Singapore
October 06, 2011
August 20, 2011
Cook and Share A Pot of Curry - From Foodie's Kitchen :)
Cook and Share A Pot of Curry on 21 Aug 2011
Tom Yam Curry by yours truly. This was a dish that I had prepared for my family dinner held on Singapore's National Day (9 Aug). Curry is a well-loved dish by most if not all Singaporeans and I sincerely hope that the new migrants to the little red dot will learn to adapt to our way of life.
http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=254441147918239
This is a Facebook Page created by a group of Singaporeans after a report came about that a mainland Chinese family (from China) told a local Indian Family not to eat curry and not to cook curry. The appointed mediator - a certain Madam Giam facilitated the case in such a way that : the Indian family could cook curry only when the mainland Chinese family is not at home. (mediation agreement).
So far, more than 60,000 around the world (mostly Singaporeans!) are joining in. Cook a pot of curry or buy a take-out from a restaurant (if you can't cook or too busy to do so). A meaningful event to spread the importance of interculural understanding between countries and also between the different races and nationalities within one country.
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Excerpt from Facebook Page:
http://www.todayonline.com/Singapore/EDC110808-0000102/Number-of-neighbour-disputes-hit-high (this is the link)
and this is the clarification to the case:
http://app2.mlaw.gov.sg/Highlights/tabid/168/Default.aspx?ItemId=568
and 16th Aug 2011 (The Law Minister's clarification)
http://news.asiaone.com/News/AsiaOne%2BNews/Singapore/Story/A1Story20110816-294757/2.html
How we feel
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How could a appointed mediator facilitate the case in such a way that restricts the lifestyle and cooking norms of the Indian family? Or any other local family who practices a cultural lifestyle that we have all made our own? In this case, Curry has always been part of our culture since the 1800s. It can be anything else that you or I hold dear.
There is a native Malay proverb "Di mana bumi dipijak, di situ langit dijunjung" ("You should hold up the sky of the land where you live") - ie one should respect the country in which you choose to live in. ( ie blend/ assimilate/ understand/ tolerate / integrate into the community of your chosen choice)
What we wish for
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When the new immigrants arrive here, we wish for them to respect / embrace the cultural / lifestyle and linguistic norms of this nation. We wish for all new immigrants and citizens to understand and appreciate the various and diverse cultural aspects of the various ethnic-minority groups we have here.
This is Singapore and we are part of Malayan culture. Our hinterland previously was Malaysia and the Indonesian archipelago. Our ancestors came, met and mingled and through an adventurous and open mindset, created something unique and beautiful... (thus our local culture as such- curries/ spices/ a vast melting pot of people and mixed heritages)
* A message to all new citizens: We sincerely hope you integrate into our local culture and make attempts to assimilate and embrace/ appreciate the various multi-ethnic cultures we had built up so painstakingly over the decades. Because at the same time, we are definitely open to taking the best that you have to offer, and to create new and beautiful Singaporean things.
*We Singaporeans are basically nice and tolerant people. We will accept you as new citizens and hope you blend in and integrate with us well.
Upset with CMC
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We are mainly upset with the "Community Mediation Centre's" mediation action of actually facilitating such a mediation agreement. It is the inalienable right of the Indian family to cook curry at any time they wish to within the four walls of their home. (having said that, let us all- natives, new citizens or otherwise, embrace the multi-cultural aspects of our nation)
Every Singaporean should just cook a pot of curry and eat it (regardless of race / language / religion). We are Singaporeans and we LOVE our curries - be it chicken curry / fish curry / lamb curry / beef curry / beef rendang / lontong / mee siam/ laksa / Petai sambal belachan / ayam buah keluak etc
Thank You Very Much for supporting "Cook A Pot of Curry" Event!
- from the Admin Group
July 26, 2011
Project Happy Feet: PHF Slipper Race - It's Happening! :)
13 November 2011 – Save the date for the inaugural Project Happy Feet Slipper Race 2011. More details coming your way!
To know more about Project Happy Feet, please click http://www.projecthappyfeet.org/
June 25, 2011
ST: Marriage - Don't wait for stars to be aligned
Jun 26, 2011
Marriage: Don't wait for stars to be aligned
Govt will try to raise rate but couples should not wait for tangible perks, says MG Chan
(from left) NTUC FairPrice CEO Seah Kian Peng, co-chair of the National Family Celebrations organising committee Lim Soon Hock, DPM Teo, Minister of State for Community Development, Youth and Sports Halimah Yacob and MG Chan enjoying a game at the Family Day Out carnival at Marina Bay yesterday. -- PHOTO: LIANHE ZAOBAO
The Government will keep on trying to raise the marriage rate in Singapore, but couples also should not hinge their decision to tie the knot on just tangible incentives, said Acting Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports Chan Chun Sing yesterday.
Singaporeans should not wait till 'all the stars are aligned', such as owning an HDB flat or a car, before they get married, he advised. This is because it is impossible to have the perfect conditions for getting married or having a child.
Major-General (NS) Chan was speaking on the sidelines of the National Family Celebrations at Marina Bay yesterday.
Earlier, at the same event, Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean reminded participants in a speech that everyone has a part to play in making Singapore family-friendly.
'As a society, we need to help our families to cope and to thrive by building a pro-family environment. This goes beyond government measures, such as Baby Bonus, paid maternity leave and childcare leave,' said Mr Teo.
The DPM added that the celebrations - an annual event organised by the National Family Council, which this year focused on youth - are a 'good reminder to us parents that strong family support is essential for our young people as they mature as adults'.
Said MG Chan: 'This has to do with the culture, that we bring up our children to be more family-oriented, that the family is always at the centre of one's life.'
MG Chan commented on recently released figures which show Singapore's marriage rate having dipped to a historic low last year.
He said Singaporeans should be more concerned about long-term marriage trends instead of worrying about any blips in the statistics.
'Let us look at the trend rather than a particular year's statistics... There might be one or two reasons why there is a drop, but overall I think we're more concerned with the trend,' he added.
'We're not too excited when next year there's a sudden increase or dip. What we're more interested in is whether the trend overall is a more positive one.'
The month-long National Family Celebrations closed yesterday with its Family Day Out carnival, which drew 36,000 Singaporeans to Marina Bay to spend a day with their families.
May 15, 2011
FT: Architect of modern Singapore steps down
Architect of modern Singapore steps down
By Kevin Brown in Singapore
Published: May 15 2011 12:34 | Last updated: May 15 2011 12:34
 |
| Lee Kuan Yew, former Singapore prime minister, has resigned his cabinet seat after 52 years |
Singaporeans woke up on Sunday to the prospect of a government without the country’s founding father Lee Kuan Yew – a dominating political figure who unexpectedly resigned from the cabinet after more than half a century in service.
Mr Lee, 87, quit along with Goh Chok Tong, prime minister from 1990 to 2004, exactly a week after the ruling People’s Action party suffered its worst election result since independence in 1965.
In a joint statement, the two former prime ministers said they wanted to provide “a fresh clean slate” for Lee Hsien Loong, the current prime minister, who has promised to respond positively to voters’ concerns.
Mr Lee, who has been prime minister or a senior cabinet minister since the beginning of colonial self government in 1959, told state media his resignation was “the right thing to do, to give PM (sic) and his team the room to break from the past.”
He added: “We want to make it clear that the PAP has never been averse to change.”
As a founder member of the PAP in 1954, Mr Lee is regarded as the architect of modern Singapore, setting it on a free market course designed to attract foreign investment that has given the tiny island state the second highest living standards in Asia, after Japan.
He successfully fought far left opponents in the 1960s, locking up many without trial for years, and became associated with a tough approach to dissent that many dismissed as authoritarian. However, the PAP was repeatedly re-elected in general elections, usually winning between two-thirds and three quarters of the popular vote.
In a joint statement, the two former prime ministers said they wanted to provide “a fresh clean slate” for Lee Hsien Loong, the current prime minister, who has promised to respond positively to voters¨concerns.
The PAP won 81 of 87 elected parliamentary seats with 60.1 per cent of the popular vote in the last election on May 7, but was clearly shaken by an increase in the total opposition vote to 39.9 per cent from a third in 2006.
The retirement of the two former prime ministers has few implications for policy, since the government has already undertaken to address election issues such as high immigration, income disparity and the price of government-subsidised housing.
However, political analysts said it was not purely symbolic, and speculated that the prime minister, who is the son of Lee Kuan Yew, might take the opportunity to replace a number of other senior ministers with younger faces.
Eugene Tan, a politics specialist at Singapore Management University, said the changing of the guard suggested the PAP was serious about promises to reconnect with younger voters, many of whom dislike the governing party’s authoritarian style.
