Is the Singapore school system barbaric? Does it not measure up to the Western liberal standards of enlightened education? Will students in Singapore schools suffer irreparable emotional damage? Should you pull your sons and daughters out of this barbaric regime that is the Sinagpore school?
Well, if you think about it, there is a lot of bad going on in the Singapore school system. Students not only have scheduled classes, they also have unscheduled classes with private tutors whose job it is to drill students to do well in school. Free time to enjoy your childhood/youth? Banish the thought. Slack a tinsey-whinsey bit and your child will fall to the back of the class, no, the back of the school, say position 459 out of 460. Students face so much pressure to do well that we are not certain if they will suffer permanent head damage (PhD) in addition to permanent social and emotional handicap in years to come.
What's this I hear? Somebody got three of the best on his behind in a Singapore school, and sanctioned by his parents, no less? Surely nothing can top this. To think that foreigners, Indonesian, Mainland Chinese, Burmese, Vietnamese, Malaysian and the Thais, send their children to be schooled here. What must these foreigner parents be thinking of? Are they sadists to put their children in harms' way, or do they just want someone else to do the spanking for them? Well, you can't blame them. Spanking is a very common punishment in this barbaric part of the world. You wonder why people from liberal western countries come in droves though. Are they also sadists? To learn from the natives, perhaps? But of course, they put their children into schools with superior educational systems and enlightened philosophies, never mind that they cost a bomb. Their training will certainly help them in future to create complex financial products that nobody understands so that, whether they mess up or not, they have to be paid obscene bonuses. What better profession is there in the Universe?
The natives? They can have their 3rd class schools, such as Raffles Institution. They just will not enrol their children in them. Their children are just superior beings, you know, not like the Ah Mads and Ah Sengs and Ah Lians you commonly find in these 3rd class schools.
This incident should be reported to President Obama so that he can reprimand Singapore, just like what a father would, but without the cane, mind you, just like what President Clinton did when an American got 3 of the best here, courtesy of the Singapore Courts, which of course, is barbaric.
Yeah, and those people who have gone overseas and got their brains washed by liberal detergent, if you cannot bear with the barbarism here in the tiny little red dot of Singapore, go back to where you returned from. I hear that they have whiter than white streets there. So white that people dare not venture into them when night falls.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Monday, March 23, 2009
Unkind Cut
Firing a staff is never ever easy to do. I have only ever fired 2 people in my working life so far. The first one, being the first one, I didn't handle well at all. The second one I left it to my superiors, because the case involved theft.
Because I messed up the first one, the whole department turned against me. Before, they had been more than kind to me, leaving me little things on my table, like some food, for me to enjoy. I also always joined them for lunch, where lunch was in the factory as many did not want to venture the long distance to the nearest foodstall. So to all intents and purposes, I had a good thing going with my department. Until my superior called me in and told me about the bad times and that I should 'release' one staff from my department. Who it was going to be he left up to me to decide. Yeah, he wasn't going to hold the blood soaked knife, I had been volunteered to do it.
The choice was a difficult one since all of them had been as hardworking as the other. Some were absolutely essential as they operated key systems. Thinking back, I couldn't work out rationally who should go. It was entirely arbitrary, really. There wasn't an issue about favouritism. Call it a roll of the dice if you would. One went. She wasn't shown the door immediately. She was informed, and during the notice period, I notice knife-edged stares everyday I showed up for work. It was uncomfortable, to say the least.
In restrospect, I should have protected my staff more. And even if a staff had to be fired, I should have shown more concern about the staff's future plans. And I should have talked to the rest of the department to seek their understanding and not kept quiet about it all. It was the worst way to release a staff, particularly one who has worked there for more than 10 years.
Needless to say, I never ate with them anymore. I left voluntarily not long after. But this incident still haunts me to this day. I hope that people do not repeat my mistakes. In this retrenchment 'season', let the one in charge show greater compassion and sensitivity. It's somebody's life, livelihood and family we are talking about.
See
10 ways to be a good manager during recessions
Gilbert Goh's Letter in Today's (23 Marh 09) Voices section (page 18)
Because I messed up the first one, the whole department turned against me. Before, they had been more than kind to me, leaving me little things on my table, like some food, for me to enjoy. I also always joined them for lunch, where lunch was in the factory as many did not want to venture the long distance to the nearest foodstall. So to all intents and purposes, I had a good thing going with my department. Until my superior called me in and told me about the bad times and that I should 'release' one staff from my department. Who it was going to be he left up to me to decide. Yeah, he wasn't going to hold the blood soaked knife, I had been volunteered to do it.
The choice was a difficult one since all of them had been as hardworking as the other. Some were absolutely essential as they operated key systems. Thinking back, I couldn't work out rationally who should go. It was entirely arbitrary, really. There wasn't an issue about favouritism. Call it a roll of the dice if you would. One went. She wasn't shown the door immediately. She was informed, and during the notice period, I notice knife-edged stares everyday I showed up for work. It was uncomfortable, to say the least.
In restrospect, I should have protected my staff more. And even if a staff had to be fired, I should have shown more concern about the staff's future plans. And I should have talked to the rest of the department to seek their understanding and not kept quiet about it all. It was the worst way to release a staff, particularly one who has worked there for more than 10 years.
Needless to say, I never ate with them anymore. I left voluntarily not long after. But this incident still haunts me to this day. I hope that people do not repeat my mistakes. In this retrenchment 'season', let the one in charge show greater compassion and sensitivity. It's somebody's life, livelihood and family we are talking about.
See
10 ways to be a good manager during recessions
Gilbert Goh's Letter in Today's (23 Marh 09) Voices section (page 18)
Friday, March 20, 2009
Speaking aloud
I am ambivalent about the 'Jiang Hua Yu' campaign (Speak Mandarin Campaign), now in its nth year (I have lost count). MM Lee Kuan Yew is again at it, probably the best spokesman Singapore has to encourage people to speak Mandarin. He has been so successful that I know not a few non-Chinese who speak Mandarin, and I have a son who refuses to learn and speak any dialect, except Mandarin. I thought that since he is born into a Cantonese clan, he should speak Cantonese. After all, when I gave him his name, I deliberately transliterated it in the Cantonese form - phonetically. This was so that he would remember that he is a Cantonese. But he does not want to learn Cantonese, and he doesn't understand it when spoken within earshot of him. He has lost an integral part of his historical being.
