A Singaporean In Australia

When we get to a certain age, we forget the feeling of falling in love. The state where we find ourselves feeling happy with an effortless thought of someone or perhaps, something. A bad one lasts a couple of days, such as falling in love with your new mobile phone. A good one lasts quite awhile. I am having one of these.

What Minister Yacoob does not realise is that there is already a code of conduct in the internet. Do you know what it meant to TYPE IN CAPS? If you received an email you are reasonably expected to reply if you are the main recipient under "to:" and recipients under "cc:" and "bcc:" can reply but are not expected to.  There are some form of syntax in communication, be in it business emails, flaming wars on a random forum or gaming with your guild mates. The list goes on. Thus, Minister Yacoob's vision was both perplexing and unnecessary. 

How can one create something that is already there? The suggestion is akin the notion of creating darkness. We cannot create darkness because it is already there. Having temporary sun light or an electrical luminance switched on indicate the masking of darkness, not its non-existent. We measure brightness by luminosity, the unit is lux. There is no scientific unit created to measure darkness. Like darkness, the internet's code of conduct exists but it not definitive.

What Minister Yacoob really want was not developing an internet code of conduct but to create a self-censorship culture for Singapore internet users. Think our national papers, the Straits Times. Think of the forum section. That is the way we should be talking in the internet, to the minister.

Though the internet is a double edged sword, it is a level playing field for everyone. Minister Yacoob has probably forgotten how netizens uncovered the Yaw Shin Loong scandal, which many of his colleagues including his boss, scooped up the information in delight and used it to their political interests. To date, I have yet to know any PAP ministers or MPs being forced to step down due to the internet's whistle blowers but it claimed the first causality in the opposition. It was surprising Minister Yacoob has chosen to focus on one edge and overlooked other.

Without the internet, would MND had picked up the NParks' Brompton case, conducted an investigation and found out that they might be foul play? Without the internet, would the tip-off sparkled so much public interests that City Harvest Chuch had to be investigated? Without the internet, the frauds would not be even investigated without proper evidencing. If not for the internet,  the truth behind many of our Singaporean sons who died during National Service would be forever buried in the secret archives of the SAF. Angela He Xue Li might have died of injustice. Cleopatra might have gotten away from the clutch of justice but not in the quiet manner as she would preferred. Without the internet, we would not learn about the story behind that MRT suicide case which saw a quick donation movement to help the mourning family. Without the internet, Singaporeans in Melbourne would not be able to offer community support to a fellow countryman's family involved in a  fatal crash in Australian highway.

What Minister Yacoob really want is not to develop a code of conduct, but to remove the power from the people and to re-instill the right level of fear among the people during the days without the internet. We have enough evidence to show that the internet can be used to do good for the masses. Minister Yacoob warned specifically about alleging him and his colleagues on being corrupted without the backing of facts. What the minister really need is not a code of conduct in the internet, but reinforced commitment among his colleagues and himself to remain as pure as their uniform. As long as our government remains incorruptible, why be afraid of the unregulated, irrational virtual milky way?

Somebody is afraid here. This is just my opinion.

Referring to the comment here [link],

I bet many sinkie baby boomer retirees will be headed that way in the next 10 years after selling their million dollar apartments. It is much cheaper in Bolehland if all else fails, their Silver Hair Program that is.

SME Owner

Family

Visa validity period

Assets

• legally owned and lawfully acquired by you (or you and your partner)
• capable of and available for, transfer to Australia.

What struck me as I was approaching the accident scene was that, I was only about 1km away from the accident when I encountered the traffic jam. That meant that the accident occurred only minutes before at the most. Well fortunately I wasn't a few minutes earlier that day. I didn't relish getting into another accident or a close shave. The interesting thought though was that, if the accident just happened, how did the ambulance, police and fire engine got there so quickly? I thought these folks were notorious for being slow and late. That was the impression I was given hearing from the others.

They gave me a laptop for work. So that I could do part of their office work. So the taichi-ing began. Like a sponge that I was trained to be in Singapore, I absorbed new responsibilities after new responsibilities. It didn't matter to me. So long as I could knock off at 1630 hrs most of the time, I would be happy.

