NDR 2014: Providing Singaporeans more assurance in retirement

In this year national day rally speech 2014, PM Lee talks about how Singapore government ensure that its citizens are able to get enjoy retirement with a stable source of retirement income through the combination of  the Central Provident Fund (CPF) scheme as well as the various housing policies. The CPF savings is contributed by the individual, the employers as well as the government. The CPF provides a regular source of income after retirement once the individual reaches the minimum sum of $155,000. however, the value can be reduced to half if you own a HBD flat. The housing policies such as Flat Rental, Lease Buyback and Right size. All these will help to supplement the retirement income.

In my opinion, all these are sound policies to help ensure that we as Singaporean are able to enjoy a certain amount of comfort after retirement as these income help to provide for our basic necessities. However, after working and contributing to the society for more than half of our lifetime, i think we should be given more to enjoy our retirement :P. Therefore, the government should top up additional funds from the revenue they earn through various investment or increase the interest rate of the CPF to allow us with more funds to enjoy retirement as well as helping lower income to meet the minimum sum criteria.

Yet, in Singapore, as cost of living increases while wages remain the same, many lower income elderly struggle to pay up to the minimum sum or even owning a HDB flat to cover the minimum sum or to supplement the income. Some may suffer retrenchment and unable to find new job. Some maybe lose the ownership of their house to their children due to family dispute. Hence, this group of people requires the government and various elder care and social to assist.

Therefore, I agree with Mr Lee that we should be accountable for our own retirement by saving up our own money. We should ensure that we top up our CPF regularly and continue to upgrade ourself and our competencies to keep up with the society so that we can remain valued in the workforce. This ensure job stability and we can pay up our CPF. Also, social wise, we as working adults, should look after our parents now and play a part in their retirement by taking care of them. This form of filial piety could then be seen by our children and be passed on to the next generation.

DOES TECHNOLOGY ALWAYS IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF PEOPLE’S LIVES ?

Technology had no doubt revolutionised the way we do things. Technology helps to improve our standard of living and therefore, our quality of life by providing simplicity, conveniences and accessibility to our daily lives.  Thanks to the improvement in transport technology, we can now travel from one end of the world to the other within hours. We can connect instantaneously to our loved ones, family and friends simply with a touch of a button on our smartphones. Some once thought incurable health problems like cancer can now be cured through chemotherapy and radiotherapy. The risk of medical operation are now reduced due to the invention of new surgical methods like keyhole surgery.  After all, the driving force of technology is always to constantly seek ways to make life easier for everyone.

However, the only problem is the abuse of technology. Despite of the benefits technology had brought us, there are still handful of people decided to abuse technology to achieve their own selfish desires. For example, cyber-bullying become rampant ever since the introduction of on-line messengers, chat room programmes and Facebook.  These people conduct their malicious acts through these platform which often affect the victims negatively. Hence, technology may not always improve the quality of people’s lives.

THE MEDIA IS ABLE TO SHAPE INDIVIDUAL AND SOCIETIES’ IDENTITIES. DO YOU AGREE?

In today’s technologically advanced world, media become omni-presented in many society. Media is a platform for mass communication to large group of audiences. Yet, these media are so powerful that it shapes what the people think and believe. Often, these people are being prolonged exposed to the media that they began to perceive whatever the media portrays as the social norms. Collectively, they would also change the perception of the community they live in. This eventually lead to a change in the individual or societies characteristics and beliefs.  However, some conservatives might argue  that media is hardly shape the individual and societies’ identities. Despite the opposition from the conservatives, I believe that media does has the potential to change the individual and societies’ identities.

SV1: Media has allowed informations and ideas to be spread to different parts of the world.

SV2: Media has an extensive reach of audiences as it is prevalent in households of many developed and developing nations.

SV3: Media can be easily utilised by anyone to spread their messages to other people.

SV4: Often enough, media is so open that no one is able to control it completely.

OV1: After all, it is up to individuals’ discernment on whether they should accept whatever that is being portrayed in the media as the social norm or not.

OV2: In certain places, the government is able to intervene and interfere with the media to some degree through censorship

New Media VS Traditional Media

3 in 5 Singaporeans engage in online activities while watching TV: Survey

Link: http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/3-in-5-singaporeans/1252132.html

This article is about the Singaporeans utilizing digital device while watching TV. It highlights the rising influence of digital devices in people’s lifestyles yet the appeal of traditional TV still remains. This is called ‘screen stacking’, where an individual is watching TV and engaging in other digital activities simultaneously. The global average for screen stacking is 48% compared to  Singapore with 61%.

