John Terry in sex scandal with team-mate’s wife

Soccernet Staff, 30 January 2010

Chelsea and England captain John Terry is at the centre of a storm of controversy surrounding his personal life after he allegedly had an affair with the former girlfriend of international team-mate Wayne Bridge, jeopardising his England captaincy and throwing Fabio Capello’s World Cup plans into disarray.

Terry was named on Friday as the player behind a gagging injunction involving his private life following a High Court hearing in London. The Chelsea defender had last week succeeded in securing an interim injunction against a newspaper publishing details about his alleged relationship with Vanessa Perroncel, a French-born underwear model.

But on Friday, the judge, Mr Justice Tugendhat, lifted the order, saying the information had become so widely available to so many people “it meant that an injunction was less necessary or proportionate than would otherwise be the case”.

Bridge is understood to be deeply upset by the situation, given he was a good friend of former Chelsea team-mate Terry, and Capello is considering the future of his squad dynamic, including Terry’s future as skipper, according to the British press.

Questions such as whether Bridge and Terry can be on the pitch together, or in the same squad, and whether other players would still respect Terry given his betrayal of a colleague, will now be raised.

The order, awarded during a private hearing last Friday, had covered the alleged relationship between LNS – as married Terry was referred to in court – and an unnamed woman which News Group Newspapers had wanted to publish last Sunday.

The judge suggested the claim was “essentially a business matter” for LNS and if he was worried about his sponsorship deals then “damages would be an adequate remedy if LNS succeeds at trial”. The judge also said the newspaper, the News of the World, should have been given notice about LNS’s intention to seek an injunction.

“Freedom to live as one chooses is one of the most valuable freedoms,” he said. “But so is the freedom to criticise – within the limits of the law – the conduct of other members of society as being socially harmful, or wrong.”

Terry, who is expected to captain England at the World Cup finals this summer, is married to childhood sweetheart Toni and is the father of twins.

A Chelsea spokesman told Reuters: “This is a personal matter for John Terry. The club will give John and his family all the support they need in dealing with it.” – Soccernet

PM Lee praises his “Resilience Package” for keeping Singapore’s unemployment rate low

Written by Our Correspondent

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has lavished generous praise on his own policies to deal with the recession of last year which has helped keep Singapore’s unemployment rate low.

“The most important help given to Singaporeans was the Resilience Package in the Budget, which included Jobs Credit and other schemes. As a result of all these, we are able to keep our unemployment not too high. It went up a little bit but now it has come down. The recent unemployment number, (it) has gone from three percent back to only two percent, which is really very low, and almost as low as it was before the crisis began,” he was quoted saying in Channel News Asia.

According to preliminary figures released by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM), the unemployment rate among residents, who include citizens and permanent residents, fell from 5 per cent last September to 3 per cent in December. The new jobs created led to a net employment gain of 43,000 among locals for the whole of 2009.

However, there are no figures for the real unemployment rate for Singapore citizens which may be higher than that of PRs. The underemployment rate for Singaporeans which includes those on contract jobs and have given up searching for a job is not known either.

PM Lee also expressed his optimism for the upcoming Year of the Tiger and is hoping that Singapore’s economy will grow between three and five percent this year.

“We want a better living. Every one of us would like a better life. But the only way to do that is to be able to get the skills, get the education, get the training, get the upgrading to work hard and therefore also work better to be more productive and earn more for ourselves,” he added.

While there is little doubt that many Singaporeans are keen to upgrade their skills, they are disadvantaged by the influx of cheap foreign workers into Singapore which undercut their salaries.

Stung by increasing criticisms from the ground at his pro-foreigner policies, PM Lee had reassured Singaporeans that the “inflow” of foreigners will slow down in the next few years.

Besides upgrading themselves, Singaporeans may like to make use of the vote in their hands to ensure that they really have a better life after the next general election instead of forever living at the mercy of the ruling party.

Gan Kim Yong wants Singapore workers to acquire new skills to be more “efficient”

Written by Our Correspondent

Manpower Minister Gan Kim Yong now wants Singapore workers to focus on acquiring new skills, rather than working longer and harder, to be more efficient.

