TR EMERITUS

Pig Ear Salad – one of life’s hidden gems A few days ago, I ran into a German fellow whom I had recently befriended. He described one of his worst meals in Africa as “Chicken Feet.” He couldn’t understand why anyone would want to eat chicken feet and the Bistrot owner, who is born and bred in France felt inclined to agree. Both his girlfriend, who is Nigerian, and I, defended the culinary delight of chicken feet. We all need to eat but food is not just a necessity. It’s an emotional experience that ties us to our roots. At the same time, it’s the one part of any particular culture that gets easily adapted by another. It is also one of the places where we see some of the greatest forms of innovation. The innovation you see in recipes comes from necessity and if I look at the discussion over chicken feet, there’s a clear cultural difference. The German and Frenchman come from places where meat has always been plentiful. If you look at Western cuisine, you’ll find plenty of meat dishes and its usually for the bits of the animal that is most meaty. Hence, if you walk into a Western restaurant, you will find that the specialties are things like chicken breast and rump steak. Fish dishes are inevitable for the meaty parts of a fish. Beef Spare-Parts Noodles – a Luxury Item in East Asia. Not to in the Western World However, Asian and Africans, who are from places where meat is not plentiful had to find ways of making each bit of an animal count. Hence, we developed a liking for the parts of any given animal that would make your average Westerner balk. We learnt to make things like feet, wings and heads tasty. Shopping for meat in any given Western country is a heavenly experience because the bits that we treasure are bits that the Westerners can’t get rid off fast enough. In my first week at Goldsmith’s, I ran into a girl from Hong Kong who was thrilled at the prices of fish heads in the UK. Necessity has made it such that those of us who came from places where meat was not plentiful had to make the most of the animal. Waste is an unforgivable sin. So, given that East Asians, Africans and people from other “developing” parts of the world have shown a talent for innovation in cuisine using the parts that people who come from the world with plenty tend to discard, shouldn’t we be applying our genius for not wasting to other things. I mean is world is filled with rubbish, which goes into landfills or gets exported to third world countries in Africa and Asia for people to extract value from rubbish in a way that is dangerous (both physically and environmentally) as well as dirty. Here is an example of what happens: [LINK] Surely, there has to be a way of making the recycling industry better in every sense of the word. This is particularly so in East Asia, where universities across the region churn out engineering graduates in addition to engineering graduates of East Asian origin who come out of Western universities. We have plenty of intelligent people and they need to be inspired to put their brains behind reusing things in a way that is safe to people and the environment as well as lucrative. One good example in Green Rubber, a Malaysian Company that has found a way to recycle used rubber or specifically tires, something which the UN had called the “Number One environmental hazard.” We need more companies like that. Think about it. If we have the genius of developing culinary wonders from the neglected parts of an animal, we surely must have the genius to developing wonderful products from the things other people throw away.   Tang Li *Although I’ve been based mainly in Singapore for nearly two decades, I’ve had the privilege of being able meet people who have crossed borders and cultures. I’ve befriended ministers and ambassadors and worked on projects involving a former head of state. Yet, at the same time, I’ve had the privilege of befriending migrant labourers and former convicts. All of them have a story to tell. All of them add to the fabric of life. I hope to express the stories that inspire us to create life as it should be.      Read More →

