3/04/2013
Tolong, tolong, give back our dreams
4 senior citizens posted an open letter in TRE pleading to the PM to give back the Singaporean Dream of 5Cs, car, condo, credit card, country clubs and cash to their children. It was only a few years back that Singaporeans were all in their highs, dreaming of the 5Cs, to do good in life. Everyone was full of confidence to achieve his dream of a comfortable and better life. The appearance of this letter is kind of a sudden and exudes a sense of despair that things are not getting better.
Is this a true version of the state of affair in the island or just the imagination of some desperadoes? Housing prices are still shooting to the sky, COEs hitting $100k for a car, everyone is still going on holiday. Life must be good and many citizens must be living a life of plenty. A HDB resale EC costing more than a million while a new HDB penthouse is more than $2m. And they are all being taken immediately. They must be very affordable.
Why is there such a despair call? Boon Wan is promising that 2030 will see the life of Singaporeans getting even better with better quality living. Who is out of touch, who is misleading?
Let’s look at the 5Cs. Car is going to be a very rare and expensive item that many Singaporeans will not be able to afford. Their lives will be centred around taking public transport or if they can afford it, taking taxis. One C down. Condo living, this seems to be very affordable as all the launches was a sellout at whatever price. So this C is still standing. Credit cards are being issued to the Singaporeans like toilet papers and everyone is holding a handful in his wallets. So this C is doing very well, not considering the credit is stretched to the limits.
Country clubs are getting cheaper and cheaper from the heady prices they used to fetch. Are Singaporeans forming a queue to snatch up these goodies? Apparently not. So this C is losing its lustre.
What about cash? It is a well know fact that Singaporeans are asset rich but cash strapped. All the cash are wiped out quite quickly now with the new rulings on car purchases and the high property prices. Many are switching to credit cards from cash. Hopefully this interchange is sustainable to provide the people with a good quality life.
What is left of the 5Cs is probably 2, condo and credit cards. Car is out, country club not so attractive, cash a bit of a problem to many except the very rich.
What then is the new Singaporean Dream? Good public transport system, 4 rm HDB flat, more credit cards, and the chance to emigrate? And not to forget, to make new friends with the new citizens and PRs and foreigners, to learn new way of life and new languages? Another controversial dream, retiring early as jobs are getting rare for Singaporeans above 50.
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29 comments:
RB ya right!
Half step oredi in kuacha still want 5Cs.
Daft should be more materialistic and ask for only 1 C like me.
The 1 C that I am only interested is CharBor.
C for Charbor.
I only want 1 C.
My 1 C is kopi. Today very quiet.
You wait for the next down economic cycle and remember to buy. Buy when others fear.
Don't buy now.
And don't suka suka blame other people for your own misdeeds, own fears, own short comings. Your future is in YOUR own hands. Nobody owes you the 5Cs. Other people in other countries don't even have food to eat. Be grateful that you are born here and not there.
Can't even make ends meet and yet talking about buying when the next down cycle comes. Only those with multiple houses and fat salaries can do that.
As it is, serving the loan for one HDB flat for living in is already a strain on some people's feeble back. You are lucky if you can pay back the loan without working till past your retirement age and your backbone cracks.
Be grateful for what? For the expensive houses, cars and hospital stay? Why not compare other people in those other countries who can live in landed properties costing less than a 3-room HDB flat and cars cheaper than a motorbike. And for that they do not have to squeeze like sardines in buses and trains to get to work.
Unemployment at below 3%, using established standards. I don't know exactly how much. Don't know what else you want.
Brand new HDB can be had from $200k to $250k after subsidy. Who ask you go buy resale HDB penthouses and ECs if you can't afford it ?? If you want to live a life of luxury beyond one's means, and in the end find that you can't afford it, who's to blame ?
1.25pm, 1.53 pm is right, why compare with countries worst then us. After all we pay the highest salary in the world so we should get the best in the world. If we pay them peanuts, then we can not complain but we pay out of this world salary leh.
You lucky not brave brave publish your name and say got balls. Lucky u did not and I assume that your two tiny are still with you. If not sure kena crush by net citizen hor.