His latest statement seems to contrast that of his colleague NTUC Secretary-General and Minister in Prime Minister’s Office Lim Swee Say, who had earlier urged Singapore workers to be “cheaper, faster and better.”

“In the past, if you look at typists, we had a lot of typists doing typing work. But today, we have word processors. Not only do we no longer need a lot of typists, in fact, a lot of people do the typing themselves, and do their emails themselves. And so the whole operation has to change,” said Mr Gan in a community event.

Leaders from the ruling party have been singing a different tune of late to placate rising anger on the ground at their liberal immigration and pro-foreigner policies.

Singapore’s labor productivity has declined in recent years due to its over-reliance on cheap foreign labor as illustrated by this graph by Kojakbt, moderator of 3in1kopitiam:

Foreigners now make up 36 per cent of Singapore’s population and more than a third of its workforce.

The Manpower Ministry released a report lately that the unemployment rate of residents had dropped below 3 per cent without giving the exact breakdown figures for both citizens and PRs.

There is no opposition in parliament to check on the ruling party. Neither is there an independent trade union to fight for the interests of Singapore workers.

The sole “trade union” in Singapore – NTUC is a pseudo-government organization which is always headed by a minister from the ruling party.

All forms of public protests, strikes and rallies are outlawed by the ruling party. There is nowhere else for Singapore workers to express their displeasure against the government.

When one minister asked them to be “cheaper, faster and better”, they will have to follow suit and now they have to be more “productive” as well.

Perhaps Mr Gan would like to walk his talk first by showing us how he can be more “productive” without a pay hike which is expected in view of the higher economic growth rate this year.

China vows sanctions over US arms sales

By Minnie Chan from South China Morning Post

Beijing will impose sanctions on US firms which sell weapons to Taiwan and suspend military exchange visits with the United States in protest over planned US arms sales to Taiwan worth US$6.4 billion.

The announcements were made after the Obama administration notified the US Congress on Friday of its proposal to sell the arms to Taiwan – regarded as the first test of US President Barack Obama’s attitude towards trickier issues in the relationship with Beijing.

The Pentagon’s Defence Security Co-operation Agency plans to sell Taiwan 60 Black Hawk helicopters, 114 advanced Patriot anti-missile missiles, enhanced command-and-control systems, 12 advanced Harpoon missiles and two refurbished minesweepers. Analysts noted the items are defensive; the package does not include F-16 fighters, which are on Taiwan’s wish list.

The Foreign Ministry, Defence Ministry and Beijing’s Taiwan Affairs Office all piled in with dire warnings. They said the arms sales would affect Sino-US co-operation on major international and regional issues.

The Defence Ministry, in a strongly worded statement carried by Xinhua news agency, said: “Considering the severe harm and odious effect of US arms sales to Taiwan, the Beijing side has decided to suspend planned mutual military visits.”

Deputy Foreign Minister He Yafei summoned the US ambassador to Beijing, Jon Huntsman, to lodge a protest. “The United States must be responsible for the serious repercussions if it does not immediately reverse the mistaken decision to sell Taiwan weapons,” he said.

Taiwan was the “most important and most sensitive core issue in Sino-US relations”, He said, in comments on the Foreign Ministry website.

“Beijing will also impose corresponding sanctions on US companies that engage in weapons sales to Taiwan,” the Foreign Ministry said, without naming any firms.

The Pentagon said it regretted China’s suspension of military exchanges. “We regret that the Chinese side has curtailed military-to-military and other exchanges,” Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said. “We also regret Chinese action against US firms transferring defensive articles to Taiwan.”

It is unclear how the sanctions will affect the US firms because the West has maintained an embargo on arms sales to the PLA since the Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989. Sikorsky Aircraft sold a small number of Black Hawk helicopters to the PLA in the 1980s.

