TR EMERITUS

When you have peace, treasure it. Don’t take it for granted. Embrace it. Protect it. It is fragile, like a canary in the coalmine. Anything can trigger it, especially when different interests widen the inflammatory gap. Our government is calling for all to exercise restraint - “Be responsible in airing views on Mid-East crisis: S’pore inter-faith body.” It’s good advice. Acknowledge it. Reflect upon it. Demonstrate it. Love it or dismiss it, peace is not something you can easily repair when it is gone. It is said that if you want peace, be prepared for war. That is just the first part. In a broken world, you don’t take national defence for granted. Deterrence cannot just depend on goodwill. You have to have some bargaining power too. And in terms of nation-building, that power is still about discretionary might, not just diplomacy. But the second part to that saying - “if you want peace, be prepared for war” - is that you must also be prepared to embrace and protect peace. It has to be baked into our culture, assimilated by our people, and safeguarded by our leaders. Here, purpose precedes politics. They say war is the extension of politics by other means. That is a precarious mindset, but no less true. Some people take war as a rebirth, for from the seed of martyrs comes a new birth. Others take it simply as a retaliation to balance the scale. Some see it as a necessary evil. Others see it as a convenient grab and prosper. Whatever it is, we enter a fight for many reasons - for land, for natural resources, for justice, for pride, for preemptive defence, even for a girl. But there is only one reason for peace, and it is this: sustainable flourishing for all, regardless of how different we are. Peace is the handmaiden of diversity. It draws strength and hope from the synergy of our differences, not just our similarities. At the heart of peace is our common ground, the core purpose of our human existence, that is, the desire to live and thrive together. The maturity of our nation depends not on how wealthy we are, how technologically advanced we are, how accomplished we are, how educated we are, or how amazing our infrastructure is. It depends on how united the people are. It depends on the character of its people, both the governing and the governed. Didn’t Thomas Jefferson remind us that the care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government? The Israel-Hamas war began about 9 days ago, and by Sunday, more than 1,400 Israelis and 2,450 Gazans have lost their lives. The Ukrainians have a head start here, and they know how it ends. They live through it, day in and out. They see the unspeakable cruelty of what their neighbours can do. They see the wild animal in us, and it has a ravenous appetite fueled by fanaticism and impunity. You can sadly expect more, more lives lost, because peace is the last child to be birthed from the womb of war. Out of it, thru the labour driven by our basest instinct, comes the the birth of vengence, intemperance, and the lust of misguided beliefs. War is a necessary evil not because of any redemptive value it promises, but because we lack the imagination to pursue a peace that is enduring. We assign that to another realm based on our religious convictions. But ironically, our lust for war is often based on that same conviction, however peace-loving we claim it to be. I’m afraid our imagined heaven will be of one race, and it is no less a tribalistic paradise. So, I return to the warning that we must not take for granted. There is no collective flourishing if there is no enduring peace. And there is no enduring peace if there is no resilient unity. And there is not resilient unity if we don’t reach out and embrace our differences as a bond of strength and hope, not a dead-knot of suspicion and extremism. Mind you, a temperate mind builds up, sees further, and embraces our common humanity. I end with the wise words of Mufti Dr Nazirudin Mohd Nasir and Chief Rabbi Mordechai Abergel. “We fear and weep for the sad state of the human soul in this time of unprecedented violence and suffering in the world; how hatred will be entrenched in the minds of the victims, how conflicts will be exploited to sow enmity between communities, how compassion and forgiveness will be replaced with anger and vengence.” “May the darkness we are currently experiencing pave the way to light and peace for Jews and Muslims, Isrealis and Palestinians. May it happen swiftly and decisively in our days.” Amen.   Michael Han * The author was a Director at Han & Lu  Law Chambers and blogs on Facebook.      Read More →

The leading business and finance magazine highlights the success story of TECH Technological University, which allows people to learn from the best academic programs and in 100% online mode from anywhere in the world The prestigious magazine specializing in business and finance Forbes has highlighted TECH Technological University as "The best digital university in the world". They have recently said in an extensive article in its digital edition in which they echo the success story of this institution, "Thanks to the academic offerings it provides, the selection of its teaching staff, and an innovative learning method aimed at training the professionals of the future". In this way, the renowned business publication has highlighted the constant work of this university to be at the forefront of the education sector. All this, at a time when health and social conditions have accelerated the decline of traditional pedagogical models in favor of new online and distance approaches. Thus, Forbes highlights TECH's 100% online method and its results, which "are outstanding, surpassing with flying colors the world quality standards that evaluate the effectiveness of online training". In fact, this academic approach has obtained scores above the 4 points