JEM ceiling collapsed - must be the tightening of foreign worker policy

I quoted below statement from an editorial article posted in TRE. ‘Chairman of the Government Parliamentary Committee (GPC) for National Development Lee Bee Wah said that sometimes developers and contractors compromise on the quality of construction materials in order to lower costs.

The tightening of foreign workers policy may also be a factor.

Ms Lee said, “Every time a contractor renews work permit for their workers, they face some difficulties and therefore keep changing staff. That could mean we don’t have experienced engineers or inspectors. The government should really look into this.”’

I think this is a good way of looking at the newly built shopping complex. It must have been built during the time when the govt was curtailing the import of foreign workers and thus the quality of the building is affected. Either shortchanged in material or quality of workers could be a factor. It is very likely the later as the only thing changed was foreign worker policy. Now, is this true? When was the building built and was it really affected by the foreign worker policy? Another question, is the foreign worker policy to curb bringing in of construction worker or white collar foreigners that the people were angry about, esp the PMET? I thought there was no problem with construction workers and everyone agreed that in this sector it is very difficult to get Sinkies to work? And another question, how could construction worker be such a big factor when there are engineers, supervisors and QCs overseeing the jobs?

Nevermind, got some small fries to take the blame. And good reason to bring in more construction workers, which was never an issue. Hope this would not translate into bringing in more foreign PMETs.
Another way of solving this problem is to borrow the logic of preventing corruption. You know what I mean. Then the work quality will improve and contractors would not take short cuts. And nothing will collapse. QED.

The need for tuition

This is going to be the hot topic for a while. It is the concern of every parent and their children. To have tuition or not to have. For those children who are better endowed, tuition may be just a little additive like chicken essence, a little booster to get that extra few marks. To some it is not really necessary. How fortunate for these parents and children.

As not every child is gifted the same way, some would really need that little help. Some are slower or develop a bit later. Some are just afraid to ask in class or not getting the attention of the teachers in a class of 40 children. Then there will be the teacher that may go too fast or just not getting the message across.

For the slower students or late developers, tuition helps a lot. Tuition becomes personalized and tailored to their individual needs and pace. Caveat, a good tutor is needed. A tuition teacher could give the personal attention to find out what really was needed to help a child to improve. The proviso here is that the child is willing to learn

But like all things, some children are just not gifted academically and tuition could not do much and literally a waste of money and time. Just hope no clever people will come up with a solution that fits all. It cannot be. There are so many variables that affect a child in his/her growth and acquisition of knowledge and information, the environment, the motivation and the nature of things.

This also applies to teaching, teaching methods and how to motivate children. Not everyone will be uplifted by the same approach. Please, no one size fits all solution. That is why there are so many variations of schools, Normal, Express, ITE, polys and universities. Different target at your own time, fire.

The problem today is that everyone expects every child to fit into one mould, or have an education system that fits every child. And no one is brave enough to say, look, we need to provide a big enough buffet spread to cater to different tastes and the likes and dislikes. For those who need tuition, let them have their tuition. For those who don’t, good for them.

One thing the govt can do is to provide the facilities and teachers to help those who need tuition at little cost, not affordable fees or more subsidies. Free would be better as this is an investment into our precious resources and you are talking about the young that needed help to make them better people for themselves and country.

How to go about it and how much would the govt cough out for this very important needs of the people? No hawker centre, foodcourt and restaurant analogy please. This is serious business.

My two kids were differently endowed. One was slower and needed a little help in maths. She flunked in her late primary class but enough time for me to repair the damage. All I did was to clarify her thoughts and mental blocks, explained the concepts to make sure she understood. And with some perseverance and motivation, she went on to ace her maths in O and A level. Without knowing her problems and lack of understanding of basic mathematical concepts, tuition would not help much. A tutor must know what is the problem or where is the problem.

The other type of tuition which is very popular is exam jamming, cramming to ace exams. This is only good for the exam but the effects are temporary, like an instant high but no residual or long term effect. My other kid is different, better endowed. He came to me only once for a maths problem in P6. I took too long to get the answer using the old method. Before I could complete he said he had worked it out and that was the last time he came to me. He aced his O and A level and aced his Masters with Distinction in Engineering in Imperial College.

