Messages or anything written without sound or body language; without the ability to evoke emotions or intention, is often the reason for miscommunication. A simple " Don't be silly!" Can be spoken in jest or in contempt, with humor intentions or with disrespectful feelings. But how can that be avoided?
Showing posts with label accountability. Show all posts
Showing posts with label accountability. Show all posts
Monday, May 14, 2012
Monday, November 15, 2010
Not an accountant but I think
...we should all put some heart into reading what is presented often in the papers.
Just some points to ponder as I did some additional reading over the weekend, quite a bedtime sleepy companion - The Department of Statistics’ Singapore Yearbook of Statistics 2010.
According to theyawning...book, the amount of CPF contributions from Singaporeans/PR has grown by almost 90%, from S$88 billion to S$167 billion in 10 years (1999 to 2009). Around the same period of the last decade, our public domestic debt has grew by 132% from S$126 billion to S$292 billion. Something to think/worry about?
Other interesting stat is that English newspaper circulation has been dropping aggressively with a 24% drop since 2004 (1.038 mil to 790k), other languages have seen an increase since 2004. So is it because the English readers have all gone online or are we experiencing a change in population racial mix? It would be unwise to think that they are becoming like me, sick of the BS we read in the papers and cancelled it. We only have weekend papers for the adverts...haha
If I had more time and apathy, it will be interesting to study the foreign investments of countries like Myanmar and Cambodia. But I got pissed off just enough to see corporate income tax went down as personal income tax grew; and our Govt operating expenditure especially in the Govt administration portion - it grew a whopping 55% in the last decade (S$689 mil to S$1.071 BILLION). FYI, we spent about that amount on environment and water resources (S$661 mil) and transport (S$372 mil) combined.
Just some points to ponder as I did some additional reading over the weekend, quite a bedtime sleepy companion - The Department of Statistics’ Singapore Yearbook of Statistics 2010.
According to the
Other interesting stat is that English newspaper circulation has been dropping aggressively with a 24% drop since 2004 (1.038 mil to 790k), other languages have seen an increase since 2004. So is it because the English readers have all gone online or are we experiencing a change in population racial mix? It would be unwise to think that they are becoming like me, sick of the BS we read in the papers and cancelled it. We only have weekend papers for the adverts...haha
If I had more time and apathy, it will be interesting to study the foreign investments of countries like Myanmar and Cambodia. But I got pissed off just enough to see corporate income tax went down as personal income tax grew; and our Govt operating expenditure especially in the Govt administration portion - it grew a whopping 55% in the last decade (S$689 mil to S$1.071 BILLION). FYI, we spent about that amount on environment and water resources (S$661 mil) and transport (S$372 mil) combined.
Saturday, May 16, 2009
New definition
Learn recently that we are going to have our 1 millionth English word. 'Noob', I don't know what it means and seriously do not mind missing that word out of my vocab.
It is known that the average persons vocabulary is fewer than 14,000 words out of these million that are available. A person who is linguistically gifted would only use 70,000 words.
Well Singapore being all so innovative, has redefined the word "assembly" recently. As you all know illegal assembly laws in Singapore means we cannot gather in groups of 5 or more people. So seriously, I try to avoid going for class gatherings or dinner appointments, please stick to 4 and do not loiter around afterwards. But that was in the past.
For the apolitical readers of this blog, did you know under the new Public Order Act which was announced on 23 March 2009 , cause-related activities will be regulated by permit, regardless of the number of persons involved or the format they are conducted in, unlike existing regulation which defines an illegal assembly as one that involves 5 or more people.
So what that gibberish shit means is, even one person can now be defined to be of illegal assembly. Our nation’s political history has once again redefined the word "assembly"; as the gahmen took steps to further curtail the rights of Singapore citizens to freedom of peaceful assembly in the name of preserving national security.
I hardly use that word anyway ever since I left the primary and secondary school system of having morning assemblies to sing national anthems and say the pledge with a fist across my heart.
But this new redefined word by our elitist investment arm Temasek, made news on CNBC recently (Caught by Mr Lucky Tan) -Appalled and embarrassed totally. Our so called "LONG TERM" investments actually stood at 3 freaking months. I thought it was 10-20 years. What was all this press conferences and speaking for our female head honcho about looking forward about? I just felt I was being taken for a ride and right now Sillypore's a laughing stock around the world.
Anyway watch this newsclip and the bomb drops at almost the end.
We just keep making news for the wrong reasons, shouldn't heads roll for this? No apologies needed? Public funds or loose change in the tune of US$4.6 billion? That's S$1500 per Singaporean. Damn...
It is known that the average persons vocabulary is fewer than 14,000 words out of these million that are available. A person who is linguistically gifted would only use 70,000 words.
