The Takahina who is in lack of support

Hi guys, it's me Takahina again.

It has been around... 4-5 months since I last blogged. No real reasons why I stopped blogging, I was just plain lazy.

But then again, it's not just me who stopped regular blogging, other than the really well known bloggers like Xiaxue, most bloggers I know around me either stopped blogging, or simply resorted to others means like tweeting or facebooking. Emotions and feelings can be expressed in many other ways and blogging has simply gone out of trend.

Blogging started getting popular when I was in my secondary school days. Blogspot, myspace etc were really hot at that time and people just stalked other people's blog. Yes, you young twerps borned in the 90s, we stalked people in www.blogspot.com, not www.facebook.com.

Then thanks to more prolific bloggers like Xiaxue (sorry I kept using her, because she is indeed the more well-known bloggers in my time) and Maddock, we blog with a sense of expressing our thoughts in our own style. In a sense this was also how this blog came about, a station for Takahina to express his own thoughts.

Now, blogging is outdated. Not to blame anyone but I guess blogging has lost it's support. All bloggers who blog, would in a sense hope people would read and comment, if not for no reason we would write it out in a public space for everyone to see. If we didn't want to, it would have been a private blog. So with a lack of support, it's not easy to see why normal bloggers like you and me to become lazy to update their blogs.

I can say I'm lazy, at the same time I can also say there is no people supporting blogging, so I'm not writing. In fact, most of my blog posts were seen on Facebook where I linked my updates in this blog to my profile. So seriously, why do I even bother posting on thetruetakahina.blogspot.com? I might as well just update on Facebook.com

Link this to another incident which I spotted online. Inch Chua, a local musician speaking out her mind on the lack of local support for musicians.



Blogging is a small thing, it doesn't involve that much commitment and money. Just some time of yours here and there. But music is different and I can understand her frustration in Singapore.

This is the reason why sub-cultures can't last in Singapore: The lack of support. Be it blogging, cosplay, music, arts, sports etc. None of them can last if it's not being supported. I'm not blaming the government on this one, I'm blaming Singaporeans on this one. Being a local musician, I feel so very dejected many times to receive the lack of support from my friends and family. I have already blogged before on this issue about arts not being able to grow and flourish in Singapore due to lack of support and I can't emphasize enough the important of people's mentality to change in Singapore. Whatever I want to say and rant about, Miss Inch Chua has very aptly wrote all about it.

If I could, I would love to play my drums everyday and be a professional musician. But like so many other local musicians out there we simply either forgo or postpone that dream of ours.

Few friends of mine have managed to go in their own way such as:

Elyzia



and Edwin Toh



Elyzia kept pushing and pushing to get to where they are today as a indie Singapore Chinese band and performs on a regular basis in gigs in various countries.

Edwin is a good friend of mine whom is studying music overseas in hope to further his musician career.

However, not to pour cold water to them and those who are already trying very hard in this... After this stint in your music path, where could you go? How many bands or artist wannabes here managed to make it big? Unless we resort to commercialism, we really can't manage to make it big. People like Stef Sun no doubt is good, but she's one of those few far in between who managed to steer along with the path of marketing. Go away from that and you will eventually be missing the mark.

However much, that is music. Let talk about something else.

I've recently attended some investment talk and 1 thing that the people told me there is that, never to spread and tell everyone about what you may be doing. True enough, because for whatever things you are doing there will be resistance from people along the way. If people support you that will be great... however most of the time you will realize the resistance that affect you the most would be the 2 person who gave birth to you.

Singapore may be a financial hub and one of the only few countries left in the world with a 3A credit rating, which makes us a big shot. 15% of Singaporeans are millionaires in their own right, 40% of the people out there would have done investments but didn't succeed anywhere. The other 45% are people who would tell you not to invest because of all the heresay they have heard.

Don't talk about the 15%, but the other 85%. 40% of the people will tell a newcoming investor their own experiences and dissuade you from doing this or that. That can affect you a lot. An investment that may not be good for them, may be good for you due to your risk profile, so no one in their own rights can tell you what to do, because ultimately they won't know whether it's the best choice for you. The only way for you to find that out would be for you to experiment it before you will know. That's the risk that comes along.

45% of those who don't invest are worse. They just dissuade you from doing it whole... which affects a newcomer Investor's mentality a lot. They may not know it but words spoke can affect people's thinking to a great effect. Just a "huh, why you do that??" from a parent can make you doubt your actions and in the end stop it all. The lack of support from people around you affects you to a big extent, an extent that most of us won't realize at all.

That is the reason why most of the 15% won't tell people much about how they do it, because support is lacking and wrong decisions may be made from that aura eluded by people.

So must it be that, for us to gain support the only way is to do as the social norm does? I truly hope that is not the case.

Social norms will only keep on manifesting itself to remain as such. A social norm that doesn't change will only be outdated when faced with the situations that happen globally. For a world right now that is so open with almost every issue under the world, the society should be receptive for things that is beyond the norm rather than being resistant. For a country like Singapore to remain so negative towards culture, arts etc, anything that isn't a 9-5pm job and education beyond those that we know of, we are seriously outdated. We may be improving, for someone like Inch Chua to make a post about her emotions on music is already a sign that we have people like her in Singapore who is willing to step out of the norm.

Inch Chua made the right move of going overseas. This is also a reason why so many people are emigrating out of Singapore. For Takahina, I want to do things that I want to do but should I go overseas? I don't know seriously. Should I even continue blogging now that there's almost no one else I know who blogs regularly? I don't know...

The Politically Economical Takahina

Hi there everyone, this is Takahina, attempting to talk about the just recently passed Singapore GE.

You may be thinking why I decide to only talk about it now, after the GE and not before. Reasons simple, I do not want to affect people's choice whatsoever, I don't belong to any party and therefore I do not have a responsibility to alter anybody's decision, neither do I want to. I'm not saying as if I'm a very persuasive person, neither do I have very strong points.

