How to con the daft people

I will use a simple example to illustrate how easy it is to con the daft people. As Sun Tzu wrote, know your enemy know your strength, winning is assured. Take the case of education, knowing that the daft people are all for glory, to be Number One for the right or wrong reasons,  and better still if this can be bought by money, just sell the glory to them. You can find it in many fields. Let me show you how it can be done.

Tell the daft people you can make their universities ranked among the top universities in the world, practically for free.  Whatever that means, no need to bother with the cost and returns and any adverse consequences. And tell them with a little effort their universities can even rank higher than Cambridge or Harvard, you can put them into your pocket. But don’t tell them there is no free lunch. They did not know there is no such thing as free lunch although their idol founding father had told them many times. And to tell them that they could get it for free, my goodness, you can literally see their saliva turning into ponding.

The method is like this. Tell them to subscribe to your ranking system. Tell them it is an internationally recognized system, reputable some more. And if their universities are ranked among the tops, it is something to be proud of, very prestigious, never mind if the students turned out to be duds, unemployable. That is the students’ problem, not your problem.

Once they are sold, tell them to hire foreigners, at least 30% or more, to give the universities an international feel and look. Foreigners are always seen as better than the daft locals. The grass is always greener over the fence. Then tell them to bring in foreign students also, 30% or more the merrier. Con them to believe that with the presence of foreigners, somehow their students would become smarter or appear to be smarter and the universities will somehow become better or more reputable. And the universities would also be more desirable.

When they swallow this line of conning, they would go back and do all the silly things without thinking. They would sack their own citizen lecturers and hire foreign lecturers at higher pay to turn the universities into foreign universities to serve foreign interests. Never mind, it is OPM. And if their citizen lecturers lost their jobs, tell them they are not good enough and they themselves are to blame. See, providing employment to foreigners against the interest of their citizens they would also do.  Maybe they also think that the country belongs to the whole world, so what is the problem of the universities belonging to foreigners. Whose money is being spent to feed the foreigners, who cares? Then 20 years forward, they would find out that they don’t have local talents in the universities like in the banking and finance industries. Then they will start to talk about planning ahead for a citizen core like real.

What about foreign students? Who cares? As long as they are good for the university’s ranking, if no foreign students want to come, they would use taxpayer’s money to pay for the foreign students to come. And they would not even spare a thought at the thousands of places they are snatching away from the children of their citizens. As long as the university ranking is high, they would claim they have achieved something, done well, for who never mind. Our universities are world class.

The net effect would be the hollowing of local lecturers in the universities and many children of the citizens being deprived of university places. And the foreigners will be laughing themselves silly for the easy money they are getting. Where in the world got govt allowing universities to pay, train and nurture foreigners using tax payers’ money? How would all these affect the interests of the citizens is of no concern. And they may even put up letters by grateful foreign lecturers and students saying thank you for their generosity in their notice boards. And these daft would be so elated, feeling so good that the foreigners really appreciate what they have done for them, throwing money at them.

See the recipe for the daft? Daft people easy to con or not? It sure works one. For the sake of a little superficial glory, they would do anything, sacrifice the interests of their citizens and use the taxpayer’s money with no qualms about it. The citizens, the parents and students craving for a place in the universities can cry their hearts out, who cares?

See, under my watch the university is world class in ranking! Paid for by OPM. The trick is to look for a silly country to put this into practice. Which country in the world would allow this to happen? Which country’s top academics would be silly enough to be conned by this formula? Can it really happen?

The above is of course a fantasy. It would not happen. It can’t. Top academics and govt leaders are all top talents and would not dare to waste taxpayers’s money on foreigners at the expense of the taxpayers for a cheap glory scam.

An easier method would be to follow what the football leagues are doing. Buy up top universities and change their names to the name of the country buying it. Instant world famous universities!

Scholarship for foreigners – How many and how much have been spent?

Mr Heng Swee Keat: The annual number of scholarships awarded to international students at the undergraduate level has come down in recent years. Since 2012, about 900 such scholarships are awarded each year.

The scholarships include school fees, and typically include accommodation and some allowances. The annual cost per scholarship is about $25,000 on average.

The questions were to get an update from data I had obtained when I first entered parliament. In January and February 2012, MOE had revealed then that it awards 170 and 900 scholarships at the undergraduate level each year to ASEAN and non-ASEAN students respectively, making a total of 1,070 new international scholars a year. Budget per scholar then was between $18,000 and $25,000 a year….

