TR EMERITUS

Written by Our Correspondent International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Jacques Rogge had lavished generous praise on Singapore for "the way it has been working on the Youth Olympic Games (YOG)", CNA reports. Mr Rogge was on a three day visit to Singapore where he toured various venues associated with YOG. He expressed satisfaction with the "progress" made by Singapore. "The most defining characteristic is the association between elite sport, high level sport, and culture and education - something that for many reasons we are not able to do at traditional Olympic Games because at traditional Olympic Games, there is much more pressure on time, on training, on expectations, also on the athletes," he was quoted as saying in CNA. Since winning the bid to host the inaugural YOG in 2008, the PAP has been making use of the event to promote itself in the eyes of young Singaporeans. Despite inordinate amount of time and resources poured in to publicize the event, the response from Singaporeans has been lukewarm so far, prompting the Minister in charge Dr Vivian Balakrishnan to issue an open call for Singaporeans to "rally" behind the YOG to make it a "success". He told Straits Times a week ago: “We need every Singaporean to understand that this is not just about sports or young people – it’s for all Singaporeans…..’All the effort that we invest in this will be wasted if every Singaporean doesn’t feel that this is a once-in-a-lifetime (event), that the Olympic flame is going to come to Singapore in such a close way and isn’t touched by it or affected by the Olympic spirit one way or another,” he was quoted as saying in the Straits Times. Dr Vivian's call was greeted with ridicule and derision by the online community with many netizens hurling brickbats at him. rubbish felt that YOG is a PAP event with no relationship to the rest of Singapore: "$10 mil was spent to integrate new migrants…Vivian,Why not spent another $10 mil to get them to rally for your YOG? Pom pom each sold separately…Your Singapore…Your YOG. Don’t drag the rest of the true-bred singaporeans who needs to be productive and earn a decent living so that 8.8% salary increment can be “awarded” to the “elites” who has somehow miraculously “upturn the downturn." Yamasan asked Dr Vivian to reach out to the foreigners instead: "We are daft, too stupid to understand what is YOG. We are lazy, why should we bother. Maybe a little spur in the hide may persuade us. We are lesser mortals. Events like this are not meant for people like us. Anyway, there are enough foreigners and PRs to fill the stadiums. After all, they form 1/3 of our population which is more than adequate." Concerned citizen encapsulates the sentiments of most Singaporeans: "A country with an oppressive government such as Singapore can only coerce its people to support prestige projects. Such a government will fail as it forgot that it is the people that defines national spirit and I am sad to say that the spirit of Singapore died long ago when the majority saw the reality of PAP. My country is no longer a country and why should I support a project that does nothing to my own daily struggle to survive? Let it fail I say! This is another great opportunity of give PAP a big slap!" Even as ordinary Singaporeans are struggling to make ends meet with their wages being depressed by the relentless influx of cheap foreign workers, the PAP continues to indulge in self-aggrandizement with such frivolous mega-projects to win the hearts and minds of young Singaporeans.   EDITORS’ NOTE: Please join our Facebook page here and invite your friends to do so to help us exceed the number of fans on the YPAP Facebook page.   Related articles: >> Only 6 participating teams in YOG soccer tournament >> Dr Vivian urged Singaporeans to rally around YOG  Read More →

By Joyce Teo from Straits Times THE Government has to shoulder some of the blame for the short supply of land and high property prices, said Mr Simon Cheong, president of the Real Estate Developers' Association of Singapore (Redas), yesterday. Mr Cheong told the audience at the launch of a new property price index that land values are largely determined by the Government's reserve price system that features in all state land tenders. Yet a site's reserve price is not revealed. 'During periods of high volatility, it is not able to respond quickly enough to real-time changes happening in the marketplace,' he said. Mr Cheong, who is also chairman and chief executive of developer SC Global, picked out two recent government land tenders to illustrate the 'conundrum and the dilemma' developers face in bidding for such sites. Read rest of article here  Read More →

Dear TR After hearing the stories from Judy and Melissa, I hope my story can act as a counter-balance. In a way, I just want to show the difference of being born 5 years earlier than both Judy and Melissa blessed me with a little more luck. That since the last election many government policies have gone wrong, and we need strong, immediate change. I am 32 now, and working in an MNC. My wife is of the same age, and an accountant with another foreign firm. We had graduated from the local university 9 years back, and had starting salaries of less than $2,000. When I proposed to her in 2004, my situation was very similar to Melissa. We made less than $5,000 combined, but house hunting was really a fun process for us. We had our pick – from a condo in Hillview going for about $600,000 to a HDB executive condominium in the west at around $400,000 (which we almost bought). End of the day, we got very lucky and balloted a HDB flat, and chose a $300,000 unit. Our queue number then was about number 4,000 with only 1,800 units for the development, which meant that more than 2000 people had given up on their queue numbers before us, so it was really lucky. The next 6 years of our lives were quite painful for me. As we didn’t have our own home yet, we had to stay with our in-laws which really inconvenienced them. We took the opportunity to drive our dingy OPC car whenever possible to pass by our building home, and yearned for it till crazy. When we collected our keys last December, our income has more than doubled over the last 6 years, and I really count myself very lucky. I felt that the government policies had served me well, and that now I had a home that I could retire in, and leave as a legacy for my baby who’s 3 years old now. Whilst a lot of my colleagues are FT, they are really here thanks to a warped government policy and by no fault of theirs. I enjoy a very cordial working relationship with them, and can’t see how anyone can detest working with colleagues from other countries just because they came from different roots. I am looking to quit very soon to venture a bit with a small business, try to find a way to make a living whilst feeling fulfilled. My wife’s income will support us during this period. I promised her that if my venture fails, I’ll hang my head (in shame LoL) and find employment again. Even if as a taxi driver, I don’t think I’ll starve. I never believe in “You reap what you sow”, and put my current situation as downright lucky – lucky to have been born just a hands worth of fingers earlier than Judy or Melissa. ——— With that, I want to say that I have benefited only at the lost that many of my fellow Singaporeans are suffering from today, for the sole reason that I was born earlier. I empathize with the strain those who are very early in their working careers, and being subjected to an education system that did not allow them to understand any form of making a decent income other than as an employee. We need change, else it can only get worse. I am content and happy for myself and my family. I hope people reading this will be too. If you feel jealousy, then you know that there needs to be change. Maybe not in the form of a wholesale change in government, but at least a counterbalancing voice to show them that the policies currently being churned out are fallacies and hurting everyone who wants this country and it’s people to succeed. TR, feel free to print this out too as you deem relevant. Devoran   EDITORS’ NOTE: Please join our Facebook page here and invite your friends to do so and help us exceed the number of fans on the official YPAP Facebook page. Do you have any similar stories to share? Or have your heard of such stories elsewhere? Please email us at [email protected], we want to hear from you. Your article need not be long and we do not require you to write in perfect English.  We will not edit or censor any part of your article. Most importantly, it must come straight from your heart.   Other real life stories: >> 28 year old teacher burdened by hefty mortgage loan for HDB flat before marriage >> Young Singaporean expressed her worries at uncertain and gloomy future  Read More →