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 .

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?

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.

Good bye Singnet from home!

Today is 29th September 2009 ie. 29092009.

My home Singnet broadband account has finally been terminated after more than 10 years. vpacific@singnet.com.sg has been my email address since day one when internet was first introduced.

I remembered the day when Singnet asked for a "name". I didn't know what it was referring to then and I had suggested "apple". Of course I got turned down.

My next step is to terminate my home line and moving to Starhub for my free unlimited digital line. I would save me another $50 per quarter!

Thank you and good bye, Singnet.

My first Singapore F1 experience

10 metres from the roaring engines

Shenton Way from where we sat

IR in the background

people watching with me

A law for over-queuing?

I do believe that we need a law to prevent too many taxis from queuing at a particular stand. Why? Because the long queue of taxis actually caused traffic jams and hazard to other drivers.

What say you?

F1 is a joke?

F1 in trouble?

I can't believe it when Renault actually admited that the crash by one team mate in Singapore last year was actually staged to allow his team mate to win the chamionship.

The team's top two persons resigned to take responsibility. The team may have to pay a fine in excess of USD$100mio. I am wondering whether last year's results in Singapore F1 circuit is allowed to stand.

I am also wondering why is it wrong for one team mate to do something to help another team mate to win a race. Team mate is allowed to use his car to block other cars passing his team mate's. But you are not allowed to crash your car to help your team? Then why do the F1 ruling body allow each team to field two cars in the first place?

Are you not asking for trouble?

What do you want to be?

In Beijing, a six-year old was asked on what she wants to be when she grow up on her first day in school.

"When I grow up I want to be an (government) official," said the girl.

"What kind of official?" the interviewer asked.

"A corrupt official because corrupt officials have a lot of things," she replied.

$100 Liability Cap for Lost Credit Cards

a lop-sided world

Basically, in my humble opinion, the Banks who HAD placed unlimited liabilities for lost credit cards on credit cardmembers, were just taking the easy way out on the weak individual.

When I first started work in the Bank many years ago, there was the $100 liability cap.

I wasn't even aware the Banks had removed that limit cap and instead placed unlimited liability on individual credit cardmembers. The banks quietly amended the terms and conditions.

From Nov 1, 2009, the limit cap of $100 will be back in place.

Between merchants who are contributing to the Banks' bottomline and thousands of individual cardmembers, the Banks had chosen not to pick their fight with the merchants.

The cashiers of these merchants should and could have verified the identity and signature of the person using the cards. But on many occassions, these cashiers hardly pay attention to what you are scribbling on the vouchers. The Banks had chosen NOT to fault the merchants in fraudulent transactions but instead placed the blame on you for not reporting early enough. You, like Ms Tan Shock Ling must be responsible for the full amount charged until proven otherwise. In her case, $17,000 bill!!!!!

Luckily for all honest credit cardmembers, some good people in Association of Banks or MAS may have the guts to change!! Bravo to you!!!!

"I walk faster... "

a new world in the making

"I find myself walking faster upon my return from Hong Kong," so says a friend who has just return home from holidays.

I thought that was an interesting description. While I have been to Hong Kong for both work and pleasure on many occassions, I would often just give the boring line "Hong Kong's pace of life is faster... you can feel the energy there... people there are always on a lookout for opportunity to make money... "

In a two-hour conversation I had with an ex-Mainland Chinese who has taken up Singapore citizenship, I notice a significant level of energy and positivism in her. Despite the fact that she is holding a more than credible job now, she does not hesitate to talk about opportunities as a stockbroker, property agent etc etc. She illustrated to me that she is very meticulous and focus in moving up. Her feeling of being discriminated as a Mainland Chinese made her work harder and smarter.

When I tried to lighten her enthusiasm for property agency with news on recent lull in transactions just 6-9 months ago, she said she is very confident she would have some deals to work on and one must stay positive.

My 3rd story along this theme was about my colleague, a girl in mid twenties. We were on assignment in KL. She said this to me, "I don't know how to cross the road without the traffic light."

