Number and quality of doctors in Sin

The statistics given by Amy Khor in Parliament has stirred many emotions among Singaporeans on the number of doctors and the quality of doctors in the island. I did not have the details on how the numbers and ration were arrived. We have now 1 doctor to 520 of the population. Is the population based on 3.3m citizens or 5.4m or should it include the medical tourists? Anyway how the data are collated and computed and the implications are not what I want to comment here.

Our medical services are on par with the best in the West. And we used to have an added competitive edge in pricing lower than the West. It was the equivalent of CBF, cheaper, better and faster or cheap and good. Many medical tourists find it value for money, for equivalent quality to the West but at bargain price. But this is changing.

Other than our infamous case with the royalties in Brunei, our medical fees are catching up with the West for many reasons. One is our cost of living. Higher rental, higher property prices, higher prices of luxury cars, and higher everything, which means that the medical professionals would have to charge higher too to enjoy all the good things in life. And for those who are studying medicine here and aspiring to earn big money, the cost of a medical education is also so much higher, and many times more overseas. All these add to the eventual fees to be charged to the patients.

Everything should be fine when the patients are willing to pay and can afford to pay, and the quality of medical services remains high. What can go wrong is a compromise in the quality with the influx of foreign trained doctors and specialists. Our local doctors are top notch, professionally and in academics. They are the crème al crème of their cohorts in schools. Everyone got more than straight As to be even considered for medical school, and many were rejected. That speaks quality. The very best became doctors.

Are the foreign additions of the same quality? I am prepared to say yes on paper, as these should be the criteria to judge them and their professional resume. Fingers crossed that this is well and the integrity of the medical profession is not compromised.

I think at the top level, the specialists, the problems of fakes and quacks are lesser as many would have proven themselves before attaining their positions and recognitions. The problem is at the lower level. At the GP and junior specialist level, medical professionals are flooding the industry from everywhere, presumably the medical council would have done their due diligence to have their professional qualifications and expertise verified and spelt good and okay, on par with our top notch doctors.

There is no doubt that our first world quality control and checks would be able to keep the quacks and cheats and the not so good out of the system. The third world fraudsters should not get passed the barriers and the scrutiny of our super talents. If these are in, then the quality of our medical services will definitely be affected. By right the cost of medical fees should be lower with medical professionals coming from third world countries. Relatively, the cost of producing a third world doctor, their cost of living, cost of education, etc, etc are much lower compare to the cost of producing a top notch doctor in our system. Their return on investment is pretty high when the cost was low while the returns from fees in a first world city are exceptionally much higher.

How this is working out I dunno and they may be paid exactly the same as our top notch locals who came from a top notch system both in quality and tuition fees. The foreign doctors are getting paid for more than what they are worth. Are the Singapore patients getting value for money? Now this exposes some mismatch and misgivings won’t it?

There are reasons to pay them the same for the same job. But the input in the production of our local doctors and those of foreign doctors, especially from the developing countries will show a vast difference in the cost, and the quality as well. To the foreign doctors, the return is very good. They would be earning their comparative income if they stay at home country, low tuition fees, low medical fees to charge. To the Singapore locals, the return is not so good as it would take something like half a million to train one of our very best local doctors through our system.

We are not comparing apple with apple are we? Some oranges may be as good as apples, but many will likely to be lemons and charging the price of apples. Are we being fair to our top notch locals and also our local patients paying medical fees fit for top notch doctors but not getting top notch doctors to treat them?

Singapore is the Promised Land...for foreigners

While many PMEs are moaning for being let off, unemployed, underemployed or having to drive taxis as a last resort, the picture is totally different from the foreigners’ perspective. To the foreigners, from the third world to the developed world of Europe, America and Australia, Singapore is the place to be, Singapore is where fortunes are made.

Many of these foreigners would never have dreamt of the good life in their own countries. Many of these countries would not have given them the opportunity to be rich within a handful of years. Many would be just the average workers, like the average Singaporeans, struggling for a life time to make ends meet if they remain in their home countries. Even the westerners, many would be having a hard time finding good jobs in their home countries.

Singapore is the Promised Land to many of these foreigners. Many will only have to game the system and after a few years, could retire and go home very rich. Singapore is where sweet dreams are made and great hopes could turn into reality for the foreigners.

On the contrary, many Singaporeans would no longer see their dreams of a better middle class life style coming to fruition. They did not have the comparative advantage that foreigners have, the option of going home where the cost of living is significantly lower and the exchange rate of a Singapore dollar in their favour. And there is the great salary that they can never dream of having if they remain in home countries.



