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"Netizens react to Ministers’ salary review By Ewen Boey | SingaporeScene – Mon, May 23, 2011 Email Print Netizens have mixed reactions to PM Lee's initiative to review ministers' pay. (Facebook photo) Netizens remain sceptical that there would be a drastic cut to top government officials' salaries after Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced the formation of a committee to review Singapore's ministerial pay. "I know that Singaporeans have genuine concerns over the present (ministerial) salaries. Hence, I am appointing a committee to review the basis and level of political salaries," PM Lee said in a speech at the Cabinet's swearing-in ceremony at the Istana on Saturday night. He said that Gerard Ee, chairman of the National Kidney Foundation (NKF) and of Changi General Hospital, would be chairman of the committee. However, netizens were doubtful the move would lead to pay changes in the end. Seow Kin Wei commented on Yahoo! Singapore's Facebook page, "At the end of the day, they... more... - V@g38 from Bookmarklet

"TIME FOR THE HATCHET TO BE BURIED Posted on May 15, 2011 by satayclub The late opposition politician J B Jeyaretnam was viciously persecuted for his opposition to Mr Lee Kuan Yew's PAP By Nigel Tan Chief Editor “Everybody knows that in my bag I have a hatchet, and a very sharp one. You take me on, I take my hatchet, we meet in the cul-de-sac. That’s the way I had to survive in the past.” Those by-now infamous words were uttered by then-Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew with reference to his bête noir, the late opposition leader J B Jeyaretnam. They came to aptly symbolise the PAP’s hard-line approach to politics under Mr Lee’s stewardship – if you voice your dissent too openly, you must be prepared to be destroyed. To Mr Lee’s credit, he never tried to disguise his intolerance of those who refused to toe the line. As a leader, he preferred to be feared than loved – in fact, he once remarked that “if nobody is afraid of me, I am meaningless”. By the time their quarrel was over, Mr... more... - V@g38 from Bookmarklet

"Golden ratio From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The golden section is a line segment divided according to the golden ratio: The total length a + b is to the longer segment a as a is to the shorter segment b. In mathematics and the arts, two quantities are in the golden ratio if the ratio of the sum of the quantities to the larger one equals the ratio of the larger one to the smaller. The golden ratio is an irrational mathematical constant, approximately 1.6180339887.[1] Other names frequently used for the golden ratio are the golden section (Latin: sectio aurea) and golden mean.[2][3][4] Other terms encountered include extreme and mean ratio,[5] medial section, divine proportion, divine section (Latin: sectio divina), golden proportion, golden cut,[6] golden number, and mean of Phidias.[7][8][9] The golden ratio is often denoted by the Greek letter phi, usually lower case (φ). The figure on the right illustrates the geometric relationship that defines this constant. Expressed... more... - V@g38 from Bookmarklet

"Singapore: Court to Hear Appeal by Critic of Judiciary Freedom of Expression Languishes in City-State APRIL 8, 2011 British author Alan Shadrake was convicted of contempt of court in Singapore and sentenced on November 16, 2010 to six weeks' imprisonment and a US$15,865 fine. His appeal will be heard on April 11, 2011 in the Court of Appeal. © 2011 Private RELATED MATERIALS: Singapore: Drop Charges Against Author Who Raised Rights Concerns Singapore: Legal Charges Threat to Freedom of Expression Singapore: Hocus Pocus Hides Rights Abuses Singapore officials egregiously violated the right to free expression by prosecuting Shadrake for daring to suggest that the government doesn’t have it all right all the time. The government seems intent on trying to discredit both the message and the messenger. (New York) - On April 11, 2011, the Singapore Court of Appeal will hear the case of Alan Shadrake, a British author whose book criticized the Singaporean judiciary. The outcome of Shadrake's... more... - V@g38 from Bookmarklet

