A Singaporean In Australia

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has sought to inject some balance in the national preoccupation with work-life balance, warning Singaporeans that competitors are out to steal their lunch.

At a televised forum last Tuesday night, he said the idea of work-life balance has become so popular it is now a tag phrase.

"They call it a meme on the Internet," he said, adding that people who used the phrase did not seem quite sure what they meant by it except that they would like more free time and less stress.

It was also not clear if people knew the trade-offs, he said.

"If you look at other countries: Vietnam, China, even in India, they're not talking about work-life balance; they are hungry, anxious, about to steal your lunch. So I think I'd better guard my lunch."

******

PM Lee called work-life balance a tagline.

PM Lee knows that Singaporeans want more free time and less stress and he was quoted saying so. But he does not believe Singaporeans should have more free time, citing the competition from Vietnam, China and India will "steal our lunches" if we let up. At the moment, if you have work for 8 hours, play for 8 hours and sleep for 8 hours, congratulate yourself because you are achieving work-life balance though strictly speaking, you don't actually play for 8 hours. Unless commuting to work for 1-2 hours a day is your kind of fun. I'll leave it as that, for the benefit of some people who love driving a lot or enjoying rubbing at the bums of office ladies in a jam-packed MRT train.

What about the people who consistently work beyond 8 hours on average working day? The question is are these the majority or minority. We can look at statistics and trends for the answer. Singapore consistently top global charts for the highest number of working hours. We are arguably the biggest domestic maid employing nation in the world. We are likely to have the highest population ratio which dine out, most evident by the number of eateries per person in the country.

Perhaps PM Lee had equated Singaporeans asking for "less stress" to Singaporeans getting lazy. We have to understand less stress can come from different sources other than having a easier time at work. It is less stressful when one lives in a less crowded environment or being governed by a capable government under a decent leader for example. Singaporeans may not be necessarily be looking out to be passengers at their offices if the PM is wise enough to understand. As for more free time, overworked Singaporeans are merely wishing that they can only work 8 hours and not more than that. Is it unreasonable to ask for enough time to cook, look after and play with our children? I don't think Singaporeans are even asking for a 38 hrs work-week like many Aussies enjoy.

Instead of looking at the real concerns of the people, PM Lee as usual applies the same fear tactics that his father used to do effectively in his ruling days. The bogeyman will always exist. It used to be Taiwan, South Korea and Hong Kong. Today, it is China, India and Vietnam. It could be anyone tomorrow, applicable to your children who may be working 50 hours or more a week by then, just to keep up with their affordable HDB flats. The PM has no solutions, other than applying more pressure on a never-ending grind. 

The population of Singapore was 5.1 million when I left. During these 2 years, 300,000 more people arrived at our sunny island to work, live (work) and play (work).

Sometimes people ask me why do I still bother to read Singapore news or updates. Actually I seldom do that anymore. There are times I wish I have more than 24 hours a day, that is how 'boring' Perth is. Lame stereotyping.

When I read Space's blog [link] I realised how often new migrants have their classic 'what-the-fuck-am-I-doing-here?!' moments. Many Singaporeans ended up heading back to Singapore because they could not come to terms with differences in the new country. The saying, "There is no place like home", has dual meanings, one of which is rarely used. It is easy to agree on what is different. Defining what is better or worse, however, is subjective to personal bias but rightly so because we do not live our lives through the eyes of others.

Subjectivity aside, we will be doing ourselves a favour by setting a realistic goal for ourselves. I couldn't stand one of my co-worker's laments about his salary and his difficulties of buying a 4 x 2 house having arrived in Australia only 2 years ago, half of the time in the detention centre. Then he drove off his A$9,000 Mazda 3 while I looked on in my 1998 Daihatsu Pyzar. Come on, if there is a place to move to that offers us a managerial post every time, higher salary than what we drew in Singapore, shorter working hours on a computer with Facebook, cheap cars, a four bedroom house on a 500sqm land attainable after a year of work and girls with big boobs walking around in wet t-shirts, let me know where to apply. NOW!

The only way that we will be freed from the employment shackles known to man is to be the man who put on the shackles. The one running his own business will always have higher time flexible and greater wealth creation/destruction potential. The rule does not change anywhere in this world so long it runs on some kind of modern economic model.

Back to our glorious population count, our growing population was one of the push factor for my move. I can only imagine how it feels like having 300,000 more people on the island when 5.1 million already got on my nerves big time. 

Another 300,000 for 5.7 million

Then another 300,000 for 6 million

Then another 300,000 for 6.3 million

Then another 300,000 for 6.6 million

Then another 300,000 for 6.9 million. It turns my stomach a little.

Like I said earlier, one man's meat is another's poison. When the Singaporean boss came over a few weeks ago, his wife told me, "新加坡现在很繁荣hor?" How am I supposed to respond to that? No doubt, Singapore is at its economic golden age but it doesn't come without a price. Prosperity comes at the expense of the ordinary working people like you and me. How much do we have to bend over for a little piece of prosperity and a fancy job title? Are our self worth as much as only our job?

After coming to Perth (and probably getting cancer), I realised there is so much more to life than meaningless pursuits of 'respectable jobs', a good car or branded goods or food. Do people actually realise that, or am I the only miserable fool of them all? After these precious 2 years in Perth, I have no qualms moving back to SEA in future if there is a strong resolution to do so. This time, the approach will be so different. Until then, I'm in that perfect place to hatch the plans.

I saw the double demerit points notice on the highway today. Ah. A public holiday is coming. I didn't expect this at all. I remembered telling myself I wouldn't have a public holiday until the Christmas period. That's a little cruel, considering the last one seems to be quite a few months back. The perks of being a muddle head is that we get silly surprises like this. Nothing beats being told about an unanticipated public holiday.