This is about the greatest irony that Singaporeans are facing. They face higher cost of living and education in some of the best universities but having to compete with third world products and losing out. While third world or even first world talents could make their fortunes here, many Singaporeans would not be able to do so because of the high cost of living. To the foreigners, landing a job in Singapore is as good as having made it. For Singaporeans, it is just a long haul to service high debt and high cost of living.



What do you think? Why like dat one? The citizens of the Promised Land finding it difficult to cope and downgrading their expectations of the good things in life while the non citizens are all full of hopes and dreams of a better life with their third world qualifications. They will go home, buy big houses, land and cars and starting their own businesses. The foreigners are here to fulfil their dreams. Singaporeans are losing their dreams.

The unhappy young and their broken Singapore Dream

The Singapore Dream was like the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow to many older Singaporeans. To many older Singaporeans, the PMEs, this pot is now missing. Someone has shifted it and they could not see anything there. The only people seeing this pot of gold are the foreigners replacing them in their high paying jobs. The Singapore Dream has to be modified to mean the foreigner’s Singapore Dream. To the older Singaporeans, the Dream has become a bad Dream, a nightmare in the making.

Are the young Singaporeans seeing the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow as well? They better be. They have paid heavily to grow up, invested heavily in themselves, with some parents selling their homes, emptying their savings, to get them a good education. Would they be able to land a job that makes the return on their parent’s investment worthy and economically meaningful? Would their income be enough to pay for the little public flat that is now the only achievable and realistic dream? Would they be able to buy that elusive car, like the Americans needing a horse in the good old cowboy days? And would they still have enough in their savings when the time comes for retirement? Given the extremely high cost of living and inflation, every young Singaporean today must need to earn an income that is equivalent to three times their need to cover housing, medical and retirement.

The young Singaporeans are going to be the new breed of highly in debt Singaporeans never seen or heard before. They will incur debt for their education and another 30 year of mortgages that could be in several hundred thousands or more. They will be indebted to the CPF, to pay a ransom to be kept by the CPF meant for their own good and retirement. Then there is a huge debt to bring up a family with a couple of kids.

The life of the young Singaporeans, excluding the rich scions of old rich, ministers and top professionals, will be one of working and working to pay and pay and at the end of it, nothing to compare with the foreigners whose dream will be to return home to be a rich land lord or owning their own businesses. The Singapore Dream of the young Singaporeans is to have the blessing of working till their die, no breaks, to be able to pay for all the debts that are predictable and designed into the system and into their lives.

Every year about 50,000 young Singaporeans will come of age and start to hang a millstone over their neck, to start their new lives as adults. The new citizens coming in too will have to hang the same millstone over their necks unless they are really super talents and can afford the expensive housing and lifestyle here. The group of highly in debt young and new people cannot afford a major economic crisis or a personal crisis in their lives. They will be heavily in debt and their lives will be in ruins should it happen. Without an income is simply unacceptable with the kind of debt in their hands. They are the new debtors of a Singapore economic miracle formula based on high inflation, and high cost of living and increasing debt of the young people.

Hail the new Singapore Dream, small flat, no car and a big debt to service for a life time. This is the standard copy of the life of the new average young Singaporeans. Are their parents worried and want this to be the Dream of their children? Anyone can see why the Dreams of FTs and young Singaporeans are different, one full of promises of wealth and another on the brink of becoming a nightmare?

A mansion for US$242m

A 85,000 sq ft mansion in the heart of Singapore has an asking price of US$242m. It has a 2 storey house, maybe 10 rms at the most, an antique tennis court and a swimming pool, and the rest is just empty land. The most expensive property sold in the US according to Times, was a Dallas mansion for US$135m. And that came with a 42,500 sq ft 5 storey house, 3 swimming pools, guest house and 25 acres of landscaped greenery.

Now what can US$242m buy? I think the Buckingham Palace would go for under $200m, minus its occupants and the treasures in it. This is how the land owning class in Singapore made their money, with high inflated prices of properties that they were bought by their parents or grand parents and inherited as heirlooms, no estate duties. The children and grandchildren just sit on a pot of gold that is growing bigger by the day. And this is supported by a govt that only wants to see property prices going one way, up, up and away. Falling property prices is just inconceiveable given that more than 85% of the residents are owners of some properties, or at least a 99 year lease public housing flat.

The game of inflating the balloon of property prices is most welcomed by the residents. They cannot think of anything else. Anything else like a drop in property price can be suicidal as many are up to their necks in mortgages, except the old rich. Singapore is now worth its weight in gold. And all the rich foreigners are rushing in to park their good money and ill gotten money in properties, a sure bet asset that will not lose its value. The more tycoons coming into the island, despite regulations against foreign ownership of landed properties, the higher will property price appreciate. Soon all Singaporeans including those living in 99 year lease public housing could sell their properties in the millions. No fear of a decreasing lease life that will expire to nothing. What a great formula to generate wealth without working.

