spain has 40 percent unemployent rate : this is why

Conscription ends in Spain after 230 years
By Isambard Wilkinson in Madrid 12:00AM BST 29 May 2001

SPAIN'S last conscripts have formally passed out, marking the beginning of the end for 230 years of obligatory military service.

As conscripts lined up on the Spanish Foreign Legion parade ground in Almeria to kiss the national flag, military stalwarts lamented the passing of a cherished tradition. They could take limited solace from the fact that Spain's last conscript, Jose Luis Betaloza Gonzalez, 18, said he wanted to become a professional soldier.

Next year Spain's military will be an entirely professional force for the first time since King Carlos III introduced conscription in 1770. The end of conscription has spelt recruitment problems for the armed forces. The Defence Ministry has acknowledged that with 76,000 volunteers serving at present, it is still 10,000 below its target figure.

Transgenerational epigenetic teen violence

Transgenerational epigenetic observations

Marcus Pembrey and colleagues also observed in the Överkalix study that the paternal (but not maternal) grandsons of Swedish boys who were exposed during preadolescence to famine in the 19th century were less likely to die of cardiovascular disease; if food was plentiful then diabetes mortality in the grandchildren increased, suggesting that this was a transgenerational epigenetic inheritance.[43] The opposite effect was observed for females—the paternal (but not maternal) granddaughters of women who experienced famine while in the womb (and their eggs were being formed) lived shorter lives on average.[44]

====================

above observation points to the possible epigenetic origination of teen violence in Singapore where the parents are subjected to ramdom acts of violence during 2 years NS slavery and according to epigenetics theory pass the unhealthy enviromental factors to the offsprings.

sg is a piece of shit full of itself spending obsene money on vanity projects

By any measure, Singapore's defense capacity is huge for a country of only 660 square kilometers (264 square miles) of territory. The prosperous island-state, with a 76 percent ethnic Chinese majority, sits between Indonesia and Malaysia and has been skittish about its largely Muslim neighbors since the 1960s. Singapore practices what it calls a “poisoned shrimp” strategy – it might be swallowed by one of its neighbors, but doing so would kill the neighbor.

Accordingly, Singapore’s defense budget, at US$6.9 billion annually, is nearly 3.5 times as big as Indonesia’s. Singapore’s defense budget comprises 30 percent of its national budget and slightly over 5 percent of GDP. The Indonesia Air Force and Navy get a mere US$494 million each.

=============

The crisis has shone a light on the revolving door that operated between Fianna Fáil and the construction industry. Under successive governments, Ireland became the plaything of a crony capitalism that neglected the public interest in favour of a golden circle of banks, property developers and state bureaucrats.

In its bid to attract inward investment, the country became a virtual tax haven, leaving it ever more dependent on revenues from the building industry. At the height of the boom, construction accounted for a fifth of the economy and house prices rose 520 per cent between 1994 and 2006. When the property bubble burst, the state was left with no way to finance its debts.

another local male regret serving NS for nothing

Well I am not sure if there is a point in writing this because I am not sure if there is anyone from the government who will be reading this. But I guess for the record, I ‘ll just do it.

I am in my thirties and a PMET. I worked for a local company for 6 years as a Software Engineer. Recently, the boss started to hire Foreign ‘Talent’ from the Philippines and India. Rumour has it that they are employed because they are ‘cheap’.

My point is they are just ordinary workers, who need guidance from local staff, doing ordinary jobs that Singaporean PMETs can do. There were locals came in for interviews but in the end those foreigners are selected by the boss. And mind you the IT Manager who decides who to hire is also a foreigner himself.

Everyone in the office agreed that these so-called ‘talented’ foreigners are sloppy in their job but they are excellent ‘balls lickers’. They work hard only when the boss is around.

Unfortunately, the company financial situation got worsen and the big boss decided to let go some staff in order to save money. Guess what? The first batch consist of Singaporeans only while those foreigners are retained. They are cheap I guess.

And that was last April. Till now I have yet to find a job. It has been 8 months and I am living on loans to survive. Both my parents were warded in the hospital for few months recently and I am now paying the huge debts incurred due to the hospitalisation. Mum got a stroke which rendered her immobile and Dad got a heart attack. All this happened when I am unemployed.

HDB arrears are getting bigger and CPF was unable to deduct from my OA for the compulsory HPS insurance. There are no more money left in my OA. On top of that, we have to eat and there is a little girl aged 4 years old staying with me.

Things are getting out of control and I was under depression state because of this. I have lost count numbers of resumes sent to companies but there are no response from any of them. IT industry as we all know gets competition from foreigners all over the world. Besides I am in my late 30s.

Out of desperation, I sent an email to my MP asking for assistance in job employment and two months later, I have yet to receive his reply besides the one and only auto-reply.

I got frustrated to the point of feeling ‘hatred’ towards foreigners when I see them laughing and talking loudly among their colleagues in public places while me, a true-blooded local born Singaporeans who has served NS are struggling to make ends meet. Where do I get the money for my mum’s next therapy session? For my dad’s next appt at the hospital. For the meals? Where?

Do I have the right to vote my MP out in the next GE? If not, what right do I have as a Singaporeans?

.

Allan

mollly meed make sense

The problems highlighted above are real and valid worries, but they hardly touch the heart of the matter. The average Singaporean—and obviously our policymakers are not average Singaporeans given that that our ministers earn enough in one year to afford a decent retirement whereas I can only pray that I would be able to slog away in resigned bitter despair till the day I die—only has his labor to protect him from total helplessness. And it is also what makes him helpless. The same Singaporean who is disadvantaged in terms of employment prospects because of National Service liabilities, who is no match for those who can survive on the lowest wages imaginable, who is not protected by a minimum wage in a country that has third world wage structures is also the Singaporean who faces ever-rising costs of living (which the government sometimes market as ever-improving standards of living) and is ordered to be cheaper, better, faster while clocking the most number of working hours in the world. This is same Singaporean who is also supposed to be kind and nationalistic, speak good English, and vote the PAP into power election after election (which they, disappointingly, will). The average Singaporean is supposed to make merry in misery and be grateful for being able to stay alive by suffering.

Singapore wants me to always be an abject beggar-slave chimera. I have to be a pathetic monster that begs for exploitation because being exploited is my only means of survival. Given that we want to compare with the Finns, perhaps this characterizes the Finns too. Or perhaps we are really much better off.

Finland is not a model that the PAP government of Singapore looks up to as it seems rather fond of the idea of welfare, which is an abomination to the rational PAP. Perhaps we ought to take a look at Finland’s social security system and see how much better off Singaporeans are compared to the Finns.

If Singaporeans want to retire, they should first retire a particular group of expired politicians who are exceptionally talented in marketing asphyxiation to the masses. But we know Singaporeans are good, diligent people like Orwell’s Boxer and we should not expect a Boxer’s Rebellion.

Retirement is not part of the lexicon of Standard English and we should stop using the word.

.

Molly Meek

SIA SAY SAF REGULAR NO GOOD FOR CEO

SIA's No. 2 man resigns
By Karamjit Kaur, Aviation Correspondent
Mr Bey (right) with Mr Chew (left) and Mr Goh at a press conference earlier this month. Mr Bey, whose last day with SIA is Feb 28, did not say what his plans for the future are. -- ST PHOTO: NEO XIAOBIN

http://www.straitstimes.com/PrimeNews/Story/STIStory_604014.html

THE No. 2 man at Singapore Airlines (SIA), Mr Bey Soo Khiang, has quit - two months after the carrier named his subordinate as the next chief executive.

He was the highest-ranking executive among four SIA officials widely believed to be in the running to succeed outgoing CEO Chew Choon Seng.

In the end, Mr Goh Choon Phong, 47, one of the four, was selected for the top post, which he will assume on Jan 1.

At the time of the announcement, he was reporting to Mr Bey, who is senior executive vice-president for marketing and corporate services.

Announcing Mr Bey's impending departure, SIA said in a statement yesterday that no decisions had been made on who would take over his duties.

He joined the airline a decade ago, after 26 years in the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF). He was Chief of Defence Force when he left the SAF in 2000.

Mr Bey said in the statement: 'The time is right for me to move on. I will be leaving knowing that the airline remains in good hands.'

Mr Bey, 55, whose last day with SIA is Feb 28, did not elaborate on his plans for the future but said he decided to move on to explore new opportunities and challenges. Mr Shukor Yusof of Standard & Poor's Equity Research said that the day SIA announced that Mr Goh would be the next chief executive, 'the writing was on the wall'.

He added: 'It does not come as a big surprise that someone of his calibre would want to move on, given that he did not get the nod (from the board) for the CEO job.'

There should be no shortage of jobs for Mr Bey when he leaves, Mr Shukor said, adding that he could easily move to a government-linked or private company, given his management experience.

SIA chairman Stephen Lee said it was with 'great regret' that the airline was announcing Mr Bey's resignation.

'He has served with great dedication and loyalty. He has made significant contributions towards the development of the company,' he said.

Mr Bey could not be contacted for further comments.

He joined SIA as executive vice-president (technical) in July 2000 and was promoted to senior executive vice-president two years later.

SAF regulars are bastards !!!

This story, reminds me of another incident - some fucking minions in the army.

This young man, he was supposed to attend a hearing for evading NS, he was badly injured in an accident, and missed his enlistment. When he received the letter, he attended the session with a limp as the limb supporting structures were still bound to his legs to help him walk. He had all the documents from the hospital and was ready to present his case.

FUCK that fucking colonel, a typical jiak liao bee and useless bastard. When this guy stood up and limp slowly towards the colonel, the colonel straightaway charged him for insubordination as that young man did not salute to the colonel. He was carried away by the jiak liao bees MP. On the pretext of going to the toilet, he gave them a slip - a Pioneer of Mas Selamat Kastari ?? He climbed over the fence and wall with limp.

For the next 2 months he went into hiding and MP went to his house looking for him. In that 2 months, he wrote to several places to complain.

In the end, owing to his serious injuries, he was exempted from NS. On the day that he went back to the enlistment centre to get his exemption letter, he said these to the same colonel with a middle finger after getting the exemption :

KAN NIN LAO BU AYE CHOW CHEE BYE !!

