Forum letter - Let public housing policy return to basics

The following is a letter published in The Straits Times on 31 Dec 2012. It echoes my thoughts about the public housing situation in Singapore.

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IT IS not enough to suggest that developers should observe the intent and spirit of the executive condominium (EC) housing scheme.

If developers play by the rules to maximise profit for shareholders, then they cannot be faulted.

The real problem lies with the rules and the overall public housing policy, which is supposed to be about providing affordable public housing to the masses. Over the years, the original intent and spirit of our public housing policy has been adulterated by variousinitiatives such as ECs, the Design, Build and Sell Scheme, the privatisation of HUDC flats, the Selective En bloc Redevelopment Scheme and so on, that have not only raised the prices of HDB flats but those of private properties as well.

It is time for a total review of our public housing policy and a revamp that will take it back to its original intent, particularly in the light of our growing income distribution gap.

I suggest a return to the single-mindedness of affordable public housing and the building of better Build-To-Order flats.

The income ceiling could be raised to include those who can qualify only for ECs.

It should not be the Government's business to help HDB owners speculate in the open market.

In fact, one-, two- and three-room HDB flats should be made very affordable and be non-transferable, with a sell-back scheme to HDB for the balance lease. These flats should have a shorter loan repayment period of 15 to 20 years.

As family sizes are getting smaller, this could address the essential housing needs of the lower income group for life.

If their financial situation improves, they can then choose to upgrade to a bigger flat or private housing.

This scheme will ensure better moderation of prices at the top, and will also serve as a fallback plan for the less well-off or those wishing to downgrade.

Yeow Hwee Ming

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Thoughts on public housing

Disclaimer: This article is not directly about the public housing situation in Singapore. Rather, it is about public housing in general, and can be applied to any small country.

Why is cheap public housing important to a small country (such as Singapore)?

In any economy, there will be an income divide. There will be high-income earners and low-income earners. In a small country, where land is scarce, land prices are naturally going to be high. Housing, if left to market forces, will thus be high and low-income earners will have challenges finding a place to stay.

In larger countries, this is not a serious problem. Low-income earners can live further away from city centres, where housing prices are lower and thus more affordable. Yes, it is more inconvenient since they will need to commute longer, but at least they can afford a place to stay.

Not so in land scarce countries. Low-income earners in such countries cannot simply stay further from city centres; such a place may not even exist if the country is small enough. Everyone will then need to share the small piece of land, and in order to give low-income earners a place to stay, cheap public housing is necessary.

In such small countries, the aim of public housing would then necessarily be to provide cheap housing to accommodate the low-income earners. It is about giving them a place to stay. It is not about investments, it is not about profits, and it is not about luxury. It is about keeping people off the streets. Distribution of income, in this case, comes about because high-income earners will be paying more tax, of which a portion would go towards subsidising the building of cheap public housing, benefiting the low-income earners.

A portion of the housing market would still be left to market forces, of course, to cater for those who can afford them. But strict measures will need to be in place to prevent people from profiteering from the cheap public housing. After all, the aim of public housing is to provide affordable housing to those who would otherwise not be able to afford it if prices are left to market forces.

Another article about public housing, though not directly related to this post:
ECs: Why so unfair?

Christmas present 2012

And the kid woke up to Christmas, to find that Santa Claus brought him the present that he was asking for! You can see his letter to Santa, and the big cuddly Elmo that Santa gave him.

Merry Christmas!

Class gathering

Our first class gathering after 22 years!

Okay, some of us met up over the years (either because we subsequently attended the same school, or over work) but for some, it was the first time we saw each other in 22 years.

And we had our form teacher, Mrs Boey, gracing the occasion too!

It's great to be able to meet up after all these years. We really need to do this more often!

The three prefects (the fourth one, we didn't manage to contact her).

The end of the world?

So the Mayan calendar is ending today... so does that mean it is going to be the end of the world?

Maybe we will freeze to death... it is, after all, the winter solstice. We are furthest from the sun today.

The Chinese calendar loops every 60 years. Things are a cycle. I think the Mayans also treat life as a cycle, and the end of the calendar is the start of a new one. Only when we view things as a linear progression (instead of as a cycle) will we start to panic when things are coming to an end.

So is life a cycle, or a straight line?

New tablet... or rather, first tablet

Got a new tablet... my first tablet. The Acer Iconia Tab A210, with wi-fi (no 3G connectivity). Not really for myself, rather, more for my kid who has been playing with our phones. Didn't want him to strain his eyes looking at small screens. So far, it seems to be value for money. Only shortcoming is that it only has a front camera, so it works for Skype, but not for photos (though you can still try to take photos with it...)

Bravo zulu, RSS Intrepid!

Welcome home, and bravo zulu, RSS Intrepid, for doing Singapore proud!

