Powered by glolg
Display Preferences Most Recent Entries Chatterbox Blog Links Site Statistics Category Tags About Me, Myself and Gilbert XML RSS Feed
Sunday, Nov 23, 2014 - 01:26 SGT
Posted By: Gilbert

Downtime

Came down with the dreaded bloaty-belly-tummyache this week. I suspect it was the mifen, but whatever, it meant that I wound up spending several days laid out. This did present me with the opportunity to consider, while in bed, all the manufactured objects around (from the pins and paperclips, to the blocks of flats), and marvel about all the people and industry involved to create the whole. Who needs psychedelics to enter an altered state of consciousness?

And, as they say, the great thing about hitting your head into a brick wall is how appreciative you can get when you stop.


As this chap well recognizes


The getting-well hunger's some sensation too, and apparently it's useful for decision-making too.


Good Sports

I also realised that I had been slowly becoming less... engaged in United's adventures, which I attribute to them becoming less familiar in a way. Players come and go, but the departure of Ferguson really drove in the extent to which he was the club. van Gaal may be presenting a more assured face than poor Moyes ever did, but for all that and the capture of Falcao etc, it's not quite coming together yet.

As a consolation, it's not for want of recruiting talented personnel, a mechanic that the 76ers are seeking to game in the NBA. Professional sport in the USA being surprisingly socialist in that bad teams get the charity of picking the best new blood from each crop, many teams have - quite rationally - figured that if they couldn't get to the playoffs, they might as well suck as bad as they can. Still, this is... exceptional.

Over here, the S.League's latest let's-come-up-with-something-so-they-can't-say-we're-not-doing-anything edict was to restrict the number of players over thirty years of age, who now make up nearly 40% of the league, which led to much lamentation by veteran players whose ricebowls came under threat (and, not a bit ironically, as the authorities try to encourage delayed retirement in other jobs)

Of course, a more honest assessment would simply be that as it stands, footballing as a career simply isn't worth it here, leading to bad takeup by youth, and thence bad attendances, reinforcing each other in a doomed cycle of doom. If the powers-that-be are really determined to kickstart a footballing culture, they could do worse than commit to a considerable base salary boost - say, S$5000 - for all squad members, guaranteed for a decently long period, further augmented by significant prize incentives for winning.

If this were to be applied to a twelve-team league for twenty years, each with an average main squad size of twenty, this initiative would cost upwards of S$24 million (before adjusting for any inflation); a pretty sum, yes, but consider - it's over twenty freaking years, and for some perspective, we're subsidizing F1 to the tune of S$80 million each and every year, while our Youth Olympics budget famously burst by over S$200 million with nary a blink of an eye from MCYS. So, why not let the guys who're actually doing the running get their slice, given their limited shelf life (Duric excepted)?


Oei, Muthussi! Boss say today you start, okay?
Deh abang, I sick lah, you get Ramnaldo can anot
(Source: asiaone.com)


The way I see it, even if this doesn't work to get more serious career players long-term, it'll cost like a million-plus a year (though if you think football's stupid, obviously it's a waste, but then...), and banish once and for all the sad sight of cut-price Africans toiling away for S$100/month here, and storied clubs folding left and right. However, given how our local mainstream media (i.e. The State's Times, Today and AsiaOne) are all still referring to the outfit as the S-League (with dash, in contrast with ESPN, who [correctly] listed it as the S.League [with dot!] - a notable previous do-something-for-the-year token gesture), one could surmise that the establishment doesn't really give a shit anyway.

Anyhow, there's been a fairly happy end to the teapot storm - the S-League (with dash) has seen the light and graciously declined to impose the age quota. The less tactful could point out here that it was barely a week ago that the S-League's (still with dash) CEO was fervently insisting that the (short-term fix, as usual) had to be made, but well, sharp U-turns are the new normal in the local incumbent scene.

