Vivian Balakrishnan failed to anticipate haze

That meeting of ASEAN environment minister was more show than progress. This is unsurprising.

This is also the moment I think we learn that Vivian Balakrishnan was caught napping.

I will count my chickens when they are hatched. Not putting too much by such a promise to ratify the treaty. A minister, even the President cannot speak for the legislature. If they could the accord would have been ratified long ago.

The fact that the Jambi collaboration has lapsed is the early warning sign to expect haze. How could Vivian Balakrishnan have missed that? We were lucky in 2012. The haze came thick and heavy this year. If it didn't it could be next year but whenever, it will come and it should not be surprising if it is bad.

Let's see if the WP would ask him to account for this lapse. 



Update: 3:45pm

Received a very helpful comment with a link to Hansard. WP did press the point earlier.

How odd we take such a different attitude towards the haze compared to water.

On water, LKY attended to it personally. Where is LHL? Yes, he was making jokes as the commenter pointed out. What abysmal judgement from the PM. So not one but two of them were napping. No wonder we didn't actually have enough N95s. No wonder the government had to throw their smoke bombs playing with categories. Yes, we have enough N95s but....Fortunately the wind changed direction or we would have our Katrina moment.

So much for the much vaunted foresight of this government. They had 16 years to figure a way to achieve leverage over Indonesia but they didn't.

Haze: Disappointment at ASEAN meeting

Unlike the cleaning of hawker centres ceilings, I have been taking this issue of the haze over us very seriously.

I am not surprised at the outcome. We do not have enough leverage to get what we need much less what we want. No point being disappointed. The right response to think up and invest in leverage, and don't say cannot be done. These folks to the south can choke us to death, economically first and then many years later our health, i.e., if we are still economically viable.

Read the Right Stuff

Day after day the MSM especially ST has been roped in to badger and attempt to discredit bloggers. We all know the MSM don't get the Internet or folks like me would still have kept our SPH shares. I need you to be much cheaper before I buy them again.

We don't need such flattery or attention.

Unless this is a definitive test for the stupid fellow, this silly comic got it wrong. It's very simple. Don't be in a hurry. Mistakes made on most blogs are corrected. If you want it faster, use tweeter, may be Facebook.

Many years ago, a friend complain to my friend in church that the pastor is always scolding them from the pulpit. This friend replied, "If he wasn't scolding you, what do you care?" Similarly, if what we write about the government is false, what is there to worry? You have no confidence that the truth will surface in an open system? Even closed system could not hide its secrets forever. If we cannot sort such things out, we haven't earned the right to be a going concern. We would all be babies then competing against adults elsewhere. What's the chance?

It's too late, the government must know that the genie has escaped the lamp and will not return. How to? You can't even locate him! He is everywhere and aggravatingly nowhere. And it is the latter that will jump on and ambush you after you have netted everyone everywhere. Don't be stupid. Learn to live with it successfully. Make friends, leverage this new source of free and infinite energy.

Do I detect fear, the Dark Side in the government? They don't want to change. They want to dictate to us. If they succeed, it is a matter of time this whole place fail. I can't pinpoint a time but I can tell you what must happen. When our competitors embrace the Net wholeheartedly after their governments cut their sails and go with the wind but ours is too strong and confident that they can fix us.

There were many lessons to take away from the Haze emergency response. For example, the government could have done much better if they were clued into this new culture and respond with internet speed. Sadly instead of leveraging it, it was used to show them up to have feet of clay. Indeed yesterday's hare has become today's snail. Last I read on the MSM they are reacting like a petulant child than learning the right lessons.

We now live in real time, how can government not retool to be on the same speed?

Surely the MSM must be sensitive enough to feel the ground underneath them shifting too. Surely they can detect power is shifting. At some point the government will need you more than you need them you know? How are you preparing for that day? If you are not ready, there will be others who would be. And if nobody is ready then that is the litmus test that Singapore had turned into a has been, ignored by the world because she has become irrelevant.

Just as arranged marriages, forcibly enforced belonged to the past, so willing love marriages is the way to the future. If the government make sense, is transparent and communicate well, we will align with them, otherwise there will be bucket loads of criticisms.

SQ not among safest airlines

I flipped through all the 22 pages and discover than SQ wasn't among the top 20 safest airlines in the world. This is the opinion of Travel + Leisure magazine.

