$12 per month for insurance is too……….. much money for our country to spend for each NSman. How else are they going to get enough money to buy up all these devalued stock and bonds as well as to bail out all these money losing foreign companies? Our NSmen can take care of themselves with the $400 allowance what???

I am on the way to lose 10 years of my life, with not a single chance to outperform the foreigners. They are always on top of me, using the single reason that “You are going away for 2-3 weeks, you can’t do all these work now. I will take care of it. No worries.” I have the heart to work hard but my time is taken away from me again and again. As result, i do not have good bonus as compared with the foreigners. And my boss do not see me being useful in this way at all! I am so discardable.

Is there no end to this? I am losing cash and career terribly. And all my other stuffs are going downhill together with my cash and career. In this period of great depression, this has aggravated my stability of my employment and eventually my life.

It’s hard enough to get a job already. I still have to worry about getting ousted out of the company due to the foreigners having more time to work than me.

Knowing that this trend will continue and will not stop, i must think of a way to get out of this country. This has become a forsaken place for me.

Too late. Most people in my generation (born in 80s and late 70s) hold this mindset.

I believe that full time National Service can be shortened to 12 months. This is supported by the detailed research by Sylvester Lim (#15)

Why is it that the mainstream media does not reveal this? Simple – cos diseases is big money! This itself is not a nation-wide problem; it’s a global problem affecting not just Singapore.

If the number of foreigners is a factor for NS-enlistment review, I am afraid our government has more reasons to say NS is compulsory.

When my ex-colleague tried to call me back to work when I was sick with fever and I didn’t even know my right hand’s ligaments were torn at that time (still waiting for the day I meet my hand specialist), I told her Nope I am NOT coming in – I’ve submitted a report on everything that needs to be attended to, down to the little details of what belongs to which customers, via email to so-and-so. Get that report from her.

“Only in the army can they force you to stay behind.” :/

Year: Early Eighties.
Location: Nee Soon Range.
While serving our reservist obligations at the firing range, a call came over on the signal set from HQ (the days before cellphones) of the need for one of the man to report back to camp with regard to a family emergency. The soldier was transported back to camp with his rifle, having been instructed to hand it in to the armoury in the event that he is needed back home immediately.
Location: Camp HQ (reservist)
Upon our return from the range, eager to book out to return to our civilian affairs, it was discovered that the soldier who had left the camp to attend to his family matters had not return his High Powered Bolt Action Scoped Rifle. A search conducted in the camp failed to recover the missing weapon. That resulted in a camp lock down for the rest of us. We were real pissed. Chain of command was supposed to have been informed. Luckily for us, a more intuitive member of the squad decided to check undeneath the mattresses of our bunks and discovered the missing weapon. Our joy that we could go home then was cut short by the news that we need clearence from higher ups.
Two hours later, the clearance came , we were told from SB (Security Branch), the bodyguard unit of the ministers.
I remembered the blank but telling faces of all my mates when we were told that.
We never talked about that incident ever. Not in the years of training following did we ever talk about that. I guess it proves that certain things can cause different people to handle things the same way.

The Poison Shrimp doctrine is no more.

In a recent survey by MyMailMoment (http://www.mymailmoment.com/mmmoment.web/HomePage/content.aspx?page=mybulletin-press), it is found that among the respondents, “slightly more than half “will stay and fight for Singapore in the event of war””. I wonder which half it is – the half that is serving/has served NS, or the other half that did not.

You can understand why not many are willing to risk their lives and limbs to protect the country.

Not when a national serviceman’s monthly allowance is equivalent to one-man-hour of the Prime Minister’s salary; and an army guy’s annual allowance package is just about the half-day salary of a Minister. Pay peanuts and you get peanuts.

Not when being away from your job/office desk/food stall for up to 40 days a year to serve the country means you have to work double hard to make up for the lost quarterly sales targets to match your female and/or non-Singaporean colleagues and/or competitor vendors. While there is make-up pay as financial compensation, there is no substitute for lost productivity, lower output, missed sale targets/deadlines, forgone tenders/deals, and other elements that contribute to longer term objectives in one’s professional career or business.

So does democracy remove feudalism from societies by leganising it?