Mr Jason Lee spoke about how his disability has affected his employment opportunities at our last year event.

Dear Singaporeans,

Transitioning.org will be organising a  Singaporean First event at speakers’ corner on 11 Feb (Sat) at 5.30pm.

We will be gathering a group of speakers who will speak their minds on issues that matter to  Singaporeans right now.

We still have a slot or two available and if you are keen to speak on that day, please email me at gilbert@transitioning.org by 8 Feb.

We  need people to help us design  some posters for the event and if you are able to do so, please let me know also.

We will primarily  speak against the high influx of foreigners as their presence has affected basic infrastructure  resulting in congested malls, over crowded eating places and jam-packed  MRT trains.

The general feeling right now for Singaporeans  is that the country has being invaded  with too many people and  the government has always laid the blame   on us   for not reproducing enough.

Mr Lee Kuan Yew has this to say  when he addressed the crowd at  Tanjong Pagar GRC and Radin Mas SMC Chinese New Year celebration dinner: “It is a choice Singapore cannot afford to make. Like it or not, unless we have more babies, we need to accept immigrants.” (Today 4 Feb).

Our question to the government is: What have they done so far for Singaporeans  to help us  reproduce more?

Nothing much actually…besides the baby bonus given to new births amounting to a mere couple of thousand dollars – they have not provide the country with any new ideas so that married couples will readily reproduce.

We all know how meagre our wages have being all along and during the past decade it has only grew  a mere 0.3% whereas inflation ploughs on at an average of about 3% yearly.

Couples all love to have children but they know that they can’t afford to have more kids and the government is not ready to offer any tangible  assistance.

Moreover,  more significantly, foreign talents coming over to work here via the Employment Pass (EP) have competed head on with our local PMETs for jobs.

We also heard from many of our readers that  bosses in MNCs tend to hire back their own people for simple jobs like secretaries and administrators – work that Singaporeans can also do.

In some extreme cases, our local workers were squeezed out of the work places by foreigners as ironically they form the minority workers in the work force and faced all sorts of intimidation tactics.

There are also several emails we received highlighting to us that foreigners are paid much more in salary remuneration even when the work duties are the same as the local workers.

This is upsetting  as we see our foreign expats earning one of the highest salary package in Asia.

According to HSBC Expat Explorer Survey 2010, 45% of expats earned more than $265, 000 (US$200, 000) in Singapore.

According to the survey report, Singapore is ranked 1st by the proportion of expats who make more $200k USD a year. Bermuda is 2nd with 40% of its expats in the same income bracket. Hong Kong is 3rd with 36%, and Saudi Arabia a close 4th with 35%.

Besides the influx of foreign workers, we also want to speak out against age-bias discriminatory hiring practice which has forced  many experienced well-educated PMETs to drive cabs or become property agents in order to ekk out a living.

The lack of a proper income for many middle-aged PMETs has indirectly affected marriages here resulting in a sky-high divorce rate.

As many as one in three marriages will result in a divorce.

We want the government to impose certain sanctions on companies  who blatantly advertise for younger workers.

Lastly, we also want to speak out against the government’s slogan of paying top dollar for top talent.

We have seen recently how our two ex-chiefs working with SCDF and CNB were broght down in disgrace due to a sex scandal.

We agreed that top civil servants should be adequately compensated but not to a level that allows complacency and eliticism to creep into the system.

If you feel strongly about the mentioned issues, do come out and support our event.

We always believe that Singaporeans should be more united and this is a chance for you to show your solidarity.

We will also only organise such events quarterly now so don’t miss the chance to show to the government how you feel.

Singapore for Singaporeans!

Gilbert Goh

Event organiser

Education minister Mr Heng Swee Keat pointed out yesterday  that our Singaporean workers  lack drive and the confidence to venture out of their comfort zone.

These are the very qualities that chief executives and entrepreneurs singled out to him as being essential to succeed in the competitive global playing field (ST 1 Feb).

I am not surprised that Singaporeans  will not venture out very far away from being a worker due to our single-tracked path of using education as the only way to achieving success in life.

Not many are confident or driven enough to go through the mill of being an entrepreneur – someone who has a dream and want to fulfill it at all cost.

Its not about the money even  but more of a passionate drive to want to do something different and fulfilling.

Personally,  I  feel that you can’t really teach a person to be entreprenurial by simply attending some workshops or seminars. The overall business environment, natural push factors and more importantly the person’s personality are all  crucial elements that determine whether the person will  succeed as a entrepreneur or not.

I was heartened to meet  a 26-year-old lady recently who has set up a event business with two other employees. She was confident, articulate and positive and I thought that she will go far as she believes  in delayed gratification.

“I don’t have a salary now,” she confided in me over dinner at Hougang Mall foodcourt. “All I got is just an allowance to help me tide over the next few months.”

With all sorts of incentive to help budding entrepreneurs such as tax-free holidays  for 2 years and a up-beat business environment, it is still a puzzle why Singaporeans do not take to the entrepreneurial route as readily as our foreign businessmen here. The pot of gold is there but yet our people want to walk away.

Someone told me the other day how one China young lady set up a clothing shop at Bugis Village paying almost $5000/month  rental.  In less than 3 years, she has set up three more shops and is earning a healthy $20, 000-a-month profit after minusing all her cost.

She will buy cheap fanciful clothings from Shenzhen paying $3 a piece as she bought them cheap in bulk and retail them at $40 a pece at her shops.  Once bargained down to $30, she will let the customer  has it.

Are foreigners hungrier  than Singaporeans?   Apparently so…

While working in China, I saw many one-man entrepreneurs setting up shops in dirty back lanes dealing with all kinds of businesses that can earn money. Some  deal with photostating stuff whereas others simply sell IPhone covers.

They do not really have huge ambitions to be the next Apple or Facebook inventor but they all manage to survive and outperform those who found work in the government or private sector. More importantly, they are happy and free to manage their business and life the way they want it to be.

I have listed seven reasons why Singaporeans will not easily succeed as an entrepreneur:-

1. Over focusing on educational achievement

We have all along over focus on our educational chievement so much so that we end up feeling like a failure if we don’t go to universities or simply not academically inclined. Moreover, having a degree normally means that the person will go on to look for a well-paying job or else the money spends on the tiertiary programme will be deemed as gone to waste.

That is probably why many non-graduate Singaporeans end up taking expensive evening classes or study overseas to stay on par with the average graduate Singaporeans.

More importantly, non-graduates will feel that they have under perform and even belittled their other natural skills – rendering them to be negative in their outlook of life. Their confidence level is at its lowest ebb and even if he has the aptitude for risk taking, his negative tone  and slack body langauge will  give him away.

We all knew how great entrepreneuers like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs do not possess any college degrees but yet their lack of formal education does not deny them to become one of the world’s best inventors in the 21st century.

In fact, some friends mentioned that if Bill Gates or Steve Jobs managed to attain their degrees the conventional way, they may  lose their hunger for invention and aptitude for risk. It was fortunate that they followed  after their dream and pursued after them doggedly – despite some initial personal setbacks.

Moreover, studying hard ususally uses more of the left brain which emphasizes analytical thinking and rules whereas the rarely-used right brain  taxes more of the intuition and free association – traits  of the entrepreneur.

After studying 15 years non-stop, the left brain of the Singaporean  is  being heavily over-used  thus rendering the person to be  compliant and very organised – traits that are  anti-entrepreneurial.

Though having a degree is beneficial for one’s career path, the over-emphasis on  getting  a degree just to enhance one’s employability does not encourage the person to be adventurous and driven.

He merely becomes an educated component of the overall workforce and became a slave of his limited abilities.

2. Low-risk safe environment

When I went  to the playground with my daughter many years ago and  she was still little, I was amazed at  how mums and maids would  follow their tiny toddlers around to ensure that they won’t fall.

Little kids already learn how, from young, to avoid taking risks and lost the sense of adventure when mums told them not to do this or go there. They learn from young that taking risks or failing is bad for the health.

The current pampering risk-averse parental skills used on our children will not help us to raise confident bright kids.

They may be book smart but not necessarily streetmark and driven in life. They may even study hard just to please their parents and not doing it because they wanted to do it for themselves.

Successful entrepreneurs tend to day dream alot and have vast amount of space to explore their natural interests. We may not have provided that kind of care-free environment early in life for our kids.

The risk-averse conditioning here continues  when we enter national service as stepping out of line means the guardroom or severe punishment.

I am not advocating that our soldiers go against the order of their officers here but frankly the two-year national service stint does not help our guys to be more adventurous and risk-taking.

In fact, it has further pushed us to toe the line more and forced us to follow the crowd – as doing so otherwise will bring forth adverse consequences.

We are being raised in a low-risk safe environment that habitually  prevents people from experimenting with ideas  for fear that it will jeopardise our  comfort zone.

It is for this reason that many PMETs are willing to take on low-waged comfortable jobs such as $1800/month than go on to risk at  an entrepreneurial idea.

We rather have on hand three square meals a day holding on to an ordinary job than having a meal  a day while out experimenting with a business idea.

3. Lack of acceptance for failure

Our meritocratic philiosophy here also discourages failure.

Many young people I know feel ike a sore loser when  they failed at their exams or do not score enough As.

Most businesses unfortunately do not succeed at the first instance.

I have friends who dared  to take the first plunge into starting their own businesses but too often chickened  back to working when their businesses failed after testing it out for a few months. The appetite for risk taking is really pathetically low.

We all know how businesses normally require a few tries before they become successful. Each failure by itself is a lesson learnt and after a few failures, the entrepreneur who persisted  doggedly  will have his taste of success.

The fear of failure plus a lack of dogged persistence are  the major reasons why Singaporeans do not have alot of successful entrepreneurs.

Moreover, too often a nagging wife – who is very risk-adverse –  will be the first one to mock at the failure of their loved one – effectively rubbing  salt on to the painful wound of a crushed ego.

Monthly mortgage repayment plus many other bills that need a steady stream of income are further deterrances.

That is probably why married mid-aged PMETs are the worse kind of entrepreneurs as they are beseiged with all kinds of financial repayment schemes that requires a regular steady stream of income.

Perhaps, more can be done to encourage our young graduates – who have yet to marry or purchase a tied-down house, to be entrepreneurial.

Spring Singapore has a scheme that provides a startup fund of $50, 000 to budding entrepreneurs age below 26 years old. Interested eligible Singaporeans can check out the website for more details.

4. Peer pressure

There is also simply too much peer pressure on our young graduates to look for a job after graduation.

The relatively high income – especially those hailing from the banking sector, deters many from venturing out into the unknown world of entreprenuers whereby only the best top 10% succeeds.

Many new startups are also initially tight in cash flow and  entrepreneurs  take home only a small allowance every month as it will requires at least a year or two for the businesses to be profitable.

In instant-result Singapore, waiting for a few years for ventures to pay off is simply not in our psychological psyche anymore – at least not for the young  impatient graduates.

We want fast cash and instant rewards -a trend that is increasingly seen in a fast-packed society that does not thrive on  delayed gratification.

When we invest in a business venture, its more like the stock market mentality – one that allows the investor to lock in profits at the end of the day than holding  it for the long term.

With such an intense instant-result business environment, many budding entrepreneurs rather take on a $5000-a-month salaried job in the banks than sweat it out as a risky entrepreneur with no guarantee of any successful return.

Moreover, it is tough to see all your friends driving and earning a fat income and you as an entrepreneur drawing a pittance because you want to explore a dream.

5. Government-linked companies and government involvement

Local small and medium enterprises have all along lamented that our country has interfered too much in the business environment here by setting up like-minded companies to compete with small local companies.

For example, NTUC Learning Hub was set up a few years ago when WDA was dispensing millions of dollars in training aids to prepare the retrenched PMETs  for skills upgrading during the recent global financial crisis.

Together with two other private training agencies, they dominated the training arena snatching a large slice of the upgrading pie worth hundreds of millions – leaving the scrimps for the two smaller training centres.

NTUC Childcare centre has also entered  the childcare business and has since emerged as the major player for childcaring business.

NTUC Fairprice has also dominated the supermarket  food retail  business here for the past two decades  - leaving out other private supermarkets in the cold.

With the government actively getting involved in the money-making business environment, small and medium enterprises have no choice but to compete on providing  better services or at cheaper prices to the consumers.

