Life For Rent

Some stock market news today on the STI, courtesy of the ST. I will post comments below.

TAKING STOCK
STI retreats from record high on slight profit-taking
By Arthur Poon
PROFIT-TAKING sent the Straits Times Index (STI) a tad lower yesterday, after last Friday’s record close.
The STI rose briefly to an intra-day high of 3,688.58 in early trading – gaining more than 30 points at one point – but succumbed to selling pressure soon after. It eventually finished the session at 3,653.23, down a slight 1.38 points.

Analysts say investors betting on further near-term upside for the local bourse could be disappointed. They warn that a correction may be on the cards.

‘The multiple warning signs at this juncture could point to an impending correction for the STI, as we move into the results season for the second quarter,’ said OCBC Investment Research analyst Ritesh Menon yesterday.

He pointed out two historical factors indicating a possible correction ahead.

Mr Menon said: ‘The STI has never rallied for more than 21/2 years without a significant correction, and it has been three years and four months since a significant correction.’

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STRAITS TIMES INDEX
He does not include, for example, the slump in February and March this year, when the STI fell about 10 per cent in a week, as the market bounced back quickly.

The second factor is that the STI is currently about 157 per cent above its 200-week moving average – the daily STI close on average over the last 200 weeks. He said that over the last 26 years, deviations of between 157 per cent and 168 per cent from that moving average had resulted in significant corrections.

Yesterday, losers led gainers by 455 to 417, with about 4.65 billion shares worth $2.52 billion traded.

Among the big winners yesterday was Keppel Corp, which jumped 40 cents to $13.30. Morgan Stanley had raised the rig-builder’s target price to $15 from $12, saying that new contract wins should drive Keppel’s earnings growth by 40 per cent and 20 per cent respectively for the next two years.

OCBC Bank, which has received final approval to operate a locally incorporated bank in China, gained five cents to $9.50.

China XLX Fertiliser gained a cent to $1.36, after inking a five-year distributorship deal with customer Sinochem Fertiliser.

Debutant CMZ Holdings, which makes zips in China, chalked up a 67 per cent premium over its 23-cent offer price to finish at 38.5 cents.

However, Singapore Airlines fell 20 cents to $19.40, after oil prices surged to a near one-year high of around US$74 a barrel due to supply concerns.

Also lower was service residence owner-operator The Ascott Group, down two cents to $1.86, despite unveiling that it has bought a property in Scotland for £24.7 million (S$76 million).

———

So they predict a correction up ahead, purely based on technical analysis (TA). One point to note “Mr Menon said: ‘The STI has never rallied for more than 21/2 years without a significant correction, and it has been three years and four months since a significant correction.’” As you see, it has been 3 years 4 months, which meant the market did not follow the trend for the first time.

Here is your next lesson:

- Do NOT base future trends on history. ie, what has happened in the last 12 months (or decade for that matter) does not imply it WILL follow. History does not determine the future. Remember.

Yesterday saw a lot of people bailing out, as people profit took. The volume was high yet the STI closed down, with more losers than gainers. Felt like a typical Friday, but I suppose the market is a little jittery over the profit announcement season here, as well as announcements due in China and US. TA wise, the STI isn’t going that well. If you remember a month or two ago, JPMorgan issued a correction warning of at least 10% in the next 6 months. Traditionally aug-oct are bad months for the stock market. Traditionally. After the profit announcements, people profit take and stay at the side if there’s a lack of fresh leads. Traditionally, May is also a bad month. But this year saw the STI surge instead. See? History does not always determine the future. It could give a good indicator of the performance of the stock or trust (as in unit trusts) but do not base the future with what you see now.

There will definitely be a correction, sparked off by a bourse perhaps that will send regional and perhaps global bourses tumbling. Question is when? No one really has the answer. But my take at this juncture is to be cautious and minimise holdings. While I have just increased holdings, I will be looking to slim down 2 counters soon. By the end of the month hopefully. I will stay vested in small caps stocks as they tend to be favorites when the economy drops. While others bargain buy big caps, I have only limited ‘bullets’ and hence, prefer smaller caps with lots of room for growth. Remember, hold more than 10 lots as far as possible. If you cannot own 10, chances are it is too expensive for you.

