most beautiful words

a loving couple just has a child.
both have to work but they did not employ a maid.
when they worked in he day, they brought their child to their mother, and brought back in the evening.
when the child woke up and cried in the wee hours of morning, the husband would tell his wife," you rest, i get up."
it happened many times but each time,

the husband would say,"you rest, i get up."

when the child grew up and asked his mother what was the most beautiful words in the world, she told him, "you rest, i get up."

one life

One life.
Live it to the fullest.

Next US President

Change,We believe in change.
The American spirit, the American dream

south Korean table tennis team

really admire the south korean girls. they are great

Tim Burton

enjoy his films: they were good.

girl from hell

the person you hate the most, you can call her.
but there was a price to be paid: your soul

time

inflation

Inflation is when your value of money became smaller but our govt smart: she appreciated our sing$.

$ not encough

zero

the end is near

soccer

leaves

monster

Oil Price

peace

CPI:8%

peak hour surcharge

one day at around 0930hrs, we boarded a taxi. my mother and i will be going to alexandra hospital for routine checkup.
i have checked our watch and noted it was at 0931hrs that we boarded the cab.

however, we were inside the bab, the fare meter still charged us the peak-hour surchrage. we were confused.

upon reaching the destination, we asked for a receipt and found out the time was actually 0927hrs. the cab's time and our time were different.

i always checked 1711 for the accuracy. since mine was okay, the cab driver must have actually change the time for another 5 minutes for additional sur-charge.

we have been fooled

Reverse GST? dead end

merry christmas

and Happy new Year

wolf

miss the boat

for those who have been retrenched and could not find a job yet, our sympathy goes to you.
we have assumed that when economy recovered, you could find a job easily.

but when we heard stories after stories, it was increasing difficult to get a simple one.

because market became more competitive.

what NTU professor quote was correct when he said in 2003.

when economy recovered, we could not enjoy the fruits as the jobs were taken away by foreigners

.

he was correct as half or more went to foreigners.

our dearest friends, you have missed the boat.

tell the story right

city of possibilities: Born to be Free

city of possibilities: the truth

city of possibilities: No eyes to hear

taxi-driver

a few days ago, i woke up late in the morning as i slept late last night watching TV shows. i have assumed that there would be no problems as my working place was just nearyby and took about 10-15 minutes. i was wrong then.

after i have taken the bath, ate the fast breakfast and went out to take the cab.

for half an hours, i waited and wait and waited.

there was many cabs but not a single one would stop. some were empty while most of them were "on-call". it was changing shift period.

i was beginning to feel the heat as i would be late for work.

Luckily, there was a cab who stopped when i waved for him.on my calculation, i will be late for about 10-15 minutes late.

he pulled over and i told him the destination.

he was a new taxi-driver

we have a conversation and learnt that he was formely a storemen who was just left a month ago. he was given a month medical leave but his boss could give only a week. he refused and sent his resignation letter. he was given S$500. he asked his boss," is this enough?"

he was earning S$2000 per month at that time and was his boss's friend

while he was still in the company, his boss employed two foreigners (China) to take over his duties.

he was rather furious, angry and sad when he saw this happening but could not do anything about it.

he was in his fifties.

well, he drove me to my destination and i thanked him many times.

i was only late by 10 minutes.I could have late by an hour and because of him, i was late by 10 minutes.

Life's like that.

The Great Divide Part II

Fundamental changes as profound as when agricultural workers left the land for the cities and the whole fabric of society mutated. Now work is leaving the office and the factory for cyberspace.The idea of a job, born with the Machine Age, is changing beyond all recognition. Work is becoming increasingly casual and part time among the mass of workers. No one will protect their interests. Released from a single location, companies are free to ring the death knell of dinosaur trade-unions. Middle management, too, is under threat. Under the euphemistic banner of business process reengineering, companies are firing a quarter of managers.

The motto for everyone is "add value or perish".

Moralising politicians use the fact of "inhuman" working conditions in the Third World for their hypocritical justification of protectionist import controls in their pathetic attempts to stem the tide, but large corporations will ignore their pleas. Even President Clinton can't control corporate America in its feeding frenzy over the China market. Politicians, both the knaves and the naïve, incant the abracadabra words "training in new technology" and "jobs through growth" to conjure new jobs for the huge number of soon-to-be-unemployed. They will never learn that technology is the problem, not the solution. Today, productivity is delivered by a technology needing only a few machine minders. National economies can no longer grow themselves out of unemployment. Growth has been uncoupled from employment. It is created by the unique skills of a few entrepreneurial knowledge workers, not the labour of low-grade service and production workers. The continuous innovation of entrepreneurs is the real generator of wealth. Their income will increase substantially as countries compete in a global market for their wealth-generating services, without which states will drown in a whirlpool of poverty. Innovation happens in self generating hot spots with incentives that stimulate investment and profit.

The very concentration of innovation acts as a magnet for established innovators and a spur for new enterprise. But knowledge workers refuse to be treated as part of a homogeneous labour-force, as standardised units. Talent, entrepreneurship, innovation - the great dividers of humanity - are diviners of economic success. Egalitarianism goes out of the window in this dog-eat-dog world. The role of the state is to nurture, propagate and supply quality human raw material. Government is merely the supplier at the bottom end of the value chain that ultimately supplies wealth, which is the product not of labour, but of individual intellect and determination. If a state cannot produce a quality "people product" in sufficient quantities, then it must buy it in from abroad; it must scour the globe for élite knowledge workers, no matter what their age, sex, race or religion. This élite of rootless economic mercenaries will expect to pay less tax, not more. Governments everywhere are being forced to lower top tax rates in line with declining global levels. They will have to acquiesce to the will of global enterprises and their key employees. Tax credits, tax holidays and "regulatory arbitrage" will be the name of the game everywhere.