There are only 10 public holidays in Western Australia. That works out to be just 2% of the year, a rate low enough to be considered a rarity to me. So every public holiday will be thoroughly cherished, just like what it had been in Singapore, which happens to have exactly ten 10 days of public holidays if I remember correctly. The 11th public holiday which everyone is looking forward to remains a rumor or could be a one-time thing even if it happens.

The traffic police in Western Australia gives holidayers double demerit points for traffic offences not just on the actual public holiday but also the day before and after. Sometimes it could last as long as a whole week, if there are back to back holidays or whenever they feel like it, probably. That's really a strong intent to show the public that they mean business in enforcing public traffic safety and revenue raising. Not too long ago, some guy was even fined [link] for exceeding the speed limit on his bicycle. Fortunately, as fierce as the WA traffic police are, I have yet to hear stories about them offering to help pay your fine on the spot at a discounted rate.

So today the drive on the highway was even more pleasant than before. Even the rare asshole who loves to smell carbon-monoxide farts of the guy in front either did not turn up for work today or chose to drive like a gentleman to protect his pocket. Really, I will be keen to drive on a double demerit day if they implement that in Singapore. It will probably filter out the piss poor bad drivers from the rich brats who will buy off someone to take their demerit points off them later. Remember, we live to do things not to get caught. We will only care about road safety when the other guy cares first - which will never happen.

I wonder if traffic police works during Summer. What a shitty experience that must be, pointing that svelte camera motionlessly in that fervent 40 degrees Celsius with flies getting in your eyes and ears. Don't get me wrong, I am not a chooser but there are better ways to make money. Have a good holiday Perth people. Meanwhile, I better watch my speed limit driving that fork lift in the factory You'll never know who's pointing at you in stealth mode.

Most Singaporeans will nod proudly whenever a foreigner tells them that Singapore is such a clean and beautiful country. The product or result is what it matters, that is the mentality we are brought up with. A minority of Singaporeans will tell the same foreigner to talk a walk at a normal neighbour hood at 4am in the morning to understand the underlying process. Ah, process, process. Who cares about the process so long we have results? Who wants to wake up at 4am to find out the truth? Nobody appreciates a scene of litter, insects and sometimes even rodents running about for scraps. The ugly truth should be buried under silent night, never to see light. In the morning, all will be well. We are the cleanest country in the world and therefore our residents are the most civic minded.

Let me share with you a personal story during my early days in Perth. One afternoon, I dropped an empty coke bottle on the grass verge by the road near my company. Bad Singaporeans litter, anything new? Three days gone by. I noticed the same coke bottle was still lying on the verge where I parked my car. One week went by and then one month, the bottle was still there, sticking out like a sore thumb along the long stretch of nothingness, reminding me of my sin. I finally picked it up and threw it into a bin one day.

For those who had been here before, you would have noticed the towns and city of Perth looks as clean as Singapore though the cleaning maintenance appears to be much lower in frequency. I wonder makes the difference? Wouldn't a clean Singapore with much less cleaning, less cost be better for us? Not if we go with the flow of the pragmatic nature of our society. If it works, don't even think of changing it. Results, results. All that it matters. So what makes the difference? I am no researcher but I am a good observer of life. All people who write stuff are, if you think about it. I will make a guess of the factors behind the different mentality between Singaporeans and Western Australians. 

Singapore has a very interesting way of instilling a perspective into its people. When someone puts on a high-vis vest with big bright wordings of CWO, which stands for Corrective Work Order and he picks litter in the park, that is supposed to teach the public to be good and take care of their environment. I wonder what was going through the mind of the litter offender? That going through public embarrassment is the price of not doing the part of a civic minded citizen or not checking properly if there are NEA officers around when he litters. We cannot deny this mentality because when you tell someone you got caught on a speed camera for speeding their first reactions will be, "Wa, so suey." 

That is the unofficial, but most important 8th core value of the Singapore Armed Forces deeply entrenched in the Singapore society. Over at Perth, a Singaporean will be surprised to be lambasted by a stranger who spotted his littering act because 10 out of 10 times if he does the same in Singapore, people will mind their own businesses - unless the 10th guy is an NEA officer. And so he declares that Australians are racists.

It is a known fact that kids in Australia are exposed to work at a much younger age compared to Singapore. Toddlers can be seen "helping out" at their home garden patches, crawling and laughing among the creepy crawlies. Kids will help parents to sort rubbish from recyclable waste and place them in the correct bins that every household will have. For example, we taught little Albany to dispose her own soiled nappy into our waste basket at home at 16 months or so. These days, she does it without prompting and clap her hands after she dunk it correctly.

If the household miss the "bin-day", where the bin truck will empty these bins once a week or fortnight, then the household will be in for a sorry time to put up with lack of bin space or even stench from old waste. There is a lot of environmental awareness being instilled in every kid from their early childhood and they grow up to understand that we exist because of good environment, not the other way round.

After awhile, we come to realise why the Australians love their ocean, bush, woods and rivers and they welcome foreigners who are willing to play their part. Not the kind of foreigners who junk a coke bottle on the verge when no one was looking. And certainly not the kind of foreigners who takes a dump on the road and get their kids to pee into the water drains, fast increasing in numbers in Singapore.


In his quiet corner, the coke bottle litterbug slowly understands why he shouldn't do certain things even if he is very sure he will never get caught. And be a better man, a better human being.

Wow.

When I saw that PM Lee is going to appear 'live' on TV to answer questions, I was ready to take back when I previously said [link] about him and admit that the PM has grown some balls.

To my disappointment (but not surprise), when I read further in the report, it goes: 

What's the difference between a pre-recorded and a 'live' show if the PM three weeks to prepare for questions? It makes me wonder if Lee Hsien Loong is not the Prime Minister of Singapore, can he even handle a normal job interview?

