Showing posts with label Politics. Show all posts

Broadsheet Rhetoric for a Small Country. Jan 2023

The rhetoric on the broadsheet where I live in Singapore ( which is hardly credible IMHO which is in the process of being nationalized in some shape or form) should liken to walking the tight rope in a circus and not take sides and risk getting caught in the cross hair of a proxy war (economically or militarily).

The first two PMs with their astute foreign policies (especially PM Lee Kuan Yew) and ministers have done well in the midst of Vietnam and Korean War. I cannot say the same for the current PM Lee Hsien Loong. He spent our precious diplomatic bullets by making jokes that the air and water quality in Beijing a few years back were grouse. These off the script comments didn’t go un-noticed in Beijing and perhaps the payback came in the Hong Kong custom impounding our armored vehicles enroute from Taiwan to Singapore whilst the ship took a layover in Hong Kong. That escalated quickly from ambassadorial to ministerial level. China has sent a message to Singapore that they were not amused about the joke.

Public Service Commission (PSC) should strongly consider putting more scholars in the likes of Tsinghua University and University of Peking to inject more stronger social network between the future bureaucrats of tomorrow rather than just Oxbridge and ivy leagues in USA.

To date, I only have one friend who did post grad in Tsinghua on his family scholarship. The road ahead is foggy, and we need shrewd PM and foreign ministers. I rarely praise PAP but sidelining Tharman and George Yeo for the role was a really bad decision.

With the rhetoric between China and USA on a somewhat sour note on both military and economics, we should posture ourselves as friends to all and enemies to none.

Peter Lye aka lkypeter
lkypeter@gmail.com Safe Harbor. Please note that information contained in these pages are of a personal nature and does not necessarily reflect that of any companies, organizations or individuals. In addition, some of these opinions are of a forward looking nature. Lastly the facts and opinions contained in these pages might not have been verified for correctness, so please use with caution. Happy Reading. Peter Lye (c) Peter Lye 2023

Not So Moral Satire – Dec 2022

Ethics as the yardstick by which society measure actions.

Morality the self-administered litmus test by which individuals ascribe their actions against their values.

Legality for constitutional, legislative and precedential is the pragmatic yardstick of black and white in society.

Universal values and mores is therefore a punch bowl of these ingredients so black and white does not exists save for the wide spectrum of greyness in which man co-exists

Singapore is not Turkey - Diversifying your Currency Risk - Aug 2018, published Apr 2020

Singapore is not Turkey is a mischievous attention grabbing title with the Turkish Lira moving everywhere with no destination in the horizon. Imprinted against little red dot Singapore lies a good measure of wisdom, foresight and measures ( yes indeed ) we can take to lessen potential future pain suffered by those with interest in Turkey or Turkish Lira.

Like many Singaporean man in the street, personal balance sheet used to be denominated ONLY in Singapore Dollar (SGD) assets and liabilities until recent past where I ventured to park some currency UNHEDGED instruments after much thought. Had a tensed social debate with a secondary school classmate on this topic at his home a few New Year Eve ago. Our spouse thought it was getting out of hand but over the years we have very much learnt to agree to disagree having worked together to produce our school magazine at 16 year old. Why is there a need to diversify my SGD exposure if the intention is to retire here as it would be a natural hedge; SGD-SGD; so goes the conventional wisdom. After USD was delinked from Gold Standard, all currency essentially became Fiat currency. Absolute measure vaporized as most currency became relative to each other. Sovereigns issuing currency controlled their supply by literally printing money. Simplistically balance between demand and supply was chief in determining its price. To inculcate budgeting, the common rhetoric that they are not printing money ought to be yes but government all over cannot escape the enticement of running fiscal deficits. The small number of countries with net positive fiscal budget in the last 11 years of economic rally is proof of this.

