Reality of life for the young in Singapore

Not a Dad wrote:
Melissa,
I am a engineer too and I am of the same age as you.

Ten years ago, LKY told us that the country needed engineers to service
our manufacturing industry.

LKY and the PAP had more credibility than now, so I must be forgiven for
my naivety. I went into NUS Engineering with straight As.

Into my 1st year in NUS, there was a FLOOD of foreigners into our faculty.
Most were 3rd rate students from China, Malaysia and India brought by MOE
here (Free education with $500 monthly allowance while I need to work part
time and try to repay student loans.HAHAHAHHA!!!!!).

Innumerous engineers were given PRs and citizenships like toilet paper,
even till now! The PAP told us to go into Engineering, BUT did not even
BLOODY wait for us to graduate before MASS importing foreign trash!

-I served NS and forgone 2 years of work and pay. FARK!

-I need to risk my life to protect these idiots who deprive me of work,
depress my pay, inflate housing prices. DOUBLE FARK!

-Many engineers around me, like your hubby, WORK OT with no OT pay. Why?
Because the company will fire your ass if you dare to leave at 6pm!If you
are unhappy with work conditions, then you can go. The company can replace
you with cheap and slave-like engineers from Malaysia in less than a day,
thanks to PAP! TRIPLE FARK!

-I want to get married and I really really love kids. But the financial
burden weighs down on me as it does on you. To be secure to have kids, I
need to scrimp and save till I am 40 (I am a miser who spends less than 25%
of my income!).

A single retrenchment, or a few months without renewal of my engineering
contract, or a disease could put my kids and us sleeping on the void decks.
(Actually the HDB doesn't even allow us to do that)

I can only look sadly at the kids of others and imagine the kids I can
never have..(TEARS.)

From: "David Teo"
Subject: Re: Realty of life for the young in Singapore

I lived in SAFTI Hilton for about 2 years after marriage. Then to HDB flat.
Now still living in one. ALL my peers are into condos and landed. To keep up
with the Jones, they're talking about semi-Ds and some even GCBs. But I
always tell them I'm paying monthly housing mortgage of sgd 300+. No need to
worry so much. dt

"herozero" wrote in message

> For a young married couple, buying a 4 room resale flat in Sin Ming for
> S$500,000 is already big mistake.

> Didn't MBT mentioned instead of going for high price resale flats in
> matured HDB estates, they should be buying HDB flats in "non matured"
> estates such as Sembawang, Sengkang or Punggol and they could have bought
> a 4 room HDB flat for less than S$350,000, if they are not "choosy".

> In the old days, most teachers and engineers were living in 3 or 4 room
> HDB. I even know teachers who used to live in 1 HDB room flats before they
> start "upgrading".

> In the end, the Sg govt will always blame you for being "unrealistic" and
> "choosy".

> On 3/24/2010 9:45 PM, truth wrote:
>> http://www.temasekreview.com/2010/03/24/singapore-teacher-burdened-by...
>> Dear TR,

>> Thanks for publishing the article by Ms Judy Eng. (read article here) It
>> really strikes a chord in my heart as I am in the same situation as her
>> too.
>> I am 28 this year now working as a teacher in a secondary school.

>> My fiancee just found a job in a GLC as an engineer after six months of
>> looking for one. The pay isn't fantastic as there is an abundance of
>> foreign
>> engineers in Singapore. He considered himself lucky to finally secure a
>> full-time job after months of being on contract.

>> We are planning to get married in July and just bought a 4-room resale
>> flat
>> at Sin Ming. Guess how much it costs? You won't believe it, we bought it
>> at
>> almost $500,000. No kidding, it's true! All the flats in the vicinity
>> cost
>> above $500K. After paying about $30,000 in COV partially paid for by our
>> parents, we do not have a single cent left for our wedding which we will
>> have a simple afternoon tea buffet at our church instead of the
>> traditional
>> 8-course Chinese dinner.

>> I am really worried about our future. We earn barely $5,000 together and
>> the
>> mortgage loan already took up 30 percent of our income. We still have to
>> cough out some cash after using up the entire CPFs. The moment I think of
>> this, I lost all the mood already.

>> People used to say that marriage is the happiest moment in a girl's life,
>> but I am not looking forward to it. I feel very heavy, like a burden
>> placeed
>> on my chest, sometimes choking me, it is so suffocating. Can we buy a new
>> flat? I do not wish to wait for another 3 to 4 years, anything can
>> happen
>> to our relationship during this period of time. It is a risk I cannot
>> afford
>> to take.

>> My hubby-to-be is burnt out everyday from work - OT, OT and OT and he is
>> not
>> paid for it. For me, my weekends are either burnt in school CCAs or
>> marking
>> the homeworks of my students. We hardly meet each other at all, sometimes
>> just enough time to have a meal or catch a movie. Somehow I feel
>> apprehensive startinig life together with another person, am I ready for
>> it? I don't think we can start a family, at least for the next three
>> years
>> or so. How to have children when we are not financially stable?

>> I will pay the loan mostly on my own as my hubby still have to pay for
>> his
>> student loan and car loan. I have only a few thousand dollars in my
>> savings
>> now and I wonder how long they can last me. What happens when there is
>> an
>> emergency? Or if we are retrenched? I dread to think of the worst.but
>> women
>> being women, they always think alot.