I think, rather, the challenge in the Speak Mandarin Campaign is not about speaking less dialect. Few speak dialect any more. The battle today is with English, as MM has suggested. Between the 2, English seems to be a favourite of the majority, even in MM Lee's family. Can anyone be blamed how we all turned out? Not really. It is after all social engineering and you have to tweak the screws here and there once a while to make sure that the desired balance is maintained. The problem is, our younger generation doesn't want to learn Mandarin, though it is an obviously important language, given China's ascendency in the last 20 years or so.
But even as English and Mandarin are engaged in a see-saw battle of the tongue, I would rather that my son learned how to speak Cantonese. It is a family thing, you know, and goes beyond nation building...
I think, rather, the challenge in the Speak Mandarin Campaign is not about speaking less dialect. Few speak dialect any more. The battle today is with English, as MM has suggested. Between the 2, English seems to be a favourite of the majority, even in MM Lee's family. Can anyone be blamed how we all turned out? Not really. It is after all social engineering and you have to tweak the screws here and there once a while to make sure that the desired balance is maintained. The problem is, our younger generation doesn't want to learn Mandarin, though it is an obviously important language, given China's ascendency in the last 20 years or so.
But even as English and Mandarin are engaged in a see-saw battle of the tongue, I would rather that my son learned how to speak Cantonese. It is a family thing, you know, and goes beyond nation building...
Wednesday, March 04, 2009
Divining the times
Is Singapore heading for an early General Election?
Some have done an analysis that, historically, the longest interval from the time the electoral register is open for inspection (2nd March 2009) to the next General Election (GE) is at most 6 months. Even my wife, who is as apolitical as a potatoe, asked me last night what I thought. If there was going to be a GE soon, and if so, how soon?
I didn't dive into speculation. I just said I didn't know, which was the truth. I don't hang around chatrooms to pick up the latest gossips. I am not a keen political observer and I don't look at the moon and stars to divine the course of mankind, as far as politics go. If the government does announce a GE next month, I will be the first one to be surprised, since one isn't due until 2011.
But if the government does call early elections, it would be a statement by the official soothsayers today that 2 years down the road, the economic situation, which will impact the social situation severely this time around, will not give a 'feel good' factor at all. If nothing, the expectation is that it will be a terrible time for any government to go to the polls. The feeling among the populace may very well be doom and gloom.
We hear some optimistic predictions based on the upcoming Integrated Resort (IR) and, errr...nothing else, really. More likely, the situation will become worse before it becomes even more worse. So with the fresh memory of the bonuses received from last year, it would be prudent for the incumbent governement to call for elections soon, and I mean really soon. People can have such short memories. Bad new is beginning to pile up like a dunghill. Better do something about it before the electorate is overwhelmed and they make choice they will regret. That's what desperate people tend to do, besides looting and jumping off a highrise, or the open air MRT (elevated train) platforms in Singapore.
The question is: when this year, not if this year?
Image: morguefile.com. Author: nibujohn
Some have done an analysis that, historically, the longest interval from the time the electoral register is open for inspection (2nd March 2009) to the next General Election (GE) is at most 6 months. Even my wife, who is as apolitical as a potatoe, asked me last night what I thought. If there was going to be a GE soon, and if so, how soon?
I didn't dive into speculation. I just said I didn't know, which was the truth. I don't hang around chatrooms to pick up the latest gossips. I am not a keen political observer and I don't look at the moon and stars to divine the course of mankind, as far as politics go. If the government does announce a GE next month, I will be the first one to be surprised, since one isn't due until 2011.
But if the government does call early elections, it would be a statement by the official soothsayers today that 2 years down the road, the economic situation, which will impact the social situation severely this time around, will not give a 'feel good' factor at all. If nothing, the expectation is that it will be a terrible time for any government to go to the polls. The feeling among the populace may very well be doom and gloom.
We hear some optimistic predictions based on the upcoming Integrated Resort (IR) and, errr...nothing else, really. More likely, the situation will become worse before it becomes even more worse. So with the fresh memory of the bonuses received from last year, it would be prudent for the incumbent governement to call for elections soon, and I mean really soon. People can have such short memories. Bad new is beginning to pile up like a dunghill. Better do something about it before the electorate is overwhelmed and they make choice they will regret. That's what desperate people tend to do, besides looting and jumping off a highrise, or the open air MRT (elevated train) platforms in Singapore.
The question is: when this year, not if this year?
Image: morguefile.com. Author: nibujohn
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Law of wealth
The current economic recession, probably the worst that Singapore has ever seen, may be a blessing in disguise. For too long, Singaporeans have had it too good, and expecting that the good times will roll on and on - strong economic growth, high wages, sky-high apartments (of the $$$ kind) and easy credit through very very low interest rates.
I have lived long enough to know that this happy state of affairs cannot last long. That it has done so came as a bit of a surprise to me. Of course, there was the recession in 2003 - largely caused by the SARS outbreak, so it was not representative of typical economic cycles. The same can be said of the internet boom/bust and even the Asian Financial Crisis back in 1997. All of these were largely localised. For the connected globalised economy, the real markets were still there. So it would appear that globalisation would smoothen these economic boom-bust cycles, leveling the fluctuations that are characteristic of capitalist economies.
We got drunk on globablisation, we became careless with our money, and like the US consumers, we began to go into debt thinking that we will always have that steady stream of income to cover ourselves. Debt financing, sophisticated people call them. Even the Singapore government was bullish about this, talking about the desirability of developing a debt market as if it was the next best formula for pushing the economy to ever greater heights.