It is no wonder that many Singaporeans think twice when they enter the small business environment here as they have to compete with the big boys plus the government for a slice of the pie.

It is hope that the government will rethink it’s policy of snatching  away whatever profitable business available by being a competitor.

If we want Singaporeans to be entrepreneurial, we must ensure that there is sufficient business for profit-making or else people will simply go back to being a worker. The sacrifices and return must be worth it.

6. Lack of successful entrepreneur model

When people think of successful entrepreneurs here, they can only think of one person – Mr Sim of  Creative Technology.

Of late, the company is also very quiet and has yet to come up with any world-grabbing technological gadget.

There isn’t any solid local business that has managed to impress and motivate others to follow their footpath.

Some have mentioned the Adamn Khoo’s enrichment group or the BreadTalk bakery food chain but these local businesses have yet to really take the world by storm even though locally they are very successful business models.

In Japan,  car manufacturers such as Honda, Toyota and Suzuki have chalked up impressive credentials abroad and can be counted as international brand names.

In Korea,  Kia and Samsung are two of the largest household  names that have managed to penetrate to almost all of the countries worldwide.

In Taiwan, Acer computer has managed to make its presence known by conquering the PC retail market worldwide.

Of course, the Americans – well known for being leaders in the area of entrepreneurship, have global brand names such as Facebook, Apple and Microsoft as their international flagships.

The Americans have a solid culture of adventurous risk-taking and it starts from the day they entered school to when they have graduated. Children are taught to ask questions and debate on theories in schools when they grow older.

Though they may lag behind in exam scores for Maths and Science during international competitions, they surge well ahead in thinking skills and verbal communication.

Most of them have to stay  away from their families due to the long distance from their campuses and this personal element cultivates strong individualism and most importantly self confidence in surviving alone.

The entrepreneur very often has to tackle multi-faceted work issues alone and if he is not steady and self confident enough, he may throw in the towel readily. 

Most Americans of above average  intelligence  also tend to head large corporations because they could lead and communicate their ideas effectively compared to Asians with better exam results. Their self confidence and ability to think on their feet tend to qualify them for key positions in companies.

Asians are not as good when it comes to articulating their thoughts – perhaps due to our classroom conditioning of accepting whatever our teachers tell us in schools. It is also seen as impolite to always question your teachers openly.

I did that quite often when I was studying and was told by my teachers  to only ask questions when classes ended. The same thing happened when I questioned my bosses frequently at work and was branded as a trouble maker and very negative.

I became very Singaporeans later on as I realised that speaking out – especially in meetings, tend to embarass your bosses and they disliked it immensely.

7. Lack of adaptability

 When I was working in China for a private school few years ago, I was shocked to hear that the school has tried out many different lecturers every year as most local lecturers could not withstand the harsh winter cold and  warm summer conditions there.

A lecturer who travelled with me to Hubei left the position after two months as he too could not adapt to the harsh winter environment over there. We had three weeks of non-stop snowing and I didn’t blame him for quitting after the long lunar new year break.

Strong adaptability and the ability to withstand hardships are two of the most crucial elements for an entrepreneur to be successful.

The  teaching experience has allowed me to build on my regional exposure and opened up a few other opportunities later on in China. More importantly, it showed me that if I could survive sub zero wintry conditions and lived  all alone by myself in a dark freezy apartment -  I could have survive anywhere in the world.

My self confidence level shot up a few notches after that teaching assignment and my adaptability curve also improved alot as I could boast that I survived in a foreign environment of a harsh culture.

A year after that trip, I set up transitioning.org as a registered society specialising in providing emotional coaching support to those who needed it. I also volunteered full time for the society without any viable income and this is my fourth year doing it.

I really doubted I would set up the  voluntary organisation if I have not first took that plunge into the unknown by leaving my comfort zone here for work  abroad.

For budding entrepreneurs, it may be wise to first work for a stint abroad to cement the emotional resilience before plunging head-on into a business venture. if you can’t survive properly working abroad, it is really tough  having to rough it out as an entrepreneur.

As Singaporeans battle for jobs with our foreign talents here, it may be really wise for them to start thinking of doing something that they like on their own.

Too many mid-aged PMETs have became cabbies and property  agents during the past few years and  it is prudent for our Generation X to start experimenting on a few ideas during their free time in case they become victims of the forthcoming global financial crisis.

Written by: Gilbert Goh

From failed MRT trains, DBS ATM card fraud, unsolvable incessant flooding to two top scholar-chiefs of sensitive departments implicated in a sex scam, Singapore seemed to be embroiled  in a continuous  series  of controversies unrivalled since independence in 1965.

Never have so much bad stuff happened to our squeaky-clean efficient country in so short a time. We are often lauded for being efficient, disciplined, productive and  very law-abiding obedient citizens yet the cracks are starting to show and many people have commented that perhaps Singapore is showing signs of a decline.

The high influx of foreign workers, steadily climbing divorce rate, spike in suicides  at Bedok Reservior, increase in crimes especially in the loan sharking business and our own  skilled emigration to other countries  – these are tell-tale signs that all  is not well within our country.

A divided self-centred Singapore

Singapore has also turns itself into a divisive nation embalmed by an elite scholarly team helming the governance – there is a stratified system of  scholars vz non scholars in the educational system, private sector vz civil service, well paid expat foreign talents vz cheap exploited foreign labourers, dwellers in private condos vz HDB flats and those driving and taking public transport,.

All this comparison and competition allows division, strife and disunity to be ushered into society – which politically makes it easier for the government to control  the people  using a divide and rule strategy. The more divided the country the easier it is for the government to control the system and runs down the opposition.

Our government will shudder  when our opposition parties could get its act together and unite as one sole big political party challenging it’s autocratic rule.

The more serious problems of religious faultlines and integration with our foreign talents will need alot  more effort and a longer period of time for any initiatives to yield  result.

Moreover, our single-track success path via the educational channel means that our meritocratic philosophy has all along being  very narrow-based and rigid.

As only 23 % of the primary school cohort will ever get the chance to enter our state universities, the rest of the population will either have to pursue higher education at their own cost or face an uncertain insecure future on their own.

That is probably why I see many Singaporeans felt left out in the cold if they do not belong to the  well educated elite group and they will either turn very negative as a result or try very hard at earning money to prove to others that they still can make it despite the odds. Here, we see some non-graduates venturing into businesses and became very successful but the numbers are too few and far in between.

A lack of entrepreneurial culture and a worker mentality have began to haunt the population as the coutnry is now being flooded with young well educated foreign talents competing with the locals for jobs.

Thus, our  meritocratic goal all along has being  mainly to be successful, earn a lot of money and stay very achievement-foused. There is nothing to suggest that it is good to be honourable, honest and upright – as there is no monetary value attached to such intangible qualities.

Never before have I see so many of my own people become so narcissistic and self-centred that they will even sacrifice their family in the pursuit of wealth and fame – of course some are merely trying to survive in this concrete tough jungle.

Ethics are also left in the drain when businessmen go all out to conquer the world through shady deals and unethical practices.

It is perhaps due to  this meritocratic materialistic value – built for so many years into the psyche of our scholars’ mind that cause them their downfall.

Scandal at the top – problem of meritocracy?

Investors all along have  sunk their money into our economy as it is a safe haven plus the political stability is always a welcomed relief compared to many other turbulent neighbouring countries -  something Singaporeans always take for granted

Nevertheless, just when we were heaving a sign of relief from the intense ministerial pay-cut parliamentary debate two weeks ago, the country is being rocked once again on the second day of lunar Chinese new year  with the news that our top two chiefs of SCDF and CNB were arrested by CPIB for corruption and personal misdeeds.

This kind of news is pretty alien to Singaporeans as we are supposed to be clean-cut and above-board so the scandal  has caught many of us by surprise if not shock.

Singaporeans were particularly  frustrated by the fact that the government only reacted to the news because LianHe WanBo carried the story on its papers – the only one available on the second day of Lunar new year.

The paper apparently broke the news because of a leak from inside the ministry and one wondered how long the government will keep the scandal secret if not for the whistle blower.

It is apparent that the government has no intention to publicly announced the shameful news so soon – especially when the country has just finished it’s intense Parliamentary debate on ministerial pay just less than two weeks ago and reiterated later on that the CPIB is still conducting it’s investigation and thus were unable to break the scandal to us earlier.

The scandal not only brought shame to an elitist group of government officers who were paid handsomely so that they won’t stray but also confirm what many have felt that the current regime has being hiding a lot of dirt from the innocent public.

Many have all along suspected that our sovereign  funds have being losing a lot of money during the 2008 global financial crisis and much of the losses were not revealed to the country.

The scandal is also deemed acceptable to some people as if the ex-MM Lee Kuan Yew’s son can be the current Prime Minister and his daughter-in-law handpicked to head Temasek Holdings, then what is the problem with just two scholars fooling around with an IT executive?

Ho Ching can afford to lose a few more billions and yet be helming the seat at Temasek Holdings.

However, to the larger majority, the fact that the scandal involves two top scholars who are top brasses in sensitive departments belonging to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) is also disturbing.

Top personnel staffing such sensitive departments must not only be squeaky clean but  also must have the tenacity to expose any illicit activities that are going on in the country. Their indiscipline has caused a lot of shame and unease in the minds of many people who are looking up to them for direction.

Moreover, how can you explain to the masses that when you pay top dollar you may not get top talents – literally a slap to their own faces especially when the government champions so much all along for wanting to pay million-dollar salaries to it’s top civil servants and politicians just less than ten days ago in Parliament?

Many netizens have also commented that  is probably why the Prime Minister agreed so readily to the massive ministerial pay-cut as he already knew that there is a major scandal about to blow out from the Pandora box – one that will mock at the government’s insistence on paying well so that the country will get good people.

We really have to re-examine the slogan that we need to pay so much dollars to attract brainy good people. Sometimes, good people can’t be bought and those who really have to be paid so much in order for them to work well must also be avoided.

The really good ones do not really need an obscene amount of money for them to come on board – they merely want to serve the people and paying them just right is good enough.

If they want to earn a lot of money they should go into business or join the private sector.

Is Singapore cracking up now?

Nevertheless, the more serious question to ask ourselves now is:  Is Singapore  cracking up now after churning on relentlessly  for the past three decades?

Great nations of the past like Britain, Germany, Netherland and even the US have fallen behind when compared to their glorious past. So far, no one country has managed to stay on top forever.

Nations rise and fall like gravity and a great country can be here now and gone later on…

Singapore has all along boasts of  having the best airport, marine port,  worker and educational facilities in the world. Many countries have even sent personnel to study our infrastructure and facilities as it is a country that is worth emulating.

Nevertheless, of late, we have slowed down somewhat as our neighbours and other Asian countries have  over taken us in  the area of infrastructure development.

For example, the best airport accolade in 2011 now goes to Hong Kong International Airport and  we have dropped to a respectable second – we were voted no one in 2010 whereas the Hong Kong airport was third.

World Airport Awards honour airports that gained the highest passenger satisfaction ratings in the World Airport Survey.

Singapore remains the port of choice in Asia – this was reaffirmed at the 24th Asian Freight and Supply Chain Awards held in Shanghai in 2010.

The accolade was made sweeter as this was the 22^nd time that we took home the “best sea port in Asia” category – out of 24 times.

We strived to be the best worker and Singapore is voted  the number two nation in the world by 24/7 Wall Street in  the 2010 most productive nation poll.  Norway is voted number one most productive nation and USA third.

Our strong GDP figure – $177 billion plus a very strong free enterprise economy and one of the largest financial centers in Asia have helped us to  that prestigious second-place  most productive nation in the world.

Not bad for a country that has no natural resources and a small population pool.

Nevertheless, many people who have lived long in Singapore have realised that our country is all business and no soul.

We do everything mechanically from service crew to businessmen – we never really put our heart into wanting to please our customers. We may sometimes it with a smile but its always because there is something tangible in return.

Personally, the thing that I miss most in Sydney wheneverI return home to Singapore is the people.

The Aussies are really very nice humane people – they bother to speak to you like a real person even if they do not get anything in return from  you. They greeted strangers with a nod or a smile and their warmth is radiant and infectious.

