[quote=\"3Boys\"]

SingDadNZ:

[color=#00BF80]You don't see Singaporeans sleeping in Metro stations and side walks because they will be arrested with no alternative provided hence why you don't see them sleeping on our Metro Stations. If the same tolerance and compassion is offered to Singaporeans as in the western society , you will be swamped with homeless people. It is much cheaper is sleep in the Metro Station and there will be many takers in Singapore.

And show me evidence that there is even a shred of truth in what you are saying, that we will be \"swamped with homeless\" people.

So where are they now, swept under a carpet somewhere?[/quote]
[/color]



In every society there are people who fell through the crack in the system. There are people with heavy depression, addictions, physically and are emotionally handicapped. They just can’t function and be productive in a society and many due to old age. In the Asian society the family traditionally absorbs the burden and the cost of looking after the so called unproductive unmotivated members. The western society, it is a collective burden and that is why I pay 33% tax on my salary. A child is cut lose at 18 and are allowed to move out of the family home. A lot of help is given by the society through the taxes for them to make it on their own. Some fell through the crack but many go on to invent great things to make life better for their fellow beings, create mega business and discovered innovative breakthroughs in communication, in the medical field, technology and computers and internet that made all this possible.

Take an example of my 86 years old Singaporean dad. He was a very hard working man and the backbone of Singapore’s formative years. He started work when he was 14 and was retired as an electric fitter at age 55 in 1981. He put his children through university and two of them in London in the 1970’s. On his retirement, his last drawn salary was about $600 and a CPF saving about $25,000. As a child I have watched how hard my parents worked and saved. All his saving was spend on the children and managing a home. In the 31 years since his retirement assuming my mom and dad need about $800 per month (averaged out) to have a basic life style, has cost to date $297,600. That excludes more than $30,000 spent on hospitalization, medicine and dental care in the last 4-5 years. Where do you think the money came from? Many Singaporean will say why don’t they work as a cleaner in a hawkers stall or give out flyers on street corners (which is a common sight of aged people in Singapore). These are the same people who refuse to put a wheel chair friendly bus in our neighborhood even though I appealed to the bus company and the local MPs two years ago. Last year we spent more than a thousand dollars on taxi fare as my dad is unable to stand up due to damaged nerves. What do you think the problem is? Lack of financial resources or lack of empathy for the people who fell though the crack?? Where do you think my parents will be sleeping if we the children did not support them. :siao:

verykiasu2010:

3Boys:

[quote=\"KSP\"]actually it says \"Singapore is now the richest country in the world \"


that does not mean the ppl are rich... :sad:

similarly there are plenty of low wage earners in those countries right \"behind\" Singapore....they probably have more people sleeping in metro stations and side walk than in Singapore

[/quote]d

You don't see Singaporeans sleeping in Metro stations and side walks because they will be arrested with no alternative provided hence why you don't see them sleeping on our Metro Stations. If the same tolerance and compassion is offered to Singaporeans as in the western society , you will be swamped with homeless people. It is much cheaper is sleep in the Metro Station and there will be many takers in Singapore.

verykiasu2010:

http://singaporenewsalternative.blogspot.sg/2012/08/singapore-is-now-richest-country-in.html


the same news is on ST print copy front page next to panda picture

do you feel you are richer than before ?

I do not think that cleaners in Norway are paid $600 a month. I live in NZ and I had a plumber to fix my blocked sink and we knew him because his wife is the local doctor. Kiwis see any vocation as a valuable contribution to the wellbeing of a society and decent wages are paid so he and his family can afford a car, own a home and take holidays etc.

Singapore is a first world country on the world ranking with the mentality of a third world country. Yes, I am a Singaporean.

Only around 40% of registered doctors for year 2010 are Singaporeans.



