Who Moved My Singapore Cheese

...to live an inspired existence...

I thank the cosmic forces that allowed me to stumble upon this Harvard commencement speech by JK Rowling, author of Harry Potter. Every word, every sentence of her speech wins my complete admiration. Do sit through the beginning warm-up jokes though'


J.K. Rowling Speaks at Harvard Commencement from Harvard Magazine on Vimeo.

As is a tale, so is life,
Not how long it is, but how good it is
Is what matters


~ Lucius Annaeus Seneca

If you have 30 seconds today and every day, you can make a difference for the people of Haiti.

Care2 just launched their new, free Click to Help Haiti, partnering with respected international relief nonprofit Oxfam to help fund emergency water and sanitation services for survivors of last week's devastating earthquake in Haiti.

I'm now reading that the death toll in Haiti could be as high as 200,000, maybe more. That's two percent of Haiti's total population. The scale of this disaster is almost beyond our comprehension, but what is crystal clear is this: Haiti will need every global citizen's help now and for a long time to come to recover and rebuild.

Please click today to help the people of Haiti: http://www.care2.com/go/z/e/AFt0H/zkf6/bsWHB

This post is more of like a reminder for myself in the future...

Recently I read that a bunch of Singaporean students managed to start an online petition to get what they wanted - Cheaper transfort fares for tertiary students. 5200 tertiary students supported the online petition.

Yet another bunch managed to implore their school into a week long recess in view of the H1N1 outbreak.

And so the idea struck me. Hey! The one big protest I hear from Singaporeans over and over again, everywhere, online, offline, is that our ministers are paying themselves too much salary! Why then do we not have an online petition for that? Sensing there might already be an existing website for such online petitions, I did my googling as usual...and found that there is indeed an existing website, in fact, there is an existing petition (and it's still ongoing) against Ministers' pay hike when it was first "proposed" to the citizens in April 2007.

Guess how many people have since signed this petition? 3233 up till now.. I do not for a moment doubt that an overwhelming majority of Singaporeans will like to see the Ministers take a pay cut, not a pay hike. It is the lack of publicity and perhaps some amount of fear that is curbing this petition from running its full potential.

At the petition website, you can read what comments other petitioners have left. Below is a small extraction for your sampling.

Jerica Tan
How much MONEY is one needed for leading a comfortable life? 30K a Month? 50K? or 100K or 1000000000K???? I can not think of any justification at all!! Most people here in Singapore are earning say between 1.5K - 3K a month, so most people can not imagine why our "LEADERS" need soooooo much MONEY???

Tony Lim
Already out of the world salary, they want out of the universe salary? If MONEY is the only motivation factor for our "LEADERS", than I am very sad & worried for Singapapore!!

Danny
We shouldn't be paying them more the keep honest, they should be honest right from the start. If they need to be paid more just to stay honest, I think it's time we find someone else whos honestly can't be bought.

cristel
Use the correct benchmark! Peg pay to ministers of other countries. Or is the govt implying that the ministers of all other countries are corrupt/incompetent because they don't earn as much as our learned ministers!

Sebastian
I think the benchmark is flawed as the component salaries are based on the top earners in their professions and not necessarily reflective of the overall industry. Furthermore, the risks undertaken by ministers are underwritten by the Singapore taxpayer while the risks taken by a doctor or lawyer or banker are not. I also believe the massive salaries diminishes the spirit of public service that should be fostered in the Cabinet.

If you find that you, your friends and/or your family members, do feel the same way about this matter, I hope you will join the petition and forward the petition link to your friends. Alternatively you can also forward this blog post to them using the forwarding function.

Say no to $2M minister salaries. Support the online petition! Go to PETITIONONLINE now!


Here is a Reuters news article dated April 5, 2007, regarding the pay hike.

Singapore ministers set for million-dollar pay hike
Thu Apr 5, 2007 2:51pm EDT
By Koh Gui Qing

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - The salary of the prime minister of Singapore is more than three times that of U.S. President George Bush and about four times that of Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. But that is not enough.

Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong may soon be getting a hefty pay rise as part of a controversial ministerial salary hike that has infuriated many Singaporeans.

Lee, who is estimated to earn about S$2 million (669,265 pounds) per year, said last month that the salaries of Singapore ministers, top public officials and judges have fallen way below benchmark private sector salaries and may need to be doubled.

"It is critical for us to keep these salaries competitive, so as to be able to bring in a continuing flow of able and successful people," Lee said in a speech in March.

Lee said that Singapore ministers, who currently earn about S$1.2 million a year, should be earning S$2.2 million. Details of the new ministerial salaries will be announced in parliament on April 9.

Since 1994, the salaries of Singapore ministers have been set at two-thirds the median pay of the 48 best-paid bankers, lawyers, accountants, engineers, and executives in multi-nationals and manufacturing firms.

But the latest salary hike, which comes at a time when income disparity in Singapore is wider than ever, has sparked an outpour of unusually blunt criticism from Singaporeans.

Hundreds have signed an online petition and the readers' letter columns of the state-controlled newspapers -- one of the few outlets for dissenting views in the city-state -- have published a series of letters protesting the planned hike.

"GOVERNMENT ALWAYS WINS"

Some Singaporeans argue that the six lucrative professions on which ministers' salaries are based do not reflect the country's economy or the government's performance.

"No matter what happens to the economy, the government always wins because it takes only the best results," Jacob Tan said in a letter to the Straits Times.

And given that a 2 percentage point rise in sales tax from July will further hit the poor, some said the government plan is tactless.

"I am rather disappointed with the government's insensitivity," reader Vanessa Teo said.

But the sharpest criticism was online. The "awesome raise on top of their already obscene pay is completely unjustifiable," read an online petition that has gathered 304 signatures.

Given the rare public outcry, analysts said the government may now hesitate to raise salaries by the full S$1 million.

"I would be surprised if they implemented the full formula that would give them over S$2 million," said Garry Rodan, director of the Asia Research Centre at Murdoch University.

The government defends the high salaries as necessary to attract the brightest people and to prevent corruption.

"If we don't do that ... corruption will set in and we will become like many other countries," Defence Minister Teo Chee Hean was quoted as saying in the Straits Times last week.

Singapore government officials' salaries are set by different wage formulas, depending on their seniority. The figures are not readily available to the public, but the prime minister earned S$1.94 million in 2000, according to the Straits Times.

Ministers' wages were last raised in 2000, but were cut in 2001 and 2003 during the economic downturn, although the cuts have since been reversed, the Public Service Division said.

"ABLE GENERALS"

Some argue that Singapore ministers are not overpaid, but that ministers elsewhere are underpaid.

Singapore is an oasis of wealth, peace and law and order in a region rife with poverty, violence and corruption.

The island state is Asia's second-richest country after Japan, with a gross domestic product per capita of about $31,000 (15,695 pounds).

The World Economic Forum ranks Singapore as the fifth-most competitive of 125 economies in 2006, while Transparency International said the city-state was the fifth-most corruption-free nation out of 163. Isn't that worth a price?

"According to a Chinese proverb, an able general is worth more than 10,000 foot soldiers. So too is the worth of our leaders if they have the wisdom to help us weather global competition," reader Yik Keng Yeong said.

But critics say that the prosperity and security enjoyed by Singaporeans are not that different from other Asian first-world economies such as Japan, Korea and Taiwan, where government ministers do not command such high salaries.

Finland, for instance, beat Singapore in the WEF and Transparency International polls -- as second-most competitive and most corruption-free country -- but its Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen earns about a sixth of Lee's estimated salary.

What irks Singapore's opposition parties is that the million-dollar salaries are only accessible to members of Lee's ruling People's Action Party. Opposition politicians have been crippled by defamation lawsuits brought by government ministers and no opposition party has ever held a ministerial post.

