Making a will - list of assets

Dear Mr. Tan
I attended a talk by a lawyer about making a will. The lawyer want to charge $250 for the will. Is this fair? The lawyer said that if I do not have a will, my children will have trouble in recovering my savings and investments. They will have to spend a lot of money to get the "letters of administration".

The lawyer also asked me to provide a full list of my assets. He said that this will make it easy for my children to claim the assets when I pass away.  Is it necessary? What happens if my assets change in the future?

REPLY
It is a fair to pay $250 to make a will. When you make a will, you can appoint two people to be the executors of the will. It will be easier for the court to grant the probate, i.e. to appoint the executors to take charge of the estate. This will prevent any dispute among the family members. The lawyer will also ensure that the will is properly executed in accordance with the law.

When you write your will, you will have to specify how your estate is to be distributed. You can specify a specified sum of money to be given to each child or grandchildren or to your siblings, nieces, nephews or other relatives and friends. You can also donate some money to charity.

You can also specify how the balance of your estate is to be distributed. Usually, you will indicate how many percent of the balance goes to each child or to your spouse.

There is no need to provide a list of assets to your lawyer. It is better to keep this information away from the lawyer, especially as you do not know if your lawyer can be trusted.

You should have a list of assets kept in your home, so that your executors will be able to locate them. They may need to get the lawyer to file the proper documents to take over the assets. The legal expenses are unavoidable and should be quite small, relative to the assets.

Sign petition to stop deportation

Sign my petition asking President Obama to stop his plans for raids and deportations of hundreds of women and children who fled horrific violence in Latin America.

---

Sisters and Brothers -

My father Eli immigrated to America from Poland in 1921 after World War I at the age of 17. He was not a refugee fleeing war, although much of his family later became victims of the Holocaust. He came to America looking to make a better life. He never made a lot of money, but it didn’t matter because he was able to start a family and send his two sons to college. That meant the world to him and he loved this country.

While my father came here as an immigrant seeking economic opportunity, many immigrants arrived in our country fleeing war, oppression and violence. This is true today for thousands of women and unaccompanied children who came to our country in the last several years fleeing horrific violence in Latin America.

This week the media reported something that I find not just wrong, but inhumane: President Obama is currently planning "a month-long series of raids in May and June to deport hundreds of Central American mothers and children" who came to our country fleeing that same violence.

Sending women and children back into harm's way after they already fled horrendous violence in Central America is painful and inhumane, and must be stopped.

Sign my petition asking President Obama to stop these raids and to make sure that families fleeing violence in Central America are protected from deportation.

SIGN MY PETITION »

Donald Trump has of course called for building a "Great Wall" along the border with Mexico. Hillary Clinton previously said that these same children who fled violence in Latin America "should be sent back" in order to "send a clear message."

I happen to see things differently. I don't believe that the United States should turn away from our historic role as a haven for the oppressed.

I recently met a young Salvadoran woman who came to the United States on her own at the age of 15 to flee gangs trying to recruit her. I’ve also spoken with many children who have told me with tears streaming down their faces that they live in daily fear that their parents will be taken away.

The United States of America must continue to be a refuge for the poor, the tired, the oppressed, and certainly for women and children fleeing horrific violence.

I urge President Obama to use his executive authority to protect families by extending Temporary Protective Status for those who fled from Central America, and I ask you to join me.

Add your name to mine to ask President Obama to stop planned raids and deportations of families fleeing violence in Central and Latin America. Together, we can speak up to protect these families.

In solidarity,

Bernie Sanders

Severe penalty on giving up a property purchase

Michael (not his real name) went to the launch of a new condominium project. The show room was packed with potential buyers. It was chaotic. The buyers were given a queue number and had to wait for some time before being called to pick their unit and sign the option to purchase the flat.

Michael was under great pressure. If he did not take up his preferred unit immediately, it would be offered to the next buyer. To add to the pressure, they were offered a "discount" that would be withdrawn if the contract was not signed immediately.

He selected his unit, paid the option money and signed the contract.

After returning home, he did his budget again and realized that he could not really afford the mortgage on the property. His wife also felt the same. They decided to give up the booking.

The developer forfeited 25% of the deposit, which amount to nearly $20,000. This represents nearly one year of savings for the family. It was a severe penalty. This penalty is stated in the contract and had been explained to the buyer.

Michael learned that the developer was able to sell the same unit to a new buyer at a higher price. But the marketing manager of the developer firm was not prepared to refund the penalty to Michael. It became a part of the developer's total profit.

Michael and his wife had learned a painful lesson. They will not attend any new property launch in the future. It is easy for them to be caught in making a bad decision, as they were under hard pressure selling techniques.

Crony capitalism

Someone said:

The political leaders in Singapore redefined "corruption" to suit their purposes. Their claim that Singapore is low in corruption does not tally with the high score the Economist has given to Singapore on "crony capitalism". 

Many of the things they do in Singapore will be illegal or not politically acceptable in Australia. Like the wife of the PM heading Temasek. Like the wife of the PM running a law firm doing big government businesses. 

When Kevin Rudd became PM of Australia in 2007, his wife has to sell off that portion of her business that has Australian government contracts. Otherwise KR will be plagued by serious conflict of interests and corruption allegations.

Not "free of corruption"

A friend from Myanmar asked me to explain how Singapore achieves a high standard in being "free of corruption".

I said that the practice in Singapore is not "free of corruption".

Temasek Holdings is run by the wife of the Prime Minister. She is the CEO. Some people asked if she is the right person who has the business and management know-how to run such a large group of companies. I do not recall anyone giving a convincing answer.

The directors fees and the remuneration of the CEO of Temasek Holdings are not disclosed. Some people speculated that the CEO could be receiving several tens of millions in remuneration a year. But, the public does not know.

Friend - Is Temasek a public company? Are they required to disclose the remuneration of their top people?

