Sunday, October 18, 2009

Dr Martin Huang

It was reported in Saturday's ST that a doctor by the name of Dr Martin Huang, who runs The Cosmetic Surgery Centre at Paragon, has been censured and fined for injecting sheep foetal cells into three of his patients.

For what? The sheep foetal cells is supposed to slow down ageing and to rejuvenate. The process is called cell therapy. He has also done the procedure on himself.

Perhaps a few years later, we could be reading another news article on an interview with Dr Huang and one of his patients.

Journalist - Both of you certainly look very youthful and radiant. But I notice you have a long streak of beautiful white fur like hair from your chin while Mary has some black hairs on her hands. How come?

Doctor - I feel great. I injected myself with the best foetal cells from New Zealand sheeps. As to Mary, she wanted cheap and good... so I gave her the Malaysian goat foetal cells instead..

After the interview, the doctor and Mary were heard to be arguing in the next room.
Click here to listen to their conversation .

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Pump prices not affected by one factor

Loh Pin Chuan, Public Affairs Manager of ExxonMobil Asia Pacific attempted to reply to Mr Ryan Tung's query on the less than perfect correlation between pump prices and crude oil.

Loh Pin Chuan listed and explained the following factors affecting pump prices:-
a) internationally traded wholesale prices;
b) operating and capital costs;
c) taxes and duties;
d) currency exchange rates; and
e) market competition.

Essentially Pin Chuan's reply confirmed my usual understanding that there are many cost items affecting final retail price of their products or services.

But this explanation led me to the next question ie. do Shell, ExxonMobil, Caltex and SPC all have the same exact cost structures?

Apparently they do as they generally and largely (until recently) adjust their pump prices at about the same time and by the same amount.

Pin Chuan explained the "same-price" phenomenon - "Competition is keen in geographically small Singapore, and motorists are extremely price-sensitive ... no company will allow the others a price advantage at the retail pumps."

There is pro and con in this situation. Motorists are also at the mercy that at least one of the 4 operators make the first move to adjust prices down. If all 4 operators are "lazy" in adjusting down, who is to tell them to adjust?

Sunday, October 04, 2009

Banks try to siam left right and centre?

the beginning of "bridge"

Weeks ago, there were outburst about banks, quietly removing the liability cap from the terms and conditions and the way they handle fraudulent transactions done with stolen/lost cards. Some banks (I think they are Citibank and MayBank) have since chosen to take "honourable road" by re-instating the liability cap.

Today I read about the Law Society president questioning banks' practice of excluding themselves from liability (yes again) for losses suffered by accountholders for forged cheques.

Under the Bills of Exchange Act, your bank is supposed to honour your cheque ie. pay in accordance to written instruction with legitimate approval. The law does not protect the banks from liability from errorneously debiting customer's account without legitimate approval.

Until this unilaterally created confusion is cleared up, you better hang on tighter to your cheque books.