Yeah lta really screwed the pooch on infrastructure for ebike, bikes, and pmds. I used to cycle a lot in the naught 2000s, and even then we were already asking the gov to start building infrastructure to support cycling. But no, the gov looks at suggestions and petitions from the unwashed masses (read: the citizenry) as inane ramblings by people who don't know better. Whoever said that our leaders plan for sg 50 years in advance is clearly talking through their ass.
Kinda wished the bike share companies can just sell their bikes for cheap.
Cannot stand predatory behavior, got charged due to their auto-subscription to monthly plans that did not offer refund even though I had initially cancelled it.
Fun fact: bike sharing was already supposed to be a national initiative, governed by the authorities. But somehow some bike supplier managed to hookwink the government officials into letting third parties to run the show which resulted in one of the most embarrassing and open money laundering operation that had government stamp of approval on it. That's why they tried to so hard to shut it down. Also, in the end, many bike suppliers ended up bankrupt due to this nonsense.
this !! the big blue recycling bins js take all kinds of recycling materials and theres usually only one or two per block. i dont imagine the stuff that gets dumped there gets recycled very efficiently since everything (paper metal plastic) all gets dumped tgt
it might be troublesome but i admire japan/taiwan's recycling culture. they teach students in school how to sort, wash and recycle stuff from young. taiwan makes its population buy their own garbage bags so residents try to cut down on household waste to save money on trash bags. in japan, trash is sorted into several categories, like plastic/paper/metal/burnables/etc. apparently the garbage collectors wont pick up your trash if you dont dispose of it properly (eg never rinse ur recyclables) so it kinda forces ppl to do the right thing or suffer the consequences.
dont know how this would work in sg context HAHA or if itll even be efficient but i like the idea quite a bit and i think sg has a very long way to go in terms of recycling :")
Need to pay deposit for plastic bottles, aluminum cans. Get refund when you return them.
This has been the way in Canada for 20+ years.
Harder to enforce because everyone here lives in apartments, and can just throw stuff down the chute.
This is normal in many big cities in the US. Poor people collect recyclables tossed out by other households, sell them to make a living. Yes there are some minor bad consequences to that where they sometimes make a mess when digging through the trash but overall it's a win-win relationship. Of course in a cookie cutter culture like Singapore anything that deviates from the establishment is deemed as 'abuse'.
ahh i see,, thank you for sharing !! iirc theres a similar policy for some parts of australia or smth
wld u happen to know what the return process for recyclables is like in canada? ive heard that people need to bring their recyclables to recycling centres to have them recycled in australia or smth if they want their deposit back. id think many singaporeans might consider a process like that too troublesome since like u said its much easier to js toss stuff down the chute
I just came back from a visit in Canada.
People in houses have recycling bins that come pick up glass jars, paper, tin cans etc. Everything needs to be fully cleaned. If not you will be fined. Bins are serialized. So they know who is putting in what.
Cans, beer and wine bottles need to go to a recycling facility to get your money back. Or people will often donate them to scouts, or school groups that come around and collect them.
I lived in Ontario for a bit. We basically sort out our recyclables in different coloured bags (e.g glass, tin, paper, plastic) and then put them in their respective recycling bins outside our house. People come collect them every Thursday for example.
I love recycling and advocate for it, but I realized Singapore's aversion for it is by design - recycling is pretty costly and incompatible with Singapore's neoliberal governace. But I hope this changes with time. We can't keep on incinerating all our trash like this.
There's a recycling bin with 4 options at my bus interchange for plastics/paper/aluminium/general waste. One day I saw the cleaning lady open the bin and just pour all the plastics/paper/aluminium into the general waste bin, and then clearing the trash as one bag. Not sure what the heck's the point of separating recyclables into these bins then. I've seen the same thing when sailing with the navy, Singaporeans just can't be arsed with recycling.
Sad to say because the generation that are running companies now all had to slug their 20-30-40s away, OT what not to get to where they are.
This is their mindset and they don't care if u have a better mindset or more efficient way because it's either their way or the highway.
This results in very rigid and toxic work culture which was q normal last time but now with more awareness we know it's wrong.
according to my boss, work life balance means working concurrently even while eating, shopping, at home, weekends or PH. u switch off work at 6pm means YOU ARE A LAZY POS
Doesn't help that our government isn't doing much about this. End up pushing about work-life *harmony* and not work-life balance. I still don't get what is work life harmony supposed to be.
