It’s half time here at the Singapore Indoor Stadium for the basketball match where the Singapore Slingers take on Wollongong Hawks. At 1/2 time, the score stands at 47-43, with the Slingers taking the lead. However, this was a score which is unexpected because the Slingers were not performing at all in the first 2 quarters. Then again, neither were the Hawks. Both sides were apparently trying their luck with 3 pointers but it was the Slingers who finally got it in not once, not twice, but at least 3 times.

Towards the end of the 2nd quarter, in the remaining 6 seconds, Michael Wong was called into the court - to get a personal foul and gave away 2 points to the Hawks. Not a very smart move, eh?

More blogging soon! Meanwhile… strong-D! Big-D! D-up! Back to the D…

6:10pm: There’s a break in the 3rd quarter where the spectators were entertained with a number from the Slingers cheerleaders. Subsequently, a whole of of 3 pointers seemed to be in the air, with the Slingers leading with 63-53 66-53 after 2 3-pointers. Indeed it is beginning to look like a good start to a nice finishing for this season.

8:20pm: Thanks to my SD card which literally self-destructed, I have no pictures to post as yet. Damn. I thought Kingston is supposed to be good? Damn. It sucks, and it sucks big time!

The only good thing was that, Slingers won 113-102 against the Hawks. =)

Retire? Don’t you even dare think of it. Don’t even listen to those so-called financial planners who ask you if you want to retire early. Come on, in the first place, you probably can’t afford to. Secondly, somehow you won’t be able to. If you somehow managed to retire early, then there may be something wrong with your taxes, or you must be getting some undeclared sources of income from somewhere. What?! The financial planners said that it’s actually possible? Then they must have done insufficient amount of homework. It’s not feasible at all. 

Of course, what was mentioned above is probably not a real scenario. It *is* possible to retire early - just that everyone has a different perception of what retirement is all about. To MM Lee, there’s no such word. In fact, retirement almost seemed like a dirty word to him, judging from the excerpts from him.

Extrapolating from that statement, I’d want to think that we have to work till we die - that if we had to die, it’d either be at the mills, or while we are preparing to go for work; not in our sleep, not while we are resting. In fact, this is what I told a potential financial planner, which she rebutted that it’s possible and that it all depends on how we define it.

For a moment, I started thinking of taking on a casually job that I enjoy, getting to work slightly later and knocking off slightly earlier to join my other aging friends in old folks activities - which may include a leisurely evenings in the park and enjoying gourmet red win and cheese and biscuits. However, I was brought to my senses when one of my shifu told me that in reality, it means staying on the same job on 1/2 pay or less and doing almost the same sh*tload of stuffs. Needless to say, he was complaining about it but there’s nothing much he could do. Working in his old age was assured since inflation is high and everything is becoming more expensive by the day.

So at the end of the day, I guess I’d work till I die, pretty much literally.

THE three words ‘retirement means death’ reverberated around the Suntec Convention Centre theatre yesterday as Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew addressed the problem of an ageing society at a dialogue.

‘We’ve got to educate those about to retire: Don’t retire, work. Retirement means death,’ said MM Lee with a laugh.

And he meant every word of what he said to participants at the Silver Industry Conference and Exhibition (Sicex).

‘I would not be able to speak to you in this way if I had not led a very active life, connected with many people throughout the world and tried to interpret it to make sense for Singapore,’ said the elder statesman, who turns 85 this year.

Like many developed and fast developing countries around the world, Singapore has an ageing population due to longer lifespans and declining birth rates.

‘Maybe if we had not started family planning, it would not have been so bad. But then we would not have (economic) growth,’ quipped Mr Lee to much laughter from conference participants.

Earlier in the 70-minute dialogue, which revealed a light-hearted and more personal side of the MM, he said that Singaporeans who believed they could stop work at 55 to drink wine and play golf were ‘done for’.

