Like most Singaporeans, I heard of the CPIM (Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau) arrest of the chiefs of the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) and Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) earlier this week. However I had stopped myself from commenting on it as there had been very little information on the arrest.
I’m still waiting.
All we know so far is that CNB director Ng Boon Gay was arrested last month and SCDF chief Peter Lim Sin Pang was arrested on 4 Jan this year. Both were arrested under the Prevention of Corruption Act and both are now out on bail. Oh wait; we also know that the duo had been suspended for “serious personal misconduct”.
That’s it! That’s all we know which means we don’t know anything because no information about what they had (allegally) done has been released yet! While both men had been suspended from their duties following “serious personal misconduct”, the nature of their actual offence is a total mystery.
A mystery I think the Singapore government needs to clear ASAP. Did the men take money? Was it sex for favours? Why it took the government so long before even admitting the 2 men were under investigation?
Despite what some Singaporeans are saying, I do not think this case is like the corruption case involving SLA (Singapore Land Authority) last year. That was a case of two senior employees at the SLA cheating the agency of some $11.8 million; this is a case involving the CBB and SCDF. The Singapore government need to understand that there is a lot of difference between the SLA, CNB and SCDF. Most Singaporeans ignored the SLA, some people don’t even know what the SLA is for, but the CNB and SCDF are different matters altogether!
The CNB and SCDF are security agencies. Singaporeans are very interested in what sort of “corruption” had been uncovered at these 2 agencies. The sooner the information is released, the better it will be for everyone including the Singapore government.
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Friday, January 27, 2012
Comics this week
Justice League #5- In the early 90s, a group of superstar artists decided to create Image Comics. Of the lot, Todd McFarlane was widely considered the pick of the bunch. However I had always believed that Jim Lee was slightly better than McFarlane. For the past few years, Jim Lee had made a mockery of my belief by disappearing from the comic world. If there’s one thing we can be grateful for in the New 52, it is the resurrection of Jim Lee. He seems to be having fun in the New 52 and the last page of this issue shows it. I won’t spoil it by saying what it shows but it is great. It’s worth it to pick up this issue just for that one page alone. It’s that good!
Green Lantern: The New Guardians #5- Now that the set-up of the team is over, it’s time for the New Guardians to investigate how rings from their respective corps were stolen in the first place. What came about is a fun mystery tour of the massive structure that has appeared in the universe. Writer Tony Bedard does a good job of hinting at the contrasting personalities of the New Guardians and artist Tyler Kirkham match him with some solid pages. The New Guardians still hasn’t catch fire but the potential of the series is undeniable.
I, Vampire #5- Batman don’t know there are vampires in the DCU? Really? The man fights beside an Amazon Princess, knows magic exist in the DCU, is the world’s greatest detective, but he has no idea vampires exist. Writer Joshua Hale Fialkov needs to stop with all these guest-stars that are hurting more than helping the series. I thought Constantine's appearance last issue was unnecessary but at least he was still in character. This Batman is not. The only good thing in this issue is Andrea Sorrentino's work which suits Batman and Gotham to a T. Too bad about the story.
Green Lantern: The New Guardians #5- Now that the set-up of the team is over, it’s time for the New Guardians to investigate how rings from their respective corps were stolen in the first place. What came about is a fun mystery tour of the massive structure that has appeared in the universe. Writer Tony Bedard does a good job of hinting at the contrasting personalities of the New Guardians and artist Tyler Kirkham match him with some solid pages. The New Guardians still hasn’t catch fire but the potential of the series is undeniable.
I, Vampire #5- Batman don’t know there are vampires in the DCU? Really? The man fights beside an Amazon Princess, knows magic exist in the DCU, is the world’s greatest detective, but he has no idea vampires exist. Writer Joshua Hale Fialkov needs to stop with all these guest-stars that are hurting more than helping the series. I thought Constantine's appearance last issue was unnecessary but at least he was still in character. This Batman is not. The only good thing in this issue is Andrea Sorrentino's work which suits Batman and Gotham to a T. Too bad about the story.
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Star Wars Uncut: Director’s Cut
I’m not a fan of fan-made movies. The reason is simple; almost all of them are crap!
