Thoughts of an 18 year old Sinkie

 

‘I often think about how to repay my parents for they have given up so much for me just to keep me living and educated in hopes for a better future. I also often wonder if it’s easier or cheaper for me to die earlier instead. Is this investment worth it in the future, will I be able to pay them back….

Our growing and relatively efficient infrastructure is all thanks to them. Without them it would be impossible for Singapore to have such a beautiful landscape amongst other things. Without them there would be no skyscrapers to house those major corporations, no MBS and RWS for the affluent tourists….

And as for incessantly blaming the government for such issues, is there any way around it?
How sure are you that the opposition will implement better measures. Can you come up with a better way to deal with such multi-faceted problems? Change isn’t necessarily a good thing….

Economic and social problems are rife and it seems like Singapore’s gonna burst soon. Between fight versus flight, regrettably, I choose flight.’

Apathetic 18 year old

The above paras were extracted from a post by this Apathetic 18 year old posted in TRE. He covered a lot in his post, from hopelessly, to hope, from wanting change but not wanting change. The youth of today are caught in a dilemma between wanting to do their best, to carve out a good life for themselves and facing a competition that they still did not know what it is and how to deal with it.

I would say that this is a typical Sinkie youth, well brought up, still believe in the values of filial piety, looking after and repaying the hardwork and devotion of his parents. And as he grows up and comes smack into the face of reality, a harsh and rapidly changing world that he has to grasp by the horns to make meaning of it, it is a new battle to be won.

Singapore was not built yesterday. Singapore existed even before 1819. It is a continuous existence of a people and a society. In between there were ups and downs and prominent milestones in our history. The young must read our history in full, not just after 1965 or after 2000, the years that many of the young were familiar, but not knowing the past.

The phenomenon of an over populated island and the hordes of foreign workers in the construction sites are new. It was not like that before. We built this island. We built the main part of our infrastructure by the pioneering generation. The foreign workers only came in recently to add on the finishing touches to complete the story of modern Singapore. For the youngs who were born in Spring, they would know the winter before them.

We owe much more, in fact everything to the pioneering generation that turned this island into a modern cosmopolis. By the time the foreign workers were brought in, things were pretty easy and straight forward. They just came to put the lego pieces together. I am not so generous to give them so much credit. And so were the foreign mercenaries called talents. We built our airlines, shipping lines, banks and many big institutions by ourselves. The foreign mercenaries came to pick the fruits. It is easy but not when one was ploughing the barren land, planting the seeds, watering and pouring manure on the soil, and sweating it out under the hot sun with not enough to eat and wear, and not knowing if the seeds would grow into a tree.

The children of today will see only the finishing touches of a successful story and think they owe a big debt to the foreign workers and foreign talents that are here now. This is the price for not teaching history in schools, or teaching only contemporary history from 1965. And some may even think that is too distance and the only thing they are aware is yesterday, after year 2000.
 
We need to stop spouting nonsense like we owe everything to the foreign workers and the foreign mercenaries in Raffles Place and MBFC for our success. The recognition of the Pioneer Generation is most timely to remind our young that they have missed out on the winter of our history and are enjoying the three seasons of warmth and plenty. 

Be sure that you know who you should be grateful to. Yes be grateful to your parents and your grandparents, not the new foreign workers and mercenaries. Do not forget the contributions of your parents and forefathers. It is ungrateful to think that they did nothing and everything is done by the new foreigners.

What is the most difficult thing to find in Sin City?

Angels? No, there are plenty of them floating around, including immortals. Money, no, there are so much money floating around that some don’t even where the money is coming from but their bank accounts keeping growing. Talents? No, there are plenty of talents in Sin City, I mean the real local ones. Take a cab and you are likely to be driven around by a local talent who has lost his 5 figure job and could not find another that pays $2000. So they all end up as their own boss, driving taxis

Foreign talents there are also plentiful, nearly 2 million of them and all happily employed, replacing the local talents. So what is so difficult to find?

Fake talents, foreign talents that have fake CVs and qualifications are a rarity. With 2 millions of them in the island, and many came from countries that are notorious and infamous for fake talents, selling degrees and dilplomas on the road sides, these fake talents must be very easy to find. Statistically, every 10 so called foreign talents, there must be at least 3 or 4 fake talents.

The problem is that these fake talents are so ingenious that they cannot be found. The latest report, a paltry 25 were found as reported in the media a couple of days back. There is another possible reason why they are so hard to find. If they are not so clever to conceal their fake qualifications, then it is proof that Sinkies are really daft that they could not outwit the fake talents and could not find them at all. Another possible answer is that they don’t even bother to try.

But all could be false assumptions and the truth is that there is really a dearth of fake talents in the city. All the foreign talents are real talents and that is why the authority is unable to find the fakes in the city. This may be another case of needing 50 man years or more to find a single fake talent. They are really a rare find.

And we can hear the official view being flouted daily, we need more foreign talents or else we will perish. Have we perished when we were 2m or 3m? Now we are 5.4m and we will perish if we don’t bring in more, 6.9m to be exact, and the truth is that it is going to be more than that. And we have many silly young things being made to write about how selfish Sinkies are in wanting this island to themselves.

We have shared this island with more than 40% foreigners. Not enough? We want them to be 90% and Sinkies become an absolute minority? The bigger countries are already crying foul for having 10% foreigners in their countries. And we are asking for more. Who’s silly idea is this? Would anyone who is so confident that this is the way to go stand up to claim ownership of it? If it is so good, be proud to tell the citizens that it is your idea and claims credit for it or gets shit in the face when things turn bad. Don’t ask naïve little children to say it is good. No sensible people would want to be lectured by little boys and girls on this.

