Saturday November 27, 2010

A compulsion for property

INSIGHT DOWN SOUTH
By SEAH CHIANG NEE

SINGAPOREANS were once exhorted to regard the current 30 years as a second marathon of life, in which everyone who completed could win a prize.

“No need to be first, just finish the race and you get a prize,” said the then Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew after he had stepped down as Prime Minister in 1990.

It was his way of rallying the population behind his successor for a new nation-building battle. And what was the reward? A second property.

His rationale was simple. After the first 30-year marathon well run, he was offering to help give what Singaporeans were hankering for most — a second property — if they gave a repeat performance.

It came from a master politician in his heydays who understood what his people wanted. At the outset of history, the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) had made subsidised home ownership a top strategy.

A generation later, Lee had noticed that although 87% of Singaporeans already owned public flats, many were still striving to buy a second property, if not here then overseas.

This property craze is not easily understood by people living in countries where land is plentiful and cheap.

His intention was to help citizens achieve their dream of living in one — and renting out another.

Today — nearly 20 years later — the circumstances are very different. Some of the national goals have changed. The main problem: too many people, not enough affordable land.

Lee’s concept of a two-property society is fast fading — the victim of a population expansion programme. Since early the 1990s, more than two million foreigners have flocked here.

The post-Lee government has not only stopped talking about a second property for Singaporeans, but has, in fact, made it much harder to achieve.

In August, it announced restrictions on people buying second homes as part of new measures to cool the residential property market.

In a move to help first-time buyers, who often had to wait for years, it moved against the use of HDB public housing for profit.

It was meant for working Singa­poreans to live in, not to speculate with, the authorities said.

Owners are not allowed to live in one while owning a second private residence for rentals, without residing there for five years.

Meanwhile, another housing trend is worrying Lee: More owners selling their HDB flats for quick profit and becoming tenants.

It is a blow to his 100% home-ownership goal.

On Nov 13, Lee advised HDB flat-owners not to sell them because these were assets that would appreciate in value year after year.

“I urge you not to listen to the estate agents to sell it and go and rent a flat because that’s a stupid thing to do,” he said in a constituency function.

“You sell it, you may not get a rental flat for a long time. And you cannot gain from a rental flat. Please remember that.”

Many youths found the advice baffling, especially those who were not convinced that property represented the best long-term investment on this tiny island.

But for Minister Mentor Lee, the issue is a political and security issue.

Singapore is defended by a people’s army of national service reservists, civilians who serve as front-line troops in case of war.

And to first generation leaders like Lee and the late Deputy Prime Minister Goh Keng Swee, home-ownership had always been a cornerstone of defence.

For people to stay and defend this place, they must have a stake here, Lee rationalised.

National servicemen might not fight as hard if told they were merely defending other people’s wealth or Orchard Road or Shenton Way, but they would defend their own HDB homes with gusto, Lee believed.

My foreign friends sometimes find this preoccupation with properties hard to understand.

An American once told me he was surprised to discover the intensity. “When one of us buys a house, it’s usually for years until he is relocated to another city. Singaporeans seem to be doing it all the time.”

He wasn’t too far off. In recent months whenever a group of people gathered, chances were the subject was real estate.

And many — from housewives to young professionals — consider themselves a bit of an expert.

“The danger comes when people risk their life savings front up,” said a housing agent. That was what MM Lee meant when he said “Don’t sell your HDB flat”.

Industry sources said while some owners were forced to sell because of financial hardship, others were actually treating their public flats as an investment tool.

Convinced that properties in Singapore are over-priced, they cash out to live in rented flats, putting some stress to Lee’s home-ownership society.

“They think they can buy it back a lot cheaper, and are flirting with trouble,” one developer said.

With wages of the average working Singaporean struggling to keep up with living costs over the last decade, one out of every 12 owners are in arrears with his HDB payments.

The government — which wants to accept more immigrants to achieve a 6.5-million population — is playing down the negative impact the “open door” policy is having on Lee’s dream of 100% home ownership

One report said that 60% of grassroots leaders of the ruling PAP recently disagreed with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s foreigner intake explanation.

With spiralling prices, more young people are complaining their marriage plans are affected.

“While MM Lee is advising us not to sell, I still cannot afford to buy one,” said Willie.

Posted by:  willieregister - Asiaone forum

http://forums.asiaone.com/showthread.php?t=32444&page=2

I bought my resale 4-room flat at Geylang East Central at $385k (valuation) + $42k COV, in March this year. I remember drawing the cash from my bank… the feeling is shiok at the bank counter and painful at the HDB payment counter. Total value for flat was $425k.