Inter-government agreements are hardy and essential to drive everyday economic decisions. Under pressure, it could be porcelain brittle and break. Turkey is geo-politically sandwiched between East and West and has 2/3 of its important political levers in EU being a member of both NATO ( perhaps not for long in light of her recent

purchases of Russian arms ) and EU common market. Turkish Lira (TRY) is the local currency unlike most EU countries that adopted the common EUR as their local/regional currency. Barring her differential on Iran, no credible rescue was in sight for TRY.

Without belittling our ASEAN 2 billion emergency currency swap agreement, I doubt the utility of such firstly because the amount is perhaps good against very temporal market alimonies but not sustained structural or systemic issues. Hong Kong just burned HKD $2.195 equivalent in reserves today 15th August 2018 buying their currency to support the peg. This is not her first neither will it be her last if the USD/HKD 7.8 peg were to stay. As we speak, India and Indonesia are also dealing with their own currency issues as the Turkish crisis is turning systemic and spreading to other Emerging Market currencies.

Secondly, economies are more global and connected now and local issues can turn systemic regionally or globally faster. If fires were to break out systemically across ASEAN, each man for himself would most probably rule the day. Although ASEAN members have sustained ties and common interest, the firewall separating each sovereign member might prove more polarizing.

Fiat is no Faith. Anyone who claims irrefutably to robust understanding of Forex is most probably a liar or living in their own world. Global forex is huge and complex and I doubt anyone have such mastery as he would be the richest man on earth if so. Boundless talent from economics (not exactly a science to some), mathematics, physics, biology to computer have been working on it with very limited success. How to have faith in something with little understanding though my fellow Christians would argue otherwise. To them, faith is believing in the unseen.

Currency is essentially the cornerstone and keystone architecturally speaking of our everyday living being the starting point and without which the structure will fall. Being a necessary devil having an ostrich mentality isn't helping unless living in an Amish community is your cup of tea. Undeniably, as human progress, our ability to live in isolation decreases and with it the need for money as a medium of exchange. Some archaeologist believe that a healed femur is the green shoots for signs of a civilization and along the same lines, money might be proof of civilization reaching puberty but not her zenith. Healed femur was proposed because it might be proof of mutual care between humans. Money isn't the perfect medium of exchange; in fact it rates poorly in some quarters like equability but it is the best that we have. Even the communist saw a need for it.

Risk where more can be less. Markowitz, the father of modern portfolio theory opined and justly rewarded with a Nobel prize that that non-systemic risk in portfolio can be reduced through diversification. Recent critiques highlighted many limitations with this theory chiefly because the theory was more applicable as a reduction of standard deviation rather than risk. Others relate to short selling and questionable effectiveness for market makers as oppose to takers. The important theme being that diversification does reduce risk in general everything else being equal.

Singapore Government Bonds are denominated in SGD and this can be a double edged sword. Post Mexican debt crisis, central banks and governments began to realize the hazards of issuing their bonds in foreign currencies but many are still cornered to do so. The market for bonds denominated in their local currency might not exists or the interest rate could be too sky rocket high to compensate investors for taking such risks. Singapore government remains a rare majority within emerging market economies that still issues bonds in their own currency. However, if you are holding on to such bonds, there is a very remote but should never be overlooked risk of the government monetizing such bonds by printing money in very desperate times.

Pragmatically, I would do better to have part of my personal balance sheet denominated in other currencies although the plan is to retire here. In the last 3 decades, even major currencies like USD, EUR, GBP, JPY, CNY have all fluctuated by more than 20% in terms of their relative value to each other. Other currencies have seen near total collapse or major devaluation especially in smaller economies and less developed countries like Mexico, Indonesia, Venezuela etc.

Although Singapore is no Turkey, it is still better to diversify your risks as no one can guarantee you that Singapore might not turn Turkey in the future figuratively speaking.