They don’t have this phrase, ‘pai jia zi’ for nothing. Oh it means a prodigal son that squandered away his inheritance by his stupidity. Many rich families turned to dust because of ‘pai jia zi’. Countries too can be taken over by foreigners if it is run in the same way, by ‘pai jia zi’.

The COI of the Little India riot has a lesson that the police learnt the very hard way. Little India was so peaceful, crime rate so low. So they found it not necessary to have the riots police on standby until the very nice and peaceful mobs attacked. The same lesson can be superimposed on the island. All the foreigners are so peaceful and helping to grow our economy. By the time they decided to take over the island all the riot police would not be enough. And the ugly signs of these ungrateful asses and arrogant beasts are showing everyday with Sinkies being abused, insulted, threatened and beaten. And the people that could make the meaningful change are just turning the other way. And the official line is still being pandered by kids. We want more foreigners. We must not be selfish. They don’t even know that they are selling their country away.

Kopi level - Red.

Yesterday hit the lowest level for this month.

Photo essay of Extreme Sailing at Marina Bay 6pm 21 Feb 14.

The girls are cheering for Aberdeen.

An awesome $8b budget giveaway

Everyone is wearing a smile when they spoke about the budget. Pauline Straughan appeared on a news interview like an 18 year old girl given the key of puberty. MPs were all beaming and raring to rush to MPS to tell their residents the good news. The budget was a give away, a give, give and give budget. Pioneer Generations will receive Medisave top ups and subsidies on the up and coming and most feared Medishielf Life Scheme. There will also be subsidies for outpatient treatments at polyclinics. Those who missed out by a few years would also be given Medisave top ups. Working seniors will have higher CPF contributions from their employers. And there are also goodies for the SMEs.

Let me just focus on the Pioneer Generation Package. It is all about healthcare and how to pay from their Medisave savings plus Medishield Life and outpatient subsidies. For those who are 80 and above this year, the Medisave top ups and Medishield Life subsidy will see them fully covered without having to cough out extra payement. This is a fairly clear cut case. The 70 to 80 will get their proportional top ups plus 50% subsidies on the Medishield Life premiums. The Medisave top ups range from $200 to $800 depending on the age group with the 65s getting $200 annually for life. The Medishield Life premium subsidies will be 40% for the 65s and 60% for the 90s.

There is a little thing that is not clear here. Would the 65s be getting $200 top up for life or the amount would increase as they hit the higher age group? This point is very important as we get to the details of the give and give budget. What would be the net position when the take and take Medishield Life Scheme is announced?

Assuming the Medishield Life premium for a 65 is at $600, can be more, a 40% subsidy would mean that he still has to pay $360. With a $200 Medisave top up, his net payment is $160.

In the case of a 70 year old and a Medishield Life premium of $1000, a 50% subsidy means he will have to pay $500. If he gets a $500 Medisave top up, he needs not pay anything extra.

For the 80s, the announcement is that the govt will pay fully for their Medishield Life premium for this year, so likely the compulsory scheme will be implemented this year. What about subsequent years? If the Medishield Life premium is $3000, a 60% subsidy means they need only to pay $1,200. With a $800 Medisave top up, he still needs to come up with a cash payment of $400.

The above scenarios look very affordable and reasonable. The situation would not be the same if the Medishield Life premiums are higher than the above guesstimates. And for the 65s, if the Medisave top up is fixed at $200 annually with no match up as they hit the next age group, then the higher Medishield Life premiums will become less affordable and getting worse with years.

The other issue to consider is the Medishield Life package itself, what are being covered and whether there are things like co payments, and exclusion clauses. As for the subsidies for outpatient treatments, the pioneers will be paying less with the subsidies. There is not upfront payment of any kind. But like all subsidised or discount pricing, the trick is how high is the ‘marked up’ The subsidy and discount could be just a marketing ploy and the net effect is that one is paying more and more while feeling shiok with the high subsidies.

The thing that people may forget at this point in time is that while the Pioneer Generation have escaped the dragnet to pay Medishield Life for life, those that were not in the package, the younger generations and their children will be the ones that would be there to pay and pay for life. Can they afford it?

The euphoria now is give and give and give by the govt. Wait for the take and take and take part to fall in place for the net effect of this budget to be felt. Hope the morphine jab will last and the pain will not be excruciating when it comes. There is a saying, ‘xian tian hou ku’, or give you the sweet first then comes the bitterness.

Self funding organisations no need to submit financial statements

The PA has explained why financial statements of grassroots organizations under its charged were not included in PA’s audited accounts. From 2008 to 2011, the auditors KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers had submitted ‘adverse opinions’ on PA’s accounts for ‘the exclusion of the grassroots organisation’s statements that was not in compliance with the Statutory Board Financial Reporting Standards’.

The issue was raised in Parliament by Low Thia Khiang in 2008 ‘and it had explained then its view that the funds in those accounts belonged to the grassroots organizations, which were operationally self funding’. So, does this means that it was satisfactorily explained and all was in order? Apparently it was so and the matter closed.

What does this mean? Self funding organizations need not submit financial statements for auditing? No need even if it is a requirement and financial reporting standards for statutory boards? If this is the case, can one conclude that any non govt self funding organizations, associations, clans, society etc also don’t have to do so? This will include the mega churches that are obviously self funding, the clans association or societies as well, tiok boh?

I am no accounting man, no finance experts so not in a position to make any meaningful comments or conclusions. Anyone could enlighten on this matter? Maybe must ask Leong Sze Hian for advice.

What do you think?

Kopi level - Green