"Roubini’s Next Crisis Is Scary Food for Thought: William Pesek By William Pesek - Feb 14, 2011 4:00 AM GMT+0800 Bloomberg Opinion inShare 44More Print Email Play Video Feb. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Bettina Luescher, spokesperson for the United Nations World Food Program, talks about global food security. She speaks with Carol Massar on Bloomberg Television's "Street Smart." (Source: Bloomberg) Play Video Feb. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Bill Lapp, president of Advanced Economic Solutions, and Kimberly Elliott, a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development, talk about global food prices and availability. They speak with Mark Crumpton on Bloomberg Television's "Bottom Line." (Source: Bloomberg) Forget Egypt for a moment. Skip the water crisis in China. Look past angst on the streets of Bangladesh. If you want to see how extreme the effects of surging food prices are becoming, look to wealthy Japan. So big are the increases that economists are buzzing about them pushing deflationary Japan toward... more... - V@g38 from Bookmarklet

"1. Lee Hsien Loong, Prime Minister, Singapore Annual Salary: $2.2 Million The Prime Minister of Singapore not only takes the title of Asia’s best-paid politician, but he is also far and away the highest paid politician anywhere in the world. In July 2010, The Economist magazine put his annual salary at nearly $2.2 million dollars. That’s roughly 6 times the salary of United States President Barack Obama. But it’s not just the Prime Minister in Singapore earning big bucks. The average Singapore minister takes home a salary in excess of $1 million dollars, making them the highest paid politicians in the world. Photo: Getty Images" - V@g38 from Bookmarklet

"China property bubble to burst next year PropertyGuru.com.sg - Monday, February 7SendIM StoryPrint Things will soon come crashing down for China's hot real estate market, with the Chinese banking system failing to generate sufficient credit to sustain further increases in property prices, said Gillem Tulloch, Managing Director of Forensic Asia Ltd. "We think that the bubble will likely burst some time in the next year," said Mr. Tulloch, in a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal's MarketWatch. The country's state-run banks will come under pressure to significantly rein in lending, leaving the economy short of more than 11 trillion yuan in credit, he said. Credit needs to grow at double-digit rates to sustain price gains, said Mr. Tulloch, adding that the lending boom is a sign of a market swept up in bubble dynamics. Another round of double-digit credit growth is needed to sustain further increases in the already increasing property prices in China. "We are thinking they... more... - V@g38 from Bookmarklet

"Freed Google executive helped spark Egypt revolt with Facebook February 9th, 2011 | Author: Online Press Egyptian Wael Ghonim, a Google Inc. marketing manager, talks at his home in Cairo CAIRO — The young Google Inc. executive detained by Egyptian authorities for 12 days said Monday he was behind the Facebook page that helped spark what he called “the revolution of the youth of the Internet.” A U.S.-based human rights group said nearly 300 people have died in two weeks of clashes. Wael Ghonim, a marketing manager for the Internet company, wept throughout an emotional television interview just hours after he was freed. He described how he spent his entire time in detention blindfolded while his worried parents didn’t know where he was. He insisted he had not been tortured and said his interrogators treated him with respect. “This is the revolution of the youth of the Internet and now the revolution of all Egyptians,” he said, adding that he was taken aback when the security forces... more... - V@g38 from Bookmarklet

"Dumping the fallacies LKY created February 9th, 2011 | Author: Contributions Firstly, let me qualify that LKY did many good things for Singapore. He led a team of capable leaders to bring where Singapore is today. Any other man would have….well, done the same. It is just that LKY has taken far, far more credit than he deserves. He is no god, nor deity, but just an ordinary man, who outwitted his adversaries. He was at the right place at the right time, and he capitalised those opportunities with shrewdness like a fox. In other words, a lesser shrewd man would still have brought Singapore to where we are today, but taken much less credit for it. Here are some of LKY’s propagated fallacies that need to be ditched. Fallacy #1 – LKY was charismatic Ha ha. Those of you who are old enough to remember Lim Chin Siong, will know what I am talking about. I myself was born after his era, but I managed to dig up some enlightening facts about this fiery man. There was a documentary aired by... more... - V@g38 from Bookmarklet

"TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 01, 2011 Climate of Fear "First They Came for the Jews" By Pastor Niemoller   First they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for the Communists and I did not speak out because I was not a Communist. Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me. Posted by Tan Kin Lian at 11:59 PM" - V@g38 from Bookmarklet

"Income inequality - a lesson for Singapore 14:54 01Feb11 RTRS-UPDATE 1-Global imbalances returning, could fuel unrest: IMF chief By Kevin Lim SINGAPORE, Feb 1 (Reuters) - The world economy has begun improving but is beset by problems such as high unemployment and rising prices which could fuel crippling trade protectionism or even lead to war within nations, the head of the International Monetary Fund warned on Tuesday. Rising food and fuel prices in recent months have already hit poorer countries and are one of the factors behind massive anti-government protests in Egypt and in Tunisia, whose president was ousted last month. [ID:nLDE71000N] The United Nations' food agency (FAO) said last month that global food prices hit a record high in December, above 2008 levels when riots broke out in countries as far afield as Egypt, Cameroon and Haiti. "The pre-crisis pattern of global imbalances is re-emerging," Dominique Strauss-Kahn said in a speech in Singapore. "Growth in economies with... more... - V@g38 from Bookmarklet

"The Quest for Dignity By DAVID BROOKS Published: January 31, 2011 RECOMMEND TWITTER COMMENTS (239) SIGN IN TO E-MAIL PRINT REPRINTS SHARE I wonder if sometime around 50 years ago a great mental tide began to sweep across the world. Before the tide, people saw themselves in certain fixed places in the social order. They accepted opinions from trusted authorities. Josh Haner/The New York Times David Brooks Go to Columnist Page » The Conversation David Brooks and Gail Collins talk between columns. All Conversations » Related in Opinion Room for Debate: Mubarak’s Role and Mideast Peace Readers' Comments Readers shared their thoughts on this article. Read All Comments (239) » As the tide swept through, they began to see themselves differently. They felt they should express their own views, and these views deserved respect. They mentally bumped themselves up to first class and had a different set of expectations of how they should be treated. Treatment that had once seemed normal now felt... more... - V@g38 from Bookmarklet

"Poverty and joblessness fueling Mideast unrest February 1st, 2011 | Author: Online Press DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Just days before fleeing Tunisia, the embattled leader went on national television to promise 300,000 new jobs over two years. Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak did much the same Saturday as riots gripped Cairo and other cities: offering more economic opportunities in a country where half the people live on less than $2 a day. The pledges-under-siege have something else in common: an acknowledgment that the unprecedented anger on Arab streets is at its core a long-brewing rage against decades of economic imbalances that have rewarded the political elite and left many others on the margins. With startling speed — less than two months since the first protests in Tunisia — underscored the wobbly condition of the systems used by some Arab regimes to hold power since the 1980s or earlier. The once formidable mix of economic cronyism and hard-line policing — which... more... - V@g38 from Bookmarklet

"Singapore needs health reforms not maybes from Minister Khaw Boon Wan February 1st, 2011 | Author: Contributions During the Singapore Economic Policy Conference in 2009, a team of researchers from NUS and Singhealth made a presentation on “Singapore’s Healthcare System: Some Challenges” http://www.ess.org.sg/Events.... Probably for the first time ever has the topic of healthcare financing has been looked in such a sincere manner in Singapore. In all the other moments, one can never hear nothing except praises on how the system is one of the best in the world, how healthcare is so affordable and so on. Khaw Boon Wan Minister Khaw Boon Wan, MOH and many others in Singapore constantly will dig up the world Health Organisation ranking excercise in 2000 of health systems across the world where Singapore was ranked as 6th. However experts around the world disputed the manner WHO had computed the final rankings though they found the individual component rankings on... more... - V@g38 from Bookmarklet

