DREAMING

Toothless Smoke Everyone knows smoking is detrimental to health. Studies have shown second-hand smoke affect our health as well. Second-hand smoke has been proven to affect the health of everyone as well, especially the young and the vulnerable. There are designated areas for smoking in Singapore. However, many choose to ignore the law blatantly and smoke wilfully as they are make their way to MRT stations, bus-stops etc.  Day in day out, you  see  people holding a cigarette everywhere, smoking while going about their daily chores, whilst walking to MRT stations, walking to the hawker centres. For years, the designated smoking area law is in fact un-enforceable. Smoking is not allowed inside the buildings. Yet, there are many who still smoke fugitively inside public toilets.   In the Singapore Smoking (Prohibition in Certain Places) Act, (Chapter 310, Section 3(1)), the penalties for flouting the smoking law are not explicitly stated. Repeated offenders m...

Since I moved to Jurong East 20 years ago, I have enjoyed swimming at Jurong East Swimming Complex with my family every Sunday. Weekends, many children thronged the swimming complex, and the kids’ water playing at the kiddy pool is a hot favourite with all the toddlers and young children. It has been a while since I last visited, but I was shocked that the water feature at kiddy pool has been totally removed.   There used to be some sort of children’s water playground in that particular kiddy pool but now it is just an empty pool.   I understand that renovations works on the water playground have been going on for years, and it was upgraded only 1 year ago. To my shock, it was empty when I paid a visit on 6 July 2018. Being the first one-stop integrated centre with many fun facilities water features including a lazy river, and wave pool and 3 slides I am particularly disappointed that the kids' playground in the kiddy pool is no longer there and there is no repla...

This Trade War Is about One Man’s Election Promises I read with interest the title heading published in Straits Times Opinion dated 30 June 2018, “This trade war is about technology” by Professor Emerita Linda Lim. Actually I beg to differ.   The title should read instead “This trade war is about the promises of one man, not really about technology.” In her paper, Miss Lim implied that the ongoing US-China trade war is a “struggle over different visions of models of technological innovation”. While not entirely off the point, I feel this is secondary. The primary crux of the trade war is about one man’s election campaign promises, his ‘visions’ to protect his country’s own turfs for its own economic gains – “to make America great again”. For decades, United States of America is one of the main proponents of free trade and one of the few most liberated trading countries in the world. As early as in year 1776, Adam Smith published ‘The Wealth of Nations’ an importa...

Reckless driving at pedestrian crossings endangering lives It is disturbing that many cars sped past the pedestrians crossings without even bothering to slow down when there are visible elderly person and children crossing the roads.   Singapore roads are getting crowded with more cars, commercial vehicles, bicycles and more restrains and traffic users on the road.   However, there are many near fatal accidents and near misses which continues to playback every day without cessation. I have personally witnessed twice, the same scenes being played repeatedly, along the stretch of Jurong Town Hall Road and the Jurong East Street 13 where children and elderly made pass the pedestrian crossing with cars speeding past without slowing down. Last week I saw a young women with a pram crossing the zebra crossings and a blue Honda sped past without stopping barely seconds after the woman had crossed. In another instance an elderly man with a walking stick barely made i...

Call for a proposed Underemployment Supplement Scheme (USS) I agree with MP Zainal, on that long-term underemployment workers will lose confidence and drive to update their skills to stay relevant. In my view, underemployment can be classified under 2 types: voluntary and involuntary. Voluntary underemployment could consists of workers who desire a less stressful job, perhaps more work-life balance, and to spend time with family…etc.   These workers voluntarily took a drastic pay cut to look for alternative employment which offers them perhaps a less hectic lifestyle. After decades of working in the same industry perhaps they feel it is time to look for a simpler less stressful day job, less overtime, less weekend’s commitments, less mid night shifts, less standby duties etc. Whereas, involuntary underemployment, on the other hand I believed, formed the bulk of the underemployed in Singapore.   Organizational downsizing, retrenchments, forced resignations...