TKL - It is technically a private company and is not required to disclose these information. However, it is wholly owned by the Government and is, in reality, a public company. All the citizens of Singapore should have the right to know how much the directors and CEO of Temasek are being paid.

Friend - I find this very strange. Perhaps it was embarrassing for them to disclose the actual remuneration, which must be extremely high. A better approach is to pay the CEO  a "reasonable salary" and to have it disclosed to the public.

My Myanmar friend was visibly surprised. Coming from a country that had a high level of corruption in the past, he had expected a high standard of transparency and meritocracy to be practiced in Singapore. He did not expect to hear about the practices that I have described.

How to manage stress

Some people do a stressful job with overwhelming responsibilities, but they must learn how to manage the stress.

This applies not only to government ministers, but also to ordinary people who have demanding jobs.

I had a demanding job for most of my working career, but I do not feel stressed. Here are my tips.

a) Set manageable expectations. Distinguish between those that are "must do" and "nice to do".
b) Communicate the expectation and the progress with your boss and with the people who work with you.
c) If you encounter difficulty, share them with your boss and colleagues. You do not have to shoulder the burden on your own.
d) Do what you can. Do not worry about challenges that are too difficult.

Here is the biggest threat that you must avoid.
a) Do not allow your boss to give you unreasonable expectations and demands.
b) Do not over-stretch yourself to achieve what you think your boss expects from you. This over stretch is worse that the demand made by your boss.

All the best in handling your stress! Enjoy life!

Caught by Section 73 of the Conveyancing and Law of Property Act

Doris (not her real name) approached me for advice. She bought a policy from AIA many years ago and named her husband as the beneficiary. The marriage broke down. She subsequently changed the beneficiary to her son.

Recently, AIA told her that the nomination of her son was invalid, as the policy was covered under Section 73 of the Conveyancing and Law of Property Act and the any change of beneficiary required the consent of the original beneficiary.

As Doris had no contact with her ex-husband, she was advised to approach a lawyer to assist on this matter. The lawyer said that the legal fees would be over $3,000 and would include taking a newspaper advertisement to locate the original beneficiary.

Doris asked for my advice.

I looked at the policy document, and there was no mention of Section 73. It was a standard policy which allowed the policyowner to change the beneficiary at any time. The AIA staff must have "imported" the Section 73 into this policy out of his or her own interpretation. It was outside of the provision of the policy and was not the intent of the policyholder.

I remembered a case a long, long time where the judge said that Section 73 would apply in that case. But the circumstances of the case could be different.

Doris said that she had taken a similar policy with another insurance company which had allowed her to change the beneficiary without any problem.

The position taken by AIA seemed to be unnecessary and unfair. It had caused a lot of trouble and stress to Doris. They could have taken the position that Section 73 did not apply to this policy, as there was no intention from Doris to place it under that law. She said that the AIA agent who sold the policy did not explain at that time that the policy would be subject to that law. In fact, it was probably not the intention of any of the parties at that time.

The Section 73 was not even a Singapore law. It was a law passed in England many decades ago. It is an outdated law.

It is sad that there is this uncertainty caused by  a vague and outdated law that was not intended to apply in the first instance.

A convoluted approach towards treating a new journey

On a few occasions, I alighted the bus at the wrong stop. Usually, the stop is an earlier one. It is easy to make this mistake for a passenger who is not familiar with the road, as the bus does not display the name of the bus stop.

When I realized that it was the wrong stop and I boarded the next bus for the remaining 1 or 2 or 3 stops, the next bus will charge me as a new journey if it is the same service number, but as a transfer if it is a different service number.

The elite who designed this system has a convoluted mindset. He thinks that a passenger who gets off the bus and takes the next bus of the same service number must want to make a new journey. He does not realize that the passenger got off the bus at an earlier stop, by mistake.

Bus should display the sequential stop number

For each bus service, there is a guide showing all the stops for that service, starting from the terminus. The stops are numbered sequentially from 1, 2, 3 etc. Some services have 50 or more stops on the journey.

It is useful for the bus to display the sequential stop number when it arrived at each stop. This display should be in the bus and does not need to be shown at the bus stop (as the sequential number is different for each service). This digital display is easy and inexpensive to install.

I visited the eye center yesterday. An app told me to board service 190 at Bras Basah Road and to alight after 9 stops.

I had to count all the stops along the way.

If the bus has the display, I would have noted that I board at stop 15 (say) and should alight at stop 24. Better still, the app would have told me directly to alight at stop 24. I will know where to alight by looking at the display.  If the display shows a number smaller than 24, I know how many more stops to go. If it exceeds 24, I would know that I have already passed my stop.

When I returned home late at night, I was not able to recognize the stops along the way. I had a difficult time to know where to alight from the bus, even though I took the journey every day. It is difficult to see the stops and the houses along the road. A display would be most helpful.

I hope that the Land Transport Authority and the Transport Minister will pay attention to this matter and get the buses to install a display to show the sequential bus stop.

Hillary Clinton will face difficulty in challenging Donald Trump

This is pretty scary, sisters and brothers. A trio of polls released yesterdayshowed Hillary Clinton in a very difficult spot against Donald Trump. She led by one in Florida and Pennsylvania, and actually trailed him by 4 percent in Ohio.

For months, Bernie Sanders has out-polled Hillary Clinton against Donald Trump, and often by extraordinarily large margins. Because we must do everything we can to defeat Trump in November, our mission is to win as many pledged delegates as we can between now and June 14.

Then we’re going to have a contested convention where the Democratic Party must decide if they want the candidate with the momentum who is best positioned to beat Trump, or if they are willing to roll the dice and court disaster simply to protect the status quo for the political and financial establishment of this country.