Read rest of article here

张元元的组屋

作者:冀居·谢

人民对政府移民政策的不满，张元元事件最虚无，而组屋议题最实际，目前已经闹到马宝山(Mah Bow Tan)的国会席位面临挑战这份儿上了。

不过，张同志也不是全无贡献，反而是形成一个临界，把虚无的话题转为直接的利益争取，政府也不得不让步。“政府不急于举行大选”，除了经济层面的问题之外，还面对建国以来一个全新的课题，就是大量移民 (immigrants) 增加人口的后遗。

过去为了加快利用移民来增加人口、补充教育/人文缺失、带来财富等目的之外，唯一没有考虑到的就是本地人民的福祉其实正被这些人侵蚀，大量政策对他们倾斜。而随着他们的人口比例不断地增加；本地目前大约已经有25%的外来人口，增加至650万的时候，他们可能会占了一半有多，到时究竟是糖溶入水，还是水被糖吸干？咱们就骑驴看唱本——走着瞧。

在经济奇差的情况下，组屋价格却节节攀升，这是违反规律的，唯一的可能就是有人掏外国的钱包来这里买屋，而能够购买二手转售组屋的外国人，除了成为最低门槛的PR——永久居民，则别无他法。可是部长却不承认这个事实，他说“永久居民购转售组屋，影响市场走势不显著”——是睁眼说瞎话，要不然建屋局怎么会考虑“组屋区可能实行新移民配额制”？这个就是把新移民当作第五种族（数量上必然可观）而要遏制他们“群居”……问题来了，我们搞到最后竟然是“一国两华”？

许文远要收回之前慷慨发放给他们的住院和医药津贴，所以说要“明年起分阶段减少”， 因为在2007年10月之前，永久居民和新加坡人是享受一样的医药福利。许部长的部门却不敢立马执行，怕因此影响那些新近成为公民的大陆新移民的心情，从而影响PAP的铁票。这个所谓阶段性减少据说是为了让他们适应，表面看起来颇有人情味，但是仔细想起来却不合情理，因为生病和住院不是经常重复发生且控制不了的事，不像水电费、交通费那样需要逐渐适应。生孩子至少也得相隔十个月，患癌就得马上化疗或者电疗，一个人生命垂危乃至死亡，这都是没得适应的事。

马宝山说，他接到组屋转售市场可能出现投机的传闻，因此要了解市场是否被虚构的需求撑起，导致价格推高。这些人买组屋可能不是为了自住，而是“快速转手”（flipping）发财，或出租组屋赚取租金。这些财路都是因政府宽松的移民政策所开，不是吗？最后还是拿本地人开刀、被骂的还是本地人，丢※§☆！

来源：大马论坛

MCYS: Increase in number of homeless people in Singapore not linked to financial crisis

Written by Our Correspondent

More and more Singaporeans are becoming homeless, but there is no direct evidence to link this with the financial crisis, said the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports.

As of last year, 253 homeless people were picked up by MCYS officers, up from 123 in 2007 with more than half of them found sleeping in the void decks of HDB blocks.

Most of them were sent to destitute homes where they get free shelter, food and clothes with curbs to their freedoms.

The actual number may be higher. Homeless Singaporeans, especially the elderly are ubiquitous throughout the HDB flats in Singapore.

One need only take a tour at night to find them sleeping at the void decks, parks and even in the open:

The increase in the number of homeless people in Singaporeans coincided surprisingly with its high growth rate of between 5 to 8 per cent over the last decade which is fueled largely by the relentless influx of cheap foreign labor.

At the same time, the median wages of ordinary Singaporeans have remained stagnant at $2,600 monthly and the income gap between the rich and poor have widened.

Singapore now has the highest income gap among the thirty most developed nations in the world.

According to a recent Wall Street Journal editorial, the ruling party’s liberal immigration policies have depressed the wages of ordinary Singaporeans, increased the cost of living, especially that of public housing, lowered labor productivity and led to an overall decline in the standard of living. (read article here)

While the poor has become poorer in Singapore, Singapore’s ministers have given themselves a big pay rise for their managing of the Singapore’s economy.

A significant proportion of their multi-million dollar salary package is pegged to Singapore’s GDP growth – the higher the growth, the more money they take home.

When asked about the widening income gap in Singapore during a ministerial forum last year, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew dismissed it as an “inevitable” consequence of globalization and that it “matters little” so long the government continues to create jobs for Singaporeans.

