The benefits to encourage people to have more children will not have a significant impact.  It is not only financial problem, but there are a lot of other issues to take into consideration.  It is a long term investment to bring up a child until they complete their education which is very costly - at least twenty over years.   It is not easy to bring up a child when both young parents are working.   During a economic downturn when people with young children were retrenched, what will happen to their children.   I have a late marriage and am in my fifties and my child is only sixteen yyears old.  I have lost my job and my spouse income is not enough to maintain the family.  If I were to live life over again, I will choose not to have a child so that they will not suffer.   Older people are working beyond their retirement age and young couples with babies do not get family support.  Marriages does not last and divorce are on the rise.  Companies are exploiting their staff with multi task jobs and oftern have to work long hours and have very little time for family. 

The government encourages people to conserve energy, but why are they lighting up on more festive seasons and there are more firework displays for no reason.  They can save a lot of money and do much more for the lower and middle income Singaporeans.  They should also spend more money on training Singaporeans instead of foreigners on sports.

TEACHING IS A MEANINGFUL

CAREER.

IT IS ONE THAT:

• BUILDS A NATION,
• SHAPES/REMAKES A NATION,
• GIVE A NATION NEW COLOURS,NEW MEANINGS & VIBRANCY,NEW DIRECTIONS
• IS A PRIDE FOR THE NATION

HAPPY TEACHERS' DAY

HAPPY TEACHER’S DAY

The teachers help to make your future. As you learn the various disciplines and good values, your destiny is cast. Here in Singapore, September 1 is Teachers’ Day.

Teachers’ Day

Teachers’ Day is in fact celebrated in many nations but on different date of the year such as 7^th March in Albania, 11^th September in Argentina & Costa Rica, 6^th June in Bolivia, 15^th October in Brazil, 23^rd September in Brunei, 24^th May in Bulgaria, 16^th October in Chile, 13^th April in Ecuador, 25^th June in Guatemala, 5^th September in India, 30^th September in Spain, 7^th November in Sweden, 28^th September in Taiwan, 16^th January in Thailand, 20^th November in Vietnam, 1^st week of May in USA, and so on. The United Nations has declared 5^th October as World Teachers’ Day.  

Teacher Appreciation  

Most important of all, let your teacher knows your feelings of deep gratitude because if it is not expressed than we are being so inhuman. A teacher is crucial to our personal growth As you attend lessons regularly, you would not realised that she has shaped your mind towards becoming a good citizen, a better person and has inculcated in you vast amount of knowledge which are useful in life.

Teachers’ Day is a wonderful occasion – pupils are busy with the project on how to celebrate and they pit in all sorts of ideas and work united forging team spirit in the class and this bonding goes on to show that cooperation is part of successful education. The teacher develops the child’s ability and desire to learn more. The school is a welcoming and encouraging place whereby every pupil is treated with dignity and given the opportunity to reach his or her full potential.

Today we see many tensions and conflicts across the world; the world is in dire need of good education and a more tolerant society. The teachers fulfil this need and tomorrow many of our pupils would become leaders in their chosen field of endeavour – be it in business, industry, administration, IT or even community and political leaders.

Opportunities

Pupils come in all shades – handicapped pupils, weak pupils, average pupils, mischievous pupils, bright pupils, obedient and quiet pupils and so on. It is not an easy task to manage and motivate a classroom whereby a good classroom environment is created that is conducive to learning.  Parents must understand this fact and appreciate it that teachers are caring and has the welfare of the pupils at heart and in mind. Let there be no mistake: our future depends on our teachers.  Cato once said: “Bitter are the roots of study, but how sweet their fruit”.

Today we see a wide range of new technologies and new subjects are fast emerging and these are effectively used by pupils because of the good teachers now in schools. Advancement in teaching process is also accelerating education to greater height.

We salute our teachers for their courage, commitment and determination to help remake a nation.  Thank you for your perseverance and hard work, for imparting to our children many skills and awakening their interest and talents, building confidence in them and inculcating leadership in them. It is the years of rich experience that teachers have and has helped our children on the path of progress and life-long learning.