I live in Tampines, so the parties in my GRC would be PAP's Mah Bow Tan and NSP's Goh Meng Seng. Almost everyone in Singapore hates Mah Bow Tan, however that "everyone" did not really include me. In a sense, Mah Bow Tan's fail policy didn't affect me, it affected my brother, affected my friends, but not me. I didn't intend to buy houses then, I don't intend to buy houses now. However, how Mah Bow Tan has managed Tampines is not fail. From a Tampinesian point of view, MBT (Mah Bow Tan) didn't do a bad job of handling Tampines. For Tampines having 3 shopping centres, having excellent infrastructure etc, Tampines was not badly handled, in fact it was well handled. Whether it was handled well by MBT or PAP or not handled by any of them is one thing, but one thing is for sure in that, I have nothing against PAP in my GRC.

2 points that got me to vote against PAP (Ok I said it), is firstly how notorious MBT is. My family and friends, either living in or out of Tampines were deftly against MBT. So in a sense, it got me quite pumped up to vote him out of Tampines.

Another point is that simply, I felt that we needed more oppositions in parliament. That's all. I have always felt that we need oppositions in parliament but not majority to overtake PAP because given PAP's achievements be it in the past or current such as the economic crisis, they have been good. I don't expect the opposition to win much in the first place, neither do I think their results will be worse than before, it's just a matter of lose how much. Therefore I voted for opposition.

However, do not get me wrong, I didn't think the opposition is good. In fact I think NSP failed in this election, especially for GMS (Goh Meng Seng). NSP didn't do much to Tampines. NSP's main news was in Marine Parade where Nicole Seah was fighting Goh Chok Tong. Please do not think Nicole Seah is fighting Tin Pei Lin and give that Kate Spade a break yeah?

Hello, NSP (National Solidarity Party, not Nicole Seah Party), this is a Tampinesian speaking and you may wanna listen up. I'm sure people have already criticized you for this and I'm gonna criticize your ass too. If you GMS came over to Tampines and did like 1 or 2 rallies, do a bit more walkabout in the heartlands or central area, promote a bit more about your party and yourself, maybe we Tampinesians will know who the hell are you and why you wanna kick MBT's ass. And then maybe, you can easily win over Tampines from PAP, who is handled by MBT, WHO by the way is a greatly hated personality in Singapore.

Why PAP won in Tampines, and not NSP is your mistake GMS, for not focusing on Tampines and insist on helping your Nicole. Tampines people DON'T FEEL YOU. And similarly, not everyone in Tampines reads facebook, so you better don't expect a "confirm win" situation in Tampines, the older people, the uninformed people and the PAP supporters will vote for PAP, because you didn't inform them of what and who you are. Imagine Tampines people hearing Raymond Lim say "Tampines is already very developed, let us look at the big picture for Singapore." Congratulations, Mr Lim you just threw away 5% of your votes. For people who didn't understand your point, they would have thought you're just gonna heck care Tampines and think you're a little biatch.

Ah-hem, ok I have enough of scolding. Anyways MBT has retired, so GMS and guys you all can work much harder now to get Tampines if PAP appoints a better leader with better caliber for Tampines. So you better pray the new Tampines GRC leader, Heng Swee Keat is lousy... :/

Ok, so during the elections, you can kinda see my dilemma, to vote for PAP or NSP because PAP had the infamous MBT and NSP did NOTHING.

Well... NSP didn't exactly do NOTHING, before the rallies IN OTHER REGIONS OF SINGAPORE started, they already sent brochures around to every house. PAP on the otherhand had someone walked over and house visit, but too bad for them I'm not home. Choose a weekend to do it when people would actually BE AT HOME and not working. You expect us to take leave and wait for you to come ah?

Inside the NSP brochure with the logo "Your Voice, Your Choice", it was filled with the introduction of NSP and the candidates bio. I read through them, felt it was normal... everything was quite normal until I got to the Manifesto Page.



Because during the GE, I was having exams... in particular Economics exams. So I was super intrigued when I see the various things they said or claim to do. Therefore Takahina, will infer and explain on what each things the NSP said to do would effect to, imagine this whole thing to be a 100% economics essay question. This is not from a professional point of view, just a economic student who is in no ways an expert in the topic, just that I like econs. Huat my life. (Yes this is one of the "revision" I did for my Macroeconomics exam)

...........................................................................

1st point under Economic Growth Model:

PAP:
- Large influx of foreigners leads to higher GDP growth, higher demand for housing, servicing and goods

NSP:
- Grow the foreign labour force at a reasonable pace
- Continue to allow work permits for industries unpopular with Singaporeans
- Reduce mid-skilled foreign workforce
- Priority to Singaporeans in employment

PAP's move is very straightforward under the GDP growth, increase population which will lead to an increase in consumption, investment, which will then aggregate demand and thus GDP. In a sense it also increases our overall workforce and thus increase aggregate supply in theory sense.

NSP's however, is to cut down the pace that foreign labour is being brought in, so in other words slowing down the whole increase of GDP. Allow work permits for unpopular industries so they can still operate, reduce mid-skilled foreign workforce, priority to Singaporeans in employment so that Singapore graduates and citizens would have more available jobs instead of competition from foreign workers.

I did stated before in a post long ago, that I found PAP's pace of GDP being too fast, and the after-effect came true. PAP's direct way of increasing demand is faster than the increase in supply. Increase in workforce is meant to increase productivity, however under diminishing marginal returns, that may not always be the case. Companies may not increase productivity, companies may eat in the profit due to the increase in demand rather than "distributing" it to the people. Price rigidity takes place and price may not go down even though supply has increase. Therefore now we face the problem of inflation.

Further on, with the effect of supply shock like lack of oil and increasing food cost overseas, the effect of increase in workforce may be overshadowed by this.

Also, needless to say foreign workers take over our jobs as they are willing to accept lower wages, which overall pushes down the whole wage rate. With inflation and decreasing wage rate, its obvious to see why everyone is angry.

NSP's approach is the more practical one, grow it at a reasonable pace so GDP doesn't over-inflate. Allow work permits for industries unpopular is reasonable as well as industries, if without workers can't exist, without these industries Singapore won't be able to exist as well. (So, everyone when you see Bangla or Ah Tiongs or Malaysians or anyone doing work that you won't do, please thank them.)