The colonel dash to fight with him, and he was ready for it. Luckily, that young man relative was there to intervene and stand in between the young man and colonel. I was hoping that the young man smashed the fucking colonel head with his bare hand - a karate opponent.

This fucking bastard colonel is the by product of fucking PAP system - arrogance and self righeous !!

There was another arrogance and self righeous RSM, and every recruits and privates hated him to the core. One day, my friend decided to take the law into his own hand. He paid off some gangsters to mob him at his flat. After one of the gangsters recognized that RSM face, he gathered the gang near the flat to whack the daylight out of him. Unfortunately, these moronic gangsters whacked the wrong person !!! The SON of that RSM !! Father and son look alike and about the same size !!

NS is child abuse

U.S. Debt Is Child Abuse: Laurence Kotlikoff, Richard Munroe
By Laurence J. Kotlikoff and Richard Munroe - Oct 22, 2010 9:00 AM GMT+0800
Bloomberg Opinion

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We don’t want to think about it, let alone read about it, but higher taxes are on the way.

Two tax hikes were passed this year and another is likely. These new taxes are supposedly being levied just on the rich. But over time, they will hit most of our kids. And they are just the beginning of our children’s and grandchildren’s tax trauma, given Congress’s inability to curb spending.

The two increases are for Medicare. They were buried inside the 2,000-page health-care bill and take effect in 2013. Earn more than $250,000 ($200,000 if single) and you’ll face an extra 0.9 percentage-point FICA tax for Social Security. And once your income passes this level, you’ll pay a 3.4 percent tax on your asset income.

These thresholds aren’t indexed for inflation, let alone growth in real incomes. So these taxes on “the rich” will eventually hit everyone as nominal incomes rise with inflation and productivity. Within 20 years most earners will be paying these new Medicare taxes.

The Alternative Minimum Tax also has thresholds that aren’t indexed for inflation. Congress has raised these levels to keep the share of taxpayers affected constant. But there is no guarantee it will continue to do so.

There are two other income-tax thresholds that haven’t changed since 1984. These are the income levels at which the first 50 percent and then 85 percent of our Social Security benefits are subject to taxation. In 2000, only 22 percent of recipients were above one of these thresholds. Now it’s 39 percent. When today’s children retire, virtually all will pay taxes on 85 percent of their benefits.

Bye-Bye Tax Cuts

Take a current 10-year-old who reaches the 25 percent tax bracket. She’ll hand back 21 percent (0.25 times 0.85) of her Social Security benefit in income taxes. To add injury to injury, President Barack Obama’s National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform likely will recommend a 20 percent benefit cut through a three-year increase in Social Security’s full retirement age.

Congress will, surely, also repeal George W. Bush’s income- tax cuts for the rich by raising rates in the top two brackets to 36 percent from 33 percent and to 39.6 percent from 35 percent. Over time, many of our kids who are middle income and even low income will face these higher rates because of real bracket creep.

Based on these assumptions, many young, low earners, now in the 15 percent bracket, will land in the 25 percent bracket by 2020. And many young workers with moderate earnings, now in the 28 percent bracket, will move into the 36 percent bracket.

What’s the total impact on young and future Americans of these tax time-bombs?

Kids and Grandkids

Consider two couples -- the kids, who are 30, and the grandkids, who will be 30 in 2040. The kids earn $70,000 a year per spouse, own a $400,000 house with a $1,718 monthly mortgage payment, will spend $30,000 on each of their two children’s four years of college, and earn 6 percent (3 percent after inflation) on their assets.

The grandkids are just like the kids except all their numbers are 3.68 times larger because of inflation and productivity growth.

Let’s reference by 100 each couple’s sustainable living standard absent any federal taxes. To compare the kids and the grandkids, we’ve adjusted the grandkids’ living standard down for their increased productivity.

Under the current tax system, the kids’ living standard is 83, meaning they face a 17 percent lifetime tax rate. Add in the new Medicare taxes, and the increase in top tax rates over the next decade, and their living standard drops to 80 -- a 20 percent tax rate.

Approaching Greece

The grandkids face a bigger hit. Their living standard is 74 -- a 26 percent tax. So, compared with the current tax system, the grandkids have to pay 9 cents more per dollar earned to Uncle Sam.

If things continue as we adults have planned, our nation’s debt, measured as a share of gross domestic product, will reach Greek levels just when the grandkids start heading to work. At that point, simply stabilizing the debt-to-GDP ratio will require raising taxes by 50 percent, thereby lowering the grandkids’ living standard from 74 to 61.

This is a 39 percent bite, more than twice the lifetime tax rate that baby boomers have experienced. Bear in mind, this is an average, not a marginal tax rate; it’s like taxing every dollar the grandkids earn at 39 percent.

Deficits Keep Soaring

A 50 percent tax hike will work for a while. But, given projected federal spending, it won’t keep deficits from soaring down the road. So the great-grandkids can expect even higher lifetime tax rates than their parents.

We’ve spent six decades passing the generational buck -- taking ever-larger sums from the young and giving them to the old, while promising the young their turn, when old, to expropriate their own offspring.

This massive Ponzi scheme is turning the American Dream into the American Nightmare. Stopping it means dramatically limiting the growth of federal spending. Here’s how:

-- Scrap our health-care system and provide all citizens with a voucher based on pre-existing conditions to buy a basic health plan, and limit coverages so that the total cost of the vouchers is fixed each year at 10 percent of GDP -- what Germany now spends on care.

-- Freeze Social Security in place, pay off its accrued benefits and replace the system with mandatory saving in personal accounts whose assets are jointly invested, by computer, not Wall Street, at minimal cost, in a fully diversified global index fund. The government would match contributions of the poor to make the system progressive and annuitize account balances at retirement. This Personal Security System would take much of Social Security’s unfunded liability off our kids’ backs.

-- Finally, stop spending more than the next 15 countries combined on defense. Declare victory in our unwinnable wars and bring the troops home.

And what about revenue? Scrap the current tax system and tax the elderly as well as the young through a levy on consumption. Also, provide a fixed monthly payment to each household to make the consumption tax progressive.

This all may sound radical. It’s not. Our progeny only have 100 cents out of every dollar they earn to surrender to Uncle Sam. And if their tax rates get too high, they will have a simple response: “Hasta la vista, baby.”

(Laurence J. Kotlikoff is a professor of economics at Boston University and president of Economic Security Planning Inc., and Richard Munroe is a senior software engineer at the firm.)

To contact the writer of this column: Laurence Kotlikoff at kotlikoff@bu.edu

To contact the editor responsible for this column: James Greiff at jgreiff@bloomberg.net

goh keng swee kill sg with NS

That is why I cannot understand when people claim he is compassionate. . Where NS was concerned he was not prepared to listen to reasons. It was his idea and nobody must oppose it. The Isrealis and old full time regualrs ( many of whom were of a particular race) were SKUNKS! They were sadists and torturers not trainers!

During those days there were poor hawker parents with only one son who approached them about exemption - cut no dice with him.

THE ARMY during GKS days!
+++++++++++++++++
In the early days you report sick you kena terok terok- it was almost like you kena punished for reporting sick.!

The Bloody combat chicken they threw to us for food, in the camp was horrigible

and the dirty mugs and mesh tins had to be polished just like your boots until you can see your face in them!

For stand by bed your mesh tins and water bottle had to be shining -

YOUR uniforms had to be starch so hard that it could literally stand up at attention on its own without your wearing it!

The bloody steel helmet weighed so bloody heavily on your head in the hot sun absorbed even more heat!

AND All these stupid things HIS BLOODY ARMY made us do!

1)Imagine giving us recruits a stupid 4 inche jack knife and making us cut grass with it at SAFTI? really dumb stupid things w ehad to submit to!

2)If the toilet walls were not well cleans the SGT Maj made you lick the toilet walls! tha that sort of abuse!

3)carrying granite and making roads for SAFTI and using branches of trees to tar the road! ridiculous! really cheap labour!
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I call that the epitome of stupidity! instituted by a so called brilliant economist of the day, who didn't need to undergo all that stupidity himself ?

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
65 individuals were stuffed in one platoon sharing 4 toilet bowl- imagination the problem every morning just lining up in four details one behind th eother - to clear your bowels! Thanks to GKS again!

TO GKS it must be very funny- a whole load of educated A level students being treated that way! I can well understand why those doing NS in those days and their parents really hated himand cursed him to high heavens!
----------------------------
Interesting the age for NAtional Service cut off line was those born after 1949- and his only son Kian Chee was spared. And even if he had to do NS - as a white horse it would have been different.compared to the plebians' children!
-----------------------------

fuck NS fuck SAF

ST PHOTO: MUGILAN RAJASEGERAN

NATIONAL Day is coming.

This year, The Straits Times will celebrate the places where Singaporeans call home on this island. The concept for this year's National Day Supplement is My Hometown in Singapore.

What makes people loyal to a particular neighbourhood?

What makes them proud?

What is so special about, say, Serangoon Gardens?

What is so unique about living in, say, Woodlands?

What do folks in Katong enjoy that others cannot?

Everyone has a home, or a hometown, in Singapore. Everyone has a story to share about the joys of living there.

We want to hear those stories.

We want to see photos of your hometown.

We want to read your poems, or lyrics of a song you wrote about your hometown.

Or even a podcast or a video you've made to express yourself.

In tandem with the National Day supplement on Aug 9, we are devoting space at straitstimes.com to allow you to share your stories, pictures and more.

Please submit them either with the relevant attachments or video links, to stonline@sph.com.sg with the heading 'My Hometown in Singapore' by July 15.

Leave your full name, age, occupation and mobile phone number.

We will also publish the contributions from the public in our supplemen

keng from NS good for you and fuck the country who sabo you

B-boys fake illness, escape army

SEOUL - NINE South Korean break dancers were arrested for pretending to have schizophrenia and other mental illnesses in order to escape compulsory military service, Seoul police said Monday.

Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency arrested the nine - members of the crew T.I.P. - short for 'Team work Is Perfect' - after receiving an anonymous tip that the dancers faked symptoms of mental illness to avoid South Korea's two-year mandatory military service, case officer Lee Jin-hak said.

'The suspects pretended to hear sounds and to see ghosts, feigning schizophrenia and insanity so that they will fail the physical for conscription,' Lee told The Associated Press. South Korea requires all able-bodied men aged 18 to 35 to serve at least two years in the military, unless they do not pass the conscription physical and are deemed unsuited to serve.

The suspects, whose names were not disclosed, thoroughly studied symptoms of schizophrenia, insanity, and depression in medical textbooks and the Internet, enough to deceive their parents and psychiatrists, Lee said. 'They played up their supposed symptoms so that they'll be hospitalized about thirty to fifty days - long enough to qualify for exemption,' he said.

South Korea's military service laws exempt men who have a record of receiving psychiatric treatment for 6 months up to a year, or if they have been hospitalized for over a month. 'Once they were cleared they break danced all they wanted, while others their age served their country,' Lee said.

Lee said the police will file criminal charges against three of the suspects whose statute of limitations have not yet expired, and order the rest to immediately report for military duty. The Military Manpower Administration said it plans to re-examine all nine men in a thorough physical. -- AP

indonesian cheated sg of NS enter havard

Poly 'reject' off to Harvard
Indonesian is the first S'pore Poly student to get into the elite varsity
By Amelia Tan
Harvard-bound Singapore Polytechnic student Kuriakin Zeng with the TR-2010 robot he designed and built with teammates. It will be one of the robots competing in the RoboCup competition next month at Suntec City. Mr Zeng, who is passionate about robotics, has clinched a full scholarship to study liberal arts at Harvard College. -- ST PHOTO: DESMOND FOO

HE WAS once rejected by Singapore Polytechnic (SP), but Indonesian student Kuriakin Zeng, 24, subsequently went on to make history at the institution, not once but twice.

Last year, he became the first SP student to score straight distinctions for all of his 33 modules in his electronics, computer and communication engineer-ing diploma course.

Last week, he became the first student from the polytechnic to be accepted into Harvard College, where he will do a liberal arts course - with the bonus of having a full scholarship from the Ivy League university.

Read the full exclusive story in Tuesday's edition of The Straits Times.

ameltan@sph.com.sg

another example of how NS is killing Sg

Jumper not allowed to defer NS, will miss 2 key junior meets


NATIONAL long jumper Matthew Goh's dreams of winning a medal at the World and Asian junior athletics championships in July have been dashed.

This, after the Ministry of Defence rejected his appeal to postpone the start of his national service stint by three months. Mindef conveyed its decision to Matthew on Tuesday.

Said the 18-year-old, who will have to enlist next Wednesday as scheduled: 'It's very disappointing, especially as my father tried everything... We fought hard, but in the end that wasn't enough.'

the keng NS man

The Harry's man

HE RUNS 28 bars on this island, but admits candidly that he prefers to enjoy his drinks elsewhere. That should tell you a lot about Mr Mohan Mulani.

Noticing my raised eyebrows when he mentioned this, Mr Mulani adds: 'I avoid drinking at my outlets because then I run into too many people I know.' The message is clear: This man values his down time, he doesn't want to mix business with pleasure.

In fact, as we chat over coffee at his flagship outlet - Harry's @ Boat Quay, which was his first purchase when he made his foray into the food and beverage industry in 1994 - Mr Mulani admits that he is most proud of having just become a published author. The 28 bars (that figure will become 31 by November), the catering company, the nightclubs, the restaurants, the textile trading business before that... all that pales before his latest achievement: a 168-page book titled The Story Of Harry's.

It chronicles Mr Mulani's life from his Sindhi roots (he was born in Sidhpur, a small town in north Gujarat) to his family's move to Singapore (his father moved here first, and the family followed in late 1960) to his education (he went to Haig Boys' School, Broadrick Secondary School and Tanjong Katong Technical School before getting a degree in political science from the University of California, Los Angeles) to his stint in the family business (he is a Sindhi, after all) to his Harry's life (buy the book from any major bookstore if you want to know more).

It is also an embodiment of Mr Mulani's outlook on how human beings mature. 'As we get older, we start to reinvent ourselves,' he says, adding that he has started taking deeper looks at life and how it pans out eventually. 'I'm reading Freedom At Midnight by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre... it talks about some very crucial events that affected the lives of many people,' he says. It is a hint that, having just turned 50, this man has started looking beyond his corporate achievements so far.

He has become much more appreciative of what life has given him. He speaks about the roller-coaster ride he has endured in his professional life - the financial crisis in 1997 hit him hard and he fought hard to stave off bankruptcy - without embarrassment or rancour. In fact, the dedication in his book is a glowing tribute to Singapore and he writes about the growth of his chain of bars: 'Harry's is riding on the coattails of Singapore.'

He has become much more aware of his health. He plays squash twice a week and runs regularly on the treadmill. You get a notion of how seriously this trim man takes his fitness pursuits when he tells you, with well deserved pride, that he can run 6.6km in 40 minutes.

And he has become much more protective of his personal life. He refuses to give us a photograph of himself with his wife Rita (she is part of the Harry's Holdings family, looking after the Gymboree playschool business in Singapore and Malaysia) and their daughters Drishti, 21, and Virti, 17. He even requests that we don't meander in that direction in our conversation, but relents when promised we wouldn't get too personal.

He is however willing to share more about his plans for Harry's Holdings. Having grown the brand from bars to restaurants (five Mirchi outlets and Marrakesh) and even nightclubs (The Rupee Room and Bollywood And Beyond), he has taken the company public - it is currently listed on the Phillip Securities OTC Capital market but Mr Mulani wants to have it listed on the Singapore Exchange's Catalist board by the first half of this year.

Mr Mulani's latest corporate move is into the hotel trade, setting up a boutique hotel called The Club in Singapore's Chinatown area. It is a branch of the business he is keen on growing overseas too, with India being the first port of call.

When I tell him about my recent trip to Kerala and the houseboat industry that is booming there ' over 1,000 houseboats ply the placid backwaters of Allepey, giving tourists a taste of the laidback lifestyle that permeates that region ' his eyes sharpen their focus. Sitting up, he turns the tables on me. Suddenly, he is the interviewer and I am the interviewee as he asks me about the place and the type of tourist traffic it attracts.

This businessman can sniff out opportunity from miles, even countries, away. That flash of business acumen was probably what made him start on this Harry's journey. Much has been written about how Mr Mulani used to patronise Harry's Bar at Boat Quay and how, when he found out the owners were thinking of selling it, he bought the place. All very romantic and the stuff of feel-good stories. But let's get real here... how often do regulars buy their favourite bar when it's about to go out of business'

That business acumen also added a refreshing touch to Mr Mulani's book: Every copy entitles you to one bottle of Harry's Premium Lager. While that sounds like great value for a book that costs $25 before GST, the truth of the matter is this: How many of us would go all the way to a Harry's outlet, show the book, claim the free beer... and walk away after draining just one bottle of beer'

That's why I think there's more to Mr Mulani's habit of heading anywhere but a Harry's bar when he feels like having a drink. Having had the pleasure of meeting the man, and getting a feel of his business smarts, I'm convinced he's using that time to suss out the competition... and probably figure out how he can spread the Harry's mojo even further. -tabla!
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PM lee ask sg guys to come back but they dont want do one month of reservist how ?

CHICAGO - TAKING his cue from the adage 'a picture speaks a thousand words', visiting Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong yesterday used a 20-photo slide show to tell Singaporeans based here just what they have been missing at home.

An audible 'wow' was heard in the audience of about 150 Singaporeans when the slide show paused at a dazzling photo of the Formula One circuit at night, where the illuminated race tracks shimmered like mercury against a backdrop of imposing buildings.

The other photos - depicting the integrated resorts at Marina Bay and Sentosa, new shopping malls in Orchard Road and designer HDB projects - similarly impressed the crowd of mostly students and young professionals.

'Many things have been happening in Singapore the last couple of years,' said Mr Lee, looking relaxed on the final day of a six-day visit to the United States.

'So I wanted to give you a slide show of some of the 'happening' things which have been going on, and give you a feel of what Singapore is like. Maybe you'll feel some nostalgia and homesickness, and you'll come back and visit.'

In many ways, the glitzy sideshow complemented the good news he shared with them: Singapore's economy is roaring again.

Read the full story in The Sunday Times.

chinhon@sph.com.sg

FT who never serve NS complain we dislike them

Food court encounter leaves bitter taste in mouth

Letter from Jia Yangyang

09:10 PM Apr 15, 2010



I AM writing in as a junior college student, but also as a foreigner who has meaningfully spent his life in Singapore for more than three years, and as a young adult who is ready to enter society and take on corresponding social responsibilities.

What happened to my friends and I could indeed be deemed a small incident but it nevertheless it got me thinking.

On the evening of April 12, I has having dinner with some friends at Bishan Junction 8 food court in Bishan.

A mother and her young daughter sat across from me and put their bulky belongings on the empty seat next to them. My friend politely asked the mother if the latter could remove her belongings so that she (my friend) could sit across from me. The mother refused to do so outright. My friend went to find another seat.

The mother, however, went on to tell her daughter that foreign students like us lack basic courtesy.

It appears that she thought my friends and I are Indonesian Chinese. She spoke loudly about how impolite we are and how we feel elitist.

What worries me is the way she "taught" her daughter. The mother held such a firm belief that foreign students are ungrateful, impolite, elitist and that they do not understand English that well. The young girl seemed to accept whatever her mother was saying - right in front of me.

Another friend of mine later came by and the mother refused the same request again. Again, she made similar comments.

My friends and I refrained from defending ourselves because that would have potentially led to a meaningless quarrel and damaged our school's image.

However, this does not mean we feel such behaviour on her part is acceptable. We soon finished dinner, and one of my friends broke into tears.

As a foreign student (on scholarship) in Singapore, I know that asking people to accept us naturally is very difficult.

I also believe that, with mutual trust, we can build friendship and understanding as most of us have done with our classmates, teachers, guardians and the countless number of people who have offered care and help.