As for Singapore, we are all very business-like, always busy serving the next customer without even looking up at the person as if he is just a digit – invisible. This is perhaps the biggest grouse of our country – people never really treating each other with respect and kindness.

Even our government has stoicly stood by their principle that the country will only be busy with boosting up our GDP at all costs…even sacrificing it’s own people in the process by bringing in foreign imports to compete with us for work.

People simply live to work and every year, thousands of Singaporeans chose to emigrate for a better lifestyle abroad – as this group of people realised that there is more to life than just  making money and living meaninglessly.

According to Parliamentary report realised last month, each year, around one thousand Singaporeans chose to renounce their Singaporean citizenship.

It is not difficult to understand why as people here wake up worrying about money every minute and as we are not a welfare country, no one is going to help you when you are down and out.

It is also probably the only country in the world that charges you for using internet PC facility  in the library and put you in jail if you fail to pay your monthly conservancy town council bill!

The country tries to squeeze out every cent from the public and gives out very little in terms of public welfare.

We may also be one of the few developed countries that only spent less than 5% of our GDP compared to other countries.

Even third world countries spent more – Malaysia spends 4.3 percent of its GDP on health care, China 4.5 percent and India 4.9 percent.

America spends as much as 15.3 percent of its GDP on health care, Switzerland 11.3 percent, France 11.1 percent, Germany 10.4 percent, Canada 10 percent, Portugal 10 percent, Denmark 9.5 percent, New Zealand 9.4 percent, the Netherlands 9.3 percent, Italy 9 percent, Sweden 8.9 percent, Norway 8.7 percent, Australia 8.7 percent, Britain 8.4 percent, Spain 8.1 percent, Japan 7.9 percent, Israel 7.8 percent, Ireland 7.5 percent, South Korea 6.5 percent.

Though the country has always announced that there are all kinds of schemes to help the poor, the needy  do not want to approach the Community Development Council (CDC) as the strict regulations and impersonal touch of the officers handling the welfare applications have put them off.

Conclusion

A ;lack of minimum wage regulation has also ensured that our workers remain one of the poorest paid in a  first-world status environment.

Our wages have only risen by 0.3% for the past decade as inflation hovers around an average of 2.5% during the same period effectively negating any meagre wage rise we have. For the past few years, inflation has remained at a stubborn high of 5%.

More significantly, the country seems to have entered into a me-first mentality whereby people compete for all kinds of stuff starting  from kindergarten onwards through varsities – so that they will do well later in life.

The scholarly system also does not help much  as our youth  clamour for the best spots in JCs and unis – making us more self-centred and materialistic in the process.

People seem more narcissistic  than ever before and we even need to have a Kindness Movement to prompt us to be more gentle and loving to one another.

MRT seats are rushed for once the train doors open and not many willingly give up their seats to the needy – basic signs of a divisive society going downhill.

Neighbours tend to close their door on one another and few bother to speak even if they face up on the same floor living merely a few steps from each other.

There is always the  desire to make more money – prompted  more by the current job insecurity than anything else.

We are also voted one of the unhappiest  nations in the world – Singapore is ranked 131 out of 178 nations by the Happy Planet index.

Though we have one of the highest GDP in the developed world, it does not strangely bring us any joy or happiness.

This goes to show that high GDPdoes not equal to much happiness.

However, a friend once told me that it is better to  be unhappily  rich  than happily poor!

Indeed, meritocracy may lead us to a better materialistic lifestyle but not necessarily a happier and more upright one.

The downfall of our two top scholars in high places have proved that top dollars may not get top good talents who are morally upright.

Written by: Gilbert Goh

Thanks Jeff for allowing transitioning.org to conduct this online interview, you have informed us that your son is going overseas for his medical study  abroad soon, why is this so?

A: As Medicine is his only passion, his only route at the moment was to do it at NUS Medical School, but unfortunately, he didn’t make the cut at the final (interview) stage where only about 260 students were selected. Therefore, that leaves him with no choice but to do it overseas. 

Did your son try to apply for the local unis at all and were there any reasons for the rejection?

A: Yes, he applied to NUS but failed to make it past the interview stage. No reasons were given as the interview was very subjective – at the mercy of the interviewers.

How are  his grades like?

A: A-level As for Maths/Chemistry/Physics at H2 and A for GP at H1.

How much do you think you will need to spend on his overseas study for the next few years?

A: We were told it could need some S$100,000 for each year of study in Australia, so for the 6-year duration, some S$600,000. 

Last year, 60% of doctors who registered with Singapore Medical Association were foreigners, what is your opinion on this?

A: I find this very ironic: on the one hand, so many highly qualified students were denied the chance to study locally (on subsidised basis) but on the other hand, the government has to “import” 60% of the requirement from overseas (how stringent the screening process notwithstanding). I really have serious doubt on the quality of leaders at MOE and MOH as this is clearly a problem of lack of foresight and poor planning - and mind you, this has been brought up many times in the past (by me and others), not that this is a very recent problem. 

Do you think that our local unis should expand it’s intake of 300 medical students (for NUS medical faulty)?

A: Definitely yes, although they are already in the process of adding additional intakes at Duke-NUS (graduate level) and NTU-Imperial. Still, with the additional intakes, it may not be enough to meet the demand annually, we we may continue to see the government “importing” foreigners to fill the gaps while our very own highly qualified students are still denied the chance to study Medicine locally.

What are the chances of your son staying on in a foreign country after graduation and why so?

A: I would say, very very high as I understand the working conditions and general living condition/standard is much higher in Australia, besides the better opportunity to specialize. As an aside, it has been reported that he may be better off returning to Singapore as a “foreign talent” given the perks accorded to them as compared to citizens. 

If you are the education  minister, what area would you like to see revamp and why?

A: I have written to the government (as well as having my article published in the Straits Times) since 2003 (almost 10 year ago) that in a globalized world, Singapore citizens (I deliberately use citizens as Singaporeans include PRs as far as the government is concerned) not only have to compete against local citizens but against the rest of the world (against the likes of China and India where their graduates with at least a degree run into tens or hundreds of millions, many times the population of Singapore), so one of my first priority will be to increase the percentage of each cohort with at least a local university undergraduate degree (from around 20-25% now) to perhaps 50% or more (even 80%). Like I said, Singapore’s only resource in their citizens, and the only way forward for its citizens to have a better life and compete with the upcoming behemoths – China, India and other BRIC (Russia and Brazil) and TIMS (Turkey, Indonesia, Mexico and South Africa), fellow Tigers (South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong) and traditional first world countries like USA, UK, EU countries, etc.. – is to provide sufficient opportunities for them to at least have an undergraduate degree locally (as getting it overseas is an expensive affair). This is one area the government must spent.

Another area of focus is entrepreneurship – the universities must equip each graduate with entrepreneurship skills as mass employment opportunities with decent salaries are a thing of the past, so it is important that each Singapore citizen is equipped to come out on his or her own to start up a business to survive in a globalized world.

Rgds

Jeff

Editor’s Note: This article first appeared here on 1 Dec 2010 and was brought back due to the recent spike of suicides in Singapore. If you are depressed and harboured suicidal thoughts, please email me at gilbert@transitioning.org. We have a team of qualified dedicated counsellors ready to help you out. Taking your own life does not solve  any of your problems, in fact, it leaves behind a trail of misery and guilt for your loved ones. So seek help now!

Written by: Gilbert Goh

Two recent newspaper reports caught my attention: one was the good news that Singapore’s monthly median income  rose to $2710 – an increase of 4.2% compared to the previous year of 0.5%.

Another eye-catching news was a suicide that took place on the Queenstown MRT track. Apparently, a man in his 40s has jumped to the track at around 8.15pm causing massive disruption to the west-bound  train services between Outram Park and Jurong East MRT stations.

There is this persistent online rumour that gambling debt has forced the man to take his own life. This is however unsubstantiated but very possible as the Chinese community has always been cursed with a cultural gambling problem.

Our hundreds of Singapore Pools’ legalised betting booths and two mega casinos have ensured that gambling addicts have easy access to wager their hard-earned money. I have seen many families broke up because someone within the family has a gambling problem. It is obvious that gambling and loan sharking go hand in hand and many families have pay the painful price.

Singaporeans have also been committing suicides at MRT stations so regularly  that half-length platform screen doors will be installed at all 36 above-station MRT stations by the year 2012 as a preventive measure.

However, I wonder how effective such platform screen doors will be if a person is determined  to commit suicide at the track or simply jump off our thousands of high-rise HDB flats.

Physical deterrence is just not an effective   adequate measure to prevent someone bent on killing himself if the underlying emotional root causes are not detected and resolved early.

We are know how Singapore is such a stressful materialistic society to live in. This is one main reason why thousands of Singaporeans decide to pack their bags every year to live abroad. Many yearn for a more balanced lifestyle which our country could not readily provide.

Our small nuclear family unit and lack of social interaction due to the rising popularity of social networks mean that many people have no real access to a human touch when they needed one.  Some are so muted to social interaction that they have even turn to online counselling than seeing a counsellor face to face!

Singapore’s suicide rate  ranked 46 out of 104 countries

According to the data obtained from World Health Organisation on  the  suicide rate of its population from year 2008, Singapore ranked at a respective 46 out of 105 countries listed.

An average 10.3 people  out of  100,000 took their own lives in Singapore (2006) and we fared much better than developed countries such as Japan 24.4 (2007), Switzerland 17.5 (2006), Hong Kong 15.2 (2006) and US 11.1 (2007).

Over one million people commit suicide every year worldwide. The World Health Organization estimates that it is the thirteenth-leading cause of death worldwide. It is a leading cause of death among teenagers and adults under 35. There are an estimated 10 to 20 million non-fatal attempted suicides every year.

Figures from the Samaritans of Singapore, SOS, showed that the total number of suicides has increased from 364 in 2008 to 401 last year due mainly to the economic crisis and its underlying repercussions (source: Channelnewsasia 26 Jul 2010).

For every successful suicide attempt, there were seven unsuccessful ones.

More worrying, among youths, there was also an increase in numbers from 12 to 19 in two years – to hit a five-year high.

Men also accounted for two in three suicide deaths. Last year, men accounted for 267 of 401 recorded suicides, double that of female suicides, 134.

Young men in the age group of 20-29 were found to be at high risk.

Among them, suicides among men in their 20s doubled to 51, the highest since 1991.

I seriously believed that statistically the suicide figure should have been higher. The  coroner could have simply record a case of unnatural death if someone jumped off a block without leaving  a suicide note behind.  His death is not listed as suicide unless there is clear cut evidence of him doing so.

My close friend committed suicide at 21 years old

I remembered how a close friend of mine committed suicide  by hanging himself outside a church compound.  He was only 21 years old.

This was probably why I am very concerned when clients told me that they are suicidal – it always brought back this unforgettable experience I had with my close buddy.

In fact, another secondary school classmate was so moved  by the incident that he took up psychology as his core major while studying in the US. Now, he has a PhD in psychology and worked among those who need his  expertise.

In a way, my close friend’s death has touched some lives and I am sure that it was not in vain.

Studies have also shown that people who took their lives often talked about it with their close friends or loved ones. Some even prepared their suicide by giving away  their stuff as remembrance or buying up additional insurance policies so that their family members will be taken care of.

My friend  was clearly suffering from some psychological issue and the family had sent him to the former Woodbridge Hospital for evaluation. I also remembered helping to contact a volunteer Catholic counsellor who meet him once weeks prior to his suicide.

After he was discharged from the hospital, he took his own life the very night.

He was very unhappy that his family had placed him under psychiatriac  care  - against his will and I believed that this had worsened the situation for him.  His bruised ego took a massive hit of which he could never recover.

Shock reverberated through the secondary class when news of his death reached the classmates  and many of us who were close to him were blamed for not taking good care of him. I think most of us close to him  grew up a few more years after that fateful event.

A closely-knitted small Christian fellowship group that met weekly was also disbanded suddenly as rumours ensued that a love interest he developed with a girl there was not reciprocrated  and he took it badly.

For me, I not only lost a close friend but also a solid support system that meant alot to me. Until now, after almost thirty years since the group disbanded, most of the group members did not want to meet up and maybe the shame was too much to face up to as a group.