Politicians must find ways of attracting global employers in order to employ the local masses. If, however, the state maintains a greedy collectivist and populist stance, under the defunct motto "power to the people", then the entrepreneurial and knowledge aristocracy will move on to more lucrative and agreeable climes, leaving the country economically unviable, composed solely of the unproductive masses, sliding inevitably into a vicious circle of decline. The power in global economic forces means that the tax burden is irrevocably moving away from the élite on to the shoulders of the immobile. When Leona Helmsley said "only the little people pay taxes", she unwittingly making a prediction. Very soon, companies will be negotiating preferential tax deals, not only for themselves but also for chosen élite employees. Politicians may promise, but markets decide. Governments are impotent as they face a triple whammy: substantially lower tax revenues, increased social security payouts, and the need to support "deprived areas". The books just do not balance.

The liability of a large uneducated and ageing population is another problem. The masses, with only a Saturday night lottery to soften the blow, will put economic well-being before the dubious privilege of electing powerless representatives. The lights are going out for whole categories of employment, We are entering an age of resentment, an age of rage. Whole sectors of society who previously felt their future secure can see it slipping away. Dissent is fermenting, and normally law-abiding citizens, who have nothing to lose, are being sucked into a culture of protest and crime. In the winter of 1995, French workers and students took to the streets against Alain Juppé's government in a futile defence of their cradle-to-grave health and welfare systems. But as the peasants were protesting in Paris, the "gnomes of London" were profiting from speculation. The slow redistribution of wealth that has occurred over the last centuries is being rapidly reversed. The disposable income of the majority will be drastically reduced.

The rich are getting richer, and the poor poorer: the future is inequality. At the bottom of the heap we are witnessing an expanding underclass.

The streets of London are again littered with beggars. The self-glamorising "New Age travellers" cannot disguise the fact that they are just a bunch of nomadic losers, whose survival depends on handouts from the tax-payer. Those tax-payers will demand restrictions on the mobility of travellers in return for their charity. The new Criminal Justice legislation is just the first step to the reinvention of the Poor Laws.

The state must behave as an economic institution, a national firm judged against the new economic circumstances.

No state has an automatic right to exist.

Government, like every other enterprise, will have to survive on the efforts of an élite few. It must represent success not failure; but in the Information Age, governments chosen by the majority are governments chosen by losers. The "will of the people" voting for full employment, a minimum wage and fair taxation is merely turkeys voting for Christmas. The politics of envy is suicide. Democracy will degenerate to being the means of governing the immobile and dependent service workers. That citizens elect their slave masters makes their democracy slavery none the less. Democracy is an artefact from a time when the masses were needed. The big political question of the coming decades is how to find a socially acceptable means of dismantling democracy.

How can Middle England trust the present cast of parliamentary degenerates to lead us into this Brave New World ? How can we expect leadership from those who get elected by kissing babies, and stay there by kissing backsides ? The Tories, apologists for an aristocracy, have chosen the wrong aristocracy: yesterday's rather than tomorrow's. Despite all the spin-doctoring, Labour is still the party of the peasants; and the global power equation is unequivocal - "the sum of zeros is zero". As for the Liberal Democrats, Nietzsche says it all: "the honourable term for mediocre is, of course, the word 'liberal'". Who will defend us ?

Globalisation has shown the James Bond myth, where the state is good and global corporations (Spectre) bad, to be blatant state propaganda - a morality tale told by tax collectors. James Bond, the patron saint of civil servants, the thug of state, is now a geriatric. Goldfinger has won.

The world belongs to the global corporation.

The nation state is now desperately sick, and a "desperate disease requires a dangerous remedy"(Guy Fawkes).

The great divide Part I

THE SIGNS ARE CLEAR THE FUTURE IS INEQUALITY

by Ian Angel

As Markets become global and the traditional workplace gives way to cyberspace, only the élite will have anything to offer to the world's economies. Ian Angell predicts mass unemployment for the unskilled, and a slow death for the nation state.

'Many too many are born. The state was devised for the superfluous ones'. With these pitiless words from another century, Friedrich Nietzsche heralds the demise of the nation state as we enter the next. The industrial Age and its need for an over-supply of humanity spawned the nation state. But what is to be done with the glut as we enter the Information Age?

There will be no nice, tidy transition, rather a severe and total distortion with the past. One thing is certain: the masses will not win in the natural selection for dominance of an increasingly élitist and cosmopolitan world. Because of new technology the costs of production have dropped to a point where a billion new workers have entered the job-market. Companies are globalising and mobilising, chasing "spot markets" in cyberspace. The costs of overcoming time and space no longer buffer the impact of cheap labour. The state has to be part of the global economy, so it is incapable of fending off foreign incursions. Mass unemployment is a cancer infecting every nation state, sending shock waves through their workforces.



The electronic transfer of money offshore has made tax avoidance a bigger business than narcotics.
The next stop is off-planet banking. Unhindered by national barriers, corporations will be truly global. They can communicate globally, and their shareholders, executives and employees are spread out across the globe. They will relocate, physically, fiscally and electronically, to where the profit is greatest and the regulation least. Their profits are declared in low-tax countries, while they continue to operate in high-tax ones. The global company no longer supports the aspirations of the country of its birth. Companies large and small move. When a British plastics company switched its polythene bag factory from Telford to China, 150 British jobs were lost, but its payroll bill was cut by 90 per cent. Despite all the patriotic bleating, companies know that to remain competitive they can no longer afford to carry a large and overpriced inventory of a national "people product" of varying value and quality.

It is no accident that most companies are presently downsizing, delayering and outsourcing. Routine production jobs can be performed by robots or exported anywhere on the globe, so wages will converge world-wide to Third World levels.