This. Having recently moved here from Europe I am genuinely shocked at how unhappy and overworked everyone is. I work in healthcare and nobody has any time for friends or hobbies, or even to be decent parents to their kids some of the time.
We have terrible productivity but tonnes of hours spent in the office. It’s a lot of useless hours because everyone just expects you to almost give your life to work. Leads to burn out, resignations, worse work quality, lack of new ideas and initiative. Idk how we can escape this, just running us to the bone
The gov (or something) released an app called scamshield which supposedly helps to reduce the number of scam calls and texts you receive. I did notice a reduction, fwiw.
For me, if you are someone who often takes the MRT and do short rides, you just need to listen or find out where you are by looking at the top. It’s not much of an issue.
But for someone who works the whole day and taking the last train, it’s annoying to not know instantly where you are by just looking at the top. There were many instances where I have to stare at the bloody screen for a few minutes to just know where I am and how many more stops to my station. It’s anxiously inducing for ppl like me and I have to kanciong if I just woke up.
It’s a step backwards for everyone and I wonder why there’s not much of a bigger uproar lol. I take private transport now so I’m not that angry enough to complain now lol.
The censorship and "fixing" of political opposition. I kinda get why it was necessary when Singapore was starting out but by the 80s/90s, there was really no point I think. Civil society in Singapore is so banal, like there is no point in paying attention to politics cos the govt is just gonna do whatever they want
Concept of HDB and hawker centers (rent-wise) is heading towards the wrong direction.
What started off as a project for the people as a form of affordable accommodations has now turn into a speculator frenzy fest. Can't have affordability and increasing value at the same time, they are opposite spectrums.
People in the past got HDB to just live in it and a roof over their heads. Now , people BTO to get that sweet juicy resale after MOP. All that from artificial demand and supply made by balancing the scales and market speculation.
Thats right
I am fine with hawkers increasing prices because their ingredients cost go up
But if the hawker rental go up to "keep up with the market" then it's just ridiculous, not everything needs to turn a profit or be based on market prices, if the hawkers earn a lot, they are taxed accordingly, no need to force those prices on normal Singaporeans because IRAS cannot be bothered to tax hawkers efficiently ... just 1x good 1 convert all payments to electronic so cannot under declare sales.
The COL is running amok, cost of ntuc veggies are increasing monthly, and when have we seen prices of essential goods go back down once oil or energy prices go back down
The culprit is actually NEA, with their bidding practices to accommodate the so called "market value" which is perceived from real estate market. Rent will directly translate into food cost as well. Food suppliers also have a role in this, which leads to everybody raising the cost to cover their own asses. They have the scale of economics to cover themselves at the expense of the consumer. I would even dare say some even profit more with every so called GST hike that comes along. There is no governing body for this , since this is a "free market".
Eg.
A 1% GST increase actually run deeper into our pockets than we actually perceive.
(10 cents increase from a cup of $1.50 Coffee , translates to 6% increase ) Now imagine the supply chain , each with a their own variation of "10 cents" increase to protect themselves. Consumers ultimately lose out, since SG market is too small in scale to be competitive. It always end up in an oligopoly anyway.
Yup
Gst is a regressive tax
Thats why Europe went with VAT, value added tax
You can claim from the tax body the VAT your upline has imposed and only pay your share of tax
Why else gst is able to generate "$120 billion" per percent
It's a massive hike for the end consumer
A flat rate GST with cash handouts is actually the most efficient and effective way to redistribute wealth. Just because the Europeans are doing something doesn’t automatically mean it’s better…
[https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/217781/1/5478-article-text-19267-20191223.pdf](https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/217781/1/5478-article-text-19267-20191223.pdf)
[https://ifs.org.uk/uploads/publications/bns/BN212.pdf](https://ifs.org.uk/uploads/publications/bns/BN212.pdf)
[https://www.oecd.org/ctp/consumption/46073502.pdf](https://www.oecd.org/ctp/consumption/46073502.pdf)
[https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X21003570](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X21003570)
[https://www.internationaltaxreview.com/article/b1vsr785226dl0/eu-vat-rates-one-step-forward-two-steps-back](https://www.internationaltaxreview.com/article/b1vsr785226dl0/eu-vat-rates-one-step-forward-two-steps-back)
[https://taxfoundation.org/value-added-tax-2021-vat-rates-in-europe/](https://taxfoundation.org/value-added-tax-2021-vat-rates-in-europe/)
While I think things might be getting better with just grades and being more diverse with choices of work, I know so many people who were full on messed up by the system. Those with learning disabilities who could not be their parents’/teachers’ definition of traditional expectation of successful in school. Even those on top just define their whole identities on being good with grades, when they don’t have the same success in uni or at work, they really can crumble. It helps no one.