Now, I am not saying that debt financing is all wrong. Most businesses depend on a careful balance of cash flows to survive and many go into debt to expand, for example, listing on the stock market. But when everyone is doing it, including the clueless sub-prime people in the US, where debt is miraculously converted into interest-baring assets, which are then resold as it they were gold, ad-nauseam no less, with no accountability and no tomorrow (because the people who sell these get their money today -why worry about accountability some time down the future?), we end up with what the world is lamenting but can't do much without - toxic assets. These 'assets' which came out of the ingenuity of the human mind - to create something out of nothing. Ironically, every banker is now holding a lot of these toxic assets and none of them dares to move on them.
The problem is, they forgot that only God can create something out of nothing. We mortal souls? They again forgot about Isaac Newton and the greatest physicists that came after. They taught that matter cannot be created nor destroyed. But I suppose those PhDs who went into Financial Engineering - they abandoned Physics and its immutable laws. They did not look at 'wealth' as matter, so you could create new wealth without limits.
When you tinker with matter, you can save mankind or blow up the whole world. Is it any surprise that when you do the same with numbers, you can end up destroying the world too?
God help us all.
Image: morguefile.com. Author: clarita
I have lived long enough to know that this happy state of affairs cannot last long. That it has done so came as a bit of a surprise to me. Of course, there was the recession in 2003 - largely caused by the SARS outbreak, so it was not representative of typical economic cycles. The same can be said of the internet boom/bust and even the Asian Financial Crisis back in 1997. All of these were largely localised. For the connected globalised economy, the real markets were still there. So it would appear that globalisation would smoothen these economic boom-bust cycles, leveling the fluctuations that are characteristic of capitalist economies.
We got drunk on globablisation, we became careless with our money, and like the US consumers, we began to go into debt thinking that we will always have that steady stream of income to cover ourselves. Debt financing, sophisticated people call them. Even the Singapore government was bullish about this, talking about the desirability of developing a debt market as if it was the next best formula for pushing the economy to ever greater heights.
Now, I am not saying that debt financing is all wrong. Most businesses depend on a careful balance of cash flows to survive and many go into debt to expand, for example, listing on the stock market. But when everyone is doing it, including the clueless sub-prime people in the US, where debt is miraculously converted into interest-baring assets, which are then resold as it they were gold, ad-nauseam no less, with no accountability and no tomorrow (because the people who sell these get their money today -why worry about accountability some time down the future?), we end up with what the world is lamenting but can't do much without - toxic assets. These 'assets' which came out of the ingenuity of the human mind - to create something out of nothing. Ironically, every banker is now holding a lot of these toxic assets and none of them dares to move on them.
The problem is, they forgot that only God can create something out of nothing. We mortal souls? They again forgot about Isaac Newton and the greatest physicists that came after. They taught that matter cannot be created nor destroyed. But I suppose those PhDs who went into Financial Engineering - they abandoned Physics and its immutable laws. They did not look at 'wealth' as matter, so you could create new wealth without limits.
When you tinker with matter, you can save mankind or blow up the whole world. Is it any surprise that when you do the same with numbers, you can end up destroying the world too?
God help us all.
Image: morguefile.com. Author: clarita
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Love and law
For the voyeur amongst us, the story titillates. For the family of the woman, it was a tragedy, non more so than the 2 children who will not see their mother for 10 months. For the youth, it may have brought on psychological scars. Hopefully, these scars will heal so that another tragedy might not happen.
I am referring to the case of a 32 year-old woman, formerly a school teacher, who was jailed for 10 months for having sex with an under-aged boy, now 15. No, there was no rape involved. It was reportedly a consensual affair. But the newly minted law on these matters made this consensual affair a crime - whether the 'perpetrator' (read: the older person) is a man or a woman. Newspapers have given this story enough coverage that it does not need recounting here. On its own, this story isn't all that remarkable. Woman teachers have been reported elsewhere to have engaged in the same sort of activity before. See for example, Buffalo, Lamar CISD, Mary Kay Letourneau, etc.
While the woman has been 'put away', and the teenager probably receiving psychiatric counseling, the woman's 2 children will be the real victims in the long run. They require counseling too, though I am not aware how old they are now. And if the family were to break up because of this, then it will be a double tragedy. This is really a mess, and on hindsight, could all have been avoided if the woman's family had been more sensitive to her needs.
It is too late to say 'I told you so', but if there is a lesson to be learnt her, it is that everyone, including teachers, need attention, that nothing should be taken from granted. Are we engaged in something that takes up all of our time to the exclusion of everyone and everything? This is an obsession, and obsessions are no good. If you want to get married and have children, then you are obliged to stay married and bring up the kids. Why should somebody else's interests rank higher than your own family's? The simple straightforward answer is, it shouldn't.
Love others as you would yourself. If you cannot love your own family, what right have you to go around doing charity for others?
I am referring to the case of a 32 year-old woman, formerly a school teacher, who was jailed for 10 months for having sex with an under-aged boy, now 15. No, there was no rape involved. It was reportedly a consensual affair. But the newly minted law on these matters made this consensual affair a crime - whether the 'perpetrator' (read: the older person) is a man or a woman. Newspapers have given this story enough coverage that it does not need recounting here. On its own, this story isn't all that remarkable. Woman teachers have been reported elsewhere to have engaged in the same sort of activity before. See for example, Buffalo, Lamar CISD, Mary Kay Letourneau, etc.
While the woman has been 'put away', and the teenager probably receiving psychiatric counseling, the woman's 2 children will be the real victims in the long run. They require counseling too, though I am not aware how old they are now. And if the family were to break up because of this, then it will be a double tragedy. This is really a mess, and on hindsight, could all have been avoided if the woman's family had been more sensitive to her needs.