I am hoping to consolidate my portfolio to get my bullets and profits back and wait at the side lines for some bargain buying. We could see some very interesting market movements in Q3.

I am happy to announce, I am no longer a shareholder of FJ Ben. Sold my holdings today to invest in another counter. Retail counters are generally slow to gain but fast to drop eh?

My current holdings are osim, shanghai asia, china paper, pac andes and ausgp. Other than pac andes (due to rights) the rest are all green and making pretty good timely gains. I have a lot to thank rach’s dad for his guidance and recommendations.

My own take on investments are:

- Invest in things that you know. Don’t buy wine for investment if you don’t know what you are doing. The same with any forms of investment other than fixed deposits (which isn’t an investment to me). Even t-bills (gov bonds) you need to know how it works, for its relatively risk free gains of over 2%p.a currently. Remember, when the economy is good, bond yield generally falls. Bonds and stocks are typically inversely proportional.

- Always protect your capital. When I invest in a stock, I try to invest in more than 10 lots. If you cannot do 10 lots, then it could be too expensive for you. Never ever buy just 1 or 2 lots, the commission alone will negate any gains. Imagine you have to wait for the price to increase by almost 10c before you break even. If I hold 10 lots, the picture is totally different. My holdings in China paper has gone up 2 cents since I invested last week, and it has an unrealised gain of over 400 dollars. How do you lower your risk in the market? When my counter has achieved 100% gains, I may decide to profit take. Eg, my holdings is 10k. It is now worth 20k. I will sell half my holdings to get back my initial capital. Hence what I still own is purely shares that are profits from my investment. In case of a downturn, I have already protected my capital. Sure you could lose a little of your profit, but the risk is much lower overall. It does makes sense right?

- Never do margin and contra trading if you don’t know what you are doing. The stock market is a double edged sword. Live by the sword, die by the sword. The market is unforgiving and can kill mercilessly.

- Invest in what you can afford. I can’t stress this enough.

- Do not chase stocks, especially when you do not know what you are doing. Buy on bad news and during a downturn, sell on good news and during a bull market. Not the other way round. Sounds logical, but it is VERY hard to follow, trust me. Humans are emotional, which is one of the greatest enemies you can have in this form of investment.

- Know your risk profile. How much risk are you willing to take? There are different forms of investment for different profiles. Yes, there is something for everyone. Know your appetite. Do not bite off more than you can chew.

- Do your fundamental and technical analysis properly. This is not a game. This is investment and when you put money on the line, you should do your homework. This is a MUST, not a want. If you don’t do your work and you lose money, you have yourself to blame. Money can be made even in a bearish market when everyone stays off the market. Till the day comes when you are experienced enough and you rely on gut instinct, do your home work.

- Investment is not as rosy as it sounds. Every dollar earned is STILL hard work. It is just that we make every dollar we have work harder on its own.

- Be stingy! Wealthy people are ALWAYS stingy. No employee will ever earn enough as an an employee, not even if you are the CEO of a gov board or MNC. The reason why they are loaded still is due to investing their salary. You didn’t think they rely on their 50k a month salary to be rich did you? How much do you earn that way anyway? Remember, every dollar you save, is 10 tomorrow. Every dollar you spend, it is gone forever. I bear that in mind. That may explain why I can be so stingy. But I do spend too, just depends on what and if is worth it. Fair value is important.

- Take at most, 10% of your profits to spend. Do not spend them all, else no matter how much you earn, you will end up going back to day 1. Compounding theory is VERY powerful. Just look at tables and you will, in 20 years time the theory will double very significantly. 500k in year 19 will become 1 mil in year 20. How’s that?

- Be aware of the news around you and how it impacts the stock market.