I sincerely hope that what we encountered is an isolated case, otherwise the efforts of so many people can easily go to waste.

Unity and tolerance are what made Singapore a great country and I would like to contribute to it with all I have.

I am an ordinary student and there is nothing elitist about me at all.

The mother had, just by looking at our uniforms, talked about our arrogance and lack of etiquette as if she knew us personally.

What I think is essential in building strong bonds among the people in Singapore is social awareness.

Adults, especially parents, should be mature and free from prejudice. What they should pass on to their children are responsibility, tolerance and, above all, a caring heart.

The writer is a student at Raffles Institution - Boardin

indian FT work in shenton but local sg guys slave away in 4 camps in tekong

Home > Breaking News > Singapore > Story
Apr 13, 2010
MBFC part of next growth era
By Joyce Teo

SINGAPORE is helping to shape a new era in Asian finance, thanks to its well-regulated but business-friendly financial regime, said Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam on Tuesday.

And, as a 'work, live and play' destination, the $4 billion Marina Bay Financial Centre (MBFC) is poised to support Singapore in its next era of growth, he said at the topping-out ceremony for MBFC's 50-storey Tower Two.

'Asian finance is back to growth, and Singapore is seeing enhanced growth as a gateway to the area,' he added.

MBFC, being developed in a joint venture comprising Cheung Kong (Holdings), Hongkong Land and Keppel Land, has attracted key tenants like Barclays Capital and Standard Chartered Bank.

Said CBRE executive director (office services) Moray Armstrong: 'In the long term, the uplifted quality of the office stock in Singapore will be an important platform for the city's ongoing development as a major global financial centre.'

Also, the office development opportunities at Marina Bay beyond MBFC will place Singapore in a highly competitive position, he said. 'There are few major global cities which have such a rich reservoir of prime developable land directly adjacent to the existing CBD,' he added

local males die like flies in NS while FT get our jobs

A FULL-TIME police national serviceman died of heat stroke two days after an IPPT trial at the parade square of the Home Team Academy, a coroner's court heard.

Mr Roslan Saharo, 18, had complained of having a fever to two squad-mates on the day of the 2.4km run on May 13, 2008.

But he did not tell the squad's field instructor that he was unwell, and carried on running.

At an inquiry into his death, the court heard that trainees were supposed to run three to four rounds around the parade square.

During the run, two squad-mates noticed Mr Roslan - who weighed 93kg - to be unwell but he indicated that he was fine and continued running.

Subsequently, another trainee saw him run diagonally towards a block and collapse on a sheltered pavement.

Mr Roslan picked himself up and continued, but but fell down again after a few steps.

When the field instructor realised what had happened, he ran over to Mr Roslan who threw up twice.

He received medical attention at the clinic but when he became restless and disoriented, he was taken to National University Hospital.

He remained in intensive care and died two days later of heat stroke which caused multiple-organ failure and left him brain dead.

In recording a verdict of misadventure on his death, State Coroner Victor Yeo said it was an unfortunate case where his death could have been avoided had he reported first, to his instructor.

He also urged all trainees to take good care of themselves and their fellow squad-mates during training, and to keep a lookout for one another.

lky filling sg with rubbish who can accept NS

SINGAPORE must not shy away from embracing new, highly educated migrants, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew said yesterday.

Re-stating his view on the issue, he said Singapore would continue to need overseas talent to drive its economic dynamo.

Pointing to the first quarter growth of 13.1 per cent and revised government projections of 7 per cent to 9 per cent growth for the year, he said this was 'a big turnaround from our most difficult period in early 2009'.

With the outlook for the global economy now brighter, sustaining Singapore's long-term prospects meant the country needed to grow as an attractive hub for international trade, investment and talent.

'That was how we grew from a fishing village to a trading post under the British, and now a vibrant metropolis,' he said. 'We benefited from being open to immigrants from around the world, especially China, India and the region.'

He said while first-generation migrants might find it difficult to take on local habits and accents, their families would be naturalised.

Read the full story in The Sunday Times.

lyuexin@sph.com.sg

PM lee con by indian who wont come back do NS

bart12



Joined: 27 Dec 2004
Posts: 246


PostPosted: Sun Apr 18, 2010 7:26 am Post subject: MM Lee: SGP need more educated immigrants!! Reply with quote
S’pore needs more educated immigrants to make country dynamic, says MM Lee

Channel NewsAsia - Sunday, April 18

[S’pore needs more educated immigrants to make country dynamic, says MM Lee] S’pore needs more educated immigrants to make country dynamic, says MM Lee

SINGAPORE : Singapore’s Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew has reiterated the need for Singapore to attract more educated immigrants.

Speaking at the Indian New Year celebrations in Little India on Saturday, Mr Lee said Singaporeans must recognise that with a declining population, the country needs such people, including those who have studied or worked in the US and Europe.

With the economy in a buoyant mood after the government upgraded its growth forecast for the year, Mr Lee said Singapore needs to grow as an attractive hub for international trade, investment and talent to sustain long—term growth.

"We benefited from being open to immigrants from around the world, especially China, India and the region. Throughout history, Singapore has welcomed migrants. When I first took office, we had 62,000 babies every year from a population of 2 million. Today, Singapore citizens produce only 32,000 babies in a year when we should have 60,000 just to replace our population," said MM Lee.

Little India is a glowing example of how early immigrants have flourished and taken root in the country.

Mr Lee said the government understands the concerns of Singaporeans over new immigrants and foreign workers. So it has taken steps to moderate the inflow and widen the differentiation between citizens and non—citizens.

Having educated immigrants here, said Mr Lee, makes Singapore more competitive and dynamic.

"The majority of the new PRs and citizens are skilled workers and professionals in finance, IT and R&D. They bring new skills, global connections and a strong drive to create better lives for their families," said Mr Lee.

Mr Lee gave an example of how one immigrant is making a difference.

"Shyam Srinivasan came from Chennai at age 14, and went to Geylang Methodist Secondary School and Victoria Junior College. He took up citizenship and obtained a teaching scholarship from the Public Service Commission," said the Minister Mentor.

"Last year, he graduated top of his class in Physics at Oxford University. He is now doing his Masters in Applied Physics at Columbia University. He will come back and complete his NS. He will educate and inspire the next generation of Singaporeans," he said.

Their presence has also helped to shape the Singapore landscape.

Mr Lee cited how many Indian temples today have been refurbished to look "elegant" and "colourful".

"Our immigration policies have brought in better educated and wealthy Indians who have made that qualitative difference to our lives. Their support of these temples has resulted in this transformation, reflecting the transformation that is taking place throughout Singapore," said Mr Lee.

Mr Lee said the challenge is to integrate newcomers into Singapore society and an event like this Indian New Year Celebration is a good example of how integration can be done.

The event brings together different communities, not just among the different Indian ethnic groups, but also Singaporeans of all races. — CNA /l

Lee say talents become sg citizens provided they serve NS = stupid idea !

PM Lee: "We've got to be extraordinary"

Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong was interviewed by Emmy award-winning journalist Charlie Rose.

In the hour-long interview, PM Lee voiced his views on a number of issues ranging from the Nuclear Security Summit, US President Obama's global leadership and the US relationship with Asia and Singapore.

PM Lee was asked to share his philosophy on Singapore's future relevance.

Here are excerpts from the interview:

Charlie Rose: Tell me what your philosophy is for the relevance and the future of Singapore.

PM Lee: If we want to make a living for ourselves, we've got to be extraordinary. There are any number of cities with a million, two million people in them, hundreds in Asia, hundreds more worldwide.

Why is Singapore different? It's because the people make it so, and the people, meaning our own people and the talent we have within Singapore and the talent we can attract to Singapore and make members of our extended family who can help us to prosper and help us to make --

Charlie Rose: What do you consider members of the extended family?

PM Lee: People who come to Singapore and work, people who come to Singapore and strike roots, people who come and eventually become citizens.

Charlie Rose: Is Singapore's future as bright or brighter today than it was five years ago

boss say sg NS slaves = blanga workers

'In our Penal Code, only the woman is said to have modesty,' he said, noting that common showers in military camps and swimming pools had no partitions in the past.

=============


Apr 15, 2010
Cameras in dorm toilet spark outcry
Move to curb water wastage an invasion of privacy, say workers, welfare advocates
By Teh Joo Lin & Luke Vijay
PLAINLY WRONG

'This is very wrong morally. Would we put cameras in public toilets to stop people from wasting water? It is an affront to human dignity.'

Ms Bridget Tan, welfare group Home's president
A Lockson Hydraulics spokesman says the cameras installed on the ceiling above the toilet cubicles (above) have only a view of the shower heads and wash basins (second picture). -- ST PHOTO: MUGILAN RAJASEGERAN
View more photos

IT IS common for foreign worker dormitory operators to install closed-circuit television cameras at the entrances to their buildings and in other common areas, to monitor any shenanigans involving the residents.

But one operator in Jurong West has gone a step further and installed two cameras on the ceiling of the common toilet, which houses shower and toilet stalls, urinals, and a row of wash basins.

Lockson Hydraulics, which runs the dormitory and is also a scaffolding company, said the cameras - part of a network of 24 electronic eyes on the premises - were put up to deter water wastage after its water bills soared and repeated calls to its residents to save water went unheeded.

But the presence of the cameras has raised the ire of some workers and welfare groups, who complain that the invasion of workers' privacy has gone too far.

A 37-year-old Indian national, who recently moved out of the dormitory to stay elsewhere, said: 'We cannot accept this. It's the toilet, how can you put cameras? We're all men living together, but this is ridiculous.'

A spokesman for Lockson, a 35-year-old company, whose director is Mr Kang Yee Yin, 38, said the cameras were installed a few months ago, after which the monthly water bill dropped by about 20 per cent, although he did not give exact figures.

He added that these two cameras view only the shower heads and the wash basins in the toilet.

'They are able to see only the top of the showers, where the water comes out from the sprinklers. At the most, you can see only part of the workers' backs. They are not there to capture the men bathing,' he said.

The Straits Times was shown the camera feed as proof.

