South Korea's Vietnam War Era Aircraft Shows How Absurd Singapore's Defense Budget Is

South Korea held a live firing exercise earlier this month. What shocked me is that they are still using vietnam war era weapons such as F-4 fighter-bombers & Cobra helicopter gunships.

We all know how serious a threat the north korean hermit kingdom is with its provocative shelling & its massive artillery force within striking distance of Seoul.

Yet despite facing a serious threat, South Korea still spend prudently with their defense budget. In the early days of S'pore, we had a prudent defense budget as well. Our AMX-SM13 light tanks were upgraded a few times. Ditto for A-4 Skyhawks instead of buying latest expensive weaponry.

South Korea sent substantial troops to assist the US during the vietnam war. However their subsequent South Korean governments psyche were not affected by greed due to their political structure. In S'pore however, the hybrid regime mutate into the present greedy one.

As greed comes into play, defense spending shoots up. Much of taxpayers $$ are channeled into the government linked defense companies. Hence taxpayers $$ flow into the private shareholders of which the sovereign wealth fund(SWF) benefit the most. There's nothing wrong with keeping the money inside S'pore. Problem is that the SWF lost substantial sums in overseas investments.

How ridiculous is our defense spending?

According to Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, we spend 3x more than South Korea per capita. And we are not even facing a hostile North Korea.

Tax Increases? Just Reduce Defense Spending & Reallocate
There have been rumors about GST 10% should the hybrid regime win the upcoming elections. People question the alternative parties about how to fund citizen-centric policies without increasing taxes.

The answer is simple. If South Korea still have vietnam war era weapons in its arsenal, there's certainly no need for the latest weaponry for this tiny island. With reduction in defense spending, the $$$ can be diverted to spend in discounted travel for our soldiers on public transport, educational grants for financially struggling students etc...

With a 3x difference in spending compared to South Korea, there is certainly room to improve citizen's well-being through reallocation. The key is to have a different political party at the helm. Forget about the hybrid regime changing for the better due to its heavily entrenched self-interest over decades of rule unless it suffer a major defeat the polls.

New ruling party, new mindset, new priorities.

Lastly, enjoy watching South Korea's 10min youtube clip August 2015 Living Firing Exercise.

Dismal Few Flags Displayed in 2015 for Singapore's 50th Birthday

I slacked a lot in blogging this month. With SG50 & election being announced this month, this blogpost will attempt to highlight what i consider significant about these 2 events.

First of all, the 50th birthday of the country. As usual i can't be bothered with watching the parade cum propaganda on tv. Despite the incumbent ruling party throwing the kitchen sink like pioneer package, merchandise on SG50 discounts & all the SG50 hype, the number of flags displayed is again appalling.

Throw out so much SG50 hype, how many flags can you see on this photo taken on national day? Does a different coat of paint make more citizens fly the flag?

Compare it with last year(2014) - Record Low Flags Display in 2014 Before 50th Anniversary (open in new window)


Before the 50th national day celebrations, hordes of sinkies are leaving the country for a rare 4 day long weekend. It's supposed to 3 days but the hybrid regime declared an extra public holiday & urge the peasants to stay behind & join in the celebrations.

When taking precious leave for a short vacation becomes a terrifying thought with the fear of being replaced by a cheaper foreign worker, the 4 day long weekend provide a nice respite out of the overcrowded island. Only ordeal are the horrible jams through immigration.


Then to the announcement of election 2015 to be held on 11th Sept & their candidates rollout. Which white scums get my blood boiling most?

斯文败类 when hospital beds not enough.

My mum & dad(passed away) were victims of insufficient beds.

Coming down from his ivory tower & pretending to empathize with peasants. End up getting easily exposed - his fox tail revealed.

狐狸尾巴漏出来 at 21st second.

Almost said Tan Payoh, then said Toa Payoh mall when no such place exist. Only a normal coffeeshop.

伪君子.

I'm somewhat disappointed that Workers Party is contesting 28 seats which is just 1 seat short of 33% parliamentary seats needed to veto toxic policies. They are playing the safe route to get those fence-sitter voters to vote for them. Why the safe route? The blame is on those daft fence sitters who are kiasu, kiasi(scared lose, scared die) when the rot(some of which i've blogged about) in the country is already staring them in the eyes.

