Quora Answer: Is There an Investment Option of Low Risk & Average Gains?

The following is my answer to a Quora question: “Is there an investment option of low risk and average gains?” 

These concepts, low risk, and average gains, are relative.  One person’s low risk is another person’s intolerable bet.  As such, I will address this from my perspective, and give one example. 

Investing in equity funds would be considered intermediate to high risk.  But when you understand the market, diversify your investment across regions, sectors, and industries, and even asset classes, you have mitigated your currency and political exposure.  Another consideration is to choose foundational industries.  For example, investing in a mobile phone company may be high risk, since consumer tastes can change, but investing in the chips, the underlying technology is safer since regardless of the mobile phone company.  That is a safe investment philosophy.  In terms of gains, well managed, you should expect returns of between 4.5% to 6%, and that would be average.  Anything more than that is above average.

Quora Answer: What is the Difference between KYC & Anti-Money Laundering?

The following is my answer to a Quora question: “What is the difference between KYC and anti-money laundering?” 

KYC refers to “Know Your Client”, a set of guidelines financial institutions have to adhere to in order to establish, beyond reasonable doubt, the identity of the client, the suitability of the product or service recommended, the risk profile, the client knowledge of the product and market, and the source of funds and wealth.  The KYC is part of the anti-money laundering process, which covers the entire spectrum of fund acquisition, accumulation, placement, and disbursement.  KYC is the first step in the AML policy.

Quora Answer: What is the Difference between Tax Evasion & Money Laundering?

The following is my answer to a Quora question: “What is the difference between tax evasion and money laundering?” 

Tax evasion is merely the illegal evasion of taxes by legal persons, whether natural persons, or a corporation or trust.  This is done my misrepresenting the financial affairs of the entity or person to the authorities, or even hiding income. 

Money laundering, on the other hand, is the process of making the proceeds of illegal activities, which may include tax evasion, seem legal, by creating documentation and running the funds through various vehicles, to make it seem as if the funds were from a legitimate source. 

A Change of Verb Shaped a Nation

A verb in a name has major connotations.  For example, consider the United States of America.  Prior to the presidency of Abraham Lincoln, any correspondence would use “are” to refer to the United States.  For example, “The United States of America are comprised of individual states and territories.”  This implied that the country was a collection of individual states and territories acting on one accord.  This would imply a stronger emphasis on state rights over federal authority. 

After the American Civil War, this changed.  The same sentence would now say, “The United States of America is comprised of individual states and territories.”  This is the preferred verb now.  This emphasised the country as one nation, which happens to comprise many states and territories.  This slight grammatical change affects how the average American thinks of the country, without even realising it.  This is  what the Union winning the Civil War achieved. 

Shelby Dade Foote Jr. the American writer, historian and journalist, was the author of “The Civil War: A Narrative”, a definitive history of the war.  He summed it up by, in that book: “Before the war, it was said ‘the United States are’ - grammatically it was spoken that way, and thought of as a collection of independent states.  And after the war, it was always ‘the United States is’, as we say today, without being self-conscious at all.  And that sums up what the war accomplished.  It made us an ‘is’.”

Quora Answer: Do You Track the Annual Return on Your Investments?

The following is my answer to a Quora question: “Keeping in mind that you add to, or subtract from, your investment portfolio, do you track the annual return on your investments?” 

Logically, it would make sense to track the annualised returns to have a better sense of how investments within our portfolio, and the portfolio itself, is doing, relative to the other years, and similar asset classes elsewhere. 

We look at the total cost, brokerage, distribution, anything.  We consider currency exposure, and tax liability.  We then look at the gains of the assets.  We then consider the gain or loss as a percentage of the sum invested at the start of the accounting period.  Should we need to, we consider the gain or loss from the start of the investment so we can discern the multi-year trend.  All this allows us to make an informed decision about what to do with our investments.

Quora Answer: Why Does Singapore Conscript Her Citizens When There are No Hostilities?

The following is my answer to a Quora question: “Why does Singapore conscript her citizens when no one would want to wage a war or create issues with her?” 

It is only logical that a nation as vulnerable as Singapore is prepares for war.  Singapore is a tiny group of archipelagic islands.  There is no strategic depth for us to fall back to, in the event of hostilities, and our military is destroyed.  We are not the Soviet Union during World War II, which can retreat from the North European Plain to beyond the Caucasus and Ural mountains, and train entire new conscript armies to fight invaders.  No nation that is foolish enough to assume it will not be attacked lasts long.  Most certainly not Singapore, which straddles a strategic location along the busiest shipping lanes, in the heart of Southeast Asia. 

Singapore’s defence policy is to create that non-existent strategic depth through a first strike policy should we feel that war is inevitable.  We are not going to sit around, wringing our hands, while armies mass near the borders.  We need to interdict them quickly, and efficiently.  That requires two things. 