We studied together during secondary school and over weekend would play soccer with our other secondary school mates. He seemed ordinary and was a jovial lad to hang out with.

His family is also intact and cared for him alot.

However, he was particularly concerned with his cross-eyed countenance and even went for a failed operation to address the physical ailment. I guessed it was something that really bothered him alot and I encouraged him to get it fixed.

The operation sadly failed and he plunged deeper into a depression. His unrecipocrated love interest was another huge setback that resulted in an enormous dent on his self confidence.

Moreover, he failed to make the cut for polytechnic entry after his GCE O levels and in many ways he faced a  personal crisis of his own making which would toughen  him up alot if he had doggedly hang in there and not given up.

Unfortunately, he could not hang in there and succumbed to the pressures of life.

Why do people commit suicide?

For one who has  harboured  suicidal thoughts before, I must share that it really takes alot of courage for one to jump off a building or on to a MRT track before an approaching train.

Your knees shook and you may even put it off as the mere thought of doing it can simply freak you out.

I believe that those who did it must have thought of  suicide  for many months before mustering enough courage to eventually jump off a train platform. Most jumpers are also men as it took alot of raw courage to make the suicidal attempt.

Women preferred to take pills or slash their wrists as it is a less painful suicidal attempt. Most women also want to send a signal to their loved ones through their suicidal attempt so that they can have some attention and care.

Of course, unfortunately, some women have died from their attention-seeking attempts.

However, those who successfully  took  their own lives basically see no possible solution  to their personal problems and the psychological turmoil churning inside can be more tormenting than the issue itself.

I remembered facing massive financial problem during my joblessness in 2000/01. I could not sleep and eat well and psychologically I was very disturbed.

The mere fact that I could lose my home and became a bankrupt were too much for me to face up to. My ego took a massive hit in a materialistic  society that always favour those who have a fat bank account and gleaming cars.

I also stayed away from friends and my family and simply rotted away as I drowned myself in abject misery.

Naturally, I harboured suicidal thoughts as the problems seemed insurmountable and there was no way out. Thankfully, I snapped out of it and turned to friends for soft loans in humility.

It was a slow path to recovery but I was relieved that I didn’t make any real attempt to take my own life thought the thoughts were always there.

I always believe  that we all go through life events much the same as everyone else – with its regular ups and downs. Some may face more ups than downs and vice versa but  we all don’t have a smooth-sailing life.

There are certain periods in our  life that will be particularly stressful and requires  all of our inner resources for us to make it through.

Moreover, bad news always come as a bundle and  they  keep on coming incessantly – nonstop.

The nights seem longer and the sky is always grey. The light never seems to be there at the end of the tunnel.

Psychologists have commented how our adversity quotient will determine whether we can make it through life’s worse moments.

Those who grew up the rough way tend to be more resilient and have more inner strength to handle  life’s struggles than one who is rather sheltered and protected while growing up.

Someone who was made a bankrupt may want to take his life in shame whereas another bankrupt will want to fight on and try to turn his life around.

Dr Paul Stoltz, the guru of adversity quotient, recently wrote in  an article “When adversity strikes, what do you do?”:-

“I’ve surveyed more than 1,000 companies in 53 countries with these questions. And the sad truth is, most (70-90 percent) of the time, people do some combination of avoiding, surviving, and coping, meaning adversity is consuming them. About 10-30 percent of the time people will manage the adversity. Very rarely (five percent) do people and their enterprises truly harness it.

The ultimate state of zen-like resilience perfection is something I call, “Response Ability,” which I define as, “Your ability to respond optimally to whatever happens the moment it strikes.” That means naturally harnessing the force of adversity provides to fuel a deeply enriching and rewarding life. This is the highest aspiration.’

How a suicidal bankrupt friend turned his life around

A friend of mine was a shining testimony of how he managed to tackle his adversity head on and eventually gained an invaluable personal victory with a happy ending.

With only secondary education, he turned to doing IT retail business to make it big. He was also doing import and export business and a seemingly sweet deal turned out to be his downfall.

It was a multi million business deal and he took a bank loan to finance it.

It could make him at least a million dollars if the deal went through – smoothly.

The business friend took the stock, declared himself bankrupt and never paid my friend a cent for the deal.

He owed the bank almost $3 million dollars, was declared a bankrupt and lost his IT business in the process.

He hung his head in shame – more out of annoyance at his own naive stupidity than anything else.

For guys, when the ego took a massive hit – it could be potentially devastating psychologically.

My bankrupt friend  hid in his home for many months and even ate his meals in the bedroom. He was a pale shadow of someone who could sign business deals in the millions.

However, he was fortunate enough to have a girlfriend who stood by him – now his wife. They also have a young son.

She visited him often and gave him hope to live on. He later shared that he almost wanted to take his own life if not for the persistent efforts of his girlfriend that helped turn his life around.

He went over to Vietnam to start a business, managed to eventually clear his multi-million debts with the OA/banks and is now working at his thriving business in China.

I must say that my friend is very blessed to have someone who stood by him despite his adversity.  He has reached his pits and almost the end of his life.

For those harbouring suicidal thoughts, having someone who believe and stand by you is most crucial if you want to turn your life around.

It could be a family member or a close friend.

Seeking out support

That is the reason why social workers and counsellors have all along advocate that people in distress speak  to someone about what’s bothering them.

The important thing is they have literally discharge  their problem to someone else when they have talk it out.

It is akin to leaving your problem behind and you walk off a much relieved person after letting go verbally. The problem is still there but it does not feel that burdensome anymore and that is a big relief for many people.

We all know by now that how we perceive our problem is crucial to our well being. If we perceive that being a bankrupt means the end of our world, that thought will torment us until we have shifted in our thinking.

That is probably why speaking to a counsellor helps as often after verbalising out our problem, we realise that the issue is not so serious after all.

The emotional entanglement that goes with the problem often makes it seem larger and more serious.

Over time, when our mind has cleared and we are steadier, we may even laugh at our own predicament.

It is clear that there is much emotional discharge once you talk to someone about your problem.

Women particularly find this theraupetic  as they verbalise much more than men. We all know how  our women folks can gather weekly just to have tea and yak away in a cafe. They feel good doing it regularly and why not?

That is probably the reason why women are more ready to seek out someone to talk away their problems and statistically we all can see that women are less ready to take their own lives than men.

However, men tend to find this theraupetic outlet difficult to master.  They rather turn to the bottle or even abuse substances to numb the emotional pain.

Most men are emotionally shy and have problem connecting with their inner self. In their misery and rage, they can even kill someone as all their emotions are all bottled up.

Most men also never cry even though it is the number one relief for those pent-up emotions.

Men also have a bigger ego and are less inclined to seek help for their problem unless they are forced into a corner.

It is far better, nevertheless,  for men to seek out assistance when the problem is still in its infancy as doing it much later may not be as effective.

It will also take alot more time to help them see things from a different perspective when their thought patterns are already pretty much fixated by the time they start to see a counsellor.

They are also far more impatient  to see results than women when they seek assistance from a counsellor. Most men I know also prefer to see a male counsellor due to the ego factor. Most of our family service centres are still staffed with young women counsellors.

It is hope that more resources can be allocated by our government to help our men who are caught out in many of today’s life stressors.

Conclusion

A life lost to self-destruction often leaves behind a trail of misery and self-blame for  people who are  closed to them.

A church friend, whose ageing sickly father took his own life by jumping off a hospital window many years ago, has yet to come to terms with his eventful death.

She constantly blamed herself for his death and wished that she could do more to prevent his suicide.

People harbouring suicidal thoughts ought to really think about ways to overcome their problems than escaping from them.

As Dr Paul Stoltz has aptly wrote: “Through my past three decades of research on the subject, I’ve learned something shockingly simple: It comes down to one of two things. Over the course of your years, either adversity consumes you, or you consume it. Unfortunately, being consumed by adversity is far more common than truly consuming it.”

For anyone under 50 reading this, I have some good news for you.  50 is pretty darned good!

I even surprise myself by writing this, because believe me, I never thought the day would come when I would embrace being half a century.  But it has arrived, and it doesn’t stink.

Yes, yes — there are the inevitable physical changes that are quite unsettling.  Things do start to droop, wrinkle and expand.  Sometimes you will catch a glimpse of yourself in the mirror and wonder who that middle-aged person is.  On the outside, you may look like a grown-up, but on the inside it’s crazy how you still feel like you are 30.  Or younger.  (Ask my teenagers.  They hate that about me.)

When I was in my 30’s and 40’s, I took life much more seriously.

In fact, I think I was mysteriously older then than I am now.  Is that possible?  When you are busy building a career, raising children, accumulating stuff, and creating a lifestyle, you are defined by that busyness.  It’s serious work.  You have to make money to pay for the lifestyle.  Your kids need to be raised right lest they become a scourge on society and embarrass you by living in a trailer and eating bugs.

Those years are fulfilling and wonderful, but they also are fraught with upheaval and angst.  Things that once didn’t matter when you were younger, like having the right cocktail napkins or winning yard of the month, somehow matter so very much.  We struggle toward some kind of perfection and achievement that is ‘out there’ somewhere.

I don’t know about you, but I have spent a lot of time trying to create the self I thought I should be.  I cobbled together the perfect me made from pieces of this and that.  The clothes I wear, the neighborhood we live in, the car I drive, the friends I have.  It looks pretty nice from the outside.  And much of it is nice on the inside too.

But I spent way, way too much time in the work of crafting myself, and far too little time just being myself.

When you are spinning your wheels to maintain this beautifully crafted life, you miss out on a whole lot of real living.

If I were able to time travel and visit my twenty or thirty-year-old self, there are some things I would really like to teach me.  Since I can’t do that, hopefully you will benefit from some of the lessons I’ve learned over the last 50 years.