They say when something is too good to be true, be careful.

The Korean Tension and US policy of Permanent Wars

                                                       The Korean Tension and the US policy of Permanent Wars

There is no need to look far and wide for reasons pertaining to tensions in Korea and for that matter tensions in the Middle East, ,East China Sea, South China Sea and all over the world. The Evil Empire, USA creates all troubles and incidents and just as it used traditionally in the past it is always quick to cunningly and hypocritically accused others of creating troubles and tensions. Historically US has a warped mind set of carrying out wars of aggression against other people and countries. Its compulsive and impulsive ingrained  warmongering maniac instinct is inherited from its forbears Imperial Britain. Wherever England went, from North America to Africa, Australia, New Zealand, India, China , Burma and Middle East it went on a systematic rampage of murder, killings and genocide, leaving long trails of destruction and wanton human suffering. US as a country was founded on war, violent terrorism , murder , mass killings and almost complete genocide of over ninety-five percent of native North American Indians or over eighty-five millions of them. The trouble and dangerous thing is that just like all European invaders of the Americas in which US is descended from such as Britain, France, Spain, Portugal and Holland, the white American invaders historically have never feel any guilt or remorse of their wanton and dastardly acts of murdeer, killings , torture and genocide of the native Americans.

When the first Europeans went to the Americas five hundred years ago, around 1620s, they were well received by the friendly natives who helped them and provided them with food and lodging. But as the white European invaders swelled in numbers they began to treat the natives contemptuously as uncouth savages and went of to strip the natives of their lands.  The natives were caught off guard and were unable to fight off the European hordes who had superior arms. Had the natives known earlier that the Europeans  were wild, aggressive and cruel , they could have annihilated them because they had greater numbers then, , but they didn't because of their spiritual beliefs in not  taking innocent lives. The natives had thus paid dearly for their strong beliefs. Up to this day the savage European Americans still portray the native Americans as savages as reflected in their writings and history texts though clearly they themselves are the soulless and most wanton and cruel savages.

The Americans are blood thirsty war maniacs and up to now they have always been lucky to get away with it. They like to feel and act as superior to all other peoples and countries in whatever they do. That is OK so long as they play it in a level playing field and put its own house in order. But there is something very wrong with America now and it is of its own doing. This is to be expected because America is run and governed by very sick and insane people, by rogues, crooks and scoundrels. Its psychopatic political and military leaders are obssessed with being number one in the world and spend humongous trillions of dollars annually in military war machines. Its business cum political leaders , in fact you can't differentiate them because their positions are interchangeable and they are so steeped in greed and avarice that when they manoeuvered their ways into positions as CEOs and directors of big business concerns like the banks, stock exchange, real estate , insurance and other industrial conglomerates they will pay themselves real mad in terms of hundreds of millions of dollars. When their companies foundered and collapsed they are considered too big to fail and so they got the government to step in to save the companies with tax payers' money. Since their companies are international with investment capital from other countries worldwide, they thus not only rob their own people and country but also the people and countries all over the world.

The total absence of morals and ethics and the extreme greed and avarice of the American business and political leaders have caused the American economy and finance to fall over the steep cliff with debts amounting to hundreds of trillions of dollars.It is inconceivable how they are going to pay back these debts both local and international which will be a heavy burden on many generations of Americans. Well, there is no way out. They have to resort to bluffs and cheating by getting money from thin air through mass printing of more paper notes of hundreds of billions of dollars to provide what they called quantitative easing. This paper printing and quntitative easing won't last for long for there is no real solid and intrinsic economic value. Therefore the only resort for the rogue, crooks and scoundrels of the American leaders is to adopt a policy of permanent wars to wrank up their war industries so that they can sell their military weapons to other countries. US has no intention to talk peace or negotiate real peace treaties with countries it is provoking into war. Its only tenet is countries which US doesn't like or doesn't approve must succum to US domination completely. When one group of countries eventually succumed to US military mighty power, it will soon pick up another country or groups of countries and trump up excuses with the same intent of waging war on these countries. The evil cycle of US aggressive warmongering never ceases. The world has to put a stop to this streak of American monstrous evil. Therefore countries big or small must be well prepared and well armed even with nuclear weapons to wage wars against the Evil Empire. US will either survive with the rest of the world  or perish with the rest of the world. I hope and I believe every decent people in the world hope too that the general by and large American public will wake up to the sins and evils of their demonic and monstrous government  and either convince it or force it to adopt a new path of world harmony in good will and cooperation instead of persisting in US hegemony. Until this happens there will be no peace in Korea, no peace in East Asia and no peace in this beautiful world.

Southernglory1