The first is a massive investment in military infrastructure to create that technology advantage, which functions as force multipliers.  We are always investing in fighting the next war.  This means maintaining a core manpower of highly trained specialists to keep that war machine sharp.  That alone is insufficient.  As Frederick the Great allegedly said, “An army marches on its stomache.”  Battles may be won through a technological advantage, but wars are won on logistics.  That means having a body of manpower that can be mobilized quickly to put boots on the ground to secure strategic objectives with the intent to force belligerents to the negotiating table. 

That is the primary purpose of conscription and reservist training.  It creates that strategic depth of manpower that can be mobilised in ours, far quicker than any potential regional belligerents.  The Singapore Armed Forces is one of the most mobile fighting forces in the world, with around three soldiers to a vehicle.  That level of mechanisation is unmatched in the region.  In the event of increased hostilities, the SAF will mobilise quickly, drawing on those manpower reserves to create a localised qualitative and quantitative advantage, strike quickly to secure strategic depth to nullify artillery strikes against the heartland, and deny the enemy staging ground while the Republic of Singapore Air Force pounds them after securing aerial superiority.  The Republic of Singapore Navy’s job is to interdict reinforcement and supplies, and secure littoral waterways.  There is also a body of trained manpower to fill in the ranks as these service arms take losses. 

The other purpose of conscription, National Service, is National Education.  This is the period where Singapore citizens and aspiring citizens train with others of different socioeconomic stratum, ethnic and religious backgrounds, and differing worldviews to forge a unified Singapore identity.  Patriotism is not left to the accident of birth and nurturing, but ingrained in a national indoctrination programme.  This has benefits beyond military application.  It unites the citizenry and creates a nation.  It allows us to see each other, in all our multiethnic, multireligious, multiethnic rainbow as one people.  It creates a shared vision for national development and economic growth.  This preempts civil unrest along racial or religious lines and is part of our psychological defence.

Foreign Word of the Day: Ahorita

There are words we need to borrow from other languages.  From Spanish, that word of the day is “ahorita”.  “Ahorita” is in interesting word.  It is a diminutive form of “ahora”, the adverb meaning “now”.  “Ahorita” is a colloquial term, never used in formal speech.  On the surface, it means “now” or immediately”.  However, depending on which part of Latin America, and how it is said, the meanings of “ahorita” are contradictory.  It can either mean, right now, as in right this second; or just a little bit ago; or in a little bit, or anytime between 5 minutes and a couple of hours; or in an indeterminate amount of time, likely never. 

“Ahorita” is a word that still existent in Mexican Spanish, long after it has ceased to be found in Standard Spanish.  It is also used in Honduras, Guatemala, Puerto Rico, Cuba, and in part of the Southern United States.

Quora Answer: Why Does Singapore Escape Criticism in the Media When It Comes to Rejecting the Rohingyas?

The following is my answer to a Quora question: “Why does Singapore escape criticism in the media when it comes to rejecting the Rohingyas?” 

Singapore has an unambiguous position about accepting refugees: we do not take them in.  This was not always so.  In 1975, with the fall of Saigon, Singapore was inundated with thousands of Vietnamese refugees.  This was a Singapore just a decade from independence, a developing country of limited resources.  She certainly did not have the space to take them all in permanently, and neither did these refugees want to be in Singapore.  They hoped to move on to Australia, the US, Canada, and elsewhere in the developed world. 

In the beginning, Singapore worked with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and had an agreement to provide these refugees with temporary care, and housing while the UNHCR arranged permanent resettlement elsewhere.  This was done in good faith.  In the meantime, the number of refugees kept increasing, from the initial political refugees to the later economic refugees, all seeking a better life.  This peaked in 1979, 1980; but boat people were found well into the 1990s.  By that period, it was not just Vietnamese but Cambodians, and some Laotians.  In 1989, the Steering Committee of the International Conference on Indochinese Refugees held a conference in Geneva.  All the countries of ASEAN, except Brunei, were present.  After a contentious meeting, Singapore and all first asylum countries adopted the Comprehensive Plan of Action, which classified further boat people as asylum seekers and not refugees, until they were screened and classified as such. 

Singapore’s transit camp, such as Hawkins camp, were full, and space was rapidly running out.  With this new policy, later arrivals were no longer guaranteed resettlement.  At the same time, many of the second asylum countries reneged on their agreements and refused to take in most of these refugees.  The camps became the home of rejected asylum seekers.  This lead to violence, protests, and attempted suicides; further stressing the government.  This was why we have a hardline refugee policy.  By the middle of 1996, the Hawkins Road Camp was officially closed.  Between 1978 and 1996, a total of 32,457 Vietnamese refugees had stayed there.  While many of them did manage to get resettled in places such as the United States and Australia, most of them were paid by the Singapore government to go home. 

Since then, Singapore does not take in any refugees.  They are given food, water, and fuel, and they are towed to sea, away from our territorial waters.  In the early days, this was a death sentence to some groups because the boats were hardly seaworthy.  In that, we could have done better.  This was Operation Midnight Owl, by the Marine Police and the Republic of Singapore Navy.  Picket lines were set up at sea to intercept these boats before they reached shore. 

