What about me...your citizen?

Below is a comment posted in the thread, 'The Govt should set the example in jobs for citizens'.


Every time I read a letter about our own citizens, qualified professionals with working experience but unable to find a job here, I feel really disgusted. We cannot ignore and disregard our own citizens while providing all the good jobs and opportunities to foreigners. This kind of situation is getting worst and lip service from the govt is not good enough and will be taken very badly by the citizens, affected or bystanders. We must love our citizens, take care of our citizens. If not, it is nonsensical to call ourselves a country and all the pledges we made, and the NS to fight and die for this country.

A govt that cannot get this basic right does not deserve to rule.

"Thanks for this article. I penned my comment in TRE as follows. For your reading pleasure:

I am 42 now, I was retrenched in late 2008 and found a job in HK only 1.5 years later – so I was around 38 then. When I am back from HK in early 2011 I was scounting for a job locally for almost 6 months. Recently I left my current employment because I have strategic differences with my boss, we mutually agree to part and now I am third time on the job market. I am in finance, senior management level, getting between $150 – $200k a year. I am stating this becasue in some (not all instances) I actually quoted a lower expectation hoping to get an interview.

I have on all 3 occassions wrote in to GLC, Stat Board and what have you -all the government related entities and I shall name them here:

MAS, GIC, Temasek, Spring Singapore, EDB, Energy Market Authority, HDB, Health Science Authority, IRAS, IE Singapore, JTC, LTA, Ministry of Finance, MOM, Ministry of Trade and Industry, Singapore Workforce Development Agency,

Plus a few other quasi-government departments. I even wrote in to CPIB.

The role are mostly advertise via jobstreet / jobdb or careers@gov website and typically would be where my relevant experience and skill sets lies such as account & finance, corporate strategy, management, research & analysis, investment, fund management even administration etc.

In all, I figure I could easily wrote in between one hundred to two hundred applications. Obviously careers@gov has my profile.

My point is as follows:

I HAVE NOT GOT EVEN ONE INTERVIEW FROM ANY GOVERNMENT AGENCY – NOT EVEN ONE INTERVIEW DURING THESE 3 PERIOD OF UNEMPLOYMENT. WHY ???

I am not blaming the government that I lost my job.

I would not blame the government if I am not selected for the job: –

BUT I AM NOT EVEN SELECTED FOR 1 INTERVIEW??? Not One.

I paid my tax, I voted for the government even during the last election – (yes I am that stupid 60.1% , Yes I confess I am that stupid) becasue when I work in HK and I travel frequently to Thailand / China I felt in totality this place compared to the many places I have been to is still a decently governed country – little corruption, clean street, good quality health care, well run public school etc. But tell me why should I vote for you again come 2016. When you get my vote but give jobs to foreigners. I know for a fact, GIC / Temasek hire largely foreigners. I know you are reading this, feel free to approach me for a discussion if you think I am not telling the truth, I am happy to meet."

Another token of appreciation for NSmen?

A small hongbao of recognition for a life time of service to the nation, risking lives and limbs, NSmen will receive vouchers of $50 to $100 exchangeable for food, recreation, petrol or dining. Is that all to die for?

Ask not what the NSmen can do for the country. Ask what the govt can do for the NSmen. This statement is gaining relevance and a pain among the people. Treat the sacrifice of the NSmen seriously and give them a stake in the country, give them something to fight and die for, give them a reason to be proud to be NSmen.

In the past, the most important consideration of the govt is to provide every citizen with a roof over their heads. And they were not thinking about NS, just every ordinary citizens. And uniformed officers were either provided with govt quarters or given priority for housing.

Today, NSmen can be expected to defend and die for this country and without the right to buy a public flat. And they are not asking the govt for handouts, for $50! They have all the right to demand that they be given priority to buy a house as any other citizen, as any new citizen as any PR. Can this be done? Is this too much to ask for, to die for?

The rest of the tokens of appreciation are all simply craps. Not worth a single cent. Give the NSmen a roof, through priority housing. Cut out all the crappy rules that disqualify NSmen from buying a HDB flat. Enough said to deaf frogs. They don’t listen, they don’t care. You can keep your token of appreciation. They are not worth it, meaningless and an insult to the sacrifice NSmen made for the country. They can never appreciate or understand what it means to be an NSman as many did not really go through the whole shit like any ordinary NSman, roughing out in the fields, reservist trainings and job and family disruptions.

Looking at Sin 10 years down the road

The Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) is coming up with a more serious discussion on the future of Sin, in year 2012. This is something that is worth looking at instead of conning youth to talk about graciousness and kindness. Issues like kinder society are much nicer to discuss than influx of foreigners, high cost of living, high property prices.

The IPS studies, headed by Gillian Koh and a team of professionals will be looking at 3 scenarios. 1. A pro business govt focusing on economic growth and ensuring better paying jobs for Singaporeans. 2. A govt formed by a splinter group of the PAP providing cheap and heavily subsidized healthcare, education and housing. 3. A weak coalition govt running a country whose citizens have little trust in it but where there is high venture capitalism and much community driven effort.

