People wonder why we don't have babies...
PS. WoW has changed the Battlegrounds queue and it's nothing but BG-Madness I call it. Woot!
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Couple of things to rant:
- Birthrates
I have absolutely no idea why Singapore has this issue. Just look at the recent article on the successful birthrates in Japan. Or take a look at countries like Norway, Sweden, etc.
Title goes like this:
"No. of January-June births in Japan increases for 1st time in 6 yrs"
Why?
"The government has started special projects to make raising children easier and less expensive, while improving child-care facilities for working parents. But Japan has rejected large-scale immigration."
The Singapore government needs to be radical in its policies if the birthrates are to be higher. It doesn't take a rocket scientist or PhD-holder to analyze that. You can't have both ways, either you are pro-employer or pro-employee. So if your issue is low birthrates, you have to sacrifice a bit.
Be radical. Protect the expecting mothers with job securities, provide 1-year maternal and paternal leave for rotation.
Money doesn't buy everything. - Foreign Talents
I'm all for it. Really. A couple of my good friends are foreigners. They do contribute to the ecnomony and bring in new ideas.
The thing that p*sses me off, however, is the way the government handled it. It's like these foreigners are the answers to everything that includes low birthrates, shrinking population, need for globalization, etc.
It's so... uncreative. Just like the IR (Integrated Resort) issue. Need to boost economy? Let's have a casino. Duh.
In my opinion, Singapore seems to be the only country who does not protect its citizens. All other developed countries I know of have laws to protect its citizens, especially in labour and job securities. - IMF
I am all for Singapore to host IMF. But donations from organizations? Aw, c'mon. It leaves a bitter aftertaste.
The 4 million smiles? Why not employ your so-called foreign talents to fulfill your policies and campaigns? Also, why not have people lining along Changi Airport ECP highway to 'moon' at the delegates driving by? It's still a smile alright, albeit a vertical one :).
Anyway, there is a tradition called the Annual Mooning of Amtrak, Laguna Niguel, (Orange County) California, U.S.A. And nobody's throwing nobody in jail.
If you really want the delegates to know Singapore as she really is, drop all these fake fronts. We are already unique in our own way, and we are definitely not called the Land of Smiles. So stop selling Singapore what she is not. It may just backfire. Some smiling streaker could have just run across the road near Suntec City, waving a 'Welcome' banner.
When I smile in a crowded lift on a Monday morning, I get weird stares. When I have to deal with smelling people's hair/shirt/newspapers/breath/armpits in a crowded bus or MRT packed like sardine, I don't want to smile. When I face traffic jams in the morning and I feel like it's the end of the day when actually it has just begun, I don't want to smile. When the government breathes down on my neck asking me to make babies, to be the best employee, to be the best Dad, to be the best citizen, to be charitable, to be global, to accept their polices and to accept the increasing cost of living, to smile alot especially to IMF delegates..
...I don't want to smile. A smile should come along when you feel good or happy about something. A smile is natural. Not because I have to.
I swear the campaign would have been more successful if it had been the 1-million smiles campaign. Singapore is already small - I don't need 4 million people.
Anyway, a nation who smiles alot don't need a courtesy campaign. Think about it.
2 comments:
Mooning... that's really food for thought/ ;)
as for creativity to be prevalent as one of the traits of our government people... I have since given up on that fantasy. Hah!
read in the ST web - noticed a lot of space time given to foreigners who made it good here.
In fact one of them even got the SAF overseas scholar.
no probs with that, but the whole propaganda does seem a little artificial.
But the gov still need to create awareness amongst the local true blue singalions.
Japan is a strange country.
The fact they can ignore immigration or have such tight control is becasue their economy is not doing that well compared to sgp ( I don't have the number ).
Also their population is bigger.
But they will face the same problem too if their economy takes off ( not likely ). In fact it is worse in japan. Foreigners ( yes even asians, chinese like you & I ) will always be foreigners.
I think the IR will not be that great a success the gov hope it to be.
reason : macau has just overtaken Las vegas as the gaming capital of the world.
And macau has freed up all the protectionism and other laws. In fact the chap who owns macau casinos- Stanley Ho is making all the noises now. The Wynn company, Sands and all the big men are zooming in big time.
I think only sands ( or maybe wynn ) is still in the race in sgp ir )
macua is so near, and less restrictions.
come one, we all know casino is a legalised way of money laundering.
sgp will control more tightly than macau. so if you are those crooks, where do you park your money?
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