The opposition also argues that a million-dollar pay hike is unwarranted for leaders of a country that has no legal minimum wage and where 20 percent of the population earns an average monthly salary of S$1,500.

But Lee Kuan Yew -- modern Singapore's first prime minister, who is still the leading voice in his son's cabinet -- will have none of it.

"The cure to all this talk is really a good dose of incompetent government," Lee senior told the Straits Times on Thursday, adding that it is "absurd" for Singaporeans to quarrel about ministerial pay and warning that Singapore would suffer it the government could not pay competitive salaries.

"Your security will be at risk and our women will become maids in other people's countries," he said.

(Additional reporting by Sakari Suoninen in Helsinki, Isabel Reynolds in Tokyo, Joanne Allen in Washington)


© Thomson Reuters 2007. All rights reserved. Users may download and print extracts of content from this website for their own personal and non-commercial use only. Republication or redistribution of Thomson Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters. Thomson Reuters and its logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of the Thomson Reuters group of companies around the world.

Thomson Reuters journalists are subject to an Editorial Handbook which requires fair presentation and disclosure of relevant interests.

http://s-pores.com/2009/07/once-bonded/

CPF Life - The policy that recently got many a politically pathetic (as opposed to apathetic) Singaporeans really worked up over the provision that this compulsory annuity program cannot be guaranteed against insolvency. Reading around online about it here, here and here...I find that there is really a lot of good stuff being analysed and written out there...but hey if you find yourself to be like me, kinda more concerned with the smaller things that are to do with me myself and I today, or tomorrow at best, this is my take-away - Chill Out! Actually, with most of the public policies in Singapore, that seems to be the message if you managed to cut through all the clutter and big words and noise. It really always simply boil down to the following;

MP "so and so", Minister of wadever, announces that we have a new scheme or act or amendment to the original schemes or acts...

I was never too good with schemes and acts so I've historically had great difficulties truly understanding what that wonderfully crafted great piece of news in Straits Times' HOME section really means for me. But as I grew older I started to be able to sieve through the words and today I realized, that at the end of the day, I just had to find the same comforting encrypted message staring me right in my face - it's telling me, don't worry, just be happy...you are being taken care of, somehow. So what I gleaned from reading the news was that -CPF Life is mandatory, we all will gain blah blah, there are some concerns raised by another PAP member blah blah, but it ends there, there are some noise made by citizens blah blah but it also ends there. So I think to myself, "You are not going to change anything even if you try very very hard you know?".

Being easily defeated I mentally agreed, so ok, I flip to the backside of HOME section to land myself smack in the MONEY section and there I read that the speculators have done it again, our home prices have gone up! Our economy might not be great but hey, pharmaceutical did well last month! Ok the housing price inflation piece, I read and go SHUCKS! but what can I do? My lost, somebody's gain it must be. All that happy faces in the photos. Mr. Mah says there's no "excessive speculation" (which by comparative deduction must be correct since he said the same thing in 2006 when prices were going up so much faster)... so this must be just the naturally occuring amount of speculation Singapore must have. That GDP got buoyed by some Tamiflu production must be really great news for my Malaysian factory worker cousins...so I was glad for them on that. Still nothing for me...

But hey, why should I worry about any of the above when they are all not in my hands anyway.
So yeah, just Don't worry, Be Happy.

When the day is long and the night, the night is yours alone,
When you're sure you've had enough of this life, well hang on
Don't let yourself go, 'cause everybody cries and everybody hurts sometimes

Sometimes everything is wrong. Now it's time to sing along
When your day is night alone, (hold on, hold on)
If you feel like letting go, (hold on)
When you think you've had too much of this life, well hang on

'Cause everybody hurts. Take comfort in your friends
Everybody hurts. Don't throw your hand. Oh, no. Don't throw your hand
If you feel like you're alone, no, no, no, you are not alone

If you're on your own in this life, the days and nights are long,
When you think you've had too much of this life to hang on

Well, everybody hurts sometimes,
Everybody cries. And everybody hurts sometimes
And everybody hurts sometimes. So, hold on, hold on
Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on
Everybody hurts. You are not alone

Below is an email I received from Nuffnang, the Singapore start-up that matches online ads with blogs etc... Do help if possible.