COVID-19/EBOLA/SARS – Economics, Societal and Political Narrowness-April 2020

Amidst the lockdown or to be politically correct mobility circuit breaker due to COVID-19, I dusted something penned on Ebola and SARS in 2014. Recomposing the current COVID-19 global crisis against my old brainwave in 2014, there were striking similarities and differentials on the societal and political fronts. Seems like our

human race is more xenophobic and
short-sighted collectively than many like to believe individually. Collectivism and individualism could be at polar opposite especially on orphaned issues.

From the comparison between Ebola and SARS, my narrative on the biggest similarities and differentials were along the lines of lack of therapeutics or vaccines, orphaned disease status of the poor and infectability in terms of R⁰. Ebola was clearly an orphaned disease of poor Africa. COVID-19 and SARS share most similarities excepting orphaned disease and the spiraling extensive spill-over into the economic, societal and political fronts. There has been reports of overwhelming over-arching philanthropy across economic lines from rich to poor, societal margins from capitalistic to socialistic leanings through various governmental support schemes and lastly on political and diplomatic agendas from cross country aids as well as putting aside rhetoric like the trade war between America and China. Major problems plaguing these as are their shallowness coupled with lack of depth or sincerity and lack of a trust-worthy leadership to carry these through. Philanthropy has been sparse and even for the few, they were more Hollywood than reality.

Echoing current IMF views that a lack of post COVID-19 solution like who would own or pay for the bill of the bailouts cannot be reason enough in this hour as the impact of stasis is un-imaginable chaos that will be harder to see daylight, this line of reasoning carries the hazard where the fittest might leverage to maximize their interest instead of being applied to the needy. This is not an unreasonable worry as 2008/2009 schemes like the troubled asset relief program (TARP) in USA has mainly benefited Wall-Street who were the main culprit leaving much of main street to shoulder the burden although Wall-Street would opined that they re-paid every penny but imputing the risk adjusted interest on these re-payment makes a joke as Wall-Street are supposed to be good at pricing risk. They operate the primary risk market not only for financial risk but a broad spectrum from food to natural resource like wheat, corn to oil and metals. The best legal and law making minds must be deployed to craft caveats to guard against such through either a combination of policies and wide ranging prosecution measures embedded to make such attempts improbable. The process of law making and has mostly tipped in the favor of industries through their lobbying machinery against limited resources of the populace. In addition, history through the ages and across civilizations have taught us that legal frameworks does not ensure that justice is served in all cases as at the perimeters, the powerful do get away normally out of legal technicalities or the voiceless poor given all but cosmetic legal aid defense or not getting the necessary time of day from the public prosecutors who holds some discretionary power. Although this is not the most urgent, its importance cannot be thrown under the bus of urgency.

The current COVID-19 situation is slightly different as the source seems to be a product of mother nature although the verdict is not or will never be out on it as with the likes of SARS, better to focus on the solution for now. Unlike events like WWII, nipping the bud in terms of eradicating the primary agents like the Axis of Evil will not solve the problem. This is entertaining the wildest far fetched imagination that it might be a product of scientific laboratory malfeasance or accident unless the source possess the formulary to the anti-dote in the form of a combination of therapeutics or vaccine.

If the therapeutics and vaccine path is unlikely to yield significant results in the short run even if FDA fast track the time to bedside usage or relaxes the criteria and hasten the approval of non-approved pipelined drugs on compassionate grounds, it is good that the medical community is visiting the re-purposing of existing drugs used for HIV, Cancer, Flu and the 100 year old plasma therapy to fill in the gap. These initiative are important as COVID-19 can do a lot of damage in the minimal 12 to 18 months it takes to get a new drug in. Perhaps, targeted research should be directed in this direction in the short run as what we need is a tool that can drive in the proverbial nail and not necessary the perfect hammer.

