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Archive for November, 2008
48 years old, jobless for 5 yrs and badly burnt out in stock market and totally depressed
Nov. 30 | Question from a Singaporean to Mr Gilbert Goh: Any advice for a 48 yr man, jobless for 5 yrs and badly burnt out in stock market and totally depressed. ——– Mr Goh’s reply: I empathise with your situation. Five years of unemployment...
TOC turns two!
Nov. 30 | Hi everyone, December 1 marks the second year of existence for The Online Citizen (TOC). We would like to take this occasion to thank you, our readers, supporters and contributors. This past one year saw TOC achieve several milestones because of your...
Letter to TOC (Dec 1)
Nov. 30 | The following letters were either rejected or are still not published by the Straits Times, except the third one which is to TOC. Just a note: In future, blog postings or blog articles will no longer be considered as a letter to TOC. Also, letters to...
Spoiling your child: A sure recipe for disaster
Nov. 30 | By Alison Liew / Youth Writer IT SEEMS THAT there is much that parents can teach their kids in the midst of the financial crisis. In a time where belts are tightening and pay increments are frozen, ‘thrift’ is a new word that should be added...
TOC Weekend Reads (Nov 30)
Nov. 30 | Here are some interesting articles to read for the weekend. Mumbai’s Longest Night, With an Abyss of Terror – New York Times For Amit and Varsha Thadani, Wednesday night in the Crystal Ballroom of the Taj Mahal Palace & Tower Hotel was supposed...
“This thing will never die until it is settled”
Nov. 30 | Editor’s note: The title of this report has been changed for accuracy. Davin Choo / Tng Wen Quan Mr Tan Kin Lian spoke at Speaker’s Corner today for the sixth time on investments gone awry. While his speech mainly consisted of two portions –...
Progress disappointing, get MPs to address the matter.
Nov. 29 | Mr Tan Kin Lian’s speeches at Speakers’ Corner, 29 November 2008. Excerpts from Mr Tan Kin Lian’s speech: “I suggest that you should see your Member of Parliament, ……… ask the MP to do the “right thing”...
Singapore strikes again
Nov. 29 | In suing for contempt, Singapore chose to go after us for the most basic kind of journalism… We’ll pay the fine. We’ll also continue to express our views about politics, the courts and other subjects that we think our readers should know...
PM Lee prescribes bitter medicine – again
Nov. 29 | Mumbai terrorist attacks: A look at the confirmed foreigner deaths in Mumbai – Associated Press. Andrew Loh / Deputy Editor In February this year, I wrote a piece titled, Bitter medicine prescription – with a little spin thrown in. It was...
Breaking News: Singaporean held hostage at Mumbai’s Oberoi Hotel killed
Nov. 28 | The editors and writers of The Online Citizen offer our deepest condolences to the family of Ms Lo. Full report on Channel NewsAsia: SINGAPORE: Singapore‘s Foreign Ministry says the Singaporean Chinese woman held hostage at the Oberoi Hotel in...
Bitter medicine in 2007, bitter pill in 2008
Nov. 28 | January 2007 Is it better to take your medicine sooner or stretch it out? Take medicine once or two times? I prefer to make (sic) my medicine early, why? This is something we need to do, once we have done it, we can move on; we have the resources to have...
Can we ever become global citizens?
Nov. 28 | Subana Hall / Guest Writer The term global citizen has become a very widely used term in schools, workplaces and even in the media, but who or what exactly is a global citizen? How differently does a global citizen think? Does a global citizen mean having...
TOC Exclusive: Interview with investor who lost $150,000
Nov. 28 | The Online Citizen spoke to Mr Ng, who invested and lost about $150,000 of his savings when investment bank Lehman Brothers collapsed. Mr Ng had repeatedly clarified with his relationship manager (RM), before he bought the High Notes 5 product, that it...
Kangaroo t-shirt trio found guilty, sentenced to jail
Nov. 27 | Full report on Channel NewsAsia: SINGAPORE: The three Singaporeans who have been found guilty of contempt of court in the kangaroo T-shirt case have been sentenced to jail. Two of them, 19-year-old Muhammad Shafi’ie Syahmi Sariman and 33-year-old...
Coping with joblessness: A personal account
Nov. 27 | The following is a personal account by Mr Gilbert Goh. The article was first published in the Straits Times forum page in October 2008. We thank Mr Goh for giving us the permission to re-publish it here. We hope that the article will help those who are...