This latest fan-made movie, Star Wars Uncut: Director’s Cut, however is ridiculously funny. It’s still crap but the director ragingpugh (who I think we can all agree has too much time on his hand) celebrate the crappiness of fan-made movie.
Just watch it and find out what I mean!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ezeYJUz-84
This latest fan-made movie, Star Wars Uncut: Director’s Cut, however is ridiculously funny. It’s still crap but the director ragingpugh (who I think we can all agree has too much time on his hand) celebrate the crappiness of fan-made movie.
Just watch it and find out what I mean!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ezeYJUz-84
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Not What They Need
For all the talk about how Singapore need an alternate voice to the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP), there are a lot of Singaporeans who believed that none of the opposition parties and its members has the quality to match the PAP. The latest troubles at the Singapore People’s Party (SPP) will not helping matters.
Even through the SPP is one of the minor political parties in Singapore, it has been able to punch above its weight due to presence of its veteran leader Mr. Chiam See Tong. However differences within the party became public the SPP’s first assistant secretary-general Mr. Wilfred Leung informed the SPP central executive committee (CEC) that he does not intend to run for a position in the committee. This is major news within the SPP as Mr. Leung was expected to succeed Mr. Chiam See Tong as the party’s next secretary-general.
The problem seems to be discontent with Mr. Chiam and his wife, Mrs. Lina Chiam. Key members of the party had said to have lock with Mrs Lina Chiam, who had taken over her husband’s position within the SPP. Sadly, I kind of expected this.
Despite (or because) his status as the longest serving opposition in Singapore, Mr. Chiam has a long history of falling out with senior member of the political party he was in. It happened in the Singapore Democratic Party, with the Singapore Democratic Alliance and now with the SPP. I see a trend here.
However I do hope that the Chiams and the members of the SPP can come up with some sort of agreement or comprise. The SPP is already a minor party within the opposition, the last thing they (and the opposition) need right now is a spilt within the party.
Even through the SPP is one of the minor political parties in Singapore, it has been able to punch above its weight due to presence of its veteran leader Mr. Chiam See Tong. However differences within the party became public the SPP’s first assistant secretary-general Mr. Wilfred Leung informed the SPP central executive committee (CEC) that he does not intend to run for a position in the committee. This is major news within the SPP as Mr. Leung was expected to succeed Mr. Chiam See Tong as the party’s next secretary-general.
The problem seems to be discontent with Mr. Chiam and his wife, Mrs. Lina Chiam. Key members of the party had said to have lock with Mrs Lina Chiam, who had taken over her husband’s position within the SPP. Sadly, I kind of expected this.
Despite (or because) his status as the longest serving opposition in Singapore, Mr. Chiam has a long history of falling out with senior member of the political party he was in. It happened in the Singapore Democratic Party, with the Singapore Democratic Alliance and now with the SPP. I see a trend here.
However I do hope that the Chiams and the members of the SPP can come up with some sort of agreement or comprise. The SPP is already a minor party within the opposition, the last thing they (and the opposition) need right now is a spilt within the party.
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Chinese New Year
Today is the eve of the Chinese New Year. Here wishing all readers a "Happy and Prosperous Year of the Dragon"!
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Review of Margin Call
I have never heard of J.C. Chandor but after seeing “Margin Call” I can safely say the director is gong to have a long career in front of him. “Margin Call” is a movie on the financial crisis of 2007–2008 and the reactions of a group of people in charge of a large investment bank on the outset of the crisis.
“Margin Call” starts with a bloodbath on the trading floor as the investment bank in question was conducting massive layoffs. One of the employees fired, Eric Dale (Stanley Tucci), was a manager in the risk management division. Before he leaves, he hands over a project he was working on to Peter Sullivan (Zachary Quinto), a junior risk analyst.
That night, Peter finished Eric’s project and discovered that the company’s trading strategy has put the company in great risk of collapse. Sullivan informed his friend Seth Bregman (Penn Badgley) as well as his boss Will Emerson (Paul Bettany). Once he discovered how serious the problems are, Will immediately tried to contact Eric Dale but discover that Eric has not went home and his HP no. has been cancelled by the company. He then contacted Sam Rogers (Kevin Spacey), the company’s head of sales.
