Video: Why US Airpower will save Taiwan:
Friday 26 April 2024
Wargaming China's Invasion of Taiwan
Wednesday 17 April 2024
What is the Belt and Road Initiative REALLY about?
Megaprojects explains the Belt and Road Initiative:
This is a rather comprehensive video explaining China's Belt and Road Initiative.
The BRI is the initiative of Xi Jinping, announced in 2013. Prior to that, China's guiding principle was from Deng Xiaoping: "Hide your Strength and Bide your time."
Apparently, when Xi took over, he decided that the time to hide your strength and bide your time was over; that China's time to shine has arrived; that China was ready to take to the stage as a world leader, and to displace the current world leader.
Monday 8 April 2024
A Superficial Summary (and commentary) of Countries Military Ranking
Monday 25 March 2024
Multi-Role Combat Vessel - Cos "Mothership" has already been taken
This is a natural evolution for the RSN as more unmanned assets are incorporated into the RSN.
Saturday 23 March 2024
"We are NOT Happy!"
Singapore falls 5 spots to 30th in world happiness ranking but still tops Asia for 2nd straight year
Singapore has been ranked Asia's happiest country for the second year in a row, according to the 2024 World Happiness Report. The country ranked the 30th happiest out of 143 places surveyed, but that's five positions lower than from a year ago. The countries were rated according to six factors: GDP per capita, social support networks, healthy life expectancy, freedom to make life choices, charity donations, and perceptions of corruption. Finland topped the global list for the seventh straight year, followed closely by Denmark and Iceland.
Monday 18 March 2024
Location. Location. Location
One of the conventional wisdom for Singapore's early success was its location.
"Situated at the crossroads" and "gateway to the orient" (so... Singapore is not "orient"?) Singapore's location is key (according to many analyses) to her success.
I would argue that it may be a necessary but insufficient condition.
After all, Penang and Malacca have historically been trading centres as well.
To the south, Bintan and Batam are islands as well placed as Singapore.
Raffles chose Singapore in part to challenge the Dutch who were in (what is today) Indonesia.
Tuesday 5 March 2024
Did Singapore get Taylor Swift on a Exclusivity contract?
PM Lee answers how SG got Taylor Swift to Singapore. Notice he says "negotiated an arrangement" (0:07) for Swift to perform in Singapore. "And to make Singapore her only stop" (0:10). At about 0:40 PM Lee says "we can't say, 'you will come here only on condition that you will go other places'". Note how uneasy he seems.
So, did Singapore make Swift sign an exclusive arrangement?
Sunday 3 March 2024
"You snooze, you lose"
Taylor Swift's Eras Tour has toured in Japan, and Australia, before the tour came to Singapore.
Sunday 18 February 2024
No need for mandatory vaccination.
[From Sept 2021. In draft and not previously published. It is a little incomplete, but I forgot what was the last point I wanted to make. And it's not really germane at this point in time.]
So the Singapore Govt has decided (at this time, end Sept 2021) that there is no need to mandate Covid-19 Vaccination.
Because, we have already achieved more than 80% vaccination rate, and this should be sufficient for herd immunity; this should be sufficient for us to try to live with Covid.
Because, mandating vaccination to try to force the anti-vaxxers (and yes, I am going to call them "anti-vaxxers", because calling them "vaccine-hesitant" or "vaccine-resistant" is just putting lipstick on a pig. Those that are truly hesitant has had sufficient time to make up their minds, and no, the "time's up" is not of my making or my impatience. The delay in protecting everyone is allowing the virus a chance to mutate with every infection, and with every mutation, there is a chance of a new "variant of concern" to emerge.) to get vaccinated will lead to a battle of wills.
And at the end of the battle, the anti-vaxxers will still be anti-vaxxers, but at the most, we would have forcibly vaccinated them. For some small increase in community protection.
Saturday 3 February 2024
Would China initiate a forceable "reunification" of Taiwan in the near future?
Tuesday 30 January 2024
Tipping Points
So the world is trying to get to "net zero" when we add zero carbon into the atmosphere, so we do not add to the warming of the earth anymore.
Saturday 27 January 2024
SimplyGo and the Singapore Way.
So on Jan 9, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) announced that the legacy "EZ-Link" card that many Singaporeans have been using will be phased out.
From 1st June 2024, only the new SimplyGo card can be used for Public Transport.
Monday 22 January 2024
Taiwan's 2024 Election
So Lai of the DPP won the presidency.
But Parliament is hung. No party has a majority to be able to form the govt. However, the KMT and the TPP could form a coalition govt and leave the DPP as an opposition. President Lai would then be hindered and obstructed, and be unable to make or execute policies.