From The Economist’s ‘The Dollar’s Demise’:

The upward pressure on Asian countries’ currencies stems either from their saving too much and consuming too little, or from America saving too little and spending too much. American politicians, naturally, tend to concentrate on the first interpretation, because it stops them having to recommend unpleasant remedies, such as cutting deficits or encouraging Americans to save more…In effect, foreigners are saving on America’s behalf. In a recent study…the United States now absorbs more than the measured net saving of the rest of the world combined…The American economy cannot continue to expand at its current rate without those foreign savings…

At the heart of the (Asian) central banks’ calculations is a trade-off: intervening to keep your currency down can be costly, but it is good for exports. Though the costs of intervention are hard to quantify, they are potentially big. Because the domestic money supply is expanded—those dollars must be paid for with something—it can cause inflation (though this can be neutralised through “sterilisation”, ie, bond sales). But the big potential cost is in amassing a huge stash of dollars with precious little exit strategy. Quite simply, Asian central banks now own too many of them to exit en masse, for their exit would cause the dollar to crash and American interest rates to soar, which would cause huge losses on their holdings of Treasuries.

So the uh-oh comes from the fact that:

…for Singapore, the most extreme example, a 10% appreciation against the dollar and other reserve currencies would lead to a currency capital loss of 10% of GDP.

Economic game theorists would have a field day with this one:

The incentives to flee the Asian cartel (to give it its proper name) thus increase the bigger the game becomes. Why take the risk that another central bank will leave you carrying the can? Better to get out early. Because the game is thus so unstable it will come to an end, and probably a messy one. And what will then happen to the dollar? It is hard to imagine its hegemony remaining unchallenged when so many will have lost so much. And doubly so given that America has abused the dollar’s reserve-currency role so egregiously that its finances now look more like those of a banana republic than an economic superpower.

By my definition then, I sure as hell love looking at the "I love" category. Notwithstanding the kind of art you see in say Musee d’Orsay in Paris (my favorite museum experience of all time. Of course, I can’t explain why, but I just remember spending 6 glorious hours just staring at things), I see a couple of stuff here and there in everyday life (especially the cafe scene in San Francisco) that I would love to have at home. Those serendipitous meeting with "I love" art comes only once in a while.

One of the "I love" art was actually done by Jules. We had dinner over at Alex&Jules’ place a couple of months ago and she had a simple painting she did up in the living room, and I spent the entire dinner distracted by the painting cos I love it. I wanted to buy it. She said she’d do a customized one for me as a house warming gift. Jules, if you are reading this, I’m still waiting for my gift. ;p

Another one was at a Thai restaurant down by the Temasek building. I loved it when I saw it. It was for sale. It could very well be the first piece of art I’m gonna buy in Singapore…stay tuned.

Another one is this one I scrolled by at Red Sea Gallery, by an artist called Tran Kiet.

But unless someone is intending to buy me a $800 Christmas present, I’m not gonna be able to buy it anytime soon. Luckily this $7,000 one that I would really really love to have in my home and stare at all day is already sold. Or Santa’s gonna be really hard pressed this year.

If I were to be a millionairess, preferably billionairess, I don’t envision a life of the big diamonds, fashion shows, big houses to feature on MTV’s Cribs, bitches and hos, or yaughts to snort coke on off the coast of Miami. I can see myself jetting off (private jet of course) to exotic places in the world in search for art to add to my collection, which would be displayed…oh wait, maybe I’d get a big house to feature the art in the documentary on my life, a la Lars Ulrich’s collection as featured in Some Kind of Monster.

First, we actually have a Restroom Association of Singapore (RAS)!
Second, they give out Happy Toilet awards, ranked by stars!
Third, "It’s not just about cleanliness but about ergonomics"!

Singapore – A petrol station that turned its bathroom into a "refreshroom" received the Restroom Association of Singapore’s "Happy Toilet" award, the RAS said on Tuesday.

The Caltex station’s spick and span facilities feature automatic activation of the flush, soap, sink and hand dryer.

The station is the first in the transportation sector to receive the five-star designation by Singapore’s crusaders for clean public toilets. Assuring toilets are clean, airy and devoid of odour is just the beginning.

"It’s not just about cleanliness but about ergonomics," said RAS founder and president Jack Sim. "For example, a shorter distance from the sink to the dryer means less water splattered on the floor."