Being open – but not quite
Nov. 27 | When asked if town councils might lose more money from their other investments, Dr Teo said that he did not have the details of their investments and declined comment about his town council, Holland-Bukit Panjang. TODAY
Town councils’ funds – Teo Ho Pin responds
Nov. 27 | TOC Note: 14 of our readers have sent emails, since Tuesday, to query their town councils on their investments. None of the town councils have replied so far. We’d like to urge more of our readers to do the same. Please click here to copy and paste...
100,000 signatures so more people will step forward
Nov. 27 | Note: Mr Tan will be at Speakers’ Corner this Saturday, 5pm to 7pm. Tan Kin Lian / Columnist I have received many questions on my request to collect 100,000 signatures of support to contest in the next general election or presidential election....
A corner where we band together in bad times
Nov. 26 | This is your space – to share your views or stories about the recession, being retrenched, how to cope with everyday living. You may be going through it, or may have some good advice for those going through it. You may be an employer who has jobs for...
$2 billion over 20 years
Nov. 26 | Over the last two decades, 14 PAP town councils have accumulated about S$2 billion in sinking funds. That works out to about S$200,000 per HDB block in Singapore. There are about 9,000 HDB blocks in Singapore. Channel NewsAsia
The greed epidemic
Nov. 26 | Announcement: In tomorrow’s lead story on TOC, Mr Tan Kin Lian gives his answers to some questions on the issue of his running for elections. We would also like to announcement a new section on TOC – Beating The Recession (see below). This...
Ravi Madasamy
Nov. 26 | The Singapore authorities should immediately end the persecution and respect Ravi’s right to free expression and advocacy to end mandatory death penalty. Charles Hector, Malaysian human rights lawyer
A great opportunity to mature
Nov. 25 | The declared intent of Tan Kin Lian to enter the political arena offers a great opportunity for our political system to progress to the next level of maturity, a multiparty system with equally good men and women from both sides. My Singapore News
SDP: Misunderstood, misguided or misaligned?
Nov. 25 | Editor’s clarification (Nov 27): Not everyone involved in the cases or events mentioned in the article’s news reports’ headlines are SDP members. By Kelvin Lim / Writer The Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) is arguably Singapore’s...
Kudos to Govt for pay cut and deferment
Nov. 25 | Andrew Loh / Deputy Editor “I want to acknowledge that the Government has done the right thing to defer the last installment of the pay increase and also to take a salary cut of 19%,” said Mr Tan Kin Lian in a posting on The Online Citizen. “I also...
Jurong GRC resident takes up minister’s invitation
Nov. 25 | The following letter was sent through email to the Jurong GRC Town Council on 20 Novermber 2008 by TOC writer Lim Chih Yang. The town council has yet to reply. Dear Sir/Madam, I refer to the article on Today (dated: 17 November 2008). As I understand...
Accounting for town councils’ investments – do your part
Nov. 25 | I am doing this not for TOC, not for my cat or fish but for Myself! Yes, I owe it to myself. – Comment posted on TOC. (See below) Last week, TOC published an editorial entitled: Our money, our right to know. This highlighted the inadequate response...
Still no disclosure on total losses
Nov. 25 | They refer only to the toxic products and do not include investments in other markets, which have declined significantly in value. There has been no town council disclosure of total losses. Seah Chiang Nee
Two opinions on Tan Kin Lian petition
Nov. 25 | Guest writer P N Balji and TOC’s Choo Zheng Xi offer two contrasting perspectives on the strategy behind Mr Tan Kin Lian’s announcement that he is willing to stand for elections if he can gather 100,000 signatures. Just run, Mr Tan P N Balji / Guest...
Breaking News: Lower year-end payment for civil servants; up to 19% pay cut for top civil servants
Nov. 24 | SINGAPORE: Civil servants will receive a total variable payment this year which is one month less than last year, in view of the slowdown in the global economy and in Singapore. The year-end Annual Variable Component (AVC) will be reduced to 0.5 month,...
“Hopefully…”
Nov. 24 | Hopefully things will change in the not-too-distant future and will revive the value of the minibonds. Ahmad Magad, Pasir Ris Punggol Town Council chairman, on his town council’s investments
Help get 100,000 signatures for Tan Kin Lian to run
Nov. 24 | If you wish to help to collect 100,000 signatures in support of Mr Tan Kin Lian running in the elections, please print out this form and help get 20 signatures. You can of course print out more and approach more people to sign. Please scan the completed...