No table, no problem. I moved into a makeshift corner by pulling one of the work bench out using a forklift. They provided me a printer so that I could make labels, print cutting lists and stuffs like that. No chair? No problem. With broken pallets, a handsaw and recycled nails, I made myself one. It was clumsy and didn't look great. It was huge and could take me even if my butt was twice as big. But I had  gotten it strong and stable enough, that was all it mattered. My office was completed.

Sitting under the air con sucked. Fortunately, I could avoid most of emitted stale air in that blind spot. Still, I could get some blowing in my direction and it didn't feel alright. It was terribly cold air these few weeks. I just had to imagine what I would be experiencing next Summer, if I am still working here. If the company doesn't fold by then, I reckon I will be so I will need to address the potential problem of having my face baked everyday. For one, I would avoid being at my 'desk' as much as I could. That will be the best I can do for now. No other place in the workshop seems to be more suitable than this corner.

This would be heaven as compared to engineers who had to flip drawings under direct hot sun for a few hours a day. No one was complaining here. The big picture was the negative outlook of the economy not just in Perth but the whole of Australia. Just yesterday, I read news about Caltex retrenching 300 staff in Sydney as it planned to close down its refinery there. My company's business was to provide high quality stud bolts to the oil and gas industry thus things didn't look good now. The boss had planned to branch out to the mining and construction industry but business was slowing down across all industries as well so there was nowhere to hide.

Uncle Lai tried his best to advice us against moving to Perth, citing 'bad times' like this awaited us. He was right and wrong. His prediction of a slowdown was true but I strong disagreed that there was a bad or good time to move. Every 2-3 years the world faces some form of financial crisis, natural disaster, war or virus outbreak. Every 7 years or so, the world encounters a major financial collapse. One will never be able to time a 'right time' to move. Even if you could, so what. You will encounter the next 'bad time' just before you will even get settled down.

What gave me a bit of confidence was that if I needed to, I could pick up any job in the market and be able to get by. To me, a recession means a lack of desirable jobs. The world doesn't stop spinning just because a few bankers or accountants get laid off. People still eat as many burgers as Mac Donald's. Fruits and vegetable still needs to be harvested. Broken things still have to be repaired. Dirty streets still have to be cleaned.

I refer to an article to the TODAYonline titled:

Longer leave results in 'loss of productivity'

Employers' federation opposes longer maternity leave while proposing more incentives be provided for employers [link]

Singapore National Employers Federation (SNEF) opposed to National Trades Union Congress's call for having two day's mandatory paternity leave. They cited this proposal 'creates an entitlement mentality which is an unhealthy work value'. If NTUC, our only labour movement representative in Singapore let this go, we are creating a socially irresponsible mentality which reflects the lack of ethical values among our employers.

Every working adult spends at least a third of his life with an employer. While an employee is fairly remunerated as a compensation of his labour, an employer must be aware that his subjects is not an economic number. It may be a tad far-fetch for a non-welfare country to expect its employers to treat  employees as part of their family. Having said that, employers should hold the responsibility of taking care of his worker's safety and well being, both physically and mentally. How could allowing grateful parents time off to give care to their children creates an entitlement mentality? In the first place, what right does an employer has to reduce an employee's sense of entitlement as much as they can? We have to get this clear. Are we talking about employees or conscripts here?

Our country needs more young. It is undeniable and we are running out of time. It is hard to refute additional paternity leave could do a bit more to encourage married adults to have more children. Being socially responsible employers, they have to do their part to aid their country's ailing attempts to reverse the plunging birth rates. But here, we are talking about productivity, profits and nothing else. Where is the patriotism here SNEF? If there are anything a citizen could do more for his country, an employer could do much more and this - isn't one of them.

Instead of supporting the labour movement's cause, SNEF has the cheek to ask for "Baby Bonus for the Bosses" - for employers when employees go on maternity leave, with savings going to help employers create a more work-life friendly workplace. For one, how can we trust employers to use the funds properly? The same employers who cited entitlement mentality among employees being an unhealthy work value. How do we measure a more work-life friendly workplace? How do we ensure employers didn't use this money to purchase the latest OSIM massage chair in this office instead? I sincerely urge NTUC not to give the green light to this bullshit.

