The Devil's Workshop

  The contents of this blog has moved to a new site "PREVIEW: Nanyang a graphic novel by Tan Choon Hong" Shortcut to site is here . Any inconvenience caused is regretted.

One upon a time in the misty past when the impossible was possible, a lion met a mermaid and events took their course. This chance encounter of a beast with a half human of the female species was to set in motion incredible events that led to the birth of a hybrid creature which in turn inspired today's symbol of the Lion City's tourism industry.  Check out the Merfamily® Collectibles and other attractive Singapore mementos at  zazzle.com/virtuocity  here   Fall in love with T-shirts, mugs, mouse pads, covers for iPad, iPhone, MacBook Air, posters, post cards, and more, that you can customise online to make great gifts for family and friends. Merfamily® is a registered trademark under IPOS Singapore No: T9904612F. © Tan Choon Hong 1999-2020. All rights reserved.

When politicians want to keep their jobs in the face of economic challenges they turn to a simple tool. Roll the printing presses, euphemistically called Quantitative Easing. QE in effect is telling the world “I piss on your currency.” Especially for the debtor who can print his own money in which the debt is also denominated and is accepted globally. QE 1: Nov 2008.  Fed buys $100B agency debt + $500B mortgage-backed securities (MBS), followed by another $750B MBS. QE 2: Nov 2010.   Fed buys $600B long term treasuries followed by another $400B treasuries. QE 3: Sep 2012.   Fed buys $40B per month of MBS. QE 4: Sep 2012.   Two can play the game! China injects 1 Trillion Yuan ($157B) stimulus package. Image credit: Earth by NASA, Tidal Wave by Pamela Heckel on Unsplash (edited). QE 5: Jul 2020.  In response to the Covid-19 pandemic the Fed, PBOC, ECB, BOE, BOJ and other central banks unleash a tsunami of over $8 Trillion in monetary easing.  Sources: Forbes, Asian Banker, Atlantic Counc

When young Thomas Stamford Raffles set foot on Singapore in 1819, he planted the seeds of success that were to turn the island of fishing villages into a throbbing metropolis by succeeding generations of islanders, colonialists and immigrants.  The British might have departed in 1965 with the city-state's independence, but vestiges of their presence are very visible to this day.

The year is 2019. It is the year to commemorate the 200th anniversary of founding of Singapore by Thomas Stamford Raffles, but for some inexplicable reason, the powers that be decided to turn it into a Raffles bashing exercise.  There appears to be a conspiracy to cloud the issue of who really is the founder of Singapore, maybe even to "Photoshop" him out of the picture altogether! This concerted attempt at shifting the spotlight away from the birthday boy and focusing it on a bunch of gatecrashers from a different era is simply confounding.  My question is, what are the hidden motives for stealing the thunder from Raffles? There must be a mastermind behind all this, but who? To explore the what of the ways they’re doing it I have made this video: As for the why… I can’t figure it out except perhaps for two possibilities: One, highlighting Raffles as the founder would dim the aura surrounding another figure who has often been loosely credited with the founding of Singapore.

Criticising the political system and figures is a favourite pastime of whiners on a little tropical island aka The Little Red Dot. The targets always reply with template answers or simply siam or tai chi , local parlance for avoidance and deflection. However when push comes to shove, there's always the ultimate response to shut them all up: "let's engage in constructive politics ."