Bro Regulator, even if the garment can't do much on education, please do your part with your education business leh...Originally Posted by Regulators
I am new here...
Bro Regulator, even if the garment can't do much on education, please do your part with your education business leh...
Daft, Dafter, Dafterest!!!!
Exalted
this one i agree....
we r just too exam based
but at least we r seeing lasalle
Exalted
regulator haf to help his students to do well under singapore educational context...tat is to score A IN EXAMSBro Regulator, even if the garment can't do much on education, please do your part with your education business leh...
tats nth he can do
I am new here...
If we shut manufacturing immediately, sure die!hehe...dun nid foreign MNC....SBS will close shop....kopitiam still operate....our domestic consumption can sustain
Somehow, our PAP likes to use extreme example.. it's so difficult to work middle path meh?
I think let keep manufacturing going with some fine tuning on policies while at the same time, work on intangible assets development in services/tourism/finance etc... Also, revamp education to encourage creativities... and each successful breed of SWW (Just 1 to 2 case each year) might be sufficient enough to grow our manufacturing in the long run.
Daft, Dafter, Dafterest!!!!
Exalted
i tink govt oredi focusing on tat...
Astar....lol....really no comments....i not sure wat they do actually....LOL
Senior
my education biz also exam based, if not, parents won't be interested and i got no biz liao. i think this has to be top-down and govt has to take the initiative to change first. school curriculums should have modules that make students think out of the box and non-exam based. as for other core subjects like maths and science, how not to make it exam-based?
Bro Regulator, even if the garment can't do much on education, please do your part with your education business leh...
Junior
Tan's proposal, although workable, u also have to look at it from another angle.
Can money buy creativity ? Can money buy creative minds ? In SG ? I can see how the 60 bln could be siphoned off by real "creative" individuals, aka dot com "burning money"
Also is SG location strategic enough to be service center ? HK can, SG, very doubtful.
This thing is not so simple. All these plans look nice and sound nice. As if we spend 60 bln 5 yr later we will have a nice creative industry. I can say it out right , it's fat hope.
Such things need to be done progressively. Step one bring established creative or service industry here, the create a pool for ppl to go in. But to get those industry here, you need to beg them again, so FT again is inevitable. See, it's not so simple.
Running an economy is not just a few slogans and nice headlines
Btw i read through Tan's proposal so dun say I "only listen to CNA and read ST"
I am new here...
Have work as a supplier with AStar and tot they are jia liao bee...
Excellent report writing and often fail to materialise ideas.
Sad.
Daft, Dafter, Dafterest!!!!
Senior
all the nerdy top brains in A*Star but don't know how many patents they have created since the organisation started.
Exalted
if we observed carefully....govt had been promoting those u mentioned....
opening MBS is jus the beginning.....i went to walk ard MBS many times....went to marina bay gallery few times too and admire the future of marina bay financial ctr
to be fair, both pap and opp using extremmes to exaggerate la....politics mah
jus now u mentioned i do selective info processing.....
i tink we both seriously need to open our mind and eyes to see for ourselves....
dun let emotions rule our mind
I am new here...
$$$ cannot never buy creativity and that not what SDP put at.Tan's proposal, although workable, u also have to look at it from another angle.
Can money buy creativity ? Can money buy creative minds ? In SG ? I can see how the 60 bln could be siphoned off by real "creative" individuals, aka dot com "burning money"
Also is SG location strategic enough to be service center ? HK can, SG, very doubtful.
This thing is not so simple. All these plans look nice and sound nice. As if we spend 60 bln 5 yr later we will have a nice creative industry. I can say it out right , it's fat hope.
Such things need to be done progressively. Step one bring established creative or service industry here, the create a pool for ppl to go in. But to get those industry here, you need to beg them again, so FT again is inevitable. See, it's not so simple.
Running an economy is not just a few slogans and nice headlines
Btw i read through Tan's proposal so dun say I "only listen to CNA and read ST"
In simplicity, SDP put it very clearly that education revamp is a must and that will cost some $$$. Did they say creativity can be bought?
Fair to them leh, dun't twisted their words.
Daft, Dafter, Dafterest!!!!
I am new here...
Bro, problem is... we have the hardware (which can be easily obtained with $$$), how about the software? (the way we do things?)if we observed carefully....govt had been promoting those u mentioned....
opening MBS is jus the beginning.....i went to walk ard MBS many times....went to marina bay gallery few times too and admire the future of marina bay financial ctr
to be fair, both pap and opp using extremmes to exaggerate la....politics mah
jus now u mentioned i do selective info processing.....
i tink we both seriously need to open our mind and eyes to see for ourselves....
dun let emotions rule our mind
Daft, Dafter, Dafterest!!!!