Really, they even bothered to get the public to "vote". What's the point of voting for a list that is "curated"? How about if I ask you guys to vote between:

Nobody ever said life was easy. We'll never get to ask what we really want to ask, such as if the PM knows he is a fucking moron. I wonder if they will even bother to make it sound a tad harder for the PM. Maybe you can tune in to watch tomorrow evening if you want to get MC the next few days for bleeding eyes and ear drums. Really, why do they even bother to do this and spare us the misery of getting another cheap skit shoved down our throats. You can bet all your money the papers will plaster this over all the place declaring that, "The man answers questions! "Live"!" But when is the real man going to answer real questions? Ever.

I wonder the Prime Minister ever doubt if he is really living. In his orchestrated, beautiful virtual world, I doubt it. I hope he never ever discover the real world. Even for any unhappy Singaporean, it will be a sad sight to see an unshaven forlorn man drinking to his sorrows, singing, "I'm not an actor and I'm not a star. And I don't even have a lanpa."

One of the woes of a migrant is that one has to start life all over again upon the move. As if we have to re-live our lives from a earlier stage again. No friends. No jobs. No place to stay. No memories of driving routes, good eating places and cheap shopping options. After all the basic needs are fulfilled the established migrant may have higher level needs.

The Singaporeans I meet up with are a group of very cheery people. No gatherings are ever short of food or laughter. So you will not expect them to have sombre thoughts like me. I always think I am the only one who thinks about death. Lately one of my friends here told me to relay a message to the spouse if death comes unexpectedly. Long ago, another one told me she was looking for friends to attend her funeral. That was quite an interesting way to make new friends. "Great to know you, I'm actually looking for friends to attend my funeral because all my friends who would are in Singapore. So I can't expect them to fly over because no air tickets are provided lah." Not the exact words but the idea is there.

This has been on my mind for a long time. I often wondered why people of the first world go on a relentless material pursuit and paper chase, subject their kids to do the same and make themselves so miserable. When we finally hit the dust, will any of these material possession matter? Probably not. The ashes of the poor looks the same as those of the rich, except for the type of container and the location where it rests. Does the dead really care by then? Even if there is such a thing as spirit and ghosts, does it make our ghost feel better because our ashes is resting on more expensive altars or worse if it is sprinkled to the sea? I wonder if ghosts can feel at all, if they even exist.

So if the accumulation of wealth didn't matter, what defines a successful life? How about the number of people who attends our funeral? The more the people, the more you matter to them isn't it? For example, none of us here will have more people attending our funerals as compared to someone like Lee Kuan Yew when if he dies. Woah. It will be difficult to tell apart who are the attendees who really cares, who are touched by the great man, who are there "on duty", who are there for personal gains, who are there to "show face" and who are there to say goodbye to their enemy. Perhaps being famous and powerful isn't such a great thing at all, especially if your ghost spotted someone who spitted on the coffin when your ex-body lies when nobody is looking. So does legacies, fame, power and the grand level of the funeral really matter in death?

Prior to meeting this friend  I thought I was the only one who has peculiar thoughts about our own funeral attendance. The thought of having three to four small cats turning up at a small budget funeral so silent the attendees can hear mosquitoes draw blood is sad indeed. But I've come to realise a funeral for the common folks like us is more for the living than the dead. Attendees are there for the grieving families more than actually saying goodbye to the dead. (which is meaningless unless you expect the very dead corpse to sit up and wave goodbye in response) So with that - I am sure there will be more than a few cats turning up for my funeral because my spouse is a very nice human being as compared to me.

Hmm ... now the horrors at the thought of dying later than my spouse. The horrors, the horrors.

I am technically Singaporean too, but I left Singapore for Canada many years ago and I hardly could recall anything about it. Looking back, I have not been to Singapore or any parts of Asia Pacific for almost 17 years. I only know Singapore through the eyes of the internet and words from my family. :)

Good morning Leon,

Unlike the past, these days it is very hard to define a Singaporean because we have a spike of "technical Singaporeans" for the last decade. These new breed of Singaporeans refuses to speak in our language, insists on carry out their deeds in their cultures and beliefs and do not understand what it means by "doing a merlion". If we stick to the old definition of Singaporean, that is a breed I can smell and identify 2 supermarket aisles away. The Singaporean detector only needs a few muttered words. Aside from how we behave and speak, "the Singaporean" is also a mentality. Your family might have told you more about the unique mentality of a Singaporean. Like our tourism slogan goes, "Uniquely Singapore", they can't be anymore right.

I chose Australia because I had the typical Singaporean mentality that Australia is the overseas capital of Singapore. Back then, Canada was a mere image of a Christmas card in my mind, more like a fantasy scene in an Enid Blyton book than reality. New Zealand sounds scarier as a choice because there are less Singaporeans who ventured that way. That was the typical migrant foolishness - to think there is safety just because their ex-countrymen had gone that way. Australia was just nothing but descriptions to me. They told me it was a commonwealth country so driving would not be a problem. People spoke English and I spoke English so I would be okay. And the biggest truth and lie at the same time, "Aiyah, so many Singaporeans went there and survive, why not you?"

As the Chinese saying goes, 一样米养百样人, I think if anyone is considering migration, he or she shouldn't be taking reference from the people who left but to have a look at our own personal qualities, preferences, beliefs and values. For eg, someone who believes very strongly in work/life balance will be more willing to sacrifice other aspects of life that he possessed but deemed less important in Singapore. Else, if he is the career minded type, he will be a miserable snot upon the move, at least for the first couple of years - if he lasts that long. 

