Leaving the 1% Lifestyle

I had come to the same conclusion as this guy sometime back. I also continue to hear some friends worry about money like this fellow had. Some know when to draw the line because they were never interested in living it up. For them it is easy to know when they have entered their financial safety zone. Those who fail are the ones on an ego boosting trip. That sort of journey never ends and society must eventually stop them from taking such trips because the cost to everyone else is horrendous. Today the top 85 richest people have as much wealth as the bottom 3.5 billions on this planet. That's more than half the world's population.

Link to video.

Lousy Ovation Hard Disc

Our experience with the only Ovation drive we have has been disappointing. The product is poorly built. How could the USB 3 connector just came off so easily. The My Passport series are much better. We have so many pieces of those and some are quite old. No problems always work.

Now I have to buy a case to fit and retrieve the data from this hard disc. Silly to pay $15 to $20 for an encasing box when a new 500 GB disc is less than $50

Foreigners: Switzerland like Singapore

According to this Bloomberg article, even the Swiss aren't spared the same pressure and strain we are having with too many foreigners squeezed into this place.

Every erstwhile successful economy faces the same stress. The game has become who is least bad and most resilient. Everywhere locals perception of foreigners is increasingly they are a net negative. This is not strictly true, but the positives are accrued to the minority who are plugged into the business opportunities and increased government revenue. There is no intelligent or equitable way to redistribute the gains government received either. Most important much of what is lost, especially the character of the place and society cannot be purchased with money. So many foreigners poured in so quickly, they do not assimilate. My daughter's class has so many scholars who keep to themselves. If there were fewer of them they would have no choice but assimilate. Singapore is a stopover and not a destination for practically all of them, and I thought we wanted to cream off some of the best to put down roots here? It's not working.

Update: Feb 10 8:25 pm

The Swiss has decided.

MOE cuts funding to Indepedent Schools

Just like nearly everything else, so in our schools the have-have nots gap has become untenable and if left unchecked will become intolerable. The power of the have-nots has always been in their numbers but day to day the haves run the country mostly for their benefit from their wealth, connections and power. Occasionally they remember the less fortunate and then do something for them but not without making a big show. Very few are like Laurence Lien an exemplary product of old wealth. None is like the late Tan Kah Kee.

My daughter is particularly envious about the facilities these independent schools enjoy because she belonged to that handful of pupils who failed to get in when she ranked among the worst 12% for CL in her PSLE cohort. She still managed to get into a good school because she likely achieved near perfect scores for the other three subjects. Sometimes when we drive past one of these schools or if she sees pictures of them, they put her in a poignant mood. What she really like about these schools is very simple: aircon classrooms. Singapore has become so hot. Good thing we have a commitment to keep the city green. It would have been  few degrees hotter otherwise.

MOE is asking these top schools to refrain from using their aircons. I think it is time they can contribute to the leveling up by suggesting that neighborhood schools should enjoy aircon classrooms too.

I think we should aircon all the classrooms in our schools but not turn them on all the time; only the hottest times of the day. This would teach the kids to balance between conservation and practicality. It is just dumb to try to concentrate on what the teacher is saying in an uncomfortably hot classroom. Many pupils would be distracted by the heat and some like my girl would be drowsy and sleeping. Even animals in our zoo take naps when it gets too hot.

I think MOE would be right to stop these schools from investing in new building and facilities imitating American colleges albeit on a smaller scale. On the other hand, I think they should increase funding to all secondary schools first to have their classrooms equipped with air conditioning. I think practically all school teachers and principals would also agree with me. Come on, many of them are complaining about the heat too. This place is not and never going to get cooler.


Update: 9:40 pm

See what 93.8 had to offer on this topic. MOE must have gone to other outlets to explain themselves better after seeing how badly they had been misunderstood. As usual the government gets a FAIL grade for communication. They have a long way to go!

Thailand meaningless elections

Thailand only achievement in this imbroglio is that it wasn't worse than what we are seeing. To me this is an unfolding story of decline for them. Feuding parties are not afraid or ashamed to take the country down to get what they want. Things must get much worse before it can get better.

The trouble with most democracies is that they are tyrannies of the majority. There are no perfect solutions but some societies could benefit from systems where the majority must through compromise carry the minority with them. In Thailand now, the loser is capable of preventing the winner from winning. In effect they could go into round after round of fighting each other taking the whole country down a spiral. Finally when they are all equally weak, poor and miserable there would not longer be any class divide among them. Before getting to that dismal end point, the uber rich would have decamped. They can join Thaksin in exile albeit voluntary. The whole thing is so self defeating.

The least bad way for Thailand are new leaders who are willing to compromise and is able to carry the people on that strategy but I am afraid this is not in their social DNA.

CNY Lunch

Lunch at my sister's place yesterday. I think we have not been there for at least four or five years. Last year lunch was at my brother's place.

We are an even more practical and pragmatic family than the government. Completely un-superstitious or religious. We do not toss this high up and make a mess with more cleaning to do later. It is also wasting food.

I think our down to earth bent is most obvious in how we do our funerals. I wished I was mature and confident enough not to need an officiating minister for my wedding. My brother did his wedding better a few years later. He didn't even bother to invite the relatives. What is the point of having people on the occasion which he might not even meet them again for the rest of his life?

We are a substance people and give short shrift to form. We are not kind to any BS especially from experts and leaders.

His old Galaxy S2 looks horrible with a damaged display but still works.

And my house is a bigger version of my brother's S2. It has become so unpresentable now, I cannot invite people home except those we know well. On the other hand it is the most comfortable place, so cozy and functional the kids mostly prefer to stay home. When you try to look good you have to trade off use. It is better to forget about looking good.

At least my sis has matching tableware, we don't even bother at our place. Mostly we are still using the rejects from my late mom.

Back at Sentosa

We visited Sentosa early this morning arriving there to a very quiet island. Spent almost an hour just driving and stopping at various points. The last time we were there was 2007. Sentosa Cove was still under construction and RWS didn't exist yet.

We finally decided to park at the Beach car park ($5 for first 4 hours, we wouldn't be staying that long). Had breakfast upstairs at McDonalds beside the iFly.

As we descend the escalator and along the long corridor, the flaming words of hell "CASINO" became visible.

And this is what it might look like in the most subdue presentation possible. In real life it is much nastier and more brutal.

The place was teeming with PRCs. If for any reason there are ill economic or political winds in China, RWS will take it on the chin.