It is too late to say 'I told you so', but if there is a lesson to be learnt her, it is that everyone, including teachers, need attention, that nothing should be taken from granted. Are we engaged in something that takes up all of our time to the exclusion of everyone and everything? This is an obsession, and obsessions are no good. If you want to get married and have children, then you are obliged to stay married and bring up the kids. Why should somebody else's interests rank higher than your own family's? The simple straightforward answer is, it shouldn't.
Love others as you would yourself. If you cannot love your own family, what right have you to go around doing charity for others?
Sunday, February 08, 2009
Ageing and willing
Just the other day, I got a lift from a person I met for the first time around a 'yusheng' dinner at a posh Chinese restaurant. We had an interesting chat around the table, from which we discovered that we shared knowledge of several people in our profession - talk of a small world.He dropped me off at Potong Pasir MRT station. As we neared this Opposition-held ward, I casually mentioned Mr Chiam See Tong. He has been known to be in bad health since a minor stroke he sustained a few years ago. He hasn't made his presence felt in Parliament for a long time now, not like when he first got into Parliament and got ridiculed for his stuttering speeches. He spoke in Parliament again last week. His manner of speaking was again a topic of discussion. He was slow, very slow, but he spoke, nevertheless. He puts to shame many other MPs who merely put in perfunctionary speeches in Parliament. Quite frankly, I never thought that Mr Chiam would ever speak in Parliament again, but I, together with Singapore, were proven wrong.
No, he wasn't the fiery speaker, never was anyway. And yes, he was often ignored, even in his heyday. But he always came across as ever sincere, earnest and honest. Some would add naive. Probably not the type who will built up an opposition alliance of any substance, as history seems to have shown.
I am happy that he spoke. It was probably an inconsequential speech. But he is showing the rest of us that when it matters, however hard it is personally, we should make our point and presence felt, never mind the ridicule and talk behind the back. I haven't got what he has - courage and honesty. You've got to be honest with yourself, and if Mr Chiam believes in cobbling a GRC together in the next GE, I wish him well. He will probably try his best to keep his word, come what may. He's an old but willing warhorse that you'd feel confident of supporting, somehow. Instead of playing dead and living on sympathy, he has shown why he is still the MP for Potong Pasir after 24 years, in spite of the repeated assaults from the PAP juggernaut over this same period.
Source: Chiam See Tong Friendster Account
Sunday, February 01, 2009
Learning and training
Someone asked me, "What's the difference between a test and an exam?"
I would have brushed off the question, thinking that he just wanted to split hairs, except that this question has gained a certain significance with the announcement by the government of the intention of scrapping exams for Primary 1 and 2 students and replacing them with tests to be held throughout the year.
Ever since this announcement, many Singaporeans have weighed in on the issues. Many feel that the absence of exams at P1 and 2 will disadvantage students when they eventually take exams in P3. There's this thing about practice and pain that almost all Singapore parents of school going children are all too familiar with. Right from Primary 1, if not earlier, parents engage private tutors to grill their children on how to work out problems and answer exam questions. If the private tutor did not have an inventory of practice questions for their children, his/her competence could be called into question. One wonders then if our more 'successful' primary school students are exam-smart or just simply smart? Of course, one can be both but a lot of cynicism has been expressed over exam-only-smart students.
So perhaps it is the right thing to do, abolish exams for P1 and 2 students and get them to really learn and not merely be trained, like you would a dog. But doubt lingers, and I am not convinced that you can brush aside such doubts. The current exam-heavy regime of education in Singapore will still be there - the PSLE, the GCE 'O' levels.... As many parents point out, from P3 onwards, exams will determine the options, directions and schools that their child can take and go to. And if you don't train them early, especially when they are young, their ability to cope later becomes questionable. Of course, the really smart ones will adapt quickly, but those needing coaching will now, ironically, get more extra-curricular coaching in anticipation and preparation for the P3 exams and beyond. After all, it is a conventional wisdom in government to take the long-term view. And this has filtered down to the governed(?) Perhaps schools will also offer such coaching because they will also be ranked. No principal wants his/her Primary School to be ranked last. It isn't good for the school's image and certainly damaging to morale and prospective promotions of teachers and principals in the dog-eat-dog world of education in Singapore.
So what is the difference between tests and exams? I would venture that, as far as anxious parents are concerned, the difference is like night from day. Somehow, exams are viewed as a more serious form of assessment and thus a true validation of the competence of their children's performance compared to tests, even if tests are held more often throughout the year. If the latest government initiative is carried through (and there is little reason for it not to), we might see tests evolving into mini-exams. This will mean an increase in the anxiety for parents, students, teachers and private tutors throughout the year.
Pity the educators.
See also:
Primary education in Singapore
Review of Primary education in Singapore
Image: morgueFile.com. Author:gracey
I would have brushed off the question, thinking that he just wanted to split hairs, except that this question has gained a certain significance with the announcement by the government of the intention of scrapping exams for Primary 1 and 2 students and replacing them with tests to be held throughout the year.
Ever since this announcement, many Singaporeans have weighed in on the issues. Many feel that the absence of exams at P1 and 2 will disadvantage students when they eventually take exams in P3. There's this thing about practice and pain that almost all Singapore parents of school going children are all too familiar with. Right from Primary 1, if not earlier, parents engage private tutors to grill their children on how to work out problems and answer exam questions. If the private tutor did not have an inventory of practice questions for their children, his/her competence could be called into question. One wonders then if our more 'successful' primary school students are exam-smart or just simply smart? Of course, one can be both but a lot of cynicism has been expressed over exam-only-smart students.
So perhaps it is the right thing to do, abolish exams for P1 and 2 students and get them to really learn and not merely be trained, like you would a dog. But doubt lingers, and I am not convinced that you can brush aside such doubts. The current exam-heavy regime of education in Singapore will still be there - the PSLE, the GCE 'O' levels.... As many parents point out, from P3 onwards, exams will determine the options, directions and schools that their child can take and go to. And if you don't train them early, especially when they are young, their ability to cope later becomes questionable. Of course, the really smart ones will adapt quickly, but those needing coaching will now, ironically, get more extra-curricular coaching in anticipation and preparation for the P3 exams and beyond. After all, it is a conventional wisdom in government to take the long-term view. And this has filtered down to the governed(?) Perhaps schools will also offer such coaching because they will also be ranked. No principal wants his/her Primary School to be ranked last. It isn't good for the school's image and certainly damaging to morale and prospective promotions of teachers and principals in the dog-eat-dog world of education in Singapore.