On hindsight, I might be happy even if I migrated to a place like Thailand. I don't buy into the "First World, Third World" shit that people have be spouting. In fact, if that is how they described the current as well as where Singapore is heading to in mid-term, I rather have nothing to do with "First World". Unfortunately, I have answer for your question because in truth, I did not even do a comparison between Australia, New Zealand and Canada and made a choice among them. In my mind back then, it was as simple as, "I think I can do Australia because Ah Kow did it."

It seems like rainbows have little enemies. Have you met anyone who hates rainbows? It must be even more wonderful in the olden days where rainbows were not yet explained by science. How beautiful, mystical or even romantic a sighting of a rainbow would be. Men could use a rainbow sighting as opportunities to propose to the girl they love, declaring the presence of a beautiful untainted rainbow as true as his heart. Religious people would had use the rainbow to explain their cock and bull stories. Life must be good then, until the science assholes came around to burst the bubble. Until then, people should had their fun trying to find the pots of gold at the end of the rainbows.

Science tells us that the rainbow will disappear once we enter it. We can only see it from the outside. From a philosophical point of view, the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow will never be attainable even if it exists. All of us would have been sold dreams when we were young. Study hard, work hard, you will be successful. I don't know which teacher, adult or parent had ever told you otherwise when you were young. Did they really believe what they were saying or did they not realise they were not telling the truth? If the pot of gold symbolize the paper and monetary chase that our government constantly drum into our minds and the rainbow represents life itself, most of us grow up chasing the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow all our lives and die unfulfilled without understanding that the beautiful rainbow itself is the gold.

Rarely does someone feel worse inside when sighted a magnificent full wide rainbow that spans across thousand of metres in an unblocked horizon. The rainbow I saw this morning was so wide that I couldn't photograph the entire thing without going panoramic. No time for that. I took my snaps and spent the rest of my time enjoying the few limited minutes of the rainbow. Photographers always claim they catch the moments. To me, they always miss them so long as they spend loads of time taking that perfect shot. No cameras can savour the moment like the mind.

If I was the chief architect of the Helix Bridge at the Marina Bay Sands, I would throw the blueprint of that revolting twisting and turning pile of stainless steel that resembles an alien's intestine straight into the bin. I would then build a very cheap, traditional arch bridge made of pre-cast concrete in 1/4 of the building time and get the builders to clad the bridge with screens at 1/4 the cost. When we switch all the synchronized screens up, it would be a sight of a beautiful natural rainbow bridge. I will not win any engineering or architectural award for that. But with that, I tried compensating all Singaporeans the full magnificent rainbows that have deserted them forever in their concrete jungles.

Looking back, we have been playing Guild Wars for more than half a decade. Currently we are in Guild Wars 2, Borlis Pass aka Borlis Noobs Server. Remember to say hi to my game characters, Daughter of Punggol (necro) or Bukit Timah Ah Lian (mesmer) when you see me running past or shattering your ass off with clones. Needless to say, I often drew the lols whenever a Singaporean player saw my nick. It's great to cheer a countryman up sometimes, since we spend the rest of the time pissing one another off.

There is something I've always wanted to tell the others but never got around to. It is about Lion Arch, one of the most famous cities in Guild Wars. It is one of the only few cities who survived the centuries and continue to exist in the story time line of Guild Wars 2. Other than a differently city layout and architecture, the essence of Lion Arch is still evident. Unlike the other cities, where most of the residents were of the same race, Lion Arch (like the description mentioned) is a melting pot where all the races gather and trade. Not only different races but different motivations, alignments and loyalties. There are the righteous people, the pirates, the holy man, the fool, the scrumptious, the despicable, the public enemy. You get it, a melting pot.

If you follow the story of Guild Wars (or probably any fantasy RPG games in fact), the nature of Lion Arch would be amazing because it is the basic of games (as well as in reality actually) that races stick around with their own kind. Real players actually unconsciously fell to the role play and gathered themselves in Lion Arch for different purposes, making Lion Arch the most populated city everyday.

I'm not sure about my friends but all these years I've secretly liken Lion Arch to Singapore. The similarities are uncanny. Melting pot. Trading city. Populated. Even the name itself, as Singapore is often known as the Lion City. I wonder if the game developers get their inspirations to create Lion Arch from Singapore.

Sometime back I wrote staff about citizenship and was surprised it sparked a discussion in the comments section. After all discussion and asingaporeanson are antonyms. Unlike other blogs, this is just a story book on the tales of the freak. So true red Lion hearted discussions are a rarity. Not too surprisingly, the discussion soon derailed and went into an NS debate. The points of the debate isn't new to me. Over the years, there had been many debates on this. The issues were often iterated, opinions were divided and ended up with the same ending: Both sides of the camp had to end their keyboard war with bruised egos.

Singaporeans fighting Singaporeans. What's new?

(The city) ... stands on its own and it does so by virtue of its active navy, its financial strength, and the intelligence and cunning of its leaders.

During the course of its long history, Lion Arch has been involved their fair share of wars. Undead dragons, Margonites, Destroyers you name it, they have seen it all. Defenders of the city were never a specific force. Like the way they carry on their usual lives, citizens of Lion Arch fought together. Mercenaries, pirates, Seraph, Vigil, Priory, Whispers, guilds, random militia, civilians of every creed and race joined in and won famous battles. That of course, is the beautiful side of the story. Behind the scenes, there must be people who desert their armies, betray their people, loot and fled instead of fight.

This isn't any game-fantasy delusion. In reality, it will be the same. In fact, more often than not, there are more reality in the virtual world than the perceived reality in our minds. I'm sorry if I offend any Singaporean son with my comments. Many of you seem to think that if Singapore goes to war, we the Singaporeans sons will book in, draw arms and wack Malaysian or Indonesian ass while the Singaporean daughters cook dinner and wait for your return. In reality, our army will FAIL. Big time. We might not be even able to reach our camp in time, much less organise a counter attack like what we are told to believe in NS.