“Government policy is seen as bearing the imprint of [Lee Kuan Yew], and the fact is that the announcement comes a week after the general election and that voters did not take kindly to what some might say was negative campaigning by [the elder Mr Lee],” he said.
“We are transitioning towards a post-Lee Kuan Yew era, and many did not expect it to come so soon. But it is not a revolution. That is not the way government is conducted in Singapore.”
The elder Mr Lee will remain a powerful figure in Singapore, as a leading member of the governing party with the ear of the prime minister, untrammelled access to the state supervised media and significant moral authority, especially over older Singaporeans.
However, his standing has been tarnished in recent years by controversial statements such as a claim that the country’s Malay muslim minority had failed to integrate, and an appearance of being out of step with Singaporeans born after independence, who now make up a majority of voters.
Mr Lee caused controversy during the election by appearing to threaten that the government would discriminate against constituencies that elected opposition MPs. His comments were in sharp contrast to the emollient tone adopted by the prime minister, who offered an unprecedented apology for any mistake the PAP might have made.
He became the first prime minister of independent Singapore in 1965, after the union broke up amid acrimony over Malay political rights. He stepped down in 1990, and has since served as a cabinet minister without portfolio, latterly with the title Minister Mentor.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2011.
May 10, 2011
NY Times: In Singapore, Political Campaigning Goes Viral
In Singapore, Political Campaigning Goes Viral
By SETH MYDANS
SINGAPORE — This tightly controlled city-state has taken a step into the unknown in advance of its parliamentary elections on Saturday, loosening its grip on political discourse in the unruly world of the Internet, where Facebook, Twitter and other social media have amplified a clamor of voices and points of view.
In a nation where government opponents are often sued over defamation and where carefully vetted public speech has been permitted only in a little park called Speakers’ Corner (which has been shut down during the campaign), experts say the new opening, if only in the virtual world, appears to be a redefinition of what are known here as “out-of-bounds markers.”
Following recent changes to the Constitution and election laws, Internet election advertising is now permitted throughout cyberspace — on podcasts, videocasts, blogs, instant messaging, photo-sharing platforms like Flickr, social networking sites and electronic media applications like those found on mobile phones.
For the first time, election campaign recordings can be posted as long as they are not “dramatized” or published “out of context.” Video taken at an election rally can be uploaded onto the Web without being submitted to the Board of Film Censors.
“Social media have lowered the barriers of entry into political discourse everywhere,” said Mark Cenite, an assistant professor of communication and information at Nanyang Technological University. “But that’s particularly significant in Singapore because here the barriers to entry into political discourse and the accompanying risks have been so high.”
Despite the changes to Internet regulations, demonstrations and public speech still require permits in Singapore. Political speech is restricted to candidates. Opposition politicians and news media face the possibility of defamation suits. The mainstream news media are tightly controlled and have not acted as a check on the government, experts say.
During the last parliamentary campaign, in 2006, a small number of current events blogs were the main forum for online citizen participation. Political speech was technically illegal and demanded a greater level of risk and commitment.
“Now that the barriers to entry to political dialogue have fallen, the effect has been electric,” Mr. Cenite said. “Government critics are able to easily identify and support one another without making a headlong commitment to politics and take the accompanying risks.”
All of this has contributed to an intense campaign in which opposition parties — which now hold just 2 of 84 elected seats — are drawing bigger crowds to rallies, fielding more candidates and, in contrast to the past, contesting all but one constituency. In the last election, opposition parties contested just half the constituencies.
Analysts say it is impossible to know whether this enthusiasm will translate into votes against the People’s Action Party, or P.A.P., which has governed Singapore since 1959.
But the campaign itself has been transformed as social media give smaller, poorer parties a wider audience, bringing greater inclusiveness and competitiveness to political debate.
Rather than trying to suppress online political organizing, as China and Vietnam have done, Singapore is taking a gamble on making it part of the legal campaign system.
“I don’t think they had a choice,” said Kin Mun Lee, known on his blog as Mr. Brown, who said he skirted the law in the last campaign by avoiding explicitly political comments. “Before, it was a very limited kind of provision for online speech. Definitely they had to change the rules because of the proliferation and availability of options.”
Opposition Web sites and Twitter accounts are being used to urge people to attend election rallies. They also send out streams of comments from rallies, hugely increasing their audience. The site Gothere Maps plots out the locations of rallies on a map.
The site Party Time aggregates conversations about the elections and graphically represents who is getting the most buzz online.
Facebook is estimated to have up to three million members in Singapore, whose population is more than five million. All seven competing parties have their own sites, as do many of the candidates.
By one estimate, there are 900,000 local users of Twitter.
Online coverage has pushed the main pro-government newspaper, The Straits Times, to publish fuller and not always critical news and photographs of opposition campaigns, said Alex Au, a prominent blogger.
“In the present era, with the ubiquitous cellphone camera and rapid distribution channels that are well beyond blogs, the old editorial policy is no longer viable,” he said on his blog. “If the newspaper does not publish such pictures, others will, and its credibility can only suffer.”
The Straits Times has dedicated a portal on its Web site to extensive electronic election coverage, and it is now aggregating online comments from the social media on a page it calls Buzz, which gives a flavor of some of the newly energized online commentary:
“The opposition can make ferocious speeches, but can they deliver?”
“Is it true that civil servants will be ostracized if they vote for the opposition?”
“If the opposition is sincere in serving the people, it would have been on the ground in the last 4 years, not starting their engines only when the whistle is blown.”
“Why must we be so dogmatic about democracy and stability being mutually exclusive?”
April 30, 2011
NY Times: 36 Hours in Singapore
36 Hours in Singapore
By ONDINE COHANE
From left Bikes for rent at Vanguard, on Robertson Quay; the observation deck of the Marina Bay Sands offers spectacular 360-degree views; in the kitchen at Dim Joy restaurant.
JUDGING from the number of cranes that dot the city’s skyline, Singapore is booming. In the last few years, casinos and hotels have sprung up; museums and galleries in former colonial landmarks have flung open their doors; and international designers have staked out prime real estate alongside up-and-comers just starting to make their fashion mark. Throughout the city, street vendors and sleek restaurants — new and well-established — serve up the city’s renowned mix of Malay, Chinese and Indian ethnic cuisines. And, best of all, sexy lounges and rooftop bars are helping the city-state shake off its formerly staid image.
Friday
4 p.m.
1) BIRD’S-EYE VIEW
There are few better symbols of Singapore’s recent success — or excess, depending on your perspective — than the year-old Marina Bay Sands (10 Bayfront Avenue; 65-6688-8868; marinabaysands.com), a gargantuan, three-towered complex with more than 2,500 rooms that looms over the city. Even if you aren’t staying at the hotel or hitting the casino, a ticket costing 20 Singapore dollars, or $16.50 at 1.22 Singapore dollars to the U.S. dollar, will provide access to the most impressive feature: SkyPark, an observation deck with 360-degree views. In one direction you’ll see the city’s expansive harbor; in the other, its sparkling skyline. Entry also includes a gander at what is billed as the world’s largest infinity pool, an architectural marvel that links the tops of the trio of towers.
5 p.m.
2) DUAL PURPOSED
The city’s new Museum of Contemporary Arts (27A Loewen Road; 65-6479-6622; mocaloewen.sg), known as MOCA, exemplifies Singapore’s ability to conserve existing colonial structures while creating cutting-edge interiors. In this case a former army barracks dating from the 1860s now showcases work from artists from all over Asia. Since opening in December the gallery has featured the Chinese provocateur Guo Jin and sculptors like Jiang Shuo and Wu Shaoxiang. This month the museum focuses on S. P. Hidayat, an up-and-coming Indonesian expressionist. In the fall a 2.5-acre sculpture garden will be unveiled.
8 p.m.
3) CULINARY ARTS
It’s not just for business deals that Singapore competes with Tokyo, Hong Kong and Shanghai. The food scene is also notable. One of its most impressive arrivals, Restaurant André (41 Bukit Pasoh Road; 65-6534-8880; restaurantandre.com), opened late last year in the Chinatown neighborhood with an eight-course seasonal tasting menu that combines Asian and European ingredients — Hokkaido scallop ravioli is served with cured purple shallots, basil and shiso flowers, while wagyu beef from Omi is accompanied by vegetables from France, all paired with wine from small producers in Burgundy and Alsace. The downside is the price (the tasting menu is 288 Singapore dollars; and wine pairings, 200 dollars). For a more reasonable but still excellent meal, head to Wild Rocket (10A Upper Wilkie Road; 65-6339-9448; wildrocket.com.sg), a foodie favorite where a four-course tasting menu includes dishes like soft-shell crab with Granny Smith salad and baked red grouper with French beans and laksa broth, and costs 62 dollars.
11 p.m.