"Social Dumping" is also dragging down wages for service work, a sector which is itself being increasingly automated. In 1994 the International Labour Organisation claimed that there were 800 million sub-employed people in the world; the West must now suffer its fair share. Job losses are not the result of some temporary downturn in the economic cycle, but are the result of structural changes. It is no good waiting for the upturn.

what comes around goes around

What goes around comes around.

Actually life is pretty much simple.
What you have done in the past will come back to you again.
However, if you did something bad, you have to repay them.

Not one times, 10 times but rather 100 fold.

If you could not believe, thought of the things you have done and you will realize.

Life is just a bout circles.

city of possibilities: differentiation

Linda, Linda,linda...

Here I am sitting at the library.
Confused, speechless, frustrated, disappointed, sad, blur, irritated, etc, drained of emotions.
I came here to library in the morning as early as 08.10am.

I drove to library feeling sleepy, coz of the timing having to wake up early.
I came to library early to check with OAM if I could switch classes and in the process to find out about the email I received yesterday.

Didn’t feel anything much when I was driving here. I was just thinking I am going to have a sleepy day and probably be missing a few calls and sms.

As I was driving in, it felt different. Going to library and yet not seeing Linda was certainly something that hit me as I was driving in. It had never happened b4. Not seeing her when I am in school was something that never happened b4 from exam time. Never. Not a single day.

This is the first time.

The effects of it hard hit me. But blocked it. Well, I did manage to successfully block it, as I was hungry. I had left my house in a hurry.

So I parked my car and went to canteen to have breakfast and a cup of strong black coffee. The coffee did wake me up. Then I was waiting outside library to use print the notes, just in case I had class today. I printed my session 3 and 4 notes. I was feel very different then itself.

The library was unusually quiet. So many other thoughts crossed my mind. At that point of time my worry was if I could change classes to join Kcool and the gang. I was so desperate to do it.

I just didn’t want to join another class. It sucks to know that our friend is just in another class and yet u can’t join them. And because this module involves a lot of project work, I can’t just sit in for her class and do my project works with my original class. And of course I had myself to blame for this coz it was me who registered wrongly. My body was aching, still is, from the soccer game I played. My hamstring especially.

I soon drove down to SSC and went inside to OAS office.

I had asked the receptionist about the email I received. She went in to check, after taking down my matriculation no. It took a while and I faintly overheard bits of the conversation.

But my mind didn’t accept it.

Subconsciously I tuned out coz I couldn’t hear clearly, but my brain did pick out a few words that I didn’t want to hear, so I consciously also tuned out. Sub-conscious and conscious minds both working hand in hand. Ha-ha.

I hoped for the best outcome. Without me realizing I had started praying.

The receptionist came back.

Well, well well. I am on academic warning. Why? Because my CGAP hadn’t reached 2.0. It was only 1.96. Yes-just 1.96. 0.04 pts short of being promoted. She didn’t do a good job explaining.

My questions were not exactly answered. But my stomach was sick. Butterflies all around it. So many questions encircled my mind. “Am I promoted or not?” that was the main question. alas. That feeling I had then was terrible. I’m not in jc or secondary school.

It’s a university that I am playing with. What was I doing? Disgust. That was the word that kept flashing across my mind. Disgusted with myself. How did I land up in such a position? On top of that, I felt as if I had no one to share how I was feeling with. Linda.

Where are you? The first name that came to my mind was Linda. Why? I am still asking myself. Is it because it was the most recent friendship I had? Why didn’t Belinda’s name strike my mind immediately?

Why? Coz I pushed her out of my mind for 3 months? Why? Y Linda? Was it coz I was in school and the thought of her kept lingering in my mind?

Thinking of the evenings we spent together, hugging each other, smell her freshness unique body odor; felt her fullness of her lips and also her soft, subtle and warm breast. Heaven. It was heaven.

Why is it coz the last time I came to SSC was with her? I also don't know. Was it coz she was the last person I had received some form of attn and care from, in terms of talking about personal stuff? I don't know. Soon after I wished I could talk to Belinda.

She does give me good advices and understands me so well. I know for sure that if she was in my life now, she would make me feel so much better. I am not saying Linda doesn’t. Linda does and even much better too.

But coz I have been with Belinda so long, she knows me better and I know she knows how to deal with me. I wanted to hear from Belinda. But I wanted to be in front of Linda. Why? Why? Then I started thinking. Where are my friends? I had no one to turn to. No one at all. I was left there standing alone. Wondering what to do, feeling stuck up.

Confused, angry, sad, disappointed. I felt like my world was crumbling right b4 my eyes. It’s my education. My mum and my education are my world.

That feeling I had then was what I had never experienced b4. Yet I stood calm enough to know that I shouldn’t call either of them. I stood strong to my decision.

Btw, all this happened when I was walking out from OAS. But of course b4 that I had checked about my switching of classes to formally join Kcool's class.

My tutor didn’t want any non-formal swap. She was insistent on me getting formal approval, the last I spoke to her on Tuesday. When I checked with the receptionist at the counter, that girl told me that they cant do a formal switch coz its too late and that I should try talking to my tutor and explaining my reasons and she can give me the green light to switch.

It’s was 9.20am then. My original class is supposed to start at 9.30am. So I rushed down to my class at N4 SR5. There were so few student in the class. So it was the best time to talk to her.

I asked her if I could switch class and told her that OAS had given her the green light to give me the green light to sit in and do an informal switch. It’s supposed to be between my tutor and me.

But no. Again she was persistent that I had got an formal approval. She said if my reasons are valid and strong, I should write in formally and that permission should be granted coz she has seen that happening b4.

Then I told her ok I will do that with supporting documents and all, but I explained to her my concern was if I should sit in for this class or the class tomorrow (Kcool’s class). She then again said, it’s my choice. If I think I can get permission to do a formal switch of class then I can leave. Whatever it is she asked me to make up my own mind about what I want to do as I am well aware of the whole situation.

