hey everyone, you can reach me at trulysingapore@yahoo.com.sg.

my blog is trulysingapore.wordpress.com.

i don't update it frequently but do visit.

good luck and take care

snow leopard

Guess this is it. This will be my last post here.

you can't have an honest debate without getting all kinds of unwarranted abuses. gazelle and company resort to such tricks each and every time they're beaten to an argument.

the moderators don't seem to mind. maybe they think we deserve to be abused.

whatever it is. i guess i shouldn't be in a room where there is no respect from either your opponent or the referee.

thank you

keep it up Mauzirio and atobe.

Originally posted by Gazelle:

Snow....I couldnt stop laughing when you say that only oil trade are conducted in US$ and all other singapore export are traded in S$.

hahahahah...... bloody SHEEP!!!

why don't you laugh at your own stupidity at not understanding that part of our imports end up becoming re-exported?

why don't you laugh at your stupidity of contradicting yourself by saying on the one hand that currency won't matter yet we our imports would be cheaper?

why don't you laugh at your stupidity for pointing out forex gains / losses which merely rubbishes your claim that currency don't matter?

Originally posted by Gazelle:

Snow, your mouth is already filled with Shi.t so please stop talking.

If you insist on talking, please clean all you BS before you talk

the one with a mouth full of shit is you.

and i urge the moderators to clean his mouth before he pollutes this whole forum with his foulness.

Originally posted by Gazelle:

Snow, the only reason why you feel the way you are feeling is because.

1) You mum was rape by a sheep
2) You dick is smaller than a snail
3) your last name is LOSER
4) Your dad is Atobe
5) Your son is a call M13

leave my folks out of your insults. you are nothing but all that you just said.

moderators, please do your job. how can we allow someone to say such things about our mothers and fathers? where are our manners? do you allow the forum to degenerate into such base nonsense?

Originally posted by maurizio13:

He doesn't have to pretend act blur and stupid, he is all daft.

: )

Originally posted by watchdog:

It's not welcome aboard, it's welcome back for me. I left in the first place because I saw those 3 tendancies. Looking through the threads I either see ranting, anti-gay spouts or absolutely twisted sexual perversion.

The main focus is on social presentation & homophobia. I could link some threads here to other discussion boards for my British & American forumers to gather an impression. What sort of vibe does this forum generally project?

The only thing political I see is mostly Singaporean angst at the government. But how's this any different from other Singapore political discussions?

i see. welcome back then.

what would you consider as ranting and when does it cease to become ranting? what is so wrong with ranting? if a slave shares his story with you, do you dismiss it as ranting or do you try to empathise with the social injustice that is being shared?

there are anti-gay threads and if they offend you or you disagree with what is being said, what is stopping you from saying your piece? do you prefer that controversial topics or issues be avoided? what then do we discuss? golf?

social presentation is the bread and butter because ultimately what is most important to us is our social well being. i do not think that homophobia is a pre-occupation here, it is just one of the current hot topics.

do you think it matters to us what americans or the british think of what we write? should i write to please the americans or the british when our societies are really quite different? besides, why should our frequent clamour for greater democracy and fairness in the election process create a bad impression on citizens from these two bastions of democracy?

Originally posted by Gazelle:

Can someone explain to me what the Fcuk is this snow sheep talking about???

ATOBE, since you are also a sheep, can you please help explain to the general public what crap is this sheep talking about? are you guys speaking in Sheep language?

is this your new tactic, pretending to act blur when you got all your facts wrong and have run out of arguments?

good luck being skewered by atobe. i wonder if gazelle meat would taste better than lamb chops.

Originally posted by Where Is God:

agreed.

you agree blindly to his nonsense about us importing more than we export? sounds like we got a sheep here for you, gazelle.

sheep and gazelle, best partners

Originally posted by Gazelle:

The fact is that if you exclude trading item (ie. items/good/comodity thay are manufacture in other country by traded by singapore company) we are importing more than we export. (please go MTI website and read before whining)


not true. you should think about what you read from govt websites and make sense of it. the website sub-categorizes exports into domestic exports and re-exports. so it is up to us to figure that imports can also be sub-categorized into imports that are ultimately consumed in singapore and imports that are merely re-exported.