Now, when it comes to the Rohingya, Singapore has not encountered any refugees.  Most boats coming south and east end up in Malaysia and Sumatra, Indonesia.  The Malacca Straits is far too busy for them to get all the way south to Singapore without being detected by maritime patrols from Malaysia and Indonesia.  Malaysia is a favoured destination since Malaysia is known to take in refugees, and Malaysia is a Muslim-majority country.  In the event that Singapore maritime patrols do detect such votes as they approach Sultan Shoal, they would abide by our policy of detaining them at sea, providing food, water, and fuel as per UN guidelines, and have them towed out of our territorial waters.  Under no circumstances would we be accepting them.

A Brief on Keyman Insurance

 Keyman insurance is meant to help a business recover from the loss of its valuable assets, or access to key customer demographics, viz the persons who manage it or possess the knowledge.  Every business has a few valuable employees who contribute significantly to the running and growth of the company.  They factor into the valuation of the business by investors and creditors. 

Keyman insurance can be defined as an insurance policy where the proposer as well as the premium payer is the employer, the life to be insured is key employee, and the benefit, in event of a claim, goes to the employer.  The object of keyman insurance is to cover the life of a keyman in case of untimely death, or any form of incapacity; or loss incurred by actions by the keyman.  It is meant to mitigate the monetary impact of these events.

Covid-19: Important Updates on AIA Shield Coverage

From 20^th October 2020, the Ministry of Health has lifted the exclusions in MediShield Life (MSHL) and Integrated Shield Plan (IP) coverage for COVID-19 related inpatient costs for patients who travelled against advisory, and left Singapore on or after the 27^th March 2020. 

With the lifting of the exclusion, persons insured under AIA HealthShield Gold Max who are admitted to hospitals for inpatient COVID-19 treatments on or from 20^th October 2020, will be allowed to claim under the policy, subject to the policy conditions. 

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. If the Insured is travelling outside Singapore on or from 20^th October 2020, does AIA HealthShield Gold Max pay for admission due to COVID-19 in Singapore or overseas?

Yes it does, subject to the policy conditions. 

2. If the insured travelled before 20^th October 2020, but under the Reciprocal Green Lane and Special Green Lane Fast / Green Lane arrangements, or has been granted the approval for the travel by the MOH, does AIA HealthShield Gold Max pay for admission due to COVID-19 in Singapore or overseas?

Yes it does, subject to the policy conditions. 

3. Will I be able to claim under my AIA HealthShield Gold Max’s Emergency Overseas (Outside Singapore) Medical Treatment Benefit if I am hospitalised overseas due to COVID-19, having left Singapore from 27^th March 2020, in violation of MOH’s travel advisory?

Yes, provided you are admitted to hospitals for inpatient COVID-19 treatments on or from 20^th October 2020, and subject to policy conditions.

Foreign Word of the Day: Putaria

There are words we need to borrow from other languages.  From Portuguese, that word of the day is “putaria”.  The word is derived from “puta”, which is a derogatory slang for “prostitute”, “whore”, “harlot”, or behaviour related to it.  “Putaria” has evolved from referring to whorish behaviour relating to acts beyond sex, such as politics, the celebrity culture, and the need to be famous. 

It is a noun, so you could say, for example, “The current American presidential elections is a putaria of American politics, celebrity worship, and values.”

Foreign Word of the Day: Komerobi

There are words we need to borrow from other languages.  From Japanese, that word of the day is “komerobi”.  The word is a compound of 木 (ko), meaning “tree”; and 漏れ (more), meaning “leaking, coming through”.  木 (ko) is the ancient combining form of modern 木 (ki).  “Komorebi” refers to the interplay between light and leaves when sunlight shines through trees.  More than a phenomenon, it describes a specific melancholic longing, or nostalgia for a person, place or thing that is far away. 

It is a noun, so you could say, for example, “The komerobi as we walked through the forest made me imagine that the veils between our world, and the world of faeries are thin, and I could almost imagine a unicorn in the glade.”

Foreign Word of the Day: Linslus

There are words we need to borrow from other languages.  From Swedish, that word of the day is “linslus”.  This is a portmanteau of two words.  It is from “lins”, meaning “lens”, and “lus”, which is a “louse”.  This is thought to be a loan word since it is derived from English, and is a play on shutterbug.  The difference here is that the “lens louse” is on the other end of the camera.  “Linslus” is a person who is a slut for the camera, and puts great effort in appearing in photographs. 

The word has been used, at least, since 1973.  It is a noun, so you could say, for example, “The linslus at the wedding wanted to interject herself into every picture even though she was not close to the wedding couple.”

Foreign Word of the Day: Bifler

There are words we need to borrow from other languages.  From French, that word of the day is “bifler”.  This is a portmanteau of two words.  It is from “bite”, a vulgar slang for the penis, and “gifler”, meaning “to slap”.  Therefore, “bifler” is refers to the act of slapping someone with your penis. 

“Bifler” is an intransitive verb, so if we were to borrow it for English, you could say, “He deserves a bifler just for his attitude.”