I am stopping my typing here for the time being. I am going to walk by Linda’s classroom now. Tut rm 118. I had planned for this earlier.

UNSW

After just 3 months operating here, UNSW announced that it would shut down its Singapore campus.

Warwick had come to the same conclusion. When, in 2005, it rejected the Singapore government's invitation to set up a Singapore campus, the government and the local media tried to make it sound as if the final decision was based on financial (in)feasibility alone

Now Singapore and the UNSW have found out the hard way that it isn't so simple. If a university draws students not just on its brand name alone, but also in terms of its "geography", as Hilmer put it, then the pull of that brand name will not work its magic when transplanted into Singapore.

In other words, one cannot separate financial feasibility from socio-political geography.

The "Singapore" brand has suffered yet another blow.

In the end, universities should not be treated just as entreprise.

Students trust UNSW Asia because it was in Singapore where our government have been efficient. They have placed time and money in UNSW and in the end, there was no one could help them.

only they have themselves.

Now, the trust was broken.

10 years cycle

We have a extremly good year in 2006, where most of us getting good bonus, some even got 10-12 months. but we must not forget the 10 years' cycle.

it has happened in 1987, and again 1997.
This year, 2007 will not be spared as well.

The stock market crashed.

It will occur when we are least expected.

we will be expecting to happen in 3-4 months' time.

spiderman 3

Our government

They took over your jobs.
They deprive of their livings.
They took over your home where you used to live.
They discriminate you when you are above 40s.

It was not the foreign worker.
It was not them.

They blamed on globalizations.
They blamed on others.
But not themselves.



Then who?

Guessed?

Our own government.
They took over your old, comfortable jobs and gave you a toilet for you to clean all day, a place for you to sweep the rubbish, and they paid you less.

Your job was taken over by the “foreign talents” who knew nothing.

Dammed the Globalization

Dammed the Globalization said a CCTV anchorman said having a Starbucks coffee outlet in the Forbidden City makes a mockery of Chinese culture reported the Beijing News.

He was Rui Chenggang.

It was the greastest joke that Starbucks makes out of Forbidden City.

Starbucks coffee is operating in one of the museum's 9,999 rooms. The room covers some ten square meters and is not spacious enough to house any exhibition

In 2003, a KFC outlet said good-bye to its former home in Beihai Park, a group of imperial gardens located in central Beijing, after the ten-year contract ran out. Park officials believe KFC doesn't fit in the imperial garden landscape.

Globalization II

For me, it just meant capitalism without regard of humanity and all out for profit by retort to any means or methods, ethical or unethical to get it done.

and it sucked every resources that are being poured in.

With ever-increasing income-gap, the richer people paid less and less tax but those with lower-income ones are being taxed heavily and heavily.

It was further eroded as we import large number of unskilled worker (foreign Talents) which kept our wages artifically low.

Although there was fast economy growth, what was the use when we could not enjoy the fruits?

With our aging population, a large numbers of above 40s could not even find a job as it was "alloted" to foreigners as they were cheaper. Furthermore, they formed 25% of our population, which is "only" about 1 millions. So, NTU's team was right on mark when they said that half of the newly created jobs went to foreigners.

And our medical fees kept artifically high to have a high standard and we have kept on paying through our hard-earned medisave monies.

The cost of medical bills was instead higher inspite of recents changes.

It will come to a breaking point that all things will collapse, one day and it will.

The questions we should ask: WHEN?

Globlalization

What do this big word meant to us, as an ordinary person.

It was simply meaning that when you are over 35 years and highly paid??($1500-3000)and you have stayed in the same company for too long, you will be the first one to be retrenched..ops should say restructing, a nicer word for you to hear.

You will be replaced by those foreign talent(cheap Labour who are paid $500 a month).

For those who stay on, you have to be multi-tasked, that mean you have to do many people's job for one person's salary. The management is ensure no one is indispensible. everyone, excluding the top management, are expandable.

To cut cost further, your company out-sourced to other companies who tendered the lowest price. Lowest price did not equal to high standard. it just meant what you paid is what you get. And it will not stopped but continuing the downward spiraling

For the profit of the company, the 20% will go to 80% of ordinary workers like you and me while 80% will go to the top managment.

What they told you are not true but half truths. They said restructing was good for you and me, but they never said that if you are over 35 years, you will be the first on the chopping board and they said that life will get better.

Not for you but for them. they are no different than the sweat shops. They asked you to work for long hours and paid little, have less benefits or taken away.

also, they create a KPI (Key Performance Index) to measure your productivity. But do the top managment have KPI? Even as the company's profit plunged 80-90%, they still get the extra-ordinaary bonus and salaries.

The managment always said that they were democratic. But it was always top-down approach. They have decided what best for you without having to consulted you.

You are then told to do what they have decided. it was alway a familair deja-vu.

Peanuts

What I remember most about former NKF’s CEO was a remark by SM’s wife, Mrs. Goh Chok Tong.

She remarked that NKF’s CEO salary of S$60,000 was a peanut.

For 33% of our fellow Singaporean, our salaries was not even half of one peanut, not to talk about 10%. Ours is just a mere 0.01%

How pathetic we are.

good & evil

Good is evil, evil is good
clean is dirty, dirty is clean
living is dead, dead is living

Good people can be evil, and evil people can be good.
Good things can be found in evil people and evil things in good people.

spirited away

break again

will be taking another break..until then, cheers!!!

Many, many, many thanks to our friends..hopefully things will get back again..will be back..cheers

My Birth Date

Your Birthdate: April 30

You are certain and confident when you choose to love someone. Even though your romantic choices may be unconventional - you stand behind them. Your friends never know you as well as a romantic partner does. Number of True Loves You'll Have: 6 Number of Times You'll Have Your Heart Broken: 6 You are most compatible with people born on the 3rd, 12th, 21st, and 30th of the month.