So what is the difference between tests and exams? I would venture that, as far as anxious parents are concerned, the difference is like night from day. Somehow, exams are viewed as a more serious form of assessment and thus a true validation of the competence of their children's performance compared to tests, even if tests are held more often throughout the year. If the latest government initiative is carried through (and there is little reason for it not to), we might see tests evolving into mini-exams. This will mean an increase in the anxiety for parents, students, teachers and private tutors throughout the year.
Pity the educators.
See also:
Primary education in Singapore
Review of Primary education in Singapore
Image: morgueFile.com. Author:gracey
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
The Ox cometh
Chinese New Year has come and the first 2 days of celebrations have past without your knowing it. In this New Year celebrations, it has been the same old routine, the obligatory CNY eve dinner, the visiting, the eating. Yes, the visiting too. It appears that for some relatives, it is a once a year affair meeting up, unlike friends whom we meet and talk with the whole year around.
But meeting them, the relatives, have been a good thing, I wonder, though, if our meeting will be the last. Why so morose in a time of celebration? The inevitable. Within the last year, I have lost a dear relative, who was the architect of my parents' meeting and eventual union. In a way, I am here today because of her. But she was over 90, and she died peacefully in her sleep, that was a relief. There are those who hang to to dear life, when letting go would be so much better. So I had one less person to visit this. I visited another nonagenarian yesterday, an in-law. She seemed less alert than when I last saw her, no prizes for guessing, one year ago. But she could still recognise me, if barely, and one had to go near her to make oneself heard. But otherwise, she is in relative good health, which is what I wished for everyone I visited this CNY. No, not the wealth and good fortune, not the wish for the presence of the God of Fortune in the New Year, it had all got to be about good health. Priorities and realities, they change as you grow older. Perhaps that is why we grow wiser too. Oh to reminisce the fun and folly of youth, days gone by, never to come again.
We wish the best to all the children and send them along their way with a little money during these times. We genuinely wish them the best of life, good fortune, a life in excess (not of excess), excelling in school and, yes, health in their young lives. Even the young die prematurely, in the prime of their lives. We must ever be mindful of that. The young, some of them act and behave like there is no tomorrow. They speed down the expressways after having imbibed a few glasses, devil may care to claim their souls that very day. Many youth puff their way into addiction, thinking that they can put the stick down some time down the road. It rarely works out that way. I know a friend, a good man, who told me that, try as he might, he could never stop smoking. His regret comes too late. He is addicted till the day he breaths his last.
Why such depressing thoughts, this CNY? Perhaps the old look back with a sense of "seen that, done that" 20/20 vision. For all the good wishes over the years, there have been hard times. And 2009 promises to be the hardest of them all, the mother of all depression, they say. Talk is about possible loss of jobs - not because the company will retrench, but that the company will simply disappear, post CNY. People are on edge. It is part of the conversation this CNY. Everyone, it seems knows someone who has such worries on their minds.
But we remind ourselves that we have to be resilient, as the expansionary Government Budget 2009 suggests. More than at any other time, these people already have a plan B, ironically just waiting for that opportune time to put action to words. As the New Year slips into history, we face the inevitable tomorrow.
Happy Lunar New Year!
But meeting them, the relatives, have been a good thing, I wonder, though, if our meeting will be the last. Why so morose in a time of celebration? The inevitable. Within the last year, I have lost a dear relative, who was the architect of my parents' meeting and eventual union. In a way, I am here today because of her. But she was over 90, and she died peacefully in her sleep, that was a relief. There are those who hang to to dear life, when letting go would be so much better. So I had one less person to visit this. I visited another nonagenarian yesterday, an in-law. She seemed less alert than when I last saw her, no prizes for guessing, one year ago. But she could still recognise me, if barely, and one had to go near her to make oneself heard. But otherwise, she is in relative good health, which is what I wished for everyone I visited this CNY. No, not the wealth and good fortune, not the wish for the presence of the God of Fortune in the New Year, it had all got to be about good health. Priorities and realities, they change as you grow older. Perhaps that is why we grow wiser too. Oh to reminisce the fun and folly of youth, days gone by, never to come again.
We wish the best to all the children and send them along their way with a little money during these times. We genuinely wish them the best of life, good fortune, a life in excess (not of excess), excelling in school and, yes, health in their young lives. Even the young die prematurely, in the prime of their lives. We must ever be mindful of that. The young, some of them act and behave like there is no tomorrow. They speed down the expressways after having imbibed a few glasses, devil may care to claim their souls that very day. Many youth puff their way into addiction, thinking that they can put the stick down some time down the road. It rarely works out that way. I know a friend, a good man, who told me that, try as he might, he could never stop smoking. His regret comes too late. He is addicted till the day he breaths his last.
Why such depressing thoughts, this CNY? Perhaps the old look back with a sense of "seen that, done that" 20/20 vision. For all the good wishes over the years, there have been hard times. And 2009 promises to be the hardest of them all, the mother of all depression, they say. Talk is about possible loss of jobs - not because the company will retrench, but that the company will simply disappear, post CNY. People are on edge. It is part of the conversation this CNY. Everyone, it seems knows someone who has such worries on their minds.
But we remind ourselves that we have to be resilient, as the expansionary Government Budget 2009 suggests. More than at any other time, these people already have a plan B, ironically just waiting for that opportune time to put action to words. As the New Year slips into history, we face the inevitable tomorrow.
Happy Lunar New Year!