"Meanwhile the bigger problem lies not in just prices, but in the fact that when citizens are unhappy, they have little opportunity for political recourse. "In the U.S. if you're unhappy about who you've deputized, you vote them out in the next election," Sabra said. "It doesn't work that way in Tunisia or Egypt."" - V@g38 from Bookmarklet

"Wealthy And Famous Egyptians Flee Country On Board Private Jets Posted on January 28, 2011 by The Global Realm Wealthy And Famous Egyptians Flee Country On Board Private Jets Gregory White Business Insider Jan. 28, 2011 Egyptian elites are fleeing the country, according to Al Jazeera. They include both the country’s rich, and otherwise famous. Reports say they are fleeing by private jet. No word on whether or not the Sawiris, all worth more than 1 billion, have fled or are still in the country. http://www.businessinsider.com/egyptia..." - V@g38 from Bookmarklet

"How much class "C" hospitalisation can cost. Many have not felt the direct effects of means testing or understood the implications. Minister Khaw keeps repeating the mantra that the 3Ms are sufficient, medical care is affordable and so on. What does affordable mean? Hundreds of thousands of Singaporeans are uninsured (almost 1 in 5) and are exposed to enormous financial risk. Until we can compel the govt to make further changes and put in place a 1st world universal healthcare system, please help to keep your fellew Singaporeans informed and tell them what is actually going on. I've written extensively about the cracks in our system and the govt's continuous efforts to increase our healthcare burden to keep its own expediture down. Here is a case to think about. A man had an accident and stayed in a class "C" ward for 2 months. This feller fell through one of the many cracks that most are unaware of - when an accident is "work related", there is no subsidy. When the company doesn't... more... - V@g38 from Bookmarklet

"I can rest assure u that there are 2 countries on the Earth that the citizen will just too chicken to protest or do anything: No 2: North Korea No 1: Singapore We dun even dare to vote according to our wish because we scared of the SERIAL NUMBER on the ballot. North korean scared of the GUN over their head." - V@g38 from Bookmarklet

"Protests in Egypt Jan 27th 2011 | from PRINT EDITION TUNISIA has a mere 10m-plus people and Egypt around 84m. But as the yearning for democracy stirs in the Arab world, a wave set off in tiny Tunisia, travelling east through the Maghreb, is now rocking giant Egypt. The past few days have seen angry demonstrations in at least a score of Egyptian towns. Some 30,000 people have jammed Cairo’s most famous square. Such astonishing events, in the heart of the Arab world’s most populous country, have not been witnessed in the 30 years since Hosni Mubarak, its ailing 82-year-old dictator, took power (see article). First Tunisia, next Egypt? The scent of the jasmine revolution, as Tunisians are calling their national upheaval, has certainly spread. Satellite television, mobile telephones, the internet and Twitter continue to relay the giddy news across the Maghreb, along the Mediterranean’s southern coast, and on even through Saudi Arabia to the Gulf and Yemen. Plainly, the dictators are... more... - V@g38 from Bookmarklet

"Does Facebook make you sad? Join the club Troy Reimink | The Grand Rapids Press Posted: 01/28/2011 5:28 PM An entity as pervasive as Facebook is going to spark its share of backlashes. The latest anti-Facebook vibe going around the Internet involves something arguably deeper than the usual complaints of privacy erosion and third-party personal-information profiteering. The social network, it seems, is making us sad. The online magazine Slate has analyzed the results of a new study on the human tendency to overestimate the happiness of our peers. Facebook, which is among other things a platform for bragging about one's life, reinforces this tendency. Since everyone's posting about the good things in their lives, we measure our own happiness and achievements in comparison – resulting in widespread unhappiness. Writer Libby Copeland elaborates: Facebook is, after all, characterized by the very public curation of one's assets in the form of friends, photos, biographical data,... more... - V@g38 from Bookmarklet