4) NIGHTTIME MAKEOVER
With night-life options now ranging from multiplex techno clubs to more intimate spots that feature D.J.’s and specialty cocktails, the city is shedding its uptight reputation. In the Emily Hill complex, for example, a former colonial estate has been transformed into a multi-use compound that is home to artists’ studios and a theater school as well as Wild Oats restaurant and bar (11 Upper Wilkie Road; 65-6336-5413), where Singapore’s beautiful crowd convenes for drinks after dinner on a sprawling terrace. In Chinatown, Ying Yang (28 Ann Siang Road; 65-6808-2188), a black-and-white rooftop bar at the new Club hotel on Ann Siang Road, has also become a city hot spot — try the litchi martini for 18 Singapore dollars.
Saturday
10 a.m.
5) TRAINING WHEELS
After a coffee or fresh watermelon juice at Kith Café (7 Rodyk Street, nos. 1-33; 65-6341-9407; kith.com.sg) on Robertson Quay — where neighborhood families and fashionable couples convene for breakfast — rent a vintage single- speed French city bike or a Raleigh six-speed from Vanguard next door (65-6835-7228) for 10 Singapore dollars per hour. Singapore is still very orderly in many ways, which comes in handy when trying to navigate city traffic by bike; neighborhoods like Clark Quay and the Colonial Center are especially easy to explore. Just remember to get off your bike when going through the tunnels — or you might get a hefty fine for breaking a city law.
Noon
6) STREET SMARTS
A long tradition of strong regional cuisine and strict hygiene laws makes for some of the world’s best — and safest — street food. Nowadays most of the hawkers are concentrated in covered food halls so that ingredients are kept cool, and preparation methods and cleanliness can be kept to a uniform standard. At the Maxwell Road Food Center near Chinatown, vendors sell everything from dumplings to onion pancakes to dessert: at Tian Tian (No. 11), try the chicken rice; at Hokee (No. 79), the soup dumplings, and at No. 848, fresh fruit and juice (one, a bitter gourd and honey mix, promises “to reduce heatiness (sic).” Prices are 1 to 8 Singapore dollars.
2 p.m.
7) STYLE MAVENS
Many of the city’s promising young designers and fashion curators have set up shop in former chophouses along Haji Lane near Arab Street, a counterbalance to the more ubiquitous shopping malls in town. Know It Nothing (51 Haji Lane; 65-6392-5475; knowitnothing.com) showcases mostly men’s clothes like checked shirts, well-cut khakis and hats (all chosen for the balmy climate), as well as a more limited just-launched women’s line. Salad Shop (25 Haji Lane; 65-6299-5805) has chic basics like stylish summer dresses, many for less than 125 Singapore dollars, and Pluck (31/33 Haji Lane; 65-6396-4048; pluck.com.sg) is an emporium for home-grown talent with a collection that ranges from home accessories to bags and jewelry (and includes an ice-cream parlor on site).
5 p.m.
8) PASS THE CRUMPETS
For a taste of the British colonial past, book a table for high tea at the Tiffin Room at Raffles (1 Beach Road; 65-6337-1886; raffles.com), a hotel from the 1800s that hosted literary types like Rudyard Kipling and Noel Coward. Tea sandwiches, crumpets and a harp player, not to mention the white glove service, are the vestiges of a more rarefied era; 55 Singapore dollars a person for adults, 27.50 for kids.
8 p.m.
9) TABLE WITH A VIEW
Orchard Street, the city’s main shopping district, received a multimillion-dollar revamp in 2009 when it became home to another retail giant, a mall called the Ion Orchard. Now the Australian chef Luke Mangan has opened Salt Grill on the 55th and 56th floors (65-659-25118; saltgrill.com), with jaw-dropping views over the city. The menu includes dishes like yellowtail kingfish sashimi, a salad of seasonal baby vegetables, slow poached hen’s egg, buffalo mozzarella and candied walnuts, and more substantial entrees like a strip loin from Rangers Valley in Australia for 52 Singapore dollars. The combination of the panorama and the food has made Salt Grill one of the city’s hardest reservations to snag.
Sunday
10 a.m.
10) GREEN SPACE
Join local residents on a Sunday morning stroll in the city’s impressive Botanic Gardens (www.sbg.org.sg; 5 Singapore dollars for access to the orchid area, otherwise admission is free), a 150-acre-plus green space with meandering pathways, pretty lakes and an excellent variety of local plants and trees. Don’t miss the Orchid Garden with more than 1,000 species and 2,000 hybrids of the show-stopping blooms.
Noon
11) SWEET AND SAVORY
Forget brunch. Dim sum at the aptly named Dim Joy (80 Neil Road; 65-6220-6986; www.dimjoy.com/home.html) involves plates of delicate handmade dumplings based on seasonal ingredients from local markets like delicate char siew so (4 Singapore dollars) and chive and pork wor tip, as well as pan-fried radish cake (3.50 dollars), stewed pork belly and mui choy buns (8 dollars). Leave room for the sweet custard buns.
IF YOU GO
With spectacular views over the city and a secluded pool area, the newly renovated Ritz-Carlton Millenia (7 Raffles Avenue; 65-6-337-8888; ritzcarlton.com) is a luxury option that’s also child friendly. Doubles start at 380 Singapore dollars, or about $312.
A few boutique hotels have sprung up in the last couple of years, including the Club (28 Ann Siang Road; 65-6808-2188; theclub.com.sg; doubles from 225 Singapore dollars) in a historic 1800s building; the Scarlet (33 Erskine Road; 65-6511-3333; thescarlethotel.com) in Chinatown; small rooms from 320 dollars; and Wanderlust (2 Dickson Road; 65-6396-3322; wanderlusthotel.com), the latest arrival in a 1920s building in little India; opening rates from 180 dollars.
IF YOU GO
With spectacular views over the city and a secluded pool area, the newly renovated Ritz-Carlton Millenia (7 Raffles Avenue; 65-6-337-8888; ritzcarlton.com) is a luxury option that’s also child friendly. Doubles start at 380 Singapore dollars, or about $312.
A few boutique hotels have sprung up in the last couple of years, including the Club (28 Ann Siang Road; 65-6808-2188; theclub.com.sg; doubles from 225 Singapore dollars) in a historic 1800s building; the Scarlet (33 Erskine Road; 65-6511-3333; thescarlethotel.com) in Chinatown; small rooms from 320 dollars; and Wanderlust (2 Dickson Road; 65-6396-3322; wanderlusthotel.com), the latest arrival in a 1920s building in little India; opening rates from 180 dollars.
March 25, 2011
ST: 'Cupid' course - Participants will be taught how to matchmake their single friends
:D
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Mar 26, 2011
'Cupid' course
Participants will be taught how to matchmake their single friends
An SDN survey of 1,500 singles last year found that:
- Almost half felt the best way for them to find a partner was through friends
- One in 10 said their family's informal introductions would be the best way to find a mate
Married couple Ian Lin and Liang Yiwen (background) brought their friends Tom Ng and Lio Weiyun together. Mr Ng and Ms Lio are now engaged. Ms Liang feels that pairing two people is a matter of common sense. -- ST PHOTO: NEO XIAOBIN
View more photos
FRIENDS and relatives of singles are being sought after to play Cupid.
The Government, anxious to get more people hitched and into nesting mode to arrest the falling birth rate here, even wants to help them learn the fine art of matchmaking.
What love is about, the science of attraction, how to set up their friends with panache, and the advice to dish out on what to wear and what to say on that first date - these are topics to be covered in a course run by the Social Development Network (SDN) and to be taught by counsellors or social workers.
It will cost an aspiring Cupid about $20 to learn the moves.
The reason the course is targeted at members of the public is that singles prefer to meet a potential partner through family or friends.
A survey by the SDN last year found that nearly half of the 1,500 singles who responded wanted to meet that someone special through friends; 10 per cent preferred introductions through family.
Minister of State for Community Development, Youth and Sports Yu-Foo Yee Shoon said yesterday at the opening of Real Loves 2011, a week-long slew of events to celebrate marriage, that the pilot run of the course in July will be for marriage solemnisers, because they already show an interest in helping others find love and can spread the word about the course to grassroots workers.
Mrs Yu-Foo said families are now smaller and rely less on the ties that used to bind entire kampungs and spurred villagers to step in to matchmake eligible men and women in their midst.
Today, formal channels like matchmaking agencies do the job, she said.
She had some numbers to show that the exercise is more than a passing amusement: The number of singles is growing. They now make up 32.2 per cent of the resident population aged 15 and older, up from 30.5 per cent in 2000.
If the 61-year-old sounds evangelistic, it is because her own marriage is the result of a crack-shot Cupid. She said she met her husband Yu Lee Wu, now a 64-year-old retired professor, through friends.
