World Class Foreign Talent

[jw5]

The Electric New Paper :
EPL
THE NEW TEAM

JOHN DYKES
Look who's back?
SINGAPOREAN football fans will get the chance to be reacquainted with John Dykes come next season.
03 June 2010
SINGAPOREAN football fans will get the chance to be reacquainted with John Dykes come next season.

Dykes will host live Barclays Premier League games from London with high-profile pundits and former players for SingTel's mio Stadium channel.

The Englishman had been the face of ESPN Star Sports' Premier League coverage in Asia since 2001, until he parted ways with the content provider earlier this year.

But Singaporeans haven't seen Dykes present a live league game since 2007, when StarHub won the rights to broadcast Premier League games here.

Joe Morrison, who as lead presenter for StarHub's Football Channel was effectively Dykes' replacement, said that his role was 'like trying to replace David Beckham after he left Manchester United.'

Said Edward Ying, Chief of Content & Media Services at SingTel: 'John is a credible and well-respected personality here in Singapore and we believe that bringing him and his team back will greatly enhance the Premier League experience for fans.'


Those who follow english football will know this chap.
He is the kind of world class foreign talent that SG should want. Unfortunately, he decided to go back to the UK with his family.

 

[jw5]

SG as a country should actually be aiming to get the following kinds of foreigners to work here:

1. To take up jobs not usually wanted by Singaporeans, like construction jobs and cleaners.

2. Those who have world class or exceptional ability in their fields.

3. Those who represent their foreign companies based in SG, e.g. the country manager of a foreign bank or Regional MD of a foreign company with regional HQ in SG.

Any other foreigners who come here on an easy ticket, are not here because SG "needs" them. They are here because they themselves want to be here or certain people have their own reasons for wanting them here. The IT middle managers, the professionals, the sales people, the administrators, the financial services people, even the retail staff and food service workers - they are not here because SG needs them or because they provide some special expertise or ability. Singaporeans want these jobs too, and will be happy to fill those positions that are now taken by these foreigners. SG the country is not the same as the government, who may want them here to "dilute" the voting population, to keep Singaporeans "in check", and perhaps even to maintain certain status quo.

There are 2 things in particular that I want to discuss.

Firstly, why are there elderly Singaporean food court, coffee shop, fast food and hawker centre cleaners when there are so many foreigners having jobs as the food servers?
Surely these Singaporeans who are cleaners would be delighted to have jobs as food servers, if they are even willing to be cleaners. And if they can do the job of a cleaner, surely they can do the job as a food server.

Secondly, if the top class foreign talent is what is needed and wanted by SG, why aren't there any top class foreign talent recruited to fill certain civil service positions or even government ministar positions? Surely they would be wanting to recruit the whole wide world to find top class policy makers and decision makers to fill these key positions. Instead, we are getting people who can't even speak properly, people who can't articulate properly in English, people who constantly make motherhood statements and state the obvious, people who just parrot what some "important" person has already said, people who give lame excuses, or people who just love to talk about their own situation, instead of the lives of ordinary Singaporeans. Add to that the fact that they are paid humongous salaries even more than the american president, and the situation gets even more ridicuolous.

But the most ridiculous question of all is:
Why have we accepted and are still accepting this situation?
Please provide your views and comments.

 

[silverfox@]

SG as a country should actually be aiming to get the following kinds of foreigners to work here:

1. To take up jobs not usually wanted by Singaporeans, like construction jobs and cleaners.

2. Those who have world class or exceptional ability in their fields.

3. Those who represent their foreign companies based in SG, e.g. the country manager of a foreign bank or Regional MD of a foreign company with regional HQ in SG.

There are 2 things in particular that I want to discuss.

Firstly, why are there elderly Singaporean food court, coffee shop, fast food and hawker centre cleaners when there are so many foreigners having jobs as the food servers?
Surely these Singaporeans who are cleaners would be delighted to have jobs as food servers, if they are even willing to be cleaners. And if they can do the job of a cleaner, surely they can do the job as a food server.

The foreign worker quota has been greatly abused by many businessmen and the govt is keeping a closed eye to all this. Their quota of number of singaporeans : foreigners, they just need to submit names to relevant boards without any officers who actually go down to check.

The role of a singaporean now is to help fill up quota, so that the company can employ more foreigners. Foreigners on work permits supposed to be getting more than $2500, are actually getting only $1200 because that is the agreement they had with their employers in order to get the job. So why does a company need to employ locals when foreigners can get half the salary?
Chain of restaurants are doing this blatantly and its an open secret, but they are still opening chain after chain without anyone stepping in to do anything

 

[jw5]

The foreign worker quota has been greatly abused by many businessmen and the govt is keeping a closed eye to all this. Their quota of number of singaporeans : foreigners, they just need to submit names to relevant boards without any officers who actually go down to check.

The role of a singaporean now is to help fill up quota, so that the company can employ more foreigners. Foreigners on work permits supposed to be getting more than $2500, are actually getting only $1200 because that is the agreement they had with their employers in order to get the job. So why does a company need to employ locals when foreigners can get half the salary?
Chain of restaurants are doing this blatantly and its an open secret, but they are still opening chain after chain without anyone stepping in to do anything

And the reason is because the "big picture policy" has been pre-approved by you-know-who.
The civil servants are simply carrying out the orders in a big way, to the extent that even abuse is left unchecked.

I still want to discuss the cleaner and food server issue. It cannot be a case of higher wages for the local. If a cleaner is prepared to work as a cleaner and take cleaner's wages, surely he or she will be prepared to be a food server at lower wages or foreigner wages. But why are so many food server positions being occupied by foreigners, most of whom are more deficient in languages than even the elderly cleaners?

I had an encounter with a local cleaner the other day. She cleaned my plate and leftover food, I said thank you, she said "You'll welcome."
Goodness me, she would make a great food server wouldn't she? But why are the jobs being taken by foreigners?