A Singaporean In Australia

I received a call from Stephen earlier in the week. It was a request for my help on Saturday. Perhaps I was having a moody day, I couldn't make up Steph's exact words but he sounded excited. Thought he told me something about moving tables from Pat's house to his. Well that didn't sound like a job for super Nix, I would probably pop up around 6am at Cloverdale where Pat is living his last days at his final rental place, slip whatever tables up the ute, drive down to Aubin Groove, where Steph's future new house will be and drive home in time to have breakfast with Albany.

That was what I thought.

On the eve of the project, we had another phone conversation. "Tables? What tables, I said pavers!" cried Steph. 

Damn. Pavers. That meant the excess material left over to build Patrick's new house at Caversham. The target location was not Cloverdale as I initally thought. Though Caversham and Cloverdale were suburbs that both start with the letter 'C' and have 3 syllabus, they were worlds apart, at least where distance was concerned.

"Alright, how many pavers then?"

"Many and I think we need 2 trips."

Gosh. I boarded the pirate ship.

I reached Caversham at 745am, after driving a short part of the beautiful Swan Valley. Joni and Stephen were already there. Joni told us each paver weighed 5kg and we did a quick calculations. Our worst fear was confirmed. We didn't have a volume issue, both our vehicles could probably fit up the whole lot of pavers if we wanted to. Our constraint was weight. We found ourselves already overloaded with about 1/3 of our capacity filled. That meant we would be required to make 3 trips in total.

3 trips weren't funny if you considered Caversham and Aubin Groove almost at the north and south tip of the Perth Metropolitian region. I made a mental estimation a single return trip would take about 1.5 hours alone, excluding time required to load and unload the goods. So I knew I would not be able to sit down for a meal with Albany until dinner time. Once the mental preparation was set, I focused on the mammoth task ahead of the three of us.

These pavers look deceptively easy to move

The future love nest of Steph n Joni

Ute helped out today

Finally, the jokers got their car and my days of chauffeuring them to-and-fro work were finally over. The black thing at the junction of Albany Highway and Kelvin Road in Maddington where they are living used to amuse me. Belong long, I was sick looking at it. It was there for a reason, the car dealer probably reckoned a big plastic thing that remotely resembled a Godzilla snarling at commuters driving past would boost car sales. I wasn't complaining, since my sister told me my nephew would be very excited if he saw that. Perhaps excited kids would trigger something in the minds of parents to buy cars. They must have worked that out somewhere before.

So, how about this white new car for $20k? Many Singaporeans would go, "So CHEAP!!" (Well there is a reason why we always get robbed in JB) Really, it isn't. $20,000 is a lot of money. Just because we are charged exorbitant prices to own a car for only 10 years in Singapore, does not make cars in Perth cheap. If you are a salaried worker, you still need many months or even a few years to save this amount of money. A few years of your life, is by no means cheap, unless that's how you define a few years of your life. Therefore, learn not to exclaim, 'Cheap!' so readily. If you groan and moan that everything is expensive all the time, it will become a good habit. It'll save you bucket loads of cash in the long run. It may even save you some anguish, if you shop in JB since potential robbers shadowing you will end up more worried they may end up being robbed by you instead after hearing the amount of groaning you can produce.

The consolation of expensive cars in Perth is that you can run them down to its last piston. Seriously, being restricted to only owning a car for 10 years sucks. We were told this dumb policy was passed to curb traffic congestion, only to see the same or higher number of cars on cars than 10 years ago. The bitter part isn't about how unenjoyable it is to drive on consistently congested roads but the ridiculous need to send a fully functional car to the scrap yard. Just imagine if you are told to change any single thing you bought after 10 years for whatever good reason, never mind a crappy one. COE for bed because bed bugs. COE for your refrigerator because hygiene, COE for your air conditioner because noise, COE for your television because optometry health, COE for your dog, COE for your husband. If you ask me, the first COE we should be buying is a COE for the government. 10 years maximum and fuck off, whatever the condition of the government or country, since COE makes sense.

Back to running down your car in Perth to its last piston, if you do not get rid of your car as programmed on the 10th year, you may find that it will take many years more before your old faithful calls it a day, as evident with the number of 1980s car I can still see on Perth roads nowadays.

As shown through the windscreen and rusty wiper of Goldilocks, Perth roads are pretty okay to drive on. That was part of ROE highway on my way home straight after work, nothing quite like the AYE war zone that I had to battle on everyday basis in the past. Yeah, I do miss the nice trees along the roads that my ex-colleagues from NParks has been doing a great job maintaining. Over here, we have only cute brittle bushes to remind us this is a city built on a desert. What a fine city they manage to build though, a different definition of fine I have to say.

