Singaporeans Among World's Top 10 Pessimists, Overbuying To Misery

Excellent use of infested shopping mall picture by Yahoo News in its article - Sillyporeans among world’s top 10 pessimists.

Sillyporeans need to ask themselves if buy buy buy, consume consume consume is gonna elevate their well-being. Certainly more material possessions make one happier but after basic needs are met, simply chasing more, more & more have resulted in negligible marginal utility. In fact Sillyporeans end up among top 10 pessimists.

Warning signs are already there: some Sillyporeans buy & buy till they are buried by their possessions & have to rent extra storage space, becoming slaves to their mountain of stuff. Are slaves optimistic?

"Work more, hurry more, worry more, bond less with others, grow more lonely & buy your escape from loneliness with more work & more 'growth'. This treadmill is getter grimmer."-John de Graaf

Gallup's survey result is nothing shocking. I have warned about the toxic effects accumulating under the hybrid regime's grow GDP at all costs like cancer approach.

Cancer spreading & spreading. Nevermind cancerous growth, can grow can already:

• 98% of S'pore Workers Are 'Bochup' aka Disengaged in 2010
• Zombie' Workers - Plenty of Them In S'pore
• S'pore 2nd Lowest Globally for Job Satisfaction
• Sinkies Least Positive in World After Most Emotionless
• Sinkies Among Top 10 Pessimists
• What close 'relative' next?

1 of the central themes of this blog is hyperconsumption in Sillypore. Shopping malls growing like weeds in this tiny island.  More & more malls = Less & less well-being. What i observed is that the script by the hybrid regime is to overwork the masses to turn them unhappy. Once unhappy the masses will turn to retail therapy to buy (yes, the damn GDP again) a bit of temporary happiness- vicious cycle.

Shifting Focus from Have to Be
"We've had enough of work more, enjoy less, pollute more, eat toxics, get cancer & increase GDP. How about we work less, enjoy more, have more friends & time for them, consume less, pollute less, destroy less, owe less, live better, longer & more meaningfully?"-John de Graaf

Sillyporeans need to vote to break the domination of this hybrid regime with its stuck mindset of growing GDP at all costs like cancer. Independent polls by Gallup indicate the situation is deteriorating in Sillypore over the years. We need to shift focus from Have to Be. Having more possessions is not making the masses happier. We need more time (not overwork) to:

• Be a father/mother (not more time at work to up GDP)
• Be a friend-physical face time (not more time at work to up GDP)
• Be a citizen & not a consumer.... u guess it again... GDP

"Living more healthfully, simplifying our lifestyles so as to work less, pollute less, use fewer resources & have more time for each other & our communities. You could call it capitalism with a human face."-John de Graaf

Unaffordable Rates for Singapore's Running Event

Most sinkie boys dislike running. Me included that's why my exercises are cycling & badminton. Why? When running = physical fitness test in national service, it becomes a negative association being hammered over & over again since many sinkie boys fail their fitness test & subjected to military style remedial training.

Failures are in greater numbers in reservist units. In my reserve unit(company size) alone, the number of people who pass with $100 & above can be counted with one's fingers & toes. I pass with $100 & i train for it(dreadful experience) on the jogging path behind my place as failing it means even more pain for me with the remedial sessions & time wasted going there along with the congestion.

Even at affordable price of $12.84, i doubt many would sign up to run 21km. Embarassingly for me, i even have problem running 5km. I'm not alone... look at the number of failures in 2.4km run for the fitness test.

What i want to highlight here is the prices for public. At close to $70, the 21km is not considered an affordable price especially for the blue collar workers. Even the white collar which the hybrid regime views as blue collar also since easily replaceable with cheaper foreign workers are sweating over the $70 participation fee.

$70 = 1 working month of lunches (22 working days * $3 hawker meal)
$47 = 15 days of lunches at $3/hawker meal

$70 = Go Legoland in Johor($56), Malaysia (u can run in Sillypore but only 1 Legoland in Asia)
$47 = how unique is 10km run to pay this amount?

Remember that the Singapore Flywheel which touts unique experience on the giant observation wheel at $33 adult ticket went bankrupt. Even tourists find it a ripoff.

Coming Collapse of Property Market in Singapore

No surprise to me when Moody downgraded S'pore's 3 main banks to negative from stable amid the property bubble & mounting household debt.

