How much do you have? How much pocket money does your parents gave you? I have been pondering over this 2 qns ever since i flipped the wanbao, a local tabloid which trives on sex or sensational murder stories for its circulation digits, and i read the story of the man who jumped into the MRT track at Chinese garden Station, the place where he met his current wife.
His whole entire fortune was a measly 30 dollars. For some of us, 30 dollars perhaps was a day's pocket money or the cost of a meal we have eaten at crystal jade. But for him, his 30 dollars need to be stretched to fill up not only a day, a week but maybe a month. I can understand his anguish, his anxiety and his worries. Two teen sons, a loving wife who unfortunately, striked with polio, a 3 room flat which perhaps, mortgage has not been fully paid. In a society like Singapore where a plate of chicken rice cost $2, he can either sacrifice his whole fortune for 15 plates, or to divided it equally to paying utilities, food, transport and health care.
So what went into his mind when he decided to take the plunge? Does he not care about his family? Is he suffering from depression? Does he regret the moment his life flashed in front of him? Sadly, no one can answer these question.
To the society as a whole, the government has been reassuring that Singapore must be an inclusive society. Then, this inclusive society as it is called, does it include the poor as well? If it does, then why has he got to die? Sure, there are alot of measures and avenues presented to the poor like the progress package. However, fingers has been pointed to the poor themselves for not accepting these help due to "face saving".
But thats not forget, the poor usually has little or no education. For him, he only had a primary three education. So shall we just play the blame game and say :" oh the help are there, but blame yourself for not wanting it". I feel its not they not wanting it but they do not know how to get it?
Should we set up a unit to track these poor people, offer them help instead of them coming to get help, to ask for help. Even we do not want to build a social welfare system in singapore, but sometimes, too rigid to one policy may blind us from seeing the big picture.
On a personal note: After i read his story i realised that compared to my silly problem, his is the one which indeed, constitute a problem. I also felt that actually i am still considered lucky for the fact i do not have to worry how to feed my family with just $30. I think i will do volunteer work after i graduate.
Sunday, October 22, 2006
Saturday, September 16, 2006
IMF
i am horrified by the barriers, cages to be exact that are erect all in our town areas for the IMF meeting. Well i kept my comments reserved for the banning of some activist, but i feel that by erecting those barriers seems abit out of scope, absurd.
By erecting those, it seems our police, army are incompetent to deal with any clashes or riot and we need those artificial steels to keep them out.
If i am a delegate, i will feel like entering a prison. True, keeping them safe is the most paramount thing to do, but why other country can keep them safe while allowing activist, minus away the barriers but we can't?
Are we telling the whole world we are too pananoid, too insecure or just plain lack of confidence?
By erecting those, it seems our police, army are incompetent to deal with any clashes or riot and we need those artificial steels to keep them out.
If i am a delegate, i will feel like entering a prison. True, keeping them safe is the most paramount thing to do, but why other country can keep them safe while allowing activist, minus away the barriers but we can't?
Are we telling the whole world we are too pananoid, too insecure or just plain lack of confidence?
Friday, July 21, 2006
Barriers to keep you safe, and you are complaining
I read one entry by a blogger about the north eastern side of Singapore, being fitted with green barriers that divide the road and of course, stop any jaywalkers from performing their act of potential death. The blogger said he overheard an conversation of an old lady, presuming to another old lady, complaining that she couldn't jaywalk and had to walk all the way to the nearest traffic light to cross the road. The blogger pondered why there is a need for the barriers if the area is deserted and it is okay to jaywalk. Such warp idea.
Now before we argue whether people ought to jaywalk or not. Let see why humans jaywalk. The question here is why human want to cross the road, not the chicken but human. There are many reasons why human want to cross the road. He may cross the road for fun, for school, for walk, for recreational,etc. Yes, crossing the road is a goal to be achieved. Now that is established, then why do they need to jaywalk? I think this is the same as asking, why do you want to cram up studying everything before exam, why you want to cheat during exam. Why you need that 3 in 1 coffee mix instead of manually adding milk and coffee powder. Exactly, human prefer to take the shortest avenue to achieve the same thing. So the reason for jaywalking is obvious, we want to save time. So human will jaywalk! its an inate behaviour!
So in order to save time, we jaywalk. But do you realise nobody jaywalks on an expressway? Well, because when human jaywalk, they exercise their brain to judge and to weigh the pros and cons. Risking their lives to jaywalk there isn't the most intelligent thing to do.