Throughout the night, the employees engaged in a series of high-level meetings with senior executives like the company’s head of securities Jared Cohen (Simon Baker), the company’s head of risk Sarah Robertson (Demi Moore), and the company’s CEO John Tuld (Jeremy Irons). Tuld revealed his plan to sell off all of the toxic assets of the company before the market catch wind of their worthlessness, thus enabling the firm to continue. Rogers strongly object to this plan as it will destroy the firm's relationships throughout the financial sector as they would be selling worthless paper.
From then on, the movie became a tense affair as Tuld and Rogers engaged in a test of wills on whether to go ahead with the plan. Needless to say, the plan went through and the aftermath was not pretty.
Let me put it simply; “Margin Call” is a wonderful film. With a peerless ensemble cast and a smart director, it is intriguing by the very fact of what it tried to do. It creates sympathy for the bad guys of the current financial crisis.
A lot of the credit has to go to the cast, especially Spacey and Irons. Spacey is brilliant as the immoral Rogers who is surprised and none too pleased to discover that he still has some principals. Irons matched Spacey’s performance as the desperate Tuld who makes no apologies for doing whatever he could to enable the survival of his firm.
Let’s admit it, the tropic of financial swaps and debt sales is rather dry, and it is to the cast’s credit that the film works! Even actors I never care for like Demi Moore and Simon Baker put in some stellar work here.
However director J.C. Chandor also came out of this film smelling like roses. In any other film, all the characters in the film would be considered the bad guys. They were the ones who created a crisis that affected millions of people, who sold worthless assets to save themselves and who got rich while doing so! However under Chandor’s deft hands, everyone got to display a glimmer of humanity as zero hour approaches.
Chandor treaded the needle in this movie. He refused to give us any villains but did show the reason why the crisis started in the first place. The people in this film might not be villains but they are no heroes either. Near the end of the film, it was revealed that senior executives of the firm were aware of the risks in the weeks leading up to the crisis but they chose to ignore it due to the money they were making. Even the counterparties of the firm, who were buying worthless paper, were not spared. As the day goes on, the firm’s counterparties knew that something was wrong but despite being increasingly suspicious, they still bought the assets from the firm because the firm was selling it so cheaply.
Chandor made sure to emphasis the fact that greed was the all powerful factor in the financial crisis and everyone was to blame for it.
Yet despite the heavy and dry tropic, this was not a humorless film. There were a few running jokes in the film. One of the running jokes in the film was that the structure of the asset was so complex no one but engineers and rocket scientists could figure out exactly how it worked. Almost every executive in the film told Sullivan to explain the matter to them as simply as possible. Another was the search for Eric Dale. After getting fired, Dale got his phone number cancelled; which made it impossible for the firm to contact him once they found they needed him back. In the end, they had to pay him a truckload of money just to come back to the firm to sit down in the office doing nothing for a day.
Of course if you wish to nitpick, there were some parts of the film that could have done some work. The structure of the assets the firm was selling was never fully explained and it would have been nice to know what happened between Robertson, Cohen, and Tuld during the weeks leading to the crisis.
Still, those were minor instances in the film which could have being better. On the whole, “Margin Call” was a wonderful film. I know it’s still January but I’m pretty sure this will be one of the best film I’ll watch this year. Watch it and see why!
“Margin Call” starts with a bloodbath on the trading floor as the investment bank in question was conducting massive layoffs. One of the employees fired, Eric Dale (Stanley Tucci), was a manager in the risk management division. Before he leaves, he hands over a project he was working on to Peter Sullivan (Zachary Quinto), a junior risk analyst.
That night, Peter finished Eric’s project and discovered that the company’s trading strategy has put the company in great risk of collapse. Sullivan informed his friend Seth Bregman (Penn Badgley) as well as his boss Will Emerson (Paul Bettany). Once he discovered how serious the problems are, Will immediately tried to contact Eric Dale but discover that Eric has not went home and his HP no. has been cancelled by the company. He then contacted Sam Rogers (Kevin Spacey), the company’s head of sales.
Throughout the night, the employees engaged in a series of high-level meetings with senior executives like the company’s head of securities Jared Cohen (Simon Baker), the company’s head of risk Sarah Robertson (Demi Moore), and the company’s CEO John Tuld (Jeremy Irons). Tuld revealed his plan to sell off all of the toxic assets of the company before the market catch wind of their worthlessness, thus enabling the firm to continue. Rogers strongly object to this plan as it will destroy the firm's relationships throughout the financial sector as they would be selling worthless paper.