- No one is God in the market, not warren buffett, not greenspan, not anyone. And no one can time the market perfectly. No one can time it accurately even. Attempting to run the market can result in painful lessons. Take that from me.

- Cash is king. Know when to take profit and avoid being too greedy. The market has its ups and downs. No such thing as sure up and no way down. But remember you cannot time the market either.

That’s all for today’s lesson!

A lot of news for this week so the market is a bit jittery at the moment. DJ opened lower but is green at the moment. Also the profit announcement season has just begun here in SG. Let’s see how things go!

A forum discussion held on sunday took place to discuss section 377A of the penal code. Members of parliment as well as gay activitists and the public sat down for a discussion on the much talked about topic. I am heartened to say, whatever the outcome, that voices stood up for both sides, for and against the penal code. One notable comment came from Rev Yap on his take on the issue. I do note that end of the day, the acceptance (or the lack of it) is all individualistic. Hopefully there will not be a single voice representing an entire community. Of course as a PLU, I have my own interests to consider too. But for the neutral community, while debates are healthy, I hope there are no personal agenda behind it. One should learn to look beyond what he or she ‘accepts’ and look at everyone and everything equal. Sexuality can appear similar to racism, where in the case of a racist, he simply does not like a certain race, period. Such way of thinking is not being open minded and in the long run, having closed minded people will limit the potential the country can go. We ought to be open to ideas, new concepts, etc. A simple example would be a soldier who has been in the force for 30 years. Things then and now are totally different. To live in the past, is to deny advancement. Today we focus on intelligence and technology rather than jungle warfare. Even the military has moved on, why haven’t you?

MP Baey all for repealing anti-gay law
By Jeremy Au Yong
A PEOPLE’S Action Party MP yesterday spoke out against the non-review of the law banning homosexual sex.

Tanjong Pagar GRC MP Baey Yam Keng said if it comes to a vote in Parliament, he would say ‘yes’ to doing away with the law which makes it illegal for men to have sex with other men.

He was joined by Nominated MP Siew Kum Hong who had previously made public his opposition to Section 377A of the Penal Code which bans homosexual sex.

Both were members of a forum panel yesterday that included gay activist Alex Au, founder of gay media company Fridae Stuart Koe, and Methodist church leader Reverend Yap Kim Hao.

They were discussing the legislation with about 100 participants. When the Home Affairs Ministry proposed changes to the Penal Code last year, it said it would retain the ban on acts of ‘gross indecency’ between men.

One participant, academic Russell Heng, 56, asked Mr Baey for his position if Parliament took a vote on this issue.

He said he would vote to repeal the law, a response which drew loud applause.

Explaining his stand, Mr Baey drew an analogy between homosexual sex and drinking or smoking.

‘There should be a distinction between what the Government wants to discourage, and what it wants to criminalise,’ he said.

‘The Government can make it more difficult to access drinking and smoking, but you are still allowed to drink and smoke. So, you can discourage homosexual sex without criminalising it.’

He believed the Whip should be lifted if Parliament were to debate this issue. But he conceded that – from his understanding – not many MPs would share his views on decriminalising homosexual sex.

Lifting the Whip means MPs can vote according to their convictions, and do not have to toe the party line.

But Mr Baey emphasised that he did not think this issue would be decided through public consensus.

‘From what I understand of how the Government works, I don’t think the Government will make a decision based on a survey…The Government would want to make its own stand and position on issues like this,’ he said.

Changing the law would require ‘some progressive thinking and also people who are able to influence the Cabinet’s thinking’.

Thus, recent remarks by Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew were welcome, he added. ‘We should be happy he made those remarks, and that will pave the way for some change in the thinking of the current Government.’

In an interview with Berita Harian published two weeks ago, MM Lee said the Government should not act like moral policemen, ‘prying on consenting adults’.

He also reiterated his view that homosexuals ‘were mostly born that way’, but also recognised that Singapore is a conservative society and cannot go as far as some countries that recognise gay marriage.

