each his/ her own to do what it's best for survival

No win situation for all except, each his/ her own to do what it's best for survival.Now a days, because the political stakes and rewards are so high, even those who claimed to champion the cause of poorer citizens have been looked upon with skepticism.

Giving in to the simplistic ideas of the opposition may, in fact will, ultimately compromise the economic and social standing of the middle class and above.

The way to taking over the present government is to attack the standard and quality of lives of two third majority who are basically please with life here.

Helping the plight of the poorer citizens without giving due consideration of those have worked hard( the majority) to secure a comfortable life for themselves - eg bringing down asset values so it becomes cheaper for the younger generation - will worsen the state of the nation for everyone or worse off for more.

Question is: do we want to be fooled into improving the lives of a minority group, with simplistic ideas, and compromise the standard of living for the majority?

Some people tend to think so.

healthcare

UK ranks the best in your chart so I thought that I should give my two cents worth.

Firstly, you are assuming that the level of healthcare is the same as in UK and Singapore. I can assure you that it's not true.

UK healthcare isn't free

Let's be honest, healthcare isn't free in the UK, a sizable portion of our paycheck goes into paying for the NHS (National Health Service) and that's regardless of whether you use it eventually.

While you could head to a GP in S'pore for common ailments (fever, cough, flu etc.), you'll have to make an appt in NHS to see a GP. Depending on the area you live in, it can take up to two weeks. That's why Brits call it a 'postal lottery'.

Else you can head to the 'private' GP, which cost £60 (ard S$120) for the first 15min of consultation and extra costs every minute thereafter. That doesn't come with medicine. You'll have to pay extra for that at the pharmacy.

Standards just can't match up

Stories of midwives and medics leaving patients bleeding in their beds are not unheard of here in the UK (at least in the London hospitals). The level of hygeine can be so bad that inspectors are shocked in a recent review. The elderly are left to fend for themselves and many were starving and dehydrated due to staff shortage and incompetency.

Of course, there are instances of competent staff and clean hospitals. Then again, should that be the case in the first place?

As a result, many who can afford it head to private hospitals, which can cost a small fortune. Of course, that's on top of the NHS contribution that they have already made through their paycheck.

then again...

However, I must admit that the NHS does take care of those who can't afford any healthcare otherwise. That comes with a price of course - the rest who can afford to will have to pay over and above what they will eventually use, that's if they use NHS in the first place.

Not only that, emergency free healthcare is also available for every foreigner (tourists etc) in NHS if they happen to be in the UK. As a tax payer, I have absolutely no issue with that personally as I think that everyone should be entitled to emergency care, so long that it's not being abused.

the million dollar question...

Question: would you be willing to fork out up to 40% of your salary so that every Singaporean receives free healthcare?

a thing about love

felt that love is a extremely strange thing.
when i was searching high and low for it, it could not be found.

just when i was about to give up and let go, it comes unexpectedly.
and then there was a sharp rumbling pain when you saw the person you liked.

there was no question about it.
you felt it and it was as if long time ago you have the same feelings for another person.

the truth about insurance company

In Singapore, the pro-big-business complex and the pro-MNC complex are well established. The insurance-cum-govt cahoots have been established since 2000, but this is something new to most people.

I worked for couple years in a well known local insurance company. The standard operating procedure when we recieved an insurance claim is to investigate and look out for anything and any excuse that we can deny the claim. Makes good business sense and is best practice in insurance industry.

Insurance companies are authorised to dig up all your most personal and confidential medical records from hospitals, medical centres, polyclinics and GPs. Just spend a bit of money for the reports. So we know if you got psychiatric history at Woodbridge, or went to polyclinic for STD etc. The bigger your medical insurance claim, the more they will dig. The irony is that if you buy the expensive medical insurance, for sure they will investigate like siao when you claim, becoz you will have stayed in expensive private hospitals. If you go to Mt Elizabeth for open heart surgery and the bill is $200K, rest assured the insurance company will spend some money to dig out all your medical records from the time you born.