Friends visited the eastern cities returned to report driving in those city was less pleasant as compared to Perth taking traffic volume, road conditions and driver behavior as factors. I was pleased to hear that and it had me gloating a bit for choosing Perth. What a scam it must be to move to Sydney and experience the same old shitty traffic conditions where we came from. You only need a new COE policy in NSW to bring back fond memories. Maybe a blue and white gantry or two somewhere too. Singapore Day, everyday. Nice.

When I was new to Perth, switching lane was awkward because I was expecting the car on the next lane to speed up upon my signal so that I could complete my transition quickly before the next guy close up the gap. Instead they carried on the same speed, which made me hesitate far too long until Jen told me, "Go, go! It's like that here." When I was on the receiver end, I could hardly remember having to apply my brakes whenever someone cut into my lane in front of me. I couldn't make up my mind if I had unconsciously dropped the normal tailgating habit in Singapore or was it people actually bothered to check if there was enough safe distance in between before making their lane switch. Perhaps, the lower volume of cars on the roads all the time simply makes everything more pleasant.

Newly arrived Singaporeans may tear their hair out waiting for traffic lights to turn green. In the 1980s when I was young school boy, I used to watch the traffic lights so often. Back in those days, traffic lights cycles were more or less like the ones in Perth today. However, the traffic cycles in Singapore had since been shortened drastically, so many of us will find it exasperating that the green light takes forever to come on. When I visited Malaysia, I noticed the long cycles in traffic lights as well. So, we should understand what we are used to in Singapore is not the norm.

Why don't you come to Perth for a drive? Take Goldilocks, wind down the window and drive north across the beautiful Swan Valley. Say hello to my friend Patrick when you pass by. Wave to the Duchess if you hit that far north. She may even be your proud tour guide and take you for coffee tasting.

Why do law exist?

The first and most basic reason as to why law exists is to defend people from evil. Another importance of law is to bring evil people to account for their actions. Law also helps to resolve disputes over limited resources and encourages people to do the right thing.

In Singapore, we have many legislated policies crafted out of deemed necessity because Singaporeans have not learn how not to buay zi dong or be inconsiderate. We have laws in Singapore such that if we sleep, eat, drink or pee at the wrong places or time, we will get fined for the first offence and other nastiness for repeated offences. It probably sounds like an animal training school for outsiders. The Singapore way of governance is obsessed with restricting, such that the need for interpretation or judgement is completely eliminated. Over time, we developed a national phenomenon called, "Law by Law." In the "Law by Law" world, there are only two colours - the white and the black. What isn't right must be wrong. The mentality is a form of scientific management which removes the need of judgement and decision-making and simplifying work-flow. While the desired purpose of corruption reduction can be achieved with this framework, it leaves little room for compassion, humility and common sense since what isn't white can not be white.

Case study for you:

No one has to worry for Nicole Rebecca Seah. Contrary of her damsel-in-distress image conjured by her hapless revelation recently, she is a woman who knows what she wants. So, she got an apology from wanbao online., is she still going to sue SPH? I reckon she will not be stupid enough to do that. Moreover, she doesn't hate them enough to do so. In fact she even grant them an interview to 'clarify' the issue.

Would you grant an interview to a moral-less rag without journalist integrity (in her own words) that you threatened to sue a few hours ago? Try telling a local Liverpool FC supporter to give an interview to The S*n and get your rightful dosage of middle fingers. Why would anyone sell her story to a rag which practice gutter journalism (in her own words) and help them sell more papers? That was support, not condemnation and I believe actions speak louder than words. So I rest my case on the attention whore.

I believe many Singaporeans, especially her fanboys, would not agree with me. You see, this is a classic example that can explain why Singaporeans are never going to be taken seriously by anyone, especially our government. It explains, for example, why Singaporeans cannot unite and drive on only non-ERP roads and create the mother of all traffic jams to bring traffic to a standstill. Is this protest illegal? No. Does it prove a point that ERP does not solve our problems? "What do you think?" But no, we grouse and moan but gladly slot our cashcards in the next day, our way of showing the government how we really hate ERP. Bobian? Yes, the government knows that too. Tough luck.