What Does Your Birth Date Mean For Your Love Life?

IMF

IMF was held on Suntec City, and was at south of Singapore.
Although we were staying at the west side, we have already felt it presence.
The reason?
Normally the bus will come on time for the past few yeas, but till last week, we have one bus instead two during 20-25 minutes's interval and we were late for 20-30 minutes.

Furthermore, the bus was really packed, and people showed their annoyed faces.

well, luckily it was only 2 weeks for us to endure.

For others, it was real nightmare for them as they have to work overtime.
well, What to do?

sugar cane

Life is sometimes like a sugar cane,

where it was placed into sugar cane crusher to squeeze out the juice,

and are repeatedly placed again to squeeze the remaining drop.

then for the last time, it was soaked into water to squeeze the last drop.

solar-powered lights

Reported by Aaron Low of Straits Times on Aug 3 of 2006, six of the eight solar-powered lights have been vandalised and Mr Sitoh Yih Pin, the PAP candidate who lost in the ward in the May election, has no plans to repair or replace them.

The lights had cost $20,000 to install.

Mr Sitoh had leased the land from the Singapore Land Authority early last year to set up the lights. The adviser to Potong Pasir grassroots organisations said he would not be fixing the lights as the lease for the land would run out on Oct 31.

Earlier, he had also stopped other amenities, including the extra Meet-the-People sessions and the $2 abalone porridge.

So, that was what politics meant to us, an ordinary citizen.

In the first place, Mr Sitoh has installed the lights himself. Now the lights were damaged and he did not want to repair and pushed the full responsiblities to others.

Furthermore, he did not properly handed over to Mr Chaim, MP for Potong Pasir after the elections.

He was sore losers. If you did not vote for me, you got nothing for me..that was what he meant by his actions.

horses

I am Singaporean

A real story.
I am 55 years old man.
I have a job until I came down with illness 5 years ago. it was kidney failure.
I spent a lot of money including my CPF and saving until I was finally recovered.

Now I have to find a job as my son was still studying in Polytechnics. Next year he will be enlisted as national servicemen. My wife worked as a cleaner, earning $700 per month.

Having passed the fork-lift course, I have successfully found one company who was willingly to employ an old man.

That was two months ago, when one day a young chap from China took my job away because he asked for S$800. I was paid S$1,100 and I was slow in my work.

I was told that I did not have to come the next day.

And someone said that we welcome the foreign talents so that they could take away our jobs. That would enable us to retire early without any money.

I searched for another similiar job. I was once willing to lower to S$800 when the company asked for S$900-S$1,000. They asked my age and I told them i was 50.

They said,"Don't come."

So, here I am, I am 55 years old Singaporean who was jobless.

a real story told by one of my friends who are taking a course.

Dancing through Life

bundle with joy

Wrongful Dismissal of Pregnant Women

This letter is written in reference to the letters by Lau Li Nah (ST, June 27) and Ngian Hui Chyi (ST, July 1) and to the article "Pregnant and facing the sack: More seek help" (ST, July 3).



AWARE (Association of Women for Action and Research) first noticed in July 2004 an increase in the number of women calling in to our Helpline with issues surrounding pregnancy while employed. In June 2005, there were letters in the forum pages from women who had been dismissed while pregnant.

And now, in July 2006, the issue has surfaced again in the forum pages and as a news article. In total, AWARE had received close to 40 calls or emails from women or their relatives.

This issue is definitely not going away, and no amount of reassurance by the Ministry of Manpower will change that.

Planning for, having and caring for a baby in today's frenetic society is stressful enough without having to worry about one's source of income being terminated. For most modern women, pregnancy itself already carries a certain amount of inherent risk. When a woman is subjected to sudden and extreme stress and emotional upset, as happens when one is summarily dismissed, we can only imagine what further complications might affect the pregnancy and subsequent birth.

Add to that non-existent paternity leave, and a paltry two days child care leave per year, the husband and father will be back at work long before the new mother is ready to be left on her own to face post natal depression aggravated by depression caused by the sudden loss of her job.

Last year, AWARE convened a focus group discussion on the topic attended by six women and three men.

Two of the women who had lost their jobs due to their pregnancy said that they would not want a second child because the experience had been too traumatic.

The sad thing is that although this issue has been raised many times in the past, there does not seem to be sufficient political will to address it adequately. A case in point is AWARE's submission to a government related agency to obtain funding to conduct a study on Managing Pregnancy and Employment. After ongoing discussions and negotiations lasting one year, the final response was negative even though AWARE had initially been given encouraging signals.

At the very least, a study should first be made to examine the extent of the problem. Once the issues are understood more clearly, the correct solutions can then be proposed and implemented. AWARE is still going ahead with a scaled down version of its planned research to achieve this end. Please call 6779 7137 or email helpline@aware.org.sgThis email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it to participate in the study.

It would be very much in the government's interest to take concrete steps to address this issue before it affects many more women and their families.

We should not let such discriminatory practices by employers undermine our society's efforts to encourage more women to have more babies.