Probably, most Singaporean doctors are trained overseas funded by parents. PAP wants to give FT doctors high pay by controlling local medical school intake.We must increase citizen medical students’ intake in our local university. Those exceptional FT doctors are welcome here to transfer their expert medical know how. FT doctors should also not be more than 10% of annual doctor registration in Singapore.
http://veritas-lux.blogspot. com/2011/10/singapore-news- update-31th-oct-2011.html (permission was sought and given to post this article).



My dealing with the hospital with regards to communication had always been difficult. You have a whole bunch of foreign doctors who just want to put to practice what they learn in medical school to gain experience and impress the local senior doctors, consultants and specialist doctors. Money is never in the equation as results from test are better then their medical opinions and a safe option. There seems a gap in doctors with mid- management positions who are Singaporeans and can understand the make up of the different culture and how it all blends together. After a week in hospital, they should have discharged my dad. My mom requested for his discharged yet not one of them sat with my mom and explains to her the reason on why they are still keeping him in hospital (21 days) neither did they offer some other options. NO HUMAN TOUCH

Two years ago, my 84 year old dad was wheelchair bound due to a damaged nerve and was unable to stand on his feet. He was a very active man and enjoyed going to his church in the city, to the local library and to some of his favorite outdoor markets. I come home to Singapore every six months as I live and work aboard for the last 20 years. I find it extremely difficult to lift my dad into a taxi and to our maid, it is impossible as he weighs 65 kg. My dad is a prisoner confined to the neighborhood park and his home for the last 2 years.


From my experiences with public transport in first world countries, 20 years ago up to now, bus drivers are very professional and always greet their wheelchair passengers with a big hello before dropping a ramp to help them up to the allocated section of the bus and secure their wheelchair while the rest of the patient passengers wait for the driver to get back to his seat. All modern buses can kneel on request with a built in ramp with drivers with the same caring attitude. All public transport is wheelchair friendly or alternative service is provided.

With that in mind, I went to the bus stop in my Yishun neighborhood to bring my dad to the library. On my third attempt to get into a bus with a wheelchair I was told by the driver that there were no wheelchair friendly buses in this neighborhood. So I decided to push him to the library which is about 3km away. On reaching the library, I noticed some of the buses were wheelchair friendly and decided to stop one going into the city. The bus was crowded and I stood on the door way of the bus and asked if he could open the rear door for me to push my dad’s wheelchair. The driver seemed annoyed that I was standing on the doorway and talking to him in English. He started complaining loudly in Chinese and drove me away leaving my dad still in the bus stop. Passengers were shouting for him to stop and he did stop about 100 meters away in the middle of the road. Several passengers came up to me and told me to excuse him as he is from China and can’t speak English. I wrote to the bus company and spoke to the local MP for a wheelchair friendly bus for the neighborhood and 2 years have passed, and my dad is still a prisoner confined to his home and neighborhood. In a multi racial country, a state owned Bus Company hiring only Chinese speaking drivers to cater mainly to the Chinese majority does show poor understanding of race relationship and sloppy hiring services bordering on arrogance.
I was once in Hanoi with my 2 year old kid in a baby stroller and it was impossible to use the side walk due to the uneven floor or over flowing merchandise from the shops into the side walk. I had to push my son on the main street. Many Singapore shopping areas, hawkers and side walks give me the impression that I am in Hanoi or in Johor Bahru. Law makers in Singapore lack empathy when dealing with handicaps and the elderly, and this has a tickle-down effect to the vast majority of Singaporeans and from this pool of people comes the next generation of leaders. My mother is 78 years old and she mentions to me that when she travels on public transport and if the reserved seat for the elderly is occupied, then very rarely would a younger person give up their seats from the non reserve seats. They pretend to be asleep or are sleeping while staring at their ipod.

