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Be Careful Of This PRC Scamming Customers At NTUC

UPDATE:

Miss Norsiah has since updated her facebook page to explain that NTUC has confirmed that there is no 30c charge on the exchange of notes to coins but they are unable to do anything against the PRC woman involved.

They explained that their cameras aren’t good enough and they have no audio to verify what happened:

NTUC called………that staff will b closely monitored n observed only…………………….because their camera cannot zoom in & see the $1.70 (new $1 coin, new 50cents coin 20cents coin) & also no voice recorder to record conversation…that staff will b send for conversational english coz she claims she dont understand wat im saying!!!

BUT surprisingly she knows how 2 take my $2 & return me $1.70 when i ask her for coin exchange & surprisingly too, she knows how 2 use NTUC name to say NTUC now charge 4 coins exchange!!! I guess she doesnt know the meaning of “receipt” dats y when i ask her receipt for 30cents (3times) she doesnt know……so sad……….

“receipt” i think the basic she need to know if in sales line….funny…..dont understand receipt but know how to say “FORGET” to return my 30cents……..so, in conclusion, they will still keep that staff!!

So, NTUC shoppers, take note that as confirmed by NTUC, no 30cents will be charge for coins exchange.

So NTUC shoppers, beware of this desperado, money-faced china-lai woman!!

—-

Dear TRS,

Please be careful about this PRC cheat at NTUC and remind your readers to be vigilant of other, similar scams.

I saw this photo being shared online showing that a woman, apparently a PRC, was trying to scam customers at NTUC.

When one lady approached to change her $2 note for coins so she could get a trolley, the PRC staff at the customer service counter gave her $1.70 and claimed that there was a 30c charge for exchanging.

When the woman came back a short while later asking for a receipt, the PRC woman act blur and then say she ‘forgot’ to give her 30c.

How can NTUC allow such foreign staff with no integrity come here and essentially try and steal money?

Please be careful of such scams. Even though the money might be small, if this type of scam is allowed to happen we are letting our image as a safe and law abiding country go down the drain.

MM

TRS Contributor

Source: www.therealsingapore.com

February 17, 2015
Westerners Join Iraqi Christian Militia To Fight Against IS

DUHOK, Iraq (Reuters) – Saint Michael, the archangel of battle, is tattooed across the back of a U.S. army veteran who recently returned to Iraq and joined a Christian militia fighting Islamic State in what he sees as a biblical war between good and evil.

Brett, 28, carries the same thumb-worn pocket Bible he did whilst deployed to Iraq in 2006 – a picture of the Virgin Mary tucked inside its pages and his favourite verses highlighted.

“It’s very different,” he said, asked how the experiences compared. “Here I’m fighting for a people and for a faith, and the enemy is much bigger and more brutal.”

Thousands of foreigners have flocked to Iraq and Syria in the past two years, mostly to join Islamic State, but a handful of idealistic Westerners are enlisting as well, citing frustration their governments are not doing more to combat the ultra-radical Islamists or prevent the suffering of innocents.

The militia they joined is called Dwekh Nawsha – meaning self-sacrifice in the ancient Aramaic language spoken by Christ and still used by Assyrian Christians, who consider themselves the indigenous people of Iraq.

A map on the wall in the office of the Assyrian political party affiliated with Dwekh Nawsha marks the Christian towns in northern Iraq, fanning out around the city of Mosul.

The majority are now under control of Islamic State, which overran Mosul last summer and issued am ultimatum to Christians: pay a tax, convert to Islam, or die by the sword. Most fled.

Dwekh Nawsha operates alongside Kurdish peshmerga forces to protect Christian villages on the frontline in Nineveh province.

“These are some of the only towns in Nineveh where church bells ring. In every other town the bells have gone silent, and that’s unacceptable,” said Brett, who has “The King of Nineveh” written in Arabic on the front of his army vest.

Brett, who like other foreign volunteers withheld his last name out of concern for his family’s safety, is the only one to have engaged in fighting so far.

The others, who arrived just last week, were turned back from the frontline on Friday by Kurdish security services who said they needed official authorisation.

“STOP SOME ATROCITIES”

Tim shut down his construction business in Britain last year, sold his house and bought two plane tickets to Iraq: one for himself and another for a 44-year-old American software engineer he met through the internet.

The men joined up at Dubai airport, flew to the Kurdish city of Suleimaniyah and took a taxi to Duhok, where they arrived last week.