It’s barely 6 months, and I have pamplets in my letterbox citing that they are willing to pay $70k more for my unit.

And it seems that the valuation of my flat suddenly jump from $385k to about $420k. 10% increase! My goodness!

In total, on paper, my flat is worth about $480-$500k now – nearly 15-20% in 6 mths!

if this is not a bubble, tell me what is it?

My pay increment is only 2.75% in 12 mths.

Going by this rate, no matter how the government is curbing speculation, it’s still the market forces at work here. Let’s say govt impose a levy for COV, the middle income family cannot afford it then… but then again, the affulent families will come in. Then we will see those ultra rich families from China swopping in to purchase flats @ $700k for a 4 room resale flat at before 2011. What nexts? $1 million for 4-rm flat before 2020 (where LTA’s master plan for transport had already kicked over then).

I remember when I was 16 years old, my pay as a waiter was $1050. HDB price for a 3- room flat was about $80k.

Fast forward 17 years (I’m 33 now), HDB price for a 3-room is about $250-300k. But the pay for a waiter is still around the same price!

I believe as FT comes in and economical forces pressure onwards, in year 2020, the pay for a waiter will still be around $1000. Why? As neighbouring countries and China work permits become more expensive, we will turn to other countries like Africa, South Amercia, etc.. where there will have cheaper labour. This is good for what PM Lee says: we need them to build infrastrutures and do jobs that Singaporeans don’t want to do. True. But on the filp side of the coin, the pay of blue collar workers are been capped. What an irony!

Saturday August 21, 2010

Two sides of the same coin

Insight Down South by SEAH CHIANG NEE

Thousands of housing agents get the axe

Real estate firms take action ahead of implementation of new rules

SINGAPORE – Real estate firms have axed thousands of housing agents ahead of enhanced regulations aimed at improving the professionalism of the industry.

Under a new regulatory framework to be implemented by the Ministry of National Development (MND), a statutory board known as the Council for Estate Agencies will be set up. MediaCorp understands that a Bill could be introduced in Parliament as early as October.

When contacted, MND would only say that a Bill will be introduced later this year, with the council operational by the end of the year. Under the new framework, all agents must register with the council before they are allowed to practice. In the meantime, MND had asked estate agencies to submit their agents’ particulars and qualifications.

Some firms have taken the opportunity to do some housekeeping. Dennis Wee Group (DWG) updated the particulars of all its 5,000 agents earlier this month. They were also briefed on the new requirements.

DWG director Chris Koh said as a result of the exercise, some 1,500 agents were axed. They were mostly inactive or part-time agents.

“With the new central registry, where a member of public can turn to the registry and see if you are an agent, it’s going to be difficult for those with a full-time job to moonlight as an agent.”

Under the new guidelines, agents will also be required to pass a mandatory industry exam.

Only those with an industry certification will be exempted.

Rather than wait, DWG has asked all its agents to equip themselves – either with the Certified Estate Agent Course or the Common Examination for Salespersons.

Another real estate agency, PropNex, has also taken action.

Its CEO, Mohamed Ismail, said some 1,200 agents were terminated, either because they’re inactive or unwilling to take up personal indemnity insurance. The insurance covers any financial liabilities arising from housing transactions.

Agents who are associated with moneylending have also been let go. “We have made it a policy that any PropNex agent, who has a moneylending licence, will not be allowed to practice because we do see a conflict of interest.”

ERA, which has about 3,000 active agents, says it removes about 100 inactive agents from its database every month. Associate director of ERA Asia-Pacific, Mr Eugene Lim, said the company has also been training its agents for the Common Examination for Salespersons. To date, more than 2,500 ERA agents have taken the exam.

HSR, which represents about 7,000 agents, says it regularly checks its database for inactive agents, who are then put on a passive list and sent reminders to go for retraining.

There are an estimated 30,000 housing agents in Singapore.

Asiaone forum

Posted: 28 Jul 2010

What do you do when you’ve lost your job, lost your home and you have three kids to feed? You end up in a motel cooking, eating and sleeping in one room at the taxpayer’s expense. These are Australia’s new homeless.

In a gritty and at times confronting documentary, reporter Sarah Ferguson goes inside the lives of these people. They once had jobs and homes, now hit by the triple whammy of the global financial crisis, a rental market that’s almost non-existent and government neglect of public housing, their situation is bleak.