Among other suggestions, the NTUC reportedly proposed extending maternity leave from the current four months to six months. The SNEF argued it would be a challenge for companies - especially small and medium enterprises (SMEs) - to find and train replacements, as well as to get employees to share workloads.

In Australia, we have a very healthy casual employment market where employers could hire staff easily for any flexible working arrangement. A working mother for example, are commonly encouraged to take up jobs which require them to turn up only on alternate days, or everyday but 3-4 hours a day. Work arrangement is flexible, a compromise between an employer and employee. It is also cheaper for an employer to hire temporary staff this way. Without a contract, additional staff is asked to go when workload stablise or when the permanent staff is back from long leave. It is mutually understood between the employer and casual worker.

An environment like this can only be possible if SNEF is willing to take the first move. It is hard to get good casual workers because there isn't a market of trained effective employees. A market could only be created if there is acceptance from employers to give this initiative a trial. Singapore employers should sit down and have a hard look at themselves and start contributing towards a first world employment model rather than rejecting all ideas proposed by the union and full stop. We badly need to improve on this.

In his letter to the ST Forum,  (S'pore chose the right road, 21 July 2012) [link], Mr Bobby Jayaraman says that 'Citizen's quality of life and growth are strongly correlated and that our government should not be blamed for something entirely in our hands'

While it is generally understood that growth is measured by GDP in Singapore, Mr Jayaraman missed out a crucial element in his letter, the definition of quality of life. My rejoinder to Mr Jayaraman is to ask whether Singaporeans had a higher quality of life in the years 2001 to 2005 when economical growth was much slower than the recent years.

Our median household income in 2001 and 2011 was S$4,363 and S$6,307 respectively. It was encouraging to see that our median income has grown 44% in ten years. However while Singapore was  making this possible by activity pursuing growth, we have to pay the price of undesirable growth in three areas.

Inflation

The price index of HDB resale flats rose from 100 to 200 from 2001 to 2011, doubling in just ten years. [link]. A common meal in a food court cost S$2.50 in 2001. Today, it is S$3.50. That is a 40% growth, which coincides with the median income growth that Mr Jayaraman pointed out. Along these, Singaporeans had to endure hikes in tandem in basic necessities such as transportation, utilities, insurance, education and medical.

Population Density

Singapore's population density increased from 6200 to 7300 people per square kilometres from 2001 to 2011. On the average, any single Singaporean has to share 1 square km of space with another 1100 people compared to one decade ago. [link] 

Anti Foreigners Sentiment

I read this article with interest. I began shopping around for a simple double storey terrace house on a 20x70ft plot since 2007. Back then a house like this cost around RM250,000. The financing agents told me it worked out to be about S$700 or so in monthly mortgage payments. I could not remember how many years the loan was projected to be, though I was quite sure it wasn't anything like 30 years.

The reason I wanted to buy one of these was not egoistic. None of the "Here, I live like a millionaire," bullshit. It wasn't about the thrill of owning a landed property - something most Singaporeans will never afford to do in Singapore and definitely not to show off to friends that I owned a landed property somewhere else. As if they give a damn really. The main reason was retirement and I gave it a serious thought when I was in my late 20s back then. There was a restriction for Singaporeans to buy properties below RM500k. This was put in place so that the demand from Singapore buyers would not push up the lower price range of housing so that Malaysians had the choice to select lower cost housing if they wished to. As Jen was a Malaysian, we considered buying that humble terrace house with a maximum budget of RM300k. No big garden, no swimming pool, no automatic gates or balcony big enough to hold 4 mahjong tables.

I reckoned that when I retire or get the boot from the working world which comes first, I would be able to move to the terrace house and live a frugal life as I would definitely not be able to retire in Singapore for sure. More so if I have children along the way. Then about 2-3 years later, HDB introduced a rule to make owners of private properties , foreign or not, ineligible to buy HDB flats unless they sell up.

