A lot of my peers and Singaporeans do not understand the idea of a minimum wage scheme and they sing the same tunes as what our PAP gahment in Singapore. That this idea is just another dirty welfare scheme. Really WTF response.
First of all, understand what a minimum wage is by reading here. It's a more balanced explanation of this scheme and my emphasis is that schemes and policies can be tweaked.
From my perspective. It's good for Singapore as most of our low paying workers are actually underpaid and there are no growth in their income since the last 2 decades. The main reason is that all the major corporations and companies are taking up the profit (being monopolistic) instead of correctly distributing the profit to their employees. Most of these low skilled workers are in the construction business, service line such as restaraunts and retail shops. These people need a mechanism to protect them. As shown in the link above on the Card and Kreuger's investigation on increasing the minimum wage in New Jersey in 1992
Our gahment can actually set aside certain industries to have such a scheme. Please don't tell me they can't do it. If they can so effectively stream kids in their Primary or Secondary schools. Then it can be done easily. The main issue here is they kept arguing that its difficult to set the amount of a minimum wage. Because as market forces convenes and price might go up and down. The wage should follow market rate and such constant changes means that today I set $5.00. 1 or 2 months later it will be not enough or it will be too much. So it's meaningless to do it.
Utter bullshit. The main reason to set a minimum price is just to set a baseline to protect these low wage and low skilled workers. You need work to survive in SG. You will work even if its underpaid like what we have now. These corporations just squeeze these poor people out by setting their own "market rate" Company A will say we will pay $2 an hour and ask B and C to follow. The rest of these companies will follow suit as I get to earn more and keep my labour cost low.
Think about it in this way. If you start a business, you need to consider the minimum profit you want to earn right? Why? The labour and effort that you put into it lor. So what's so different is this from the minimum wage? So stop saying its useless or will not work. It's bullshit and our gahment will never implement this as the one that will hurt the most if it's being implemented will actually be our bloody Gahment related Stat board corporation and even our own bloody gahment.
The fallacy of idolisation
This post is written on the recent 90th big birthday of our so called "founding father" Mr LKY himself. Pages and pages of people congratulating him and denouncing him on the Internet and social medias. Most of them are just ball-licking idolisation of a "man". My emphasis on that later.
I had an interesting discussion with a friend and he was raving about how great that old man is and whatsover. "No matter what he did, bad or good. He did sucessfully managed our country!" my friend argued. "And look at your Switzerland, Norway of those Denmark countries that are sucessful! Name me a great leader from that country! None right?"
Now here's the fallacy. Do they have great leaders? I would say so but I can't name them because these great leaders chose not to be named and remembered. They work from within and never took credits all to themselves. And these leaders actually help shaped the future generations within the country to be responsible for their very actions they are going to take. Be it politically or socially. I think they do know that idolisation of someone will only leads to a very concerning issues. Instead of "telling" people what to do. These good leaders will lead and convinced people to why and what should be done. And in the end, all will be responsible for their actions and consequences.
Now back to idolisation of a "man". Human beings are not perfect. None and period. There's nothing wrong in looking up to someone that you like but overdoing it and we get to see something very similar. Look at Hitler, Mussolini. Look at Mao Ze Dong, Deng Xiao Ping. Even look at our old man LKY now. Their intentions are always initially good but once success gets into their head and ball-lickers assholes starts surrounding them. Some of these assholes jokers will use the status of this new idolisation for their own personal agenda and purposes.
So herein lies a great question and my answer to it all; Is our LKY a great leader? No, he's not. He is to me, a successful one but can never be great. Simply becuase when he's in power and he never exercised his choice to educate and give credits due.
And the sad fact is that all great leaders are normally unkown to most. As these people never take credits at all. We will only remembered them via their actions and the nations they were in . Great nations like Switzerland, Denmark and etc.
I had an interesting discussion with a friend and he was raving about how great that old man is and whatsover. "No matter what he did, bad or good. He did sucessfully managed our country!" my friend argued. "And look at your Switzerland, Norway of those Denmark countries that are sucessful! Name me a great leader from that country! None right?"
Now here's the fallacy. Do they have great leaders? I would say so but I can't name them because these great leaders chose not to be named and remembered. They work from within and never took credits all to themselves. And these leaders actually help shaped the future generations within the country to be responsible for their very actions they are going to take. Be it politically or socially. I think they do know that idolisation of someone will only leads to a very concerning issues. Instead of "telling" people what to do. These good leaders will lead and convinced people to why and what should be done. And in the end, all will be responsible for their actions and consequences.