Somebody even told me how much she despised a bubble tea joint because they exploited workers while actually sipping bubble tea from the same shop. We really love bread prices of common bread driven to the skies because we just can't stop buying from Bread Talk, encouraging competitors to increase their prices in tandem because they knew consumers love paying more than $2 for a few specks of heated flour and yeast.

Why not, since our budding popular "celeb politician" is showing a good example getting an anal probe from some bad guy who just did some bad things to her a few seconds ago when she should be picking tampons elsewhere and posting it on Facebook for her fans. 

Seriously. Nicole Rebecca Seah. Whatever.

I attended rallies during the GE2011 with interest, in hope of a "freak result" which didn't happen so I could give myself a reason to stay in Singapore. Didn't happen, so I left Singapore a few months later with a convinced mind. Nicole Seah was one of the key buzz of GE2011. She was so big that the ground even called the NSP, "Nicole Seah Party." Nicole Seah's team eventually gave Emeritus Goh Chok Tong's team a run for his money in Marine Parade GRC and restricted him to the slimmest win ever in his political career. Things looked great for Nicole Seah then.

Call me a Captain Hindsight, whatever. If Nicole knows her sitation well enough, she will understand a political public figure that she is, is a public figure because of politics. She's no popular idol, celebrity blogger or whatever she seems to think she is. Nicole should be able to recall how the public made use of her election opponent Tin Pei Ling's pre-election photographs to taint her image. Let me do a bit of refresher for you.

Effects: immaturity, raise public doubt of her capability to serve, materialistic

Effects: Slutty, raise doubt on integrity

Effects: Bimbo, hare brain, childish, raise doubts on aptitude

If there was anyone who learnt a lesson from Tin Pei Ling, it would be Nicole Seah. Perhaps her memory had been impaired by her long bout of illnesses this year. That might explain why she felt there an absolute need to post a picture of herself in cuteness with a man for the world to see. Perhaps Nicole thought that other than her family and close friends, the public need to give a fuck about her new relationship. Bad decision. What isn't part of the strategy, stays out of the plan.

Had anyone stop to wonder why the media chose to slander her with that photograph that she posted only a month later? No, because only Nicole Seah was required to know her enemy but failed utterly to do so. Like a snake, the enemy bid for time. Then Nicole granted them a golden opportunity when she posted "Ground Zero". A strategist will do the utmost to conceal weakness or even set up decoys of strengths. Dear Nicole bared her tits, warts and all for the public granting the snake the perfect time to strike. [link]

Nicole immediately hit out on her Facebook in an attempt to clear the air, telling the public she isn't a slut seeing a married man like what the media insinuated. Within hours, all news sources were noticed to have changed their headlines and alter content, like a living shape-shifting labyrinth. The damage was already done. Initially, Nicole claimed that she didn't have the money and energies to pursue matters with SPH. That might have been a good closure to reduce her damages. Alas, urged and fueled by her team of foolish fans, she decided that it would be a good idea to sue the SPH, again, announcing to the whole world her intentions without giving herself even a night to consider.

Can someone in Singapore give Nicole a slap and get her to cool it down? This is a battle of minds a flustered strategist will lose. When fighting outnumbered against a stronger foe who has retreated into their garrison, a commander does not hit their walls with a trebuchet, for this gives the enemy no alternative but to advance and wipe his smaller troops from the map. The commander should take a lesson from the venomous snake to strike at the right time. She would have committed a familiar act of disdain if she sues like the men in white whenever they feel indignant. An act that the masses despise. There is still a chance for Nicole Seah to reverse her errors with a magnanimous display and garner her some support and sympathy.

Will you be taking the it, Strategist Nicole?

When the body refused to give way in a snap, a 95 old veteran had to take upon herself by committing suicide to stop herself being a financial burden to her family with medical bills. The 95 year old ex-Samsui woman, wasn't just another woman on the street. She would be a character far bigger than any of us today. For a living, she carried bricks and sand for 42 years in construction sites. Most of us won't even last 4 days doing that today. If that wasn't enough to the country to ask from a citizen, she answered the call of the government to work beyond retirement age and spent another 20 years working in a coffee shop. Such a character will be regarded as a legend in the games and fantasy world, the warrior who stomped on the trial of time like a boss.

The grandmother was Lu Dai Hao, one of the Samsui women who contributed to the success of the country. Some touted the this generation as "Nation Builders." The press even found out she was featured and commemorated in a short clip for the 2007 National Day celebration. Her children told them that their mother was unwilling to further burden them financially after a 3-week hospitalisation a few months ago and took her life 2 weeks ago.