During my 2 years in the insurance company, I had to reject medical claims from some 10-12 people coz of some pre-existing condition. Some of the customers didn't even know they had pre-existing as they didn't feel anything. Most of them bought insurance plans for A-Class wards or private hospitals, and they kenna whacked with huge medical bills that we refused to accept.

never

Never believed that things happened for a reason.
But how this turned out, you moved all my doubts, All I went through, led me to you.

thinking

‎"To often, we lose sight of lifes simple pleasures.

Remember, when someone annoys you it takes 42 muscles in your face to frown, BUT, it
only takes 4 muscles to extend your arm and bitch-slap that mother....upside the head."

"This is exactly how it should feel when it's meant to be"--unthinkable

silent

some things are better left unspoken,,what's done is done.

you can't undo what has happened

letting it go

When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.

When I let go of what I have, I receive what I need.

Have you ever struggled to find work or love, only to find them after you have
given up?
This is the paradox of letting go.

Let go, in order to achieve.

Letting go is God’s law.

my best friend

i walked with my bestfriend today.
never thought that a simple walk will take us back from the scars of the past.

things have been said and done.
and it can't be undone.
we are surprised to find ourself smiling and laughing in our short nostalgic memory.

glad the rain was over.

forgive and forget as what they say=)

she

THOUGHTS to PONDER:
"If shes amazing, she wont be easy.
If shes easy, she wont be amazing.
If shes worth it, you wont give up.
If you give up, you’re not worthy

thinking

Oftentimes,
wishful thinking gives u perception of things that would or might have been if u can twist and turn back the time .

that's why it is called "wishful" it reminds u of what reality is and how some things wouldn't work if it wasn't yours in the first place

--anonymous

Singapore's competitiveness

n a recent survey of international competitiveness, Singapore comes out tops in labour wage competitiveness. I wonder if this is a double-edged compliment.

In the same survey, Singapore is ranked 30 or 40-something in business innovation/entrepreneurship. If you combine these two together, it just means the source of Singapore's competitiveness is not first-world brainpower, but third-world low wages and the willingness of its people to take such shit.

As for cost of living going up due to minimum wage, ask yourself whether cost of living has stayed low due to the lack of minimum wage?
No. The reason is low wages allowed things like rent, utilities, govt fees, company profits to go up.

By the same token, high wages may depress other cost factors.

Today it is quite ridiculous, you pay $10,000 a month to the landlord(often a govt linked GLC) for shop space and the worker manning the shop 10 hours a day $1600 a month...cost-wise it is the same if you pay $9K rent and $2.6k in salary.

i

Over again.
Don't make me change my mind.
Do i deserve to be the second option?

i think i deserve better,please prove me wrong if u dare to be right
and try to wake me up from the reality u have shown and created!"

DrEaM

On this cold cold night,in My small small ROOm,i Look At The Bright Bright
StArS iN tHe DaRk DaRk sKy & DrEaM of YouR sWeet sWeet SmiLe on your
CuTe CuTe FaCe!

special

There will not ever be anyone like me.
I am special because I am unique.
I am hugs and sometimes tears.
I am free.
I am me, and me is just right.

friend

the changing faces of singapore:one out of two is a foreigners.

The rapid growth in output could be fully explained by rapid growth in inputs:

expansion of employment,
increases in education levels, and,
above all, massive investment in physical capital.

Once those inputs were taken into account, the growth in output was unsurprising--or, to put it differently, the big surprise about Singapore growth was that when closely examined it posed no mystery.

Rapid Singapore economic growth was based entirely on one attribute:

the willingness to save,
to sacrifice current consumption for the sake of future production.

The singapore example offered no hint of a free lunch


36% of population are foreigners,1.84 million out of 5.08 million.

14.3% of Singaporeans are foreigners,540,000 out of 3.77 million Singaporeans.

there is no need to imagine: one of two people in Singapore is a foreigners.

