Welcome to my world. Hold on tight. It's going to be a bumpy ride.
Monday, 15 April 2013
Akan datang topics - any preferences?
Hi all, as I've been away for a week, there are several topics that I wanted to cover and I thought I'd list them out there - if there are any other topics you'll like me to write about please let me know. I don't know how far down this list I will get but I will try my best okay? Here are some ideas from current affairs.
My reaction to the death of Margaret Thatcher
My reaction to the new British Class system test
Pulau Ubin's future
Singapore vs Liechtenstein: Small is beautiful
Dwapui vs Chaotah - two guys I met whilst skiing in Austria
Let me know what you think.
"Ding dong the witch is dead" reached no. 2 in the UK charts this week
The first topic sounds like an interesting one, especially since I have heard of rather critical and unsympathetic remarks about her, such as that she lauded Lee Kuan Yew for his stand against unions in Singapore(obviously, there are none except that silly farce of NTUC which is a government organization).
From the pix you posted, I guess you are going to make a post about Margaret Thatcher. I'm a frog in a well, can I hear your views of Ubin and the comparison of Singapore with Liechtenstein? Dwapui vs Chaotah, is it a LGBT issue or they are interesting dudes? If they are interesting dudes, I like to hear their story on another day. Paiseh, a bit demanding and very greedy hor? Btw, love your blog.
Hi all, I am probably going to go with WD's suggestion of comparing LKY with Thatcher, after all, that's not done before. A lot has been said about P Ubin lah, so I am not sure if I have anything that new to add to it. And yes, Liechtenstein is an interesting country for it is tiny at 160 km2 (less than a quarter of the size of Singapore) and it is still exceedingly rich. For some reason, because it is a principality (like Monaco) rather than a sovereign state (like Singapore) - it is often excluded when countries are compared for their GDP per capita but I've dug up the statistics and goodness me, they are WAAAAY ahead of Singapore. This is a fact that Singaporeans conveniently forget - in the case of Monaco, it is just a bunch of tax-exiles in a millionaires' playground where no real wealth is generated locally, but for Liechtenstein, the wealth is indeed generated locally with the financial services sector contributing only a small portion of the economy.
The population of the country is barely 36000 and that makes it the 56th most densely populated territory in the world behind countries like the UK, Belgium and ranked right next to Germany at 57th. The point is, it isn't densely populated like Macau, Hong Kong, Singapore or Monaco. In fact, there are plenty of farmland, forests, lakes and mountains. I will definitely do a piece to show how there is an alternative route to become a super rich tiny state.
Nah, Dwapui & Chaotah are both straight lah - I was being rather mean as Dwapui seems to be a bit of a loser: he is very fat, bad at sports, not good looking and doesn't have a good job whilst Chaotah is the opposite - sports, good looking, good job etc. They're both 24 and I was just thinking, they are on holidays together because they are childhood friends - so why does one kid turn out so good and the other so bad? All parents would want their child to turn out to be more like Chaotah and not like Dwapui ... so what makes the difference? Maybe it's me being terribly bitchy - I need to think about this one.
I am looking forward to reading both your posts on "comparing LKY with Thatcher" and "Liechtenstein - an alternative route to become a super rich tiny state". Cheers!
I just read something about Liechtenstein from Yahoo! Finance Canada. http://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/wealthy-canadians-come-clean-assets-tax-haven-lists-170007825.html
"The Canada Revenue Agency has seen the number of voluntary disclosures of foreign, unreported income rise dramatically since 2007, when it received the first such list from Liechtenstein naming 106 Canadians with accounts in secretive banks there." -- Yahoo! Finance
So I guess part of Liechtenstein's economy is similar to Singapore's.
I have started writing a piece about Thatcher vs LKY last night and I need a bit of time to work on it. But that's the next article.
I am also definitely going to write something on Liechtenstein - but Liechtenstein's economy is still different from Singapore is many ways. For instance, there is a respectable agriculture sector (mostly wine) and it is the world's biggest producer of false teeth and sausage casings. Not bad for a tiny country - there isn't an over reliance on banking either, only about 33% of the economy is dependent on finance. Unlike the oil rich states in the middle east, they have virtually no natural resources and like Singapore, they did manage to create the wealth almost entirely based on the service industry (banking & high end industrial manufacturing).
Their secret to their success is to simply go high end = wine, not grapes. Banking for super rich tax exiles, not ordinary folk.
