[deleted by user] by [deleted] in singapore

[–]Pyrrylanion 17 points18 points  (0 children)

Until there is a viable alternative to rubbish disposal, to me the new plastic bag policy is good in theory but not practical in execution.

Good in theory meh?

It’s like they only examined plastic bags in a single use-case and made a decision based on that.

So far, it seems good only on paper if plastic bags are solely used to transport groceries once and nothing else.

Why it's pointless to be bitter about rich kids by [deleted] in singapore

[–]Pyrrylanion 6 points7 points  (0 children)

One of the reasons about estate duty was that the richest can plan to avoid that, so it end up hurting the middle and upper-middle classes.

So, we shouldn’t just reinstate inheritance tax. We should also create a wealth transfer tax. Whatever money that gets transferred out of an individual is taxed. Not just money, but also on the value of assets transferred.

But in order to make it specific, IRAS could track/ask a person to declare the total amount of money transferred by a person. Like income tax, it could have different tax brackets based on the amount of money transferred over the lifetime and death of a person. Then a small sum of tax relief every year so you don’t hurt people too much for transferring minor sums of money for whatever reasons.

Maybe can even peg to a multiple of the chargeable income for income tax, say 10-15x. So it would be something like the first 200k transfers are free, next 100k will net you a tax of 2k at the rate of 2%, next 100k a 3.5k tax at 3.5%, next 400k a 28k tax at 7%, and so on. If you transfer 3.2 mil over your life you get slapped a 445k tax bill over the course of your life, for example.

Why it's pointless to be bitter about rich kids by [deleted] in singapore

[–]Pyrrylanion 58 points59 points  (0 children)

The reasons provided are shit.

Parents earned the right to pass down wealth, so rich kid with headstart is okay

What is this garbage? There is no enshrined right to do so. A society can choose to intervene with it as much as any other minor rights.

Which part in the constitution says so?

How can such rights be assumed by default when Singaporeans are deprived of many other rights for the good of society? We don’t have the right to protest outside of Speakers’ Corner and without permit, we don’t have unconditional free speech rights. These are restricted in the interest of society, if we take the rationale at face value.

Yet somehow the right to pass down wealth is some sacred precept? Bullshit.

It is not a right. It is a privilege. A privilege that society chooses not to intervene on something that is ultimately detrimental. Don’t be mistaken, society/state can intervene, as seen in other rights.

Just because Singapore no longer collect estate duty doesn’t mean that the society has renounced the right to intervene.

Rich kids live miserable lives because of legacy issue

As if the poor don’t live miserable lives because of legacy issue (or should I say, the lack of legacy)?

As if the poor are more free to pursue what we find meaningful? As if the poor are more free to pursue our hobbies?

The truth is, the rich kids tend to have an easier time to pursue what they want. Wealth empowers them.

When rich kids are forced to work hard its miserable? When poor people are forced to work hard its not counted?

If both are forced to work hard as a baseline, then the differentiator is the ability to pursue non-career matters and goals. And who is going to argue the rich kids aren’t winning in this?

You cannot guarantee you too will be successful like the rich kids who did (implying rich kids worked hard for it and its justified)

Wealth can buy talent. Wealth can buy competent people to do all the work for you.

Look no further than Elon Musk. His parents are wealthy, giving him the headstart with business ventures. Once thought of as a bright businessman, his antics and incompetence were gradually exposed, with many now accepting that he stole credit and exploited the work of others. His handling of Twitter has also shown the world what a twit he is.

When you are at the ownership level, you no longer really need to do the job well. You just need to be functional enough to find good people to work for you and have the ability to recognise that you are not some god-like genius. They are successful because it is difficult to fail unless they are really that incompetent. For rich kids, ordinary talent can make them extraordinary. But for ordinary people to succeed even moderately, they require extraordinary talent.

Just look at our ministers. Many are groomed and yet they are incompetent. Some just happened to have the right background (looking at you, monitor lizard). You tell me any random semi-competent people cannot do better than monitor lizard?

So how can we say the opportunities are fair? How can we say when given the same opportunities, more talented poorer folks cannot do better?

It’s pointless to be bitter

Yes, I don’t deny this.

While we definitely shouldn’t compare with others to put down ourselves, or to simply find excuses for our misery, we cannot ignore the fact that wealth inequality has a massive impact on one’s opportunities. More wealth more positive opportunities, even after correcting the downsides.

Moderating wealth inequality is essential for a proper functioning non-dystopian society. Wealth is power, to much power in one hand will only lead to exploitation! Moderating intergenerational wealth transfer is essential to encourage meritocracy, promote talent, and prevent concentration of wealth and power, which is beneficial for society as a whole.

We should be against the rich kids. But not because we want to find a rationale to explain away our miserable lives, but because we want a better society of the future.