Meanwhile, among those who are already playing matchmaker are some who are open to attending the course.
Credit analyst Liang Yiwen, 27, and her research-engineer husband Ian Lin, 28, already claim one success in matchmaking - without formal training: Their friends Lio Weiyun, 27, and Tom Ng, 28, who they brought together last year, are now engaged to be married.
Ms Lio, a human resources executive, and Mr Ng, a bank analyst, met during preparations for the wedding between Ms Liang and Mr Lin last October.
Ms Liang said: 'I'd find out from Weiyun how she felt about Tom, and my husband would tell him. They were shy so we became the middlemen, relaying messages to the other party.'
Ms Liang said she would consider attending the course, although pairing two people was a matter of 'common sense', and the fee may be a deterrent.
Online media-firm manager Yang Huiwen, 24, agreed the fee was a turn-off but thought some tips were worth picking up, going by her 'zero success rate' with matchmaking five couples.
The chief executive of Lunch Actually, Ms Violet Lim, said she does not feel threatened by the programme because a dating agency like hers offers a wider pool of contacts than friends or family can.
'Friends may be well-meaning, but they have their own lives and jobs so the help they give may not be consistent. I think, ultimately, it's good to equip those who are interested in matchmaking with skills, because we all want to see singles married off as well.'
January 16, 2011
ST: We are not vulnerable? They can beseige you. You'll be dead
Jan 16, 2011
We are not vulnerable? They can besiege you. You'll be dead
Hard Truths will be launched by Singapore Press Holdings' book publishing subsidiary Straits Times Press on Friday. It is based on 16 interviews with Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew. We reproduce here excerpts on MM Lee's views on Singapore and being Singaporean.
(Clockwise, from right) MM Lee, his press secretary Yeong Yoon Ying, ST reporter Rachel Lin, deputy review editor Chua Mui Hoong, deputy editor Zuraidah Ibrahim, editor Han Fook Kwang, news editor Ignatius Low, reporter Robin Chan, deputy political editor Lydia Lim, and MM?s principal private secretary Chee Hong Tat. Singapore spends 5 to 6 per cent of GDP on defence every year because Singapore?s vulnerability is very real, says MM. -- ST FILE PHOTO
Lee was hardly the easiest person to interview. He was blunt at times, and often cantankerous and combative. Although he had agreed to a no-holds-barred interview format, he did not conceal his annoyance when he felt that the questions reflected perspectives that he had no patience for.
The journalists before him then seemed to become, in his eyes, surrogates for his ideological opponents and were dressed down accordingly. On other occasions, though, he seemed to relish the exercise, sometimes prefacing an extended discourse with 'Have I told you this story?' or coming prepared with a clutch of anecdotes and a choice phrase for the week.
Visible too were the signs of a man coping with the frailties of age. One day, he shuffled in wearing sandals. His toes had an infection. After a trip to Malaysia, where he had fallen off an exercise bicycle in his hotel in Kuantan, he appeared with an improvised therapeutic device: a heating pad strapped to his leg with neon-coloured skipping ropes.
After converting to a floor bike, his stiffness moved to his back and the pad followed. Several times, he would use a spritzer to moisten his parched throat.
Once, during a trip to Armenia, he developed pneumonia as he was having problems swallowing and food had gone down his windpipe.
Not once, however, did he lament about being tired or weary. The interviews drew not only from his surfeit of memories, but also from the latest developments in Asia and the world. He was obviously keeping abreast of things, whether it was China's green energy ambitions or the elections in Japan. While he was less in command of the specific details of domestic policies, he was more than familiar with their general thrust. He kept himself scrupulously up to date on world events. He read the papers every day and in the office, his radio would always be tuned to the BBC World News Service.
At the final interview, we asked him about the leaders he admired the most. In past speeches and his memoirs, he had mentioned Deng Xiaoping. This time, he also named Charles de Gaulle, the president of the French Fifth Republic, and Winston Churchill, Britain's wartime prime minister.
He quoted Churchill's famous 'We shall fight on the beaches' speech. He recounted how de Gaulle had fought the odds to rouse and rally his people at times of near-defeat.
As he talked, his eyes gleamed, he gritted his teeth. He clenched both his hands into fists and his voice curdled in his throat before spilling forth. In that moment, the same fierce determination he showed as a young leader in the 1950s and 1960s when rallying his own people flashed across his face.
One remembered all over again that Lee was born a fighter. In that moment too, one could see the scale of the terrain that he pictured himself battling in. Not for him the quotidian concerns of a country content with its creature comforts. This was a leader who had overseen events unfold in grand terms, life and death, danger and escape, success and failure - of a people, of a country.
Singapore is not in that moment of epic change. Will it have in its sinews the same fighting spirit as its founding father when that time comes? It is a question only the young can answer.
Q Some commentators say that you have created Singapore in your image, including 'always living in fear of a catastrophe'. Why are you so worried that it could all fail?
I'm concerned that Singaporeans assume that Singapore is a normal country, that we can be compared to Denmark or New Zealand or even Liechtenstein or Luxembourg. We are in a very turbulent region. If we do not have a government and a people that differentiate themselves from the rest of the neighbourhood in a positive way and can defend ourselves, Singapore will cease to exist.
It's not the view of just my generation but also those who have come into Defence, Foreign Affairs ministries and those who have studied the position. Whether it's Ng Eng Hen, who was a surgeon, or Raymond Lim, formerly an academic and a lawyer by training, or Vivian Balakrishnan, an eye surgeon, they all understand now the circumstances that conscribe us. If we ignore those circumstances, we'll go down the drain.
We have not got neighbours who want to help us prosper. When we prospered, they for many years believed we were living off their resources. It was only when they became aware that our economic policy of welcoming foreign investments made the difference that they were sufficiently convinced to also do likewise.
We are an upstart in this region because we survived for so long and I believe we can survive easily another 50 to 100 years given the international environment, provided we have a strong system that enables us to maximise our chances.
Q What do you mean by a 'strong system'? Is it another phrase for the People's Action Party (PAP) continuing to be in power?
Whether it's the PAP or any other government does not interest me. I'm beyond that phase. I'm not out here to justify the PAP or the present government. I want to get across just how profound is this question of leadership and people and the ethical and philosophical beliefs of the leadership and the people.
Q Are we really as vulnerable as you suggest? Critics would say you make things seem so dire that so many things practised elsewhere, including in small countries, such as political competition, will not be available here.
No, we are not preventing competition. What we are preventing is duds getting into Parliament and government. Any person of quality, we welcome him but we don't want duds. We don't want Chee Soon Juan, or J.B. Jeyaretnam. They're not going to build the country. But if any serious man turns up and forms an alternative equal to us, I say, 'Good'. Then we are getting a proper alternative. But look at the candidates they put up.
Now, are we not vulnerable? If we are not vulnerable, why do we spend 5 to 6 per cent of GDP (gross domestic product) year after year on defence? Are we mad? This is a frugal government, you know that well.
We dug a deep tunnel for the sewers at the cost of $3.65 billion in order to use the sewage water for Newater, to be independent.
We are not vulnerable? They can besiege you. You'll be dead. Your sea lanes are cut off and your business comes to a halt. What is our reply? Security Council, plus defence capabilities of our own, plus the Security Framework Agreement with the Americans.
They stopped sand. Why? To conscribe us. As Mahathir (former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad) says, 'Even at their present size they are trouble, you let them grow some more they will be more trouble'. We've got friendly neighbours? Grow up.
Why would we put a strong minister in Defence if it's not important? He's the strongest minister in the Cabinet next to the PM, toughest, most capable. We have always put a strong man there. Do we parade our vulnerabilities? We are living in an adult world. Why do we have peace? Because it is not cost-free if you hit us. If you hit us we will hit you and the damage may be more on your side.
Q But this point about not being a normal country...
Forgive me for saying this: Assuming that I'm just nearly as intelligent as you are, but I've lived more than 85 years and I've been through all these ups and downs and I've spent all my life since the age of 32 figuring out how to make this place work, right?
First, I believed and said the only way it could work was to join Malaya because otherwise we cannot live. Our water, our raw materials, imports, much of the exports come from Malaya. That was at that time. We couldn't get to Malaya because the Tunku didn't want the Chinese population.
We worked around that and we joined Malaysia. Then we found ourselves trapped, from a communist Singapore to a Malay-ultra Malaysia. Has Malaysia changed? How has it changed?
Why did I break down when we got out on the 9th of August? Because I left behind tens of thousands of people who had joined our rallies, and I knew that they were going to be handicapped, again a minority and leaderless. We provided the leadership. So when you tell me we're not vulnerable, I say, 'Oh, God!'
