TR EMERITUS

(4 Jul) Former Ambassador Roy Seneres on Friday said the OFW Family party-list will file a protest with the International Labor Organization for violations of relevant ILO conventions relative to the right of workers to decent work and to be treated as human beings not as slaves and/or chattels. Seneres, founder of the party-list, was reacting to reports that Filipino service workers in Singapore are being put on display in malls in the city-state to attract prospective employers. .... The Filipinas, according to the former ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, “help the heads of families to be more focused on their own jobs or businesses which make them more productive and stress-free and this redounds to the overall benefit of the Singaporean society. “ .... The officialdom of Singapore must come out with a clear-cut statement that they have stopped the despicable practice or else the OFW Family party-List will file a protest with the [ILO]” on the matter. [Read more:  The Manila Times]  Read More →

RMIT Village, North Melbourne Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC and Australia's Macquarie Capital said Wednesday they have formed a joint venture that bought a majority stake in an Australian student accommodation group.’ AFP. This news was reported about a month ago. GIC, our SWF, one of the biggest in the world, is investing money to build dormitories for students in Australia. I can’t remember whether it was GIC or Temasek that invested in the ill-fated childcare that went bust and burnt a big hole in the fund’s pocket. Oops, apologies, just a tiny hole only, smaller than a kacang puteh. There are some commonalities in the two investments. Both by Singapore’s world class SWF managed by the finest talents money can buy. Both involved education and students, only difference is one is bigger than the other. Let’s hope and pray that the commonality stops here. One thing for sure, investing in the education of children is a noble thing to do. And the cost would not be as big as investing in world class banks. So it is a very safe investment and any losses would be kacang puteh at most. This is prudence at the highest level, small risk investments. May I suggest investing in food courts, hawker centres and pasar malams, all national institutions, to the world market? These are low cost investments but with potentials to be Singapore’s Kmart or MacDonald and Kentucky Fried Chicken. Can tap on low cost engineering from India and low cost labour too to make these investments even more competitive? They said branding makes a world of difference. Brand these products with the names of GIC or Temasek would definitely raise eyebrows and make them great household names. Oh, talking about dormitory and labour, how about investing in dormitories for our 2 million foreign worker and talent population? There is a critical mass to make the venture worthwhile and also help to solve our social problem of not providing quality living environment for these people that came to help turn Singapore into a world class city.   Chua Chin Leng aka redbean * The writer blogs at http://mysingaporenew.blogspot.com    Read More →

This is in reference to an article in TodayOnline entitled "How to teach children computer programming". I have consistently maintained that IT is of fundamental importance to any society and we should not depend on others for this particular sector because IT is all pervasive. Furthermore, cyber warfare is acknowledged to be the new frontier of conflict and not having a home-grown cyber army is like not having a conventional army.  If we can outsource cyber warfare to foreigners, then we should also be considering outsourcing the army too. I do not dispute the fact that a greater knowledge of IT will help employment prospects but programming goes beyond just the knowledge of how to use computers. The only reason why anybody would want to learn programming is to... program.  And in Singapore, this is a sector that is monopolized by foreigners. Monopolized to the point of discriminating against locals. For those people who think that this monopoly is justified because locals are not up to the mark, and teaching coding to children will help improve this, I tell them to take off their blinkers and to think critically about the issue. Firstly, let's face it. Singapore does not have a developed software industry. Solutioning for large companies and institutions, maybe, but in terms of software as a product (or a service), almost none. In Singapore, the industry is dominated by foreigners who actively recruit their own and discriminate against locals (it is ridiculous that I am even writing this sentence but to those in the IT industry, it is a fact). This means there are limited jobs available. In view of all these, would any parent encourage their children to make IT a lifelong career? So if there are very limited opportunities to professionally use programming, then the only programming these children will be exposed to will be at school. We all learn mathematics, biology etc. How many of us are mathematicians and biologists? The point being in our current situation, teaching children programming would be pointless and will not result in making more Singaporeans hold the reigns of our computing resources. Secondly, whether we like it or not, there is much racial stereotyping in employing different races. Chinese companies have been guilty of stereotyping Malays. Now Foreigners stereotype ALL locals! Going further back, even among the Chinese, different dialects had dominated different businesses e.g. Hakkas used to dominate money lending, then the Chettiars came. And this is not limited to Singapore but unfortunately a trait of human beings e.g. Hassidic Jews dominate the world diamond trade, not forgetting our cousins North of the Causeway who legislate discrimination in employment! Another reason why the majority Singaporean Chinese parents would not encourage their children to go to the IT industry. So unless the government does something soon, IT will go the way of football in Singapore. Only thing is that the team won't be Singaporean. At this point, only affirmative action to employ Singaporeans and very selective employment of foreigners will help change the situation and give our children a chance at making IT their career. If not, when Singapore goes to war on the cyberfront, we will have to outsource the fighting to people who are quite likely to offer their services to the other side. After all, to non-Singaporeans, it is just a job. AiYoYo *  Submitted by TRE reader.  Read More →