Reducing mid-skilled foreign workforce and giving priority to Singaporeans, these however seems to slide more into the line for gaining popularity votes. Reducing mid-skilled foreign workforce doesn't mean you will help increase wage rates. Giving Singaporeans priority doesn't mean they can get employed, it depends more on the company on whether they still want to get foreign workers or not. Unless NSP is able to give in some policies that forces companies to choose Singaporeans and ensures the companies won't leave Singapore, the situation will not change.

I rather, the government gives subsidies to students for maybe universities or school fees so everyone can get relatively good education. These makes them more able to compete in the job market, forcing companies to choose either better quality productivity, or lower wage rate.

Outcome: NSP win marginally, cause they saw the need to regulate foreign labour, unlike that of PAP's.

2nd point under Economic Growth Model:

PAP:
- Built 2 casinos to spur economic growth and set up National Council on Problem Gambling to deal with the damage to families caused by Gambling.

NSP:
- Pursue economic growth with due regards to social impact
- Focus on wage growth rather than GDP growth
- Grow the income of the lower and middle income
- Support growth of local SMEs

Right from the start when PAP agree to build the Casinos, I felt it's a good idea. Give and take, the advantages of having the Casinos far far outweighs the disadvantages of having a Casino. Gambling is and has already been a problem in Singapore, without a Casino, people can still go on Cruises and Genting to gamble, if they want to gamble, they will gamble and no one can stop them.

Building 2 casinos, firstly prevents local money from flowing overseas and enables Singapore currency to remain fairly strong, secondly able to tax the gamblers openly, thirdly you build up so much more jobs and income for people to work. Socially you make Singapore more "entertaining", so tourism will go up and in a warped sense, culture goes up. What is wrong about it?

Pursuing economic growth with due regards to social impact is in all sense, correct. But in regards to Casino, it doesn't prove it's effectiveness. Go ahead and close down the 2 casinos, riots in Singapore will start, with the people who lose their jobs in the service sector for the casinos, followed by the people who invested in Marina Bay Sands and Sentosa Resort. The gamblers would be off elsewhere gambling and couldn't careless. Put up a survey, and see how many local hardcore gamblers actually frequent MBS and RWS, my bet is majority still prefers to go Genting.

Focusing on wage growth, grow the income of lower and middle income, say is easy, how would you do it? Set a minimal wage? Subsidy companies for increasing employee's pay? Setting a minimal wage will deter companies to come to Singapore to invest, subsidizing companies for wages will bankrupt the national reserves and increase our taxes.

Supporting the growth of local SMEs however is notably good. It increases overall market and supply and will lead to a drop in inflation. People will also be more encourage to start out business and employ more people. Unemployment rate drops, wage rates will go up due to lack of labour, supply increase and real GDP will increase.

Outcome: PAP win marginally, because the effect of having a casino imo has been one of their "good" decisions for the past few years. NSP trying to argue on this point does not impress me.


Lao Lee is not impressed either.

Overall outcome: NSP wins, cause simply PAP failed in their foreign labour policy and neglected in regulating it. It's always fine to get more foreign labours in and Singaporeans welcome them. But, PAP didn't regulate at all and allowed all types of cats and dogs in, anything can be done, but at a sustainable and manageable rate. Fully opening the floodgates and letting them swarm in, is an epic fail policy for me.

Under Government Expenditure:

PAP:
- FY11 health care budget unchanged at $4b as compared to FY10
- FY11 transport budget decreases by $0.6b to $4b as compared to FY10

NSP:
- Increase funding for healthcare to reduce the burden and waiting time on Singaporeans
- Increase number of hospital beds to cater to a growing and greying population
- More investments in public transport.

This is a difficult one to judge on. In one hand, PAP didn't change much of their budget regarding this 2 issues, NSP wants to increase both of it. So in this case I'm gonna tackle on NSP first.

NSP wants to increase funding here there and everywhere. Simple question, where do you get the $$? I don't agree to casually withdrawing money from the national reserves and I don't agree on occuring huge amount on unneeded debts. Deficit in Government Budget means they need to get more money from the money sector. Increase in money demand, interest rates will increase and GDP will fall. SMEs won't be able to grow properly, net exports, investments and consumption will fall on all accounts, so you may be screwing up your own plans on other areas.

So now the question is this, is there a real need to increase these funding? We have to look into the question of how PAP funds their healthcare and transport. If you ask me I don't really see a need to increase funds for transport, because our transport is already one of the best in the world, the current funding of $4b imo is fine. For health care though it shouldn't drop in any sense, so PAP may wanna look into it figures again.

On the otherhand, certain issues for healthcare like waiting time can be solved from within, such as management and handling of the various wards etc, there isn't really that much a need for an increment in funding to such issues.

Outcome: Neither wins, draw. Cause both sides didn't really show their point for their actions at all.

1st point under Housing Policy

PAP:
- Market-driven pricing for new HDB flats

NSP:
- Government to sell new HDC flats at cost-plus for first time buyers

This is almost a given for NSP. Market-driven for HDB flats will screw up people who want to buy houses and this is the system that led Uncle Mah to be one of the most hated people in Singapore. Demand for housing will only increase and naturally that will push up housing prices. Supply for houses can never increase faster than demand for houses.

Outcome: NSP wins hands down

2nd point under Housing Policy

PAP:
- BTO system

NSP:
- Build more HDB flats to support growing population
- Shorter waiting time

Personally, I don't know much about the BTO system, people told me a lot but somehow I can't seem to really install it in my mind. Building more HDB has already been done by PAP, so it's kinda a similar point on both sides. Whether the waiting time would be shorter or not remains to be seen. It's a matter of whether is it the BTO system that is increasing waiting time, or simply just the management of HDB themselves.

Outcome: Draw, due to me not knowing BTO well enough. :/

3rd point under Housing Policy

PAP:
- HDB upgrading linked to votes

NSP:
- Upgrading delinked from votes
- National interests must outrank party interest

Once again, PAP has cut themselves with their own shit. By openly setting that upgrading is linked to votes, it kinds of enrages the equality people... well it will kind of anger most people and the only saving grace is the sentiment, "WE HAVE TO VOTE FOR PAP IF NOT NO UPGRADING!" With the nature of Singaporeans now, that sentimental is uncommon.

