Frugality by choice

To live frugally by choice and not by circumstances is a very pleasant concept. It is like people desiring to work for life, by choice and and not by circumstances, and even with the choice of what they want to do, not to become cleaners or dish washers. To live frugally is like being thrifty, to spend on when there is a need to, no extravagance, is an age old virtue. Individually, it is a good value to live by. At the national level, it is too a good policy to preach and to practise, or maybe not. The contradiction between preaching something and doing the reverse is quite obvious to many. While on the one hand people suddenly got enlightened that there is goodness in frugal living, there are people and even the govt, exhorting and extorting the people to spend. Our govt's policies have never been about frugality. Think COE and car scrapping. Even in times like this, Chok Tong is asking people to spend away on little comforts. Boon Wan has just introduced mean testing to make sure that people pay according to how much they have and not what they want. Ask Raymond about ERPs and transport fares and he will tell you it still must go up, but very affordable. Then Mah Bow Tan just whacked the home buyers by $200k increase in the Pinnacles. Who else, or which ministry is going to raise their fees or rentals? Can the people afford to be frugal? Even if they want to, the policies of ever increasing fees will make sure that they don't. The wheel of our economic machinery must go on running and must be fed by the people's money to keep it going. Otherwise it will grind to a halt like the ferry wheel. And a big rescue operation will have to be mounted. The economy is built on a model of growth. Without growth means recession and depression. The rich can romanticise on being frugal and live happily ever after. The poor at best is a way of life. The country cannot exist on a frugal diet. The country demands that the people must spend and spend to keep up the image of growth and prosperity. So, would the people be allowed to be frugal?

Child labour is bad

Little children working to earn a few dollars is bad. Their feeble limbs and frail bodies would not take the rough and tough of labour in the factories and sweat shops. Their ignorance will expose them to dangerous situations which they would not know how to avoid. How about the frail bodies of the aged? Is aged labour good or bad? Their frail bodies, lack of nimbleness and dexterity, slow in responding to danger, will put them in unnecessary risks and difficult situations. We need to protect the young from exploitation and unfavourable working conditions. Do we need to protect the old hags? I think exploitation of old labour is just as bad and should not be encouraged. Why are we so happy about getting the old hags to work till they die and not allowing the children to work till they die? We feel sorry to see children put to work. Do we feel sorry to see old hags toiling in their twilight years? Why are grandpa and grandma working?

Boon Yang's leeway on political films

The easing of ban on political films by Boon Yang is another step towards more liberalisation of media and film broadcast in the otherwise media phobic state. Thanks to AIMS and the strong push by Cheong Yip Seng for a freer and bigger space for social and political discussion and dissemination of news and views. The concerns by the govt are well understood by the public through its obsessive regulations and articulations over the years. The govt has also come to understand the revolution of information technology and its futility to continue its vice like grip on critics and alternative views. It has also reluctantly come to terms with a highly educated citizenry that is not going to take this control forever. And perhaps it has concluded that it is time to release the build up pressure now rather than later. To continue to do so in an environment where cyberspace is there to air the misgivings, cynicism and displeasure will only worsen the divide between truth and official truth to a level of incredibility. Hail the new leeway towards more media freedom in cyberspace and alternative means of expression. The liberalisation and more engagement between the new media and old media will pave the way for more healthy discussions on social and political issues affecting the people. It will lead to a buzz that has long been desired but absence for obvious reasons. Now is to wait and see if the buzz will go on buzzing.

Save Asia from child labour

Asia must act to prevent growth in child labour: expert 12 hours ago SINGAPORE (AFP) — Asia must act quickly to prevent millions of children dropping out of school to go to work as the global economic crisis worsens, a rights expert has warned. June Kane, an independent adviser to the United Nations and national governments on child rights, told AFP the crisis was a chance for authorities in the region to tackle child labour by giving parents incentives to keep minors in education. But she warned that authorities in Asia -- the biggest employer of the world's estimated 218 million child workers -- must act now to provide help to parents who might otherwise be forced to send their children out to work.... I happen to see the above posted in the TOC. It is a noble cause to push for, to help the children of poor countries and poor families from being made to earn a living at a tender age when they should be in school. But this is well said than done. Many are staring at poverty in their faces and helping out to earn a living is their way of getting an education in life. The country is poor and so are the parents. I was a child labour before. There were child labours in Singapore at one time. At one time many of our womenfolks were maids too. And getting a job as a labourer in the construction site was good jobs and good money. We have progressed over the years. We cannot mismanage and slip back to those days when everyone was poor. When aspirations of parents were for their children to become clerks. Even before I was in primary school, I was helping my mother in a godown, sorting coffee beans, picking out the debris and rotten seeds and repack them. The work was simple. Just sat on a large piece of mat, coffee seeds poured into the centre of the mat and the whole family sat around it, picking seed by seed, to earn a few cents a day. Quite comfortable actually. No sweat and not under the sun. No torture or abuses. Just working. And many parents were very happy when their wards failed the PSLE. They could start work earlier, working as kopi kia or walking the streets knocking on a piece of bamboo, kock kick kock, to peddle bak chor mee. It was a phase of our development and our social history.

Keep seniors at work longer

Just a few years back, not very long ago actually, there was this 40ish CEO whose message was to get rid of the oldies and replace them with all the beautiful and fresh recruits. I was wondering where did he got this cock idea from? Creating jobs, getting people employed is a major issue and problem in any country. Only imbeciles will think of destroying jobs and getting rid of employees purely because of age. Now working to death is the new mantra. Personally if I can afford it I will stop work and enjoy my life the way I want it. There are many great things to do in life than just working to keep once self fed, just to carry on living. Unfortunately many people are caught it this trap, to work to be alive, nothing more, nothing less.