“I’m here to make a difference and hopefully put a stop to some atrocities,” said 38-year-old Tim, who previously worked in the prison service. “I’m just an average guy from England really.”

Scott, the software engineer, served in the U.S. Army in the 1990s, but lately spent most of his time in front of a computer screen in North Carolina.

He was mesmerised by images of Islamic State militants hounding Iraq’s Yazidi minority and became fixated on the struggle for the Syrian border town of Kobani — the target of a relentless campaign by the jihadists, who were held off by the lightly armed Kurdish YPG militia, backed by U.S. air strikes.

Scott had planned to join the YPG, which has drawn a flurry of foreign recruits, but changed his mind four days before heading to the Middle East after growing suspicious of the group’s ties to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

He and the other volunteers worried they would not be allowed home if they were associated with the PKK, which the United States and Europe consider a terrorist organisation. They also said they disliked the group’s leftist ideology.

The only foreign woman in Dwekh Nawsha’s ranks said she had been inspired by the role of women in the YPG, but identified more closely with the “traditional” values of the Christian militia.

Wearing a baseball cap over her balaclava, she said radical Islam was at the root of many conflicts and had to be contained.

All the volunteers said they were prepared to stay in Iraq indefinitely.

“Everyone dies,” said Brett, asked about the prospect of being killed. “One of my favourite verses in the Bible says: be faithful unto death, and I shall give you the crown of life.”

Source: https://sg.news.yahoo.com

February 16, 2015
AHPETC Saga: Separate The Facts From The Myths

Know the facts from the myths in the AHPETC saga…

Myth:
The TC Secretary and its General Manager, who are the main directors and shareholders of the Managing Agent (MA) are freely being given contracts without tender and paying themselves handsomely without accountability.

Fact:
The MA has no decision-making power in relation to the award of tenders. Tenders are awarded by a Tenders & Contracts Committee consisting of Members of Parliament and appointed Councillors with no interest whatsoever in the MA.

The MA is not involved in evaluating any tender in which it is participating. When the MA and EMSU (essential maintenance services unit) tenders are involved, the MA is excluded from the deliberations.

Myth:
AHPETC has shown disrespect to auditors or Parliament for not submitting documents as requested.

Fact:
Throughout the audit, thousands of documents were provided. For example, more than 16,481 payment vouchers were produced.

In Appendix C of the AGO report (p.3, Attachment 2), Members will see there is just one out of 22 requests outstanding. In Attachment 3, just three out of 75 are outstanding.

Myth:
The Secretary and General Manager issued invoices, certified work done and approved and signed cheques to FMSS. Appendix C Attachment 1 and its total amount for 84 invoices of $6.6 million has been the subject of a front page headline on 9 February 2015. The Lian He Wan Bao headline entitled: “TC Secretary and GM pay their own company $6.6 million”

Fact:
The TC adopted an SOP on 8 September 2011, soon after the new management took over.

It was the policy that no cheque to FMSS, of whatever amount, could be issued unless either the TC Chairman or one of the Vice-Chairmen co-signed the cheque.

Thus, it was not possible for FMSS to pay itself unless authorised by the TC Chair or Vice-Chair, who have no interest in FMSS whatsoever.

Myth:
In the TC’s audit for FY 12, our auditors put in a disclaimer that because the project management fee details were not disclosed in the Financial Statements, they were unable to determine the completeness of the related party disclosures

Fact:
There was no clarity of practice in the financial statements of Town Councils. For instance, the same auditors audited us in FY 11, and only required a related party disclosure of the MA fees. The former Aljunied Town Council management also had related parties, and yet there were no related party transaction disclosures in Financial Statements, which had no disclaimers.

Source: The Alternative View

February 16, 2015
SIA Singaporean Pilot Get Short End Of The Stick

Recently, it was reported (http://www.btinvest.com.sg/dailyfree/sia-to-stop-offering-captains-re-employment-past-age-of-62/) that SIA has decided to discontinue re-hiring its pilots who are aged 62 years and older. In one fell swoop it has unilaterally declared this as a method of managing its manpower resources. This state of events is a crisis of their own making as it is a direct response to its poor forecast of its labour requirements which has in the past hired and trained too many. Hence, there are now too many crew on the payroll and SIA has rightly taken a decision to mange it. The contention is how it chooses to do so and how it disproportionately affects Singaporeans.

