Weekly Roundup: Week 15
“If this is who we are, I want no part in this.”
Kirsten Han
“Truth be damned, the Singapore Story must be spun, ad nauseum, and no one shall question its authenticity.”
Callan Tham
“..it seems that there will be no such thing as sub urban or outskirt in Singapore anymore. Everything will be prime area..”
Nabs
“Combining large amounts of cash with thousands of fervent believers is a recipe for increasing social cleavages in a diverse society.”
Imran Ahmed
“The COE allocates an important resource based purely on a person’s ability to pay… It maximises the pain among those with greatest need and limited means …and it maximises the govt revenue.”
LuckySingaporean
“…we need to take a long hard look at ourselves and see whether we have a future in this GDP obsessed state.”
Nabs
This week’s roundup and recommended reads after the break.
Countdown to Elections
- The Temasek Review: Charm See Tong charms Bishan residents during walkabout
- utopia8787: Election Game Plan
- TOC: SDA-RP walkabout – pictures and video
- TOC: Opposition parties go for the PAP jugular
- Rachel Zeng: There is nothing wrong in speaking up
- Singapore Recalcitrant: Is the Opposition capable of epoch-making?
- Singaporean Skeptic: What is Asian values?
- Trapper’s Swamp: This is why he is Deputy Prime Minister
- Tan Tarn How: What is an internet election
- Small steps for Social PR: Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC is to be determined by Facebook, the winner will most likely be…
- Mr Wang Says So: The Fine Quality of our Dear Deputy Prime Minister
- The Anti Neo-Democracy Theorist: Ten Questions for a Meaningful Election
- Simply Gab: Election Fever
- The Temasek Review: Singapore Police to investigate anti-PAP fliers sent to residents in two GRCs
- Yaw Shin Leong @ WP: On Anonymous Poison Pen Letters
- TOC: Anti-PAP sentiments take a new turn
- The Temasek Review: Potong Pasir resident questioned PAP over delay in upgrading opposition ward
- TOC: Former RP chairman refutes Kenneth Jeyaretnam’s claims
- I’m getting personal: Ideological politics sil-vous plait!
- TOC: Look who’s bashing Singaporeans
Housing Singaporeans
- It’s all about Amelioration: The HDB conundrum – A Contrarian View [Thanks Nabs] [Recommended]
- Diary of A Singaporean Mind: High Housing Cost : Blame the people!
- Trapper’s Swamp: ST refuses to challenge falsehoods
- The Temasek Review: Mah Bow Tan: “Unrealistic” expectations are a reason for some unhappiness about flats
- Ian On The Red Dot: My Home Is Where You Are
- Tan Kin Lian’s Blog: Affordable housing
- Hazel Poa: Housing Prices Vs Household Income – Alternative ways of viewing the statistics [Thanks logna] [Recommended]
- The Kent Ridge Common: Re-reading the mainstream media’s ’statistics’
- Diary of A Singaporean Mind: Mah Bow Tan : We don’t fudge the numbers..
- Diary of A Singaporean Mind: Mah Bow Tan : We don’t fudge the numbers Part 2
- TOC: Housing Prices Vs Household Income – Alternative ways of viewing the statistics
Poor, homeless, jobless in Stingypore
- TOC: Raiding the homeless – part two
- Trapper’s Swamp: MCYS raids the homeless. Again.
- Blowin’ In The Wind: Income gap, reason and The Spirit Level
- Diary of A Singaporean Mind: Homeless in Singapore..
- TOC: Singapore policies force some onto streets
- Trapper’s Swamp: MOM protects employers, not employees
- Sgpolitics.net: Big Rats and Fat Cats
- TOC: Do you want me to stay at the beach?
Singaporeans are fed, up with progress!
- I’m getting personal: Wait and see?
- ThinkingNectar: Robert F. Kennedy on GDP
- Sgpolitics.net: SDP repeats call for Teo Ho Pin to speak up for residents
- Gerald Giam: Training your rice bowl away
- It’s all about Amelioration: A Fallacy – The Singapore Dream – We are all just GDP Oompa Loompas [Thanks Nabs] [Recommended]
Strangers in a Strange Land
- The Temasek Review: Australia to cut down on migration intake as Singapore prepares to welcome more immigrants
- The Kent Ridge Common: Why Singaporeans’ fear of new immigrants is not ‘irrational’
- The Temasek Review: Teo Chee Hean: PAP’s immigration policy has always been “strict”
- TOC: Resident upset with noisy foreign neighbours
- The Temasek Review: How the PAP allows foreigners into Singapore to compete with locals for jobs
- The Temasek Review: Average wages of fresh graduates continue to decline as number of foreigners increase
- The Temasek Review: Halimah Yacob’s “counter-intuition”: Not true that bosses are hiring foreigners over Singaporeans
- The Temasek Review: PAP mass-recruiting Taiwanese PMETs by offering higher than market pay to lure them to work in Singapore
- Singaporean Skeptic: Singaporeans get easily alarmed.
- The Temasek Review: Why Singaporeans are disadvantaged in competing with foreigners in our own labor market
- The Temasek Review: The fallacy of using lax immigration policies to solve low fertility & ageing population issues
- Contact Singapore: Contact Singapore is an alliance of the Singapore Economic Development Board and Ministry of Manpower. [Thanks lary]
ERPains, Trains & Automobiles
- Empty Vessel: COE woes – just admit the policy was flawed [Recommended]
- flaneurose: Removing Trunk Services for Buses [Recommended]
- Diary of A Singaporean Mind: COE shoots up further..
