Now you suffer....

17 May 2012

I'm quite proud of Singapore, in a way.

Oh, the people in general suck because they think they've made it big. Spend lots of money on cars (most expensive in the world, hello?)m housing and think just because they have credit cards that they can treat their domestic help like shit.

(Yes, this is a generalisation. Also, one of my BIGGEST peeves. Ask me about it, I shan't rant it out here.)

So when I found this article from EconomyWatch, I was pretty stoked. Yay!

But bearing in mind that we punch about our weight internationally, we also contribute a lot. 

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) on Friday announced that Singapore will make a bilateral loan of US$4 billion to the IMF but stressed that this contribution will be by way of contingent loans to the Fund, and not directly to countries borrowing from it. "Hence, as with our permanent capital subscriptions to the IMF (or quota subscriptions), this bilateral loan will remain part of Singapore's Official Foreign Reserves," MAS said in a statement..... 

..... Besides the pledge by Singapore, Australia committed US$7 billion, Republic of Korea US$15 billion and the UK US$15 billion, bringing the total pledged yesterday to US$41 billion. 

Dudes, allow me to do a comparison, population wise: 

SG =  5.1 million 

AU = 22.3 million 

KR = 48.8 million 

UK = 62.2 million 

Something one should also note : that 5.1 million is inclusive of about 1.4 million migrant workers who come here to do mainly blue collar jobs like domestic cleaning, and manual/construction etc. At that tax bracket, their taxes paid are pretty much negligible. Possibly even zero. Less than 5% of said foreign workers are PMEBs. 

Summary? I shouldn't have to explain how out of proportion our offered contribution is. 

Gah, I could only wish that others had similar work ethics. The debacle going over in Greece is what's got my goat right now. For a country so far away to me, it's managed to aggravate me with it's population's collective stupidity. Sins of father coming down IN SPADES on your children now, and they are having none of your bullshit.

Oh, and that money you're getting for bailout? It's not falling from the sky. It's TAXPAYERS money from other EU countries. 

I won't link any of the dozen articles I've read. There are so many out there, trying to analyze the situation, it's crazy. 

And I'm seriously hoping Greece will get the big'ol boot up the arse.