“I’ve always had this picture in my head of a homeless person… they’ve got torn dirty clothes, they’re not shaven, they’re sort of sitting out on the corner looking for a handout… I’m not in that category but I don’t have a home for my family and it’s really embarrassing.” David

When Kevin Rudd became Prime Minister he said housing the homeless was one of his major objectives. In most peoples’ minds the homeless he referred to were single people, some mentally disturbed, some drug affected, many sleeping rough. But that is only one section of the homeless in Australia today. Across the nation’s major cities there is now a large number of families with limited resources that simply can’t find a home they can afford to rent.

As a result they are under stress and are vulnerable.

Reporter Sarah Ferguson follows David and Toni Sabjan, living in one room of a motel. They lost the home they rented when it was sold from under them.

Expecting that they’d be able to rent another house they were shocked to find there were few houses available and many, many families looking for accommodation. At the same time, after years of neglect public housing is also in short supply.

“I was shocked, shell-shocked. Twenty people applying for one house that I would not normally apply for.” Toni Sabjan

The government has ear-marked billions of dollars for public housing and there are 20,000 dwellings planned. But for many homeless families those new houses can’t come soon enough.

Four Corners found one couple, Bernice and Ashley, in a terrible situation. They had been living in crisis accommodation for four months. They had three children, had moved five times in 17 weeks with the taxpayer shelling out $15,000 for “crisis accommodation”, and still had little chance of a long term solution.

This is hard for the adults but even tougher on their son Michael who has a learning difficulty. He needs routine and teachers he knows – impossible, when he is constantly on the move.

West of Sydney, the tourist town of Katoomba has become a set down point for many homeless families. Families stuck in this type of situation often make decisions that they later regret. Adrian and Carlene moved to Katoomba and then found a house to rent. It seemed like a good option but turned out to be a disaster.

It was run down but by sharing with another family they were able to afford the $500 a week rental. Then the other family moved out and relatives of the landlord moved in. They brought with them sheep, chooks, dogs and a cat. Trouble began. All this culminated in a dramatic scene with police, welfare officials being called to assist while the family and the landlord traded insults and threats. Watching this footage it’s clear just how desperate the lack of housing is making many families and it’s also clear not everyone has sympathy for them. As one Katoomba resident told Four Corners:

“On the news last night we sat there and watched homeless people, they make more money than any person in the world.”

This is a situation that no family wants to endure but in Australia it is becoming common place as the lack of accommodation puts many families at breaking point.

“The Last Chance Motel” goes to air at 8.30pm on 21st September on ABC1. It is repeated at 11.35pm on 22nd September.

Read more here: http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/content/2009/s2689938.htm

Homelessness is not a social problem usually associated with the wealthy island state of Singapore.

Singapore is a nation of homeowners, largely thanks to a comprehensive system of government subsidised housing.

The public can either buy public housing flats directly from the government or a resale flat, which is more expensive as prices are adjusted according to market forces.

But a population explosion in the last few years and a widening income gap have resulted in public housing prices skyrocketing, and many low-income earners are unable to either meet the criteria for direct purchase or afford resale.

Even renting at market price is increasingly unaffordable to low-income families.

As Monica Kotwani found out this is leaving more Singaporeans living on the streets.

 Night falls and shrouds this small suburban park in Singapore in darkness. Slowly, people arrive and set up their tents for the night. They are homeless, and part of an increasing number of people living in open spaces.

This has been Jennifer and her three children’s home for almost two years. Jennifer is not her real name. It has been changed because she was warned by authorities her case would take longer to be assessed if she spoke to the media.

“We don’t have anywhere to stay and I don’t have the money to rent a place, and I’m not working because I couldn’t find a job.”

Jennifer and her ex-husband sold their flat after a messy divorce. She received only a fraction of the money from the sale of their flat, not enough to afford purchasing or privately renting another.

“You don’t have all the facilities at home. You don’t feel safe because you don’t have shelter where you know your kids are safe. When raining, then you have to be worried, ok all the water coming in- it’s not a good, safe place to stay.”

The government housing policy says she needs full custody of her children to be eligible for the government’s Public Rental Scheme.

“They said if I want to have a house, I have to have full custody of the children. I told them, not say I don’t want to look after my kids, but their father wants to have full custody of the kids, I cannot stop him.”

In order to be eligible for the government’s Public Rental Scheme, applicants also must not have sold two units bought directly from the government.