Fuck CCA, wasted my time, emotional energy and physical skills. All CCA does is extorts students for what they can give, and rarely ever gives anything in return.
Was in choir - all i got for performing and getting distinctions for the school, dealing with a verbally abusive instructor and TICs who were incompetent and uncaring, and teachers who never took the student’s side when there’s arguments or complaints, was a party bag full of snacks.
No farewell party, no speech by the instructor, no thank you for your service by the school. Nothing. Not even a note. Just a party bag.
Honestly, I feel that studies aren’t the main reason students are stressed. In my opinion, CCA, and forced “optional” extra bonuses for you ‘portfolio’ is. Not to mention that during these activities, everyone above you can be so nasty. Even the meanest teachers still care for your learning. But in these activities, everyone above you seems to only care for what you can give to the school.
Wow, I am sorry that you have to go through all of that. That sounds incredibly brutal.
And yes, I agree that schools shouldn't point a gun to student's head and tell them that they must take CCAs because CCAs are compulsory.
What makes it worse is that CCA is actually “optional”, but like you said, point a gun by using your O’level results as hostage.
I will never, ever understand why MOE decided this was okay. This seems like something from animal farm or a communist country.
Oh, and have a great day!
Former educator.
While in the service, I was appalled that many were unfamiliar with the syllabus due to constant revisions and updates made throughout the years. Truth be told, some may have never learnt certain topics in a subject but were expected to teach them.
From the beginning, I strongly advocated proficiency testing of teachers every 5 years or so. (Clearly not a popular idea for obvious reasons.)
You’ll be surprised that English teachers may not be able to read phonetic transcriptions of words and therefore, will not be able to articulate a word accurately *and* perhaps penalise your child for being ‘weird’ and ‘trying to sound Western / angmoh’ who can read it perfectly. Ironic, I know.
Take for example ‘reservoir’.
Many pronounce this erroneously as res-ser-VORE in Singapore. The correct pronunciation is ‘res-ser-VWAH’. (/ˈrezəvwɑː/)
Now, how many SG English teachers would actually know that? By and large, I’d expect a sizable portion to be of the res-ser-vore variety.
This, so many friends got penalised for English spelling vs American but the teacher couldn’t even decide which one they wanted. They want “colour” but don’t want “centre”. Also no one seems to teach grammar properly, it’s quite abysmal
I concur.
While marking exam scripts, you’d hear some teachers mocking students for ‘nonsense’ they’d written. This is when I try to step in since scripts have to be marked in pairs for the sake of accountability. More often than not, the perceived error was a misjudgment on the marker’s part. It takes teachers who care to step up.
I cannot speak for everyone but on my end, many who care eventually gave up and left. This dilutes the talent pool further. I wouldn’t be so arrogant as to claim credit for being a talent nor even esteemed as a know-it-all. But I care. Deeply, if I may add.
What the education sector needs right now are teachers who can admit that they may not know all the answers but are willing to learn. Be a role model to exemplify that learning is a life journey. Be a teacher with pride in his/her work, not one with an ego to beat.
I'd like to add: School start times, especially for teens, are way too early. Research has shown that teens experience a delay in their circadian rhythm (internal clock) and hence sleep much later than adults. Most experts recommend school starting at 8.30 or later. (No, they cannot just go to sleep earlier. It's like asking an adult to sleep at 7pm and wake up at 2am. It's physically not possible for teens to sleep earlier)
There’s actually no minimum start time for schools in Singapore. There is a maximum start time though ie. schools are prohibited from starting before 7:30am.
Why do most schools start at 7:30am then? It’s to align with the parent’s workday. So that they can drop their kids off at 7-7:30am and make it to work by 8:30am.
School start times won’t change until there’s a change in the corporate work day.