Nuffnang is organizing a charity fund-raise for our four-year old Nuffnanger, Charmaine who has been cruelly diagnosed with Neuroblastoma.
As she is in the 4th stage of the illness, Charmaine’s chances of survival are bleak (10%-20%) if she remains in Singapore for treatment. But with the treatment offered in the U.S., she has a higher chance (40%-50%) to survive this ordeal.
However, the cost of treatment in the U.S is high, with the initial deposit coming up to $500,000SGD.
As we strongly pride ourselves as a community where we share both joys and woes, we sincerely hope that our Nuffnang community will be able to do a little something to tide Charmaine and her family through this trying ordeal.
The fundraising campaign will run from 23rd July to 24th September 2009.

How you can help:
Step 1: Donate
Monetary Aid- With the strength of 40,000 Nuffnangers in our Singapore community, if each of us donates just $2, we will be able to raise $80,000 in contributing our bit.
Please refer to http://www.nuffnang.com.sg/ forcharmaine/howto.php in making a donation.
Your contribution, however small, will definitely make a difference and we sincerely urge all Nuffnangers to donate their share to this cause.

Step 2: Spread the Word
Spreading awareness of cause- Beside monetary aid, we urge all Nuffnangers to:
I. Select the option of “Allow charity ads” on your blog manager II. Blog about this campaign in order to achieve our targeted amount together! Link the blog post to : http://www.nuffnang.com.sg/forcharmaine

A life is precious and you can’t put a price to it. We sincerely hope the Nuffnang community will rise to the occasion and show how powerful our blogging community is.

Thank you very much on behalf of Charmaine, her mother Cynthia, the rest o f their dedicated team.

For further enquiries, do not hesitate to contact Elaine at forcharmaine@nuffnang.com or you may reach her at 8254 8256.
Best Regards,Nuffnang T eam

After talking to a friend who doubted that our medical care system in Singapore is indeed possibly leaving some fellow citizens in the lurches without a voice, them being minority, I decided to finally dig a bit deeper into what is covered by our medishield and what is not, and you can deduce from there, why some families have to sell their HDB to keep a loved one alive.

This is the link to the List of Excluded Treatments and Medical Expenses for Medishield


List of Excluded Treatments & Medical Expenses
Generally, the following expenses are outside the scope of MediShield and cannot be
claimed:
 Entire stay in hospital if the member was admitted to the hospital before he was
insured by MediShield
 Treatment of any of the following categories of pre-existing illnesses or any other
serious illnesses for which the patient had received medical treatment during the 12
months before the start of MediShield cover:
o Blood disorder
o Cancer
o Cerebrovascular accidents (stroke)
o Chronic liver cirrhosis
o Chronic obstructive lung disease
o Chronic renal disease, including renal failure
o Coronary artery disease
o Degenerative disease
o Ischaemic heart disease
o Rheumatic heart disease
o Systemic lupus erythematosus
 Ambulance fees
 Congenital anomalies, hereditary conditions and disorders e.g. hole-in-heart, hare-lip
 Cosmetic Surgery
 Maternity charges (including Caesarean operations) or abortions
 Dental work (except due to accidental injuries)
 Infertility, sub-fertility, assisted conception or any contraceptive operation
 Sex change operations
 Mental illness and personality disorders
 Optional items which are outside the scope of treatment
 Overseas medical treatment
 Private nursing charges
 Purchase of kidney dialysis machines, iron- lung and other special appliances
 Treatment for which the insured person received reimbursement from Workmen's
Compensation and other forms of insurance coverage
 Treatment of any illness, disability, injury or any condition arising from or due to the
Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) virus
 Treatment for drug addiction or alcoholism
 Treatment of injuries arising directly or indirectly from nuclear fallout, war and related
risk
 Treatment of injuries arising from direct participation in civil commotion, riot or strike
 Treatment of self-inflicted injuries or injuries resulting from attempted suicide
 Vaccination

