4/01/2007
It is cultural differences!
It is cultural differences!
Why Singaporean employers feed their maids with a bowl of plain porridge or a piece of bread a day? Don't blame them. It is cultural differences. The Singaporeans believe that Indonesians needed only that to live.
Another reason, which is more compelling, is that the Singaporean employers do not understand what the maid needs or what is a proper meal for a maid. Poor thing, all these first world people!
These are the reasons given by maid agencies to justify why maids were fed with a piece of bread or a bowl of porridge a day and expected to work for 24 hours.
I strongly recommend that we should introduce public lynching in Singapore. At least it will teach the world class Singaporeans a little about human decency or what a human being needs to eat to be kept alive.
3/31/2007
Myth 127
Myth 127
Sacrifice family for the Nation
Our politicians are the most self sacrificing people in the country and deserve to be paid well. They wear so many hats, spent 18 hours working and 6 hours sleeping and dreaming about how to run the country, and totally have no time for the family.
Where on earth can you find such honourable people who are willing to give up so much to serve the people? And when it is time to retire, and continue to receive a well rewarding 2/3 of their last drawn salary, to spend time with the family that they have neglected, they choose to stay on to work for the people and nation.
They will work till they die on the job. The success of Singapore is a result of their sacrifice and commitment to the nation.
The choice of where to peg
The choice of where to peg
Would it be nice if the top govt official's salary is pegged to a middle civil servant's salary? I can immediately see the advantage of such a pegging. It is likely to benefit the salary of all civil servants, at all levels.
As with the present formula, pegging to the top earners, almost to the top, would only mean that the income gap will get wider and it becomes a case of 'cannot be helped' even if everyone knows that it is undesirable.
But if we pegged it at the middle civil servant level then the income gap may not widen that fast. But it still could, and the final amount could still be very large, depending on how many times is seen as decent and acceptable, and that it will not lead to them running to join the private sector or to prevent corruption from taking place.
Then again, the reality is that no amount is enough. Long long ago, $5000 pm for minister is enough. Then $50,000 is considered very good. But if time permits, the number can keep going up, $100k pm or maybe eventually $1 million pm. It is all relative and depends on human greed.
No one is humble enough to ask how many bowls of super grade rice he can eat a day, or how many bungalows he can sleep in a night, or how many limousines he can drive at one time, or how many pretty lasses he can sleep with in one night.
Hey, that reminds me of what Einstein said about limits. The difference between a genius and an idiot is that a genius knows his limits.
The Evil corner
The Evil corner
While we crow about how first world we are, how many millionaires and billionaires we have, how many millions should our top officials be rewarded, and all the good lives, let's not ignore the little evil corners that live among us.
As we gain material wealth and comfort, and a better quality of life, as we upgrade ourselves to a position where all the menial tasks are done by maids, we should not forget that maids are human lives, just like everyone of us.
The incidents of maids being ironed or becoming a punching bag have not appeared on our papers for a while. Maybe our evil corners have behaved a little better. Maybe not and the ironing and punching have continued but not reported.
But the ill treatment of the maids is still going on going by the number of distress calls that the help agencies are receiving. The Indonesian Family Network group alone received 45 calls for help. And 25 of the calls were for food deprivation where employers deprived their maids of food or feeding them with leftovers or nothing at all. These inhuman acts within our society is a shame and make us no better than animals. First world?
And for these things to happen regularly, daily, only speak on the mentality of a people, all the way from top down, that they could live with such human cruelties. By not doing anything about them is as good as being an accomplice to the crime against humanities.
The perpetuators of such acts must be dealt with seriously, instantly and shame, yes shame publicly. Let such crimes be wiped out completely from this so called first world island, and completely from their mentality that this can be tolerated.
There are laws provided to deal with the culprits. But for so many incidents to repeat itself daily means that it is not enough. It has to be stopped immediately if we are to be seen as a civilised people. When the evil corners are still thriving and lurking among us, let's stop crowing about how great we are as a people and as a nation.
Ok, after airing a little conscience, let's start to justify about how many millions shall one get.
3/30/2007
why is life expectancy higher for singaporeans?
Very simple. Singaporeans are very rich. All of them will retire will hundreds of thousands in their CPF, and also some properties. So when they reach a point in life when they can no longer see, can't hear, can't walk, can't move, can't think,can't eat, can't desire, can't do anything, they still can't die. Singaporeans can't die!
For they can still afford to be hooked up to a machine and live for as long as there is money to pay the medical bill to keep them alive.
What a beautiful life.
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