Tag Singapore

Singapore: What Do I See?

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What I see of Singapore is that of a country that is nothing short of a miracle.

Who would have imagined that this tiny island would transformed into a metropolitan city state some 44 years ago?

The main strategy

It’s plain to see that our government’s main strategy for progress has been economic growth in delivering the “bread and butter” – to provide employment opportunities for that every Singaporean.

Though this pragmatic strategy has been highly criticised by many, but it has worked over the years so I believe that focus has remain unchanged.

Economic growth and increasing employment opportunities is a safe and sure-to-work approach in ensuring stability and peace in our nation.

With people gainfully employed with a steady stream of income, societal upheaval and crimes of sorts naturally will or should be minimised.

A place to live and achieve

Though I’m usually not an ardent fan (nor am I anti) of our government, but I have to admit that I’m grateful that they have provided Singaporeans (majority of us) like myself a place where we can fulfill our dreams and destinies (to a larger extend).

I speak for myself that if the “bread and butter” issues in accordance of the Maslow Hierarchy of needs are not met, I don’t think I would be in a privileged position to live out my beliefs and values.

Given the constraints of limited land and natural resources, I think some credit should be given to our government who have dictated harnessed well the strengths of its people in achieving overall progress.

My Singapore in the future

However, in the pursuit of economic progress that empahsises on high productivity and efficiency, as a nation we have paid a price by overlooking or compromising over virtues such as compassion and graciousness.

Now we can observe more caregivers taking over the role of parenting in families; more elderly folks being deported housed in nursing homes and are denied cheaper fares for public transport; and the introduction of new restrictions over the withdrawal of our CPF monies at retired age.

These are just a few of the tell-tale signs of the lack of compassion and graciousness in our society.

Personally, I believe that one should measure the greatness of a nation by its moral progress; by looking at how it treats the poor and needy.

Thus, what I do hope to see, is a Singapore that is more compassionate and gracious as a people in the years to come.

I’m confident this is achieveable when each one of us begin to genuinely look out for those who might have fallen into the “cracks” and provide them a leg up towards an inclusive society.

The Singapore PM’s Joke

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This following joke is by an anonymous source. It’s really funny and makes a great tribute to our PM for his leadership as Singapore crosses her 44th year of independence.

The Prime Ministers from UK and Singapore and the President of USA, were traveling on a warship that was cruising near S.Arabia.

The 3 were talking about how brave their soldiers were when their cordial discussion soon turned into an argument where each wanted to prove the bravery of their own soldiers.

The President of USA said, “let me show u what is guts”, where upon he called his Colonel and said “Jump into the sea and swim 3 rounds around this ship!”.

The Colonel replied “Anything for Uncle Sam, Sir”, and jumped into the shark infested sea and swam 3 rounds around the ship, with the sharks chasing him like mad! After the successful 3 rounds, the Colonel came up to the deck and said, “I did it for Uncle Sam Mr. President!”.

The proud US President replied “That’s what I call guts!”.

The Prime Minister of UK became aggressive and quickly called his General and said “General, jump into the sea and swim 10 rounds around this ship!”.

The General replied “Anything for the Queen, Sir”, and jumped into the shark infested sea and swam 10 rounds around the ship, with the sharks chasing him frantically. After the successful 10 rounds the 3-star General came up to the deck and said, “Long Live the Queen!”.

The proud UK PM replied “That’s what I call guts!”

The Prime Minister of Singapore cannot control himself. He had to show that his soldiers have it too. He called one of his Private and said “Soldier, jump into the sea and swim 15 rounds around this ship!”

The Private replied “Oi, you siao (crazy) izzit?” I juz bought my 4-room and I am paying through my nose. Now, U want me to jump and die, eh? If u want to hao lian (show off), you jump into the sea yourself!

The Singapore PM smiled and said “Now, that’s what I call guts”.

My Wish-list for My Singapore 2009

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This may be wishful thinking, but I thought to myself, “What the heck! Anything is possible rite???” LOL…

Here’s a compilation of nine wishes for a better and more fun Singapore to live in for 2009:

  1. Change the repeated and boring format of our annual National Day Parade (NDP). Cut the “show-off” parade and bring back SWING Singapore!
  2. Housing Development Board (HDB) to make housing more affordable for Singaporeans with a non-for-profit approach.
  3. Abolish the People’s Association (PA) as a needless organisation since there are already so many communities and clubs available for Singaporeans and they can do a better job in helping residences.
  4. Emergence of a visionary, credible, competence and rich political leader and party to take on our ruling party on leveled ground.
  5. The liberation of alternative voices with another mainstream paper to give another perspective from the ruling party’s- The Online Citizen goes mainstream. Yes I’m biased. Ha ha…
  6. Singapore and Malaysia re-merged as a sovereign nation giving our elderly more choices to decide where they would like to retire. And also encourages a diverse and synergistic economy.
  7. More flexibility and control over our CPF savings. Being able to decide when we want to use it and how we want to use it. E.g. Capital for starting a business.
  8. A new current affairs talk show that highlights some of the societal gaps in Singapore as we work towards nation building. This is a great form of feedback for our government. But I reckon they’re not so ready for open criticisms and discussions of their shortfalls in full display on national tv..
  9. The retirement of our Minister Mentor. Though he has my utmost respect, I think he should let the Prime Minister be the Prime Minister for his generation.

Which of these do you think will happen first??

Re-thinking Our Economic Expectations

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Recent news have been filled with retrenchments, retrenchments and more retrenchments.

It’s quite disturbing to read how companies have heartlessly ‘axed’ their employees who they deem as excessive expenditure in order to ride through the slowdown.

Judging from the recent comments by NTUC’s Labour Chief, Mr Lim Swee Say who conveniently also happens to be a Minister for the Prime Minister’s Office, it’s clear that we should expect no one to owe us a job or pay check; not even from our government.

I’m not sure about you, but seeing of these unfolding each day has triggered me to seriously think about my career path

Everything increases except our pay

It is not uncommon for us to bemoan how daily expenses for our standard living have rocketed, but the truth cannot be said of our monthly income.

From a globalised marketplace standpoint where Singapore is competing with low-cost labour countries like India and China (without even mentioning our regional neighbours), I think the harsh truth is that by increasing our income level any higher would erode Singapore’s competitive prowess and business appeal.

This is the reality that we’ll need to firstly come to terms and accept. We need to renounce the ‘crutch mentality’ and make best out of what we have.

If we really do have any sort of increment regardless of the economic situation, we should learn to be more grateful.

Nonetheless, salaries do differ exponentially across the gamut of industries available and the type of job we are in. So this might not apply to you if you are in a niche industry like the Oil & Gas or Civil Service working as a Minister.

The way out is…

After managing your expectations with our reality and you find that you are a person that is easily satisfied with whatever you have and have no qualms in having others determining your worth and job security, then you can choose not to take any action.

However, if you desire to earn more and do not want a ‘glass ceiling’ to your income level, then some practical actions might need to be taken in order to get to that ideal position.

From my opinion, I think there two routes we can consider in ‘escaping’ from the system. One of it is to start our own business and the other is to switch to politics and join PAP sales where much of our salary is dependent on sales commission.

I think both these routes are career paths that reward us fairly according ly to our efforts invested and performance delivered.

Maybe some of us can take the opportunity of the approaching year-end by taking a ‘stock check’ to re-evaluate our careers.

We can seize the opportunities that are there for the taking in this situation by planning ahead how we can take our career to the next level in the coming New Year.