How many of us will shrug this story aside without feeling for the woman? Whether committing suicide is a cowardly or courageous act has always been debatable but for a woman who faced challenges during trying times for almost a century, her suicide could not been a cowardly one. The motivation behind her suicide wouldn't be anything else out of love for her family and it takes tremendous courage to leave your beloved for good, without the chance to say goodbye. If granny had survived her suicide, she would be fined for her attempt as it suicide is illegal in Singapore. Fortunately the gods are willing to take her so she died peacefully and finally redeemed her freedom.

Why does things have to end up this way for the Boxers of our farm, model citizens who comply with the vision of the government? Why are we unwilling to take care of the medical needs of the people, whom we cite as the only precious resource of the country? Would Lee Kuan Yew, who confidently stated that Singaporeans would be healthier and happier if we worked as long as we could, claim that granny took her life out of happiness? How can our Ministers say we are unable to give the people good healthcare coverage while we have hundreds of billions sitting in our reserves? How can they sleep soundly at night and tell us there is no poor in Singapore?

It is often said that when we look at our children, we can see our future. In Singapore, we see our future when we look at our elderly. I hope you like what you see.

Hope you can help.

Sorry for the long email and request from a total stranger.

Thanks in advance!

******

1) Inform Singaperth moderator you are joining the group. So just send a request and you should be in soon.

2) I've checked with a friend and she is willing to rent a room to your husband around the late Dec - early Jan period. It is a nice house in mint condition with bathing facilities and a kitchen. No meals provided. Free first aid may be provided in the unlikely case of emergency. With that he should be able to do his house rental hunting, which may range from a few days to a few weeks, depending on how he does it. The plus point is that he is free to move out as soon as he secured the rental house instead of committing to a formal short-term rental lease which other landlords may insist on. Let me know your decision ASAP and I will link you up the landlady (Singaporean) to discuss details (dates, rates etc)

3) If your husband needs a car to drive around for house hunting, I can provide Goldilocks. All he needs to do is to i) get a few days of temporary insurance (it's not mandatory - just a suggestion so that in another unlikely case of a car accident, the insurance company pays, not him.) ii) be able to drive a manual car, iii) fill up the fuel he uses. Still better than renting a car. If you have a friend who can chauffeur him around for house hunting or if he is planning to buy a new car outright, ignore this.

While unhappy citizens use the internet and social media to vent their frustrations, the government must learn and understand these views and interpret them objectively, said PM Lee on Friday. Speaking on Friday evening at Chinese daily Lianhe Zaobao's 90th anniversary celebrations, he said new media users in any country are likely to be anti-establishment, and the government "cannot always be looking to see if the Internet approves or disapproves" of its policies. [extracted from this article]

I hope PM Lee does not pass down directives in the same manner during meetings. He must have left thousands under his charge confused on what to do next with the level of vagueness in his new intent. It is surprising to hear that our government, which operates on a strict bureaucratic framework, cannot decide between listening to citizens' opinion via social media or not. PM Lee's "Cannot be always" standard is a good bearing that the government will continue to select their battles, status quo with their current seek-wisdom-from-the-grassroot (hear only the good things) set up. It is either you do or you don't. No "not always", "sometimes" or "depends".

The PM, spending an unusual unhappy moment in his life

"We can't wish for new media not to exist, but we can try our best to use it."

"We must fight back against trolling, and provide a safe, responsible online environment which promotes constructive participation."

Requiring people to log in to various platforms to comment on articles is a method that has proved instrumental to improving the quality of discussion, said Lee, who cited TODAY as an example for requiring commenters to log in with their Facebook accounts to post their views. 

Yahoo Singapore, in turn, requires users to sign into their Yahoo, Facebook or Google accounts before being able to comment on its articles, and Lee announced at the same time that the government's feedback portal REACH will from mid-December require commenters to log in first before posting.

It was a pleasant surprise to find a small animal farm only 28 km from Perth City. So we don't have to drive hundreds of kilometres deep into the regional areas to enjoy a quiet picnic with a few billies bleating occasionally in the background. That wasn't anything like a poultry production farm, rather a leisure one set up for families to bring their young children to. Animals and kids really mix. After all both sets are animals of innocence, so children naturally find themselves find themselves at home in such an environment, more so to their tainted parents.

One of the charms of such farms was simplicity. It reminded us that toys, decorations and entertainment did not have to be of certain brands or world quality assured, much like the times when my parents were children themselves. During those days, children use their imagination to conjure their protagonists from shadows and unwanted used items, the vivid images in their minds far more realistic than the highly rendered computer generated graphics in the present day.

