TR EMERITUS

Written by Our Correspondent It seems that PAP strongman Lee Kuan Yew's assertion that immigrants are more "hardworking" and "hard-driving" than Singaporeans may be correct after all. According to an unknown labor market survey conducted last year, "only 19 per cent of Singapore workers are willing to go above and beyond what is expected of them while the remaining 81 per cent show only a little or no 'discretionary effort'," a Straits Times article reported today. The study surveyed more than 5,200 responses from professionals such as engineers, bankers and lawyers in more than 50 countries. It was revealed in the survey that most Singapore workers are not keen to do any more work than they absolutely have to. The reasons for Singaporeans' "low" productivity rate were not revelaed. The state media has been busy of late spinning half-truths and myths to portray Singapore workers as "lazy, unproductive and unmotivated" to defend the PAP's much maligned liberal immigration and pro-foreigner policies. There are frequent reports in the press of employers having "no choice" but to employ foreigners because they are unable to hire or retain Singapore workers. An economist and associate professor from the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy Dr Tan Khee Giap lashed out lately at Singaporeans for complaining about foreigners taking away their jobs. He exhorted Singaporeans to "rethink and readjust" themselves in a follow-up email to queries made by a netizen Kojakbt: A recent Wall Street Journal editorial reports that the relentless influx of foreigners into Singapore has depressed the wages of ordinary Singaporeans, increased the cost of living and led to an overall decline in the quality of life. Stung by rising discontent and disgruntlement on the ground against its policies, PAP leaders have backtracked of late promising to "slow down" the inflow of foreigners. However with no opposition in Parliament to take them to task, there is no guarantee that they will live up to their promise. The next election may be the last opportunity for Singaporeans to reclaim ownership of their own nation after which they will be relegated to being second class minorities in a new Singapore dominated by the PAP and its immigrants.   Related articles: >> Dr Tan Khee Giap: The Truth hurts >> Dr Tan Khee Giap: Singaporeans are protesting too much >> State media castigates Singaporeans for being fussy  Read More →

Andrew Bolt From: Herald Sun March 26, 2010 12:00AM IT has became terrifying, the way we're so recklessly importing yet more people. The Australian Bureau of Statistics on Thursday announced the country grew last year by an astonishing 451,900 people, two-thirds of them immigrants. That's a record. And there's no more savage indictment of our lack of leadership at every level of politics. Consider: at this rate, we must build the equivalent of a new Melbourne every eight years. Think we can find all that land, water, power and transport that all those newcomers need? Think we can do that when our governments struggle to find such basics for the people here already? After all, not one capital city has dared build a new dam in 25 years, which is why Melbourne has had eight straight years of water restrictions. Not one state government dares now approve a cheap new coal-fired power station, either, even though Energy Minister Martin Ferguson warned this week we must find 50 per cent more electricity by 2030 or face blackouts. And all state governments are now so sniffy at turning nature into suburbs that the Brumby Government has ruled it won't allow more development beyond a tight line it's just redrawn around Melbourne, so the 3 million more people we expect by 2050 will have to live on top of those here today. Meanwhile, our roads are already so choked that Melbourne this week was almost strangled in peak hour, and rail operators struggle to find enough trains. Any sign there that we've planned for this great surge in our population? Yet the Rudd Government last year added almost 300,000 people to our population just through immigration - 9000 more than even last year's record.  It's bad enough that we're too blind or stupid to build what's needed for all the new arrivals. You know why, of course - because we cranked up immigration just as the new green faith reached its crazed worst, and made building stuff like power stations and dams seem a spit in the eye of Gaia. Indeed, several thousand green Australians will worship during Earth Hour tomorrow by turning off their lights for an hour - a useless gesture that symbolises this new hatred for our prime source of energy. But before we trying figuring how we'll find the water, power and land for all the newcomers, there's a more urgent question. Do we actually want so many more people each year? As the Productivity Commission says, more people may help developers, but they don't make the rest of us much richer. In fact, they could make our lives poorer as our cities choke. But, worse, we could split even further into a nation of tribes. Just this week, Monash University demographer Bob Birrell warned mass immigration risked destroying our traditions and even common language. The arrival of many people with little or no English had caused tensions in Dandenong, Sunshine and Broadmeadows, as "certain areas are being overlain by an ethnic identification", and "we are losing core elements of what was once shared".  This is not mere nostalgia or xenophobia. If we feel we share nothing with our neighbour, we'll also feel we have no duty to them, either. And so neighbours become rivals. Have we come even close to talking sensibly about such things? No way. So we just cram our cities with endlessly more people, with barely a thought of how to make them a home, or make the rest of us not feel we're losing our own. Source:http://www.heraldsun.com.au/opinion/the-doors-are-open-but-the-place-is-awfully-crowded/story-e6frfhqf-1225845492032  Read More →

By Vu Throng Khanh from Wall Street Journal Vietnam will raise the minimum wage for public servants and employees of state-owned enterprises by 12.3% from May, the government said Friday. The minimum monthly wage will be raised to 730,000 dong from 650,000 dong, the government said in a statement. The government also said it will also raise pensions by 12.3% from May. Vietnam's consumer prices rose to a 12-month high of 9.46%, compared with the year-earlier period, in March, the General Statistics Office said earlier this week. - Wall Street Journal  Read More →