Ms Tan Joo Hymn
President
AWARE (Association of Women for Action and Research)

On Singapore society

41st Anniversary Special
David Marshall
The late ex-chief minister spoke frankly about Singapore in 1994; it's youths, the press, rapid changes, good and bad that forms part of our history. A year later Marshall passed away.
Aug 8, 2006

David Marshall was interviewed by media commentator, lawyer and blogger, Dharmendra Yadav, who reproduced the following in his website http://thinkhappiness.blogspot.com/

Meeting David Marshall inn 1994
Aug 8, 2006
Celebrating National Day
First, happy independence to my fellow Singaporeans!
In the past year, some of independent Singapore's founding fathers have left us. As we look forward to a fulfilling future, we must not forget the courage and selflessness of such past generations of Singaporeans.
In this respect, many years ago, I made a promise to David Marshall, the first Chief Minister of Singapore and one of Singapore's finest legal minds.
The promise was to publish in full an interview, which I had with him on 5 May 1994 at the offices of Singapore law firm, Drew & Napier.
Today, about 12 years after the interview and as Singaporeans celebrate 41 years of independence, I am pleased to make public this interview in full and keep a promise made.
This interview was part of an assignment for my college newsletter, which I completed with two others. An edited version of this interview was published in my college newsletter that same year.
He died soon after in 1995. I felt privileged to have met David Marshall in his lifetime. It was a dream come true since, from the age of 12, I had always wanted to meet him.
He remains my inspiration in my law career. When I met him, I also returned having learnt the importance of doing something else - giving to the community.
I hope reading his words will inspire you similarly!
Dharmendra Yadev

Dharmendra: In the past, when you were chief minister, youths played a politically-active role. How has the role of youths changed as compared to the past?

Marshall: The role of youths! Ha!
In my time, I tried to educate our people in an understanding of the dignity of human life and their right as fellow human beings, and youth was not only interested but excited about what I consider things that matter.

Things of the spirit; the development of a human being to his true potential in accordance with his own personal genius in the context of equal rights of others.

Today, youth is interested in getting paper qualification and, as soon as possible, shoveling gold into their bank accounts. It's a different world, even the law.

I am a consultant here [Drew & Napier]. When I left in '78, there were three partners - it was supposed to be a big firm; two assistants - we were a big firm; 17 staff. This office has four floors. They think that it is a waste of time to use the lift so we have an internal staircase. We have more than 90 lawyers, more than 200 secretaries and I don't know how many staff.

The law is no longer a vocation, it is a business. Everything is geared to business!

Of course, there is this pragmatic development of our country. Ah, our rising expectations of a pragmatic character! It is a fantastic and almost a miraculous development in my lifetime.

When I was Chief Minister, there were men dying of starvation and because of 'beri-beri'. I took my PA [personal assistant] and an Inspector of Police for night at midnight. For two hours, we toured Singapore and we estimated there were two ten thousand men sleeping on the pavements. No homes.

Today - no unemployment, no homeless. I started this business of building homes for our people. Compare the puny work I achieved and the fantastic HDB homes that are available today for our people. I am deeply impressed and I take off my hat to this very able honest government. Dedicated!

But I am seen as a critic and I am a critic.

I am frankly terrified by this massive control of the mass media, the press, the radio, television, antennae, [and] public meetings. You can't write a letter to the Straits Times; if there is a shadow of criticism, it's not published. And the Chinese press follows suit. It's a very dangerous position because experience proves that no one group of human beings has got all the wisdom in the world.

I mean… well, two of you are Chinese and one Indian [Ed: actually, the interviewers were one Chinese, one Jew and one Indian]. I don't know much about Indian history but look at China. You had Confucian authoritarianism for more than 2500 years. What happened to China? She was a fossil. She had to reinvigorate herself with the Western ideology of communism. Another authoritarian ideology! And what was the result?

There must have been a million decent people who were transformed into vipers, vicious obscene vipers. I'm afraid of this control of the mass media.

And are youths the miasma of apathetic subservience to authority? But you say to yourselves, "Well, you know, what do we seek in life? We seek a rice bowl, full!"

It is full and overflowing, in fact. They serve you your rice in a jade bowl with golden chopsticks; not that it makes much difference to the taste of the rice. But you're empty!

You've got technocratic skills and you are seeking more but internally you are empty. Money is your acid test of success.

I've got nothing against money. I'd like to have money myself! I'd like to have a house and a garden and dogs and a car and a chauffeur but, look, I've got a flat. I've got a swimming pool attached to the flat. I've even got a car but I use taxis. I have a dignified way of life without being wealthy.

I don't see the necessity of owning a Mercedes-Benz and a swimming pool and a couple of mistresses. I think we've got our values all wrong.

You know $96,000 a month for a Prime Minister and $60,000 a month for a minister. What the hell do you do with all that money? You can't eat it! What do you do with it? Your children don't need all that money.

My children have had the best of education. In fact, I'm very proud of them. One of them is a senior registrar to two major hospitals in Oxford. Another of them is a consultant in European law to the Securities and Investment Board in the United Kingdom. They've had their education. There are no complaints.

I never earned $60,000 a month or $90,000 a month. When I was Chief Minister, I earned $8,000 a month. Look, what is happening today is we are encouraged to and are becoming worshippers of the Golden Cart.

We have lost sight of the joy and excitement of public service, helping our fellow men. The joy and excitement of seeking and understanding of the joy of the miracle of the living the duty and the grandeur. We have lost taste for heroic action in the service of our people.

We have become good bourgeois seeking comfort, security. It's like seeking a crystal coffin and being fed by intravenous injections through pipes in the crystal coffin; crystal coffins stuck with certificates of your pragmatic abilities.

What has changed?

The self-confidence of our people has grown immensely, and that is good to see. Our pragmatic abilities have grown magnificently, and that is good to see. Very good to see!

You are very able. You're ambitious, and the government has heroic plans for the future. It hasn't finished.

I take off my hat to the pragmatic ability of our government but there is no soul in our conduct. It is a difficult thing to speak of because it is difficult to put in a computer, and the youth of Singapore is accustomed to computer fault. There is no longer the intellectual ferment, the passionate argument for a better civilisation. The emphasis on the rice bowl!

Tell me I'm wrong, come on.

Dharmendra: That PAP government has indeed done a great deal for Singapore. However, there is an increasing degree of discontent growing amongst our youths against them. Why do you think this is happening?

Marshall: Our lives are empty. We don't understand the joy of living is not in the gold coins. It is not in the bank account. The joy of living is in human relations. We are not in appreciation of this miracle of life.