Now back to idolisation of a "man". Human beings are not perfect. None and period. There's nothing wrong in looking up to someone that you like but overdoing it and we get to see something very similar. Look at Hitler, Mussolini. Look at Mao Ze Dong, Deng Xiao Ping. Even look at our old man LKY now. Their intentions are always initially good but once success gets into their head and ball-lickers assholes starts surrounding them. Some of these assholes jokers will use the status of this new idolisation for their own personal agenda and purposes.
So herein lies a great question and my answer to it all; Is our LKY a great leader? No, he's not. He is to me, a successful one but can never be great. Simply becuase when he's in power and he never exercised his choice to educate and give credits due.
And the sad fact is that all great leaders are normally unkown to most. As these people never take credits at all. We will only remembered them via their actions and the nations they were in . Great nations like Switzerland, Denmark and etc.
A short trip back memory lanes in KL, Malaysia
I was planning for a short trip back to KL ever since I had quit my job in Singapore. The chance came when I called an old colleague of mine on Sunday and he mentioned he was going back KL on Monday night. He was flying back and the price of the tickets for Airasia is actually quite affordable, only $84 SGD for a round trip flight.
I took the opportunity as I was bored and my mum and sis are curr
ently not in SG anyway. It was a short trip. 2 days and 2 nights. I had no exact plans in KL so I just followed my friend's itinery. He will be flying to HK on Thursday morning so I will be travelling back to SG alone on Wedsnesday night.
We reached on Monday night, met up with his friends whom I also knew and had supper before we crashed at my friend's place (as usual).
The next morning, his mom needs to visit her uncle in Kampar (金寳）in the afternoon and so I tagged along for the ride. We ran some errands of his before we set off in the late afternoon. It was an hour and a half drive to Kampar which was near to Ipoh. While her mom was chatting with her relatives. We took a short walk along the village and took some photos. Later, we drove out with the relatives to have some claypot chicken rice at the main streets of Kampar. Food was great and after sending her mum back to their shophouse. We went to his friend's kopitiam to RnR.
On Wednesday morning. We went back to his parent's restaurant to pick up his father to go to the market to do some shopping for the day's business. It was an old school wetmarket like we used to have in Singapore. I was trigger happy all the way while they were shopping for fish and other groceries. After the morning rush and sending his father back to the shop. We set off to Petaling Jaya to have lunch and a short walk. Nothing much has changed but I do see more foreigners and Indian labourers more than Chinese in Petaling Jaya. Seems like Chinatown in KL no longer looks like a Chinatown to me.
We were supposed to have beef noodle over there but we settled for another stall as the one we were hunting for was closed on Wednesday. Damn... After out lunch we drove to Times square at Bukit Bintang for a short walk before hitting out to KL Sentral. We seperated from here. I took the skybus back to LCCT KLIA and flew back last night.
I would say so far, this is the most unplanned overseas trip of my entire life. That's not counting the business trip I used to have in KL. I enjoyed it actually. The uncertainty and the relax way of not planning anything before heading out to an unknown location. Well, I do know KL quite well. The Kampar road trip is still the hightlight of the trip though :)
And here's the photo series of the entire trip.
I took the opportunity as I was bored and my mum and sis are currently not in SG anyway. It was a short trip. 2 days and 2 nights. I had no exact plans in KL so I just followed my friend's itinery. He will be flying to HK on Thursday morning so I will be travelling back to SG alone on Wedsnesday night.
We reached on Monday night, met up with his friends whom I also knew and had supper before we crashed at my friend's place (as usual).
The next morning, his mom needs to visit her uncle in Kampar (金寳）in the afternoon and so I tagged along for the ride. We ran some errands of his before we set off in the late afternoon. It was an hour and a half drive to Kampar which was near to Ipoh. While her mom was chatting with her relatives. We took a short walk along the village and took some photos. Later, we drove out with the relatives to have some claypot chicken rice at the main streets of Kampar. Food was great and after sending her mum back to their shophouse. We went to his friend's kopitiam to RnR.
On Wednesday morning. We went back to his parent's restaurant to pick up his father to go to the market to do some shopping for the day's business. It was an old school wetmarket like we used to have in Singapore. I was trigger happy all the way while they were shopping for fish and other groceries. After the morning rush and sending his father back to the shop. We set off to Petaling Jaya to have lunch and a short walk. Nothing much has changed but I do see more foreigners and Indian labourers more than Chinese in Petaling Jaya. Seems like Chinatown in KL no longer looks like a Chinatown to me.
We were supposed to have beef noodle over there but we settled for another stall as the one we were hunting for was closed on Wednesday. Damn... After out lunch we drove to Times square at Bukit Bintang for a short walk before hitting out to KL Sentral. We seperated from here. I took the skybus back to LCCT KLIA and flew back last night.
