Temasek Holdings scores with Barclays!

I’m very sure everyone associates Barclays with the English Premiership. It proved to be a lucrative partnership for the Premiership and a fantastic advertising campaign for Barclays.
However, such sweet gains did not extend to generous and kind-looking Ho Ching of Temasek Holdings.
Reuters reports:
LONDON, June 3 (Reuters) – Singapore state investor Temasek sold its stake [...]

senile old man.

When one needs proof that time and tide wait for no man, one has only to look at the only founder of Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew. At a ripe old age of 86, when one should be enjoying life, our old man is sprouting rubbish and antagonizing our neighbours while making a fool of himself, [...]

The Myth of the PAP Singapore’s Miracle part II

Part I is here.
Many people argued that PAP created the environment that led to the boost in manufacturing sector. Let’s see. During the same period that Singapore experienced tremendous growth, countries such as South Korea and Hong Kong grew even faster than us, without a PAP in charge. It was really a no-brainer to leverage [...]

The Houdini of Predictions

Just when I remarked yesterday that Minister Mentor God Lee Kuan Yew disappeared, he pops up like a jack in the box today. Let’s hear the Oracle of Singapore’s gems of wisdom once again.
In an interview with Reuters on Wednesday, he said the Government of Singapore Investment Corp (GIC) had bought ‘too early’ into global [...]

Silence is Golden for the disappearing Minister Mentor God

Did anyone realise that we have never heard from our Minister Mentor God Lee Kuan Yew since the recent developments in the saga between Citibank and Government Investment Corp, Singapore?
For those out in the cold on Citibank and GIC, and still believes GIC is holding onto part of a exciting and un-paralled banking franchise that [...]

nationalised already, still will have long term not?

Dearest Minister Mentor God Lee Kuan Yew,
In such dark times, I am writing to you in search of some form of sage advice. You must know the cure to all these problems that has befell Singapore since you single-handledly built Singapore from Third World to First, and that you are without doubt, the longest ever [...]

Getting cozy and personal with Total PAP, sorry I meant Total Defence

Apparently, Total Defence wants to get personal with me!
Colonel Lim Kok Siong, director of the Defence Ministry unit, Nexus, which runs the campaign, said organisers felt the message should not be from the top down, the way it was when it first started in 1984.
‘It’s not a government agency that owns or drives the campaign,’ [...]

Singapore: the Switzerland in Asia(only dictators and mass murderers need apply)

I was also quietly satisfied that we realised our vision of reaching the 1984 Swiss standard of living last year.
Maybe Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong was right in 2001. Singapore has indeed reached the Swiss standards of living. However, Singapore is different from Singaporeans. A country might reach the heights of Mount Everest, [...]

The perils of nostalgia and gratefulness

As 2008 is drawing to a close, it is always easy to reflect on perfect hindsight the events that happened, and what should have been done. What is difficult is not to fall into the trap of over-reflection, given that the line of nostalgia and forward-thinking is really thin.
Let me quantify this entry by saying [...]

hong kong vs singapore

there are differences in how the hong kong government treats their citizens and how Singapore government treats its own citizens.
Here is an example(albeit rather late). Both Hong Kong and Singapore enjoyed budget surplus in 2007.

Hong Kong Government

To ease inflationary pressure faced by households, the Government will credit a monthly electricity charge subsidy of $300 into [...]