Babe of the week - Scarlett Johansson (DOB: 22 Nov 1984)

(All pics from FMH International Website)

Cabinet reshuffle in Singapore

Decided to list the cabinet appointments in a post no too long ago...reshuffle.
Reshuffle was routine and expected so reactions were calm (generally, Singaporeans are nonchalant about such stuff as long as they dont increase taxes, erps etc)
ST 27 March 2009, page A8

New cabinet

1. Lee Hsien Loong, 57
Prime Minister

2. Lee Kuan Yew, 85
Minister Mentor

3. Goh Chok Tong, 67
Senior Minister

4. Prof S. Jayakumar, 69
Senior Minister
Coordinating Minister for National Security

5. Wong Kan Seng, 62
Deputy PM
Minister for Home Affairs

6. Teo Chee Hean, 54
Deputy PM
Minister for Defence
Acting PM in PM's absence

7. Lim Hwee Hua, 50
Minister, PMO
Second Minister for Finance
Second Minister for Transport

8. Lui Tuck Yew, 47
Acting Minister for Information, Communication and the Arts

9. Tharman Shanmugaratnam, 52
Minister for Finance

10. Gan Kim Yong, 50
Minister for Manpower

11. Dr Yaacob Ibrahim, 53
Minister for the Environment and Water Resources
Minister for Muslim Affairs (wonder why there isnt ministers for Buddist, Christian or Hindu affairs or at least 1 overall minister for religious affairs???)

12. Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, 48
Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports

13. Raymond Lim, 49
Minister for Transport
Second Minister for Foreign Affairs

14. Khaw Boon Wan, 56
Minister for Health

15. Ng Eng Hen, 50
Minister for Education
Second Minister for Defence

16. K. Shanmugam, 50
Minister for Law
Second Minister for Home Affairs

17. George Yeo, 54
Minister for Foreign Affairs

18. Mah Bow Tan, 60
Minister for National Development

19. Lim Boon Heng, 61
Minister, PMO

20. Lim Swee Say, 54
Minister, PMO

21. Lim Hng Kiang, 54
Minister for Trade and Industry

Some of Singapore's best-paid CEOs

(ST 25 March 2009, page A4)
Company (Executive chairman/CEO) 2007 amount
CapitaLand Liew Mun Leong $21.67M
Keppel Corp Lim Chee Onn $8.75M to $9M
City Developments Kwek Leng Beng $7.75M to $8M
DBS Group Holdings Jackson Tai $7M to $7.25M
UOB Wee Ee Cheong $6M to $6.25M
OCBC Bank David Conner $6M to $6.25M

Wow, damn disgusting man...these amount they earn in a year is something that I would never earn in my lifetime (unless I become a Minister - which is freaking remote anyway)...bloody hell, its back to the drawing board or at else the toto board

Proposed changes to the Human Organ Transplant Act

ST 12 March 2009, page A3

1. Lift the upper age limit of 60 years for cadaveric organ donation, and for people receiving such organs. Organs will be used so long as they are medically fit. The change is expected to help about 70 people a year.
(My comments: While I agree with the former, I am a little concern regarding the latter. Please do not get me wrong, I am not being an ageist here but with advanced age, what are the chances of the patient surviving such a major operation? Are we really placing the patient in undue risk just to bulk up our transplant numbers simply for stats sake?)

2. Allow for paired matching, in which two recipients swop donors for a better medical match.
(My comments: cannot really comment about this because I do not fully understand the implications)

3. Allow payment for living donors to ensure they "do not suffer financially as a result of their altruistic act". Payment is not mandated and the change "does not condone organ trading or legalise it".
(My comments: this is damn tricky and I spent many hours thinking about my position...have not come to a final conclusion but my current feel is "no" because it is hard to determine if the transaction is motivated by altruism or by finances. And besides, it throws the whole concept of altruism out of the window...imagine all the volunteers in Singapore starting to demand compensation (e.g. after helping an old lady across the street, you demand $XX for your time and loss earnings.)...damn tricky).

