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9/01/2010
Clumsy solutions to clear up a mess
The NSmen Award may not be well thought out as it totally disregard the hundreds of thousands of reservists that have completed their NS liabilities. Brushing them aside with a stroke of the pen is the most insensitive thing to do. I would thought it would be more amiable to reduce the budget for those currently serving and apportion a little to those who have done their duties diligently without complaining. A token sum of a couple of thousand dollars could have soothe the nerves and avoid a backlash from those who were summarily dismissed from the award.
That is only one part of the problem. Compare to the measures to curb property speculation and runaway prices, the NSmen Award is nothing. A whole list of complaints and grievances are going to be poured out by those affected. Just wait and see. A trickle has started in the ST forum.
The broad strokes are going to anger many who are caught by the sudden measures which were anything but brunt instruments. After having created such a big mess for so long, and affecting so many innocent home owners and potential home owners, Rip Van Winkle suddenly realized that he had overslept and jumped up to catch a train, knocking everyone and everything in his path.
When the problem is so huge and turns into a Gordian Knot, being denied, a hurriedly push out remedy is likely to create more unhappiness. That’s what I think it will generate.
There goes my PH.D. education but never mind.
ReplyDeleteThanks for disallowing me to waste my time studying. Better to sing it away at karaoke.
Nipping the problem in the bud is easier said than done. Too heavy a hand for too short a period and the laissez-faire will cry foul. Too sharp the excision knife and those speculative morons who paid top dollars for some fancy named condos will contemplate suicide. Hard to please everyone. The greedy always deserve to die first.
Live a simple life like me. You don't worry about what type of solutions they come up with because it wasn't a problem in the first place.
Haha Wally, your Blue Mountain lifestyle simple: )
ReplyDeleteEverytime I want my kopi O I look around for 70c type. Compare prices some more. 80c, 90c don't buy.
Please lah Mr. Bean.
ReplyDeleteAs an investment professional the millions you made cannot bring to heaven lah.
We come in baby suit, go also in baby suit.
Don't go sleepless over 10 cents lah.
Hehe.
i'm going to give my NS "medal" to my Bangala FT...damn pissed off.
ReplyDeleteThat's why I can still empathise with people complaining about 10c fare hike : )
ReplyDeleteThe millionaires will not be bother with the $9k for NSmen. What is $9K? Oops, I mean multi millionaires. Too many HDB millionaires still very unhappy for not getting the $9K.
Yes, you are right. It is a real stupid move by the government. They should give everybody something (or nothing) instead of benefiting young male voters only, i think we all know what they are up to. Many of my ex-reservist friends are furious....
ReplyDeleteWally;
ReplyDeletedon't be selfish leh, You going for PhD meaning U got your Masters alredi, enough lah.
Your young brother here no 'O' no 'A' and was about to take Minister Lim Sweet Say's exhortation to upgrade with the $9K, now it got burnt. Me also staying in HDB not bungalow, You know.
And what the fuck, got less than $100 a month for two years all wasted.
Changing my nick to
Sicken patriot
Hi Patriot,
ReplyDeleteYup, got college mill masters. Paid $3600 for it by 12 monthly instalments through interest free credit card debit. No need to study one. You too can apply without any "O" "A" or ITE (It's The End) credentials.
Don't say two years wasted leh. With us around doing our stint, our families felt safer then ok? As a lance corporal patrolling the coastal areas, I ensured that no illegal immigrants would come in by the back door. But now, no need to come in like this anymore. They land in China or Indian planes at Changi. Ya ya only with old sometimes crippled dependents in tow as well. No wonder our hospitals are so packed. Now they are called foreign talents and please welcome them to ensure that you get a job.
Hehe.
Hey Wally;
ReplyDeleteme works with 90% foreigners and I have learnt to like them very much. They are always so courteous respectful and friendly. Many offered to run errands for me most of the time.
However, now me getting sick with bumiputra leaders alredi, they don't seem to know wat they did and are doing. Time for some foreigners to manage us.
Sicken patriot
Ya hor. We need a modified bumiputra policy to protect the original Singaporeans.