12 12 12

12 December 2012... 12/12/12... the last repeating date for the century.

Upgrading Linux Mint 13 (Maya) to 14 (Nadia)

It was not announced, but I have actually moved away from Fedora to Linux Mint, because Fedora 15 uses Gnome 3 and I really can't get myself into that. Linux Mint comes with MATE, which is based on Gnome 2, something that I am used to. I started out with Linux Mint 13 (Maya) and recently, upgraded to Linux Mint 14 (Nadia).

The recommended way to upgrade from Maya to Nadia is actually by backing up your files, doing a clean install of Nadia, and then copying the files back. But I am kind of used to Fedora's way of upgrade, so I tried something else.

I used apt to upgrade from Maya to Nadia. This is NOT the recommended method, but so far, it works. Got the instructions from here.

First, you have to edit the source list to point to Nadia repositories.

sudo gedit /etc/apt/source.list

Using the text editor, replace all instances of maya with nadia, and all instances of precise with quantal. Then save the file.

Then, update the database and do the upgrade itself.

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

If you are asked about overwriting of configuration files, I usually answered 'Y' but you may want to decide which files to overwrite and which to keep. I chose to keep the old grub configuration file, so I had to use Start-up Manager after the upgrade to point to the new kernel.

When the upgrade is done, run apt again to make sure that all the packages are updated.

sudo apt-get upgrade

Then, reboot the computer. 

When logging in, remember to choose a session (I used MATE). I heard that if you don't and try to log in using "last session", you will end up with a blank screen.

For me, the DNS list was messed up somehow during the upgrade, so I had to fix it. If you have the same problem (cannot connect to Internet), try this.

sudo dns-fix

That worked for me.

Good luck!

All bottled up...

Lots of things,
all bottled up.
Stressed,
no escape.
Things I want to say,
yet I cannot.
Boiling point,
steam builds up.
When will it all,
just blow up?

Saying goodbye is basic courtesy

No one will stop you if you want to leave, but at least say goodbye. Don't leave without saying a word. It is basic courtesy. It shows that you respect the person(s) who you are walking away from. It would be good if you share your reason for leaving, but no one will press you to share if you do not want to.

Leaving quietly tells people that you either want to hide the reasons for leaving (which means you are not brave enough to own up to and defend your decision) or that you don't respect them enough (they are not worth the time for that simple goodbye). Neither reason makes you look like a person of character.

Japan trip Oct 2012

We took a short break in Oct 2012 to visit the in-laws in Japan, including a trip with the wife's parents and her sister's family up to Lake Yamanaka and Mount Fuji. It was nice visiting Japan just as autumn starts, with the changing of the colours of the leaves.

We visited this radar dome, no longer in use, which used to be at the top of Mount Fuji. It was used to track typhoons, and after being in service for 35 years, it was retired and shifted to a nearby town at the foot of Mount Fuji.

We also visited this place near the foot of Mount Fuji, which has spring water from Mount Fuji. Look at how clear the spring water is.

No wonder people would want to use the spring water to make soba noodles. This waterwheel is used to pound soba into flour.

The kids decided to help the locals, trying to cart around a full cartload of corn.

There were quite some swans swimming around on Lake Yamanaka, and the kids tried to feed them.

We also went to this place called Kidsland (こどもの国) where the kids enjoyed themselves, feeding the animals, riding horses and even a chance to walk a goat.

And with Halloween so near the corner, there are pumpkins everywhere!

Here's the kid trying to lift up a pumpkin that is probably heavier than him.

Views of Mount Fuji in autumn

Recently, we went to Japan, and took a short trip to Lake Yamanaka (山中湖, which literally means "lake in the mountains") and even a short drive up to the fifth stage of Mount Fuji. Here are some photos of Mount Fuji in her autumn colours.

Here is Mount Fuji with Lake Yamanaka in the foreground.

There were quite some swans swimming around on Lake Yamanaka.

As we were driving around the foothills, we came to this nice plain. It is actually a military exercise ground.

Here is Mount Fuji, peeking out from the trees as seen from the second stage.

Here is how Mount Fuji looks when you are at the fifth stage, about halfway up the mountain.

A nice view of Mount Fuji surrounded by colourful autumn leaves.

After the Rain 雨あがる

I watched this film while on a red-eye flight, and didn't regret any minute of it. It is about a wandering samurai (known as ronin) who is actually a master swordsman, but at the same time a very good-natured person. Thus, he can't seem to stay long at a job, since extreme good nature and extreme expertise don't really mix very well. As mentioned by someone in the movie, when someone asks with concern if you are alright after defeating you, it seems like he is playing with you. People take insult when none was meant, simply by his overly good nature.

But does that mean we should change ourselves just so others can accept us? When the masterless samurai was denied employment for an enfringement in code of conduct, his wife puts it best by saying, it is not about what he has done, but why he did it, that really matters. A lord that cannot see beyond what he has done to try and understand why he has done it, is not worthy of his service.