Quotable Quotes

Let me include some quotes while paying homage to our dedicated teachers today:

Our progress as a nation can be no swifter than our progress in education. The human is our fundamental resource.     (John F. Kennedy)

Let us think of education as the means of developing our greatest abilities, because in each of us there is a personal hope and dream, which fulfilled, can be translated into benefit for everyone and greater strength for our nation.   (John F. Kennedy)

Education is the best provision for the journey to old age.   (Aristotle)

I am indebted  to my father for living, but to my teacher for living well  (Alexandra The Great)

The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.  (William A. Ward)

The Best Gift

The best gift your child receives from the teacher is Education. This gift is something that cannot be snatched away and it is useful life-long. It opens the door to many opportunities and progress in life.

By Om Nath Panday

31st August 2008

 This article shares with the reader some of the questions to ask your mortgage broker before using his or her service. It lists a good set of Singapore context based questions to filter out unethical brokers.  

I read recent article by Prof Mabhubani and today's ST's forum articile on Singaporeans attaining overseas education.  Even the Professor's children are studying abroad and so do all countless list of Singapore leaders who had send their children abroad.  Some do out of fame and money, while some do out of scholarship (though they can be rich). 

I am just dismay to note that our enrolment system in NUS / NTU are not welcoming large pool of local students who end up going abroad. 

Who is the cause of this exodus ?  

The large pool of Foreign Talent as teachers / Professors who are hired by the Universities,  thus paying them high,  thus depriving our local the chance whereby a foreign students enrolment will get a non-subsidy? 

The cost of living of these Expats,   thus costing us the chance for locals ?

These deprived students who can be better are booted out.  They study overseas and settle there with more breathing space.  

Please remember it is also not equally cheap to send the kids overseas.  

Let's take a paradigm shift.   Why not instead, of 3rd and 4th Universities,  build more to cater for the locals who can equally spend the same amount of money here.    The kids today are exposed to the world with thanks to the internet.   Thus,  the desire to excel will start even when they are already kids.   As such,  the paper chase also goes along with it. 

Disappointed citizen

This article briefly discuss about the role of a mortgage broker and how they can be of help to you when sourcing for a home mortgage loan to finance a new property or to refinance an existing mortgage loan. This article is republished with the permission from CPCG - Chan & Partners Consulting Group.

DEMONSTRATION ALLOWED…

Some people think that there is no demonstration here but that is not true.

Mdm Lee Sui Yi wrote in ST (20 Aug) expressing her disappointment with the Government ignoring stay-home mothers ("Mistake to ignore stay-home mothers").  She raised very salient points when she said:

(1) "Stay-home mums willingly give up their financial independence and put their aspirations on hold because they believe that it is worth it.....Doesn't that make them the perfect candidates to have more babies?  And surely, they need less persuading".

(2) "Stay-home mums are not asking for handouts, just equality.  Give our husbands (the sole breadwinner in our household) the tax incentives you (the Govt) are dishing out to working mums".

(3) "Stay-hime mums are neither quitters nor parasites.  They play an important role at home and are often active community volunteers".

Amongst the replies to Mdm Lee include the following:

(1) "I fully agree with Mdm Lee.  I too felt extremely disappointed with the Govt for leaving the stay home-mums out of its baby plan.....A baby is a baby, whether it's from a working mum or not" - MDM TAN LAY HOON (ST, 22 Aug).

(2) "Working mum's salue to stay-home mums (her friends).....for their unlimited devotion to their families.  Their children have grown up to be well-adjusted, confident individuals with good values.....These are women who are also more likely to volunteer for charity and community work and, as I see it, their kids would be exposed to such activities and could then become more compasionnate, gracious human beings.....Delinquent children who run amok because mum and dad are not around, and are supervised by maids, will bring another set of societal problems" - MDM JO-ANNE LEE (ST, 22 Aug)

Do you agree with these stay-home mums?  Are you also disappointed with the lack of incentives for stay-home mums and their families?  Do you feel discriminated by the Govt favoring working mums and ignoring stay-home mums?  Please share your views.