Although the monetary authority rebutted the downgrade, peasants of this island ought to be even more afraid given the recent haze situation whereby the authorities downplay the seriousness drastically & censoring/regulating the internet.

"Our particular brand of economy is based on ever increasing amounts of everything flowing through it. More $$, more debt, more gasoline, more cars, more minerals, more profits, more buildings, more clothes, more, more, more of everything."-Chris Martenson

Without energy, Nothing Moves
We live on a finite planet but our economic model requires limitless exponential growth. Current model of fossil powered energy are dwindling:

• petroleum are burnt to generate energy --> Is gone
• coal burnt to generate energy --> Is gone
• uranium reacted to generate energy --> Is gone
• natural gas burnt to generate energy --> Is gone

Even making solar panels & wind turbines to harness limitless energy require energy to be expended in petroleum to extract/refine/transport ores & we haven't touch on manufacturing yet.

Technology cannot reverse the process. Technology cannot create more uranium, coal, natural gas. Technology helps us in utilising it more efficiently & cleanly.

Grabbing dwindling resources

• Dispose Saddam to gain access to Iraqi oil for America
• Squabble over South China Sea islands/atolls -->oil
• China & India stockpiling uranium for power needs like crazy

The hybrid regime has been growing the economy at all costs like cancer since the early 2000s. Does growth equal prosperity for the masses? Peasants have more material posessions than ever though much of it are bought on credit. However simply having more stuff doesn't make sinkies happy as surveys have shown.

Massive import of aliens squeezing into this tiny island in order to prop up the property market by the hybrid regime only buy itself some time because the 'coming wave' is too big.

Unsustainable debt levels + Dwindling reources = Property market collapse & economic havoc

Personally i look forward to the collapse of this cancerous growth model of economy. No doubt life will be hard as people have to adjust but life is already made harder by the cancerous economic growth.

Peasants ought to ask themselves:

• Does growth equal prosperity?
• What's the Economy For, Anyway?: Why It's Time to Stop Chasing Growth & Start Pursuing Happiness

Singaporeans Reign as Mindless Slaves of Smartphones in S.E Asia

If S. Korea with highest smartphone penetration rate in the world refer its sheer no. of smartphone addicts as Mindless Slaves, it stand to reason that Sillyporeans are the Mindless Slaves of South East Asia given its penetration rate & addiction.

 

I have already written about the dangers of mobile gadgets addiction:

• 2011 in June: Getting off the 'Grid' Once in a While
• 2012 in June: At Same Table/Sofa but Connected Elsewhere

In this month, the state propaganda press has published letters about the increasing addiction. The latest is on thursday by a female driver:
Many pedestrians are not paying attention to oncoming traffic when crossing the road. Often, their eyes are glued to their mobile gadgets.


My Warning Blogpost in June, 2012 Came True Last Week:
71% of French population felt people spent less time together due to the advent of new technologies in 2012, up from 54% in 2006.


I refer to those addicted to their mobile gadgets as 'opium' addicts. In S Korea, their govt is organising boot camps to wean students off technology in a bid to prevent them from becoming mindless slaves.

Key Points of South Korea battles smartphone addiction:

Are you addicted?

• Anxious & depressed when separated from a smartphone?
• Repeated failure to cut back on usage time
• Feeling happier using smartphones than being with family or friends

Critical Situation in S. Korea. Sillypore won't be far behind. How serious?

• 40% of S Korean teen students spent more than 3 hours a day tweeting, chatting, or playing games.
• Many young mothers nowadays have their babies play with smartphones for hours to have some peace at home.
• ~20% of teenagers were "addicted" to smartphones.

"While you become mindless slaves of smartphones & apps, the American elite behind these devices aren't giving them to their own kids. Excessive smartphone usage would sap the very creativity that lay behind the technological advances that the smartphone represented. If you use smartphones like the iPhone too much without using your own brain, you will eventually lose the ability & brain power to create something as great & innovative as the iPhone."-Kim Ham Hee

Remember that creativity is something that can't be automated(at least not yet) or outsourced easily or replaced by mass imports of cheaper foreign workers aka Sillypore Govt style. It is a key component to a more 'iron' rice bowl.