Well Singapore being all so innovative, has redefined the word "assembly" recently. As you all know illegal assembly laws in Singapore means we cannot gather in groups of 5 or more people. So seriously, I try to avoid going for class gatherings or dinner appointments, please stick to 4 and do not loiter around afterwards. But that was in the past.
For the apolitical readers of this blog, did you know under the new Public Order Act which was announced on 23 March 2009 , cause-related activities will be regulated by permit, regardless of the number of persons involved or the format they are conducted in, unlike existing regulation which defines an illegal assembly as one that involves 5 or more people.
So what that gibberish shit means is, even one person can now be defined to be of illegal assembly. Our nation’s political history has once again redefined the word "assembly"; as the gahmen took steps to further curtail the rights of Singapore citizens to freedom of peaceful assembly in the name of preserving national security.
I hardly use that word anyway ever since I left the primary and secondary school system of having morning assemblies to sing national anthems and say the pledge with a fist across my heart.
But this new redefined word by our elitist investment arm Temasek, made news on CNBC recently (Caught by Mr Lucky Tan) -Appalled and embarrassed totally. Our so called "LONG TERM" investments actually stood at 3 freaking months. I thought it was 10-20 years. What was all this press conferences and speaking for our female head honcho about looking forward about? I just felt I was being taken for a ride and right now Sillypore's a laughing stock around the world.
Anyway watch this newsclip and the bomb drops at almost the end.
"Temasek sold off all of his shares of BOA at US$7,.... a US$4.6 billion loss out of a US$5.9 billion investment, ....... this one guys, is right up there as one of the worst investments during this period for a single investment fund"- David Faber, Faber Report CNBC, 15 May 2009
We just keep making news for the wrong reasons, shouldn't heads roll for this? No apologies needed? Public funds or loose change in the tune of US$4.6 billion? That's S$1500 per Singaporean. Damn...
Wednesday, April 01, 2009
Morals
Markets need morals - British PM says.
The world's economic system needs reshaping to reflect global values, UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown said.
Seriously, words like unsupervision, accountability, transparency is long overdued.
The world has enough problems dealing with crooked and corrupted greedy high paying officials, business leaders, bankers. And the state we are in and will be in another 18 months time, I do hope we all have our jobs still. But of course there are rich SOBs out there, with "old" money or big bonuses, please spend more!
The world's economic system needs reshaping to reflect global values, UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown said.
"Unsupervised globalization of our financial markets did not only cross national boundaries -- it crossed moral boundaries, too,"
Seriously, words like unsupervision, accountability, transparency is long overdued.
The world has enough problems dealing with crooked and corrupted greedy high paying officials, business leaders, bankers. And the state we are in and will be in another 18 months time, I do hope we all have our jobs still. But of course there are rich SOBs out there, with "old" money or big bonuses, please spend more!
Tuesday, December 09, 2008
Too much
I believe people should always have just enough - too much of anything is bad.
Too much KFC ice lemon tea gives me tummy aches. Too much chocolate gives me pimples. Just as if a person has too much money, he might indulge in more sins and in turn get into much more trouble like getting drunk.
Too much money drove NKF and many other Singapore charities to improper handling of finances, which eventually led to first class air travels, golden toilet bowls and the unforgettable "peanuts". I bet if their finances are just sufficient, there won't be any money to mismanage or abscond with.
I believe just as our town councils and many more government bodies who have excess cash will all start to behave like mini-funds, mini-Temaseks and mini-GICs and play the role of fund managers wanting more and more {I am sure they do not personally gain from this, but then again I bet KPIs (Key Performance Index) of their performance is part of their annual bonuses}. Would we have blamed them if they had grew the S$2 billion treasure chest instead of losing S$16 million? My only finger pointing is with S$2 billion, why am I still paying SC&C? Why are the subsidies such paltry sums? Are they really subsidies? Or like NKF, the cost of $3 medicine is sold at $4 and is subsidised based on market rates of $6?
The solution to having too much of a "good thing" is accountability and transparency.
1) Be transparent, show the cost of maintaining the Towns - do we really need S$2 billion in reserves? The recent nationalpropaganda media has been showing US universities losing huge sums of investment and are saying it is acceptable in these times to lose lots of $, so we should accept our town councils' mistakes but the US universities have been transparent in their accounts which are published online and made available.
2) Let's be honest, if the government came clean with what they have been doing and apologized for their mistakes then perhaps it would have been easier to swallow. As we all learn from mistakes when we acknowledge them. Not just put on a defensive front and tell everyone to move on. I have been guilty of this many times as it is probably a guy thing but then again it is no excuse. But hey I am not paid millions by the people thus I am not accountable to the people.
