TR EMERITUS

By Douglas Chua Bold.Brazen.Blunt Now why do we keep reading and talking about this foreign talent issue like some kind of plague that just won’t go away? Well, you can be sure it will never go away because they are coming into Singapore at an alarming rate in droves, they are ubiquitous from Bedok to Bishan, they are being seen and heard clearer and louder everyday and until and unless a stop button is pressed somewhere to turn back the clock, these foreigners are here to stay for good. In case you missed the headlines, this place is the economic plateau of abundant opportunity in South East Asia, like the Big Apple of the East. People flock here because there is a living to be made and a livelihood to sustain for the future. There is peace and there is political stability. The place is clean and crime and corruption free. Hey! we even have a casino to help foreigners spend their money. What more can a foreigner ask for? What exactly is foreign talent? Well, the way it is applied to the thousands of foreign job seekers here, it is a misnomer. To most people, the term has a supercilious tone to it. To cynics, it carries a supremacist connotation. To a rational local born and bred person, it is an insult that all the foreigners going by this term are probably more talented than him. So one by one they come, then they bring their spouses and then the kids and parents. What a family of convenience! So the nett result is one so called talent had ended up bringing in a baggage of five dependents who are non-talents. Now is it any wonder that the MRT trains are packed. Now we know why our space is getting smaller and smaller and Singaporeans are feeling the pinch of this mass foreign invasion. Let’s not kid ourselves and let’s not try to reinvent the wheel here. There is no talent in foreign talent just as there is no apple in pineapple. And if you scrutinize closer, you will realize that these people are on a personal crusade in search of jobs; high paying jobs that we can offer with alacrity and abundance. Don’t they have engineering jobs in Malaysia or India or China? Plenty. Don’t they have health care jobs in every country? Definitely. So if there are plenty of jobs back home, why are foreigners leaving their shores for Singapore? A job that a person does back home would not be dissimilar with the job he is going to do as a foreigner in his adopted country. Right? His professionalism whether as a doctor or engineer would require him to discharge his duty precisely the same as he would anywhere else in the world. It is not a talent; it is his professional training. Therefore an engineer from India would be working just as an engineer in Singapore, hardly anything eye popping. So why do these people travel thousands of miles just to be here? There is only one possibility: Sing Dollars. Throughout human migration pattern there is no denying that it is the lure of a strong currency that attracts people to cross oceans and skies just to land a job. For some of them the difference in disposable income could well be the difference between life and death back home. Hence the difference is in the pay. Imagine if we were to pay these people the same wage as they would get from their country, they would probably all disappear overnight. So much for talent. Look, they are here not because they fell in love with Singapore overnight or they have so much talent to offer or they are going to pledge their lives to defend this country when the time comes. Or they love our system and our puny island so much. They are not here for our national interest. They are here to benefit themselves because our economic pie is bigger, fresher and greener. They are here on a mission to help milk and share a cash cow economy. Let’s not deceive anybody. It is as clear as that. So the next time someone mentions foreign talent, well I suggest you just have to shrug your shoulders, wink your eye, shake your head and tell them that there is no apple in pineapple.   Please join our Facebook page here and invite your friends to do so to create awareness of the current affairs affecting Singaporeans. Please use our online web form to contact us.  Read More →

After the credit crunch rocked the UK economy last year resulting in me unable to get a full-time job, I decided to return to homeland Singapore, expecting much better prospects. To my dismay, despite my qualifications from a recognised university from the UK and years of work experience, I am stunned that I am still hunting for a full-time job after a year while being on contract jobs for companies which refuse to hire me full time, instead preferring to hire cheap foreign labourers who do not command as much pay and experience as I do. But that is not the key issue. The main shocker was that my boyfriend who is a foreigner, tried to find a job here. Mind you that he is a highly-skilled, talented, university-educated individual who has worked on very big projects in his industry. After 3 months, he managed to land a job in a video and media company here and received his e-pass. However, within less than 2 months into the job, his boss told him that because he is a European and that he is 'expensive to keep', they have decided to let him go and replace him with an unqualified worker from China who only commands less than half his pay!! He and I were totally shocked. The reality of the influx of foreigners into our homeland makes me want to challenge the PAP's policy: are we really attracting FT or scaring them away with cheap foreign labour?? Needless to say, my boyfriend decided to return home. With the absence of minimum wage laws, weak labour right laws, exceedingly long hours and pushy, demanding work culture, how can Singapore ever be attractive for the REAL FT? I met more FT in many developed Western countries where their humane laws and less stressful culture plus high wages have been the main attractive factors. But Siingapore?? You got to be kidding me!!     A Girlfriend  Read More →

First off let me just say, I have absolutely nothing against foreigners coming over here to work. From my previous job to my current one, I work with them on a daily basis and I have nothing but good things to say about them. But honestly taking another 80,000 this year? Where the fuck are we going to house them? Traffic and MRT not crowded enough? Our infrastructure is bursting at the seams as it is. Unlike the PM or his daddy, I don’t get around singapore driven in a limousine that is escorted by a police motorcade. No, I have to use the public transport system and honestly I have had enough of it. The PM and his entire fucking cabinet and especially Raymond Lim the transport minister, they should try taking public transport to work and home during rush hour for a year and see how it feels. Click to enlarge For the last 8 years, we’ve been taking PM Lee’s snake oil and despite all his promises, where has that gotten us? Remember the reason behind the increase of the GST from 5 to 8%? Supposedly to help the poor, we only found later out of the billions collected in tax revenue, only a tiny fraction was actually spent on public assistance. From the 60s right up to the mid 90s, whatever you thought of the politics of LKY, the one thing couldn’t argue was that the standard of living wasn’t getting better or that the lives of singaporeans wasn’t improving. You could see it with your eyes. But now when you look back on the last 10 years, you couldn’t really say the same. At least not for the average singaporean. The only people who has benefitted are the rich, the powerful and of course the PAP ministers. So much so, they can look down their noses at us lesser mortals and even their progeny who hasn’t done shit can afford to talk shit in our faces- all the while studying abroad on scholarships paid for by us- the lesser mortals. The old snake oil salesman can promise everything under the sun. All I know is that for all his promises, the income disparity in singapore is still growing and shows no signs of stopping- not that the PM or his team is even interested in doing anything about it. We already have the second highest income disparity in the developed world, but since their pay and bonuses is pegged to the high income earners in singapore, I don’t suppose its in their interests to bring down income disparity. My dad took 10 years to pay off his housing loan- on single income. Nowadays, almost everyone that I know of needs to take a 30 year loan on double income. So tell me, how is that an improvement? People used to be able to afford to retire, now some old undead fucker think we should right up to our graves and that there should be no retirement age in singapore. FUCK THAT. FUCK HIM. When I retire, I want to be able to still enjoy what’s left of my life. I want to be able to still have enough energy and vigor to travel, to see the world and to pursue my interests. You can’t fucking do that when you’re in your 70s and 80s. Not if you’re working right up to that age. If you retire at that age, the only thing you can look forward to is death. NO. I will not condemn myself to such a fate. But like it or not, most people may not have that choice anymore. Not if you’re saddled with a 30 year burden hanging on your neck. Overcrowding, overpriced public housing, growing income disparity, lower standard of living, overstressed lifestyle, first world costs of living on a third world wage standard, a government that is not held accountable for their mistakes- if this is what we get from swallowing the snake oil, this snake oil salesman can take his fucking snake oil and shove it where the sun don’t fucking shine.   Marc @ Insane Polygons  Read More →