But for our plan to work, we need to keep winning. And that’s why we ask:

Can Bernie count on you to make a $3 contribution to help us continue our run of wins in Oregon and Kentucky next Tuesday? They’re important states and Bernie is campaigning hard, but the outcome is up to all of us.

Some people say we do better against Trump because we haven’t faced the Republican attack machine yet. But we’ve been told our goals for the future are utopian, and that our plans would raise taxes on middle class families. We just never thought those attacks would come in a Democratic primary. Yet somehow we keep winning.

We are the best chance to defeat Trump because people united can never be defeated. That is why we must keep fighting.

In solidarity,

Jeff Weaver
Campaign Manager
Bernie 2016

CONTRIBUTE

Serious mis-selling of an "investment"

Susan (not her real name) received a call from a marketing person of her bank. He offered her an attractive investment. She went to the bank to buy the investment. She invested a sum of $70,000 for the five year investment.  She signed on a tablet and received the documents a few days later. As she was travelling, she did not read the document.

One year later, she looked at the document and was shocked at what she had bought. She thought it was a 5 year investment. Instead, it was a life insurance policy that required her to pay an annual premium of $70,000 over five years and would receive the maturity proceed at the end of 10 years.

She was misled by the marketing person working for the bank into thinking that it was a single investment of $70,000 that would mature after 5 years. She was horrified that if she did not continue to pay the annual premium for the next four years, the $70,000 that she had paid would be entirely forfeited.

When she lodged a complaint with the bank that sold the investment, the bank denied responsibility. The life insurance company pushed the responsibility to the bank that made the sale.

Susan stand to lose $70,000 of her hard earned money from this costly mistake. She asked:

a) How could MAS and the government allowed the bank to sell this "investment" to her?
b) How could the marketing person get access to her account details with the bank and approached her to buy this "investment"?
c) How can the MAS allow the bank and the insurance company to make a "profit" out of the $70,000 that had been "stolen" from her?

I have heard of many cases similar to Susan's case. It is very bad for the banks to be selling this type of life insurance policies. The risk of mis-selling is high. Many people have made an "investment" not realizing that it is a life insurance policy that has heavy penalty on early termination. Susan's case is more extreme in the mis-representation is so grotesque.

Increase in filing fee for ACRA

Someone sent a complaint to the CEO of ACRA about the increase in filing fee for the annual return to ACRA from $20 to $60. He copied his complaint to me and to many ministers. I followed up with my letter of support of his views.


Dear Mr. Kenneth Yap (CEO of ACRA)

I express my support of the views expressed by Mr. Tun.

I find it quite ridiculous for ACRA to charge an annual filing fee of $60 for a company to file its annual return. After receiving our return, ACRA sells our financial data to other users on a fee.

I recall reading the ACRA annual report some years ago. You showed a big surplus from your operations. Hence, the increase in fees is not justified.

I urge ACRA to reduce the large sums that you spend on I.T development. I am not sure if this is the case, but I suspect it to be so. There is no need for ACRA to develop a costly computer system, just to collect and "sell" company information.

As a SME that is required to submit annual returns to ACRA, I find your input form to be quite time consuming, troublesome and painful to submit. The pain is made more noticeable when we have to pay a fee of $60.

ACRA should not charge any fee for filing of our annual returns. Would it be ridiculous if IRAS also ask tax payers to pay a fee to file their tax returns?

I hope that the ministers who have received this e-mail pay attention to this matter.

Thank you.

Tan Kin Lian

Risk for Hillary Clinton in competing with Donald Trump

The polls shows Hillary Clinton to be marginally ahead of Donald Trump in a general election. But there is a real risk that this may change during the months of the campaign.

Donald Trump may be able to swing the votes against Hillary Clinton. He was able to achieve this task in the primary election against the other contenders in the Republican field.

The Democratic Party should be aware of this risk. They can nominate Bernie Sanders who has a better chance of beating Donald Trump in the general election. This is shown by nearly all of the polls.

Bernie Sanders has won the West Virginia Democratic Primary

Sisters and Brothers -

We just got word that we won our 19th state, taking the majority of the delegates in today's primary in West Virginia.

Every vote we earn and every delegate we secure sends an unmistakable message about the values we share, the country's support for the ideas of our campaign, and a rejection of Donald Trump and his values.

Now we're on to two more primaries next week in Kentucky and Oregon, where we also hope to do very well. So let's keep going.

Add a $2.70 contribution to our campaign and we can win Kentucky and Oregon next week and send a powerful message that we'll fight for our values all the way up to the Democratic convention.

There is nothing I would like more than to take on and defeat Donald Trump, someone who must never become president of this country. But I believe that it is not enough to just reject Trump – this is an opportunity to define a progressive vision for America. Voters agree: just today, three new polls showed that we are the best campaign to defeat Trump.

We fully acknowledge we have an uphill climb ahead of us, but we’re used to that. We have been fighting uphill from the day this campaign began, and we’re going to stay in the race until the last vote is cast. And with your help, I hope to take on Trump, too. Thank you for standing with me.

Add a $2.70 contribution to our campaign now.

In solidarity,

Bernie Sanders

Disastrous trade agreements

It is strange, almost bizarre, that the President who did the most harm to the working class and middle income family in the USA is not a Republican President. He is a Democratic President. Who is this president and what harm did he make?

ANSWER

He is Bill Clinton. During his term, he signed the NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement). It caused many jobs to move from the USA to Mexico and Canada.

This is followed by other trade agreements of the same pattern, e.g. the Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) with China and other countries. Although the PNTR agreements are made by subsequent presidents, Bill Clinton opened the door for the following disastrous trade agreements. 

Court case is dragging too long

I did not follow closely the trial of the people who were charged for causing a disturbance in Hong Lim Park while making their protest for the return of the CPF.

It seemed to be dragging a very long time - over several months.

This must be causing taxpayers a lot of money, for the salaries of the judges, prosecutors. lawyers (for the prosecution and defense) and court employees.