Though Singapore is the second richest country in Asia after Japan and its two sovereign wealth funds Temasek Holdings and GIC can afford to lose millions of dollars overseaas, its citizens enjoy few social welfare benefits from the government.

Kishore Mahbubani, the Dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy wrote famously in 2001:

“There are no homeless, destitute or starving people in Singapore. Poverty has been eradicated, not through an entitlements program (there are virtually none) but through a unique partnership between the government, corporate citizens, self-help groups and voluntary initiatives. The state acts as the catalyst-matching financial support, sponsoring preventive and social care, and ensuring that basic needs are provided for.” (read here)

It is about time he retracts his statements and re-orientate himself to a new reality in Singapore.

 

Mah Bow Tan says he believes he can do the “best” for Singaporeans and blasts opposition’s GE strategy

Written by Our Correspondent

National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan has lambasted the opposition for “focusing” on him in the next general election and claimed that only he can do the “best” for Singaporeans.

The Straits Times had earlier reported on a few opposition parties which have expressed their interest in contesting in Mr Mah’s Tampines GRC in the next general election due to his unpopularity among Singaporeans.

Mr Mah was widely blamed for his failure to control sky-rocketing prices of HDB flats which is imposing a great financial burden on ordinary Singaporeans.

The report prompted Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew to describe Tampines residents as being “daft” if they were to cast a protest vote against Mr Mah. (read article here)

“A general election (GE) is not about me, an individual minister or an individual MP. It’s really about the residents themselves. I offer myself up for election because I believe that I can do the best and the most for them. But ultimately it’s for the residents, the people to decide,” Mr Mah said in an interview with Straits Times.

Though he acknowledged that some people may be “adversely” affected by the housing policies, he is adamant that they are beneficial to Singaporeans as a whole:

“There’s no question that our policies are designed for the good of the people. While there may be certain parts of the policies that are not favourable, overall, I think these policies are for the well-being of the people and are good for the country.”

Mr Mah did not elaborate on the inadequacies of the policies and how they can be fine-tuned to better suit the needs and interests of the people.

The astronomical prices of today’s flats are contributed partly by a limited supply of new flats and rising demand fueled by the relentless influx of foreigners.

Only slightly more than 11,000 flats were built between the years 2006 – 2008 when the rate of immigration is at its peak. Mr Mah has still not explained to Singaporeans why so few flats were constructed during this period:

 

[Source: HDB Financial Report 2008/2009]

Despite rising frustration, resentment and anger on the ground over the increasing prices of public housing in Singapore, Mr Mah and other HDB officials continue to insist that they are “affordable” to ordinary Singaporeans.

Mr Mah even chided first time home buyers for being “choosy” and said that “the onus is on Singaporeans to play their part by buying a home within their means.”

Quoting the affordability benchmark of 30 per cent used frequently by HDB to show that HDB flats remain affordable to ordinary Singaporeans, Mr Mah said a family with a monthly income of $3,000 can buy a flat worth up to $250,000 and spend only 30 per cent of their income every month on the mortgage.

“Similarly, a family with a monthly income of $4,000 can afford to buy a new flat worth up to $333,000 without spending more than 30 per cent a month on the mortgage. This means they can comfortably buy any of the flats offered in the latest BTO projects this month,” he added.

However, Mr Mah fails to take into account the bank interest rates and inflation over the years which will lead eventually to the family spending more than 30 per cent of their monthly income on the mortgage as pointed out correctly by Mr Kang above.

Furthermore, after depleting their entire CPF for these over-priced 99-year leasehold HDB flats, they will have little or no savings left for their retirement.

Mr Mah is the highest paid National Development Minister in the world earning about $2 million dollars a year, or more than 4 times the annual salary of U.S. President Barack Obama.

 

Related articles:

>> Singaporeans worried about retirement after depleting CPF to pay for over-priced HDB flats

>> Mah Bow Tan acknowledged that rising HDB flat prices has sparked “fresh concerns”

>> PM Lee: Govt does not have control over prices of resale flats”

>> COVs of resale flats shooting through the roof

>> HDB resale price index hit record high in 2009

>> Singaporean wants PRs to live in rented flats instead of buying resale flats

>> Singaporeans wants PRs to be banned from selling HDB flats at a profit

>> Shanmugam: Singaporeans likely culprits for driving up HDB flat prices

>> Mah Bow Tan: HDB flats remain affordable

>> Means testing for PRs to buy resale flats

>> Immigration and public housing: should the govt or people plan ahead?

