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AS INDONESIANS THROW TANTRUMS, THE HAZE MUST NOT BLUR THEIR VISION OF WHO THEIR REAL FRIENDS ARE

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In the current haze quarrel, Indonesian officials object to noises from Singapore -- the island state should shut up and appreciate the oxygen the Indonesian forests give us when they are not burning, Indonesia should stop supplying gas to countries that don't respect them, President Prabowo commented Indonesian wealth has been stolen by foreigners. And then Indonesia walked the talk - they cut gas supplies to Singapore.  Singapore Prime Minister Lawrence Wong stated at the PAP convention that Singapore expects all parties to "honour their commitments" under commercial agreements, adding that Singaporean gas importers would take steps to protect their legal rights. "Do not lecture Indonesia about its commitment to honouring and respecting contracts." so said Bahlil Lahadalia, Indonesia's Coordinating Minister for Downstreaming and Energy Transition (who also serves as the Energy and Mineral Resources Minister). Bahlil Lahadalia firmly denied any breach of ...

AIR INDIA LOSSES - FROM GENERIC CRITIQUE TO PRECISE STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS (PART 2 OF 4)

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Part 1 covers "A Severe Contraction in Top-Line Revenue" Part 2 covers "Catastrophic Foreign Exchange (FX) Losses" Y/e 31 Mar 2026 -- FX loss ₹7,388.23 crore (US$880 mn). (2025 loss ₹1,545.01 crore) We now come to the second core loss-driver - FX losses. Most Singaporeans view all Temasek investments in India come with huge currency risks because the rupee is weak. The local debates have not gone into understanding where the FX loss is coming from and can the bleeding be stopped. The FX loss is the financial consequence in the balance sheet, but what drove the operating decisions there, are there ways to mitigate it, if so, why was it not done, and is Tata-SIA doing something about it? These are the type of questions in a proper financial analysis which are not asked. One line sums it up - All Indian airlines are playing a long term game of short USD position holders with no hedging strategy, thus subject to the merciless vagaries of currency fluctu...

AIR INDIA LOSSES - FROM GENERIC CRITIQUE TO PRECISE STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS (PART 1 OF 4)

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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 loc...

TAMI'S MAGIC SQUARE

Fun Time! Created by Pat Low Dedicated to Tami Paje Low Coded by chatGPT

AERODYNAMICS DEBUNK THE CONSPIRACY THEORY FLYDUBAI FZ1073 COULD NOT HAVE SURVIVED THAT DIVE

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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...

UNITED NATIONS USELESS ORGANISATION - POLITICAL INTELLECTUALISM OF JAVIER MILEI THAT FEW UNDERSTANDS

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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...