Do we really need to drag the case for so long? Where there difficult issues that needed to be resolved?

I get the impression that Singapore has become very inefficient and costly in many areas. It seems to include the conduct of court cases.

PAP has won; Singapore has lost

In the Bukit Batok by-election, Murali Pillai has won. PAP has won. Singapore has lost. Why is this so?

The PAP used town council services and upgrading of infrastructure to "entice" the voters to vote for Murali from their party. They frightened the voters from voting for Dr Chee Soon Juan of the SDP by the subtle threat that this will lead to the loss of the upgrading.

In the process, the voters had voted as the Member of Parliament, a person who has a full time job as a senior lawyer in a private law firm. The elected MP will find it difficult to devote sufficient time to his duty as the MP.

How can be find the time to spend with the constituents and to understand the problem that they face in their daily lives? How can be bring up these concerns and problems to be discussed in Parliament?

Can he spend the time to attend all the sittings in Parliament and to debate the government policies and new laws actively. The experience of other part time MPs from the PAP have been disappointing. Many of them have a high absence rate from Parliament sittings or do not speak regularly in Parliament.

Many Singaporeans face issues that have gone from bad to worse over the past decades - high cost of living, high cost of housing, high cost of medical services, uncertainty of jobs, retrenchments, stagnant incomes, overcrowding, high stress of life and a low birth rate.

Instead of electing political leaders who can afford to spend full time to understand the issues and help to find the solutions to these challenges, the PAP opted to get another busy, part time MP to be elected into Parliament and perpetuate the broken down system.

Bernie Sander's explains about overcoming poverty

Here is an email sent by Bernie Sanders. It is long, but is worth reading.

Sisters and Brothers -

In the United States today, the wealthiest country in the history of the world, 47 million Americans are living in poverty.

Almost 22 percent of American children are poor and we have the highest child poverty rate of almost any major country on earth.

Let’s be clear. Living in poverty doesn’t just mean you don’t have enough money to buy a big screen TV, a fancy laptop, or the latest iPhone. It goes much deeper than that.

Living in poverty means you are less likely to have a good grocery store in your community selling healthy food. Far too often it means you don’t know where your next meal is going to come from. Living in poverty means you are less likely to have access to a doctor, dentist or mental health care provider. It means you have less access to public transportation, which makes it harder to find a job. It means you are less likely to have access to child care.

In the United States of America, poverty is often a death sentence.

Yesterday, I spoke about poverty in McDowell County, West Virginia — one of the poorest counties in one of the poorest states in America. In 2014, over 35 percent of the residents in McDowell lived in poverty, including nearly half of the children. The roads are crumbling and only 6 percent of adults have a college education. Less than two-thirds have graduated high school. It has the lowest life expectancy for men in the entire nation. I hope you’ll watch part of my speech on poverty and share it with friends and family on social media.

Bernie Sanders Speaks on Poverty in McDowell County, West Virginia



  

Poverty is an issue we must address. In 2011, the American Journal of Public Health found that 130,000 people died in just one year alone as a result of poverty.

This is not an issue we can just sweep under the rug and hope it will go away. Because it won’t.

And when I talk about it being too late for establishment politics and economics, this is what I mean. When I talk about thinking big and outside the box, about rejecting incremental change, I am talking about the millions of Americans who live in poverty who have been tossed out, left behind, and abandoned by the rich and powerful. We need to create an economy that works for all of us, not just the 1 percent.

Here’s what we need to do:

1. Rebuild our country’s crumbling infrastructure. A $1 trillion investment in our infrastructure will create at least 13 million jobs all over America - jobs that cannot be outsourced.
2. We must rewrite our disastrous trade policies that enable corporate America to shut down plans in places like West Virginia and move them to Mexico, China, and other low-wage countries.
3. We can create 1 million jobs for disadvantaged youths through legislation I introduced with Rep. John Conyers of Michigan.
4. We need to increase the wages of at least 53 million American workers by raising the minimum wage from a starvation wage of $7.25 an hour to $15 an hour.
5. At a time when women workers earn 79 cents for every dollar a man earns, we need to sign the Paycheck Fairness Act into law. Equal pay for equal work.
6. We need to make health care a right for every man, woman, and child through a Medicare for All single-payer system.
7. We need to treat drug addiction like a mental health issue, not a criminal issue.
8. We need to ensure every worker in this country has at least 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave, two weeks of paid vacation, and one week of paid sick days.
9. We need to impose a tax on Wall Street to make public colleges and universities tuition free while substantially reducing student debt.
10. At a time when half of older workers have no retirement savings, we’re not going to cut Social Security, we’re going to expand it so people can retire with dignity and respect.

No president can do all of these things alone. We need millions of Americans to begin to stand up and fight back and demand a government that represents all of us. That is the political revolution.

In solidarity,

Bernie Sanders

WATCH THE VIDEO

An appropriate adjective

Bernie Sanders used an adjective to describe each of his campaign focus.

He is fighting against:

CORRUPT campaign finance system
RIGGED economy
BROKEN criminal justice system
GROTESQUE income inequality
CRUMBLING infrastructure

He is fighting for
Minimum wage of $15 per hour
Healthcare as a right
Tuition free college education
Paid maternity leave
Pay equity for women
The rich should pay their fair share of tax

Poor taxi service

I wanted to take a taxi from Chinatown to my office this afternoon. Most of the taxis had red signs, indicating that they are busy, hired or on call. A taxi with green sign came along. I signaled it to stop.

Driver - where are you going?
TKL - Upper Thomson Road
Driver - sorry. out of the way.

The taxi driver is either changing shift or have to pick up a family member from shopping or school.
I did not wait for the next taxi. I took the bus.

I get the impression that taxis are expensive and the standard of service is rather poor.

