Cigarette plain paper packaging

Name:          CHAN, Sin Fong
Subject:       Cigarette plain paper packaging
Visit Time:   11/11/2011 12:43 AM

Remark:
I do not smoke and do not like to stand close to smokers whose hair, clothing and body are smelly and stinking. I do not like to see large tobacco companies making money out of misery from smoking addicts, too. After all being said, I totally disagree with the bleeding hearts, health sympathisers and hypocrites wanting to implement plain packaging or outlaw sale of cigarettes.

These restrictions on promotion and sale of a "legal" product, namely cigarettes, will see the dawning of Australia becoming a Big Brother country - freedom to choose, freedom of expression and freedom to advertise will become things of the past.

Smokers’ right have been striped slowly and surely to point that they cannot smoke in public open and confined spaces. They do look very pitiful standing outside buildings, especially on cold, wintry days puffing away. It may be the smokers’ choice, but the society abandons them like lepers. How much of the tax collected by the government has been used to help or educate the smoking addicts? Scary pictures on cigarette packets or television screens do not deter people from giving up or taking up this product. How about some famous celebrities giving a helping hand, like what they have done to promote cancer awareness?

If people are fair dinkum about the wellbeing of the human race, why are alcohol and gambling not in plain paper packaging or outlawed? Alcohol and gambling not only create physical harm, ill-health and even death to many individuals, but also physical and psychological abuses to people that are closed to them. These are a lot more evil than cigarettes and smoking.

Smoking is an addiction, so are alcohol drinking and gambling. Governments are quite happy to allow all these to be sold in the market place openly. If cigarettes are to be in plain paper packaging or outlawed, so must alcohol and gambling.

Online shopping kills employment

Name:          CHAN, Sin Fong
Subject:       Online shopping kills employment
Visit Time:   4/8/2011 at 9:37 PM

Remark:
If everyone boycotts Harvey Norman, Myers, David Jones, JB Hi-Fi, just to name a few large retail outlets, because they charge more to cover costs in employing people, leasing buildings, using utilities, advertising, etc., this will lead to unemployment for many sales staff, tradespeople, property management, service providers, accountants doing tax returns, chefs, waiters, etc. Those who have made savings buying online, if they are still in employment, will eventually pay more taxes to cover the increasing number of welfare recipients.

This stubborn government fails to take note of the long term repercussion of great exodus of in-shop purchases, and refuses to tax all items purchased from overseas under $1000. At present, the cost of collection of these taxes may be more than the taxes receivable, but the scenario will change very soon as on-line transactions continue to grow. Who will be paying for the shortfall of tax revenue?

This is a double whammy. Just be careful, it could be the online shoppers’ job on the chopping board if this unfair practice is allowed to go on unchecked.

Wake up Australia, Grow up Australia

Name:          CHAN, Sin Fong
Subject:       Wake up Australia, Grow up Australia
Visit Time:   1/6/2011 at 10:00 PM (Not published)

Remark:
Australia at present is like a cup cake, and obviously can't feed many people. However, Australia has plenty of ingredients to bake a cake bigger than any recorded in the Guinness Book of Records. With a bigger cake, more people can share our generosity.

On 12 October 1492, Columbus discovered the New World (USA), and in 1606 Willem Janszoon made the first recorded European landing on the Australian continent. The difference is 114 years.

The population of USA and Australia is about 311.6 million and 22.7 million respectively, that is to say USA has a population about 13.7 times of Australia. To reach 311.6 million, Australia population will have to grow by 1% compounding each year for 263.25 years or by 2% compounding each year for 132.27 years.

We are far too inward looking, selfish and unimaginative; we are just as irresponsive and non-adaptive as the dinosaurs which became extinct when climatic conditions became unfavourable.

Wake up Australia, grow up Australia!

New push seeks to outlaw cigarettes

Posted to ABC 7.30 Report on 22/5/2011 (Not published)
Subject: New push seeks to outlaw cigarettes”

Remark:
I do not smoke and do not like to stand close to smokers whose hair, clothing and body are smelly and stinking. I do not like to see large tobacco companies making money out of misery of smoking addicts, too. After all being said, I totally disagree with the bleeding hearts, health sympathisers and hypocrites wanting to outlaw cigarettes and implement plain packaging.

To outlaw cigarettes will see the dawning of Australia becoming a Big Brother country - freedom to choose, freedom of expression and freedom to advertise will become things of the past.

Smokers’ right have been striped slowly and surely to point that they cannot smoke in public open and confined spaces. They do look very pitiful standing outside buildings, especially on cold, wintry days puffing away. It may be the smokers’ choice, but the society abandons them like lepers. How much of the tax collected by the government has been used to help or educate the smoking addicts? Scary pictures on cigarette packets or television screens do not deter people from giving up or taking up this product. How about some famous celebrities giving a helping hand, like what they have done to promote cancer awareness?

If people are fair dinkum about the wellbeing of the human race, why are alcohol and gambling not outlawed? Alcohol and gambling not only create physical harm, ill-health and even death to many individuals, but also physical and psychological abuses to people that are closed to them. These are a lot more evil than cigarettes and smoking.

Smoking is an addiction, so are alcohol drinking and gambling. Governments are quite happy to allow all these to be sold in the market place openly. If cigarettes are to be outlawed, so must alcohol and gambling.

Read here to read more

Australia can support a MUCH larger population

Name:          Sin Fong Chan
Subject:       Australia can support a MUCH larger population
Visit Time:   16/5/2011 at 4:49 PM

Remark:
Growth for growth sake is definitely pointless. However, Australia is a big country and surrounded by water - one of the biggest island on earth. However, we keep saying that we cannot support a much larger population, and it is not sustainable to have a big population.