The only difference is that there is no desire at all to increase the population by artificially importing foreigners. They could but they don't. There are plenty of high end expats ('foreign talent') working say in the banking sector as well as in the service industry. For example, when I went into the gift shop, the manager greeted me in English then grabbed the Mandarin Chinese-speaking shop girl to come and serve me in Mandarin - and just to play the fool, I spoke only Hokkien (then switched to French, then she went to grab her manager who then sent the French speaking shop assistant over - all that for a post card, LOL.
But get this - the buses for example, are all driven by locals and the bus service is excellent and runs on time. It isn't as cheap as in Singapore but they are not over crowded, they are efficient and reliable and they all speak at least German and English. Could they get say, cheaper Russian or Ukrainians to drive their buses? Of course they could - but they don't. Such is the stark difference between SG and LI. OK gotta get back to work - more on both topics soon, aaargh, the work emails are piling up!
Hi limpeh! Mmm i know this is very random but pls do read though :) I am korean male student who has graduated from sg jc. and before my uni starts in Scotland,i plan to go back to korea for around 2 months. i was wondering if you wanna go for a short trip to korea, caz it will be nice to have someone who has so much experience in travelling.
Anyonghaseyeo. Sorry, Mianhehamnida, but I literally just had my first day back at work today after a holiday and it'll be a while before I can think about a holiday again. I will get to Korea one day I'm sure - maybe next winter.
According to an article in The Straits Times on 21 March 2013, 41% of about 1,000 Singaporeans polled in a survey said they have never saved for retirement.
[Retrieved from http://www.stjobs.sg/career-resources/money-matters/4-in-10-sporeans-not-saving-for-retirement/a/111302]
"Of these, 47 per cent claimed they are held back by the cost of day-to-day living while 31 per cent said they have never really thought about it. Some 38 per cent said buying a property is the biggest obstacle to saving for retirement, an unsurprising fact, given that property prices have soared in the past few years."
Given that you work in finance, may I suggest that you write a blog post about saving for retirement:
1. How does the British attitude towards saving compare with that of Singaporeans? (I understand that we can't treat British and Singaporean people as monolithic entities, so you may want to, say, divide them into income levels?)
2. Do families / individuals in London generally have difficulty saving due to high cost of living? (I'm comparing London with Singapore because they are both cities, while other parts of Britain probably have lower cost of living.)
3. Do you have any suggestion for those who are held back by the cost of living or high property prices?
The first topic sounds like an interesting one, especially since I have heard of rather critical and unsympathetic remarks about her, such as that she lauded Lee Kuan Yew for his stand against unions in Singapore(obviously, there are none except that silly farce of NTUC which is a government organization).
ReplyDeleteHow about your forecast on what Singaporeans' reactions would be when Lee Kuan Yew passes on too? After all, he is 2 years older than The Iron Lady.
ReplyDeleteHi LIFT,
ReplyDeleteFrom the pix you posted, I guess you are going to make a post about Margaret Thatcher. I'm a frog in a well, can I hear your views of Ubin and the comparison of Singapore with Liechtenstein? Dwapui vs Chaotah, is it a LGBT issue or they are interesting dudes? If they are interesting dudes, I like to hear their story on another day. Paiseh, a bit demanding and very greedy hor? Btw, love your blog.
Hi all, I am probably going to go with WD's suggestion of comparing LKY with Thatcher, after all, that's not done before. A lot has been said about P Ubin lah, so I am not sure if I have anything that new to add to it. And yes, Liechtenstein is an interesting country for it is tiny at 160 km2 (less than a quarter of the size of Singapore) and it is still exceedingly rich. For some reason, because it is a principality (like Monaco) rather than a sovereign state (like Singapore) - it is often excluded when countries are compared for their GDP per capita but I've dug up the statistics and goodness me, they are WAAAAY ahead of Singapore. This is a fact that Singaporeans conveniently forget - in the case of Monaco, it is just a bunch of tax-exiles in a millionaires' playground where no real wealth is generated locally, but for Liechtenstein, the wealth is indeed generated locally with the financial services sector contributing only a small portion of the economy.
ReplyDeleteThe population of the country is barely 36000 and that makes it the 56th most densely populated territory in the world behind countries like the UK, Belgium and ranked right next to Germany at 57th. The point is, it isn't densely populated like Macau, Hong Kong, Singapore or Monaco. In fact, there are plenty of farmland, forests, lakes and mountains. I will definitely do a piece to show how there is an alternative route to become a super rich tiny state.