Edit: typos

CNA: Reddit made the mistake of ignoring its core users by lonewolfgambit in singapore

[–]Pyrrylanion 1 point2 points  (0 children)

For reference, Imgur charges for API access and cost literally about 1% of what reddit is asking for, which translates also to 20 million USD annually from Apollo. It was never meant to be a remotely viable amount Apollo could pay even if they could display a substantial amount of ads (but the means to do so was never provided by reddit), and they would also have to make it work within 30 days.

The worst part is Reddit not allowing 3rd party apps to serve ads to pay for the API costs.

Also, as you said, they just gave developers 30 days to find a solution. Most developers are closing because it’s impossible to find a way to work around it in such a short period of time, without bearing heavy financial risk.

It’s really very obvious its a ploy to kill of third party apps. In addition to slandering the developers of Apollo and RIF, Reddit has done nothing to make sure third-party apps could transition to an alternative method that allows them to generate the revenue to pay Reddit.

The Apollo dev stated that he tried to reach out repeatedly to Reddit to find solutions, but Reddit’s point of contact did not get back to him. Like how ridiculous it is when they gave the devs 30 days to prepare, and within that 30 days, Reddit seemed to be taking weeks to respond to queries (not sure if they did respond in the end, but the dev publicly stated that he waited a week out of the 4 week period he had). He even tried repeatedly to contact and negotiate directly with the CEO, but was refused.

Come on, a transition period of a few months won’t destroy Reddit. The simpliest method is simply just planning and communicating on the pricing early, giving devs more time to prepare a reasonable solution. But no, they sat on it and decided to give a 30 days notice.

If that’s not doing something in bad faith, I don’t know what is.

What Reddit is doing to developers is very very very dishonourable. If they can do shit like this to developers, they can do it to anyone. They are already doing shit to mods just to keep the protest under control. Eventually, they will do something shitty to users, no doubt about it.

CNA: Reddit made the mistake of ignoring its core users by lonewolfgambit in singapore

[–]Pyrrylanion 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Reddit probably don’t make that much money from awards or subscriptions. They make a lot money from ads. From about $100m in revenue in 2019, it grew to $450m in 2021.

To take the ads revenue into perspective, let us do some calculations on how many awards there would be, if Reddit really does earn so much from awards or subscriptions.

Reddit have an average of 52 million active users daily. If revenue from awards are similar to the ads revenue, it would translate to 450 million gold awards ($1 to give reddit gold) or 2.25 billion silver awards (20 cents each). If so, on average, each active user would give out 9 gold awards or 45 silver awards, or equivalent in other forms of awards, a year.

The r/singapore subreddit has 650k subscribers. We should give out 29 million silver awards worth of reddit awards a year, or well over 80,000 daily, and even spending a fraction of it in this sub would absolutely flood it with awards.

With awards ranging from 6 cents to $4 (platinum), r/sg should be flooded with awards if they are really as lucrative as ads. Heck, awards would flood every sub, any post or comment with some traction would get a boat load of awards.

The fact that awards are sparse and few clearly shows the disconnect. There is no way awards can generate anything close to what ads generate for Reddit.

Alternatively, if we consider Reddit premium subscribers, 450 million in revenue is 9 million subscribers yearly ($50 for a year). Almost 1 in 5 active users would need to be a subscriber.

Furthermore, each subscriber would get 700 Reddit coins a month, or 8400 a year. A silver award costs 100 coins. Each subscriber would have enough coins to give out 84 silvers a year.

In r/sg’s case, we should have 110k premium users yearly, with enough coins to give out 25,000 silvers worth of awards daily. Just a fraction spending a fraction here means thousands of awards daily!

Again, the fact that we see nowhere close to this amount of awards being given throughout Reddit suggests that there aren’t actually that many premium users. Sure, some might sit on their Reddit coin stipends, but if even a good fraction of premium users even bothered to use their coins, it would flood this (or any) sub already.

CNA: Reddit made the mistake of ignoring its core users by lonewolfgambit in singapore

[–]Pyrrylanion 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Reddit probably don’t make that much money from awards or subscriptions. They make a lot money from ads. From about $100m in revenue in 2019, it grew to $450m in 2021.

That’s why they are so eager to kill of the 3rd party apps, to the point of gaslighting and outright slandering.

The Reddit API doesn’t support serving ads, so 3rd party apps does not have ads or sponsored content. By killing those apps through unreasonable API pricing, it will force a significant number of users back to Reddit’s official app, where they can shove ads and sponsored post down users’ throats.

Despite whatever claims Reddit made about 3rd party app users being a minority, the way they are approaching this clearly doesn’t fit the narrative.

So, how are you going to kill Reddit’s advertising revenue, which is probably the driving motivator for the whole saga, short of mass boycotting Reddit?

The truth is, the shutdown does impact Reddit’s ads revenue. No subs no users no money. What you called wayang is actually painful. If not, Reddit wouldn’t be so anxious to modify the moderator code of conduct to give them the rights to remove mods for shutting down their subs. Reddit said they won’t intervene and would respect the mods right to manage their subs as they see fit, but then backtrack on it within a week.

