Yummy BBQ Chicken Wings

Getting addicted to TED: Ideas worth spreading

2009-03-25T01:35:00.006+08:00

I have been visiting this website for 2 weeks now, each day finding some beautiful, amazing ideas being given lecture style to inspire people, educate people and empower people.

This site invites fascinating people from all around the world to give their most compelling talk in 18 minutes. Every one of them is so fantastic. Today I stumble upon one given by Jill Bolte Taylor, and am truly moved by how she communicated her stroke experience, experiencing something so powerful in the most life threatening situation.

There are many other great speakers from TED such as Barry Schwartz and Dan Gilbert. But this talk by Jill is a standout so far. Do try watching some videos from TED, there are quite a few genres of videos there. Some may just change your life.

Found the youtube for this video here.

Wall Street Fighter

2009-03-21T16:35:00.002+08:00

Street Fighter: Chun Li is showing in the cinemas now. How about some Street Fighter, wall street style?

Funny Wall Street Fighter. Watch your favourite characters fight! I just need someone to tell me what Goldman is saying when he is spinning on the chair.

For the record: One trillion dollars into the economy

2009-03-19T18:18:00.004+08:00

The United States government is running out of ammunition. Bailouts needs more and more money and no one can afford to lend the money to the Americans anymore, not even China. So what to do? The Federal Reserves surprises everyone yesterday, pumping in one trillion dollars into the economy by buying Treasury bonds. And the real surprise is the market is actually happy about it.

So what is the impact with this continuous creation of money out of thin air? In the short term, things may work out, but it will create a potentially bigger mess in the future. The American dollar will weaken against other currencies. And there is a sneaky feeling that inflation might spiral out of hand. Let's hope another Zimbabwe is not on the way.

All bubbles burst

2009-03-12T18:55:00.004+08:00

Excerpt from Thomas Friedman's The Great disruption.

...We have created a system for growth that depended on our building more and more stores to sell more and more stuff made in more and more factories in China, powered by more and more coal that would cause more and more climate change but earn China more and more dollars to buy more and more U.S. T-bills so America would have more and more money to build more and more stores and sell more and more stuff that would employ more and more Chinese ...

..."But it has to collapse, unless adults stand up and say, 'This is a Ponzi scheme. We have not generated real wealth, and we are destroying a livable climate ...' Real wealth is something you can pass on in a way that others can enjoy."...

bbqchickenwings thinks that Singapore is a big Ponzi scheme too.

There is also a nice article about Singapore about the myth of the role of PAP in Singapore's miraculous economic growth over the last 40 years. Read Part I and Part II. While the post try to discredit the PAP's role in our economic growth, bbqchickenwings is more interested in the stagnation that will occur in the near future, as Paul Krugman is quoted.

Even without going through the formal exercise of growth accounting, these numbers should make it obvious that Singapore’s growth has been based largely on one-time changes in behavior that cannot be repeated. Over the past generation the percentage of people employed has almost doubled; it cannot double again. A half-educated work force has been replaced by one in which the bulk of workers has high school diplomas; it is unlikely that a generation from now most Singaporeans will have Ph.D’s

The government is running out of ideas and resorting to builiding 2 casinos to continue improving the GDP numbers every year. bbqchickenwings thinks Singapore has taken a step back during the last 10 years. Singapore was a more prosperous and happier society when Goh Chok Tong was Prime Minister. He promised us a Swiss standard of living. We were inching towards 乌托邦for a while and now we are slipping back again. The innovation is drying up, low-value manufacturing is moving to cheaper developing countries and before you know it, the Singapore economy will fall from a cliff.

And no, its not due to the economic crisis now. Even without the crisis, bbqchickenwings thinks the standard of living in Singapore has declined over the last decade. Or maybe we took too much things for granted, what are wants have now become needs? The middle class does not have any rise in income, they have to work harder and longer to maintain their lifestyle. Many are living from pay cheque to pay cheque. The bottom 20% is definitely worse off than 10 years ago. The income inequality is growing bigger. A growing segment of the population needs social aid but do not know where to get help. Despite all the reports that the government is spending more money on poorer people, the aid is notoriously difficult to apply and get. You have to really humuliate yourself and show how poor you really are before they give u a pittance.

To end off, visit this blog which wrote a poem about the sad life of Singaporeans. Excerpts:

Once upon a time,
in nineteen sixty-nine.
HDB were not only subsidized,
but standard of living also very nice.
One spouse working, all can survive,
children are children all running around so nice.

Fast forward 40 years, it is the dreaded two thousand nine,
HDB flats had all became smaller in size.
Now termed "market subsidized,
their prices are not so kind.
Cost of living had grown so high,
now both spouses have to work nine to nine.

Is it stupid to learn dialects?

2009-03-07T16:33:00.010+08:00

In a forum letter to the Straits Times, Chee Hong Tat, private secretary to our Minister Mentor, says that Chinese Singaporeans should just learn English (to connect to the world and contribute to the GDP of the country) and Mandarin (to connect to China in future when it becomes a superpower).

So is this his personal response or an official response from the MM? And to call learning dialect stupid? Quote: It would be stupid for any Singapore agency or NTU to advocate the learning of dialects, which must be at the expense of English and Mandarin.

Ban the use of dialects?

So the Teochew assosciation, Poit Ip Huay Kuan,is stupid for giving courses on speaking Teochew? Maybe the government should ban the speaking of any dialects and impose a fine on people who converse in Hokkien, Teochew, Cantonese, Hakka and such, further enhancing our reputation as a 'fine' city. With the rising unemployment rate, we can employ some people as 'dialect terminators' prowling the streets in undercover and issuing summons when they hear Hokkien vulgarities. A good place to hunt will be in army camps.

We are only half-bucket in both English and Mandarin

Not that we are any good in English and Mandarin anyway, are we? Except for the 5% who can converse in perfect Queen's English, the English speaking standard in Singapore is, sad to say, torrid. The incompatability with Mandarin affects many Chinese in pronouncing their 'r's and 'th's. Many subconciously has the same sounds for 'three' and 'tree'. Already is usually spoken as 'olredy'. And many of the bad habits were picked up from the teachers we learnt from. We may be able to understand each other, but a foreigner will have to second guess what we are trying to express many times.

Our Mandarin is not that great too. Try translating a finance or science article into Mandarin. Maybe that was too hard. How about trying to say 'lettuce' and 'broccoli' in Mandarin? Do you know? bbqchickenwings don't even though there is an A to show for his AO level Chinese. Singaporeans (at least the Chinese) are substandard in their English, and worse in Mandarin.

Perhaps the linguistically less talented people should focus on just one language after all.

A painful history as a result of the bilingual policy

bbqchickenwings is not advocating the removal of the bilingual language medium in our education, although there can be some tweaks to improve the system. bbqchickenwings was born into a Teochew family. The parents speak Teochew to each other and their siblings but Mandarin to the kids. As a result, bbqchickenwings grew up being unable to communicate well with his grandparents. The weekly visits and conversations with the grandparents always revolve around the same feel sentences, such as 'How are you?' 'I am fine' and then bbqchickenwings will scurry away, unable to add a few more sentences in Teochew. It may not seem to matter when young, but being a adult (at least officially) now, it seems embarassing that bbqchickenwings can't communicate with the grandparents last time.

We should celebrate the use of dialects which really makes us Uniquely Singapore

There should be a greater acceptance in diversity. The multiple dialects, languages, race and religion is what makes Singapore such a beautiful place. Singlish evolves as a result of such vibrance and also due to our inability to master any of the languages well enough. The use of dialects has integrated into our daily life. Ordering a plate of Chee Kway with extra Cai Po can only be done properly with the use of dialect for the names of the food. It is simple stuff like this that gives us a sense of belonging (which is increasingly diluted with the huge migrant influx recently).

Is there a need to use such a strong statement to defend his superior's policy?

Minister Mentor Lee decided last time that everyone should just learn English with one mother tongue. The mother tongue was standardized. Mandarin for Chinese people, Malay for the Malays and Tamil for Indians. Oh and there are the 'others' who don't fit anywhere. They can choose and pick a 2nd language from the three. Chinese Dialects were not part of the equation. They have become a dying breed due to our government policies and it may be a waste of time to be learning them. But it is unneccesary for the MM's secretary come out and say that it is STUPID and FOOLISH to learn dialects. They are insulting for our heritage and history.

The end.

PS: Why are we then still using dialect names in our pink I/C. Redbean brought this issue up before. Excerpt: The next phase of change was the hanyu pinyin campaign. This was another of the unifying efforts of the govt, to do away with dialects and have a common language. It's effects turned out to be a bit of a rojak. Tan Ah Kow became Chen Ya Kou. The father and son had differently written surname in English, From Mr Tan to Mr Chen.

