TR EMERITUS

It has become a standard modus operandi of the PAP to bring their self-proclaimed "forecaster extraordinarie" to the frontline whenever the ministers found public pressure to great to cope on their own. Following massive public outrage at the recent spates of flooding which once again exposed the incompetence and impotence of the PAP, PAP strongman Lee Kuan Yew is called upon again to clear the "s**t" left behind by his minister mentees. PAP Environment Minister Yaacob Ibrahim has received much public opprobrium lately for his inept handling of the crisis. Instead of taking responsibility for the flooding and apologizing to affected Singaporeans, he was quick to "tai-chi" the blame to everybody and everything else (including God) except himself. His explanation for the Orchard Road flooding consisted of a woefully inadequate one-liner: "The floods are caused by intense storms." So pathetic he has become that he even ran out of excuses to defend himself and had to parrot his boss PM Lee's earlier (equally lame) excuse that "it is impossible to expect Singapore to be completely flood-free". It is a view shared by the "peerless know-all" Lee Kuan Yew who is a lawyer by training. Speaking to reporters yesterday at the Kallang River, Lee tried desperately hard to maintain his cool in the face of mounting criticisms at the dismal performance of his over-paid multi-millionaire ministers: "How can you say the response is sufficient? But at the same time, whatever we do, when we get extraordinary rainfall like we had recently, no amount of engineering can prevent flooding. There is a limited amount of space that you can dig underground, limited amount of space that you can have run-offs for canals." Fortunately for the octagenarian, it was not raining at that time and Kallang River did not flood right at his feet and swept him away.   Please join our Facebook page here and invite your friends to do so to create awareness of the current affairs affecting Singaporeans. Please use our online web form to contact us.  Read More →

The repressive PAP regime is so obsessed with making its YOG a resounding success to boost its international profile that it is willing to go to any lengths to do so including causing inconveniences to Singapore commuters. A public campaign is now underway to remind Singaporean drivers to give way to YOG vehicles in designated Youth Olympic Lanes which occupy the second left-most lanes of affected roads. The roads affected includes the Pan-Island Expressway and the Central Expressway which are often jammed in peak hours. To enforce the ruling, the PAP has passed a law which will see motorists fined a hefty $130 if they do not give way to its YOG vehicles which have special licence plates bearing the words 'YOG'. It is not known if the ruling applies to vehicles stranded in floods which are becoming a frequent occurrence in Singapore. It will be an international embarrassment to the PAP should the YOG be disrupted by the "once in fifty years" freak floods. Let's see if Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong will tell that YOG delegates that "it is impossible to expect Singapore to be completely flood free" in the event that YOG vehicles get stuck in a flood and miss their schedule.     Please join our Facebook page here and invite your friends to do so to create awareness of the current affairs affecting Singaporeans. Please use our online web form to contact us.  Read More →

An ‘optimum’ population', in dictionary terms, is the ‘best or most favourable’ population. But a dictionary cannot tell the whole story. Best for what purpose, and best according to which criteria? For OPT, a green think tank, an optimum population means, at its simplest, a population size which is environmentally sustainable in the long term, affords people a good quality of life, has adequate renewable and non-renewable resources necessary for its long-term survival and consumes or recycles them to ensure it will not compromise the long-term survival of its progeny. Overpopulation Index: The Index assesses the extent to which a country can support itself from its own renewable resources, by measuring per capita consumption, or ecological footprint in global hectares per capita, against per capita biologically productive capacity (biocapacity) in global hectares. The proportion of consumption sourced from outside a country gives a dependency rating ranging from 0 to 100 per cent: the higher the dependency rating, the greater the overpopulation.     All source data from The Ecological Footprint Atlas 2009 (Global Footprint Network), based on 2006 figures. Ecological footprint and biocapacity measured in global hectares per person. A global hectare is a hectare with world-average biological productivity. The ecological footprint measures the area of biologically productive land and water (biocapacity) required to produce the resources and absorb the waste of a given population or activity. Dependency and self-sufficiency ratings based on ratio of footprint to biocapacity, showing the percentage of footprint not supported (= dependency) from biocapacity. Sustainable population shows number that can be supported from biocapacity at current consumption/footprint levels. Overpopulation is difference between actual and sustainable populations. NB figures in index have been rounded; calculations are based on pre-rounded data, to four decimal places. Countries with negative dependency rating, i.e where biocapacity exceeds footprint, are not included. World Bank Income Group Economies are divided according to 2008 GNI per capita, using the World Bank Atlas method. The groups are low income, $975 or less; lower middle income, $976-$3,855; upper middle income, $3,856- $11,905; and high income, $11,906 or more.   Source: Optimum Population Trust  Read More →