Oh come on, the PAP does not need anymore feedback!!!!

The PAP govt is asking for more feedback:
http://www.facebook.com/REACHSingapore.

Singaporeans have been giving feedback for so many years. Why does the govt need some more feedback?! 

What they need to do is solve the problems faced by Singaporeans. High housing costs, low pay and jobless PMETs in their 40s. We really appreciate if the govt can stop importing people and causing our problems to worsen. 

The problem is not feedback but the PAP govt itself that does not want to do what the people want them to do. We want to know what is going on in Temasek and GIC - please let us know, we have the right to know. We want the PAP to stop increasing our cost of living - utilities bill, conservancy charges, bus fares - why does the PAP need feedback to get these things done. It is just common sense. 

An Old Lady's Story....

Yesterday while having breakfast at the hawker center, I saw my neighbor talking to a group of elderly ladies. Rather animated like they were discussing something very dramatic. 

Later in the evening I saw my neighbor asked her what were they discussing. She said one of the elderly woman in her sixties had just returned from China and had lots of stories to tell everyone. The elderly woman stayed at the rental block next to mine. So what happened to the woman in China, I asked my neighbor - "kena robbed is it?". My neighbor said "sort of, but not quite".

20 years ago the woman received a letter from China from a woman who said she was the sister of her late father....separated by the World War. The China woman wrote that her family was very poor and the family lived in poverty. The Singapore woman who was not rich and living in a flat too pity on her china relatives. She verified with other relatives that the China woman was indeed her aunt and really her father's sis. She decide to send $100 to her auntie to help her. 5 years later this auntie died, her nieces in China took over and corresponded with her. Told her china family situation had to gotten worse - hard to find jobs living from hand to mouth. To help she continued sending $100 to the family when when she get year end bonus she would send half to the family. She was very happy to get letters expressing gratitude. 

3 months ago, the Singapore woman who was working as a coffee shop helper retired. The Singaporean boss whom she had been working for for 20 years, gave her $20K ask a retirement package. The Singaporean boss now owns 3 coffee shop, had kept all his Singaporean workers is one of the rare "good bosses" - he would give elderly workers $1000 for every year they worked for him when they retired. The woman delighted with her new found wealth decided to book a tour to China to visit her China family personally. A Singaporean nephew who is a regular traveler offered to accompany her the trip - perhaps worried she would get lost in China. 

To make a long story short. When they for their way to the China address she had corresponded with for years, they saw a 2 storey concrete house with 2 SUVs parked in the compound. When she introduced herself, nobody knew who she was. They knew her late Chinese auntie but claimed they didn't know they had a cousin or auntie in Singapore. The Chinese auntie had 2 children now in the sixties living in the house. They claimed their mother never told them they had a cousin in Singapore - the person she wrote to apparently did not exist or nobody admitted being that person. They told her since she is a relative she can stay with them for a few days - they were okay with that. She found the family was rather rich by Chinese standards and seemed to live quite well - so where did the $100 she sent every month go? Nobody knows. But they treated her quite okay when she was there but she decided to stop giving them any more money....she felt a bit cheated but didn't tell them that.

A Malay ex-neighbor I met yesterday....

This Malay neighbor of mine got married 4 yrs ago. Know him well enough to be invited to his wedding party. Malay wedding for me was quite an eye opener... so colorful. After he got married he stayed at his mom's 2-room flat with 2 unmarried brothers, his mom and dad ...and wife. Altogether 6 people in one small flat but everything was quite alright.

His first child was born 3 years ago and 2nd child was born 2 years ago. Working as a dispatch rider his pay was $800-$1000. When his 2nd child was born, really too crowded so his wife and his mom started quarreling. So he decided to move out because cannot "tahan" anymore. He tried to rent a place from HDB but there was a queue so he apply and wait. In the meantime how? He tried to look for place to rent but his $1K after pay rent not even enough to buy milk powder. Quite frustrated he move his whole family to JB since the 2 young kids didn't go to school, it was no problem. Rented an apartment for RM$400 then everyday commute to work like Johoreans working in Singapore.