Yesterday’s forum also touched on issues about the gay community and what the religious view on the matter was.

Offering his view, Rev Yap said: ‘Contrary to the majority of the Christian views… I personally would call for it to be repealed on the basis that this is God’s purpose – the existence of the homosexual community…We know there will always be a proportion of the population, generation after generation, who will be homosexual, and they are created by the heterosexuals.’

At the end of the forum, both Mr Baey and Mr Siew said it was good to have open discussion to increase awareness of the issue, but the absence of a different point of view meant the discussion lacked balance.

Said Mr Baey: ‘We were talking to the converted.’

It is monday! Can’t wait till weekend…..*beams*

Here is a joke for the day. The corny sort that I love.

Which animal always lies?

I’m really excited cause I am on the queue to download Beyonce’s latest track, Green Light (Freemasons club mix). All along I had the freemasons edit only. I must say it definitely beats beautiful liar. Only when the single is out, will the remix cd be out so will have to stick around for that!

I was looking up playlists from DJs who play at gay clubs around the world, from US to Europe and Australia. I was quite amazed to find that the music preference seems consistent to what we like here. From 2005 onwards, they did tracks from Kelly Clarkson, Madonna, Mariah Carey etc, to Calabria (the original is by rune. The newer track by Gaudino titled Destination Calabria is currently a hit in the clubs here in SG) and Meet her at the love parade. I was quite surprised to see the latter track on the playlist actually. I found a lot of ‘since you been gone’ instead of ‘because of you’, and while some of the remixes are what we use here too (eg Madonna’s PSB remix of Sorry), they did tracks like Mariah Carey’s It’s Like That with the official remix by David Morales, which isn’t really anything to shout at cause it is very ‘early set’. The local gay DJs here seem to be a bit more resourceful and managed to dig out the rockin pump boy tribal remix of that same song. Or perhaps in 2005, that was the only mix available.

I chanced upon forums, where DJs remark that there is no such thing as ‘gay’ music and it is very ‘bad’ to categorise what is gay and what is not. I don’t really know what is their point. Are they against discrimination, or is there some other agenda? The music preference between str8s and gay crowd is very distinct.Gays tend to prefer vocal house, apart from all the diva sounds. They tend not to like electro sounds that much (although the crowd in SG seem ok with it, if you build them up properly). The floorfillers (the term used to categorise tracks that bring people to the dance floor) are a tad similar, eg Bananarama’s Look On the Floor (ask your parents or any fan of bananarama, they may not even know this song exists!), Faith Evans’ Mesmerised (Freemasons) etc. In fact the only track that is popular here that isn’t seen in the list is bitch hotel’s do you wanna dance.

A long time ago someone once said, you can tell a person is gay or not by looking at his mp3 folder (in today’s context, just look at the iPod). While I have to agree to a certain extent since a large number of people ask for the same songs repeatedly and signal out the same tracks that they like even when hearing for the first time, I find the gay crowd can be quite accepting to new sounds. They do want their madonna and kelly clarkson still, but they are very open to new sounds. While I used to feel they are a bunch of spoilt crowd who only want to hear what they know (it is true to a certain extent still, especially crowds from a particular gay club here), if you build them up properly they will be happy to go at it. Same old thing every weekend is terribly boring. Take them on a different journey all the time. Last friday when I stood behind the console for the first time, we tested the crowd. I decided to try giving the crowd a little of everything. Very risky, but it went well.. phew. Give them some handbag tunes, bring back a couple old tracks, educate with one or two new tracks, and dish out some tracks with good beats but aint too housey. In general the crowd doesn’t like stuff that is too housey, so it has to go easy on the ears. There is definitely a difference between the str8s and the gay crowd. I have been to both sides where Fashionista was thrown out and in a str8 club you can see the crowd literally stops dancing and stares at the DJ. Peer over the other crowd and you see the gay crowd stripping off their shirts and go wild with it, screaming into the vocals in the song in a fashion typical of anthems that they know and love.