But, does that means jaywalking in deserted road, safer? On the contrary. Precisely it is deserted, vehicles will move faster. And when vehicles move faster, there is a need to set up the barriers because time is not on the driver's side and as human reaction time is pretty slow, slower if he is occupied with something else. Accident happen in this way because one party want to cut time, another party think its alright to speed up. All this are connected to the idea that the road is deserted.
So we should even more put up barriers in deserted road. However i assume the blogger main idea of questioning the viability of barriers is the expense that was spent in erecting up a stretch. He questioned that if the contract to erect one was given to a singapore company, then its alright as money flows back to the economy. However if given to a foreign one, money flows out.
Well, i feel that even if its given to a foreign company, it doesn't matter. Firstly, the cost of putting up one is not that great. Secondly, i believe that such national development projects may be undertaken by HDB surbana or some local satutory affiliated companies. Lastly and more importantly, what is money spent if we can save lives?
The blogger also says that its a sign of nanny-ism because of the barriers as it reflect the political, society atmosphere of Singapore. But to quote a man:" the sg govt is like an open book, but you need to find the answer yourself" And in this barrier incident, if singaporean can think for themselves and do not jaywalk, i believe the barriers won't be set up in the first place. We seek the answer ourselves and the answer here is Barriers to the Jaywalk Question.
Lastly, the blogger think that if the related ministry didn't put up the barriers and the jaywalker died from any accident, his own fault and nobody should care, i think he is missing the bigger picture that a good govt is one where take care of its people and in this case, value human lives.
Now before we argue whether people ought to jaywalk or not. Let see why humans jaywalk. The question here is why human want to cross the road, not the chicken but human. There are many reasons why human want to cross the road. He may cross the road for fun, for school, for walk, for recreational,etc. Yes, crossing the road is a goal to be achieved. Now that is established, then why do they need to jaywalk? I think this is the same as asking, why do you want to cram up studying everything before exam, why you want to cheat during exam. Why you need that 3 in 1 coffee mix instead of manually adding milk and coffee powder. Exactly, human prefer to take the shortest avenue to achieve the same thing. So the reason for jaywalking is obvious, we want to save time. So human will jaywalk! its an inate behaviour!
So in order to save time, we jaywalk. But do you realise nobody jaywalks on an expressway? Well, because when human jaywalk, they exercise their brain to judge and to weigh the pros and cons. Risking their lives to jaywalk there isn't the most intelligent thing to do.
But, does that means jaywalking in deserted road, safer? On the contrary. Precisely it is deserted, vehicles will move faster. And when vehicles move faster, there is a need to set up the barriers because time is not on the driver's side and as human reaction time is pretty slow, slower if he is occupied with something else. Accident happen in this way because one party want to cut time, another party think its alright to speed up. All this are connected to the idea that the road is deserted.
So we should even more put up barriers in deserted road. However i assume the blogger main idea of questioning the viability of barriers is the expense that was spent in erecting up a stretch. He questioned that if the contract to erect one was given to a singapore company, then its alright as money flows back to the economy. However if given to a foreign one, money flows out.
Well, i feel that even if its given to a foreign company, it doesn't matter. Firstly, the cost of putting up one is not that great. Secondly, i believe that such national development projects may be undertaken by HDB surbana or some local satutory affiliated companies. Lastly and more importantly, what is money spent if we can save lives?
The blogger also says that its a sign of nanny-ism because of the barriers as it reflect the political, society atmosphere of Singapore. But to quote a man:" the sg govt is like an open book, but you need to find the answer yourself" And in this barrier incident, if singaporean can think for themselves and do not jaywalk, i believe the barriers won't be set up in the first place. We seek the answer ourselves and the answer here is Barriers to the Jaywalk Question.
Lastly, the blogger think that if the related ministry didn't put up the barriers and the jaywalker died from any accident, his own fault and nobody should care, i think he is missing the bigger picture that a good govt is one where take care of its people and in this case, value human lives.
Friday, June 30, 2006
Going for the Extra Mile for service
After 35 years of courtesy campaign, some began to question whether those campaign are a waste of tax payers' money as there seems to be no improvement in service here. Hongkong once below singapore in service standard, meteor rise to quite a lot of notches infront of singapore.
To a country desperate and pananoid of not being first, this has call for a national inquiry on what we should do. Therefore, GEMS, another acronym is formed with the intend of "propaganding" the people to be more courteous and more polite.
Recently, a magazine conducted another survey to see how each country perform in politeness and kindness and all that. Singapore took the 35th place and once again send the whole country in chaos. Well not so much of a chaos because " i never say thank you when you hold the door for me is because i am busy smsing what".
