III For A II
(or: 342)


The joys of international commerce
(Source: cnn.com)

The Greatest Game is playing out slowly in the Middle East, with the U.S. Navy reportedly hitting three Iranian oil tankers last week, after Iran had attempted an attack on two of their ships. This had the Iranian side then claim to have targeted six vessels, with the latest exchange from several days ago reportedly having Iran respond to a fresh American strike on five ships with ten of their own - to a blanket denial by CENTCOM. This had amateur mathematicians attempt to work out whether a geometric series* was in play, and how long it would take for the barely over nine thousand tankers available globally, to be chewed through if so.

And while other world leaders might have gone golfing or simply slacked off at home on Labour Day, the indefatigable and incomparably high-energy GEOTUS TRUMP would keep up his marathon improv insult comedy set through the holiday, and I gotta admit that I quite liked his Green Lantern impersonation** that used the ring's powers more creatively than the DC Comics original would have. He then drew a warm response from multiple countries such as Iceland, Mexico and Cuba after posting a map showing them as part of the American family; seeing as this is a man who got a whole ocean named after his East Coast casinos, though, I'm not betting against him.

Certainly, one can hardly recall another personage as colourful as TRUMP, who would then declare that he had been carried away from Ground Zero by firefighters - this may be a little unfair given how popular a movie on similar tall tales by a distant cousin had been, and that guy couldn't even pronounce his last name correctly! As of now, TRUMP has tentatively extended his performance until after the November midterms, and while foils such as Krugman have decried rising gas prices, it might be considered that all this may fall under the GOD-EMPEROR's strategy - including an inexplicable-sounding increase in U.S. gasoline stockpiles following delayed reporting by the US Energy Information Administration, as hinted.

But TRUMP can hardly be blamed for the delay, given how slow other nations have been to commit; South Korea's naval force commitment is being slow-walked from how they have just dispatched a fact-finding team, but one figures that GEOTUS is entirely willing to wait them - and their other "allies" - out. On this, he has just declined a request for military action against the Houthis by the Saudi crown prince, likely because he wants them personally involved in the Team Blue-Team Red conflict (with Iran directly threatening South Korea were they to enter Hormuz), much as Europe is being lured into (and by) Ukraine...


$$$ For A $$


Aren't we on the same Team, why so insensitive?
(Source: google.com, ref. the BBC and CNBC)

And while GEOTUS TRUMP has taken a leaf out of the Singaporean political playbook by offering US$5000 in cold, hard cash (and not CDC vouchers) to every citizen were his party to win said midterms, our local government has just announced a one-off increment of up to 9% for political appointment holders, if with a somewhat more generous salary benchmark possibly to take effect in the future. This came immediately after a debate in Parliament on the subject (after it got put off back in June), and stands testament to the sheer efficiency of our system (when those in charge want something to happen, anyway)

This was ripe for international attention given that the previous (downwards) adjustment had been some fifteen years back, with our Prime Minister's new recommended annual take of S$3.6 million (up from S$2.2 million) drawing its share of both admiring and derisive comments. This is by the way pegged to twice the salary of an entry-level minister (now S$1.8 million), with mayors and (senior) parliamentary secretaries at the bottom of this list with a 0.45 ratio (S$810k a year)

Here, I would like to apologize for a previous misconception, where it was implied that a minister would collect a separate salary for each of multiple portfolios; it was explicitly clarified that political appointment holders would get only one (assumed the higher) salary package. That said, typical bonuses come close to ten months of variable pay, if still coming under the top tax bracket of 24% for chargeable income above a million dollars - which implies that a local Cabinet Minister would (soon) expect to take home slightly over S$2 million annually.


Doesn't seem like a big change, when put like this
(Source: r/SingaporeRaw)

The domestic response online has expectedly not been overly positive, largely centering around the perceived poor timing of the increment given a growing income and wealth gap (i.e. a "K-shaped economy"), as well as the (in)appropriateness of benchmarking ministers' salaries to the median income of the top 1000 highest-earning citizens***, if with a 40% discount to reflect the ethos of public service. This would be revisited by various Members of Parliament, with well-worn suggestions to instead peg the salaries to the median income (currently about S$4000) or similar metrics, to better reflect the common man.

Our PM has taken the lead by donating his full salary increase for the next five years (while not expecting**** the others to do the same, ahem), but his claim that the government did not intend to use higher pay to attract new candidates was apparently not readily accepted by netizens, some of whom brought up the usual comparison with conscription (National Service), where duty (and piddly allowances) had been sold as priceless (and which may have contributed to Singaporeans being comfortably at the bottom of a recent YouGov/IPSOS survey that had only 36% willing to defend the country)

From another perspective, however, it can reasonably be argued that Cabinet Ministers (and Permanent Secretaries) do have a job scope comparable to CEOs of medium-to-large commercial enterprises, with most of them responsible for thousands of subordinates; seen in this light, the better question may be why politicians in other countries aren't being paid more, if a high level of competency is expected. The absolute cost is actually not that great (about S$5 million extra annually, given that there are just 16 ministers, 10 of them moreover at the baseline grade, four parliamentary secretaries and five mayors), all the more when compared to say the NBA (median salary of S$7.6 million, for 482 players)

On this, the WP chief would raise popular queries on the need for so many mayors, and it was probably not the best time for the Speaker to be caught sleeping, but he does have some of my sympathy in this case, given that he was at least present!


[*2,3,6,8,10 does have multiple sequences in The On-line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences (OEIS), so we may need to wait a while more for clarity here.]

[**Haters will say that it's A.I. generated, like they did for the Hamster vs. Ngannou MMA contest, which ended by chokeout after a knee takedown. Then again, had I not witnessed it in person, I probably wouldn't have believed it either.]

[***By my understanding, this would be equivalent to the average salary of the 500th and 501st-highest earners, who might be under some stress if they knew who they were!]

[****The GOD-EMPEROR TRUMP donates his full salary, of course, while transparently offering early access to his wisdom for a suitable fee, instead of burdening the taxpayer.]


[To be continued...]