We Don’t Know What is Really Going on!

 

Especially when the facts are there in front of us.

You got to love the Israeli government’s ability to turn the Western World upside down and pervert every value espoused by the West into a joke. This is a shame because as much as colonialism and imperialism were detestable things, the West (defined as America and Western Europe) have actually led the world in trying to be a better place in the last 50-years. Things like rule of law, rules-based order and human rights were concepts championed by the West.

As a rule of thumb, Westerners (White People) are decent and see indecency better than dare I say, many Asians. In the last sixteen years of running this blog, I find myself getting more understanding from Westerners than Asians when I talk about things like foreign labour. I think of the Englishman who told me, “Your economy is run on slave labour,” and the French investor who talks about “The Slaves” whenever the topic of foreign labour comes up. In Singapore, the general attitude is “It’s better than where they’ve come from.”

There’s one exception that, comes in the case of Israel and its actions against the Palestinian people. In a way, I get it, when it comes from anyone in my parent’s generation. Israel sold itself like an old Western movie, where the cowboys were always the heroes and the Indians were the bad guys. However, this shouldn’t play out for my generation, where things like “international law” and “rules-based-order” were normal. It becomes painful to watch otherwise decent people start defending the indefensible.

We’ve heard the lines. “Israel has a right to defend itself,” and “Hamas shouldn’t have attacked on October 7 2023.” Whilst these arguments are often used, the one that really strikes is “We don’t know what is going on.”

How does one come up with the idea that we don’t know what is going on when things are being played out on TV? As one Irish guy I met said, “You can’t see those kids dying on TV and not feel anything.”

Yet, despite everything being played out on our TV screens, the line “We don’t know what is going on, “continues amongst those who would want us to believe that Israel is fighting a just war in a just manner. The most popular argument is that the media is biased and lies about everything.

Yet, the truth is that the media isn’t the only thing telling us a story of that’s going on. The United Nations, Human Rights’ Commission has stated that Israel is committing a genocide. This being the same body that condemned Russia for committing crimes against humanity, a concept which many Westerners accept as true:

https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/09/israel-has-committed-genocide-gaza-strip-un-commission-finds

Then there’s the issue of the fact that the International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued a warrant for the arrest of Israel’s Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu for war crimes. In case one tries to argue that the ICC is riddled with Anti-Semitism and thus irrationally hates Israel, the fact remains the ICC has found both Hamas commanders and Israeli government officials guilty of crimes against humanity.

https://news.un.org/en/story/2024/11/1157286

 

 

 So, the logical train of thought here is that the ICC has found Hamas commanders to be guilty of criminally starting something and the Israeli government officials to be guilty of waging a war in a criminal fashion. Where exactly is the anti-Israel bias here? Given that America, the world’s preeminent power has sanctioned the ICC as a result of this verdict, the message seems to imply that bias is acceptable as long as its bias in favour of “chosen people.”

Yet, the “we don’t know what’s going on,” debate will ultimately argue that the ICC also doesn’t know what’s going on. So, what can we do?

The answer might be to look at Israel and Israeli organisations themselves. One of them, B’Tselem clearly states that what Israel is doing is called genocide:

 https://www.btselem.org/press_releases/20250728_our_genocide

 

 Hard to call B’Tselem anti-Israeli or “antisemitic,” when it is an Israeli organisation. If that was not enough, Genocide Scholars, including Israeli ones are calling it such to an extent that Israel’s foreign ministry has condemned their findings as based on “Hamas Lies.”

https://www.timesofisrael.com/genocide-scholars-say-idf-committing-genocide-in-gaza-israel-based-on-hamas-lies/

 

So, how is it such that people still argue “We don’t know what’s going on,” when events are well documented by a variety of globally recognised organisations? Perhaps it’s a case of people will believe what they want to believe regardless of facts. As such, one might say that universities should teach courses on how to make people believe what you want them to believe regardless of the facts.

Do We Actually Make a Difference?

