TR EMERITUS

The Kent Ridge Review will be recruiting a managing editor as well as freelance writers from every faculty in NUS. The managing editor will be in charge of running the site and building its traffic up. He/she will be allowed to run the editorial team and determine the site's content and policy on his/her own. The Kent Ridge Review will be managed autonomously as a separate site from the Temasek Review. Freshmen and first year undergraduates will be given priority. He/she will be paid a percentage of our advertising revenue monthly and a bonus along the way once the traffic reaches a certain level as determined by the alexa traffic ranking in Singapore (www.alexa.com): Alexa traffic ranking                  Bonus 3000                                                       $1000 2000                                                      $1000 1000                                                      $1500 500                                                         $1500 100                                                         $2000 Our managing editor will stand to earn more than $7,000 in all if he/she is able to build Kent Ridge Review till it becomes a prominent and popular site in Singapore. The freelance writers and journalists will be paid at the following rates: 1. News and happenings on campus: $15 – $20. (subjected to length) 2. Opinion pieces: $25 – $40 (subjected to length) 3. Field journalism and interviews: $50 – $100 4. Video interviews and coverage of events: $100 – $150 (between 5 and 10 minutes) 5. Social documentaries: $200 – $300. (between 20 and 30 minutes) The rates we offered are way above the rates paid by SPH for their student interns. Writers who have been with us for a period of time will be paid more as a reward for their loyalty. The Kent Ridge Review is intended to be an independent students’ online newspaper run by NUS students and alumni for the NUS community. It will be owned, run and funded entirely by The Temasek Review team for the time-being whose administrators are members of the NUS alumni. Together with Temasek Review and other sites we are planning to acquire or set up, they will come under the ownership of the new media company we will be registering soon. We will be paying from our own pockets to recruit freelance editors, writers and journalists from NUS to run the site and to build the readership up. For a beginning, Kent Ridge Review will cover the following: 1. News, happenings and events at NUS. 2. Selected socio-political issues of special interest to undergraduates. 3. Current affairs and international issues. 4. Articles from students about their daily lives, thoughts and reflections in NUS. 5. Articles from NUS graduates sharing their personal and working experience with their juniors. No efforts will be spared to promote Kent Ridge Review and we will strive to bring its readership to our present level no matter how long or how much it takes. Please email us at [email protected] or [email protected] if you are interested in our offer. To our NUS students readers, please spread this message across to the entire NUS campus. Thanks!  Read More →

From our Correspondent According to a global survey conducted by Gallup, Singapore's adult population will increase from its present 3.6 million to 13 million if current immigration rates continue unabated under the ruling party. (read full report here) Gallup's Potential Net Migration Index (PNMI) is the estimated number of adults who would like to move out of a country permanently subtracted from the estimated number who would like to move to it, as a proportion of the total population. The higher the resulting positive PNMI value, the larger the potential net population gain. Across the countries surveyed, Singapore posts the highest positive PNMI of all countries and areas, with a net migration index value of +260%. This means that Singapore's adult population would increase from an estimated 3.6 million to as high as 13 million. The United States is the top desired destination country (not Singapore as the misleading headlines in the Straits Times suggested) for the 700 million adults who would like to relocate permanently to another country. Nearly one-quarter (24%) of these respondents, which translates to more than 165 million adults worldwide, name the United States as their desired future residence. With an additional estimated 45 million saying they would like to move to Canada, Northern America is one of the two most desired regions. The United Nations' 2009 Human Development Report released recently ranked Singapore No. 10 in the world in terms of the share of immigrants as part of total population, at 35 per cent. (This means that one out of three people you see in the streets is a foreigner) Singapore's population has already exceeded the 5-million mark, 1.5 million short of its initial target population of 6.5 million. The issue of immigration and foreigners is a hot topic of late with many senior leaders of the ruling PAP speaking up on it. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said during a PAP convention last Sunday that foreigners help to create jobs for Singaporeans, take up jobs in sectors shunned by locals and more importantly, boost our declining birth rates. He had earlier reassured Singaporeans that he "understood" the concerns of Singaporeans and the "intake" of foreigners will slow down. Due to rising unhappiness and disgruntlement on the ground over its unpopular pro-foreigner policy, the ruling party is forced to make a rare concession by amending the EntrePass scheme for foreigners who want to set up businesses in Singapore. The sycophantic state media, a propagandist mouthpiece of the regime was also tasked to skew public perception in its favor. Singaporeans who protested too much are branded as being "xenophobic", "childish" and "petty" while the contributions of foreigners - including construction workers, are hailed frequently in the press. There were nearly 90,000 PRs and 20,000 new citizens last year and the ruling party has spared no efforts to make them feel "welcomed". A $10 million Community Integration Fund paid for by taxpayers was unveiled last month to help foreigners "integrate" which includes free language courses. With elections looming ahead, more cosmetic changes will be expected in due course to "sweeten" the ground for the ruling party which has governed Singapore uninterrupted for 50 years through the use of repressive laws to curtail the civil rights of citizens and defamatory lawsuits to cripple their political opponents.   Related articles: >> Cosmetic changes made to immigration policy >> SM Goh: New immigrants needed to make up population shortfall >> PAP ministers hailed contributions of foreigners >> SM Goh expressed support for Zhang Yuanyuan >> State media: citizens have more rights over PRs >> Zhang Yuanyuan got her Singapore PR in only 2 months >> Official reply from government on the Zhang Yuanyuan fiasco >> Singapore PRC PR proclaimed loyalty to China publicly >> PRC resident hung China flag to celebrate its National Day >> PRC student in Singapore wants more scholarships for foreigners >> PRC prostitutes solicit for customers on Singapore’s cyberspace >> ERA: 40 per cent of resale flats buyers are PRs   EDITORS’ NOTE: If you like our work and would like to support us, please transfer your donations via paypal to our account ([email protected]). Any amount will be greatly appreciated! Alternatively, you can also help boost our advertising revenue by clicking on the ads displayed. Thank you! Join our tweet at: http://www.twitter.com/temasekreview  Read More →

