Steaks and High Stakes
alittle light-hearted material first.............
went for dinner at Morton's today. 7 yrs ago i was there, and today i finally got to go back. it was good. very very good. one of the best dinner/food ive had. im definitely going back next year. oooo.......the hot chocolate cake is jus simply to die for. the porterhouse steak.......c'est parfait.
had this exchange with J over dinner
J: I feel neglected.
Me: *btwn mouthfuls* huh? y?
J: You are neglecting me.
Me: I am? How?
J: Yah. You are neglecting me for that piece of meat.
Me: You are jealous? Of a piece of meat? This piece of meat?
J: Yes. I feel neglected.
Me: This thing between me and this piece of meat is just a one-off thing, it's purely physical. You are the one I truly love. OK?
thankfully the appetizer wasnt the shrimp alexander. else i fear the worst for our relationship. i mean the one btwn me and the porterhouse steak.
~ . ~
there's been alot of controversy lately on the ministers' pay hike.........i guess i shld chip in my bit too.........
with all the comparison to ministers of other countries and stuff, i kinda believe that we might be missing the point of why we are paying our ministers so much. or rather, what is our money getting us in a buy/sell sense.
first of all, to put things into context. i think we shld be looking at our situation and wat it warrants. i believe each country requires different things. that i think is agreeable by all. i also believe that in a country, the people living in a country are rewarded or punished based on the capacity of the country to reward or punish. if the country has the capacity to reward more, then good for the people. it's kinda like having 2 kids score 100 marks in a test and going home to their separate families and getting rewarded differently maybe bcos both families hold different values or are different in financial stature. one gets a car, the other a pat on the back. apples and oranges.
im jus saying, each country has different needs, different situations, systems. so the comparison between how the ministers of other countries are rewarded compared to us might not have a good foundation.
so given our context. i would like to think that the commodity that our precious tax dollars are buying (in the form of ministers) is not jus skill, but also precision. we are not buying skills to manage large countries, we don't need that. wat we do need is a certain level of precision in the skill our ministers shld possess.
like wat PM Lee, SM Goh and MM Lee have been repeating all this while, we cannot afford to slip. whether we can stay at the top, i for one do not believe we can. but that is another topic altogether. we need the precision to stay competitive. we do not have the luxury of a big economy with multiple forms of resources to help sustain setbacks or diminishing competitive advantages. thus we need pple who can get to targets quickly and effectively.
i would like to believe that our pple can do that. but unfortunately i don't seem to be seeing many of the leaders doing that. perhaps the sensation of media has skewed this perspective of mine by focusing on the negative stuff.
as to whether the price for such precious commodity is justified. i would say, if we can afford it, y not? singaporeans are among the highest paid in this region. y? cos we are better skilled? our education system is stronger fundamentally? our people have a certain value to work hard instilled in us? i would like to think so. and so far, i have seen examples that have strengthened my belief. so if our system can afford to reward our people better, y not? if the other countries aren't paying their people more, that's them to sort things out.
the idea here is, we have the resources to get ourselves the right stuff. in this case, we have the money and we need the right people. so y not? political reasons aside, everything else being equal, if there is capable foreign talent that can help take this country ahead and we have the resource and means to get him/her, y not?
corruption and stuff. like joel posted in his blog, no matter how much u pay someone, he/she can still be corrupt. corruption is also hard to trace in a government where there' s a very strong ruling party. i think the whole corruption argument is really weak and is jus a tactic used to cash in on the whole NKF saga, make an example of it and try to garner some support.
hey, if u had to convince a tough crowd, wouldn't u try all ways and means?
i would agree that the pay hike and the gst increase coming together is really bad timing. whether or not they are correlated, i don't know. perhaps they are. and the whole issue of how the poor shld be helped instead of the money going to a minister pay hike, i dunno. it's hard to say. there are measures in place to help them. i believe the question im repeating for most people is whether it is enough.
so wat is enough? where do we draw the line in helping the lower income? the elderly and less fortunate, i guess they need the aid. no doubt abt that. but the party that benefits most from the aid is the lower income group bcos they have more stuff to carry on their backs. how much aid shld be doled out to them? i think too little, the aid is pretty much useless, too much and we run a danger of breeding people dependent on external help regardless of it coming from the government or the other income groups. this is the kind of mentality that might slow the whole party down.
ah well.......c'est la vie.
went for dinner at Morton's today. 7 yrs ago i was there, and today i finally got to go back. it was good. very very good. one of the best dinner/food ive had. im definitely going back next year. oooo.......the hot chocolate cake is jus simply to die for. the porterhouse steak.......c'est parfait.
had this exchange with J over dinner
J: I feel neglected.