I am new here...
BTW, nice TCSS with you all.
go.....................
Think carefully and vote wisely.
玉不琢，不成器。。。
Let us help PAP's elites grow up a little more...
Daft, Dafter, Dafterest!!!!
Exalted
tats the problem....
a NS boy having a maid around to carry his bag
everything handled by maid....
kids r closer to maid nowadays.....
do we really need a 1st world standard of living?
Senior
Change to IB system.... it's more effective...
Senior
It's polling day....
Junior
http://www.facebook.com/notes/neo-sw...50180473764206
good speech
Friends, fellow Singaporeans
My name is Paul Ananth Tambyah. I am a doctor working at a major local university hospital. I am not a member of the SDP partly because I work in a corporatized civil service organisation and as you know, civil servants cannot enter politics unless they are unemployed.
I am grateful to the SDP for giving me this opportunity to be a guest speaker at this famous historical platform. I am speaking entirely in my personal capacity. I am not a politician. I am still doing my national service and in fact have two SAF 100s sitting in my inbox despite the fact that my job involves saving lives.
As a medical doctor, I come into contact with patients on a regular basis. I hear them tell me that in Singapore, you can afford to die but you cannot afford to get sick. I see people who have to sell their homes and move into rental flats to pay for their medical bills. Do you think this is right?
They are Singaporeans just like the Health Minister and his millionaire colleagues. If they need a bypass, they have to pay much more than $8/- in cash. At the very minimum, they have to pay cash for the Specialist Outpatient Clinic charges before admission.
I have written letters, articles, posted on Mr Khaw’s facebook page, met him in Feedback sessions. He gives me polite answers but nothing changes. That is why I am here today - To ask you to help me to send him a message. I just wanted to send him a simple message to have a heart for Singaporeans who are sick. Now I realise that the message that you are sending is a little stronger – you want to send him somewhere.
Mr Khaw is a good administrator. He was the CEO of NUH when I was a medical student and ran the hospital with a much smaller staff than any of the current restructured hospitals. But he seems to have run out of ideas for Singapore’s healthcare.
It is good that he is finally listening to the voice of the people but perhaps it is a little too late. He might need to seek alternative employment and would make a very good administrator of a nursing home in Johor Bahru.
The problems with our healthcare system are known to you all – mostly they are about money.
The major source of healthcare financing is Medisave – the first of the three Ms. Most patients in hospital are elderly. They have little in their Medisave accounts and depend on their children.
Fortunately for that generation, they had many children and their children’s Medisave can cover most of their hospital bills. My generation however, is the “stop at two” generation.
We have even fewer children ourselves. When we get sick, who is going to be able to pay our bills if we depend primarily on Medisave as our own Medisave is depleted for the previous generation.
Medishield is a compulsory health insurance program that we all have to pay into from the time we are born. Problem is that it excludes congenital illnesses and mental illnesses which affect 5% of the Singapore population. It is the only national compulsory health insurance in the world that practices such cherry picking.
Medifund the endowment fund is limited to those who have already sold their homes and exhausted their children’s Medisave. Every year it is not fully utilised as it is so restrictive.
These problems however, are more than just theoretical ones. They affect the lives of ordinary Singaporeans. A Patient of mine has an infection that has caused him a stroke.
He needs medication that costs more than $250 a day. There is no subsidy for this medication . It is recommended in all the guidelines including local guidelines. If he does not take this medication, he will most likely have another stroke and could even die.
I tried to help him by appealing to the medical social worker. We received the reply that he was unlikely to get help as he lives in a private condo with one of his sons.
The other five siblings are not well off but this one son living in a condo disqualifies this citizen of Singapore from financial assistance. We even went to the extent of writing a prescription so he could buy his medications in Johor Baru but this did not work.
How many people do you know living in condos with their own families can afford to pay $250 a day or $7500 a month for medications for three to six months on top of the needs of their own families??? There is something seriously wrong with our system.
The SDP has an alternative proposal. It is a well thought out document and can be crystallised into a number of key points.
First, increase the investment in healthcare to first world levels. In fiscal year 2009, the Singapore government spent only 1.4% of GDP on healthcare – the lowest in the developed world.
This is partly because our population is still young but it is also because such a large proportion of healthcare costs are borne by the people – you and I – mainly through our Medisave – our own money. One of the key elements in the SDP plan, their shadow budget and in their economic plan is raising the healthcare budget significantly up to three times.
Second, focus on primary healthcare by bringing care to the people using nurse practitioners and allied health professionals in void deck health centers. These do not need to be run by doctors – nurses and physiotherapists and occupational therapists can manage chronic illnesses much more responsively and cost-effectively.