Both my kids did not have a day of tuition. One just had 15 mins with me in his whole life as a student and never came to me again. They were lucky, or I was lucky. But not every kid is so lucky and has parents to guide or fall back on. Tuition is necessary to assist, to guide, to motivate and support a child. Showing them the way, opening up their minds and clearing road blocks are very important. That would pave the way for the child to find his own way ahead. Tuition to game an examination is another ball game.

Talent is an abused term in employment

The term talent has been shooting off everyone’s mouth like referring to gold or diamond. And often this term is prefixed with another word, foreign, and conveniently attached together as foreign talent. What does this mean to the users of these terms, the ordinary people, the employers, job seekers and the govt?

Very often we also heard people quipped that there is not enough or no Singaporean talents to fill a vacancy. And many do not pause to ponder what is this vacancy that needs talent and why are the talents not found locally. Take an example of a HR Manager. What kind of talent that is so rarefied that no Singaporeans are found to have them that this position must be filled by a foreigner? In the same vein, an Admin Manager, a Finance Manager, a Sales or Purchasing Manager, a Banking/Finance Manager, an IT Manager and so on, even politicians.

On more technical skills like Engineering, IT, Medical or Science, why are the local graduates not good enough as talents and foreign graduates are the right and suitable talents? Did their universities teach them different stuff that is useful to the industries and ours don’t? If that is the case, either we revamp what is being taught in our universities or we close them down and send our students to those universities that are teaching the right stuff.

In the more generic jobs as mentioned above, what talent is one talking about? A HR or Finance professional will have acquired the same basic training and knowledge to do the job reasonably well. All that makes the difference is the attitude and drive in the person, unless the applicant is a moron. And if one is to know the extent Singaporean students drove themselves to acquire good grades, that is telling in itself, that they have the drive, stamina and determination to do well. These graduates who worked so hard to get good grades cannot be the same employees that switched off when employed and paid to do a good job. They strove for good grades without being paid, and now refused to work when they are paid well?

Even those that do not have the good grades but rose to higher management, this fact is enough to show that they are able and capable of doing the job at that level. The knowledge and experience on the job are more valuable than the qualifications of a fresh graduate.

Now, what kind of talents that the foreigners have that the local talents did not have? The foreigners have two brains, three mouths and trained differently and acquired unusual skills from their universities and countries that made them better than the local PMETs?

For the very technical and highly skilled jobs that needed post graduate training, the expertise would set them apart. But many skills can easily be trained, be transferred with on the job or in house training that would not take more than a year to do so. What is so difficult about that?

The truth is that many jobs even at senior management level do not require this thing called talent or exceptional talent that cannot be found in local PMETs. The word talent is an abused word, a red herring that means nothing really.
Anyone who uses this term to justify his special needs as an employer, make him explain why it is a talent in the first place. Talents are needed in very special positions, in special appointments, in highly skilled fields that demanded gruelling years in academic discipline. Another type of talent is how to cheat which is inborn, how to get paid excessively without having to do the work or not knowing how to do the work but getting others to do it and claim the credit. This is unusual talent.

Actually one of the highest level of talent is to be able to con your way to success without acquiring any useful skills but by capitalising on connections, wealth, associations, politicking and conspiracy.

Boorish primitive genes are good

Most people are aware of the problems of inbreeding. The genes, no matter how superior, would degenerate with too much in breeding. Even the animals, we are no different, in the zoos need wild genes to keep the stock healthy. So the tigers and lions and the elephants need to have mates from the wild to retain the wildness in them.

The years of genetic engineering in developed countries like ours have created a breed of people that are very different from the days of old, or from those in less developed countries. There the people are hungrier and are mentally tuned to fight for their piece of meat or loaf of bread. They are mentally tough to fight for the right to live, to exist. They have little refinement, less care about niceties like gracious, little thought of what will be the consequences of their unrestrained and selfish acts.