The company has, from its inception, hired foreigners to fly its aircrafts as there were just too few qualified Singaporeans with the skills. Over time, through training and recruitment, the company has increased employment of Singaporean pilots and has reduced its reliance on foreign recruitment resulting in a combination of Singaporeans and non-citizens in varying proportions. Presently, there is still a significant pool of foreign pilots on its payroll who come from neighbouring countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, India, Philippines, Australia, etc.

The case for Citizens

The Singaporean who wants to work for SIA as a pilot can only join at age 26. Anybody else, can and very often do, join at 18. A difference of 8 yrs.

The Singaporean male, having completed his National Service (NS) commitment is also bounded by law to serve as a Reservist until age 40 or 50 according with his rank and appointment. And even if you take the minimum requirement of 10 years of Reservist duty at 21 days a year, this adds up to 30 weeks or 7.5 months. This is a quantifiable loss for the citizen who suffers a reduction in experience, which is then taken into account for promotion opportunities, as well as a reduction in his take-home pay. This price paid for by the Singaporean in guaranteeing security for ALL is casually taken for granted by everyone except the citizen soldier. SIA does not measure this benefit as it is simply the business environment in which it operates, which would also mean they do not reward it. So while the citizen employee gets field rations, deploy and engage in strenuous and often times risky manoeuvres, the non-citizen goes on with his normal employment without even understanding what the Singaporean has to go through. It is galling to the extreme for the soldier to have his sacrifice and commitment to his country turned against him in his other life as an employee.

Some may question the impact of the 8 years here and 7.5 months there of advancement that the Singaporean gives up for being a citizen. Well, the accounting does add up as it is not the lower pay the young Singaporean gives up while he is still junior in the company but actually the more substantial pay that he is stopped from earning at the apex of his career. These lost years of income would add tremendously in supporting their children’s education as well as their own retirement planning. This is especially so for Singaporeans in an increasingly expensive Singapore. His economic life is cut short. As you can see, this is a disadvantage that just keeps taking.

SIA cargo, SilkAir, Tiger and Scoot are companies under the SIA umbrella. In these companies, the pilots retire at age 65. Why is it that the crew in these subsidiary companies retire at 65 whereas in parent SIA it is 62? It is obviously not an issue of technical competency and capability. And again, why does SIA hire foreigners in these subsidiary companies and essentially fire Singaporeans in SIA when there is a pool of qualified crew trained to the standards mandated by the parent company with decades of experience? Is this merely a bad decision or something more sinister altogether?

In deciding to end its re-hiring policy and applying without regard to the disparity between citizen and non-citizen, SIA chooses to rub salt into already raw wounds. If the company hired fewer foreign crew there would be ample employment for the Singaporean beyond age 62. Citizens are made to join late and forced to leave early. There is a case to speak up for the economic discrimination against the citizen here.

In the spirit of a meritocratic evaluation, SIA institutes programmes that claim to deal with disparities affecting promotion and pay for citizens. In doing so, it rightly acknowledges that there is a difference between Singaporeans and non-citizens. However, these programmes do not effectively and fairly deal with the significant disadvantage to Singaporeans. Where the Singaporean suffers an 8 year delay to join SIA the promotion for foreigners is held back by only one year to be considered equally disadvantaged. Where is the fair play for the Citizen?

The citizen employee essentially earns and spends SGD in the country. The foreigner spends only a portion in Singapore, essentially as living expenses during their time in the country but would send more of it to wherever he calls home or his final place of retirement which is unlikely to be Singapore. The costs in Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, India, Australia are not, in any true comparison, as high as the cost of living and retiring in Singapore. (Someone here will obviously insist that living in Oz is expensive, hence I must just say “how much did they pay for that house and car in Oz” .. the difference speaks for itself.) Hence, in relative terms, the citizen gets a lot less. A dollar buys a lot less in Singapore than it does in the neighbouring countries. Here, I am reminded by those infamous comments ( http://www.theonlinecitizen.com/2009/02/nursing-homes-in-johor-bahru-revisited ) about asking Singaporeans to retire in JB. Should citizens who contribute to building this country, defend it, suffer its high costs, nurture the next generation then be offered disadvantaged employment terms? For most citizens, this country is everything. For many others, this is, at best, a stopover.

A valid point that some may argue is that SIA is a private listed company and its mandate as such is profit seeking for its shareholders without regard for such emotive elements like Citizenship. Let us remind ourselves that its inception was from a handout from the country and by this reference, its citizens.

This is Singapore Airlines.

It is the flagship carrier of Singapore.