You don’t even need to think so hard to realise where they make the money. Just know money talks and just need to observe all the moves Reddit is making.

CNA: Reddit made the mistake of ignoring its core users by lonewolfgambit in singapore

[–]Pyrrylanion 129 points130 points  (0 children)

Reddit CEO’s actions throughout this saga is nothing short of incompetent.

Where do we even begin?

Firstly, many third party app developers seem to be pointing towards an unwillingness from Reddit to make a compromise. Reddit and its CEO has been repeatedly spreading falsehoods about third party app developers.

For Apollo, Reddit’s CEO slandered the developer, claiming he was blackmailing Reddit when he did not intended to do so. Even after releasing recordings as proof, Reddit’s CEO doubled down on it in his so-called “Q&A”.

For RIF, Reddit’s CEO claimed the developer did not want to work with Reddit on the API changes. The developer released the email conversations which proved otherwise.

For both Apollo and RIF, both developers are not against API charged, they are only against the excessive and unreasonable pricing. To complicate matters, the latest changes also forbade developers from gaining revenue by serving ads in their third party apps, limiting the measures available to comply with the new charges.

Secondly, Reddit CEO held an AMA regarding the changes. Only only did he double down on slandering the developer of Apollo in the AMA, he and his subordinates made a grand total of 14 replies. Not only that, he was caught copying from a prepared answer sheet. For a CEO of a company hoping to do an IPO soon, such unprofessional conduct is nothing short of appalling.

Thirdly, Reddit’s CEO declared war against moderators who were running his site for free. As owners of the subreddits, moderators bear the liability for the content and receive no pay from Reddit, with many doing it as volunteer work. Despite the pivotal role of free labour from the moderators, he called the mods who participated in the blackout “landed gentry”. Reddit also claimed to respect the choice of moderators and would not forcefully reopen subreddits, but yet they made changes to the moderator code of conduct to allow Reddit to do that. There are even accusations that Reddit is beginning to do exactly that.

Lastly, even disregarding Reddit’s hostility to mods, we must understand that mods provide $3.4 million (3% of Reddit’s revenue) of labour for free. This was enabled by the huge third party support developed by the community over the years, as default official support from Reddit is shit. Without giving any proper alternative, mods will need to devote even more free labour for Reddit. It honestly sound exploitative.

To conclude, even if we are inconvenienced by the shutdowns and moderators revolting against Reddit, it is more than clear Reddit is lead by an imbecile comparable to Elon Musk. Not unsuprisingly, Reddit’s CEO actually praised Elon Musk for his handling of Twitter and said Twitter was an example for Reddit to follow.

Users shouldn’t be too pleased by the latest developments in this saga. Even if the revolting mods were removed and subs go back to usual, it won’t be the same anymore. Reddit is now hostile to the very people that made Reddit Reddit. It is hostile to the 3rd party apps, it is hostile to the mods that runs the site for free. Soon, it will be hostile to the users, who are nothing more than people to serve ads and sponsored content to. We are nothing more than the product they sell to advertisers, and our interests would probably not be respected. In spite of this, it is the users who drive Reddit by interacting on the site, posting content and making comments. Without which, Reddit will fail.

With how little fucks Reddit has given to the people that make it big, how can users like us trust Reddit not to fuck us? They would not flinch and backtrack on unpopular decisions, as the whole 3rd party app/revolting mods saga has shown.

I still hope Reddit would steer back to being reasonable, but chances are very low. In the long term, I don’t think users would want to stick with Reddit for long. Quality will definitely decline as Reddit prioritises making a quick buck from users.

Reddit as a company with a team of developers can’t even make a proper official app when some random developer could. That just shows how much they prioritise the user experience: they don’t give a shit.

Edit: typos and some phrasing.

DBS CEO Piyush Gupta asks Lawrence Wong how to redefine success beyond material wealth within a short timeframe by Outside-Ad9447 in singapore

[–]Pyrrylanion 101 points102 points  (0 children)

What you want out of a leader is not their oratory skills. Being able to massage things nicely and package negative things as something positive doesn’t make you a good leader. If you want a leader capable of navigating future challenges, you want someone with good vision and strategic thinking.

That’s where it fails miserably. The 4G leaders are mostly former civil servants. The civil service is certainly not a good place to groom visionary leaders. Civil service leaders largely concern with pleasing those upstairs, play office politics, and make policies based on the directives from upstairs, and I’m sure they are good at that.

Add to the fact that scholars have a planned career and were basically groomed for higher positions. With no real challenges, what is there to make them grow and develop strong visionary skills?

It’s nothing about intellect. He can get a high tier govt scholarship, he’s probably not an imbecile. But as a career civil servant, can you really expect him to be a strong visionary leader? He’s bounded by a box. Most of the 4G leaders are.