>> Grace Fu: hard to predict demand for housing

>> Indonesian PR bought 4-room flat at $653,000

>> Mah Bow Tan asks home buyers to be realistic

>> PAP MP blames young couples who cannot get a flat for not planning ahead

>> Home affordability: HDB versus the public

>> Demand vs supply: so many applicants, so few flats

>> Number of applicants exceed number of flats

>> HDB to increase supply of flats

>> Mah: don’t compare with prices in the past

>> ERA: 40 per cent of HDB flat buyers are PRs

Chorus of Change for Singaporeans: Work Smarter, Better, Beaver of the Future

By Voice of Citizen

Here lies the conundrum: can we trust them once more? :

·        Yes, we may lose our rights completely.

·        No, we have to decide our course, prepare to face challenge ahead, never fear the unknown.

There is a middle-ground, provided enough opposition wins this Election. PAP must bow, come clean and frank, down-to-earth with citizens and work out solution with the Opposition, Voice of Singaporeans.

For Citizens to work smarter and harder there must be an environment conducive to such drive. Here are some key pre-conditions, amongst others:

1. They must first and foremost bring the cost of living down.

2. Secondly, they must provide affordable home in citizen terms, the terms of the citizen rights and privilege for Cheap Housing.

3. Thirdly, the must provide better medical welfare for citizens.

4. Fourthly, the economy must be re-engineered to make it more sustainable economy employing higher productivity with measured and moderate influx of FT, not with incessant cheaper manpower.

5. The stratum of employment market must be dissected and studied to ensure no citizen is marginalized by foreign influx

6. The rights and privileges of citizens must be differentiated distinctly with PRs and foreign workers.

7. Government of Nation must be a separate entity from political party.

This is the general framework for Government to work out a more citizen-centric solution to Nation-hood that is worthy of Million Dollar Ministers. The current policies DO NOT need Million Dollars Ministers to come up.

The present way of increasing GDP growth with cheaper influx and widening costs of housing and living cannot be sustained. There is a limit to which the size and infrastructure of the country can sustain rapid population growth at this rapid rate without over-straining the citizens with adverse consequences.

Instead of reaching that limit of population quicker(as it seems to be the objective of the current policy) and in the process creating so much strain on citizens for GDP growth, a more moderate rate should be adopted at the pace which is amenable to the citizens.

In the process, we need to find a sustainable growth solution that is measured and will bring maximum benefits to the Nation, every citizen, with more help to the lower class citizens.

Reserve has to be spent in this process, so be it. Growth GDP will have to be sacrificed on interim, so be it.

But the Nation will get stronger once it sees hope in current generation and next that they can own Home and Affordable living at a measured pace without over-straining and over-stressing while they hard-strive and hard-drive to make the best for their livelihood.

The Government MUST stop “putting spurs in hides” of citizens and dicing their future with debt. Once citizens have affordable home and lower cost, they will be more motivated to spur upwards for higher goals as we once did with environment conducive to generate growth that places emphasis on citizen resource & needs, productivity and sustainable growth trends.

The present system will not only create de-motivation factor, it creates tremendous stress and strain on families and relations, uncertainty of sustainable income to maintain future cost due to inflated present high cost base. This compounded with fear of losing jobs and many concomitant costs associated foreign influx and housing policies.

Government must create environment where citizens benefit the most, not the foreigners. If the environment is good there is no fear of foreigners not wanting to come in BUT land must be available to citizens first and so as for other citizen privileges.

For those Foreigners, Rich & Elite who are disadvantaged by these citizen-centric policies of Nation-hood, they can pack and leave.

There is no point in exhorting citizens to work overseas when at the rate the cost goes UP, UP and UP added by MP exhortations, they cannot afford to buy decent home-not to mention many who do not have such opportunities to work overseas.