Earlier, Albany had a chance to witness a few minutes of goat feeding on the close up. Though she was a bit too young to really appreciate what happened I could sense her absorbing every single detail in all her curiosity.

Before long, we had a crack in the make shift tractor-train, probably made of used oil drums without much fuss. I imagined for a moment how a farm owner in Singapore may probably have to go through to get such a thing approved for operation. Perhaps a little list like Vehicle licensing (LTA), Environmental license (NEA), Fire safety (FSSD), Tourism proposal (STB), Operation Method Statement (BCA) and an agreement to fulfill the obligations of providing a Safety Officer, Facilities Manager and a policeman on standby every single round where children throttled by at 5km/h.

It was widely known that NTUC Secretary General Lim Swee Say believed that a minimum wage system has too many shortcomings and will therefore be detrimental to the well being of Singapore's economy if it is to be implemented. So they crafted a uniquely Singapore wage model they called, "Progressive Wage Model." The Progressive Wage Model is based on the key objectives of helping Singaporean workers climb the four ladders of skills upgrading, productivity improvement, career advancement and wage progression. The key objectives of this scheme alone tells us how much NTUC misses the target, if they think this is a replacement to a standard minimum wage system that is designed to protect the lowest tier workers.

A minimum wage ensures all employed workers earn a bare minimum to sustain their families. It does not and should not measure skills. The employer is responsible for equipping the worker with the right training and the tools to perform his or her roles. Upon the completion of training, the worker exchanges his time for money. Simple as. The problem arises when agencies chose to interfere by micro managing what industries should define as skills. For instance, Minister of State Josephine Teo was reported as saying that the government plans to engage only cleaning companies accredited under the National Environment Agency’s Enhanced Clean Mark Accreditation Scheme for all contracts called from 1 April 2013.

I wonder if anyone realise if we stick to our common sense and thrash this ridiculous idea of accrediting a cleaner (a fucking cleaner?!) and remove the bureaucracies, training agencies and other bullshit, we actually have enough money to pay the cleaners more. In time to come, Singapore cleaning companies will add "Only accredited cleaners need apply" on their hiring advertisements to save themselves the trouble and cost of sending workers for training. We will be left in a situation where we need to pay first to get a job as a cleaner.

Has anyone in NTUC conducted studies if an accredited cleaner is really more productive and therefore deserves a higher payout or opportunities to win a cleaning job at Josephine Teo's office? Any employer will tell you that no two degree holders produce the same level of quality in their work. If we are not the slightest certain of the effectiveness of accrediting such an industry, is that really necessary in the first place?

The key fallacy of this program lies in the definition of skills how much a person with a certain set of skills should be paid. For starters, who is in a position to decide how much a human being is worth? Assuming we have an excellent top tier accredited cleaner earning $1,000 on a "progressive wage" of an impossible 20% year on year increment every year without fail is required to work for 30 full years to reach an annual salary of $2.3 million, the amount that Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong is drawing today. Or on a single year alone, the PM rakes in a combined salary of 200 cleaners. Who defines a year of a man is worth 30 years of another, or of 200 others? Is it decided by demand and supply, a group of people or a single man? If the salary of our prime minister is defined by demand, he should be earning much lower than $2.2 million a year since only 60.1% of the electorate demand his services. It may be true that a man of his characteristics is definitely short of supply though, since there are only 2 qualified men in Singapore for the role.

If a single man can define how much you are worth, Lee Kuan Yew's proposal to link the salaries of ministers, judges and top civil servants to salaries of top professionals in the private sector is one example. What you probably missed out is, the salaries of top professionals are also defined by a group of elites protecting their own interests. By setting no minimum and maximum a man is paid, it is inevitable an income disparity will befall Singapore. 

If the decision makers are willing to address the growing issue of income inequality, there will have no need to consider any minimum wage model, progressive or otherwise, at this moment. A minimum wage has no purpose if the wages of top professionals are not reined into sustainability. If in doubt, always refer to the pizza. The gap between the top and bottom earner should be pegged in a ratio such that the top will never have a pay increment unless the economy is able to pay the low wage workers higher, unless you think it makes sense to freeze the wages of low and middle class workers in a bad economy while the top earners continues to draw 12 months bonuses at the end of same bad year.