As they say, the clue is in its name. Is there so little room in this company, which still turns a nice profit for its shareholders, to account for the extra exertions by its citizen employees and to prioritise their employment above non-citizens. Is it unreasonable to think there might be more room for Singaporeans in Singapore Airlines?

In recent times, hiring practices by MNCs as well as SMCs have come under protests for the bias taken against Singaporeans. Prompting MOM to take action against errant companies and even having the Manpower Minister TCJ (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2013-09-23/singapore-introduces-framework-for-hiring-its-citizens-fairly ) to speak on this. In the recent case of Prime Gold International (http://business.asiaone.com/news/marine-companys-work-pass-privileges-curbed-discriminating-sporean-workers) and the subsequent 2 year ban on recruitment imposed by the MOM, the citizens having been found to be unfairly terminated by the employer did not get their jobs back. Where is the fair play? Now, the PM has declared a “Singaporean First” (https://sg.news.yahoo.com/blogs/singaporescene/gov-t-puts-poreans-first-pm-lee-175645736.html ) push and stressed getting a right balance between foreigners and Singaporeans. How will all this turn out? Looking at SIA, it looks like nothing has changed. A few years ago, an open letter of appeal was written to the PM’s office (http://www.transitioning.org/2014/11/19/letter-of-appeal-to-prime-ministers-office-for-the-job-security-of-sia-pilots ) lamenting the very sorry state of affairs regarding young citizen pilots. What has become of them?

The vast majority of Singaporeans are fair-minded, pragmatic, tolerant, gracious, charitable and even generous. We do not ask for an unfair advantage. We just ask to be treated fairly and compassionately in our own country that we helped create. Should we not speak out against policies and practices that affect us all? If such victimisation is allowed to prosper, either openly or in the shadows, everyone will, in time, be diminished by it. It might be shipping clerks months ago and pilots today. When, where or who will it such stop at?

tanKooKoo

Source: www.therealsingapore.com

February 13, 2015
Study Reveals That Online Arena Is Not A Digital “Wild Wild West”
The online political arena is, contrary to popular assumptions, not a digital “Wild Wild West” where blogposts are irrational, emotional and one-sided, according to a new study by the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) released on Wednesday (Feb 11).

One of the findings looking at the correlations between blog type and identity, objectivity, emotionality and partisanship showed that the more political a blogpost is, the more objective it is. This is “counter-intuitive”, as it goes against conventional assumptions that highly-political content tends to be irrational, said Dr Carol Soon, a research fellow at IPS and one of the authors of the study.

Additionally, blogposts with “low” political content tend to be more pro-Government or pro-Opposition. “High” political content blogposts, on the other hand, tend to be more anti-Government and also more anti-Opposition, Dr Soon noted.

Blogs with low political content are also more likely to post identifying information about their writers.

The study also looked into identity and its impact on how objective, emotional or partisan a blogpost was. It found that there is no relationship between a blogger’s identity and objectivity.

Dr Soon said: “This challenges the assumption that people who blog anonymously tend to be less objective.”

As for emotionality of the posts, the study found there was no relationship between emotionality and the author’s partisanship to the Government or the Opposition.

Of the 195 blogs studied, only 6.7 per cent were labelled as “5” – indicating the use of expletives. On the other end of the scale, 20.5 per cent were found to be “1”, or “very calm”.

Other observations:
- About 70 per cent of the blogs were not completely one-sided in their commentaries. A third scored between “3” and “5” in journalistic objectivity that offers alternative viewpoints in their posts
- Political blogs tend to be two-sided in their approach – perhaps an indication that balanced arguments are more persuasive than one-sided blogposts, said Dr Soon
- Journalistic objectivity and being unemotional go hand-in-hand
Mr Tan Tarn How, a senior research fellow at IPS and one of the study’s co-authors, provided caveats to the study. He said the length of time – June and July 2014 – was short, and that the sample size of blogs and posts studied were small. A total of 197 blogs and more than 1,000 posts were analysed in the study.

Facebook data was not factored in because access to the information was not readily available, the study’s authors said. Twitter data was analysed but the 140-character nature of the microblog meant meaningful analysis of a standalone tweet is not possible, they added.

Dr Soon said: “(The study) has enabled us to empirically establish that the internet or the online space is not as much of a ‘Wild Wild West’ that we have feared it to be. Moving on, if we can develop big data tools to help us up-scale the effort, we can use it to look at Twitter and public Facebook pages for instance. From there, we can hopefully get a more representative indication of the online space.”

Source: www.channelnewsasia.com
February 12, 2015