1. 50 doesn’t feel like 50.  It doesn’t feel like the age you imagined when you are in your 20’s or 30’s.  For the most part, it feels the way you feel right now.  But smarter and more confident.  You also have more time and resources to enjoy life.  So don’t fear it.  Look forward to it.
2. Experience life before you settle down.  Whatever it is you want to do or experience, do as much of it as you can before you have children.  Especially travel.  Live in a hovel and drive a beat-up Dodge Dart if you have to.  But go have some really great, amazing, mind-blowing experiences.
3. Money and stuff are not all that important.  Yes, you want enough to be comfortable and do the things you want to do.  But accumulating for the sake of accumulating is so boring and empty.  Feed the soul, not the ego.
4. Don’t try to impress people.  That’s an act that brings nothing but a momentary ego boost.  Be real with people instead.  Connect with fewer people on a level that is deeper and more profound.
5. Let your kids fail.  Your kids will be okay, even if you think they are headed for the juvie right now.  Don’t come to their rescue all the time.  Don’t manage every detail of their lives or over-schedule them with tao quan dao or viola lessons.  Give them some boundaries, and then relax about them.
6. Bad things will happen.  Part of living and getting older is experiencing upheavals in life.  People lose jobs, get divorced, die.  When you are younger, and things have gone pretty well, this can be shocking.  The bad things won’t kill you.  You will learn from them if you allow it.
7. Not much is worth fighting about.  If you can avoid it, don’t fight.  Step back from arguments with your spouse or family member or neighbor.  When you feel anger surging up and you want to say that snarky thing on the tip of your tongue, just close your mouth and walk away.  Let yourself calm down.  You don’t have to be right or win the argument.  It just doesn’t matter that much.
8. Little things stick with you.  So pay attention to them.  Like watching your child sleep.  Preparing a meal with your family.  Sharing a great laugh with an old friend.  That is the real stuff life is made of.
9. Keep having fun.  Fun is way underrated.  With all of our responsibilities, fun seems like an indulgence.  It shouldn’t be.  It should be a requirement.  Remember what you did to have fun when you were younger, and go do it again.  Leave the house messy and the yard un-mowed for the weekend.  You will remember the fun, not the clean house or yard.  Make time for fun.
10. Make things simpler.  Pick the five most important things in your life now, and focus on those things.  Let the other stuff go.  Let go of the activities, the events, the commitments, the shopping, the to-do lists.  Stop the busyness and really enjoy the important things you have right now.
11. Keep your brain active.  Don’t get into a mental rut.  Do new things, learn new things, explore new ideas in all areas of your life.  Keep challenging yourself and your mind.  Be curious and interested in the world around you.
12. Hang out with younger people.  Stay connected with what the generation behind you is doing and thinking.  Establish friendships with them.  You will benefit and learn from each other.  Don’t act superior, because younger people may know a whole lot more than you do!
13. Keep exercising and eating healthy.  You know this, but I’ll remind you anyway.  The older you get, the more important a healthy lifestyle is.  In my 20’s, I could shovel down a Wendy’s hamburger and fries every day and never see the difference.  Now I just look at a hamburger and my butt gets bigger.
14. Manage aging, but why fight it?  You can spend a fortune on face creams, plastic surgery, hair growth formulas, and botox, but eventually you realize you are fighting an uphill battle.  Groom yourself nicely.  Stay fit.  Have unsightly things removed.  But accept the beauty of aging.  A striking mature man or woman is much more attractive than someone who looks overly taunt, tanned or top-heavy.
15. Everyone doesn’t have to like you and vice versa.  One of my friends likes to say, “She’s not in my cluster.”  Sometimes there are people in your life who are just not the right fit or who drain you dry.  It is fine to back off from them or even let them go.
16. Marriages evolve and change.  The feelings you had for the man or woman you married will mutate and evolve several times over the life of a marriage.  Hopefully you will evolve in the same direction or at least embrace and accept the changes in the other person.  It takes work, and sometimes it takes counseling.  Don’t gloss over those changes or you may wake up next to a stranger one day.
17. Yes, you can still have great sex.  When I was in my 20’s, I thought you stopped doing it when you were in your early 40’s.  I assumed middle aged people would no longer want to disrobe in front of each other.  I’m happy to inform you that this is not the case.
18. Tend to your friendships.  Especially your oldest friendships.  These are the people who know and love you best, in spite of your flaws.  Treat them like the precious gems they are.
19. Stop worrying.  Worry does absolutely nothing productive.  In fact, it is counterproductive.  The more you worry, the more you reinforce the problem or concern in your brain.
20. Everything is not always black or white.  Life is often very ambiguous.  Sometimes there isn’t a right or wrong decision or choice.  Things are not always completely clear.  You may not get THE answer, so you just have to wing it.
21. Take action on your dreams.  If you’ve been putting things off — a new career, more education, the big trip — start taking action right now to make it happen.  Don’t dream about it anymore.  Start doing it.
22. Don’t dwell on your wounds.  Everyone has something that has caused pain and has been limiting them in some way.  If you need help to deal with it, then get it right away.  Don’t let the past limit your future.
23. Embrace change.  As uncomfortable as it is sometimes, change allows us to stretch and grow.  New things feel awkward and scary at first, but those feelings go away, and you are left with something bigger and bolder in your life.
24. Be vulnerable.  Allow yourself to feel, to be open and authentic.  Tear down any emotional brick walls you have built around yourself and feel every exquisite emotion, both good and bad.  This is real life.  This is how you welcome new opportunities.
25. Count your blessings every day.  I know, this is a refrigerator magnet line, but practice it daily anyway.  There is so much good, so much beauty, so much love in your life.  What more do you really need?  You have so much right now, you just need to pause long enough to appreciate it.

Barrie Davenport is a personal and career coach and the founder of Live Bold and Bloom, a blog about bold and fearless living.  Download her free ebook, How to Live a Meaningful Life.

Although the job market has improved over the past year, many employers are still reluctant to make a long term commitment to growing their employee rolls until it is clear that a solid economic expansion is underway. They need new staff to handle the increase in orders and customer demands but are loath to hire permanent workers who may have to be cut in a few months if business stagnates. Any reduction in force carries major headaches for a company: employee morale falls, lawsuits arise, precious time is eaten up in non-productive meetings, and severance packages cut into narrowing profit margins.

Their solution is often to rely on temporary agencies to provide needed manpower without any precipitous long term commitment. It is estimated, by a well-regarded labor research group, that fully 25% of the jobs created during the past year have been temporary positions!

How can this work to your advantage?

Working for a temporary agency has some drawbacks but also a number of positive aspects.

The primary negative is the lack of investment in your future. While the hourly wage may be similar, or even better, than a permanent employee would receive, you remain on the periphery of the company’s organization. Temps are often assigned the more routine tasks which require less intensive training. This makes it more difficult for your competence to be recognized. You are not seriously considered for promotional opportunities nor invited to advanced training or management classes.

It also has personal repercussions. You are uncertain how long you will be needed and tend to develop a strong sense of insecurity. After all, your contract could be terminated without warning through a quick telephone call to the agency. Because you want to minimize the emotional devastation of a sudden departure, you tend to avoid becoming too close to coworkers and perform your duties in something of a vacuum, one step removed from the camaraderie of the permanent work team.

All that being said, there are some pretty inviting advantages to exploring temporary assignments.

Within the framework of your long-term career goals, a temporary position nicely fills in that void on your resume caused by a lengthy period of unemployment. It demonstrates to a potential employer that you are an individual who is vested in being productive even under circumstances where your true talents are barely tapped.

Temporary agencies seldom require extensive background investigation so if there is a blip or two on your work or personal record, it will probably be overlooked. When a future permanent position presents itself, the more distant the blip, the less weight it will carry in the hiring decision.

Entering a workplace as a temp puts you in a very different framework than any mere applicant for work. You become privy to the company’s ethics and philosophy so you can better determine if this is somewhere you would be interested in for permanent work. If you find the atmosphere comfortable, you will perform well. Assuming that the company is growing, and the local economic expansion continues, you are in an excellent position to be considered for permanent retention.

Many employers see temporary workers as individuals undergoing a lengthy interview. After weeks or months of good productivity, timeliness, consistent attendance, and reliability, you no longer present the risks attached to the hiring of new employees after only an hour or two of interviewing. Many agencies will let you know in advance that this is a “Temp to Perm” assignment, meaning that if you cut the mustard, you will be offered a permanent position.

On the other hand, if you find that company goals and procedures are at odds with your personal values, you can get out before any commitment is made. Since your employer is actually the agency, you can cut and run from any assignment without it impacting your work history. You take a different position through the same agency and your resume is unflawed by your decision to make a change.

Assuming that you are working in an industry of interest, temporary work provides an invaluable opportunity for networking. Make the effort to get to know your new coworkers and it is highly likely that they either know of opportunities in similar companies or know someone who has such inside information.

Finally, there is the old saw of “Everyone wants to hire you when you’re working but no one is interested when you’re unemployed.” There is certainly a grain of truth in that rather cynical observation. No matter how bad the local economy may be, or how the effects of offshore job flight have affected your industry, there is always a little kernel of doubt in an interviewer’s mind: what did you do wrong to lose your job? Could you possibly have been fingered because you were the weak link? Was the choice of you, over someone else, related to interpersonal or disciplinary problems that made you an easy target?

When you are actively working, even if only on a temporary basis, such doubts don’t even enter an interviewer’s mind. They are more concerned about whether you will be willing to make a change – a point of speculation that bodes well for you in a potential hiring situation.

If you are offered alternative permanent work, you are sitting in the proverbial catbird’s seat. You can accept the position if you find it tempting. You can decline if you don’t think it’s a good fit, knowing that you still have your temp job to keep food on the table and allay that desperation of “I’ll take anything” that sets in after a few months out of work.

And, finally, you have the option of going back to your temp work and letting your present boss know that you have been offered a position elsewhere that you are seriously considering. If the company likes you, let them negotiate a counter-offer and then go with the best opportunity for you.

The Commissioner of the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF), Peter Lim (left) , has been suspended from his duties and the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) chief, Ng Boon Gay (right), has been questioned by the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB), according to Chinese daily Lianhe Wanbao. -- PHOTOS: SCDF AND MINISTRY OF HOME AFFAIRS

I was awakened by shocking revelation, over   text message from a friend early this morning,  that our chief of SCDF Mr Peter Lim and head of CNB Mr Ng Boon Gay were suspended by the authorities and under probe by CPIB for corruption practices respectively.

This news was later confirmed this morning on the Straits Times interactive quoting from news reporting by Lianhe Wanbao.

What was most perplexing is not the corruption news but that the chief of SCDF was already suspended for over a month – together with 6 other SCDF officers – and  if not for some whistle blowing leak to the press, the shameful act  may be unexposed.

It is not known if both the top level  cases involving SCDF and CNB are related and how long the corruption practices were going on before they are caught.

This shocking corruption news, involving  government-related staff, came hot on the heels of a Ministry of Home Affairs  (MHA) assistant  executive who was recently  jailed 8 years and 8 months for  cheating with  $617,000 over 4 years.

This corruption news still could not be compared in scale with the one committed at Singapore Land Authority as Koh Seah Wee, deputy director of SLA’s Technology and Infrastructure Department (TID) and Christopher Lim Chai Meng, a manager in the same department, are believed to have created false invoices through various business entities for fictitious IT maintenance goods and services that were not delivered.

The amount pilfered was also huge – $12 million over a two-year period starting from Jan 2008 to March 2010 and was only discovered when someone new discovered something was amiss when he  came  to take over the duties of the errant department.

To add salt to the wound, Mr Lim  smashed his Ferrari  last December 2009  along Nicoll Highway and no one in SLA realised that the driver, named in reports as Lim Chai Meng, was their colleague as he was known as Chris Lim in the office!

However, both the cases at MHA and SLA, were clear-cut cheating cases as the culprits saw  gaping loopholes in the system and used these corporate  lapses to their advantage.

Both cases pointed to systemic weaknesses in our financial regulating procedures involving the ministries and it is hope that the authorities will continue to improve operations to reduce malpractices and corruption.

The ones at SCDF and CNB probably involving a  large amount of cash and thus were clear-cut corruption practices – unseen for a long time since ex-NKF CEO Mr Duric peddled with a golden tap that sent him downhill all the way.

Moreover, Mr Duric managed to escape twice when he counter-sued people who have accused him of travelling first-class. The NKF ex-chief not only escaped justice but also received compensation when he hurled defamation suits accused his accusers further mocking our legal system in the process.

It also showed vividly how the rich can use the legal system to their advantage as often those who are poorer will not want to enter into a law suit – even though they know well enough that they are in the right. They rather paid up the $5,000 to $10, 000 demafation settlement money than enter into a protracted expensive lawsuit case. Most also are wary of the adverse publicity such cases have on their employment status and personal life.

On the other hand, some netizens have also pointed out that paying our top civil servants or ministers high-end salaries may not really resolve the problem of corruption in our prosperous city state as many businesses will cotinue to tempt officers so that they will have a smoother path in their business operations.

It is also impossible to totally eradicate corruption as not all operating procedures at our ministries are fool-proof and there will always be bad apples in any ministries who are always on the look out to exploit any operating weaknesses.

Moreover, business corruption is rife in the private business sector and is sometimes even accepted. People often pass around any pows or stash think wads of fifty-dollar notes into envelopes as thank-you introductory goodwill gestures before negotiation begins.

I am sure that police officers are sometimes bribed by vice operators or even legal business entities so that they could operate their businesses without much harassment from the forces.

We have often heard of police officers been prosecuted for such crimes as some are tempted to either take the financial bribes or flesh trade-off.

Many people have also commented – when the shocking news of the SCDF and CNB scandals broke out this morning – that ex-MM Lee Kuan Yew  commanded respect for his clean lean governance philosophy.

We have heard too often of how strongman Lee is willing to pay extra millions to his ministers so that they will not succumb to financial pay-off when they are being tempted as he knew that a corrupted government will not be good for the country.

Nevertheless, top men like the chiefs of SCDF and CNB are unlikely to be paid peanuts and may even have received compensation not far away from our junior ministers.

A superscale salary scheme – meant for the elite administrative service – starts off with $11, 000 at the bottom and with solid performance bonuses (PB), they can be paid in the $200,000 plus category if they slog it out in the civil service for  the long term.

Officers in the SCDF and CNB are  also in the high-risk category as their work deals alot with the illicit shadowy world.

The SCDF deals with all kinds of businesses and they are  involved in  licensing from restaurant’s  fire alarm system to tugboat’s permit to ply our water ways.

Big money is often  involved in such businesses and it takes a strong man – even if he is already paid a million in annual salary – to move away from such temptations. Who will mind having more zeros in their bank account?

