[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Singaporeans
Living with the gloom
How an affluent city is faring under the shadow of stagflation - slow growth plus high inflation. Comment below. By Seah Chiang Nee.
Nov 8, 2008[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]WHAT was an ungracious act in a train has turned the spotlight on just how much stress the current financial havoc is putting on Singaporeans.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]The news website, Asia One, kicked off its report of the encounter by saying: “Desperate times call for depraved measures. The financial crisis might have hurt more than just our wallets.”[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]It occurred last Sunday, when a train commuter refused to give up his seat to a pregnant woman even when he was asked. Instead, he blamed it on the tough life, reported The Straits Times’ news portal.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]The episode was photographed by an eyewitness, who quoted him as saying, ‘Life is already full of suffering, why should I reward her (the pregnant woman) for bringing one more life into this world?’[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]The furore centred on his ill manners and ignored his reference to ‘suffering life’.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Some believe it should not be dismissed out of hand and that the uncivil behaviour could actually reflect his despondent mood over the economic crisis.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]“Singaporeans react differently to a crisis. Not everyone can articulate his thoughts rationally under pressure,” said one writer.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]The man’s allegation about stress is, however, not without basis.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]The majority of Singaporeans are coping well, striving to survive these hard times, keep jobs and preserve assets. Not all will succeed.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]The stronger characters see it as an opportunity for a better future or to buy cheap, but for a segment of the society morale has sagged and a bit of lethargy has set in.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]A forum recently started a discussion on unscrupulous retailers fleecing customers in Singapore, despite its reputation as a shoppers’ paradise.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]A woman tourist said when her daughter wanted to buy a new digital camera, the salesman demanded S$30 to have the international guarantee stamped. She stood her ground and was spared paying.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Widely-travelled ‘mybingoh’ wrote, “Every time I returned to Singapore, I found people brasher and outright peevish.”[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]In sporadic instances, salespersons had shown distaste for their job and did not bother to hide it from the customers.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]“I hear from the man in the street they are all trying hard to cope with the escalating costs of living and the sky-high rental premiums,” one said.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]He gave several other examples: a hawker adamantly demanding $4 for a pineapple, a salesgirl at a camera repair shop ignoring a customer while chatting on the phone and specialist doctors charging exorbitant fees.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]A retail businessman put the main cause in one word, money. In recent boom years, rents in the central areas had been skyrocketing – by as much as 50%-60% a year.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]The recession has forced retailers to keep wages low, which in turn resulted in unhappy staff and customer service.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Others disagreed and attributed it to a spoiled generation following decades of prosperity.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]“In certain jobs, we don’t have a good work culture, unlike Thailand,” one food centre operator said, explaining why he had to rely on China workers.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]In a recession, service standards should in fact improve because workers generally need to work harder to keep their jobs, he contended.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Within the next 12-18 months, jobs will remain the biggest worry for Singaporeans.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Thousands of fresh graduates will come out of universities at home and abroad to start hunting for work at a critical time. They will be joined by youths from Asia’s job-hungry countries.[/FONT]
=> While Sporns serve NS?
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Manpower Minister Gan Kim Yong last week warned people to expect deterioration over the next few months, with more Singaporeans losing their jobs.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]“There will be higher retrenchment,” he said. So far, unemployment has stayed at 2.2%, although 2,000 more workers were retrenched in the recent quarter.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]The more pessimistic analysts talk of a job tsunami, with decline across Singapore’s entire economy, including manufacturing, shipping, finance, tourism, retailing and property.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Yuppies seem to be doing reasonably well – so far. This breed is not good at being thrifty, compared with the older generation. Generally, they do not have a sense of urgency to save, so some of them are using unconventional ways to make spending money.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]One ‘university’ girl offered to sell her soiled underwear while another – a 17-year-old – offered her virginity to the highest bidder.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]The tabloid New Paper just ran a story about engineers, teachers and other professionals working as bar dancers at night-clubs, partly for fun but mostly for the extra dollars.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]The newspaper exclaimed in a headline, “Is that my housing agent dancing on the bar?”[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]This market meltdown has struck the government and the wealthy just as badly.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]The billionaires and wealthy property developers have seen their fortunes decimated, at least on paper, by as much as 60% since early this year.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]“Some of these poor souls are down to their last one or two hundred million dollars,” joked a remisier.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]In worst shape are Singapore’s state reserves, once estimated to be about US$330bil, much of it invested at home and overseas. Today values in the tens of billions are believed to have been erased.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]In Singapore more than elsewhere, if the wealthy suffer so will the poor. That could mean less investment and employment as well as a drop in tax revenue for public services.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]In fact, the government here is facing one of its toughest political tests since independence. It has to strike a fine balance between giving big business a free hand to cut costs to stay healthy and placating voters who may want just the opposite.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]On the ground, these common folks want more spending by the corporations so they can have a better life.