And here are the list of Medishield benefits (I cannot really copy and paste this so please just follow the link)

For observational purposes and no other intent, note that our parents are not covered once they reach 85. So in a few yrs time when many more of our parents are older than 85 and fall sick, such as dementia or wadever that plagues the old, then what happens? Nursing home too expensive for us then what? Send them to Malaysia's nursing home as some MP suggested? Or do we quit our jobs to take care of them at home and earn no income to feed the young? Mister Lee Kuan Yew is 86 this year. Does that make him not worthy of our help? If he were not as rich as he is, and if his sons were not as rich as they are, then god bless his health because if he were to require a costly treatment right now, they could be bankrupted for all you and I care because that's the age we, as a society, collectively decided to be the age where we no longer need coverage, or is ok to "just die lor".

Maybe some of you heard about the Medifund, our so called last resort. Yay! We can go to Medifund, no problemo. Teennnghhh!. Wrong. You can go to Medifund ONLY when you have exhausted all your alternatives. See Link. Do you know when you can go to Medifund? When you have become an INDIGENT Singaporean. Phwoa, I never even knew what that word INDIGENT meant until I got to know Medifund. According to Dictionary.com it means to be: lacking food, clothing, and other necessities of life because of poverty; needy; poor; impoverished. Wonder why a simpler word that's more commonly understood couldn't have been used...like "destitute" or "bloody pathetic"...heh.

If we really want to go seek out the many other loopholes in our system and Singaporean families who have already been left out of the system when catastrophy hit them, we'll probably find that most of us wouldn't want to be them in our worst nightmares....but until that day comes and, oh, by then it'll be either too late or we'll be too caught up to make even a whimper, we'll just continue to live the "I'm ok right now, I don't care what else is happening to others" Singaporean "dream". Nothing wrong with status quo. It's the same as saying, to hell with minimum wage, to hell with public outcry (by the way you are not covered by medishield if you incurred it during a civil commotion lest you did not read through the caveats above).

So let us all fly the flag proudly again this August.

Happy 44th Singapore.

I took a taxi yesterday, and yes at times like these when Im fast approaching the state of being "chronically unemployed" I really shouldn't be taking cabs anymore but let's leave that guilt trip essay for another rainy day, and I got into an interesting conversation with the cab driver.

Thinking back I should have asked him for his name, but I didn't, so let's refer to him as taxi uncle. Taxi uncle isn't all that advanced in age, he looked to be around 35, 40 at best. He spoke really good english with grammar being purposefully dropped for sounding more endearing as most conversations between Singaporeans in the heartlands go, and he started the whole conversation like this...

"What do you work as?" asked taxi uncle,in trademark Singaporean straightforwardness.

"I'm not working at the moment, im unemployed." I answered almost fashionably.

"Oh! How old are you?"

"30 this year" I wonder why I always add "this year" to this answer, as if that makes it any different.

"30 ah!? Can drive taxi lor." taxi uncle exclaimed without needing to further explain himself, 'cos I have already been reminded by my dad 30 is the legal age to apply for a taxi license :S

"Ah, no lah!" Talking before using my thick skull is sometimes what I do and I immediately felt ashamed for the obvious disdain I displayed for his profession, even if it was just disdain FOR myself doing it. And so I quickly added, "No lah, maybe just not for now, maybe next time."

Sensing my attitude wasn't of a rude nature, he said, "Look, I also used to think like you, but life and age can change how we think. I used to work as an Engineer you know, doing sales and earning more than 10k a month for a while. But ah...when I lost my job after analog got replaced by digital technology, I did many different jobs after that and one day I became a taxi driver. Strangely hor, this is the job I have enjoyed the most leh. No stress, enough money for family, have more time for my wife and kids now."