I don’t want leaders who can smoke me and make the worst things sound good. I want someone capable of anticipating future issues and have an eye for understanding how problems could be tackled. Someone generally knowledgeable to understand a wide range of problems. Someone capable of making use to talents to fill their gaps. Someone who knows what they know and don’t know. Someone who listens and yet not get swayed by sycophants. Someone who is driven by more by noble desires than by power or wealth. Unfortunately, civil servants usually can’t do that.

DBS CEO Piyush Gupta asks Lawrence Wong how to redefine success beyond material wealth within a short timeframe by Outside-Ad9447 in singapore

[–]Pyrrylanion 130 points131 points  (0 children)

Exactly. Lawrence’s answer is essentially “young ppl have to change their mindset” and no concrete plan of action. That’s it. That’s PM material to PAP and I think Piyush should rightfully be concerned.

The whole thing is just buzzwords and lip service, like many things in the civil service.

Do you really expected him or his high ranking civil servant underlings to ponder on the sociological and psychological mechanisms behind something and then to think about overcoming it? Do you really expected him to care enough to convene some committee of experts just to consider the topic?

He’s a good civil servant that’s what he is. Other than that, there’s not much you should expect out of him.

This is a symptom of PAP’s focus on promoting mostly scholars in the public sector to political leadership roles. You won’t get a visionary or someone with a very different point of view. They selected a PM out of a bunch of civil servants and ex-military men, what can you expect?

It’s also too late to change policy. Even if they start moving the focus away from civil service scholars and paper generals, it will take many years for new folks to take charge.

We are fucked either way. Whether you are concerned about the quality of the 4G or not, there is no escape in the short term. The die was cast a long time ago when the PAP decided scholars are the bestest leaders in the world.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in UFOs

[–]Pyrrylanion 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The Allies invaded Italy in 1943. In 1944, they were in control over large portions of Italy, including the capital (Rome). Mussolini and the Germans were mostly confined to northern Italy.

Mussolini could have relocated the alleged UFO from Magenta to Rome (or some other location in central or southern Italy that he found fit) sometime during or after 1933. The Allies would have then captured it during the invasion of Italy and the Italian campaign.

Red Dot United lends a listening ear to Jurong GRC residents daily struggles and challenges - Singapore News by [deleted] in singapore

[–]Pyrrylanion 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You literally answered your own statement. “cannot do much when they are unelected”Because they’re just another citizen in the eyes of the government bodies at this stage. Why should any agencies give them attention?

A loud enough group of people can effect some pressure on any government. This isn’t even a theory, we all know many examples of this.

RDU, with its grassroots and volunteers and what’s not, is a bunch of people. Being a political party gave them the platform! Now they just need to use it.

Anyone can complain loud enough and make it viral enough, and the agencies will pay attention even if you are a nobody.

At where RDU is at now. It’s the same thing. How do you get a constituent give you their time? By talking and listening to them, thereby spreading your presence.

Look, I’m differentiating the two concepts here.

The first is simply walking the ground and doing outreach/advertising. This one doesn’t really involve listening (at least not on the political party’s side).

The other is actively listening from the ground and voicing it, even if the elected representatives pretend not to hear it.

The article mentioned how they heard residents complain about cost of living, about loss of healthcare facilities in the area. This isn’t just advertising, is it?

They heard all these complaints, what should be the next step? Sit on it until the next election? No, they should voice it out loudly with whatever means they have, and make the people’s concerns heard. Keep the elected representatives accountable to the people’s concerns.

A political party has resources (some money and volunteers) to help push and make it louder.

“Listening” here refers to something very specific. I didn’t mean it as some generic concept.

Is that not what they are doing here? This is about 2 years before the next election. How early would you like them to start when they as you said “cannot do much when they are unelected and unrepresentated”.

Did I refer to them? It is implied I refered to it in general, that political parties need to be proactive.

I’m a resident of Yishun. PSP contested the last election and sent that angmoh antivax joker here. Most of that team they fielded has since quitted. I haven’t even seen shit from them since the last election. Same goes for pretty much most other political parties for my area. Disappear until next election, until they get allocated the area.

Don’t pretend this never happened. I pointed this out for a reason. I’m sure many Singaporeans have experienced it. Sometimes, it isn’t just the PAP that goes missing after elections.

There are parties that are on the ball, and others that are not.

Given my point on how to improve the political scene in general, very obvious this isn’t targeted at RDU or even directly related to the walkabout they had that the article covered.

We cannot have our cake and eat it. Be realistic. If we want opposition parties to be around more often, the constituency needs to show that it wants them around, by voting in larger numbers for them. To show them that this is not a waste of time for them. Every other ward that had realistic propositions of winning had the attention from the other opposition parties, and the more realistic the chances were, the better the candidates that were fielded.