You speak to the SAF (Singapore Armed Forces) commanders. Why do they do this - two years of every young man's life, 4, 5 to 6 per cent of GDP and a frugal government that builds up reserves? We do this because of hallucinations? Or because that's the only way we can be left alone to survive and prosper?
Why do you think we spent all this effort to solve our water problem until we became specialists in water? Mahathir knew we needed Johor water. So when the water agreement was going to end in 2011 for Tebrau and Skudai, we knew we would be short. Then we discovered Newater. He thought we were bluffing. You say we're not vulnerable?
We should not gloss over our worries. They are real problems. And we are what we are because we can stand up for ourselves. If we can't, we've had it. The Security Council passes resolutions. So what? Who goes to Kuwait's rescue? The US. Why? Because of oil. Why? Because next stop would be Saudi Arabia.
Who's coming to our rescue because of water? The US? No. We rescue ourselves. Either the media grows up, especially the young reporters, or we're going to bring up a generation that lives in a dream world of security when none exists...
I had to make this society produce results, then we will become prosperous, then we can have a strong defence, and the world has a place for us. If you believe we're like Norway or Sweden or Denmark, then we won't survive.
Singapore is an 80-storey building on marshy land. We've learnt how to put in stakes and floats so we can go up for another 20, maybe over a hundred storeys. Provided you understand and ensure that the foundation is strong. Crucial is interracial, interreligious harmony. Without that, quarrelling with one another, we are doomed.
Q Do you worry about this place after you are no longer around?
After I'm dead?
Q I mean, all these calculations...
No, all these calculations have been discussed and re-discussed.
Q But they originate from you.
Yes, but every member of the Cabinet and definitely every defence minister and all the critical ministers understand exactly what our position is.
Q But the external situation will change. There will be new challenges and new calculations will have to be done. Original thinking will be required.
But they have the capabilities. They may not be found all in one man. But it wasn't in me alone. I had a group of men who together had multi-sided perspectives, like a Rubik's Cube.
Q It's not tested, their capacity for original thinking.
How can you say it's not tested? They are getting out of this recession with great skill. They are handling it with great skill. I'm just standing by seeing that this is all right. They worked out the solution.
I did not, I cannot read the facts and figures of the Ministry of Finance and MTI (Ministry of Trade and Industry) and EDB (Economic Development Board) in detail. I had to read them when I was Prime Minister, but I'm not any longer. I look ahead for over-the-horizon problems and opportunities.
Look out for more exclusive excerpts in The Straits Times and The Sunday Times next weekend.
Interracial harmony crucial
'Singapore is an 80-storey building on marshy land. We've learnt how to put in stakes and floats so we can go up for another 20, maybe over a hundred storeys. Provided you understand and ensure that the foundation is strong. Crucial is interracial, interreligious harmony. Without that, quarrelling with one another, we are doomed.'
MM LEE KUAN YEW
ST: The time is ripe for adopting lemon law
Prime News
Home > Prime News > Story
Jan 17, 2011
The time is ripe for adopting lemon law
Proposed law regarding defective goods could raise retail standards
JUST a week after paying $2,150 for a wooden bed frame, Madam Radia Matom was dismayed to find long cracks appearing on it. She made more than 10 calls to the retailer at Harbourfront Centre, but got no satisfaction.
A year-long battle ensued, with five mediation sessions at the Consumers Association of Singapore (Case) and two trips to the Small Claims Tribunal.
Finally, the 50-year-old housewife was offered a partial refund of $1,000. She considered rejecting the offer and suing the retailer in court for a full refund, but was uncertain if she would succeed.
If a proposed law is passed here, success is certain for cases such as hers. But reactions to the proposed law have been mixed.
A taskforce headed by the Ministry of Trade and Industry and Case is revising the Consumer Protection (Fair Trading) Act and Hire Purchase Act, which together empower consumers to seek civil remedies for a wide range of unfair practices, from aggressive sales tactics to false claims.
Late last month, it proposed changes that will allow the courts to compel a retailer to repair, exchange or offer refunds for a good that is found to be defective within six months of purchase. Views are being sought on the changes till Jan 31.
Already, some small retailers are dreading the proposed 'lemon' law, named after the colloquial reference to a defective product as a 'lemon'. Consumers, on the other hand, are happy.
In fact, both retailers' despair and consumers' elation are unfounded. The law will not make things onerous for retailers. But neither will it provide a great deal of protection for consumers in its proposed form. But it is still a welcome step forward on the journey towards greater consumer protection.
Why do I say this?
First, it is timely. The consumer watchdog received 1,785 complaints about defective goods in the first 11 months of last year, compared with 1,877 in 2009 and 2,224 in 2008. In all three years, complaints about mobile phones, furniture and electronic products were most common.
Second, retailers' concerns are, frankly, unwarranted. Several shopkeepers told The Straits Times that they fear consumers taking advantage of lemon laws by returning goods that are used or damaged through wear and tear.
Petty customers, they feel, would demand refunds on a whim. It would make it easy for people to buy something - such as a prom dress or a Christmas tree - use it for a few weeks, and then demand compensation. Others may return a product simply because they have grown to dislike its colour or design, they argue.
Such fears exaggerate the impact of the proposed law, which after all kicks in only when a dispute makes it to court.
On the shop floor, retailers are not forced to give in to requests for repairs, refunds or exchanges. But if a consumer proceeds to sue in court, and wins, the retailer can be ordered to replace, exchange or give a refund for the product.
Right now, with no proper lemon law, the outcome of a case depends on the judge's discretion. The retailer can also deny responsibility and blame the distributor, the importer or the manufacturer for the defect.
Consumers will thus have more recourse with defective goods. But the law as proposed will have a narrow ambit - deliberately so.
This is a key feature of the law that merits attention: The cases affected are likely to be confined to big-ticket lemons purchased by consumers who will go the distance to seek redress.
With a limited law in place, the question may arise as to whether this law is worth putting in place at all.
The answer is clearly 'yes'.
As the experience of other countries suggests, a simple lemon law can be the start for more thorough legislation later covering different products.
This is the case in the United States, where specific lemon laws - first created there in 1982 - exist for vehicles, computers and even pets.
In California, for instance, retailers who deal in sick dogs can be fined up to US$10,000 (S$13,000) or put out of business for a period of time.
Singapore's proposed law follows the British version, which is a blanket law covering many products, said Case chief executive Seah Seng Choon. He explained that complaints are received for a wide range of products. The law could be amended in future to target specific industries if needed.
A lemon law will also enhance Singapore's image as a shoppers' haven. Singapore Tourism Board figures show that tourists spent $3.15 billion from January to September last year on shopping, up 30 per cent from 2009's $2.42 billion.
Most important of all, the law will have the salutary effect of spurring the entire industry to improve service standards in the long run.
The use of lemon laws in the US and Britain has encouraged retailers to come up with their own policies on refunds and exchanges, and to publicise them.
This way, they avoid the risk of lengthy lawsuits or damage to their reputations from irate customers. In fact, the wish to avoid risky transactions also encourages retailers to go for reputable product sources.
The law could thus spark a sea change in the retail scene here. Few retailers here, apart from the big boys like Courts and Robinsons, now have a refund policy.
Others may offer exchanges, but on a purely case-by-case basis, leaving consumers vulnerable while the retailer decides at whim.
In short, the lemon law, though limited, has the potential to change the retail scene far beyond the courtroom.
January 15, 2011
ST: Acronyms can really baffle, FYI
Jan 16, 2011
Acronyms can really baffle, FYI
Last week I received one of the most enigmatic e-mails of my life.
'Hi,' it said, followed by an attachment. And then a single mystifying word: 'Fynap'.
I was befuddled, but intrigued. Was this a cryptic cipher meant to be decoded? Had I somehow intercepted a secret spy missive? Could it be one of those infamous Wiki Leaks documents flooding the Internet?
I reluctantly decided that was unlikely. For one thing, the Wiki Leaks records were supposed to contain unending pages of meaningless nonsense, not just one meaningless nonsense word.
So then I tried to puzzle it out. Did 'fynap' mean Five Year New Action Plan? Four Youths Nuke A Playground? Feed Your Nasty Angry Panda? Fancy Yellow Nylon Ankle Pants?
Before my head exploded with the possibilities, I finally Googled the word - only to discover, rather anti-climactically, that it was an acronym for 'For your necessary action please'.
No doubt shortening the phrase was meant to be efficient, but deciphering it probably took me more time than it would have taken the sender of the e-mail to just type those five words.
Still, it seems that brusque communication is the order of the day in today's modern world, where no one can afford the time for actual words anymore.
E-mails have never quite been erudite epistles, but they used to be at least understandable.
Now, with the advent of BlackBerrys and iPhones, and people driving or talking while attempting to write e-mails with their thumbs, they have gone from being terse to being downright incomprehensible.