Joshua Chiang who helps homeless and displaced Singaporeans says it is very easy to be rendered ineligible.

“For a couple married for 15 years and with kids, your first flat is the one you bought when you were married. Then when you upgrade (to a bigger flat), that’s your second flat. Let’s say you’re divorced, then you sell your second flat. That’s it. There’s your two bites of the cherry.”

Some months back, when knowledge of the homeless living in tents at parks and beaches first made news, Joshua went to assess the situation personally.

“We saw, in front of us, there were about ten tents already. In the other beach, there were about twenty tents, but we only managed to speak to about six families there.”

Homelessness is a thorny issue for the government.

Some weeks ago, Al- Jazeera, intending to cover this story, called and emailed the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports to get a response on this stance.

Their request was denied.  

According to alternative news websites, authorities raided parks and beaches, rounded up the homeless campers, and made arrangements for some to stay in temporary shelters.

Others were fined for violating camping permits and sent away.

I am standing outside a block of flats in central Singapore where reportedly some of the homeless were sent to.  

This block also houses low-income households, most of whom cannot afford to buy any form of housing, government or private.

I’m here to see if I can meet some of the homeless campers.

Instead, I meet Sally.

Her family lost their government home because they could not afford the monthly mortgage payments after both she and her husband lost their jobs.
Now her husband works, bringing home about 400 US dollars a month.  

A quick check on public housing website shows a modest 25 year old two-bedroom resale apartment starts at 150,000 US dollars.

Last week, the housing board called them and gave them an eviction notice, telling them they were now in the position to afford private rental.

“They asked us to go. They asked to leave. You have to leave. You have to go for the market price. My husband said, you want me to stay where? At the sea-side? My husband was so upset.”

Asia Calling requested an interview with the Minister of Community Development, Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, but his spokesperson said he was out of the country and unavailable for comment.

Last month, however, Dr Vivian said this in a speech: “If you were a poor person living on this planet, Singapore is the one place where you will have a roof over your head, where you will have food on your table”.

But with increasing income disparities, there are possibly hundreds of Singaporeans living in conditions such as Jennifer and Sally who have fallen under the government’s radar.

B/A:  Al-Jazeera was dropped from SingTel’s mioTV news service this week. The government insisted it was not dropped because it had done unflattering stories about Singapore but didn’t have enough viewers. 