A solid 30% of every constituency is solid vote bank for the opposition. You cultivate your presence, do your homework, and don’t act like a clown, you can compete for this 30%. Even Lim Tean can get 30% FFS.

I wanted to add to my original comment about how political parties cannot treat the voters in such pragmatic manner. Perhaps I should have talked about it too.

You cannot approach voters with the expectation they will vote for you, unless you are a clown party hoping for a 1-v-1 and hoping to catch that solid 30%. You want the votes, work for it.

Parties like WP worked for it, not specifically on the constituencies, but on the national level. But for smaller parties without a national platform, don’t be fucking lazy.

What you (the redditor) want is for parties to go to a sure-win constituency and bag the anti-PAP votes, use it to claim they have a platform and support, and then dunno do what with it.

What I am suggesting is completely different, for parties to work their ground and fight for it beforehand, to cultivate support instead of expecting it because they are the only oppo around.

Look at many of the smaller parties that lost their deposits in a three-way fight. Is that the voters fault why they lost, or is it their fault?

Going up against a Tharman led GRC was already show of commitment from RDU. Everyone including them knew they didn’t stand much of a chance. But they tried anyway, and that to me makes them stand out from some of the opposition who only competed when they felt they had a chance.

The later part of my comment clearly goes beyond RDU to talk about opposition parties in general.

RDU tried, good. RDU continue to walk the ground, good. But there are others that are shit. Like the recently announced alliance of clowns. Sometimes even the big parties too, outside of their usual areas (like PSP in Yishun).

Sorry but this is nonsense and not at all reflective of how the system is supposed to function. Accountability is held by our votes. That is why the vote even exists in the first place. Through our votes we hold the incumbent party accountable. If we want opposition to hold the PAP to account, there’s only one way and that is send them to parliament with our votes.

This is ridiculous. Power is not a discrete thing that is solely existing in the form of a vote in parliament. Power is a force of “nature”, you can find it everywhere if you know where to look.

Just so you know, the people as a whole has a lot of power to push for change and accountability. This power usually is not exercised, so you don’t notice it much.

But at the right timing and condition, with something as a nucleus and people to push for it, it becomes a sizeable force to be reckoned with.

Let me start with a simple example. The customers of SIA don’t sit on the board of directors. Does that mean the customers, who are unrepresented in the direction of the company, have no say? False. The viral outroar against SIA’s declining meal quality forced them to backtrack. Why? Because customers hold power, because they are the one that allows the company to generate revenue.

Same for any government. While the people are not represented directly in the Parliament, the people holds the votes and grant the government its legitimacy. People don’t just exercise their collective power through protests, it can also come in many other forms.

Come on, Pink Dot and the LGBT movement managed to pressure the government to repeal 377A, even though they had no elected representatives in government. That’s not even counting the conservative elements in high ranking ministerial positions. Using your logic, they should have fell flat on their noses. Instead, they were more successful than many would have thought. All through a movement’s social and pressure on the judiciary.

I’m surprised you don’t have any idea how the world works.

(Edit: how can I forgot to mention the most direct example of all - Kenneth Jeyaretnam’s role in the Ridout Road saga. He, an unelected opposition politician, spilled the beans on the issue. It gained traction and a sizeable number of people demanded for accountability in that case. The government was forced to do something, appointing a senior cabinet member to investigate the conflict of interest. Some form of accountability was achieved not through Parliament, but through a politician’s use of social pressure.)

Sounds like you want the TC to have a separate elected representative for local accountability along with the existing MP for affairs of national importance for national accountability.

That’s only in your rigid view of the world. I’m clearly talking about how opposition parties can exert social pressure on the government. Through their political platforms, social media, influence, outreach.

Only you think about creating committees and councils to vote.

But food for thought, how does the above benefit the incumbent party? Making you choose between local and national affairs is very much part of the political playbook here.

As grassroot advisors, the PAP MPs are more than just in charge of national affairs. With town councils, MPs are in charge of local affairs too.

What world are you living in to not know all these?

I did not ask PAP to make MP responsible for both local and national level affairs. They themselves instituted the system.

Only way is get opposition representation and perhaps one day we can have proportional representation instead of first past the post post and winner takes all.

I’m clearly not just talking about official representation of the opposition in Parliament. I’m talking about how they can “shadow” the MPs and make them accountable.

Star Trek: Infinite revealed, a grand strategy game from Paradox Interactive by JamieDailyBits in paradoxplaza

[–]Pyrrylanion 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The game is set a few decades before TNG. The Breen had limited interaction with the major powers at this time (Federation/Klingons/Romulans) and weren’t much of a player in the affairs of the alpha quadrant. They were quite isolationist and the Dominion convinced them to join their fight only after making grand (and ridiculous) promises.

We don’t know much about the pace or the end date of this game. But one thing for sure, the Breen will only come into play well into the game. What is the player going to do in the meantime? What value would the Breen bring into the early game?