We went from dialect to hanyu pinyin. Somewhere during bbqchickenwing's primary school years, everyone had their names changed from hanyu pinyin to dialect again. But bbqchickenwings did not. And now, bbqchickenwings still don't know why he has a different surname from his father in their I/Cs.

Conspiracy theory in NTU stabbing?

2009-03-05T01:12:00.007+08:00

Check out this comment made on the Straits Times below.

edwin2026

Yesterday, 02:37 PM

I am one of David Hartanto's close friend and I am here to give you
some facts, assumptions, possibilities about this case

Facts:

1. Lok Tat Seng: Dean of Student of NTU gathered all Indonesian students in
International Student Center on evening after incident and
he just said there was witness on the spot who saw David's body lying on the ground,
dead. Dean did not said that witness saw David jumped from balcony.
And that is, according to him, all he has saw.

2. The only official statement from police is: David was found dead at
the crime scene, they did not mention whether he commited suicide.

The link: http://www.straitstimes.com/STI/STIM...20at%20NTU.pdf

They also just mention 'The professor was believed to be stabbed'. The police
did not say that 'the professor was stabbed'. Where this assumption come from? Why
they did not say about it?

3. I and some Indonesian students gather tonight, 3 March 2009, at 8 pm,
at International Student Center and talked to David's parent.
They have seen his body. There was NO WOUND whatsoever on his wrists
and police also has confirmed it.
I assumed that his parent would not lie it means that all media news about
'David slashed his wrist' was FAKE.

4. The wounds found on David's body, according to his parents,
were on his head (It is assumed due to fall injury),
and slash wound on his neck. The wound on his neck is very suspicious, in
my opinion. How he received that wound?? Again, according to his parent,
police guessed that it may be happened when the bottom part of his head smashed
the ground. In that case, his chin will have broken and it did not.
My question is: WHERE DOES THAT SLASH WOUND ON HIS NECK CAME FROM?

Assumptions:
1. David stabbed professor. How did you know? The crime scene is closed room,
only David and that professor. No one see what has happened.
Eye-witness only saw David run out from that room.

2. David commited suicide. How could someone who commited suicide drop himself
into glassed roof, instead of directly drop himself to ground.

3. David slashed his wrist. I do not know where this news came from...

4. David's motivation.

4.1. He pissed off since his prof did not give satisfactory grade

The grade has not been released and he even has not submitted the report.
It is also NTu policy not to inform the student about the grade which they got
before release of the result.

4.2. He has mental problem

No record in Student Counselling Centre about his attendance. For bright student
as him, I did not believe that he did not attend counseling if he has some
problems. Also, he still brought bag with usual daily stuff, on incident day,
such as drink bottle, towel, etc. If David planned to kill someone why would
he prepare to bring such things. It is easier for him to just bring one knife
and stab his prof on spot.

4.3. He pissed off because his scholarship has been revoked

I knew David since I was his roommate for 2 consecutive
years during Mathematical Olympiad training camp. He almost did not
qualify for IMO, only managed to get at 14th rank from 15 people selected.
He still joked and laughed to me at that time. He also did not get anything
from IMO and still fine, not seemed depressed whatsoever, and according to his
parents, he said 'At least, I managed to represent Indonesia at IMO'
He also still play Hammerfall game in Facebook at 2 am on the incident day. My friend
saw his Facebook account online. How come
a murderer played game in the night before incident? If I was him,
I will seriously think how would I prepare myself tomorrow

Possibilities:
1. Professor attacked David. I deduced this thing for several key points.
According to many reports, David's cloth was soaked on blood. If the blood is
the result from slashing his wrist, it should not soak his cloth since wrist is
far from body. If the wound is from neck, it is easier.

2. David tried to run from Professor. After he realized that he was attacked,
he resisted and run from that room, with wound on his neck.

3. David falled because of unconsciousness. He became panic and probably lose
his common sense because of terrible bleeding, drop himself down into glassed roof
to escape from his Professor.

I am responsible for what I have written here, and contact me at kaminari.no.me@gmail.com
if you need any clarification.

Amidst all the spin by the traditional media that David Hartanto Widjaja is a loner who plays WOW and stabbed Prof Chan Kap Luk and then commited suicide, and that its all due to a withdrawal of his ASEAN scholarship, there are some questions to be asked according to 'his friend'. Reading this makes bbqchickenwings confused and think that we need Tim Sir from Forensic Heroes (法政先锋).

So did David Hartanto Widjaja have his wrist slashed or worse got slashed in the neck?

Who is the aggressor? Is there more than meet the eye?

Only Prof Chan knows.

One life is wasted, another one injured. Should we ask whether this tragedy could have been prevented after all? For all the defense that NTU says it has on counselling schemes, could more empathy have been shown? This is about life and death after all. Wait a minute, I forgot this is Singapore. Life and death is not so important, most important is whether a person contributes to the economic growth of the country.

Nothing can make up for the loss of a loved one. My condolences to the Widjaja family.

Check your political leanings

2009-03-04T15:52:00.003+08:00

Check where you stand on political issues. Try the World's smallest political quiz. 2 mins and you are done.

I am a centrist.

Leaving the merlion as it is.

2009-03-03T11:54:00.002+08:00

Mr Choo Kay Wee wrote a letter to Straits Times forum to ask for the damaged merlion to be left untouched.

Excerpt: How about leaving our lightning-struck Merlion as it is? Would this not generate more curiosity and attract more tourists, local and foreign, because of the rarity of the accident? Would collecting an entrance fee to the site be a clever move as well?'

Uniquely Singapore. We must make money from anything and everything possible.

A bit crude but this is my suggestion: next time someone jumps off onto a MRT track, we should leave things as it is, and charge money for people to see the body. Make it a 2-hour exhibition special before we remove the body. The proceeds can be used to lower our transport fares hopefully.

Either he is in Singapore or not in Singapore

2009-03-01T12:35:00.003+08:00

It has been one year and two days since anyone saw him. 27th February marks the one year anniversary of Mas Selamat bin Kastari's escape from detention.

The big question remains: Where is he?

Smaller questions: Is he going to plot a revenge? Why is the freaking toilet window not secured? There is a total lack of moral wisdom in they guy who approved of the toilet window. Why is Wong Kan Seng not punished other than giving a half-hearted apology? What is the extent of cock-up a Ministry must produce before a Minister can be liable for the mistakes? Or are they such great talents that nothing they do is ever a mistake?

Is Wong Kan Seng going to be lauded for his great achievements if MSK is ever caught?

Which will come sooner? MSK getting caught or our investments in Citigroup being recouped? We may probably not see the arrival of either days.

Europe's financial crisis

2009-02-28T15:51:00.005+08:00

In Singapore, there seems to be less financial news about Europe than US. Most stuff recently is about the 'nationalization' of Citigroup and whether the government should fully nationalize it. Many bloggers (here and here as example) talk about GIC's converting of preferred stocks in Citigroup into common stocks and perhaps the impending doom of the investments. It seems like our national reserves are just shrinking day by day. More detailed analysis are provided by Lucky Tan.

While all the storm seems to be brewing in the US, I will just like to make aware that there is a bigger problem in Europe.

Banks in US are too big to fail. Banks in Europe are too big to save. The video below talks about how the crisis is in some sense bigger in Europe than in US. Good luck to the ECB to try and solve the crisis. Eastern Europe is going down. Western Europe may follow soon.

Excerpts from an article in Telegraph: Failure to save East Europe will lead to world-wide meltdown

In Poland, 60pc of mortgages are in Swiss francs. The zloty has just halved against the franc. Hungary, the Balkans, the Baltics, and Ukraine are all suffering variants of this story. As an act of collective folly – by lenders and borrowers – it matches America's sub-prime debacle. There is a crucial difference, however. European banks are on the hook for both. US banks are not.

Whether it takes months, or just weeks, the world is going to discover that Europe's financial system is sunk, and that there is no EU Federal Reserve yet ready to act as a lender of last resort or to flood the markets with emergency stimulus.

If one spark jumps across the eurozone line, we will have global systemic crisis within days. Are the firemen ready?

The answer is no.

Fish with a transparent head?

2009-02-28T00:14:00.002+08:00

Macropinna microstoma. A fish with a transparent head, found somewhere in the deep sea. Is this for real?