At $25,000 per year per international scholar and with a scholarship lasting typically 4 years, the annual budget on international scholars would be $25,000 x 900 x 4, giving a total of $90 million a year (this figure excludes the amount spent on pre-tertiary and post-graduate scholarships, as well as that spent on tuition grants). The expenditure on an international scholar would be $100,000 over the 4-year time period to obtain his/her first degree. I believe this figure excludes tuition grants of typically $10,000-$20,000 per annum per student which almost all international students will get.

The above was from a post in the TRE titled, ‘Review scholarship framework for Intl Students’. Heng Swee Kiat was reply to Yee Jenn Jong in Parliament on the number of scholarships that were given to foreigners. The numbers given were sketchy and neither here nor there. It would be good if Heng Swee Kiat could provide a comprehensive picture of the number of scholarships given out in the last 20 years and the amount of money spent for the people to understand whether there is any problem on this generous offer by the govt. The statistics should include Asean and non Asean students, from secondary to post graduates. And if scholarships are given to primary schools as well, then it should also be included, though I think this is not the case. There should be a breakdown as to school fees and living allowances including accommodation.

The figure will give the people a good feel of how much have been spent on foreign students and a comparative data on the number of govt scholarships given to Singaporeans in the same period. The minister can also explain the objectives of this generous offer, what the govt tries to achieve and how effective is the result. Please explain to the people why spending so much money is for the good of Singaporeans and how it benefits the Singaporeans.

Please also explain why taking away a thousand places annually, or more before the cut back, from Singaporeans to give to foreign students is good for Singaporeans.

Another question to ask is whether spending so much public money needs the approval of Parliament or any minister is good enough to authorize such expenditure? What is the approval limit of a minister without having to go through Parliament?

PS. The Singaporeans, especially the parents, and the undergrads of non nobles and aristrocrats would be wondering how the money spent on the foreigners could benefit them and other Singaporeans if this scheme is scrapped altogether, or if we are to do charity, let it be on a more humble scale that is more akin to the thinking of peasants. The generosity of nobles and aristocrats in spending public money is difficult to accept by the workers and peasants who would love to have a bit of it to make it easier on their pockets.

No need for so many universities

We used to have Singapore University and Nantah. Now we have University of Singapore, Nanyang Technology University, Singapore Management University, USIM, SUTD, SIT, Yale Singapore Joint Campus and many others in the private sector joining here and there. What is the purpose of so many universities? Is it not the official view telling students there is no need for a university education when such a thought goes against the need for more and more universities?

There is also readily available graduates from the best in the world and the best from the village universities of 3^rd World coming here for our choosing, the so called cheap and good. And there are millions of fakes and those genuine degrees from quality degree mills to choose from. There is thus no need to provide universities for our young when we can get them free from the whole world.

There is another reason why there is no need for so many expensive universities. Why spend so much money building universities with the best facilities money can buy to be filled with foreign as lecturers and non academic staff, practically the whole university staff are foreigners except for the clerical jobs and cleaners. Maybe the cleaners are also foreigners. Where are the job opportunities for the citizens? Oops, we our policy is to hire the best from the world, regardless of nationalities. I remember.

And why build universities staffed by foreigners and to be filled by foreign students and paid by tax payers’ money as well in the form of generous scholarship? Is there a need to spend so much public money doing this? Wait a minute, if the foreign students return home, they will have fond memories of Singapore and when and if they are in positions of authority, they will be kinder and look at Singapore more favourably. There are so many whens and ifs to happen to benefit from this huge expense. Just hope they don’t return with a lot of hate for Singapore and Singaporeans.  

If the universities are built as business concerns to generate economic growth, for more revenue for the state, that is a different matter. If the universities are self sufficient financially, making money from the foreign students and providing good jobs for our citizens, that is a good proposition and is most welcomed.

But if the universities are built with tax payers’ money to feed foreigners as lecturers and staff and to finance foreign students to get their education and we pay for it, what is the point? Do we need to spend this type of money, so much money to hope for some good will and kindness?

Are we really doing these kinds of things with our taxpayer’s money? I hope not. If it is, there better be a rethink and use the money more wisely to invest in our very own children. We are not the Santa Clause to the whole world. We are not slaves and servants to the whole world. We don’t owe the world an obligation to provide jobs and university places for them. We are a small little dot with limited resources. We are not a super power with super power ambition and interests.

Anyone got any figures to confirm that this is or not the case? Anyone knows how much we have spent annually on this inexplicable myth?