I believe our government, town councils and many other GLCs have forgotten who pays their salaries and who gave them money to invest in the first place. I bet my grandfathers/parents and my tax/ERP/SC&C/CPF dollars have contributed some sweat into it and I should have every right to criticize any wrong doings.
Too much KFC ice lemon tea gives me tummy aches. Too much chocolate gives me pimples. Just as if a person has too much money, he might indulge in more sins and in turn get into much more trouble like getting drunk.
Too much money drove NKF and many other Singapore charities to improper handling of finances, which eventually led to first class air travels, golden toilet bowls and the unforgettable "peanuts". I bet if their finances are just sufficient, there won't be any money to mismanage or abscond with.
I believe just as our town councils and many more government bodies who have excess cash will all start to behave like mini-funds, mini-Temaseks and mini-GICs and play the role of fund managers wanting more and more {I am sure they do not personally gain from this, but then again I bet KPIs (Key Performance Index) of their performance is part of their annual bonuses}. Would we have blamed them if they had grew the S$2 billion treasure chest instead of losing S$16 million? My only finger pointing is with S$2 billion, why am I still paying SC&C? Why are the subsidies such paltry sums? Are they really subsidies? Or like NKF, the cost of $3 medicine is sold at $4 and is subsidised based on market rates of $6?
The solution to having too much of a "good thing" is accountability and transparency.
1) Be transparent, show the cost of maintaining the Towns - do we really need S$2 billion in reserves? The recent national
2) Let's be honest, if the government came clean with what they have been doing and apologized for their mistakes then perhaps it would have been easier to swallow. As we all learn from mistakes when we acknowledge them. Not just put on a defensive front and tell everyone to move on. I have been guilty of this many times as it is probably a guy thing but then again it is no excuse. But hey I am not paid millions by the people thus I am not accountable to the people.
I believe our government, town councils and many other GLCs have forgotten who pays their salaries and who gave them money to invest in the first place. I bet my grandfathers/parents and my tax/ERP/SC&C/CPF dollars have contributed some sweat into it and I should have every right to criticize any wrong doings.
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Accountability
I hate to account to anyone. Seriously I hate to report to my mom, dad, girlfriend on what I am doing. I may do it out of concern or love, but don't make me do it like I have to. But...it is a totally different matter when I have to report to my bosses. Why? Cos they put food on the table and pay my bills and shoes I wear. I get paid, that's why.
I pay my town councils or management to take care of my place every month, it was rather shocking when I read in the papers that my town council has lost money on minibonds. But when you have Town Councils imposing fines on those needy people who make late payments on conservancy charges at 2%; and they have excess of S$1 billion dollars (16 town councils managing more that S$2 billion in sinking funds) to have investments in stocks and minibonds/notes- This is getting ridiculous.
I thought we just have 10k odd unfortunate people losing money. Now doing some simple maths I realised a lot more people have lost, given the fact that those millions in our town councils treasure chests do belong to us.
Pasir Ris-Punggol Town Council has about 85438 HDB households covering Pasir Ris and Punggol 21; Sengkang's Compassvale & Rivervale precincts; and some estates in Hougang. Holland-Bukit Panjang Town Council has about 31921 HDB households covering Buona Vista, Bukit Timah, Cashew, Ulu Pandan and Zhenghua. (These information are found online, just need to know where to find but I am not 100% sure if its accurate, so don't quote me).
Our government charges a wide varied of S&CC to the different households. I will simplify the calculations and take each household as an entity instead of segregating into 1-room, 2-room, executive etc. Pasir Ris-Punggol TC lost about S$4mil of the ~S$154 mil it holds; per household lost S$46 in the minibonds/notes saga.
For Holland-Bukit Panjang Town Council, they are listed on Creative Technology as one of the majority shareholders with 530,000 shares currently valued at about S$1,245,500 based on today's share price of $2.35. I understand they were bought back in many years and back then the value was hovering around $25-15 a share? Now at under $3, I guess long-term investment is the way to go (~$7million poof)..wonder who will ever be able to see returns on that, maybe my great-great-grand kids(Will Mr Sim Wong Hoo be still alive?). For more on that please check out this Mr Biao site.
While Holland-Bukit Panjang TC (manages ~S$120 mil) lost about S$8 mil in the minibonds/notes saga and minimum of S$7 mil based on recent pricing of Creative shares and estimated lowest buy price. So per household in Holland-Bukit Panjang GRC lost about S$470!