Recently, I brought my dad to the polyclinic and my maid did not bring the appointment card with her and she was told off with a “top down” attitude and I had to step in to stop the verbal abuse. Very few doctors take the time to explain to you the possible health problems and the short and long term outcomes especially if English or Mandarin is not your first language. And I suspect this is due to lack of competent Malay and Tamil translators available in polyclinics and hospitals. My dad was on a clinical trial at Tan Tock Seng Hospital and he was unaware about it (within six weeks he was unable to walk) and I always suspected it was due to the clinical trial. I only became suspicious when they keep saying that there are no specialists for my dad at Khoo Teck Puat Hospital when I ask for his medical records to be transferred to the new hospital. Only then they told me he is on clinical trial and even my mom who accompanies dad on his weekly hospital visits did not understand what was going on. They showed me a document my 84 year old dad signed for the clinical trial. Taxi fares alone came to nearly $800 for the weekly visit to TTSH as they were no wheelchair friendly buses. All first world countries have a robust medical “ethics” policy in place but it is not the case for many of the countries in SEA including Singapore. I realize taking the hospital like TTSH to court will be a losing battle hence I dropped the idea.

My parents’ medi-save account is like an open check book for the hospital and they are emptying the account quickly. My brother-in-law is a medical doctor and director in an Australian Hospital and his advice to us is to bring dad to the local downstairs GP rather then to the hospital. Most time with fever, he just needs some antibiotics due to catheter implant infections. His explanation to me from the many telephone conversations he had with the doctors each time my dad is hospitalized is as follow:

“Doctors in Khoo Teck Wat hospital seems to be in a revolving door as it is impossible to get hold of the same doctor who made the last decision at the hospital on your dad. The next doctor you speak to wants to run a series of expensive tests again. They don’t seem to read the patients’ history on what has been done. The theory of deduction is rarely used instead relying solely on the latest medical report card. One doctor I spoke to wanted to use an endoscopy to see if he had bleeding ulcers and I asked him if he had done a simple stool sample for blood trace and he said, ‘No’. I suggested he should try that first as endoscopy could turn very uncomfortable for an 86 year old man.”

My brother-in-law then suggested that I should “pay cash for the hospital bills instead through the medi-save account to have a better control over the bills. Unlike Singapore, hospitalization in Australia is free as such doctors need to work within a frame work of a budget to prevent a blowout and in your dad’s case he was admitted due to fever and dark stools. An endoscopy, sigmoid scope, colonoscopy or proctoscopy is never considered until cost effective diagnose like stool sample, rectum-finger examination for bleeding, discontinue iron medication as they can produce dark stools and analyze patients past medical history, diet and medication history. The theory of deduction is applied to keep the medical cost down and apply best practice. In a user pay society like Singapore, doctors have no qualms in ordering an endoscopy and proctoscopy test as it is the quickest way to get results. Maybe the doctors in Singapore are overworked but it is an over kill, waste of human resources and lacking financial accountability. It is flawed system disguised in a fancy building looking like a 5 star hotel but no best practice used.”
I agree with my brother-in-law that medical staff do not read patients’ medical report/history. In the last six months my dad had been hospitalized 4 times, usually for fever due to urine tract infection. We have given clear instruction that we do not need a dietitian or physiotherapist service during his hospitalization and yet we are billed for more than $200 worth of physiotherapist service. It was the specialist from that hospital that told us that my dad will never walk again and ever known tests had been done to confirm that. My mother says this mostly foreign physiotherapist keep soliciting their service to my dad even after my mother insists she has a standing instruction on this matter. Yet they sneak in their service when my mother or the maid is not visiting my dad. The same problems we have with the dietitian service. My dad has a full set of teeth and eating was never a problem nor does he have a complaint. They just come around and ask him a few questions and leave a tin of food thickener. My dad does not eat soft food and never needs a food thickener. We had been billed for the service. The latest stay in hospital was for 21 days and he was discharged last week. His total bill was $10,398.89 and after the government subsidy the bill payable was $3,317.20. My dad first went to the hospital because he had fever and dark stool. After 21 days he was discharged and the diagnosis was fever due to urine track infection and no internal bleeding and stool is clear.