Another issue is - too many taxis are queuing for about 1 hour at the airport. Why are we so unproductive?

DBS - lack of common sense

When I pay salary to my employees using DBS internet banking, DBS asked me if they are all DBS accounts or some are not.

Apparently, if all are DBS accounts, the transfer can be made within one day. If any of the accounts are non-DBS, it will take 4 days.

Surely, DBS does not need to ask this question. They can check if the account is DBS or not, using the bank code.

Even if the accounts are mixed, the common sense approach is to transfer the money to DBS accounts within one day, and to non-DBS accounts within 4 days.

But common sense is lacking in Singapore. Sad.

Concern about privacy of NRIC

Dear Mr.Tan,
I am a big fan of you and read your blog regularly with great interest.

I noticed in one of your blog entry, titled "Confusing webform in IRAS", you have posted your tax ref. no. which I suppose is your NRIC no. My concern is by revealing your NRIC no., will it causes you any unnecessary troubles if anyone wanted to sabotaged you? I just hope that you're not harmed in anyway but I suggest u remove or mosaic your personal detail.

REPLY
What is the problem about letting other people know my NRIC?
What can they do with this info?

Pedestrian crossing in Jakarta and in Singapore

I saw an interesting pedestrian crossing in downtown Jakarta. The pedestrian light was red and there was a countdown showing when it will turn green. After that, the countdown showed when it would turn red.

The waiting time for the light to change was about 30 seconds. That was acceptable.

In contrast, the pedestrian light near my house in Yio Chu Kang Road was most unhelpful. After pressing for the light, I had to wait for a long time (perhaps 2 minutes) before the light turns green for pedestrians to cross. I often crossed the road when the light was still red, as there was no approaching vehicles.

After I crossed the road, the light turned green and the vehicles stopped for the "ghosts" to cross. This is ridiculous, but I accept it to be quite part of today's Singapore.

The American political system is corrupt

America used to be a model for democracy. A well organized system of elections. A constitution with separation of powers and checks and balances.

It turned out that their system of democracy is as corrupt as any third world country. Politicians rely on donations by the super rich and the corporations. In turn, they vote according to the dictates of their donors.

The public hold their political leaders in contempt. There is only a small number of notable exceptions - like Bernie Sanders.

Bernie Sanders wins Indiana state primary

Sisters and Brothers -

Moments ago the news networks declared us the winner of yet another state - our 18th of the primary season: Indiana.

For the past several weeks, the corporate media has counted us out of this election. The political and financial establishment of this country have been vocal in their desire for us to go away. To get in line.

Today, the voters had another idea.

Every victory we earn is extraordinarily important for our political revolution. Not just because of the delegates we earn, but because each win and all the work that goes into that effort sends an unmistakable message to the establishment of this country that we will never stop fighting for the values we share. I say we keep fighting. Are you with me?

Your $2.70 contribution to our campaign sends a powerful message that we will fight for the values we share all the way through the Democratic convention and beyond.

The next states up are West Virginia, Kentucky and Oregon. They are all places we have a chance to do very well. I am in this fight through the Democratic convention. Thank you for standing with me.

In solidarity,

Bernie Sanders

Spend the four years to study relevant subjects

At the dental clinic, I met a new dental assistant who spoke with a Filipina accent,

TKL - How long have you worked in Singapore?
Asst - I just joined last month.
TKL - Did you go to college?
Asst - I have a degree in business.
TKL - Why do you become a dental assistant?
Asst - I like the work.

It is happening all over the world. Young people studied for the glamorous jobs - banking, finance, business.

But they end up doing the jobs that are available - dental assistant, hospital assistant, teaching.

It would have been better if they spent the four years in college studying for the jobs that they finally have to do. Why waste four years studying subjects that are not relevant?

The German apprenticeship system is better in teaching workers on the relevant skills. That is why the Germans are highly skilled and highly paid. They don't waste four years studying irrelevant subjects.

Given up on Lazada.com

I have given up on Lazada.com. Today, I unsubscribed from their daily marketing email.

During the past few months, I bought several products from that website. I like the design of their website. They made it easy for customers to buy online. They do not require troublesome verification processes.

My problem with Lazada came when they sold me a product that was badly described  and was defective. They described the product as "Electric Cordless Drill" but it was actually battery operated. The compartment holding the drill bits cannot be opened.

The return process was a big hassle. They asked me to fill in a lot of details. The first transaction got lost. They did not pick up the item from my house.

I had to submit the lengthy details again. This time, they replied that the product was correctly described and refused to take it back. Although I gave them a telephone number, they did not call me back. (They claimed that they did, but it did not show on my mobile phone).  They do not provide a number for me to call them.

Finally, they agree to take back the product. It was another big hassle to arrange a date and time for the pickup. They asked me to state the date and time and then told me that it was not available. They sent a long email to apologize and assure me that they want to give good customer service.

They also told me that they will take 5 days to check if the product is really defective, before they refund the money to me.  The purchase amount was $15. They must have spend more than $15 on their processing.

In total, I sent back about 10 emails over this simple matter. I finally decided to unsubscribe to this website and not to place any more order with them.

Why am I telling this story? This website is built by Singaporeans. Recently, they sold the website to Alibaba for $1 billion dollar. They are successful.

But when it come to the refund process, they follow the typical Singaporean mindset - how to avoid responsibility, not able to tell what is big and small, wasting a lot of time on unimportant matters.

I hope that the entrepreneurs who set up this website pay attention to this refund process. They can destroy their business if they continue to irrigate their customers.

Get rid of the "don't care less" attitude

I changed to bus 162 at Yio Chu Kang Interchange. The LTA app showed the arrival time of the next two buses to be 19 min and 34 min.

I guessed that one bus will arrive after 4 mins, and that this bus is not showing in the LTA app because its tracking device is not working.

