Dear readers, the library will be closing in 15 minutes time. If you wish to…

Oops, sorry. Wrong announcement. What I meant to say was that… hey hey (见鬼了!) You are cordially invited to be part of this historical event - one that will never be repeated again in your life-time, nor  your descendant’s life times. Presenting to you….

Yes, the library@orchard will be closing in 15 minutes’ time on 30th November 2007, and there will be a bash on that day itself. So, if you would like to be part of this event, do reply to occl@nlb.gov.sg and indicate that you are going as a friend of Jean.

If you are not there for the library, at least be there for the food. Quoting one of the librarians there: there are no cheap food in Orchard. So, at least if the food doesn’t taste nice, you’d know that you have eaten expensive food. =P

Anyway, yes, do drop by if you are free! You can meet me there too! Woohoo! Heh heh… =)

I have, for the past years, believed that the Singapore government is doing their utmost best for the well-being of their fellow Singaporeans. Somehow, after writing my last entry, I had a sudden revelation that the ministers, MPs and administrators are probably living in a different world from mine.

I had a feeling that they don’t seem to understand the challenges that the average Singaporean faces - be it with the coping of GST or transport hikes or the hikes in essentials or oil. Rather, they seemed to be indulged in problems of their own, particularly in the renewal of the nation. I agree that this is an important issue because we do not want to end up having an ageing population which is no longer competitive or economically viable.

However, what the government seemed to completely miss is that in order for the nation to have renewal, the people must have the means to do so. If the idea of renewal means raising children regardless of family financial situation; that, as long as the government is able to ensure that we have at least 2-3 meals a day (to quote Dr Vivian Balakrishnan:
How much do you want? Do you want three meals in a hawker centre, food court or restaurant?) and a roof above our heads, then this probably explains why all the carrots (bonuses) are not working that well.

If the average Singapore has to give up everything he has just to help cope with nation renewal, then who is going to provide for the cost of bring the children up? At the end of the day, it’s still the parents’ responsibilities. As I have mentioned in the last entry, asking women to put their career on hold just to raise children is not going to work out well if the husband is not able to provide for the family. Unless the husband holds a relatively well paying job, it is quite unlikely that the average new family is able to cope with housing loans, cost of raising a child and putting aside a reasonable saving at the same time.

At best, the new family will be barely scraping through, but they can probably forget about “quality of life”. I do hope that the government realises that it is unrealistic to depend on or coerce the children into taking good care of the parents when they grow old in the future - which probably explains why they are starting to consider making annuities compulsory.

Somehow, the entire sum doesn’t quite add up at the end of the day. If I have to debate about this one day, it’d be on renewal vs. cost of living vs. quality of life. I do hope that the government is not really detached from the people’s lives, but this is as much as I can do - hope.

If I can live a day without having to worry about bread and butter in the future, then it’s something I may wish to consider - putting my career on hold and stopping to have kids. However, from the outlook of the cost of living in Singapore, I highly doubt whether this is really feasible.

Most families that I know of are dual-income families, i.e. both the husband and wife works and if there are children, they are usually looked after by the grandparents or a maid. Most of them are ordinary people with ordinary pay, and they have to finance their HDB flats and car, if they chose to have one.

However, if you add up the cost of paying for the house and car and putting money aside for the children, while having a saving (for rainy days or retirement, since we can’t really depend on our kids anymore nowadays - do I sound like some 60 year old lady?) at the same time, it is quite unlikely that a single-income family will make it through.

Thus I feel that there is some flaw with Mrs Teo’s statement - that women should consider putting their career on hold to have children. Let me elaborate why I feel this way.

Firstly, to have a child is a big responsibility for the family and it entails bringing up the child and putting him or her through education and providing for the needs of the child. This requires not just time and money, but also effort to bring up the child and inculcating in him or her the right moral values. These are things that are intangible.

Secondly, the moment a woman have a child, it may not be as easy as giving birth to one at one instance and going back to work in the next instance. There is a transition time needed to return to the work force and it may not always be as easy as planned because the needs of the child comes into consideration. In this aspect, I do not agree with Mrs Teo that “women ought to consider putting their career on hold to have children as they will a lot of time to focus on work later”. The care of the child should not simply be left to the care of the elderly at home, nor the maid.

Thirdly, there is the issue of expense. Having a child means an additional financial burden - I’m just bringing in a fact. While having a child might bring immense joy to the family, in reality, this means having to fork out more to feed one more mouth. Am I being pragmatic? Yes, because as the cost of living increases and as kiasu Singaporeans start their child young, there is no way I am not going to provide the best for my child if he or she asks for it. No, I am not spoiling my kid, but if he or she decides that something (in terms of activities, materials) is good for them and my spouse and myself agree with it, then I’d want to provide for my child. There is nothing wrong with this - it’s only natural for a parent to provide the best for the child. However, this would mean incurring more cost - possibly something that the family is not ready for.

Hence, considering just these 3 points, without elaborating into further details, I can see for myself that there is very little reason for me to suddenly give up everything to start a family. However, there is a caveat. I understand that economically, it is important for there to be renewal, i.e. each country should have a generation to “replace” the ageing population; but I feel that this “renewal” should only happen when the spouses are financially prepared. That is, there has to be advanced planning for a family and not when either of the spouse “feel like having one”.

Moreover, with the recent increases in oil, essentials, food, GST and transport costs, in addition to a whole list that every Singapore is familiar with, it is difficult to predict what happens the next day. Of course, if I based myself on these arguments, then I’d having a problem with “finding the correct time” since it seems like there will never be one.

