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This 4-part article about Air India losses has been sitting on my back burner for quite some time and I hesitated to finish it as the headlines have long since passed. My chance encounter of a post in the website of NUS' Institute of South Asia Studies has rekindled my interest. The post "Air India’s Turnaround: Big Ambitions, Bigger Financial Challenges" by Vinod Rai 10 September 2026 regurgitates the same bland generalisation of " disruptions ...  of Pakistani airspace, geopolitical tensions ..... elevated fuel prices, supply-chain constraints and continuing difficulties in obtaining and deploying aircraft efficiently. The tragic Air India crash in 2025 .... ongoing fleet refurbishment and transformation programme."   There's nothing new; same generic conversation. Public anger and parliamentary debate focused heavily on the cash drain on SIA. The local debate in Singapore frames Air India’s problems through the lens of poor passenger yields or locali...

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There are loud noises in social media that the flyDubai FZ1073 incident is a false flag. The two main points of contention are (1) the cabin in FZ1073 still look well organised despite the ordeal; (2) the plane should have broken up in that kind of dive. Singapore Airlines Flight SQ321 dropped 178 feet (54 meters) in 4.6 seconds over Myanmar on May 21, 2024, after hitting severe, sudden turbulence. FZ1073 dropped 17,000 ft in under 30 seconds (Reuters). The feature image compares the cabin interior. Surely there is something wrong! Alex Jones reports : Everyone from airline pilots to military terrorism experts say the official story is 100% impossible. The airplane would have disintegrated. Most ordinary folks would be persuaded. Something is not quite right. For those interested in the truth, hear me out. 1. SQ321 is a free fall; FZ1073 is a controlled dive. The aerodynamics in the two cases work differently. 2. Alex Jones type of commentary is called a fallacy of appeal to authorit...

I once asked AI what it considers the most existential threat to mankind. It said "WISDOM", or rather, the loss of wisdom. This thought struck me as I sat down to craft this post. On a clear day, you can see the frailty of humanity as we watch proceedings in United Nations General Assembly 81st Session and how the world consumes it. Sadly but unsurprisingly, the world's attention gyrates towards the contestation of politics. The demagogues have their day; the philosophers are left sitting on the cold stone. The focus over social media is on the spectacle of 77 countries walking out on Netanyahu's speech. And a spectacle it certainly was, with cameras panned to show an empty hall when in reality the majority of representatives remained. Netanyahu, Trump, Turkey's Edrogan, Palestine's Abbas and Iran's Pezeshkian said what we expected them to say. Raw grit and passionate delivery, but nothing new. One leader spoke at UNGA81 and the world hardly pays atte...

BOLIVIA: Following years of severed ties, Israel and Bolivia officially renewed diplomatic relations in December 2025. As part of this new strategic chapter, Israel committed to sharing its world-leading technological expertise directly with the Bolivian government, specifically targeting water management, agricultural recovery, and public health innovation to help the country combat regional water scarcity and climate challenges. BOSNIA AND HERZEGONIA: 2014 Flood Relief & Water Pumps Following historic, record-breaking floods that submerged entire cities across the Balkans, Israel sent immediate shipments of emergency relief to Bosnia. Delivered via helicopter due to cut-off roads, the aid packages included critical medicines, food, blankets, and specialized high-capacity water pumps to drain submerged towns like Doboj. BRAZIL: 1. The Brumadinho Dam Collapse January 2019 Israel sent a 130-to-140-member delegation from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the emergency organiza...

Singapore Airlines has won the "World's Best Airlines" award for the nth time. Congratulations are well-deserved. But this has drawn Singaporeans critical of SIA's involvement in Air India to throw caustic remarks like "Wah now got so much money to help other people, hor."  That is a double count of ignorance - of a strategic investment and of what this award is all about.  This award measures passengers' perceptions of service, product and experience. Skytrax actually doesn't call it the "World's Best Airline". They call it the "Passenger's Choice Awards". It is a beauty contest, not a profitability race. Megan Young was crowned Miss World 2013 doesn't mean Philippines had the best GDP.  SIA can win Skytrax's beauty contest. But shareholders don't invest for beauty. They invest for returns on capital. That is not to take away the immense  marketing value of the award. In aviation, beauty is not the same as ec...