There are two implications of the results gathered from above. Firstly, this shows Singaporean’s growing preoccupation to their digital device. Even if they engaged into entertainment like watching TV, they still have the urge to check their mobile phone device for email, messages or even surf various social media.  This result in the users to developed a short attention span and easily distracted. This will affect their focus when doing a task as they tend to get distracted with things that are going on in their phones. Especially for students, this will prevent them from actively participating in learning as well as staying focus while revising. This will implicate their learning and academic results in the future.

However, on the bright side, this article also show that the traditional TV is still a powerful media tool as the viewership still remain high in Singapore. Therefore, mobile devices will not likely to totally replace traditional TV in the near future in Singapore.

 

Animal Rights Rabbit Farming (Viewer Discretion is Advised)

This is a footage of an investigation done by Animal Equality on the rabbit meat industry in Spain. Two of the farms investigated are directly linked with restaurants in the UK. It shows rabbits are being abused and breed within the farm. They are locked into small cages. They are killed by the farmers through blunt force. Some of the newborns even thrown away into waste containers that contain other dead animals due to overproduction. There is no veterinary treatment to rabbits that are injured or suffer other illness.

I feel that the farmers are inhumane to treat this rabbit like that… Although these rabbit are farmed for domestic purposes, food, fur and wool, they should still be subjected to proper treatment and care in these farms. These farmer are driven the desire to lower their cost of production to earn more profits that they are willing to adopt such brutal methods to farm rabbits.

This can linked to Singapore as it shares a similar situation with the shark fin case. Due to the high demands of these commodities that are derived from these animals such as shark fins and rabbit meat, these lead to farmers seeking to earn profit and employ such cruel methods on these animals. Therefore, I agree with the author that as consumers, we are able to help stop these atrocities by stop consuming these commodities.

However, I feel that this not a good solution in combating this issue as the farmers would seek even more cold-blooded, quick method of farming. Hence, it is better to employ the government and NGOs like PETA and WWF  to  help observe and regulate these farms. They should enforce more punishment on these farms that treat these animals inhumanely. This would pressurised the farmers till they adopt a more humane way of farming these animals

 

Family Structure in Germany

Despite being in the highly individualized, highly mobile 21st century world, many Germans believe that family is still of fundamental importance for people. Almost 90 percent of the population the family comes first in their list of personal priorities. Young people also value it very highly: 72 percent of 12 to 25-year olds are of the opinion that being happy is dependent on having a family.

However, in the wake of social change, there is an influx of various ideas on different forms of families. Therefore, like many other developed countries, traditional families are starting to erode. Also, with more equal rights given to women, there is an increase in the number of women entering the workforce. Hence, this push back the idea of starting a family.

Like Singapore, Germany face many challenges as families starts to decline. There are many cases of divorce, cohabiting , same-sex coupes  existing in the society which threatens the values and idea of a traditional family. However, young people in Germany highly valued the relationship with their parents. Alongside their peers of the same age, whose importance has risen appreciably, the main group to which young people relate is the family. Never before have so many youngsters – almost 50 percent of 24-year old men and no less than 27 percent of women of the same age – lived at home for so long. Almost all 12 to 29-year olds state that they have a very good, trustworthy relationship with their parents.

Hence, as long as the youth in the society continue to cherish families deeply, there is still an chance where we can reverse the trend that most of the developed countries are facing in term of the family structure.

Here is a short video on Germany’s family policies

 

 

Source: http://www.tatsachen-ueber-deutschland.de

Singapore youth; Apathetic no more

This article talks about how Singaporean youth today are no longer apathetic and that youths are not materialistic and nonchalant to the politics and society in Singapore. In comprise many examples of how youths step up with the help of the internet and social to prove that Singapore youth are not apathetic as other people may see.

Personally, I feel proud that there are many Singaporean youths stepping out of their comfort zones to explore different ways to help the less fortunate in the society. It is also heart warming to see many other Singaporean youths who willing to volunteer their time to work together with these various social causes. However, this does not reflect the majority of Singapore youths. Many of the Singaporean youths are portraying the negative values of the society due to the influence of media. Therefore, I believe that it is important to involved these youths with the various social work that other more empathic youths in order of them to see the benefit of helping the society. Together, we can nurture a better generation of Singapore youths.