From there, we had to make a decision. We wanted to get married, so we would probably need to have a place of our own. We could not afford anything other than a HDB flat in Singapore. So I dropped the plan to buy the property in Malaysia because if I had to sell it a few years later when we get married, it defeats the purpose of buying the place for retirement. It was either staying with parents or sleeping on the streets with a property in Malaysia, staying in Malaysia and commuting between both countries everyday for work, or buying a HDB flat with no property in Malaysia. Both our working hours were erratic. It was common for us to work until late at night, with Jen knocking off in the wee hours often. We were left with only 1 rational choice. But that meant, we will face a very real problem of picking cardboards and selling tissue paper on the street in our late years. I've heard people saying this would never happen to them because they are degree holders. What these people do not understand was poverty does not recognise degrees. If you screw up, poverty comes to you, regardless or race, language or religion, degrees, doctorate or not. We have to accept the consequences of our choice.

Some told me it was a crazy idea to consider buying a house in Malaysia. It was a shit place, a snake pit, a sin city, a crime haven they said. I took these claims seriously but I wanted to open my eyes and analyse the situation myself objectively. Over the years since then until I finally left Singapore for Perth, I went to JB regularly and got to know the place better with Penny's help many times. I decided that it was worth taking the risk of buying a house in JB. Our sentiments towards JB and Malaysia was largely past data. It wasn't accurate at all. Not even the present data will be accurate enough to predict the future of Malaysia 2-3 decades away. I saw progress among the chaos, effective work done in the midst of the incapability of Malaysia so very often deemed by Singaporeans. Stereotyping can not mask the truth.  Malaysia will not be behind Singapore forever. I had gained much through my observations over the years to be convinced Malaysia will catch up by the time I reached retirement age.

This is controversial. Many would not agree with me and demand for justifications. This is not a research. I have no hard statistics to prove anything though I did have my reasons to believe that buying that property in JB in 2008 was not going to be a risky decision. I would not discuss them in this post because there isn't a point to convince anyone who can't see in clarity. Just take it as a gut feel. The gut feel can be trained to be very precise if done right. There is a difference between subconscious analysis and wild guessing.

All my plans crashed after Australia granted me visa which allowed me to stay and work here. I dropped all the findings over the years and moved on to Perth without knowing where I would be. I still wonder how things will turn out for me. Every single person around me is established in some way or another. They would either have a HDB flat back home, even paid up ones or sold up and came over with a little financial backing. Else, they will have nothing back in Singapore but already have a house of their own here. Nobody is quite in the same situation as me. For me, I have nothing to give me a hint how my future will turn out to be. No HDB flat, no house in Perth and my household income is not high enough to convince the banks to lend me an amount of money enough to buy me the entry level home over here.

In a paradox of choice, I have a surprisingly easy task to do. I have no access to do anything so I am left with 1 thing to do and nothing else. To save money fervently until my first option opens up. Meanwhile, I have not given up the possibility of moving to Malaysia in my later years. I am not sure how serious Angie was. We agreed to look into the idea of running a budget inn in Malaysia as a retirement past-time.  I wondered if she still remembers.

I have received so much help, concern and encouragement from friends and strangers from my homeland, faraway places as well as here with me in Perth over the past months. I was advised to pay it forward as my profuse thanking was starting to make some uncomfortable. In order to do that, I have to reluctantly re-engaged myself in facebook - for the greater good.

Singaperth was a facebook group created for all Singaporeans residing or moving to Perth. It would be nice if we could re-created the kampong spirit that once defined Singapore. It was part of our history, a cultural foundation set by our forefathers and we hope to hold the torch to keep the spirit burning in Perth.

We were all once new migrants in this strange land. Each and every one of us had our own unique stories, went through our own initial struggles with loneliness and helplessness and the pains of being apart from family and friends. Singaporeans may be a minority in Perth but there are a significant number of us around here to come together and form a close knitted group and keep a look out for one another living or working here, as well as for the newly arrived Singaporean student or migrant. One person can only do so much. If I could assemble a group of like minded people to share the vision, we will do much better. Don't feel shy to step forward if you are able to contribute your skills or time.

Singaperth belongs to everyone in the group, not me. I am only an administrator who initiated it. We have no plan to formalised it into a club or official organisation. We are hoping to build a community with a spirit. You don't need names or fame or mission statements for this kind of things. Just sincerity and honest care for the people we connected and a constant keeping out for those we missed out.