Although Pure Blood are persecuted, discriminated and verbally abused everywhere in the world by the establishment as well as many ignorant people, but I find that those who are vaccine (V) injured but categorically denied, ridiculed, accused of "Fabricating" their injuries or even worse, insinuated of having mental illness, suffering from all sorts of gaslighting... are the ones who suffered most from this V saga. I have full sympathy and empathy to these people. Imagine when you suddenly find yourself unable to walk and suffer from brain fog just a day right after the V and regardless what the "Experts" say, your instinct will tell you it's V injury. But people don't believe it at all, or even opined you fake your injury or suffering from mental illness of hallucinations! Some of these V injured people have passed away after struggling for a period of time. Some continue to fight with their daily struggle of disability and all the ridiculous nonsense thrown at them. They applied for VIFAP but were denied and assertions were made that their injuries have nothing to do with the V! The most absurd reasoning I have heard is to blame their injuries on "pre existing conditions". Why? Well, they were literally pushed to take to V else they will lose their jobs and they can't get any exemption from any doctor or the "Experts". But when they took the V and apparently to them, the V triggered the deterioration of their pre existing conditions, the Gov just brush off all responsibilities and those brainless unthinking ignorant ones will also blame these people of their "bad luck"! For those who get injured without any apparent Excuses of "pre existing conditions" to be blamed upon, were made to go through all sorts of tests but yet, denied to be declared V injuries. Gaslighting is common. Blatant insinuation of faking or fabrication of injuries are the worse kind of verbal abuse they received. Some Pro V fellows prefer not to read or hear anything about these cases of V injuries. Do they have any empathy? Apparently not. Most probably it is a kind of reflexes of their subconscious anxiety that these V injuries may be real and it may one day happen to them or their family members. They have taken V and it's irreversible. Reading all these make them worry subconsciously. But ultimately, we will have to face it right in the face. There are only so many excuses you can use for the growing encounters around us and the persistent high Excess DEATHS. Data won't lie. Truth will outlive all of us. The daily Truth for me today, is that I have heard at least 8 ambulance sirens this morning up to 9.55am. Don't break the hearts of the V injured by making unwarranted casual remarks that they fabricated or fake their injuries or that it's their "own fault". They have been hurt and suffer enough from the V which nobody wants to acknowledge or take responsibility for it. They don't deserve to suffer a second time from ignorant people.   Goh Meng Seng      Read More →

How I hate this building. In years long past my nonchalance towards a citizen's responsibility to speedy settlement of personal taxes, coupled with my proclivity to procrastination, often ended up with me having to go down to the IRAS office to sort things out. The IRAS has a very simple and absolutely effective way of handling delinquent block heads like me. The fines just doubled up, tripled, quadrupled till at some point the irresistible force can move an immoveable object. This year the IRAS is going to collect more taxes from me. But this time it will not require me to go down to their office. I am referring of course to the GST which has gone up from 7% to 8%. It will increase again to 9% next year. The Ministry of Finance has said the additional 2% will raise about S$3.5b annually. This additional revenue is required to meet health care cost for a graying population, so they said. What the government is not saying is the Pioneer and Mederka generations have been so fawning building up reserves to take care of future generations, the new generation is now unable to take care of the graying citizens whose future has arrived. Is the Pioneer, Merdeka, Millennial generation, or Gen X, to blame or is it some screwed up policy somewhere? What else has the government not told us? The big fishes that got away. The tax leakages that they turn a blind eye to. Oh ya, they have been good at throwing the kitchen sink at me for years over a thousand bucks in late payment here and there. But the millions, well there is always another Daedalus explanation from officialdom. In 2021, Singapore was ranked 9th in the global Corporate Tax Haven Index, and 5th in the Financial Secrecy Index. Pretty impressive ranking, right? Except for these 2 indexes, the higher ranking means the badder the country is. Singapore looks the other way for big fishes to avoid taxes. These 2 indexes show how good Singapore was in 2021 at allowing cross-border corporate tax abuse by multinational corporations and private tax evasion by private individuals. According to the Tax Justice Network. the tax lost by Singapore due to global tax abuse was S$5.7b (US$4.277 x 1.3). Let that sink in. For some sense of perspective, that represents about 10% of total state revenue for 2021. And the social cost, you need to look at it this way. The lost tax amounts to 70% of the health budget, making the increase in GST unnecessary. At a time of crippling inflation, the government raises GST to collect S$3.5b from everybody, including those trying hard to make ends meet, but lets slip about S$5.7b (2021) that fat cats with creative accountants and glib lawyers can buy. The S$5.7b is split down the middle between abuses committed by multi-national corporations and private individuals. Illicit financial flows are transfers of money from one country to another that are forbidden by law, rules or custom. There are various channels for such illicit transfers. For Singapore, this is mainly via outward trade in which we have a bad score of 66/100 (100 is the baddest). These outward trades are captured with trading partners. In the case of Singapore, the 3 major partner countries are Liberia, Panama and Hongkong. Well, what do you know. The three biggest tax havens in the world! There is a proliferation of trust companies in Singapore, mostly are foreign entities. They all have offices that operate in all the popular tax havens worldwide. The better to facilitate illicit financial flows. When the Panama Papers came out in 2016 and 2 Singapore domiciled trusts, Asiaciti Trust and Trident Trust, were mentioned, MAS said the 2 were already in their sights before the leak came out. Ya, right.   Patrick Low * Article first appeared on Down The Rabbit Hole.      Read More →