The 2005 trade figures for singapore are as follows:

total exports 229.6
domestic exports 124.5
re-exports 105.1

total imports 200
retained imports 94.9
re-exported imports 105.1

therefore, our domestic export of 124.5 is more than our retained import of 94.9


""Please dont talk about GDP when you cant even finish chewing what you have on your plate""


so it's not that i cannot chew, but that you shot off like a happy puppy without even digesting or assimilating what you've read.


By this statement alone, we can already tell that you have ZERO knowledge on international trade. (My suggesting is that you look into non-oil public listed company financial statement and look for the segment under Forex gain/lost)

HOW SHEEP CAN YOU GET??


the fact that there are forex gains and losses means that most companies are affected by currency changes so your assertion that most of our trade is in US$ and so we are shielded from currency fluctuations does not stand.

no one can be as near to a sheep than a gazelle.


Please dont follow what other sheep are doing by quoting me out of context. What I am suggesting to you is that a big portion of Singapore export are re-export goods, which have ZERO S$ cost component in the products. Hence any fluctuationg of S$-US$ will have negligible impact on the cost.


i quoted your exact words, stand by them if you have the balls. if you suggest that "fluctuationg of S$-US$ will have negligible impact on the cost", then it wouldn't make our imports cheaper would it?


SNOW, please dont try to talk your way out by coming out with stupid theory, because it does make you look like a damn bloody pathetic SHEEP.

SHEEP!! can you remember that you wrote this statement?

""we may be import heavy, we are export heavier, most years we achieve trade surplus, that's where we get the money for our budget ...""

HOW SHEEP CAN YOU GET????


it should be right, do check it out. if you cannot understand it, then you must be more stupid than a sheep.

Originally posted by Mat Toro:

they worked hard for it, it is not ill gotten my fren.

how hard do you have to work for a paycheck that you sign for yourself?

Originally posted by Gazelle:

And please sign off as SHEEP

like you should sign off as antelope?

Originally posted by Mat Toro:

So why do you complain about their wealth? Silly right?

we are not complaining about their wealth, we are complaining about the ill-gotteness of their wealth.

Originally posted by Mat Toro:

those who love to bash elites who rule our nation are nothing but losers.
had they worked harder and smarter while younger, they too would be the very elites that they are jealous of today.

if you read what mauzirio and many others write, you'd understand that they are no less brilliant than your so called elites.

Mr Ng Eng Heng once mentioned that he welcomes ideas and he will challenge those ideas but not the person himself.

likewise, whatever we are challenging here is, is about the situation, the system, the issues and the problems and not bashing anybody.

so when gazelle bashes us, does that make him a loser?

Originally posted by maurizio13:

You mean Switzerland like the VAT rates in Switzerland:

VAT rates

The VAT rates in Switzerland are:

7.6% standard rate
2.4% reduced rate (e.g. food, medicine, newspapers, books and feed)
3.6% lodging services

Where basic necessities are tax at a reduced rate and they provide better social welfare services.

Or

Hong Kong where there is no GST/VAT.

Or

Australia

Where GST is 10%, but medical services are FREE, housing is cheaper, electricity and cars are cheaper.

Singapore government has taken more profits, duties and taxes from GST, cars, COE, HDB, gambling (4D, TOTO, Horses Racing, Football, etc), but provided no help to the common folks of Singapore. Only time when money is given out is during general elections, but after elections all the money is returned to the government with interest.

i love this part, says it all so well

Originally posted by Gazelle:

Before any company make a multi million investment, corporate tax and tax holiday are one of the key deciding factors. Companies are attracted to China because of its big domestic market, and despite that the government is also offering foreign investors with generous tax holiday.


Mauzirio is right, profits aside, when considering costs, what matters ultimately are net costs after tax.


A stronger S$ does help us ... boost our ... buying power.


I quote what you wrote later:

"any forex fluctuation between Singapore and US$ will not make the goods anymore expensive or cheaper"

your two statements contradict each other. which one is nonsense and which one is a lie?


fortunately Singapore GST/VAT and income tax is still a lot lower than those countries the whiners are worshiping.


do refer to http://www.citymayors.com/economics/richest_cities.html. it shows many countries with supposedly higher taxes end up with higher net income than us.

