Happy MPs and grassroot leaders

There were repeated clips over the local news on MPs and grassroot leaders giving up food packages to the poor and needy. It was reported that more of these desperate poor are appearing to seek financial assistance as they could not cope with the high cost of living. Many must have reached desperation point that they could no longer hide in their little nooks and corners and are crawling out for help. They need not look far. Help is around the corner. The MPs and grassroot leaders were there to help them with food and financial assistance. And they are doing it with great zeal and enthusiasm. After distributing the packages, they went on a flat to flat hunt for more needies who would not come out to look for help. The MPs and grassroot leaders must be very happy that they were doing a good deed to help the poor. What was obviously overlooked, in my view, is that the act of giving and help the poor, so many of them, is a sign of failure. We have done something wrong that resulted in so many people needing help. We can expect such situations in poorer countries and should not happen in one of the richest country in the world. A few pockets of poverty are inevitable. But the scale of poverty in paradise is unacceptable. Who or what is causing all these poverty and desperation? High cost of living, high cost of basic necessities and transportation, not forgeting high GST. They all eats into the pockets of the poor. Why is there a need to take so much from them, force them into difficulties only to give some back to them? When help is needed openly, by so many, we have failed. The most effective way of helping the people is to create a system that allows them to help themselves and be self sufficient. Helping them without having to be seen to help them through a systemic change in our economic structure is the better way. When the people can help themselves to earn enough to feed themselves, there is no need for all the high profile help to be flashed across the tv screens. We need not have happy helpers helping those who need help. It is not a happy thing.

Fake or forged certificates

More than 400 foreigners were caught last year for using fake or forged certificates to apply for jobs here. This may just be the tip of the iceberg. How many more were not caught and happily working here and being highly paid? The sad thing is that some Singaporeans would have lost their jobs to these fakers and none the wiser. Would there be a systematic review of all foreigners and their qualifications to return some justice to the displaced Singaporeans? It would be good if the MOM set up a committee to look into this and splash it on the newspapers. This will tell those who have yet to be caught to make their exits. And include caning in the punishment. If we can cane people for vandalism, we should cane people who cheated Singaporeans of their livelihood and jobs.

The unhealthy disquiet

Is there a disquiet among Singaporeans? We have 4.6m people here. The Singaporeans do not include the more than 1m foreigners. It does not include the probably another 1m PRs. Don't let anyone change the definition of Singaporeans. The Made In Singapore, the true owners of this land is about 2.5m. And if we remove the top 20% from this group, we will be left with about 2m Singaporeans that really matters. The top 20% don't matter in the sense that they can go anywhere and are welcome anywhere. And many of these 20% may have made alternative arrangements to be somewhere if need be. The unhealthy disquiet is about the disquiet of the balance 2m Singaporeans who are gradually being displaced or eased out of their comfort zones. It is like the parents bringing in a few strangers and telling the children to make room for them, squeeze out a room for the strangers. And also being told to smile and to be nice to the strangers. The children will not accept that and will protest or refuse to budge. Why should they give up their space in their home to strangers? But parents would not do that. They know the difference between home and the right of their own children. They will provide for their own children, even sleeping in the corridors themselves. That is what parents would do. The landlord will do exactly as above. They will make the tenants make way. They will tell the tenants the best rooms will be reserved for the one who can afford to pay. And if the tenants could not pay the higher rent, they will have to squeeze into one room, or move out. Is this disquiet healthy? Some may think that since no one is screaming or protesting, then it is good. But do they read into the disquiet? Why are Singaporeans not protesting? Resigned, gave up, no use fighting, accept their fate, or think of leaving? A nation is a collection of people who owns and belong to a place. The people must think and believe that that place is theirs, their home. And they will not take it lightly when their rights to their home is challenged. But when there is a disquiet, something is missing. The soul of the nation, the spirit of a people is missing. Where is the spirit?. When a people gives up fighting, when a people gives up protesting, they deserve to be replaced. It may be a good thing replacing these hopeless and less talented people. They lack the motivation to fight for themselves and their rights to ownership. They should be replaced by the highly motivated and energised foreigners who brought along a different vibration, a higher vibrancy. They should be the new owners of this paradise. You find them everywhere and they can be easily recognised. The chirpy and happy faces in trains or foodcourts are the distinct faces of the newcomers who have found their paradise here. The grumpy, groomy and lost look faces are those of the Singaporeans. Lost in the pursuit to making ends meet, and a lot of bills to pay. Singaporeans who are complacent of their rightful existence in their own homeland will live to regret it one day. Many are still in their comfort zone and think it will not affect them. Before they know it, things would have changed so much that they would not know what hits them.

NTUC against wage inflation, not pay rise.

Heng Chee How replied to a forumer, Daniel Tan, in the ST explaining that NTUC is not against pay rise. It is wage inflation that NTUC is against. This, I think, means that if the pay rise does not contribute to wage inflation, then NTUC will support it. If it does, than it will not support it. This is the simplest way of looking at it. Maybe there are more complicated ways of explaining this which I too find difficult to explain. Heng Chee How also said that, 'The most effective and sustainable way to help workers tackle inflation is to grow the economy, create more jobs, upgrade skills and improve productivity to keep employment high and unemployment low. What I would like to add is to raise GST. That will be able the help the workers more.

Helping Singaporeans to be gracious and grateful

Mercy Relief was formed 5 years ago in the wake of the 2004 tsunami in Indonesia. Since then there were earthquakes in Sichuan and typhoon in Myanmar to keep Mercy Relief busy. Now that these were over, while waiting for another natural disaster to happen, it is good that Mercy Relief takes on something useful, like helping Singaporeans to be graceful, and to be grateful of what they have. A 5 month campaign is on the card, Cultivating a Grateful and Gracious Society Campaign with an equally attractive slogan, 'If we could care for strangers, caring wouldn't be strange.' It is good that after learning to care for strangers, we start to look inwards to care for our own people. Charity begins at home is not applicable for Singaporeans. We are so gracious that we practised Charity begins at Strangers. Never mind that we suddenly realised that we need to be graceful to our own people. The campaign will include concerts , exhibitions and talks to schools and religious organisations. It is comforting to know that Mercy Relief has a big budget for such a campaign. Only affluent societies can afford to spend money on being graceful and grateful.