The spokesman claimed that the cameras, which cannot be rotated, have been effective in reducing the use of water: 'Before this, we put up notices not to waste water, but they were ignored.'

Although the water is dispensed through pressure taps to reduce wastage, workers got around this by using wires to keep the water running.

He said: 'It's safe to say that for workers' dormitories, they (workers) don't save water for you.'

About 100 workers, some of whom are Lockson employees, stay in the dormitory and all of them use that toilet.

Foreign worker welfare advocates blasted the rationale behind installing the toilet cameras.

Ms Bridget Tan, president of the Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Economics (Home), said: 'This is very wrong morally. Would we put cameras in public toilets to stop people from wasting water? It's an affront to human dignity.'

MP Halimah Yacob, who often speaks up on foreign worker issues, said: 'Cameras there are an invasion of privacy. It doesn't matter where they are pointing, they shouldn't be there in the first place.'

Agreeing, a Transient Workers Count Too (TWC2) spokesman said: 'Even if the cameras do not show the workers showering or using the toilet, the men may believe they're being observed and feel embarrassed or harassed. There are other ways to ensure water isn't wasted. One expects to be assured of privacy in the toilet and shower stall.'

The move by Lockson also drew surprise from other dormitory managers, who said this was the first time they had heard of such a practice.

One said it was 'common sense' that such a move was unacceptable. He said: 'It's just like in a department store... Can you put cameras inside the changing room? Of course not.'

Cameras are installed inside dormitories for 'everyone's security', said Mr Simon Lee, executive director of the Singapore Contractors Association.

He said there was no regulation regarding cameras in dorms, though operators are usually asked to install them on perimeter fencing and in communal areas such as dining halls.

Despite the moral outcry, no law appears to have been flouted.

Noting the lack of a general privacy law in Singapore, lawyer Bryan Tan of Keystone Law Corporation said building owners have the right to put up cameras on their premises - even in toilets.

The move does not run afoul of laws against peeping Toms as the dormitory toilet is only for men, pointed out lawyer Amolat Singh.

'In our Penal Code, only the woman is said to have modesty,' he said, noting that common showers in military camps and swimming pools had no partitions in the past.

'That said, I think the rationale for putting in the cameras is questionable.

Dr chee say that NS IS KILLING SG

Apr 15, 2010
PAP just as confrontational, replies Chee

MR PATRICK Tan's idea ('Confrontational model not ideal for S'pore', April 6) that my style of politics is a confrontational one not suited to Singapore is most ironic.

Let us check the facts: The People's Action Party (PAP) imprisoned its Barisan Sosialis opponents in the 1960s. This it did with the cooperation of the British colonial government, using the Internal Security Act - a law originally introduced by a Western democracy.

Mr Lee Kuan Yew uses imagery of knuckle-dusters on critics like writer Catherine Lim and meeting the late opposition leader J.B. Jeyaretnam in cul-de-sacs with hatchets. Such PAP actions and words are, apparently to Mr Tan, not confrontational politics.

But when I speak up and organise to claim back our rights of freedom of speech and assembly guaranteed under our Constitution, I am confrontational.

I agree it does not matter what system we adopt as long as it works for Singaporeans. The question is: Is the current arrangement working for Singaporeans?

With the exodus of Singaporeans leaving for other countries, we have a serious brain drain. Productivity is at an all-time low. Is Mr Tan sure the PAP system works for Singapore and enables us 'to achieve its best potential'?

Experts have repeatedly warned that without opening up the current system, Singapore will not be able to innovate and develop an entrepreneurial culture to compete with the rest of the world that is racing ahead.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology economics professor Huang Yasheng - an Asian - visited Singapore recently and pointed out that the 'entrepreneurial culture is about challenging the authorities, questioning the existing ways of doing businesses, moving away from the routines and norms. It's about the unconventional, rebellious and diverse'.

Yes, Mr Tan is right, let us not get bogged down by whether it is Western or Asian style of politics. Let us go with what works for Singapore and our future.

Right now, the PAP system of authoritarianism and top-down control looks decidedly obsolete for our future needs. It is time for change.

Chee Soon Juan (Dr)
Secretary-General
Singapore Democratic Party

malaysian should be booted out of sg

I recently severed friendship with 1 malaysian middle-aged FT becos I buay tahan her constant mocking of spore in front of me.

She & her 3 sons are ALL PRs, none of her sons serve NS btw. ALL her 3 sons are nurtured by our spore's education system since very young. During our meet to gether sessions last time, she always like to say eh, u all sporeans very foolish, stupid why u all do this or that & she'll compare to say back in malaysia, malaysians are much smarter, more kind-hearted etc(BTW, I do not agree malaysians are more kind-hearted than sporeans, i think ban jin ba liang).

She's also keep saying next time her sons will sell their flats/condo here & all move back m'sia . She & her sons doesn't sound grateful at all towards spore's education system for nurturing her 3 sons.

At 1st I put up with her mocking but eventually i can't take it anymore & I stopped contact with her for some time oredi.

At least there's a greater percentage of PRCs willing to serve NS in comparison

professor say emphatically NS IS KILLING SG

The other thing is, of course, productivity. Again, the general strategy is a good one. I think there is a little bit of tension between the orderly, well-organised tradition of how things are done in Singapore... and the kind of chaos that you need to raise productivity. You need non-conformists. You need renegades. And that's not the 'Singapore Way'. I wait to see how that plays out.

that lan chio sg flat I dont want !!

HOURS after Private Joe Foo Wei Rong died, Defence Ministry (Mindef) investigators discovered a medical certificate (MC) inside his personal locker in his bunk.
The full-time national serviceman had collapsed during training on Tuesday morning. The MC said the 20-year-old had 'sprains and strains' on his knee and leg and should rest on Sunday and Monday. He was also supposed to be on light duties for the next four days.
However, on the first day of Pte Foo's 'light duties' on Tuesday, he joined platoon mates in their morning basic exercise routine, which included push-ups, sit-ups and a session at the chin-up bar.
While attempting his seventh chin-up, the full-time national servicemen fell from the bar and lapsed into unconsciousness. He could not be revived and died later in hospital.
Pte Foo's grieving father, who had taken him to the Singapore General Hospital on Sunday, earlier told The Straits Times his son got an MC following a visit to the hospital's emergency room. This led Mr Foo Heng Lye, 51, to question why his son took part in the morning exercises.
While investigations continue, it appeared Pte Foo had not submitted his MC to the camp authorities. In a statement yesterday, Mindef said the camp's medical centre showed no records of his MC.

=> But was he prevented or discouraged from doing so?

It is standard practice for MCs obtained outside of camp to be submitted to the medical centres for endorsement.
Told about this yesterday, Mr Foo said he would await the outcome of investigations, which are expected to take about three months. The inquiry is also expected to look into whether military doctors knew he had a seizure in 2004, another concern his father raised.
Pte Foo cleared all pre-enlistment medical tests and was certified combat fit with the highest grading of Pes A.
Mr Foo, who thanked his son's military superiors for the support rendered, joined the sombre and silent send-off for his son yesterday morning.
Some 40 family members and friends from Presbyterian High School and Singapore Polytechnic attended the military funeral at Mandai Crematorium. They were joined by over 100 servicemen, including those from Pte Foo's unit, the 4th Battalion Singapore Infantry Regiment.
They walked in procession along the driveway to the cremation hall behind the coffin, which was borne by Pte Foo's platoon mates and later placed on a gun carriage. Soldiers who wore black bands on their left arms lined part of the driveway and saluted the coffin as it passed.
In keeping with Chinese custom, his grieving parents did not join in the procession. They also did not go into the viewing gallery when his body was cremated.
Both were weeping uncontrollably
The funeral service, which began at 9.45am, was a simple one. Prayers were chanted by a single Taoist priest, and Pte Foo's older brother offered joss sticks. No eulogy was given.
There was a tense moment when Mr Foo was presented with a folded national flag and a peak cap. He stood up and accepted both items, but he was clearly heartbroken. He said: 'I don't want the flag. I want my son back.'
joolin@sph.com.sg kimspyke@sph.com.sg

filipino who never serve NS steal jobs from singaporean who kenna con into doing NS

Filipino shows Singapore how service is done

By Corrie Salientes-Narisma

WINSTON M. Lim and his team are the public face of premier serviced residence Ascott Singapore Raffles Place.

They welcome guests with their sweetest smiles, help them register, bring them to their apartments, address their concerns and make them feel at home.

Click here to find out more!
Winston fits well in the multicultural setup in Singapore, in general, and Ascott, in particular.

People who see him receiving and confidently chatting with guests at Ascott may think he is Singaporean or Chinese, or even Japanese.

But when one, particularly a Filipino, comes closer, he would sense a different kind of warmth in Winston'the kind that can only come from a Filipino.

'I am from Manila,' he says, and that explains it.

Winston Mallari Lim is one of the many Filipinos in Singapore who have helped changed the face of OFWs in this city-state for the better.

He is assistant resident service manager of Ascott Singapore Raffles Place, the highest ranking Filipino there.

He was part of the pre-opening team of Ascott's flagship serviced residence in Singapore, which opened only in July last year, and he now leads its front office team.

Cut for the job

Winston's natural charm and warmth serve him well as he goes about seeing to the needs of his clients at the serviced residence'a second home for those who need to stay out of their own homes for some time. Ascott provides an ideal environment with professional support'a place to relax and enjoy life with the most personalized services possible.

The difference between a hotel and a serviced residence, he says, lies in the service provided.

'Because our guests stay long term, as against a hotel setup, we have to connect and live with them. The relationship is more personal,' he explains.

Winston doesn't have any problem with that. In fact, he finds it easy to connect with guests.

'This is one area where Filipinos are very good at,' he says, adding that Filipinos can be effortlessly warm, hospitable and customer-oriented.

'We are maabilidad (resourceful). No problem is too big that we can't resolve. We don't mind working extra hours if only to finish a task,' he says.

The patience of Filipinos comes in handy when dealing with the most demanding guests and handling their most 'unique' demands, as Winston refuses to call them 'difficult.'

