Tuesday, January 23, 2007
i watched a retelecast of A Future Singapore- Conversation with Minister Ng Eng Hen today during my break. It was a very good dialogue session, mostly about manpower issues in Singapore. There were two main issues that caught my attention and the way the minister handled the issues was surprisingly down-to-earth and practical. There was no airs around this guy and he seemed to be genuinely concerned with the manpower problems in Singapore. Helped to improve my impression of the government because sometimes i felt that ministers were mostly "talk no action".
the government is implementing a new scheme whereby if you are above 40 and have an income that's less than a certain amount, you would be applicable for this scheme which would definitely help in terms of financial needs. An incident was raised where an old grandmother asked if she could qualify because her job was to babysit her grandchildren and her son pays her $400 every month. Technically, if you think about this, she's really trying to be funny. But Mr Ng replied saying such people would qualify if there was a real employer and employee relationship. This brought in other views that people such as housewives should qualify for this scheme as well since they do as much work. Indeed, grandmothers cum babysitters and housewives are often neglected and not given that full recognition of their work in our society today. Mr Ng highlighted that this was a group of people that was very pertinent to the structure of society and without them, there would be dire consequences. He stated that government funds can be directed to helping these people but he felt that the government might not be in the best position to assist them. Often, what they need would be signs of appreciation and love from their own family members. This was a very heartwarming sentence and helped me to understand the importance of showing appreciation to the people around us. I think it helped myself to understand that being a housewife is not something bad. For myself, i have always believed that having a good career in future is important. It is also even more important to be able to balance both career and family life. However, i think that sometimes quality time spent is something that cannot be replaced and if you miss the opportunity, you will not be able to make up for the losses. Hence, maybe being a housewife is not that bad after all. With the amount of time on my hands, i can make full use of it by taking good care of the family and probably do more social work. It's a problem of stereotyping and having one-track minds in our society that a good career is an indication of your wealth and status in society. But then we need to ask ourselves what kind of wealth do we want? i think i want more than just material wealth, but spiritual and emotional wealth at the same time. in fact, i think material wealth is the least important of the three.
a second issue was about companies not wanting to hire old people because they might not be as productive as younger workers. Mr Ng said that more than just what the government does, there needs to be moral persuasion. I think that if you do not want to be classified as a useless worker when you are old, you need to first accept such people in our society now. Changing of mindsets is never easy, in fact its even more hard to change compared to pouring in assets and money to solve our problems. Let's not be an elitist society, no matter how certain people have classified our singaporean society to be one. I think my application for myself is if i get into a taxi with a driver who's in his fifties, i'll try to be nicer even if he loses his way and try not to be irritated that i have to pay more for the taxi fare. hahaha. :)
it was a very insightful dialogue session, so if you have the time, catch it on channel newsasia. i'm sure they will show it again!
TURN YOUR EYES UPON JESUS
6:45 PM