From then on, the movie became a tense affair as Tuld and Rogers engaged in a test of wills on whether to go ahead with the plan. Needless to say, the plan went through and the aftermath was not pretty.
Let me put it simply; “Margin Call” is a wonderful film. With a peerless ensemble cast and a smart director, it is intriguing by the very fact of what it tried to do. It creates sympathy for the bad guys of the current financial crisis.
A lot of the credit has to go to the cast, especially Spacey and Irons. Spacey is brilliant as the immoral Rogers who is surprised and none too pleased to discover that he still has some principals. Irons matched Spacey’s performance as the desperate Tuld who makes no apologies for doing whatever he could to enable the survival of his firm.
Let’s admit it, the tropic of financial swaps and debt sales is rather dry, and it is to the cast’s credit that the film works! Even actors I never care for like Demi Moore and Simon Baker put in some stellar work here.
However director J.C. Chandor also came out of this film smelling like roses. In any other film, all the characters in the film would be considered the bad guys. They were the ones who created a crisis that affected millions of people, who sold worthless assets to save themselves and who got rich while doing so! However under Chandor’s deft hands, everyone got to display a glimmer of humanity as zero hour approaches.
Chandor treaded the needle in this movie. He refused to give us any villains but did show the reason why the crisis started in the first place. The people in this film might not be villains but they are no heroes either. Near the end of the film, it was revealed that senior executives of the firm were aware of the risks in the weeks leading up to the crisis but they chose to ignore it due to the money they were making. Even the counterparties of the firm, who were buying worthless paper, were not spared. As the day goes on, the firm’s counterparties knew that something was wrong but despite being increasingly suspicious, they still bought the assets from the firm because the firm was selling it so cheaply.
Chandor made sure to emphasis the fact that greed was the all powerful factor in the financial crisis and everyone was to blame for it.
Yet despite the heavy and dry tropic, this was not a humorless film. There were a few running jokes in the film. One of the running jokes in the film was that the structure of the asset was so complex no one but engineers and rocket scientists could figure out exactly how it worked. Almost every executive in the film told Sullivan to explain the matter to them as simply as possible. Another was the search for Eric Dale. After getting fired, Dale got his phone number cancelled; which made it impossible for the firm to contact him once they found they needed him back. In the end, they had to pay him a truckload of money just to come back to the firm to sit down in the office doing nothing for a day.
Of course if you wish to nitpick, there were some parts of the film that could have done some work. The structure of the assets the firm was selling was never fully explained and it would have been nice to know what happened between Robertson, Cohen, and Tuld during the weeks leading to the crisis.
Still, those were minor instances in the film which could have being better. On the whole, “Margin Call” was a wonderful film. I know it’s still January but I’m pretty sure this will be one of the best film I’ll watch this year. Watch it and see why!
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Since When?
Speaking in Parliament about the recommended pay cuts announced by the Ministerial Salary Review Committee last week, Singapore Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean said that Singaporeans should not compare Singapore’s ministerial salaries with those of other countries.
The reaction of Singaporeans to the DPM’s statement has been one of outright laughter! I admit I laughed too when I heard his statement.
Come on, since when did Singapore has a problem with comparing ourselves with the rest of the world? We have one of the busiest port in the world; the world’s best airport; the no. 1 destination for rich Indonesian fugitives! However when it comes to comparing salaries of our ministers, we can’t compare ourselves to the rest of the world?
Right, that’s makes a lot of sense. I’m sure Singaporeans will follow his advice and we will never hear any word about ministerial salaries ever again!
The reaction of Singaporeans to the DPM’s statement has been one of outright laughter! I admit I laughed too when I heard his statement.
Come on, since when did Singapore has a problem with comparing ourselves with the rest of the world? We have one of the busiest port in the world; the world’s best airport; the no. 1 destination for rich Indonesian fugitives! However when it comes to comparing salaries of our ministers, we can’t compare ourselves to the rest of the world?
Right, that’s makes a lot of sense. I’m sure Singaporeans will follow his advice and we will never hear any word about ministerial salaries ever again!
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