I was right. A bus did arrive after 5 mins. This bus was not recognized by the LTA app. I had encountered this issue before. I suspect that it is the same bus.

This reflects the "don't care less" attitude that is reflective of LHL's regime. If LHL or his minister paid attention, they would have asked LTA to ensure that the buses run on schedule. LTA could run an automatic script in the database to identify the buses that are "missing".

If nobody cares, they will not know that this bus has been missing in their app for a few months!

There is no need for me to give feedback to LTA or SBS. In the past, they don't act on feedback anyway. They follow the bad example of LHL and his ministers.

I hope that the voters in Bukit Batok vote for change, and send someone to Parliament who is able to pay attention and don't follow the "don't care less" attitude of LHL's regime.

The folly of paying less taxes

Many voters who support the Republicans in America are quite stupid. Their politicians promised them that they will cut taxes for the middle income families. They fall for the line.

These families do not realize that they save $5,000 in taxes but the high income earners save 10 to 100 times of this amount.

As the government does not collect sufficient tax revenue, they have to cut back on health, education, welfare and public services. The middle income families have to pay charges for these services. They end up paying several times more than the taxes that they "saved".

The middle income families fall for this trick presented to them by the politicians who look after the interest of the super rich.

Many working families in Singapore also fall for the same trick. They think that it is a good idea to pay less tax, but did not realize that they have to pay more for public services.

Bernie Sanders has a credible and convincing message to the super delegates

Bernie Sanders is remarkable. Even at this stage of the campaign, when he is trailing Hillary Clinton by 45% to 55%, he has a credible and convincing message to the super delegates of the Democratic Party.

To be fair, Bernie Sanders is clearly the stronger candidate. He is able to attract the votes of the young people and the independents. These voters are not allowed to vote in the closed primary elections that are held in many states.

Bernie Sander win by a landslide in the states which operate an open system where young voters and independents are allowed to register and vote on the same day.

These voter who will make a big difference in the general election.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xO4A_E9zlo

Misleading message from AsiaOne

I received an email quite regularly from AsiaOne (from SPH) that keeps saying "Wall Street plunges".

Initially, I was surprised, - Why does Wall Street keep plunging so many times. Later, I realized that this is just a banner for the email.

AsiaOne should remember that they are a news website, and not a marketing company. They should not confuse their readers with this kind of misleading message.

Why can't Starhub check the SIM card?

When I travel overseas, I insert a local SIM card in my mobile phone. When I returned to Singapore, I insert the Starhub SIM card back. There was no connection for a long time. At first, I thought that the reception was bad in the airport, but there was still no connection outside of the airport.

After a lot of trouble trying to locate the problem, I found that I have to give a setting to indicate if my SIM card is a prepaid card or a postpaid card. Without this setting, the SIM card refused to work.

I do not know why Starhub needed this setting. Surely, they will know from the SIM card if it is a prepaid or a postpaid card. I also do not know why they did not ask for it directly. Instead, I get a "no connection".

This is an idiotic design from Starhub.

Happy Roam from Starhub

Starhub advertised a Happy Roam service. It allows the customer to buy a 1G data plan for as low as $5 in several overseas countries. Strangely, they offer it only to their prepaid customers. It is not available to postpaid customers.

I do not understand why Starhub treats its postpaid customers so badly. Surely, they can offer the Happy Roam to the postpaid customers as well?

Perhaps this is one way for Starhub to squeeze its customers who will lose the balance of the prepaid card, if it is not fully consumed. If this is the reason, then I feel very sad for Singapore to have this kind of people running our big corporations!

Idiotic design from Starhub

When I travel overseas, I insert a local SIM card in my mobile phone. When I returned to Singapore, I insert the Starhub SIM card back. There was no connection for a long time. At first, I thought that the reception was bad in the airport, but there was still no connection outside of the airport.

After a lot of trouble trying to locate the problem, I found that I have to give a setting to indicate if my SIM card is a prepaid card or a postpaid card. Without this setting, the SIM card refused to work.

I do not know why Starhub needed this setting. Surely, they will know from the SIM card if it is a prepaid or a postpaid card. I also do not know why they did not ask for it directly. Instead, I get a "no connection".

This is an idiotic design from Starhub.

It is possible to get a good job without a university degree

I bought a Dell XPS 13 laptop. It had a faulty motherboard. Dell sent an engineer to my office to replace it. I spoke to the engineer.

TKL - Did you go to the polytechnic or university?
Engineer - I did not. I did not reach that level.
TKL - You are quite experienced in your work. How long have you been doing this job?
Engineer - Four years.
TKL - Are you paid more than $3,000 now?
Engineer - Not that much. But more than $2,000.
TKL - Are you employed by Dell?
Enginner - I work for a subcontractor to Dell.
TKL - How long did Dell train you on this laptop?
Engineer - Just two days. I was quite familiar because I had 4 years of experience in the PC support.

It was quite complicated to replace the laptop motherboard. There were several dozen screws and connectors to be taken out and put back. He did the work well and tested the laptop thoroughly.

I showed another laptop to him. He tested it and diagnosed that the screen had failed. I had to send it to a repair shop that had the parts.

This engineer is an example of a young person who did not go for further studies but had gained useful knowledge and experience in a field that will be in good demand. He is fairly well paid, compared to a fresh, inexperienced graduate. Instead of going to university, he has found another route to a successful career.

Bernie Sanders will continue to pursue his bigger goal

I met a friend in Jakarta. He also follows the US presidential campaign closely.

Friend -  does Bernie Sanders till have a chance to win the presidency?

TKL - this chance is very slim. However, he will still continue to campaign as he wants to give the voters in every state the chance to vote for the campaign that they support. Being president is one of his goal, but it is not the most important one.

