Wifey commented that Vivian Balakrishnan was still up at 2am to post this on his Facebook page. I responded that's his job and then turned on my iPad to check.
I also noticed the first comment.
- Pae Thongyaem This has been a problem for so long and their solution is SOP answer: to leave it to the Indonesian authorities to do the right thing, multi-agency task force to look into the matter, cloud-seeding a possibility but no clouds to seed. Knn, the more they talk the more tulan I become.
We are spending $12.3 billion this year or 20% of our National Budget in 2013 on MILITARY. Who are we at war with? This is the time put taxpayer money into good use, but do we even own one of these planes? Indonesia-Malaysia-Singapore should sign agreement, as long as there's large-scale forest fires, these planes should be sent immediately.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzwS8Gv27J8
Singaporeans are angry. I bet he will get more "likes" when the morning comes around.
We were out for dinner last night as a family and the haze was very bad on our way back. I told the children if this problem persist people will stop making jokes about this but that time might come sooner than I expected. Later that night the PSI went to 321 and the kids spent their whole evening closely tracking PSI and telling me what they were discovering.
Anyway in the car I said we are a different people from Israel. Nevertheless if they keep polluting the air and choke our economy and start doing grievous damage, we might consider extra legal action. We might take a page from the Israeli playbook and do to the business people responsible for this what the Mossad did to Israel's enemies. You better worry and shake in your pants if you are Singaporean director of any such business. If your photo and identity appear on social media who knows what might happen to you.
In my earlier post I mentioned that what mattered in international relations is leverage. It is terribly unfortunate if we get to the point when leverage means targeting greedy business people responsible with extreme measures where the law is not able to reach them. The Indonesians must not push us to the wall. I can write all these because I am just a citizen but I am sure some of our angry leaders must be thinking about them already.
I don't think we will resort to such prejudicial measures but we must tell the owners of the plantations that all options are on the table. This is unfortunate but necessary leverage. At some point the talk must include showing the big stick. These people aren't afraid of losing money but they have very sensitive skin. Fines will not work because money is cheap to them in this game. What the heck, fines do not even work on our public transport operators, telcos...remember even Wall Street carry on to repeatedly offend and then negotiate their fines.
Update: 5:15am
I just posted and as I had guessed people are responding to Pae Thongyaem's comment.
- Pae Thongyaem This has been a problem for so long and their solution is SOP answer: to leave it to the Indonesian authorities to do the right thing, multi-agency task force to look into the matter, cloud-seeding a possibility but no clouds to seed. Knn, the more the...See More
- Bill Bremner I alluded to the very same suggestion 2 days ago (747 fire-fighting aircraft) and still believe it is the very best one to-date. Indeed, with all the wealth and cash reserves that Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia have surely they could agree to keep a small fleet of these super fire-fighters on standby during Indonesia's "shash'n'burn season" and deploy them when needed. Having people breathe carcinogens (that's what smoke particles from burning wood are...let's not kid ourselves) is NOT an acceptable situation. Take action ASEAN!! Why are you organized as an association if not to help each other in times of need!? Surely this is one of those. (from a 25 yr Singapore PR)
- Bill Bremner Pray, complain, whine about the "garmet" and make jokes...come on, this is serious. Make constructive suggestions. This is the power of social networking!!
- Manfred Man No need these planes... Just get our air force to fly our jets in and drop water bombs as target prractice... Waves after waves... With or without the Indonesians' consent... If they try to stop us we will use our air to air or air to ground arsenal in self defence... This is what our RSAF is trained for... To protect our AIRSPACE which is being violated right now... Our offensive water strikes are not an act of violence but an act of self defence... Go... RSAF... Do us proud...
- Boy Mendak When sulu kiram attack sabah,the whole world see the power n might from the Royal Malaysian air force deploying fighter jets roaring and srambling which makes the people 'wow' 'OOOH YEAH. They should again 'show off force', BUT this time along with the air force of singapore. However ,their mission would be of 'humanity' objective ,by 'raining' water on the Sumatra's hotspots.
Update: 5:30am
RSAF already have these planes. How quickly can they be fitted for fire fighting purpose. But again we need to use extreme leverage to get the Indonesians to agree. Of course we try to do it in as face saving way for them as possible.
Throw in a few A380s too.
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