These are the factors that endear Filipinos to many service-oriented companies in Singapore, and the reasons why Filipinos end up at the front lines of these establishments.

Winston says that when Ascott was just starting to get off the ground, half of its front service staff of 14 were Filipinos, and the training manager was also a Filipino. The number is now down to four as some of his fellow Filipino staff members moved to other countries or have settled down.

'I'd say Ascott and other service-oriented establishments here want to hire more Filipinos but they have to maintain a certain mix.'

Happy resident

Terry Smith, a British psychologist who has been residing in Ascott Singapore since February this year, readily puts in good words for Ascott and its staff, particularly the Filipino front service personnel he has been dealing with since the start of his stay in the serviced residence.

'There is an interesting mix of people here and they are all nice, but what I like about the Filipino staff members is that they are confident, relaxed and easy to talk to,' Smith says.

Although Smith knows he won't stay in Singapore forever, he has come to appreciate life in Singapore and feels right at home in Ascott.

'There's peace and fun here, and the personal attention I get from the staff is second to none.'

Landing in Ascott

Winston graduated from the University of Santo Tomas with a degree in hotel and restaurant management. He started his career in a five-star hotel in Manila before transferring to a resort in the Maldives. Later, he moved to Singapore.

Although his major was culinary arts, his strength turned out to be in the area of dealing with people, and there is great demand for that particular skill in the hospitality industry.

He was on vacation in Singapore while still working in the Maldives in early 2008 when he found out that Ascott's flagship serviced residence was opening there and was in need of front office personnel. Upon the prodding of his friends, Winston applied and was immediately taken in by Ascott.

His current job involves supervision and administration of the front office staff, now composed of 16 people.

'We bring guests to their apartments, orient them on how to fully enjoy their stay in their new 'homes' and help them settle down,' he says.

Ascott's guests are mostly executives who have to stay in Singapore for weeks, months or even years. Thus, they need more than just rooms to sleep.

'We should be a family to them,' he says.

Winston loves his work and the place where he is working now, for Ascott Singapore has become his home away from home.

Also, he is happy and proud that, in his own way, he is able to promote the Filipino's warmth and hospitality for all the world to see and experience.

This article was first published in The Philippine Daily Inquirer.

cannot find job after NS force to become construction worker while foreign talents work in air con office in shenton way

No O levels, but he earns $4,000 a month

FOR upwards of 12 hours every day, Mr Abdul Rahim Muhamed Rashid sits alone in his 20th-storey 'corner office'.

The place is small, no bigger than the inside of a Toyota Camry, but the 23-year-old says that he does not leave it except for emergencies.
Related story:
»'Move locals up the career ladder quickly'
»WANTED: S'porean construction workers
»Constant skill upgrading pays off

He has a little fridge in there for drinks, a small radio for company and some plastic bags and newspapers to take the place of the toilet.

Click here to find out more!
'It takes 10 minutes for me to climb up there, and I'm young. The older ones take longer. So we don't go up and down when we don't have to. We do everything in the cabin,' he says.

His job involves using the crane to pick up building materials from the ground and hoist them to where they are needed. 'It's a little bit like playing a computer game,' he notes.

But that is perhaps the only upside to it. Long days, isolation and some very questionable toilet habits are all part of the life of a tower crane operator, he says.

And it is clear why people like Mr Abdul Rahim - Singaporeans working in construction - are becoming an endangered species.

Indeed, if not for having dropped out of school at Secondary 4 because of financial problems, he does not know if he would have strayed into the field.

'Before doing this job, I was delivering pizzas. I saw a newspaper ad which said that a company was willing to sponsor a crane operator course for workers so I thought I would go and try it out,' he says.

He was selected to attend the week-long course. He passed the theory and practical tests and has not looked back since.

He started as a tower crane operator in 2008 and eight months later took a government grant for another course on how to operate a different crane.

He does not intend to stop there.

'If I have the ability to operate many different cranes, I am more flexible. If there are no jobs for a tower crane operator, maybe I can work as a crawler crane driver,' he says. A crawler crane has tracks and can therefore be driven around easily.

He admits that it will not be easy getting Singaporeans to do the job, especially those with higher education and options.

'It's hard work and a lonely life. And we work very hard seven days a week. Your girlfriend needs to be very understanding,' he jokes.

But with a monthly salary of around $4,000 including overtime and the prospect of making up to $6,500 as he gains experience, he isn't about to give it up.

'There are not that many opportunities for people of my qualifications to earn this kind of salary.'

games for New Citizens , NS for Singaporeans

It’s all about “new citizens” and “integration” nowadays which have been making the headlines in the Singapore press.

Coming after the footsteps of Bukit Batok grassroots organizations which will be organizing a “Water Festival” for foreigners, another pseudo-PAP organization Southwest CDC has launched a game show aimed at helping “new and local citizens learn more about Singapore.”

According to Channel News Asia, the “Integrate Singapore Quiz” was developed by the Southwest Community Development Council to “integrate” new and local citizens.

It was not revealed where and how the game show will be conducted.

Though it was not mentioned explicitly, it is likely that the funds for developing and hosting the game show will come from the mega $10 million Community Integration Fund unveiled last year by the Minister of Community, Youth and and Sports Dr Vivian Balakrishnan.

The fund will be disbursed to various community and grassroots organizations to organize events such as seminars, game shows and language classes to promote “integration” between the new and old citizens.

Due to the PAP’s liberal immigration and pro-foreigner policies, foreigners now make up 36 percent of Singapore’s population, up from 14 percent in 1990. Of the remaining 64 percent who are citizens, an increasing number are born overseas.

The Home Affairs Ministry revealed that there were nearly 60,000 PRs and 20,000 new citizens last year.

Two out of every three Singapore PR applicants are successful, an astonishingly high success rate for a developed nation. Some of the PRs are granted within a few months. There is no minimal period of residency to qualify for PR unlike in other countries.

As too many foreigners, many of whom are unable to speak English are allowed into Singapore within too short a period of time, it is a near impossible task to integrate all of them now.

Confronted with an intractable problem, the PAP chose to throw money at it in the hope that it will somehow be resolved.

The onus is on the immigrants to learn how to adapt and integrate into Singapore society instead of the other way round.

Taxpayers’ monies should never be used to cover up for the PAP’s disastrous mistakes or to fund such useless social events to make the new citizens feel at home.

They have few incentives to reach out to other Singaporeans as there are simply too many of their compatriots here that they tend to congregate within their own communities.

The freebies and goodies given out by these grassroots organizations will only attract those seeking free food or perks who lack the interest or committment to “integrate” themselves, thereby defeating their original purposes.

The most crucial step in the integration process begin right at the very first step in the selection of prospective migrants and not now when they are already allowed to settle in Singapore.

The PAP has screwed up Singapore’s immigration policies badly and as usual, it will get away again with impunity thanks to the state-controlled media which has been busy of late trying to “showcase” its efforts in “integrating” the new citizens.

fucked ! con into doing NS for nothing !

Foreigners are given preference over locals. I do not know of any country that practises this. To compound to this, when the foreigners are in, they bring in more foreigners at the expense of the locals. Don’t believe me? Go to the Dept of Statistic website now to check:

Singapore total employment : 2.99 million
Foreigners and PRs employed : 1.78 million
Singapore citizens employed : 1.21 million.

If you minus Singaporeans employed by the govt i.e. all the ministries, armed forces, NS men, police, statutory boards like HDB etc I guess in the private sector Singaporeans comprised only 30% of the work force. Which country has such statistics? We are totally overwhelmed!

I urge Singaporeans to go to Raffles Place MRT to see the pathetic ads placed to plead to employers to hire on merit and be fair (to locals). Again another UNIQUELY SINGAPORE campaign.

no future for NS slaves !

My future looks bleak living here in this country.. Jobs will be harder to get cause most of it goes to the foreigner and if u lucky to get one,they offered low wages, price of living will rise, hdb price will rise, still need to serve NS, Man, we doom, DOooOM i tell you, DOOM!!!!
I would really like to live independently, but i just cant do it here.. Maybe when in ns i save up all my pathetic pay and move out. Unless change have been made…

everyday more discovered they been con into doing NS

me also same position…i got retrenched in 2008,till now cannot find a job i found out one imported ah ne ne has taken over my job at cheap cost..got air ticket sponsor some more..my marriage plans all cancelled.. go CDC, they show you “middle finger” they will tell you try again and bad luck for losing a job…and treat you like pariah and have to wait for queue number, the saddest thing, i serve my NS, get injured, paid my taxes but when i jobless..they show me the door, ask me to die by myself! Foreigners they treat them like King…spent money on them on english courses and rubbish festivals…most of them are foreign trash and not foreign talents.

singaporean guy discovered he kenna con into doing NS

Mr Lim Chin Choon, 35
http://www.straitstimes.com/STI/STIMEDIA/image/20090927/a24-1.jpg
Mr Lim worked as a security officer for a while but had to quit due to the long hours, as he has to take care of his grandma. -- ST PHOTO: ALPHONSUS CHERN

Secondary 2 qualifications
He has sent out about 100 resumes to companies but has remained unemployed for four years. He had previously done data entry in a firm which folded.'I've sent out many resumes but the companies don't even reply. I even went for a course to be a security officer and passed it,' he said.
He did work as a security officer for a while, but quit because of the long hours.

'I live with my grandmother who is in her 90s, and I have to look after her, so I cannot be working too late at night,' said Mr Lim, who is single. His tight financial situation is cause for worry. His parents give him $10 at a time for necessities. 'I think the main things that employers look at when you go for interviews are your age and education level,' he said.

'I am willing to learn and work hard, but employers tell me they are looking for someone younger and with better qualifications.' He said he has gone to the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports as well as the Employment and Employability Institute for help.

malaysian come in for free we do NS for fuck !

Everytime I come to this forum, all I see is singaporeans complaining about this and that...most of them are really stupid complaints, which clearly showed these people are so short-sighted.

I am a Malaysian, by the way and I don't live and don't work in Singapore. I am here because I have investment in Singapore, so I need to keep myself up to date with Singapore market.