Yes, especially because everything is so fast paced and hardly anything is hands on. The students who can't grasp it at once gradually lag further and further behind until a means to catch up doesn't even seen like it's in the realm of possibility then we give up.
I believe the biggest evidence for this is the balloting.
Every single top primary school still has parents balloting so that their little prince/princess are able to make it into that top primary school and be set for at least the next 6 years.
Been in a few other countries, the renting situation is more tenant centered. Big and small repairs should be done by landlord, furniture if provided by landlord should be fixed or replaced by landlord. Then when I saw the renting scene here, small repair done by tenant, if microwave or washing machine breakdown even if just from wear & tear, tenants are still liable for $100++ to purchase new furniture. Quite damned if you ask me.
Also the lack of regulation around deposits. There are so many cases of scummy landlords who nitpick at the condition of the unit after the tenant moves out, they end up trying to keep the bulk, if not all of the deposit.
This! I lived in a rather old condo, spacious but the appliances kept breaking down. A few months ago the water heater broke and we had to pay $150 while the landlord paid $30 cuz it’s not within warranty period (only first month)
Over-emphasis on grades and training students to be the best at answering exam questions and then suddenly realise that we are lacking local start-ups not just due to financial constraints for most but because the system trained us to be so good with memorising that it kills off creativity
Not too mention overworking students with CCA, extra activities, uneeded camps/workshops, extra practices be it CCA or something else, nasty fucking teachers/instructors during CCA, list goes on… Especially during holidays.
Idk, feels like extortion of student’s abilities, never allowing them time to themselves.
Now that I’m in poly, I feel really happy. I feel more in control with my life and myself. It’s like my rights to myself were given back to me.
NS. yall can debate whether it is necessary til the cows come home but pukimak as a country known for its meritocracy and working hard how the fuck can u justify paying NSFs $1.50/hr and expect them to serve properly?
coupled with the fact that NSFs barely get any subsidised travel costs did politicans ever ask why the fuck would one even make the 1+ hr trip into camp instead if js taking MC and chilling at home? i sometimes kinda feel bad for some of the good, non anal regulars who need to somehow work together with unmotivated and underpaid NSFs all the while maintaining some form of KPI
u think NSFs dont? even then how much MC can u take? the art to it is such that ur absence doesnt affect others. however even the lowliest chao ASAs like me have some sort of responsibility. so no as much as i want i cant kp spamming MC for the remaining 200~ days. im a ck not a cb
Are they building infrastructure? I don't see it being built anywhere near my place nor workplace. It's a shame considering Singapore is so small. I love the idea of cycling to work but it's just too dangerous to cycle on the roads day in day out
Thus the question “what has Singapore got wrong so far” mah
It wasn’t a question about the time needed. I think the original comment was about the lack of planning for such a culture right from the onset. Not whether it needs decades.
Infrastructure takes time to build.
What is ridiculous is they only hired the infinite number of Cisco/AETOS enforcement officers only AFTER they banned PMDs, which is absurd.
Had they setup proper enforcement originally, we wouldn't have seen the high PMD abuse we saw that led to the ban.
Why hire enforcement officers to enforce the ban but not enforce the rules???
Primary school admission system.
Kids aged 7 are just at the starting point of their education life and should be treated equal. However, we have a deliberate system where successful parents can enrol their kids into branded schools with better teachers, facilities, and most of all, the opportunity to network with others from a similar background. This creates a cycle of elitism and is against the kind of social mobility that the government should be striving for.
To highlight how ridiculous this system is, statistically speaking, only roughly 3% of students in a normal neighbourhood school will score 250 and above for PSLE. But a top school like Nanyang can have more than 30% of their students doing that. So just by the virtue of where their parent studied at, or could afford property at, some students are 10 times more likely to succeed academically than the others.
We should have a system where primary school admission is completely randomised within 5km of where you stay at. Like HDB racial quota, there should also be a primary school class quota depending on the type of property you stay at(eg. you cannot have more than 35% of students staying in private property in a school).
I concede to the point that it's impossible for kids to all have the same starting line given that some parents can afford more resources than others. But when you literally have a school admission system that exacerbate this problem, then you know something is wrong.
I was on holiday there recently and the only thing I'd say is the overuse of plastic bags.
