It’s okay and I think others will understand as well, don’t take it too hard. I believe it is just an honest mistake. We are only human and we may slip sometime. The difference in we common people is that we hold ourself accountable and stand corrected.

Come now my friend, you flatter this old fart here. I am not as wise as I would hope I like to be. Likewise, your comments posted in many articles had me viewed things in a different perspective and it is too been a pleasure for me to have known you and others in this site. Thanks TOC. There are quite a lot of posters and commenters that I felt are genuinely contributing to a good cause. If only our younger fellow citizenry are to be more proactive in public discourse (I think the scene is changing gradually for the better), we need to encourage them more to participate.

Thank you for your well wishes. I think fellow citizenry will feel happier and the warmth if we are to uncover more of the good side of Singapore. In this very trying time, a very challenging and tough year ahead indeed, the least we can do is to show others that it is not that difficult to show a little compassion and be more sensible to the less fortunate and those who may be or are in dire straits. Let’s be a little more receptive of differing and sometimes extreme views, after-all we are and should be matured enough to differentiate and respect every individual’s contribution. Speaking for myself, I will certainly hope and will try my very best to keep a sober mind when commenting on teething issues that is of my concerns.

My sincerest apologies to TOC and readers at wide for digressing from the subject matter of this article. Similarly, no intention of any disrespect to the author Mr. Jack Sim who contributed this very innovative piece. Cheers!

Sincerely,

Observer (SG-HK)

My apology to You and anyone disturbed and perturbed by my description of Geylang, I actually wanted to call it Whorerland(to rythme with Wonderland) but the fingers were a little too fast.

Sincerely speaking, I did not think of satiring anyone but to draw some real examples of Sundown(night-operating) Vice Industries with multi-million and multi-billion(projected) dollar turnovers. Because they are vice related, I do not know money made from them will bring comfort and happiness to the people at large. However, I am very certain of their deleterious effects.

It has been a great honour and pleasure to get to know You in this Cyber Highway, your sincere, candid, didactic and wise comments had provided me much enlightenment and I must say I appreciated your kindness very much.

I would like to hereby wish You a healthy and happy good life.

Yours Truly: patriot

I think it is not so nice a description of Geylang. If it is meant to humor me or a satirical remark to our friend Jack Sim (the founder of WTO) I can accept that. Those poor souls working in that district will change their profession if they have a choice (not that they enjoy what they are doing now). Let’s not risked being accused of being discriminative.

Anyway, I do not want to further speculate what will really happen with regard to the IRs. Social issues linking to it is not rocket science and i think there will be issues to address and resolve in time to come. Having that S$100 entry barier is not going to stop Singaporean addicts from patronising. Without a doubt, the IRs will yield job vacancies for employment (that is in reality). As to whether how profitable it will turned out to be (be it directly link to the IRs or a leverage “as the government sees it” to lure more tourism dollars it is anybody’s guess with the recession looming ahead).

All I can share (with some of my HK friends working in the gaming industry in Macau, the picture is pretty gloomy. It is a startling difference comparing to year 2007. Nevertheless, it is not jus this industry wil be hit. Industries of all walks fo business will be hit hard.

The recession is very real and it looks like a long hard winter ahead (at least for Hong kong, here we are already feeling it and it has only just begun). As I wrote I just received a call from a friend telling me that she had lost everything she owned including her home and she is jobless with a young schooling toddler. You can only sigh and no amount of consolation or words will soothe the sufferings. Time to do more counselling.

the Mustaffa Model has a sister in Geylang(Whoreland), it too operates round the clock and peak after sundown. Not only the toilets there need upgrading, the beds too, so multi-million dollars worth of transactions per year? Or more?
are contributed to our national economy.

And the soon to be in operation Integrated Resorts will operate non stop and likely to peak in the evening onwards too. It is claimed by our planners and leaders that hundreds of thousands of jobs will be created and billions of profits are expected.