Doomsayer

2009-02-25T01:04:00.002+08:00

The more I look at it, the more I think the heart attack has not started for the global economy. Enjoy while you can. Is there anywhere to run and hide? The crisis will soon spread from America to Europe and Middle East(It has already started actually). Then Asia will get infected. It will be a vicious cycle until everyone is in dispair and we have a emergence of a New world economy model. Is this the end of capitalism?

Who is everyone pinning their hope on to save the world? What can Obama do with his country in great decline, every other big corporation is asking for help every now and then? The European Union is not much better off, internal squabblings and the demise of Eastern European economies will more than occupy the EU. Russia and the Middle East can't do anything while oil prices are so low. How about India, only be hopeful if you think everyone can be like the Slumdog Millionaire. Japan has yet to recover from the previous recessions. China? They can't even solve their own domestic problems and you expect them to save the world? At the moment, it is more likely that we have a few more Icelands and Zimbabwes than.. (Is there anywhere that is unaffected by the crisis, some remote Pacific Island or upcoming African economy?)

bbqchickenwings hate to say it but... Is this gonna be worse than the Great Depression? No astute leader will admit this for this will lead to fear-mongering but is it playing on some of their minds?

The world is going to collapse. Help help, the sky is falling!

Can Poly students finally be the equal of JC students?

2009-02-19T00:13:00.010+08:00

Update

Lower fares are coming 1st April. But as expected the poly students did not get what they are clamouring for. No equal to JC and ITE students. I hope Bernard (organizer of the petition) live to fight another day.

_______________________________________________________

The Public Transport Council (PTC) is going to decide on new fares soon, as reported today. Hopefully there will be reduction in fares in light of the worsening economic conditions. More interestingly to look out for is whether polytechnic students will finally get what they deserve: same bus and train fares and concessions as JC students.

The topic of whether Polytechnic students should enjoy the same concessions as Junior College students has been revisited many times. Over the years, it has been a ritual for someone to raise the concern in the forums of newspapers and every time the answer given by SMRT and SBS is always the same, i.e. Any concession given to the students will cause additional burden to commuters paying the full fare as they are effectively subsidizing the existing concessions. Its such a templated standard answer that bbqchickenwings can memorize it. I think some people can even reproduce the excuse given by the transport companies word-for-word.

Recently, a group championing the cause is finally making some headway. The student activist group actually managed to meet representatives from PTC, TransitLink, SMRT and SBS. We will know soon whether the students are successful in convincing the representatives regarding the concerns or whether its just a left-ear-in, right-ear-out thing.

Students are not the only ones supporting the cause. bbqchickenwings has previously quietly supported and now officially endorse via this blog (added the logo on the right column of the blog) the petition for Fairer Transport Fares for Polytechnic/Tertiary students. Even their teachers are getting into the act, writing to the forums. Article from Today, 18 February.

Letter from Chen Khin Wee

Academic Associate, Republic Polytechnic

I FOUND Transport Minister Raymond Lim’s remark in “Households spend less in 2008” (Feb 13), that “some polytechnic students are better off than others”, rather mystifying. Does this fact not apply to junior college (JC) students as well? Is he saying that all polytechnic students are well off and all JC students needy and therefore need the student concession more than their polytechnic counterparts?

I teach at a polytechnic and I can say for sure that my students are not rolling in money. I estimate that at least half of the students in my classes have to work part-time after school and during weekends to make ends meet. When I join them for meals I can see how carefully some of them choose the food they buy to conserve their limited pocket money.

While I am very proud of their self-reliance and financial independence, I am sure this extra-curricular activity alsoaffects their school work.

There are about 20 JCs in Singapore but only five polytechnics. Unlike JC students, who have a greater chance of enrolling in a school near their home, the average polytechnic student has to travel some distance to attend classes.

Some of my students travel an average of three hours a day, often taking a complex “combination” of bus, MRT, and walking — students proudly refer to this as their B-M-W — just to get to school and home. This adds up to considerable travelling time and expenses.

Before writing this, I checked with some of my students to see how many benefited from the “targeted assistance” that the minister referred to. They looked back at me blankly and asked “What’s that?”

If the minister’s argument holds, then concession for JC students should be removed as well, and the real needy ones identified and given assistance. Many polytechnic students could use reduced rates.

Pretty cool huh. BMW. bbqchickenwings previously never knew he had been using a BMW for the last 20+ years of his life. (Is this a generation gap thing? Gosh, bbqchickenwings is out of touch) The writer made poly students sound so rich. Their schoolwork is slack enough for them to go out and work part time and they all have BMWs. Look at JC students, every day need to mug and become the elite of the elite, 人中之龙. Where can the JC students find the time to do part-time? So they need concessions even more eh?

So will the polytechinic students finally get some concessions?

The answer is NO. In Singapore you do not go up to a statutory board or government-linked company, tell them you want some changes to be made and expect them to follow suit. If the PTC and transport companies follow suit, its a lose-lose-lose situation for them. They lose the extra revenue from the poly students, they lose their standing on a higher platform by seemingly succumbing to an activist group and most importantly, they (i.e. including the government) will look like they lose the authority over the citizenry.

Potential hell will break lose. The government will be worried that this will set a precedent for people to have petitions and activist causes of all kinds. More students may start petitions. (Historically, students always leads revolutions as they have too much time on their hands. Adults are too busy working and trying to feed their families, don't you agree?) The organizers of the petitions will be seen as heroes, like a certain Chee Soon Juan. The government has enough trouble with one CSJ. They do not need many more CSJ-wannabes asking people to sign petitions of all kinds.

Petitions cannot be seen as a force for change in the government system. That is why bbqchickenwings is skeptical that polytechnic students will get what they want this time round, especially as the petition group had just met men from the PTC and transport companies.

So what can be done. The petition group has already done their part. They have been heard. Now is the time to loosen the noose. Let the petition lose some steam and if the transport operators think it is justifiable, they will eventually give concessions to poly students.

bbqchickenwings will be more than glad to eat his words and stuff chicken wings into his mouth if proven otherwise the next few days.

Blogger Stabbed in Beijing

2009-02-17T12:13:00.003+08:00

My condolence to Mr. Xu Lai, a famous Chinese blogger, who was stabbed while giving a public reading in a bookshop in Beijing. Mr Xu Lai is popular for satirical writings about government policies and the likes.

bbqchickenwings does not condonce violence of any form (unless its a frag shootout in Combat Arms, a FPS online game). There is no place for harming people anywhere and the perpetuator has to be punished heavily in accordance with Chinese laws.

Lessons to be learnt

It is good to hide under a pseudonym, even a weird one like bbqchickenwings. Get a nice looking avatar. You never know who don't like your writings and have intentions of making their feelings known via violent methods given the openess of the Internet.
Don't give public appearances. Don't be a hero especially when your writings are not favoured by the government or other people.
Hire bodyguards for loan if you really need to make public appearances. Now, where is my Lara Croft?
Give your user id and password to someone close. They can make an announcement on your blog to tell everyone you got hurt/kidnapped/arrested and you need some urgent blood donation/ransom fee/public demonstration to get you released.

The above only applies if you are some big-time bloggers hitting 5000 views a day or more. bbqchickenwings is happy to remain small and be able to go buy some chicken wings without wearing a Kevlar bullet-proof vest.

Ramblings after overdosage of chicken wings

2009-02-16T16:32:00.003+08:00

Today I wrote a travel guide in Singapore for my prof, who has one day to do shopping there. I finished it quickly in 1 hour. Then I realised something. It is much longer and more detailed than any report I sent him before.

I have surpassed all my previous works with one hour of writing. Talk about efficiency.

I was thinking of asking him to buy some local delights for my colleagues here. They didn't like the durian cakes I bought, luckily I had some other stuff to compensate. I want to get them something else this time, but I cant think of any that is easy to find in the supermarkets or malls and can withstand flights totalling 16 hours. Anyone has ideas?

10 preparations to a successful nursing home industry in JB

2009-02-13T01:47:00.006+08:00

Khaw Boon Wan's proposal to build nursing homes in Malaysia made him the hottest minister in town, many Singaporeans are repulsive by the idea judging by the vigorous posting and commenting in various blogs. bbqchickenwings also feels it hard to accept staying in a foreign land after spending a lifetime in the little red dot. bbqchickenwings thinks Minister Khaw can get more Singaporeans to accept this eventuality by doing the following. Minister Khaw, please consider the following suggestions.