Number 1 complaint - Foreigners working in Sg, esp Malaysian.
Complaint so much for what? I admit, a lot of Malaysian come to Sg and work because of higher pay. But on the other hand, Singapore desperately need malaysians too. Malaysians are the only foreigners that share the same culture and language as Singaporeans. Without Malaysians, singapore won't be able to function in almost every aspect. So stop complaining.

Before singaporeans complaint about malaysians, ask yourself, do you rather have Malaysians who speak the same language as you to get most of your jobs done or do you want someone who don't speak the same language as you.

If you really think that Malaysians should not come to Sg, then go and vote for a government that ban Malaysians working in Sg, I want to see what happen to Sg.

Number 2 complaint - Stop complaining of Sg government opening doors to other foreigners...

As a malaysian, I envy Singapore so much because of its open door talents policy, Malaysia is no where close to that...the UMNO-malay close Malaysia door to talents...instead UMNO only want those illegal muslim filipino...a very sad case for malaysia

so please stop complaining, if malaysian can do what sg is doing, malaysia can be very prosperous. PAP policy is right in this sense.

Number 3 complaint - don't complaint of your MRT lah..
I traveled to so many countries, Sg MRT is one of the best in world, so stop bitching about it. Come to New York City, you will then learn to appreciate Sg MRT.

Number 4 complaint - stop complaining of your health care lah...
Sg health care is among the best in Asia, i know it, because i m in the medical field. It might be expensive, however, it is still better than a lot of Asian countries...come to the US and see, you can't even afford to see a doctor for a cold. So stop bitching about it.

Even though seeing doctor in Malaysia is cheaper, but Sg has better quality in general. so stop complaining...

Number 5 complaint - stop complaining you don't have enough money
You don't have enough money, most of time is because you are wasting money and don't know how to save. Singapore wages is considered very high compare to most countries in Asia, not to mention that Sg tax is low compare to Western countries...

So..please stop bitching...


Number 6 complaint - stop complaining prices in sg is expensive.
sometime, it is more expensive in malaysia, i know it, because sometime i go to sg and buy things, because it is cheaper....


What you should complaint:
1. complaint about media corp, singapore tv today is getting more and more bored, unentertaining, actors are horrible...
2. complaint about why singapore laws are so tough and unforgiving...
3. complaint about why singaporeans are so kia su...

Greek crisis brewing in Sg bloated SAF ex regulars civil service

The financial crisis rocking Greece has brought into focus the warped reality of the country's civil service, where a long tradition of political perks has bred fiscal disaster, analysts say.

Packed with political supporters of governments past and present -- and often operating on its own rules -- the Greek civil service has gorged itself to such a degree that even its nominal masters have trouble deciding where to start trimming waste.

"Nobody, not even the prime minister, can say how many civil servants there are," says Constantinos Michalos, head of the Athens Chamber of Commerce and Industry, one of Greece's main business lobby groups.

"We calculate 1.2 million people including contract workers. The civil servants' union says 700,000. The finance ministry says 800,000," he said.

In addition to trying to sort out the mess by reforming its wage registry, the Socialist government of George Papandreou this month said all state staff would see 12-percent cuts in benefits and 30-percent cuts in holiday pay.

The Socialists are trying to tame a debt of nearly 300 billion euros (409 billion euros) fueled by a public deficit that grew to 12.7 percent of output last year, more than four times the allowed EU limit of three percent.

According to the Greek interior ministry, the number of permanent civil servants grew by over 28,000 people between 2006 and 2008.

Michalos, a former general secretary at the finance ministry, considered a honeypot among state offices, has no shortage of state-sector excess stories.

"Cleaning ladies and press officers at the finance ministry receive double the pay of their colleagues at other ministries," he notes.

"In parliament, staff work for 12 months but receive 16 (month) salaries."

"And civil servants get bonuses for dressing well and reporting to work on time," he said.

"This monster was created by politicians," political commentator Stefanos Kassimatis wrote in liberal Kathimerini daily this week.

"They buckled under union pressure and kept on awarding privileges until it eventually escaped their control completely."

The union representing civil servants, Adedy, says that bonuses, which can account for nearly half of total state staff pay, are essential to bolster its members' nominal salaries which are "the lowest in Europe."

According to Adedy, civil servants make 1,350 euros (1,800 dollars) on average. The minimum wage in Greece is 740 euros.

"There are anachronistic distortions to protect various groups or woo potential voters," said Yiannis Stournaras, general director of the Foundation for Economic and Industrial Research, a private think-tank.

"In public hospitals alone, the absence of proper accounting leads to a waste of 1.5 billion euros a year."

"(Greeks) had hoped that the day of reckoning would come later. In the end, it came sooner because of the financial crisis," he added.

Papandreou has pledged to use the crisis to clean up decades of corruption and mismanagement at the civil service.

Studies have repeatedly shown that the Greek public sector is a graft haven with tax offices, urban planning departments and hospitals the worst offenders.

And the problem is getting worse according to corruption watchdog Transparency International, whose local branch this month reported a 50-million-euro rise in bribes last year to 790 million euros (one billion dollars).

The average bribe was 1,355 euros in the public sector and 1,671 euros in the private sector, chiefly involving private clinics, banks and lawyers, according to the study, carried out by Public Issue for TI Greece.

"The Greek civil service is the field where the crisis is at its most evident," Theodore Pelagidis, a professor of economics at Piraeus University and co-author of a new book on corruption, told AFP.

"But it is not the cause of the problem," he argued.

"The whole way the economy is organised is deplorable ... the country has learned to live off EU funds, shipping and tourism proceeds -- basically, money falling from a helicopter without being generated locally."

he become millionare by kenging from NS = good role model

Mar 20, 2010
No home, but dad knew he just had to make it here
Mr Shaik Mohamad Abdul Jaleel has gone from sleeping in back lanes to a bungalow off Orchard Road. The businessman started helping his family make ends meet at a young age, and credits his father with teaching him the value of hard work, discipline and honesty. -- ST PHOTO: JOYCE FANG
View more photos

MILLIONAIRE businessman Shaik Mohamad Abdul Jaleel lives in a bungalow off Orchard Road, but prefers to sleep on the floor.

'I'm used to it - it's more comfortable for me,' says the founder and managing director of Mini Environment Services (MES), a dormitory builder and operator with an annual revenue of $80 million.

He recalls the times when he and his immigrant father, Mr Muthumaricar Shaik Mohamed, slept under the stars.

With no home of their own, they showered in the washing bay of the Stamford Road hawker stall where his father sold groceries.

Earlier, they had lived and worked at the family shophouse in Colombo Court, until they were asked to move out in 1967 by the authorities.

'My father was given the choice of relocating to Jurong or Toa Payoh. But he could not afford the monthly rent. So he chose a hawker stall instead,' says Mr Jaleel, 52.

It had been a gruelling and gritty life for Mr Jaleel's father, who first came to Singapore from Madras, now known as Chennai, in the 1930s to join his family.

Mr Shaik, then in his 20s, made a living here by helping his father run the family business in the City Hall area. His father and three brothers had arrived earlier to pave the way for the rest of their family to join them.

Over the years, the store expanded to three shophouses selling groceries, food and textiles. But business faltered after their father's death and the siblings went their separate ways in 1964.

By then, Mr Shaik had married Ms Syedunisa Bi, his Taiping-born bride, and had five children, including the youngest child and only son, Mr Jaleel.

Without education or skills, Mr Shaik was unsure how he would support his family on his own. He returned to Madras, his hometown, that year, with his family in tow.

But the limited opportunities there and his longing for a better life saw Mr Shaik get back on a ship bound for Singapore. He took only Mr Jaleel, leaving the rest of his family behind.

Home for father and son was the shophouse where they ran their business. When it was taken over for redevelopment, they found themselves without a roof over their heads.

Recollecting those homeless days spent eking out a meagre existence, Mr Jaleel says: 'That's where my life of sleeping in back lanes started for me. My dad took it. He did not feel sorry for himself. He knew he just had to make it here.'

An MP came to know of their plight and took them off the streets by securing a one-room flat in Mosque Street for them.

Every month, his father would earn about $200, and send up to $80 home to support his family.

Mr Jaleel had to drop out of school at Secondary 2 to help make ends meet.

He took odd jobs like washing cars and selling cosmetics from the age of 12, and soon found work as a cleaning contractor for a Chinese businessman.

Mr Jaleel credits his father with teaching him the value of hard work, discipline and honesty - three traits that kept Mr Shaik, who eventually became a Singapore citizen, going.

'He had no other choice. He decided that this was the place where he was going to be.'

In 1976, Mr Jaleel founded his firm MES. Over time, it grew to become today's 20,000-strong international firm based in Lower Delta Road.

In 1980, he married Ms Daulath Bee, a Chennai native. They have six children aged 14 to 27 and five grandchildren.

An active grassroots activist in Aljunied and Bishan-Toa Payoh GRCs, he recently announced plans for a $1 million foundation to support children's education and broken families.

He says: 'My life is here, my future is here, therefore I have to be here. I don't mind contributing back to the country, to the community, whatever extra I have.

what the british buidl up , PAP torn down with NS

WHEN Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng's parents first came to Singapore to look for a better life in the 1930s, they sold sundry provisions.

But business was not good after World War II, so they returned to their village in Zhongshan prefecture in Guangdong, China, taking their young daughter and son who were born here with them.

After six months, they returned here in 1949. Mr Wong was three years old.

'I don't think the conditions in China were favourable,' Mr Wong, 63, tells Insight.

'Having been in Singapore for some years, my parents thought Singapore was a better place to make a living.'

What led them to move here is no different from why many of today's migrants decided to come here.

Back in their village, his parents and others lived off the soil as farmers.

When they came here for the second time, they became hawkers in what is today Farrer Park, selling noodles at a coffee shop at the corner of Race Course Road and Owen Road.

Life was tough, for they had to move from one rented room to another in the area - including a converted garage - each time the rent went up. They also had three more daughters.

'Since life was still not very good in China in the 1950s, and the children were all here, my parents decided to make Singapore home,' says Mr Wong.

They could speak only Cantonese, but picked up bazaar Malay and Hokkien to get by at the market.