I would say so far, this is the most unplanned overseas trip of my entire life. That's not counting the business trip I used to have in KL. I enjoyed it actually. The uncertainty and the relax way of not planning anything before heading out to an unknown location. Well, I do know KL quite well. The Kampar road trip is still the hightlight of the trip though :)
And here's the photo series of the entire trip.
Back in Singapore and shopping therapy
I was back in Singapore since 2nd of Sep. A bit earlier then expected as I need to collect my taxi license from LTA. It was ready for collection actually in July and the letter they sent actually gave my sister a big scared as they mentioned they will terminate my VL if I do not collect within 1 month of notice. I called LTA hotline mentioned in the letter to inform them that I was in Thailand and they gladly took a note and asked for an exact date on when I could collect in Sep. I picked the 3rd for no apparent reasons (a bit regretted on picking such an early date) and viola. Back in SG just to collect that license. I still have reservist at the end of the month so I won't be back to LOS till October.
After collecting my license. I met up with some old pals and went on a shopping spree... Not camera this time but inkjet photo papers and that bloody ink catridges for my Pro 100. Its expensive in Thailand and I'm surprised that it's hard to find in Singapore too. Only a few shops carries that ink in SG. Challenger superstore is one of them. Paper selection is even scarce...
In the end, I settled via online shopping. Bought a set of ink and papers from Bhphoto. Shipping was damn fast. I ordered on the 3rd and it arrived on the 6th.
While sourcing for the papers and ink catridges at Funan Digital Mall. I saw a great offer on a 4 bay Synology NAS. Model 413 and I bought 1. Damn... NAS is getting cheaper nowadays. I got my 2 bays in 07 and it costs almost the same (I think I paid more for my 2 bay). I also got a Seagate 4TB NAS HDD later at SLS to test the new unit. Tested it and wow, it runs more silent and cooler than my current 2 bay in Thailand. Yup. All these new toys will be shipped back to Thailand with me in Oct... I plan to migrate the 2 HDD on my old 2 bay to the new one. So I will have total of 8TB of space. Still got room for 1 more HDD. The old 2 bay unit I think I might sell it cheaply to someone in SG. It's a great NAS for downloading stuff actually as it has a built in torrent client on it :P
Won't be getting any cameras or film this round... but that new Sony QX-100 do looks mightly interesting... hehehehehe.
What I have been up to.
So far the new iMac is gorgeous. I got the 21 inch version with i7 processor and a 256gb SSD. Damn its blazing fast. Booting it up only takes less than 5 secs :P. I left the memory at 8Gig as 16Gig is a bit overkill for me and the upgrade price is just plain ridiculous. I might upgrade it later if I really need to. The new 21 inch iMac is an upgrade nightmare. Need to tear out the adhesive on the display before I can get the guts. The printer Canon Pro 100 is just a dream come true for me. At last I can print A3+! Its not roll feed but I think its good enough for me. I chose the 100 becasue it uses the dye ink rather than the Pro 10 which uses the pigment based ink. Longevitiy might not be an issue to me as I prefer brighter photos and dye based prints are brighter. I still need to get better paper though. Its damn hard to source good paper in Thailand and so far I got it from the Canon online e-supply stores and still waiting for them to deliver. I bought some cheapskate photo paper from the local computer shops here and so far its pretty damn promising. I will write more about that printer once I get to print on some real papers.
I have been using my A900 recently for my family shots. Going back digital and not shooting a lot of landscapes on slides as its pouring over here. Ever since I got here (in June), it has been raining cats and dogs. There are occassionaly some sunny days but it will only last for half a day. Then the rain comes again. So those who are interested to come here to shoot some landscape of Nothern Thailand to remember. Avoid June to September when its the wet seasons.
I will be flying back to Singpaore again in early Septemper. Need to serve my National Service and might stay a bit longer in Singapore to settle some personal stuff. Gotto go.. Need to print more stuff on my new computer and printer :P
I need a new computer
Spoilt by my recent build in Singapore. My computer in Maesai is out-dated for almost more than a year. I'm currently planning to build a Hackintosh (PC loaded with OS X) but I'm not too sure if I can get the available parts for an easy build over here. There is Apple free delivery to my house if I buy an iMac online but I was wondering if I really need an extra display. I need to do more researching on this area.
I was with the kids and missus at Chiang Rai yesterday to catch Despicable Me 2. Not as good as the 1st one though. Kids loved the minons and their silly laughter and antics... There is an apple retail store in Central Chiang Rai and the pricing is the same as the online (as usual). The new iMac do looks pretty cool to my eyes. Especially the 27" version. But the bloody price... oooooo can get 2 PCs with better parts at the price point leh. But I also need to consider the time I would save in gathering all the parts and troubleshooting a Hackintosh. So its a bit tempting to just buy it of the shelves.