Letter to TOC (Updated)
Nov. 24 | Two-party systemnot good? I refer to the article on The Straits Times, Change must come to PAP (16 Nov 2008). While the PAP should be commended for their pro-activeness in implementing and evolving their party to be relevant to the electorate, I would...
Fed up with statistics (Part One)
Nov. 24 | Coming Soon to TOC: Town Councils and their investments. What residents and TOC readers can do. Stay tuned to TOC in the next day or two. We’ll require your participation to get the town councils to account for their investments. Also, PN Balji’s...
Lee Hsien Loong vs Barack Obama
Nov. 24 | Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong Right now we have Low Thia Khiang, Chiam See Tong, Steve Chia. We can deal with them. Suppose you had 10, 15, 20 opposition members in Parliament. Instead of spending my time thinking what is the right policy for Singapore,...
Old habits die hard
Nov. 23 | I expect the PAP to now start mining for information on Mr. Tan. Does he smoke? I heard he takes the MRT, maybe someone saw him not giving a seat to the old….? Did he make any careless mistakes in one of his 2000 transport claims in NTUC? Gee….the...
Tan Kin Lian eyes elected presidency
Nov. 23 | Announcement: TOC will publish letters which are rejected for publication by the Straits Times, Today, Business Times or The New Paper or any other mainstream English language newspaper. We would like to thank our readers for this suggestion. The letters,...
False Dawn
Nov. 22 | false dawn ‘merdeka’, the people they assured, was the road foward to a new dawn of more jobs, better food, a greater well-being, in a free and just, and more equal society regardless of race, language or culture. these the ‘action...
Kin outraged, distraught over teen’s cyber suicide (US)
Nov. 22 | Report from Associated Press: MIAMI (AP) — The family of a college student who killed himself live on the Internet say they’re horrified his life ended before a virtual audience, and infuriated that viewers of the live webcam or operators of the...
“Blood flowing like a river”
Nov. 22 | Andrew Loh / Deputy Editor In a quiet little corner of Hong Lim Park on Saturday, two women sit silently. In their hearts were the victims of the on-going war in Sri Lanka. As the sky threatens to open up and raindrops begin to fall, Madam Susila and...
Gamblers and gambling – a nation hooked
Nov. 22 | Gilbert Goh / Guest Writer I am concerned at the recent spate of adverse news regarding bad investments coming out from my country. From the investors’ huge loss in minibond issues to the most recent Town Councils’ exposure to similar toxic...
Pay cut?
Nov. 22 | We’re not here to grandstand. Tharman Shanmugaratnam, when asked if ministers would take a pay cut
Leading by example
Nov. 21 | The firm (Temasek Holdings), which oversees $130 billion, said senior management has volunteered a 15 percent to 25 percent pay cut. Bloomberg
Third ministers’ pay hike in two years – Staying together or moving ahead?
Nov. 21 | Andrew Loh / Deputy Editor On 9 April 2007, Minister in Charge of the Civil Service, Mr Teo Chee Hean, announced a three-step formula to revise salaries in the public sector to bring them in line with the private sector. (link) Specifically, ministers...
Don’t chuck elderly away to old folks home
Nov. 21 | *Please take part in the poll below (poll section on TOC) on whether you would support the call made by Mr Goh Meng Seng, for Mr Tan Kin Lian to contest in the elections. Serville Zervant I was watching a Tamil documentary about an elderly Indian man...
The glory (or not) of money
Nov. 21 | If Mdm Lim takes no glory collecting the $330, do ministers take glory in collecting their millions? Feed Me To The Fish
“A small exposure”
Nov. 21 | One of the town council fund managers, Lion Global Investors, has informed us it has a small exposure to Lehman Brothers bonds. It invested $250,000 in the bonds. This amount accounts for only 0.14 per cent of the town council’s total sinking funds. Simon...
20 Years of the GRC: Walkover political careers (Part Two)
Nov. 21 | *Please take part in the poll below (poll section on TOC) on whether you would support the call made by Mr Goh Meng Seng, for Mr Tan Kin Lian to contest in the elections. This is the second part of a two-part look at the GRC system which was first introduced...
