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Coffeeshop Chit Chat - Why not SG lease land from NZ for 100 yr</TD><TD id=msgunetc noWrap align=right> </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><TABLE class=msgtable cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="96%"><TBODY><TR><TD class=msg vAlign=top><TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR class=msghead><TD class=msgbfr1 width="1%"> </TD><TD><TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0><TBODY><TR class=msghead vAlign=top><TD class=msgF width="1%" noWrap align=right>From: </TD><TD class=msgFname width="68%" noWrap>kojakbt_89 <NOBR></NOBR> </TD><TD class=msgDate width="30%" noWrap align=right>9:16 am </TD></TR><TR class=msghead><TD class=msgT height=20 width="1%" noWrap align=right>To: </TD><TD class=msgTname width="68%" noWrap>ALL <NOBR></NOBR></TD><TD class=msgNum noWrap align=right> (1 of 3) </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR><TR><TD class=msgleft rowSpan=4 width="1%"> </TD><TD class=wintiny noWrap align=right>31531.1 </TD></TR><TR><TD height=8></TD></TR><TR><TD class=msgtxt>Apr 11, 2010
THE EX-PAT FILES
Green green grass of home
<!-- by line -->By Linda Collins
<!-- end by line -->
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A report in The Straits Times last month, 'Singaporeans answering the call of NZ', said that a pilot project launched by New Zealand to get Singaporeans to move there to work, study or live had struck a chord.
Nearly 4,500 Singaporeans had registered their interest in applying for a work or study visa, or permanent residency, within two months of the campaign's launch.
This international grass-is-greener thing is a strange affair.
Here am I, a New Zealander, thinking that Singapore is the bee's knees.
And there are thousands of Singaporeans thinking New Zealand is where they need to be.
When I called up the report online at www.straitstimes.com, it had attracted a whopping 147 comments.
Some posters' comments ranged from the glib - 'Only 4,500? I would have thought that the figure would be around two million' - to the very glib. BPLforever said the clincher for them to move to New Zealand 'would be that the national rugby team of my country would be the All Blacks. No more cheating in sports by using Chinese nationals'.
Others bought into the dream of a Pacific paradise: Fried.Egg extolled the 'clean and peaceful environment'.
One poster, with the disarmingly frank username of 'hypocritically', said they lived in New Zealand because of 'the weather' but they wanted to warn that life is not always greener on the other side.
This strong interest in New Zealand fits in with my own experience.
Whenever anyone asks me and is told where I am from, whether taxi driver or well-heeled lawyer, they say: 'Ahh, New Zealand. So clean and green.'
As I grapple with mixed feelings - patriotic pride that they think this, and wariness over the naive optimism behind that perception - they add: 'I would like to retire there one day.'
I can see some of the appeal. While New Zealand is the size of Italy and has a population of four million, Singapore is roughly the size of New Zealand's largest lake, Lake Taupo, and yet has about a million more people.
Housing is cheaper. For about the price of a five-room HDB flat in a good location, you can get a stand-alone two-storey house.
All that space in Kiwiland means there are a lot of roads. And cars are cheap. A new Toyota Corolla that costs $75,000 in Singapore - a price that does not factor in the latest COE increases - is about NZ$35,000 (S$34,500).
A fantasy for some is simply going there and buying a car and driving it.
That well-known '100% Pure' advertising campaign the New Zealand government has been running for several years has certainly had an effect.
I've tried to come clean and give a reality check. About how seedy areas in the cities make Geylang look pristine, and while, yes, there is a lot of grass, and sheep, the latter are being outnumbered by dairy cows whose manure is mucking up rivers.
And crime is on the rise, taxes are higher than in Singapore, and wages are lower.
Among those 147 comments, there was even this suggestion: 'Will the Singapore Government dare to put up a proposal to the New Zealand government... that... Singaporeans set up homes on a piece of land on the South Island on 100 years' lease term, a land that is managed by Singapore (like the terms of Hong Kong under the British government before it handed Hong Kong back to Red China in 1997)?'
As to what it would be called, the name Greenland has already been taken, but I propose: Growth Region of Administration under Singapore Supervision.
Or Grass, for short.
Will Grass take root? If this special administration region has Singapore's 24/7 foodcourts and affordable mee siam, I'm green with envy, already.
The writer is a copy editor with the Life! section of The Straits Times. A New Zealander, she has worked here for 16 years.
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THE EX-PAT FILES
Green green grass of home
<!-- by line -->By Linda Collins
<!-- end by line -->
<!-- end left side bar --><!-- story content : start -->
A report in The Straits Times last month, 'Singaporeans answering the call of NZ', said that a pilot project launched by New Zealand to get Singaporeans to move there to work, study or live had struck a chord.
Nearly 4,500 Singaporeans had registered their interest in applying for a work or study visa, or permanent residency, within two months of the campaign's launch.
This international grass-is-greener thing is a strange affair.
Here am I, a New Zealander, thinking that Singapore is the bee's knees.
And there are thousands of Singaporeans thinking New Zealand is where they need to be.
When I called up the report online at www.straitstimes.com, it had attracted a whopping 147 comments.
Some posters' comments ranged from the glib - 'Only 4,500? I would have thought that the figure would be around two million' - to the very glib. BPLforever said the clincher for them to move to New Zealand 'would be that the national rugby team of my country would be the All Blacks. No more cheating in sports by using Chinese nationals'.
Others bought into the dream of a Pacific paradise: Fried.Egg extolled the 'clean and peaceful environment'.
One poster, with the disarmingly frank username of 'hypocritically', said they lived in New Zealand because of 'the weather' but they wanted to warn that life is not always greener on the other side.
This strong interest in New Zealand fits in with my own experience.
Whenever anyone asks me and is told where I am from, whether taxi driver or well-heeled lawyer, they say: 'Ahh, New Zealand. So clean and green.'
As I grapple with mixed feelings - patriotic pride that they think this, and wariness over the naive optimism behind that perception - they add: 'I would like to retire there one day.'
I can see some of the appeal. While New Zealand is the size of Italy and has a population of four million, Singapore is roughly the size of New Zealand's largest lake, Lake Taupo, and yet has about a million more people.
Housing is cheaper. For about the price of a five-room HDB flat in a good location, you can get a stand-alone two-storey house.
All that space in Kiwiland means there are a lot of roads. And cars are cheap. A new Toyota Corolla that costs $75,000 in Singapore - a price that does not factor in the latest COE increases - is about NZ$35,000 (S$34,500).
A fantasy for some is simply going there and buying a car and driving it.
That well-known '100% Pure' advertising campaign the New Zealand government has been running for several years has certainly had an effect.
I've tried to come clean and give a reality check. About how seedy areas in the cities make Geylang look pristine, and while, yes, there is a lot of grass, and sheep, the latter are being outnumbered by dairy cows whose manure is mucking up rivers.
And crime is on the rise, taxes are higher than in Singapore, and wages are lower.
Among those 147 comments, there was even this suggestion: 'Will the Singapore Government dare to put up a proposal to the New Zealand government... that... Singaporeans set up homes on a piece of land on the South Island on 100 years' lease term, a land that is managed by Singapore (like the terms of Hong Kong under the British government before it handed Hong Kong back to Red China in 1997)?'
As to what it would be called, the name Greenland has already been taken, but I propose: Growth Region of Administration under Singapore Supervision.
Or Grass, for short.
Will Grass take root? If this special administration region has Singapore's 24/7 foodcourts and affordable mee siam, I'm green with envy, already.
The writer is a copy editor with the Life! section of The Straits Times. A New Zealander, she has worked here for 16 years.
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