It is a reminder to myself, that even as I improve myself, I must not lose sight of what I am aiming for, and what I am myself.

The aim of education

So what is the aim of education?

According to Dictionary.com, education is "the act or process of imparting or acquiring general knowledge, developing the powers of reasoning and judgment, and generally of preparing oneself or others intellectually for mature life."

Education in Singapore seems to be focused on preparing people for life in Singapore, providing them with a foundation that they can use to find a job and work to feed themselves. It is geared towards producing workers, people who can leave the education system and straightaway contribute to society as part of the workforce.

However, is that all that education should be? Should it not be more? Should not education be about providing our people with the foundation for them to be able to make their own choices in life? Education that provides society with a ready workforce may enjoy a certain peak performance in the short run, but an education that teaches people to make choices broadens the learning-experience base, allowing that society to achieve a higher performance peak in the long run. So should we be looking at short-term gains, or do we aim for sustainable success in the long run?

Online etiquette

Recently, we have seen a lot of buzz about ethical posting on the Internet. We even have ministers coming in to give comments and there is talk about setting up agencies to police online postings, which is very much against the value of freedom that we usually enjoy on the Internet.

It set me thinking... why do we have such irresponsible behaviour on the Internet? Maybe it is just a lack of experience and knowledge. I mean, I come from a time in which the Internet was not widespread, and what we had back then were bulletin board systems (BBS). But it was enough for us to learn online etiquette. For those of us who had seen how flames wars can develop, or even unfortunate enough to be in a flame war, you will know what to avoid posting.

While it may not be realistic to make everyone learn from such painful experiences, maybe we can start with schools and at home, when kids are young. After all, kids nowadays go online at a very early age, and that is really the best time to start teaching them responsible online behaviour. Not about how to think or what to post, but rather, what is responsible posting. This may be a better option compared to policing the Internet, or having people tell us what to and what not to think/post.

Measures to cool housing market

Singapore takes new steps to cool housing market

Will this really cool the housing market? What do we really mean when we say "cool the housing market"? Is it to arrest the rise in prices? Is it to reduce the number of transactions? Or is it to bring down the prices of housing?

The new measures are likely to achieve all these. By restricting the entry of buyers into the market (because the barrier to entry is now much higher), demand is being driven back. With a fixed short run supply, this means a drop in housing prices in the short run as well as less transactions. Simple demand-supply theory.

Let's see how this turns out.

12... 34...

Wow. 34.

Inkling - Limiting the limitless

I was reading "Dune Genesis", a short article by Frank Herbert, when I came across this.

"The flaw must lie in our methods of description, in languages, in social networks of meaning, in moral structures, and in philosophies and religions-all of which convey implicit limits where no limits exist."

Could it be, that in defining something, in giving something shape, we are actually limiting it? It kind of ties in with one of my inklings from taiji, that giving something shape limits it and allows it to be used against yourself (in other words, by giving something shape, you limit it and give it a weakness).

This is probably something that deserves more thought. Something best left for those times when I need something to ponder on. And have the luxury of time to spend pondering it. But do feel free to share if you have any thoughts on this.

Thoughts on Dune and the dangers of bureaucracy

Have you ever read the book "Dune" by Frank Herbert?

I was reading an article about the origins of the Dune universe, and this idea that one of the themes of the Dune series is "that people seem to have an inbuilt hunger for a powerful, charismatic leader to whom we can surrender our responsibility for making difficult decisions" and that "even if the original leader resists the temptation to abuse power, the bureaucracy which springs up around him will outlive him, and over time a bureaucracy becomes more and more incented to prioritize its own needs over the needs of people." This was the case in the Fremen Jihad after Paul Atreides came to power.

How about our own history? In human history, how many cases have we seen of such occurrences? Many dynasties in Chinese history were founded by a great man, only to decay when the bureaucracy founded started to prioritise its own needs over the needs of the people it was developed to govern. Have we really learnt from history not to make the same mistakes? Will the system we have developed continue to remember that its purpose is to serve the greater good and not to serve the system itself? Or will we walk down the same path of decay as others have before us?

Frank Herbert himself said it best in his article, Dune Genesis.

F1 weekend

Today is the annual Singapore F1 Grand Prix, the 5th since it started in 2008. While there was no news about the renewal of the F1 tour for some time, it is now official that the race will continue in Singapore for another 5 more years.

Lewis Hamilton started in the pole position. But a gearbox problem caused him to retire early in the race. In the end, Vettel won the race, with Button coming in 2nd and Alonso in 3rd place.

5 more years of racing in September!

What are dracones?

For those who wondered what dracones are, here's some info.

Basically, a dracone barge is "a large flexible watertight tube intended to carry a liquid cargo while towed mostly-submerged behind a ship."