There is no point in making citizens buy housing with huge debt payable over 30 years when there is no guarantee of sustainable job over this period where citizens can earn enough to over decent retirement nest to enjoy this “beautiful” Nation.

There is no point in making citizens “feel good” on wealth creation when there is no guarantee that this ever-cascading upward cost will not one day collapse as the Re-sale get older and older while overall cost of living gets higher and higher.

Where is the limit of such high cost of artificial housing inflation made purposely by pegging to Re-sale value? Has the Government seriously studied into the limit of its viability? If not why did Ministers NOT TAKE caution BUT instead create speculation that prices will continue upwards through the litany of speeches as if such wealth creation is GOD GIFT for voting in the MIW Saints?

When all pro-citizens conditions are in-place, yes, every citizen will work NOT only SMARTER and HARDER, they will be spurring themselves to hard-strive and hard-drive if he/she SEES HOPE in the future and their Generation-that there is a NATION, NOT A PLACE to only work.

They will be striving for Swiss Standard as home affordability is NOT an issue any longer, for current and future generation. Presently, many do not see the day they can pay off, own a home and yet have enough for bread and butter in future, NOT to mention dreaming of striving and driving for Swiss Standard.

Much as Greed begets Greed, Power beget Power, Nation Collective Will begets Nation Drive once citizens feel the fabric of Nation is intact.

The citizens must sense the fabric of the Nation Heart & Soul-a Nation they can call home, they can afford to have with much lesser DEBT, NOT compelled to dice their stake in the Nation with DEBT as the Government appears to be driving such stake into every citizen.

It is clear the intertwining effects are current foreign influx and housing polices have adverse ramifications. The price we have to pay in the future is HUGE if these policies are not checked.

Current policies are stained with conflict of interests. It is plain that PAP and Governance as ONE cannot be allowed, it must be separated. Civil government must be for the citizens first.

The government is NOTHING but puppets of PAP and these puppets are heavily rewarded, creating governance machineries so prohibitive that they exert heavy tax on the Nation.

For those who manage to cross the boundary to fortune, fine. For many, it is damnation-forever a sacrificial lamb to the Lords, the Lion.

Yes, we do not only need to work smarter, harder and better, we need to make sure that the Lions are tamed as Cat and we are not Sheep but Beaver of our future.

Voice of Citizens

Rebranding Temasek Review: agenda, resources and organization

By Lawrence Pek, Mark Chwee and Abdul Gafoor

The Temasek Review would like to take an unprecedented step in asking to our readers regarding our future. Internally, the success of the site has prompted discussions about mission re-alignment as well as resource management.

Simply, we would like to evolve from our current shape and size to include video and audio, with more exciting stories and faster to air. This brings us into a bit of a pickle. Although we have ideas of our own, we would like to take this opportunity and humbly ask our readership for their learned views (we know we have several readers with professional experience in this area).

Below is a list of issues, which we are pondering and please comment accordingly.

1. While Malaysiakini used to be a model for us to emulate, we are deliberating if we should abandon our original goal of developing TR into an independent daily online reporting news from a fair and balanced perspective and blazed a unique path not taken by any others for ourselves.

We are going to set an agenda for all our articles we published here. Since the Singapore media serves the interests of the PAP, we shall be the mouthpiece of voiceless Singaporeans – to be a media run by Singaporeans for Singaporeans together with Singaporeans. We will represent the interests of all Singapore citizens regardless of whether you are from the PAP or the opposition,

Our new slogan for this site will be – “Singapore for Singaporeans!” Foreigners are more than welcomed to study, work and live in Singapore, but the interests of Singaporeans must always come first.

2.     Under our TR umbrella, we would like to have a sleuth of journalists (young and passionate younglings) that will pound the pavement and pursue the alternative voices, which will never be covered by the state media.  The concern here is one of credibility, will young journalists be willing to work for a website, which is not a registered company in Singapore, even though we can afford to pay for their stories, but the crux of the matter is the career and pride of these young journalists when they are pursing each and every story.

As a matter of fact, we have met up with a few former journalists from SPH and MediaCorp in the last few months and though some have expressed their interest to join us, the lack of a “status”, organization and career path proved to be a major stumbling block.