I think the flaw or the answer to the question is, our campaign is not good because we never treat our own countrymen like VIP. Singapore is going to host the IMF meeting and viola! our expressways are given a fresh coat of paint, we began to collect 4 million smile, advertisement reminding us that we must be courteous because they are going to book our hotels, raid our shopping malls, dump millions of dollars at our mint.
Is money interconnected to courtesy? If our own countrymen can afford to splurge millions of dollars in a short span of days, would our campaign focus on our own people, will we paint our expressways for our own people?
To a country desperate and pananoid of not being first, this has call for a national inquiry on what we should do. Therefore, GEMS, another acronym is formed with the intend of "propaganding" the people to be more courteous and more polite.
Recently, a magazine conducted another survey to see how each country perform in politeness and kindness and all that. Singapore took the 35th place and once again send the whole country in chaos. Well not so much of a chaos because " i never say thank you when you hold the door for me is because i am busy smsing what".
I think the flaw or the answer to the question is, our campaign is not good because we never treat our own countrymen like VIP. Singapore is going to host the IMF meeting and viola! our expressways are given a fresh coat of paint, we began to collect 4 million smile, advertisement reminding us that we must be courteous because they are going to book our hotels, raid our shopping malls, dump millions of dollars at our mint.
Is money interconnected to courtesy? If our own countrymen can afford to splurge millions of dollars in a short span of days, would our campaign focus on our own people, will we paint our expressways for our own people?
Tuesday, June 13, 2006
A little of everything
Elections
Yes. I can vote. I always believe that voting is sacred and that it mark my coming of age. About receiving keys or seeing RA movies when one hit 21? Forget It! Voting is the ultimate prize. Why is this so? Well, even if one is eligible to vote, he may not be able to vote if its a walkover. The feeling was kind of surreal. Having accompanied my parents to voting booth twice, i can't believe i was standing at the booth beside them, striking the X and drop the ballot in the box. Who i cast for? Sorry i can't tell. 66.6% of the votes are cast for the incumbent. Triple 6...does that means doom is coming? I think its all superstitious. But i must put here, my 2 cent worth of analysis and proposal in the election.
I think why the incumbent lost yet again, hougang and Potong Pasir was that the upgrading cards was play too much. Everybody pay taxes so why those two constituents can't get their upgrading done? I think the main reason is that they are not close to any of our major expressway. If there is any expressway that link our Changi Airport to the city, you jolly well seen plants, shrubs, coconut trees lining along. To show good impression and how unique Singapore is to the tourist that is! Secondly, the opposition do have a point there. What is the reason for co-pay when we are actually paying for upgrading( by the tax monies)?
Japan
I am quite worried about the changes in the consitution changes made to the defence force of Japan. If you realise, Japan is slowly taking the step to have their armed forces fully operational, instead of just a defence force as it claimed. First the sending of security forces to conflict areas like Iraq, Afganistan. Together with billions of aid poor in. I think the aids is to ease people heart and hoping no one realise what it is doing, step by step.
After that, establish a need for the change in the defence force. In this case, China was used by them i think. China always react violently or aggressively to the visiting of the shrine. Japan is trying to play victim here. Why do i say so? Look, Japan invest in china, give them monetary aids and even issue statement of regret of the atrocracies done during the war. Yet China was seen as a petty fella, unwilling to forgive. So here we have it, another reason for the build up of force.
Thirdly, US and japan are quite friendly nowadays as US are wary of the China miitary build up. And if Korea take back the land lease to US, US pacific fleet may not be operational in the North-west Asia area, the Korea base is of extremely important to US as it can keep a close watch on pyongyang and China.
Fourth, what has taiwan got to do with Japan? Japan said it aim to protect Taiwan in case of any conflict but i think it is not their problem anyway, its a Chinese problem.
Japan need to be under tight scrutinising. I think it is trying to be funny again.
Learning Malay and Arabic
If i got the time, i will learn melayu and arabic. Melayu for the reason that we are surrounded by Malay states. Its of purely economic reasoning that i should learn it. Actually i forsee Malaysia and Indonesia as the next emerging market. I think those 2 market haven't reach their potential yet. Forget about China and India, focus on this 2 turfs closer to home. Natural resources, human resources, geographical locations, malaysia have them all.
For Arabic, if one realise, the MAS has allow a islamic financial product to be launch in Singapore. Our ministers has made the prilgrimage to mecca, qatar, dubai, etc, the middle east countries. Both MMs went there. I think we are trying to invest there, or bringing investments from there.
If let say..20 years are left before oil was use up. The middle east, having rely on Oil so many years, will decided to build up their economies based on other stuff other than oil. Well, don't say 20 yrs, they are slowly doing that now. Their population are young, fulll of energy. So learning arabic is profitable.