The idea seems to have come from Frank Herbert, one of my favourite authors. It probably came from his novel, The Dragon in the Sea .

Here's how a dracone barge look like:

Disputed island

For those who know, this is actually the disputed island called Uotsurishima 魚釣島 which is the largest island in the Senkaku Islands group (called Diaoyu Islands by the Chinese). I had a chance to go up close and take this shot, not something that I would want to do now given the rise in tensions in that part of the world.

We are probably going to be reading about this dispute in the papers for a while...

Forcing the issue

Recently, Japan has been taking a strong stance with regards to her territorial issues with China over the Senkaku Islands (known as Diaoyu Islands also) and South Korea over Dokdo (known as Takeshima too).

Personally, I think this is a very bad time to force the issue for Japan.

China is undergoing leadership change during this time. No leader likes to be seen as weak, and thus China is unlikely to come to any compromise over this issue at this time. In fact, bringing up the issue now only forces China to take a strong stance with regards to the territorial issue.

There is also a Chinese saying, that while brothers may fight amongst themselves while at home, they will unite against an external threat. The recent stance taken by Taiwan over the Diaoyu Islands, supporting China's claim, is a clear sign of this. For Japan, bringing up the issue now may just push Taiwan more towards China, something that may not be strategically beneficial for Japan. It only means Japan becomes more isolated in East Asia. It also means one less strategic foothold for the US in the region, something which the US is not likely to want or tolerate.

It is also election year in the US, and while bringing up the issue now forces the US to make clear stance on their commitment towards Japan, given the complex economic relation between the US and China, the US is not likely to want to antagonise China during this critical period. To the US, Japan is that insensitive, childish friend trying to make them take sides in a quarrel with deeply buried implications.

Taking a strong stance on territorial issues with China is also a reminder to South Korea that the issue for Dokdo is still up on the table. South Korea has never forgotten Japan's aggression in the 20th century, and any strong stance by the Japanese is like a reminder to them of Japan's militant past, something that South Korea is always apprehensive about and still fresh in their memories. While both countries are allies of the US and would only be strategically beneficial to be friendly to each other, such issues will drive them apart and further isolate Japan in the region.

Economically speaking, Sino-Japanese trade is important for both sides, yet if China decides to boycott Japanese goods, China still has the production capability to supply her own domestic demand. Chinese factories have been facing production slowdown; this is a good opportunity for them to increase output and put under-utilised factories back on track. Japan, however, will suffer an economic blow, driving her already stagnant economy even further back.

So while it seems like a good time for Japan to bring up the issue and force the US to commit to Japan, when you consider all other factors in, it may just be a bad move by Japan, one that she cannot easily back away from now, and with possible long-term negative strategic implications for her.

Thoughts on gambling addiction

I think there is a reason why gambling is so addictive. Not that I gamble, just that it got me thinking when I was on my way home from pushing hands.

Human nature is inherently competitive. We want to win. We don't like losing. It manifests itself in taiji, when people are afraid to lose and so obsessed with losing that they tense up and instead end up being pushed. Maybe gambling is the same. People want to win. After winning a few times, they gain some confidence and want to continue to win. And when they lose, they don't like losing, they try to win back. This competitive nature, the need to win, drives them to continue gambling even when the odds are against them, even when they continue to lose. Or so I think.

For me, I guess it will take some drastic life change for me to take up gambling. It is a vice that I stay far far away from.

The Wolf Children Ame and Yuki

Just watched this animated film directed by Hosoda Mamoru today. Instead of scary werewolves, the wolfman was portrayed in more human terms.

It shows how difficult it is to be different. Especially in Japanese society, when people try to conform to social norms so as not to disturb "harmony". And bringing up children is never easy; it only becomes even more difficult with the complications that these kids are both wolves and kids. They are not just kids, they are different.

But it also tells us that we need to be strong in the face of adversity. Not just to be strong for ourselves, but for those who depend on us. Even when nothing seems to be going right, keep smiling.

The modern "sword" and "pen"

So which is mightier? The sword or the pen? It has always been a question that people asked. And are still asking. While I will not try to say which is the mightier, what I want to offer is a modern insight into the concept of the sword and the pen.

The sword (武 in Chinese) used to represent martial prowess, while the pen (文 in Chinese) to represent knowledge. But in this modern age, how relevant is martial prowess? Especially when put against knowledge?

Maybe the sword should be a better representation of hard skills (which were what martial prowess was back then) and the pen a representation of soft skills (which was what knowledge was back then too)? If we look at it that way, the modern "sword" should no longer be confined to martial prowess, but include knowledge of technical skills (engineering and science included). The modern "pen" can then be used to represent the arts, including literature and the fine arts. Our modern "sword" is thus "science", and the "pen" is "arts". Or maybe, all along, the sword has been science and the pen has been the arts, and we have been taking things too literally?

