Friday, July 16, 2010

Law and order

Singapore had built a good reputation for law and order in the past. However, the situation has deteriorated in recent years. A senior police officer told me that the recruitment of policemen had not kept pace with the increase in population. Many Singaporeans prefer not to join the Police Force. A SAF officer told me that it is also difficult to get Singaporeans to join the SAF as full time soldiers.

I know that the Police and the SAF pay well and provides a good career for their officers. But, the problem is that the finance sector in Singapore pays so well that it attracts too many people, including the top talents.

The finance sector is able to pay well because they are allowed to make a lot of profits in trading (i.e. actually speculating on stocks, futures and derivatives) and in selling structured products that are bad for the public. Another sector that draws away too many people is the property sector. Too many people are taking a lot of money by being property agents.

Many people can earn a lot of money by selling financial products and properties, and they are taking away people from the productive sectors of the economy. This trend will be bad for the future of Singapore - we will be a less safe and  less productive nation.

Tan Kin Lian

Compulsive history

Read this article.

My view
I saw the video of Dr. Lim Hock Siew's speech a few months ago. It seemed to be quite fair. If he had made any outrageous statements, he would have been arrested.

Notebook Mall

Dear Mr. Tan

Since my retrenchment from a MNC in 2004, I tried many ideas but many went up in smoke.  Entrepreneurship in SG is tough with such high business operating cost. As you already know about my recent online venture - www.thenotebookmall.com 

Apart from offering same product at much lower price than my competitors, I also came up with the idea such as SOHO Bundle targeting Small & Home Business. I think my mall may be the only online mall in Singapore currently that introduce product bundles to cater to different category of customers such as SOHO business owners.

Please help to publicise my mall in your blog.


YP

Customer Service

The Star
Courteous service workers are a dying breed, and the cause lies in Singaporean characteristics,
be it the worker, the boss or overdemanding customer. As its new generation becomes more cosmopolitan, self-centred and seemingly always in a hurry, Singapore is finding it harder to develop a good service culture on its own.


http://thestar.com.my/columnists/story.asp?file=/2010/7/17/columnists/insightdownsouth/6676149&sec=insightdownsouth

Dam and flood control

Hi Mr. Tan

I was very surprised to see a news clip from CNA a few hours ago today (16 Jul 2010). It said that to prevent floods, the Chinese government used explosives to blast open a dam. I saw the video footage and it was
awesome!! The dam must have been incorrectly constructed, i thought in my naive mind!!

I went to internet to try to research on flood control, it seems to be a very technical and academic subject, i have difficulty understanding what is a dam, what is a levee, what is a barrage, and especially why blast open a dam, and how floods can happen. (i didn't see anything to say that massive floods occur because of blocked culverts)

I wonder if there are any experts reading your blog who could lend some help to interprete the reasons for the floods in singapore recently, and also how come a dam in china has need to be destroyed if floods are meant
for flood control? CNA news clip didnt elaborate on the issue, from the layman point of view, it seems like the dam is blocking flow of water out to sea, so blast it up.  Isn't our Marina Barrage a dam too?  What's the difference? Are there independent experts willing to share some knowledge?

rex


Any knowledgeable person can contact rex at rex@humbleideas.com

FAQ - Invest in Foreign Currency Deposit

Before you invest in foreign currency deposits to earn a higher interest rate, you should consider the points expressed in this article.

Leviathan@SG

This blog is written by C H Yak, a regular visitor to my blog:
http://de-leviathan.blogspot.com/

Read more about LEVIATHAN and how a civil society can correct the damages of excessive government.