Ex-Deputy Public Prosecutor Thomas Koshy wrote to ask if bid rigging should be treated as a crime. Four executives of pest elimination companies had been found guilty of a bid rigging scam which involved contracts totalling about $1 million, victims of which included public institutions such as Temasek Junior College and Alexandra Hospital. Yet the fantastic four were subsequently elected into the governing council of the Singapore Pest Management Association (SPMA) - one retaining the post of president. Even grassroots leaders have to envy that kind of political clout.
Questions must also arise when a businessman was punched by an American sailor in Wheelock Place, or when a man had four teeth knocked off by a stranger in a void deck of a Bishan flat, and all the police did was to take down the particulars of the parties involved and let the assailant go. The police claims their hands are tied by the law and how it distinguishes a “simple” hurt case from one which is “grievous.”
Asking, “Are we setting too high a tolerance (for violence)?” non-Constituency Member of Parliament Sylvia Lim said the public found the inability of the police to act rather “non-sensible”, and continuing to keep things the way they are would “undermine the public sense of safety.” She gave an example: If she scratched someone’s car, she could be arrested on the spot for vandalism; but if she punched someone, causing a nose bleed, she could walk away.
Recent revisions to the Penal Code had expanded the definition of grievous hurt to include (1) death (Picture the cop with notepad in hand, “Sir, the victim is dead, can we treat this case this as a grievous assault?”) and (2) non-consensual penetration of the vagina or anus. Wait, the exalted law makers provide that the last instance is grievous only if the penetration “causes severe bodily pain.” If the assailant mimicks Marlon Brando’s creative use of butter in the classic Last Tango in Paris, the police may let him go. And Al Qaeda types will freely roam Orchard Road if they tweak their assault tactics, “No bloodshed, internal injuries only!”
Tuesday, February 05, 2008
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Bullshit Hits The Fan
Speaking to reporters on his way back from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, Father Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew told the press: “I do not believe the Chinese economy is immune to a US slowdown, nor is the Indian economy.” As for effect on Singapore’s economy, he said, “Our total trade is 300 per cent of our GDP (gross domestic product). So when the external trade goes down, you tell me how we buffer ourselves.”
Meanwhile at a breakfast meeting with 40 businessmen from the French Business Confederation as he wrapped up his 3-day official visit to Paris, Son Prime Minister Lee Hisen Loong is singing a different tune, claiming Singapore and Asia can weather the storm, should the US go into a recession. PM Lee also said the economies of China and India will continue to grow despite what happens in the US, adding: “…in Asia, I think we are stronger and better prepared and we will weather it.”
For the significant portion of the world’s economic movers, shakers and interpreters gathered in the Swiss mountain town of Davos for the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum just as markets from Mumbai to Madrid were freaking out, the writing is already on the wall:
“The debate is not whether we’re going to have a soft landing or a hard landing in the U.S. but how hard the landing is going to be,” says Nouriel Roubini, professor of economics at New York University. He sees a sharp, possibly year-long U.S. recession and a global slowdown. Despite Asia’s torrid growth, consumers in China and India accounted for only $1.6 trillion of the world’s spending last year, a tiny fraction of the $9.5 trillion spent by Americans, according to Stephen Roach, head of Morgan Stanley’s business in Asia. It’s impossible to pull U.S. spending back without sending ripples through the rest of the world.
What has become evident is that globalization can’t insulate us from recessions. Or justify 21% increases for multi-million dollar “top talents.”
Meanwhile at a breakfast meeting with 40 businessmen from the French Business Confederation as he wrapped up his 3-day official visit to Paris, Son Prime Minister Lee Hisen Loong is singing a different tune, claiming Singapore and Asia can weather the storm, should the US go into a recession. PM Lee also said the economies of China and India will continue to grow despite what happens in the US, adding: “…in Asia, I think we are stronger and better prepared and we will weather it.”
For the significant portion of the world’s economic movers, shakers and interpreters gathered in the Swiss mountain town of Davos for the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum just as markets from Mumbai to Madrid were freaking out, the writing is already on the wall:
“The debate is not whether we’re going to have a soft landing or a hard landing in the U.S. but how hard the landing is going to be,” says Nouriel Roubini, professor of economics at New York University. He sees a sharp, possibly year-long U.S. recession and a global slowdown. Despite Asia’s torrid growth, consumers in China and India accounted for only $1.6 trillion of the world’s spending last year, a tiny fraction of the $9.5 trillion spent by Americans, according to Stephen Roach, head of Morgan Stanley’s business in Asia. It’s impossible to pull U.S. spending back without sending ripples through the rest of the world.
What has become evident is that globalization can’t insulate us from recessions. Or justify 21% increases for multi-million dollar “top talents.”
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