As for the S'pore Democratic Party(SDP), i hope they win at least 1 seat. With 1 seat serving as a base, SDP can then follow the route of WP's initial Hougang base spreading out to capture more.

For the other alternate parties, it is unlikely they would win but it is imperative for voters to decrease the hybrid regime's vote % to as low as possible.

Email Marketing from a Cinema Chain Done Right

Was clearing out old emails & came across this marketing email from MBO Cinemas, a malaysian cinema chain. I do catch a movie or two when leaving the country to have haircuts from traditional barbers - Chop Passport to Cut Hair blogpost.

The email is something done right in the sense that it offer something for free with no strings attached. You can redeem the medium sized popcorn without watching a movie but the cinema chain already bet that most would naturally buy a movie ticket.

Title of the email is: Enjoy a complimentary popcorn on us!‏

Top of email also display my loyalty reward points. - Nice touch of personalization.

Unfortunately it disappeared when i reopened the email 2+ months later.

With no strings/ gimmick attached, it breaks the cycle of the promotional emails being deleted without being read. Many times i delete emails from eBay, Aliexpress, Qoo10 without opening to read. Why? Because their emails are focused on selling more stuff to the reader. As time goes on, the reader is 'conditioned' to ignore these 'selling emails' - thus delete without opening to read.

Another issue is frequency. I find the promotional emails from MBO Cinemas is like fortnightly to once a month so i don't find it irritating. Coupled with its freebie email thrown in to break the vicious cycle, i would commend on the current MBO email marketing team on a job well done.

Not too many & not too frequent. Freebie thrown in once in a while to 'train' people to open their emails. They got the right mix for the formula, something which unfortunately is lost among many companies.

A few pennies on free popcorn to keep customers to continue opening to read their emails. A cheap investment considering the dreadful scenario of customers being trained to 'no need read their stream of selling emails; just delete'.

Gerrymandering of Jurong GRC in 2015 Election

It's been close to 2 months since i last blogged. The upcoming election is speculated to be 12th Sept during the 1 week school holidays.

Attention are focused on the eastern parts of the tiny island where the hybrid regime's territories are weak & expected to fall for some. What is neglected in the gerrymandering news is the western part where i stay which is a stronghold area for the incumbent.

Apparently the hybrid regime has thrown the 'Mickey Mouse' area out of Jurong Group Representation Constituency(GRC) due to mickey mouse infestation late last year. Throw out the weak support area & then gerrymandered in much of Clementi.

As such i now belong to a different GRC. Nevertheless i will still vote against the incumbent to bring down their vote %.

Daft sinkies have to understand that even though the incumbent would still win in the area, it is important to bring their vote % down to keep the 'Mafia In White' on their toes & to boost the hopes of alternative parties in future election(eg. eastern sg)

For gerrymandering comparisons:
- SG Electoral Map 2011

- SG Electoral Map 2015

Why 'Mickey Mouse' area thrown out? Refresh back to late 2014:

Thank you Mickey Mice!

Rewinding further back to 1991 when i was clueless about politics - too young:

Despicable tactics by the Mafia in White. When close to losing, make the single area disappear by absorbing it into a group constituency. Now when support is low due to 'Mickey Mouse', the area is carved out to be discarded. Nevertheless, it would be wonderful if SDP could win the area & establish a foothold in western SG.

Whatever the reason/rationale spewed out by the Mafia in White, you can bet that's not the main reason. It is more of a secondary reason brought to the front & sold to the masses.

Examples are:

• GRC are to ensure minority race representation(secondary reason) when primary real reason is to parachute useless MPs in to remain as dominant party.
• Increase public transport fares for better service(secondary reason sold to masses). Primary real reason is to fatten the regime's pockets. Breakdowns getting more & more.
• Foreigners create good jobs for sinkies(secondary reason sold to masses). Primary real reason is to collect more levies & taxes nevermind that more & more locals are displaced from their jobs.

This year, the American Embassy invited Chee Soon Juan & his wife again to their independence day celebration. They were invited last year. Perhaps they were invited in 2013, 2012? Even the americans working in the embassy can see the rot in SG. They know the hybrid regime's days are numbered so is better to make friends with people from other parties.

For Chee Soon Juan's picture in 2014's 4th July USA embassy celebration, see

Record Low Flags Display in 2014 Before 50th Anniversary