Replace the Jobs Credit Scheme with a ~~Sell~~ Ship-your-parents Scheme (SYPS). Children who volunteer to ship their parents away gets a one time fee of $3000, this only applies to the lower income households with monthly income below $1500. This RRS is a win-win situation for both the government and the people. We can save on the subsidy for healthcare costs to low-income households, and at the same time give lower-income groups some financial help.
Introduce another Relocation Assistance Plan(RAP). Elderly folks, above 55 or certified unfit to work, can volunteer to move out of the country into JB and get a one-time payment of $500 and a subsequent $250 per month. This is another win-win since it is a cheaper scheme than the $330 Public Assistance, and yet the elderly feels richer with more spending power.
Allow withdrawal of CPF for nursing home residents. For those elderly who like to spend more money, they can withdraw their CPF which is otherwise untouchable for them. They can remain as Singaporeans and yet withdraw their CPF. But of course we cannot let the elderly anyhow use the money, its their hard-earned savings. bbqchickenwings havent thought of a way to transfer the money from the left to the right pocket, so that Mr Khaw don't feel the pinch. Readers, please contribute.
Kopi-Money Rebate Scheme. (KPRS) Hi Mr Khaw, sorry that the measures up till now all talk about money. It is a trickle-down effect from the government's obsession with making money. In KPRS, Singaporeans can apply for a full rebate of Kopi-Money given when dealing with corrupted immigration officials and policeman from the other side of the Causeway. Of couse, issues such as how to prove the amount of kopi-money given has to be ironed out.
Speaking of the causeway, it is too congested for people to want to go visit their parents frequently. We need a new bridge to ease congestion. This bridge will only be for people who intend to go to the nursing homes. Drivers will have to provide evidence they did reach the nursing homes by signing in and out the homes. They can go wherever they want but must return on the same day. To provide further incentive, the 3/4 tank rule for cars can be abolished for this bridge.
Launch a huge PR offensive. Get international superstars like Jackie Chan to visit the nursing homes and talk about all the great things to do inside. Better still, ask him to commit to stay in the home when he retires. People may jump at the chance to stay with stars like Jackie, boasting: I am staying under the same roof with Jackie Chan and practising kung fu with him everyday.
Request Mediacorp to produce a serial drama on life in JB from the early 1900s to the 2000s. It must include the big casts like Qi Yuwu, Fann Wong and the 7 princesses to ensure high viewer ratings. The drama can be modeled after the Little Nyonya. People may feel less repulsive if the nursing home is in Malacca since they can enjoy the Peranakan culture and all the goody food like Rembah Udang. This is all due to the good effort of Little Nyonya. But the problem is that children will have to travel too far to visit the parents. Commision Mediacorp to produce another drama on JB with the focus on delightful JB food. The most important reason why Singaporeans can accept a nursing home in JB will be because of better food there.
Launch a 'Speak Bahasa Melayu' Campaign. Singaporeans are worried of moving to the nursing home since we don't know the national language in Malaysia. Have a 5 minute segment after the daily news broadcast where a pretty lady will teach everyone a little Malay everyday. The peasants will feel calmer when they know they can understand their landlords.
Control the news we are getting on mainstream media about Johor, actually maybe even Malaysia as a whole. It is not pleasant hearing for Singaporeans to know that they have to stay in Malaysia when they are old when we get news on the same day such as SBS bus driver getting slashed in JB. Even though security is not very safe there, people can be made to feel safer by not hearing and seeing anything at all.
How about the entertainment? We need a mini integrated-resort. The old folks need a way to spend their time and what better than gambling? Its' in the genes (refer to my previous posting). Oh, don't forget building the Singapore Pools outlet.

There you have it Mr Khaw. It hurts to know that Singaporeans have to move to nursing homes away from our beloved island but you can make it much less painful. You don't have to thank me, just make sure I have my chicken wings every other meal during my stay there.

Singapore boasts another Number 1

2009-02-11T17:16:00.008+08:00

This post is mainly inspired by nofear's (Dr Huang Shoou Chyuan) posting and comments that followed.

Chinese people loves gambling. Every Chinese knows that. bbqchickenwings used to gamble too. And during Chinese New Year, other than visiting relatives, it also became a time for Chinese to indulge in gambling which is 'permitted' during the 1st 15 days. Long queues are common in Singapore Pools outlets, especially on Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday. Some people have no qualms throwing hundreds or thousands of dollars betting with ~~bookies~~ Singapore Pools on football. But everyone has to know a limit, especially with our 2 integrated resorts coming up. We don't want people going to the casinos thinking they can earn a fortune. Unfortunately, Ho Ching went over the limit.

It is reported that Temasek Holdings has lost a whooping S$58 BILLION from Apr 2008 to Nov 2008. The losses will probably be even more as they might have taken into accounts gains from selling our power companies for a combined $18.2 billion and a fund injection by MOF of $10 billion. Without disputing whether the losses are greater, lets proudly announce Ho Ching as number ONE. The number 1 person in the world to lose money at such a rapid rate.

Last time when she was CEO of Singapore Technologies, she took a bet and lost about $630 million in Micropolis in almost 2 years. That equates to about $1 million a day. The signs of her talent were already emerging. Even then, Dhanabalan defended her in IHT's article titled - Temasek's Chief, Ho Ching, likes to take risks:

Dhanabalan even referred to ST's purchase of disk drive maker Micropolis, which was liquidated soon afterwards with debts of 630 million Singapore dollars, saying Ho had had the courage to cut the losses.

Now as ~~CEO~~ soon-to-be-ex CEO of Temasek Holdings, her achievements were even better. 58 billion in 8 months. That equates to about $240 million a day, a 240 fold improvement. Surely she can lay claim to be number 1 in the world at losing money. (correct me if I am wrong because bbqchickenwings is too lazy to find out) She does not cut losses this time round, but steps down leaving a mess behind once again.

Some say its not her fault. All due to external factors, extraordinary circumstances. But the fact remains that she is the one who makes the calls and this is public money we are talking about. She took a bet and the bet lost. Only in Uniquely Singapore can someone lose $240 million of public money a day for 8 months and there is no public demonstration. She doesn't have to be answerable for the losses. No public statements from her, no apologies. No apologies needed because no mistakes were made, all these were long-term investments.

What to do? It has already happened. Let's move on.

Ho Ching will be stepping down in October. Can we just put her in charge of some small SME? This may just be the boost Singapore's fledging SMEs need. A high-profile personality as their symbol. Singapore cannot afford her to set another new personal best.

__________________________________________________

Update

And why do Chinese like to gamble so much? It is in the genes, according to BBC, based on findings by researchers in Northwestern University.

Excerpts: The Northwestern University team found two genes that regulate the hormones dopamine and serotonin could predict whether a person would gamble.

Specifically, people with the short serotonin transporter 5-HTTLPR were far more cautious than those with the long version.

Similarly, people with the 7-repeat allele of the dopamine DRD4 gene took more risks than those with other versions of the same gene.

Take some Chinese and test for the genes! If true, maybe we can't blame Ho Ching after all.

Help for students!! Cheers for me!!

2009-02-10T18:49:00.006+08:00

The Ministry of Education (MOE) is tripling its budget for financial assistance schemes this year, bringing the total to S$34.4 million, up from S$10.7 million last year. From CNA.

But this is the most important piece of news from the article for bbqchickenwings: From April 1, all university and polytechnic graduates will get a one-year, interest-free break from repaying their tuition fee and study loans. This includes those who are already servicing their debts, and those who will begin repayments before March 31 next year.

This is a god-sent. The upper and middle class may shrug this off but this is really useful for those students that grow up from low-income families. Depending on how this policy works, now I have more money to pay for HDB mortages or service more of the prinicipal loan instead =P. I can try to lift my household out from the 8% who are defaulting on their loans for more than 3 months.

Scrutinizing the data Leong Sze Hian's style, the article states: A ministry spokesperson said: "In January 2009, there were about 41,290 MOE FAS recipients. This is a slight increase from the January 2008 number of about 39,100 recipients. Needy families can apply for the MOE FAS at any time of the year. Thus, we expect the 2009 figure to increase further."

41,290 students under financial scheme is a big number. What is the percentage of children that are receiving such aid. Seems like a lot. The following might give us a clue.

All schools will also get a one-time S$10,000 grant to use at their discretion. This is welcome news to Townsville Primary, which has seen 140 students seeking financial help this year - up from 80 a year ago - some of whom do not meet the criteria for MOE's current help schemes.

Townsville Primary currently has a student population of 1632(according to Wikipedia). So if 140 needs help, that is 8.5% of the school-going population. Add those who fall through the net and those who do not know of such help or where to get them, easily more than 10% of school-going children need financial aid.

Looking further, parents will try to provide the best for their children. So if these children are already struggling, how good can the family live? Living from paycheque to paycheque with hardly any savings. One good question to ponder about, if everyone lost their jobs, how many can survive for more than one month without any assistance?