Final words - The above stories reinforce my belief that young people in their early career path should seek job opportunities that would allow them to travel or work in a foreign environment. The world outside Singapore is very different. For better or for worse.

Get out of our shell and experience that to get the best out of you!

KPIs for Town Councils

a lift for 2-storey building?

Tentatively, Town Councils will be assessed on five indicators in total on cleanliness, maintenance and financial management.

It is about time that some sort of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are put in place. The KPIs suggested are from both financial and non-financial oriented.

In any performance measurement exercise, the subjects being measured and users of the final information would be very interested to know how are they measured.

If cleanliness is measured by the number of litters seen in 3 sample blocks, examples of things we would want to know would be:-

• how are the blocks selected,
• who is conducting the inspection and;
• how regular will the inspection be done.

Other courses there are many possible performance measures. My view would be response time to lift emergencies and maintenance schedule of lifts would have an immediate life threatening feature as compared to 3 pieces of litters not collected for 3 days.

As I am a number person, I would be very interested in the use of public fund in managing the estate. May I refer you to the picture above. We are looking at the construction of a lift to a 2-storey building by the Town Council serving about 10-15 families. I am very interested in how they arrive at the decision to do just that.

Make all kind of prejudices disappear

In today's Today, Ooi Kee Beng wrote a piece entitled "Can Najib (the Malaysian PM) drop 'Malays' from UMNO. The Malaysian PM is trying to get his government to drop the need to specify one's race in official documents.

Singapore has actually gone through the similar exercise of reviewing the need for job applicants to fill up information about sex, marital status, religion, race, weight and height in the application forms or even advertisers specifying the criteria of their potential hires.

For advertising matters, there are editors to ensure compliance but how about employers? Are they still using forms from the third world?

What is your experience on the above? Just wondering whether the above is actually being practiced in the real world. Share your view at AnythingWithEdgar.

Two killed on rail track!

another type of accident

Two Republic Polytechnic students (a boy, age 19 and a girl, age 20) were knocked down and killed by a train bound for Johor Bahru at about 5am on 8 Aug 2009.

It is very rare and difficult for a fatal accident to occur with a railway train in Singapore.

On that fateful morning, two young persons died on the railway track.

There are so many whys:-
a) Was the train moving too fast?
b) Did the young people even tried to move?
c) Were they sleeping on the track?
d) Were they too drunk to move?
e) Why were they still out at such unholy hours?
f) Were they drinking nearby?
g) Did anyone notice the couple?

Chai Chee and Bedok Town Secondary Schools

It was announced recently that the two secondary schools will merge at the start of academic year 2011.

Subsequently it was reported that an online "war of words" broke out.. of course with students (past and present) from the respective schools coming forth with their pros and cons...

If that online war is true,then the management of both schools should be commended for having done their job of building their respective identity well among their students over the "short" years of existence.

If there were no passion, there will be just plain acceptance of the merger. It is so sad that that sense of belonging to an alma mater would disappear with the merger.

Perhaps the Authority should place a wee bit more importance before deciding to wipe a school out of existence or merge two schools in a new entity. Perhaps the Authority has no choice but to merge... Why no choice?

Consequence of not enough babies!!!

Are there many Jennie Chuas in Singapore?

Who is Jennie Chua? I had a brief encounter with her a few years ago. She came across as a very friendly and no-air person. Her biodata and achievements to date as follows.

Chairman, Singapore International Chamber of Commerce
Chief corporate officer, CapitaLand
Chairman, Raffles Hotel
# 1945 Born in Singapore
# 1971 BA, Cornell University, School of Hotel Management

Partial list of other positions:-
# Chairman, Community Chest
# Deputy chairman, Workforce Development Agency
# Board member, Sentosa Development Corporation
# Chairman, Singapore Film Commission
# Chairman, International Advisory Council for Tourism, Singapore Tourism Board
# Member, Pro-Enterprise Panel
# Holds 21 company directorships

Why am I showing you all of the above? To show you that she is a very successful and capable lady. But...