ReplyDeleteHehe,
ReplyDeleteMany offered to run errands for you huh? Comrade, I just gazed into my crystal ball and saw our grandchildren running errands for them twenty years from now.
Now, this "bumiputra" idea is really cool. Let's have a "singaputra" policy and ensure that all sons of the soil, meaning we, the original Sinkapooreans are adequately protected since we are perceived as having so many undesirable attributes as compared to the hard working, hard driving foreign trash. It is only right that the weak should be protected and nurtured.
I think I will go see my MP about this.
I second that proposition. The cut off date to qualify for Singaputra shall be 29 Aug 2010.
ReplyDeleteOh, sinkiputra, how's that?
Nope.
ReplyDeleteThe cut off date should be when we were booted out of Bumiputra country.
Now let's see.......It's August 9th, l965.
It's only fair that from that day on, all who stayed, created and sustained a new nation should be rightfully called Sinkaputras.
I remembered that day well. I was just 21 years of age.
I was cheering like mad. Thanks for letting us go. Thanks for giving us the opportunity for proving that we were better than them. Then, we were faster, harder driving and didn't whine so much. Pulled up our sleeves and worked like a dog. What you youngsters see today, including the stupid looking surf board on top of the three hideous towers were the result of oldies like us.
Ahem, sorry I got a little carried away.
All it takes to be "happy" is to embrace the fact that "foreigners" are people too and have a "right" to be anywhere they choose on this planet provided they contribute to the communities/ societies they emigrate to.
ReplyDeleteAnd these foreigners do: they work hard, are productive and do a lot of shit which "elitist" S'poreans shun or ask far too much money for.
Many S'poreans "over value" themselves -- which is not surprising, it is human tendency to think that your skills/ abilities are "worth more" in your eyes than they really are in a MARKET. (i.e. competeing with others)
I'm glad to learn that those open border policies are working. I don't normally "support" any govt policy, but I cautiously give the PAP's policy of free and open, but well-defended borders is one of the coolest ideas anywhere in the world.
Well done PAP. Take this compliment as valuable, tomorrow I may start fucking you again.
A bit of explaining here Matilah.
ReplyDeleteSingaporeans are not against the deluge of foreign trash per se.
What we are unhappy about is that this is just a tiny speck of an island and all resources are finite and worst, very limited. Throwing the door open recklessly brings with it not only employment problems but societal ills as well. Already crime statistics point to a heavy preponderance of crimes committed by alien PRs and "newly minted citizens".
If Singapore was the size of Australia, nay, the size of Western Australia where you can drive for miles without meeting someone, I would hold a one man welcoming party at the airport to thank every immigrant that comes into this country.
We and our descendants are prepared to compete but only if it is a level playing field.
This is my country. If I ever have the chance to determine what it should be, I will never allow any jokers to fill this place with so many people that we have to gasp for air.
ReplyDeleteThose idiots better stop comparing with Tokyo where pushers are employed to push commuters into the trains. This is disgraceful, undignified and totalling humiliating existence.
And it is nightmarish for people to live in little dog's kennels or coffin size boxes like in Tokyo and Hongkong. The silly people paying good money to live in micky mouse boxes are suckers of mind programming.
Throw out the govt that think living in little boxes, or making smaller boxes and charging ever higher prices is quality living.
We are up to our limits. We want more breathing spaces, recreational spaces. We do not want to breathe down every one's neck at every corner.
Stop the influx of more people into the island. Gracious living is not only for the rich. The hardlanders also want to live graciously and at a more leisure pace of life.
The people are angry not because they are xenophobic or racist. We just want some room for ourselves. Go somewhere where there is plenty of land, like Australia or America.
Come to think of it, me don't see any mess at all.
ReplyDeleteThe Issuer of the Grant is simply clumsy, this is very true. All are NS Men, right from the First Intake till the Day NS is abolished, why does he has to have a cut-off date for something he should equitably distribute to all deserving Singaporeans ? Big bird brain ! NS includes the Armed Forces, the Special Constabulary and the Vigilante Corp, different vocations and appointments(Ranks) but one common denominator and that is NS. All conscripted to serve the country, why categorized them to junior, senior, army and non army to give different sums ? Some are Singaporeans, some are lesser Singaporeans and there are some Pariah Singaporeans ??? What the Hell is this all about ?