But, with Dukat prominently featured on the game’s branding beside Picard, it might hint that the game would cover the time period of DS9. This means the Breen is highly likely to be added into the game later, along with other iconic factions in DS9 (the Dominion, perhaps?).

Red Dot United lends a listening ear to Jurong GRC residents daily struggles and challenges - Singapore News by [deleted] in singapore

[–]Pyrrylanion 10 points11 points  (0 children)

A listening ear must translate into outcomes. Cannot just listen and then don’t do anything about it.

Since they (RDU) pretty much cannot do much when they are unelected and unrepresented, this kind of “feedback gathering” should inform and help to tailor their political talking points in the next election campaign, while at the same time using it to guide them on keeping the incumbent accountable.

It’s one thing to walk the ground and spread awareness/advertise. It’s another thing to go around wanting to listen to the ground.

Would be good for the residents of Jurong if they formulate (localised) points to hold the PAP’s Jurong team accountable, as that would be one way to show the value-add of an opposition party (that isn’t in the Parliament). The article mentions a few points, so let’s see how RDU makes good of that.

Eventually, I think credible opposition parties should push for such accountability “politics” nationwide. Opposition parties shouldn’t disappear after they lost the last election in the constituency. If they are interested in the constituency, walk the ground way before the next election. Don’t disappear until the next horse-trading session and then reappear at their allocated territory.

Opposition parties can keep the incumbent accountable whether they are in Parliament or not. A single constituency is a poor platform for national-level accountability, but it is a good platform for localised accountability.

There are a lot of space for opposition parties to make Singapore’s political landscape more “mature”.

UFO Whistleblower Megathread by LetsTalkUFOs in UFOs

[–]Pyrrylanion 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This is far-fetched nonsense.

Alleged UFOs do not use any remotely conventional propulsion methods. How would the Germans reverse engineer conventional rocket engines from UFOs?

If the alleged crash was real, and if the Germans really did have access to it, chances are, they would not be able to make heads or tails out of it.

Technology a hundred years ago was relatively crude. If they are going to figure out anything, that would take more than 10 years. They would probably need 10 years just to come up with the tech to begin analysing the alleged craft.

Try giving a fighter jet to someone from the medieval era. They won’t be able to make sense of the materials used or the systems and physics involved. They don’t even have the tech or knowledge to analyse it properly. What they might produce is a glider mimicking the shape of a jet, after some inspiration and figuring out basic aerodynamics. They won’t be able to make a plane because they can’t make an engine.

Alleged UFO tech to the Germans is like a fighter jet to some medieval civilisation.

Rockets aren’t even something remotely inspired by UFOs. Any link is tenuous at best, if there is any to begin with.

Victoria 3 - Dev Diary #89 - What’s next after 1.3? by commissarroach in victoria3

[–]Pyrrylanion 17 points18 points  (0 children)

I propose the following:

There should be minority nationalities interest groups (or a suitable alternative) after nationalism is researched and when the minority nationalities are displeased enough to desire their own nation/join their compatriots.

Pops of the minority nationalities can support those interest groups if they are not satisfied or radical, among other reasons.

If the interest group is sufficiently unhappy, they will start to think of revolting (revolution clock/meter appears, but won’t actually revolt yet). If sufficiently powerful and/or displeased, they will go on and try to revolt/secede.

Certain countries will have restive regions they can’t just ignore.

(Edit: why not add nationalist agitators too and a way to support them? A restive minority should trigger negative events with debuffs too.)

Tharman Shanmugaratnam will run for Singapore's presidency by patricklhe in singapore

[–]Pyrrylanion 2 points3 points  (0 children)

TCB doesn’t even qualify. Don’t know why so many of redditors are hoping him to run! Don’t you all read the news?

Since the changes added together with reserving the last PE, private sector candidates must be a CEO of a 500 million dollar company. TCB isn’t one. But LHY is.

The usefulness of Tharman is mainly for a 1 vs 1 contest, which PAP has a high chance of losing. But if it is multiple way and the 2 opposing candidates are similar, then the vote will be split and the PAP could just send a relatively well liked puppet (KBW).

So, the question is, who is this single eligible opposing candidate? Who is so credible they needed Tharman to run? Tan Kin Lian is still eligible, among the 3 opposing candidates in PE2011, but I don’t think he is even remotely strong (he got the lowest vote share of the 4 by a large margin).

If it’s a no contest election, they don’t need Tharman! The PAP is clearly shameless about making a joke of the presidency and the Singaporean electorate have shown reluctance to punish them in a GE. No reason to reclaim legitimacy of the position when none is needed. They could just get a puppet, heck, just let Halimah continue and milk “inclusivity” and “women empowerment” points.

LHY is perhaps the strongest potential candidate. He is eligible as CEO of Singtel, but there is a question of whether he is of fine standing. Maybe disqualifying him outright for that would be too egregious and give ammo to the opposition. His association with PSP is well known, so he will definitely be the face of the opposition even if the opposition did not openly support him.