 It’s been something of a surreal week. It started on Tuesday when I had the chance to meet Tom Wright, the investigative journalist who co-authored the book “Billion Dollar Whale,” about the 1MDB saga in Malaysia, which eventually lead to the historical defeat of Najib Razak and the BN coalition that had ruled Malaysia since independence.

 

 

 The week then ended when I received a call from the wife of one of my best friends to inform me that he had died. My friend was what you’d call a “decent” bloke in every sense of the word. Unlike me, he avoided the vices of drinking and women. His life was dedicated to ensuring that his mum, his wife and four kids got what they could out of life. Yet, his reward was a pacemaker in his forties and departure from life just as he entered his fifties.

I think of these two events because, during my meeting with Mr. Wright, he asked me and colleague who was with me, “Do we make a difference?” I think of this question because it’s the basic question of why do we do what we do? Is being a good guy worth it? My friend was a good guy who was devoted to his family yet he died at 51. I’ve known less honourable characters (the type who happily screw over their own kids) who are alive, healthy and doing quite nicely thank you very much.

It’s what you call the frustration of being in the investigation business, where you do a task that’s often dull and yet dangerous. While the criminals have “criminal loot,” the investigators (think people like investigative journalist, forensic accountants, public prosecutors and defenders, whistleblowers and so on), barely get a pat of the back when all is said and done.  

Take Mr. Wright as an example. His book, Billion Dollar Whale, exposed the scam at 1MDB and how a sitting Prime Minister was part of an embezzlement of the Malaysian people. That Prime Minister is now in jail and the party that supported him got thrown out of power but has corruption in Malaysia been lessened? The answer is probably a depressing no.

If you want to take things onto the global stage, there’s the example of Watergate. We celebrated the courage of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein in bringing down a president. Yet, we continue to have things like Iran Contra under Regan, White Water under Clinton and now there’s Trump who blatantly oversaw the deaths of a multitude of Americans due to his incompetent handling of Covid.  

Like it or not, does appear that despite the efforts of the “good guys,” the bad guys continue and even thrive. It doesn’t help that the side with more money inevitably has the power to change the goal post.

So, why bother being a good guy when the bad guys seem so many steps ahead? Why bother fighting if you know you’ll end up losing right? Funnily enough I do get that allot from Singaporeans who think that things like protest are pointless (I had people who could not see why Burmese protested the Military Coup or things like Black Lives Matter. Many even tell me I should be grateful for Colonialism.).

The answer is inevitably this – rolling over and accepting bad things leads to worse outcomes. If you allow fraud to take place without trying to stop it, you are inevitably condoning it. If you don’t speak up about genocides against certain people, you are effectively condoning genocide. Now, you could argue that it doesn’t affect me – who cares?

However, as history has shown, a guy who cheats other people will one day cheat you. A guy who thinks of murdering one ethnic group is likely to turn around and start on yours. I go back to my Jewish friend’s observations of his family history and how many Jews in Europe through Hitler didn’t mean Jews like them. You hear allot of the same rhetoric in America from Hispanics who talk about ICE dragging people off the streets as “Its not people like us.” Hitler didn’t mean people like them – until he did.

So, why do we do what we do? I like to think that when we catch crooks and protest tyrants, we do our part to ensure that we don’t rot completely. Think of it as, I do my part to ensure it doesn’t happen to me, which is again, idealistic but the message is there. You are just an individual but you have the power to inspire others and a collective becomes very powerful. People who think, I’m just a nobody so why bother set themselves up to be steamrollered by the scum.  

How to Lessen the Pain?

 

The big news in the world of local eat outs is that the home-grown chain, “Twelve Cupcakes” has been placed under liquidation.

https://www.straitstimes.com/business/companies-markets/twelve-cupcakes-ceases-operations-after-being-placed-under-provisional-liquidation

 

 No reason was given as to the cause of the liquidation. The media reports describe it as “sudden and abrupt” and as with all liquidation scenarios, the workers got screwed. Neither workers nor their unions had any idea about the sacking – the workers got the news via a WhatsApp message. It goes without saying that the Ministry of Manpower has had to announce that it is investigating the matter and whether the company was in breach of the Employment Act.