>> Every month, my pay gets used up almost immediately after it's deposited
>> into my POSB account - living expenses, allowances for parents, and now
>> with
>> housing loan, I really don't know how far we can continue like this. Did
>> we
>> do our Maths before we make the purchase? Yes, but what can we do, the
>> flats
>> are expensive everywhere and we want to stay near our parents. Even
>> 4-room
>> flats in Jurong are calling above $400,000 nowadays! The prices are
>> really
>> going crazy, the agents told us that they will only go up in the future
>> as
>> the govt will never allow them to come down.

>> Sorry for the ramblings. There are so many things on my mind now, I can't
>> think or type clearly...Thanks for providing me an outlet to vent my
>> frustrations, who can understand what we are going through? Sigh, maybe I
>> am
>> one of those few unlucky souls.

>> Please edit and publish this rant of mine as you see fit. Thanks again
>> for
>> listening.

>> Melissa Quek
-------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: soc.culture.singapore
From: "truth"

Subject: Agony of a 14 year old in Singapore

Dear TR,

After reading mails from Ms Melissa Quek, Mr Devoran, Ms T.Rajendran and Ms
Judy Eng, I've decided to stop idling behind the computer screen waiting for
change to happen. I'm writing in hopes that I can reach out to people whom
may read and perhaps relate to what I have been experiencing as of late.

First off, I'm a 14-year-old Secondary School student. My family aren't
rich, but we are staying in a 4-room HDB flat. Even though I'm 14, I
understand the things that are happening.

A little about my current family position. My mother has cancer and she has
to go for check-ups regularly.

Early last month, about 8 hours after my mother had left for a checkup at
Singapore General Hospital, I went with my father. It was 11pm then, and we
both were worried about her. There was no reason for a checkup to be this
long. So we went, but we didn't know which block she was at. I called her by
phone.

Turns out that she was at the emergency block, Block 1.

A little of a back-story. A doctor who removed the tumor in her right lung
claimed there was no need for chemotherapy. However, she still complained of
pain in her right chest. It turned out that the cancer cells had already
infected her lymph nodes and it wasn't detected then. Now it's too late
though. The cancer cells are slowly eating her life away.

Now that when I recall this incident, I feel disgust and hate towards this
medical standard. Is this acceptable? Why should a check-up, in the
EMERGENCY block, end up being 8 hours long?! How on earth did that doctor
think that chemotherapy was not necessary? I had no idea what happened. By
the time my mother had received the report and we reached home, it was
almost 2am. I missed school the next day as I was too fatigued.

What is the government doing? Did they even CHECK? Where's our money going?!

Obviously that greedy geezer and the famiLEE.

This really angers me. My mother also has very little money left in her
bank. She cannot go to work, and now I'm also trying to save as much as I
can so she doesn't have to give me too much allowance everyday. GIRO doesn't
help much either. Luckily, my now married sister and brother, who have their
own families, are helping. But that doesn't even amount to much. It's still
a hard road to walk, but walk it we must.

Other than this beyond disappointing medical incident, I also have a school
life. It's not very enjoyable either.

MRT, public buses. I'm sure everyone knows that it's crowded as heck, and my
gigantic monster of a school bag doesn't help either. Going my car isn't any
better. The road is congested as hell in the morning. In the afternoon, it's
better. But I occasionally have a couple of PRs sitting in the seat before
me, talking loudly non-stop. Even the earpieces blasting my ears to deaf
doesn't help.

In school, sometimes we have CME or PG lessons and the teacher gives the
class a worksheet which sings praises about what PAP has done for the
people. One I recall from memory, was roughly,

"Every time I see old folks gathering recyclables from a garbage can on the
street, my heart laments for them. The people these days are lacking filial
piety." .. ".I am glad that the government is helping the needy with
assistance schemes. The government is doing a good job."

Obviously there is something very wrong there. I thought to myself, 'if the
government is doing a good job, then why are these old folks gathering and
selling recyclables?' I asked the teacher so, but he just shrugged and
replied that he doesn't know why.

He's probably another brainwashed PAP dog, that's why.

Also, 4 china students transfered into my class during the past month. They
are always getting the praises and 1st place for tests/exams. They are
leeching the motivation out of everyone. No one really mixes with them. The
whole class might as well be a class for PRs instead! I cannot really
express myself too well with words, but every time I see them, I can't help
but hate their attitude. I know not all of them are bad, but with all these
incidents like then acting all big and mighty, or talking loud and sometimes
insulting us behind our back loudly, really left this impression on me.

The government loves them too. They bring money with them. They are also
cheaper, faster, better. The way I see it, they are cheaters, liars, asses.
Again, I know not all of them are bad. I am referring to the ones that
really gives the impression. I have seen it too many times. It's easy to
tell.

I also sometimes worry about my future if I were to continue to stay in
Singapore. No doubt the population density would get really dense, and at
some point, buying a house would blow a million dollars. Everything sucks
you dry. So therefore I arrived with this conclusion. If nothing is done
right to change is broken system, then I'm moving to another country. Living
here is as good as being in a lifetime debt to the government, and that is
the same as being on a leash.
I feel so much rage for this greedy government. Leeching our money, which
they then throw them in a well praying a genie would come out. I vow, if PAP
is still not voted out after the next election, then goodbye, Singapore, I'm
moving onto another country once I am able to stand on my own.

By the by, there's more mind control worksheets I've done.

"Do you feel proud to be a Singaporean? If so, why?"
No. The government is ignorant and greedy, that's why.

Anyway, thanks for reading. I feel better getting these off my chest. You
may do whatever you wish with this.

Kristine Tan