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Bikers Can Only Blame Themselves For Rising COE Prices

Dear editor,

I am a rider but I keep hearing complaints from riders that PAP is a bloodsucker and they are going to vote out PAP because they cannot afford $5,500 COE. I am sick and tired of hearing it.

Cannot afford COE? How about the illegal exhaust and mods made to their bikes? I know one dispatch rider who always complain about bike COE but owns 3 motorcycles and he spent more than $3,000 on modifications to his hayabusa alone. He always complain things are expensive in Singapore but did not take into account of their own income level and moderate his spending habits.

I know another dispatch rider who spent more than $500 for a helmet and more than $1,500 for a titanium exhaust without batting an eyelid. But he almost got into a serious accident when his bike stalled on the PIE because his engine oil dried up. He bitches to me often about bike COE.

I realised when riders complain about bike COE, they did not factor in the dealers who are very much responsible for jacking up COE prices.

When you purchase a vehicle, you sign the sales agreement and put down the deposit. The dealer then tells you that he will factor in a certain amount as the COE. That amount is probably based on the average value in the last couple of month. If it was 900, then 1300, he’ll probably put in 1K.

Right now with the COEs in the 4000 to 5000 region, a dealer will price it at 5K average. Then he’ll place his bid anyway. If you get the COE under 5K, he’ll refund you the difference. If over, you top up the diff. Then you settle your down payment.

Most whiners fail to realised this: the dealers and their salesmen want to make the sale, and will be willing to place insanely high bids just to close the deal. YOU are the sucker. The dealers are the one inflating the COE premium because of their panic bidding response to supply being cut. That was what happened a few months back when LTA cut the supply by 25%. They bid higher, wanting to make sure they got the COE to cover their sales. It’s not going down because the average value has gone up. Unless you get a fluke situation where there are less bids than the actual supply, and some lucky mofo puts a bid of $1.

So who are to be blamed for high COEs? Put simply. Bike dealers.

Why don’t whiners who’re buying bikes start telling the dealers “I’m only willing to pay COE $2,000 max. Any more, screw the deal.” Don’t sign on the sales agreement unless they add that in writing.

At this point, some of you might be thinking “But COE goes to PAP. The dealers don’t get the 5.5K what…..” Yes, and no. You ALWAYS have a down payment you’re willing to pay. Let’s say 5K on a 16Kbike (not incl COE). If the COE is at 1K, then the total price will be 17K (insurance let’s not include yet ok?) You made a downpayment of 5K, and your loan quantum will be 12K. Now if the COE was at 5K, the bike is gonna be 21K in all. Your loan quantum: 16K. The government gets the 5K, but the shop/finance isgonna get the interest out of that because you took a larger loan.

So who says that they don’t earn more from higher COEs?? The government has got to disallow dealers from bidding for COEs. Make the buyers log into the system themselves and place the bid instead.

Only then will COE premiums start to fall. Because as buyers ourselves, we will not place stupid bids. The dealers don’t give a crap about riders. They’re just interested in the sale. And you, the buyers, have to tell them “Fcuk off” When you go out to buy a new bike today, or tomorrow.

Go ahead and tell your dealer “I only want to bid COE max 1K, or else I’m not signing” See what they say. If everyone does it, see how the COE goes.

Source: www.allsingaporestuff.com

February 10, 2015
Malaysia’s Federal Court Upholds 5 Year Prison Sentence Handed Down To Anwar Ibrahim By The Court Of Appeal

PUTRAJAYA: The Federal Court has upheld the Court of Appeal’s five-year prison sentence on Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim for sodomising former aide Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan.

The apex court earlier on Tuesday upheld the Mar 7, 2014 decision against the Opposition leader.

Anwar, 67, was sentenced to five years’ jail for sodomising his former aide Mohd Saiful Bukhari, 30, at the Desa Damansara condominium in Bukit Damansara on June 26, 2008.

Anwar had filed 35 grounds in his petition of appeal asking the Federal Court to overturn the Court of Appeal’s ruling.

Source: www.thestar.com.my

February 10, 2015
Mothers Stage Nurse-In In Walmart Store In The US

Given the many health benefits of breast-feeding —and that most shoppers don’t want to hear an hungry infant screaming in aisle nine—you’d think stores would be more supportive of a woman’s effort to feed her baby. But perhaps a manager at a Walmart in Oklahoma likes crying children, or didn’t know that the state has a law protecting a woman’s right to nurse in public. Either way, he’s probably regretting telling new mom Elizabeth Moreno to quit nursing her child and cover up.

“I was kind of shocked, like, do what? I didn’t know what I was doing wrong,” Moreno told Fox 23 on Tuesday.

Moreno left the store last week feeling humiliated by the manager’s request, but she didn’t hang her head for long. On Tuesday, she and about 20 other mothers and their infants descended on the store to hold a breast-feeding demonstration called a nurse-in.

A nurse-in is like an old-school sit-in, but with more breast-feeding. To protest the manager’s behavior, Moreno and the other moms walked around the Walmart in Glenpool, about 15 minutes south of Tulsa, with their babies. As you can see in the video below, some of the women chose to openly nurse their infants while they walked.

“We did get some looks and stuff. People were very curious,” one of the moms, Renee McBay, told the station.