Me feels very bitter, i tell why; me said many times, I NEVER LIKE NS, however, me squeezed my balls and completed it without giving my commanders any problem. I was am a kwai kwai and Law abiding citizen up to this very moment. So imagine those like me and myself denied a national implementation.
Foreigners can be brought in to fill the posts they are suitable and me sees no reason why we cannot have some of them brought in to be professional state administrators, probably there are tons of them more competent, cheaper and better than the Lots in the Cabinet now, no ?
Sicken patriot
Bitter is putting it lightly. Those that served in the early days were paid so little compared to present day NS personnel, and yet are treated like this. This is adding insult to injury.
ReplyDeleteThey talk about paying the $9K for sacrifice. Every NS men sacrifice two good years of their life and another decade or more being screwed up by in-camp training disruptions. It that also not a sacrifice?
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ReplyDeleteWally:
ReplyDelete> What we are unhappy about is that this is just a tiny speck of an island and all resources are finite and worst, very limited. <
I can understand that. What's the attainable solution. i.e. not "should-be's" or "ought-to-be's" what can the average Jo and Jane DO? Point: No action, no change.
redbean (making no sense, quite common trait):
> This is my country. <
Well then, look after it as if it was really "yours'. Is it? I don't think so :-)
> If I ever have the chance to determine what it should be, I will never allow any jokers to fill this place with so many people that we have to gasp for air. <
If you can't "determine what it should be" (here we go with the "should-be's") then how can you claim it as "your country"?
> Throw out the govt that think living in little boxes, or making smaller boxes and charging ever higher prices is quality living. <
Easy to say, almost impossible to do. The same govt is the govt that is providing the HDB, CPF and all the other "entitlements" to the sheeple.
Australia: Many Aussies too don't embrace "open borders". Australia's problem is ILLEGAL migration. The French, English, most of Europe...the USA, in fact most of the world which still tribal in nature and most "locals: DO NOT LIKE "foreigners" coming to "their" countries.
It seems that most people don't like "others" coming to their neck in the woods - LEGALLY - for whatever reason. All sorts of reasons are cited: jobs going to foreigners, culture clash, religion, genetics, disease (new microbes) lack of space, finite resources... you name it people will claim it.
Wally claims "finite resources and lack of space. Redbean claims rising home prices as "foreigners" out-bid the locals.
Yet others claim jobs -- foreigners taking jobs (yawn... same shit argument made in just about every other country), or foreigners behaving badly (some people behave badly, but it is not because they are "foreigners"), then there are claims that "foreigners are disrespectful"...man what do people want? Perfect humans? Good luck!
However I do support individual enterprise -- even if I don't agree with the reasons/ ideas.
If you say Singaporeans are fed up, then it is _UP_TO_SINGAPOREANS_THEMSELVES_ to determine the fate of their nation, and their own destiny as a people.
Complaining never changed the world. In nature, there is only ACTION. Whether you re taking about the bare building blocks of matter, biology, chemistry, human culture...whatever physically manifested phenomena.
Nothing changes until some action/ reaction (in physical terms) occurs.
And all human action (without exception) begins individually... not "waiting for the govt to do something". When the govt "does something" it is usually a mess. Then they do something else to clean up the mess exacerbating the problem and adding more problems.
"Clumsy solutions to clean up the mess" duh... what did you expect?
I'm really glad the brainless politicians set 29 Aug 2010 as the cut off date for people to qualify for the NSman bribe. Even more people will be pissed off and that might even sway a few more people to finally ditch the whiter-than-whites hypocrites. And the young, I suspect, will pocket the money, say thank you and still not vote for those hypocrites. Pappies slapped on both cheeks!
ReplyDeleteHi Happy, long time no see.
ReplyDeleteI can't help but to think that these betterer solutions were rushed out with very little thinking.
And yes Wally. 9 Aug 65 good cut off date for Sinkaputra: )