 ____________________________________________________________

Letter: Al Jazeera responds to Vivian Balakrishnan’s accusations

Read more…

HDB 101 : What the PAP don’t want you to know. I find that just talking to people I know, even educated people like school principals and what not, they are totally ignorant about the way the HDB system works. Here are some myths and misconceptions. Please add to them. 1) “I bought my HDB flat”/”I own my HDB flat” – No you didn’t and no you don’t. You are a tenant, the the HDB is the landlord. Its says so in your contract. Than why did you just pay all that money for? What you have actually done is pre-paid your rent 99 years in advance, in one lump sum. That’s why you have to borrow from the bank the $300K or whatever it is to move into your flat. So people, you are pre-paying your rent, not buying your flat. Get this concept first, than everything will fall into place. 2) If I don’t own it, than how come I can sell my flat for a lot of money? – What you have sold is not your flat. In other words, the four walls, floor, toilet fixtures etc. do not belong to you. You cannot sell something that does not belong to you. What you have sold to someone else is the right to occupy your flat for the balance of the 99 years lease. Lets say that your flat is 15 years old, which means that you have 84 years left on your list. The person “buying” it is willing to pay you x amount of money for the right to occupy your flat for the next 84 years, and he therefore will enjoy the rights priveleges of your flat instead of you. You have in affect, assigned your flat to someone else, with the stipulation that he will take over all responsibility of the flat (like conveyancing fees, upgrade costs, etc.) in addition to paying you the assignment fee aka purchase price. Its similar to subletting. Because the HDB is your landlord, the HDB has to approve all “sales”, as the new person taking over your flat is going to be their new tenant. 3) You are using your retirement income and funds to pay for your current living expenses – By enabling you to buy and pay for the monthly mortgage with your CPF, the PAP has in effect inflated the price of the flats, and forced the people into paying the inflated price by jeopardising their retirement for current living expenses. Most retirement advisors will tell you to pay for your cuurent living expenses with after tax dollars and from income that you are currently earning and not thru the use of funds earmarked for your retirement. But if people were to follow this retirement advise, they will find that their after tax dollars cannot buy too much. Hence, the PAP has allowed them to dip into their CPF account, and allowing to buy flats at an inflated price. 4) Than why do so many people use the CPF to “buy” flats? – People do this because they are ignorant and don’t understand the concept of retirement funds and the real purpose of it. You can see many retired aunties and uncles working at menial jobs and barely able to make ends meet in the twilight of their lives. This is a time when they should have been enjoying their retirement and not wondering when the next meal will be. If they had not spend all their money from their CPF paying for their flats, would their lives be easier? The second reason why people use their CPF is because the PAP have set the interest rate so low for the CPF accounts that people actually are losing money in their account because the rate of inflation is higher than what they are getting paid. Even if you max out all the avenues in your CPF to get better returns than what the govt. pays you, you will still not be keeping up with inflation. If the PAP pays people 8%-18% per annum interest on their CPF accounts, much fewer people will be enticed to withdraw funds for the purposes of acquiring a HDB flat. Why do I mention 8%-18%, well this is what GIC, Temasek, and other GLCs ostensibly earn when they borrow money from CPF for their own investment, money that is actually yours. Consequently, people are forced into dipping into their CPF for HDB flats. It is important people understand this PAP tactic. 5)Well, I can sell my flat when I am old and retire on the money that I get – Yes, you could do that. But this is not the 70s and 80s anymore. The days of buying a $70,000 flat and selling it 25 years later for $400K are gone. There are many cases now of people losing money on their flats. And if you sell it, where would you live? Would you rent for the remaining years of your live? Would you downsize and buy a smaller and cheaper flat? Nowadays, its not unusual to purchase a $400K flat and still have to renovate it. If your flat ends up costing you $500K after reno and what not, how much do you have to sell it for 25 years later to make enough money to retire comfortably on? $1 million? The market for this price is iffy. And if you stay in the same flat for a long time, lets say 50 years or more, your flat will actually start to decline in value as the maturation of the leasehold period approaches. If you sell your flat at the highest point of its value, lets say in 10-20 years, where will you live? You will still need buy another flat at the new higher price to live in for the remaining 30 years of your life. 6) Is what I pay for this flat really all I pay? – The simple answer is no. If you pay x amount for the flat, you have to factor in the following:- - Opportunity costs of foregone returns from your CPF that you have used on the flat. - Mandatory HDB money making schemes like upgrades that will add to the capital cost of your flat. In every country in the world, if the building has deteriorated to the degree that upgrades are needed, its the landlord that bares the burden. In uniquely SIngapore, the tenants pay for it. - Conservancy charges, that keep going up and not down. - Possible forced relocation to another flat in a new estate because your block has now be taken over by the HDB for demolition/rental to FTs, etc. Forced relocation means you have to now pay additional money for the new flat they want you to move to, hence increasing your capital costs. 7) The long term consequence is a very expensive housing costs – If you look at many European and Asian countries like Japan, you will find that the same property stays in the same family for generations. Just imagine if a person owning a freehold property in another country can pass his property on to his son, and than the son pases it on his grandson, etc. over 3 generations. By the end of the 3rd generation, the property could be worth a lot of money. In the same scenario in Sinapore, the property is worth nothing. So, what is the solution? The main gist of the solution is to minimize your exposure to the HDB. Some solutions I can think of: - Create 2 family households in a flat rather than one household. Share  with your siblings or parents and live in one flat. - Rent from the HDB instead of “buying” - Live in JB, commute to S’pore, after all 300K Malaysians do that every day. The whole game is set up for the HDB/PAP to win. They have set the rules, but this thread is intended to educate the people as to what some of these rules are. It does not mean that you will win the game, but it helps to know what they are. Last edited by Papsmearer; 07-02-2010 at 01:40 AM.

Posted On: Afresco Forum

 I am not a partisan and just an outside observer frankly. I feel I can comment because I have lived in Singapore when it was less developed in the late 80s.