The most obvious sign of the new breed of Sinkies is their spectacles. Then their nature, more careful and self restraint, the kiasu and kiasi traits. They would not go out to fight for food, or even their little rights. They withdraw from society, into their little world of comfort and safety. None of my business, I am comfortable and secure within my cocoon. That is the new sinkie, an inbreeding of the nerdy kind, intelligent intellectually but minus the brawn and muscles.

Flash back to the uncouth, boorish and aggressive Ah Tiong in the MRT. We will be no match for such aggressive. He is tough, bigger, louder and daring to pick up a fight. The Sinkies will shy away. I have seen a couple of such roughness this morning in the train, one likely to be a Malaysian and another a Pinoy, both getting hostile to two oldies. The same traits when imposed on an army of boys, specky, soft and tender, meek and weak, what would we have? An army of school boys, looking every bit like boy scouts. And they will have their favourite weapons in their hands, the mobile phones and ipads or something similar. These are the things they will be comfortable with. They would probably faint when they see blood, and screaming for mother.

Yes, we need to input some wildness into our degenerative gene pool. We have too much brains but lacking in brawns and muscle mass. We are shrinking in every area except a head that is getting bigger by the days, a swollen head, so they said. But this is no good in the face of aggression. We need to stand up to aggression individually, to protect self and the weak, and to defend the country.

We have lost that aggressive trait, we have lost that feeling of hunger. So the Ah Tiongs and the likes are a good thing to have here. We need more cross breeding with the wild and primitivity. Go and sow your wild oats or bring home some Ah Tiongs. It is good for health and the future of the people and the country.

Heheheh. Let’s welcome the Ah Tiongs and all the wild men and women from the hungrier countries. They are good tonics, ‘chiat poh’. Forget about being graceful when being so becomes disgraceful, to be bullied by the simpletons and the simple minded.

The case of the reappearance of empty ballot boxes

The official explanation so far, after the counting is over, the ballot boxes would be disposed off by contractors. So there would no longer be consequential to the election and not really meaningful or accountable. A few seen floating around and reappearing would just reflect that the contractors were ‘slaykay’ at most, nothing to worry about. There is no need to make a case out of the two boxes found and nothing serious really. Let’s move on, this part I say one.
 
Two of the Presidential candidates are still not happy and smelling foul. What is the real system of checks and balance? Would all the empty boxes be part and parcel of the election process and must all be accounted and destroyed together without any one left floating around. Did they claim that something is amissed?
 
Presumably, this part I guess one, since I have not been a polling agent and thus would not know what is the correct procedure. Presumably, at the end of the counting of the ballots, all the ballot papers would be placed in these same ballot boxes to be transported to the High Court for safe keeping. There was no need to pack them into the same boxes according to the area or groupings they came from, but in some of the boxes would do. Presumably they were not packed into new or different boxes that were brought in for this purpose. Presumably, some boxes would be empty if all the boxes were fully stuffed.
 
Presumably every box was a controlled item and there would be an officer to count them and check them out, X number used for ballot papers and Y number extra were empty. Presumably the total would match and all squared up.
 
Then the puzzling part, should all the boxes, as they were controlled items, be sent together to the High Court and eventually be destroyed together? Looks like this is not the case and those extra boxes were left behind to be removed and destroyed by the contractors after counting was done. They became not controlled items. If this be the case, then the reappearance of the five empty boxes needs not be an issue. It was just a slip by a slipshod contractor on non controlled items.
 
But if the procedure is for all the ballot boxes, empty or otherwise, to be destroyed together and kept together, then people may ask how come these controlled items could be left behind as they were countables and if missing would not do? But then again, as an after event, ie, after the ballot papers had been properly delivered on the counting tables, the missing boxes would just be a technical issue and would not affect the results.
 
This does not mean that imaginations cannot go wild like the boxes were already missing and switched before the counting. The understanding or assumption at the moment is that they were left there after counting. Is this assumption and understanding true or reasonable? Or is this proven, a fact? This, I presume, would be playing in the minds of those who wanted to see mischief. But this is highly impossible as the polling agents would have their eyes glued to these boxes and no one could take them away without being noticed. It could only happen if there was a gap in which the ballot boxes were out of sight from the polling agents while they were on the way to the polling stations. Presumably there was no such window to begin with.
 
So? What do you think?