"Egyptian Revolution Jan 25th 2011 - Take what's Yours!" - V@g38 from Bookmarklet

"Uncle Sam and the new Arab revolt Jan 27th 2011, 20:27 by Lexington MANY years ago, when I was starting out in journalism, I used to know a much older, amiable hack, who after a drink or two in the pub at night had a bad habit of jabbing my chest, reaching into his breast pocket, and then thrusting a sheaf of crumpled, yellowing press cuttings under my nose to show that he was the first to have written this, disclosed that, etc, etc. He was, frankly, a bit of a bore, though a harmless one. Reader, I cannot help it. After so many years watching the Middle East, and watching the gripping drama unfolding in the Arab world now, I have at last become that man. It is too early to say whether the overthrow of Tunisia's strongman and the riots now sweeping through Egypt and numerous other Arab countries will amount to broad political change. But wouldn't it be nice, indeed thrilling, if America's secretary of state went to the University of Cairo, say, and made some simple statement like... more... - V@g38 from Bookmarklet

"MM Lee on Elitism.... I've written about elitism here. It is actually a series of articles which covers my thoughts on the topic. MM Lee has been spreading his 'hard truths' with much enthusiasm in the past few weeks. He has been sharing his ideas a lot in public and sometimes too frankly. This week he offended many Muslims by asking them to be 'less strict'. I won't go into too much into that I believe it was careless 'politically incorrect' remark on his part[Link]. He is not helping his party (and his son) by taking center stage and going around reminding of everyone the 'hard truths'. It makes it look like the PAP leadership is still taking directions from him and very often the 'hard truths' look like dogmatic beliefs - he provided little evidence or logic to demonstrate these truths in his interviews. "People get educated, the bright ones rise, they marry equally well-educated spouses. The result is their children are smarter than those who are gardeners. Not that all the... more... - V@g38 from Bookmarklet

"But many say the fruits of growth in this formerly socialist economy have been funneled almost entirely to a politically connected elite, leaving average Egyptians surrounded by unattainable symbols of wealth such as luxury housing and high-priced electronics as they struggle to find jobs, pay daily bills and find affordable housing." - Full Article :here." - V@g38 from Bookmarklet

"The Politically Incorrect Politician At the Tanjong Pagar "Singapore 21 forum" on 18 Sept 1999, a polytechnic student had asked then Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew if certain instinctive emotional bonds among ethnic groups could be surmounted for Singapore to become a nation. This was Lee's reply: "Yes, I think so, over a long period of time, and selectively. We must not make an error. If, for instance, you put in a Malay officer who's very religious and who has family ties in Malaysia in charge of a machine-gun unit, that's a very tricky business. We've got to know his background. I'm saying these things because they are real, and if I don't think that, and I think even if today the Prime Minister doesn't think carefully about this, we could have a tragedy. " That prompted two Malay-Muslim groups to call for a dialogue with Lee. Taman Bacaan, a grassroots group, said Malay MPs should have a "heart-to-heart" discussion with Lee. Majlis Pusat, the central council for 38 Malay-Muslim... more... - V@g38 from Bookmarklet

"Jan 26, 2011 Make 'vertical kampungs' of high-rise living Centre wants to revive kampung spirit to encourage volunteerism SENIOR Minister Goh Chok Tong wants to revive the kampung spirit of old in today's high-rise apartment blocks, where the vast majority of Singaporeans now live. So does the National Volunteer & Philanthropy Centre (NVPC), which is spearheading the 'Vertical Kampung' - a new effort to encourage and enable informal volunteering. That is the kind of spontaneous helping which takes place when people respond to a neighbour's need, and which used to be a way of life in the kampungs or villages of old. It could range from giving a neighbour some salt, to tending a community vegetable garden together, to keeping an eye out for suspicious characters when walking the dog. In his keynote address at the 21st World Volunteer Conference at Resorts World Sentosa, Mr Goh said: 'This model is premised on the belief that every individual has talents and resources that can benefit... more... - V@g38 from Bookmarklet