Another big hurdle is the accuracy, speed and cost of testing for COVID-19 for more effective epidemiological and public heath measures to work. No test is perfectly accurate but the existing gold standard using certain RT-PCR process has an exceeding low level of accuracy in both type I and II errors as well as a big indefinite band in statistical speak. Head of WHO has gone on record in an earlier press briefing comparing the accuracy of HIV test against COVID-19 test with the former having a confidence level of more than 99% and he did not reveal any percentages in the case of COVID-19 but add that he is less sure. A possibility is the newness of the test and lower population size to arrive at higher degree of confidence. Some health authorities have adopted the 2 to 3 serial consistent testing results to increase the level of confidence. Speed of the test is crucial with a fast spreading disease like COVID-19 and current RT-PCR test takes hours or days to turn around. Some of the processes in RT-PCR involves centrifugal spinning of samples and re-agents repeatedly that cannot be short cut. Cost was a hurdle in some countries as the cost of RT-PCR test can be in the hundreds (USD) and initial USA health insurance coverage presented a cost issue as some patients without requisite insurance coverage and large co-payment might not be able to afford or simply do not see money well spent for the test. This has been largely addressed in most health authorities by having the government bearing the cost of the test. On this note, it surfaces that cost of health care is no longer entirely a private and individual concern can be dependent on the least common denominator in our population and therefore perhaps another case for social medicine.

Some diseases like COVID-19 do not live in a vacuum and pull rail truck loads of collateral damage the length and speed of the Trans-Siberian Railway along with them. Although the collateral damages and its interlinkedness makes it difficult to separate between cause and effect, perhaps centrifuging the maze of collateral damage might spread them out on a spectrum for better visibility and addressable bit size.

Economically, it would generate simultaneous demand and supply shocks resulting in massive un-employment or a newly coined temporary non-employment with wage freeze. Unemployment in USA is north of 10% within weeks of limited lock down measures. Airlines were the first industry to be impacted intensively and extensively at the speed of light. It didn’t help that Boeing, one of the two largest aircraft manufacturers globally was already reeling in a safety crisis resulting in planned shutdown of some facilities after two crashes of her new 737-MAX leaving about 100 newly built 737-MAX aircrafts sitting parked in their facilities un-deliverable as airlines refuse delivery and some even threatening to cancel orders or not exercising purchase options for pipelined orders. Problems of another nature surfaces as shortage for personal protection equipment (PPE) to both protect front line staff especially those in medical and essential services. Key amongst the shortages were for surgical masks, N95 masks, ventilators and disposable protective suits. Complicating this problem further progression or some say regression, the manufacturing process and supply chain has become longer and more complex. Most end products traverse continents with thousand of touchpoints each of which is highly specialized to be optimized. This could be one of the reasons to keep some of these manufacturing facilities and supply chains mothballed instead being liquidated to pieces with lesser hope and longer to re-assemble after the crisis. There is always room for re-organizing and re-purposing resources for shorter term needs but the choices have to be made holistically for the longer run and not solely on economic basis.

The central banks have been quick perhaps too hasty in re-acting to ensure proper functioning of the banking system and liquidity a float. Central banks have chiefly operated in the domain of interest rates, reserve ratios, government bonds and the like even during various quantitative easing undertaken previously. Even wildest dream could not envision central banks dabbling in corporate bonds even venturing onto those rated as junk by the big 3 rating agencies so long as the downgrade to junk happened after the onset of the COVID-19 crisis or can be attributed to the COVID-19 crisis. This might be done on the one market without any restrictive covenants limiting certain top executive compensation, share buy backs, dividend payments and declaration or the likes imposed on companies that took money under TARP. This can present itself as a money making trading opportunity by tail coating behind this novel and more opaque move by the central banks with little or no accountability.

As most currencies are principally issue on a fiat basis with some like HKD based on a peg to USD, a lost in trust in any major currency could fall quickly like domino into a global monetary system collapse. The result might be a return to the ancient practice of barter trade. Barter trade might not necessarily be a bad temporary solution. However, the slide into barter trade will be anything but orderly and might entail societal anarchy if not properly unwound.