My wife and I are blessed with 3 lovely sons (14, 12 & 10 yrs old), much higher than the national average of 1.2.  When our 3rd son was born, we made conscious decision not to raise our children with predominantly maid care in most of the day, hence my wife stopped working and be a full-time home maker.  She did not even exhaust her enhanced child tax reliefs.  Despite the loss of dual income (hence lesser savings), we never regret our decision.  Having known the challenges and hardship of more children and bigger family-size, we welcome PM Lee's announcements on helps from the Govt to encourage more babies and to help the parents to cope (more leaves, tax incentives, better child care facilities, etc, etc).  For many years, we have been waiting for the Govt to introduce incentives to home-makers who sacrifice for their children and families.  Just like Mdm Lee Sui Yi et al, we do feel that stay-home mums are the "forgotten class".

What say you?

It has been already 7 years that my father has been suffering from a some what diagnosis, parkinson disease. At first i thought it might be his diet, which has caused this. I soon discovered that the is something fishy going on in my family. I later found unsual substance in the house, in which, my father is staying (the west, where this so call parkinson disease is most predominant). A foul smelling soya sauce look a like fluid. So I took the trouble to google the symtomps which my father was exhibiting and the foul smelling soya sauce. The out come of the research was that the only possibility for this foul smelling soya sauce and the symtomp was a bacteria called Clostridium botulinum, which is the same bacterium used to produce Botox.

Botox was an biological agent used in World War 1. They can be used in ammunitions and delivered via artilery shells or in bombs. At the point of detenation, the ammunition will release a vapour, which contains the pathogen (a mal-formed protien), which inhibit zinc ion. Our muscular nervous system relies on zinc ion to transmit signal from our brain through our nerves to our muscles in our body. So, when mal-formed protien inhbit the zinc ion, which occurs in the axxon terminals (axxon terminals are nerve ending connections to the muscles), the protien actual bocks the the nerve's signals from reaching the muscles. Thus, when the vapours are in haled, the first set of muscles affected are the lungs'. This means respiritory failure, and the victims will suffocate to death.

In case of ingestion, the pathogen will go to the most used muscles and inactivate them nerve by nerve, until the cluster of nerves are disabled. It starts with the shoulders, facial (inclusive of eyes muscles) and lower limbs. The symtomps are very similar to Barred-syndrome and parkinson disease, so it is very difficult to diagnoise. Many medical practioner rule out the possibility of ingestion of such substrance in our society, as it is hideous to administer such substance to any living thing, especially human. But I believe is it happening in our midst and I have proof of such substance in existence. The ironic thing about my whole endeavour to get to the root of this thing is to discover either our authorities has no measure technically or capability to test for this substance or bacterium.  I have contact both AVA and HSA (Dr. Loke) on this matter. My conversation with Dr. Loke has been interesting. She has said it is too costly for me to pay for a test to be done and that the problem I am facing is a social issue, and there is no point for me to spend the money. At the end of the conversation, i walked away disappointed. It was the same thing when i found sodium sulphate in the house. I had tried to make a police report suspecting that it was arsenic, and they turn me away, stating that there is no proof and that they will not help me test the substance. Not having to make a lot of money and a debt (chalked up over the period of unemployment) to clear, i was not able to afford the test. I later borrow money from the bank via overdraft just to test it using scanning electron spectrography. 

The fact the all the sufferers are male, locate mostly in the west and all are chinese, is already a tell tale sign that this is not a natural phenomenon. They are also most likely all buddhist and there is a reason. Under natural circumstances, everyone would approach this from a medical or life style (dietry). But if one were to take a closer look, we will find that it is not as simple as we might perceive. One other thing were was not thought of, is the matter of money. If my speculation is correct, there is either marital or financial dispute in the family. The house is either not paid completely, and the spouse of the sufferers (mostly) wants to utilize the HDB insurance policy. The corelation which we should look for is the people they know, which point to a group of people in Jurong West.