I refuse to pay the first hospital bill 4 months ago and since then 3 more bills until someone told me which doctor felt that my dad need a dietitian or physiotherapist service even when the family refused the service. I wrote to the finance department and also spoke to a few people in the department and yet they cannot get their act together. They send a debt collection notice to my dad.

This was the man who all his life worked hard to bring Singapore to where it is today. A first world country infrastructure with a third world mentality-

Singapore lost the plot and its soul along the way

Please have you say and all comments are welcome.

LOL. No, I am not the man :udaman: and my son is not talented, just hardworking. A typical week day for my son start at about 6am. At 6.30 we have a family devotion as we are Christians and we are more interested that he is a better Christian then and a better student. 7 to 7.30 is breakfast and 7.30 to 8.30 am are music practice time and if the weather is nice then it is golf practice and he is off to school. School finish at 3 pm. 3 to 4pm is chill out time and from 4 pm until bedtime at 8 is filled with any of the following activities: Ice skating, guitar lessons, flute lessons, dog walking, piano lessons, home work, church music, busking, Hip-hop dance lessons and math’s lessons and no TV. Bed time is a family affair with reading and thanksgiving. Saturday is devoted to music and busking, gigs etc and Sunday is church day and rest. MY wife and I have our own time from about 9.30 pm onwards.


We slow down in winter as it is cold with dark mornings and catch up on any short coming during summer as we have long days and it is bright until 10pm. We also use school holidays to catch up with his academic studies, go to church camps and a bit of traveling, mostly to Singapore to visit parents/grand parents.

Children need a structured life in the early years as they form habits by routines and we try to lead by example and walk the talk. Our aim is to build a solid music foundation by age 12 (grade 8 music) as school work will take precedence over music in secondary school. School subject will get harder and time spend on studying will be on a premium. When they are in their secondary school and in university, they can use their music grades to earn pocket money by giving music lessons and hopefully they will have a music CV strong enough to attract students.

That is our life and we are enjoying the journey with a grateful heart to God. :rahrah:

Well, your child is already equipped with an instrument - her voice. She would love to hear her voice in tune. A simple instrument like a guitar will completely change the way she will understand music with it key changes, harmonics and its backbeat rhythms. They will become an important part of her repertoire as she learns to become a better singer.


Singing has always been a part of our life. It is done in funerals, wedding and on happy and sad occasions. A singer is always the focal point in most social gathering. A singer, who plays an instrument, guitar/keyboard/drums etc, will find it much easier to get involved with other musicians and maybe even join a group. Additionally, many musicians find it difficult to take a singer seriously if they do not play an instrument as musicians have a language of their own. I know more about the lead singer of the Rolling Stone band and his life than the bass guitarist of the band.

The first song I encouraged my 5 year old son to play on the guitar was “happy birthday’ for his mother’s birthday. It has 3 basic chords and he was motivated to learn the song as he wants to contribute to the happy occasion. The kudos and back pats after he sang “happy birthday’ together with the big hugs and kisses his mom gave him on her birthday was enough to kick start his journey on entertaining people and himself. Next we started him off with a recorder as a way to learn music notes. It is a $12 instrument, hardy and fun to play and again, it is a portable instrument. When he was 6 years old and as his lungs got stronger he graduated to a flute and he will be sitting for his grade 3 flute exam at the end of the year. With the basic understanding on how to read notes we introduced him to the piano and let him sit for grade 1 exam and he passed it with distinction. This year he is doing his grade 3 exams and sight reading for the piano was a natural progression from his recorder music notes. Today he could sit in a rock concert or in an orchestra and he can enjoy both of them as he understands how the various instruments complement each other to bring music to our ears. Young teens talk more about Adele than Mozart, and if young teens understand the makings of Adele who live in the present time, then they will appreciate Mozart and its classics.

The path we took to introduce music to our son is not a blueprint for other families but it has some merits as we were able to plug into the experience of teaching music to children for the past 80 year in our city – The Saturday Music School -Dunedin NZ.