By Neil Espirova and Julie Ray from Gallup Every day, migrants leave their homelands behind for new lives in other countries. Reflecting this desire, rather than the reality of the numbers that actually migrate, Gallup finds about 16% of the world's adults would like to move to another country permanently if they had the chance. This translates to roughly 700 million worldwide -- more than the entire adult population of North and South America combined. From its surveys in 135 countries between 2007 and 2009, Gallup finds residents of sub-Saharan African countries are most likely to express a desire to move abroad permanently. Thirty-eight percent of the adult population in the region -- or an estimated 165 million -- say they would like to do this if the opportunity arises. Residents in Asian countries are the least likely to say they would like to move -- with 10% of the adult population, or roughly 250 million, expressing a desire to migrate permanently. United States Tops Desired Destination Countries The United States is the top desired destination country for the 700 million adults who would like to relocate permanently to another country. Nearly one-quarter (24%) of these respondents, which translates to more than 165 million adults worldwide, name the United States as their desired future residence. With an additional estimated 45 million saying they would like to move to Canada, Northern America is one of the two most desired regions. The rest of the top desired destination countries (those where an estimated 25 million or more adults would like to go) are predominantly European. Forty-five million adults who would like to move name the United Kingdom or France as their desired destination, while 35 million would like to go to Spain and 25 million would like to relocate to Germany. Thirty million name Saudi Arabia and 25 million name Australia. Roughly 210 million adults around the world would like to move to a country in the European Union, which is similar to the estimated number who would like to move to Northern America. However, about half of the estimated 80 million adults who live in the EU and would like to move permanently to another country would like to move to another country within the EU -- the highest desired intra-regional migration rate in the world. Most of the world's international immigrants, according to the 2009 United Nations' Human Development Report, move from one developing country to another developing country or between developed countries. Gallup's data would suggest then that the countries people desire to migrate to permanently do not necessarily reflect reality -- especially in regard to developing countries. Eighty percent of those in developing countries who would like to move permanently to another country would like to move to a developed country, while 13% of respondents in developed countries would like to move to a developing country. Gallup's Potential Net Migration Index If all adults who desire to move to another country permanently actually moved to their desired destination country today, some countries would suffer tremendous losses in human capital and others would be overwhelmed. Gallup's Potential Net Migration Index (PNMI) is the estimated number of adults who would like to move out of a country permanently subtracted from the estimated number who would like to move to it, as a proportion of the total population. The higher the resulting positive PNMI value, the larger the potential net population gain. Across the countries surveyed, Singapore posts the highest positive PNMI of all countries and areas, with a net migration index value of +260%. This means that Singapore's adult population would increase from an estimated 3.6 million to as high as 13 million. The Democratic of the Congo (Kinshasa) posts the highest negative PNMI, with a net migration index value of -60%, which means its adult population would decrease from an estimated 32 million to as low as 13 million. Implications While Gallup's findings reflect aspirations rather than intent, they suggest hundreds of millions are feeling pulled or pushed, for various reasons, toward countries other than their own. Who these potential migrants are, where they'd like to go, and why, will continue to be crucial for leaders in countries of origin and destination to understand as they develop migration and development strategies during the economic crisis and well after. In most countries, Gallup's data show people's desire to relocate to another country permanently did not decrease meaningfully after the global economic crisis hit in 2008. Survey Methods Results are based on aggregated telephone and face-to-face interviews with 259,542 adults, aged 15 and older, in 135 countries from 2007 to 2009. The 135 countries surveyed represent 93% of the world's adult population. For most countries, aggregated sample sizes (across three years of surveys) range between 1,000 and 3,000 interviews. One can say with 95% confidence that the country-level margin of sampling error, accounting for weighting and sample design, ranges from ±3 percentage points to ±6 percentage points. Results are projected to the total population of each country aged 15 and older, using 2008 World Bank population estimates. Source: Gallup  Read More →