Go Intrepid, do us proud!

Farewell RSS Intrepid, do us proud in the Gulf of Aden as you do your bit to deter piracy. Dare and do! See you back in Singapore in 3 months!

Singtel customer service... the lack of it

Yesterday, I decided to get a new phone from Singtel, via their online shop, Singtelshop. After choosing the phone and other details, I chose the delivery date for today in the morning. However, the deliveryman never showed up. After calling Singtel to ask, I was told that they would get back to me. An hour later, they called back, telling me that they usually don't deliver on Sundays. It got me wondering, if you don't deliver on Sundays, why even have it as an option? And I even got 2 SMSs (one yesterday, the other this morning) reminding me that Singtel will be delivering my phone to me today.

Well, the guy on the phone offered to help me check if they could deliver the phone to me tomorrow, but he needed some time to check and thus would call me back. After waiting 5 hours, nothing. So I called back Singtel, and they told me they do not have any records of my earlier call. Wow! Talk about records... if Singtel can't even keep a proper record of my calls to them, how can I even be sure they are keeping proper records of anything else?

1. If Singtel does not deliver on Sundays, then why does their online shop allows customers to select Sundays for delivery? This shows that the website is not well designed, an obvious failing for an organisation as large as Singtel.
2. My first call to Singtel was not properly logged. Thus, when I called in again, I had to explain my case again. This was a waste of time for me, and added to my frustration. If Singtel really values its customers, it would not put its customers through such anguish.
3. Also, if Singtel cannot keep proper records of such simple issues, how can we, the customers, be assured that it is keeping the important records properly? Such poor record-keeping obviously undermines customer confidence in Singtel.
4. The deal was to deliver today. Singtel didn't keep to that promise. What other promises are Singtel not keeping?
5. Singtel doesn't deliver on Sundays (so I was told by the guy handling my call). In that case, it means that Singtel over-promised. It promised to do something that it cannot deliver. What else is Singtel over-promising?

So if you are thinking about signing up anything new with Singtel, take a look at the above before you make that decision.

Kway chap

Kway chap (also kueh chap) is a Teochew cuisine that I haven't eaten for a while... I used to have this when I was much younger, eating together with my father (this was one of his favourite food). I don't remember the last time I ate kway chap... but it must have been while my father was still alive. Today, after more than 10 years, I ate this dish again, and was reminded about my father.

Of course, it was a very nice dish too. Guess I will be eating this more often from now.

Hungry Ghosts Festival

The seventh month of the lunar calendar has started yesterday. It signaled the start of the Hungry Ghosts Festival, a traditional event for the Chinese to pray to their ancestors. In Singapore, it means the start of the getai, with lots of people singing on makeshift stages all over the island. It is going to be a lively month!

Esmeralda in town

The Chilean training ship, Esmeralda, is in town. It is berthed at Vivocity and open to the public for visits. While I did not take time to visit the ship, I did go down to grab some pictures.

Celebrating Singapore's 47th birthday

Today is National Day in Singapore. It has been 47 years since Singapore gained independence. A good time to reflect on what it means to be Singaporean.

RSN Leads a Multinational Task Unit in Naval Exercise off Hawaii

Fly our nation's flag high in the waters off Hawaii, thousands of miles from home. Well done guys!

RSN Leads a Multinational Task Unit in Naval Exercise off Hawaii

Kiasu Singaporeans

Singaporeans are known for being kiasu, or being afraid of losing. Yet this fear of losing is exactly what causes us to lose. Because when you are afraid of losing, it clouds your judgment... your mind keeps thinking about loss, it becomes preoccupied with loss rather than focusing on the issue at hand. In the end, this fear of losing becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy; the mind becomes preoccupied, thus it is not able to analyse what is needed to succeed, and thus you end up failing.

It is time we wean ourselves from this bad trait. Yes, it is good to stay competitive, it is good to want to come up top. But we should not become too preoccupied with success or failure to the point that we lose sight of the important things in life.

Fatal accident on Tanah Merah Coast Road

There was an accident along Tanah Merah Coast Road yesterday, in which one died and 25 others were injured. It sounded very familiar. There was once when I was driving along that same road, when a dumpster came head on towards me. That dumpster was trying to overtake another dumpster on the opposite lane, and strayed into my lane. I quickly kept as left as I could to the side of the road, the dumpster passed me by inches, and I lived to tell the tale. The road is not dangerous; it is made dangerous by those who misuse it.

More malls rolling out free wi-fi

Saw this article about more malls rolling out free wi-fi in Singapore.

It is about time... if a coffee shop in Vietnam offers free wi-fi, as the "most future-ready Asian city", Singapore should not be far behind, if not actually leading the edge.