Politically, the COVID-19 crisis could polarize countries further. It is a funny phenomenal that as our world become more inter-connected through technological leaps in air, sea and land transportation and tele-communication, countries are turning more xenophobic. This could further fracture crack lines already present in relationship between countries and escalating into trade wars, border disputes and perhaps limited scale local or regional conflict. Such conflicts can leveraged by super powers into a proxy war with an enlarged foot print.

Assuming that humanity crosses this sea of danger to land safely on solid ground, economic frameworks for distribution of wealth, societal norms for power allocation and political boundaries and agendas might have to take a reset. Communism might attempt to green-shoot but its track record is both too poor and tainted. Capitalism will most probably still win the day but the wide ranging GINI might not withstand the weight demanded by social justice and the clarion call for a more egalitarian society.

Finally, humility and transparency should trump over over-confident smug calls by the authorities. We might be in the early days where the known-unknown and the unknown-unknown dominates the scene. This is no time for evidence or fact based decision not that we throw caution to the wind and make decisions recklessly. It does call for novel, adoptive and practical approach in place for bureaucratic norms and precedents. For example, the not wearing masks in public is a poor judgement just because there is no proof that wearing of masks reduces spread of the disease. Why not explain that we might not have enough masks as we do not know how long the crisis might last and and need to prioritize for front line healthcare workers and are working on the supply situation actively either through local manufacturer or overseas sourcing. It was quite clear that masks were hard to come by in retails pharmacies and even at government pharmacies at times. Now that we have photos of our PM and his cabinet wearing mask during their meeting tells the obvious. The lack of public hospital beds has been a problem of many year with the long wait time between transfer from A&E to wards taking hours sometimes up to 12-20 hours is proof of that. We cannot degrade this deficit in healthcare facilities under the bus of more urgent matters any longer without paying a dear price as has been shown in various parts of the world recording needlessly higher mortality due to a lack of hospital beds and ventilators.

Power and Influence

Differential between power and authority is so dated and infantile and needs no introduction for any exposed to introductory management and further verbiage would be waste of previous newsprint. The same might NOT be for power and influence.

Earliest record has Influence as a borrowed word from the French language around 14 century AD as an astrological term. Streaming ethereal power from the stars acting upon the character or destiny of men was described by Webster. This was when understanding of celestial or astrological bodies were more folklore and religious in origin than fact based science. One could attribute a more indirect, persuasive or even mystical intonations to it although later usage does imply the inclusion of power as one of the components.

Power on the hand according to Merriam has its etymology from a vulgar Latin root word possibly equivalent to modern day potent. It has paw prints synonymously with the likes of authority, possession, control of, establishment and most importantly force. A possible diametric complement to imply use of a large force instead of sporadic or individual sustenance can also be reasonably attributed.

The Orwellian maxim of absolute power corrupts absolutely and the USA constitution on the right to bear arms must have some parallelism as the first major constitution of republican origin. The last major preceding was most probably the magna carter under a royalist backdrop where not all man are born equal. The central theme is not gun control or anywhere near that for the matter.

Influence generally have to be earned constantly and would ebb as quickly if not faster than it rises so it is less of an issue. Power once attained can be monopolized or entrenched ad infinitum legitimately, illegitimately or pseudo legitimately. Power like opium is highly addictive and a reading of political history from ancient times to recent past will attest.

Democracy is the governance through the will of the majority represented by their candidates through regular elections for a term of about 4 - 6 years generally. The minority will therefore have to live with the will of the majority so long as their basic human endeavors are not trespassed grossly. A direct democracy is not sustainable save perhaps in utopia.

Limits on term of government like in USA to 2 terms is a possible safeguard though not perfect as a puppet or proxy could very well overcome the limitations but it is not easily mounted. The bigger challenge of limited term is the challenges of seat warming by office bearers in their final term for which there is no easy answer. If auditors of public or listed companies are beginning to be rotated, why mot politicians.

