10/02/2013

Population White Paper Protest 5 Oct - 4pm

Press release                                                                                                               
                                                                                                                             
A little update on our forthcoming protest this weekend at Hong Lim Part (5th Oct, 4pm).                                                                                                             
To date, we have six employers participating in the job fair offering various kinds of positions. We thank them for making the efforts to employ Singaporeans first proactively. We welcome more employers to sign up with us.                       

The employers will be there by 3.30pm to set up and prepare for the job fair.                
We also managed to gather?seven brave speakers for this event. Their names are as follows:
1. Leong Sze Hian
2. Robert Teh – retiree
3. Roy Yi Ling – blogger and health? care executive
4. Ariffin – secondary school student
5. Daryl Nihility?- interior design marketing executive
6. Fatimah Akhtar – architect
7. Alex Tan – operations executive                                                                             
Gilbert Louis will also be singing two songs during the protest.Free finger food and drinks will be offered on that day.

We have printed 100,000 flyers for distribution commencing today at various MRT stations and housing areas. The CBD area will be covered as well.                             
We have order eight hundred We Want Change tee shirts and five hundred caps for sales – please support our cause by grabbing a shirt or cap. They will be sold at a affordable price for all.                                                           

We will also dedicate one hour of the 3-hour programme to a Real Conversation whereby the people can ask our panel speakers any questions they want. They should not make a speech during the session though.                                                          

There won’t be any press conference prior to the event but there will be one after the event. Reporters please email me at gilbert@transitioning.org if you need further information on our third protest against the population white paper.         

See you soon Singapore! Be the change you want happen in our country.                                                                                                                                           
Thanks & Warmest Regards,                                                                                                                                                                                                      
Gilbert Goh                                                                                                 
President                                                                  
http://www.transitioning.org/ – unemployment support services                                       

Trust is such a difficult topic to write

I have been trying very hard to write about this new sensitivity. Everyone is talking about trust, including Hsien Loong and how important it is to gain the trust of the people. Now how should I deal with this topic? Shall I talk about the distrust the people have of the govt? Shall I talk about how the govt is losing the trust of the people? Shall I talk about what the govt can do to win back the trust of the people? Or shall I talk about how the govt tried so hard to lose the trust of the people?
 

After tossing the idea around, I came back to square one. How to talk about trust with people you don’t trust? How to discuss trust with people who are lying to you with a straight face? How to believe in people, trust people when they don’t trust you and are not telling you the truth? How to trust people who are not trustworthy?
 

I give up. I think it is easier to talk to children about trust. They are so innocent and so trusting. And children don’t lie, and they did not know what is a lie, those that have yet to think and behave like lying adults. I think going to the kindergarten is the best place to talk about trust, trusting children. Unfortunately the children don’t come to my blog so it is a waste of time really, to try to write this thing call trust when trust is all about deception. Trust me only to be cheated, trust me only to be deceived.
 

How to write about trust when there is no trust, when there is nothing and no one to be trusted?

Foreign talents going home

There was a handsome Pinoy family in the paper a couple of days back. The husband was an IT talent but his application to renew his EP was rejected. The MOM has started to close the door a bit and not approving every application for EP here.
 

From the interviews of the foreigners Singapore is still a choice destination for employment. They praised not only the safe and stable living environment here. The working environment is excellent, good jobs, good pay and good prospect. But this funny part is not what Sinkies, especially the PMEs are experiencing. Why is Singapore so good for foreigners and so bad to some Sinkies is a big irony and a big mystery.
 

Say whatever you like, the govt must know our strength, how good Singapore is as a place for business and work. It is not just cheap labour. It is the whole package which is very attractive and very competitive among the first world countries. There is no comparison among the third world countries. Only fools will compare the two and tell you the third world countries are better.
 

Another astonishing truth that was revealed in the same article was the lack of IT and banking and finance professionals. According to Gerdeep Hora from Synergy HRD Consultancies in New Delhi, ‘Singapore lacks IT experts and managers in its banking and finance sectors, and employers have been hiring directly form India in these areas.’ When has India become the banking and finance and IT centres that a first world country, a regional financial centre, must go to India to recruit such experts that a regional financial centre is lacking?
 

What is happening? Employers forming a beeline to India to hire IT experts and managers in banking and finance directly? India a banking and financial centre producing all the experts that a regional banking and financial centre cannot produce?
 

Holy cow, I dunno what to say.

10/01/2013

Tuition, the silliness of it all

There is an article in today’s ST on tuition by Nirmala, ST’s correspondent. In the article she quoted a Professor Mark Bray on some of the characteristics of East Asian societies and the growth and importance of tuition. ‘These East Asian territories are highly globalised and competitive. They stress a need for workers to remain ahead in skills and for students to acquire skills relevant to the global economy….the Singapore education system is a good one that has delivered high quality output.’ She added, ‘But Singaporean parents, like those in many other cultures, are competitive, seeking what they perceive to be the best for their children in a competitive system, and thus are trying to add more even though the school system is already delivering much that is already very good, he(Bray) said.’
 

Now what is so silly or sickening about all these comments? Did not our education system and the parents make them the best educated and skilled workers for the workforce?
 

It is not about the inequality that tuition will cause as this is a harsh reality that the poorer working class must get used to. The rich will pay for the best tutors for their children. You cannot ban tuition and tell them not to pay for tuition. Well, South Korea did ban tuition for 20 years, but has since allowed it to practice again. There were many ways to curb tuition to prevent it from worsening the inequality, which is absolutely a silly thing to do and to even think about for any govt. Forcing the people to level down is an idiotic thing to do, really, believe me.
 

Then what is so silly about tuition? With so much money and effort put in to develop the young, with such great education system and to quote, ‘They stress a need for workers to remain ahead in skills and students to acquire skills relevant to the global economy’, now can you see what is wrong or sickening?
 

Our workers lack motivation, lack drive, lack of skill, uncompetitive, lack of talent, that we need to bring in workers from third world countries without the competitive culture, without the resources and the drive to do well in education or a good education system to replace them in jobs here. They don’t even have competitive parents to make sure their children received the best education money can buy. Basically after all the stress and money spent, the startling result, our students turned workers are a useless bunch for the job market. Really, trust me.
 

What an irony? The less competitive societies and lesser equipped education system are producing all the qualified and skilled workers that our system could not produce. 

Shall I laugh or cry?
 

What is wrong, MOE, MOM?

Stop this ‘local’ shit

PRs are not locals but foreigners. Locals are the citizens. This deception of calling PRs locals to conceal the employment of citizens in the job market must cease. Let’s tell the truth. Let’s face the truth. Let’s be honest and transparent. Or else don’t talk about trust.
 

When statistics are used, when Singaporeans want to know how many citizens are employed versus foreigners, ie, PRs and non citizens, please tell us the truth. People who have been telling everyone to be honest and transparent must be honest and transparent to be believeable.
 

What is the percentage of citizens being employed in the banks, both local and foreign? The people want the truth. What is the percentage of citizens, PRs and foreigners in the various banks here?
 

Cannot tell? What is there to hide? The truth cannot be hidden for long. The citizens know what is happening. By not telling the truth it only makes thing worst and leading to mistrust. Who is standing on the roof shouting to the people about being honest and transparent?