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/twelve-cupcakes-closure-worker-salaries-mom-cpf-investigating-5438191

 

The former staff have now taken social media to talk about their situation and its frankly heartbreaking to read about how people gave their blood, sweat and tears and then didn’t get paid. Wages unpaid means that people can’t pay bills, which means their financial situation gets screwed up.

 

So, with Singapore undoubtedly going to face harsher economic headwinds and more companies expected to go under, what does it mean for people looking facing possible job loss?

For a start, you got accept that “job-security” is something of a misnomer. However much employers will talk about “looking after you,” you have to accept that allot of the “promise” depends on the employer’s ability to actually pay. Even the most well meaning of bosses cannot pay wages if the business is simply not making money. When I waited tables at the Bistrot, I was clear that the business belonged to the boss who owed me a wage for work but I had a sense of responsibility to ensure that the boss’s business did well enough to be able to pay me. If you notice that the business is not selling stuff, you better start your job hunt.

Secondly, the “rules” between employee and employer change in a liquidation scenario. Whilst its nice to see the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) galvanized into “investigating” for any breaches of the “Employment Act,” there’s actually very little if anything that will happen. The fact of the matter is, the company is in liquidation, which means that there is no money. When it comes to getting money out of the what’s left of the Company, MOM will call up the liquidator for an update on the liquidation and ask if there’s any money to be paid out and if possible, when will the money be paid out. In this scenario, MOM’s powers are more symbolic in as much as the liquidator may feel obliged to work a bit faster knowing there’s a government agency watching.

Having said that, the case of pursuing wages is not all lost. Liquidators are obliged to try and claw back money. The laws on insolvency state that employee’s salary claims are a priority, right after the expenses of the liquidation. So, once the liquidator pays off his or her expenses, they will then turn to settling salary claims. One should take note that this specifically pertains to salary claims. Things like leave pay, notice pay, medical claims and so on come later. If you get say 80 percent of your pay, you’re considered very lucky.

How do you go about making your claim? The answer is in filling out that is called a POD or Proof of Debt. This form is where you outline what you claiming the company owes you. Since the onus is on the debtor to prove their debt, you need to attach things like your pay slips, employment contract and anything else that shows you were an employee and didn’t get paid. The POD for a creditors’ voluntary winding up (case where the company is digging a bigger hole by continuing business) looks something like this:

 

The second aspect of a liquidation is a creditors’ meeting. In the case of a creditors winding up, the provisional liquidator is obliged to get his or her appointment approved by creditors at a creditors meeting. This meeting should take place after a month of being in provisional liquidation and in the post-Covid world, chances are this meeting will take place over Zoom.

The meeting will not give you money. However, its worth attending in as much as it will give you an idea of what happened and you can assess the likilood of getting paid or when you’re likely to get paid. In that respect, the most important document is the Statement of Affairs or SOA, which in the case of a voluntary winding up looks something like this:

 

 The SOA is signed by the director under oath and outlines what is collectable and who is owed what. Both SOA and POD samples can be found at the Ministry of Law’s site at:

https://io.mlaw.gov.sg/files/Forms%20-%20IRD%20(Voluntary%20Winding%20Up)%20Reg%202020.pdf

 

The forms should also be provided to you by the liquidator when they send out the notice of the creditors’ meeting. You should also check the Government Gazette and the Business Times section for notices of creditor meetings and if there’s a dividend to be paid out.

Liquidation for an employee is a distressing experience. However, whilst things may look bleak, its still worth putting in a claim to improve your chances of getting something out of a bleak situation. This is also the time when most employees fall a part (a case of every man for him or herself). However, this is when employees actually need to be most united, sharing knowledge of the liquidation scenario.