interviewed by chewingleafman

First of all, from a business point of view I would like to say that I think it’s a very good move for Singapore Government to go into a undeveloped market to invest. And then reap the harvest once the investment has matured.

There’re a few factors that will assure us of the profitability of that venture. First of all the growth prediction of undervalued yuan. And second of all the maturity of the China financial market.

Restructuring of Bank of China
I feel sorry for the Singaporean executives who will have to go down there to straighten up the branches. Corruption and abuse of power is rampant in china. The financial services is not spared from the scourge. Recently I came to know about tragic jailing of Ma Ping, a Australian business woman who had factories in china. In the year 1999, She deposited some 60 million USD into a branch of Bank of China in Tianjin . A year later when she tried to make withdrawals of her matured fixed deposits, she was told the money was missing. After making a few appeals to the Tianjin and Beijing court. She was detained by the police under the orders of the perpetrators to silence her. She was detained for 7 months before being sentenced for 6 years for a trumped up fabricated charges. She spent 2 years and 3 months in jail before the Australian government manages to secure her release.

This is not the first and only incident where an investor or business man was conned and then silenced by the organized crime in china. If you’re a Taiwanese, you will be able to share with us all the stories of what your friends or you have seen first hand. Like some of this poor Taiwanese chaps. Or some of this US citizens like David Ji long fen.

The truth about doing business in china is it’s a dangerous affair. The local provincial governments are corrupt and they control the court and police. And the police frequently extract “confessions” through torture and are given the power to detain suspects for 2 and half months incommunicado on suspicion alone. What happened to Ma Ping was due to the fact she rub off the powerful people in the wrong way.

Anyway back to my point. I’m worried about our fellow Singaporean who will be sent to china to chair the boardroom meetings and perhaps restructure the bank. He or she needs to be careful not to stir up the hornets nest. Or else he / she could end up in jail on some trumped up charges. What can happened to a millionaire Australian woman, can very well happened to a Singaporean executive.

Tags: sg, singapore, december, china, Asia, business, east asia, china business, taiwan, Taipei, Current Affairs, News, project chicos, projectchicos

1. Bank of China to sell shares in Hong Kong in early 2006; Temasek stake OK’d
2. Ma Ping’s brother letter of appeal on the internet
3. Australian Businesswoman Slams Torture, Detention in Tianjin
4. Investors in China Beware: Banks Rob Clients of Savings
5. Held Hostage In China
6. The China Syndrome
7. Free Jude Shao

Thanks for agreeing to be on Chicos, Emily.
You’re most welcome. It’s a preasure to be here.

This is a nice room you have. In a nice apartment.
Thank you. I won it in a contest.

What kind of contest?
I joined this daredevil eating contest last year. It was partly sponsored by the MADES (Malaysian-American Durian Eating Society). So naturally durian was one of the things we had to eat. Being the adventurous girl that I am, I rose to the challenge and had a whole big nibble.

Err… that’s ummm.. impressive.
And you know what? After that I didn’t throw up. I usually throw up all the time, partly to lose weight, but this time I didn’t.

What do you do for a living?
I’m a cup tester.

So you test bra cups to see if they meet with international bra sizing standards?
No silly, I mean cups that you drink out of. It’s quite intellectual work actually. I test them to make sure the shape and curve of the lip fit snugly into my mouth.

Err… that’s kinda…. stimulating. I think you would have made a much better bra cup tester.
What? With these little marbles of mine? You are too kind, but you don’t have to lie. I know my boobs are a little on the teeny side. It might be because of all that vomitting that I do. When I’ve saved up enough money to enlarge my boobs by 3 sizes then i might consider getting that bra cup testing job.

Ok, looks like that’s all we have time for. I wish you all the best in your future endeavours.
Oh, you’re so cuuuute when you use them big words.

Daniel by msgreatsmile

Sitting in the starbucks at orchard. I waited for my interviewee to arrive. He’s 10 minutes late. I’m getting a ice crunch as I sip on my
ice blended cuppucino for the sixth time already. I see him now. I quickly turn off  my friendster account on my laptop.
Daniel is a young dynamic and somewhat timid individual. however he’s exudes a ray of coolness and confidence.
Reminds me particular the guys of my JC days. He’s eyes tinkle with a sense of mischievousness. He’s has this edison chen aura
around him

Melyvn The Pianist

What do you think about the hypocrisy of singapore government towards the NS deserter. The pianist. First of all I strongly say that NS was a wonderful experience.  It was a time of character building and bonding for me and my “brothers”. Except may be the naked showers and the dirty toilets. That was a major turn off. Having said that. I do agree there’s a hypocrisy with that issue. If the pianist was a nobody, he did be doing jail time right now. I suspect the quick and swift fine to the pianist has something to do with ASEAN summit happening in Kuala Lumpur this week. Singapore government just do not want to draw attention towards themselves. Come on. 3,000 only for deserting NS. That’s peanuts. Tomorrow all the parents will pay 3,000 for their kids to defer N.S. Then who will be left to defend Singapore.

Recently world famous british pianist Melvyn Tan - formerly Singaporean, scheduled to perform in The Escapade, Singapore. He canceled he’s sold out concert shortly after being fined S$3,000 for avoiding national service.

Kalia by chewingleafman

Kalia is a confident lass from sunny islands of the philipines. She love the beach, life, enjoy surfing the waves that life throws at her. She always comes out smilling. I secretly wonder as I admire her curves, that her confidences sterns from her lovely asserts.Her sensual femine body and her sweet smile. I fantasies meetin g her in a tropical resort pub.

Her sweet voice. Memories of childhood flames, awaken-eager to meet the owner of the voice. She loves attentions and she knows how to get it. She gives a sly smile as she notices my glares. I smiled nerviously as I reach out for the beer bottle.

Shooting in China of innocent protesters

It’s very sad that China that the world that seem to be in awe off stiill not able to shake off their citizen abuse habit of the past and present. No doubt there still need to be tighter controls as peace is important for investors confidences. Which means more jobs for the people. Which means lesser social income gap. But I suspect as the way it is in the philipines. The people in power abuses their power. And the peons always get short change. That protest is a result of of accumulated injustice. Sadly no one is there to protect them when those in need of protection speaks out.

In a way. I’m glad this happend. The china government are really good at poker diplomatics and media spinning. Usually they just activate a media black out. and have their secret police kidnap and torture the protesters behind the scenes. This shooting will have to force the government of the world to open their half close eyes to stand up and condemn the shooting. It’s a sad thing that companies like cisco and microsoft place profit before human rights.

You have nice puppies?
Oh have you seen tamie’s puppies? Tamie’s my baby. Now she’s given me more puppies to take care of. Do you want to see the puppies.

yes. Oh yes.

20 feared dead in China’s Shanwei crackdown
Tuesday, 6/12/05, China. Authorities fired on Shanwei villagers protesting the loss of their farm land and no compensation from the state. The land was claim back to be developed as a power plant. The protesters claimn that 782 million usd was payed to the local authories to be distributed to the land owners. However the protesters never saw any money.