That’s still where proper financial planning comes in. When we plan financially, we plan a buffer based on what we know of today’s world. While it may not be able to cushion the entire impact of hikes, it will, to a certain extent, absorb part of the impact. I also do not think the carrot hung by the government is doing any good, because the “bonuses” does not seem to be able to help much financially (I need clarification on amount and payment periods).

To ask every women to consider stopping work and having children is not really a responsible thing to mention, especially if the spouses are not sure of the financial drain that can come from it. While I understand that it was difficult for Mrs Teo and her husband to give up their career in Suzhou, not every family have a well-earning spouse to support the family single-handedly. I hope Mrs Teo can be more sensitive to the reality of the situation.

AS people look set to live and work for longer, women ought to consider putting their career on hold to have children as they will a lot of time to focus on work later, said a woman MP.

Making the pitch to young couples on Sunday, MP Josephine Teo (Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC) urged them to include both work and family in their lives.

Mrs Teo, who has a son aged nine and twin daughters aged seven, was responding to PAP members who raised concerns during a dialogue with PAP leaders about the low birth rate, despite national efforts to boost it.

The efforts have included a slew of cash and tax incentives - including a parenthood package of $575 million in 2005.

But the increase in the birthrate has been small: there were 400 more babies in 2005 than the year before. Last year, 36,200 babies were registered, 700 more than those in 2005.

Mrs Teo urged young couples to relook the conventional approach of putting career before children, as lifespans stretch.

‘If we think of…85 and beyond being a likelihood, what is the hurry to do the things that can be done later?’

‘I would arrange my life so that I have more children, start a family earlier, start it sooner, and then when the children are a little bit older, I can put my heart back to work,’ said Mrs Teo, a human resources director with the labour movement.

But putting children as a top priority was no easy decision, she conceded.

In fact, she and her husband, had made a tough call to give up careers in Suzhou, China, to return to Singapore, so Mrs Teo could tap on their families to care for the babies.

Article obtained from straitstimes.com on 12th November 2007

How can any game be without the cheerleaders? This is probably one of the good videos that I managed to capture during the intermission. =) Heh heh… Makes me wanna be a cheerleader too =P

PS: @DK: You have to be more patient… the lag lies with Youtube, not me

Where can you find people shouting “referee kayu!!!”, “P-fam”, “T-fem”, “Defend”, “Boooo!” and “Yes! Yes!” coming together? What sport do you think it is? Want to make a guess? Okie.. if you guessed football (soccer), rugby, hockey, volleyball, netball, captain’s ball, softball, baseball… then you are almost right. Right in the sense that there are balls in these games. Not so right in the sense that you are talking about the wrong balls.

I found that at the Singapore Indoor Stadium today - for the Singapore Slingers vs Adelaide 36ers basketball match.

For a start, I was late - and so missed most of the first period of the game, but not before witnessing some shots from the Slingers! Frankly, their performance exceed my expectation because I didn’t know that Singapore had a national basketball team - and one that could really shoot!

After the second period, there was an intermission and we were ushered to the VIP lounge where I got to chat a little with Hillary, Nic, Andy (?), Sabrina and MissCel - but being the shy (ahem) person that I am, I didn’t really talk much.

Ash also came by and talked about listing the bloggers from the Slinger’s website for reciprocal exposure - for the bloggers to get exposure from their site visitors; and for bloggers to introduce the sport to people who do not know about the Slingers.

Soon after, the match started and we went back to the seats to continue with the game. Slingers and the 36ers got off to a close game during the 3rd period, with beautiful shots from Grizzard (27), Janev (22) and Knight (16). Whenever the Slingers got the ball, the spectators will cheer them on, while the 36ers got boos… and lots of them to. Haha, I have never attended an international game before and was taken slightly aback by the overwhelming boos. However, this shows some unity within the Singapore supporters - at least we are united for something.

Do check out the video for a segment of the match! If Youtube is messing up with my video segment again, let’s hope some photos will make up for it for the time being. =)

And more coming up too! =)

 

In the 4th period, however, the performance of the Slingers seemed to drop and the gap began to widen from 0 to 3 to 5, then 7 to 9 and finally 20 points apart. However, the Singapore supporters never gave up and kept shouting “Defend! Defend!” when the opponents got the ball.

There was at least 2 instances when we thought the referee kayu’d. First was when the Slinger apparently back-courted (most people didn’t see it, but it could have happened) and everyone was surprised. However, the game went on. The second time was when there was apparently a hand-checking foul, but the referee blew the whistle only after the basketball shot by the 36er didn’t manage to go in - which I thought was wrong. Isn’t the referee supposed to blow the whistle at the point where the hand-checking happened and not after the attacker failed to score a shot?

I may not be a basketball pro, but… hmm… it just didn’t seem right.

At the end of the game, the 36ers led the game by 111-93, a 19 point difference. While most of the spectators and the 36ers themselves feel that the “match point” came at the 4th period, the Slinger coach felt that the entire game was off to a wrong start for the Slingers. Nonetheless, they now have 4 away games before coming back for a home game on the 2nd December, where you bet I’ll be attending.

And oh, did I mention that Mr Merlion was there too? Heh heh…. (^_^)”‘

Special thanks goes to Nic Aaron Khoo for the corporate tickets (and the VIP treatment we received as a result). The game was a good experience and I was glad I went for it.

Go for it, Slingers!!!