These are the possibilities in the near future. I thought a better topic would be to look at the realities today and the problems that will surface when the world financial system goes into a tail spin. The case is like a pro foreigner govt that provides good jobs to foreigners and losing the confidence and support of the people and is bundled out in the next GE. A new coalition govt is formed with many inexperienced politicians taking the helm and with the people taking a big gamble to place hope on a completely new team. No ex PAP or splintered PAP group will do as the distrust in the PAP is so total that anyone associated with the PAP will not be favoured by the people.

How would such a scenario play out in 5 years time? This is a more immediate problem, very likely and deserve more attention than something in 10 years or 20 years or in 100 years in the future. When the crisis can happen any time, there is no luxury to look beyond but to tackle the immediate problems. Forget about once upon a time. It is now, the moment has come to look seriously at immediate problems and issues. Funny that people rather ignore them and wanting them to be sweep under the carpet and to spend them gazing at the crystal ball of yore when they will be history.

Affordable healthcare in Sin

Singapore healthcare, like public housing is affordable. A meningitis case in KK Hospital ended with a $130k bill for the boys’s parents. But they are not complaining. They were too happy with the bill as it was affordable. They only need to pay $250 pm for the next 42 years, interest free some more. The hospital is so compassionate and generous by not charging them any interest.



Welcome to the all inclusive and richest nation in the world when a truck driver would not bat an eyelid having to pay $130k hospital bill incurred by his son. He is happy and the hospital is happy, for the next 42 years.



The paper millionaires in Sin are living precariously with their $1m property and feeling very secure and pleased with themselves. They did not know that all it needs is a family member to be down with cancer and his wealth will be down by half a million immediately, to be paid in cash. And the monthly check up is going to cost him $10k for the next 2 to 3 years at least. Such millionaires will be in debt in no time even after selling off his only paper asset.



As for the retirees, the system is designed to finish his savings in double quick time with inflation devouring away everything he got. Retirement is a very dangerous state of existence unless one is drawing a million bucks in retirement pay. They have counted why they needed $1m a year on retirement.

Paintings of god 神画

The painting above is one of 39 pieces of works in the exhibition held at NUSS Guild House, Kent Ridge from 22 Oct  to 21 Dec.

Paintings of god 神画

What is 神画 or paintings of god? The Secrets of Mother Nature Exhibition now at NUSS Guild House at Kent Ridge(22 Oct – 21 Dec) is about a new photopainting art form.  I have developed this technique after many years of experimentation. It is called the Art of RAR or Reflection and Refraction. It involves the taking of invisible images in the water and turning them into paintings.

Such paintings have never been done or seen before. It is about a photograph but not a photograph, a painting but not a painting, an original but not. It is not computer graphic art or animation. It is a hybrid of a photograph and a painting created not by a human artist but by Mother Nature, or god in a liberal sense. It is painted by a human artist but it is not. Let me explain this new art form before I confuse everyone.

Why is it a photograph but not a photograph?

A photograph is the product of an image taken by a camera of an object. There is a direct object image relationship. In this art form an object is photographed using the camera. But the image captured is not that of the object. The object is simply water in a pond and nothing else. The image can be anything, looking anything other than water. The image is inherent in the water but is not visible to the naked eye and needed some processing to reveal what it really is, and definitely not the water that it originally appeared when being photographed.

It is a painting but not a painting

A conventional painting is normally painted by an artist onto paper or canvas with ink, pigment, water colour, oil, crayon etc. The painting in this case is printed by a printer and can be pigment, ink or oil. It has some similarities with a conventional painting in the sense that it came from an artist’s idea or thought. The difference is that this idea or concept comes from the thought of Mother Nature and can only be captured by a camera before being translated into a visible form.

It is the original but not the original.

The real original of a painting created by this method is invisible, is fluid and is in the water, and vanishes the moment it is photographed and would never be seen again. This original concept exists in a different plane, like a human thought. Thus the painting in print form can be called the original as it is the only available arising from the first thought in the water.

It is not computer graphic art or animation

The painting comes from a digital image of a camera. It only goes through some processing that are similar to darkroom processes, eg brightness, contrast, colour, sharpness, intensity, brilliance etc. There may be some touching up of spots or removal of minor blemishes. No major alteration of the image is done. The authenticity of the digital image is preserved and can be easily returned to the original form with the hitting of the reset button.

It is painted by a human artist but it is not

The conceptualizing of the painting is done by Mother Nature. Everything is already there and the contribution of the human artist, the photopainter, is to assist in bringing out the details of the painting that are otherwise invisible to the naked eye. The photopainter, the human artist, can only do what is already present in the original image and does not introduce new or additional elements into the paintings. As the possibilities of each image are quite varied, the photopainter could interpret it in many ways and there is no certainty that the image in print is exactly what Mother Nature intended. This is the part played by the human photopainter, introducing some subjectivity into the final form.

In summary, every painting created by this technique is conceived and designed by god or Mother Nature, photographed and fine tuned by a photopainter. It is a photograph turned into a painting with Nature doing the bulk of the creative part of the work. The photopainter just collaborates with Mother Nature and the final work is the effort of both parties with Mother Nature playing the bigger role.

This art form or technique is intrinsically a Singaporean creation.

 

Chua Chin Leng - Photopainter