There isn't a doubt that NTUC is aware of the situation but the organization simply has to come out with a scheme, uniquely Singapore style no less, that is neither effective nor relevant to address the real issues within. We could be better off saving the resources for a good one than a half-baked effort. That is how our government, ministries, statutory boards and government-linked companies operate. To spend the budget with the primary purpose to remind the public they exist, rather than the true purpose of serving the people.

The family joined the Perth Singaporean community about a week ago. Not without a bit of drama, receiving a distress call less than 24 hours from ETA because their car rental company let them down. In my feverish stupor, I activated good Singaporeans for help which ended up as an over-reaction because we ended up welcoming the little family with twice the car space required to receive their large suitcases, bicycles and all. At least, the family should have felt some hospitality. Always not a bad thing to help someone leap to a good start.

I wasn't in the best condition to even engage in a conversion but I had to do a little of it because I took the 2 ladies with me. The elder one was the Ninja Nurse that I met only once over a short dinner a few months back. The younger one, only 10 years of age or so, was introduced to me for the first time. She was given a lovely feminine name spelled in an unusual way  Along the way to their temporary abode, I was surprised to find the little girl knew more about me than I expected. It felt like a bit of spook. Apparently her mother took time to feed her regular stories about "Uncle Nix" during their final months in Singapore.

As one could imagine, the feelings of new migrants would be a mixed cup of excitement and anticipation with a dash of apprehensiveness. The family was no exception. With a job in the pocket though, that should calm some nerves. Within a week, I received news that the family had found their rental house. If there was any doubt she had the luck or the skill, this would be a good affirmation that ninjas are 90% skillez, 10% luck. Perhaps the next update would be the man of the family has set up a family business and we would be invited for a millionaire celebration a year later. Wish the family all the best.

I recalled asking Rei-E questions about their emigration during my groggy 30 minutes drive that day. I wanted to see how a child think about leaving such a fine country where she breathed the Singaporean culture since birth, as well as bidding the her little base of friends goodbye for good. It brought me back some vivid memories of losing a friend to Perth when we were 8 years old. We considered Charles a good friend of ours and even went over to his place to play a few times. He stayed in a point block somewhere in Dover Road just in front of a steep slope, where the group of us climbed and had great fun at. All of us were sad on Charles' emigration announcement. We even asked him to stay, without knowing how impossible it was. If Charles had been living in Perth since then, he would have already spent 27 years here. If I ever met him, I would be curious to know why Charles' family chose to leave Singapore at arguably its golden age in the late 80s, where living standards would be on a sharp incline for the next 1-2 decades. From Rei-E's cheery vibes, all being said, I believed we took Charles' departure a lot worse than himself. The painful loss of a once seemingly important friend would diminish in time as memories of the once upon a time slowly fade into insignificance.

Almost like death.

Where the Chinese believe the ghosts of hell would return every 7th month of the lunar calendar and if you meet a loved one in a spectre form, it probably wouldn't feel the same like before. I wonder if returning migrants feel the same way to old friends. Looks and smells the same, but something may not be quite right. Like meeting someone lost in a different time track.

We were already encouraged to take Albany to playgroups when she was a baby. What is playgroup, I asked. I couldn't recall my nieces and nephew attending any of these in Singapore. Perhaps it was selective memory because children stuff were of no relevance to me back then. You can say I am fully unaware about parenting 101 in Singapore. That is why with no proper data for comparison, whenever I was asked whether I have plans to return to Singapore someday, I don't have an answer.

Back to playgroup, these events are so common that you can attend one with your children twice or thrice a week if you have the time to. Playgroups are informal sessions that are set up and run by parents and caregivers. The environment is extremely relaxed for parents and fun for the children. There is a wide range of activities set up to meet varying needs but in general activities at playgroup include, music and singing, imaginative play, art & craft, outdoor free play and even outings. Playgroups can be organised anywhere that is safe or accessible - community centres, health clinics, schools, women's centres, church grounds, preschool, kindergarten, parks and playground and even someone's house. Most of these sessions are free, unless there is a special arrangement to bring a plate for example, for an event.

I had attended one held at Gosnells Library when Albany was only 1 year old. Back then she was only one of the few babies who could not walk steadily but she looked completely comfortable with the rest. My sister was visiting us in Perth at that time so my 4 year old niece was able to join in that playgroup. She laughed throughout the session and appeared to enjoy it tremendously, which left me wondering for a second. Is it because there are a lack of playgroups like that in Singapore? If so, why?