Third, reduce the crunch on healthcare workers in public hospitals by allowing GPs and specialists to work in the public hospitals. Singapore does not really have a shortage of doctors (unless our population really gets to 6.5 million) – it is more a problem of maldistribution.
Public hospital doctors and nurses are overworked and overstressed. Doctors and nurses are leaving the public hospitals en masse because of work conditions.
Once they leave, however, many GPs end up with problems paying the exorbitant rentals demanded by the HDB and other landlords. They thus have to raise charges or are forced to do cosmetic procedures.
These hard working skilled Singaporean GPs could be better deployed in our public hospitals instead of depending on overseas foreign medical staff who may not speak the local languages.
Healthcare is not the only area where a message needs to be sent from the people of Singapore.
My 73 year old mother has dedicated her entire adult life to the support of disabled children because she believes that every child should be allowed to develop to their fullest potential regardless of disability.
She started Singaproe’s first school for multiple disabled children and the first program to comprehensively integrate children with disabilities into mainstream schools. She was Singapore’s woman of the year in 1994. How much did she get paid for all this?
Nothing! We were fortunate that my Dad worked hard and had a good job but she worked tirelessly, often late into the night because of passion and love, not for money or power. Right now, her major campaign is for disabled children to be included for compulsory education in SG.
This is what the parents want, it is only fair. In fact, it will save the government money in the long term if all disabled children are educated and are less of a burden on society when they grow older. But this is something that the current government does not seem to understand.
As we have seen with Jee Say’s economic masterpiece, a government that is obsessed with annual KPIs and short term gains,cannot see far enough into the future. They cannot see how an investment in people can bring Singapore up to the next stage of development in the long run.
Vote wisely this election for yourself, your children, your grandchildren, your neighbours, young , old, Sick, well, we are all Singaporeans. Do not be afraid that someone will track your vote. It is impossible.
They cannot even catch a limping man in a baju kurung swimming across the sea with a rubber ducky how are they going to track down the more than one million Singaporeans who will vote for alternative parties on Saturday! Like Mr Tan Jee Say, I voted for the opposition the last time I voted. In 1991, I voted for the Singapore Democratic Party.
Nobody knew how I voted. I have received several promotions in both work and even in my reservist unit. Last night, I spoke at the Rally in Sembawang. No one in authority called me up to tell me that my career was over.
My Dean and Vice Chancellor are good and reasonable people and they value a diversity of views as they know that this is good for Singapore. Finance Minister Tharman has said on TV that it would be good for Singapore to have a strong opposition.
My time is running out. These are excellent people here in the SDP lineup. Like many in the PAP, they want the best for Singapore. Unlike the PAP, they do not demand huge financial rewards for serving the country.
They also have a very different vision of how to achieve the best for Singapore. It is not a top down, “we know better” approach but it is all about you. Two weeks of campaigning have made the government finally listen to the people – make unprecedented apologies, take notice of the issues. Think what five years could do.
Dr Vivian Balakrishnan is an excellent eye surgeon. Singapore needs good eye surgeons. You can help return him to clinical practice.
I wish I could vote in Yuhua, Bt Panjang, Holland Bukit Timah or Sembawang but I live in Tanjong Pagar. I was denied the right to vote by 35 seconds., That is the Singapore of today. IT does not have to be the Singapore of tomorrow.
The future is in your hands vote wisely. Thank you.
Junior
http://mrwangsaysso.blogspot.com/201....html?spref=fb
A Singaporean's Message for Polling Day
Today is Polling Day and I wasn't going to post anything new. However someone forwarded me an article by one Ong Yi Xin, and it was also indicated that Yi Xin would like his message to be shared with as many Singaporeans as possible.
Yi Xin's article was well-written and extremely well-researched, and actually came with 15 footnotes and two annexes worth of supporting data ( one annex coming in the form of an Excel spreadsheet with lots of facts and figures).
I'm just giving you the main article itself. It's too good to miss:
Friends and fellow Singaporeans,
I am writing this letter as a concerned citizen, unaffiliated to any political party, to persuade you to vote wisely on May 7. I was and remain motivated by the increasingly large gap between the rhetoric we hear and the reality which all of us feel as ordinary citizens.
PM Lee has said that these elections are about our future, and that we should judge the PAP MPs on their track record. Plenty of ink has been spilled on various issues, but I want to touch on just three subjects: housing, socio-economic inequality and the electoral system.
Housing
We have been reminded time and again that HDB flats are affordable, a claim which we can examine most simply by comparing income to price . From 2000-2010, median monthly household income of residents rose from SGD3,638 to SGD5,000 (a 37% increase), while the resale price index for HDB flats rose from 108.3 to 164.0 (a 52% increase).