Originally posted by Gazelle:

Snow..are you certain about what you said?

yes

Originally posted by Gazelle:

It is quite obvious that this SHEEP doesnt really know what he is asking and is just following what the other sheep are doing.


the closest thing to a sheep that i can find here is a gazelle. nothing more compatible than you two.

as for not knowing your stuff, keep it to yourself, we don't have to know.


1) Singapore trade surplus doesnt come from exporting MADE IN SINGAPORE good, they come from re-exported goods.


not true. re-export is only one component of our exports. manufacturing consistitutes about a quarter of our GDP. so at least a quarter of our GDP isn't re-exports.


2) For traded items, they are mostly purchased in US$ and sold in US$, any forex fluctuation between Singapore and US$ will not make the goods anymore expensive or cheaper and if your profit is kept in US$, nothing is lost


apart from commodities like oil, we do not generally receive US$ for our exports but receive singapore dollars instead. so currency appreciation would dampen our export competitiveness.

furthermore, if your argument is that goods will neither become more or less expensive, than it negates "where is god"'s argument that currency appreciation will make imports cheaper.


3) Trade surplus is not tax revenue nor profit. It is not money that goes to our budget.


if the country as a whole is buying more than it can sell, unless that shortfall is made up for by FDIs, it can only mean more government spending. so trade surplus or deficit strongly influences govt budget / deficit, as in the case of the US.

Originally posted by Where Is God:

But remember that Singapore is an import-heavy country. We import much more than we export. So while it will make our export unattractive, the loss will be much lesser compared to our gain.

Again, I am not an economist.

we may be import heavy, we are export heavier, most years we achieve trade surplus, that's where we get the money for our budget ...

neither am i

Originally posted by Mat Toro:

Such logic do convince the masses, thats why only the minority makes noise. The majority can understand the logic very well.

the masses by their nature do not care, they're like wilderbeasts concerned only with chewing their own grass ...

Originally posted by Mat Toro:

Greed and want for more is human nature.

that is why we need to have counter checks and balances to keep those greed and want for more in check.

Everybody has a breaking point. Including you. Thats also human nature.

that our ministers demand so much more than those of other countries simply shows that their breaking point is so much lower.

george bush is satisfied with $400,000, so his breaking point is $400,000. our PM cannot accept anything less than $3 million, so his breaking point is $3 million.

in other words, compared to george bush, our PM needs an extra $2.6 million over-the-table money, which is no different from $2.6 million under-the-table money, to stay happy.

Originally posted by Mat Toro:

Corruption is taking money where it is not accorded. As long as they do not take what is not accorded for, they cannot be corrupt.

the recent uproar over minister pay hike is a clear indication of the displeasure and disaccordance for the money that was nevertheless taken. so by your definition, corruption had been committed.

Not necessarily. A public trial is open to scrutiny and review. an unqualified or unfit judge won't survive the bench.

so what can the public do when they aren't satisfied with the judge's performance? write to straits times forum and get sued? complain in sgforums? go to hong lim park?

qualified or otherwise, in the case mentioned, how do you guarantee that the particular judge wouldn't be swayed in any way by his concern for his own pocket especially when we have so many cases of lawyers running away with their client's money? judges are after all, lawyers to begin with ...

Originally posted by watchdog:

I've eyeballed threads & forums, just to gauge the crowd this site attracts. Do you agree with the following on members?

1. Sexually deprived & desperate
2. Homophobic
3. Bored

welcome aboard watdog! so what attracts you here? 1, 2 or all 3 heh?

Originally posted by Where Is God:

Well, it's a move away from heavy corporate taxation. I am not an economist, but this move may bring in more foreign investment which would drive up our exchange rates and make our imported goods cheaper. In other words, this could very well negate the effects of the extra 2% in terms of imported goods.

wouldn't a stronger currency make our goods and services unattractive and therefore depress our output? wouldn't that negate the beneficial effects of cheaper buys?

Originally posted by Where Is God:
I have no idea what is wrong with you people. Is it jealousy that drives you people to bash 'elites'? Or is it because of herd mentality, whereby you guys are just trying to fit in with the rest?

could you show us examples so that we know what you mean by elite bashing?

You know it is getting really ridiculous that every single action/behavior that is frowned upon can be attributed to one being an 'elite'.

could you also show us examples of actions that, in your opinion, frowns upon our elites, when they do not deserve to be frowned upon?

So think twice before you shoot your mouth off, sheep.

could you also give examples of sheep please?

thank you