After several years, they took over the tenancy of a pre-war single-storey terrace house in Race Course Road, and set up a stall in front of their home.

They were determined to give their children a good education, even though Mr Wong's father had only a few years of education and his mother, none.

There were not many English-medium schools then, but the former tenant of their new house helped register Mr Wong in the Rangoon Road Primary School, where he began his education.

He also attended a Chinese school for the other half of the day. He went on to Outram Secondary School and the University of Singapore before joining the Administrative Service. He entered politics in 1984.

Mr Wong's younger sisters went to Methodist Girls' School. One became a nurse, another a legal clerk, and the youngest an accountant.

When not at school, they would help out at the noodle stall.

To earn extra income, their father would travel around selling sundry goods, cloth and fruits from a tricycle cart. He also helped friends and fellow migrants from his village write letters home.

As Singapore moved towards self-government, the law was changed in 1957 to allow those born here or who had lived here for 10 years to become citizens.

Like many of the 220,000 China-born Chinese here, Mr Wong's parents registered as Singapore citizens.

This entitled them to vote in the May 1959 elections, which brought the People's Action Party to power.

Mr Wong remembers accompanying his parents to the polling station at his old school and listening to the results over the radio.

Many of his classmates had parents who were born elsewhere, but this was never an issue, he recalls.

He notes that not many Singaporeans can really claim to have been here for more than five generations.

'Now, we feel foreigners who come here are intruding into our space. But we forget that that's what our parents did before - intruding into the space of those who were here before them.

'We should remember that immigrant children will one day be like us,' he adds.

Mr Wong speaks from experience when he says: 'Many of us are first generation. When you are born here, your friends are here in the same school, with the same language, you will feel Singaporean.'

wtf come all the way from china to do NS here

WHAT theatre director Kuo Jian Hong, 42, inherited from her immigrant father, who died in 2002, is the legacy of social consciousness.

Her late father was Singapore's most famous playwright, Mr Kuo Pao Kun, and her mother is ballerina Goh Lay Kuan.

When Ms Kuo was growing up here, she did not play with the things other little girls did.

Instead, she sang and played with younger sister Jing Hong and the students at The Practice Performing Arts School, founded by her parents in 1965.

For her, those were the simple pleasures of life, and family included everyone in the school.

'My parents loved life and loved people. I think they had a real big heart for people, and that has influenced how my sister and I view life and family,' says Ms Kuo, who is artistic co-director at The Theatre Practice (TPP), a bilingual theatre her father founded in 1986.

Her parents' deep concern for others, she says, created a strong sense of goodwill within their theatre 'family', which she enjoys to this day.

Mr Kuo came from Hebei, China to Singapore when he was 10, at his father's request. The elder Kuo was a successful businessman who owned Singapore's first multi-level department store, Peking, in the City Hall area.

Madam Goh moved here in her teens from Sumatra, Indonesia after World War II. Her parents were educators who sought teaching opportunities here.

The two met at Rediffusion's Mandarin radio play section, married, and lived in a bungalow off Orchard Road.

For immigrants like her parents, the theatre community offered them a place away from their home provinces in which to sink their roots, Ms Kuo says.

The innumerable acts of goodwill that people extended to one another forged a strong sense of community at a time when life was hard.

It seemed almost natural then that Mr Kuo would express his discontent with the socio-political turmoil in China and Singapore through his plays.

'There was discrimination, racial tension - there were all these things that were prime material for artistic creation,' says Ms Kuo.

His works were so critical that some were banned from the stage, such as The Struggle (1969), about the social turmoil that results from rapid urbanisation and capitalism. Eventually, he was arrested during the leftist purge in 1976.

He was detained for over four years and stripped of his Singapore citizenship. His citizenship was reinstated in 1992.

To Ms Kuo, her parents' social activism was less about being political than it was about being socially conscious of how people were being affected by regimes and policies.

'One of their concerns was the underdogs: the old, the youth, those who were ripped off by the opportunistic acts that were going on...materialistic quest was the last thing on our minds.'

This is the legacy of social consciousness that her father left Ms Kuo. She became TPP's artistic co-director in 2005 after spending 20 years studying theatre design and working in film and theatre in the United States.

She is married to freelance producer-director Christopher Hatton, 41, an American. They have a daughter, Olivia, who is five years old.

What brought her home was her sense of mission to grow the audience for Chinese theatre. This is why she chose to produce the Chinese modern rock musical Liao Zhai Rocks, which opens on Thursday.

Musicals, she says, can bring in audiences who would not ordinarily choose to watch a Chinese play. They also draw in artists from the music and English theatre scene who would otherwise stay away from Chinese theatre.

'For a lot of people who don't speak Mandarin any more, the only time they speak (Mandarin) is when they are singing karaoke. So songs are this thin thread that connects a lot of people to Chinese culture.

another dog who bark but never serve NS

AT THE beginning of the 20th century, a young Dzafir Abdul Karim left his family on Bawean Island, north of Java, in search of work in Singapore.

He found work driving a steamroller to flatten roads under construction.

At night, he made traditional herbs, practised blood cupping - a traditional healing method akin to acupuncture - circumcised Malay children and taught them to read the Quran to supplement his meagre wages.

He did not speak much about his migration here to his eight children - three others died when they were young - but Mr Dzafir's hard work and ambition rubbed off on them, his son Ridzwan Dzafir, 82, recalls.

'He was conscious of the fact that he was a migrant, and had to work harder than locals,' Mr Ridzwan, a former top civil servant, tells Insight.

'That probably led to his doing more than one thing, and we acquired his enterprising and hard-working streak.'

At a time when few Malay boys made it to English schools, Mr Dzafir and his wife Rugayah made sure their sons worked doubly hard to make the grade.

Madam Rugayah was born here. Her father, Haji Khodri, had moved here from Madura, an island off East Java, and became a businessman who manufactured Malay herbal medicine and was a respected religious leader. Her mother, Hajah Halimah, was from Sulawesi.

Many such immigrants came from various parts of the Malay Archipelago to Singapore, but their origins mattered less as they formed a Malay identity based on a shared language and faith.

Once they settled down and formed a family here, Mr Ridzwan's parents called Singapore home. They moved to bigger homes, and eventually to a bungalow in Lorong 33 Geylang, where their children made friends with people from other communities.

Eldest son Jamil joined the civil service in the 1930s and rose to become assistant secretary, second son Razak built low-cost kampung houses in Jalan Eunos, third son Karim was a chemist with Shell and later a unionist, fourth son Ahmad joined the education service, and sixth son Khalil was a Straits Steamship Company officer.

Their two sisters, however, did not receive much education, as was common among many families at the time.

Mr Ridzwan, the fifth son, who studied in Geylang Malay School, Telok Kurau English School and Raffles Institution, won a scholarship to Raffles College, the precursor to the University of Malaya, in 1948.

But he failed one subject in his first year, and had to repeat the entire year.

Mr Ridzwan says he was devastated, as losing his scholarship also meant losing his spot in the university hostel.

Fortunately, he managed to get financial help from his dean, and resolved to complete his degree, even if it meant staying up past midnight and squatting in friends' rooms. He passed and was offered the chance to obtain honours, but turned it down to find work.

In 1952, he joined the Customs service, and nine years later, was absorbed into the elite Administrative Service.

In 1956, he married Madam Mushrifah Abdul Aziz, a widowed typist and mother of two at the Civil Defence Force, where he volunteered. They have three children of their own.

Mr Ridzwan went on to set up Singapore's diplomatic missions in Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta after independence, and worked on trade matters and negotiations, rising to be director-general of the Trade Development Board, the predecessor of International Enterprise Singapore.

On top of his hectic schedule, he also served as president of the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore and chief executive of community self-help group Mendaki.

He notes wistfully that the Malay community can do much more to narrow the gap with other races in areas like education and skills, and feels a mindset change is needed.

'We must be more ambitious, more competitive, just like our forefathers who were migrants,' he says.

their ancestor curse their lousy grandsons

for killing Sg with NS.

they must be thinking from their graves , WTF ! come all the way from china to escape opression and now kenna NS for all our sons forever !!! CCB !!





============================
Mar 20, 2010
If our parents had not made Singapore home
You recognise them as the faces of Singaporeans who contribute immensely to society, public service, the law, the economy and the arts. But do you know their origins? Insight speaks to five first-generation Singaporeans whose parents arrived here from the region and beyond in search of a better life.
By Zakir Hussain, Political Correspondent & Cassandra Chew

SENIOR Counsel Harry Elias' parents hailed from Baghdad, while retired public servant Ridzwan Dzafir's father sailed from Bawean Island.

Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng's parents arrived from Guangzhou in the 1930s but returned home once before deciding to sink their roots here.

Mr Shaik Mohamad Abdul Jaleel's parents came from Madras - today's Chennai - and Taiping, while Ms Kuo Jian Hong's parents left Hebei and Sumatra.

They came, they saw, they conquered their fears and made Singapore home.

Their children were born and bred here, attended local schools and established careers or businesses which made them part of the local community and an asset to society and the economy.

These are the stories that reflect Singapore as an island of immigrants since its founding by Sir Stamford Raffles in 1819.

As a trading post and gateway to the region, it attracted workmen from China, India and elsewhere. Successive waves of immigrants followed as Singapore and Malaya developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

In 1957, as Singapore progressed towards self-government and later independence, people who were British subjects or born here automatically gained citizenship.

Like today's newcomers, migrants who lived here long enough and swore loyalty to Singapore became citizens.

For first-generation Singaporeans, their ancestral links had become a distant memory and Singapore is their only home.

As DPM Wong told Parliament earlier this month: 'We are all descendants of immigrants.'

Had the forefathers of today's citizens been denied the chance to come and settle here, today's Singaporeans would not have been born here and Singapore would not be what it is today, he said.

Similarly, he tells Insight, the first-generation children of today's migrants will likewise contribute to Singapore and be as Singaporean as 'old' citizens.

'The children and grandchildren of today's immigrants who sink roots here will grow up with our children and grandchildren.

'Together they will be the next generation of Singaporeans and Singapore will be their home, just as much as it is our home today.