TR EMERITUS

Why is Trump being hated everywhere. ? Because Crony Capitalism aka Klaptocracy has spread globally through Globalization the past 2 centuries . The privileged has been the enslaver instead of the liberators . This type of Stupidity are the Sins of the Flesh. The very One that Christ are called to resolves. Worldliness is the Word. where the Corrupted hates the Incorruptible . Here in Singapore we who were Anti Crony Establishments were targets of Foriegn Cronies which filled up all governmental institutions here . The entire Singaporean Society were made up of Foriegn Cronies who treats Native Singaporeans as their Slaves in Our homeland . Trump's re-election is to stops this Evils of Crony Capitalism from spreading Globally inwhich the Uncouth trives at the expense of honest peaceful Citizens .   Simon lim      Read More →

There are 3 key problems with Singapore's current COVID-19 strategy (and I am saying this as someone who was praising Singapore's initial response): 1) A few days ago, targeted shutdowns at entertainment spots seem like a smart strategy to contain the virus. But the targeted shutdowns are reactive, not proactive. If they had been done earlier, it could have helped stopped the spread. But doing it at the current stage where there are 20 or so cases of local community transmission on average everyday means they are not effective enough to deal with the community spread. A non-essential stop-movement order for 14 days is necessary to break the chain of transmission in the community. In terms of getting essential supplies, one way is to allocate staggered timings to local communities/blocks of flats for purchases at supermarkets, so that contact between different batches of people is limited. Better still, supermarkets should implement a nationwide online delivery system, and coordinate with existing delivery drivers to do so. Singapore is small enough to implement such a nationwide online program. The decision makers need to develop the IT system for this. In addition, more subsidies need to be provided for job retention and wage protection. The 25% wage subsidies need to be increased. Denmark is doing 75%. Grants for unemployed workers need to be increased. The S$800 is not sufficient. A figure closer to S$2,000 is needed to ensure basic living can be met. (2) The irrational school suspension/non-shutdown system: currently, schools are only suspended for a day for disinfection when infected confirmed COVID-19 cases are found. And students are now being put on a once a week online learning at home. But social distancing works as a strategy when it limits transmission via ensuring people do not congregate within 1 or 2 meters of one another on a prolonged basis or by implementing a 14-day non-contact to break the transmission, which means the current strategy adopted by MOE does not make sense because the 1-day suspension and 1-day online learning break does not sync with disease progression. Both strategies are meaningless in the fight against COVID-19. Shut down schools for 14 days. Shorten the June semester break to compensate for the shutdown. Provide parents with special leave during this period to take care of children. Later on, implement guidelines for school shutdowns for 14 days in the event of confirmed cases. There is still the November and December semester breaks that can be cut short for this. Basically, look at what Taiwan did and is doing. Also, Singapore's curriculum is overloaded. Cut off non-essential curriculum so that student load can be reduced this year. (3) Singapore's approach is a top down one, where people are waiting to be told what to do. Decision making is centralized where people are not informed enough, so that they can be empowered to take proactive action. They are told not to gather, not to panic buy, but there is simply not enough information on why decisions like these are being made from the top. Are the escalating cases going to overwhelm the system in 5, 10, 20 days? Such communication needs to happen. It cannot be a constant reassurance without giving people facts, when people are looking at the data and making their own calculations and conjectures, many times sensible ones. And this is causing panic when people know what they can see from the data but not hearing from the decision makers, and not seeing the more aggressive actions that need to be done to slowdown the spread of the virus. As of yesterday, Singapore has 732 cases, of which 182 are recovered and 432 are still in hospital. Singapore has 330 negative pressure isolation beds which can be increased to 500. Plans are being made to move people with mild symptoms to converted quarantine facilities so as not to overload the isolation wards. As of yesterday, 17 patients are considered critical. Singapore is seeing a steady rise in COVID-19 cases, and there is still a chance to break the chain of transmission, by instituting a social distancing measure that keeps people apart for 14 days except for essential activity. For what it's worth, if the PAP wants to hold the election and win, take aggressive action to cut the transmission so that they can hold whatever election they want to win.     Roy Ngerng      Read More →

While I understand that the number of imported Covid-19 cases will rise as Singapore receives more returnees, I am concerned that the number of local Covid-19 infections seems to be rising. That indicates that there are leaks somewhere in our fight against the virus. In Singapore, we have erected three basic layers of defence to stop the spread of the virus. The first is at the airport where arrivals are screened. We have heard of people taking medication to bring their body temperature down and evade temperature screening. The second layer of containment is home quarantine. The number of people issued with stay-home notices is in the thousands. These people are not tagged, and cannot possibly be monitored 24 hours a day. Not surprisingly, there are reports of violations by people who are either ignorant or irresponsible. The third layer of defence is at clinics, where people who feel sick seek help. Because of the difficulties in making diagnoses on the spot, quite a few cases who were infected with Covid-19 but lacked clear symptoms were sent home with flu medications. There are no foolproof measures against the spread of Covid-19, but the Government can look into quarantining all arrivals and making them wear electronic tags. But ultimately, it is down to the people of Singapore to step up and fight the virus. We cannot carry on as usual and let the Government do the fighting, then blame the Government when the number of infections rises. We must do social distancing; we should not go to school or work if we feel unwell; we must not travel; and we must stay at home as much as possible during this period. We must demonstrate that Singaporeans are socially responsible. Kwok Shao Jong   * Letter first appeared on ST forum and is reproduced for discussion.      Read More →