Quote-
“It is not easy to up-root one’s family and come all the way here to start life fresh. They took a huge gamble to leave their home town for the sake of Singapore’s economy.”

Oh please!!!!! u sound as if Foreigner is a saviour to us. In reverse, I would say
all Foreigners here took a gamble to leave their home for the sake of earning better living for themselves. If their so called home country is damn so good, why would they pack ur bag!!!!!!!

Sorry but to say u are crap

Be VIGILANT ! of MIW suckups everywhere or have another 50 years of idiotic administration. And that is the BLOODY truth.

“They took a huge gamble to leave their home town for the sake of Singapore’s economy.”

So, they came for the sake of singapore’s economy, and not because they can earn a better wage here.. Thanks for the enlightenment.

So, true blue singaporeans cannot contribute to singapore’s economy, then, what happens to all the past generations’ efforts to bring singapore to first world status? Sure, a lot of them are migrants, but once Singapore gained independance, they became citizens here.

I wonder how many people actually migrated here during the 60s, 70s and 80s? > 1million? But we see population jumps by that much within the last 5 years.

You know, the past generations who sank their roots here became citizens here, and their descendants serve NS.. But many of the FTs are not taking up citizenships, but prefer to just hold the PR status, do you know why?

Best of both countries, enjoy the wages here, and plan on going back home when they earned enough..

Don’t keep reminding us singapore has no natural resources, (We do have a deep water harbour), but we do have the world’s best paid president, ministers and high ranking civil servants.. and some of the world’s poorest can be found here, old folks collecting cardboards, empty drink cans..

SIngapore is an island without natural resources – get this simple and cruel fact into your bloody mind before you pass negative remarks about the foreign talents policy or blame the foreigners for taking away your cheese!

It is not easy to up-root one’s family and come all the way here to start life fresh. They took a huge gamble to leave their home town for the sake of Singapore’s economy. Lets be human about it. Without these people’s contributions all these years, would Singapore be able to achieve what it has today?

Do make the effort to choose the relevance of argument appropriately. Racism, xenophobia and homophobia are human prejudices that exist in the best and worst of human condition. There is NO connection to what is happening with the problems faced in Singapore brought about by irresponsible man made administrative policies. Amazing what irrelevant things you can find on your plate in a desperate attempt to spice up an already bad tasting ensemble. zzz

When MM made public his regrets on some errors of his earlier policies (eg, the bilingual policy, graduate mother schemes) whilst in “active” office, many just listened and “accepted” that, yes and so it was, and so it was. But like with our docile culture, the damage was/is never really discussed. It just was/is.

Perhaps, we all must strive to be more divine. Throw open our family doors and let the masses of anyone come into our homes to dine and stay whenever and however they choose in the spirit of community, whilst at the same time, let our loved ones compete with these strangers in the name of building up their survival skills. Hey, after all, we are all brothers and sisters in spirit. We must show that we are never tribal, always open, tolerant and welcoming. Keep our doors open I say. Put your youngest and brightest children to stand guard at the OPENED gates and allow these strangers to continue invading our homes. Just make sure the gates stay open and standing no matter what. Throw in a fresh coat of paint if we have to, to look global. Moreover, no worries, we can always kick them out when there is nothing left for our own, when everything we worked so hard for is diluted. Here here, I declare again, we are NOT tribal nor xenophobic and certainly not homo-lingual !

Come come, MM, let’s have a cuppa and reflect on what went wrong again. You know we love your reflections.

PS: Oh, yes, I believed I said animals ARE innocent at the farmer’s house (#70). Some just don’t like picture books much. I just have to ignore irrelevant and hominem attacks then.

PPS: Before I forget, thought I’d share this for posterity;

In 2008, more than a quarter of countries experienced flat or falling monthly wages in real terms. These countries include the U.S.A. (0.0 %), Austria (0.0 %), Costa Rica (0.0 %), South Africa (–0.3 %), Germany (–0.6 %), Switzerland (–0.7 %), Israel (–0.9 %),Japan (–0.9 %), Singapore (–1.0 %), Mauritius (–1.0 %), Kazakhstan (–1.1 %), the Republic of Korea (–1.5 %), Panama (–2.8 %), Mexico (–3.5 %), Ecuador (–4.1 %), Iceland (–4.8 %), and Seychelles (–15.5 %). Declines of 3.6 per cent and 6.2 per cent were recorded in Taiwan, China and Hong Kong, China, respectively. The difficult outlook for 2009: The picture on wages is likely to get worse in 2009 – despite the beginning of a possible economic recovery.

PPPS: The New Year is approaching. Remember, have as many guest as possible, it’s only civil. Make sure they are all foreign talented labour. Take out your best china. We can always use our savings to buy new ones if they break them. Have a good life ya? Just don’t forget to have your children and old grandparents stand by the gates. Everyone has to work in this household. ;)

I’m ignoring your irrelevant ad hominem attacks.

quote: “That’s NOT the main issue! It’s all about timing & the crippling relentless rising cost of living and falling employment and median wages.” unquote

The rising cost of living is caused by the expansion of the money supply and credit.

Falling employment — are you sure about that? Maybe in some sectors which might cause some people who have lost their jobs to evaluate (i.e. project) their bad-luck situation and wrongly conclude that their problems are ‘pervasive’ — i.e. economy wide.