So should Singapore adopt a welfare state policy with benefits for the unemployed and the elderly? bbqchickenwings think not, it is not a suitable policy for Singapore. But the people must be educated on how to take care of themselves and the importance of good financial planning, saving for a rainy day etc. Too many people are left struggling at the moment and falling through the loop... Oh no, bbqchickenwings' thoughts are drifting out. The post is getting messy. Stop for now. Darn, cant even put whats in the mind into simple coherent sentences. Time to eat some chicken.

________________________________________________

Update

There is a slight confusion, at least on my part. In today's TODAY (i.e. Wednesday), there is an article titled: And NUS sends a note of reassurance

The article states that MOE will defer tuition fee payments for a year, benefiting about 20000 university and polytechnic students. But it then continues with this "But not all students take up government loans — some may have borrowed from banks, or from their parents' Central Provident Fund accounts, for example."

This makes it sound like those on bank or CPF loans are not eligible for the deferment. I have emailed the journalist regarding this and will post another update once more info is available.

Are you suffering from socio-political blogs' addiction?

2009-02-10T13:22:00.009+08:00

This quiz helps determine whether you have been indulging too much time in social politics and not doing enough work.

Section I: Short Answer Questions

See if you can identify who made these quotes.

please, get out of my elite uncaring face.
If there are no wars or oil crises, this golden period can stretch out over many years.
Change has to take place in Singapore but change must take place not (between parties) but within the PAP.
They (residents) should thank the Town Council for working hard to come up with a diversified portfolio to generate income so that residents do not have to fork out more money.
How much do you want? Do you want three meals in a hawker centre, food court or restaurant?
Maybe it made lesser mortals envious and they thought maybe he was a little bit boastful. (Bonus question: who is the 'he' in this quote)
So, in Hougang, you have to be creative to be an effective opposition. Amongst the things you can do, I suggest you study the annual accounts of the town council to ensure that the funds are properly used. Check whether the arrears for S & C charges are piling up, and eating into their reserves. Make sure that enough money is put aside for cyclical maintenance. In your walkabouts, check on the estate maintenance… In short, play the role of an effective opposition in Hougang.

Identify the following bloggers

Usually starts his post with a picture of relevance or with a hidden meaning. Uses a cat as his avatar. Works in a investment bank.
Another one with a cat as an avatar. Likes to put whole articles and then add comments regarding each sentence in red. Has a split personality called Lee See Nao.
Short and sweet posts, updated every morning. Used to have nice Orchids as pictures but currently there is a Chingay special.
Posts are full of vulgarities. Thought to have retired but recently made a comeback. Recently joined Twitter.
Hosts a weekly podcast. He likes to ride a bicycle and used to be a columnist with a mainstream newspaper.
Avatar is a funny mask. Uses satire to great effects in his posts. Being together with him might win you some 4D or Toto.
Investigative blogger who is often quoted on mainstream newspapers. Posts are well researched and footnotes given at the bottom of the posts.

Section II: Yes/No questions

Besides knowing the bloggers in Section I, do you also know who frequently makes comments in their various blogs?
Do you set The Online Citizen or Singapore Enquirer as homepage in your Internet browser?
Do you stop work at 12 p.m not because you want to go for lunch but because its time to check Singapore Daily for their daily updates?
And then do you read every single post that they aggregated?
And you feel bored during the weekends because blog posts do not seem to be as frequent and the editors of Singapore Daily do not update on weekends.
Do you think that all mainstream media is crap?
Do you feel depressed on a day when no government official makes a goof, silly quote or there is no government policy worth criticizing about?
Do you know the blogger whose abbreviated nickname is KTM?
Do you put all your favourite blogs on an RSS feed or Google Reader and refresh at least once every hour to catch the latest postings?
Do you know who are the Chua sisters?
Can you name another 15 socio-political bloggers other than the ones in this quiz?
You do not know who East Coast Life is 2 weeks ago but you do now?
Do you rather get an autograph from Mr. Wang and molly than from Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie?
Do you spend time pondering how these bloggers look like IRL? (in real life)

____________________________________________________

End of quiz. Too tired to think of anymore and its starting to get not so fun anyway. If you can answer the questions in section I and reply yes to those in section II, I suggest you get a life, you have the signs of over-addiction to socio-political blogs. I am not a doctor, only a chickenwing man so I cant help much. My advice: Try not visiting any socio-political sites for 3 days, go watch a movie or something. The curious case of Benjamin Button is worth a watch.

Even Ho Ching is joining the unemployed

2009-02-09T02:33:00.004+08:00

Times are really bad when even Ho Ching, the 3rd most powerful women in Forbes' 100 most powerful women list is becoming unemployed come this October.

Her post as CEO of ~~Lee Holdings~~ Temasek Holdings will be taken by Charles 'Chip' Goodyear. Her past achievements include assisting the demise of Thaksin Shinawatra with Temasek Holdings' purchase of Shin Corp, spectacular collapse of Micropolis, fallout of ABC Learnings and the bigger-than-budget, now smaller-than-peanuts, purchases of stakes in Merril Lynch, Barclays, Bank of China etc. Indeed, her wide-ranging talents and experiences will qualify her to be part of the A-team for the PAP in the next general elections. Some even want her to be our next president!

I hope she can find a job soon, being a Singaporean. As people know about Singaporeans, we have 3 great characteristics. Kiasi (scared of death), Kiasu (scared of losing) and Mai Sia Suay (don't malu). How can our most powerful woman and 3rd most powerful in the world don't have a job. And cannot be any humpty dumpty job like selling bbq chicken wings. It must be a job that pays a competitive multi-million salary so that we can retain a talent like hers. If not our security will be at risk and Ho Ching might become a maid in other countries?

Maybe she shouldn't work and retire early. Does the government welcome this? Their idea are for citizens to work and work ~~until they drop dead~~. Active aging citizenry, always contributing to the economy. As a leader of our society, Ho Ching cannot retire also, she must set a role model for all young aspiring Singaporeans. I say she should become a financial planner. Help all Singaporeans plan their finances, rich or poor. But everyone must be prepared, the investments she make will have to take a long term view!

So can Mr. Charles 'Chip' Goodyear bring Temasek Holdings foward? bbqchickenwings don't know much about him la. bbqchickenwings think that it is recession now, so must find people who are cheap (chip) and good, even for Temasek CEO. Cannot find any talents in Singapore, so import another FT to take the job. I wish him luck, I really do. Its not so funny when your government reserves are dwindling and no knows how much.

Edible Oranges, (Eat with skin)

2009-02-09T01:37:00.005+08:00

What are these wierd looking stuff? Baby Carrots?

Put them together with their big brother. They are oranges, given to me by my landlord. Maybe they know its Chinese New Year, so they gave bbqchickenwings such funny oranges with wierd shape. They are so small.

Oh, the most special thing is they can be eaten with the skin. Its a little sweet inside but very sour outside. Too sour for bbqchickenwings likings, didn't like 陈皮 a lot when younger, maybe thats why. Too bad I dont know their proper names, talking to my landlords is very challenging and we only have limited appreciation of each other's language.

Rich NMP Loo contributes his words of wisdom

2009-02-06T02:32:00.005+08:00

Image taken from MyPaper, 5 Feb 2009

Dr. Loo Choon Yong says that we are given a five-day work week, but we do not appreciate the 2 days of weekends off to make love and babies. So we should just abolish the five-day week policy and revert back to a six-day week to improve our productivity.

6565, the evolution of ever-increasing workload

Molly, sharp and witty as usual (can I get an autograph please?), contributes an outstanding thought on his comments. My 1st thoughts were similar to Molly. Last time gahmen say we need to change to a five-day week. So everyone has to do what they do in six-days and compress into five. Now we add one more day back, then everyone can have some extra workload and improve weekly output. Let's repeat the cycle again, add more workload, reduce the number of working days until you are used to it, add one more day and more workload, repeat a few times. 6 -> 5 -> 6 -> 5. Taiwan has 5566, we have our own 6565 initiative! Pretty soon, Singaporeans will be the meanest work machines the world has ever known. Woo hoo, no wonder Dr Loo is so rich. This is his secret formula. (Off topic but I couldn't resist it, a google search of his name shows him being among the 40 richest in Singapore)

Baby no enough, how ah?

Back to the topic of failure to make babies. Dr Loo says the five-day week does not help improve baby production. This year is Year of the Ox. Next year is worse, year of the Tiger. Many people don't like Tiger babies. Since bbqchickenwings forecast that baby production will drop even further, bbqchickenwings say we should have a seven-day working week starting on Lunar New Year next year. Cut down on annual leave too. No respite? Got.. There is the year of the Dragon, the peak that our PM Lee is very joyous about. During the year of the Dragon, we can go back to the five-day week and focus on baby production. The government will give cash on delivery.