There is also the  feeling of thrill when one is involved illicitly  and sometimes this is far more attractive than the corruption benefit itself.

I have worked in the insurance sales business before and often one has to put aside a certain portion of our commission for entertainment and rebate purposes  - which is illegal.

I sticked to my gun and so far has lost some deals when I said that I would not be able to return some percentage of the commission to them when the sales is closed.

All it took is one botched crooked rebate especially if it involves a large-premium sales and you are off to the winding road of illicit business operation.

Transitioning.org has recently received emails on certain  illicit business dealings involving some shipping companies and in one of such postings put up on the first week of December last year, we were been sued for defamation by the companies involved one week later. The SCDF and some other stat boards were also implicated  in the article. It is unknown if the current suspension involving the SCDF chief is linked to the case mentioned.

We are however heartened that one particular perm sec from the ministry, whom we have emailed our case to,  replied saying that an investigation will take place if  due negligence is discovered. There is no  further feedback on this matter later on. For confidentiality purpose, we are  unable to provide more information on the identity of the perm sec or which ministry he belongs to.

The writer has also written to the respective ministries to seek redress and one of the shipping companies  implicated was recently charged in court and fined for the malpractices. I was personally present at the court case earlier this year.

What was worrying is that the writer has to file a legal court case against the company using his own funds before the prosecutor took action. His previous countless letters to the respective ministries have seemed to fall on deaf ears.

As for us,  we have no choice but to withdraw the post on the third week of December as we do not have the funds to engage a lawyer to defend ourselves.

Small social networking site  like ours has everything to lose when we are being sued as we are not backed by huge funds and not as popular as the heavily-read socio-political sites such as The Online Citizen (TOC) or Temasek Review Emeritius (TRE).

A poor whistle blowing culture here also meant that illicit business owners - in some cases large corporations – were allowed to go off scout-free when whistle blowers were not accorded the right secrecy when they came out and exposed errant malpractices in their work places.

Some companies have put in place whistle blowing legislation but it was not properly adhered to and some don’t even bothered to reply to enquiries via the email address listed on the whistle blowing link.

Moreover, most workers would rather mind their own business so that their rice bowls will not be jeopardised and only the most sturdy would dare to whistle blow for the sake of justice.

Since we started our whistle blowing project last month – for workers who want to expose malpractices in their work places – we have received close to twenty over emails from our readers.

We normally require a contact number so that we can ascertain that the person writing the email is genuine and sometimes we will meet up with the writer to gather more information before putting up the article.

So far, more than ten whistle blowing articles involving errant companies were published on our site – most involving operational malpractices in the work places.

Transitioning.org welcomes the public  to write to us anonymously so that errant malpractices at the workplaces can be exposed.

However, when it comes to articles involving minstries and the government, we regret that we will want to tread cautiously here. Of course, if the writer can provide all kinds of proof to ascertain that the facts provided are true – we will still post the articles. We will take the risk for justice sake.

Written by: Gilbert Goh

I have listed several  reasons to prove that our government is increasingly leaning towards foreigners and neglecting our own local Singaporeans.

Many Singaporeans have also lamented at the foreigner-first policies dished out blatantly so that they can be enticed to become citizens and vote for the ruling party out of gratitude during the general election.

1. 60% of registered doctors in 2010 are foreigners

We ran an article last year in November about how the registration of  foreign doctors outnumbered local ones in 2010.

On 2010, 331 Singaporeans received full and conditional medical registration (aka registering to be a doctor) and for foreigner doctors, the number is a whopping 484. [see this].

The NUS  School of Medicine  faculty has being freezing medical students to 300 even though there is a huge demand for practicing doctors due to our fast-aging population. This quota number has being there for the past few years and not being raise.

Many Singaporeans, aspiring to be doctors, have to pay astronomical fees amounting to $400, 000 to study abroad due to the unbelievable quota imposed on local graduates studying medicine.

The Duke-NUS Medical School has been accepting medical students since 2007 but their in-take is limited to 56 only for the year 2009.

The new Imperial College-NUS Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine can take in 50 medical students from year 2013 onwards expanding to a final target of 150.

Singaporeans have all along  being frustrated by the government’s refusal to  expand tertiary  places in our local universities and many have to pay huge sums studying abroad.

Many have speculated that by limiting university places for local Singaporeans, there will then be always  vacancies available  for foreign talents to enter our country – in the hope that our country can truly be called a globalised nation.

In fact, Transitioning.org has seen many job advertisements placed in foreign-based agencies looking for medical doctors to work in our many restructured hospitals:-http://doctor-jobs-in-singapore.info/

Having more foreign doctors in our country may be the norm in future as many local doctors have emigrated to Australia, US or UK as the pay is better and the work hours more humane.

The latest I heard is our government has  relaxed it’s ruling and allowed foreign lawyers to practise here – the onslaught of the foreign contingent continues…

Moreover, our productivity rate has also dropped off with the recent new influx of foreign workers.

Used to boast one of the highest productivity in the world a decade ago, the Singaporean worker has now dropped to 17th place in productivity ranking though we have worked the highest number of hours in the world (more than 2,400 hours in 2010).

Many have blamed the slackening work attitude of our foreign workers for the slide and with the current trend of hiring more foreigners, the slide will still be there as workers from third world countries and even European ones have problem adjusting to our high work rate here.

2. Bond-free scholarships given to third world countries cheaply

Lianhe Zaobao recently published a damning article on the problems faced by foreigners graduating from our state universities. The article was picked up by blogger Veritas.

Since early 2010,  when our government tightens up  the immigration policy, ICA ceased to send PR invitations to foreign students perhaps due to the outcry of such easy-to-get PR applications from many local Singaporeans.

The PR invitation letter serves as a proof to the employee of PR eligibility, and hence, company here often considered favourably somebody with such a letter. Otherwise, the students would lose considerable advantage in the job market.

In the article, one student was reported as saying: “Half of my batch of students have gone home one year later……” 

Two years have passed and many have returned to their own country without serving their bonds…and so far no one has pay the penalty of wasting millions of tax-paying money funding tiertiary education for foreigners from third world countries.

They also do not serve a single day of their signed three-year bond making mockery of our talent-policy emigration system.

PRC Hubei’s Dong Zhihong (24 years old), graduated in 2009 from Shenyang Normal University in International economics law, came to Singapore the same year to take up a scholarship for 1-year  study in IT masters degree in NTU. 

It is puzzling why our government provided  scholarship to someone from the most obscure provincial “teachers college”, depriving our own students of the priviledge of studying for the master’s degree..

Our higher education institutions have all along  allocate places to foreign students and many undergraduates in both NUS and NTU have complained of their overwhelming presence in the campus grounds.

Not only do they fail to mix and integrate with our local students but they tend to clique together with their own kind.

The polytechnics also have at least allocated 15% of their faculties’ places to scholars originating from many third world countries. They just need to simply serve out their  study bond by working in Singapore for three years.

There is also no penalty in place if they return to their own country without serving their work term here.

Allocating specific places for foreigners to study here on bond-free scholarship not only deny our local students of a precious spot in our  limited tiertiary institutions but fuel the anger of many Singaporeans that the government is not really caring enough for the welare of it’s citizens.

The government’s first duty is to look into the educational needs of our people rather than going all out and advertise in foreign papers for bond-free scholarship programmes for foreigners to study here.

3. Half of our marriages now involves a foreign spouse

Singapore has also attracted a lot of foreigners who wanted to settle down here.

In 2008,  24,596 marriages were recorded in the city state – a third were between Singapore grooms and non-citizens (Oct 20, 2009, Diva & The Daily Chilli)

Shockingly, the figure jumped to half our marriages in 2010 involving  a foreign spouse as the open-door policy of allowing in more than 1.3 million foreigners into our small city island have attracted all kinds of romantic liaisions to blossom

Divorce involving Singaporean grooms and non-Singaporean brides represented 11 per cent of the total number of cases in 2008.

For too long, our  men have being marrying foreign brides from neighbouring countries because  they could not convince our women folks to settle down with them.

Most of these men are probably in the lower income group and after a long while of searching, have to make do with simpler foreign brides from third world countries such as Malaysia, Vietnam, Philippines, Thailand and of course China.

Shockingly, half our marriages in 2010 here involved a foreign spouse as the open-door policy of allowing in more than 1.3 million foreigners into our small city island have attracted all kinds of romantic liaisions to blossom.

A 40-something female friend of mine has recently announced to me that she is marrying an Egyptian man from Cairo.

They have met online and tied the knot after a whirlwind trip in Egypt.

She is currently trying to apply for permanent  resident (PR) status for her  foreign husband.

Not many foreign spouses managed to attain the coveted PR status as the authorities will firstly look into the qualification and work experience of the  person.

Many foreign spouses also have to stay here on long term dependent passes which they have to renew every few months.

They are also not allowed to work here. Ironically, their children however will be listed as Singaporean citizens

There are tragic cases of foreign spouses having to travel back to their host countries because their dependent passes could not be renewed due to various reasons and the husbands have to raise their children all on his own.

The influx of foreign spouses not only disrupt the population composition of the country but also brought about much social problems for families here.

Cross-cultural marriages have brought along much stresses to our country as many couples belonging to his group divorced a few after marriage.

I have also known of Singaporeans women jumping on the bandwagon of ang mohs so that they can emigrate with their  foreign husbands.

I hope that our Singaporean women will give our local men the first choice when it comes to settling down as if not, we will see a nation of mixed cross-cultural marriages with many eventually struggling to hold their families together due to the differences.

4. Employment opportunites given to foreigners easily

As Singapore continues to open wide its door to foreigners for employment purposes, Singaporeans are feeling the effects of the unbalanced globalisation syndrome. One in three workers now is a foreigner.

Warned by several ministers that the economy will suffer if we do not welcome foreigners to our shore, Singapore faces all kinds of discrimination at the job front.

Without a proper vetting system on what kind of foreign talents we require, multi-national companies (MNC) have a field day hiring  their own people to staff positions in Singapore.

From employing low-end positions such as personal assistants to high-flyer bankers, MNCs continue to shun locals preferring to hire their own kind – without really having to  justify why such positions could not be filled by our locals.

In Australia, employers have to show proof that they have try their best to try and hire locals before they can make an attempt to hire a foreigner.

That is why employers over there will only hire PRs and citizens  as it is so troublesome and time-consuming to bring in a foreign talent.

The opposite scenario happens here when it is so easy to hire a foreign worker – regardless of the fact that local Singaporeans are capable of performing the job.

The employer only needs to submit the relevant documentation for the right kind of work permit and if he meets the criterion, he is most likely approved for employment purposes.

The Employment Pass (EP) work permit system is the number one enemy for our local workers as there is no quota to  how many EP holders a company can hire.

If the company can pay the EP holder a minimum of $3000 and has a degree to boot, there is every chance that his work permit will be approved.

In Europe and US whereby employment opportunities are  at it’s dismal worst, many foreigners have harass their high-ranking business friends to pull them over.

To make matters worse, many expats who work here are paid double the salaries of local workers – performing about the same work scope.

According to HSBC Expat Explorer Survey 2010, 45% of expats earned more than $265, 000 (US$200, 000) in Singapore.

According to the survey report, Singapore is ranked 1st by the proportion of expats who make more $200k USD a year. Bermuda is 2nd with 40% of its expats in the same income bracket. Hong Kong is 3rd with 36%, and Saudi Arabia a close 4th with 35%.

According to the report, 29% of expats in Singapore works in the finance industry.

Many companies are also staffed mainly by foreigners especially those that require solid IT software skills.

Companies such as HP, Barclays, Deutsche Bank, Citibank and many  other foreign-based MNCs continued to hire thousands of  Indians to carry out programming work – paying them at least $5000 for  a junior programmer position.

A employer has recently asked me to supply him programmers for some work in his company but I told him that Singaporeans have long lost out on our programming skills.

During the semi-con boom few years back, our IT staff have all turned into managers and soon they have forgotten how to carry out simple programming stuff.

Singaporean tertiary students have also shun away from studying IT as they know that they will not be able to compete well with a foreign Indian who is seen to be more articulate in his programming skills.

Nevertheless, the Singapore worker  on the other hand,  continues to suffer from a lack of minimum wage legislation and our wage merely grows 0.3% for the past decade.