'Fynap' is by no means the only e-mail shorthand festering out there.
Similar acronyms run the gamut from the slightly better known 'fyi' (for your information), 'fyr' (for your reference) and 'fya' (for your attention), to the relatively arcane 'fyeo' (for your eyes only).
Occasionally, you will get e-mailers who are a bit more communicative. After 'hi' and 'fyi', they sign off with 'Tks n b. rgds.'
I mean, seriously. (Or do I mean 'srsly'?) Is it really so difficult to type the few more letters that are needed to form the coherent message 'Thanks and best regards'?
Surely it wouldn't take that much more effort to convert 'HTH' into 'hope this helps', 'FWIW' into 'for what it's worth', or 'pls rvt tks' into something entirely more grammatical than 'please revert, thanks'.
Sometimes these acronyms can be fun, if you find a good one.
Instead of e-mailing someone to say 'Hi, have a nice day!', for instance, you could just say 'Hi, Hand!'
For maximum impact, you could attach a picture of a hand as well.
On second thought, it would be more efficient to send only the picture - and watch as your recipient tries to figure out what secret society is attempting to communicate with him.
As though this whole shorthand business wasn't confusing enough, it turns out not all acronyms are designed to have each letter represent one word.
A friend of mine once sent off a work e-mail containing some instructions to a business associate, and received the bewildering reply: 'Wilco.'
After spending some time experimenting with various word combinations - What If Lucy Comes Over? When Is Last Court Order? - he finally realised that 'wilco' was a contraction of only two words: 'will comply'.
So this new year, perhaps we could all try to be more lucid and less lazy, and spell out every acronym in full.
Not only would that make us sound more 'port out, starboard home' (supposedly the full meaning of the word 'posh'), we also wouldn't have to call in the grammar International Criminal Police Organisation (Interpol).
I leave it up to you - for your necessary action, please.
January 07, 2011
ST: an hour @ the museum (playgrounds in Singapore)
Life!
Home > Life! > Life Events > Story
Jan 7, 2011
an hour @ the museum
In this weekly column, we visit museums and art spaces and highlight what you must see if you have only an hour to spare.
School Of Hard Knocks by The Little Drom Store is a photography exhibition of playgrounds of the past by graphic designer Stanley Tan and his wife Antoinette Wong. The couple started taking pictures of these playgrounds about four years ago.
The works capture and celebrate the nostalgia associated with these playgrounds which are vanishing all too soon.
The exhibition is part of the M1 Singapore Fringe Festival.
Where: Esplanade Tunnel, 1 Esplanade Drive MRT: City Hall, Esplanade When: Till Jan 23, 5.45am - 12.15am Admission: Free Tel: 6440-8115 Info: www.singaporefringe.com
Deepika Shetty
1 THE PELICAN
Period of construction - 1970 to 1980
Location - Dover Road
The couple wanted to look at playgrounds which once sparked children's imaginations. Decorated with colourful mosaic tiles and unpadded, these playgrounds saw many children suffering injuries and knocks.
2 THE ELEPHANT
Period of construction - 1970 to 1980
Location - Pasir Ris Park
Playgrounds today lack a theme but in the past, animal-centric playgrounds helped parents educate their children while the little ones played. Children enjoyed simple activities such as sliding down the elephant's trunk at this playground in Pasir Ris.
3 THE SEAL
Period of construction - 1970 to 1980
Location - Dakota Crescent
This playground with a seal design featured a colourful suspension bridge that appealed to more adventurous kids, who could slide down or climb up a pole.
4 THE DRAGON
Period of construction - 1970 to 1980
Location - Toa Payoh
This playground with a dragon motif had a colourful suspension bridge as the dragon's body. Sand helped cushion the fall from the slide.
5 THE WATERMELON (SMALL)
Period of construction - 1970 to 1980
Location - Tampines
Other themes which inspired playgrounds built in Housing Board estates in the 1970s were fruit such as watermelons, which were used as motifs to promote healthy living as well as to represent tropical fruit familiar to Singaporeans.
6 THE CLOCK
Period of construction - 1970 to 1980
Location - Bishan
The design of the playgrounds in later years was influenced by nursery rhymes for children such as Hickory Dickory Dock, and became more sophisticated and Westernised.
7 THE TRISHAW
Period of construction - 1970 to 1980
Location - Eunos
The trishaw was a reflection of Singapore's past mode of transport as well as an easily identifiable element of Asian culture.
ST: Lessons from Singapore
Jan 7, 2011
Lessons from Singapore
Singapore has embraced globalisation and ensured its economy stays competitive, strategies Malaysia could learn from as it strives to become a high-income nation. -- ST PHOTO: NG SOR LUAN
TINY Singapore's gross domestic product was US$210 billion (S$271 billion) last year, higher than Malaysia's US$205 billion.
Singapore's GDP per capita was US$36,573, compared with Malaysia's US$6,975. In 1965, Singapore and Malaysia had GDP per capita of US$512 and US$335 respectively.
Why has there been such a wide disparity in economic performance between Singapore and Malaysia over the last 40 years? As far as political systems are concerned, both have been classified as either authoritarian or semi-democratic countries. But where the economy is concerned, Singapore is way ahead of Malaysia. About 400,000 Malaysians are now working in Singapore. Singapore has a population of only five million.
Singapore's business environment and competitiveness rank among the world's best. It is not only the world's second-largest container port and fourth-biggest foreign exchange trading centre, it also has the world's largest concentration of millionaires. Its per capita income surpassed that of Japan in 2007.
Indeed, in his recent book entitled The Era Of Low IQ, Mr Kenichi Ohmae - nicknamed Japan's Mr Strategist - listed Singapore and China as winners in the new era of globalisation. He opined that Japan should learn from Singapore to arrest the trend of low IQ among Japanese.
Owing to its geographical advantage and willingness to open up to foreigners, Singapore is able to attract talent from all corners of the Earth.
On the other hand, Malaysia is prevented from giving full play to its advantages by its ethnocentric mindset. If Malaysia fails to adopt a people-centric mindset and use fully its human, land and material resources, its economic achievements will be limited.
Singapore, like Malaysia, took the route of establishing labour-intensive industries to create jobs in the early 1960s and 1970s. However, by the early 1980s, Singapore had begun to transform itself into a skills- and knowledge-intensive economy and adopted a high-wage policy to accelerate this transformation. Till today, Malaysia does not dare to employ a similar strategy.
In the late 1980s, when globalisation sparked international competition, it became more difficult to upgrade industries using the high-wage policy. In other words, failure to seize opportunities early led to a doubling of costs.
In the 1990s, Singapore's development strategy leaned towards achieving economic diversity and becoming a knowledge economy. As a result, it became more market-oriented and strove to meet investors' needs, through offering better intellectual property rights protection, lower corporate taxes, greater ease in obtaining permanent resident status and more flexible labour policies. All these have helped to enhance Singapore's brand power and boost its appeal as an international investment destination.
One can say that many of Singapore's key policies revolved around increasing competitiveness and improving its business environment. Such orientation provides a bigger catalyst than Malaysia's Vision 2020 goal of becoming a 'high-income nation'.
This is because high income is a goal pursued by all nations and is not significant on its own. If high income is a goal set in relation to enhancing competitiveness or policy implementation, then it would be a great driving force.
For instance, if we ask how we can increase competitiveness, we will try to come up with a winning formula. If the formula is right, the objective will be achieved. But if we merely mention 'high-income nation', it will sound like a slogan and no concrete action is likely to be taken to find a winning formula.
By the same principle, Taiwan's strategy is to upgrade its industries and become a high-tech island. That is more realistic than the goal of becoming a high-income nation. If an economy can increase its competitiveness and productivity, move up the value chain, be highly innovative and attract talent, it will naturally develop into a high-income nation.
Singapore can be said to be a pragmatic nation that has capitalised on, instead of rejecting, globalisation. This is unlike former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad, who responded negatively to globalisation by bringing up the 'New Malay Dilemma'.
Singapore's elite leadership has striven to benefit from globalisation. Malaysia should learn from Singapore's proactiveness.
From the perspective of governance, Singapore has taken pains to avoid becoming a nanny state with a dependency culture but it is not an uncaring capitalist nation. For instance, its Central Provident Fund (CPF) system and housing policy have given Singaporeans economic security. Though income is not equally distributed in Singapore, it can be said to be an economically prosperous and relatively safe country.
In 2005, 93 per cent of Singaporeans owned homes, of which 88 per cent were affordable public housing flats. This high rate of home ownership, coupled with accumulated CPF savings, has made Singaporeans substantial stakeholders, which enabled the People's Action Party to consolidate its power base. By adopting a 'carrot-and-stick approach', this ruling party truly has some tricks of its own.
This article appeared first in Oriental Daily News, a Malaysian Chinese-language newspaper.
