Who Moved My Singapore Cheese

Dang, this is like Kungfu Soccer!

I came across this French artist on another blog and this song is absolutely spellbinding~ and then I realized, this is Nicolas Sarkozy's wife! No wonder he says it is more important for the French nation's progress to be measured in happiness and not dollars! =)

Check out this dude, Sylvain Raynes, attacking crazy-money Cramer on CNBC. Erin Burnett did her best to defend her colleague...and ex-Goldman Sachs colleague..well actually, all three of them, Erin Burnett, Sylvain Raynes and Jim I-didn't-take-money-from-Goldman Cramer are all alumni of Goldman Sachs.



Both Erin Burnett and Jim Cramer are Goldman Sachs alumni. According to her wikipedia entry Burnett began her career in 1998 as a financial analyst for Goldman Sachs in their investment banking division, where she worked on mergers and acquisitions and corporate finance. Cramer obtain employment in 1984 as a stock broker in Goldman Sachs’ Private Wealth Management division, according to his wikipedia page.

Sylvain Raynes is a founding principal of R&R Consulting, a structured credit metrics consultancy founded in 2000. He co-authored “The Analysis of Structured Securities: Precise Risk Measurement and Capital Allocation” with Ann Rutledge, the other R in R&R Consulting. Their second book“Elements of Structured Finance” is scheduled for release in May 2010. He is also a Goldman Sachs alumni.

Sometimes when I hear this song I can feel a bit of much needed peace in my mind. 80s music has that kind of effect eh

Any wonder why Al Jazeera got axed from MIO TV? Just watch a few samplings of their feature documentaries on Singapore. If anything, this also explains why the red light district Geylang has been so frequently raided recently that the sex workers have gone either online or to new enclaves such as Kovan and Serangoon. Geylang isn't the only place to have been raided after Al Jazeera's videos were released, apparently the homeless have been raided as well.

I think Mah Bow Tan has not and will not ever "bow" to the aggrieved Singaporeans, which definitely outnumber the happy ones, for the poor control of real estate inflation in recent years.

Nor will our Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Nor will his daddy MM Lee Kuan Yew.

There's a trend here. The higher you go up the chain of command, the more unlikely it is to obtain a fair review and admission of the mistakes committed in each of their jobs to plan and to accommodate for the influx of immigration via proper control of housing supply.

...and so I thought, how about we take a look at the individuals responsible for the very specific job of planning and execution of land and housing development in Singapore.

Well so how about we go take a peep into HDB and SLA, both government organizations responsible for land and housing related issues.

SLA ORG CHART
HDB ORG CHART

Interestingly, you will find that the position for "Planning and Policy" is vacant. I wonder why...?
So hey since there's no fall guy in that position...the next person would be his boss right? Well he is
Simon Ong, Deputy Chief Executive of SLA as well as the "Commissioner of Lands". Right above him we have Vincent Hoong, Chief Executive of SLA as well as the "Controller of Residential Property".

In HDB, we have a group of fellas called the "Building Group", run by a Mr Sng Cheng Keh. The relevant fellas in the group are Fong Chun Wah (Development and Procurement), Raymond Toh Chun Parng (Research and Planning).

Now if there were no proper reasons for HDB not to have built sufficient flats to accomodate for the increase in immigrants, these are the very people who were sleeping on their jobs and yet have kept silent up till now.

With Singapore being such a small nation, it should be really easy to obtain and work with data. As such, I can only conclude the failure to plan was more of a deliberate move than an accidental occurrence.

Now please do not compare Hongkong and China and the likes to Singapore when it comes to the recent inflation. Every country has an unique set of conditions, and in any case, our politicians are the highest paid and to run the smallest country, um sorry.., city.

So please, will somebody in the know please stand up and explain yourself already. Or perhaps, will the opposition politicians engage in some detective work to look into the real estate buying and selling activities of these above mentioned head honchos of Singapore's land and housing prices. You never know what can be dug out! And if there is nothing there, then at least it will put many a suspecting Singaporean to rest.

These Streets:
Cross the border,
Into the big bad world
where it takes you 'bout an hour
just to cross the road
just to stumble across another poor old soul from
The dreary old lanes to the high-street madness
Eye fight with my brain to believe my eyes
and it's harder than you think
to believe this sadness
that creeps up my spine
and haunts me through the night
and life is good and the girls are gorgeuos
suddenly the air smells much greener now
and I'm wondering 'round
with a half pack of cigarettes
searching for the change that I've lost somehow

To pretend no one can find
The fallacies of morning rose
Forbidden fruit, hidden eyes
Curtises that I despise in me
Take a ride, take a shot now

Cos nobody loves me
Its true
Not like you do

Covered by the blind belief
That fantasies of sinful screens
Bear the facts, assume the dye
End the vows no need to lie, enjoy
Take a ride, take a shot now

Cos nobody loves me
Its true
Not like you do

Who oo am I, what and why
Cos all I have left is my memories of yesterday
Ohh these sour times

Cos nobody loves me
Its true
Not like you do

After time the bitter taste
Of innocence decent or race
Scattered seeds, buried lives
Mysteries of our disguise revolve
Circumstance will decide ....

Cos nobody loves me
Its true
Not like you do

Cos nobody loves me
Its true
Not like you
Nobody loves.. me
Its true
Not, like, you.. do

These days it seems everyone's doing a cover of everyone's songs. Paramore did an amazing job with this one but check out the original below Paramore's...

Here's PARAMORE's acoustic cover...

The singer/songwriter covers the John Waite classic on Park City Television during the Sundance Film Festival.



...and here's the original