Wait! Are We Paying for the Government?

Okay, I am at least disappointed to say that Singaporeans who are intending to buy a new car as their Christmas gifts will be deeply saddened at how the price for a COE bid has increased recently (December 2010, Round 1) to its highest record since the year 2000.

So, is it worth to buy a new car now?

Toyota Corolla Altis, taken from
http://www.flickr.com/photos/50915680@N08/4796839344/

Okay, let's take a look at the pricing of a popular, budget priced Toyota Corolla Altis 1.6. According to SGCarMart as of 9 December 2010, the model cost $98,488, inclusive of the COE priced at $47,604. Okay, there may be COE rebates or other offers when you buy a new car, but for this post I shall keep things simple and omit other factors. A simple calculation of the percentage of the COE price over the price of the model gives you 48.3%. In other words, if you intend to buy this model, expect around half of your money paid to enter the government's pockets!

My conclusion? Standing in as one of the majority of the Singaporeans with limited monthly income in the entire family, I will say that it is not worth to pay an ultra inflated price for a budget model. However, if you are one of the Singaporeans that draws in many Ks of monthly income in the entire family, looking for a high end car such as BMW 5 Series, I will say that money is not an issue for you, so by all means, go ahead and get one.

Alternatively, you may want to

• Buy a used car. (Do beware of the relevant charges and taxes)
• Take public transport. (Yeah I know that the efficiency of public transport is a tad disappointing, but it is still much better than paying inflated price.)
• Car pool. (If you have a lot of friends or colleagues going to work together.)

Alright, that's all I have for today. But hopefully I wish to see the Ministry of Transport step up to make full use of their government funds to upgrade the standard of public transport. I swear they have more than sufficient government funds to contribute to the society =)

The Idea of Korean Reunification?

In the wake of the war breakout between North Korea and South Korea, I came across an article in TodayOnline, highlighting the idea of the Korean reunification. As I am the one who goes for peace and stability, I decided to give my brief, personal analysis of the effectiveness of Korean reunification.

Pros:

• Increase in overall power in terms of military and economy.
• A step towards world peace and stability.

Cons:

• Tons of differences and conflicts to consider. (eg. Culture, Economy, Politics, Ideology)
• Discrimination may arise as a result of unifying of both govermnents as one.
• Cost about a few trillions to reunify both governments, even beyond the economic ability of South Korea.

A formal handshake, taken from
http://www.flickr.com/photos/32490173@N05/3169262303/

Personally I will be more than happy to welcome this miraculous move, but according to my pros and cons analysis, the cons obviously outweigh the pros. My analysis shows why there has been only little development of reunification over the years. Therefore, I think that all related parties (Both Koreas, Japan, USA, China and Russia) should try to work out as many solutions as possible to bridge the large differences of both North Korea and South Korea.

I feel that these are a few methods the six related parties can do to achieve reunification:

• All six parties should try to fund the extremely expensive cost of reunification as much as possible.
• All six parties should try to deeply understand the benefits of going democracy and propogate the idea to the world.
• Both North Korea and South Korea should be willing to make a fair and certain level of compromisation.

However, judging that things are going currently, the idea of reunification might seemed to be more and more of a distant dream. For us, we can only pray for their brighter future.

Political Cartoons

Have you heard of a political cartoon before? If you did study Social Studies in your Secondary School life, then I am sure that you had came across many of such.

Modern political cartoons can comes in various styles and are usually used to express the thoughts of the artists. The content can varies from stereotypical, biased and/or demonizing portrayals of people and event. However, most of the artists have similar purposes - Highlighting the important political and social issues, usually in a comical manner.

Understanding political cartoons is not easy. Usually, the artists used mostly visual metaphors and symbols, and that it is up to you to use your imagination to depict what the cartoons are highlighting about, as well as its actual meaning. However, I do have one website that is able to teach and help you to understand political cartoons.

Personally I have not think of which political cartoon is my all-time favourite. This is because I think that every political cartoon has its own meaning and hence, unique in a way. However, I would like to encourage the artists to feature more of graphical politicians, for example a comic version of Mr Lee Kuan Yew, in their work.

Okay that's all I have for now. Do look out for the forum or the comments and analysis sections of local newspapers. This is usually where political cartoons can be found.