It was a vastly different experience for me. Born in a sprawling village, very few had the privilege of owning a car, few did have pick-up for small businesses. Even grocery and sundry shops used bicycles for deliveries and hawkers used tricycles. Everyone walked or rode bicycles for miles, in today's term many many kilometres to go to school, market, see doctor etc. No complaint about not owning any vehicle.
Most houses in the village were built from firewoods and roofs made of palm leaves, few were cemented. No water and or electric supplies. Size of the houses can be expanded when the need arose. Again no complaint.
Then came a time when the peoe were exhorted to aspire for better livings and the 5 Cs were touted as the targets to strive for. Well, many bought into it and by the late eighties, sinkies were not happy with 5 Cs anymore. They want protection and guarantee for their live and assets. They wanted multiple insurances with the highest values for their live and safety, medical, child education and assets etc. They covet for more investments in property, stocks, gold and nonsense such as art, watches, designer goods, health supplements, electronics and what not.
Now, they are not happy with just the above they now want first class first world livings. Fly first class and travel more with branded accessories, every room they live in must be airconditioned, they want the most expensive education. The cars got to be huge and branded, so are their clothings, hairdos, footwears and jewelleries.
Many had no qualm paying many hundreds or thousand to sleep with underage whores and many a socialites will have no qualm to pay and present their idols with expensive stuff and ot even long to spend private time with them and paying for everything.
Maybe some Sinkies have yet to understand themselves to feel deprived of the good life while others simply feel that they deserve better and therefore remain unfulfilled.
Well, work hard, your leaders arrosy happy to work with You to actualize your dream. MP Goh Chok Tong will encourage You to dream big ad he is very confident he will deliver You the Swiss Standard in living and maybe better.
Dream on Sinkies.
"Why not compare other people in those other countries who can live in landed properties costing less than a 3-room HDB flat and cars cheaper than a motorbike"
Like in Malaysia ?
Malaysia got many jobs ? No. If got job, what is their starting pay ? Much lesser, maybe half. So, everything cheap cheap.
Then you want to compare with who ? Australia ? Or USA ?
'My mother went back behind my back to pray at Kwan Im Thong Temple, praying to whatever Gods... I was livid as she had osteoarthritis and to travel all the way to Bugis to pray, it made my heart break.
Every evening after preparing dinner, I would sit and try to submit at least 10 job applications to get a job.
This kind of life felt rather undignified for a man. At one point, my father gave my mother a sum of money, intended as a way to pay off the CPF which was sending me the final last warning letter.
When I found out about this exchange, I stayed up several nights and finally decided: This dream of mine is not meant to be. I must face reality....I remember that I went to International Plaza to see a doctor to get some medication to relieve the stress that I had endured. I teared in the doctor’s office. After getting out, when the admin executive saw that I had a referral letter to see a psychiatrist, she said, “Take Care”. She was a Pinoy. How ironic. If only her job was mine but I understood that Parkway Shenton only hires Pinoys.
I can never forget that day that the humiliation I felt will paid back to the “powers that be” come GE 2016.'
The above are extracts from a Singaporean trying very hard to get a decent job in home country. His post, My struggle as a degree holder, is posted in TRE.
While hundreds of thousands of foreigners are employed here, our own graduates are finding it tough to land a decent job not for lack of trying.
KNN.
Advertise for local receptionists, not many locals will apply, not to mention U grads. If they accept, they want higher salary, and maybe work for a few months and resign.
Hospitals, nursing, restaurants, F & B, all having problems attracting locals. SO bo bian, all close down lor and let you see. You all KPKB, ok lor, all close down and let you all die. Locals will die from the collateral damage when these companies go overseas.
Hehe..
All signs show the end to be very near
and close by.
May the maker of Sin live to see it.
Local graduates are getting a raw deal. The cost of their education is so high. And on graduation, the living cost plus servicing their study loan mean that they need to get a better paying job.
This is like the GP and his high rentals and other costs, so must charge higher, not forgetting he would need to buy his landed properties and his Ferraris.