Singapore’s Identity

Why is Singapore identity important?

It is important because it helps to maintain social cohesion and peace in Singapore. Since Singapore is a multi-racial and multi-religious society, it is paramount that we have a common identity that unite Singaporeans in order to ensure that there is equality among every person regardless of their backgrounds. Also, in face of the growing influx of foreigners, we Singaporeans must ensure that we are stay rooted into the cultural and moral values of Singapore as well as developing a sense of belonging to Singapore. This help us to come together as a nation to face any adversities that might threaten Singapore socially, economically and politically. This will allow Singapore to prosper and continue to progress. Ultimately, this will make Singapore a unique place that we are proud to call ourselves citizen of Singapore.

What constitutes to the Singapore identity?

I believe the culture that is shared among Singapore is very huge aspect of the Singapore’s Identity. Common language like ‘Singlish’ we how we used to communicate to one another affectionately. This will allow us to grow closer to one another, learning more about the different race, religion as well as understanding the background of different people. This is lead to social cohesion. Also, the food culture also reflects the Singapore identity since the majority of Singapore cuisine is unique and only found in Singapore. The food we have is often a fusion of different cooking style, recipes that belong to multiple race such as Nasi Lemak, Chai Kuey Teow etc. As long as we out of Singapore, we will definitely miss the wonderful and unique food we have in Singapore. This developed a sense of longing for Singapore.

Pink Floyd- Another brick in the Wall

Generally, this video is a protest by the singer against the type of educational system that exist in their time.

This video depicts the educational system in UK back in the 1980s. The first part of the video is where the student is being ridiculed by the teacher for coming out with poem. This possibly reflects back then when academic and rigid subjects like mathematics is often more championed instead of subjects that spurs creativity like poetry based on the singer’s experience. This shows the emphasise on these academic subjects that probably far more important and beneficial to the society, therefore, most of the countries structured their education system that focus heavily on these subjects. As a result, this lead to the 2nd part of the video, whereby it shows students are being ‘manufactured”. This means that the students are forced to study subjects they might not be interested or good in but they had no other choice. This static way of education eventually devoid the children of the creativity and liveliness, causing them became ‘lifeless creature’ as shown by the mask the children wear. Eventually, the system will produce homogeneous students with same abilities without any unique characteristics or talents just like the meat grinder in the video.

In my opinion, I  believe that there is a need for every students to be able to pursue their own interest so as not only to maximise their potential, but also to give them the sense of purpose in their life. This would allow them to continue to live to the fullest and also to constantly strive for improvement. However, in Singapore, the problem lies is that many of the students are afraid to pursue their interest due the fact that the cost of living in Singapore is increasing constantly. Therefore, many students opted to study the mainstream subjects such as medicine and law, hoping to get a stable job in the future. Although government had redefined the education system in Singapore and actively promoting a diversified education and providing more opportunities, they need to tackle the roots of the problems that deter students from venturing and pursuing their interest.

Beware growing ‘parentocracy’: NIE don

Link to the article: Beware growing ‘parentocracy’: NIE don

What is parentocracy?

A parentocracy is a system in which a child’s education must conform to the wealth and wishes of parents rather than the abilities and efforts of the pupil.

The article is talking about how meritocracy in Singapore is slowly eroding and taken over by parentocracy.

I agreed with the professor who make this statement because Singapore is facing a rising problem of elitism as well as lack of social mobility. He state that nowadays, a parent’s resources would determine how well the child performs. Take tuition as an example, wealthy parents are able to send their children to more tuition as well as enrichment classes, therefore, these children would gain a head start in their education as compared to their less fortunate counterparts. Furthermore, these would allow the children to receive more help, making the playing field even more disadvantageous to the children with lower income. Since the level of education would ultimately the children’s future prospect, the lower income children would not be able to climb as high as their wealthier counterparts, leading to a worsening the gap between the rich and poor. Therefore, the elites continue to dominate in the hierarchy due to their extensive resources and affluent which can ensure that their children are able to excel as good as them. As these elites remained entrenched in the society, these would even lead to destabilisation in Singapore as the poor are unable to improve their status through their children, threatening the social cohesion in Singapore.