Learning from classics

The world is ever changing, so some would ask, "What can we learn from the study of the classics?" Classical works dating from ancient China and ancient Greece might have been appropriate for their times, but how relevant are they in today's world? After all, the ancient world did not have computers, the Internet, the United Nations, electricity, modern transportation, etc.

Yet I believe there can be things that we can continue to learn from the classics. After all, human nature has not changed. While technology may be advanced over the last two millenia, things dealing with human nature and the dealings between human beings (such as social sciences) are still as relevant today as they were two thousand years ago. That is probably why we still continue to study the classical Greek works by Plato and Socrates, why the thoughts of Sun-tzu, Confucius and Lao-tzu are still being studied today.

Article: Spoilt West invites its own decline

Just want to share this article by Peter Hartcher, the international editor at the Sydney Morning Herald. It echoes my thoughts about how we are fueling inflation without basis and eventually, the bubble will burst and we will be in trouble.
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Spoilt West invites its own decline
June 12, 2012

It is easy and natural to think of the woes of the West's main powers as an economic problem. Because that's the way it is presented to us. And it is economic - at least, superficially. But if you take a step back, what we're really living through is the decline of the West.

It's not just about Spain's debts and Europe's currency, or even just about Europe. It's not just about Washington's deficits and the US recession, or even just about the US.

These are the symptoms and the locations of a common dysfunction, not driven by some remote economic force but by people and politics. That dysfunction is very human, very normal and very simple. The central driver in the decline of the West is indulgence.

This indulgence has worked through three channels. First is government spending. In country after country, political leaders have indulged their electorates and powerful special interests. They gave in to demands and pressures and expectations. They spent money they didn't have. Everyone wants more handouts and bigger subsidies but no one wants to pay more taxes. Political leaders are supposed to manage these conflicting pressures in the national interest. They did not. The deficits began and didn't stop. They piled up.

The main powers of the Western bloc, since World War II at least, have included not just western Europe and the US but also Japan. All three of these huge economies have been guilty of extravagant spending and inadequate taxing.

The pensioners and public servants and governments of Greece have had a lot of bad press in the last year or two for their indulgence. They've been roundly abused for expecting too much in welfare payments and retirement benefits and for not paying enough tax.

And it's true there has been quite a bit of wasteful middle-class welfare and ill-disciplined social welfare paid to the voters of many eurozone countries. But most of the governments of Europe have also wantonly indulged powerful special interests.

Farmers, for example. Almost half the European Union's annual budget - 47 per cent - is spent on subsidies to farmers. The Common Agricultural Policy props up hopelessly uncompetitive farmers who should have gone out of business.

But they are a powerful and organised political force, so they get paid for being uncompetitive. This is a weakness shared by Japan and the US, too, though not as extravagantly.

The most famous American subsidisation of a special interest is its wasteful spending on military programs. In the early 2000s, the US accounted for only 5 per cent of world population but just under half of all global military spending. Another way of putting it is that the US spent almost as much on defence as the other 190 countries of the world put together.

Japan's special fetish has long been construction spending. Not just since the tsunami but for decades before that. In 2003, for instance, it spent 40 per cent of the national budget on construction in what was already one of the world's most overbuilt countries.

One reason was the fact that, for a long time, the construction sector kicked back a share of the money to the politicians who decided the spending. Under the reign of one former top figure in the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party, Shin Kanemaru, it was a fixed 2 per cent cash kickback on contracts awarded - a huge pay-off.

The second channel through which indulgence was exercised was the central banks. Central banks in Japan, then the US and Europe, made money too cheap for too long. It was an indulgence. But it was a fatal one.

Central banks were granted independence from politicians for an excellent reason - most people love low interest rates and politicians love giving people what they want. But if you keep rates too low for too long, it pushes up prices and creates terrible problems. Until the 1980s, excess money went into the price of consumer goods and you got inflation breakouts.

But from the '80s onwards, something changed. Excess money started flowing into the price of assets instead - shares and real estate, in particular. The Japanese let this happen in the '80s and when the ''bubble economy'' popped, it went into a slump from which it is still recovering.

The US - telling itself it was special and different and better and, in any case, it had the genius Alan Greenspan - made exactly the same mistake. It got the same result.

Why did it do it? Greenspan, as Jim Grant of Grant's Interest Rate Observer sagely said, was a better politician than he was a central banker. He kept the great American party going and became a national hero for doing it, even though it was intoxicated on cheap money, until it came to its inevitable end.

The third channel was the banking sector and the high-rolling investment banks in particular. Politicians and regulators in the US, mainly, but also in Europe, indulged the fantastic profitability and the generous political donations of the investment banks.

Under cover of the ideology of the free market and its supposedly miraculous ability to reach perfect equilibrium, they created new and virulent ways of profiteering from the great gushers of cheap money flowing from the central banks. Subprime mortgage lending was one.