Still nothing on FIFA, though, as the colourful world body, under heavy pressure, commissioned an investigative report into Russia and Qatar's bids, and belatedly discovered that they had accidentally hired some guys who couldn't take hints. This wound up with the comical sight of Blatter declaring "we're all good", only for the person who actually wrote the report to object that this wasn't quite what it said.

Understandably, some interested member nations of FIFA were all, hey, can we read the original 430 pages ourselves, man, and Blatter was all like, haha, no, you'll just have to take my word for it. Well, at least Germany's threatening action. You don't wanna be around when Germany threatens action.


Lesser Sports

The going-ons in our sparsely-populated football stadiums cannot compare with the merciless jungle that is the native political scene, certainly, and the latest thrust for the jugular came from a goal-hungry minister, who accused the Workers' Party Aljunied-Hougang-Punggol East Town Council (AHPETC) of turning an operating surplus of S$3.3 million (in FY2010) to a deficit of S$734000 by FY2012.

Now, we could recall that this particular mode of attack had resulted in an own goal this February, when the last strike duo's slamming of AHPETC for serious problems over their audit results of a "qualified opinion", ended with the publicizing of the People's Association's continued record of "adverse opinions", upon which the flabbergasted pair blustered ineffectually for a bit before slinking away.

Indeed, it seemed likely that another self-pwn was on the cards, when several well-reasoned commentaries appeared on the alternative media (but I repeat myself), pointing out that everybody runs deficits, and that the government grants received tend to be a sizeable percentage of the entire operating expenditure anyway. Using Ang Mo Kio as an example, the expenditure was S$49 million, the income S$43 million, but shame be on any that dare impugn our PM's financial discipline - the S$14 million transfer from the national coffers means that AMKTC is nicely S$6 million in the green!

Another contributor, of a more historical bent, dutifully searched through dusty archives and found that, hey, it's not that unusual for town councils to have operating shortfalls to begin with, but for some reason it was never a big deal. Also, it turns out that many grants can only be disbursed through the relevant Citizens' Consultative Committees, which come under the People's Association, a completely neutral body that somehow always manages to appoint losing incumbent candidates as their main adviser in opposition wards.


Don't panic! Still time to whitewash this!
(Source: topfourfinish.wordpress.com)


It was looking kind of familiar as the ball again trickled agonizingly back towards their own goalline, and the entire team had to hustle back to make the save - it was explained that the S&CC operating grant depends on the type of flats in the constituency. Therefore, since AHPETC had relatively fewer 3-room or smaller flats, its grant of S$7.2 million was less than, say, the similarly-sized Tanjong Pagar town council, which received S$12.4 million.

At this point, one might begin to wonder if the entire affair has been badly overblown - when a 10% increase in the grant, the formula which appears rather ad-hoc, is enough to cover the deficit, why is integrity being brought into it?

That said, I found one factoid of by far the most interest - that of the arrears rate rising from about the national average of 3% in FY2010, to 8.4% by FY2012, and then to a quite incredible 29.4% by mid-2013. To me, this anomaly is quite akin to a country with a fair 5% unemployment rate suddenly hitting near 50% unemployment in a few years, despite no sea change in either its own or the regional economy. This sort of thing simply doesn't happen out of nowhere.

Consider the perspective of a resident head of household who had been dutifully paying its S&CC charges before 2010 - what would make him abruptly stop his previous habit, all the more as I suspect quite a lot of payments are automatic deductions (though I'd appreciate any stats on this)? I mean, all those GIRO-subscribers would have to make a conscious effort to order a stop, unless their account had been bled dry!

Now, one could imagine some disgruntled fellows withholding their payments for some perceived service inadequacy or other - but ten thousand of them, and almost all at once?

I smell more to this than meets the eye...



comments (0) - email - share - print - direct link
trackbacks (0) - trackback url


Next: Briefer And Briefer


Related Posts:
Some Work And Some Play
Mega Bonus Post
Of Linux And Graphics Cards
Our Hamster Conversation
From Russia With KAV
Back to top

Copyright © 2006-2025 GLYS. All Rights Reserved.