Big population has its advantages - economy of scale, in terms of business sales, production, utilisation of assets, etc. Many large cities of the world have population much more than Victoria or New South Wales, and yet these cities prosper and flourish.

Sustainability will be a flop if we don't build more schools, hospitals, houses and infrastructure, or grow more food, capture more rainfall, purified more water, etc. We keep taking from the ground via mining, and not putting back or growing enough to re-nourish the land.

Not all the international students coming to Australia will become citizens of this country. The population growth is not as frightening as 300,000 per year as reported. Statisticians who make such projections are based on incorrect assumption. Properly managed population provides a larger pool of tax revenue. If we are selective to pick just the cream of these students, Australia can only benefit rather than being disadvantaged.

If we are short of food, we grow them from seeds; if we demand more electricity, we build power stations; if we need to travel, we build cars, aeroplanes, boats; if we have to stop swine flu spreading, we develop vaccines.

Why are Australians still sitting on their bums, keep whinging about lack of water? Open the atlas or search on Google and check out what is surrounding Australia? If all the whingers start to use their brains instead of their mouths, water shortage will never be a daily topic!

Many people in the world still do not believe that men landed on the Moon close to 42 years ago; many people in the world can never imagine that the monstrous size computer of the 50’s can be shrunk to the size of a note pad and yet is billions times more powerful; many people still hold the view that Australia vast desert landscape cannot be transformed into productive land one day.

If United States can support 14 times more people than Australia, where is the problem? Australians MUST change their mindset about Australia is going to be overpopulated!

Get real - Australia is not lack of water or lack of rain. Australia lacks “grey matter”, lacks innovation, and worst of all, Australia lacks good leaders!

Read related blogs:
Wake up Australia, Grow up Australia
Australia needs population growth

Train, retraining but no jobs in sight

Name:          Sin Fong Chan
Subject:       Train, retraining but no jobs in sight
Visit Time:   11/05/2011 6:06 PM

Remark:
Does it mean that people like me mature-age person need to be retrained to work in mining towns in Western Australia or Queensland, go under the house to fix plumbing or up the roof top to install solar panels? I am well-trained, with post-graduate degree and other qualifications, more than qualified to train the untrained, and yet I find myself unemployed.

I had been a sessional TAFE and VET trainer for 15 years, until the international education bubble burst when the government changed policy. More than half of the international students choose not to come to Australia anymore, and therefore, many trainers like me are unemployed.

Life as a sessional teacher is very tough. We are hard working people, and no dole-bludgers. Each term, we queue up, not at Centrelink, but at the course coordinator office asking whether there is any work for us.

June is too soon for an RBA rate rise

Name:         CHAN, Sin Fong
Subject:      June is too soon for an RBA rate rise
Visit Time:  11/05/2011 6:04 PM

Remark:
Predictions by Glenn Stevens and his team at RBA are far from satisfactory. Either the economic models used or the way the results produced by the models have been interpreted need to undergo vigorous challenge.

The trilogy of negative demand, as I called it, is a signal for heading towards a recession. This may sound farfetched, naïve and ill-founded, but a rationalist will see the wisdom of this doomsday prediction. The trilogy of negative demands is real properties, cars and household goods including fashions. These three categories of items are in descending sequence in terms of average value. In recent months, we witness the trilogy of negative demands are taking place.

I have written in many blogs and newspaper comments about my predictions, a lot more accurate than what RBA has been predicting. Using dollar value as the key element in prediction is inadequate. The total quantity demand must be taken into consideration for normalisation.

CPI increase, unfortunately, always targets at increase in price which can be due to real reason and artificial manipulation. If quantity demand is increased, causing shortage of supply and thus pushing up the price, then there is room to call for increase in interest rate to dampen the demand. However, it is irrational to increase interest rate because electricity charges, water rates, local petrol prices have gone up, and that the quantity demand of these utilities or items is in fact unchanged or decreased. In short, the total dollar increases bear no relation to the demand curves.

Read more: http://sinfongchaneconomy.blogspot.com/2011/05/why-june-is-too-soon-for-rba-rate-rise.html

Gillard telling China how to suck eggs

Name:         CHAN, Sin Fong
Subject:      Gillard telling China how to suck eggs
Visit Time:  29/04/2011 4:03 AM

Remark:
I wish Julia Gillard stop lecturing the Chinese about human rights, treatment to minority groups and religious freedom.

What is happening in Australia is just the exact opposite. Excessive human rights to law breakers, special privileges to queue jumpers / hooligans on the roof, and in the name of religious freedom, we spend mega-bucks to refurbish public hospitals for the religious minorities and feeding them with special meals.

G-G calls for female quota on boards

Name:        CHAN, Sin Fong

Subject:     G-G calls for female quota on boards

Visit Time: 9/03/2011 5:36 AM

Remark
So, GG and Joe Hockey want more females on boards. If it is a matter of affirmative action, then after gender will be race, colour, religion or national origin.

It is concerning that democracy, free market, freedom of choice are dead in our society. Too much pressure has been placed on businesses, families and society at large to do the "right" thing, by the government or some authorities under the sun, and yet the people of Australia have no say in many of the ridiculous decisions made by them, such as money spent on “refugee” queue jumpers, welfare services provided to these and overseas countries instead of our own, building hospitals without providing funding for fittings, insulating the roofs but not the windows, adding new classrooms cum kitchens instead of quality teachers, etc.

What is more worrying is that Australia has become a very socialistic country, and soon may even become communistic. Income tax, land tax, council rate, water rate have been used to provide infrastructure and services for everyone including those who can't afford to contribute. Then they introduced Medicare levy - a universal healthcare tax, then petrol levy, levy to pay for the debacle of Ansett Airline, fire levy, flood levy, carbon tax / price - whatever you want to call it.