WON'T
GET FOOLED AGAIN [till the next boo-boo]
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THE STORY
PARLIAMENT WANTED YOU TO HEAR
The nation-builder press, Mar 13 2003.
According to General Lee Hsien Loong, "times are bad but costs have gone down, not up" he argued in $ingapore's parliament. This is what the nation-builder press reported:
"Wrapping up the Budget debate yesterday, [General] Lee noted that the Consumer Price Index [CPI], which tracks price movements for a basket of goods and services, fell by 0.4 per cent last year. And except for education and health-care costs, which rose 'marginally', he said prices have come down across the board."
The
above is from a press release from $ingapore's Department of Statistics, January
2003. For more, visit http://www.singstat.gov.sg/press/cpi.pdf
The Department of Statistics, $ingapore issued a press statement earlier for the Consumer Price Index for January 2003 and concluded that:
"[t]he consumer price index in January 2003 increased by 0.9 per cent over January 2002."
On Jan 1 2003, the Minister of Finance, the same General Lee, imposed an extra 1 % to the GST, a sales tax, to raise $650 million for the government. He has promised to raise the GST by another 1% on Jan 1 2004, to raise even more money. The sales tax would raise prices on all goods and services in $ingapore and be a burden to $ingaporeans.
THE STORY YOU
WANTED TO HEAR
If there were stories every
$ingaporean wanted to hear it was probably these:
- How $ingapore has
suddenly failed so dramatically?
- Why we pay our ministers
million dollar salaries despite their inability to foresee the pitfalls and
to steer $ingapore safely ahead?
- Why the first to
suffer from any failure are the people, and not policy-makers?
ANOTHER VIEW OF SIA... FROM THE REAR
The nation-builder
press, Mar 14 2003.
Yet another major investigation is now underway to find out how an SIA 747 jet, SQ286, could have damaged its tail when taking off from Auckland in New Zealand. The reports coming from New Zealand newspapers are more detailed. Here are more of the news:
- Silvana Tizzoni said: "When we took off I instantly knew the plane was dragging. I was on the side with the engine and I could hear it making grunting noises like it was straining... Then they mentioned part of the plane was on fire. I was sweating, but I was trying to be positive."
- With the bottom of the tail smoking and torn, the plane was forced to circle close to the airport and make an emergency landing. Emergency services lined the runway, and Auckland and Middlemore Hospitals were put on standby in case of mass casualties.
- Singapore Airlines said the crew of SQ286 did not know of the problem until a fire alarm in the cockpit sounded soon after take-off.
- No fuel was dumped because the pilot did not know whether the tail was on fire.
- The accident damaged the plane's auxiliary power unit (APU), so an engine had to be left running to power the plane while shocked passengers were led off. The plane was moved to a remote bay and secured.
- Boeing's website says the company has examined tail strikes to its aircraft, taking into consideration weather conditions, flight recorder information and interviews with flight crews. It found that a "significant factor" was crews' lack of experience with the model being flown.
- Last night, an Air New Zealand Boeing 747 pilot said he was stunned by the damage to the plane. "I've never seen anything like it. It would take quite some doing ... It would be hard to do intentionally, let alone accidentally." He said the cause was most likely pilot error because the plane had been able to land. He had heard of tail strikes on landing but never on take-off.
- Passengers said the pilot had told them the plane would be making an emergency landing in Christchurch, but they thought he "might just have been frazzled".
- Auckland Airport managing director John Goulter said the runway was shut for more than two hours and 15 flights were diverted to Hamilton, Wellington and Christchurch.
SIA SAYS IT WAS A "PRECAUTIONARY LANDING"
This is what was
reported on ST Interactive, Mar 12 2003
"SIA plane damages tail in take-off at Auckland
SINGAPORE -- A Singapore Airlines 747 struck its tail on the runway at Auckland International Airport during takeoff on Wednesday and had to make a 'precautionary' landing, an airline spokesman said.
"The Singapore-bound flight was carrying 368 passengers when the incident happened at 2.29 pm Auckland time and landed at 3.23 pm after dumping fuel, SIA spokesman Innes Willox said.
" 'It appeared to have had a tail strike on its takeoff from Auckland and as a precautionary measure, the captain returned to Auckland, after dumping fuel,' he said."
NO FUEL WAS DUMPED. THE JET LANDED WITH FULL FUEL TANKS.
This is the latest
$ingapore investigation after the recent Mercedes Benz and MRT train collision
and the sea collision of the Navy's RSS Courageous. To date, there have been
no news updates on the investigations. In the case of the MRT incident, the
identity of the Mercedes driver remains a secret while the Navy is taking a
super long time to report on why and how their sophisticated vessel could not
avoid a gigantic tanker. The SIA pilot has also not been identified.
You can read more at Sammyboy website. Search for this: Kamakazi SIA pilot closes AKL Airport.
POOR CO-ORDINATION OF PROPAGANDA
The nation-builder
press, Mar 7 2003
The nation-builder
press, Mar 10 2003.
"Been
drinking again."
- The young,
restless and cynical Mirror of Opinion, Mar 10 2003