- Tan Kin Lian’s Blog: Political implication
The elite uncaring face
- Balderdash: Probably the best ST Forum letter I’ve ever read
- Angry Doctor: Elite-bashing
- My sketchbook: Elitism in Singapore
GIC, Temasek State Funds Investments
- FT.com: Singapore’s lesson from Harvard model
- Reuters: Temasek to invest $200mln in India’s GMR Energy-srcs
Singaporeans, a dying breed
- New Asia Republic: It begins with a grant
We are against Capital Punishment
- TOC: A call for a moratorium
- TOC: Not in my name – No to the Mandatory Death Penalty
Healthcare & Healthcare Providers
- Singapore Dino: Al Jazeera highlights difficulties faced by HIV sufferers in Singapore
- TOC: Kwong Wai Shiu – 100 years old but will it survive?
- Unraveling Singapore: Singapore Should Endorse, Not Ban, Smokeless Nicotine Products
Re education
- voix.deviant: Sardonic Successes of Singapore’s Education System [Thanks Ian]
- guanyinmiao’s musings: What Elitism Reflects About Singapore’s Meritocratic System
- Singaporean Skeptic: The problem with the Singapore graduate.
Sin City
- Singapore Alternatives: NSP Press Release: Concerns on the Casino License for Marina Sands
Lee vs NYT
- The Asia File: New York Times ombudsman says IHT should pull out of Singapore [Thanks Ben]
- Singapore Dino: NYT Editor questions why IHT bowed to Lee family
- NYT: Censored in Singapore
Lee vs Chee
- Sgpolitics.net: ST forum writers not tired of rehashing old PAP propaganda
- Trapper’s Swamp: Another uninformed citizen [Recommended]
- The Temasek Review: Chee slammed again for introducing a “confrontational” Western-style democracy in Singapore
- TOC: Part 2 of Dr Chee’s explanation of why Chiam left SDP
- The Temasek Review: Chee strikes back against PAP’s propaganda of him ousting Chiam See Tong from SDP in 1993
- Icarus Flew Too High: Chiam-Gate: See Tong’s own folly
Religion
- The Temasek Review: City Harvest’s stake in Suntec: The thin line between religion and business
- TOC: Non-disclosure was “due to legal requirement”, says City Harvest
- Trapper’s Swamp: Review charity investment laws
- The Temasek Review: City Harvest Church got legal reminder from investors to keep quiet on Suntec deal
- The Void Deck: Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s [Thanks BZH]
- The Grand Moofti Speaks: Singapore’s latest landmark: Suntec Cathedral
- Temasek Hedge: City Harvest: our lawyers tell us to STFU. Too bad.
Daily Discourse
- Sgpolitics.net: Ars Moriendi — The lost art of dying
- Diary of A Singaporean Mind: Fly by night spa operators..
- Icarus Flew Too High: Al Jazeera English dropped from SingTel Mio TV from April 1st
- The Temasek Review: Inside scoop on Singapore politics: Fact or Fiction?
- guanyinmiao’s musings: Does The Consumer Association Of Singapore (CASE) Lack Teeth?
- TOC: Press Muse – Calling STOMP’s bluff [Recommended]
- Butterflies of Singapore: Murder in the name of Art??
- The Asia File: Singapore agrees to rare human rights visit [Thanks Ben]
- TOC: Energy efficiency: what is NEA’s role?
- Military Life: The Hurt Locker – An NSman’s Reflections
- Dee Kay Dot As Gee: Using Matt Harding to promote YourSingapore?
- Musings From the Lion City: Hypocrites & Fear
- voix.deviant: prostitution – a hoe different industry [Thanks Ian]
- voix.deviant: Cracks in Society (Part One): Homophobia
- utopia8787: Engineering – Graveyard of Singapore
- Jacob 69er: Internet Politics: Surveillance and Intimidation in Singapore available for free download
- Blowin’ In The Wind: Indira Gandhi and Lee Kuan Yew
- Musings From the Lion City: Let’s Not Have Another ‘Accident’
- guanyinmiao’s musings: Singapore Tennis Association’s (STA) Ambitions Must Be Balanced With Caution
- TOC: Impose economic and diplomatic sanctions against Myanmar: ASEAN lawmakers
- The Grand Moofti Speaks: Singapore’s Islamic law and the inheritance imbroglio
- Loh and Behold: Blackmailed into Giving?
- Blowin’ In The Wind: Singapore lagged behind East Asia as a whole
- Unraveling Singapore: Al Jazeera English Is Still Available in Singapore
Life, the universe and everything
- Balderdash: Bad student project… Or real NTU promo vid?
- Unbranded Bread n Butter: The Best True Story Behind The Most Fake True Affair that never Happened [Thanks logna]
- ERPZ: Fashion in Singapore
- Blowin’ In The Wind: Singapore compared with other Asian economies
- The Long and Winding Road: The magical world of the Tivoli that was on Orchard Road
- The boy who knew too much: An unexpected word.
- Dee Kay Dot As Gee: Multi-tasking FINALLY coming to iPhone
Infoblogoramus
- Moving Higher In Souped-up Heuristically Agon Moment: PinkDot 2010
- TOC: Hair Zoom Studio raising funds for Changi Village cat sterilisation
- Wild Shores of Singapore: 10 Apr (Sat): Talk on “Native Trees of Pulau Ubin”
- Lost & Found: This website helps people in Singapore to report on lost and found items. [via Tan Kin Lian]
- Wild Shores of Singapore: 14 Apr (Wed): Charity Premier screening of “Earth”
- Wild Shores of Singapore: 16 Apr (Fri): Talk on “Volunteering for Mother Earth” by Grant Pereira
