Comments, opinions and an occasional ramble
Archive for January, 2009
Why worry about setting a precedent to tap on reserves?
Jan 29th
It seems that there are some people who are quite concerned that the government is setting a precedent (and it seems to be a negative precedent) by signaling its intention of dipping into the reserves during this year’s Budget announcement. I don’t see what is there to worry about. Maybe a little story will illustrate my thoughts better.
Once upon a time, there lived a rich old man. He had a poor and difficult childhood but through a combination of persistence, hard work, shrewd actions and a dose good luck, he managed to build up a business empire and became a billionaire.
Even though he was extremely rich, he kept all his riches in bank vaults. He was so afraid that once he started spending his riches, he will not be able to stop. One day, he had a heart attack and died. As he looked down from the heavens, he realised that he had been a stupid man his entire life. Even though he had accumulated so much money, it is all sitting in the bank vaults and he can’t bring them along with him to heaven.
The moral of the story is that it is seriously stupid to hoard money for the sake of hoarding it. This doesn’t mean one should be a free-wheeling spender, though. Rather, if the situation calls for savings to be spent, then it should be spent. The number of zeroes in the bank account book is meaningless unless the money is actually used to do something.
I think the government is correct to signal that it’s prepared to use the reserves to help Singapore weather the storm if the need arises. This is not an issue of whether it’s a good precedent or bad precedent. It’s an issue of whether the money will be well-spent, and I think it is justifiable to tap on the reserves in a global recession if the need arises.
Not a budget Budget
Jan 23rd
The measures in Budget 2009 that was unveiled yesterday to help Singaporeans weather the global recession were pretty good. I think the government has gotten most things right with this Budget, although it’s a pretty expensive budget.
My top personal concerns in this recession are education and healthcare, and both have been addressed, at least this year. It might be curious to some that jobs didn’t make it to the top of my list of concerns but my perspective is that even in a recession, there are still jobs available and the question is whether people are willing to do these jobs, which are probably going to be contract or short term jobs with a lower salary.
This recession is not the end of the world; it’s an economic cycle. I believe what comes down will eventually go back up. Sure, it’s important to mitigate the pain during a recession but I think what’s more important is to prepare ourselves adequately so that we can ride the upswing quickly when it comes back. If people are losing jobs now, why not put them back in schools and gear them up to take advantage of the opportunities that will surely come by later on?
As for healthcare, I think it’s even more important than basic necessities. Even if you lose your job, you can apply for assistance to take care of food and other basic needs. There are many ways to stretch the dollar to pay for daily necessities. However, there’s no way to stretch the dollar for medical bills. Medical bills can be extremely expensive and people definitely need help during lean times, unless one is hard-hearted enough to let people who cannot afford to pay medical bills die.
And, I’ll have to applaud the Job Credit plan. The U.S. government wants to pay employers to hire workers and this can be easily exploited by firing and re-hiring workers. Paying companies to retain workers is a more sensible idea that’s less susceptible to exploitation. The cap at $2,500 means that those in the PMET category are going to be left out but hey, there’s always the option of going back to school. Of course, this might not be easy for someone with a family to feed and a mortgage to pay off but in lean times, I think all of us don’t have a choice and we have to find our own way to cope.
The defense budget has also increased quite substantially. Well, I’m not going to quibble about that because lean times in a rough neighbourhood isn’t exactly a good thing for us. I just hope the money will be well spent to secure our home.
Ultimately, this so called ‘Resilience Package’ isn’t going to get us out of the hole. What it is doing is to try to ensure that we survive as we wait out the storm. At the same time, we’re building our ships and getting ready to launch once the storm passes. It’s a pretty sensible approach and I hope this approach will continue until the storm is over.
And, I’m grateful the Singapore government isn’t meddling too much in the markets. The Finance Minister has made it clear that the government will only help sound firms ride through the crisis. For a good read on why the government should not meddle too much, the KTM has a great entry on the topic (which I only found out recently).
What does it mean to be a blogger?
Jan 22nd
I’ve been following cyberspace chatter about the newly minted Association of Bloggers Singapore (ABS) with great interest. The poor founding folks appears to be bashed left right up down centre by quite a few local bloggers. I think the negative responses to the organisation is not exactly opposition to the idea of an association but a case of differing assumptions of what it means to be a blogger.