Me: *btwn mouthfuls* huh? y?
J: You are neglecting me.
Me: I am? How?
J: Yah. You are neglecting me for that piece of meat.
Me: You are jealous? Of a piece of meat? This piece of meat?
J: Yes. I feel neglected.
Me: This thing between me and this piece of meat is just a one-off thing, it's purely physical. You are the one I truly love. OK?
thankfully the appetizer wasnt the shrimp alexander. else i fear the worst for our relationship. i mean the one btwn me and the porterhouse steak.
~ . ~
there's been alot of controversy lately on the ministers' pay hike.........i guess i shld chip in my bit too.........
with all the comparison to ministers of other countries and stuff, i kinda believe that we might be missing the point of why we are paying our ministers so much. or rather, what is our money getting us in a buy/sell sense.
first of all, to put things into context. i think we shld be looking at our situation and wat it warrants. i believe each country requires different things. that i think is agreeable by all. i also believe that in a country, the people living in a country are rewarded or punished based on the capacity of the country to reward or punish. if the country has the capacity to reward more, then good for the people. it's kinda like having 2 kids score 100 marks in a test and going home to their separate families and getting rewarded differently maybe bcos both families hold different values or are different in financial stature. one gets a car, the other a pat on the back. apples and oranges.
im jus saying, each country has different needs, different situations, systems. so the comparison between how the ministers of other countries are rewarded compared to us might not have a good foundation.
so given our context. i would like to think that the commodity that our precious tax dollars are buying (in the form of ministers) is not jus skill, but also precision. we are not buying skills to manage large countries, we don't need that. wat we do need is a certain level of precision in the skill our ministers shld possess.
like wat PM Lee, SM Goh and MM Lee have been repeating all this while, we cannot afford to slip. whether we can stay at the top, i for one do not believe we can. but that is another topic altogether. we need the precision to stay competitive. we do not have the luxury of a big economy with multiple forms of resources to help sustain setbacks or diminishing competitive advantages. thus we need pple who can get to targets quickly and effectively.
i would like to believe that our pple can do that. but unfortunately i don't seem to be seeing many of the leaders doing that. perhaps the sensation of media has skewed this perspective of mine by focusing on the negative stuff.
as to whether the price for such precious commodity is justified. i would say, if we can afford it, y not? singaporeans are among the highest paid in this region. y? cos we are better skilled? our education system is stronger fundamentally? our people have a certain value to work hard instilled in us? i would like to think so. and so far, i have seen examples that have strengthened my belief. so if our system can afford to reward our people better, y not? if the other countries aren't paying their people more, that's them to sort things out.
the idea here is, we have the resources to get ourselves the right stuff. in this case, we have the money and we need the right people. so y not? political reasons aside, everything else being equal, if there is capable foreign talent that can help take this country ahead and we have the resource and means to get him/her, y not?
corruption and stuff. like joel posted in his blog, no matter how much u pay someone, he/she can still be corrupt. corruption is also hard to trace in a government where there' s a very strong ruling party. i think the whole corruption argument is really weak and is jus a tactic used to cash in on the whole NKF saga, make an example of it and try to garner some support.
hey, if u had to convince a tough crowd, wouldn't u try all ways and means?
i would agree that the pay hike and the gst increase coming together is really bad timing. whether or not they are correlated, i don't know. perhaps they are. and the whole issue of how the poor shld be helped instead of the money going to a minister pay hike, i dunno. it's hard to say. there are measures in place to help them. i believe the question im repeating for most people is whether it is enough.
so wat is enough? where do we draw the line in helping the lower income? the elderly and less fortunate, i guess they need the aid. no doubt abt that. but the party that benefits most from the aid is the lower income group bcos they have more stuff to carry on their backs. how much aid shld be doled out to them? i think too little, the aid is pretty much useless, too much and we run a danger of breeding people dependent on external help regardless of it coming from the government or the other income groups. this is the kind of mentality that might slow the whole party down.
ah well.......c'est la vie.
posted by Ic3nCok3 at 1:59 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home