Are you kidding me? You want me to retrench my workers? Yes I will.

On a more serious note, does going back to a six-day week help in the current economic climate?Yes it does, but it helps employers, no? Now there is slumping global demand for goods and services. Six-day week implemented, but no job to do lei. Lets say I were employing 10 men working five-day week to operate my bbq chicken wing stall, I will applaud this initiative man. Since I don't anticipate a increase in demand for my chicken wings, I will straight away ask 2 men to pack up and go home, the other 8 can tahan the workload of the retrenched workers. Wait, you will lose the Job Credit the government gives lei, my inner soul says. Who cares? I save more money with the retrenchment. Loo Choon Yong, I salute you. You are the source of pride for all employers out there.

With Dr Loo in charge, I am so confident of the top management in Raffles Medical Group. Need to start selling more bbq chicken wings to afford their shares. Sure winner.

--------------
The Straits Times
Feb 4, 2009
Budget 2009 Debate
Reconsider 5-day week?
By Jeremy Au Yong

MORE free time did not result in more babies, so people should go back to work on Saturdays.

Nominated MP Loo Choon Yong on Tuesday threw up the most provocative suggestion during the Budget debate when he questioned the benefits of the five-day work week.

Speaking on the second day of the debate on the Budget Statement, he said the move to a shorter work week by the public sector and then the private sectors in in 2004 could have eroded the Singaporean's work ethic, while not improving the fertility rate in any meaningful way.

The number of live births only inched up to 39,490 in 2007 from 37,485 in 2003.

'We should accept that as a people our procreation talent is not our forte - nothing to crow about,' he said.

'I urge the Government to take steps to determine whether our productivity and competitiveness have been affected by the five-day week and to review the policy, if necessary,' he added.

Dr Loo had unleashed this stunner as he voiced concerns over what he called the 'all life and very little work' attitude of the younger generation.

He pointed to Straits Times reports on how to maximise leave by taking advantage of public holidays that fall near weekends as an indication of an erosion of the work ethics.

'I have nothing against our young Singaporeans having fun and partying. But I hope they will work as hard as they play,' he said.

Declining productivity was also a concern of Mr Zainudin Nordin (Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC) although he broached the subject from a different angle. He pegged the dipping productivity figures in recent years to an over-reliance on foreign workers.

The Owl has signed and all about Emmanuel

2009-02-04T02:35:00.005+08:00

The owlish-looking Andrey Arshavin has signed for Arsenal! He will wear the legendary no. 23 shirt, since the even more legendary no. 10 is with crybaby Gallas (what on earth is a centreback doing wearing a no. 10 behind his back). bbqchickenwings, being a lifelong Arsenal fan, seriously hopes that Mr. Owl can kickstart Arsenal's fight for ~~the title~~ 4th place in the league. Though bbqchickenwings do not like the Owl's money-face attitude and all the whining about every other club other than his old club being his dream club, a new signing is better than no signing at all.

What wrong can happen? Senor Wenger will probably decide to drop Nasri and keep Arshavin on the left and Eboue on the right. Then our new signing will not feel like a new signing then. Why does Wenger persist with Eboue? bbqchickenwings proposes this theory.

Wenger is gay with Emmanuel Petit when Petit was at Arsenal. Thats why he is very sensitive to the name Emmanuel and players with this name always have a special place in Wenger's heart. That explains why Emmanuel Adebayor and Emmanuel Eboue are never dropped from the squad. And we also have upcoming youngsters Emmanuel Frimpong and Jay Emmanuel Thomas, making Arsenal the most Emmanuelly, Emmanuellable Emmanuel Club? Which other club is so Emmanuelly unique? So if you want to be picked up by Wenger and Arsenal FC, its time to change your name.

Yours emmanuelly,

Emmanuel bbqchickenwings

Something more yummy than bbq chicken wings

2009-02-02T03:15:00.005+08:00

Saw this dish being featured by International Herald Tribune. Made by 2 guys from BBQAddicts.com, this dish is now slowly becoming famous, attracting almost 400, 000 views since 2 days before Christmas. This dish is called Bacon Explosion. This bacon cum Italian sausage dish will never be found in Israel. All the Jews and Muslims and vegans can never appreciate how heavenly this dish will taste. I wonder whether it can be found in Singapore though. It is now a new resolution to try this dish in 2009. Hey Mrs Wings, when you finally buy your oven (which I hope is before I go back home), please try to prepare this dish for me. Beats eating bbq chicken wings anytime. You know right, the way to a man's heart is through the stomach. Let me teach you how to make it.

Step 1. Get the ingredients.

1 kg thick cut bacon
1 kg Italian sausage
1 jar of barbeque sauce
1 jar of barbeque rub

Step 2. Create a 5 by 5 bacon weave. Make sure the weaving is tight and the final shape is a square so that it will be nice to work with.

Step 3. Add some BBQ seasoning. I think some black pepper or bbq powder will do very well.

Step 4. Add the Italian sausage on top of the weave. Press it down tight and make sure that the thickness is even. If you don't like Italian sausage, swop it for something else.

Step 5. Add more bacon! This time fry the remaining bacon, cut them and throw them on top of the Italian sausages. I don't want bacon that is too 焦, just a little bit and mainly must still remain crispy.

Step 6. Time for the sauce. Add some bbq sauce. I prefer Char Siew sauce though.

Step 7. Roll up the layer of italian sausage, leaving the weave of initial bacon untouched. Minimize the air inside and once the sausage is rolled up, pinch up the seams and the sides.

Step 8. Wrap up the sausage roll with the weave.

Step 9. Sprinkle more seasoning. And place it in the oven (since we won't have a smoker) at 225 degrees C for 1 hour, maybe 2. This one need to try and error lol.

Step 10. Take out and enjoy looking at the masterpiece.

Step 11. Add some sauce or honey to get a glossy look.

Step 12. Cut up like poh piah and eat. For now, I shall just imagine how it will taste like.

Step 13. Call 995 for an ambulance. Artery blocked by all the sinful fats. Need angioplasty. I hope the heart stents work fine.

Quote of the day

2009-01-28T20:45:00.004+08:00

From TOC article, comment #17

Kuan Yin is the goddess of Mercy;

Kuan Yew is the god of No-Mercy.

Constructing Obama with CNT

2009-01-27T00:43:00.007+08:00

More Obamamania.

How do you celebrate Obama becoming President? By researching on him, I mean by constructing carbon nanotube (CNT) images of him. John Hart, Sameh Tawfick, Michael De Volder, and Will Walker used 150 million CNT to construct each image of our dear Mr President. For those who are not in the field of science & technology, CNT are one of the most 'In' material now. They are another allotrope of carbon other than the diamond and graphite people commonly knows. Discovered fairly recently, they can be used in fields of energy, medicine, electronics, communications etc, anything from making solar cells to constructing a nanowire that will be strong enough to bring you to the moon via an elevator.

Before all that becomes reality, these people decide to have some fun with CNT at the same time. Looks like we have a new commercial application of CNT: to draw potraits. The only problem is equipping and being trained with a microscope at home.

The government gives John Thain $1.2 million to renovate his office and $30 PA increase to the needy

2009-01-25T02:58:00.012+08:00

Remember that Temasek Holdings acquired a stake in Merril Lynch? The same Merril Lynch that merged with Bank of America and causing lots of trouble to America's biggest bank. You know what Merril Lynch do with the money?

This guy, John 'Super' Thain, is was the CEO of Merril Lynch when our Singapore money was poured into his firm. He has now quit his new job with BOA. The main reason was that he gave out an earlier-than-usual bonus to his Merril ~~cronies~~ employees just three days before the merger took place. Wonderful. His last great heroic act as CEO. This is despite the losses made by Merril Lynch and BOA that caused BOA to ask the government for help.

So what happened to the money our government gave Merril Lynch? To renovate John Thain's office first of all. Nothing beats having a great office to give good 1st time impressions to all visitors. Look at what he spent on his office.

He spent $800,000 to hire famed celebrity designer Michael Smith, who is currently redesigning the White House for the Obama family for just $100,000.