The method this wicked people adopt is to create a smoke screen that the victim is suffering from a form of disease and finish them off at their appointed time with the administration of arsenic and then sodium sulphate (which is used an de-contamination agent to remove arsenic contaminated land or water areas) over a period of time. It was also a surprize to me that such substance can  be obtain in public. The purpose of these 2 substance to choke the vein, artery and limps in the victims body. When arsenic is ingested (via soup or sauce), it is rapidly axbsorbed into the human body, due to the high solubility nature of the heavy metal. The poisonous molecule will then attach itself to red blood cells and transported all over the body via the veins and arteries. The affected red blood cells will soon dies over a period of a few days and the arsenic molecule then dislodge itself from the dead cells and roams free until it either attach itself to cells or substance. In this scenario, the wicked perpetrator/s's intention is to allow the sodium sulphate, which is later administered in the food (again via soup or sauce), the reaction of the 2 substances, to form arsenic sulphate. This compound is insoluble and cannot be passed out via the kidneys. This means, that the compound will accumulate over the administration period to the crtical point when the body can no longer function, and ultimately death. Both arsenic (tested in urine) and sodium sulphate (found in the house and tested scanning electron spectrography in HSA) are present in my father's case.

I believe this is the same substances and method used to punish or put out the aging "ma-jie", once upon a time along the "Dead Man Street" in ChinaTown, now covered with a Buddha Tooth temple (yet another hideous...). 

I have already seen the effects of this wicked deed in my father's situation. No matter how I object this wicked and hideous deed, which are done behind my back, they persist in this wrong doing. What is the government going to do about this? Should gradual poisoning of another individual consider as manslaugther?

An carefully planned investigation should be made (find a lead to get a contact and get to the root of the source) and all these substance should class under contra-band. All those who had died from this so called parkinson disease should have a post mortem and test for all those substance and compound mentioned to ascertain this fact. And should the postmortem be found positive to this fact, this should be consider unnatural death and a deeper investigation should be launched. The problem is, by then all the evidence would be gone. So this problem has to be nipped at the bud. Can we erradicate wickedness which is disgusted in religion? Food for thoughts...

             As to why Singaporean fertility is low, some may point to the existing couple as role models whether they are good or bad. Generally, the current couples with children are worse off financially.  It would be not be unrealistic to think that newly weds would see themselves worse off financially by at least 40%.....what does it mean? It mean that the couple may be able to afford a lifestyle they preferred (e.g owning a car or condo…quality goods) if they do not have any children. How can the government help to manage these aspirations? Many would point to changing the mindset. But is it easy to change mindsets? Many insurance companies also influence this attitude as they highlight the high cost of bringing up a child. There are always self sacrificing who are willing to give up financially gain for the joy of having children. It is obvious these are few going by the fertility rate of 1.14.

            So what should we do? Radical change: Give enough obvious incentive for the married couple who have the 2 or more children. This may mean that the singles and married couple without children would feel that they are shortchanged if they do not have any children. The current situation is that being singles and married couple without children are flexibility, employable, enjoyable and financially better. Why would they want to change? We need to balance the equation of these 3 groups.  Just my 2 cents worth for thoughts. Thank you.

Latest update:
The government has backdate the bonus to babies born on 17th Aug 2008! However, I still hope that pro-rated bonus can be applicable for our local babies. Please help our fellow singaporeans!

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/370462/1/.html

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Based on what I observed from the Marriage and Parenthood website, I can't help but notice that foreign children and adopted children are eligible to pro-rated bonus coming 1st Jan 2009. However, a normal singapore baby born today till 31st Dec 2008 are not eligible for pro-rated bonus. Why is there such a difference? I can't help but feel disappointed after getting excited watching the rally on TV by our PM. My wife will be delivering our baby boy coming next month and I really hope the government can revise this disparity in this trouble times.

http://fcd.ecitizen.gov.sg/MarriageNParenthoodPackage/FAQs/FAQs+on+Baby+Bonus.htm

Amount of Pro-rated Cash Gift