Taking four 1st world countries whose per Capita GDP is way above ours and population is similar to ours, you can see that other 1st world countries don't subscribe to PAP's

"we need foreigners to grow" theory

:

It was simply not possible for the Singapore economies to sustain the rates of growth of labor force participation, average education levels, and above all the physical capital stock that had prevailed in previous years.

singapore growth would predictably slow down, perhaps drastically

Per Capita GDP by IMF (2009)
Rank Country US$
2 Norway 79,085
5 Denmark 56,115
6 Ireland 51,356
12 Finland 44,492
*20 Singapore 37,293

[2008]
Country Population Non-Citizen%
Ireland 4,401,335 12.6%
Norway 4,737,171 5.6%
Finland 5,300,484 2.5%
Denmark 5,475,791 5.5%
*Singapore 4,839,400 34.6% <<<<

Population increase from 08 to 09
Ireland 1.1%
Norway 1.3%
Finland 0.5%
Denmark 0.7%
*Singapore 3.1% <<<<


PAP is discipline in using the same brute force method to stuff the economy with "bodies", thereby defying Krugman's prediction on the growth of Singapore.

Indeed, Krugman commented earlier that Singapore's miracle "turned out to have been based on perspiration rather than inspiration: Singapore grew through a mobilization of resources that would have done Stalin proud."

I think if Stalin had been alive today, PAP would have put him to shame. I'm sure even Stalin could not have foreseen PAP doing better than he could! Stalin would have awarded the PAP the "Order of Lenin"

We could have better well-being by peaking our population at 3 million. We can emulate Switzerland as she tries all her best kicking out foreigner.

Unfortunately, our elites cares only to create misery for Singaporean. It is in fact in their interest the damning Singaporean.

the pitfalls of FT:the tide has turned

Because of the ease in getting PRs in Singapore, it is difficult or even in the case of the government saying we are narrow minded, that a company can be 100% F owned.

The FT policy has been around for a decade. In the engineering industry, F workers started flooding the industry since late 90s. After almost a decade or so, it has brought about the current situation in my opinion whereby F owned companies had sprung up, leaving the pioneer entrepreneurial SMEs which started out in the 70s and 80s in deep trouble. Many SMEs had no choice, but to conform. I would daresay the huge numbers of FT are actually the results of big, conglomerate GLCs. They do it indirectly through the issue of contracts to sub-vendors. Many sub-vendors, many of which are small firms forced to follow the trend of hiring FW.

Then increasingly, with limited budget and price competitiveness, many of the entrepreneurial SMEs could not build on talents and resources and found themselves increasingly dependent on the FT. These FT then set up their own business and thus replace our SMEs gradually.

Nowadays, these FT are holding hostage to certain areas especially in the engineering industry. Many young engineering graduates decided to venture into the so called greener pastures like finance and banking. The engineering and marine industries were the first to be affected in terms of the entrepreneurial spirit and innovation.

Slowly but surely, I think the trend will move on to industries like the IT, F&B or others. The real issue is not foreign entrepreneurship.

The real issue is that ultimately, these FT and PRs will not stay and build Singapore.

I think that is the real underlying concern of Singaporeans. Maybe we should have a statistical study of number of PRs who stay and go on to become citizens or in depth analysis of real impacts of such policies.

Years ago, while in university, my friend commented on the increasing numbers of PRCs esp in business, computer science and engineering faculties. He said that the real motives of these F students were to get the local university degree as a stepping stone to US (favourite) or European employments or further study. It took several years before they took some action or make it more difficult for that to happen (at least that is what I was led to believe).

GLCs are not ideal for the economy of the country. At least based on what I have read is that SMEs are the ones that sustain the Japanese economy during the rough period. The government can always about the global competitiveness etc, but

the thing is that how you are going to compete lower exchange rates and people who have nothing to lose or with the mindset to 'plunder' and go home.

If you are going to set up a business whereby you are going to make sure that you earn money by ensuring a certain standard of integrity, honesty, quality and responsibility as compared to somebody who is going to wayang and get as much as money in as short time as possible, who will be the in a more advantageous position. Ultimately, it will affect everybody especially the honest, not so clever, but dilligent folks who depended on responsible bosses for a living.

That is one area that I feel we have definitely regressed and that due to Singapore unique circumstances especially as a small nation, the consequences will be felt more greatly and deeply by the common folks.