$87,000 for an area rug in Thain's conference room
$44,000 for another area rug
$25,000 for a "mahogany pedestal table"
$68,000 for a "19th Century Credenza"
$15,000 for a sofa
$28,000 for four pairs of curtains
$87,000 for a pair of guest chairs
$18,000 for a "George IV Desk"
$2,700 for six wall sconces
$37,000 for six chairs in his private dining room
$5,000 for a mirror in his private dining room
$13,000 for a chandelier in the private dining room
$11,000 for fabric for a "Roman Shade"
$16,000 for a "custom coffee table"
$35,000 for a "commode on legs" aka toilet?
$24,000 for "Regency Chairs"
$5,000 for 40 yards of fabric for wall panels
$1,400 for a parchment waste can aka dustbin?

I guessed Temasek Holdings was 'wowed' by his office when they decide to feed him money for bonuses. Make that a BIG WOW

Looking at all the moneys he spent, you know what? I should have become an interior designer.

This is a commode? Good to eat as you shit, I suppose.

Happy Year of the Ox!

2009-01-25T02:29:00.006+08:00

I wish all readers and chicken lovers a wonderful year of the Ox. May everyone get wealthier and healthier. And enjoy the long weekend as well. No holidays for me this year. *Depression* Mummy Wings always asked whether I will be back for CNY. Always have to tell her no, but she keeps asking, like the answer will change if she asked often enough. Air tickets are still not that cheap even though demand has dropped heavily. Sorry Mum. And Grandma too. Haven't seen her in a while. This year's reunion lunch and dinner will be held together with me, myself and my wings. I hope it will be the first and last time such a loser thing will happen.

I hope the Ox will usher in a good year for everyone if thats even possible. I gaze at my crystal ball and it tells me that there is nothing to look foward to after CNY. The economy is gonna get slaughtered. If it gets too bad, I will just have to stop reading newspapers and blogs and live in my sanctuary here. Yep, without looking at online news and blogs, I will be pretty clueless what is going on around the world. Can't understand what everyone is talking about here not listen to the radio or watch the TV. Such a cut-off from reality is pretty good seeing how bad things are.

If there is one good thing that has to come out from this year, I hope it will be believing in honesty and hard work, just like the Ox. The bull is always seen as a hardworking animal, no shortcuts, no play cheats. If everyone lives to their conscience, the world will be a much better place aint it. Saying that, I am not very hardworking and honest myself. So this perfect scenario will most likely occur in my dreams only. So what good thing can come out this year? It has already happened. Bush is gone and Sarah Palin is not one sudden heart attack from becoming President of the States. Luckily its not the year of the Pig or she might have become the president.

Sg Budget 2009: Like that enough meh?

2009-01-23T01:03:00.010+08:00

Today I strike at work, put on my headphones and listen to budget while watching Tharman's shining head. At first glance listen, not so bad.. 20.5 billion dollars lei, Tharman call it a Resilience Package. But the cabinet is full of greater mortals worthy of a million dollar annual wage each lei. So why they never come out with a Prosperity Package instead. Even MacDonald also try to give prosperity every year lor.

Granted, the world economy is doing badly and Singapore being heavily trade dependent is very badly hit. But its the cabinet's direction in the first place that led Singapore to being a global city attracting all the MNCs, neglecting to help local SMEs in the process. Now everyone not doing well liao how? Since our PM is the most expensive PM in the world, he surely have some extraordinary measures to help us, help the lesser mortals. If he cannot think of any, still got his lao peh and ah Goh to help him think. People say 三个臭皮匠,顶个诸葛亮. Now we have three immortals here, surely they can come out with policy that can save the country, save the world. So the budget proposed good or not? Is it extraordinary?

In my opinion, they really focus on saving companies in this budget. Thats why its only called Resilience budget, not a prosperity one. Let's take a look at the 2 measures which touch our national reserves first.

Job Credit Scheme
Each employer will get a 12% cash grant of the first $2,500 of employee's salary. Sounds good since the employer can save $300 a month for each worker.

But this only applies to employees with CPF. How about contract workers many of which have no CPF? How about the self-employed, not those very rich types like the guy who opens a Mama shop below your HDB block? Or the commission-based workers, which to my understanding, many are considered self-employed.

If I open my own bbq chicken wings stall, I see no incentive to hire Singaporeans. I think hire 2 ah tiongs to man the stall still cheaper. The job credit scheme only saves about 10% for employers. If employer not steady, they sack people can save 100%. Thats even better.

Special Risk Sharing Incentive (RSI)

This measure allows banks to share risk with the government when giving loans. Right now, liquidity is tight so its much more difficult to borrow money from banks. With this incentive, banks are more willing to finance loans.

I am not very good with my Economics. But this isn't really spending or is it? The government helps to share the loans only. Does that mean the monies will eventually return to the government and with added interest some more? I don't know lei. Someone please enlighten me. Now demand of goods and services low. Hearing that 300 000 people may lose their jobs make me think that Singapore is sinking. And if they are all gone, we will have even lesser demand for goods and services. And then we can increase the unemployment figures to half a million. A very beautiful vicious cycle. So I really hope this RSI can stimulate businesses and keep employment.

So businesses get lots of helps. How about households and individuals? There was very little to offer in terms of boosting domestic spending. Firstly, there are no GST cuts. But luckily GST also never increase. Although I wont mind GST increasing to 8.5% if public transport becomes free. Low income workers have increases to their WIS (Workfare Income Supplement). People who becomes unemployed have more things to choose from SPUR (Skills Programme for Upgrading and Resilience) or get a job in the civil service which needs more people in healthcare, education and homeland security. People desperately in need of assistance gets an increase of $30 to their Public Assistance (PA) allowance. Not bad, still can buy 2 dozen chicken wings to eat. And how about the supposedly 8% of households that have HDB loan arrears of 3 months or more. Do they get any help? Hardly. Are we going to have our very own Mortage Crisis drama in Singapore?

How about the middle-income folk? People like me? What do we have? For starters, we have another giveout of GST credits coming this March. Ermm.. thats about it. No main course or desserts. Oh, there is still 20% reduction in Personal Income Tax. But more than half the population don't earn enough to pay income tax in the first place. This reduction in income tax will only benefit the rich more since the poor don't get anything out of it. So the very poor people get $30 more a month, the not so poor people gets nothing and the very rich people gets a lot more tax rebate back. What bullshit is this? Is it because our Gini coefficient shrank for the first time in a decade that we need to widen the gap again? And I thought this was a budget that will help low and middle-income Singaporeans to tide over the recession.

Of course there are still many measures in the budget. I won't want to go into them since their impact cannot be felt directly. I think many people (or is it just me?) will feel that somehow they are excluded from each and every scheme the Government introduced in this budget. At a time when many Singaporeans are already struggling during the golden period proclaimed by GodLee, I shudder at the thought of how our people, our citizenry, will handle this worst crisis since the Great Depression. (Some people may argue that this is not as bad as 1982 yet)

With this disappointing budget, our only hope is for our trade partners to revive their economies again. I wonder when was the last time so much expectations lies on the shoulders of one man? The same man that GodLee says is 'a flash in the pan'. If you had heard Obama's inauguration speech, it was electrifying. It was captivating. It made everyone think that he can save America, save the world. It made everyone think that he is Superman. He started with such a clean slate that it made everyone think that the American Dream is still possible. Barack did it, so can I. It made me think that I can pursue the American Dream too. I once had a Singapore Dream. It was a long time ago. That dream was dead and dusted when I see how absolute power has changed the workings of our government. That dream was dead and dusted when GodLee forgot he was once an Obama. That dream was dead and dusted when GodLee forgot that the government exists to serve the people and not the other way round. Now I just dream of eating the best bbq chicken wings in town.

Obama cannot and must not be allowed to fail. He is Superman. He is here to save the world.

The secret is out. The old man is an immortal.

2009-01-20T14:20:00.011+08:00

Following the Tan Yong Soon farcical, the government surprised me by actually making a response to it. For those who did not follow the story, Tan Yong Soon is the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Environment & Water Resources. There is a big hoo-hah (I am not sure how big it is outside the socio-political blogs though) over him spending close to S$ 50k for him, his senior investment counsellor wife and his Brown University going son, the three of them, went to France to learn cooking French cuisine.

Well, there wasn't much I thought of it although it is wierd that a senior civil servant actually posted a personal article on the Straits Times talking about his trip. There are lots of rich people out there in Singapore, and everyone knows that senior civil servants are well paid. They should spend the money as they deem fit. If a civil servant can discharge his duties responsibiliy, I don't care if he or she blows all his/her money on buying Toto or going Batam. Buy all the chicken wings in Singapore for all I care. Do invite me though.