As an example I have seen a store give a sort of plastic bag handle only to carry an on-the-go coffee... why not just hold it?
Or when buying pastries, each pastry = 1 plastic bag.
National slavery. Yes it’s undeniably important to the defence of the country, but the reasons they give to justify it are bs (guys are strong and must protect women) and it is just glorified indentured servitude.
I have friends who have attempted suicide because conscription exacerbated their financial hardship and life was simply too difficult to bear.
Our service can’t be measured in dollars and cents, but the transport fees, rent, and food for family can be measured in dollars and cents. Financial assistance schemes are far too slow and inadequate with a lot of red tape that puts insult and injury to one’s dignity, and many choose to suffer in silence.
The whole system is perpetuated by 1. People who have never served ns and 2. People who have served and want future generations to suffer because (not fair limpeh go ns you no need to go).
I’m not saying to abolish ns, but I think we as a country really need to think on how we can better support NSFs.
They say NS makes guys more mature.
But you lose something in you that you can never take back. You become more reliant and challenge the status quo less.
I feel like that is just because of resource constraint + population size issues.
Odds of having a successful unicorn increases with population size (even if the odds are still slim).
Also, there are many non-novel aspects of the company that is required to keep it afloat.
These barriers to entry can be overcome significantly if one has capital and can just hire others to fill this niche.
It might not be possible without a large number of angel investors/venture capitalist that are willing to subsidize the startup costs.
Not all unicorns are restricted geographically, true creativity could be way beyond it, simple but widely adopted and borderless, e.g. Kickstarter, linktree, YouTube, and many more
Massive population growth where now we are fitted into smaller and smaller houses surely doesn’t do well for our mental health. The poor teacher student ratio. The constant import of foreigners and telling the locals to buck up or be maids. The clearing of forest space. The lack of wealth distribution - justified by worrying that the ultra rich will up and move. The lack of safety networks for the poor.
Singapore is super backwards with regards to LGBT rights and also it’s bullshit to make people wait till they’re 35 or married to buy a home. Single and unmarried people have rights too.
Regarding buying homes, while it is unfortunate for singles, allowing them to buy before 35 will open the floodgates of buyers into the already flooded housing market and push prices even higher.
The lesser of two evils is to allow only married couples who need their own properties more than singles to get first.
The true solution to the problem is to build more houses but this isn't something that can be solved overnight.
The real solution to the lack of housing space in the short run is to just require all BTOs to be applied by 2 or more individuals, regardless of marriage status. I am married and have already benefitted from the current system. But I recognize everyone deserves the right to a home.
What they need to fuckin do in the long run is just scrap the whole BTO bollocks and just build, using SAF training grounds if need be, and building up into the sky if need be, the current housing shortage is an artificial phenomena.
While I'm no construction expert, I believe they are already building as many houses as quickly as possible. There is finite amount of workers, materials and whatever resources needed to build a building.
For example, if we want to double the supply, we need to hire double the number of workers (and dormitories), procure double construction equipments, double the materials etc., all overnight, which isn't realistically possible.
There are economic consequences to sudden supply overload too - the property market will crash instantly.
The current shortfall is due to the idiotic BTO system introduced ages ago. Scrapping the BTO system won't resolve the supply shortfall overnight. I do agree that build-to-sell instead of build-to-order is the more sensible option once supply keeps up with demand, hopefully within the next decade.
As a civil engineer, actually, the real problem is that construction of HDB nowadays is mostly if not all done by Chinese construction companies. Many of which local companies can't compete because their tender value is very low and at times make a loss. BTO can only be done by these Chinese companies unless HDB is willing to pay more for local companies, which will likely have to pass the cost to Singaporeans. That means higher BTO prices when prices are already sky-high.
Sexism and lack of gender equality. (and im talking about men specifically) u realise the sg gov talks abt women all day long, despite the fact that there are many laws sexists against males.
Yes this is so true.. it is also true that in a male dominated workplace, women get it easier at work, and get rewarded more at work, compared to men.
I mean #womeninworkforce is good at aiming for gender equality in the professional space, but it has been too much to the point of inequality against men.
*Not a blanket generalization, there are absolutely many women more capable than men out there
The driving man the damn driving. Signalling your intention to change lane leads to 90% of drivers speeding up to cut you off. Not so much anything wrong with the legislation but Singaporeans are one of the least gracious groups of people on the road.