OR.. I could just get a PC and load it with Windows 7 anyway. :P TBC
Aside to the others who are bored about my purchases. Here's a short note on the kids.
Boy starting to be a little cry baby.. if things are not in his way he will start throwing tantrums.. Need to work on that area. Wifey's not helping as she doted him too much.
Girl starting to become joker like me liao... Example. That day went to fetch her from school in my car. I saw her and she saw my car and she waves for me to come. Drove up next to her and she just opened my front seat door and screamed to her friends surrounding her (including a friend's mother) in Thai "That's my Dad! He very fat hor? You all see? Fat right?"
Nearly fainted......
Taxi Uncle and Thai Visa (again)
Those who read my last post will know that I have been taking my Singapore Taxi License course. Well, it's good to say that I am officially passed my TVDL (Taxi Vocational Driving License) test yesterday. It's has been 2 years since my last test :P.
And I am quite proud to say I cleared it in 1 sitting. Only 5 out of 40 of us in the same course cleared it in 1 sitting :P. So yeah, I'm that good! hehehe
Well, new Taxi Uncle still needs to wait for LTA's letter of approval/collection before can officially go sign up with a Taxi company and actually this is just my back up plan. I still need to sort out my late father's stuff so unless I really need the money, then I will have something to fall back on. Sorry to those friends who wanted and have offered me as a private driver but don't worry. If that day come, you will sure hear from me. hehe.
Anyway, 1st part is the TVDL. 2nd part is about the new changes to Visa application for Immigrant 'O' like me. Those who follow my blog will sure say : "What? Again?!" Yup. Last time I applied is the need to show your confirmed air ticket. This round, added a few more thingies. Your spouse's Tabian Ban, IC and passport needs to be signed by her/him. And your spouse need to write a letter indicating the reason why you need the multiple entry visa.... Duh...
So those applying do take note. Checklist of documents required for O visa
1) Recent photo
2) Completed form with signature
3) Recent bank statement with over 400k baht equivalent (endorsed by bank) or an ATM reciept indicating the amount in your bank.
4) Copy of your confirmed air ticket or flight
5) Copy Marriage Certificate
6) Copy of your IC and Passport with your signature
7) Copy of your spouse's IC, Passport, Tabian Ban *with her signature
8) *Letter from your wife (According to the lady, can be a printed email)
*New requirements.
Anyway, thanks to the very nice lady (whom seems to know me already) helped me out in a big way. Let's just say the documents are all cleared and I should be collecting my visa tomorrow. Speaking of the embassy. The entrance has changed from the main road to the opposite side (the new main gate to the new building). I would say it's about time that they have an air-conditioned waiting room and at least more than 1 server for the long Q of visa applicants.
And I would like to offer my sincere thanks again to the lady serving me at the embassy who helped me in a big big way. You don't get such service definitely in Singapore context.....
And I am quite proud to say I cleared it in 1 sitting. Only 5 out of 40 of us in the same course cleared it in 1 sitting :P. So yeah, I'm that good! hehehe
Well, new Taxi Uncle still needs to wait for LTA's letter of approval/collection before can officially go sign up with a Taxi company and actually this is just my back up plan. I still need to sort out my late father's stuff so unless I really need the money, then I will have something to fall back on. Sorry to those friends who wanted and have offered me as a private driver but don't worry. If that day come, you will sure hear from me. hehe.
Anyway, 1st part is the TVDL. 2nd part is about the new changes to Visa application for Immigrant 'O' like me. Those who follow my blog will sure say : "What? Again?!" Yup. Last time I applied is the need to show your confirmed air ticket. This round, added a few more thingies. Your spouse's Tabian Ban, IC and passport needs to be signed by her/him. And your spouse need to write a letter indicating the reason why you need the multiple entry visa.... Duh...
So those applying do take note. Checklist of documents required for O visa
1) Recent photo
2) Completed form with signature
3) Recent bank statement with over 400k baht equivalent (endorsed by bank) or an ATM reciept indicating the amount in your bank.
4) Copy of your confirmed air ticket or flight
5) Copy Marriage Certificate
6) Copy of your IC and Passport with your signature
7) Copy of your spouse's IC, Passport, Tabian Ban *with her signature
8) *Letter from your wife (According to the lady, can be a printed email)
*New requirements.
Anyway, thanks to the very nice lady (whom seems to know me already) helped me out in a big way. Let's just say the documents are all cleared and I should be collecting my visa tomorrow. Speaking of the embassy. The entrance has changed from the main road to the opposite side (the new main gate to the new building). I would say it's about time that they have an air-conditioned waiting room and at least more than 1 server for the long Q of visa applicants.
And I would like to offer my sincere thanks again to the lady serving me at the embassy who helped me in a big big way. You don't get such service definitely in Singapore context.....
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