Seriously, I don't see condominium management committee making such decisions. And the lucky fact is opposition town councils are making 6% returns annually (I beg to differ how the media would react if they lost $$). To think we pay our PAPPY gahmen million-dollar salaries. I say Mr Low Thia Kiang should run the CPF board, town coucils, oh hell maybe even GIC/Temasek!! - given the racking losses observed on the papers recently. I fear to see many more life savings evaporated in their treasure chest. I guess we postponed many many years of calls to distribute these hard-earned citizens money during bad times, only to find them funding lost causes/long-term investments.
Would accountability be able to solve this issue of taking citizens' money to do investments when the finances were meant for washing, painting, general works and upgrading, etc? Why wasn't the coffers used to stop payments for the needy or reduction in conservancy charges for all? Seriously...when will the mad obsession to have huge treasure chests of money by government agencies stop? Our opposition wards have very little budget/sinking fund to work with, and they have been prudent in their spending, likewise in the last oil spike scenario, where people stop buying huge tanks to drive to work - do we need a wake up call before we can reduce unnecessary wastage and lack of accountability and imprudent investments? Those individuals who have lost investments were made a mockery by the PAPpy gahmen. How about these supposedly savvy government servants who are taking citizens' monthly charges into high-risked investments? Someone has to pay or answer for this. I just hope it's not me.
Entering into another subject, would a recent talk about 2-political party system be able to stave off this debacle?
I pay my town councils or management to take care of my place every month, it was rather shocking when I read in the papers that my town council has lost money on minibonds. But when you have Town Councils imposing fines on those needy people who make late payments on conservancy charges at 2%; and they have excess of S$1 billion dollars (16 town councils managing more that S$2 billion in sinking funds) to have investments in stocks and minibonds/notes- This is getting ridiculous.
I thought we just have 10k odd unfortunate people losing money. Now doing some simple maths I realised a lot more people have lost, given the fact that those millions in our town councils treasure chests do belong to us.
Pasir Ris-Punggol Town Council has about 85438 HDB households covering Pasir Ris and Punggol 21; Sengkang's Compassvale & Rivervale precincts; and some estates in Hougang. Holland-Bukit Panjang Town Council has about 31921 HDB households covering Buona Vista, Bukit Timah, Cashew, Ulu Pandan and Zhenghua. (These information are found online, just need to know where to find but I am not 100% sure if its accurate, so don't quote me).
Our government charges a wide varied of S&CC to the different households. I will simplify the calculations and take each household as an entity instead of segregating into 1-room, 2-room, executive etc. Pasir Ris-Punggol TC lost about S$4mil of the ~S$154 mil it holds; per household lost S$46 in the minibonds/notes saga.
For Holland-Bukit Panjang Town Council, they are listed on Creative Technology as one of the majority shareholders with 530,000 shares currently valued at about S$1,245,500 based on today's share price of $2.35. I understand they were bought back in many years and back then the value was hovering around $25-15 a share? Now at under $3, I guess long-term investment is the way to go (~$7million poof)..wonder who will ever be able to see returns on that, maybe my great-great-grand kids(Will Mr Sim Wong Hoo be still alive?). For more on that please check out this Mr Biao site.
While Holland-Bukit Panjang TC (manages ~S$120 mil) lost about S$8 mil in the minibonds/notes saga and minimum of S$7 mil based on recent pricing of Creative shares and estimated lowest buy price. So per household in Holland-Bukit Panjang GRC lost about S$470!
Seriously, I don't see condominium management committee making such decisions. And the lucky fact is opposition town councils are making 6% returns annually (I beg to differ how the media would react if they lost $$). To think we pay our PAPPY gahmen million-dollar salaries. I say Mr Low Thia Kiang should run the CPF board, town coucils, oh hell maybe even GIC/Temasek!! - given the racking losses observed on the papers recently. I fear to see many more life savings evaporated in their treasure chest. I guess we postponed many many years of calls to distribute these hard-earned citizens money during bad times, only to find them funding lost causes/long-term investments.
Would accountability be able to solve this issue of taking citizens' money to do investments when the finances were meant for washing, painting, general works and upgrading, etc? Why wasn't the coffers used to stop payments for the needy or reduction in conservancy charges for all? Seriously...when will the mad obsession to have huge treasure chests of money by government agencies stop? Our opposition wards have very little budget/sinking fund to work with, and they have been prudent in their spending, likewise in the last oil spike scenario, where people stop buying huge tanks to drive to work - do we need a wake up call before we can reduce unnecessary wastage and lack of accountability and imprudent investments? Those individuals who have lost investments were made a mockery by the PAPpy gahmen. How about these supposedly savvy government servants who are taking citizens' monthly charges into high-risked investments? Someone has to pay or answer for this. I just hope it's not me.
Entering into another subject, would a recent talk about 2-political party system be able to stave off this debacle?
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