Singaporean wishes MM Lee a happy retirement!

Temasek Review
July 31, 2010

Dear MM Lee,

We Singaporeans are a simple lot: we are merely seeking new management.

If Singapore today is somewhat the same as it was 20 years ago, you would probably be even more popular than Jay Chou, Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson & Oprah all put together, period! However, times have changed. Singapore has advanced at such a velocity that even Carl Lewis has a problem keeping up, much less you.

While your methodology & system are sound, it has, unfortunately, become very unsuitable in the 21st & 22nd century’s context. Running a country is much less a single man’s job today. Teamwork is of the utmost importance. If a team cannot work well together, something has to give. Either you change the unhappy citizens (& end up having monkeys for your subjects) or change the mentally-challenged lot that are currently running the country.

Singapore requires the average Singaporean to work his hardest. At the other end, its leaders have to work at their maximum capacity as well. This cohesion of efforts between the two ends of the workforce make up “Team Singapore”.

It is, with bitter regrets, that not everyone is 100% capable of performing their duties. In a profit-driven organisation (which Singapore so obviously is), those who do not cut it are told to leave.

Looking back at recent events, it is very obvious that certain heads should roll. R&D conducted by our Environment Ministry generated findings that were already well-known facts. Primary school students would be able to tell you confidently that floods are caused by intense storms, coupled with drainage issues. The A-star student would even be able to tell you that rain/thunderstorms are acts of nature, not God. The scholar would add that sufficient engineering would be able to avert most, if not all calamities.

With all due respect, the entire department just does not cut it. We urge those responsible for making “ground-shaking” statements be removed from our “board” & replaced with genuine talent.

The Cambridge Dictionary defines “talent” as a natural ability &/or attractive person(s). It will be rather scandalous to have a country run by pretty boys & sexy women. So we are left with the other alternative: leaders with natural abilities. As the current “board’s” only natural ability is to receive obscene pay cheques & humiliate the people who pay them, I sense the time has indeed come for a complete revamp.

Dear MM Lee, should you still insist on working (post-retirement occupation), I’m sure the country is more than gracious to offer you a relatively slow, easy & less demanding job. How does “Facebook correspondence” sound to you? There won’t be the necessity to travel long punishing distances just to attend press-conferences or interviews. However, should you feel the need to be a little more active, how does child-minder sound to you? I’m sure your great-grandchildren will be more than sufficient to cause you to break sweat every once in awhile. The most beautiful thing is, you could work from home!!!!

To be brutally honest, you have little or no talent (if according to the Cambridge’s definition). At 86, you have definitely lost your natural ability (to do anything & everything). On the other hand, you are neither attractive (have you seen yourself of late?).

Hence, the axe should be brought upon you, apart from many others within your cabinet. It is a win-win situation as far as Singapore is concerned (that is the whole point we are arguing about in here). We spend less on excessive employment, & for those that we replace, we get value-for-$ talents. Only thus will Singapore be further propelled into the future – 101% efficiency. This will ultimately pave a golden path for the current & future generations.

They say karma is, more often than not, executed upon our following generations. Let us protect them now. I do not wish for what we do wrong today, to come back & punish our descendants.

Please MM Lee, if forecasting is your forte, keep it to yourself & perhaps forecast how your next medical appointment will turn out. Leave the larger & heavier stuff to the professionals. There is absolutely no sense in overworking yourself.

Singapore will be very upset should you go & wreck your health, doing what is absolutely pointless, for her. Think of the amount of security (apart from costs) required for one of your interviews, which lately have become non quote-worthy. The by product of your speeches is deeper misunderstanding between the common man & the government.

It has long since not been your responsibility (or jurisdiction) to “look after” Singapore & its people. We currently have a Prime Minister to do that job. Should, for any reason(s) he does not live up to the reputation, a replacement should be made ASAP, in the best interests of the country.

Male citizens suffer in the military, learning the various methods to protect & guard our land. Let us not let them down by giving them a worthless piece of land to defend. Keep up the little good work that you all have done & clear up the multitudes of rubbish you all have created.

Redistribution of wealth (your incomes): I am sure every party-member is more than willing to work for Singapore for a much less pay cheque, say SGD 500,000 per annum? We strongly believe that our politicians are not “in it” for the succulent pay. Many CEOs have reportedly worked for their company(s) for a dollar a year. While it may be ridiculous to be earning S$1 per annum, any self-righteous man would gladly carry the load of governing our Motherland for much less than S$500,000 per year. Care to disagree, MM Lee?

In conclusion MM Lee, stay healthy. Stay at home. Stay away from the press (both foreign & local). Stay away from politics already. Singapore wishes you a happy retirement. Thank you!