Andrew taught me one of his styles of bringing people to the floor, giving them one heck of a ride and how to pull back a little without dropping the tempo too much that results in a see saw ride. I wanted to throw out Ne yo’s Because of you but he mumbled something like if I wanted to throw it out, the next track had to be …..

Yeah I couldn’t really hear him so I skipped that one.

Call me the protege. Call me anything you want. But you haven’t seen it all, till you’ve seen how the rainbow crowd parties. They’re a great lot and I’m proud to be one of them.

Had late dinner meet up with Irene, Melvin and Fion last night cause everyone was busy with work and all. They are all my poly school mates and wow it was very fun chatting bout the good ole days till today. Melvin and Irene are tying the knot next year, how cool is that! We all remember how we looked like 7 years ago. Me in my elephant jeans and all. Can you imagine that? hah hah.

Yes we are, all grown up now. But we all haven’t really changed and it was a very comforting thought that while everything else has, we are still pretty much the people we were. Awesome gathering. There are some photos that they managed to convince me to take. Gawd. They said it is some act cute girl poses from some asian country and hello, I would never usually do all that man. But what the heck.

We went to Excelsior hotel’s Awon Korean BBQ restaurant. For an ala carte buffet of selected meat and veges, we paid $90 for 4 people. Relatively okay price I felt. I was certainly VERY impressed with the service. It is not an ‘atas’ restaurant but the attention to detail, willing to accomodate to requests.. from the lady boss all the way to the indian helper, they were all very nice! I would put a recommendation for this, knowing that you and your guests will not be pissed with the service level.

The Korean BBQ is this pot where you pour the soup in and put in all the veggies for simmering. The meat goes on top and because they use a rather fatty cut of meat and it is already ‘oiled’, no further oiling is needed. Interesting. I love the side dishes comprising of kim chee, ikan bilis and tofo. Very nice! Everything is free flow by the way. Especially when we walked in, all 4 of us and they gave us a private room somehow. Wow. I am pleased.

So next time you are in the vicinity and a tad hungry, do try Awon out. It has my stamp of approval.

Ceddy called midway and asked if I wanted to go to play. CB! But since everyone was going, I went ahead too. What eventually happened was I ended up the guest music director alongside with DJ Andrew Tang. We decided to do a handbag night that night and threw in both old and new handbags. We kept it frenly for a friday since it wasn’t a handbag night actually so we kept tracks with great house beats without going too housey and kept to tracks with good harmonics. Threw out the anthem ‘red blooded woman’, DJ Charlesming signature track (that’s me) which is the tribal version of do you wanna dance, ride it and hurt (for my dear), destination unknown (for ben, and because of you i couldn’t do fashionista. grrr.. but i know he will call me lousy all year if I didn’t get what he wanted geez), as well as older tracks like sorry and push the button. The thing about being at the forefront is that you do have the tracks, but which remix to play and when? DJ Andrew has his own style and choice of remixes and we decided to do things a little more differently. We pulled the crowd onto the floor with tracks like since you been gone, and worked them further with madonna’s jump as a mainset instead of an early set. I also had a more intimate lesson on club culture and mixing from andrew. What is done in a club is very different done in a production studio and is something I lack compared to andrew who has been at the helm of things for over 10 years now. He does always look very serious when he works, that is just him. Can you imagine Andrew dancing? wahhaa sorry I can’t. But he doesn’t belong to the dance floor either.

For some reason, the lighting guy is not around so it doesn’t make much sense to throw out songs that are brought alive through good lighting. I am not training in lights so couldn’t help. It was just the smoke machine and lights on automation the whole night. I asked Andrew if there was a show going on and he said yeah, the 3 macho marys dancing loh. LOL. One of them is really huge, almost wrestler like but sorry la I still feel they are ugly and their bod suck. At least for those 3 who started stripping their shirts by 2345hrs.