First let me point to the fact that Singapore is not as dense (even though it may feel so at times) see the data below from http://www.citymayors.com/statistics…nsity-125.html

Largest cities in the world ranked by population density (1 to 125):

Rank City / Urban area Country Population Land area (in sqKm), Density (people per sqKm)

1 Mumbai India 14,350,000 484 29,650
2 Kolkata India 12,700,000 531 23,900
3 Karachi Pakistan 9,800,000 518 18,900
4 Lagos Nigeria 13,400,000 738 18,150
5 Shenzhen China 8,000,000 466 17,150
6 Seoul/Incheon South Korea 17,500,000 1,049 16,700
7 Taipei Taiwan 5,700,000 376 15,200
8 Chennai India 5,950,000 414 14,350
9 Bogota Colombia 7,000,000 518 13,500
10 Shanghai China 10,000,000 746 13,400
11 Lima Peru 7,000,000 596 11,750
12 Beijing China 8,614,000 748 11,500
13 Delhi India 14,300,000 1,295 11,050
14 Kinshasa Congo 5,000,000 469 10,650
15 Manila Philippines 14,750,000 1,399 10,550
16 Tehran Iran 7,250,000 686 10,550
17 Jakarta Indonesia 14,250,000 1,360 10,500
18 Tianjin China 4,750,000 453 10,500
19 Bangalore India 5,400,000 534 10,100
20 Ho Chi Minh City Vietnam 4,900,000 518 9,450
21 Cairo Egypt 12,200,000 1,295 9,400
22 Baghdad Iraq 5,500,000 596 9,250
23 Shenyang China 4,200,000 453 9,250
24 Hyderabad India 5,300,000 583 9,100
25 Sao Paulo Brazil 17,700,000 1,968 9,000
26 St Petersburg Russia 5,300,000 622 8,550
27 Mexico City Mexico 17,400,000 2,072 8,400
28 Santiago Chile 5,425,000 648 8,400
29 Singapore Singapore 4,000,000 479 8,350

The psychological effect of it also being a country does make it feel “small” is a fact but the rest of the region is open for activities and business, so it shoud not be so “claustrophobic”. Afterall, Singapore is not a pacific island thousands of miles from no where.

Its not fair to say the government here don’t care for the people. Try look at the list of other cities above and try to imagine the problems to be overcome to sustain the population and how well Singapore has succeeded.

Yes, there are cultural and political freedoms that people naturally want but if you read the comments from this site, you will see that people have different opinions and at the end of the day, the system is just to allow all the differences to exist without “clashing”. For better or worse, it is the society that dictates the form of governance. Well, frankly, I dont see many people lining up to offer their ideas for better governing in spite of all the complaints. In fact, I think the papaya – you call them pays well for people who are capable to solve problems …thats why there is the scholar elite. I can share stories of how this is “driving” FT aways. In fact, the FTs MAY even conclude they are being imported to do work the locals dont want …

Yes, things are getting tough … so the tough should get going but going where? to new zealand? or get going making and creating a better spore?

Well, its a choice for the individual. Who and what do you love? What is love? Is your love conditional?

Its nice to have cooler weather and walk in the forests. I have been through the same thinking and even today still contemplate where would be a good retirement place. And have friends from Canada, England and China asking me if the place where I am now is “nice”. They come and decide they like it here … everything is close by and within 2 hours’ drive and you have cheap airlines too!

The answer is easy, its where you can be happy. And happiness is a really a function of many things and very personal so its not always a question of how much money you have. If a person feels he likes to live and bum on beaches, he can try the pacific islands. If you like the cool weather, you can try a temperate country.

Jobs? what do you think are the jobs available in NZ? I drove 2 hours in south island and did not see another car … Well its nice to be lost in the wilderness but we can’t eat grass like sheep. And in winter time  cold, dark and wet is something one has to be prepared to adapt. And when I want to fly, they count every kg because they need to optimise the weight for sending fish and oysters for export.

The cost ? well many countries in the west today have budget deficit and worry they cant pay their pensions – hey the party cant go on forever. While on vacation in vancouver, old ladies ask me how much is dental treatment here and when they heard, they say they will come cos the treatment there will cost more than than a treatment here, inclusive of airfare and hotels.

I left Singapore after I worked here for a couple of years because since I am not a citizen, I can’t get HDB housing and was moving house every six months. My pay is the same as any citizen and share the same prospects, no assistance and lived on credit card at times. That was the early 90s, engineers starting pay was SGD1500 per month. After CPF deduction and rent … it was not easy even then. There is no easy solution for the salary man here or anywhere frankly. We have to find our “fortune” the best our skills and whenever opportunity arises.

I have friends in NZ, OZ etc.  its still ekking out  a living  – the up and downs are the same every where. Many jobs are lost in the west too and their citizens are also crying out.

I see myself as a global person with a base, the world is my oyster. I try to see as far as I can see but I believe finally the principles we live by will determine if we are happy. In a crowded city or an empty road. There are no free meals.