His bigger goal is to let the people of America know about his issues that affect the American people - the disappearance of the middle class, a corrupt campaign finance system, a rigged economy, grotesque level of income inequality, disastrous trade policies, broken criminal justice system and his measures to overcome them - Medicare for All, minimum wage of $15 per hour, tuition free college education, etc.

He has achieved this goal magnificently well. In fact, in states with open primary, he was able to win over 70% of the votes, such as Washington and Alaska. In the states with closed primary, most of his supporters, such as young voters, first time voters and independents were not allowed to vote. That is why he lost in these states.

The issues that he had raised will play an important part in the general election between the presumptive candidates, i.e. Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. Both of these candidates will have to move closer to Sander's position to win the popular vote.

Bernie Sanders has a narrow path to victory

Sisters and Brothers -

Coming out of last night's results, in which we won Rhode Island but came up short in four others, I want to pose to you three things that I know to be true:

1. Young people – the future of our country – continue to vote for our campaign in overwhelming numbers. It's remarkable, and honestly quite humbling.


2. When we compete in open primaries that encourage the participation of independents, new voters, and young people, we do very well.


3. What remains in front of us is a very narrow path to the nomination. In the weeks to come we will be competing in a series of states that are very favorable to us – including California. Just like after March 15 – when we won 8 of the next 9 contests – we are building tremendous momentum going into the convention.

That is the reality of where we are right now, and why we are going to fight for every delegate and every vote. It is why I am going to continue to speak to voters in every state about the very important issues facing our country. Our country cannot afford to stop fighting for a $15 minimum wage, to overturn Citizens United, or to get universal health care for every man, woman, and child in America.

I'm asking you to help me continue to lead these fights. We have an FEC deadline on Saturday and another primary on Tuesday. Every vote we earn and every delegate we win is a testament to our ideas, to our movement, to our political revolution, and our willingness to take this campaign for the Democratic nomination all the way to the convention.

Will you contribute $2.70 to help us continue to speak to voters about the incredibly important issues facing our country? Your support right now before two big deadlines will send an unmistakable message that our voices will still be heard.

There is no doubt in my mind that what you and I have done together up to this point is nothing short of historic. And I know that if we are going to work together, we will continue making history.

In solidarity,

Bernie Sanders

DBS Remittance Process is Poorly Designed

I use DBS online remittance system to send $1,000 to India monthly.

I was able to register the account number and other details of the payee. When I made the remittance, the system asked me to enter the mobile number, which is a mandatory field. I had to search for this number to complete the transaction. DBS should have allowed me to register the mobile number as well, if they require this information.

They asked me to break the mobile number into separate fields for the country code, area code and mobile number. The payee had given me a 11 digit number. I do not know how it is to be separated. I had to make a guess and break the number into 3 separate fields. To my chagrin, DBS joined the three fields into a 11 digit number. DBS should have allowed me to enter the 11 digit number directly.

The website asked me to state the amount in rupee to be transferred. They will the convert it into the dollars to be deducted from my account. I had to access another webpage for their exchange rate and calculate the rupee amount. They should have allowed me to enter the dollar amount and they can use their exchange rate to get the rupee amount to be transferred.

I get the impression that the people running DBS Bank are inconsiderate and give a lot of unnecessary trouble to their customers.

Managers have to pay attention to operations and customer service

Bus 163 is usually quite crowded in the morning between 8 to 9 am. It is difficult to get up the bus.

I do not mind. Being the peak period, this has to be expected. There is nothing much that the bus operator can do, except to ensure that the buses keep to their schedule.

The bus also move quite slowly along Yio Chu Kang Road, as there were too many cars. When it reached Upper Thomson Road, it was able to move along the dedicated bus lane, so the bus move more quickly.

I only get annoyed when I see that the bus operations were badly managed and the managers were not paying attention to their service.

I get annoyed that some buses have tracking systems that were faulty and apparently they were not spotted or rectified for months (this is just my suspicion).

I get annoyed that the buses do not have a voice announcement or displays on the next bus stop. Surely, this could have been done years ago, maybe decades ago.

A struggle to set up a new stall

A new stall opened in Midview City Cafe selling Western food. There was no queue in front of this stall. The other stalls have long queues.

I decided to to patronize the new stall. I ordered chicken cutlet.
After my order, a few other customers came to place their orders, but the number is small.

After the meal, I went to the cashier. "Your chicken cutlet is very tasty. Well done!"

She was delighted to receive the compliment. We had a short and nice chat. I hope that they will do well.

Difficult to match jobs and workers

Someone told me that his friend runs a small business and had difficulty in recruiting workers. Nobody respond to his advertisement. He wonders why is there a complaint that it is hard to find jobs?

I asked him to advertise in JobStreet, Monster, ST Jobs. It is costly, and the response is poor.

My own experience using the Jobs Bank from MOM is also discouraging. No locals respond to the advertisement.

I know that many people now use headhunters or employment agencies to find jobs for them. Employers also use these agencies to find their workers.

Surely, there must be a more efficient and less costly way to match jobs and workers?

Bernie Sanders expect to do well in a few states with polls closing today

Sisters and Brothers -

The polls are about to close in five states, and we expect to do well in a number of them. As you watch the results, I want you to keep something very important in mind. We are running a historic campaign which is transforming America.

Any victories and any votes we receive tonight, next week in Indiana, and in each state moving forward are a public declaration of support for the values we share.

Our path to the nomination was never narrower than the day I announced my candidacy. I will not stop fighting for an America where no one who works 40 hours a week lives in poverty, where health care is a right for all Americans, where kids of all backgrounds can go to college without crushing debt, where there is no bank too big to fail, no banker too powerful to jail, and we've reclaimed our democracy from the billionaire class.

The political establishment wants us to go away so they can begin their march to the center. But we can send a message to them in a language they’re sure to understand:

Contribute $3 to our campaign today and we are going to keep fighting for the nomination while sending an unmistakable message to the political establishment about our commitment to the values we share.