Sunday, January 25, 2009
A coin has two sides
The blogging community started the buzz, the mainstream print media picked it up and it went all the way to Parliament. This is really a reversal of rolls. Usually, news starts with what is said in Parliament, gets reported in the print and/or broadcast media and then dissipates in the blogging community where everyone weighs in which his/her 2 cents worth. But the story really started innocuously enough in the print media when the subject of interest wrote an article for the Straits Times.
Of course, I am referring to Singapore Permanent Secretary Tay Yong Soon's ill-advised column on his family and his 5-month trip to Paris where they attended a cooking class $15,000 a pop, totaling S$45,000. For this amount of money, you could be enrolled in a full-fledge degree course, or even a master's degree course at SIM University. This is conspicuous consumption of the highest order, although one cannot deny that the PS is just following official policy to learn new skills to remain employable. Thus, before we jump to the conclusion that the PS has indulged himself and his family, we should let him explain.
And from all accounts thus far, the PS appears to be a decent chap. The only error he made was talk to the press about his trip and have it written up. Really, if he has the means to get a top-notch lesson in cooking that costs a bomb, that's his prerogative. There are many others who spent a fortune indulging in their hobbies, so why begrudge a man his pleasures? And he did it with his family, so that's really a good thing. Nothing like family bonding around the fireplace, albeit a costly one.
But chatter on the internet, in blog gossips and such, these are often merciless, subjective and shorn of any mitigating information. Merciless is the keyword here. It does not matter if you are a good man, a generous man, a charitable man. Once you are 'caught', you're toast. So what's the lesson here?
1. Be careful when you talk to the Press.
2. Apologise to show humility, not that you are in the wrong (Good for you, Mr Tay)
3. Don't defend yourself, let others do it for you (his colleagues' comments spoke volumes for him).
4. Be a good boss - the goodwill will be returned in spades later
5. Take internet chatter with a pinch of the salt. (Look, we are not trained journalists, just chatterboxes, sometimes equal to the best auntie gossipers you can find in a market any day)
6. Ignore internet savvy auntie gossipers at your own peril
7. Write for the Press at your own peril. Worst if you are a civil servant
Of course, I am referring to Singapore Permanent Secretary Tay Yong Soon's ill-advised column on his family and his 5-month trip to Paris where they attended a cooking class $15,000 a pop, totaling S$45,000. For this amount of money, you could be enrolled in a full-fledge degree course, or even a master's degree course at SIM University. This is conspicuous consumption of the highest order, although one cannot deny that the PS is just following official policy to learn new skills to remain employable. Thus, before we jump to the conclusion that the PS has indulged himself and his family, we should let him explain.
And from all accounts thus far, the PS appears to be a decent chap. The only error he made was talk to the press about his trip and have it written up. Really, if he has the means to get a top-notch lesson in cooking that costs a bomb, that's his prerogative. There are many others who spent a fortune indulging in their hobbies, so why begrudge a man his pleasures? And he did it with his family, so that's really a good thing. Nothing like family bonding around the fireplace, albeit a costly one.
But chatter on the internet, in blog gossips and such, these are often merciless, subjective and shorn of any mitigating information. Merciless is the keyword here. It does not matter if you are a good man, a generous man, a charitable man. Once you are 'caught', you're toast. So what's the lesson here?
1. Be careful when you talk to the Press.
2. Apologise to show humility, not that you are in the wrong (Good for you, Mr Tay)
3. Don't defend yourself, let others do it for you (his colleagues' comments spoke volumes for him).
4. Be a good boss - the goodwill will be returned in spades later
5. Take internet chatter with a pinch of the salt. (Look, we are not trained journalists, just chatterboxes, sometimes equal to the best auntie gossipers you can find in a market any day)
6. Ignore internet savvy auntie gossipers at your own peril
7. Write for the Press at your own peril. Worst if you are a civil servant
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Worth of Words
I am disturbed. I really am. What is the source of my discomfort, you ask? Well, a Director of our Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has written to the press, in reply to a reader's question, that "Insurance companies are expected to have clear policies...", that "MAS expects the board and senior management to ensure that these policies and procedures are implemented consistently". She was writing in response to a reader's letter questioning the security of having one's personal data stored on insurance agents’ laptops. Some other readers have gone on to question the wider practice of providing photocopied ICs for all kinds of applications, depositing ICs with the security guard, etc.
While MAS may not have oversight over the latter, its reply concerning the former certainly gives no comfort to the person considering an insurance policy. If governance can be executed through expecting that people and organisations will do the right thing, then the frauds that have been surfacing over the last few years, from Enron to Satyam, would not have occurred. But it is precisely because these things do happen, and that even after auditing firms have done their jobs (or not) in conducting periodic statutory reviews. What is alarming in many cases is that fraud can take place with the most respectable people (e.g. Bernard Madoff - described as a long-standing leader in the financial services industry), that something more cries out to be done. I am not suggesting that we stifle the industry with more government rules thereby imposing onerous bureaucratic procedures on businesses that are struggling in these times. But its current 'hands-off' approach is surely too optimistic of human nature.
Might Singapore be waiting for its next Enron, or Satyam or, worse, its Bernard Madoff to make MAS' Communications Director's words come back to haunt her? We have had Leeson-Barings under our belt, but we certainly don't need another.
While MAS may not have oversight over the latter, its reply concerning the former certainly gives no comfort to the person considering an insurance policy. If governance can be executed through expecting that people and organisations will do the right thing, then the frauds that have been surfacing over the last few years, from Enron to Satyam, would not have occurred. But it is precisely because these things do happen, and that even after auditing firms have done their jobs (or not) in conducting periodic statutory reviews. What is alarming in many cases is that fraud can take place with the most respectable people (e.g. Bernard Madoff - described as a long-standing leader in the financial services industry), that something more cries out to be done. I am not suggesting that we stifle the industry with more government rules thereby imposing onerous bureaucratic procedures on businesses that are struggling in these times. But its current 'hands-off' approach is surely too optimistic of human nature.