Isn't this disappointing? Are there other publications where our SQ made the list?

SQ as I have time and again blogged about is slipping. Doesn't  help that investors are not making management and the board more accountable. Just as well I heard over the radio this morning why it is so hard to get more women representation in our corporate boards. This town is thick with incestuous old boy networks and that is a major reason why our economy have not kept up with the times....there is no mostly work-life balance in most firms. Look, other economies strike a better balance and produce better results than us. We have full of selfish bosses in corner offices enjoying themselves.

We have to overhaul our self defeating business culture.

For next GE: Ng Kok Khim then, Now Jonathan Oh

Thanks TRE for this. Good job digging this stuff out. I asked myself, WP could have dug this one and Ng Kok Khim too but chose not to. They have done the right thing. Let the rest of us do these things. You are already in Parliament and you go and do the things we can't. The PAP should do the same. These are the first steps toward an extraordinary Parliament. The way the PAP try to take it down and if the Opposition would oblige them, it is a matter of time people come to blows on the floor like in Taiwan. Fortunately it take two to clap and one side refused to oblige.

Will check back and fill in the gaps at the next GE.

Shanmugam: A sample of Talk is Shiok

Very interesting and relevant comment from readers which caused me to record them. Unfortunate that I am using one of the better ministers as an example. It could have been any of them perhaps excepting Tharman.

• 2 hours ago
• 

  Sathia Palani The Minister should stop comparing other countries with Singapore. You are not following other countries on everything

  Like · Reply · 10 · 2 hours ago via mobile
• 

  Lim Kopi Exactly. If they want to compare, then use them as standards. But somehow whenever we say some other countries are doing something better than we are, they say we mustn't look at other countries.

  Like · 1 · 

Don't bother to take the minister's words too seriously. We know they often indulge in "talk is shiok". If we take their advice then there must at least be 48 hours to a day. Impossible.

• 

  Alvin Teow B S What choice are there?
  
  Be it women or men, once you started a family, shouldn't the priority be family instead of career?
  
  Most people work hard to start or have a family, won't it be contradicting then to choose career over family? One work to support the family NOT destroy the family.
  
  If one is career-minded and choose career over family, then that person shouldn't start a family as it will never be a true happy family (even if it lasts).
  
  There should always be a balance between career and family (if you've one), as you need to maintain a career to maintain a family (everything need money).
  
  So are the ministries working towards a right direction?

  Like · Reply · 2 · 2 hours ago
• 

  Qiu Gong Mai luan kong lah.
  It's not that we dun wanna settle down or have chewren.
  It's too expensive & it's thanks to PAP bad policies in FT, jobs, education, housing, healthcare & public transportation.
  
  Just look at e Phase 2A primary school registration...

  Like · Reply · 6 · about an hour ago · Edited
• 

  Shahril Azizi How to survive when everything goes up like a rocket but your salary is moving upwards like a snail. 
  Haiz.

  Like · Reply · 3 · 2 hours ago via mobile

Alvin is spot on. It is the employer and bosses that is holding us back. He who pays the piper calls the tune! This government is not prepared to have decisive policies to catalyze the needed change. Like I said, "talk is shiok". They have taken to a strategy of numerous band aid these days. I tried to restrain myself but when I saw them distributing N95s to the old and the poor, I thought part of the reason was to look good because we have been lambasting them for sometime their neglect of the vulnerable.

I assume none of those who provided their pointed comments were at the OSC.

This government has devolved to with our generous help very good at problem description. As for solutions we demand more transparency and accountability before we can contribute practical ideas.

Don't waste time fixing the Opposition (should change that noun description) and solve real and pressing problems. Not band aid.

Keeping this for ten years

We do know each other. We are connected from you to us via the Internet and media reports. I am keeping this for you. The grief I choose to remember than to record here. I am fairly confident that this blog would be around in the next 10 years. I never forget that COBOL program running on the mainframe. It's function could easily be served by a simple spreadsheet model by the time I joined the company, but my seniors told me it just wouldn't die.

We just retired our Windows XP machine about a month ago. We would have kept using it for as long as it last if Microsoft didn't decide to stop support for the OS next year.

That COBOL software was indispensable. People have formed habits around them and would not accept change. My take is that it is the same with Google Blogger too.