Powered by glolg
Display Preferences Most Recent Entries Chatterbox Blog Links Site Statistics Category Tags About Me, Myself and Gilbert XML RSS Feed
Saturday, July 18, 2015 - 21:11 SGT
Posted By: Gilbert

Confirmations


The Sport of Kings

Seen Wednesday on the campus field:


At least there won't be many diving calls...


N.B. Phil Neville's now assistant manager at Valencia, which some attribute to the Singaporean connection.


No Kebab

The Middle Eastern stall, situated right at the entrance to the Business canteen, has been replaced. The doner kebab rotisserie had been in my regular rotation since its inception, but I have to admit that I had been skipping it for the last month or two of its existence.

It seemed a vicious cycle - fewer customers for some reason, and then the un-refreshed kebab cone didn't appear quite as delectable, which I'm guessing didn't help to bring in new business. Gotta wait for the next pasar malam now.

Which reminds me, the main co-op at the Central Forum has, after renovations, transformed into an apparel and souvenir store (admittedly with basic stationery supplies, and a textbook section). It isn't hard to guess that the selection of books available previously wasn't exactly flying off the shelves, but it was always good for a quick browse whenever the mood took me. Trying on merchandise branded with the university logo just won't be the same.


More No Surprise

Me: Pluto's got a heart? Well, that was unexpected. Hmm, the Brits and the Indians are also in on the "smart city" so-and-so... and what's this? Online shopping has been wrecking the overdeveloped and overpriced local retail scene? Our natural aristocracy found governing by fiat? Greece caves as core European bigwigs vote to bleed them on life support? China's GDP stays steady at 7%?!


And gasoline prices are becoming a concern in Puerto Rico,
so The Guardian notes


Mr. Ham: My, they've been great at controlling the economy!

*keeps straight face*

Me: Ok, you got me there. I've gotta hand it to you, you've been amazingly prescient - after the still-unresolved SMRT woes, the news this week is that Our Most Successful Investment Firm Under An Electrical Engineer will finally be biting the bullet, and place Our Once Successful National Shipping Line Under An Ex-General up for sale, after it had been spewing red ink for years.

Some have tried to put this down to global overcapacity, but it remains that competitors such as Maersk have been gobbling up profits, which has unfortunately led segments of the impressionable public to observe the similarity in the background of the personnel-in-charge of our beleaguered institutions. It was further noted that actual performance appears to have no bearing on remuneration received, which raises the question of why they'd bother overly.

Personally, I'd favour just adopting normal retirement age standards for our armed forces, and have general officers serve well into their sixties like in most other countries, since running up grassy slopes shouldn't be in their job scope by then. But then, what do I know?

Mr. Ham: Don't really see how retail rents are going to hold up, what with people realising that they can walk in to try out the goods, before getting the very same product online and delivered to their doorstep at half the price or less. You'd need some impressive presentation to make up for that!

Me: Yeah, there's often 20% or more off to be had on computer parts from Amazon as compared to Sim Lim's best, which can add up quickly.

Mr. Ham: *flips through papers* You have to give it to the Auditor-General's Office, though - they did point out a bunch of lapses within the People's Association as well as other government bodies, including the self-approval of over a hundred thousand dollars in claims in Mr. Hari-kiri's ward. Thankfully, it didn't come down to that as the implicated grassroots leader simply stepped down to account for the mistakes that were made, amidst a general environment of extreme concern and "we'll do better next time", since stores of righteous indignation were all but exhausted after months of wailing on the Workers' Party for similar lapses.


Yes, yes, focus on the blue ball, don't mind the white one...


Me: The discrepancy in treatment between mistakes by the incumbents and opposition is, indeed, becoming increasingly hard to ignore. As has been noted, while it might be true that the inadequacies of both parties are indeed reported in the mainstream media, the incumbents' recurring faults tend to get glossed over after an annual airing, while the opposition's are dragged back into the spotlight every so often, which cannot help but shape opinion against them. You won't see funds being withheld from the PA, for one.

Let's just say that I'm not going to get too concerned about town council funding issues in the next General Elections, which may not be too far away after it was revealed that the Gerrymandering Committee had been quietly formed months ago, if with a mandate to create smaller GRCs one way or another, because who the heck cares which constituency you come under anyway, as long as it votes "the right way"? Furthermore, the WP seems to be clearing the issue up by directly managing AHPETC, so one can hope for more substantial matters being focused on in Parliament.

Mr. Ham: A quick one seems the way to go, with China's economy probably in trouble. Actually, it's amusing to see how circular interpretations can get - our local papers led with "Boost for S'pore as China posts 7% growth", citing the magic 7% figure as a positive sign, while more dispassionate observers instead tended to use Singapore's negative 4.6% GDP growth as evidence that the 7% is not what it seems, given that China is Singapore's largest trading partner.

The topic of Statistics with Chinese Characteristics has been well-worn, definitely, and how can we forget Dr. Chang's lively expression of the pressure to return a seven percent growth rate, when that's what the central authorities want? It has long been observed that China's official GDP figures exhibit incredibly low volatility, i.e. somehow manage not to change much if at all, regardless of the global financial situation.

Some commentators have put this down to smoothing, while noting that banks and financial institutions nevertheless churn out projections based on the official numbers, since to do otherwise would risk raising the ire of the people who truly matter, and asking too many questions is bad for business. Of course, they have their own estimates partly based on closed world economy assumptions, since a country's imports must be some other country's exports, and vice versa...

Me: *looks at clock* Sounds like a job for... Master Political Analyst Herr Ahm, don't you think? Next week a good time for him? That's it for today, then.





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


Next: SG50 Siol


Related Posts:
A Tale Of Two Countries
Call To Hams
Incumbent Investigations
Embracing Risk
And About Time
Back to top

Copyright © 2006-2025 GLYS. All Rights Reserved.