Wow, Singaporeans will be richer, have ‘higher standards’ of livings, better leisures and funs, less crimes and more time for families and friends. I hear all these but just can’t believe the wisdoms in them. For all we know in time to come, the opposites happen.

patriot

“I can’t substantiate my claim as HDB does not release demographic breakdown of buyers for new and resale flats. However, I made this claim out of personal sentiments and observation that from the Singaporean ritual / life-cycle that many young couples register themselves at ROM early so that they can buy flats. This is an act that has always baffled me because a young working couple still has a risky loan profile even if both are working.”

i can’t link your statements. Your concept might be backdated, would be open for discussion or another article if suitable. Depending on which side you stand, risk profile is also upward bound as you grow older, this discounting the calculations of Present value of dollar vs the % rise in HDB prices.

Thank you for those kind words. I am just simply sharing my thoughts as an ordinary folk and by no means trying to lecture others. I think most of us (at least I can speak on behalf of old folks who weathered through quite a fair bit) are less susceptible to material wealth temptation and may be have the yearning for a more balanced life. May be it has got to do with we are lesser educated (you are much better educated than I am. In Singapore term, I am only primary 6 educated) with simpler mindset. Like the chinese expression: “知足常乐”.

It is nothing wrong though for being entrepreneur, but I think the importance is that we must not deviate too much away from the nature of things. You are absolutely right to say that we human beings had created the climatic problem unto ourselves through countless inventions that then everyone have no idea what it does to our planet earth. Without a doubt, those inventions (and are still at works), does create the convenience and improved the living but at a very high price that now we are scrambling to resolve (barring from economic means ~ it is sad that between countries, the top people are still mainly talking about how much it cost to reverse the course of climate warming).

What has been done cannot be undone, but hope is that the world gets to realize that we have got to slow down and think and act globally to save ourselves from extinction. I like the slogan of the One Earth ~ Why are we here advertisment that flashes in the National Geographic Channel. A very strong statement indeed. If people would just stop, slow down and listen to the heart beat of planet earth. There is no other home we have got as an alternative if we destroy it with deforrestation, spew more toxic waste to pollute the climate….etc in the name of progress. At what cost?

For one thing I know, it will not affect you, me, Jack or anyone for now. But as civic and conscience minded people, I think every little bit of our effort do count for the sake of many many more future generations that live on this one and only human home (for now) call Planet Earth.

Or one day you might just find yourself living in the Matrix.

You should go talk to people like Jack Neo (the producer for local film “Money no Enough” and the likes about making your dream concept into a film. Whatever, I hope more good is done to give back to society and particularly aiding for the poor and needy. there is no reason why Singaporeans (after slugging through 40 some years to help build the nation should suffer).

Oh ya, I heard of the Macau event. Many would think it’s hilarious just going by the title event “Toilet Summit and Expo”. That is a world issue (mostly relating to African, Ethiopian, Some parts of India and China region). Even some developed countries. I recalled I read a report some years back on this issue. An estimated 1million+ children die annually because of the lack of sanitation. Quite alarming isn’t it?

While you are at this, think of the dumping issues. 24/7 operation means most waste…etc.

Anyway, hope you have a successful outcome of this exhibition and hopefully the world understand a little more of toilet sanitation in relation to health. Being so entrepreneur minded, I reckon you will promote the water sanitation processing that Singapore had become renowned expertize?

I believe you are doing for a noble cause. Not many people like to be associated with Toilets and they think it is joke. But hey, that ’s why you shine and became the founder of the WTO right. How I wished the Singapore rich and successful business people have their conscience and compassion to do something worthy for the public without having to always relate it to profit. The same to be said for our government high paying high flying A-team.

You have expressed much of what I feel and think, my thanks and kudos to You.

Man(kind) exists as a creation of Nature and man is also the only species that turns himself into a machine because of his intelligence, inexplicable but true.

Beings(all species) evolves, but none except humans, want more than it needs.

