Budget 2007

The big one is here. Yesterday for a mind numbing 2 hours or so, 2nd Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnamn delievered a speech meant really for technocrats. Chockful of minor details and a bland emotionless description of the vision the government has for SIngapore, he delivered one of the most impactful Budgets for a while.

Check the speech out here (its forty-plus freaking pages long, I warn you all first): Singapore Budge 2007

First, the three major thrusts of the budget, in my humble amateur opinion.

1) Raising GST/Lowering corporate taxes -> Move towards indirect taxes
2) Raising CPF contributions, but stifling the increase for low wage workers, so that they become more competitive
3) Workfare - psuedo-welfarism


Man there's just so much to talk about. But let me give me initial asssesment.

It's a big move to do what the govt has done. It is essentially pushing the economy and tax system to face the new Singapore. A singapore powered by foreigners, businessmen, tourists and high-rolling gamblers.

It will be a Singapore populated by more PRs than citizens, where most if not all of the jobs that will be available will be to service these high-networth foreigners.

It will also become a place where hopefully the majority of the Singaporean working population occupies the middle to the higher level type of jobs, where more than half of the population will have degrees.

Is this a grand vision of us tapping the world or a vision which shows that we are totally at the mercy of the world?

I reserve judgement.

But what I am interested in is that although sweeping, the changes mean little to the heartlander. In an example Tharman gave, a worker earning $800 can look forward to taking back $57 after the changes. Woopee. And after you minus the GST increase, he will get about mmm $30 more a month. But wait there is the GST credits to help him right? Well, as most of the people I speak to, who are poorer, most of this money that is given will automatically go to paying off debts.

The one big flaw the govt has in these big policies changes is that it assumes people are rational. Of course, that is the assumption one starts with if and whenever you use economic analysis. But damnit, most people are not. If you give someone $200, do you think he will put it aside and distribute it over the nxt 2 years to offset GST? Heck no. That guy will probably use it to buy a handphone or give angpows to his relatives. Or buy him a small comfort in life.

Is the govt right in saying that GST credits of $1,000 will help offset a poor family's GST impact over 19 years? Yes and no. On paper, yes. In reality no. It has wised up though, and decided to distribute the money over 4 years so the relief can be felt over a longer period.

Sweet things last a short while, while bitterness stays in the mouth for a long long time.

Xando vs Aili

Xando, and before that we had Expressions and Jean Yip. Now the Americans have Aili.

Kinda ironic because Aili sounds like a Chinese name (I actually have a friend named Aili) while we tried to be exotic/Western sounding.

My beef with weight loss products as always is that you can lose weight by natural means, so why choose artificially induced means? I mean you can exercise, which is much better - build muscles, improve overall health and lose weight. That was how the cavemen did it. They dragged their women around and speared prehistoric chickens that had claws and sharp teeth.

Secondly, these products mess with your body. They trick your body into doing something its not supposed to do. And everyone knows if you mess with something, it will mess back with you. Side effects like oily stools and diarrhoea (hey i managed to spell that)? No way man. That's probably like the common side-effects. What about the less common side effects? Cancer? Liver failure? Safe, my ass.

Of course the counter-argument is that some obese people just can't seem to turn back the fats and need extra help. If so, let such cases be reviewed by a doctor. Let the doctor decide whether say surgery might work, or even drugs. For in those cases, they face a bleak future of having high possibiities of heart attack and high blood pressure etc. So they might as well take weight control pills.

But making such drugs over-the-counter is just tempting abuse. Girls who are already skinny wanting to get skinnier. Dude, these drugs typify why some people are fat - laziness.

Get out run, gym, swim, play footy, beat up a capitalist selling weight loss drugs - whatever. Do something.

Politics and sports - Draw the line please

With the ball at his feet, Singapore striker supersub Khairul Amri drove towards the Thailand goal in the 81st minute. The Thai defenders hesitated, perhaps because their tired legs refused to shake off the lead that seemed to grow on their muscles; perhaps because they thought Amri could do no harm, or that he would not have the guts nor gumption nor the skill to do anything so audacious as to shoot.

But with a quick shuffle of his feet, a shoulder drop and a slight pull-back of his right leg, he slammed the ball into the net with the outside of his foot from 18 yards out, past 3 defenders and a stunned goalkeeper. The scoreboard read: 1-1. Aggregate 2-3 to Singapore.

He ran, unbelieving, howling with joy to his teammates in the silence that had suddenly descended upon the 30,000 strong crowd at Thailand's Rajamangala Stadium.

It was the highlight of the match which was dominated by the Thais for most part of the match. Their skill and speed was clearly streets ahead of the Singapore team but the Singaporean team wearing blue, instead of their normal red, was the better organised side.

Indeed, with this win, Singapore not only retained the Asean championship, previously known as the Tiger cup, but can also finally claim to be the genuine challenger to Thailand, long regarded as the kings of Asean football.

The win was glorious and unexpected given the controversy that had marred the first leg of the final. Singapore won that first leg 2-1 after the Malaysian referee Malaysian referee C Ravichandran awarded Singapore a dubious penalty in the last ten minutes of the game, prompting a walkout by the Thai team. They eventually returned after 15 minutes but it had set up an intriguing finale and set off a string of conspiracy theories put forth by the Thai media.

The controversy was further fanned by the straining of diplomatic ties between Singapore and Thailand after former premier Thaksin Shinawatra met with Singapore deputy Prime Minister S. Jayakumar on a social visit.

That prompted Thailand to cancel a planned visit by Singapore Foreign Minister George Yeo to Bangkok. A few days after that, the Thai army said that it suspected Singapore of tapping the phones of its generals through Shin Corp, previously owned by Thaksin and which was bought over by the Singapore government investment company Temasek Holdings last year. That sale started a chain of events that ended Thaksin's political career.

Some quarters are saying that for better neighbourly relations, it would have nicer if Singapore had lost. After all, Thailand is a bigger country than Singapore. And 'face' means a lot in the Asian culture.

But for most Thais, despite the media frenzy spouting all sorts of theories, they draw the line between sports and politics. Emotions certainly run high in football games. Read some of the chants that the English fans use when their team meets their rival team.

Yet, emotions almost always stay within the stadium when the game is played. Once the game is over, players shake hands, fans walk out, with the memories of the spectacle trickling away with each step towards home.

I enjoyed myself. I cursed the Thais when they scored, I screamed at the referee when he made a bad call.

But I did so in the spirit of the game, not because their leaders are taking potshots at my country.

I drew the line. I hope everyone else will too