Might Singapore be waiting for its next Enron, or Satyam or, worse, its Bernard Madoff to make MAS' Communications Director's words come back to haunt her? We have had Leeson-Barings under our belt, but we certainly don't need another.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Health of my Pocket
Great news! 4,500 jobs to be created in the Healthcare sector within the next 2 years. This will surely come as good news to people who are facing retrenchments, or already have been retrenched. I think many Singaporeans have come around to the inevitable - the inevitability that jobs will be lost, but jobs elsewhere will be created, that to remain employed and employable, we just have to change by acquiring new skills.
Except, you wonder what vacancies these 4,500 are supposed to fill in the Healthcare sector? And if the Healthcare sector was missing 4,500 admin and ancillary staff up till now, you wonder how Singapore has gained a good reputation for the efficiency of its healthcare services so far? Or are we padding our hospitals and other healthcare establishments such as Polyclinics? Well, yes, there will be a new Hospital, the Khoo Teck Phuat Hospital come 2010, so recruiting and training people in the next two years makes sense. But does it require 4,500 administrative and ancillary staff to run the hospital? And the long waits at government Polyclinics, a bug-bear for many years, are hardly caused by a lack of administrative staff, it more like not enough doctors.
If these staff are not absolutely necessary, I hope they do not add to the already high cost of medicine in Singapore. Already, means testing has started, and I fear for people in the middle-income bracket ending up paying for these government pump-priming activities. Almost every commercial firms are looking at cutting cost nowadays with not a few deciding that they could do with less staff. While government activity will help to fill these gaps in the employment market, I hope that when better times come around, healthcare cost will not go up because "operational costs have gone up..."
Image: morgueFile.com. Author: Clara Natoli
Except, you wonder what vacancies these 4,500 are supposed to fill in the Healthcare sector? And if the Healthcare sector was missing 4,500 admin and ancillary staff up till now, you wonder how Singapore has gained a good reputation for the efficiency of its healthcare services so far? Or are we padding our hospitals and other healthcare establishments such as Polyclinics? Well, yes, there will be a new Hospital, the Khoo Teck Phuat Hospital come 2010, so recruiting and training people in the next two years makes sense. But does it require 4,500 administrative and ancillary staff to run the hospital? And the long waits at government Polyclinics, a bug-bear for many years, are hardly caused by a lack of administrative staff, it more like not enough doctors.
If these staff are not absolutely necessary, I hope they do not add to the already high cost of medicine in Singapore. Already, means testing has started, and I fear for people in the middle-income bracket ending up paying for these government pump-priming activities. Almost every commercial firms are looking at cutting cost nowadays with not a few deciding that they could do with less staff. While government activity will help to fill these gaps in the employment market, I hope that when better times come around, healthcare cost will not go up because "operational costs have gone up..."
Image: morgueFile.com. Author: Clara Natoli
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Balanced Sight
I must congratulate the Singapore Government, and especially the Singapore Malay leaders, in the courageous and sensible stance they are taking over the Israel-Gaza conflict. People the world over, it appears, are up in arms over Israel's disproportionate response to the rockets that have been lobbed into its soil, and continues to do so.
Well, in the first place, there is no such thing as disproportionate response in war. You mean a person fires two rockets at you and you are only entitled to respond with 2 rockets? Well of course not, you say. But then, where do you draw the line? 4 rockets for 2? or 6 rockets? The argument of proportionality simply breaks down in war, where the ultimate objective is the achievement of specific targets - in this case, Israel wants these rockets fired by the Hamas to stop. But the rockets have not stopped, so Israel continues to wage war on the Hamas in Gaza.
But back to our Singapore government. Its stand is the most practical, from an outsider's point of view. We do not get the bombs and rockets on our soil. Those in Southern Israel and Gaza do. So if we sided one over the other, we are expressing a preference that proportionately more rockets land on one side over another. That is what protesters the world over are suggesting whether they are pro-Israel or pro-Hamas. Rather, Singapore is urging for a ceasefire and for both sides and for both to go to the negotiating table as soon as possible. This is probably the most acceptable way, now that the world wants to care about it, to solve the problem now, if not long-term.
Going out on the streets to stage protests and demos may look good, but it does no good for anyone. Boycotting other's products, like what one former leader north of Singapore is mindlessly suggesting, deprives the Jews, Christians, Muslims, and everyone else affected, their honest and decent livelihood, especially in these depressed times.
The best thing to do is to pray for the conflict to end.
Image: morgueFile.com. Author: Michael Connors
Well, in the first place, there is no such thing as disproportionate response in war. You mean a person fires two rockets at you and you are only entitled to respond with 2 rockets? Well of course not, you say. But then, where do you draw the line? 4 rockets for 2? or 6 rockets? The argument of proportionality simply breaks down in war, where the ultimate objective is the achievement of specific targets - in this case, Israel wants these rockets fired by the Hamas to stop. But the rockets have not stopped, so Israel continues to wage war on the Hamas in Gaza.
But back to our Singapore government. Its stand is the most practical, from an outsider's point of view. We do not get the bombs and rockets on our soil. Those in Southern Israel and Gaza do. So if we sided one over the other, we are expressing a preference that proportionately more rockets land on one side over another. That is what protesters the world over are suggesting whether they are pro-Israel or pro-Hamas. Rather, Singapore is urging for a ceasefire and for both sides and for both to go to the negotiating table as soon as possible. This is probably the most acceptable way, now that the world wants to care about it, to solve the problem now, if not long-term.
Going out on the streets to stage protests and demos may look good, but it does no good for anyone. Boycotting other's products, like what one former leader north of Singapore is mindlessly suggesting, deprives the Jews, Christians, Muslims, and everyone else affected, their honest and decent livelihood, especially in these depressed times.
The best thing to do is to pray for the conflict to end.
Image: morgueFile.com. Author: Michael Connors
Friday, January 09, 2009
Genocide in our midst
Some Singapore businessmen, they are a bunch of crooks. You don't really have to look for them in Copenhagen, where an erstwhile gangster lives in comfort and respectability, among crooks, i.e., until he was brought down by one of his collaborators recently. Heaven does not have eyes, they say, for this man is still alive and will probably recover.