If you disagree, then fuck you. Wake up and smell the vegemite. One single car broke down on the PIE, you can be late for work and some of you living in Jurong West have to book in at Selarang Camp. And we think our enemies will declare war and allow us a few hours to prepare for it. Get real. All the enemy has to do is to denote light hand-made bombs in 8 major roads of Singapore and the traffic will come to a stand still. Which of you guys can walk to camp? Did SAF strategically assign us to the closest camp to our residences? Book in, draw arms, deploy, fight in their lands, fire and movement in plantations.

Fucking bull shit.

We never learn from our previous and only war experience in modern history. Buggers who didn't and couldn't flee in time took up position and defend their ass off to save their families and loved ones. Indians havoc forces. Chinese ad-hoc forces. Because the British Military failed Singapore. And the SAF will fail us the same way. Paper generals will screw us up. Just imagine someone Chan Chun Sing leading the line. "Who wants to fight jiuhu-kia, kee chiu?" LOL! We cock up even in peace times, all you Singaporean Sons KNOW so let's not kid ourselves we will operate like a well-oiled machine in war. I hope our fighter planes can even take off when pilots are stuck in traffic jams.

We'll ended up fighting the same way during the Japanese Occupation. Expectations will fail reality, the rich will flee, brave men (end up will be the Ah Bengs among us) stay to fight, MIWs nowhere in the battle field with us, the treacherous will work with the enemies and become Prime Ministers after the war, The people we love to hate, pissed poor Bangladeshi, Indians, Pinoys and PRCs who cannot mutter a sentence in English or understand your, "Cover me!" will fight along with us because they have to. Because that is the reality of war. Because animals fight when survival is at stake. Even the golden pussies who have been relying on maids to cook a meal will have to react.

From the way it looks Singapore is struggling to maintain an identity within the melting pot. Going by the xenophobia recently, it is possibly impossible to keep the Singapore identity and be radically cosmopolitan at the same time. Singapore has to decide to give up one. Giving up our identity might not even be an option anymore. The country is operating like a corporation already as it is, societal cracks have widen so much even the government is making a serious study on it. Our flags were no more 'a flying high' for the last few years, other than those grassroots facaders doing their North Korean stunts. In future, Singapore may very well be a trade city instead of permanent home to anyone. Many of us would move overseas, to JB or even Batam due to expensive living. It may be hard to imagine this a decade back but today it is already happening in a small scale. The question is not will it or not but when.

That isn't a problem really. Every city expands outwards. If you look at the Perth map just seven years ago, there was virtually nothing but bush land below the 32.5 parallel  (roughly where ROE highway is running across today). Since then, suburbs after suburbs such as Success and Hammond Park, Canningvale, Southern River, Harrisdale, Piara Waters, Atwell, Aubin Grove in the middle and Byford, Hilbert and Haynes in the east. In terms of space expansion, Perth is growing faster than Singapore is. So it's only a matter of time Singaporeans have to stay out of the main island, since we cannot expand outwards.

But the question is, who shall defend the land? Who is holding a stake if the city-state becomes a mere trading hub, the most cosmopolitan society of the world? The 'original Singaporeans'? I know some of you guys really love NS and are very proud of your sacrifices to the nation. Not holding you back from that. It is indeed a great feeling to feel that we are doing our part for our country, our families. We have to put our shoes into the younger batch of Singaporean sons though. The demographics of Singapore has changed so drastically over the years that serving the NS feels like being an exploited security guard of the foreigners more than defending the country. This mentality can only worsen, manifesting into something even more undesirable if the government simply ignore the telling signs and pretend nothing is happening.

It is obvious that Singapore is not doing any U-turn on the 6.9 million population goal. It'is also apparent that our national birth rate is not going to reverse anytime soon. So the rest of the projected population will have to be foreigners. Will Singaporeans be contended to be the only defenders of the state being the minority race by then? It is a joke if any of us think this will work in the long run. If we do not address this issue early, we will end up with a lot of surprises and "we did not foresee this" excuses in future. Procrastination and denial. Perhaps some of the MIWs should play Guild Wars 2 with me and I shall personally show them a tour around Lion Arch. Perhaps they will be inspired.

Being the factory supervisor of one of the smallest factory in WA has its perks. First and foremost, nobody likes coming into the factory or warehouse. It's too cold during Winter. It's too hot during Summer and FLIES are all around. It's too dusty during Autumn and Spring. And it's dirty all year round. It's just the way it is. Once you are sitting in the office, the site or factory always feel unpleasant. So office workers ends up easing back to their cosy corner as soon as they are finished with their businesses with me out here. Not a minute more, most to my delight. The previous office girl even ran off every time, either covering her ears or pinching her nose in her escape. I probably stink and speak rotten words of death at work without realising.

Being left alone with the workers meant the whole bloody factory is my office. And the boss really thought he has the biggest office in this company. Ha. Since there is no one working above me until someone in the office decided to roam out of their haven to the dangerous abyss, they normally call me a Factory Manager when they introduce me to walk-in or canvassed potential clients. In the outgoing docket form, they called me a QC manager. Recently I saw the office guy changed it to QC Inspector. When convenient, I am the fork lift driver, fixer, store man, worker, driver, shit picker. Otherwise known as Retriever Specialist, Contractor, Inventory Officer, Process Executive, Logistics Planner and Solutions Architect respectively in Singapore. I'm good I think.

Yeah, it pays nowhere as well as the previous job as the grinder, when I was raking in the projected A$89k per annum, including OT and night hours penalties, excluding tax. And it bores me. Any job bores me after I figured my way around doing things well. What has been keeping me in this job is that I have been meeting casual workers during their short stints with us when the Afghani workers return to their country for long holidays.