[/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif](This was first published in The Star, Malaysia on Nov 8, 2008)[/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]
[/FONT]
Living with the gloom
How an affluent city is faring under the shadow of stagflation - slow growth plus high inflation. Comment below. By Seah Chiang Nee.
Nov 8, 2008[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]WHAT was an ungracious act in a train has turned the spotlight on just how much stress the current financial havoc is putting on Singaporeans.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]The news website, Asia One, kicked off its report of the encounter by saying: “Desperate times call for depraved measures. The financial crisis might have hurt more than just our wallets.”[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]It occurred last Sunday, when a train commuter refused to give up his seat to a pregnant woman even when he was asked. Instead, he blamed it on the tough life, reported The Straits Times’ news portal.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]The episode was photographed by an eyewitness, who quoted him as saying, ‘Life is already full of suffering, why should I reward her (the pregnant woman) for bringing one more life into this world?’[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]The furore centred on his ill manners and ignored his reference to ‘suffering life’.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Some believe it should not be dismissed out of hand and that the uncivil behaviour could actually reflect his despondent mood over the economic crisis.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]“Singaporeans react differently to a crisis. Not everyone can articulate his thoughts rationally under pressure,” said one writer.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]The man’s allegation about stress is, however, not without basis.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]The majority of Singaporeans are coping well, striving to survive these hard times, keep jobs and preserve assets. Not all will succeed.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]The stronger characters see it as an opportunity for a better future or to buy cheap, but for a segment of the society morale has sagged and a bit of lethargy has set in.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]A forum recently started a discussion on unscrupulous retailers fleecing customers in Singapore, despite its reputation as a shoppers’ paradise.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]A woman tourist said when her daughter wanted to buy a new digital camera, the salesman demanded S$30 to have the international guarantee stamped. She stood her ground and was spared paying.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Widely-travelled ‘mybingoh’ wrote, “Every time I returned to Singapore, I found people brasher and outright peevish.”[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]In sporadic instances, salespersons had shown distaste for their job and did not bother to hide it from the customers.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]“I hear from the man in the street they are all trying hard to cope with the escalating costs of living and the sky-high rental premiums,” one said.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]He gave several other examples: a hawker adamantly demanding $4 for a pineapple, a salesgirl at a camera repair shop ignoring a customer while chatting on the phone and specialist doctors charging exorbitant fees.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]A retail businessman put the main cause in one word, money. In recent boom years, rents in the central areas had been skyrocketing – by as much as 50%-60% a year.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]The recession has forced retailers to keep wages low, which in turn resulted in unhappy staff and customer service.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Others disagreed and attributed it to a spoiled generation following decades of prosperity.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]“In certain jobs, we don’t have a good work culture, unlike Thailand,” one food centre operator said, explaining why he had to rely on China workers.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]In a recession, service standards should in fact improve because workers generally need to work harder to keep their jobs, he contended.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Within the next 12-18 months, jobs will remain the biggest worry for Singaporeans.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Thousands of fresh graduates will come out of universities at home and abroad to start hunting for work at a critical time. They will be joined by youths from Asia’s job-hungry countries.[/FONT]
=> While Sporns serve NS?
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Manpower Minister Gan Kim Yong last week warned people to expect deterioration over the next few months, with more Singaporeans losing their jobs.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]“There will be higher retrenchment,” he said. So far, unemployment has stayed at 2.2%, although 2,000 more workers were retrenched in the recent quarter.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]The more pessimistic analysts talk of a job tsunami, with decline across Singapore’s entire economy, including manufacturing, shipping, finance, tourism, retailing and property.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Yuppies seem to be doing reasonably well – so far. This breed is not good at being thrifty, compared with the older generation. Generally, they do not have a sense of urgency to save, so some of them are using unconventional ways to make spending money.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]One ‘university’ girl offered to sell her soiled underwear while another – a 17-year-old – offered her virginity to the highest bidder.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]The tabloid New Paper just ran a story about engineers, teachers and other professionals working as bar dancers at night-clubs, partly for fun but mostly for the extra dollars.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]The newspaper exclaimed in a headline, “Is that my housing agent dancing on the bar?”[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]This market meltdown has struck the government and the wealthy just as badly.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]The billionaires and wealthy property developers have seen their fortunes decimated, at least on paper, by as much as 60% since early this year.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]“Some of these poor souls are down to their last one or two hundred million dollars,” joked a remisier.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]In worst shape are Singapore’s state reserves, once estimated to be about US$330bil, much of it invested at home and overseas. Today values in the tens of billions are believed to have been erased.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]In Singapore more than elsewhere, if the wealthy suffer so will the poor. That could mean less investment and employment as well as a drop in tax revenue for public services.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]In fact, the government here is facing one of its toughest political tests since independence. It has to strike a fine balance between giving big business a free hand to cut costs to stay healthy and placating voters who may want just the opposite.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]On the ground, these common folks want more spending by the corporations so they can have a better life.
[/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif](This was first published in The Star, Malaysia on Nov 8, 2008)[/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]
[/FONT]