When we started this campaign almost a year ago today, people called us "fringe." They said our ideas were too radical. But what we have done throughout this campaign is show that when people stand together we can take on a billionaire class and the candidates they fund. And the message you can send today, with your contribution, is that we are going to keep fighting.

In solidarity,

Bernie Sanders

Difficult to set up OneKey

Rex Hsu said:

It is a nightmare setting up 2FA for Singpass. I don't understand why it is so complicated. When OCBC bank and UOB introduced 2FA it was extremely simple. For many years already i use their 2FA tied to my phone, no problem.

One major problem of this Singpass 2FA process is that they introduce a term "service provider" in their website which utterly confused me. When you clicked to activate, they bring you to a site called OneKey. The instructions in there are really messy asking you to make a lot of decisions for questions you don't even understand.

Also some years ago I received a token device from god know where, labelled OneKey. It was supposed to get rid of individual tokens from various banks but programming it was so complicated that I gave up.

I don't understand why this OneKey company get involved in the Singpass 2Fa setup. They already messed up the previous job of consolidation of tokens. Why are they involved  in Singpass 2FA?.

A nightmare to navigate the security protocols

Our wonderful government is so paranoid about security that they make it difficult for the public to use online services.

A year ago, they insisted that I change my Singpass password to a strong password with a strange combination of characters. Since then, I have never remembered my password. I had to write in down somewhere and search for the password each time that I want to use it. I cannot remember this strange password.

Now, they ask me to change my strong password.

They also ask me to register for a 2FA token. I am quite confused about whether I have to use a 2FA token device or to use a mobile phone verification.

What for? So, that I can submit my employee's CPF payment online. What is the risk? Why would a hacker want to mess up with my CPF contribution?

These steps to comply with government regulations are so troublesome and take so much of my time. And the complicated login and 2FA verification add to the nightmare.

This will bring our productivity down the drain.

Unsatisfactory Return Process for Lazada e-commerce website

I find the Lazada e-commerce website to be well designed.  However, their return process is terrible.

I bought an "Electric Cordless Drill". I received a battery operated drill. The compartment containing the drill bits was badly designed. I found it difficult to open it.

I went to the Lazada website to look for the process to return the item. Here are some difficulties.

a) They do not provide any person that I could talk to.
b) They asked me to fill in a complicated form, asking for more information than is necessary.
c) I asked me to provide some images of the product.

After uploading the webform, I received a message that someone will call me to pick up the item. It never happened. A few days passed.

There was nobody that I could talk to. I had to fill in another webform and repeat the tedious steps.

Someone sent me an email to ask for more information about the defective product. The staff came back and said that the item was properly described as powered by 3 batteries and the return guarantee does not apply.

This is a typical reply - to avoid responsibility. It is a common culture in Singapore. I had to point out that it was described as "Electric Drill" and there was a badly designed compartment. I did not get any reply.

I wasted several hours on this process. It is a bad practice of Lazada. 

Travelling time of 35 minutes by bus

I de-register my car after 10 years. For the past six weeks, I have been taking the bus to the office.

The daily routine is:
- walk 3 minutes to the bus stop.
- wait up to 10 minutes for the bus to arrive
- bus journey time is 20 mins.
- walk 7 mins to the office.

The total travelling and walking time is 35 mins, on average.

If I have to be in office at a certain time, I will leave my home 45 mins earlier, to give a 10 min allowance.

My walking time is 10 mins. I read that some people, including the young ones, find 5 to 10 mins to be a long walk. They will get used to it.

Rectify defects promptly

I checked the MyTransport.sg (LTA app) for the bus arrival time for 162. It showed the next bus arriving after 19 min and the following after 35 mins. I suspect that the actual interval should be 16 mins, and that one bus will arrive after 3 mins. This bus probably has a faulty tracking device.

I was right. It arrived after 6 mins.

I suspect that the people in SBS Transit or LTA probably did not monitor these faulty tracking devices. It is quite sad that the device could have been faulty for a long time (this is just my guess) without anybody paying attention.

We need to have a culture of paying attention to defects and rectifying them promptly!

Bernie Sanders continue to use phone banking to reach out to the voters in several states

Bernie Supporter –

If you believe in what Bernie stands for, we need you to get on the phones and talk to some voters.

On Tuesday, 384 pledged delegates are at stake in five contests. We need to win as many of those delegates as possible to keep our movement going strong.

We've come from an afterthought in the polls, to where we are now, thanks to a lot of hard work from supporters just like you. So please join with thousands of other Bernie supporters across America, and put in a few hours today or tomorrow to call voters in the states votingTuesday.

YES, I'LL CALL VOTERS FOR BERNIE NOW

YES, I CAN MAKE SOME CALLS LATER

I CAN'T CALL BUT I'LL CHIP IN $3

Calling on our Bernie Dialer is easy, and very efficient. All you need is a computer or tablet, and a phone. We provide you with a script to follow, and there are volunteers standing by on livechat to answer your questions if you get stuck.

Together, we are the most powerful force for change in American politics today. And with every vote, every delegate and every victory, we grow stronger. Your efforts are essential to winning those votes, so we hope you'll stand with us and keep up the fight for the values we believe in.

Log on to make some calls now, and/or commit some time later today or tomorrow to call for Bernie.

In solidarity,

Team Bernie

Use one checkpoint between Singapore and Malaysia

I visited Malacca over the weekend. Had to pass through the Singapore and Malaysian customs on the way to Malacca. And to pass through the Malaysian and Singapore customers on the way back. How much wasted time passing through two checkpoints each way.

Surely, our high paid ministers know that there is no need to have two checkpoints? They could have a common checkpoint and ask the travelers to scan their passport only once. This will reduce the wasted time by half. The two governments can share the data, instead of duplicating the work.