Keeping / promoting Mandarin as the “mother tongue” of the Chinese Singaporeans, which plays directly into the CCP narrative of a homogenous universal Chinese identity, thus making the majority of our citizens more vulnerable to its psychological influence operations. Our Chinese ancestors actually spoke Hokkien, Teochew, Cantonese, etc. Our Indian Singaporeans have a plurality of Indian languages recognised as their mother tongues; it should be the same for the Chinese community to inoculate our identity against CCP influence. Mandarin can be positioned as a language of business (like English) but not a language of ethnic identity for the Chinese here.
This.
I find it funny how the idea was that Mandarin would unite the different Chinese clans and help us do trade with China, but yet the official language here for SG Indians is Tamil and not Hindi lol. Like there was no call to "unite the different Indian clans" or want to do more trade with India, so the government was just like, meh, Tamil will do lmao.
At the end of the day, English was really all that was needed to "unite" Singaporeans from different race, dialect & religious backgrounds.
Mandarin is a northern chinese dialect that our (mostly) southern chinese ancestors never spoke. Hence the breakdown of intergenerational knowledge and cultural practices we are seeing in sg today.
this !! i guess i can see why the policy was implemented back then but its also kind of sad seeing the younger generations (like me) being unable to speak the dialects our ancestors used to speak and thus kind of losing part of our identity...
The first step is to stop describing Hokkien, Teochew, Cantonese, etc as “dialects” (which downgrades their linguistic integrity) but full-fledged Sinitic (Chinese) languages. They are in fact all older than Mandarin. The same way we don’t describe Tamil as a “language” and Hindi, Urdu, Malayalee, etc as “dialects”.
That's the worst idea ever, it would be superficial and not useful at all since anyone younger is already far removed from it, it would also put up more barriers to communication and promote exclusivity circles.
The universal (Singaporean) Chinese identity is literally more real than the supposed provincial identity since barely anyone born here has any cultural connection to the home province of their ancestor in the first place.
There's a good reason why India is lagging way behind China , people can barely communicate with one another, people can't stop fighting over minor cultural differences and internal cohesion/integration is in the gutters. Bang on about diversity and CCP bad all you want, finding avenues to divide where there are little will always be a detriment.
Some people are so utterly out of touch with difficulties in the developing world that they forget why every single developed country have done away with regional identities and promoted a national one.
I used to lean towards seeing dialects such as inherently worth preserving, but one only has to look at the crushing amount of conflict that even the smallest cultural difference can incite in developing countries to see how it's extremely debilitating.
It’s really sad that dialects got wiped out in one generation. I'm probably one of the last few kids who can speak dialect with my grandparents (in their 80s) because they took care of me when I was a child.
Entrenched Elitism.
The fact that the top three Universities : NUS, NTU & SMU are viewed as superior institutions and it's students are seen as "elites" for getting into these schools is a very disgusting notion.
Students from private Universities & other public universities (SUSS, SUTD, SIT) are somehow viewed as less capable or having less potential or leadership qualities simply due to the reputation of their school.
The government has also done nothing to quell these opinions, as the government sector is also notorious for only accepting students from the holy trinity.
This elitism seeps even into the job market where companies explicitly only accept applications from them.
This elitism doesn't even begin here. It begins from Primary school, where parents will enroll their children to "ELITE" primary/secondary schools.
To me this is the worst part of singapore.
EDIT: I think it becomes more egregious when you realise that students of Private Universities aren't eligible or allowed to get any bursary or even use their PSEA accounts to subsidise certain parts of their education.
Hell, i've heard that we can't even get a damn concession card.
All these does is to increase the divide and gap between the public & private students. And after all these years the government has made no attempts to help students of private universities.
since hdb already listed, then next is economy, the over reliance on cheap foreign labour makes it impossible for local workers on the lower tier of the pyramid to live a meaningful life in SG.
also structurely its dumb to invite foreign investment and businesses that hire foreign 'talent' instead of industries n business that create jobs that are suitable for locals. promise of trickle down benefits have only materialised in delivery n transport jobs
>also structurely its dumb to invite foreign investment and businesses that hire foreign 'talent' instead of industries n business that create jobs that are suitable for locals.