At 3am all of us were done and out and I noticed just next to club Play ,there is this very cool looking joint called tuck shop. It looks VERY nice from the outside. Very ‘my type’. Play also does martini nights on tuesday with their signature martinis and house pours, and with a purchase you get complimentary bite sized steak sandwiches from Tuckshop. Excellent idea. Juicy bite sized steak sandwiches topped with sauteed onions and portobello mushrooms… can you hear my tummy growl now?

The email that PM Lee’s son allegedly sent.. we haven’t quite hear his side of the story so it is only fair that we see what it is all about rather than forming conclusions over what the press said and what MINDEF did.

From: 2LT Li Hongyi, _____ PC, _____
Sent: Thursday, 28 June 2007 9:36 AM

To: ___ ____ ____, Minister, MHQ; MG ______ ____, CDF, CDF Office; BG -___ ____ ____, COA,
COAOFF; COL _______, CSO, _______; zz All in ____, _________

Cc: zz All in ________, _____; zz ALL IN ____, _____; zz All in _____, _____; zz All in ______, ______

Subject: A complaint about the quality control of SAF officers

Dear Sirs and alI,

I am about to disrupt my national service to pursue further studies, and this will likely be my last email sent out for the next half a decade. Unlike the common “ORD letters” that you read, this letter unfortunately cannot be as cheerful. I am using this last opportunity to issue a letter of complaint against the quality control of officers in the SAF, more specifically against LTA X. During my time as his subordinate, LTA X was AWOL on at least 2 counts, attempted bribery, and lied to his subordinates and his superior officer. The battalion HQ has effectively given no punishment, and has not even made these infractions known to the rest of the battalion.

Let me first give you some background. I am the ____ ____ platoon commander from __________. In order to maintain operational readiness my duties are performed at _____ camp where our ops bus and servers are instead of at stagmont camp where our battalion is. The company is structured like so

OC
|
Centre Head
|
PC

The duties are therefore shared between the PC’s, PS’, and the Centre Head. LTA X is the centre head of the __________.

LTA X, was originally supposed to be on duty at _____ Camp as the duty commander for the _______ on the 20th and 22nd of April, a Friday and Sunday respectively. I was on duty on the 21st of April that Saturday, to minimize the changing over, I contacted him and asked if he would like to swap duties for the Saturday and Sunday. To this he agreed, and thus he was to be on duty on the 20th and 21st of April.

On the Friday however, LTA X called to inform me that he was busy during the day, and if I could cover for him until the evening. To this I agreed to do so. At about 1600 hours, I received a call from LTA X, informing me that he was on the way and that I could leave first, thought this would result in a time where there would be no duty commander in camp, he informed me that this had already be cleared with our OC. I therefore left camp.

On Sunday the 22nd of April I arrived back in camp to take over duty from LTA X. After he had left camp the men informed me that he had not arrived in camp on Friday at all, and that he only arrived in camp at 1800 hours on Saturday the 21st of April. On Saturday they had tried to contact him to ask his whereabouts, to which he told them that he was in fact in _____ in ______ camp getting some work done. The men contacted their counterparts in ______ camp to verify this, however no one in______ camp had seen LTA X. 1 further confirmed with the ______ duty personnel on Saturday that none of them had seen LTA X, this was also with confirmed with that day’s BDO.

On Wednesday after I had completed my personal investigation and confirmed that these events had indeed transpired, I informed our OC of these offences. Our OC spoke to LTA X regarding these issues, and let him off with a warning.

On Monday the 20th of April when I arrived back in ______ Camp for work, I confirmed with both the guard commander and the duty officer for Saturday the 28th of April, that at white Mitsubishi lancer had indeed driven out of camp at about 0030 hours on the 29th of April. This latest information was told to our OC.

When confronted by our OC, LTA X told him that indeed it was his car driving out of camp, he claimed however, that it was not him driving the car but that he had lent it to friend to drive out of camp. After checking with the person in question this was established to be untrue. Finally, LTA X admitted that he had lied, and that is was he who had left camp.