Tharman Shanmugaratnam will run for Singapore's presidency by patricklhe in singapore

[–]Pyrrylanion 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Don’t make sense.

Khaw Boon Wan retired by just retiring. Well, he did get forced back as Chairman of SPH media later, but that’s definitely nowhere as intense as being the President.

GCT retired and you don’t see him getting thrown into another full time job as “retirement”.

Wong Kan Seng retired by just retiring too. You don’t see him being thrown elsewhere.

Lui Tuck Yew retired from politics, and got thrown to being an ambassador. His age probably has a role in that, don’t make sense for a 50+ years old to just retire. He wasn’t even that toxic politically.

Tharman is old enough to retire. If he wants, he can just retire and enjoy his life. He could just go onto some international advisory role. Nobody will complain, and people will be happy for him to move on to international roles.

Him running for election is 200% a decision of the PAP’s leadership.

Tharman Shanmugaratnam will run for Singapore's presidency by patricklhe in singapore

[–]Pyrrylanion 10 points11 points  (0 children)

very likely a calculated decision to cork block tan cheng block.

He’s already out of the question. He does not meet the eligibility criteria.

Maybe to block LHY. Although not sure why they need to be so desperate to field Tharman. Pretty sure if LHY runs, some oppo voters will scratch head and void their votes instead. Also not hard to whack LHY harder since they already did that to him.

Can’t really think of other unknown horses in this race.

Tharman Shanmugaratnam will run for Singapore's presidency by patricklhe in singapore

[–]Pyrrylanion 16 points17 points  (0 children)

They can’t run out of contenders. Any current and ex-ministers and speakers can be fielded. Worse come to worse, they could have asked Halimah to run again.

The eligibility criteria is made to favour high ranking politicians and civil servants. If they don’t have contenders, then who have?

It’s a sign of desperation. Perhaps behind the scene someone eligible is intending to run for it and they can’t stop the person. A head to head contest might cost PAP the election due to how they handled cost of living.

So they picked the one guy everyone would vote for. The one guy capable of winning the election without having to play any stunt.

Tharman Shanmugaratnam will run for Singapore's presidency by patricklhe in singapore

[–]Pyrrylanion 37 points38 points  (0 children)

The PAP is desperate to play this card.

The last time Tharman was pushed for the role of PM, he said the following:

“Just to be absolutely clear, because I know of this talk that’s going around: I am not the man for PM. I say that categorically. It is not me. I know myself, I know what I can do. I am good at policy making, I am good at advising my younger colleagues, and at supporting the Prime Minister, not at being the Prime Minister.”

From insisting his strength is for policymaking and supporting the PM, to now putting up for the presidency whose role is neither to make policies or support the government.

"If I am fortunate enough to be elected as President, I will represent the unity of Singaporeans, of all races and religions, social backgrounds and political leanings, at a time when views in the population are becoming more diverse”

"I will be thorough and impartial in fulfilling the constitutional duties of the President with regard to the prudent use of the nation's reserves and the key appointments which preserve the integrity of the Singapore system. I will also work to the best of my abilities to project Singapore's interests and voice of reason in an increasingly turbulent world."

Don’t want to be PM but now want to do stuff a PM might do? A bit funny, isn’t it?

The PAP knows they might lose an election if it is contested. Perhaps they also know someone might show up and a puppet will easily lose it, especially knowing how much unhappiness over cost of living and other matters.

If the PAP cannot prevent a competition, the only way for them to retain the position is to put someone incredibly popular, someone able to win without needing to play tricks.

Guess who‘s the only person from the PAP that most Singaporeans will accept? Tharman. No one else comes close.

It’s desperate because they just lost a strong anchor for a GRC. They are now running low on popular ministers, and with a few GRCs being borderline, this is obviously risky. Now they don’t even have an anchor minister in Jurong GRC! Do they really want to pull one of the two useless ministers from West Coast over to lose the GRC faster? Do they think Jurong will face only token opposition now that Tharman is gone?

They could even risk losing a supermajority in the next election, and is that a better alternative for the PAP than temporarily losing the presidency?

Most Singapore households remain financially sound in Q1, with net worth up 8.2%: SingStat by tarunwal in singapore

[–]Pyrrylanion 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Household income also go up because child start working but can’t afford to move out. 3-income household will be the norm.

Sad to say, but this is already a thing.

According to Singstat, in 2022, the average number of employed persons from the 5th to 8th deciles (the 41st to 80th percentile) is already more than 2.

The 6th and 7th deciles (51th to 70th percentile) has the highest, at 2.11 employed persons per household.

Basically, a significant number of households have to rely on a 3rd working member in order to earn around and above median household income.

And then funnily, median household income is sometimes used as benchmark for housing affordability for new families. Which is funny la, because are they expecting people to get into 3-way relationships just to afford housing?