Every casual worker has a story to tell. You'll never know what you'll get. Drug addict, maniacs, lazy bums, smart alecs or very hardworking folks ... I haven't seen them all I think. This is probably due to the fact these casual workers have been surviving on casual jobs for years or even their entire lives. The unstable nature of their income and job sources probably shaped them to very resourceful, very street smart and knowledgeable people, though their appearance and communication level betrays them.

In the last month, I've learn a few interesting lessons from new casual workers. There was this Korean guy, with a pony tail, clad in youthful fashion and look every bit like your average K-pop star (but without the impressive plastic surgery). I had a very short interview with him because nobody else was around in the office. I did not accept him because his English competency was too weak to understand simple words. It would be really tough. Besides, the core reason was that he couldn't drive a fork lift. The office manager actually got him in and expect him to start work that day. I called him and asked how did he know the Korean. 

His answer was interesting.

The Korean actually came to the office sometime back and asked if there was any job openings. Of course, the answer was no but he dropped his resume and left. Though he didn't get the job, the key was he would have if he was a good fit. The lesson here would be, people remembers the face more than the name or anything on the resume. The Korean reminded me that we make our own luck.

The second casual was Indonesian and he was hired for a couple of weeks to tide us over the absence of the permanent worker due to a leg injury in his Saturday kick-about. Only that he was the kick-about that weekend, unfortunately. I had a conversation with the Indonesian about what have he been doing before joining us. He told me he was doing cleaning and earning quite well but he was apprehensive to continue because it was illegal. When I probed further he told me he actually ran the cleaning company but all his workers were illegal workers. So basically, he quoted low, pay low and pocket the difference. Quite substantial if you consider the cut was about A$10 per hour per worker per job. So just do your sums if how much he raked on an average 10pm - 5am job with 5 workers. A$10 x 7 hours x 5 workers = that night's takings. All in cash.

What interested me was a few points:

- He claims that there are thousands of illegal immigrants in WA who have been around for years. He can always find them for work if he needed any. Thousands? Living for years? No wonder one of my Malaysian friend spoke about "jumping the plane" some years back. You don't necessarily die doing so. Apparently, you may even flourish if you learn how to get around things.

- He got jobs because he walked straight up to business owners and told them he could he his job cheaper and better. Another case of making your own luck. But the reason why he could do it cheaper was that illegal workers did not cost as much as regular workers.

- This chap is telling me he will be taking a 1-week course in security. (Heh, the irony) and will look for security job. I raised my eyebrows. At the back of my mind I was thinking of SMRT (Security guard, Mc Donald's, Recycler and Taxi driver), the golden Big 4 jobs of The Forgottens of Singapore. We all have our chances of joining the prestigious Forgotten Club in our futures, don't worry. So this guy is actually so eager to join the Big 4 in Perth so early in his career life?

How wrong I was.

His friend was working 4 days on, 4 days off as a security officer in the airport. All, he claimed, they do was to "scan people" or "drive around". I questioned the income but the Indonesian, seeming anticipating the question, told be bluntly there are more hours that you can manage if you want to. I understood. It meant that these folks will work the same or more hours than a regular 5-day job in their 4-day work regime. So, resting 4 days instead of 2 days will be the cream of the job. As for the rate/hour, he said he would find out for me. He better.

Who knows that may actually be better than earning S$7,000 in Big 4 driving the cab around Singapore, picking bitches up.

Two years ago on this day, an emotionally strained Singaporean man landed on Perth ground. The rigorous work routine awarded him with cancer. Mentally, he was finished. But perhaps the physical body knew something that he didn't. 

"Get out!" they cried.

Sometimes the calling from the mind wasn't just enough. Ever heard of the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak? A thought, a decision and even a dreadful vow does not hold water if the complete being does not synergize towards goal. Just take a smoker as an example. There are plenty of advantages quitting and none for not yet more smokers fail than succeed at quitting smoking. There are more issues beyond the awareness and educational level that we do not understand.

It takes a far louder voice from the body and soul to push one to move out far, far away from home than quitting smoking. Most migrants would have forgotten how they struggled with their emotions, rationality as well as conscience before making a leap. That was why he wrote.

Unlike most migrants, he didn't know what to expect from life outside the matrix. He had no mentor, no advisers of any sorts so he struggled. His friend was not wrong to point out he was an escapist who was weak and would not fight for a future that he craved for. He probably was, though the friend didn't turn out right either. The body and mind pushed him to do the impossible, to make a move he never dared imagine, as his biggest fight of his life back then. Because he needed it. It turned out to be a survival instinct. He would then spend the next two years recuperating in his wretched physical self, free from the familiar elements that wrecked his mind, body and soul. 

Two years was the goal set from the start. Perhaps it was time for another radical move for a new project. This has to be the beginning, not the end. It is the time for the phoenix to fly.

A friend posted a link to your blog on my wall, which prompted me to send this email at 6:30am on a cold spring Sunday morning in Geelong, Victoria. Coincidentally, I returned on Friday from a week-long conference in Perth.

My name is E**. I am Singapore born and trained GP. Five years ago today, we moved here to take up permanent residence. I have been happily working as a GP in regional Victoria after completing all my registration formalities in October 2008.

I would be happy for you to put me in touch with the SGH surgeon whom you spoke about in your blog in August. I know of the hurdles to get registered and working here, but there are many ways to skin a cat.

Cheers,

E**

******

The Doctor [link] in Melbourne has since linked up with student doctors over dinner. I'm sure doctors have a lot of things to talk about over dinner. 

When E** mentioned Dark Arts, I understood. As Singaporeans, we know little of this sort of things. Remember, we even have to crack our heads to bring some cash over sometime back when in reality the Australia Government is actually rubbing their hands chanting, "More money, more money." Why would they think of taxing the inflow of money? That can and will be done later. You can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave. We Singaporeans are programmed to walk the path of light.