To some people, blogs are like the internet version of a diary. These people view blogs as something personal and private (I think nothing on the internet is private, though) and therefore, there is no necessity for bloggers to get together to form an organization. If one holds such an assumption about blogs, forming a bloggers’ association is probably an idea as absurd as an association for people who pen paper diaries, although I contend that if there are enough people who are interested to do that, why not? As long as enough people want to come together to form an organization around a common interest, they should be allowed to without ridicule, regardless of how _______ (insert a negative adjective) the common interest might appear to others. I believe there is no absolute definition of what constitutes something as being a/an _______ (insert a negative adjective) notion.
For others, blogs are not private diaries but publications meant for public consumption. That being the case, it would make sense for people to want to come together to form an association. I have not had the chance to speak with the founding members of the ABS but from what I’ve read, the motivations for the association include self-regulation and possibly legal representation. Taken from this perspective, a bloggers’ association is not much different from a writers’ association. Self-regulation and legal representation are things that people who blog for public consumption would care about because of professionalism and litigation issues.
At the end of the day, at least for me, all the arguments primarily centre on the identity of a blogger. Is a blogger the online version of a person who writes a personal diary, or is a blogger no different from an author/journalist/columnist/writer who writes for public consumption? Depending on your assumption about what it means to be a blogger, you will either agree with or disagree with the need for having a bloggers’ association.
Personally, I think the association is a great idea per se, but somehow, the association has unfortunately started out on the wrong foot because of, again, assumptions. According to Eastcoastlife’s blog entry,
Singaporean bloggers were like loose sand, they were not united. They were easily manipulated and even banned for standing up against the foreign tyrant from self-proclaimed ‘community meta weblog for Singapore bloggers’. Small bloggers are just too isolated to be able to fight for their rights.
I don’t think anyone can say with confidence that the blogosphere is a homogenous entity. As an example, I am a very different type of blogger compared to Xiaxue or even Eastcoastlife herself. Bloggers are not homogenous grains of sand. I think bloggers are more like different types of fruits or species of animals. Also, it seems to be that there’s an implied assumption that being ‘not united’ is undesirable and the association is meant to ‘unite’ bloggers. I have to take issue with this implied assumption as well. The parts about being manipulated for standing up against ‘the foreign tyrant’ is frankly too much of a stretch. Finally, who constitutes a ‘small blogger’ and how do we know if these ‘small bloggers’ are ‘too isolated’ to fight for their rights? There is a whole boatload of assumptions about Singaporean bloggers and the blogosphere that are, in all honesty, unsubstantiated.
I think the ABS cannot (and for that matter, will never) be able to speak on behalf of the entire local blogging community. The most the ABS can be is an authority on issues related to blogging in Singapore but it cannot be a representative, unless each and every Singaporean blogger is willing to be a member. Bloggers are not medical doctors or lawyers. You don’t need a license to blog. Therefore, the ABS cannot function like the Singapore Medical Association or the Law Society.
So, what can the ABS do? In my opinion, ABS can perhaps to come up with a code of ethics or conduct to promote responsible blogging. Of course, the idea of what constitutes responsible blogging is a contentious one but I’m not going to go there. I think if the ABS eventually gets enough members, they can take the lead in advancing greater civility (I think the world can always do with more civility) and freedom of expression in the online space. The ABS is in a good position to take the lead in encouraging responsible blogging, starting with its own members.
Also, I do hope for the ABS to consider tiered membership with a tier not requiring membership fees. The reality is that not everyone can pay for membership, and if the ABS wants to be an authoritative voice in the local blogosphere, it needs clout and high membership fees will make the ABS an exclusive club with little teeth. At the very least, the ABS should have at least two types of memberships, namely ordinary and associate. Associate membership can be free of charge but of course, being free means that certain rights will have to be withdrawn, especially the right to vote.
It’s been a long while since I’ve typed such a long entry and I think I’m going to stop here. I think the idea of a bloggers’ association isn’t necessarily a bad one but I think there’s a bitter taste in the mouth now because of the way the association has pitched itself and how different people are having different assumptions about the identity of a blogger and the role of the association. I would give the association some time to develop before I decide whether it’s something that gets my stamp of approval but right now, to those who are quick to criticise the ABS, please hold your horses and don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater.