Singapore can be said to be a pragmatic nation that has capitalised on, instead of rejecting, globalisation. This is unlike former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad, who responded negatively to globalisation by bringing up the 'New Malay Dilemma'.
December 29, 2010
December 05, 2010
ST: Seeing the bigger picture
Dec 5, 2010
Seeing the bigger picture
It's good to look out the window now and then to see the world outside and get a sense of perspective
IT was 11pm and I was watching yet another episode of the television series Mad Men when I noticed my dog sitting at the window again.
He had begun to make a habit of it recently. Bored with watching his owners watch meaningless flickering images, he went to the window to look at something else.
This time, he was whining excitedly at something. Curious, I hit the 'pause' button and went to have a look.
The living room is on the second floor of a shophouse and the floor-to-ceiling windows look out on one of the many streets that branch off from Joo Chiat Road.
It took me a while to figure out what my dog was looking at. After all, I live in a colourful neighbourhood and something is happening on the street at virtually every hour of the day and night.
In the morning, you can see maids walking the family dogs and forlorn office executives listening to music at the start of a long trek to the train station.
In the dead of night, giggling girls with unfamiliar accents return from the nearby bars where they work, sometimes accompanied by customers who drape their arms around their shoulders.
Next to the street is a grassy plot of vacant land that has yet to be sold by the Government.
I used to think that it was nothing much to look at, until I spotted wild mushrooms growing in 'fairy rings'. I looked it up on the Internet. Apparently, people once believed that mushrooms growing in a circle were following a path made by fairies dancing in a ring.
Another day, I saw a lone man in the middle of the field carrying a net on a long pole. He was moving the net over the short grass in short quick swoops, lost in his own world.
My friend told me he heard such people were spirit catchers, and I have never looked at the open field in the same way since.
That quiet night, however, my dog had set his sights on something closer to home, gazing at a group of stray cats hanging out at the open drain just across from our door.
From their colour, it looked like the five of them might have been related. Three kittens were playing with one another while their mother watched nearby.
Papa Cat sat in the middle of all of them like a contented king of the castle. He was seated on his backside, balancing himself on the gentle slope of the drain, with his hind legs spread out in front of him.
His body was arched forward in a strangely human pose, and yes, he was staring curiously back at us.
These days, we never find the time to properly look out the window.
In densely populated Singapore where buildings are crammed so tightly against one another, it's hard, in the first place, to find a room with a view.
But I've discovered that sometimes we don't even want it. Often, we are too much more concerned about what's inside of a house or a living space than what's outside it.
That sort of logic accounted for two of the worst views I have had in my lifetime.
My last apartment, for example, was in a crowded condo belt in River Valley. All the windows looked directly into flats across the narrow street.
I bought it because it had the largest and squarest living room I had ever seen for a tiny studio apartment. A friend who went with me peeked out behind the drawn blinds and warned me about the view.
'It's okay,' I told her, clearly sold on the space already. 'How often am I going to look out the window anyway?'
That prediction turned out to be true. I spent the next seven years living with the blinds permanently down.
Worse still was the HDB executive mansionette that my parents bought in the late 1980s.
The view from the living room was of the bricked side wall of the next block. You had to go right out to the edge of the balcony to get narrow slivers of a view, which was of the field of a nearby school.
I think my parents settled for the flat because they were frustrated from having waited too long in the HDB queue. Thank goodness they sold it after five years and we moved on.
Contrast that with two of the best views I have ever had.
In my first job, my desk on the 45th floor of a skyscraper in Shenton Way had a stunning view of the Tanjong Pagar port and the sea beyond.
I looked out the window all the time, counting the stacks of containers whose height hinted at the health of the economy, staring at the ships anchored on the horizon, and marvelling at the breathtaking speed at which the clouds would gather for a storm.
The view never failed to inspire and awe me. I was in the civil service then, and it made me feel like there was something concrete here to love and protect.
My parents' Holland Village flat where I spent most of my childhood was in one of the tallest blocks in the neighbourhood because it was built on a hill.
When I became tall enough to look out the kitchen windows, I discovered a panoramic new world of possibilities.
I learnt about markets, community centres and carparks. I figured out the bus routes and the timing of the traffic lights.
I could see my parents coming home from work. It was a busy bustling adult world out there that I couldn't wait to be part of.
This is why I'm somewhat glad that in my current home, I have something of a view again. It's not a million-dollar view that makes you feel on top of the world, but it adds a certain something that you can't quite put your finger on.
Perhaps it is that looking out the window gives you a sense of perspective that you rarely get as you go about your busy day.
Buddhists meditate to bring a sense of calm to their lives. They learn to look at themselves as if from above and realise that they, along with whatever problems they are currently facing, are insignificant and transient in the larger universe.
Maybe it has arrived with age, but I find that I get that sense of perspective when I look out the window these days.
The world stops spinning for a moment. I imagine I am in a movie and the camera pans away from a tight shot of me in the window.
It swings away from me slowly and now you can see the whole house, the whole street.
It continues to pull away until I and my dog are just two specks in a mess of faces in windows of cars and malls and offices all over the world that could mean something. Or nothing at all.
November 21, 2010
ST: Ties between civil servants and ministers
Nov 22, 2010
Ties between civil servants and ministers
This is an edited excerpt of a speech by Foreign Minister George Yeo at the launch last Friday of a book, Dynamics Of The Singapore Success Story, by former permanent secretary Ngiam Tong Dow.
IN THE popular mind, the relationship between ministers and civil servants is often simplified in one of two extreme ways. In one, civil servants implement what their political masters want. That is the impression that good civil servants try to project, and maybe ministers too, when there is credit to be gained. The opposite simplification is the one caricatured in the British satire Yes Minister, where the title belies the truth, which is that civil servants manipulate their ministers and are the real masters.
The real relationship between ministers and civil servants falls somewhere in between. It is not a static relationship. A new minister should take good counsel from his permanent secretary to avoid making unnecessary mistakes. A more experienced minister may know more about his portfolio than a new permanent secretary, and so should give closer guidance to his civil servants.
Depending on the ministry, the issues of the day, and the relative experience levels, personalities and capabilities of the minister and the permanent secretary, that relationship can be at different points on the continuum between the two extremes. I believe the constitutional position is that while it is the Prime Minister who appoints permanent secretaries, the minister to whom a permanent secretary is appointed to serve must agree to the appointment.
Our formal system is inherited from the British. It makes a clear distinction between political appointments and the permanent civil service.
In practice, however, principally because the People's Action Party (PAP) has been the governing party since internal self-government in 1959 and independence in 1965, many aspects of Singapore's governance resemble the Chinese bureaucratic state that (John King) Fairbank, (Joseph) Needham and other scholars of Chinese history have written about, in particular, the practice of meritocracy in both the political and administrative elites. The induction of administrative talent into the PAP has become a Singapore hallmark, and is likely to persist. In the Singapore reality, the formal British system is built upon what is essentially a Chinese political and cultural substrate.
One illustration of this is the word 'scholar', which is used to describe a civil servant, Singapore Armed Forces officer or police officer who was chosen on the basis of high academic achievement and given a scholarship at the point of recruitment. It is an English word that in a British, American or Indian context would be incomprehensible. For them, a scholar is a scholar doing academic research. In Singapore, the scholar is often an administrator not doing academic work at all.
In fact, this is a Chinese idea expressed in English that has become a part of our vocabulary in Singapore. Singapore, of course, is only three-quarter Chinese and has to be multi-ethnic in its deep structure. However, the dominant political culture remains recognisably Chinese.
Seen against this common cultural background, it is perhaps not surprising that a China intent on reforming its public administration should take so much interest in the grooming of Singapore's administrative and political elites. In a curious way, the counterpart of our Public Service Commission and Public Service Division in China is the COD, the Central Organisation Department of the Chinese Communist Party - but only up to a point.
The Chinese government is increasingly concerned with its own relationship with ordinary people, more and more of whom now live in cities. It is therefore experimenting with democracy at the lower levels, seeing it as an important feedback loop against corrupt, despotic or unresponsive local authority. Study visits to the PAP's Meet-the-People sessions have now become almost compulsory for visiting Chinese delegations. Chinese leaders are convinced that Western or Indian democracy can never work in China. However, the hybrid that they see in the Singapore bonsai fascinates them.
All this is by way of background to Mr Ngiam Tong Dow's book. He speaks and writes like a mandarin. When he was in the civil service, his views were expressed within government walls. In retirement outside those walls, he speaks and writes publicly, which sometimes raises eyebrows. But - and I can personally vouch for this - it is the same self-confident, high-minded individual whose starting and end points are what is good for Singapore and Singaporeans.