EDITORS’ NOTE

The above is posted as a comment on our site by a reader

In New Orleans, Elation Over Katrina Liability Ruling - NYTimes.com

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By CAMPBELL ROBERTSON

NEW ORLEANS — Since the first days after Hurricane Katrina, when the streets were still under water, many residents of New Orleans and its surroundings have maintained that the flood that wrecked their lives was the government’s fault, and that the government should pay for it.

On Wednesday night came news that many had hoped for but few had believed would ever actually happen: a federal judge agreed.

“My head is spinning,” said Pam Dashiell, a co-director of the Lower Ninth Ward Sustainability Project and a 20-year resident of the neighborhood. “Maybe things are really breaking for the people.”

The sense of vindication was widespread, but the practical implications were less clear. The morning after Judge Stanwood R. Duval Jr.’s decision that the Army Corps of Engineers’ negligent maintenance of a major navigation channel led to major flooding in the Lower Ninth Ward and the adjacent St. Bernard Parish, a pleasantly startled New Orleans was still trying to decipher what it meant.

Was it an opening for tens of thousands of lawsuits, or a big class-action lawsuit, that could add up to billions of dollars in compensation for residents? Or was it leverage for negotiating a broader, regionwide settlement with the government? Some experts suggested that it was a welcome but ultimately symbolic ruling that could be overturned on appeal.

Charles S. Miller, a spokesman for the Department of Justice, said that the government was still reviewing the decision.

“We have made no decision as to what the government’s next step will be in this matter,” he said in a statement.

But given the potential of liability, legal experts are expecting the government to appeal.

The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans, where the case would go, has a record of hostility to plaintiffs in environmental cases, said Oliver Houck, a law professor at Tulane University. But, he said, Judge Duval’s decision is so technical and packed with details — it came with a 33-page appendix of graphs, charts and maps — that there are only a few areas where it would be exposed to a reversal.

“For an appellate court to reverse him on the facts is unthinkable,” Professor Houck said.

In 2008, Judge Duval dismissed a lawsuit arising from drainage canal breaches that flooded much of the city, ruling that a 1928 act gave the corps immunity for damages that came from a flood protection project. But his decision was scathing nonetheless, and he insisted that the government should not be free “from posterity’s judgment concerning its failure to accomplish what was its task.”

Wednesday’s decision was about a different corps project, the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet, a navigation channel known as MR-GO (pronounced Mister Go). In the 156-page decision, the judge wrote nearly as much about complicated immunity issues as he did in determining that the corps’s negligent maintenance of the channel actually caused the flooding in two areas, including the Lower Ninth Ward.

Lawyers for the corps had raised a variety of immunity shields in addition to the Flood Control Act, and the judge knocked these down one by one. With every one, though, he created a potential opportunity for higher judges to overturn the decision on appeal.

The judge ruled that the corps was liable for damages because, he said, it should have been filing environmental impact statements as the landscape around the channel significantly changed: wetlands had disappeared, levee banks had eroded, and the channel had more than doubled in width.

This is a conclusion of law rather than of fact, experts said, and thus is open territory for appeals judges. When legal opinion is at issue, said Howard J. Bashman, a Pennsylvania lawyer specializing in appellate practice, “the court gets to make up its own mind, without any deference paid to the trial judge in how the law was applied.”

At a Thursday morning news conference, the plaintiffs’ lawyers painted the decision in superlative terms, even comparing it to the victory over the British in the Battle of New Orleans.

The lawyers said they hoped the decision, and the possibility of thousands more cases following, would compel Congress and the Obama administration to agree to some kind of larger settlement for the entire city, like the one for victims of the Sept. 11 attacks.

“It’s time that we stopped litigating and started negotiating,” said Pierce O’Donnell, one of the lead lawyers.

Mr. O’Donnell said that he and the other lawyers had scheduled meetings on Capitol Hill in the coming weeks at which they would push for damage compensation for property owners, billions of dollars to rebuild infrastructure projects, and restoration of the area’s coastal wetlands. They will also demand a widespread overhaul of the Army Corps.

For now, however, much of the city was just enjoying a rare sense of triumph. Friends who were watching the news Wednesday night grabbed for their cellphones. At a coastal planning meeting in St. Bernard Parish, people broke into applause.

Mark Madary, who was on the St. Bernard Parish Council at the time of Hurricane Katrina, had campaigned against MR-GO ever since he heard the forecasts of catastrophe at a sportsmen’s league meeting in 1978. He said he never thought the case would even make it to court, but now expects a regionwide settlement.

“Now that the corps has been thrown over and exposed, it’s their duty,” Mr. Madary said.

Others in New Orleans, a city that has become accustomed to disappointment over four long years, were not as elated.