Look, at this point you can either doubt that he was really earning >10k a month long time ago, or you can just believe him like me, and begin to wonder if this man could really be me one day. It's not that I despise taxi driving, my old man was a bus driver and he earned an honest keep to support our whole family, it's just that I had always held higher aspirations for myself than working in menial labour.

The taxi trip was very short and so we had no time to bring the conversation much further than that, perhaps luckily so. It didn't occur to me to blog about this until earlier when I read on another blog about a man's question to MP Halimah Yacob.

See this The New Paper link and read below for excerpt.

THE man had a simple question for his MP:
I will be a security guard if I must, he said, but how can I encourage my children to do well in school if I can't find a good job despite my (tertiary) education?
It was a statement that shook even a battle-hardened MP like Madam Halimah Yacob (Jurong GRC). 'When he responded in that manner, I also started thinking,' she said.

Madam Halimah was raising this example with The New Paper last night after a hotly-debated Parliamentary discussion on how to help retrenched Professionals, Managers, Executives and Technicians (PMETs).The man, a former manager in his 50s with an engineering diploma, was retrenched late last year. Unable to find a job, he became a taxi driver.

Part of the problem why our nation has so many structurally displaced, unemployed workers, mostly past their 40s, is because our labour market does not have the chance to evolve on its own. There is too much government intervention. In fact, it is entirely directed and controlled from the top down.

I'm not into thinking that there are jobs out there for me that are being taken by a foreigner. But there are others who are indeed so displaced. There is no way anyone can prove or disprove the government's stance that we need all the foreigners who are willing to show up at our shores, or that the absence of a minimum wage is indeed better. But what every democracy needs is a bit more of a tug-of-war between the people and the government. There should be more voice, more to-and-fro-ing before policies get laid on us the citizens. I just think we should have a more independent labour union, one whose representatives speak their minds more freely without either having to worry about legal consequences or their very own continued existence as a labour union member. I don't know if all of you can see it, but I'm guessing that the below video shows a union member, not really asking a question, but making a statement, at the 2009 tripartism forum. Obama was recently criticized for planting a question during a planned press conference. I'm not implying this is the same (I'm afraid of legal repercussions too!) but I sure don't feel the spontaneity in Mr. Gary Haris' "question", for whatever reasons I can only guess at.

After deciding not to pursue my plans to migrate anymore due to some issues about family and return to Singapore after what some might call a 1 week excursion in Australia, I finally got online to post a new entry about that...but came across something so ridiculous that this post has to wait...now we have to look at this stupid no eating on MRT issue.



What this video shows are 3 things; The complete and utter lack of sense and tact on the side of SMRT and its "Station Master" Roger Fool, the Singaporean's across-the-board, over-the-top fear for authority, senseless or otherwise, and the lack of comraderie of Singaporeans to stand up for each other when something wrong and unfair is happening to their fellow citizens.

Ask yourselves, how many of you have eaten a sweet on the train before? How many of you think that it's "against the law" to pop a mint while on the train, or take a sip from your water bottle? I urge you to forward this video link to as many of your Singaporean friends as possible. Hopefully sense will prevail and Roger Fool and his SMRT will have to come out and make a public apology for taking this woman's $30.

First day has passed.

I touched down to the strangely familiar cold yet sunny winter of Sydney this morning at 630am. People were friendly in the way everyone dealt with each other, even on the simplest things like asking how you are, asking if you need help with this and that...I totally felt the sensation of having arrived in a non-asian culture environment. Grass is greener, literally, sun is shinier, heck even the air smells more invigorating.

Yet somehow, the lens through which I now assess my new habitat is different than that of a 20 odd years old student, or a tourist, or any other forms of a temporary resident; I took on the lens of someone intent on making this place my home for the next many many years to come. And it had an effect.