My first challenge came even before I completed a version of the description of the group to my satisfaction. We witnessed a slightly heated argument about the name of the group. The positive thing from this was that people began to interact and getting to know one another better, just that it wasn't the best way you would preferred. We have since changed the group name to a temporary name, "Singaporeans in Perth", the actual intended meaning of Singaperth from the start. We will sort this one out in the future. There are more important things to do at the moment. I've written half of this post prior to the little skirmish on facebook so pardon me if the term Singaperth is still being used, for anyone whom may be offended by the term.


It is important to note that this attempt can easily mistaken as our refusal to assimilate into our host country. I disagree with this suggestion and must refute this at an early stage. Only settled migrants can contribute to their host countries optimally. This group aims to help one another settle faster by providing friendship and information so that we could reduce our learning curve in this new environment and start contributing to the country and its people meaningfully. We will include community work activities with local organisations in future when we are ready to, for example.

If you are a Singaporean living in Perth interested be part of the group, you can join the Singaperth group on facebook to connect with the rest [link]. I am also re-including my facebook link in this blog if you wish to contact me.


For Singaporeans in Perth [link]
For Singaporeans in other Australian states except Perth [link]

Another Barry White Project update


Carey came over at 0800hrs sharp this morning. He lived 50km away from us in Baldivis and probably drove close to 1 hour to get here. Carey took only 5 minutes to walk around Barry White and made his decision what he wanted from me.

He wanted the spare tyre, battery and a casing lid and asked me how much I wanted for them. I quoted A$90.00 and asked him if he was fine with that. He agreed to the sum without haggling. I didn't kick myself for not asking for more because he was a great customer. I didn't feel bad for not getting more. In fact, I didn't have a single clue if I was over or under-charging. It didn't matter I guess, I felt good with this deal.

We spent a total of 10 minutes to settle the deal and pack them into Carey's 2006 Toyota Hilux. He got that for A$8000. It sound like and great deal to me and I told him that. Not surprisingly, he agreed. I asked him why did he choose to live so far away from the city. Without hesitation he told me he paid A$400,000 for his 350sqm house sitting on a 960sqm land and went on describing the place and the town in detail. He was very clear what he wanted and remained happy about his decision despite having to travel quite a bit of distance to work in Cannington every day.

Carey worked as a electrical apprentice, being paid around A25.00 an hour with all allowances added in. He pointed that his company was generous, apprentice could be paid much lower in other companies. Prior to being offered apprenticeship, he worked for the same company as a construction trade assistant, taking about A$30.00 an hour. He accepted a pay cut to take up the apprenticeship so that he would be able to command a tradesman wage if he could graduate after 4 years.

Carey was a panel beater when he was in New Zealand, with 25 years of experience behind him. Beats me why he did not continue this trade after he moved to Australia. I guess I was not the only one who wanted to take a break from my work in the previous industry after I landed in Perth. We went on for another good half an hour talking about panel beating and car spraying. Finally, I got some of my questions that bugged me for decades answered.

When I was young, I tried to spray the frame of my old bicycle so that it looked 'fierce' enough to ride along with the other boys in the neighbourhood. To my disappointment it never turned out well for me even once. I could not understand why the spray can could not produce the 'chrome' effect that was promised in the product label. As I grew up, I didn't really understand the concept and gave up learning about it, conveniently assumed I needed expensive equipment to produce what I wanted in mind.

Carrey actually took a lot of time explaining how touching up a car works in steps. It was a good Sunday morning. On top of that, another A$90.00 went to the Barry White Project.

The Barry White Project update

Raj came over and introduced himself as a "Cheap Indian". I knew I was in for a hard time. As it was, it was tough doing business with him. He was as persuasive as I thought he would be. I ended up selling him 5 parts for just A$100.00.

I ended up helping Raj to remove some hards and put back some to shorten his time. It was enjoyable to work with him as we chatted all the while doing so. He told me he was living in Cannington with his wife, pregnant with their first child. We talked about cars because he worked as a mechanic. Correction. More like I was learning about cars by asking him a lot of questions. I reckon that since I was making a less-than-ideal transaction with him, I should milk more out of Raj by making him share his knowledge. He didn't disappoint and answered all my questions clearly.