We are giving a lop-sided view, an unfairness to the government! We come out of a morass of imperial subjugation where people were dying of starvation and now?

You know, when I won a case once years ago, I was presented with a lovely porcelain Buddha with a big flowing belly and ears that reached to his shoulders and a chubby face.

I said to my client, "Look, you Chinese got a real feeling for aesthetics. How can you worship something so obscene?"

He said, "Mr Marshall, try and understand. China is a land of starvation where millions of people die for lack of food, and to be able to eat that much, to be that fat, that is heaven!"

Now, that is the attitude of our government: to be able to eat that much, that is heaven and you should be content.

So are youths not content? They are not anti. Our youths frankly, very honestly respect the pragmatic achievements of the government, and I'm grateful, but they feel empty.

There isn't this joy of living which youth expects and youth needs - to learn the joy of living. How do you teach it?

I think you teach it through respect for the individual. That's our tragedy. If you want to put it in a nutshell, our tragedy is that we emphasise the primacy of society as against respect for the individual. Mind you, both are right.

I mean both sides have the liberty. Of course, there should be respect for the needs of society over the right of the individual but you must respect the individual too in seeking the expression of the needs of society. Here, we have no respect for the individual.

Cane them! Hang them! There are more than a hundred queuing up to be hanged, you know that?

[Minister For Law] Jayakumar said, "I have plugged the loop-hole whereby they could escape being hanged and just have twenty years of imprisonment!"

Oh, wacko the ducks - you need a monument!

The joy of hanging people; flogging them, every stroke must break the skin. I don't like it. I don't believe it is a deterrent. I see no proof. Look, it seems to me logic! If every year we have more death sentences, how can you say death sentence is a deterrent? If it were, there should be less death sentences.

But you know I'm in a minority and my father had one saying which I'd like you to publish. It is a beauty. He was a true democratic heart although he didn't know it.

He used to say, "David, if ten men tell you your head is not on your shoulders, shake it and make sure. Don't accept it. Just shake it and make sure!"

Well, I've shaken my head again and again and again and I still think I'm right. I know I'm in the dog-house.

The government doesn't see I do respect them immensely. They don't see I'm a genuine friend. They only see me as a critic and to be a critic is to be an enemy who must be erased and destroyed. There is no such thing as an honest critic to the PAP. It's a blasphemy to criticise the emperor, spoilt son of heaven.

[Lee] Kuan Yew says you mustn't lampoon a Chinese gentleman. Oh, dear me! Ya, what happened? What happened to China?

In Europe, they institutionalised the court jester and the court jester had total immunity against any result from his public criticism of the kings and emperors and the courtyard. Open public criticism - that was his job! They tried to laugh it off but at least there was one person to prick the bubble of their overgrown egoism.

And which civilisation has progressed better for the development of humanity? The Western civilisation or the Chinese civilisation?

You talk of Asian values. I only know two Asian values and, I wish someone would really pinpoint instead of pontificating ponderously in humbug and hypocrisy.

Family values - I think we have more family cohesion in Asia than in Europe; more family warmth and I like that. I accept that there is a greater tradition of family warmth and family cohesion.

Two, we have a greater passion for education. My secretary - I asked her once what her background is. She said her mother is a washer-woman and, here is this lovely secretary doing a damn good job. She was educated. How her mother could save enough to give her the education?

So these are the only two values I know. Somebody tell me what other values that are Asian, which everybody talks and nobody mentions the exact parameters.

And you know we use this concept of family cohesion to place on our youths the burden of caring for aging and ailing parents and grand-parents.

The young have got their own lives to make. To carry in your own homes aging irritable ailing parents and grandparents can destroy the family life of the young.

But then, the alternative is for the government to pour so much mountains of gold into building homes for the aged. That's sacrilege - gold is to be gathered and not to be spent.

I want to see more crèches, more homes for the aged.

Our Prime Minister [Goh Chok Tong] talks about gracious living. Where is the gracious living?

So I am a bad boy, I'm ostracised. The Straits Times makes slimy remarks about me.

The [press are] running dogs of the PAP.

Dharmendra: What would you tell youths who intend to pursue a career in law?

Marshall: Try and understand that the law is a vocation and not a business. Respect your client irrespective of the fees. I used to charge $1 for a murder case if he was Malay because he had no money. I used to charge $1 to trade unions; all Malay unions, I charged $1 a year. And the $1 is simply because, if you do it for nothing, you are not liable in negligence whereas $1 makes a contract and, if you are negligent, they can sue you.

I'd like them to also understand that justice is a meld of law and humanity. Law and humanity; decency in concepts; if we administer law by the soulless logic of the computer, we aren't on our road to progress.

You're too young but ask your parents - the Japanese times. Their draconian approach to anti-social activities. Ask your parents how they welcomed the returning British soldiers in 1945.

I was stunned when I heard about it; that we a colonial people, a subject people, should welcome rapturously the armed forces of Imperial power. How was that possible?

I learnt that they had a sense of relief to be back in the ambience of British justice; out of darkness, out of the draconian attitudes of the occupying power.

If you want to make money as a lawyer, you can. I see marble palaces. My juniors, ha! Marble palaces, swimming pools, Mercedes-Benz! Oh, bravo!

They work till nine o'clock at night. I don't know how their children survive. They work very hard, they make a lot of money. Yes, it's true.

If you are going for corporate law, insurance law and the non-litigant aspects of law, you can make a lot of money.

If you're a particularly good litigant - our litigation lawyers in civil cases - we've got some outstanding local lawyers. Yes, you can make a lot of money.

Don't go in for crime. The Criminal Bar is a very frustrating Bar today.

Dharmendra: You have fought many cases. You have some nrilliant cases that you managed to sweep the jury off their feet in words?

Marshall: And I'm according to Lee Kuan Yew in Parliament when he sought the abolition of the jury, "David Marshall is responsible for 200 murderers walking freely the streets of Singapore."