Jen takes Albany to a playgroup regularly these days and I fully encourage her to. It is not difficult to find a playgroup because there will be a couple available in close proximity no matter which suburb you live in. In these playgroups, parents and caregiver stay to interact with adults and play with the children. No child is too young as Jen told me even babies attend these and love the new experiences each time. I believe these activities are generally beneficial for toddlers for their sensory and social and learning development. What I like about these playgroup is how it epitomise racial harmony. As far as I know, there is no such thing as a ethnic playgroup. We also see no evidence of locals rejecting playgroups because of their racial melting pot nature. If there is really a racism issue in Australia, getting children to grow up naturally and harmoniously with other races can only improve the situation. On our shores, would you Singaporeans parents interact with Pinoy, PRC and Indian parents on regular basis and encourage your own kids to play with theirs? Maybe your answer will change the way you think about "Racist Australia".

The popularity of play groups is a good reflection of the dynamics behind the Australian society. Though this trend is slowly changing, many young families are still currently operating in a single income model where mothers stay at home to raise their children until they feel ready to go back to the work force. Some may claim that the decision for such a family arrangement as purely financial, dismissing the deep cultural beliefs and values behind it. I will encourage young Singaporean families to embrace this model and try to appreciate the underlying values within instead of putting the dollar signs foremost instinctively like how we always have been. Else, it defeats the purpose of moving to Australia if the main consideration was for the sake of children. For one, a mother makes a better mentor, companion and caregiver better than a Milyn Sardinia Orfiano. Else the father should have married the latter.

Spring weather conditions in Perth is the closest to Singapore's cooler days from the end of the year till the earlier months of the next. It offers high humidity, regular bouts of breeze and warmer days around the mid 30s. Perhaps it is more of a coincidence why a few Singaporeans I know chose Spring to make their big move.

If I could remember correctly, the neurotic couple [link] would be in Australia soil this week. Most likely for good. Hopefully, life is Australia will serve them well and cure them of the neurosis Singapore inflicted on them. Perhaps soon, we'll read erotic writings from the talented couple instead. Singapore's loss, really, to bid goodbye to a good man who defended Singapore as a career and a dedicated teacher.

Patrick came in Spring 2 years ago. So did I. Ling the Ninja Nurse came 2 weeks ago. Perhaps it was the subconscious in us to choose the conditions closest to home for the big move for a kinder transition. For the same reasons, Spring is the time to miss home. I find myself thinking about home regularly throughout this season, particularly when Spring delivers her kisses on my face and send the hologramic flashbacks in my mind. The smell in the Spring breeze took me back to the days of joys seeing my friends again in school after the long break. I can remember conversations, our young faces, our incredulous deeds that sent relief teachers to tears. I can recall watching mum making Chinese New Year delicacies and the different manner she chose to deliver her messages to a young boy, teenager and a grown adult stealing a bite. I think of the rare relaxed streets during the afternoons of the Chinese New Year, where we would sneak out for a cuppa in a Halal kopitiam and chat the days away during my last few years in Singapore.

Life was good in Singapore. There is no real logic for any Singaporeans to leave Singapore. After all, push and pull factors are merely superficial quantitatives and doesn't account for the philosophy behind bizarre motivation to want away from the indistinguishable veil of paradise. Is it about seeking a better life, an act of escape or a higher form of materialism? One thing I'm sure of, though we have security and stability that very few in the world can boast of, no threats to any of our lives even for those beneath the indefinable poverty line, our souls are being devoured slowly and surreptitiously in our lackadaisical hypnosis. Maybe one day the horizon will be clearer for me to see.

I'm going to talk about minimum wage today after I have read Gintai's article [link] and totally disagree with it.

Let me begin with the right settings and the right mindset. First of all, I will like to point out how our government likes to remind us about "context" we bring out the wrong chart about wages.

So why are the top earners in the private sector earning so much money? Since Gintai is quoting everyday items, I shall do the same. Let's imagine the amount of wealth generated each year as full pizza, shared among 10 people. The first man sliced the pizza into 4 quarters, gingerly place one quarter of it on a plate, smile at the 9 men and then walks away with the rest of the pizza, still warm and tucked safely in his pizza box. The remaining 9 men were left looking at each other, wondering how to divide the remaining quarter among themselves. That represents how wealth is divided in Singapore.

The above example illustrated that the only way to ensure remaining men gets a guaranteed (however thin) slice of pizza instead of fighting among one another feeding off scraps is to have the first man taking less and leave more behind for the rest. The PAP government's solutions are based on creating a bigger pizza or even a second pizza but only to see the same situation happening each time - the majority of the men left with little to share. In such a situation, talks of implementing a minimum wage is not only unnecessary but impossible. I never understand why members of the public even bother to discuss about minimum wage where they do not understand the big picture. You can argue that creating bigger pizzas translate into higher base for workers, even if they still share that 1/4 but how much bigger is the pizza can become? Is our GDP going to double year-on-year?

