop giving her money if I am finding it tough to give it.
It is lucky that I had made the right move in not giving her a monthly lump sum and had instead allocated a portion of it to purchase an insurance savings plan. At least I know now that she will have a small sum of savings when the savings plan matures.
It is critical that we factor in financial planning for our parents if they do not do so themselves. In Asian societies, the mindset that parents will depend on their children in old age is still strong. Without sufficiently holistic planning to address the possible financial strains that will arise upon our parents' retirement, we will be trapped in the poverty cycle.
A well planned path is essential to ensuring a continued improvement in our standard of living.
Today, I am already working and am contributing to the household and yet, my parents still have no savings. The month to month living has become so deeply ingrained that extra cash these days is used to go on casino trips, majung sessions, expensive meals, etc. There is no thought made on the impending retirement where disposable income will take a significant hit. Whenever I raise the issue to my mother, it never ends well, usually with her telling me to stop giving her money if I am finding it tough to give it.
It is lucky that I had made the right move in not giving her a monthly lump sum and had instead allocated a portion of it to purchase an insurance savings plan. At least I know now that she will have a small sum of savings when the savings plan matures.
It is critical that we factor in financial planning for our parents if they do not do so themselves. In Asian societies, the mindset that parents will depend on their children in old age is still strong. Without sufficiently holistic planning to address the possible financial strains that will arise upon our parents' retirement, we will be trapped in the poverty cycle.
A well planned path is essential to ensuring a continued improvement in our standard of living.
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