bepgof

PPls with different "needs" & "wants", hard to please at one go, or hard to have a "fair deal" on relocation. -Older ppls generally dislike/resist "change",whether the "change" will bring them good or bad. Have to use "force" to execute the change. PAP has intelligently translated "forces" into legislation over the years. Legislation = last time's emperor order. - Can we, the commoners, modify the emperor order? - There is no fair deal in this world, exactly the same to "no free lunch", however, we observe the repeating cycles of reality of "big fish eat" and "small fish eat prwan". Big eats small, small eats smaller, smaller eats smallest, tis cycle never stop till end of world. - Be realise that BIG does the speaking.

Politicians/elites/scholars love to use this 3-step tactic(3c): - Convince, confuse, condemn. Convince fails, confusion comes, follow by condemning at last. Must learn this when one climbs coporate ladder. Once they are empowered, they don't even bother to convince, they will sing Boney M's "one-way ticket".

Sis, thank you for your compliment or "souring"?? 1st reading feel sweet, read again felt abit "sour" taste. A month or 2 back, one forumer suggested me to pm u(my words are "heavier" than others?)to stop PMing "bad fsm list", I and replied with some "excuses" and ignored the suggestion till I read jac87's post. Good intention and hardwork at times invite unintended results, you know I know. Wise to let forumers trying out their "fate/luck" on fsms. Sorry for my kpo.

BTO price is slightly below resale presently. To prepare for my children's afordability of HDB flats, I prepared 2 tables. One based on yearly price increment of 5%yoy, another is 10% yoy. If resale price increase between 5-10% in the coming years, be "standby":

If u bring this up to previous's Mah BT & present's Raymond Lim, very likely they will tell u this scares away the big investors and leave singaporeans with no jobs. Anyway, school fees can have different rate for different status of ppl, why can't the same be apply for transportation. Or even the "public housing"? Say PRs pay a premium to gov over the mkt rate of flats, right? Another ways to increase nation's reserve, right? Should ask WP's Low TK to do the "bombardment".

What's the rationale can activate own cpf fund for studying only FULL TIME at U but not PART TIME? Scare that U graduates flooded over the streets? I guess this was Tony Tan's concern. Likely after GE, MOE will amend the PSLE's mother tongue weightage. Changing ministers like changing clothes, now they may have realised their "mistake", nowonder Goh CT mentioned a minister to stay for 4 terms. Wondering who sets the stupid rule for primary principals to stay for only 6 years. Why MOE couldn't imagine what will happen to a company with CEOs keep changing? They only stress that the ruling party cannot be changed! Whose's interests at heart?

Are there any figures published openly? I resonate with yr last 2 paragraphs only. There are many ways & means to compete and attract foreign talents to put singapore on top of the world, but by spending public's $ in this way....err too much! Should spend all these $ to upgrade the schools, teachers......Education minister keeps changing also too much leh. Tony Tan, Teo CH, Ng...

I guess you "eat rice but don't know the price of rice": Now resale mkt: - 3rm = $350,000, 4rm = 450,000, 5rm = $550,000 Assume take HDB loan, 90%, 30yr tenure@2.6% interest rate: Monthly instalments: 3rm = $1,261 4rm = $1,621 5rm = $1,981 CPF now capped at $4,500, total contribution = 15.5+20 = 35.5%, both husband & wife each capped at $4,500. Each's OA = $855.42. 2 persons will be $1710.84, Not enough to cover the monthly instalment for a 5 rm ! need to fork out CASH! Not to mention those with lower wage! 11.1% price increase rate is much more > 5% of the CPI rate. Median wage increase = 1.2%!

Thanks for the reminder, do you regard this sort of scholarships are "needs", healthy and good to a nation like singapore? Remembered yrs ago when Tony Tan who was the education minister has said: "2 uni are enough".

Must be those "kaKiang" RC members who want to carry the balls.....Let's see how the ED reacts. It is a "timebomb", ED should act and do something before too late.

Invitation by letter or self walk in does makes the difference. Look like PAP is aware the gate has open too wide in a sudden and the impacts that have brought upon. Learnt & amend is a smart move.

Jialat liao, SDP's Vincent Wijeysingha "wants" to be the first "gay MP". Why SDP candidates like that one? No hope liao. Why WP plays camouflage game? Look like only after the nomination hour is over then know who will contest in which constituencis. A smart move? Scare PAP "last minute" put in "heavy weight"?

Good show at right time, hard to come by. Pity those kena "forced" to play in the "show". My late father's land was requsited when I was 16 yr-old when I was still blurr blurr.

Can find some leads here: - http://leongszehian.com/ - http://theonlinecitizen.com/2011/04/hdb-leong-sze-hian-responds-to-mah-bow-tan/

How come my previous reply to this get disappeared? Worth, provided got minimum $10,000 and able to get "struck" for at least a yr or so. 6% dividend in 2 payments a year, Hyflux has right to give one payment at 6%. No voting rights,.....

Use acid (HCL), use plastic to rub & rub. Keep for 1/2 hr, flush with water. Try the same for a few times.

Use curtain lah. I have a 2-layer curtain installed at hall's window, one thin, one thick. Thin one "on" to let partial light "in". Thick one on, no one can from next blk can see through even the hall's light is on.

Got RC at blk 409 mah.

Try these 3: http://www.howellunited.com.sg/materialshandling_4.htm http://www.yee-sin.com/ http://www.jinyu-trading.com/ JinYu the cheapest.

I second the idea, time advances, human needs to change, change, change, to go towards a new height.