Of course, when it all crashed, the political leaders had to bail out the banks. And that was expensive. The cost was added to the towering public debts that the politicians had already accumulated. And so the cycle feeds itself anew.

By last year, the average public debt of the eurozone nations was 82 per cent of the size of their total gross domestic product, far above the permitted maximum of 60 per cent. In the US, the figure was 103 per cent. In Japan it was 230 per cent.

As these great Western powers grew richer, they grew flabbier and more indulgent to the point of collapse.

It's a very old story in the history of civilisations, told anew in our time.

Peter Hartcher

Getting money for the job

When given a problem to solve, there are two ways to go about it:
1. Find out what you need to solve the problem, keep asking for those resources (the money...) until you get it.
2. Find out what you resources you can get, then work within those resources to solve the problem.

Option 1 sounds to me like someone who is really serious about solving the problem, and thus he keeps trying to make sure he has everything he needs to solve the problem. He wants to make sure he does a proper job of solving the problem.

Option 2 sounds to me like someone who just wants to solve the problem... get the boss off his back. It may seem like a solution at first, but it probably won't hold in the long run...but then, the guy is no longer around to be blamed. Problem is then passed to the next guy.

So, are you serious about it? Or are you just buying time? Do you get what you need to solve the problem? Or work within your means to solve the problem? Do you take the difficult way, or choose the easy way out?

Transit of Venus

Rare event happening... the next time this happens will be in 2117, long after I am gone. It is the transit of Venus through the Sun, and it is happening on 5 and 6 June 2012. I should be able to see it tomorrow morning starting around 6am.

Work is the best form of cohesion

Some years back, one of my bosses told me that "work is the best form of cohesion". Today, I am starting to truly understand what this really means. We can do all sorts of team-building activities together, like playing paintball, those leadership games, having retreats. But nothing brings together a group so much as having a common goal and working together towards it.

Forced break to rest

I haven't had a chance to really practise taiji for a while. Not because I am lazy, but because the work schedule lately has been so tight. When you sleep only 3 hours a day, after 5 days when the weekend finally comes, even if I want to go for taiji practice, the body tells me "no" and I end up sleeping the weekend away, just to catch up on lost sleep.

Hopefully, the work schedule lightens up a bit, and I get to catch up on lost taiji practice soon.

Japan and the Wider World

This is a book by Akira Iriye, about Japan's foreign policy. It offers a good insight on the development of Japan's foreign policy since the Meiji Restoration, and how it is based on pragmatism rather than idealism. Japan's foreign policy is not guided by an ideology; instead, it seeks to protect Japanese interests in a changing world. Living in Japan and interacting with the Japanese, I kind of feel that this is very true. The Japanese are quick to bring in foreign ideas if they are useful, because they are practical people. This practicality probably reflects in her foreign policy as pragmatism.

Passion drives the poet's pen

Passion drives the poet's pen,
The ink runs dry when love goes out;
Sorrow drives the writer's hand,
Ideas stop flowing when joy is about.

Where is the porridge shop?

Where did the Simon Road Teochew porridge shop go?

It used to be at Simon Road, then it shifted to Block 529 at Ang Mo Kio Street 52 for a while, before shifting to a coffeeshop at the corner of Upper Serangoon Road and Jalan Rengkam. But after a year of absence, when I return to that coffeeshop, the porridge shop is no longer there.

So sad... I grew up eating at that porridge shop. The owner is an acquaintance of my father too. And now, I don't know where it has gone.

I will miss the food...

Don't make it a chore

Sometimes, when we have lots to do, we end up demanding less. We are happy just to finish the tasks, we no longer push ourselves to do each task to the best of our abilities. This is understandable; it is human nature. Yet, it deprives each task of its meaning, its purpose. We do each task for a purpose, yet when we do each task just to complete it, it then becomes a chore. Something that just needs to be done.

When our tasks become chores, people lose their sense of purpose, they do not see meaning in the tasks they do. The tasks they do may have great purpose and meaning, but the people doing them no longer see these. The end (being able to complete the chores) becomes the aim.

Thus, when we are busy because we have our hands full, all the more we need to demand that the work we do is of high standards, all the more we must demand of ourselves to deliver the best that we can. A compromise does not lessen the workload; it only lessens the purpose and meaning.

Learning from the best

The Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) system, our train/subway system in Singapore, has been experiencing delays every once in a while due to technical faults. While it is easy to convince ourselves that MRT has been putting a significant amount of money into preventive maintenance to reduce the occurrences of technical faults, the fact remains that technical faults still happen, and result in delays.

Yes, the MRT is a complex train/subway system that move lots of people each day. Like all systems, it is not perfect and there is always the possibility of technical faults. But if we compare the MRT with the train/subway system in Japan, especially Tokyo, the MRT can no longer claim to be complex. And the Tokyo train/subway system moves much more people each day too. Yet it is rare that one hears the Tokyo train/subway system being delayed due to technical faults. Why?