Humans are not the longest living, they are given average life spans, about 70 years? All for material pursuits? Good results for studies, good money made by non-stop works?

No emotional and spiritual pursuits?

I have friends who rise from the bottom of the heap and are quite well off today, financially speaking. But many told me, they do not know what to do if they are not working. Simple statement but makes me sad, they are lost and losing the meanings of being. No family, no friend? Must have, right? No time for them, got works to do, “BUT DON’T KNOW WHAT TO DO WHEN NOT WORKING”. See the Problem?
Something not right lah!

Man wreaks havocs on Nature, upsets the Biological make-up of the Earth, upsets ones’ own BIOLOGICAL CLOCK and claim glories of being industrious, entrepreneurial and constructive contributions. If only Earth has less humans, It will suffer much less.

When the Earth suffers, It will repay the earthlings and in fact we are witnessing the effects of global warming, famine, drought and other natural calamities. We humans brought them upon ourselves!

Spirit of enterprise is spirit too, but, it is not the only spirit. There are spirits of humanities(human relations), joys(happiness-wellbeing of the mind) and love. It is important to have a balance between material and spiritual needs and moderations in the pursuits of both provide the equilibrium.

Please do not damage the Earth and THE SOUL OF HUMANITY TOO MUCH.

patriot

Jack, for this to work, does that mean we will also need to have a night shift for schools?

Maybe if there are some Singapore film makers out there, we can start to do it. I saw the MICA is giving money away for such endeavor.

Strange you mentioned Macau. I am right here in the Grand Waldo hotel in Macau and the whole island almost runs 24/7, but not in the way Timeless Zone suggested.

Tomorrow, we open the World Toilet Summit 2008, with the Crown Prince of Holland, Chair of UN Sec-Gen Advisory Board for Water and Sanitation doing the honor.
24 governments and delegate from world-wide comes together to solve the sanitation problems where 2.5 billion people have NO toilets.

My job is to dream and make the dreams come nearer and eventually come true.

The solutions are to convert the problem into a business that both rich and poor can participate. It is getting traction and even the LKY School of Public Policy is planning a new course for Executives to join the Sanitation Business.

All WTO events are organized at zero cost through a series of leverages. And I work for free.

You are indeed a young and idealistic Entrepreneur. No, the cited examples (PC & TV…etc) did not fail to beign with and it is small scale comparison. Think further what I mean….. Give you a hint. No product is above “**m**” and man is second to nature.

Anyway, my friend, I think there are quite a lot of things in life that needs fixing now (in particular tiny Singapore). Yes, we are world number three in terms of national reserves (SWF). Are you enjoying any bit of it? Are we? I wonder why there are so much sufferings if we are such rich nation.

May be a decade from now, if you inject this form idea again, it may be more receptive (don’t bank on it). I agree we need new breed of people (I reserve my comment on imaginative for it implies a connotation to fictional story writer to me personally), but you have to first change the top 20 percentile mindset. Do you think it is possible and how long do you envisage this happening?

You will have a better chance of success if you inject this idea to some cities in US or even some parts of Tokyo, Korea, Thailand, Vietnam. Funny that I did not mention Hong Kong right? I live in it long, and the people are not so “imaginative” to see a 24/7 operation.Another fine example in the making that you can trial on is Macau. Those Casinos are operating on 24/7 but not many other businesses (particularly non-related to gaming) followed suit. Macua is slightly smaller than Singapore and has the backing of China.

I disagree that sweeping statement that “human works on status quo”; that perhaps is a general statement more applicable to a large segment of Singaporeans.

For my ending note on human living philosophy, everyone has its own means and ways to keep thyself happy. We all knew the moment we came to this earth that someday we will pass on, that’s nothing sad about it. The important thing is, how do you treasure it and make your lifetime worthwhile in your own terms. This is an individualistic choice and no policies, no rules and no person can mandate how you choose to live with it.