‘If the mindset is that ‘I’ll reach retirement age at 62, I’m old, I can’t work anymore, now is the time I enjoy life,’ I think you’re making the biggest mistake of your life.’

Research has shown that those who retire and lead sedentary lives ‘die off very quickly’, said the man who started jogging regularly in his 50s and now also keeps fit by swimming and cycling.

‘With nothing to do, no purpose in life, you’ll just degrade, go to seed. The human being needs a challenge.’

He maintains a packed schedule of international travel, including official trips every year to regional powerhouses China and India.

MM Lee was sharing his experiences of active ageing with Sicex participants.

The four-day conference, which ends tomorrow, explores ways to grow the seniors’ market in Singapore and the region.

Asked by Dr Kanwaljit Soin, who runs a non-profit organisation for older women to age successfully, if Singapore could do away with its retirement age of 62, Mr Lee said he personally did not believe in such a concept.

However, he said it was very difficult to deviate from international practice.

He suggested that a senior citizen ‘go on working for as long as he can, but changing the nature or the intensity of the work as he ages’.

Mr Lee also defended Singapore’s Central Provident Fund (CPF) scheme and argued against pensions for the elderly, which have to be supported by tax revenues.

The CPF scheme, he said, helps Singapore to remain competitive, saying it aims for ‘minimum tax rates and maximum self-sufficiency’.

‘This way you are not passing the burden (of caring for the elderly) to the next generation,’ he added.

clare@sph.com.sg

Article obtained from straitstimes.com on 13th January 2008

It seemed like the number 5 (brought to you by Sesame Street?) had been very popular recently - like how Fauzi spoke of the 5 easy steps to increase google pagerank, and how secondary 5 students were asked to join ITE instead of sitting for their O levels exams - which may potentially lower the school’s ranking. Well, apparently the LTA had built more ERPs in heartlands, bringing the vision of Every Road Pays closer to heart.

MOTORISTS can expect to pay more to use the roads over the next few months when five new ERP gantries - mostly in the heart of residential areas - are up and running.

The gantries are in Upper Bukit Timah Road (outside Hume Park), Toa Payoh Lorong 6, Upper Boon Keng Road, Kallang Bahru Road and Geylang Bahru Road.

The Land Transport Authority (LTA) said these gantries will be switched on when traffic flow falls below ‘optimal speeds’ - defined as 45kmh to 65kmh for expressways and 20kmh to 30kmh for non-expressways. Sources expect the ranges to be raised this year, which means Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) could be implemented on more roads - even in the evening.

Some residents are already voicing concern over why the new gantries are in their neighbourhoods.

Commenting on the gantry outside Hume Park, Bukit Timah resident Bervyn Lee, 43, said: ‘The road here can get jammed. But will a gantry solve the problem?

‘My feeling is that it will just redistribute traffic around,’ the director of sports culture at the Singapore Sports Council added.

Toa Payoh resident Tony Chan, 68, a retiree, wanted to know why the Lorong 6 gantry was at the entrance to the residential area.

The LTA spokesman said the new gantry plugs a gap in an outer ERP cordon that seals off non-expressway routes into the city. He said if gantries were at exit points of Toa Payoh, more residents in the estate would be affected.

But the spokesman added that ‘the new gantries are built because traffic conditions on these identified roads may soon deteriorate below the optimal speed range’.

When the new ones are operational, the motoring public will have more than 60 gantries to navigate. Indications are that more will come as the Government shifts the taxation burden from vehicle ownership to usage.

Gantries in the residential heartland will also have an impact on those who take taxis.

Cabbies tend to avoid ERP-controlled roads because of the extra cost incurred. Hence residents in Toa Payoh, for instance, might find it difficult to hail a cab in the morning when the Lorong 6 gantry is switched on.

‘To many drivers, ERP is a big deterrent,’ said cabby Myke Purba, 62.

christan@sph.com.sg

Article obtained from straitstimes.com on 12th January 2008