National interests on all accounts should definitely outrank party interest, but then how easily can that be done? On many accounts national interest WILL conflict with party interest, even if NSP is in power in the future, can they ensure that?

Outcome: NSP, because PAP did the dumb thing of OPENLY saying that upgrading is link to votes. I know it's linked to votes, but don't admit it la...

4th point under Housing Policy

PAP:
- Allow PRs to buy HDB

NSP:
- Impose restriction of PRs selling their HDB flats to curb speculation.

NSP wins, unlike some opinion I hear on the net, I think it's unfair if you totally restrict PRs from buying HDB and just limiting it to Singaporeans. However if you restrict them buying for the purpose of selling, then it makes all sense. However, how about Singaporeans who themselves buy HDB for the purpose of reselling and profiting? Restrict them as well?

Outcome: NSP wins. For having a feasible and logical social policy.

Overall outcome: NSP wins. Because MBT did a lousy job on housing policies, NSP totally took advantage of it.

Under GST

PAP:
- Raised GST from 5% to 7% to help the poor

NSP:
- Reduce GST from 7% to 5% to help all citizens, especially the poor
- Exempt basic necessities from GST

You will realize 2 very conflicting policies. 1 increase GST to help poor. 1 decreases GST to help poor. Why both are claimed to be helping the poor but done in an opposite manner?

First if I may, I try to explain PAP's position. GST affects people who buy stuff and the more expensive you buy, the more you get taxed. The poor people obviously cannot buy much, so the GST taxed on them is minimal. On the otherhand the rich people who buy stuff, like a big party on weekend will get charged gao gao like $20-$30 for a standard $200-$300 expenditure. The money taxed will then form up the budget for the government to give out rebates, money, pension etc to the poor and needy. So it's a Robin Hood action, steal from rich, give to poor.

On the manifesto they stated on how much PAP has given to the poor, which is around 1/3 of the total GST collected.

NSP on the other hand is trying to reduce GST for a very simple purpose, you make things cheap so everyone benefits including the poor but not the government.

Both are reasonable arguments. So for this case I won't be standing on the sides of the poor or rich, but for the middle sandwiched class in which I feel is getting the pain of it all.

PAP's resolve of stealing the rich and helping the poor is a very standard approach. For the middle class however, they would be crying out loud (COL). Because we bear the grunt of the GST as we do spend. However, we are not very rich as well so we would appreciate some rebates etc but we get SHIT. Middle class would love the drop in GST.

NSP thought of reducing GST, that will greatly help the middle class and the rich. However for the poor, the effects are very much limited. In the first place, the poor don't pay much for GST, how do you charge 7% from a plate of chicken rice? 7% of $2.50 is... $0.17?? Chicken rice seller also mafan finding so much change for you. The poor also won't go out party or buy really expensive stuff. However getting extra $ from government would certainly help them. So NSP's claim of reducing GST to help citizens, ESPECIALLY the poor is flawed. You don't help the poor significantly.

Exempting GST from necessities is naturally good. Decreasing GST is naturally good. However if you remove GST, where would you find money for your budget. As I've stated before you need $ for the Government Budget and you don't expect the reserves to be like an eternal ATM because it isn't. Until NSP can actually solve a way to get more budget to replace the budget loss from all these decrease in tax, it will not be practical.

Outcome: I can't believe I'm saying this, but PAP wins. Because NSP's resolution is not precise and it's flawed. I being in the middle class will get sandwiched. Regardless, 7% is enough so PAP please don't increase any further... even though I reasoned out for you guys to up it. ><

1st point under Political Leadership

PAP:
- Large salaries and bonuses for politicians to compensate for their sacrifices and to prevent corruption

NSP:
- Groom political leaders who are motivated by passion to serve the public
- Cut ministerial salaries from current levels and then peg their growth to national wage growth

Seriously, I have no idea where PAP came with the idea of "hey lets' up our own pay so we don't get corrupted and can attract people into this politics thing." Obviously they haven't been in the local heartlands enough to know that it's not all about the money. True, having a good pay is good. But they is no need for such a HIGH pay that wins Obama. What you wanna show? Obama one day quit his USA presidency and join PAP?? Obama for PAP!!!

Outcome: NSP. Obviously omg.

2nd point under Political Leadership.

PAP:
- Insufficient talents in politics

NSP:
- Widen the definition of talents beyond high income earners or graduates from elite universities.

NSP has struck a very major point with this point. If you notice, the opposition does have people from ITE, can't speak well etc and well Singaporeans seem to be quite unapproving of them. Let's just take Tin Pei Ling for example, TPL may not know how to speak well, may not know how to react correctly and think about Kate Spade whole day, but maybe she does really love Singapore and really wants to do her part for Singapore?

PAP's politicians has all been glorified with either this Masters, or that PHD or whatever certificate that they have. Once again I'll say again, Paper Education doesn't prove anything and that means for politics as well. Having a PHD in political studies doesn't automatically makes you an excellent politician.

That is the sad truth about politics, in that it's POLITICS. Politicians HAVE to know how to speak, when to speak and what to speak, something like what Nicole Seah has. Politicians will need certain skills that can accelerate their political route such as etiquette and literacy prowess.

Having the heart to serve the country is needed for a politician, having both the heart and skills of being a politician is even much more rarer. So we'll have to wait and see for the future years to come on whether any politician with such attributes will appear.

Outcome: NSP marginally, because they look beyond Paper Education, however they disregarded the "skills" needed in being a politician.

3rd point under Political Leadership

PAP:
- Bloated number of political appointment

NSP:
- Downsize the number of political appointments

1st question to PAP, why do you need so much political appointments? 2nd question to NSP, what is wrong with having a large amount of political appointments?

I play Romance of the 3 Kingdom, and 1 priority action that I always do is to recruit, recruit and more recruit. Maybe PM Lee needs more opinions? Maybe he needs more segregation to handle Singapore's political situation or the whole development of Singapore overall? IMO, it is never wrong to have more people assisting you, as long as you always hold a certain trusted and capable group in grasp, the few number of people under you would not be a problem.

