Sunday, August 27, 2006
Busy, Brain Birthday and Booze
Will have a different blog entry for once, too busy with the so many things in life... here's a glance:
Week One:
WGT--- monday to thursday
VIVACE (CCA fair)--- friday
Nitebike 2006 recce--- saturday-sunday
here are the things outstanding...
Research Paper on Electronic Transaction Act
Internship Report to SMU
New Blogskin
New Website
Virtuoso 2006 (song writing competition)
Minutes for CLAP! last saturday... eek!
School Work.
Somehow, i always have a conflict juggling between brain and my other aspect of life. There are 2 ways which i can feel at ease with myself, one is to have intellectual conquest... eg research, innovating and stuff, the other way is to be someone with a big heart and be there for the people whom i really want to care about. it wasn't until only recently that i think i have some successes in juggling between the 2 aspect. in the past, the brainy ty was loathed by many. always in his world of his own and simplying not caring a hoot about anybody. but somehow during the summer term, i did realise that whilst i was sitting in class, happily doodling my own ideas away, i too manage to take care of my own proj mate and ensure that they benefit from what i am doodling. (in the weeks to come, however, i realise that do not translate into grade, but i am certainly not put off by it, the grade was nothing but a travesty).
Oops... i skipped my bdae like that in the blog. Hmm... somehow, this yr bdae is different from other years. many of my long time peer knows i do give a huge damn about bdae but i often choose how i wanna celebrate it. this year, had the biggest crowd of all time. spread over a period of time. and the most coveted prezzie of all... liverpool's new homekit. hmm amazingly, few people even know i am an ardent liverpool fan.... since 1993... actually, i also realised its at bdae that i reassess my standing with the various people in my life. and this year, i take special note of people who like to pay lip service to me all these years (well partially bcos i have bad exposure at work).
Attended a post orientation dinner held by the SMU admin staff, and strangely enough, i never realise how american this school is until i saw the beer keg at the corner. honestly, everytime, i go for some event with food, i always see beer keg. there seem to be alcohol at almost all the school functions for students... not bad a culture eh? unfortunately, i realise with my growing tummy, its time to cut down on alcohol. its getting in the way of my table tennis... can't realli use my body to disguise my serve anymore... need to lose some weight over the course of the next month, gonna be a bike leader for the nitebike... sigh... can't disappoint.
posted @ 10:55 PM ||
Thursday, August 10, 2006
The truth about progress package
Somewhere in may, the govt just gave out one of its largest payout to singaporean aged 21. whilst many singaporeans are happily enjoying the money, i have an alternative view on this. the progress package is not as benefitial as it seems at all. Ever since May, prices of transportation have gone up, be it taxi and now bus ride. Soon after the election, the govt has implement a "yellow box" smoke zone tax. Where is the government allowing for all this when SBS is still earning big fat profit of $200million annually? Does the answer really lies in the price increase of crude oil?
Perhaps. But in my opinion, the underlying reason, which the public will find it hard to accept is progress package. The government is forced to reduce the inflationary pressure off the private sector after giving such a big payout. Let's take a more commonsensical, economic approach. When the government gives out money to its people. There is only 2 outcome. They spend it or they save it. Now we zoom in abit more and ask ourself, how is the money given out? it is progressive or regressive? kinda obvious, its regressive. hence, the money given is more likely to be spent than any other purpose. So now on a macro level, we now have a scenario where there is higher demand of commodities. so as across the board, price level will go up. Being regressive, the progress package will definitely have different impact on different goods. we also have to note that singapore does not exactly manufacture many of the goods, a large portion of it is actually foreign import. now, that's where the trick come, prices will confirm go up, due to the sudden injection of such a large amount of funds. the government job now is to keep the inflow locally and not out of it. it is not a delibrate attempt to "tax" back all the money. but more rather, it is to limit outflow of sing dollar and to maintain exchange rate. a sudden outflow of sing dollar will lower the exchange rate of sing dollar against almost all other currency. that will in turn raise the price of almost everything in singapore (which is much worse than just the measly increment we get for bus fare, so dun complain ok). but bottomline, the caused of it all is progress package. a government should never give out money like that, no matter how much money they have (trust ong teng cheong to even propose it when he was president, now Lee Hsien has done it... well, in my opinion... its just plain stupid. the balloon has been lying there to tempt so many people, yet it is him who burst it... sigh... i can that sums up my disappointment towards the 3rd generation PAP leaders).
posted @ 10:41 PM ||