One year ago he got his taxi license and decided to drive taxi. However, he worked out that if he moved his family back to Singapore, will be too financially stretched so he continued staying in JB. Taxi driver also need a period to ramp up their earnings....initially might have to make losses because not familiar with road and strategy. Everyday he would park his taxi at a place near Woodlands then take the bus into JB to be with his family. If he drive the taxi into JB, he would have to pay RM$30 per direction so he decided to save this cost. So everyday for 1 year, he took bus to Woodlands to drive his taxi and then every evening...late at night, he left his taxi in Woodlands and take the bus to JB..to save the RM$30. Sometimes we go into Malaysia, we complain customs and immigration too slow and time consuming...imagine doing it everyday for 1 whole year.

After 1 year he was able to save $13,500 and his skill in driving taxi and looking passengers improved. With this confidence, he took his family back to Singapore where his heart belongs so that he could be back near his extended family. HDB also granted him a rental flat so he has a place to stay.

In our society, we like to say certain races don't work hard and so on. Some believe people are poor because they don't work hard enough. We like to stereotype people....we only make these conclusions out of prejudice and ignorance. The fact is the poor works harder than most of us, they are poor because they are in jobs that underpay for their labour...we don't understand the pain they go through and their struggles.

Big Problem for Singapore : Strong S$ and high inflation...

Big problem for S’pore: Strong Sing Dollar & High inflation Happily I go to Malaysia change my S$1 to $2.52+ ringgit every few weeks to spend… however, some Singaporean ya-ya-papaya think that strong S$ means Singapore economy more powerful or gaining strength on Malaysia and so on. This is the view of IGNORANT people.

 1. Why did MAS allow Sing$ to go up so much despite negative GDP growth last quarter? There is very high inflation in Singapore and raising the S$ makes the imported component of the CPI lower thus lowering the overall inflation figure to 5.3% which is already quite bad. Imagine at 6% our inflation will be higher than 3-month Spanish bonds!!! This is a sign the Singapore govt is losing control of domestic price inflation and using the S$ to make imports cheap to hide inflation pressures.

 2. Our export sector is hurting and property bubble is prop up to keep us out of recession? Why you think MAS allow 50 year home loan. If property sector shrinks immediately, Singapore will be in recession because export sector is weak. The govt is just playing the number to prevent a recession by artificially propping up property sector.

 3. As for some people think S$ strong almighty against the ringgit means Singapore BETTER Malaysia Inflation Rate Actually Malaysian inflation rate is 1.7% vs 5% in Singapore. Malaysian economic growth is 5% vs negative for Singapore last quarter. The way Singaporeans can gain from this is stronger Sing$ is to go to Malaysia to spend their money. But you cannot spend every S$1 in Malaysia no matter what. Most of your money has to be spent in Singapore unless you MOVE TO MALAYSIA. That means you’re exposed to high inflation while Malaysians are not, despite their weaker ringgit. The weaker ringgit means Malaysian exports are stronger.

 4. Strong S$ despite strong outward remittance flow = high dependency on capital inflows of hot money, tax evaders and money launderers Half the workforce is foreign. They feed their families back home in Philippines, India and China. This means there is high remittance flow as these workers convert their salary to foreign currencies putting downward pressure on S$. Our trade deficit is very large. To balance our accounts we depend on rich people from India, China, USA to shift money here to avoid tax in their home countries. Some of the money (like Ma Chi’s) is of unclear origin. This means Singapore is forced to keep taxes on wealth artificially low even as income gap balloons. If billionaires stop parking their money here, the merry-go-round stops and things can sink FAST. Singapore economy is propped up artificially. It is not healthy. We have no Samsung, Acer or HTC.

We are flushing the economy with all sorts of money avoiding taxes, running from their own govt. This means we try to ‘makan’ the highly corrupt western banking pie as western banks fail – this is likely done by deregulation and allowing more shadow activities in Singapore. If Obama wins again, he is likely to shut down this type of parasitic business growing like cancer and breeding the most foul type of financial businesses and humans. Ok… next week I happily go spend my S$ in Malaysia… but I not so ‘gong kia’ to think it is because things are so steady ‘poon pi pi’ in Singapore.

My neighbor Ah Teck sells tissue paper....

My neighbor sells tissue paper at food court and hawker centers. A few weeks ago, I taught him a simple honest trick to get some free food and he was so thankful to me. I told him that OCBC Bank on Sunday can just walk in on Sunday to get some free cookies and a drink. I told him, in case they pick on him and turn him away, just deposit $20 in his own bank account at cash machine and withdraw it at the ATM on the way out. He was so happy when he managed to get some cookies last week, he modified the trick...he told me he went in twice and managed to get 2 drinks and more cookies.