I have attached a quote from an interview published in this Saturday's BT Raffles Conversation.

When the interviewer asked how she manages her time, Jennie said,
'And I do have time. I'm divorced, so don't have a husband and don't need to spend time mollycoddling him; I have a companion, but he mollycoddles me! I don't play golf, which can take up two afternoons a week. My children are grown, and as for grandchildren, well, you play with them, and when you're tired you say, now please go home.'

'On the whole, I have to say I've had a wonderful life.'

My interpretation of that quote is that she sees having a husband as a chore, having a companion as good, children as no longer an issue and grandchildren as fun as long as she is not tired.

Perhaps the quote has been taken out of context by me. Not doing justice to her.

But the issue here is not on Jennie per se. I just wish to ask whether this is the price of having a successful career to a man or a woman. There is always a price!

Another Singtel mindgame?

Its $30 voucher to buy a phone OR $8 rebate per month for 24 months' contract.

If you choose to buy a new phone in the middle of the 24 months, rebate stops.
But if you terminate / downgrade / temporary suspend your contract, you will have to pay:-
$8 x no. of months with rebate plus $50 adminstrative fee.

What is Singtel trying to achieve?
Try to buy your loyalty (AGAIN, as in 2nd attempt) for 24 months with this kind of crap deal in my humble opinion. My loyalty is worth more. Perhaps Singtel should more loyalty to your customers with a sincere deal.

What do you think?

Election in Indonesia

the security I experience in a hotel in Jakarta BEFORE the recent bomb blast

far away from the lobby

No news is good news as one commentator said of the peaceful election in Indonesia.

I was in Jakarta last week. My client (supposed to be well informed) was not aware of the election date when I briefly enquired about the election. In my two hours' ride to and fro the airport, there was hardly any messy signs that the country is currently in election mode.

The election process in Singapore (just shown on TV5 news) for Indonesia surprised me. Any Indonesian citizens who walk in with a valid passport will be entitled to exercise their constitution right. Bravo to that!!

I hope Malaysia will that step in the next election.

Ponzi scheme here in Singapore?

ion continues to take shape

On Madoff's billions dollars Ponzi Scheme, the Judge asked Madoff before he sentenced him to maximum 150 years in prison, "Where did you learn the scheme from?"

Madoff clamly responded, "The Social Security Scheme."

Couple of months ago, I said US government could actually be doing a Ponzi-scheme too with its government bonds and Treasury bills. Upon maturity of $1 billion worth 5-year bills, the government would borrow $1.05 billion to repay the principal and interest of the maturing bills.

In Singapore, CPF collects contributions from current generation of working adults and paying out to the retiring group. Take for example - Every month, CPF collects $10 from thousands of employers and pays out $2 to people reaching 55 years or to estates of people who have passed away.

Madoff had been comfortable with a $8 positive margin to finance his lifestyle and massive marketing machinery for so many years. He only started to feel the heat when more and more people withdraw their monies.

The only difference is that our money with CPF are being invested in productive assets and thus generating income to pay interest. What if we reach the stage that we are unable to generate decent returns, the possibility of huge investment losses and a definite scenario of increasing no. of baby boomers withdrawing their lifelong savings?

Could we degenerate into another Ponzi scheme? Never says never. But we certainly must not let that happen.

Climb Mt. Everest for what?

Excuse me, why 6 beautiful ladies spent so many years of their lives and so much of don't know whose money, preparing and finally successfully scaling the Mt. Everest?

Can someone explain to me from their point of view?

Economic Strategies Committee

The Ministry of Finance yesterday unveiled the members of the Economic Strategies Committee (ESC) and spelt out its mission to develop strategies to keep the economy growing - and spread the gains to Singaporeans.

I thought I heard from the various senior government representatives recently that there is no need for the Economic Review Committee (ERC) to be reconstituted as Singapore is structurally sound this time round. The problem of collapse of external demand is beyond Singapore's ability to singularly remedy.

No need for ERC but we need ESC.