Don’t be despaired or discouraged, if you believe you have a good idea and stick to it, you will probably had a better success rate in time to come after many rounds of refinement. Try presenting it as a fictional novel. Who knows someday, some holywood producer may be interested to make a movie out of it and lo and behold, the idea caught on and you fulfill your dream. Afterall, SPACE travelling and sending someone to the moon, starwars defence and a host of other deep space project were deemed cockamamie ideas to begin with.

We have got work to do. Let’s spend our time trying to help the most needy in Singapore in any ways we can. Be it any form of contributions, compassionate sharing, joining a voluntary social group, speak at HLP, sharing constructive advices through this blog or others, forming a brainstorm committee in cyberspace to share ideas, even just a word of thanks to those who are relentless in their efforts to make tiny changes to this unrecognized tiny red dot. Show the world that Singaporean indeed can be united for a good cause (we just need more time than others). Yes? may be? I seriously don’t know and have no answers to it.

>> have you not learnt from the fiascos? don’t just say you ‘hope’, ‘pray’ or ‘urge’ or ‘believe’ or ’suppose’ or ‘wish’ or ‘think’ but also give black and white assurance. Else, when things get implemented, the effect would be too great .

does Bush ring any bell?

what i mean is, your crystal balling is all fun and great. and you may even get another award for it but please please give black and white assurance and prove of concept before selling us your dreams. I dream more than anyone. I dream of more good years.

and why are you selling us the idea? does it appear that we can make any decision? Why not you send to LHL?

good good ah , you.

It seems to work but the current big losses in UBS, Citibank, Merrill Lynch, equity stokcs and overseas properties investments will set us back for many years, even if we take the looong view.

Singapore needs a new breed of imaginative people to come up with innovative ideas instead of relying on foreign consultants all the time to tell us what we can develop ourselves.

Innovation as always will sound bizarre at first due to the following reasons:

1. The draft version will always be imperfect and many considerations will be missed. That is why I am very happy to hear all the objections because they high-light the gaps to watch out for.

2. Its timing will often be premature and ahead of its time. Look at the inventor of the PC , or TV, or Automobile, etc. These people were all seen as failures at first. Many went bankrupt pushing their ideas just to let the second or third generations make success and money. The idea that time has come is the winner, but someone need to start the thought.

3. Human works on the safety of status quo. If the sun don’t rise tomorrow, what shall we do? This is countered by an equally adaptable human spirit that allows them to live in eskimo condition to desert nomad conditions. Once they adopt the norm, they will again like the status quo.

Please let me have more new objections or suggestions to refine this idea and to debunk it. Either way, it is very useful.

Finally, I have no general opinion of employers in Singapore. There are those who are immature and staff don’t enjoy working for them. There are those that communicate and win the hearts of workers. They excel.
This is a free choice world. We can move to new employer. We also need to love the employer , the workplace, the colleagues and the suppliers/ clients.

We cannot have confrontational stance even if this is justified because it does nothing to make us happy. We only have 80 years to live. We want to live each day with a smile, not always possible but we try our best.

Feeling demoralized is simply a clue to ask you to do the next thing to recover from unhappiness and be happy again. This works the same way a fever helps you recover from an attack.

All things finally lead to death. And knowing we are going to die tells us time is the inly currency of life, not material or money.

No economic sense, yes. But this is due to the policy of singles not being able to buy HDB until 35 years old. And as you say yourself, young couples have limited savings and salary isn’t as high as older ones either. Many can’t afford to buy private housing, and rental comes with assorted problems. It is easy to understand when you look at it as they want to live apart from their parents and other family members, to start a life of their own.

I can’t substantiate my claim as HDB does not release demographic breakdown of buyers for new and resale flats. However, I made this claim out of personal sentiments and observation that from the Singaporean ritual / life-cycle that many young couples register themselves at ROM early so that they can buy flats. This is an act that has always baffled me because a young working couple still has a risky loan profile even if both are working.