Today I saw him and he didn't look very happy. What happened is this. Ah Teck sells tissue (3 packs for $1) because his leg has some problems and he can't get a job - his wife is constantly sick due to diabetes. When he goes round the food court he tries not to go to the same table twice so that people don't feel harassed. Today he was forgetful and went to the same table twice and this woman got incensed and scold him "begger get lost" in chinese and flick some hot soup from a spoon onto his face. I'm not too sure but from his description the fierce woman appears to be from China.

Remember when someone comes round to your table at the hawker center to sell tissue, don't just turn them away, they may need some help and you need the tissue anyway so why not do someone a small favor...at least let the people go off with some dignity.... What goes around comes around.

What one Hougang resident told me....

Yesterday I was adjusting one of the posters already put up. By coincidence I was wearing blue but not the WP tee shirt. A man in his 50s walk up to me and asked me if I'm from the WP. I said no, I'm not a WP member just volunteer hands and legs to help out in the election. I then asked the man whether he is WP supporter. He said "Of course! This time SURE VOTE for the WP!". I asked him why? This is what he said to me.

We all better wake up or we will all end up like the Comfort taxi driver who was killed in the Ferrari accident last week. He means it in a figurative sense. We will be overrun by the way the PAP does things before we realise it will be too late. Just like the taxi driver who never imagined his life will be taken away from him. PAP is powerful and big like the Ferrari and like to step on the accelerator to make GDP grow very fast to make their companies grow very fast for high profits, cost of living e.g housing also rocket up like high spped Ferrari. Ordinary Singaporeans aversely affected are the collateral damage in their policy formulation like the taxi driver. The opposition are the brakes of the Ferrari. If the brakes are not working this Ferrari will go very fast and cannot stop properly. Taking the opposition out of HG is like wearing off the brake linings. The Comfort taxi had no air bags just like Singapore has little social safety net. When the hardtimes comes, our families will suffer not the ones who cause the hardtimes, they are well taken care of.

That is why he feels compelled to vote for the WP on 26 May 2012.

I shook his hand and said THANK YOU. If not for the people of HG, Anson, Potong Pasir and Aljunied, we would have all been overrun by PAP policies and crushed by it long time ago. WP cannot lose at HG because Singaporeans cannot lose. Once the PAP wins a clean slate, the Ferrarri has no brakes and all we can do is pray we are in the 2nd taxi and not the oen that went first. But at that stage .....you never know.

A heartbreaking Singapore story....

Tell you what happened last week.

2 weeks ago a neighbor of mine, a widower, died leaving behind 2 children - one in JC the other still in secondary school. The man was involved in an road accident and died in hospital. His wife passed away 3 years ago. The relatives are poor and refused to take in these children. I've known this family since I was a young boy The boy and girl are my good friends. The father left a fully paid 2 room flat so we all figured that with some financial help, the girl will be able to make to university, graduate and support her brother.

Since I'm not working and know the family, my mom asked me to approach the neighbors to ask who might be able to help. $10, $20 or $50 ...or whatever small amount that can support the 2 children every month in addition to the assistance from CDAC and other govt sources. Surprisingly, although the neighbors are poor many were will to commit to small amounts to help these children. The total amount was $185.

I went to the home on Good Friday to tell the children about the good news and advice them on how to plan their monthly expenses and so on. While I was chatting with them, there was this loud knock on the door.

A woman (from accent can tell from PRC) was with a 2-yr old small child wanted to come into the house. We all didn't know who she was so we asked her what she wanted. The next thing she said was quite shocking. She said the flat belonged to her. Ridiculous...I asked the 'mad' woman to get lost and take her nonsense with her. She took out marriage cert and showed us she was married to the kids' late father. Apparently, after his wife's death my neighbor started another family with this PRC woman who is a PR. Now this woman wants two thirds of the HDB flat (her share and her child's share) - either sell off and get share of the proceeds or the kids pay her two-thirds the rental of the flat. She said she is very kind and will give 2 months for this to be sorted out. As a spouse and one child, she has right to two-thirds of the man's CPF.

The 2 kids who had to overcome the great grief over the death of their father now have to be confronted with this heartbreaking situations.