"Food speculation: 'People die from hunger while banks make a killing on food' It's not just bad harvests and climate change – it's also speculators that are behind record prices. And it's the planet's poorest who pay Illustration: Katie Edwards John Vidal The Observer, Sun 23 Jan 2011 00.02 GMT Blogpost Just under three years ago, people in the village of Gumbi in western Malawi went unexpectedly hungry. Not like Europeans do if they miss a meal or two, but that deep, gnawing hunger that prevents sleep and dulls the senses when there has been no food for weeks. Oddly, there had been no drought, the usual cause of malnutrition and hunger in southern Africa, and there was plenty of food in the markets. For no obvious reason the price of staple foods such as maize and rice nearly doubled in a few months. Unusually, too, there was no evidence that the local merchants were hoarding food. It was the same story in 100 other developing countries. There were food riots in more than 20... more... - V@g38 from Bookmarklet

"Singapore: Hocus Pocus Hides Rights Abuses Posted by theonlinecitizen on January 25, 20113 Comments The following is an excerpt of an article published on Human Rights Watch (New York) – Singapore’s stated goal of updating its political system in time for the 2011 elections should include revamping laws, policies, and practices that fail to comply with international human rights standards, Human Rights Watch said today in releasing its World Report 2011. British author Alan Shadrake arrives at the Supreme Court in Singapore on November 3, 2010. Shadrake was convicted of contempt of court and was sentenced on November 16, 2010 to six weeks' imprisonment and a US$15,375 fine. © 2010 Reuters The 649-page report, Human Rights Watch’s 21st annual review of human rights practices around the globe, summarizes major human rights trends in more than 90 countries and territories worldwide. In Singapore, during 2010, the government restricted freedom of expression, association, and peaceful... more... - V@g38 from Bookmarklet

"Gap Between Rich And Poor Named 8th Wonder Of The World JANUARY 24, 2011 | ISSUE 47•04 The awe-inspiring gap. ARTICLE TOOLS Email Print Share RELATED ARTICLES Chinese Woman Gives Birth to Septuplets, Has One Week To Choose 01.15.98 Japan Spotted Hovering Over Algeria 08.27.03 PARIS—At a press conference Tuesday, the World Heritage Committee officially recognized the Gap Between Rich and Poor as the "Eighth Wonder of the World," describing the global wealth divide as the "most colossal and enduring of mankind's creations." "Of all the epic structures the human race has devised, none is more staggering or imposing than the Gap Between Rich and Poor," committee chairman Henri Jean-Baptiste said. "It is a tremendous, millennia-old expanse that fills us with both wonder and humility." "And thanks to careful maintenance through the ages, this massive relic survives intact, instilling in each new generation a sense of awe," Jean- Baptiste added. The vast chasm of wealth, which stretches... more... - V@g38 from Bookmarklet

"MM Lee on why he demolished rivals... The extract from "Hard Truths" appeared in yesterday's New Paper. "What political party helps an opposition to come to power? Why should we not demolish them before they get started? Once they get started, its more difficult to demolish them" - MM Lee Everytime the PAP is asked why they demolished opponents, they throw back this - why they should help their opponent? Rather ridiculous because nobody is asking them to 'help' their opponents but to have a level playing field and respect our pledge to 'build a democratic society'. Political parties in democratic countries compete with ideas not shackle their opponents with arrest, bankruptcy and detention without trial. MM Lee also admits to demolishing his rivals when they are small to prevent the emergence a real challenge to his rule. On why he thought it was necessary to demolish men such as JB Jeyaratnam: "Well yes, Jeyaretnam to begin with. Chee Soon Juan is another. I think they deserve to be... more... - V@g38 from Bookmarklet