It's the first time I have ever experienced the sensation of everything feeling right superficially and yet wrong on a spiritual level. Scorn, laugh, critic all you want, but this is truely how I felt throughout the course of the day. I actually felt like the nice feeling was not deserving. I see my dad and my mum's and my in-law's faces a lot as I coursed through the day. Family somehow became something that I couldn't shake off my mind. Shirley, yes, but that I can discern the whys and hows.

This is not the way I pictured it to turn out and I already feel like a mega-self-sabotaguer on the first day. I hope the next few days will somehow bring about a more crystalized conclusion for me on the whys, hows and whats.

It's difficult to really write anything concrete about finally leaving Singapore today. Mixed feelings of anticipation, apprehension, excitement, fear, all rolled into one, and the magnitude is also muted by the fact that I'll be returning for a week in 3 weeks' time for my wedding =)

Something slightly amusing happened when I was applying for my Exit Permit from the Singapore Armed Forces. At the end of the whole process, they had a question for me....

They asked:
Please select the reasons below for your decision to go overseas for studies, in order of priority.

I guess I still feel a little indignant about how things are in Singapore and so I was glad to have the chance to provide some form of feedback to our leaders (since this was obviously not a SAF question).

There were 10 concrete reasons + 1 "others (please elaborate)" choices.
I chose, in order of priority:
1) I was unable to gain admission into the local education program I was interested in.
2) Others: I have been unemployed for a while now and when I was employed, I was unable to afford my desired standard of living. Housing is too expensive (then the allowed number of words was used up and I couldn't write anymore, otherwise I might have written a blog entry to SAF.)
3) I intend to migrate.

Ok, time to go wrap up the packing...

http://singaporemind.blogspot.com/2009/07/truth-about-jobs-jobs-jobs.html

This is something I have been thinking about writing but has not gotten around to.

Rented the movie " Fast Food Nation " last night and I must say the docu-movie made Shirley and I aspire to become vegetarians...it's a really really cruel process, the way these cows are slaughtered and skinned. Attached below some videos...I must warn that the slaughter videos are not suitable for everyone, and definitely not for kids.

Fast Food Nation



Slaughter Videos
WARNING: THESE VIDEOS ARE NOT FOR THE WEAK STOMACHS





If you are interested in going vegeterian, you may want to start off with a pledge to go veg for 30 days at http://www.goveg.com/, also do check out this video:

30 reasons to go veg

Straits Times featured a write up on our newly minted NMPs today. A lot of bloggers in Singapore has written and read about the fact that Mr Siew Kum Hong did not successfully obtain a second term as an NMP, despite garnering a lot of support for his outspoken and vocal style when it came time to bring up real-life Singaporean issues in Parliament.

The reason Mr Siew had so much support from the people is that he was willing to voice out our concerns in order to effect changes the people want. As such, I paid special attention to the portion of the report on what these newly PAP-selected NMPs said they would like to change in Singapore.

One thing about Singapore that I would like to change:

Teo Siong Seng, 54, Managing Director of Pacific International Lines
"The weather, so that we can have four seasons. Here, it's either hot or hotter."

Paulin Tay Straughan, 46, sociologist, Vice-Dean of NUS Arts and Social Science
"I think we are way too focused on academic excellence. I don't remember being so intense when I was in school. But now, I find that our kids are really being pushed very hard. It will really be good if we can strive for a middle ground where there is better balance in work and leisure."

Lawrence Wee, 63, Executive Director of Presbyterian Community Services Singapore
"The pace of change. Let some parts of our heritage remain to remind the older people of landmarks they grew up with or they may become a bit lost. Don't change too fast or we'll be just a land of glass and steel."

Viswa Sadasivan, 49, Chief executive of Strategic Moves, a media training and consultancy firm
"To change the worship of academic excellence and the way people put so much importance on paper qualifications."

Calvin Cheng, 33, Media Entrepreneur
"Our self-image. We may be a young nation, but our constituent cultures are ancient. As a cosmopolitan city, we need to welcome foreigners and make sure we attract the best talent. But this does not mean we always have to look to the outside to define ourselves."