Singapore, Boston and NYC public trains matchup
Jan 20th
For almost all of my travel in the United States last month, I was mainly using public transport (that’s because I was mainly in cities). I had the opportunity to ride the New York subway, operated by the Metropolitan Transport Authority (MTA) and the Boston T, operated by the Massachusetts Bay Transport Authority (MBTA). So, how does the train system stack up when compared to Singapore’s SMRT and SBS Transit?
For starters, let’s deal with the most sensitive topic of price. Both the MTA and the MBTA operate on a single fare system. It doesn’t matter how many stops you ride; the price is the same. The New York subway’s ride is USD$2 per trip using the Metrocard, while the Boston T ride is USD$1.70 per ride using the Charlie card (it’s 2 bucks if you pay cash). There are pros and cons of a single fare system. I think the biggest advantage is that you always know how much you are going to pay if you choose to take the train. The bad thing is that if you are riding only for a couple of stops, it can feel like a rip-off.
However, the good thing is that both the New York subway and the Boston T offers the unlimited ride option. For a certain price every month, you can take as many rides as you wish on the train. That will take the pain off having to pay a fixed fare for only a few stops for the frequent rider. The MTA charges USD$81 for the monthly pass, while the MBTA charges USD$59. In Singapore, you get only unlimited rides if you are a student or a full time NSman. It would be nice to have an unlimited pass in Singapore but I suspect that will result in adding an extra sardine into a can already full of sardines, especially during peak hours.
Singapore wins hands down on the cleanliness and general comfort in the trains. The trains in Singapore are extremely spacious and clean compared to both the New York subway and the Boston T. Even the design of the train station is superior. In New York and Boston, for many stations, you better make sure you know which direction you are heading and enter the fare gantries on the correct side because you cannot get to the other side once you are past the fare gantry (unless you have a death wish and decide to try your luck running across the track).
However, in terms of design, there’s something about the New York subway that stands out, and that is the availability of express trains. These trains run on different tracks and they don’t stop at every stop. This means if you are traveling long distances, you can hop on an express train and get off at the nearest express train stop to your destination to hop onto a regular train. This is a real time saver that I wish the Singapore train system has. I’m sure more people will be keen to take the MRT if there’s an express train service to cut traveling time by up to 50%. Unfortunately, I don’t think this is possible because of the way the train tracks are laid out in Singapore.
Overall, despite its faults, I would rate Singapore’s train system above that of New York and Boston. Although we don’t have the unlimited fare option, I think the general cleanliness and spacious design of our trains more than make up for it. But, don’t take my word for it. If you get the chance, go try out the New York subway and the Boston T.
Singaporeans: A curious breed to many
Jan 13th
I just landed in Singapore less than 6 hours ago, and I might be having jet lag, so this explains why I’m here writing a quick entry.
My month-long stay in America was a pretty great one. I stayed mainly on the East coast, though. I’ll need to make another trip to explore the West coast. I shall not bore anyone with detailed descriptions of what I did day to day, but what I did find interesting is that a number of Americans I spoke to expressed surprise at my level of command of English (I had the same experience a few years back in England). Interestingly, I’ve spoken to some folks from China before, and I remember them remarking that I speak Mandarin pretty well too (I must admit that my command of Mandarin pales greatly compared to English).
Of course, my experiences are anecdotal evidence but it seems to me that Singaporeans seem to be somewhat of a curious breed or even mysterious breed to people who have not had the chance to interact with a Singaporean. To Americans and the British, the assumption is that because I look Chinese, expectations of my English language ability drop a few notches. To Chinese folks from China, because I’m an overseas Chinese, expectations of my Mandarin language ability drop a few notches too.
I don’t know whether this is a good or bad thing, but I always find the phenomenon interesting. And I am quite thankful for being in an education system that encourage bilingualism, although I have to add the caveat that it is not easy to handle two languages. Somehow, one will always seem to be dominant and this creates confusion at times. I have a tendency to think in English most of the time and I sometimes end up speaking Mandarin using English sentence structure. 
And of course, I’ve encountered some people who asked if Singapore is in China. 
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