Yes. I can vote. I always believe that voting is sacred and that it mark my coming of age. About receiving keys or seeing RA movies when one hit 21? Forget It! Voting is the ultimate prize. Why is this so? Well, even if one is eligible to vote, he may not be able to vote if its a walkover. The feeling was kind of surreal. Having accompanied my parents to voting booth twice, i can't believe i was standing at the booth beside them, striking the X and drop the ballot in the box. Who i cast for? Sorry i can't tell. 66.6% of the votes are cast for the incumbent. Triple 6...does that means doom is coming? I think its all superstitious. But i must put here, my 2 cent worth of analysis and proposal in the election.
I think why the incumbent lost yet again, hougang and Potong Pasir was that the upgrading cards was play too much. Everybody pay taxes so why those two constituents can't get their upgrading done? I think the main reason is that they are not close to any of our major expressway. If there is any expressway that link our Changi Airport to the city, you jolly well seen plants, shrubs, coconut trees lining along. To show good impression and how unique Singapore is to the tourist that is! Secondly, the opposition do have a point there. What is the reason for co-pay when we are actually paying for upgrading( by the tax monies)?
Japan
I am quite worried about the changes in the consitution changes made to the defence force of Japan. If you realise, Japan is slowly taking the step to have their armed forces fully operational, instead of just a defence force as it claimed. First the sending of security forces to conflict areas like Iraq, Afganistan. Together with billions of aid poor in. I think the aids is to ease people heart and hoping no one realise what it is doing, step by step.
After that, establish a need for the change in the defence force. In this case, China was used by them i think. China always react violently or aggressively to the visiting of the shrine. Japan is trying to play victim here. Why do i say so? Look, Japan invest in china, give them monetary aids and even issue statement of regret of the atrocracies done during the war. Yet China was seen as a petty fella, unwilling to forgive. So here we have it, another reason for the build up of force.
Thirdly, US and japan are quite friendly nowadays as US are wary of the China miitary build up. And if Korea take back the land lease to US, US pacific fleet may not be operational in the North-west Asia area, the Korea base is of extremely important to US as it can keep a close watch on pyongyang and China.
Fourth, what has taiwan got to do with Japan? Japan said it aim to protect Taiwan in case of any conflict but i think it is not their problem anyway, its a Chinese problem.
Japan need to be under tight scrutinising. I think it is trying to be funny again.
Learning Malay and Arabic
If i got the time, i will learn melayu and arabic. Melayu for the reason that we are surrounded by Malay states. Its of purely economic reasoning that i should learn it. Actually i forsee Malaysia and Indonesia as the next emerging market. I think those 2 market haven't reach their potential yet. Forget about China and India, focus on this 2 turfs closer to home. Natural resources, human resources, geographical locations, malaysia have them all.
For Arabic, if one realise, the MAS has allow a islamic financial product to be launch in Singapore. Our ministers has made the prilgrimage to mecca, qatar, dubai, etc, the middle east countries. Both MMs went there. I think we are trying to invest there, or bringing investments from there.
If let say..20 years are left before oil was use up. The middle east, having rely on Oil so many years, will decided to build up their economies based on other stuff other than oil. Well, don't say 20 yrs, they are slowly doing that now. Their population are young, fulll of energy. So learning arabic is profitable.
Monday, May 01, 2006
笨人歌
(from http://www.zaobao.com/yl/yl060426_510.html)
被人说笨心不甘，真要学笨不简单;
拾金不昧笨不笨，你若不笨便是贪。
大智若愚人称憨，卧虎藏龙在深山；
笨字拆开本是竹，清风傲骨腰不弯。
铁杵磨针不怕难，愚公移山为谁忙；
神农若不尝百草，后人那来千金方。
名嘴出口能成章，一时口误惹祸端；
原本一颗小红点，越描越黑越肮脏。
不奸不坏不是笨，知足常乐又何妨；
政府既然委贤良，奉公守法也应当。
虽然没有大革命，家家丰衣有米粮；
虽然没有大河川，车水马龙国富强。
被人说笨心不甘，真要学笨不简单;
拾金不昧笨不笨，你若不笨便是贪。
大智若愚人称憨，卧虎藏龙在深山；
笨字拆开本是竹，清风傲骨腰不弯。
铁杵磨针不怕难，愚公移山为谁忙；
神农若不尝百草，后人那来千金方。
名嘴出口能成章，一时口误惹祸端；
原本一颗小红点，越描越黑越肮脏。
不奸不坏不是笨，知足常乐又何妨；
政府既然委贤良，奉公守法也应当。
虽然没有大革命，家家丰衣有米粮；
虽然没有大河川，车水马龙国富强。
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