With 3 shifts, the rental would become “cheaper” in perspective. Demand would likely go up, and with that, rental would increase too, and wipe out the savings. Perhaps not in the short term, but I can see it happening in the longer term.

Regarding the move of entire families to night shift… well, might not be entirely necessary if there are enough individuals who would be more than happy to take the night shift. I know many, mostly young singles, who would, including me. Still, this is in part due to the advantages of night shift (eg. less crowds and a more serene environment) which would be wiped out by a 24/7 city. Perhaps one considerable advantage remaining is that they would get to enjoy the sun when they’re free. Right now, many of us probably wake in the morning, rush to the office / school. We spend all day working, and by the time we’re off work, the sun has set.

The Mustafa model is not new to me neither that can be a model for other commercial area. On a retail basis it may be an added value for surrounding residence as a convenience. Which come first, 7/11 stores or Mustafa? Rather Kopitiam had that 24 hours concept before Mustafa if my recollection serves me right. Did it work well?

You mentioned shift means 2 shift of free rental that is true to a degree but you neglected the operating cost and its probable return. Whether it is worth for businesses to invest in it (this again falls back to the demand and supply issue and the business nature) and I am not too sure that business employers are generous enough to share the fruits with its employees.

Curious to know, what do you think of the general Corporate Employer mindset in Singapore? Why do people currently need to clock an average of 10 hours work a day? Motivation for more financial rewards? I really like to know what are your honest thoughts on this one in particular the mindsets of the Singapore Employers by and large. Might I add, include what these employers think about the older workers and how they are treated. Afterall, your IDEAL NEW SIngapore is for the entire citizenry right?

You said if the entire family move to the same time zone and enjoys all facilites in that time zone, family won’t have to split up like they are doing now and deprive of quality time with each other..I taken you have make the assumption that 24/7 education system will have to be in full force right? You have given a thought to the young ones? Assuming the working members of the family starts work in the midnight shift, is that healthy human living particularly for the kids?

Ever thought of the transistion period? You want the poor kids to ecperience such brutal arrangement? When should the 24/7 start? Just this alone is enough to cause distress in any family. Please do not tell me that given time to adjust that is alright. I will very disappointed if this is the expected reply.

Sometime it is okay to imagine living in a made believe world (good subject matter for a fictional novel), that is one way of releasing overstress from work. When you mixed fiction with reality in an extreme manner, it is time to take a break from work and relax yourself and get in touch with nature again. It is not mistaken with misunderstanding. Coing what my cyber friend “Patriot” wrote a while back, there is a reason why the Sun set. I would like to add, there is also a reason why the Sun rise. Think about it.

Life is not all about material wealth. In general, most human being if they can work on a 5 days week and 9 to 5 and spend the weekends with their family & friends, will I trade in for your “IDEAL NEW SINGAPORE”? Will you?

2. The motivation both for businesses and staff are more financial rewards.
3 shifts means 2 shifts of free-rental. The low-income family can earn a higher income if they work night shift: The difference is paid not by the boss but by the free rental income.

3. I used to volunteer on SOS distress phone service and I know the plight of the low-income groups from a very personal level. The whole idea of 24/7 is precisely to re-distribute wealth through maximization of national assets instead of further exploitation of the same human resources. It apparently has been quite misunderstood but as I mentioned earlier, it is expected to be misunderstood initially because the benefits needs some time to be appreciated.

4. You can triple the demand for buildings by not building more new buildings. Currently, we’ve over-built and a serious glut in shopping, offices, homes, and industrial buildings is expected in 2010. This is unnecessary and could have been avoided if we maximize the existing buildings’ use 24/7.

5. When entire family migrate into a same time zone and enjoys all facilities in that time zone, family won’t have to split up like they are doing now, deprived of quality time with each other.

As much as your ideas are very innovative indeed (that I must agree), but I think the problems are not with the shift work and better utilization of the Assets (as you cited as one of the factor), it is very much the mindset of the Singapore Employers at large (I will reserve my comment for later on the employees at large which is another important factor).

