walkthestreetof life

Social Assistance for Disadvantage - Up 4 times in 5 Years?

2006-11-12T22:49:00.000-08:00

Singapore cannot have unconditional needs-based social safety nets: Dr Balakrishnan By Joanne Leow, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 10 November 2006 2046 hrs

Singapore cannot have unconditional needs-based social safety nets: Dr Balakrishnan

SINGAPORE: Social assistance for the disadvantaged has gone up by four times in the last five years.

And it is only set to increase, says Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports Dr Vivian Balakrishnan.

However, he rules out a permanent unconditional needs-based social safety net for Singaporeans

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Up 4 times because the number of disadvantaged has also upped 4 times? Or up 4 times, that each disadvantaged is getting 4 times more? I believe it's the former.

In that case, we do have a very fundamental problem. The solution is not trying to reduce the social assistance or cap it so that the government will not be bankrupted, but to see where it had gone wrong resulting in 4 times more citizans are being disadvantged in the last 5 years.

It is not rigt to celebrate over more jobs created because more are given to foreigners,

nor is it right to celebrate over higher pays because more are given to the higher earners' barckets.

neither is it right to ceebrate over higher GDP because more profits are going into foreign or local big companies' pockets, and not into the pockets of the common heartlander.

There is no celebration until the lower earners' brackets are brought back to closer the median household income range.

As a state, the interests it must have must be in each and every citizen. I'm enjoying a good paying job and am in the top 10% earners' bracket, but I'm also concerned about my poor disadvantaged fellow citizens. (Please do't tell me I shouldn't be bemoaning because I'm well-off and should mind my own business, Ms Wee :wink: ) and (don't tell me I should go into politics to voice my opinions :wink: :wink: )

CNA Forum Censorship

2006-11-12T22:41:00.000-08:00

I posted the post below at CNA forum with the heading "Vivian - He from which Planet??" and ended up as a boring "overseas posting". Talk about censorship! Something else I wrote about him in there also got deleted! lol.

Greek Speak from Vivian?

2006-11-09T17:28:00.000-08:00

Globalisation's victim: The S'pore marriage
Leong Wee Keat
weekeat@mediacorp.com.sg

BEHIND the smiles, the flowers and the chocolates, not all is well with the Singapore family.
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Nearly one in 10 marriages here now ends even before the couple can celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary.
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Speaking to reporters after the opening of the two-day East Asia Ministerial Forum on Families yesterday, Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports Dr Vivian Balakrishnan said that the rising divorce rates here were his top concern.
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At a time when the pressures of work and globalisation sometimes forced spouses to live in different countries, and family members were constantly travelling, some strains were bound to appear.
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"The Singaporean family faces more challenges than it ever has," said Dr Balakrishnan.
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The divorce rate here has doubled over the last 20 years, reaching an all-time high of 6,909 last year — an increase of 521 cases from 2004. The previous peak was in 2003 when there were 6,561 divorces.
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Some married young and parted ways while others split after a lifetime together. Calling this the "empty nesters' syndrome" when spouses moved apart after their children had grown up and left the family home, Dr Balakrishnan said: "Couples no longer see the need to stay together."
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At the other end of the spectrum were the rocky marriages involving minors.
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While the numbers remain small — 764 cases, or 3 per cent of total marriages last year — Dr Balakrishnan said that such young couples were less likely to be prepared for family life, sometimes came from modest backgrounds and had difficulty holding down jobs. Their marriages could easily buckle under the strain.
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And then, there were the busy Singaporeans, caught up in the business of making a living.
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"If you are posted overseas, you should go with your family," said Dr Balakrishnan. "Time not spent with your spouse or time missed out on seeing your children grow is irreplaceable. Your children may have grown up or your spouse may have grown away from you.".
When asked if his ministry had any initiatives lined up to tackle the divorce issue, Dr Balakrishnan said that this was a personal matter and the Government could not legislate on it.
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"We cannot interfere in relationships," said Dr Balakrishnan. "What we can do is try to set the tone — through our policies and actions."
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..........

"You should not be afraid to say that you have to attend to family issues," Dr Balakrishnan said.
Leong Wee Keat
weekeat@mediacorp.com.sg

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Is Vivian from another planet? Or so high up in his ivory tower that he doesn't even smell the earthy air?

How many of us are employed in such companies where we get to bring our families along when we are posted overseas? The last time I checked, only the American and European companies do that. Our beloved GLCs and local companies don't. Maybe it's good tostart from home, and if Vivian truly believes what he says, legislate it.

A real example: A GLC company posts all it's employees overseas on single status, that is, NO families! Even for senior managers. How does the company justify the added costs of accommodation and utilities for housing a family, international schooling for the employee's children, lost income for his spouse etc.? Vivian may want to justify for us.

How about lower ranks like technicians and supervisors? I'm sure they get a much more rawer deal.

So, please do not assume everyone is in the high perches of society like yourself, Vivian, with so many choices. If you believe holding our families is important, then hold some sessions with your Trade and Manpower Ministries and see how you can improve the lot of employees who are posted overseas.

We don't like to see our families fall apart too, you know.

The MP from Hell .. are there more?

2006-10-27T20:28:00.000-07:00

Shocking.. when a MP says that if I'm highly educated, with a good job with MNC, that I should not bemoan the government, and just mind my own business! So what's his job as an MP? Is he minding his own business, or looking at ways to improve the lives of the less fortunate in his
Constituency?

When a person like Derek Wee, who can be happily minding his own business as a middle class executive, decides to look out of his good life window to voice a few concerns for the less fortunate, and possibly his own future, he's told to shut up, and accept the brutal truth, much less by a teenager who's been sheltered all her life and not even earning money for her own keep?

Who's to look after the masses if an MP, her father, thinks the same way?

And what's the whole idea of Meeting-the-people sessions in AMK? Does our MP put on a sympathetic face and consoles his less fortunate constituents, while behind the mask, sniggers and says, "That's the brutal truth, buddy"?

In retrospect, maybe I was guilty of this trait in my teenage years. The sky was the limit. Survival of the fittest. It was easy to think that way when you felt, at that precocious age, that was nothing you couldn't do. And if anyone couldn't do it, ie, be rich, have good grades, good job, then they didn't try hard enough.

Now, 20 years or so later, I'm more attuned to the "Lady Hard Luck knocks on someone's door everyday". I'm not so immune to uncertainties anymore. Even though currently, holding on to a 5-figure monthly salary job doesn't give any assurance of continued good years ahead.

I can forgive the daughter for her impetuous outburst. That's youth's folly. I've been down that road before. But the father..tsk tsk. When you're in your late 30s and early 40s, and thinking that way, you're STILL sheltered.

And many who have gone through the express route of government sholarships, civil service or GLC career-determined paths, are still being sheltered in a true sense. It'll not be surprising to this type of mindset prevails in certain upper ecehelons of our society.

An MP has a different role from that of a chief executive in a company. In a company, you sack the laggards or motivate them to perform. In a ward, the former is not an option. You motivate the less fortunte to improve their lives. You can't dispense your responsibilty to care for the lot, whether you think they brought in on themselves. You can't tell them "tough luck".

So what's the criteria for selecting a potential MP? Are we content with executioners, who can present these hard luck guys with aid packages, and consider that as a day's work, or "people" people who can reach out, feel and empathise, and run the extra mile to help?

If the former is enough, then any capable manager is good enough to be an MP. If it's the latter, Mr. MP here doesn't fit the bill, judging by his mentality. How do you make a final sprint or make the home run for the poor soul if you think he should accept the brutal truth, or get kicked in the balls, simply because he's loosing the survival of the fittest battle.