So to me, my main problem is with NSP on why do they want to downsize the political appointment?

Outcome: PAP win. Because NSP once again proposed something without any explanation whatsoever.

Overall outcome: NSP, mainly due to PAP's fail policy of increasing their own pay. INCREASING THEIR OWN PAY. I would do that too if I can decide my own pay. :/

Under Defence

PAP:
- Built a large citizen Army to defend Singapore

NSP:
- Downsize the Army and build up Navy and Air Force to defend Singapore
- Reduce National Service to 15months.

NSP is totally hilarious on this one. Firstly, I think NSP need to rethink through it's whole defense scheme again. The Singapore's defense is built up of Army, Navy, Air Force and Police. Because when we go to NS for 2 years this are the 4 possible places we will land in.

Most people go through Army, mainly because it's cheapest to develop among the 4. For Navy and Air Force crews, you will require higher positions and higher education because the things they learn is of another level and the responsibility they hold is higher. I'm sure you have heard how much is cost to develop a pilot in Singapore, so you sure it's so easy to just UPSIZE the navy and air force? You think PAP don't wanna do it too? lolll... If countries can easily UPSIZE defence force, Germany would have won WW2 and we'll all be speaking in Japanese now.

Reducing national service to 15 months is preposterous. Who's votes you wanna win, the young twerps that haven't went through NS and can't vote? Or the older generation who already finished a much harder NS. Reducing NS to 15month is obviously trying to win votes of the younger generation, but it will bring you NOTHING because most of them are too young to vote, you will instead gain the wrath of the Lao Jiao Peng and they won't vote for you cause you fail.

Seriously, 2 years is just nice. Don't increase or decrease it already please.


LJP (Lao Jiao Peng) 3SG Desmond Chan Wai Lun is gonna bring the thunder to you.

Outcome: PAP wins hands down. For some reasons, PAP has never really fail at defense.

So in total, who would have won under Takahina's amateur economical elaborate and analysis?

Economic Growth Model: N
Government Expenditure: D
Housing Policy: N
GST: P
Political Leadership: N
Defence: P

NSP wins in the end. Marginally though as it's a draw under Government Expenditure.

PAP's lost, mainly comes from big fail policies, namely the foreign labour influx and MBT's housing policy (Say thank you to MBT), and increasing their own minister's pay. And not surprisingly, it's these 3 points that Singaporeans have been angry about. Other than solving this 3 problems, NSP other policies kinda didn't make it. So rather than say NSP can do a better show, I would rather say PAP gave it away to the opposition. Kinda like how Arsenal always led the match during the first half and gave it away due to a shitty defence.


Dude, you wanna do something about it?

So, NSP wins. Regardless, for Tampinesians like me, it's still fucked up.


Yup you said it right Lao Peng...

The Praised Takahina

I remember my NS officer asked me once when I was still a recruit, "What do you think we can improve in the army?"

I said, "We have enough people scolding and criticizing, how about praising people for a change?"

The motive behind people scolding is simple enough; it is to directly tell people how angry/unhappy you are about something about the people and you want that to change that. It normally happens only for people who cares about that person.

The motive about people praising others is also simple enough; to direct tell a person how happy you are about something and you don't want that to change, if not change, then improve it. The only difference that is seems to happen more for people who don't know that much about that person or ain't that close with that person. I'll elaborate later.

My NS officer took note, and agreed. Indeed, after that I saw a slight change in his methods, having more praising for people who have done well. On National Geographic Channel, they have a documentary on NS, with the TV crew following through the whole platoon all the way as they experience NS. There is scolding naturally, but I see a whole lot more praising as compared to my experience. Whether it is really my platoon sucks, or the show is just a whole lot of "wayanging" I don't know. But it is an indirect evidence that praising is positive, if not they would not "encourage" that on TV.

I don't think I need to talk anymore about scolding, we scold the PAP so much it's almost a characteristic of Singaporeans to foreigners, similar to how Japan has the culture of changing their PM almost every half a year. But what about praising? Praising is not a culture cultivated in Singapore or most Asian countries. But for western countries do they praise? Of course, they praise their God everyday.

I remember there was once I had a recording session for a SOMA student in her band as the drummer. The guitarist is a Caucasian, very friendly and somewhat of a perfectionist who liked to re-record, re-record and re-record all the way till the depths of the night. I myself did a piece of an original, created something totally out from nothing except to know the feel of the song, tempo that the student wanted and how to best make it clean for others to come in. The Caucasian praised me, something that got me quite surprised. Not the student, not the sound engineer, but the guitar, the guitarist who is so particular with his own sound. In a sense, I know that my piece is just ordinary at best and needs no praising whatsoever, in fact the guitarist can even play drums better than me, that's how good he is. But still he praised me. In fact, he didn't just praise me, but almost everyone else in the group on the points which he thinks are good. Naturally other than praising, he also stated out on whoever has mistakes and where to improve on.

As long as I remembered, that is the first time someone had praised me face to face directly. I know people had said good and bad things about my drumming, either with or without me knowing. I know full well my own mistakes and in a sense I know full well my good points.

However as I got to play long enough, the praising stops and comes in place are criticisms and things people tell you where you can improve. Of course I'm happen with constructive opinions, they help you improve and you can get better. But eventually the confidence level grows low as all you hear are criticisms regardless constructive or not, and not good opinions.

Praising seems to occur mostly when you don't know that person well enough. Initially when you just started out doing something with an unknown person, both sides do not know the capabilities of each other, so if your standard goes above their expectation, you get praised. Eventually as you continued long enough, the praising stops as you get closer to each other and in return is constructive opinions that would want you to improve.

Think about it, when you're with a stranger or someone you don't know well, you praise that person more than you scold that person. When PAP first started people were all praises for them, but now it's all scoldings for them.

The Singapore culture, seemingly lacks of praising, like really positive praising because we get used to the good things we experienced. Positive praising as in not just a casual praise we say, but really to the details on why you think it's good. Is it because we don't do anything well enough deserving of people's praise? No, look at how PAP manages to bring back Singapore's economy in a matter of a year. US, Japan and many many other countries are still stuck, yet Singapore is already back and overtaking countries in this economic crisis, something worthy of praise.