The toilets at the station are inspected every hour. – Sapa-dpa

So we were having dinner with Emily and Rutherford* last night having a conversation about my dear country as usual. Emily and I are of the same sort. We love this country dearly, but just as much there is that endears us, there is more that fascinates, shocks, scares us. As the conversation tumbled along, and as we casually flip through the day’s papers simultaneously, I spluttered at this article (a more hilarious version in yesterday’s Streats, I must add, but I couldn’t find it online), and read it aloud, while the rest of us gaped. I’m dying for Talking Cock to write something up about this.

My country is run like a primary school. We have campaigns telling us to "wash your hands thoroughly, cover your mouth while you sneeze", there are roadshows at Great World City telling you about "Responsible Pet Ownership", and every fucking campaign heavily uses cutesy CARTOONS to pass on the Message.

The conversation was duly pitted between the Americans (Rutherford and Patrick) who can see with clear detachment the insaneness of their policies (granted, Patrick complains as much about Californian/Floridian/American politics and society as he does about Singapore), and the Singaporeans (Emily and I) who have probably been brainwashed and benefitted enough from this nation that we have to struggle to question ("the problem with this country," said Emily "is that so much of it seems to make sense"); at the same time, we struggle loving it simply and wholeheartedly because this country sure ain’t simple and wholesome.

In the end, it is a paternalistic state, because the frustrations we feel in this country is like the frustrations we feel with our own parents: there’s always a guilt attached to it because we are products of them, without whom we’d never have been, and for whom we should eternally be thankful for whatever we have (we must admit, we are fortunate well-educated, well-looked after, well-traveled, well-etc)…because at least we aren’t starving or made to wear a veil or barred from education, or fearing for our lives, or etc…, right?

* We will be screening their video Andy Forever on Saturday night pre-Digweed party at our place (9-ish). Come by and check it out.
* Check out their exhibition (scroll down to 5a) at Tanjong Pagar MRT (tunnel towards Temasek) before it goes on 28 Novemeber.

Although its success is tied to the quality and willingness of the users. Given Singapore’s tiny area, you’d think that online e-baying/craigslisting would be more popular than it is.

We just received this photo. Now, this is the kind of clubbing I’m talking about =), not fuckin’ CrApttica!

Danny was chatting with us, doing repeated encores. Forgot to mention that he played a kick-ass jazzy-type Thriller remix in one of his encores as requested by Patrick who’s hair poofed to phenomenal heights by 830am.

I’ve been recently convinced by my brother to do the Firefox switch too. I’ve begun using Firefox because I like the layout better, and the newly released version is far better than the beta version I used. Haven’t seen any significant differences though, other than the fact that they make it so easy for IE users to make the switch, which means that they make themselves real similar to IE in the first place. But am convinced by my brother’s raves about it so we’ll see.

In any case, I’m not one of those uber anti-Bill Gates Apple user sort. I’m of the fickle consumer sort where as long as you make me happy, I’d patronize. It does seem though, that Microsoft is starting to slack and get beat to its balls. Time will tell. For now, still, Microsoft is still huge…and I still need to keep IE around because some pages still don’t friggin’ show on Firefox. Grrr.

Every once in a while though, I do believe that we are from different planets. That occurs when the topic of sports is on. He woke up early today to follow the Florida-Florida State game (he’s from the former). Spent oodles of time chatting on the phone with his buddies. My brother gave him a play-by-play description on MSN. My brother’s another sports fanatic with whom I spent agonizing childhood days quarelling over the TV (I wanted Disney World, he wanted World of Sports), which led to us being banned from TV by our father. Patrick was bemoaning the fact that he couldn’t watch the game in Singapore, desperately trying to find some crazy bar that would open at 9am to telecast it (*phht* yeah right!). Right now, he’s rooted to watching some soccer game on TV, after spending some time whooping and yelling at his college team’s win, forcing me to yell with him "Go Gators!" Then I get emails from friends proclaiming that Berkeley has got Stanford beat in the Big Game. Oh yay, hurrah, etc.

I must add that this passion and lack thereof cannot be entirely marked male vs female. Patrick’s darling ol’ grandmother is as much of a fanatic on college football as he is. I know some male friends that couldn’t give a flying fuck who won what. While most of them are of the non-macho variety, we know of a very gay man whose complete passion with sports makes me suspect he’s a closet straight (…well, maybe not).

Ultimately, I must be on a different planet as the sports phreaks. Because I am completely clueless to the root of those emotions stirred by their favorite sports teams…even after reading Fever Pitch.