“It is an answer to something that was obvious from the beginning, and we’re glad we finally got a federal judge to agree with us,” said Robert Green Sr., a resident of the Lower Ninth Ward, who lost his mother and granddaughter in the flooding.

But it was clear that Mr. Green was more interested in talking about a grocery store that could be coming to the neighborhood.

“The lawyers are happy and the people are happy,” Mr. Green said of the decision. “But at the same time, we waited four years. So you deal with the important issues that are right in front of you.”

John Schwartz contributed reporting.

VOA News - Philippines Launches Massive Relief Operation After Flood

By Heda Bayron Hong Kong 28 September 2009

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The Philippines has appealed for international assistance following the worst flooding in more than 40 years. At least 140 people have been killed as a result of the heavy rains and, as the death toll from the disaster continues to rise, the government has been overwhelmed by its scale.

Elated flood victims reach out to receive relief goods after flood water subsides in Cainta, east of Manila, 28 Sep 2009

The Philippine government is scrambling to provide shelter, food and basic supplies for hundreds of thousands of people displaced by the floods.

Tropical storm Ketsana brought torrential rains to the northern Philippines Saturday, inundating most of the capital Manila and surrounding provinces. Surging water washed away buildings and cars. Scores of people were killed and many are still missing.

President Gloria Arroyo called the disaster an "extreme event" that has strained the government's capabilities to the limit. She said rescue efforts will continue until all residents are accounted for.

Two days after the flooding, rescue and relief operations continue to be hampered by the lack of rubber boats and helicopters. Many victims are demanding answers from local authorities for the lack of advance warning and the slow response to the emergency. Victims said they were stranded on their rooftops for hours before help arrived.

Flood waters in some areas subsided Monday but thousands of homes are still without power.

The government has appealed for international humanitarian assistance. Vilma Cabrera, assistant secretary of the Philippine Social Welfare Department, said Monday her agency needs donations of basic necessities.

"Right now we need mats, blankets, mosquito nets, cooking utensils. We need hygiene kits and we need flashlights and lighting equipment," said Cabrera.

People have been warned about the danger of water-borne diseases. Schools are closed until Tuesday and many offices remain shut.

Storms lash the Philippines every year and tropical Storm Ketsana was not one of the strongest, but it brought very large amounts of rain. In Manila Saturday, a month's worth of rain fell in 12 hours.

Downpours Flood the Camps of Sri Lankan Refugees

By LYDIA POLGREEN

NEW DELHI — Downpours in northern Sri Lanka have flooded camps housing more than 250,000 people displaced by the fighting between the government and the Tamil Tigers, according to aid officials.

The rain, which fell heavily for much of the afternoon on Saturday, sent rivers of muck cascading between tightly packed rows of flimsy shelters, overflowed latrines and sent hundreds of families scurrying for higher ground.

The flooding raised fears for the safety of the displaced, who are being held in closed camps guarded by soldiers. Monsoon rains are expected to begin in little more than a month, and many aid groups worry that the hastily built camps will not survive the inundation.

“If only three or four hours of rain cause this much chaos, only imagine what a full monsoon can cause,” said David White, country director for Oxfam.

The camps occupy vast tracts of formerly forested land near the northern town of Vavuniya. Because the ground on which many of the camps were built was cleared of trees recently, the soil is soft and porous. It turns into mud almost instantly, making it nearly impossible to get trucks through to deliver food, water and medicine, aid officials said.

Life in the camps was already tough, but the rain has made it almost unbearable, according to people who have visited the camps in the last 24 hours. The pegs holding down plastic tents have come loose, leaving some families without shelter. Latrines have collapsed, sending waste spilling into nearby rivers. Silt has clogged water treatment plants that are essential for providing drinking water and preventing the spread of waterborne disease.

Groundviews, a citizen journalism Web site in Sri Lanka, published photographs that showed a grim scene of mud and squalor. Aid workers said that they were able to restore some services, like food deliveries, and get temporary shelters for families that lost their tents.

The people in the camps are displaced ethnic Tamils. Most were trapped, along with the last fighters of the Tamil Tiger separatist group, on a narrow strip of land in northwestern Sri Lanka. Government troops wiped out the senior leadership of the rebel group after a fierce battle in May. Thousands of civilians died alongside the fighters, according to the United Nations.

Those who survived fled to camps around Vavuniya, where they have been held ever since. The government has said it cannot allow the displaced people to go home because the areas they fled are sown with land mines, and because Tamil Tiger fighters remain hidden among them. Human rights organizations and several Western governments have criticized the government’s handling of the displaced, calling it tantamount to internment.

As the heavy rains approach, the government will need to move much faster to get displaced people out of the camps, Mr. White said. The government has pledged to get most of the displaced out of the camps by the end of the year.

“Really, we have run out of options and the only option that is left is to speed up the resettlement process,” Mr. White said.