out of 5 offered by the 'Likert Scale'. In the same way, the Relearning method has obtained more than 8 points out of 10, placing TECH as the best online university in the world. "According to Forbes, TECH has managed to rank among the 200 fastest growing companies in Europe in only 6 years of business activity." Currently, TECH, the world’s largest university, is positioned as a benchmark in online and distance education. Its extensive academic catalog, consisting of more than 10,000 titles, the selection of a first-class teaching team, and the constant effort to offer high-quality content endorse it which positions TECH's more than 500,000 graduates as the most valued professionals, providing them not only with the most updated knowledge but also making them highly sought-after assets by major international companies. Forbes also highlights TECH's extensive business expansion, which since its creation in 2015 has managed to position itself among the 200 fastest growing companies in Europe and as the Spanish technology company with the highest valuation in recent years. These recognitions, added to the commitment to expansion and quality education make TECH Technological University the largest educational operator globally. The most complete academic offer in the online educational panorama One of the aspects that makes TECH unique is its outstanding academic offer because it has an extensive catalog of higher education programs consisting of bachelor's Degrees, master's Degrees, University Experts, Management Development Programs, Language Courses, and Diplomas. All of them are taught online, which makes it easier for students to combine their academic, professional, and personal lives. In addition, the university not only has traditional faculties, they also have included new areas of knowledge aligned with today's professional world. Thus, today TECH has programs related to the world of the metaverse, cryptocurrencies, or virtual reality, without leaving aside the traditional academic areas that require constant updating at a professional level, such as Health Sciences or the world of Business, among others. "TECH degrees cover the vast majority of professional fields, as well as different levels of specialization depending on the student's needs: Masters, Courses, Experts, among others." Bearing in mind the above, the University has a catalog of areas of knowledge that is unique in the sector, which includes faculties such as Sports Science, Design, Education, Nursing, Business School, Language School, Pharmacy, Physiotherapy, Geography and History, Humanities, Computer Science, Engineering, Law, Medicine, Dentistry, Nutrition, Psychology, Journalism and Communication, Veterinary Medicine, and Video Games. The reiteration of concepts as a learning method: Relearning Considering the failure of traditional teaching methods, TECH Technological University, in its bid to improve the learning system, has implemented an innovative method based on the reiteration of concepts. Under the name of Relearning, this pedagogical method is unique for combining high educational quality with the highest academic demands and the latest educational technology. In addition, TECH is the only university accredited to use this educational method in its programs. In this sense, Forbes states that "the results obtained by its learning methodology are outstanding" and that "they improve the overall satisfaction levels of students in the indicators that identify TECH as the best online university". This is what makes more graduates of this institution value positively the learning process at TECH and recommend studying at this university instead of others. Thus, to apply this method effectively, TECH focuses on providing students with teaching materials in different formats: text, interactive videos, illustrations, and knowledge maps, among others. All of them, are designed by qualified teachers who focus their work on combining real cases with the resolution of complex situations through simulation, the study of cases applied to each professional career, and learning based on repetition through audio, videos, presentations, animations, and images, among others. The essence of this method is to supply confidence and autonomy to the student. In this way, knowledge is permanently anchored in the student, who can also learn at his own pace and according to their time and lifestyle, this is something that was unthinkable with traditional learning methods. TECH Technological University TECH Technological University was founded in 2015 with the aim of moving the structure of traditional education by proposing a new academic model based on the quality of content and a unique method founded on offering immersive learning focused on knowing a subject and how to apply it. Also, TECH educational group has recently been recognized as one of the 200 fastest growing companies in Europe. Thus, it is structured as an international cluster of private digital universities oriented to offer postgraduate degrees of the highest quality.  Read More →