Another apparatus is the segregation between, executive branch consisting of the politicians voted into office, civil service which must be apolitical and serve the executive branch within legislature. A good read or watch of the twin volume/serial of Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister by BBC would provide good public education on it in a comical setting. Last but not least is the judiciary for which independence is like the capstone of ancient architecture. Though small as compared to the rest, its absence can cause the entire structure to collapse.

There are no easy answers to such difficult questions nor should there be confrontational my way or highway which is so ancient, archaic and infantile especially for elected office bearers. A more congenial way is a good way forward as it will make the process of any power transition less painful. Unless the incumbent is hopelessly addicted and only intends to stay forever.

Airline Pricing and Singapore Public Healthcare Pricing andSubsidyRationing

28^th September 2016 Peter LYE

In “Secrets and agents”, the Economist narrated how airlines are leveraging the theory of information asymmetry grand fathered by George Akerlof who finally won a Nobel Prize in economics in 2001 after agonizing for nearly four decades after he wrote “The Market for Lemons” which was rejected by three leading journals. He might more easily be identified as the husband of Janet Yellen chairman, Federal Reserve Board although he is definitely a man in his own right. Some wonder the major topic of their pillow talk when these two bed fellows dissertated on lemons and unemployment?

Air-conditioning has been effectively used as a primary pricing differentiator as Mr. Lee Kuan Yew himself admittedly responded that air conditioning was the greatest invention of this century in a 2001 RTHK interview. In temperate climates and beyond, air-conditioning is a must as winter chill can kill. In the tropics, air-conditioning can be a difficult luxury to forgo especially for sick patients with Singapore being nick named an air-conditioned city. Why deprive our sick when it is all and sundry at most public locations including public offices when the incremental cost can be marginal in buildings that are already equipped to be centrally air-conditioned?

Before posthumous arrows gets directed at him, recognition must be accorded to his practical wisdom in leveraging on airline pricing model that rest partly on Akerlof Information Asymmetry although doubts abound that the two are or can be placed in the same room as no references were made to these academic and commercial exploits in his governmental policy.

Public healthcare pricing and subsidy rationing pre 1970s was primarily a non-issue because the middle class was not a sizable addressable market and public healthcare was the backbone of the healthcare system and private healthcare the preserve of the local rich and the well-heeled medical tourist from neighbouring countries. Even at public healthcare, the A class wards were lightly used and C class wards were the norm. The major differentiator between the classes were creature comforts like air-conditioning, private rooms instead of open wards, quality of food not in terms of nutrition but taste and presentation as most hospital meals are dietician directed.

With an ageing population over the horizon, rapid development of medical technology and cost as well as the populace expectation on healthcare, the government most probably predicted that the existing healthcare infrastructure would have to undergo rapid modernization and expansion and the framework to fund it is also not tenable and demanded a fundamental structural change.

The Central Provident Fund (CPF) as the national retirement fund liberalised the use of its fund for healthcare needs through the creation of a separate Medisave Account in 1984 as one of the baby steps. The tables were turned quickly with a sudden frenzied feeding demand for A and B class wards and an emptying out of C class wards. Such was the situation with the waiting list for A and B class wards that resulted in an unprecedented non-medical transfer of patients between wards. Many felt that CPF funds are so tightly locked up and why not use it when you can initially.

Between 1984 and now, healthcare financing has been a regular topic of public discourse and subsequent legislative changes to re-calibrate with the changing spectrum of demography in terms of age profile as well as citizens, permanent residents and foreign talents as the latter two begin to expand more rapidly. Of these measures, three defining progressive landmarks are worthy of mention.

First, the introduction of nation-wide voluntary opt-out basic medical insurance name MediShield in 1990, means testing of healthcare subsidy to lower B2 and C class wards to ration subsidy to the more economically needy and lastly, the almost seamless and unnatural quiet implementation of compulsory universal basic health insurance on 1^st November 2015.