Some have commented market demand. Let’s analyze this for discussion sake.

1) You need a sizeable market to accommodate a 24/7 operation (I am making the assumption that you are not just targeting at the gaming. entertainment, hospitality industry which they may be or are already operating on a 24 hours basis ~ at least the gaming section come 2009 like those Macau or Vegas gaming houses).

Unless the rest in Asia follow suit (that will not happen for god know when), you can only largely trade with Europe and US and it is largely dependent on your geographical market focus based on your businesses. That may be already has quite a huge obstacles to hurdle across.

2) Let’s assumed manufacturing can run operation in 24/7(which some are I think), how many manufacturing are left in Singapore to begin with and whether the remaining manufacturing who are currently not operating in 24/7, do these employers have enough customers base and orders to sustain their business (we are not talking about short term here right)? Bare in mind that you are competing with others as well (not in the same time zone as Singapore)

3) I am making another assumption that granted the remaining sectors (Financial, Banking, Retail…etc) are running on 24/7, how do you think this is possibly done without the government public sectors also operating in a 24/7 mode? So taken your logic, and put off the idea of those non governmental or public sectors (like defense and what not); just take the Parliament, Judiciary and Immigration, if they function like what you say on shift work, that mean we have to triple the number of workforce currently in ops? Where are you going to find these resources? We had enough of high paying public servants. I think the citizenry at large cannot stomach a triple load. Can you?

There are more obviously, but let’s just deal with the above 3 items for now.

Singaporean employers by and large are not as entrepreneur as you might hope them to be (go global? yes, in thinking but not in real action because there are constraint ~ most importantly their mindset). I will be most thankful and delighted to know if they really honored the standard working hours in the employment contract that were signed by the employees and do not penalize them for leaving on time (I heard it often from employees at large that I came to contact with, that your conduct “inclusive of when you leave work” will be a factor during appraisal time). Sound familiar? I think a lot can attest to this.

By profession, I am a Business Consultant focused on Business Process Re-structuring and Re-engineering and have been doing that for years with countless Corporations. To me, working longer hours does not necessary mean you are productive. As a matter of fact, I will question the time management. This also has nothing to do with being competitive. In fact it is very unhealthy not only to the company but also to the employees at large.

I had always had that believe that if you have the skills and quality in place, there is no need to slug overtime unnecessarily. Occasional overtime is acceptable with “real” urgent cases and the employee should be compensated (please do not tell me everyday and all cases are urgent, that is baloney to me and if I come across a senior manager telling me that “if I am engage to restructure their process”, I will have serious doubt of this manager’s management capability or worse this company operational governance and business model. Admittedly, there are no shortage of these experiences and encounter but in the end, that has been corrected to a certain extend as far as those that I had worked with at that time.

Unfortunately, this I believe is not the picture you see in most of employment environment in Singapore. The primary reasons lies with the company management mentality at large, scheming away to make full use of working class employee and more; whether by casual remarks (which by all means are threatening to the ears of employees particularly those that are not really skillful). This mindset needs overhauling but I bet you that if your ideas work, you will have two 12 hours shift (with one salary) instead of three 8 hours shift.

Do not forget, the schools and higher learning institutions are not operated in 24/7, they can’t do that (if you think in terms of those young toddlers in particular) and parents will likely be more deprived of quality time to spend with their kids (as it is already quite a severe issue at moment).

I could go on and on to give you the possible implications of a country wide 24/7 operation, socially and economically but I think that’s enough for now for you to ponder over. Others had voiced their discontent with this Innovative Ideas of yours and it is not without reason. If you had followed the events happening in the last few years in Singapore, it is not hard for you to shelf off your idea for now.

Oh, by the way Jack, don’t take the PM’s message too seriously and I think you mean well and is a concerned & caring fellow citizen. Picture yourself in a low-income home with primary schooling age toddlers, may be working multiple jobs to try to make ends meet and you might see a different perspective of life.