I'm proud of that. I told him to put it on my tomb. If there are 200 people walking freely the streets of Singapore, it means they are contributing to Singapore. Singapore would have been poorer by hanging them. I have no compulsion.

Look, the purpose of criminal law is really two-fold: as a deterrent and as a catharsis of society to express its vengeance. If you escape it, you're no harm to society so long as you maintain a good police force and so long as you maintain a certain human justice in understanding.

For me, the punishment must not fit the crime, the punishment must fit the criminal and the punishment must fit the needs of society.

Recently, I accepted a brief - a Sikh sentenced to death. He was 21 when he was arrested. His appeal came on five years later. It was dismissed.

But during those five years, he studied religious knowledge. He got distinction in the New Testament and he became a Christian.

He's now 26 or 27. He's going to be hanged. I like that man. I think he can be a real asset. He is a delightful chap.

I asked his family, his elder brother. I said, "You Sikhs are really close in the family. How did you family take his becoming a Christian?"

He said, "What could we do? The poor man is going to be hanged. How can we be angry?"

There are more than a hundred people queuing to be hanged. There are decent people there.

Looks, there's a lovely phrase - I forgot who coined it - who said, "There but for the grace of God know I, I know no man who stood totally spotless that he can say I committed no anti-social act."

And so in our criminal code, if some escaped, that's an asset.

I'm reminded of a lovely story of Sir Walter Raleigh. On the scaffold, he went up and tested the axe with his thumb and turning to the master executioner, he said, "This is the surest cure for all diseases. If you want to eliminate all crime, you got to eliminate all humanity."

I have absolutely no bad conscience about the men I have helped escape the gallows and escape the prison. I'm grateful for the opportunity to have done that.

I say this, perhaps in conclusion, we have a judiciary of tremendous integrity. I've been practising since 1948, except for three and a half years, there isn't a single case of financial corruption, neither in the High Court nor the magistrates' courts. It's wonderful to practice in the ambience of total integrity.

Dharmendra: HAVE YOU EVER REGRETTED BECOMING A LAWYER?

Marshall: No! I think it was a guardian angel that brought me there.

I suppose you know, you must have read that I wanted to be a psychiatrist. First, when I was young, I wanted to be a doctor. I thought medicine was the greatest profession in the world - helping heal and comfort the sick and the helpless. And as I grew into adolescence, I wanted to be a psychiatrist. Not to practice but to do research: why the goodwill of the young?

All youths no matter what race, no matter what country, goodwill flows from their hearts. They want to help the world, but by the time you reach 30, your goodwill like good wine turns to vinegar - the vinegar of crapped egoism.

I wanted to study the wise and whether these could be some antidote for this unhappy transformation of the goodwill of youths to the crapped egoism but I didn't have the money. Fortunately!

I don't know if I could have achieved anything that vast. I don't know whether I have the intellectual ability to do first-class research into the mind and emotions of man.

I fell, by accident, into the right career at the right time and it has been wonderful.

Regret? I'm full of gratitude for having become a lawyer and, especially, a criminal lawyer; for having helped thousands of people terrified, helpless before the silly forces of society. They've looked into me as their protector. I have no regrets at all for having helped them; humanity, if you can understand this.

If you ever become a criminal lawyer, never look down upon your client. He may be a murderer or he may be a thief; he is a fellow human being. You must try and respect your client no matter what he has done. It is very important in your own self-respect in your work, and to help who is helpless in seeking help.

Look, at the age of 86, I can say in all earnestness, the thing that matters most in bringing human satisfaction is human relations. To be able to care for your fellow human beings, to be able to give! Never mind about receiving.

Even today, my friends say, "Oh, David, stop it! Why do you have to keep making public noises that annoy the government? Live in dignity and retirement. They'll respect you and you'll have the honours."

Ha, honours! I want to fight till I'm dead!

What matters most in life is the right of human beings to live fully in the context of their own genius. In one word, perhaps, to fight for human justice. I once said humanity's cry for human justice reverberates down the corridors of the centuries, and it is still crying for human justice.

Dharmendra: An unforgettable moment in St. Andrew's School?

Marshall: I was coming. That was the old building and I was coming along the corridor carrying a set of books. It must have been morning and, outside my classroom, there was a Chinese boy much slimmer than you [Dharmendra] with his back to the wall - absolutely pale, full of fear.

And in front of him was my friend, an American boy - same student, same class - and dancing an Indian jig saying, "Ching! Ching! Chakama!"

Without the slightest warning, I dropped my books and lunged at him [the American boy].

Dharmendra: Do you have any message in general?

Marshall: Recognise there is a lot of satisfaction in public service, foreign service, judicial service. A great deal of satisfaction in public service, even honorary public service in committees.

[If] you are totally engrossed in self-promotion, at the end of the day, you'll find it's dead seafood.

Try and give up yourselves to others.

I am so alien to this worship of the Golden Cart and the draconian attitude; the brutal attitude towards our fellow citizens. Here I ask people and, no doubt, if I ask you, "We're all in favour so long as it's not me having my bottoms cut! Yes, whip 'em!"

Try to put yourself in the other man's shoes.

And, of course, what have I got to say?

You, the young - you've got a fantastic, absolutely fantastic potential before you; economic expansion, heroic plans that the government has for the future not only the present. You are so lucky! No unemployment! Great potential even beyond your capacity to fulfill.

It's an exciting country, Singapore. It's a lovely country. And you have to make your own space for your own spiritual and intellectual needs and have the courage. Have the courage to serve your fellow men with integrity.

I'll put it in one nutshell: have the courage to live, don't be afraid!

You know, I'm told I'm fool-hardy and always criticising, although I have such a gracious life. But fool-hardy or no, this is me; I am prepared to take what you give.