4. Increase by 10 times the penalties for organ trading for syndicates or middlemen. With the change, they face a fine of up to $100,000, a maxumum jail term of 10 years or both. This is because "both the buyer and seller are exploited by the middlemen, who creams off a significant portion of the transacted amount".
(My comment: sigh...willing buyer, willing seller - willing middlemen? caveat emptor is it?)

Liverpool crushes Villa and piles the pressure on ManU

OMG!
With goals from Kuyt, Riera and a hat-trick from Gerrard, Liverpool have come within a point of league leaders ManU; the latter of course still have a game in hand.

Current league standings
1. ManUtd 29(GP)-20(W)-5(D)-4(L)-49(GS)-18(GA)-31(GD)-65(P)
2. Liverpool 30(GP)-18(W)-10(D)-2(L)-54(GS)-21(GA)-33(GD)-64(P)
3. Chelsea 30(GP)-18(W)-7(D)-5(L)-49(GS)-17(GA)-32(GD)-61(P)

Remaining fixtures
ManUtd:
1. ManU vs Aston Villa
2. Sunderland vs ManU
3. ManU vs Portsmouth
4. ManU vs Tottenham Hotspur
5. Middlesbrough vs ManU
6. ManU vs Man City
7. Wigan Athletic vs ManU
8. ManU vs Arsenal
9. Hull City vs ManU

Liverpool:
1. Fulham vs Liverpool
2. Liverpool vs Blackburn Rovers
3. Liverpool vs Arsenal
4. Hull City vs Liverpool
5. Liverpool vs Newcastle United
6. West Ham United vs Liverpool
7. West Bromwich Albion vs Liverpool
8. Liverpool vs Tottenham Hotspur

Chelsea:
1. Newcastle United vs Chelsea
2. Chelsea vs Bolton Wanderers
3. Chelsea vs Everton
4. West Ham United vs Chelsea
5. Chelsea vs Fulham
6. Arsenal vs Chelsea
7. Chelsea vs Blackburn Rovers
8. Sunderland vs Chelsea

Babe of the week

(http://www.vh1.com/sitewide/flipbooks/img/news/killer_cleavage/jennifer-love-hewitt-335x460.jpg)(http://topnews.in/light/files/Jennifer-Love-Hewitt.jpg)


(http://www.cinemacomrapadura.com.br/metamorfose/imgs/jennifer_love_hewitt_metamorfose_wallpaper_01_1024.jpg)(http://www.topnews.in/light/files/jennifer_love_hewitt.jpg)

This week's babe of the week is Jennifer Love Hewitt, born 21 Feb 1979...yummy!

Weekus mirabilis for Liverpool - a round-up

10 March 2009: Liverpool 4 - 0 Real Madrid (Champions League)

14 March 2009: Man Utd 1 - 4 Liverpool (Premier League)

19 March 2009: Rafa signs new contract to summer 2014

Lyrics for You'll Never Walk Alone

When you walk through a storm

Hold your head up high

And dont be afraid of the dark

At the end of the storm

Is a golden sky

And the sweet silver song of a lark

Walk on through the wind

Walk on through the rain

Tho' your dreams be tossed and blown

With hope in your heart

And you'll never walk alone

You'll never walk alone

(Source: http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/lfc_story/classics/1.htm)

Town council report cards to be made public

ST 18 Mar 2009, page A8

Kudos to the Ministry of National Development for this bold step in increasing transparency and accountability...unfortunately, the same cannot be said of healthcare because we have yet to see the health sector report cards. There were attempts; however, they were largely one-offs. Jia yu, MOH!