Asset enhancement is only a term but with many different interpretations. Regardless of one or two or three houses, key interest is if owner of asset able to "taste the fruit". Presently the price of public housing is "still ok" and "affordable", however, with the price increase rate of 11.1% each year and compare to the median increase of wage of 1.2% pa, is quite alarming. WP has valid pt of pegging new flat price to median wage. NSP has valid pt of apply 8 yrs MOP to PR buyers.... Believed PAP ministries have somehow "missout" or "failed to coordinate" on application of vital statistical data collected. Otherwise history of home supply and inflow immigrant rate wouldn't be in such a mismatch from 2005 - 2008.

Though I don't stay in Tampines, hope the NSP can get Mah and his team out.

I more I aware of these "unfairness", I bo tahan. Questions are: - At whose's expense? - Bother to make known to public the figures?

Another example of "raiding the nation reserve": - Why have university places for foreigners whereby locals with good results can't get in? Never mind, these foreigners are given scholarship by our government! Take RI's boarding house for examples, the foreign students staying there were under scholarships by MOE! Why like that? Talent trading? Months back, a group of 3 RI JC students approached me through my neighbour for "consultation" of RC plane techniques as they were taking part in a competition, during the process, found out that these 2 out of 3 are under MOE's scholarship to china. Asked them how many of them as they knew of under such scholarship, reply was : many!

An extract from Asiaone forum dated 16/4/11. MBT slapped his own face again, read underlined. To understand how distorted HDB flat prices are, all you need is to take a look at the charts comparing the Straits Times Index (STI), the Private Property Index (PPI) and the HDB Resale Price Index (RPI) over the last 20 years. You could easily see HDB prices going in line with economic fundamentals, especially after the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, the Dot Com Bubble and the Sept 11 terrorist attacks in the United States. However, after the subprime crisis, the STI and the PPI crashed while the HDB RPI kept breaking new record highs. The main reason is simple: extremely low supply met with high demand from Singaporeans and new immigrants. From 2006 to 2008, only 10,950 units were built and during this period, our population grew by about 10 per cent or 439,000 to 4,839,400, mostly through immigration. (Source: HDB annual report FY 2008/2009 and Singapore Department of Statistics) When HDB prices fail to keep in line with economic fundamentals, is the government being responsible? Demand from foreigners: In the March 2010 Parliament sitting, Minister for National Development, Mr Mah Bow Tan said that “PRs make up “only” one in five resale flat buyers and have minimal impact on resale prices.” That’s 20 per cent and considered “minimal”? What is the latest figure now? 30 per cent? Is public housing for Singaporeans or foreigners? Mismanagement of demand: On 14 March 2010 during an interview with CNA, Mr Mah said: “The overall objective is to make sure housing prices do not outstrip real economy… in that sense what we try to do is make sure prices don’t go up faster than incomes and make sure prices don’t go down or crash. And that’s the reason why we target NOT the real demand. The fundamental objective of HDB housing is owner occupation and long-term investment.” From the comment above, it is evident that Mr Mah is ignorant of the fact that prices are already going up faster than incomes. In his recent appearance on television where he broke down in tears, Minister Lim Boon Heng confirmed wages of lower income families were stagnant and worse, falling. Did Mr Mah fail to do what he set out to do, to “[make] sure prices don’t go up faster than incomes”? Also, how do we ensure adequate supply when we do not target real demand? Are housing demands of Singaporeans being ignored? When asked by Nominated Member of Parliament (NMP), Mr Terry Lee, 22 February 2010 in Parliament, Senior Minister of State, Ministry of National Development, Ms Grace Fu said, “The Government does not track the type of properties rented, purchased or owned by new citizens (20,513 in 2008, 2009 data unavailable). As a policy, we do not distinguish between indigenous and new citizens. Our commitment in housing is to provide sufficient and affordable flats for first-time Singaporean homebuyers, whether new citizens or otherwise.” It is also clear that the PAP has no policy to monitor demand from new immigrants as well. How responsible is this? In October 2010, the HDB Chief Executive Officer said: “Well the BTO is a very important initiative because it enables us to gauge the demand, the real demand for flats. So I think using the BTO programme where people have to commit to buying a flat before we build is helpful for us because we know it is real demand. “I think this is one clear benefit. And we will also know whether we are oversupplying or undersupplying based on gauging the demand from the BTO flats.” I have my doubts of the effectiveness of using the BTO programme to gauge real demand. It does not include discouraged young Singaporeans who cannot afford or who may have given up on buying a HDB flat and who are putting up at their parents’ flats. In addition, every BTO project needs time to build. By the time you discover a surge in demand, it will take another 3 to 5 years to find the right balance again. Summary: Singaporeans are forever grateful to the late Mr Lim Kim San for what he has done. From Wikipedia - “In 1960, due to a rapidly increasing population, more than 400,000 people were living in over-crowded conditions in ramshackle “chophouse” buildings or in squatters with substandard living conditions. At this time, Mr. Lim was appointed to the Housing and Development Board (HDB). He had volunteered for the job and had not been paid for 3 long years! It was in this position that Mr. Lim oversaw the massive construction of high-rise, low-cost apartments that will eventually become the main source of housing for Singaporeans. Mr. Lim was known for his organizing and planning abilities. He forwent a detailed planning stage and instead chose a “rough and ready” approach to work fast using rough estimates of the housing requirement. In the first two year of this crash program, over 25,000 units were built, more than what was built in the previous decade. Mr. Lim defied all detractors, in particular those in the Singapore Improvement Trust, who said he could not build 10,000 units a year. A committee was eventually set up under Professor Lim Tay Boh to find out whether the HDB had the capability and the materials to reach the construction goal. By the time Professor Lim’s committee published its report, the HDB had already completed 10,000 units of housing.” If Mr Lim Kim San could do it, why is Mr Mah blaming Singaporeans and blaming his job as an unpopular one due to limited land? The mess that Mr Mah has created is huge and we need someone more capable and responsible to make things right again.