I have been informed that LTA X was to be given 10 extra duties, though this may be considered an extremely light punishment there is a further problem. To date, which is to say, 2 months from the incidents, none of the duties have been published in the battalion RO, in addition, LTA X has not served any of the extra duties he was supposedly awarded. In addition, this system of leniency is not consistent throughout the battalion, or even the company. The following was published in the RO on 1 1th of June 2007:

SXXXXXXXX CPL _____ ________ Non-compliance with a lawful duty or order. stoppage of Leave for 7 days

This was the punishment for CPL ______ for leaving camp an hour before he was supposed to. This was published less than a week after his infringement. If you were to calculate the time AWOL alone, LTA X was missing for a minimum of over 20 hours. This does not take into the account the fact that he repeated the crime less than a week after being reprimanded the first time. This does not take into account the lying to his superior officer. This does not take into account the fact that he is an officer, and thus should be even more liable than corporal.

Absence without leave
22. -(1) Every person subject to military law who is absent without leave from service in the Singapore Armed Forces or from the place where he is lawfully required for the time being to be shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction by a subordinate military court to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 2 years or any less punishment authorised by this Act.
(2) It shall be a defence for any person charged under this section to prove that his absence was a result of circumstances over which he had no control.

This is where the report ends and the editorial begins. LTA X’s continued service in the SAF is an embarrassment the entire officer corps. In the SAF we are constantly being told that we have very high standards expected from our officers. As an officer cadet any one of these actions would have you put immediately out of course. Here you have a person who lied to his subordinates, went AWOL, attempted to bribe a civil servant, went AWOL again not even a week after being reprimanded, then lied to cover himself, and tried to implicate another person in these lies. He discarded his second chance just days after being given it because he thought he could get away with it. I how ask you what exactly are these high standard that we speak of? I am realistically asking you how much worse than this can an officer really go? Does a person have to commit armed robbery or murder before he fails these supposedly “high” standards of officers in the SAF? I simply fail to understand how someone who would undeniably fail the standards expected of a cadet or even a private can continue to be an officer.

The decisions of the battalion HQ are equally saddening. How can a lower standard of discipline be expected of officers than of men? In the our society, when a police officer commits a crime he is held to an even higher standard, and given even greater punishment than a normal citizen, this is because he has betrayed the very values it is his duty to uphold.

I was told that one of the reasons this was so was that they did not wish to ruin his career with a summary trial. However the SAF is not a charity organisation and does not owe anyone a career. I feel that as a regular his status as an officer and his career should be under even closer scrutiny than that of an NSF, to intentionally withhold such information is effectively tricking the SAF into continuing to pay someone whom if all is known, has no place in the organisation.

Even if you attribute the lack of punishment to extreme leniency, the decision to not inform the battalion is even more suspicious. Especially in a _____ unit such as _________ where the importance of being on duty cannot be over emphasized, to not even inform the battalion of the occurrence is to send a signal that there is nothing wrong with his actions. If it was unintentional it shows gross negligence for something which is clearly an important matter, and if intentional shows a level of corruption that I need not elaborate on.

While some might say this is just a small matter, a story of a single bad officer, the fact that it was not dealt with more severely is indicative of a bigger problem. It shows the lack of quality control being practiced for the leaders of the SAF. The following quote was taken from the army’s own intranet homepage:

“In the 3rd Generation SAF, the quality and commitment of our people will continue to be the most important determinant for advancement” – Member of Parliament Ms Indranee Rajah

We can take criticism about having second hand equipment, outdated training methods, and even questionable relevance to modern day operations. But one thing that cannot be tolerated is a reputation for having bad leaders. Such a reputation would compromise Singapore’s defence credibility far more than using refurbished tanks or old training manuals.

While I may only be a 2nd lieutenant, I am a citizen of this country. And as a citizen I have the right to demand high standards from the leaders of the SAF While it is true that high standards are hard to come by and even harder to enforce, for such events to come to light and yet nothing be done about it is to say the very least, unacceptable and disappointing.