The 1990 voluntary opt out MediShield most probably had limited subscription and success that demanded the last measure in 1st November 2015. This rebirth has many laudable features such as being universal, it is available to all regardless of their medical state as well as a government cum private insurer initiative to address the issue of duplicity of insurance coverage for those with existing insurance coverage with private insurer to a dove-tailed and more cost efficient Integrated MediShield Life Plan. Such knows no other precedent in other countries to learn from and demanded threading on untested waters and it is a deserving of accolades.

A similar initiative in USA known commonly as Obama Care which has been debated to death in public forums as well as the senate and congress, supported and jeopardized by many camps and worthy of a congress vs the president by majority and veto respectively. Perhaps the ability to side-line to a later phase most of the duplicity for employer provided healthcare insurance is the reason for the success as a large quantum of healthcare is employer provided in USA.

As for the means testing to ration health care subsidy to the more economically needy, it could have been a knee jerk reaction to ministerial observation from some quarters that some seemingly wealthy patients are having their expensive heart procedures done at C class ward to save cost. Means testing is a robust sociological tool for government subsidy rationing but wonder whether it is worthwhile as it is not common enough to sight a billionaire like Ingvar Kamprad of Ikea who proudly proclaims that he travels on commercial airline economy class. We certainly do not see airlines reacting to it. On the reverse, such mean testing can land the sandwich class into medically induced bankruptcy or close to it.

"META" Censorship-To Singapore with Love by Tan Pin Pin

Explaining 'meta-data' is like double talk as it literally means data about data. It is fine to be

confused for the moment as the concept shall unveil itself by the end of this piece or I would be in trouble.

The Book

The latest spin in Singapore's chapter of cyber space revolves around the media regulator Media Development Authority (MDA) decision to attach a Not Allowed for All Rating (NAR) to the 2013 film "To Singapore with Love" by Tan Pin Pin. NAR is the apex rating meaning fully banned without exceptions and possession can be criminal as well.

Statement from MDA on their rationale for the NAR is as follows; "MDA has assessed that the contents of the film undermine national security because legitimate actions of the security agencies to protect the national security and stability of Singapore are presented in a distorted way as acts that victimised innocent individuals"

The NAR news went viral quickly on Internet with a plethora of varied comments. Some in

Tan Pin Pin

coarse to the more refined academic and poetic language. Language aside, the contents of the discourse runs through a common vein. Allow it to be screened and let the public be the final arbitrator of truth privately and not collectively as opinions are not likely to be uniform.

Perhaps, the dispensation of communism, race and religion can polarize Singapore into disarray has passed. Singaporeans have grown up and no longer an immature populace requiring paternalistic oversight by the government to keep us safe from harms way.

Not withstanding these, I tend to support that some government operations have to be covert for national interest and even USA acknowledges this. However, these agencies like Secret Service, CIA, FBI and Homeland Security are accountable to a very select and small Congress oversight committee. They do have some form of blank cheque but large cheques will be scrutinized by the oversight committee after the fact as many of these covert operations are time sensitive.

The dictum today's news is tomorrow's history is even embraced by Lee Kuan Yew. He recognized this in his memoir mentioning that most probably some doctoral candidates might choose to research the dispensation on Singapore and Lee Kuan Yew during his rule.

Finally, the raison d'etre for this piece is to facilitate the explanation of the concept of Meta Data. So please do not attach any political affinity to this piece and the author.

There is no denying that chatter ( Meta Data) about the film and its rating by the government most probably generated more and varied materials than the film itself. Some of my friends in sales and marketing went so far as "Dirt Sells" by way of free news print acreage. People are curious by nature. Banning it will generate more curiosity. Perhaps law makers should consider censoring 'Meta Data' if there is ever such a phrase or even possible.

Ebola-An Economic & Political Solution?