Nah, Dwapui & Chaotah are both straight lah - I was being rather mean as Dwapui seems to be a bit of a loser: he is very fat, bad at sports, not good looking and doesn't have a good job whilst Chaotah is the opposite - sports, good looking, good job etc. They're both 24 and I was just thinking, they are on holidays together because they are childhood friends - so why does one kid turn out so good and the other so bad? All parents would want their child to turn out to be more like Chaotah and not like Dwapui ... so what makes the difference? Maybe it's me being terribly bitchy - I need to think about this one.
I am looking forward to reading both your posts on "comparing LKY with Thatcher" and "Liechtenstein - an alternative route to become a super rich tiny state". Cheers!
DeleteHi LIFT,
DeleteI just read something about Liechtenstein from Yahoo! Finance Canada.
http://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/wealthy-canadians-come-clean-assets-tax-haven-lists-170007825.html
"The Canada Revenue Agency has seen the number of voluntary disclosures of foreign, unreported income rise dramatically since 2007, when it received the first such list from Liechtenstein naming 106 Canadians with accounts in secretive banks there." -- Yahoo! Finance
So I guess part of Liechtenstein's economy is similar to Singapore's.
Cheers, WD.
I have started writing a piece about Thatcher vs LKY last night and I need a bit of time to work on it. But that's the next article.
DeleteI am also definitely going to write something on Liechtenstein - but Liechtenstein's economy is still different from Singapore is many ways. For instance, there is a respectable agriculture sector (mostly wine) and it is the world's biggest producer of false teeth and sausage casings. Not bad for a tiny country - there isn't an over reliance on banking either, only about 33% of the economy is dependent on finance. Unlike the oil rich states in the middle east, they have virtually no natural resources and like Singapore, they did manage to create the wealth almost entirely based on the service industry (banking & high end industrial manufacturing).
Their secret to their success is to simply go high end = wine, not grapes. Banking for super rich tax exiles, not ordinary folk.
The only difference is that there is no desire at all to increase the population by artificially importing foreigners. They could but they don't. There are plenty of high end expats ('foreign talent') working say in the banking sector as well as in the service industry. For example, when I went into the gift shop, the manager greeted me in English then grabbed the Mandarin Chinese-speaking shop girl to come and serve me in Mandarin - and just to play the fool, I spoke only Hokkien (then switched to French, then she went to grab her manager who then sent the French speaking shop assistant over - all that for a post card, LOL.
But get this - the buses for example, are all driven by locals and the bus service is excellent and runs on time. It isn't as cheap as in Singapore but they are not over crowded, they are efficient and reliable and they all speak at least German and English. Could they get say, cheaper Russian or Ukrainians to drive their buses? Of course they could - but they don't. Such is the stark difference between SG and LI. OK gotta get back to work - more on both topics soon, aaargh, the work emails are piling up!
Hi limpeh! Mmm i know this is very random but pls do read though :)
ReplyDeleteI am korean male student who has graduated from sg jc. and before my uni starts in Scotland,i plan to go back to korea for around 2 months. i was wondering if you wanna go for a short trip to korea, caz it will be nice to have someone who has so much experience in travelling.
Anyonghaseyeo. Sorry, Mianhehamnida, but I literally just had my first day back at work today after a holiday and it'll be a while before I can think about a holiday again. I will get to Korea one day I'm sure - maybe next winter.
DeleteHello Limpeh,
ReplyDeleteAccording to an article in The Straits Times on 21 March 2013, 41% of about 1,000 Singaporeans polled in a survey said they have never saved for retirement.
[Retrieved from http://www.stjobs.sg/career-resources/money-matters/4-in-10-sporeans-not-saving-for-retirement/a/111302]
"Of these, 47 per cent claimed they are held back by the cost of day-to-day living while 31 per cent said they have never really thought about it. Some 38 per cent said buying a property is the biggest obstacle to saving for retirement, an unsurprising fact, given that property prices have soared in the past few years."
Given that you work in finance, may I suggest that you write a blog post about saving for retirement:
1. How does the British attitude towards saving compare with that of Singaporeans? (I understand that we can't treat British and Singaporean people as monolithic entities, so you may want to, say, divide them into income levels?)
2. Do families / individuals in London generally have difficulty saving due to high cost of living? (I'm comparing London with Singapore because they are both cities, while other parts of Britain probably have lower cost of living.)
3. Do you have any suggestion for those who are held back by the cost of living or high property prices?
I look forward to your insights!