On top of that, he offered friendship and urged me to look for him if I needed any help in future, particularly about cars. Before leaving, he persuaded me to buy a house of my own as soon as I could so as to stop renting from others. He passed me brochures of Keystart program, a government initiative to help people buy their first home, and told me to read up about it.

Stephen the man was kind enough to let me come along to learn bricklaying with him. I didn't want to allow Jen to follow because I preferred to have Albany resting at home than to spend one full day outside. Jen did not listen to me and die die wanted to tag along. In the end I let her, so that she could understand what kind of outing was a 'men's outing' and there was no place for a woman and baby. I was not trying to be chauvinistic. Consider this, bricks, sand, mortar, dust, sun, noise, hazards. No place for a baby.

It was a fruitful trip as I got to know another Singaporean right from the start. Sim was introduced to me by Steph before we started work. The whole show belonged to Steph. He demonstrated every step to us. It looked easy when we stood there to supervisor Bangadeshi workers as site managers. Yeah, baking looks easy too. It's all mixing fat and flour and stuff up and throw them into heat after all. Wait till you try it and taste your creations. No, even with a recipe, it is easy to screw things up. That was the same when we tried preparing mortar for brick laying the first time.

Measuring and laying out the site was a ritual that I was familiar with. So I patiently waited for Sim and Steph to sort things out with the owner. Then came the most impressive part when Steph laid the first brick. Swish! Swash! Swat! Steph's deft moves were a sight to behold. You would only appreciate such things when you did it yourself and realised how good others were. That's the same reasons why many people watch sports, many are ex-players of the game themselves. Even for those who was not in the sport, they could be fans if they know how to appreciate the level of skills demonstrated by sportsman. On the scale, I admire the skills of craftsmen.

Contrary to beliefs, bricklaying to not just mere labour work. It requires logical planning, mathematics, geometry, eye coordination, observation, management, patience, a lot of common sense and of course, physical fitness. It isn't just about brute strength and endurance. There was so much to learn on just one afternoon, building just a simple BBQ pit. Imagine building a house, a curved wall, an arch or a tower. Being a metal tradesman for more than half a year, I knew there was so much more to it being a bricklayer as a profession. That afternoon was merely a play-day for Sim and I. It was an eye opener.

For that trouble, we were invited to Sim's house the following Friday night. It was great dinner and I spent some time playing Snakes-and-Ladder with Sim's beautiful young daughter. She broke every single rule that exists in Snakes-and-Ladder. We could fly, use Princesses' face as portals, being blown away by wind, throw dice using the mind and moonwalk the squares. My 7th game with her and ended up as confusing as the 1st. By the end of the day, she awarded a large trophy (took from her dad's room) to herself being the overall winner of the Snakes-and-Ladder competition.

What caught my attention that the little girl was cheerful, active and extremely expressive, like many of the kids I observed here. I remember when I was that young, I used to hide behind my parents' legs when visitors came to our place. I wondered if it was due to personality, genes, education or cultural differences. I wonder how Albany would be at Emily's age...

There is such a suburb called Gooseberry Hill. On the map, you could hardly imagine how a place looks like until you visit it. Perth has a wide array of terrain, suburbs within the metropolitan area could vary a lot in geographical features.

Gooseberry Hill was fortunately a hilly region like its name suggested. Never trust the name of a suburb here. Once in a while, a place or region is named after what it is, somewhat. Such as Dog Rock and in this case, Gooseberry Hill. Other than that, most suburbs have no resemblance to their names. Just in case anyone rushes to visit Success.

There was no place I had visited that was quite similar to Gooseberry Hill. Roleystone was close but it felt more rustic. Gooseberry Hill felt quiet yet secured. Houses were spaced rather far from one another. There was no pattern or sequence because of the inconsistent slopes around the region. The builders of the past built structures to blend with the surroundings instead of the current cut-and-fill approach. It was as though citizens in this suburbs had the intention to live harmoniously with the nature that was here long before humans.

Even in Winter, I could hear echoes of birds chirping from faraway places, well hidden from human sight. It was a rare magical place. No 2 houses here looked similar. Each house had its own unique charm. I was sure if we had the chance to tour one of the houses, we would be impressed with their self sufficiency features.