more vibrant singapore

More vibrant Singapore to come We are going to get a very vibrant Singapore thru globalisation, more FTs and a 6.5 million population and a caring and super efficient govt. We can see vibrancy in the economy, in the stockmarket, in property prices. We can see vibrancy in sports and international competition. We can see vibrancy in entertainment, more night life, resort style living and casinos. We can see people busy enjoying life, eating, playing and shopping. We can see more exchanges of views, discussions etc like the biomedical debate and Hota. I can expect many of the above to happen. I am wondering whether there will be more exchanges of ideas, alternative views and more discussions in forums, both MSM and cyberspace.

savings from shelved court complex

Shelving plan for an ultra modern Subordinate Court $462 million were returned to the govt when plans to have an ultra modern Judiciary complex at Havelock Road was shelved. How would this impact on the cost of living of the people? Havelock Road is prime land and the cost of such a complex will eventually lead to higher cost to the people. Even parking fees to attend court will be more expensive in the heart of the city. A fabulous looking building is not what the court and judiciary system is all about. It is all about justice as Subhas Anandan put it, 'I don't think lawyers care about the bearing of the buildings. The bearing of justice is what comcerns us.' I have a little suggestion. Convert a block of unsold HDB flats in Jurong West into a new Subordinate Court complex. As long as it is near the MRT, transportation should not be a problem for the ordinary people. And the over cost can be lower. HDB also can get rid of the unsold and unwanted flats.

Myth 117 Is CPF a saving scheme for retirement? After saving for a life time at between 33-50% of a person's income, many Singaporeans ended up with little money left in the CPF for retirement? How can that be? Where have all the money gone to? In the first place housing eg a 4 room HDB flat, will take away between $200k to $300 for a 20 year instalment plan. A person who contributes $1000 to the CPF a month will find the bulk of his savings going to the flat. How could there be excess savings when flats are priced according to affordability, which means how much the buyer has in his CPF saving. Now we have a better scheme called Medisave. But before anyone can save enough, there are all kinds of great schemes to spend this money. There are insurance schemes for self, for spouse and for children. This is another effort by the govt to plan for the people using their CPF money. Very laudable. But how much money will be left for retirement? Retirement is a time to spend money on self to live a more carefree life, not just about paying expensive medical fees to struggle to be alive. People will die and it is a natural way of saying that the body cannot take it anymore. Nothing to cry about when it is time to go. The artificial extension of life is not necessarily a good thing as it is against nature. What would be better is to make CPF and Medisave a voluntary contribution after 55. Medical insurance can be made compulsory up to 60. After that the people must have a life of their own to decide for themselves what is good for them. How can the govt compel the people with so many compulsory schemes even at their twilight years? Let the people be free to be themselves, to do what is right for themselves with their money when they are old and a little wiser. Can the people be allowed to be free during the last lap of the lives? Let's not treat the people as children for the rest of their life, to be managed, controlled and legislated on how to live their life. What govt control? Never heard of it. The govt is all doing for the good of the people, taking care of the people with the people's own money. Even after providing for their medical insurance, they still have to keep a large chunk of their money in Medisave till they die.

snippets on fts

Snippets of comments on FTs in Starblog appearing in ST. 'The main issue...is jobs. If every Singaporean is guaranteed a good job...do you think we care so much about foreign talent or immigration?' - Dawn. '...Yes they are from other countries and they may seem to be "infringing" on our "territory" but how many of us can trace our lineage back through the years to the local, indigenous people? Very few.' -Nick '...I was completely unaware that Singaporeans criticise foreign talent...' -Jaymee 'Hard as it may seem, we should try our best to be colour blind and learn from what expatriates can contribute to our society and nation...' -Maia '...I've always found the criticism of foreigners in Spore rather hypocritical. We are an island that relies on everyone else's trade to make our living...foreigners have been coming to Singapore and making a difference for a long time.' -Joe 'As far as I can tell, xenophobia doesn't exist here, in that Singaproeans don't really have a fear of things foreign,....' -Ju Len Simply put, Singaporeans are not xenophobic. They welcome foreigners. There are some concern when their jobs are affected. Otherwise everything goes. This is good and well without looking at the long term consequences of the existence of Singaporeans who have sacrificed for this island and called it home. When Singaporeans could not see the difference of being a citizen and a non citizen, cannot appreciate that the island belongs to them and they need to safeguard it for themselves and children, they are likely to give it away. And should the day come when the new citizens decided against their interests and sold this island away in whatever manner, it is only the Singaporeans to be blamed. Those who do not treasure their heritage deserve to lose them. I find this very disturbing, that a people is so careless about what is theirs and so unthinking about it. In politics, once lost, it is lost forever. You cannot hope that the victor or people in power will be generous or magnanimous to you. Neither can Singaporeans expect the power to be to run this place in the interest of the people. The future leaders can squander everything away. We have failed miserably in national education. At the rate it is going, Singapore is up for grabs by whichever group that has the patient, determination and purposefulness to take this island for themselves. Singaporeans could lose their homeland by default, for being too generous, and simply naive to the point of idiocy.

Ooooooh, someone changed my pic!

Ha, someone put his pic in my my blog. Luckily it isn't porno!. Hi your little one looks great. But I will have to replace it soon. Cheers