Although I have never said I'm a PAP supporter, neither am I a PAP hater. I look objectively at how things turn out and PAP has done both good and bad moves, for that their good things are worthy of praise and should be praised, rather than only being constantly scrutinized for the bad moves they have did.

When you're worthy of being praised, you should be praised. When you deserve to be scolded, you should be scolded. As simple as that, and sadly Singapore only seems to observe the latter part of that phrase.

Every person have different ways of being felt appreciated, or to feel confident. Some people generate confidence themselves, some people need de-stressing to feel confident, some people need praises and compliments to feel confident.

Takahina lately has felt weary, with his school, his hobby, his work, and I'm pretty sure it happens to a lot of people as well as these everyday things gets to you. You can get tons of High Distinction in school work and still no one would compliment for the hard work you put in, all you get in return is just a simple "not bad." You can try your best in your hobbies and be overshadowed by someone more flashy about it. You can do your best in your work, but your boss would still come over and complain to you about that little mistake that you carelessly missed. All these makes you feel unappreciated, not cherished, losing in confidence and insecure. Because anytime, anyone can come over and take away your position that you fought for.

I'm sure, we get a lot of that in our everyday life. The notion of not feeling appreciated for the hard work we put in. And maybe compare us Asians to Caucasians, that could be 1 deciding factor why they seem more successful and confident than us, cause they have that culture of praising people when they deserved to be.

I stopped studying for a while, to write this note, cause Takahina has been feeling such lately, not only about himself, but about society as a whole.

Singapore and Singaporeans won't be worthy of praise, until they learn how to praise others.

The Takahina in Pursue of Happiness

Singaporeans are sad people, being ranked 2nd from bottom in a happiness index on a global scale definitively shows our sadness.

Overall, why are people sad? Because we can't be satisfied or be contented with life. A simple notion of happiness can come easily, from maybe just passing your driving test, to getting a very good meal, to striking a lottery, to having your favourite football team win a cup after 5 long years of drought. I believe somehow, in life to be happy, all it takes is just for you to achieve something that you want and desired, as simple as that.

Everyone then has a different notion of what they want; love, money, wealth, kinship, acceptance etc, the list goes a whole long way and the vocabulary can go on and on. The whole concept is, knowing what you want in life.

Singaporeans don't know what they want, because their whole life they have been chasing after money. Simply put, due to the circumstances that throws Singapore and Singaporeans into, to us we have to fight for money because essentially the whole country can collapse if we hadn't. The government brought us up to carry on this motion of chasing money, thus we did it unknowingly and willingly. So think of it this way, in the past we Singaporeans are content and satisfied with just sufficient money, stability of job and family. However, now with the internet and the rapid information explosion, our wants and desires aren't just the simple notion of stability, family and sustainable wealth. We want more now, we want more involvement in intrinsic terms, we want more involvement to our own life. What we want now, is not just the plain clear survival issues but more rather, how we live our lives and making it a different one.

That makes Singaporeans sad. Cause for the current working generation, they are people stuck with the midst of information explosion and the notion and age of "working for life till you die so you better be happy to work." They know of things that they wanna do but due to circumstances of Singapore, it's already too late for the normal income family to change. Sadly poor income family won't even know or care of the information explosion cause survival is already the agendas of their life, it's not anymore a dream/goal, it's an agenda or policy as you may call fit. Rich Singaporeans are most possibly the only group of people with the ability to really pursue what they want in life but due to Singapore being the small country it is, they would have to resort to overseas measures in the end and that's why you see so many people immigrating.

So as written above, to be "happy", you have to be satisfied and contented with life. To achieve it however takes 2 factors, first you got to know what you exactly want in life to be satisfied and contented with life, second you got to know how to achieve that satisfaction and content in life.

Somehow, Singaporeans faces 2 groups of people, as you can guess, its people who don't know what they want and people who can't achieve the things they want. Somehow it's always the 2 groups; few people are in the sub-set of either knowing what they want and on the route to achieve what they want or not knowing what they want and not on anyways to achieve it.

Takahina can't decide for anyone, what you should choose to be happy with life. At the same time, there are so many ways to achieve the things you want, so Takahina won't know which is the best route. Takahina already knows what he wants; to be a self sustainable pro-drummer and on regular performances with a happy family, un-spoilt kids and able to support his family sufficiently, eventually retiring and playing/reading/watching his library of games/books/manga/anime/dramas that he still haven't manage to finish.

To achieve that, Takahina would need to rely on money because being a pro-drummer is risky and may not be able to support a family and his hobby, so passive income from investments, business and assets are the way to go. Family would come eventually as love or fate decrees it. If there's no one, then I'll just adopt a kid and have that kid watch anime and play games with me, who knows.

One thing to note though, is that I'm not aiming to be super rich and wealthy. I'm just aiming for a sustainable financial status, in otherwords financial security/freedom is good enough for me. People will ask, why don't you go for constant wealth? Because, there is no need for me to be that rich. I can achieve whatever I want with life, with just that sustainable amount of income and money. If I dedicate that much amount of life and time to get as wealthy as Bill Gates, the opportunity cost with it would eat out my drumming/Japanese language goals.

This is where, I think a lot of people are mistaken about the notion of money. Money doesn't equate to happiness, unless your dream of life is about money.

Money, is a medium for a person to obtain what he wants. With money you can obtain materialistic wants, skills, knowledge or simply almost everything in this world except time. (yes I believe you can "buy" love, as long as you have the appropriate skills and knowledge) But in the end, it's just a medium. If you do not know what do you want to do with your money, you will still gain nothing. Let inflation explode and your money will still end up with nothing. Let war occur and your money will still end up with nothing. Let your life end and you will still end up with nothing.

So naturally, you will need to earn this medium to get stuff you want. If the common mode of medium now is not money but instead maybe lambs and cows, then you'll see us working hard to earn cattle. Therefore money itself is useless, but more rather the things that you will buy with money. At the same time, with the wide and complicated growth of finance, cash may not be needed, perhaps all you need by then is just credit.