In a survey done in 2009 on the hourly compensation cost for the manfacturing sector, Singapore lagged behind in 21 place for paying it’s workers US$17.50 an hour. Norway tops the compensation cost by paying it’s manufacturing workers US$53.89 an hour whereas Philippines bottoms the list at US$1.50 an hour.

Young graduates, especially those from the arts faculty, could receive a job offer with a starting salary of around $2000! Only the government  sector can be counted on to adequately pay their fresh grads close to $2500 for new entry positions – making the civil service the top most sought-after sector for young graduates fresh out of universities.

Employers from the small and medium enterprises have no choice but to hire PRS or foreign workers using all kinds of work permits to staff their  positions as they are often the ones who pay poorly and demand the most work.

The average local household income of a typical Singaproean family was a surprising massive $7,440 – surveyed for the 2007-2008 period – but  less than 60% of Singaporean hoseholds earn that figure (singstat.gov.sg).

The average monthly income of 60 per cent of the households was 5,480 Singapore dollars — nearly 2,000 Singapore dollars less than the national average household income.

The big difference is in how much the rich can save. Compare the average monthly incomes and expenditures of all the income groups. Apparently, the bottom 20 per cent live hand to mouth. Others can save. The top 20 per cent on average can save twice as much as they spend. You can see the difference here. All the figures are from the survey (pressrun.net)

The number of millionaires in Singapore is also  expected to more than double by 2016 to 408,000, Credit Suisse said in a recent report.

There are currently 183,000 millionaires in Singapore, the second richest country in the Asia Pacific region with an average wealth of 285,000 U.S. dollars.

Nevertheless, it is unknown how many of these millionaires are foreigners who have stashed away their unseen millions here to escape detection in their own countries. 

More worrying. our high Gini coefficient means that there is gross  inequality in terms of wages earned between the top and bottom 20% of income earners.

Mr Tharman, our DPM, said in his address at the Insititute of Policy Studies’ Singapore Perspectives 2012 Conference this week: “We have a higher Gini coefficient in Singapore compared to most larger countries because we are a global city. Hong Kong, London, the key American cities, and the leading Chinese and Indian cities in fact have somewhat higher inequality than Singapore. We can”t resign ourselves to widening inequality.  Unlike these other  cities, we are a country.  We have to try to contain inequality and ameliorate its effects on our society.” (Straits Times, 21 Jan)

Strangely, our government does not seem to allow minimum wage legislation to contain the growing inequality problem here flaming suspicion that the business community has enormous influence over the country compared to the voters.

Thousands of MNCs pulled out from Singapore  citing growing wage costs as one of the main reason for doing so during the semi-con meltdown in 2008. Many MNCs relocated to cheaper countries such as Vietnam, India or China.

Moreover, with an average inflation rate of around 2.5% for the past few years,  we are effectively  receiving negative growth for  our wages – with far less disposable income to spend compared to our foreign friends who received almost double the amount in wages.

It is no wonder our expensive pubs and fine restaurants are mostly patronised by foreigners who have a fat wallet to spend.

Our F1 formula events and artistic concerts at the Singapore Indoor Stadium are also mostly attended by rich foreigners who have money to burn – leaving us locals struggling to pay for all the utilities and town council bills.

It is also a mystery why MNCs prefer to spend an enormous sum on wages when they could hire a local worker at almost half the cost.

Foreign talents cost at least double that of local workers due to the expensive rental allowance here and many could not also match the productivity level of our more hard -working locals.

When I lunched recently in Asia Square foodcourt, I was saddened to see so many foreigners working there.

More than half of the office workers lunching there are either ang mohs, Indians or Filipinos – our local workers represented a far second in this new financial hub whereby all the big business boys congregated.

Are we so short in talent? Do we have to bring in so many foreign talents to make up for the shortfall in our local workforce?

Is there then also something deficient in our tertiary educational system which continues to limit the intake of higher-education students to about 23% of the primary school cohort?

Many netizens have speculated that it is a sinister plot designed by our government to allow in more foreign talents as there will always be this shortage of workers if we limit the number of tertiary places for Singaporeans.

Foreign talents are then welcome to become PRs and subsequently citizens as most foreigners-turned-citizens are loyal and most likely will vote for the ruling party out of gratitude.

As many as 130, 000 foreigners  have became citizens during the past decade and this represented about 7% of the total electorate size of 2.2 million voters.

Some have also speculated that a number of constituencies would have been lost to the opposition camp during the last election if not for this huge contingent of loyal foreign-breed citizens.

It is with this self-centred reason that the ruling party will continue to bring in large number of EP work permit holders  with the hope that  more foreigners will become citizens in preparation for the next election in 2016.

There is no other way to turn against the tide of anti-government onslaught which has increased with the popularity of online social media and a younger group of antagonistic Singaporeans yearning for political change.

The last I heard is 50, 000 Singaporeans remained jobless though this figure represents less than 2.5% of  the total unemployment rate. The US unemployment rate stays at close to 5%.

Transitioning.org continues to speak to PMETs – many at the wrong age group of between 40-55 years old, staying on the sidelines while the country churns along with high GDP growth.

They agonised over years of experience chalked up when they were much younger and now the country has  spew them out of their mouth when they are older.

Many have became cab drivers or property agents in order to survive.

The current high influx of foreign workers have also brought in all kinds of social problems as we have seen more dead bodies turned up in the island state.

There is also a lack of integration programmes with the foreigners and many prefer to keep to themselves.

Foreigner  issue will figure largely on the minds of Singaporeans especially when there is a financial crisis looming.

Many will also want to know which kind of workers the employers will lay off when the crisis bites later on.

All hell will break loose if the employers retain a majority of their foreign workers and retrench local ones.

Transitioning.org  assures our readers that we will be the first to gather a protest at Speakers’ Corner if we hear of such stuff going on in our country.

Singapore for Singaporeans!

Written by: Gilbert Goh

Mr Wei Chan sharing with the group of participants

Twenty participants turned up for the networking session on 20th Jan at 2.30pm at Chatter’s Cafe.

The turnout was a pleasant surprise as half an hour before, there was  a sudden heavy downpour.

My heart sunk as normally Singaporeans will not brave the rain for such events.

Transitioning.org has all along held regular networking sessions and we invited speakers from all walks of life to speak to us.

We are priviledged to have three enthusiastic speakers who took turns to charm the small audience.

First to take off was Mr Wei Chan – owner of a few cafes in Singapore. This was his second time speaking with us as he also shared at the Quality Hotel event way back in September last year.

In his usual penchant articulate style, Mr Wei shared with us his entrepreneurial journey and what he saw in jobseekers looking for work.

” Don’t show me your paper qualifications but tell me what you can add value to the organisation,” Mr Wei challenged his audience – some of whom are out looking for work.

Young, successful and energetic, Mr Wei is the current group of Generation X businessmen who did well when they ventured out on their own.

Mr Wei ended  by sharing how he wanted Singapore to view foreign workers and foreign talents differently.

“Foreign talents are the ones that rob Singaporeans of work but foreign workers are here to do the jobs that Singaporeans dislike,”

Mark the cab driver showing off his speaking skills

Next to share is Mark who is in transition for close to seven months.

Armed with powerpoint, Mark went about in his crispy way sharing how he ended up driving cab for a living.

“The job suits me as I like people and it gives me the chance to me of service to them.”

“I want them to sit in my cab and feel relaxed so I switch on some soft music for them to hear.”

“Sometimes, they shared with me their problems and I listened to them – its the closest I felt to being a counsellor!”

I have always joked to Mark that LTA may one day hire  him to do recruitment talk for cabbies for them!

Mark also brought along some pineapples tarts which he made  every Chinese New Year and we chewed on the yummy pastries as we listened to his sharing.

It is people like Mark who provided me the motivation to  soldier on for the jobless community here in Singapore.

Sometimes, the burden of the work is so heavy that I almost wanted to throw in the towel a few times.

Very often broke and sometimes sued by companies for articles we posted on the  blog, it is a thankless job whereby the route is lonely and very much less travelled.

There is no SOP to follow and you have to chart your own compass on which direction to take when tackling the thorny issue of unemployment.

We don’t mind locking horns with the government but we do need lots of encouragement and funds out there so that we have the necessary ammunition to fight on a level footing.

The flood of emails requesting for assistance also increase a fair bit lately – a bad omen that things are already not very positive on the job front.

Next to share is Mr Leong Sze Hian – a surprised speaker who emailed me a few hours before the event.

A noted speaker and a very eloquent one too, Mr Leong shared off the cuff firstly  on his radio programme whereby many jobless people also became financially distressed.

Using lots of anecdotes, Mr Leong encouraged the group to be independent and try not to panic when there is financial problem.

” Go and talk with your MP, CDC and the self help group,” he encouraged.

“Don’t be shy and don’t let the ego thing hampers you from seeking proper help.”

He also added that a jobless person could not really job search properly if he is always worrying about money issue.

His best punch line is: “Don’t look down on yourself and always look up. Go for jobs that are always in tandem with your skills and do not believe that you should go lower if you can’t get what you want.”

We ended with a 15-minute Q and A session whereby the three speakers took questions from the floor.

I was glad that the session went smoothly and  the participants chatted after the event to network and encourage one another.

Transitioning.org will organise more of such networking events in future and hopefully jobless Singaporeans will benefit from such sessions.

Written by: Gilbert Goh

As I was looking through the advertisements  for the position of sales and marketing positions, I chanced upon this advertisement by Achieva Marketing on Jobstreet and went to apply.

I later received an email confirming me for  the interview and was elated. The advertisement could be found here.

Soon after, they contacted me and the voice of persuasion convinced me to accept the interview offer. It was an ang moh and surely these people are  trustworthy and reliable.

Nevertheless, I noticed that the company website – Appco group – is different from the company that sent me the email. Both  have entirely different names and I became suspicious.

However, I decided to attend the interview at St Andrew building in Tanjong Pagar in order to find out more.

As I reached the building, I saw the name of the company – Appco group – as pointed out in the website which was also different from the one that I applied through the advertisement. My heart sunk…

I took the lift up to see a nice office and I heard some cheering and music in the background. I was told to fill up a form and as usual, wait. I must have spent a lot of time waiting while job searching but at least I got a chance to attend interviews…

Without interviews, you are doomed and your spirit on the ebb…

A guy with a suit soon  came and called me out. I stood up and shook hands with him and I introduced myself. Thereafter, he ushered me into his office.

So far so good…

I noticed that  his office was spacious – just a computer, sofa and a side-table with 4 books on it.

The books are basically on how to  get rich, be productive, etc.

I just sat in front of him answering all his questions. After I am done answering his questions, he explained how  organizations approach their firm for sales and marketing consultations to grow their businesses.

They include big boys like Singtel, Starhub, National Heart Foundations, etc.

My heart just went WOW…

Next came the bombshell – he told me to go for a trial session where I have to stand in the MRT station to sell National Heart Foundations’ donation plea to people!

The donation is on a monthly basis where one will get tax rebate if he/she decides to donate. I did not like the idea of approaching people. Thus I told them that I will consider their position if I am ready. ​

Another advertisement of a different  company  name   Catalyst Marketing – where they advertised in Hardwarezone forums under employment section – is also dubious. They will come up with fanciful  titles such as sales management trainee, sales and marketing executive to trick people to apply  for such nice sounding positions but its all a scam.

Usually, they will lure graduates or people who are currently unemployed to their company and give motivational talks about salesmanship. The advertised jobscope for sales and marketing position is totally different from the one that they painted when they met up with you. It is very likely that  this company uses 3 different company  names but actually belongs to  one company.

I urge all local Singaporeans to do a thorough check on companies who called you for interview as some might be scam out  to exploit our vulnerable local workforce for profitable gains.

Anonymous

Editor’s Note: A check with the company website Achieva Marketing linked us to the Appco group – which is part of the Cobra group of companies. It is unsure whether Achieva Marketing is directly linked to Appco group. We will post any response from the companies involved in this article.

7 Ways To Overcome Disappointment Of Job Rejection

Written by: Gilbert Goh

Its true that a job rejection can be as devastating as a retrenchment. I have received a few emails from jobseekers telling me how crushed they have felt when they were rejected by potential employers.