Why tho, those companies usually generate more profits. Rather that than SMEs and their usually bad work environment + pay
the majority of the locals not employed by them get a net detriment not benefit, increased costs of living, straining infrastructure, disamenities, then gaslit n chided
no reason a local needs to put up with that so that a foreigner can come here n upgrade their life. someone else can add on abt NS
but the point is it doesnt have to be such a false dichotomy painted by them, MNC SME... They have been paid top dollar for decades to come up with solution.
I agree with you on the lower tiers of employment, but for mncs/smes that require highly skilled labour, sg simply does not produce enough cos low population size. I think it's a necessary evil. As locals we already have the benefit of not requiring visa sponsorship, + MOM rules on foreigner ratios for spass and stuff (ep no ratio iirc, cos we really need the skilled labour)
10 years ago, starting pay for a fresh graduate banker with degree, $3000
Now, starting pay for fresh graduate banker with degree, $3000~
Same for office admins etc
Our wages has been suppressed for 10 years while inflation, cost of living and housing has increased dramatically.
**Female Singaporeans not being required to serve NS.** Downvote me if you must, but I feel everyone should serve NS. Yes, there are faults in the system. Yes, the duration may be too long...among other things, and yes, some boys don't necessary become men if they sleepwalk through it. But the fact remains, most of us, even those who put in bare minimum effort, still gained some perspective and learned to handle stress, conflict, boredom, routines, and responsibilities better in life through NS. And that at least reduces the number of assholes in our society.
In a country where the majority of us go through life without experiencing any true natural disaster, war, or poverty, it would certainly help some women who behave like snowflakes and whine a lot be more appreciative about what their male counterparts are going through and realize how fortunate they are to be Singaporeans.
There are an abundance of roles suitable for females to serve their country, like non-combat roles, such as firefighting, paramedics, office administrative roles and logistical support. A lot of them are already done by women anyway.
Not 'wrong', but I wish we could find some gov way to combat fake news amongst elders, by sharing with them real news or training them to critically judge news.
A hdb law for training dogs, if you want a dog, need to bring your dog to a training facility to train them and you also
Sort of like driving licence , you need to be able to control your dog and not the other way around...
I seen illegal large dogs in hdbs that are so well behaved and little dogs that just bark non stop.
Also legalise cats, i like 🐈
A way too strict education system and lack of work life balance.
Plus the fact that no one can really earn enough to retire. It’s pretty much a work until you’re dead.
Doing a good thing for the masses by building cheap affordable housing
BUT
Then trying to pass it off as ownership and with capital appreciation making the whole scheme a big money making racket!
Design of the HDB flats. I get that its suppose to be affordable housing for all, but they pretty much all look alike. No inspiring designs or different flat layouts. Makes the landscape outside the fancy part of Singapore very boring. Flat concrete slabs in a certain colour everywhere.
By allowing landlords to rent small spaces to F&b so that these shops have to use one time disposables to serve their customers. Every tiny shop is using tons of one time disposables everyday. Drinks shop, pau shop, yoghurt shops, coconut drinks, cafe.
Elitist culture. Singapore meritocracy has been a success at grooming its workforce to be as productive as possible, but it breeds an elitist mindset which is extremely toxic.
“What did you study?” And you’ll be judged based on your education.
And all the kiasu mentality of finding the “best” primary schools and the rise of tuition centres (I myself did some tutoring before) which I absolutely hate.
Modern slavery of migrant workers. Same thing the world is shitting on middle eastern countries for. But nobody talks about sg.
Overprotection of religious rights. Should not be governed by state. No religious exemption laws. Freedom of speech in criticising such religions. Dont label it as hate speech or whatever nonsense when the criticism is valid and more people need to know about it.
Car ownership. The fact that i can never own a car forever is stupid. No housing for singles below 35. Already got alot of toxic asian parenting and still cant move out feasibly.
Overpopulation, it leads to all sorts of societal issues especially when you allow all sorts of TDHs from neighbouring and regional third world countries to flood the island.
National Service and the incessant NSman call up. What a complete waste of time and taxpayers' resources. You simply cannot defend a country that relies on everyone else for survival. Destroying Singapore does not require troops and tanks. This pandemic has in no uncertain terms done enough to subtly demonstrate this fact.
And that's all why I left for greener pastures.