So the mistake is that Singapore have chiong too fast lor. We must wait for redbean to get his Ferrari and district 10 bungalow then he will stop complaining. So redbean must vote for crash, buy all he wants,jeep get in, then vote for prosperity again.
anon 2.48pm
A few more vote for WP then we can change garment then the end is there. Go for it, we can do it!
The fresh graduate pay here relative to the high cost of living is a joke, a very cruel joke
Depending on WP to end PAP?
Those who think so got to know WP better. It plans to be co-driver til retirement. But, if the driver suffers from heart attack, WP is not prepared to take over. Plse check how many ward they contested in the last general election. Even if it had won all, it will not be able to take over the running of the state.
This world is a better place without LKY and PAP. Any graduate will have a landed house, a car, a job that no need to work like mad just like any malaysians and no need to pay millions of pay to the pm and mps. LKY is a curse for sinkies. He makes us work 12 hours for a temporary flat and lousy public transport and compete with foreigners all over the world. Vote the opposition to make sinky a better place for you and me.
50 years of papcy rule, our dreams all ended up in nightmares. Vote the opposition to stop your nightmares from killing you.
Privatised HDB and we will all be upgraded to private apartment owners.
Whether WP to end PAP rule or any other party is ok by me. Enough is enough.
Rather that we have lower growth with fewer foreigners and more breathing space. And more importantly, more jobs for Singaporeans rather than foreigners creating jobs for other foreigners on the pretext of helping Singaporeans and pushing up property prices, hospitalisation, and cost of living.
A crash is on the way. We are among the most highly paid economy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GNI_(nominal,_Atlas_method)_per_capita
Despite what govt say they going to do.
The possibility of long salary stagnant is very high.
Forget about 5Cs. If there are many people of the same skill, the situation is dire.
BBC
[East Asia universities 'gain ground in world rankings']
"Oxford and Cambridge remain in 'an elite top six of Anglo-American super-brands', according to Times Higher Education magazine's 2013 rankings.
Cambridge came 3rd and Oxford 4th in the rankings, behind Harvard in 1st place and Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2nd.
The University of Tokyo is now in 9th place,
Japan has five institutions in the top 100,
Singapore and Hong Kong three each,
China and Korea two each
and Taiwan one.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-21631406
STFORUM Online
- Patricia Prathibha (Mrs)
"I WAS concerned after reading the article ('White Paper protest draws big crowd'; Feb 17).
With the defeat of the PAP in 2 by-elections, people are beginning to think they are gaining 'power'.
Though no violence was involved, chanting anti-govt slogans can evoke negative emotions.
Yes, it was a 'brave' attempt to make our grievances heard,
but we should stay clear of such protests as they do not solve any problems.
Perhaps the Govt could set up a tent at Speakers' Corner
to gather views from the public in an informal setting."
http://www.straitstimes.com/premium/forum-letters/story/use-social-media-air-views-govt-20130305
TODAYonline
by Teo Xuanwei
"An economics don’s view that population growth fuelled partly by an inflow of foreigners —
even if these are low-skilled workers — benefits S'poreans
drew swift rebuttals yesterday at a panel discussion on the Population White Paper organised by the Economic Society of Singapore (ESS).
Yesterday, Prof Ng listed more examples of how S'poreans will be better off.."
http://www.todayonline.com/singapore/don-reinforces-view-benefits-bigger-population
Patricia, don't be a joker lar. Govt already have many feedback channels so putting a tent there is not going to change anything. But your joke is quire funny
BBC
[Trailing Singapore's 'football match-fixing boss'
- By Jonah Fisher, BBC News, Singapore]
"Somewhere in one of the world's least corrupt countries is a man accused of fixing hundreds of football matches around the world.
The authorities know where he is
and have even invited him in for a chat.
But much to the frustration of European investigators,
Dan Tan Seet Eng remains a free man and the Singaporean police seemingly powerless to act.
So why then is Dan Tan still free?
The Singaporean authorities were more accessible but just as unco-operative.
Neither the Ministry of Home Affairs,
the Singaporean police or the country's anti-corruption agency
would speak to me about match-fixing.
So I turned to one of Singapore's leading criminal lawyers, Subhas Anandan, for legal advice."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-21653846
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