No matter how you do it, the child MUST enjoy learning music and your art of persuasion will go a long way when you next tell them the value of brushing your teeth and teaching them mathematics. :rahrah:

Guitar is a great instrument for a child to learn. It is a portable, friendly instrument. You can entertain yourself and sling it over your shoulder and transport it to entertain your friend anywhere. They are not expensive and quite hardy. You also get invited to quite a lot of birthday parties. When you can play about 20 popular songs, you can busk on the street. Monies earned can be used for music tuition fees.

My son started his guitar lesson at age 5 and as soon as he could play 5 songs, I put him on the street to busk. Since then he had always paid for all his music tuitions. He is 7 years old now and he takes one to one lesson on grade 3 piano, grade 3 flute and a few other instruments. He can afford the classes and when he asks to learn a new instrument or attend a concert, I always oblige him. Busking build his confidents and improve his memory skills as he now play of memory about 50 songs. He has a growing fan base (see his fan page in face book < Jayden TJ >) and more offers are coming for private gig and shows. So go for it as learning guitar is a great base instrument to inject fun into music and the rest will follow as they will soon realize the joy of music.

Guitar is one of the most difficult instruments so don’t start your child on classical guitar until she has learn how to play happy birthday and few other songs and had some fun with the guitar first. :rahrah:

[quote=\"Imami\"]Hi! Just to share my niece and nephew's case. They are twins. Born premature at 35weeks in late december many years back. In terms of build, they were a little smaller than an average kid but by the time they were 8, they caught up. In terms of academic performances, it was never a problem - a check with the parents and the children confirmed this. In fact, now the twins are in their teens are doing ip (see here for more info on ip: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated_Programme).


Hi, Thank you for sharing and taking the time to write. It is rather a long response from me as I put some of my fears of moving to Singapore, challenges the family will meet and the aspirations and hopes we have for Singapore into this mail.

Like your niece and nephew, my son was also born as a premature (1.5 Kg) at 29 weeks and spends two and half months in the Hospital in Wellington (NZ). It is by God’s grace and to great doctors that he survived without any mental or physical problems. The hospital keeps a close tab on his mental state and each year the parents and the school need to fill out all necessary forms on his state of mind until he reach 21 years of age and that includes an annual medical check up until 6 years of age. Physically he is above average to his peers due to his mother’s militant style of daily breakfast which consists of plenty of milk, yogurt and weet-bix and supervised lunch and dinner. Active outdoor sports were also a big help to his physical growth. If you are not milking your cow or grazing your sheep, then most kiwi families spend their evenings and weekends on sporting and leisure family activities. This is also partly due to lack of large shopping malls and mega entertainment centers. My son spends most of his time chasing his dog around the park, playing golf (child membership is $175 per year), playing ice hockey ($70 per term) and on other social and church activities including busking on the streets of Dunedin. When we arrive in Singapore, we want to maintain a certain level of physical and social activities. This plan may have to be in the back burner until we find a job and housing.

In terms of academic performance, it has never been a problem thus far as my son had projected that he has an average IQ of a normal child. The NZ MOE encourage parents to start early childhood education at age 3 by paying for 20 hours per week of the school fee till the child turn 5 years old. My son attended a Montessori school from age 3 for 40 hours a week until he went to a state school at age 5. State school runs from 9am to 3 pm on a class size of 21 to 26 students per class and lower primary classes have an assistant teacher. Kiwi children do spend a lot of time in school learning something as they don’t seems to bring home any home work. The MOE works on a partnership with you rather then a “Me chief and you subordinate” or on the mantra that “I know what is best for you”. As parents we have a partnership with the school. We knew all the teachers and like many other parents we get involved with the school and assist any way possible whether assisting the teacher in the class room or at the zebra crossing. School is so much fun for us as for our son and we look forward to it everyday.