Unfortunately, Dark Arts are something that cannot be mentioned openly, only in private and in very hush tones. You've got to even make sure the babies are asleep first. My lovely guest who work in ICA enlightened me on this. Some 'rules' are purposely kept ambiguous and mysterious so that nobody knows what to do with them. They exist but they never exist. These are done so that the agencies can do whatever that bends the grass. Otherwise if all rules and policies are stated overtly, they will be unable to regulate the floodgates as and when they are pleased.

Think about it, all Governments LOVE foreigners. Be it the Australia or Singapore government, they love wealthy foreigners who can bring money in. They love cheap and good foreigners who are willing to work less than what the current batch of people ask for. The problem that the Australia government faces is the minimum wage system. Eventually, unqualified migrants, asylum seekers and new migrants who are willing to settle for less will ask for the minimum. Then Australia will need the next pool of cheap labour to work behind the scenes. In Singapore, that pool of exploited labour is ALWAYS there because someone is only busy with stealing toothpicks from Din Tai Feng restaurants.

I was talking about getting in even when you have no business to, if you still don't get it. Singaporeans who think, "I want but cannot," will therefore remain "cannot" while we continue to see PRCs who cannot speak a sentence of English coming in a steady trickle and you wonder how. No, there are not investment migrants, trust me on that. It's about Dark Arts and you will only learn if you sacrifice your heart and soul to your project.

So the Singapore government tried their best to discredit our doctors to a Third World level. If you are a doctor and have that, "I go when I have a job offer that includes a house and a blonde babe maid," mentality, you'll never make it here. I believe the same goes for any other vocations. Only when you truly seek, the path opens for you. Including the path that leads to the Dark Arts.

They say all things Made-in-Germany last long. I don't know any German girls to verify that claim. For Bernd Stange's case, I am afraid he won't last long. His job, that is.

His face may be unfamiliar to most of us. He is the new head coach for the Singapore national soccer team. Under his charge, we just got a 6-1 thrashing from China. Bad result, no matter how you look at it. 

Stange told Singapore it was his worst defeat in 133 games of coaching career. [link] That's alright. There is a first for everything. We are proud to be that distinction in the German's report card. Stange has to understand something. If he continues to be clueless, he will soon see his biggest career defeat record rewritten. Stange told goal.com he was surprised China were capable of playing attractive football. 

I supposed all of us armchair critic would have known by now that China does not just play chatek anymore. After all they won the overall champion in the last Olympics, which actually meant they were the strongest sporting country in the world. That means they have the resources and commitment to do well and continue to improve in each sport. We know, but our new National Coach doesn't and was surprised China played modern soccer.

Stange should also know it has always been a mystery why Singapore soccer is shit. Even with the backing of that shorty minister who made the term Goal 2010 famous (now notorious), we were nowhere close to improving, much less attaining the lofty goal. The S-League were set up not that long after the J-League  but look where it brought Japan and how much regression we went through. S-League did nothing to improve our football standard. I wonder if anyone hasn't noticed that yet.

We don't have an excuse really. My Afghani colleague was beaming the other day. When asked why that big grin, he told me proudly that Afghanistan just won the South Asia Soccer title beating India 2-0 in the final. [link] Most of us would know that the war-torn Afghanistan has only just came into the football scene. Only barely a decade ago, Taliban was using their football stadiums as an execution ground rather than playing football. And then they won a trophy against an opponent in the final that will beat Singapore as convincingly as China playing, of course, modern football against our surprised coach.

You know what? I was brought up to the world of soccer with tales of "Uncle Choo", the Singapore legendary coach who were said to be able to make players run through a brick wall for Singapore if necessary. I was too young to see Uncle Choo and his lions in action but I know back in the olden days we beat sides like Pakistan 5-0 (I watched it on TV) and achieved respectable results against the likes of South Korea and other stronger Asia teams. Look at how far we have lagged the others.

What can another foreign coach do for Singapore? I thought FAS would have known better what a local coach, such as V. Sundramoorthy may bring Singapore better results because Singapore's soccer predicament is unique. Only the locals know our situation. The others will be simply .... surprised. 

First, let's put the facts down. Why don't PM Lee response to our Doctor friend in Melbourne why the government sabotage their own home grown doctors? Why don't PM Lee enlighten Singaporeans why Singaporeans are not allowed to apply for Work-Holiday Visa in Australia but people from countries such as Taiwan, Hong Kong, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia and Thailand are. Or are we happy to assume Australia hates Singaporeans and it has nothing to do with our government? Perhaps the PM can tell us why he refuses to allow dual-citizenship like India, which encourages the horde of Indians roaming overseas to work.

Let's put aside what the government did or didn't do for now. Tell me, which of you Singaporeans are reluctant to work abroad? Where did the PM get his impression that Singaporeans are unwilling? From Singstats or his secretary's pet dog? Tell me the heaps of heaps of emails I received from people asking me how to get out of Singapore are hantus or fragments of imaginations from the mist. Tell me the brick layer I met here who refused to go home despite not having a proper resident visa for many years is actually not Singaporean but Martian.

What else does the PM enjoy telling hundreds of business leaders? That Singaporeans are unwilling to work long hours, get their hands dirty or not street-smart? Where do you think employers get their ideas that foreigners like Pinoys are better than Singaporeans? Thanks Mr PM. Who needs enemies when we have a PM like you?

For the past 2 years I have been ranting about sustainability issues of Singapore's housing market. Until recently, I had been regarded as some kind of lunatic. However these days, the tone of people around generally changed from, "You can never lose buying properties in the long run," to "I'm beginning to be afraid what you said will come true." What do you mean what I said will come true? I am not a seer with a crystal ball trying to predict the future.

