It usually IS too good to be true.
On the our third day in Shantou, we went to Puning City (普宁市) in Jieyang (揭阳) in the morning. Rachel and I got to ride in one of the VIP’s BMW, thanks to my boss, Chim Kang.
The first activity for the day was to head to one of the local government’s banquet hall for another opulent feast. Nicholas, Rachel and I decided to skip this banquet as we were still full from our heavy breakfast at the hotel. We also wanted to take a breather from the straight-laced official itinerary.
The three of us explored the local market nearby and were captivated by the vibrant sights and sounds. We bought some local tidbits to bring home and then had a simple lunch at one of the street stalls. It was just porridge with some vegetable and meat dishes, but it felt good to eat normally for once.
Our dragon boat Captain decided to pursue his career
elsewhere and has tendered his resignation. His duties of "bao sua
bao hai" have been passed down to me.
On one hand, I love the challenge of motivating the team and
helping to build the strength of the team, numbers wise. On the
other hand, I think I will be very, very tired this year. A number
of oncoming projects (work wise) are heading my way.
Meanwhile, i am still doing a lot of meddling
with people's lives like introducing single
girlfriends to single (or divorced) boyfriends,
forcing people to lose weight cos they're really fat
(and single), telling people they should get insurance in case they
get hit by cars driven by mad drivers, etc.
I am also very proud to say, from Nov till now, I have lost 4
kilos, 2 inches and 5% fat percentage.
And I'm going for more =)
Wish me luck!
I spoke to a professor in a UK university who was previously an
actuary working in the insurance industry. He told me about the
background of the regulatory environment and the mis-selling over
the past decades.
For many years, the authority in the UK regulated the sales
process, disclosure of information and expected financial advisers
to observe ethics and professionalism. It did not work. Many
agents sold bad products to their customers to earn high
commisison. The regulator imposed heavy fines on the financial
institutions but it still did not solve the problem.
The regulator has finally decided to ban the payment of commission
to agents. This will take place in the near future.
Singapore followed the UK approach in regulation. But the authority
in Singapore did not impose the heavy fines on the institutions for
mis-selling. The situation is quite bad in Si[...]
I spoke to an investor in a land banking product. He has
invested for nearly two years and is still waiting for his
invested sum to be returned to him. He has not even collected the
interest payment of 12.5%. He has since lost his job and his money
is tied up in this investment. He has been promised a few
times that the company is finalising the sale of the land and
expects to repay the investment in the near future. It never
materialised but he still remained hopeful and naive.
He is reluctant to lodge a complain with the authority or talk to
the newspaper as it might cause the company to collapse. He still
harboured the hope that his money will be repaid to him in the
future. He even hoped that the company would be successful in
the sales to new investors, so that they can collect the money to
repay him. This is a selfish attitude, which reflects a
shameful char[...]
While offsets to low-income households will be useful while it lasts, an additional idea is to have a tiered system of pricing electricity in favour of small consumers. The fundamental idea is for a threshold level of power consumption by households to be determined. Households consuming less than the threshold level will enjoy a low tariff charge. With increasing consumption levels, the tariff escalates. The higher tariff collected in the upper tiers can be used for 2 purposes: to cross-subsidize the first tier tariff, and to encourage all households not to over-consume electricity.
Negaraku Brunei Darussalam, 15 Mar 2010SINGAPORE, March 15 (NNN-TODAY) — It is often said Singaporeans are in demand by other countries. And if figures from a pilot project by Immigration New Zealand (INZ) are anything to go by, Singaporeans are just as interested.INZ’s pilot project, launched on Jan 15, seeks to attract specifically working Singaporean holidaymakers and students. Nearly 80 per
Bernama.com, 16 Mar 2010SINGAPORE, March 16 (Bernama) -- Singapore's Universal Studios located within Resorts World Sentosa (RWS) on Sentosa Island is officially set to open to the public on Thursday.RWS's Communication Assistant Director Robin Goh told newsmen, during a pre-opening tour today, that 4.5 million visitors are expected to visit Universal Studios while the resort anticipares a
Thomson Online Benefits, 16 Mar 2010Health and wellbeing of workers in Singapore is central to new government plans to ensure that productivity and morale stay high in offices around the city state.A new grant of around £215 has been made available for organisations that promote healthy activities on behalf of their workers and it is believed that at least 50 businesses will qualify for the cash
