Search the Community

let's get started with some fierce haka

This stance will change the price of goods and services in SG. I think it is a necessary policy move at some juncture, but the effects on the population may not be very positive. http://www.straitstimes.com/business/economy/mas-sets-zero-appreciation-path-for-singdollar-with-switch-to-neutral-policy-stance Monetary Authority of Singapore sets zero appreciation path for Singdollar with switch to neutral policy stance Marissa Lee SINGAPORE - The central bank will set the rate of the Singapore dollar's appreciation to zero per cent, in a move to support economic growth against a dimmer global economic outlook since its last meeting. The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), which uses the currency rather than interest rates to guide the economy said on Thursday (April 14): "This is not a policy to depreciate the domestic currency, and only removes the modest and gradual appreciation path of the S$NEER policy band that was in place." The Singapore dollar tumbled 0.9 per cent to $1.36 levels to the US dollar on the news. At 8:36am, the Singdollar was trading at $1.3626 to the greenback from Wednesday's close of $1.3501. The Singapore dollar has strengthened more than 5 per cent versus the greenback this year as traders pushed back forecasts for when the Federal Reserve will raise US interest rates due to heightened global risks. Thursday's shift to a "neutral poliy stance" is a departure from the policy of modest and gradual S$NEER appreciation that the MAS had adopted since April 2010, after the last financial crisis. The Singapore dollar nominal effective exchange rate, or S$NEER, is a trade-weighted exchange rate in which the currencies of Singapore's larger trading partners bear more weight. The MAS move comes as a surprise to the market - 12 of 18 private sector economists polled by Bloomberg had expected the MAS to maintain its current policy stance at the scheduled bi-annual meeting, rather than ease. MAS eased policy in January and October last year, both times reducing the slope of the Singapore dollar's appreciation path. MAS said on Thursday: "Compared to expectations in October 2015, the Singapore economy is now projected to expand at a more modest pace this year, against the backdrop of a less favourable external environment. MAS Core Inflation is likely to pick up gradually over 2016 as the disinflationary effects of Budgetary and other one-off measures fade. However, the increase in core inflation will be milder than earlier expected." "CPI-All Items inflation will remain negative throughout 2016. Over the medium term, core inflation is expected to average slightly below 2 per cent." The central bank adjusts the pace of appreciation or depreciation of the Singdollar by changing the slope, width or centre of the band. It does not disclose details of the basket, the band, and the pace of appreciation or depreciation. The MAS holds its next policy meeting in October.