Audrey Wong Wai Yen, 41, Artistic co-director of The Substation arts venue
"I would like us to be a more gracious society and that we can improve on our civic responsibilities."

Terry Lee Kok Hua, 57, a veteran unionist
"That we are not too kiasu, care and share more for others in order to achieve happiness for all."

Mildred Tan-Sim Beng Mei, 50, Managing Director of Ernst & Young Advisory
"This is not so much change as something we could become better in. I was struck by Hong Kong's response to severe acute respiratory syndrome. They were hit worse but could come out and rebuild and adapt. Its ability to change and respond is something we could learn from."

Joscelin Yeo Wei Ling, 30, former national swimmer, owner of swimming school
"The traditional mindset that it is not possible to succeed in academics and sports at the same time, and that you have to give up one for the other."

My question to you, the Singaporean on the street, is, what are the changes you want to see in Singapore and do these NMPs sound like they will be represententative of you?

A friend asked me this recently, "What are the 3 things you will change about the way Singapore is run if you were, um...you know, the Prime Minister?" (Note: this is entirely for the sake of discussion over a kopitiam session and not meant to be provocative)

..and my answers were...

1) I will not peg our politicians' salaries to that of the private sector.
My reason is that, beyond a comfortable amount of salary, it does not take even more money to get a civic-minded person to run our country. Even if we need a top-notch banker to be Minister of Finance for example, the true test of whether he will do a good job for the country, is not in his ability to fetch a higher salary in the private sector, but that he was able to fetch that salary in the private sector and yet willing to take a pay cut to serve the people. I mean, it's like passion over money. If a vet chooses to become a vet instead of being a doctor in Singapore simply because he would earn more money and not out of love for animals, then I doubt he will be all that great a vet. Fact is the high salary creates the problem that it will attract the wrong crowd...
Corruption prevention was another reason for the high salaries; but really let's look at the alternative...you see, drug trafficking is prevented by capital punishment in Singapore...punitive rather than rewarding. It sure works doesn't it?

2) I will enact a minimum wage law
Minister Lim Swee Say recently said during the 2009 tripartism forum that the absence of a minimum wage law allowed many employers to cut wages during the crisis and hence saved jobs. I beg to differ because a minimum wage law can protect Singaporeans at the very bottom of the labour food chain. The jobs that suffered a wage cut (hence saved) would not even be anywhere near a minimum wage of say, $4 or $5 an hour, jobs that a security guard, a cleaner auntie etc would fetch. This would would prevent employers from resorting to unfairly cheaper foreign labour that costs even lesser. $4 x 10hrs/day x 30 days = $1200. At least we give a Singaporean senior the opportunity to work to the bones and fetch an income to live like a human proper. A minimum wage law is the least our now arguably 1st world nation can do to save, protect and bring along our ultra low income fellow Singaporeans in the quest for further economic success. It is well documented that the capitalistic nature of the modern world creates a widening gap between the rich and poor. Without a salary floor to protect these Singaporeans as our cost of living continues to balloon, we are not bringing everyone along as we 'progress'. Yes it might be expensive, it might be a social cost, a dead weight loss or whatever you call it, but should we not govern with a bit more conscience?




3) I will report the country's progress not in GDP terms, but in GDP net of inflation for the average Singaporean. I may even go one step further and measure the happiness quotient, or attempt to reflect the happiness of Singaporeans, perhaps with a study into how many Singaporeans are thinking of leaving our shores, or are leaving our shores. Basically I propose a less materialistic and more humanistic approach. (This seems to resonate with what some of our NMPs are suggesting...)
We all know statistics is a tricky subject. GDP does not measure true benefits to our people, as it can be very unevenly distributed (go wiki Singapore's GINI coefficient), or that inflation can have it all taken away.


Anyway, the list goes on...

Yes, at $5 a day, slavery is alive and kicking!