Why do you see so many Singaporeans immigrating nowadays? Because Singapore lacks of something. Singapore lacks of the facilities, space and market for the younger generation to pursue their dreams. For the normal "better-off" person, they won't hesitate to go outside to accomplish the things that they want to do. Few friends I know have already went overseas to further their profession, such as Edwin with Keyboards in Malaysia and Yuan Jie with drums in US.

Why can't they do it in Singapore which is their hometown? Things will be much cheaper here and they don't risk any sense of homesick feeling. Simply because Singapore doesn't have the relevant facilities here to further their apprenticeship.

Why don't Singapore have the facilities here? Because there isn't enough space to provide for it, the opportunity cost with investing in a music school compared to a office building is too high.

Why is the opportunity cost high then? Because there is no market in Singapore at all. No one in Singapore appreciates music enough, no one in Singapore pursues music enough. Lack of market is not just a problem in Singapore, but in many other nations out there in the world. Lack of market produces lack of prospects and once again it refers the whole problem back to the basic mentality of "working to survive in Singapore".

Therefore in a sense, the whole mentality of working industriously for survival has poisoned the whole nation. Despite that, the poison is necessary, cause without it Singapore would never have survived it's early days. However, now it's a different age whereby you don't work hard, you work smart. Working hard brings you nowhere if you don't have the needed information to accelerate your path. Now with the information boom, we are able to get information readily. However it's precisely with this information boom that we are so unsatisfied.

Now we mention opportunity cost, it comes naturally that there is sacrifices involved. Everyone has their notion of happiness and simple enough to Takahina, if there's anything that will stop Takahina in his tracks to gain that happiness, Takahina will sacrifice, crossover, breakthrough or just bash his way through that obstacle (of course within legal measures). That's why it's Takahina's pursuit to happiness. Every road to happiness will require sacrifices, pain and sadness, it's only with those pain then would you fully appreciate and savour the happiness that is to come. It's a selfish approach, but in this unfair world itself, this doesn't seem unreasonable in anyway. No use being a Buddha and be good to everyone you know, cause simply no one else would be able to act as such.

If I'm the government, what would I do to curb this unhappiness? I can't do it actively, but only passively through long term methods. One method which I had suggested before is using education, another is via producing more infrastructures to facilitate the more "ignored" cultures. In spite of whatever the government do though, it will never be enough if something about Singaporeans doesn't change; the appreciation and content for things that happens. Appreciation for things beyond monetary values, content for things that comes to us.

Singaporeans are poisoned ever since we're born, poisoned by reality. And the antidote to it is ourselves. Mentality has got to change, understanding has got to increase and a balance between material means and own personal values is a must.

With the information boom that we have now, it acts as a double edge sword by providing you with more information to gain understanding, but at the same time wanting more from this information we obtained. So it can only be up to ourselves to find the sheath to prevent us from cutting ourselves.

Be happy and content people.

The Fortunate Takahina

January of 2011 didn't start out well... well, at least not for me, but few people around me.

People are getting sick with this weird virus spreading around, making us cough, flu and fevers. At the same time, there are people who start to face money problems around me, some needing to stick to living a very uneventful live despite being in their most lively period. Takahina is also kinda broke, but at least I still can go out and stuff.

At the same time, it's somehow also a period of change for many people, with a lot of people I know changing jobs, or in the midst of changing jobs, or already thinking of changing jobs. As trend would follow, other than changing jobs people also change their study courses. :/ Don't worry though, Takahina is still stuck with his TNT job and is still in his RMIT course.

Then also, there are livelihood problems and somehow I got to know more people who can't afford to go a bit more luxurious and have to stick to their basic livelihood to live off.

Den again, my friends love lives seem to have improved, with more people I know getting attached. No offense to those still single. So as usual I shall make a commercial for myself again that I'm very single and very available with no commitment problems at all. :)

In anyways, 2011 somehow started out with a subtle bang that affected people around me somehow, and come on it's not pass the CNY yet!!

Lately, something happened to my relatives and that could be one of the more shock-affecting event to hit them, live-changing is not an understatement. The mood within the family is low and the depressing feel among the family is somewhat obvious. I have been trying to keep my cousin company, but during the times we talked on the phone etc, you can tell the affect is there. No one can be happy after something major happened.

The thing is that from this I somehow realized one thing, in that how unpredictable life can be. Just when we're in our young 20s, planning to go out party, we can be suddenly thrown into the pits and with all the responsibilities instantly piled up against us. Takahina is fortunate to not need to shoulder all those task of supporting a family or person, but neither should he take it for granted the luck that we have for even being able to lead a normal life.

I'm not saying my cousin is suddenly unable to lead a normal life, he is still able and well, just the responsibilities suddenly upon him, is much higher than most of us now at our age.

Somehow, even though we know of this fact, but I think people always overlook it unless something happened, as did with me. People like us who have no disabilities and no problems with our life at all, having 3 meals everyday and leading a normal life, that in itself is very fortunate. Rather than complaining over why the Iphone is so expensive, where to go next for your holiday, why are the food so lousily done, why I have to squeeze with people everyday on the public transport. We should think it in this way; I'm lucky enough to hold a handphone, anywhere for a holiday is already a luxury, being satisfied to be able to eat and be full and just being able to be on the public transport.

In this world, there are many people with different circumstances and situations. Look out to the hordes of people in every parts of the world, just in Singapore we can jolly well see tons of people in poverty and sickness, needless to say about Africa and the less developed countries. One meal featured on Epic Meal Time would be enough nutrition to provide for an African malnourished kid for a half a year.

Not saying that we don't always strive for higher and more lavish goals and just be content with be able to fulfill our basic needs, but instead while we the more lucky ones are able to climb, don't forget the unlucky ones situated at any location in life right now.

Takahina has never ever and will never complaine that he's unfortunate (well except for maybe his love life) and Takahina will never complain of leading an unlucky life, because he knows just able to type and talk right here on this blog, itself is already fortunate.

Short post; school + work together has been tiring, but finally as CNY is approaching, I'll be able to have some rest. Speaking of which, I have no idea how CNY would be this year after this incident in my family has happened. :/

The Takahina Resolutions for 2011.... nahhhhh... screw those.