Today state media announced that Singapore’s population had risen to 5.92 million, a 5% jump from the previous year and an over 4% jump from the previous high of 5.7 million in 2019. Obviously this was overwhelmingly driven by immigration since the number of citizen births fell to around 30,000 while the resident Total Fertility Rate in 2022 fell to 1.04 from 1.12 in 2021. While the number of resident deaths was still less than citizen births (presumably because of the long standing high rate of conversion of PRs into new citizens), in the absence of immigration the resident population would have already started to decline or be on the verge of doing so. Meanwhile the median age of the resident population at 43 is now substantially higher than the UK (40) or US (38). The jump in population, most of which was in the non-resident labour force which rose by 13% to 1.77 million, obviously was a big factor in staving off recession by boosting GDP growth. 203,000 of the total increase of 281,000, or 72% were in this category. Assuming most of the additional population went into the labour force (which is defined as those over 15 who are employed plus the unemployed who are looking for work) , over 90%, then the boost to the total workforce was over 7%. Yet GDP grew by only 2.2% over the same period meaning that productivity or value added per worker fell by about 5%. Increasing the workforce and the population has always been the PAP’s go-to solution to generate growth without any rise in the underlying productivity of the factor inputs. By doing so they bamboozle gullible Western governments and media into believing the PAP’s disinformation and that Singapore’s growth record is exceptional. As I’ve said in too many articles on my blog to list here (see here for just one), the use of foreign workers to try to compensate for the fact that the local labour pool was largely exhausted began in the 1990s. This is now happening again with the rise in population coming mostly from a sharp rise in the nonresident workforce which has exceeded prepandemic levels. Showing positive GDP growth, despite shrinking value added per worker and a squeeze on real disposable incomes, while other economies are barely growing or shrinking, allows PAP to claim that they’ve been managing the economy successfully and bamboozle you into believing that you must be getting richer and therefore should vote for them at the fast approaching election. However other countries with shrinking labour forces could actually have higher growth rates of value added per worker even if GDP growth is negative. A good example of this is Japan. Recently Singapore state media carried an anecdotal comparison of purchasing power between Japan and Singapore which showed that Japanese workers were better off. A growing population also has benefits for the PAP in other ways too. Increasing the population puts pressure on housing and land prices which feeds through into the value of land reserves. While the Government’s financial reserves are likely around $3 trillion, the land it owns is worth several times that number and this increases every time an HDB breaks a new sales record. The Government can use the excuse of rising property prices to divert yet more money from the Budget into housing subsidies, both to CPF and HDB, which flow back into the reserves when land is sold to HDB and private developers, without having to spend anything on things that would actually increase the welfare of Singaporeans. And of course an elastic supply of labour, imported from foreign sources, keeps a lid on wages while bolstering the profits of the state companies which employ many of these workers. The lack of a minimum wage and the easy availability of workers allows the Government to tout its so-called (Un)Progressive Wage Model as protecting workers when it’s in fact institutionalizing low wages at a third to a half of the UK minimum wage. This keeps domestic consumption below 40% of GDP whereas in most Western countries it’s over 60% and in the US around 70%. The one benefit of increased population is the increase in domestic demand. This leads to higher tax revenues through mechanisms like GST and collections from rising residential and commercial rents. But the PAP doesn’t share the gains with Singaporeans, other than a small fraction which it claims fully offsets the GST increases paid households. Furthermore the offsets are only for a strictly limited period and come in place of the far more generous help extended to citizens of other rich countries to deal with rising costs. When the PAP disingenuously announce that Singapore has successfully avoided recession, Singaporeans should understand how that happened and ask the Government to demonstrate how it has benefited them. In 2013 the PAP announced a White Paper on Population with a target of 6.9 million by 2030. It now looks as though that will be exceeded by 2026 at the current rate of expansion. I wrote about it here ten years ago It remains as relevant as ever because the PAP strategy is never to give up on their goals but only to back off for a while and then go on with the same strategy once they think the fuss has died down. What’s happening now suggests that even the bogeyman of a stealth target of 10 million by 2030 no longer looks wide of the mark. Giving the PAP a blank cheque via an electoral supermajority has never been a wise strategy.   Kenneth Jeyaretnam I'm a Singaporean economist who became an opposition activist. I blog to provide an alternative to the porkies that the Pinkies tell. It just so happens that my alternative is the truth. That's why I've never been sued in any civil or criminal court no matter how hard hitting my criticism. I'm quoted and interviewed and asked to speak across the world but largely censored in Singapore in an effort to silence my political opinions. The left hate me because they think I split their vote and because I eschew their outmoded economic models. Models that don't work. The Right and the Conservatives hate me because I'm a liberal. I'm not sure what the middle think of me. I don't think there are more than a handful of people in the middle, here in Singapore. I'm a Singaporean born and bred, dual heritage, my parents Singaporean established here before the State of Singapore was created. I'm not Eurasian. I read economics at Cambridge and could be broadly described as from the Keynesian school but I believe in interventions. I was formerly a successful hedge fund manager. After economics and politics my greatest interests are history, film and Makan. I run but I run so I can eat like a Singaporean.      Read More →