TR EMERITUS

I was at Bukit Batok and observed two things. 1. Estate management. The drain covers behind Blk 217 are missing. This was pointed to me by a resident who said that it posed a safety hazard especially during the night. Indeed, there is a coffee shop in front and frequented by diners who use the passageway to the carpark and other blocks in the vicinity. JRTC might want to look into this and quickly remedy the problem before someone gets hurt. 2. I went around the estate and observed some rather disheartening scenes: empty food centres and kopitiams. I'm sure the hawkers are hurting. And not just hawkers, shop owners too. Even though there is some rent relief, these folks are still taking a hit on their earnings. But as I said, Ministers and MPs are still enjoying their more than handsome salaries and allowances. For them there is little financial worry. For the common folk, however, the situation is very different. Many I have spoken to are living in desperate anxiety. Let us remind the PAP clearly and loudly: The people come first.   Dr Chee Soon Juan      Read More →

Pure Happiness – But A lot of Work I got to admit that I have a soft spot for everything cute, namely “baby cute.” I’m more than happy to baby sit and I never had issues with things like changing nappies or having babies drool on me. My soft spot for small babies has meant that I ended up getting involved with single mothers and the tragedy at the end up the relationship was not so much the end of the relationship with the mother but with the kids. One of my great joys on social media is looking at other people’s baby photos. Having said that, I have no great desire to have kids. I adopted Kiddo seven years back and we’re very close and she’s been a great joy. However, now that she’s grown up (over 21), I don’t see myself becoming a dad again and I’m in no rush for her to make me a grandpa (though I’ve been told being a granddad is a lot more fun than being a dad). To me, its more important that she does what she wants to do than make me a grandfather. Unfortunately for many policy makers around the world, I’m not an odd ball when it comes to the idea of having kids. I grew up in Western Europe and the big issue there was the lack of babies and the growing number of old folks. Now that I’ve moved back to Singapore, there’s a similar issue. Singaporeans are simply not making babies and we’re not the only ones. Japan, the first Asian nation of global economic significance has the world’s oldest population. Even China, the home of 18 percent of the world’s population is now scrambling to get people to make babies. The infamous “one-child” policy of the 70s has now been replaced with a policy to get families to have three kids. There’s a further issue that compounds the fact that people are not having kids. Namely the fact that it’s the richer societies that are not reproducing. Western Europe, which has the world’s best standard of living has been going grey for the longest of time. America, the world’s superpower remains relatively youthful because of the number of immigrants who cross the border every year. In Asia, it’s the “developed” nations like Japan and Singapore who are not reproducing. China’s greying population coincides with its rise as a big power. The reluctance of the “educated” and “well to do” was something that the late Lee Kuan Yew was perplexed by. Unfortunately for him, he failed to understand some basics about life on the ground. One of the key side effects of “educating” people is the fact that people realise that they have a lot more opportunities to do things that their parents never even dreamed of as being possible. This has been especially true for women, who suddenly had career opportunities beyond being the kitchen and the bedroom. The second reason for not wanting to make babies is the stress of modern living. Whilst I don’t have the immediate statistics, experience suggests that we are living in a world where the cost of everything except incomes is going up. I’m not the only person who has had to do more just to earn the same income. Singapore’s government is not the only government trying to solve the problem the easy way – namely using cash incentives. In Singapore, the government does things like subsidizing time in the maternity ward. However, raising a child is a long-drawn-out process that does not end with birth. Being a parent is a lifelong commitment and as my mother said to me once, “Only have children if you can give them a life better than the one you had.” Now, the question remains for many of us in the developed world – are we in a position to give our kids a better life than the one we had? It’s something policy makers around the world should think about when looking at the statistics about the lack of babies being made.   Tang Li *Although I’ve been based mainly in Singapore for nearly two decades, I’ve had the privilege of being able meet people who have crossed borders and cultures. I’ve befriended ministers and ambassadors and worked on projects involving a former head of state. Yet, at the same time, I’ve had the privilege of befriending migrant labourers and former convicts. All of them have a story to tell. All of them add to the fabric of life. I hope to express the stories that inspire us to create life as it should be.      Read More →

Yesterday, some years ago the police came to my flat. It was such a stupid case. Don't they have better things to do than act on a frivolous complaint of the Election Department after the PAP had won the by election. I would have understood their actions if Dr Chee had won. That said, I am sure the investigating officers find it a waste of their precious time too. But they have no choice for the ELD is in the PMO. They have to take it rightly or wrongly that it is instructions from the PM. Very sad.   Teo Soh Lung          Read More →