I do travel back to Singapore every year and last year I came 4 times and this year twice. I keep tap of what is happening at the primary school and read the concerns on the Kiasu parents. I attended several “school open days “for prospect students of primary one. There seems a general fear from parents pertaining to which school their children attend and many put the principal on a pedestal of a God and observe the rule “do not speak unless spoken to”. This is the second year I had postponed my relocation back to Singapore as I am afraid that the school system in Singapore will kill the natural curiosity of my child to learn and replaced it with the fear of failing and anything below “A” and you will be banish to a second grade school with second grade teachers and attend class with losers. Nothing I saw or heard on the “school open day” relieved me of my fear.
The current school system in Singapore does not seem to encourage creativity, social interaction, music, entrepreneurial ship for the young or celebrate achievements outside school grades. I am convinced that with globalization and the world as your market place,
academic excellence alone is not sufficient to make you a useful, contributing citizen neither does it offer you a guarantee to happiness.

I know Singapore MOE has been tinkering with the university and secondary education and have done an excellent job in introducing IP and creating specialized secondary school but the primary school takes too many casualties and take the fun out of learning and reinforce the wrong notion that you are great child only if you have “A” for Math’s second language, science and English. I prefer my son to spend the minimum time as possible in the Singapore primary school and just sit for primary 5/6 exam to be admitted into SOTA as I favor the merits of an IP and music education.

On the music front the MOE in NZ also funds a subsidized “Saturday Music school” program every Saturday at the cost $ 80 per instrument per year open to age 3 to 11 and your child can learn as many instruments as they want depending on the child ability. The “Saturday Music School” is 80 years old in Dunedin and founded on the notion that music is a fundamental learning block for child development and if started early, a child will pick an instrument for his pleasure and amusement and will learn to play it. Through this program my son plays several instruments and he seems to be enjoying them. He started music appreciation at age 3 to age 5 and even we enjoyed hitting empty cans and clapping our hands to a beat of “ring a round the roses”. You could catch some of his act on his public face book fan-page under < Jayden TJ > The “music language” has no age barrier and seems to bring different ages together. Like my son, musicians seem to know how to entertain themselves and others and a confident lot.

My son will visit his grand parents in December and he advertised on the Kiasu forum under “happening” & “music and drama” section for a busking buddy, age below 10, to busk the streets of Singapore this December 2012 and not one curious enquire was received even though he mentioned that he earned more then $20,000 last year as a musician in NZ. The advertisement had nearly 400 hits yet no application. I could not figure out the reason as the partnership could make a jolly rewarding Christmas for the busking buddy and the audience. Again, I contribute this lack of response to the short coming of the primary education system in Singapore. They could not produce well rounded confident students as they have taken away the curiosity/fun of the natural child.

Well, I have said what I wanted to say. I still need to find a job, buy a car, and find a place to live when I hit Singapore. You can see I have my own problems. Cheers

slmkhoo:

SingDadNZ:

It is ok if we continue in NZ unfortunately my son have to come with us to Singapore and his worth will be judged by his grades and I am thinking that if I drop a year, he could have a more level playing ground to gain the necessary grades without the stress. I am hoping that will be the right direction...... :?

I don't think you can avoid stress in switching school systems, countries etc, but you can try to reduce it. Whatever grade you decide on, you could also try to minimise the stress by covering some of the Math and Science topics of the previous year in advance, ie. if you decide to put him in P4, then cover the P3 topics. Those 2 subjects are the most content-rich and less easy to catch up quickly. Just compare with what he already knows and do the bits that he hasn't learned. My 2 kids have been educated mostly overseas, but have been inserted into Singapore school 3 times so far for short periods in grades ranging from P2 to Sec 2, and that is what I have done each time. I find that the main stress is not academic, but social and general 'newness'.

Thank you for sharing your experience with me. I agree that the general ‘newness’ can be overwhelming. We try to engage it with a positive attitude and will definitely get hold of some Singapore primary 2 math’s book to keep up with Singapore and thank you for the very valid advice. We hope a drop in grade and keeping him on top of the class would give him more time to enjoy the other opportunities and activities that Singapore can offer to young person like my son.