What Will They Tax Next?

SBS and SMRT - Money Not Enough?

Read the Straits Times and you'll know that the time of the year has come - Transport Hike. Or may be you would prefer to have a nicer sounding name -Transport Adjustments. You might agree with their justifications like the rising cost of petrol and how much they have invested in providing us with a better service but before you decide to believe their side of the story, check out the financial statements on SMRT's website and SBS Transit's website and you will be appalled to see huge, ever-increasing profits made over the last few years. Let me just make some basic analysis on the summarised financial statements on (http://www.smrt.com.sg/investors/financial_highlights.html).

It takes no effort to see that their PATMI have been increasing steadily over recent years to such extent that FY 2007's figure is now almost twice that of the figure 5 years ago.

And looking at their financial ratios - you have good profitability ratios, good rates of return and a falling gearing ratio which would suggest the business much prefers equity funding to debt funding. This minimises the interest payment problems and the control problems of having a dangerously high level of long-term debt on the balance sheet. Good interest cover ratio also suggests the business is easily able to meet its interest obligations from profits.

So are they in a situation where they are facing falling profits, increased business risks, liquidation etc and they have to increase the transport fare in order to stay profitable? Why then do they want more transport hike, oops I mean transport adjustments?

Nothing Wrong with Being Gay

I notice there has been many cases of confrontations with the authorities and MOE, like Mr Alfian Sa’at’s relief teaching case, police confronting a group of runners during Pink Run, and now this case of a RI teacher, Mr Otto Fong apparently being told to delete his blogpost on his ‘coming out’ by the school or maybe the MOE. This incident has become a fiasco on the blogosphere. You can read some of the articles on theonlinecitizen

The issue with homosexuality is always a sensitive one but in my opinion, all homosexuals should not be stopped from doing anything that is lawful. In Mr Otto Fong’s situation, if he is a good teacher, what’s wrong with declaring himself as a gay if he does not perform lewd acts in front of the students?

I do know of ‘normal’ friends who are teachers and like to go clubbing with their skimpily dressed female clubbing friends. If Mr Otto Fong gets dismissed because of this blogpost, all heterosexual male teachers should be dismissed too by the same logic that they may deem to be threats to all the girls and women in mixed or girls’ schools.

Some Problems with Foreign Talent Policy

There seemed to be too many foreigners living and working in Singapore these days. A decade ago, when you walked down the streets, you would probably hear familiar languages and dialects such as English, Chinese, Malay, Tamil, Hokkien, Teochew, Cantonese etc.

What do we have now? People speaking unheard of Chinese dialects, Myanmarese, and other very strange sounding languages which I have never heard of in my entire life. They bring along with them different cultures, habits and behaviour, many of which are pretty different from the typical Singaporean. It is even more contrasting if you compare them with our younger generation who are more westernized in terms of thinking and behaviour.

Opening the door more widely to foreign nationals who work with their special technologies, skills and knowledge will certainly cause both short-term and long-term social problems.

“Movement of people” essentially differs from “movement of goods” , the reason being that the former may cause a wide range of problems, from the minor conflicts in everyday life likely to arise in contacts between people from different cultures, to problems concerning the protection of human rights, and even problems bearing on quintessential question of race and nationhood.

You can argue that these new people will eventually assimilate into our society but how long would they need and to what extent are they able to do so? We must understand that not all people are able to change readily to adapt to changes around them and even if they do, they just might not or are unwilling to adopt some of our behaviours and habits, whether they are desirable or not desirable ones. Is the government going to make them sign something like a social contract, stipulating the list of things they need to do and the deadline of accomplishment?

“Movement of goods” is however much easier to handle. At a particular work field, we have standardized productivity and efficiency control systems in place. The quality assurance specialists would ensure everything pass the assurance test before the goods of consistent quality are being shipped out. Goods are easier to be controlled and manipulated but not people.

Crisis during Recession

Imagine now we have a recession and these foreign workers, who are presumably employed because they are cheaper to hire and/or they are more experienced than our local workers, decide to leave for a greener pasture. What they would leave behind is a massive black hole which might be disastrous for the employers who now have to employ the more expensive local workers to fill the gap thus pushing up their labour costs further up in a turbulent recession period.