Examining the data more carefully, we find that from 2005-2010, median incomes increased by 30%, but the resale price index leapt by 62%, i.e. HDB prices rose twice as quickly as median incomes in the last 5 years. Claims of affordability and progress don’t hold up when our parents took less time, with less income, to buy an HDB flat.
I would be less concerned if rising prices were not buttressed by the economically illiterate policy of “asset enhancement”. When the ministers speak of “asset enhancement”, they conveniently neglect the fact that leased assets (such as HDB flats) are by definition depreciating assets .
Now repeat to yourselves the phrase “depreciating asset enhancement” – does that sound like a sustainable policy?
Many have said that there is an implicit promise to renew the leases (e.g. via SERS , where the new flats come with new 99-year leases), but that comes with a cost: either the Singapore Land Authority forgoes income (in their words, raiding the reserves), or HDB pays to extend the lease (in my understanding, robbing taxpayers) . This is textbook fiscal irresponsibility.
Inequality
Socio-economic equality is important – the PAP has highlighted that with its last three election manifestos: “A people united – secure future, better life” (2001), “Staying together, moving ahead” (2006), and “Securing our future together” (2011).
The statistics make for grimmer reading than taglines: the Gini coefficient , a measure of inequality, rose from .430 in 2000 to .452 in 2010 . The top 10% of households now earn close to 17 times what the bottom 10% do .
More tellingly, the average real income of the bottom 10% of employed households dropped by 6.6% from 2000 to 2010, which indicates that we are leaving our weakest and poorest ever further behind.
This trend is unlikely to change, because our policy-makers are not incentivised to do so, no matter what the manifestos proclaim. Their base pay is determined formulaically by referencing it to a benchmark of the top earners across six professions .
Their bonuses are pegged to absolute GDP growth and boosted by a discretionary component, presumably based on a subjective performance evaluation by the Prime Minister.
Simply put, our Cabinet is paid more when the best-paid earn even more, when absolute (not per capita) GDP grows, and when they are judged favourably by their own peers. That does not strike me as a pay package which attracts those who truly wish to serve, nor motivates them (once elected) to listen to and speak up for the faintest voices in society.
Electoral system
In 2006, just over 1.1 million citizens cast valid votes for 47 contested seats . A PAP candidate was elected for every 16,625 PAP voters; the 375,143 votes cast for opposition candidates saw only two representatives returned to Parliament .
While the British first-past-the-post (FPTP) system does lead to such outcomes , our unique, winner-takes-all GRC system has skewed it even further. This year, it is conceivable that as many as 85,000 voters will vote for the opposition in a single GRC, only to see 6 PAP MPs elected to Parliament .
The GRC system does not just mute a larger number of voices, but it also forces difficult choices on voters, who need to assess the entire slate of candidates. The contest in Aljunied GRC has thrown this into stark relief: is a single excellent candidate enough reason to vote in four others of hugely varying quality? What if one of the other candidates is rotten to the core? What if the excellent candidate passes away or steps down before the next General Elections ?
‘Cooling-off day’ is supposed to be a time to reflect, to help us make rational choices at the ballot box.
The PAP’s track record and self-engineered compensation scheme leaves me with little doubt about the direction it will take our country towards should it even receive a shadow of a mandate. The electoral system tilts the results in their favour before a single vote has been cast.
I ask you, friends and fellow citizens, to vote wisely this Saturday: not for the PAP, but for Singapore and Singaporeans.
A friend and fellow Singaporean,
Ong Yi Xin
Senior
Its 0730am and there are already people queueing at the polling station waiting to enter.... they so excited...
Newbie
i believe at 8pm also will have queues for last min rush ?Its 0730am and there are already people queueing at the polling station waiting to enter.... they so excited...
I sell Cheese Pie
Please vote for the Geylang Chickens!
We will service you to the best of our abilties!
Junior
how come you can still post? thought you are supposed to be on vacation already?
don't tell me you cancel your vacation and decide to vote?
Senior
Let us vote for all the chickens from china and thailand to go back to their countries, we don't need such foreign talentsPlease vote for the Geylang Chickens!
We will service you to the best of our abilties!
Junior
Hotels got internet these days.
I sell Cheese Pie
Please vote for the Geylang Chickens!
We will service you to the best of our abilties!
Senior
They are foreign talents????Indeed!!!
I sell Cheese Pie
Please cum!They are foreign talents????
Senior
Voted for Singapore Devil Party... Where is he now???
Senior
Good thing the message is coming from a doctor. Or medical situation is just going to get worse if we continue supportng papPlease vote for the Geylang Chickens!
We will service you to the best of our abilties!
I sell Cheese Pie
You can also cumGood thing the message is coming from a doctor. Or medical situation is just going to get worse if we continue supportng pap
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