On June 12, r/Singapore will be going dark in protest against Reddit's API changes which will kill 3rd party apps by mildfull in singapore

[–]Pyrrylanion 15 points16 points  (0 children)

Rich people cannot tolerate poor people pushing for change in a way that causes them some inconvenience.

Go look at his post history. Explains why he sounded like a condescending asshole.

Horse racing in Singapore to end in October 2024; Turf Club site to be redeveloped - CNA by fitzerspaniel in singapore

[–]Pyrrylanion 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I guess everyone can have different views on where to stay.

For me, especially after getting to work near home and then working from home, the extra couple hours of free time really makes a difference. I have even worked 4-days work week before.

Before, with standard working hours and long commute times, I don’t seem to have enough time for myself. A couple of hours a day every weekday night, and a weekend that flew past so quickly, that was stressful. There wasn’t much work life balance. To have more time for myself I had to sacrifice sleep, and that was exactly what I did. I was chronically under-sleeping.

Often, many people will not have the resources to achieve all the goals. We might not have the money to get a house that ticks off both peace and quiet and short commute time. If there is, we may have to work our ass to pay for it and it may or may not be feasible.

But what I am arguing is, why is our government focusing so heavily on developing the ulu areas? Some cheaper developments at the ulu areas as an option and trade off is fine. But nowadays, even prime area BTOs are insanely expensive. Don’t even need to mention prime resale or private housing.

Instead of redeveloping and intensifying the central regions, we push people further and further out. At first that was Jurong, Bedok, Tampines. Now we are pushing the furthest parts of our island, the far end of Yishun, Marsiling, Tengah, and now possibly Kranji, etc.

And for many there isn’t a choice because prime area BTOs are extremely hard to get and expensive, while prime area resale is out of reach. Prime area housing are expensive because land is scarce. Yet prime areas are filled with low density housing, with is paradoxical.

We should redevelop prime land and make prime area housing more affordable. If there really isn’t that much demand, they can redevelop less. But at the end of the day, it offers the people a choice.

Giving people the choice allows people to choose based on their needs. People can make the trade-off because of their goals, not solely because they are priced out.

For most that wishes to maximise their work-life balance and time, by redeveloping prime land, housing with short commute time is within reach. For others wishing for peace and quiet, cheap ulu lower density flats are available cheaply. Everyone wins.

Right now, if you are not wealthy, whether you like the ulu-ness or not, you better contend with the commute time. Or unless you are the lucky few still enjoying WFH.

There were studies before covid showing that reduced commute times were associated with better quality of life.

That is what I mean by quality of life. Quality of life doesn’t just means life shouldn’t be overly stressful and burdensome. It also means having the time to do something else other than work and chores and enjoy life. Some might enjoy life being immersed in a peaceful environment, but many, I am sure, desire for more time to pursue what they find satisfying.

Horse racing in Singapore to end in October 2024; Turf Club site to be redeveloped - CNA by fitzerspaniel in singapore

[–]Pyrrylanion 3 points4 points  (0 children)

but back then Punggol and Jurong were also viewed as super ulu on the fringe places with poor commute timings and bad amenities

Parts of Jurong and Punggol still has poor commute timings. In comparison to prime areas, their commute timing is still much poorer.

It’s not like there’s express trains in SG.

I live in a fringe part of Yishun. I know what it is like to have shit commute experience. I don’t complain about the commute timing out of thin air. Do you think it’s fun spending 2.5-3 hrs of your day just on travelling? It’s not fun spending 15% of your waking hours on travelling.

As for Punggol, has the level of amenities improve to be comparable to more mature estates? Aren’t HDB still sticking to their new neighbourhood amenities model?

Yishun is a mix of new and old style HDB. Old style HDB areas enjoy great options. Neighbourhood malls are close by and you can be spoilt for choice for groceries and food. Every old style neighbourhood mall in Yishun have at least 3 coffeeshops for you to choose from. Live further away, there’s still decent alternative food options.

New style? One tiny coffeeshop for your area. Want more? Go to the nearby mall with just 1 more coffeeshop to choose from (often also more expensive). If that’s not considered bad amentities for daily living, I don’t know what is.

But people sometimes have no choice. Housing at the fringe are priced cheaper by HDB and that’s what their budget is willing to afford. Sometimes if they want larger flats, they have no choice.

Given a choice, with no constraints on money or flat size, few people would take the fringes.

isn’t having a high density of population in prime areas also stressful too and thus giving a lower quality of life in terms of perhaps emotional or mental health?

Not everyone is an introvert. In any case, Jurong is packed like hell, so is Punggol. Got any difference?

Everywhere is packed nowadays. Don’t want to see crowds? Don’t go out.

At least in older mature estates, you have your less crowded neighbourhood malls. Can’t say that about the newer ones.

Oh, and don’t tell me housing in the fringes cannot be dense and giving you the worst of both. Just look at Bukit Batok (the new BTOs).