Number of doctors in Singapore

Fully / Conditionally Registered: Medical Practitioners (Specialist Register)
as of 31Dec2000: 5,577 (1,819)
as of 31Dec2001: 5,922 (1,930)
as of 31Dec2002: 6,029 (2,088)
as of 31Dec2003: 6,292 (2,224)
as of 31Dec2004: 6,492 (2,367)
as of 31Dec2005: 6,748 (2,511)
as of 31Dec2006: 6,931 (2,654)
as of 31Dec2007: 7,384 (2,781)
(Source: Singapore Medical Council Annual Reports)

Cabinet Appointments in Singapore (wef 01May2008)

Some info regarding our cabinet members from the http://www.cabinet.gov.sg/CabinetAppointments/index.htm (accessed on 16Mar2009)

1. Lee Hsien Loong
Prime Minister
~ Mathematics

2. Goh Chok Tong
Senior Minister
~ Economics

3. Lee Kuan Yew
Minister Mentor
~ Law

4. Prof S. Jayakumar
DPM & Coordinating Minister for National Security
~ Law

5. Wong Kan Seng
DPM & Minister for Home Affairs
~ Biz Ad

6. George Yeo Yong-Boon
Minister for Foreign Affairs
~ Engineering

7. Dr Lee Boon Yang
Minister for Information, Communication & the Arts
~ Veterinary

8. Mah Bow Tan
Minister for National Development
~ Engineering

9. Lim Boon Heng
Minister, PMO
~ Naval Architecture

10. Lim Hng Kiang
Minister for Trade & Industry
~ Engineering

11. Teo Chee Hean
Minister for Defence
~ Engineering / Management Science

12. Lim Swee Say
Minister, PMO
~ Engineering

13. Dr Yaacob Ibrahim
Minister for the Environment & Water Resources and Minister-in-charge of Muslim Affairs
~ Engineering

14. Khaw Boon Wan
Minister for Health
~ Engineering/Commerce

15. Tharman Shanmugaratnam
Minister for Finance
~ Economics

16. Dr Ng Eng Hen
Minister for Education and Second Minister for Defence
~ Medicine

17. Dr Vivian Balakrishnan
Minister for Community Development, Youth & Sports
~ Medicine

18. Raymond Lim Siang Keat
Minister for Transport and Second Minister for Foreign Affairs
~ DOB: 1959
~ Economics / Law

19. K. Shanmugam
Minister for Law and Second Minister for Home Affairs
~ Law

20. Gan Kim Yong
Acting Minister for Manpower
~ Engineering

Babe of the week

(source: images.askmen.com)

(source: www.coolbuddy.com)

(source: www.topnews.in)

Carrying on my useless tradition, here's this week's hot babe - Anne Jacqueline Hathaway (12-Nov-1982)

Allow partial CPF withdrawals now (ST 13 March 2009 - pA22)

In today's papers, Gary Chua wrote a letter appealing to the CPF Board to allow "eligible members who have healthy balances, and who are currently not using their CPF savings, to withdraw a small part of their savings before the age of 55."

Totally agree with him in principle. What talk is there about retirement funding when you have serious problems making ends meet today? Of course, it shouldnt be a free for all where we treat it like our ATM machine but only when certain conditions are met. I mean, its ultimately our money and if the garment can tap on the national's reserves, after blowing our tax money on stupid investments like UBS, CitiBank, why cant we?

Hmmm...sound like a great idea. My cynical verdict = BALLS!!! If we can tap on our CPF money, where would our garment find money to pay themselves fat salaries and invest (or lose) money on crappy deals. Dream on guys!!!

I am back...or not

Been freaking long since I last blog...so much have changed...have resigned from my dead-end lab job, gone on to another job and then to another and then to my current one.

One thing still remains...havent struck the lottery yet so still in me same old social-stratosphere. Anyway, (no, I wasnt bored or what) just thought I start blogging again as a way of recording stuff that happened in my life. Doubt I would update this super-regularly like every hour or day, most likely once in weeks.

So watch this space (but I seriously dont recommend that you hold your breath)