What relationship should TR have with these journalists, to what extent do we support and be liable for their activities?

3.     Given the fact that the PAP has a history of suing political opponent in oblivion, obviously exposing ourselves to legal liabilities is an area of concern. With the explosive growth of readership, TR would like to respond accordingly with considerations of growth areas and social responsibilities. 

However, we need to clarify that TR is not a political organization or an opposition party. Is it necessary (if yes, in what form or shape) for TR to register itself as a company or other entities? Is it necessary to register in Singapore?

One of the (but not exclusively) sources of income is from donations (by pay pal) by our readers. With growth, TR would like to call for more donations to support this growth and we will appreciate each and every $10 or even $5 that comes in. This stream of revenue will ensure the continuity of TR as an Alternative Voice in Singapore.

One possible option will be to register a company overseas and sell a stake of the company in tiny bits i.e.  $50, $100,  $500, $1000, $10,000 to Singaporeans as a form of a social venture capital project which will give everybody a stake in TR as well as a sense of ownership. If TR makes a profit eventually, the investors will get yearly dividends from the company.

Please continue to support TR with what you can and how you can. Temasek Review maintains that as a mouthpiece of the everyday Singaporean, the man of the streets, we would like hear from responsible stakeholders about the future, the shape and size of TR.

Please send your comments directly to temasekreview@gmail.com or blog directly under this article so that everyone can see and hear your views.

How to acquire speedy reading skills

Hi! everyone,

Nice to see you again.

In today’s information society, we need to read and digest information daily as information can change by the minute. However, most of us do not have the luxury of time to read whatever information that come to our hands. Therefore, as we are pressed for time, speed reading is no longer a luxury, but a necessity. Equally essential is that readers must be able to grasp and fully understand the message that come out from the reading materials.

To expedite the process of retaining information, we may need to use some of the tips listed below:-

1. Stay focus on what you need

You don’t need to read every word from the piece of information you have. Stay focus on what you need, skipping process may be useful here. Take an bird’s eye view at the table of contents. Look at the specific topics that can provide you with the specific information you need. Alternatively, you can make a quick assessment on how you can relate it with the specific topic you have in mind. If the information is not relevant and currently not required, then drop it.

2. Retain peace of mind

Stay cool and try not to be in a stressful state, it would not help you, but will make it more difficult to concentrate in reading that material. As such, the information will not sink into your mind and heart.

Retaining peace is a skill and you need to master the skill to empower your concentration power, just like the dried sponge merge into water.

3. Repetition is the key of mastering

To master any skill of trade, you need to keep on repeating the process. Same as in speed reading. Setting a goal and consistently raising your bar to the best you can cope with will keep you out of disappointment. Don’t set unrealistic targets. No doubt, this takes time and practice, but it is worth your effort. Raise the bar as you progress and after you have gained confidence.

4. Sustaining your progress

Reaching the top is very much easier than staying on top. The same analogy can be drawn between making decision and managing decision. Once the decision is made, monitoring and managing that decision is more crucial to lead us to success. That’s why you see lots of good and sound decisions fail to bear fruit.

5. Have faith in it

In life, you will get what you expect. As such, it is important for you to understand that you can’t obtain something you do not believe in. So, you must have the right perspective and keep on moving towards your goals. No doubt, you will face with some challenges along the way, which will mould and shape you accordingly, before you can move to the next level of success. The higher the level of success you have, the stronger the strength you need to sustain it. This is the law of nature which has been proven in mankind’s history.

I hope you find the above tips useful and beneficial. I am sure you may have other useful tips which I may not know about. In this regard, I appeal to you to forward it either through comments, or email to me at jamesoh2003@yahoo.co.uk. I look forward to hearing from you,

Thank you for your precious time and wish you success,

James Oh

About the Author:

James Oh is an accountant by profession and he works as a Financial Controller for more than 10 years with several companies in Singapore and Malaysia. He is a full member of the Singapore Institute of Director and he also obtained a LLB (Law degree) from the University of London in 2003. He is happily married with 3 loving kids.

James blog at http://liftyouup.blogspot.com

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