In Singapore, crooked businessmen are depriving the foreign workers they bring in to work on their projects their just dues - their salary - and worst, in crunch times, as at present, they abandon them to their own devices. These poor souls cannot find alternative employment, and thus cannot feed themselves. They can't go home either because they don't have the money, and worst, their passports are with the crooked employers. The law should come down hard on these employers, whose only interest is in themselves. It is ok if you bring in trucks and machineries, and once un-needed, you dump them in a yard and let them rust and rot. You cannot treat human beings like that, however. But obviously, many foreign workers among us are being treated exactly like that.
Unless our Manpower Ministry takes a proactive approach, this sorry state of affairs will continue to happen. Bodies representing employers wrote to the press after the press brought the plight of these workers to the public's attention. Otherwise, who knows what the end of these people will be. And when the public does come to know about it, the disgust will be so severe that we cannot but hide in a hole, any hole, and be ashamed to call ourselves Singaporeans because educated, civilised and entrepreneurial Singaporeans that we supposedly are, are practicing human genocide, right in our very own backyard. Is the genocide word too strong? Looking at the situation right now, it just about describes the heinous way in which we treat people who build our houses and our roads.
We should hang our heads in shame.
In Singapore, crooked businessmen are depriving the foreign workers they bring in to work on their projects their just dues - their salary - and worst, in crunch times, as at present, they abandon them to their own devices. These poor souls cannot find alternative employment, and thus cannot feed themselves. They can't go home either because they don't have the money, and worst, their passports are with the crooked employers. The law should come down hard on these employers, whose only interest is in themselves. It is ok if you bring in trucks and machineries, and once un-needed, you dump them in a yard and let them rust and rot. You cannot treat human beings like that, however. But obviously, many foreign workers among us are being treated exactly like that.
Unless our Manpower Ministry takes a proactive approach, this sorry state of affairs will continue to happen. Bodies representing employers wrote to the press after the press brought the plight of these workers to the public's attention. Otherwise, who knows what the end of these people will be. And when the public does come to know about it, the disgust will be so severe that we cannot but hide in a hole, any hole, and be ashamed to call ourselves Singaporeans because educated, civilised and entrepreneurial Singaporeans that we supposedly are, are practicing human genocide, right in our very own backyard. Is the genocide word too strong? Looking at the situation right now, it just about describes the heinous way in which we treat people who build our houses and our roads.
We should hang our heads in shame.
Friday, January 02, 2009
The Old and the New
The New Year in Singapore brings something good and something not so good, depending on who you are. First the good news (why must the bad always come first?).
The ban on smoking has now been extended to cover all multi-storey and basement car parks. Why couldn't they include open air car parks too? After all, trees in open air car parks need carbon dioxide, not carbon monoxide. Help save the tree, dammit! But then again, we don't want smokers to have to rent a boat out to sea to smoke, right? Let's remain compassionate. Anyway, they can't smoke in non-aircon public buildings either (that's what the authorities mean when they state Shopping Centres, right?). Lift lobbies, markets, playgrounds and exercise areas (which I take to include all path for walking and running (hey, walking is a form of exercise too) are included too. And oh, anywhere within 5 metres of the entrances and exits of buildings are no-no-land. I suppose that means that you can lean on or hug the walls of these buildings and smoke away happily. This extension of the banned areas is good news for non-smokers, bad for smokers. Now will they stop smoking? No, they'd rather go onto the roads 5 metres away from the buildings and add vehicle exhaust fumes to their cigs smoke. That will mean more will contract lung cancer and whatever other ailments related to pumping smoke into your lungs on a regular basis. Certainly bad news for smokers, which leads to the bad bad news below.
The bad news? The government is going to charge more for B and C class wards in its Hospitals. That's what means testing leads to, generally - unless you are dead broke. Between the two - being dead broke and having the means, the choice is clear - be broke, but don't let anyone find out that you are broke in name only. Like someone who moved millions to dollars to HK SAR and went to jail for it. Singapore's laws are just as tough, if not more so.
So the upshot is, if you smoke, don't be rich. Otherwise, you'll have to pay through your nose, pun not intended.
Otherwise, have a Happy New Year.
Image: morgueFile.com. Author: Pedro Jose Perez
The ban on smoking has now been extended to cover all multi-storey and basement car parks. Why couldn't they include open air car parks too? After all, trees in open air car parks need carbon dioxide, not carbon monoxide. Help save the tree, dammit! But then again, we don't want smokers to have to rent a boat out to sea to smoke, right? Let's remain compassionate. Anyway, they can't smoke in non-aircon public buildings either (that's what the authorities mean when they state Shopping Centres, right?). Lift lobbies, markets, playgrounds and exercise areas (which I take to include all path for walking and running (hey, walking is a form of exercise too) are included too. And oh, anywhere within 5 metres of the entrances and exits of buildings are no-no-land. I suppose that means that you can lean on or hug the walls of these buildings and smoke away happily. This extension of the banned areas is good news for non-smokers, bad for smokers. Now will they stop smoking? No, they'd rather go onto the roads 5 metres away from the buildings and add vehicle exhaust fumes to their cigs smoke. That will mean more will contract lung cancer and whatever other ailments related to pumping smoke into your lungs on a regular basis. Certainly bad news for smokers, which leads to the bad bad news below.
The bad news? The government is going to charge more for B and C class wards in its Hospitals. That's what means testing leads to, generally - unless you are dead broke. Between the two - being dead broke and having the means, the choice is clear - be broke, but don't let anyone find out that you are broke in name only. Like someone who moved millions to dollars to HK SAR and went to jail for it. Singapore's laws are just as tough, if not more so.
So the upshot is, if you smoke, don't be rich. Otherwise, you'll have to pay through your nose, pun not intended.
Otherwise, have a Happy New Year.
Image: morgueFile.com. Author: Pedro Jose Perez
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