Every year, people write and talk about things like the new year resolutions. As usual Takahina has written his own list of resolutions...

But oh well, screw those I suppose, no one would be bothered to read about another person's resolutions won't it?

Then it got me thinking, what is the purpose behind a resolution?

Because every year, after finishing it I check back at my resolution and do a real proper check list of whether I have accomplished my resolutions, well at least for those that can be checked. Spiritual ones I can't do anything can I? :/

From the actual archives of Takahina's folders...

.................................................................................

Things I want to achieve in 2010!

Achieving good/satisfactory results for uni.
Losing weight. At least get below 75kg.
At least complete 3 cycles of the game list under the principle of activity (Laws of Takahina)
Perform and gig at least twice
Restart my lessons with Jimmy
Restarting Neverlasting Time.
At least update The True Takahina regularly to upkeep my writing skills.
Saving at least up to $4000 in my saving acc.
Pass my driving test.
IPPT Silver at least.

..............................................................................

So I look at it...

Things I want to achieve in 2010!

Achieving good/satisfactory results for uni.

- Did I get good results...? I guess so, having a few D, not failing any of the modules are good enough for me...


All she wants is just to pass her Econs :/ And she'll feel very satisfactory about it. :D

Losing weight. At least get below 75kg.

- I failed. I didn't lose a lot of weight actually, just 1 or 2 to be frank. And I'm still in the 80kg range. Deplorable me.

At least complete 3 cycles of the game list under the principle of activity (Laws of Takahina)

- In case you guys don't understand, 3 cycles of the game list would be literally like completing 3 Final Fantasy, watching 3 animes and completing all my Onimusha game. Nope, I didn't go even as close as completing 1 Final Fantasy. Deplorable me.

Perform and gig at least twice

- Did and done that. Sad to say those, the gigs are not those that I had expected to go.

Restart my lessons with Jimmy

- Nothing like that happened. I never even get to see Jimmy at all this year. :x

Restarting Neverlasting Time.

- I restarted it, but didn't continue to new plot down. I suck.

At least update The True Takahina regularly to upkeep my writing skills.

- Did I write regularly?? .... Hmmm.. .maybe?

Saving at least up to $4000 in my saving acc.

- Didn't happened. In fact I still owe a great ass of debt.

Pass my driving test.

- Did it. Happily and gloriously.

IPPT Silver at least.

- I passed... barely. >.<

________________________________________________________________________________

In a sense, you look at this resolutions of mine, the outcome is fucking sad.

And I mean, FUCKING SAD.


I am Sad.

So if you create resolutions, give yourself a whole year to complete it, but nothing like it happens, then how?

You become emo and sad, like Takahina!

So the solution is? Don't create resolutions!

Hmmmm, well but of course it's a bit of like avoiding the main problem. But if we take resolutions that seriously, if becomes a chore instead. Its the same thing with smoking actually.

Charles told me something which I felt was quite insightful.

If you don't want to smoke, just say "no" to smoke. It's very interesting actually. In the end it's a matter of "mind over body".

There is this mis-conception of people that smoking is like drugs, it makes you want to smoke and you won't be able to quit smoking... well for some cases it is. But the thing is that for regular smokers to not smoke, it won't kill them, but well, let's just say it makes them irritable like not having able to sleep for a whole day like that.

But that's it, as compared to drugs which can kill, smoke is much easier to quit and at the same time a more passive way to die. :) Let's just say, if you really put your mind to it, you can quit smoking and masturbating in a day but for drugs that will make you as mad as Britney and the guys at Epicmealtime.


You gotta salute the Bacon Chalice seriously.

So you relate it to resolutions, how does it work out? Well, it doesn't really work out in the same way, but you get what I mean, the mind over body... yeah whatever.

Just look at it this way, whats the sense of resolutions, if you can't keep to it for a whole year and complete it in that year? Resolutions will make you have a very high hope and expectations for this year. Then not fulfilling them within this year may make you enter a state of depression in this year. If its gonna be this way, then resolutions makes no sense.

I should re-state my point, resolutions makes sense, it's NEW YEAR RESOLUTIONS that don't make sense. Because if you ask me no one can keep on and remembering everything that they have promised themselves in a year from the 1st Jan till 31st Dec.

No one. At some stage or point of time, something or someone will make us forget and do something that leads you away from this resolutions. Because it's simply, too long. Make a short terms ones, like monthly resolutions, at least you will remember and have more idea of it clearly. That is, if you really have that discipline to keep to it.

I don't have any idea how people write their resolutions, for me I have a sense of both tangible and non-tangible. Non-tangible ones not nice for me to write it down here, but tangible ones are like those that I have posted above. Very easy to define and test out, in otherwords "positive statements".

You can see somethings I wrote like, "Restart lesson with Jimmy". These are all very easy to be done and conducted. In fact within an hour time I can get it done, call Suntec and ask for a lesson time, work out my schedule and voila resolution done. But the thing is that reality doesn't always work in such a positive way. Why I didn't get it done, is cause I have no $. Simple as that.


Mr Jimmy Lee with only half a head of hair left!! You know how expensive your lessons are?!?!?!

But then you look at the essence of why I want to restart my drum lessons with Jimmy, it's to improve my own drum skills. So in a sense, would it have matter had I not done or not done this resolution to restart my drum lessons? Not really. It won't have matter a tiny bit at all. I should have wrote like "improve in drums", rather than "restart drum lessons".

Those in a sense, for those who even bother reading this, don't make any resolutions whatsoever cause you'll forget them in a month's time.

Rather, I prefer you install this though in your head. If you wanna do it, and really wanna do it and the situation is perfectly correct and right, just do it. Think too much also no use. If you wanna quit smoking, just install in your mind that you won't smoke anymore no matter what. See a stick, just say no. JUST SAY NO.

Same for me, I wanna improve my drums, so I'll keep on playing in a band and save $$ for Jimmy's lessons. Simple.

Regardless, Takahina still has resolutions for 2011 up, but it's more of a guideline this time. I mean what kinda resolution is "I wanna be qualified to sing the song 'I just had sex'"???



I have never seen Akon smiled so much in a MV.

:x