Hopes are raised and expectations accelerated  when we went through several rounds of interviews with a potential employer only to be brought right back to earth  when we are told that we have not been selected. The blow is doubly hard if its a position that we really fancy.

Some people find the job searching journey tiring especially when  they have been rejected many times. Their self confidence takes a battering and it takes a strong person to lift that sagging shoulder again to resume another round of job hunting.

Some have even put off  searching for a permanent job and rather concentrate on doing simple casual jobs to avoid the disappointment of being rejected again.

I have listed  the following seven ways to better manage our disappointment when we are faced with a job rejection:  

1.Hope for the best but prepare for the worse

Psychologically, you lower your hope considerably when you adopt this attitude.  Of course, you need to still put on your best when you face the interviewer but you have a build-in mechanism to dampen that hope abit. Disappointment is hard to bear and that’s why some jobseekers even fail to turn up for an interview for fear of being  rejected by the employer. Its also a stab to our  self esteem and people with low self confidence will particularly feel it harder.  Hope for the best but be prepared for the worse may be the key remedy here.

Most interviewers see at least 8 to 10 potential candidates to fill  a position  and  you have a more than 90% chance of being rejected at a job interview - so  never take the rejection personally. There will always be someone who is better than us in most cases but we only need one good break to get selected. 

2. Its natural for us to feel disappointed

 We are all human and have the capacity to feel hope, love, sadness, disappointment, ecstasy, etc. It will be very ironical if we only embrace the feel-good feelings but not to accept the bad ones. Try to learn to embrace the negative feelings such as misery, disappointment and sadness but not to dwell on them too much. Give yourself some space to feel lousy for a while but get over the disappointment  as swiftly as you can.

Many people I know will do anything to be happy but avoid the pain of negative feelings by drowning in alcohol and even self destruction. So, learn to accept that it is human to feel sad and disappointed when something we dislike happen to us and manage that negative feelings well.

Do not take the rejection personal and know that 90% of our interviews will always not succeed – we need to find that 10% success rate.

3. Find a safe place to rest and nurse

After being rejected by a potential employer, very often, I would head for the beach to quieten my soul. Its a place where I feel most tranquil and serene. The sound of the waves and calls of the seagulls have a theraupetic effect on me. Very naturally, my disappointment would melt away immediately when I hit the sand and I would be ready to face the world again. So,   find a place where you know you can be at peace with yourself. We all need to find somewhere to nurse our sorrow and get recharged  to take on the world again.

4. Tell it to someone

Talking to someone helps – its theraupetic to share your disappointment with a friend or spouse. Sharing your hopes and thoughts to someone close allows you to discharge off those negative pent-up emotions within you. As the physical body needs to discharge off our waste, the soul also needs to get rid of the negative emotions. Many people feel particularly calm after speaking out what’s on their mind/soul and some have known to pay therapists to regularly have a chance to speak up on what’s troubling them.

So, always find a friend to confide  if you feel gutted immediately after a job rejection.

5. Do not sink lower

Many people who were rejected by potential employers have decided not to job search anymore for fear of being disappointed again. The slogan “Once bitten twice shy” does unfortunately apply also to the jobseekers.  Some take a while before they muster enough courage to look for another job again whereas others  never really want to find something that they really fancy for fear of being rejected again.

That is the reason why many jobseekers prefer to find jobs that are easy to get resulting in under employment for them. An engineer may now decide to work in the supermarket for fear of being rejected  by the employer if he applies for that much-sought-after  engineering job. He does not have the self belief anymore to try again.

One should continue to job search as soon as possible after a job rejection and go for the job  that best suit his experience and qualification. We do ourselves no justice if we apply for lower easy-to-get jobs for fear of being rejected at a job interview. We also never grow from that disappointing experience.

6. Ask for feedback

Its a pity that most jobseekers seldom ask interviewers  for feedback after the interview.  Most employers didn’t even bother to get back to their candidates unless he is the person they chose to be their staff worker.

In Australia, most employers will contact the candidates to inform them of their decision and sometimes they will provide feedback when requested by the candidates.

Asking for feedback is invaluable as it provides the person with first-hand information on how he fares during the interview. This can be done immediately after the interview or via an email a day later.

I was fortunate to have met a nice recruiter few years back who feedbacked  to me how I could improve on my interview skills. She told me that I tend to ramble on and offered too much unnecessary information.  She also asked me to change my resume format so that it appeared more professional.

Try to ask for feedback after your next interview and see if the interviewer will respond to your request. It is a sure way to improve on your interview skills if you have  heard from the horses’ mouth.

7. Be prepared for the interview

Many people go for an interview unprepared. They also feel anxious and this affects how they perform before the big event. If possible, have a trial run with someone you know before the interview. Prepare a list of common questions and have a friend run through them with you - this way you will feel prepared and confident. Most interviewers ask roughly the same questions and its not difficult to prepare them  before hand.

For example, 70% of employers will ask “What’s your known strengths and weaknesses”?

Research abit more into the company’s profile and core businesses so that you are able to speak the same lingo as your interviewers. If you have some friends working inside the company, speak to them to gain a better insight into the company’s operation.

This way, you are also way ahead of other interviewees.

Most Asians also can’t express themselves well enough and if they have the time they should attend some toastmaster activities to brush up their public speaking skills. We are too inhibited for our own good.

I hope that I have given you enough tips to help you overcome the   disappointment that comes  with a job rejection. Tough times never last but tough people do!

Hello Gilbert,

Singapore for Singaporeans indeed.

I work for a British company and I just want to share some of my thoughts on social divide, animosity and preferential treatment for the expats versus us locals.

My pay is very little only in the range of $2K ish -  I’m 28 and I have a diploma.

There is an Angmoh British PA –  she is only 24 and doesn’t even have O level qualifications but  got transferred here from UK office just because she was bored up in the UK,  wanted a change and her salary is DOUBLED mine!

What I know is some Angmohs here get a lot more pay like $8000 and $7500 versus locals like $3K to $4K and even less than $2K!  We are talking about the same job scope and target!?

How can this be? Forever ongoing inflation and our local pay only increased 3% in the last decade and these foreign talents just sailed in with doubled-up salary!

 And now I will have a new colleague and make a guess where he is from? Scandinavia! Just another angmoh  again!   Also I have a French fresh grad colleague. Why? Why even foreign fresh grads get a chance in OUR country? This is so absurdly ridiculous! I don’t talk to them much and just try to do my work. 

Also these people get more pay and everytime every other weekend or PH they go holiday and come back and brag about “Oh so lovely utterly beautiful” about whichever country they have gone to. I mean, using Singapore as a springboard to tour this part of Asia?  Come on…

Also the fact they don’t need to give to CPF -  our pay is so little and we are so burdened with CPF and housing loan.

Everyday,  they think we locals are so uptight,  can’t relax and are not happy. Of course what! What they expect when we have to make do with such pittance pay compared to theirs!

Anyway this is my rant but I’m sure many Singaporeans feel the same! We must do something now and fight for our country or else our children will not have Singapore anymore.

Lawrence

Sent from my iPhone

Dear Gilbert,

I am writing to request for your help to recommend a career counsellor whom I can get career advice.

I have graduated with a First Class Honours degree from a local university three years ago. I first joined a market research agency as I thought it was my passion. In the eight months there I took on a lower pay compared to fellow peers with similar qualifications and often worked 12-hour shift  five days a week.

The industry is also  flooded with foreign workers from India and the Philippines so agencies were able to get away with the terrible working hours and the lack of proper rewards. I felt that in the long-term, the job was not sustainable and took the advice of my fellow classmates and switched to a stat board  where I had a higher pay.

I was extremely unhappy with some of the things I saw and could not do anything about. After two to three months, I received an offer from ABC company and decided to join them.

Then the downturn hit. Just after I was confirmed, I was notified of an organisational restructuring. My position was made redundant.

I was given a new position but without confirmation of my new payscale and was promised that my pay would be increased as the role demands more of me.

I was told to wait for further instruction. I spent a total of five-six months twiddling thumbs but I was fortunate that I still had a job.

They axed my boss and relocated persons from other regions  to Singapore to form a regional team. Around the region, the marketing staff was  axed or re-grouped. The result was a very unhappy and insecure workforce and intense enmity between the old guards and the ‘new joiners’.

I was offered an opportunity with my current employer and given a minor pay cut. I took it up to escape ABC company.

After I joined the organisation, I found out that there were intense legacy issues that I had to deal with, I bit the bullet as I felt that I could not quit and run away again and I was afraid that I would be deemed a job hopper. I worked hard and took on the jobs that no one wanted to do.

The employers were calculative they knew my concerns and they knew that I would stay. They also knew that I am the hardworking type and capable of delivering results so I was loaded up with work that the other team mates were squabbling over.

At my recent appraisal last month, I was given the grading of Exceptional Performance 2 (Exceeding Expectations) however I was not promoted. I asked my employer why and they said that I only had 11 months of experience with them at the time of the appraisal and a lot of other reasons that I could not agree with (my bosses were promoted however, and I could only console myself that my good work had helped them shine).

Now, I have a full year’s worth of experience. It was a matter of a month from the time of appraisal, however it cruelly denied me of a promotion that I was led on to believe I would have had if I worked hard for the firm.

I am very dejected now and I do not know what to do. I do not wish to stay on in the firm as I do not trust my bosses and I do not think I am valued enough. My pay is now lower than my peers and I do not have AWS and I have been told I will get a maximum of one month’s bonus as my marketing role is considered a back-end job (cost incurring and non profit generating).

I know that my market value is much higher than that especially if I join the civil services but my previous experience is really jarring. I also feel that if I should pursue a marketing career, I cannot stay on in this firm especially since, it is treated as a cost-incurring unit just like it was in ABC. I could be restructured again for the same reason.   

I am afraid of being termed a job hopper and I am reluctant to switch, however, I am unhappy with the way I have been treated and it is keeping me awake at night. I am also afraid that if my next switch does not work out I will be left in the same situation again.

I also recognise a few things that have been recurring in my working life – I am a very trusting and compliant person who has difficulties saying no to superiors. I would work very hard and burn out, I would then request for time-off or salary increment for the increased job responsibilites that I’m taking up but I am usually unsuccessful and then I will switch jobs. I want to break out of this cycle and find out which career suits me and find a job that I can stay on for at least three years. I also want to learn how I can change to prevent the cycle from repeating and how to manage my bosses’ expectations better.

I hope you can offer me some advice and/or recommend an affordable career counsellor to me.

Thank you for your help, I sincerely appreciate it.

Kenneth

Dear Kenneth,

Thanks for your mail.

From what I read, I can see that you are a survivor and really a good worker – just that in some organisations,  promotions go to those who can curry favours more and sometimes its also political.

I remembered working in one company  and was brushed  aside by the management as I was both vocal and complaint too much for their liking. I can see that my boss also felt abit threatened by my experience and ideas. She is ten years younger than me also.

I was also denied my PB (performance bonus) as I worked less than a year despite proving my worth with a few high-profiled projects there. Naturally, my boss got promoted after she shone with the projects proposed by me. Everyone in the office thought so too adding to my disgust.

I guess by now you know that there is no perfect company to work in. Some companies will do better than others but we should find the right fit for ourselves.

A few things to ask ourselves when we work in a company:-

1. Is the company giving us enough opportunitites to prove ourselves  and build up our  portflolio? As you are still young, your portfolio needs beefing up and  you need to be patient also for the big break.

2. Are we getting enough support from the bosses and colleagues to do a good job as a team? No one can survive in a work environment whereby there is alot of competition and office politics. The reason I could  work in my first civil servant job for 13 years was because of the supportive colleagues I got there. I found out that having a good team that can  work well  together is really very tough nowadays.

3. Does  the renumeration commensurates with our services? This is personal of course and if possible do try to look beyond the dollars and cents here as your first few years of work experience is crucial for your portfolio and career building. Its true that if we job hop initially in our first few years of work, employers can label us as a serial job hopper.

Also try to look before work as the only satisfaction for your life. Ttry to volunteer for some non-profit organisations to help those who are less fortunate or have some hobbies to balance out.

I guess Singaporeans are sometimes too engrossed in work leaving out the finer things in life which deserve a second look.

I hope that I have help you with some career advice  here and let me know if I can help you further.

Take care.

Gilbert