The 1995 movie "Outbreak" by Morgan Freeman portrayed an Ebloa like outbreak but is manufactured in Hollywood so take it with a pinch of salt. The six month old Ebola crisis which started in Guinea, has spread to Liberia and Sierra Leone and claimed about 2,100 lives. It caught the attention of the world but not serious enough move them to response at the requisite level. This is important as the solution to the problem might lie in the economic and political sphere than medicine.

The SARS outbreak in 2003 grabbed global attention with a quick world-wide clarion call coordinated by WHO. The response to Ebola had been tardy and half hear-ted thus far. Voices of politicians have been anything but lip service literally.

The reason could be manifold one of which is “The long and ugly tradition of treating Africa as a dirty, diseased place” written by Laura Seay and Kim Yi Dionne for The Washington Post. The global community must rid itself of this old dictum and rise to the occasion by embracing all human lives as equal. ( but some are more equal than others; punt intended from Animal Farm).

Ebola’s historical mortality rate is close to 90% according to WHO but experts are reporting rates in the neighborhood of 60%-80% in the field this time round. This could be due to better care. In comparison, SARS actual mortality rate for the 2003 outbreak was only 9.6%.

Both diseases have some commonality. Proven preventative (vaccine) and therapeutic treatments are not available. Only supportive care to help the body fight the disease is available.

A number of drugs are in various stages of development but nowhere near human trial. Some quarters propose deploying them into the field immediately with little to loose in view of such high mortality. Some objections seem valid but others sound frivolous.

Firstly, it could kill the patient and unleash dangerous novel disease. There is no Bio-Safety-Level (BSL) facility in the field and accidents might lead to catastrophic outcomes.

Scientist that live in glass houses are even voicing that there is no means to construct proper double blind trial test and therefore the outcome is of limited future scientific value.

The supply is limited and cannot be increased quickly. Decisions on who gets the drug might be a sociological nightmare.

The administrators or politicians at FDA in USA do not want a binding precedent that drug companies might exploit in future. The affected 3 African countries' equivalent “FDA” are primordial and grossly lacking in scientific capabilities and they are unlikely to be the road block.

The real life field situation is akin to the movie “Outbreak” but the similarity ends with the solution. The “Index” primate was located in a remotely improbable drama fueled by the imagination of the script writer. The extracted anti-gen works like an elixir in delivering an almost instant cure. The anti-gen was mass produced and distributed and the day was saved by Morgan Freeman. We are not witnessing such solutions in Africa.

The solution to the Ebola epidemic in Africa is right in front of us.

Firstly, it has been proven that with better supportive treatment, the mortality rate goes down drastically. This has been proven to a small extent by the few cases that were repatriated back for treatment. Although we cannot be totally sure of the outcome, we are definitely sure that this course of action have little or no risk but might drain the treasuries as air dropping military field hospitals and personnel is not going to be cheap. Politicians are unlikely to support this because of Not In My Backyard (NIMBY) as the R0 or the measure of infectiousness is low and therefore remote possibility of Ebola reaching their shores unlike SARS which has a higher R0. In addition, if it does, the collateral damage is minimal as it is easily contained with good health infrastructure.

Secondly, there is proof to support Ebola as an orphan disease. Since its discovery in 1976, the number cases is not exactly small but the patients are mostly the poor in Africa with limited capability to pay for the drug. There is limited incentive for drug companies to invest in. Other funding channels to fund or co-fund such initiatives are government, charitable foundations and NGOs. Even with such assistance, it is not easy to attract talent into such specialties in enough numbers to support a viable infrastructure for such work.

The process from Bench to Bed is an insidiously long process because drugs are becoming more complex and harder to test for efficacy, safety and many other factors. Man kind cannot be so myopic and be directed by $ alone.

We might not have a medical cure for Ebola but as a global community, we do have the means to arrest this outbreak by putting enough resources and change cultural norms in Africa. The will to do so by politicians might be weaker as it seems that Africa had brought this upon her self.

28th September 2016 Peter LYE

28^th September 2016 Peter LYE