THIS IS A GREAT PIECE . One young academically excellent person went to apply for a managerial position in a big company. He passed the first interview, the director did the last interview, made the last decision. The director discovered from the CV that the youth's academic achievements were excellent all the way, from the secondary school until the postgraduate research, never had a year when he did not score. The director asked, "Did you obtain any scholarships in school?" the youth answered "none". The director asked, " Was it your father who paid for your school fees?" The youth answered, "My father passed away when I was one year old, it was my mother who paid for my school fees. The director asked, " Where did your mother work?" The youth answered, "My mother worked as clothes cleaner. The director requested the youth to show his hands. The youth showed a pair of hands that were smooth and perfect. The director asked, " Have you ever helped your mother wash the clothes before?" The youth answered, "Never, my mother always wanted me to study and read more books. Furthermore, my mother can wash clothes faster than me. The director said, "I have a request. When you go back today, go and clean your mother's hands, and then see me tomorrow morning.* The youth felt that his chance of landing the job was high. When he went back, he happily requested his mother to let him clean her hands. His mother felt strange, happy but with mixed feelings, she showed her hands to the kid. The youth cleaned his mother's hands slowly. His tear fell as he did that. It was the first time he noticed that his mother's hands were so wrinkled, and there were so many bruises in her hands. Some bruises were so painful that his mother shivered when they were cleaned with water. This was the first time the youth realized that it was this pair of hands that washed the clothes everyday to enable him to pay the school fee. The bruises in the mother's hands were the price that the mother had to pay for his graduation, academic excellence and his future. After finishing the cleaning of his mother hands, the youth quietly washed all the remaining clothes for his mother. That night, mother and son talked for a very long time. Next morning, the youth went to the director's office.. The Director noticed the tears in the youth's eyes, asked: " Can you tell me what have you done and learned yesterday in your house?" The youth answered, " I cleaned my mother's hand, and also finished cleaning all the remaining clothes' The Director asked, " please tell me your feelings." The youth said, Number 1, I know now what is appreciation. Without my mother, there would not the successful me today. Number 2, by working together and helping my mother, only I now realize how difficult and tough it is to get something done. Number 3, I have come to appreciate the importance and value of family relationship. The director said, " This is what I am looking for to be my manager. I want to recruit a person who can appreciate the help of others, a person who knows the sufferings of others to get things done, and a person who would not put money as his only goal in life. You are hired. Later on, this young person worked very hard, and received the respect of his subordinates. Every employee worked diligently and as a team. The company's performance improved tremendously. A child, who has been protected and habitually given whatever he wanted, would develop "entitlement mentality" and would always put himself first.. He would be ignorant of his parent's efforts. When he starts work, he assumes that every person must listen to him, and when he becomes a manager, he would never know the sufferings of his employees and would always blame others. For this kind of people, who may be good academically, may be successful for a while, but eventually would not feel sense of achievement. He will grumble and be full of hatred and fight for more. If we are this kind of protective parents, are we really showing love or are we destroying the kid instead?* You can let your kid live in a big house, eat a good meal, learn piano, watch a big screen TV. But when you are cutting grass, please let them experience it. After a meal, let them wash their plates and bowls together with their brothers and sisters. It is not because you do not have money to hire a maid, but it is because you want to love them in a right way. You want them to understand, no matter how rich their parents are, one day their hair will grow gray, same as the mother of that young person. The most important thing is your kid learns how to appreciate the effort and experience the difficulty and learns the ability to work with others to get things done.

E A P (Employee Appreciation Program) Photo taken from Mr Jun Malan (Aniceto) Facebook FOREMAN / QUALITY ROAD TESTER at TOYOTA QATAR

I find that songs written before I was born sounds nicer than music contemporary to my generation. These songs have simple melody and lyrics but will still sound nice a long time from now. Blowing in the wind (Nice cover version) (Cover by Queen)

just wanna say how happy i am with Saber's work. went down two weeks ago for inspection and servicing, and even though the weather was blazing hot, he took half an hour to fine tune my SU carb. most of the time he stood over the running engine with the heat raising up, causing sweat to drip from his face. he even drove the car out three times in between so that he could get it just right. net result is my car exhaust no longer spews smoke when warming up, and smoke on hard acceleration is reduced. he really takes pride in his work

Art, re-interpreted... http://www.worth1000.com/contest.asp?contest_id=23597

As part of the plan to get everyond in the meetup to learn and appreciate music better one of the experiemental new item that we plan to do is to review an (audiophile) CD each week so that ICE/Home Hifi lovers will expand their musical horizon. What we will do is to pick a few tracks from a CD each week.do some auditon (not hi-fi sense) and we will sampling on one of our member vehicle (preferably a MPV, so that we can 5-6 member to do the session together). Hopefully this would be volunteered and rotated among music lovers so that we are in diversity and have an enjoyable evening home. Since being seen pioneer in this idea (acutally i have done that in my tertiary days), let me kick this off. I will get our interested members to reference to one of my favourite disc which i have been listening for at least 18 years. Radka Toneff - Fairytales. - Genre: Jazz and Recital. Publised on LP 1979, Odin 1982 CD. Synopsis TONEFF, Radka (b 25 June '52, Oslo, Norway; d 21 Oct. '82) FairyTales '82 on Odin (duet with Steve Dobrogosz). FairyTales was off-putting for jazz purists because of its title and 'new-agey' cover art, but was her best album, with a version of 'The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress' soon issued on an Odin CD sampler: people who heard it began scrambling for Toneff's albums, but she was already gone. Her sudden death was described by newspapers as a suicide, but friends said that although she brought it on herself, it was an accident Session suggestion to start : 2300 hours. Period 10 minutes. Interested Parties: (just post your name here) 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Thanks and hope to see you.