17 December 2007
Rainy Monday (24 Degree Celsius)
Night @ 2230 (Singapore Time)
Listen: 你那么爱她 by林隆璇 & 李圣杰
Mood: *Over the Jurong Hill*
I slept for 3 hours in the afternoon. It seems I have incurred a sleep debt from my week of hectic life. Anyway, was more energize despite receiving like 6 sms along the way. Went for dinner with Mom & kid brother and something caught my attention. The cleaners/cutleries collectors are predominantly in their retirement age. This got me thinking about one of our DPM dinner speeches in USA, as he tried to convince overseas Singaporean to return. On the government assistance to cushion the retrenched/older citizens, he mentioned specifically that there are many training sessions in place; after that, they can look forward to be gainfully employed as cleaners and security guards. Yup, those were his exact words, plus and minus some grammatical errors and Yes, I also nearly fall off my chair.
Life, it seems, is getting a little tougher for everyone. Following my blog “Are we ready for Social Change”, the booms in selected sectors are apparently not filtering down to the masses fast enough. Income gap has widened to a 10 years high, GST increase, inflation (another record breaking spree) and now, when you think at the age of 62 can take full CPF… Poof, Government says “for your own good, we are delaying it”. And what did it do with these money? Buy annuity insurance for people beyond 80s. I can think offhand a good example of this flaw; if an old chap can lived beyond say 85, chances are he/she would probably be in good health. To be in good health, he/she would most likely have comprehensive health coverage and thus, also be like rich. See the flow? SO why do they even need these annuities to begin with? But, Bird is an ignorance bird, anyhow say one. Don’t quote me.
Recently, PM’s Kent Ridge Ministerial Forum speech got some people talking, opinions differ; some say he generalizing (too much) on non-critical issues (think International Ties), others, more critically, say he humoring us, treating us like small kids (CPF policy change). I would prefer he does not beat around the bush. At least MM gives a straight no-nonsense answer. Tell us the rationale and make sure layman can understand, not rebuke us on our ignorance (like some of his Ministers). Take welfare for instance. Depending on which side you are on, it could be painful (lack of any monetary/policy support perhaps) or totally for it (NO SUPPORT!! FUCKERS!!).
Sometime I understand why the government reluctance to grant more basic handouts for the lower income and not least be seen as racist. Based on the demography whom these handouts will benefits, we can almost (to a fault) singled out the Malays. Despite their minority status, I believe they will be overwhelmingly majority for social benefits (if ever these are relaxed). As I mentioned elsewhere, social welfarism is and will always be an ugly word. Disregarding its role as a double-edged sword; More generous social grants will indeed help those really in need but it will also permeate a more dependency-orientation and perhaps more so among the Malays. Not to say all Malays need some form of help, but the statistics do not speak well for them. It is like this little bumper sticker I saw in US:
Work harder Bird, Millions on Welfare Depends on You…
Personally, of all the ruling governments’ idiosyncrasy policies, I have to disagree on the minimum wages part. And seeing some of the ministers’ arguments not to have minimum wages, it seems at best a pathetic attempt to artificially suppressed wages. It does have its own benefits; competitiveness, inflation (however little) and even welfare. In a more humane point of view, I think it is not the way to go. We can say until the cow go home and become oil, essentially, we are looking at granting some assistance to our needy citizens, not any fucker foreigner.
How can a hardworking Citizen, whose only fault is education (lack of), with lesser opportunities henceforth, be stranded with whatever their employers’ could offered? In some cases, as cited by Strait Times (ST); some are doing the same job; only different uniform and a lesser pay.
Cleaning agencies, in their fierce battle to win contracts, slash the price of their bids. The losers: the cleaners who end up with even lower pay.
Prof Hui notes that outsourcing also encourages service buyers such as building owners to switch to cheaper cleaning contracts. This means some cleaners may continue in the same job under a different employer - often wearing just differently coloured uniforms - while others are forced to seek new employment. (ST Online)
These are not your usual lazy-don’t-want-to-work-cos-too-far-from-their-house etc you heard over the news and widely reported but are hardworking and by whatever fate, landed a dead end job. Having said that, I do know of a Lady friend whom
1. Complain her job mundane, no challenges
2. Pay too less, no responsibility but then I pointed out that she also no need over time
3. Then got job offer, better pay but she complain workplace too far, need to work over time
4. Present job can have time for children bearing but then pay too less, blah blah blah
It is time like this that you can appreciate this little oxymoronism in life. I mean where can find a job that pays fucking well, have NO responsibility and still can go home on time. If got, I also take. Haha, but then in line with my philosophy, to each he/her own. It is but the many choices one made in life.
Moving on, we should not penalize the lower stratum of the population in the name of efficiency and productivity. To quote elsewhere, companies’ long hours are often a substitute for productivity and doing 2 jobs with one paycheck (The Economist). It does make economical sense for any profit-driven companies (even for NGOs, Government and the list go on). Therein lies my disagreement, I am very sure having some minimum wages resolution will not harm our overall productivity index and for that matter, GDP. From Statistics (CIA World), since we have no viable poverty figure, we can safely assumed that nearly 90% of the populations are above the norm and living comfortably, so such ruling will not affect them as much as the lower 5 – 10% of the percentile. For them, every cents count and all the government need is to set aside their budget rounding error for them. And I am not even faulting them on the 2% GST increment that specifically aim at elevating their hardship. 7% GST has been in place for about ½ year and still no news. Now, this is either a very bad efficiency in whichever department in the Government that pride itself to be efficient or (probably not but) some way to squeeze the population by the balls. Hey, people are rumoring that Temasek need the funds after all their recent mishap investment.
Also, Arguing on the basic of increasing their breath of knowledge through retraining such that they can be more productive and better equipped to handle more sophisticated operations, really saddened me. We are only humans, and following that perspective, we were never made to be equal. Equality has been corrupted by the elites and distorted to emphasize only on economic contributions first, the rest secondary. That in itself, is a tragedy for all stakeholders.
My only fault? I blog-isdise whatever that was verbalize in coffee shop talk.
For many, I am pretty sure we would not mind footing a little more to aid our less privilege citizens. If the Ministers are genuinely concern about the welfare of our people, they should take the lead and limit their salary increment. Of course, we now know that none are doing it, for whatever reasons.
Even the opposition MPs (for whatever they are championing for) lack this moral leadership. They cry foul for every little play that was thrown at them and yet they don’t even have the moral high ground to put forth a snub at the ruling party; NO, we will donate all increment to the charity. So it seems it all boils down to our unique system of governance; Pay the elites enough to keep their mouth shut and hands from straying. It works either way. Beside, it is based on this theory that once the elites are so fattened that they will not look elsewhere and to serve the nation with such pride that would even make the democrats pee in their pants.
Hence, I can put forth a reason, a naïve theory, a hope if you may, that someday may come to fruition.
Knife Cut Tofu, 2 Side Smooth (whatever that means) haha
Oh before I end this VERY long and Boring Entry, I have to shout it loud:
I MISSED NT!! Every time I look at her picture I can almost to a certainty, break into a very hearty smile. Yup, I am THAT in love with her. ARRGHH… Hee