You make the claim that median wages are falling. Can you back up your claim by providing some facts — perhaps data from the stats dept or from MAS or Ministry of Labour, EDB… just the facts ma’am.

A good book to read for those who feel in a quandary about employment and career is “What Colour (color) IS Your Parachute” by Richard Bolles. Bolles makes it clear that in today’s world ALL JOBS are TEMPORARY jobs, and I agree with him.

Targeting foreigners and blaming them for employment or rising costs are non sequiturs — logically fallacious. This might be very popular with politicians trying to garner support for themselves by finding a convenient scapegoat, whip up emotions of the masses and then the myth becomes prt of the cultural belief.

Racism and xenophobia are ugly culural aspects. By blaming foreigners for all these unrelated “ills” shows meaness of spirit and takes the country back to tribalism.

Do you really want that? Or would you prefer a society open and tolerant, and welcoming, PLUS allowing private enterprises (the real engines of growth and wealth) to be competitive?

It’s bad enough that there are aspects of ‘tribalism’ (for e.g. homophobia) why add to it? Wouldn’t it be more beneficial in the long-term to embrace change and to welcome those who might be different to you instead of viewing them as ‘threats’?

Your choice. I’ve made mine: Keep the borders open (but well defended) and allow businesses to hire and fire whoever they like for whatever reason.

The vast majority of Singaporeans — throughout history — have been “immigrants”.
- Duh. Everyone knows and agrees to this fact-no argument there.
That’s NOT the main issue! It’s all about timing & the crippling relentless rising cost of living and falling employment and median wages.

I’m simply amazed at some of the xenophobic comments here. Oh well, I like reality checks!
-Well, I’m simply more amazed at some of the genuinely idiotic comments here. Unfortunately, idiots don’t want to accept their own reality checks too!

No, I don’t agree that S’pore citizenship be abolished. However I do think it would be a good idea to make it VOLUNTARY, not left — in the ‘default’ case — simply as a consequence of birth.

By voluntary citizenship I mean individuals will have to make the choice to BECOME Singapore citizens, and if they do they will have to agree to certain terms — like military and/or community service perhaps, rates of taxation etc. And the state will have to abide by certain conditions too. Pure voluntary contract.

Since most of us can agree that individuals should be ‘equal’ under the law, IMO this is one important step towards ‘equality’ — achieved on a voluntary basis.

What’s the problem?

The vast majority of Singaporeans — throughout history — have been “immigrants”.

Ok, if that’s the case, how about we just abolish singapore citizenship, no more NS, all living here are just “immigrants”… We give up our singapore passports, and all foreigners will have to give up their passports too, so that all are equal…

Yeah, I experience too. A lot of Malaysian and China-ese workers crowding me out here.

Sighs~

i am piss really piss

Checking the data from the World Bank, the world population had not even hit 7 billion yet. What’s this “double-digit billions” you’re blabbering about?

Japee:

As history have it, the people who “brought Singapore from 3rd world to 1st world country” certainly were not paid millions in the process. They did it with much less pay, with much better result in the past. It looks to me that better pay had only led to complacency and worse performance.

Even then, we’re not 1st world country. We’re only 1st world CITY (so said some elite).

She used to tell me that the firm has foreigners to singaporeans almost 5 to 1.

Yup this will happen to us in the later part of our lives when we are old and therefore useless to the govt.

I am simply tickled that group-think nationalism/xenophobia/jingoism/racism — the ugliest forms of collectivism imaginable — are all alive and well in Singapore. I had suspected that for a long time, and I would like to thank posters for providing “evidence” — anecdotal and weak as it may be — to bolster my kopi-tiam theory that Singapore is a Nation Of SHEEPLE which are so scared of being “diluted” by other species of sheep from flocks afar.

Not a single xenophobe is the slightest bit ashamed of his/her blatant bigotry. In fact, many display a tenor or being PROUD.

I’m so tempted to use the “N” word — that is “NAZI” — the group of similarly xenophobic folks who were so terrified of being “corrupted” by “foreign DNA” that their leaders instituted programs to keep the race “pure”.

“Singapore’s Sheeple Uber Alles! Down with the foreign barbarians! Keep my national gene pool PURE!”

Can’t handle being a “minority”? Too bad. Those bigots out there, in my opinion are an EMBARRASSMENT to humanity and a NATIONAL SHAME to the nation.

Go ahead, click the button below and vote. Do you really believe the S’pore gene-pool is so “pure” it needs to be protected against “dilution”?

Bloody Nazis. There, I said it! ;-)

http://bbs.sgchinese.com/viewthread.php?tid=2606654&extra=page%3D2

The vast majority of Singaporeans — throughout history — have been “immigrants”.

I’m simply amazed at some of the xenophobic comments here. Oh well, I like reality checks!

Without the PAP, we still prosper, and even more so, look at Hongkong, that we been trying to chase all the way from the 1990s. We overtake HK only because there is a takeover and many HKers move to Sg.

And we overtake Penang Island in the 1970s because the M’sia gov practises discrimination and the Indonesia chinese and the penang chinese came here…u think we owe it to the PAP?

The nation is bleeding dry while the PAP guys snapped up properties overseas and locality.

Why support a party that only scheme to be in control instead of the national interest?