Yours Sincerely,
2LT Li Hongyi -
___________ Commander

I received these in emails and they are about 2 racial related true stories apparently.

TWO TRUE STORIES ABOUT RACISM

1) I’m sure many of you watched the recent taping of the Oprah Winfrey

Show where her guest was Tommy Hilfiger. On the show, she asked him if
the statements about race he was accused of saying were true.
Statements like”…”If I’d known African-Americans, Hispanics, Jewish
and Asians would buy my clothes, I WOULD NOT have made them so nice. I
wish these people would *NOT* buy my clothes, as they are made for upper
class white people.”

His answer to Oprah was a simple “YES”.
Where after she immediately asked him to leave her show.

His clothes are nice? Is he BLIND? Ooppss… shouldn’t have said that. Sorry for insulting the blind…

2) Scene took place on a British Airways flight between Johannesburg and
London.

A White woman, about 50 years old, was seated next to a black man.
Obviously disturbed by this, she called the air Hostess. “Madam, what is
the matter,” the hostess asked. “You obviously do not see it then?” she
responded. “You placed me next to a black man. I do not agree to sit next
to someone from such a repugnant group. Give me an alternative seat.”
“Be calm please,” the hostess replied. “Almost all the places on this
Flight is taken.

I will go to see if another place is available.” The Hostess went away and
then came back a few minutes later. “Madam, Just as I thought, there are
no other available seats in the economy class. I spoke to the captain and
he informed me that there is a seat in the business class. All the same,
we still have one place in the first class.” Before the woman
could say anything, the hostess continued: “It is not Usual for our
company to permit someone from the economy class to sit in the first
class. However, given the circumstances, the captain feels that it would be
scandalous to make someone sit next to someone so disgusting.” She turned
to the black guy, and said, “Therefore, Sir, if you would like to, please
collect your hand luggage, a seat awaits you in first class.”
At that moment, the other passengers who were shocked by what they had
just witnessed stood up and applauded.

Some interesting-sounding movies coming up.. the chipmunks movie, resident evil 4, saw 4, and in 2008.. street fighter the movie. wow. I hear the story surrounds chun li. I don’t know what is their intention from bringing back something that is almost 20 years old and the makers of street fighter hasn’t come up with something in a long time. What is their objective in this? It remains to be seen..

My dear blogged bout bus trips and I added my comment about it. It was so long, I decided to copy paste it here as an entry too aha!

“
more drama in the papers.mother with pram and baby boards the bus. driver says it is a new rule that prams must be folded. she cant cuz she has 2 hands only with 1 pram 1 baby and a mountain of things to carry. driver confirmed the rule with hq over the phone loudspeaker, and he refused to move the bus. told the other passengers to get off and wait for the next bus.wtf. is there a safety hazard? if not, and if i were on the bus, i will DEMAND an explanation from the company. maybe it is not the driver’s fault. maybe it is the company that passed the rule, hence they r answerable. if the driver is the unreasonable one, the company is STILL answerable.

i have given up on taking cabs after clubbing. decided it is no point joining in the discussion bout taxis in the ST forum. i will just avoid being out at 4am as much as possible. i thought many yrs ago they had this project with a navigation system that points where passengers are.

customers are saying there are no taxis. taxi drivers are complaining during peak hour, there r NO customers. YES!

ok granted people start looking for cabs at 8pm onwards after surcharges, try coming to my office building from 4pm till next morning. you see no empty cabs. other than those on call. demand is not met with supply.

solution? scrape surcharges, including ad hoc bookings. charge for bookings that are due in more than 15 mins (advanced booking). increase boarding fare. To balance out demand, and to compensate for getting a cab to where customers are. meet demand with supply for once please, thank you.

for now, i quit clubbing. not cause of music of anything, but becuz there are no cabs home. and i refuse to walk for miles to find a cab. i might as well walk home!
“