Moreno said that the when the manager approached her last week, he said another customer had complained about her breast-feeding.

“I was like, ‘Oh no, I’m protected by Oklahoma law that it’s OK to breast-feed in public,’ ” she said.

The station contacted a Walmart spokesperson, who said that the company is investigating the situation and that it supports a woman’s right to nurse her child inside its stores.

It’s unclear whether the manager in Glenpool was aware of Walmart’s corporate policy on breast-feeding in public—or if he knew Moreno had the legal right to nurse her baby on the premises. But in order to ensure that folks in the community are aware, she and the other nurse-in participants passed out pamphlets educating Walmart shoppers and employees about their right to feed a hungry infant.

Those pamphlets could come in handy elsewhere around the country too, because moms keep on being taken to task for breast-feeding in public.

Last June, Karlesha Thurman was shamed online for sharing a photo on social media of her nursing her baby during her graduation from California State University, Long Beach. Then in August, an employee at an Anthropologie store in Beverly Hills, California, asked mom Ingrid Wiese Hesson to stop nursing on the premises. Nearly 100 moms held a nurse-in at the store to support Hesson’s legal right to feed her infant, and the backlash against the retailer went viral across Facebook and Twitter.

In the workplace, women have long been illegally steered toward filthy bathrooms and closetsin order to use their breast pumps. This week, news broke that the U.S. Supreme Court refused to review the petition of Angela Ames, who had sued her former employer, Nationwide Insurance, alleging that the company made it tough for her to use her breast pump in the office and coerced her into resigning from her job.

Maybe more nurse-ins are needed to help people finally understand that feeding a baby is not optional. Or perhaps moms should just threaten shoppers with the alternative and let their hungry infants shriek in public for 10 minutes. Let’s see how folks feel about that.

Source: www.takepart.com

February 10, 2015
Personal And Banking Information of 240 Nanyang Polytechnic Alumni Leaked Online After Hack

The personal and bank information of 240 Nanyang Polytechnic alumni has been stolen and leaked online.

Chinese evening daily Lianhe Wanbao reported on Monday that one of the alumni affected, Mr Ho, was informed of the security breach last week through a letter from the school.

The letter says that there was “unauthorised access” into the polytechnic’s computer system. According to the letter, names and bank account numbers linked to GIRO payments were copied. It also says that the school has managed to delete the information from the website that carried the leaked information. It is not known which website it was.

Mr Ho is wary although he thinks that nothing can be done using the information stolen.

“If they have the ability to steal these information, they may have the ability to steal even more. The information they released may not be all the information they have,” Mr Ho was quoted as saying.

The hackers retrieved information of those who were enrolled between 1994 and 1999, Wanbao reported. The school advised the affected parties to check with the bank on any aunthorised transaction.

Nanyang Polytechnic has reported the matter to the police. In the letter, the school wrote that it takes the matter “very seriously”.

“We are conducting a thorough internal investigation and are also working with a leading third party forensics firm to conduct an independent investigation into this matter so as to strengthen our processes and systems,” it added.

Source: www.straitstimes.com

February 10, 2015
Ho Thong Chew Barred From Practising Medicine After Selling Cough Syrup Illegally

A doctor who illegally sold nearly 3,000 litres of codeine-laced cough syrup to three men, who then peddled the drug on the streets, has been stripped of his licence to practise medicine.

Ho Thong Chew, who made almost S$267,000 from his illicit venture, faced the Singapore Medical Council’s (SMC) disciplinary hearings after he had been sentenced in 2012 to seven-and-a-half months’ jail and a S$60,000 fine in the then Subordinate Courts.

In its grounds of decision released yesterday, the disciplinary tribunal said Ho’s court conviction implied a defect in character which makes him unfit for the medical profession.

Although Ho’s lawyer argued that he should be censured or suspended for a short period, the tribunal listed several aggravating factors in the case that it felt warranted a harsher punishment.

The doctor, who ran his own clinic in Ang Mo Kio for seven years before it was closed down by the Ministry of Health, had supplied the cough syrup to the three men for five months despite knowing that it would be sold to the public indiscriminately, the tribunal said. The men gave him a cut of the proceeds from peddling the cough syrup in Geylang, amounting to a vast profit of S$266,825 for him, it added.

He sold a total of 846 canisters of cough syrup, each of which contained 3.8 litres of the mixture.

Ho also showed blatant disregard for the law by continuing to supply the cough syrup illegally after the Health Sciences Authority had carried out a raid at his clinic, the tribunal said.

In mitigation, Ho said he had committed the offences because he had wanted to earn more money for his clinic and to support his children’s medical care and future.

While it noted that the ailments suffered by Ho’s daughter will result in lifelong disability and dependence, the tribunal said: “Needing money cannot be an excuse for the criminal acts.”

It added: “The overriding interests in this case must be the protection of the public interests and to uphold the integrity of the medical profession.”

The tribunal ordered that Ho’s name by removed from the Register of Medical Practitioners and for him to bear the costs and expenses of the disciplinary proceedings, including the SMC’s legal fees.

The three men who had bought the cough syrup from Ho to resell it to codeine abusers were sentenced to between 10 and 16 weeks’ jail in 2012.

Source: www.todayonline.com

February 10, 2015