What is it that the Japanese are doing that we are not already doing? In Tokyo, they have obviously mastered the system for an efficient train/subway system. No other city can compare with them in scale, complexity or punctuality (MRT is never punctual... it does not have a timetable, just an estimated interval between trains). What can we learn from them to better our system, especially as ours grow in complexity with the introduction of more lines in the future?

Or have we grown complacent enough to think that we have achieved world class? Has our cup become so full that we cannot pour any more into it?

* Tokyo trains do get delayed, but that is usually due to acts of God (like the need to check the system after each earthquake to make sure that it is safe) or accidents (such as people falling onto the tracks, or vehicles on the tracks), or the morning rush hour (people taking more time to get on/off trains). But the system always tries its best to get back on schedule.

Imperial overstretch?

China seems to be taking actions that make the US more deeply rooted in Asia.We have seen how the US has already committed to deploying 1 to 2 Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) to the region. This is in spite of growing pressure at home to cut defence spending. US fiscal situation is also dependent on foreign borrowing, with a large percentage of US bonds being bought by China and Japan.

Now, China is not stupid; she did not survive thousands of years being stupid. Maybe her recent actions are aimed at pushing the US towards imperial overstretch? By forcing the US to spend more on defence when the US can barely afford to. And if the US pushes Japan to take up a bigger share of the balancing, China can accuse Japan of growing remilitarism. And Japan can barely afford to increase defence spending, given her stagnant economy and the need to commit rebuilding efforts after the tsunami and earthquake.

By pushing the US and Japan to overspend, China is pushing them towards imperial overstretch, while making them more dependent on the Chinese economy to fund their economies. After all, China is Japan's largest trading partner too. In the end, China may win the hegemonic war without a fight; after all, Sun-tzu advocates that the greatest way to win a war is without fighting, and China just might have found the strategy to do so.

Losing touch with nature

One of my thoughts after reading this book, which I really agree with. As hunter-gatherers, our ancestors lived as part of nature, taking from it just enough, living in rhythm with nature. But once we started a sedentary lifestyle, once we start agriculture, we are living against the natural order of things. We started playing god. We grow plants where there used to be none, we clear forests, we breed and raise animals, all out of the natural order of things. We have lost touch of living together with nature.

Is what we gained worth what we have lost?

China's rise and Japan's remilitarisation

Two books that I recently read for a broad understanding about the rise of China and Japan's remilitarisation. Both are good introductions to their central themes.

Trapped Giant: China's Troubled Military Rise (Adelphi series)
This is about the recent rise of China, both economically and militarily, and the implications it holds for the Asia-Pacific region. It talks about US relations with China, and how other countries in the region, particularly India, Japan, Russia and Vietnam, are building up their military as a counterbalance to China's military build-up.

Japan's Remilitarisation (Adelphi series)
The last two decades have seen Japan sending her military beyond her borders, and she is now more proactive in her military deployments. This book talks about the changes in Japan's defence policy, especially given the nuclear and missile threat from North Korea, as well as the military rise of China. It also uses opinion polls to show that the Japanese people are growing less anti-militaristic.

Use the black pen, not the red pen

I was told by someone that a good boss is someone who uses the black pen, not the red pen. When you use the red pen, you are correcting someone else's ideas. When you use the black pen, you are coming up with your own ideas. Bosses with good ideas provide vision; bosses who correct ideas dampen motivation. It is something that I will keep in my mind as I try to be a good supervisor to the people working for me.

A sign of spring - Kawazu sakura (河津桜)

Spring is finally arriving... as shown by the blooming of the kawazu sakura (河津桜), a type of cherry blossom that blooms slightly earlier than the rest.

We went to Miura a few days ago to enjoy a view of the blooming flowers. There were kawazu sakura trees lining the railway tracks.

And as we walked along the tracks, we got to enjoy a great view of the blooming cherry blossom, as well as other flowers. Spring is indeed here (or almost here... it is still cold).

Even the birds are out, frolicking amongst the flowers.

And hiding amongst the reeds.

The kites are out hunting for food too.

Mt Fuji on 21 Mar 2012

Here's a picture of Mt Fuji taken on 21 Mar 2012, in the evening, just as the sun was setting.

Ski at Akakura

We went for another ski trip in Feb 2012, to Akakura (赤倉) in the Myoko Highlands (妙高高原).

The kids were still too small to ski, so we rented sleds for them to play with.

The snow was really good... it had been snowing heavily for the past few weeks before we arrived, so there was lots of snow. In fact, it was snowing so heavily on the day we arrived, that it was hard to drive. But we were greeted with a beautiful snowscape.

And you can even spot the tracks of hares in the beautiful snow... a sign that life exists even in this harsh winterscape.

The 4m of accumulated snow, from all that snowing this winter...