Whether Tan Yong Soon is a good civil servant is a story for another day. But he was quoted as saying: "Taking five weeks leave from work is not as difficult as one thinks. Most times when you are at the top, you think you are indispensable. But if you are a good leader who has built up a good team, it is possible." This guy should learn some humility first. But its not a big deal since its hard to judge a character from what is written on Shitty Times.

Incur my wrath comes Charles Chong.

From Today article,

Agreeing that the rebuke in Parliament was “harsh”, MP Charles Chong noted that in the article, Mr Tan did not “brag” about how expensive the trip was. “Maybe it made lesser mortals envious and they thought maybe he was a little bit boastful,” he said. “Would people have taken offence if his wife (a senior investment counsellor at a bank) had paid for everything?”

There you have it. The truth is out. We are lesser mortals governed by greater mortals and immortals. There are also probably some shinigami out there capturing souls of the not-so-powerful mortals (You must eat more chicken to have a more powerful soul, bbqchickenwings says). Now you know why our ~~government~~ imperial court is so unreceptive and out of touch and seems to be living in their own world, because they ARE. One day in heaven = Ten years in the human world. By the time they do anything of note, months would have passed even if they are very efficient.

Charles Chong, the Greater Mortal

The Immortal aka GodLee

And anyone wonders why the old man is not dead yet? He has managed to do what 秦始皇, the first Emperor of China, has failed. Emperor Qin desperately sought for the immortal elixir in his bid to live happily ever after. He made the Terra Cotta army so that the soldiers who cannot consume this elixir to accompany him forever. Some smart ass then decided to give Emperor Qin mercury pills, masked as the elixirs, to consume. And hence we said bye bye to the Emperor.

Now in Singapore, having invested lots of money into biomedical research, we have found immortality. This was supposed to be a highly guarded secret (shhhh) as the pills and manufacture methods are still patent pending. But our dear Charles spilled the pills (pun not intended). In fact, there are pills of different grades. Only the super expensive ones can grant you immortality and they are available only for every PM who's surname is Lee. Only two such pills have been succesfully manufactured so far. Fret not, there are other pills though which are easier to manufacture. They cost peanuts and allow you to become a Greater Mortal. Or you can continue overeating chicken wings costing $1 per piece like bbqchickenwings, start thinking that you are a chicken wing and remain as a lesser mortal.

To read more about the Singapore mortal caste system, see here. Courtesy of Wayang Party Club. I just love their picture of the Eight Immortals.

Google Chrome seems good but..

2009-01-20T14:20:00.008+08:00

As part of my 2009 revolutions, I have started trying out Google Chrome. Having been a Firefox fan, I have resisted the idea of trying a new browser, especially when it is still only in a beta stage. But things do change, just like I suddenly deciding to start blogging again. So after two days of using Chrome, here are my thoughts on this new browser.

Good things about Chrome

It's much faster than Mozilla, especially when many tabs are open. This is especially evident on my Vista com with only 1 Gb RAM. I spend less time rotting away waiting for the browser to respond.
One action too many won't cause the whole application to crash. It is perhaps the best thing about Chrome. One faulty site won't result in the shutdown of the whole program, you just have to close the problematic tab and browse the others as per normal.
The website that you are viewing covers almost the whole screen. It makes browsing much more neater and perhaps a bit more enjoyable.

Bad things about Chrome

No add-ons. So there is no equivalent of a Reminder-fox or a Download-them-all for me. But it is forgivable and I am sure with their innovative team, this feature will definitely be there in the full version.
And the worst thing about Chrome. There is no support for RSS feeds. Urghh. It's funny Google didn't realise its one of the more important things that a browser should have. Thats why I love Firefox, And even more wierd considering that they do display RSS feeds via Google Reader. Until this issue is fixed, Chrome has no chance of being the sole browser that I use.

Someone please add RSS into Chrome. But not this way.

Word Challenge Agony

2009-01-20T02:22:00.003+08:00

bbqchickenwings started playing word challenge upon my sister's invitation. Word Challenge is a fun, competitive and intelligent game according to my sis. One needs to possess excellent vocabulary in order to score high marks.. Actually its bullshit, its more a case of fastest fingers, the faster you type, the easier it will be to score high marks. I had a friendly competition with my sister to challenge who can get a higher score. But then she got busy, neglected the challenge and now I can only challenge with my other peers (you can see the high scores of your fellow friends who play the game). And being a perfectionist, bbqchickenwings needs to challenge the best, the arch-nemesis here being QX who has a score of 103 thousand + i thought.

After working hard over several days and weeks, bbqchickenwings thought he has done it! He has broken the 100 k barrier. Look at this!

With a score of 160 004, bbqchickenwings is supposed to have beaten QX who only has 103 896. What happened?

QX's score is wrong on the scoreboard. It is not 103896 but 1038961. His score had too many digits and couldnt fit into the all-time high score table. bbqchickenwings became devastated. After trying so hard, he does not even have 20% the score of QX. "Too bad, just go eat some chicken wings, dude" I can almost hear QX purring this to me over and over again. This is why bbqchickenwings can never be a pro gamer. Sucks big time.

A New Dawn

2009-01-19T02:16:00.010+08:00

bbqchickenwings has decided to start writing again. Actually, bbqchickenwings used to write on another blog, but then stopped writing for some reason. bbqchickenwings wondered for a few months what the reason was, and decided that it was probably due to the following.

His boss, i.e. the man he get money to buy his chicken and grill from has found out and taken an interest to the blog. now bbqchickenwings cannot say bad things about the boss or the work he is doing. In short, bbqchickenwings does not feel like having complete freedom when writing.

He used to blog without an anonym. bbqchickenwings prefers to hide under a cloak and pokes his head out while lying on the bed to blog instead, and of course, with the fragrance of chicken wings slithering by. bbqchickenwings thinks that he can start blogging irresponsibily too.

So what made bbqchickenwings start writing again?

As bbqchickenwings gets older, he finds that he is losing bits and pieces of his thoughts and memory. This blog will hopefully serve to remind bbqchickenwings of all his ramblings and foolishness of the past, if he is not having a 三分钟热度 attitude to the blog.

bbqchickenwings once learnt from someone not so famous that there are three types of learn style: seeing learners, hearing learners and touch/experience learners. Learning by seeing only stimulates bbqchickenwings' short term memories. He cant remember anything beyond a month. He has been well trained to throw away all information after an exam. bbqchickenwings does not learn well by hearing, that is why he does not know what music is all about and always fall asleep during lectures. Thus the optimal method of learning is by doing it, using kinesthetics to help him learn how to grill the optimal chicken wings. Writing also helps, thats why bbqchickenwings wants to write.

This is one of bbqchickenwings' new year resolution. He has started to appreciate the art of writing only recently. Last time especially during secondary sch and JC, bbqchickenwings is always a bordeline case for English and GP. Writing during Economics exams is especially a struggle. bbqchickenwings always seems to write slower than others and can never complete the 4 questions for the essay section. A big waste considering he knows how to answer some of the questions but just do not have the time to finish. Thus even though he is more interested in doing a business course, he chose an engineering one instead as he thinks he can score better. As he starts getting older, he finds writing more interesting than solving equations. By ~~writing~~ typing more and more (typing makes editing so much easier), bbqchickenwings thinks he can improve his writings, become a more learned man ~~and become a celebrity~~.

bbqchickenwings ~~is lonely~~ has too much energy. He is stopping his cardiovascular exercises until the weather permits him to go outdoors in singlets and shorts and get lyophilized in 5 seconds. By channeling some of his chi here, he hopes that he can sleep better and wake up the next day feeling smarter.

What is bbqchickenwings going to write about?

bbqchickenwings was thinking how often he should write his blog. Then he realised that it is quite silly to set a schedule for it. This is a blog. This is bbqchickenwings' blog. He alone will decide with his council of advisers how frequently he updates his blog. He alone will decide what to write when the mood comes. This is why a blog can be so special and make bbqchickenwings start writing again. It has complete freedom.

And thus, bbqchickenwings thinks that it is silly that a group of bloggers are forming an association to 'promote, protect as well as educates its members'. Blogging is unique. Anyone can blog about any topic that he or she wants, and anyone can choose to read or not read someone's blog. It should be free from authority (it is registered with MHA), guidelines and rules. Getting everyone to come together under one banner? To each his own. bbqchickenwings prefers remaining in his virtual world thinking about his yummy food. If bbqchickenwings wants to meet bloggers, it will probably be just a chicken wings makan session. No need any association one. But if someone is setting up a Chicken Wings association, hmmm hmmm, maybe bbqchickenwings will sign up as a member after all. But do note the difference, bbqchickenwings will be signing up as a chicken lover and not as a blogger. If only East Coast has some nice chicken wings.