When I was at the Ministry of Information and the Arts, Mr Ngiam was the permanent secretary at the Finance Ministry. He almost killed the Esplanade project, about which he paid me a high compliment years later. On the revolutionary transformation of our National Library system, he gave his fullest support. The acquisition of knowledge has always been his passion.
Could he, like Hon Sui Sen and Howe Yoon Chong, have joined politics? I don't know. But what I do know is that he is well aware of the pressures and constraints which political leaders face and which civil servants have to factor into their recommendations and in their implementation of Cabinet decisions.
In retirement, Mr Ngiam speaks and writes publicly, which sometimes raises eyebrows. But - and I can personally vouch for this - it is the same self-confident, high-minded individual whose starting and end points are what is good for Singapore and Singaporeans.
ST: Time for science lessons, take out your phones
Nov 22, 2010
Time for science lessons, take out your phones
Nan Chiau Primary's innovative use of IT in teaching wins it top honour from Microsoft
Nan Chiau Primary pupils (clockwise from bottom left) Abel Tsen, Janelle Lee, Yuki Chua, Isabel Ow and Ng Tze Ming, all 10, using their cellphones during a science lesson. -- ST PHOTO: NEO XIAOBIN
WHEN Nan Chiau Primary teachers start their science lessons, they ask their pupils to take out not their textbooks, but their mobile phones.
Using their handsets' styluses, the pupils use the software uploaded on their phones to read up on the concepts, then go on to do exercises. If in doubt, they surf the Internet for more information.
Teachers test the pupils' understanding by getting them to sketch diagrams of what they have learnt. Their work is uploaded to a server for teachers to review.
The school, in partnership with National Institute of Education (NIE) researchers, has introduced this new way of learning to all Primary 3 classes and two Primary 4 classes. It has bought about 300 mobile phones, so the pupils can each have one to take home.
Although there are other schools that also use mobile phones in classes, they do so on a smaller scale, for example, taking photographs or videos during class trips.
Nan Chiau Primary's innovative use of technology has been recognised: Software giant Microsoft last Thursday named it a 'Mentor School' - the highest honour it gives to schools that develop information technology programmes that can serve as models for schools globally.
Mentor Schools can get access to Microsoft experts who will help them develop new programmes. The schools also get to test out new Microsoft technology, and share their expertise with other schools. There are 25 other Mentor Schools around the world.
Besides Nan Chiau Primary, Singapore has two other Mentor Schools - Ngee Ann Secondary and Crescent Girls' School. The only country with more Mentor Schools is Australia, which has five.
Crescent Girls' has been a Mentor School since 2007, while Ngee Ann Secondary was upgraded from being a Pathfinder School this year.
All Crescent Girls' students have tablet PCs, which allow them to blog, upload videos and chat using instant messaging with their teachers and classmates.
Ngee Ann Secondary has developed 'virtual buddies' on Windows Live Messenger that answer questions on physics and texts from Shakespeare.
Schools can apply to be a Mentor School or Pathfinder School - the second highest level of recognition - by submitting a written entry and video about how they use technology in teaching and learning. A panel of judges comprising Microsoft staff and experts makes the final call.
The awards are part of Microsoft's Partners in Learning - a US$500 million (S$650 million) initiative set up in 2003 to improve education through access to technology and training.
Nan Chiau Primary applied to be a Pathfinder School, but its work impressed Microsoft so much that it upgraded the school.
Microsoft Singapore managing director Jessica Tan said the judges felt the school had 'a robust and well-thought vision and plan' for its IT projects.
Nan Chiau Primary has resident researchers from NIE throughout the year. They work with teachers to design and evaluate IT projects for teaching and learning.
The school is working with the NIE, Singapore Centre for Chinese Language and Microsoft on a new software, MyCloud, to teach Chinese. The software can read out uploaded text and has an e-dictionary to help with difficult words.
Principal Tan Chun Ming said: 'IT equipment costs a lot of money. We cannot embark on a project without proper planning and after a few months say, 'Hey, this is not working out' and stop it. So all our IT initiatives begin with research and our teachers work with the researchers to evaluate if the projects are successful.'
Researchers have tracked the results of a Primary 4 class that has been using mobile phones for lessons for two years.
The pupils who used to get Cs and Bs in science before using the gadgets now get Bs and As. Pupils say they like using mobile phones in class because it is fun.
Janelle Lee, 10, who got an A at the recent year-end exams, said: 'Science lessons used to be boring. Now with the mobile phones, I can watch videos, surf the Internet and draw pictures.'
November 07, 2010
ST: It's not about the mane attraction
Nov 7, 2010
It's not about the mane attraction
People whose opinion I value judge me by my character and ability, not my looks
There was a fuss recently about United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's hair.
'Well done, Hillary Clinton, for flouting the short-haired practice among older women,' wrote Ms Robin Givhan in The Washington Post.
'She is a role model for women who are past the ingenue phase of their lives. She is making a fashion statement. Clinton, at age 62, has grown out her hair - and it looks quite nice.'
'Wow!' I thought, how condescending. I was amused by Mrs Clinton's continuing adventure with her hair, but as a woman, I was also annoyed by the story.
Was Ms Givhan implying that women with weighty international problems on their minds should also pay a great deal of attention to their hairstyles?
I myself have had only two kinds of hairstyles throughout the 55 years of my life - short and shorter.
When one of my maternal aunts was working as a professional hairdresser, I used to go to her for haircuts. I had a China doll look: horizontally straight across the forehead fringe, vertical on the sides, and again horizontally straight and neat around the back of my head.
My hair was kept short - never more than an inch below the ears, as was the rule at Nanyang Primary School. But I always pleaded for my hair to be cut even shorter. Although both at home and at play, I could keep up with the boys, I felt a China doll haircut would not cause anyone to mistake me for a boy, as I wished they did. I was what they called a 'tomboy'.
At some point, when I was in secondary school, my aunt changed my hairstyle to the one that I still wear at present. It was similar to that of a boy, with a parting on the right. My hair was cut so short that it was above both ears and a little wispy stubble was left at the back of my head. My aunt would use a special clipper, similar to the shears used for shearing sheep, to tidy up the stubble.
Somehow, although my hair was short, my aunt managed not to make it look severe. She closed her hairdressing salon in 1975 when I was 20 years old and midway through medical school. My mother then took over as my hairdresser.
She was meticulous in having the hair on both sides of my head look symmetrical. She would use a shaving razor to remove the stubble at the back of my neck. The entire procedure would take up to an hour - way too long, as far as I was concerned.
At least at my aunt's salon, I could read comics and, when I was older, my textbooks. But it seemed rude to be reading something while my mother was concentrating on giving me the perfect haircut. So we would chit-chat, though at the back of my mind, I would be thinking of the studying and exercise I had yet to do.
So I always asked my mother to cut my hair shorter than she was planning to, so the occasion for my next haircut could be put off for as long as possible.
From 1981 to 1984, I was training in paediatric neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. I cut my hair myself then. The front and sides were fairly easy. The back was more difficult as I had to do it by feel.
Once, I made a mistake when cutting the back, and there was a hole as though a mouse had taken a bite out of my hair. I sought the help of a Singaporean friend whose husband was attending Harvard Law School then, and she managed to do some damage control.
I found Americans had difficulty judging my age. And when I wore male-looking attire, I was often mistaken for a boy, although I was in my late 20s.
When I returned to Singapore, my mother resumed cutting my hair when we both happened to be free at the same time. But often, I would cut it myself because I took only 10 minutes.
Before setting off on hiking trips, I would cut my hair really short so I would pass off as a boy, and hopefully not be attacked. But this strategy backfired once.
I was driving on Highway 1 between Los Angeles and San Francisco with two friends. They wanted to stop for coffee at a scenic cafe as we were nearing San Francisco. I decided to stretch my legs and was walking by the road when a middle-aged Caucasian man with a beard drove past me. He stopped, wound down his window and offered me a ride. I declined and turned around to walk back to the cafe.
But he turned his car around too and repeated his offer. He reluctantly drove off when I told him I had a car and that my friends were waiting for me. I think he was a homosexual and thought I was a boy, so tried to pick me up. I was in my early 30s then, but unless one looked at me carefully, I could easily have passed off as a teenage boy.
In 2003, my mother had a stroke that caused her to be unable to see on the left side of her visual field. Since then, I have been cutting my hair myself, except occasionally, when one of my doctor friends does it for me. She is used to cutting her sons' hair, and is very efficient. Within 10 minutes, my hair is short and tidy.
I must admit my haircut does not flatter me. But my facial features are aesthetically challenged in any case, and I doubt any hairstyle, no matter how fancy, could make me look better. The people whose opinion matter to me do not judge me by my appearance, but by my character and my ability.
The writer is director of the National Neuroscience Institute. Send your comments to [email protected]
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