I am not quoting examples about minimum wages from other countries here. It is unnecessary because each country has their unique circumstances which does not match our own in Singapore. Why are people arguing for Singapore to adopt a framework because the others were using it. To put it in football terms, a minimum wage structure is just another formation a team can use to win games. Just because the other teams are twating every opponent team using a 3-4-2-1 formation does not mean you will have the same success implementing it, especially taking into consideration we have only 1 star player and 10 other undernourished players who cannot even finish a 90 minute game.

Now we have our tummies filled with pizza scraps, I'll take a few minutes to respond to Gintai's Char Kway Teow's logic. He said in this blog post:

I’ll cite another simple illustration. A plate of Char Kway Teow easily costs $2.50. Why some customers willing to pay more even up to $10 per plate of Char Kway Teow. Consumers willing to pay higher price cuz there are more ingredients and definitely taste better. They feel it’s worth the $10 especially if there is XO or abalone added? So there is a demand and supply even though it’s expensive. What if the government decides to set a minimum price for a plate of Char Kway Teow? If the price is set at $2.50, it serves no purpose since the cheapest Char Kway Teow is already set by the free market mechanism at that price. What if it is set at $5? Now you can only eat a plate of Char Kway Teow at $5 by “legislation”! Many hawkers selling Char Kway Teow will have to close shop unless it is worth the $5 consumers willing to pay. Nobody will want to eat a plate of $5 Char Kway Teow if it’s not worth that amount. Those consumers will just switch to other food instead of Char Kway Teow. On the surface, it appears that setting the minimum price of Char Kway Teow is helping the poor Char Kway Teow hawkers. Do you think it is so?

Example 2 from Gintai;

Now let’s take another direct example. Currently security officer is paid at about $5 per hour. 12 hours is about $60. If the minimum wage is raised to $7 per hour, there is no incentive for him to upgrade his skills in terms of his job scope. Why should he? It is better that the security officer made effort to upgrade his skills to earn that extra and hence become more productive. If he is well trained and able to perform his job professionally, most employers are willing to pay the extra dollar. There is also the incentive for him to upgrade his skills to match that extra dollar. From $5 to $7 is about 40% wage rise which also enables him to cope with the inevitable inflation and rising costs of living. The WorkFare Wage Supplement given out every quarterly by the government to low wage workers is another laudable scheme. My mother working as a cleaner in a local supermarket is a beneficiary.

This is a classic example used by the NTUC of Singapore. That workers have to do a lot for a perceived wage increase, masking the fact they have already been underpaid for decades. Let's talk about the upgrade of skills. How do you define skills in Singapore? Certification. It used to be a scenario like what Gintai painted, an incentive to train and upgrade. However these days in Singapore, across all industries, it is almost mandatory for workers to be made to go through courses and be 'certified' to perform their work.  As a project manager in construction, I attended many courses that my Bangladeshi workers did. Most of these courses were ceremonial courses that passes the worker at the end of the day so long he turns up for classes and passes a test with plenty of 'tips' given. Among the 40 odd workers under my charge, I can promise you I've never seen any improvement in the level of productivity, efficiency or safety in a single worker after he attended a course. There will be no exception even if you make Singaporeans or Malaysians go through the same courses. This isn't a nationality issue but a fundamental one. So what are with left with? Plenty of money spent but nothing of worth created.

These were concerns which “the ministry understands”, Mr Tan said. [link]

On the other hand,

SINGAPORE — Employers who do not pay, underpay or are late in contributing to their workers’ Central Provident Fund (CPF) accounts could face stiffer penalties, including being jailed, under proposed amendments to the CPF Act tabled in Parliament yesterday. 

Instead of the current S$2,500 maximum fine for a first offender, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) has proposed imprisonment of up to six months, as well as doubling the maximum fine to S$5,000. Fines will also start from S$1,000, if the Bill is passed. 

For repeat offenders, jail terms could be up to one year, and fines may start from S$2,000. The maximum fine of S$10,000 for such offenders remains unchanged under the proposed changes.

In response to media queries, an MOM spokesperson said: “The CPF Act will be amended to effect various CPF policy changes. Various technical amendments will also be made to streamline the administration of CPF matters.” [link]