Life happens in a cycle. If you tell me the sun is rising tomorrow, it is hardly a prediction. But how can we compare human activities to nature? Why not? In both aspects, there are stable and unstable cycles. The sun rising approximately every 24 hours as stable as human stupidity. Unstable forces of nature such as volcano eruptions exist to confuse human beings, who thought they could break every single DNA of nature. So far we have only achieved modest forecasting nowhere near precision. Similarly economists thought they can understand why and how the global numbers work. More often than not, it has been hindsight wisdom more than often than anything else, though they will like to believe and portray themselves otherwise. Market forces such as property or stock are unstable but they are by no mean coincidences. Their instability betrays the fact that they run on cycles. It is very easy for human beings to forget because we tend to base our forecast on recent data.

So are you still convinced buying a property in Singapore bao jiak? Probably so. This rental yield dip is just a minor glitch. Property prices will bulldoze these meaningless obstructions and rocket. Property investment will always be profitable "in the long run." Remember, human stupidity is as sure as the sun rise. This is as good as saying there will be no more earthquakes happening in the world because it has been long long time ago before the last one happened. Cycles never end. If you are caught at the wrong end of a long cycle, chances are you won't live to see that "long run profit."

Some article even claims that loss of foreign talents is affecting private property rentals. I'm sure our Millionaire ministers will pick that up and tell Singaporeans, "I told ya so." Actually they are wrong. Our property market is supported based on aggressive artificial demand. No institution can hold back a natural free market forever. Complacency has been giving way for significant over-supply. With demand slowed slightly because the MIWs want to save their arses for 2016, the market is doomed for a 1997 repeat. Even if it doesn't anytime soon, it will eventually in a much worse manner when our population hits 6.9 million and the government runs out of ideas to further boost the economy by pumping in numbers. The biggest balloon burst the loudest.

Coming straight to the point, this is typically what I eat for my breakfast + lunch, 5 days a week. I have been doing that since a few months ago since I was diagnosed with cancer. The answer to this question is important. Do you envy or sympathize with me for this diet?

You'll be surprised to know to date, no one told me they envied me. Everyone expressed their horror in some way or another. That's surprising, considering all of them exclaimed the meals were 'so healthy'. I thought all of us would like the privilege of eating healthy food and being healthy. Otherwise how do we explain the trillion-dollar health and wellness industry? Probably due to the fact all of us know what we have to do but we are not willing to put things in action. Humans.

I am one of the guilty ones who should be running after work instead of running after enemy players in Guild Wars 2. Forget about losing weight. We need exercise for our well-being. So we should allocate time to do it. Sex is not counted, unless you can last 30 mins continously or longer, thrice a week no lesser. We need stuff like swimming, cycling, walking or jogging and other boring stuffs.

Exercise however, is part of the losing weight equation but it doesn't help you lose weight alone. It is as good as saying someone who earns a million a year will never be a bankrupt. Exercise is one of the least efficient way to lose weight ever. The logic is simple. Imagine putting in a block of cheese vs grating the same block of cheese into a bowl. Which process is faster? We are actually putting food into our stomach wholesale all the time. Exercising is as slow as grating cheese or melting butter as compared to the intake process: eating.

So does it makes sense to focus a bit more on our eating habits instead of the output processes such as passing motion, vomiting, exercising or surgery? Will anyone believe me if you will lose at least 5 kg by eliminating sugar completely from your diet? I think that is simple enough for anyone to follow. It has to be simple because no method is useful unless it can be implemented. Scroll up and look at my lunch boxes again. If you eat that everyday at work without joining any colleagues for lunch-outs, you'll get labelled as a weirdo and be outcast in no time. Over here, everyone brings their lunch boxes and no one gives a hoot what you eat. So I am not expecting anyone to do this.

It isn't that bad really. Every dinner and all breakfast/lunch during weekends, I eat whatever I want at home. There is meat and humane tastes like soy sauces and other stuff. Even lots of sugar actually. I am coming to that. When I said laying off sugar, it doesn't mean just added sugar but every by-product. That Pokka Green Tea has a lot of sugar. Your Teh-O has sugar. Your sweet-and-sour pork contains lots of sugar in the sauce. The same goes for lemon chicken. Don't even think about ice cream, cakes, muffins, brownies and everything nice.

Some would suggest moderation. At a certain stage, moderation is not the answer. Moderation only works for people who has been on moderation all the time. Not for fatties with lots of flab. Trust me, when I first changed my diet drastically to fight cancer, I had to fight ADDICTION. I didn't even know we can be addicted to something as simple as sugar. We can and I bet you, most of you are. Try challenging yourself to lay off sugar and anything that contains any trace of sugar COMPLETELY from your diet for just 1 week, you will realise what I mean. Don't be surprised if you do strange things such as opening the fridge door and staring thoughtlessly before closing it only to repeat that not too long after.

The second step is crucial to laying off sugar. If you skip this step, you might as well go back to drinking ketchup (it contains lotsa sugar if you don't know) with your fried rice. The step is: Drink water. Make sure you drink at least 2L of water everyday. An easy way to do this is drink 500-700 ml the moment you wake up. Most of us will be dehydrated when we wake up so a dose of 500ml will make us pee in the train on the way to work. Once we reach the office, drink another 500-700ml before we start work. The urge to urinate will come not long after but you should be alright after just one visit to the toilet. Drink another 500ml around your break time or at lunch time latest, before eating if possible. After you eat, just take sips. Plan the rest of your 2L quota for the rest of the day.

Lay off sugar and drink not less than 2L of water a day, you will start losing weight and looking better. Within a few months, the changes will be significant. Ask my neighbours, who organised the Project Fatten after they saw how much weight I lost during my 6 days visit in Singapore. I didn't exercise a minute during my recovery months from late Autumn to the whole of Winter.