And if these foreign workers are willing to stay, there is no guarantee that their employers would not terminate their services in an attempt to cut costs. A prolonged recession would probably generate mass unemployment not just among the local Singaporeans but also among foreign workers. These foreign workers will not disappear into thin air. Some may want to stay behind to seek other jobs and if they are desperate, may work illegally in some industries.

The government should understand fully the reliability of the local Singaporean workforce to mitigate any possible negative impact on domestic industries and labour market. It should control the influx of foreign workers more tightly especially now that we are passing the peak of economic boom and heading towards an unavoidable recession in a few years’ time.

Now You See It, Now You Don't!

"The most potent impact that the new media will have on politics is that, politicians will find it impossible to lie in the future. The truth will always be out there, because somewhere, someone has the facts, or has seen something, and will publish it. Fortunately for us in Singapore , we have run a clean system, and hence have nothing to hide." - Dr Vivian Balakrishnan (Source: Ministry of Information, Communication and Arts)

And if you read mrbrown's website, you would have seen the proof of the YoungPAP removing their cycling events off their website sometime after Prof Ho Peng Kee rejected Workers' Party's application to hold a cycling event along East Coast Park quoting

“It is an open area where there is potential for breach of peace, public disorder, and unruly behaviour.” and

“You may be well behaving, but there may be other people whom you come across when you cycle who may stop you, may want to debate with you and that may attract a crowd, therefore will result in problems the police want to avoid”.

Apparently, the YoungPAP is erasing evidence of their cycling activities so that the public would not be criticising the PAP of adopting a double standard.

This may just be a simple case of manipulation of information but on a bigger picture, would you think the PAP might even manipulate critical data such as economic statistics such as GDP, inflation rates etc and social statistics on income disparity, Singaporean-Permanent Resident-Foreigner ratio etc just to make sure the data look good enough even though they really ain't?

Pavarotti - A Great Star Has Fallen

"I think a life in music is a life beautifully spent and this is what I have devoted my life to" - Pavarotti.

I have all along been a classical music fanatic and especially interested in choral sacred music, oratorios and operas. Pavarotti, being one of the world most famous tenors alongside with Jose Carreras and Placido Domingo, has passed away recently. His demise is certainly going to be felt by a lot of people interested in classical music. I personally love his very spirited, emotional and flawless voice. Two of my favourite pieces by him, Nessun Dorma from the opera Turandot(top) by Puccini and Ave Maria(bottom) by Schubert could be heard on Youtube.

Merkel tops 'powerful women' list

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has topped a list of the most powerful women in the world for the second year.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is fourth in the Forbes magazine list, which is assessed using a mix of media "reach", influence and economic impact.

The Queen - among only three UK women listed - rose 23 places to 23, partly because of the length of her reign and her "increasing media favourability".

Businesswomen have performed strongly, taking five of the top 10 places.

Ho Ching, head of Singapore's Temasek Holdings was at number three while Pepsi's chief executive Indra Nooyi was fifth in the list of 100 women.

TEN MOST POWERFUL WOMEN 1. Angela Merkel (German chancellor) 2. Wu Yi (Chinese vice-premier) 3. Ho Ching (Temasek Holdings) 4. Condoleezza Rice (US Secretary of State) 5. Indra Nooyi (PepsiCo) 6. Sonia Gandhi (Indian National Congress Party) 7. Cynthia Carroll (Anglo American) 8. Patricia Wortz (Archer Daniels Midland) 9. Irene Rosenfeld (Kraft Foods) 10. Patricia Russo (Alcatel-Lucent) Source: Forbes magazine

Second highest Briton after the Queen was London Stock Exchange boss Clara Furse, at 54th.

In another strong showing by the world of business, chief executive of mining giant Anglo American, Cynthia Carroll was the highest ranking newcomer, placed seventh.

Other City-based high-flyers included the chief executive of publishers Pearson, Marjorie Scardino, who was ranked 17th and Angela Ahrendts, the chief executive of fashion label Burberry, who placed 66th.

However, Margaret Beckett, who was placed 29th last year in her role as foreign secretary slipped out of the top 100 list completely after being replaced in the job by a man - David Miliband.

And Cherie Blair also failed to make the list, having been named as 62nd most powerful woman in 2005.

Published on BBC News online, 30 Aug 2007