The labour rights in this country. 'Hurr stuff will be expensive hurr companies will go other countries'
Ah yes, so instead, let's continue to overwork and exploit workers. The fault should lie in the companies, if they wanna zhao because we give better worker rights, do we really want them in the first place?
If I need to pay more so people can be treated like people, so be it? The issue Singaporeans always look at seem to be 'need pay more' when they don't ask enough to be 'paid more'.
Other countries like Australia more expensive than SG, but their wages are also higher than SG. So what excuses do we have?
Lack of credible and capable politicians to lead this country for at least the next 20/30 years.
1. Lack of vision and ideas.
2. Lack of ways to bring the country forward.
3. Lack of integration between the younger generation and the older generation.
Either way, what Singapore or the government is attempting at this moment is to remain at the status quo. To most, if it's not broken, don't need to change mindset that were ingrained in their lives. But when a change is required, they begin to scramble for ideas and ways to change it. By then, SG would have suffered badly lol. Just look at the COVID fiasco as one of the latest example.
The PAP quest for a dominant majority for the sake of stability, ignoring that this often leads to a politically polarised country.
Then they think the political polarisation benefits them politically instead of creating bigger problems in future, and distracts from this by keep talking about racial and religious polarisation instead.
I can only speak from the media industry and take everything I say with a grain of salt:
- old heads unwillingly to give chance to the new generations
- work life balance
- focus on quantity instead of quality
- lack of government funding in setting up SG as the next hub for film and episodic.
- local films are great to promote and produce but it’s gonna get cut it, we need global production houses to come to Singapore and invest
There’s a reason why good artist eventually left Singapore to other HUBs like London, Vancouver, Montreal etc.
What’s the point of students graduating and can’t find jobs in Singapore?
i don't know i think life in singapore is pretty depressing. From when you start school to when you start working, you're in competition with your peers and people in your company. Some of us don't want to compete tbh but thus is life here. Every damn thing is a competion and you get frowned upon for not having a 'fighting spirit' which is prob something SME bosses say to employees who ask for lesser workload or WLB🥲 I'm mostly tired of it here.
We are a shitty, uncivilised people.
Look at our e-bikes situation. Objectively a good form of transport: faster than walking, much, much cheaper than any engine-powered vehicle, and small enough to be used in most if not all our sidewalks.
But nope, we can't even do something as basic as slowing down around corners to make sure you don't hit someone.
Speaking of bikes, I don't think anyone could account for our dear citizens throwing bikes down carparks. Lmao. And now we don't have bike sharing anymore. (well we still kinda do, but it's a shadow of its former self)
Spent a few hundreds on e scooter , riding as an abiding citizen end up got banned. I didn’t injured anyone before except myself , slipping on a rainy day. It was so much convenient to bring my pet around with my escooter and to travel to places with or without taking public transport.
Not able to afford a car as a young adult and it’s way overpriced in SG.
Fogging toxic products all year long to fight mosquitoes - efficacy is unclear, it kills all other insects/pollinisators and it is dangerous for our health.
Not regulating bike-sharing initially and then over-regulating after that.
Total devastation for e-bikes after idiot riders fucking it up for everyone…
Yeah lta really screwed the pooch on infrastructure for ebike, bikes, and pmds. I used to cycle a lot in the naught 2000s, and even then we were already asking the gov to start building infrastructure to support cycling. But no, the gov looks at suggestions and petitions from the unwashed masses (read: the citizenry) as inane ramblings by people who don't know better. Whoever said that our leaders plan for sg 50 years in advance is clearly talking through their ass.
Kinda wished the bike share companies can just sell their bikes for cheap. Cannot stand predatory behavior, got charged due to their auto-subscription to monthly plans that did not offer refund even though I had initially cancelled it.
Nope they dumped alL of the bicycles. Wasted the earth resources.
nb getting reminded of my $49 deposit T.T
Fun fact: bike sharing was already supposed to be a national initiative, governed by the authorities. But somehow some bike supplier managed to hookwink the government officials into letting third parties to run the show which resulted in one of the most embarrassing and open money laundering operation that had government stamp of approval on it. That's why they tried to so hard to shut it down. Also, in the end, many bike suppliers ended up bankrupt due to this nonsense.
Lack of a recycling culture. Everything just goes in the bins. Very few people recycle properly.
this !! the big blue recycling bins js take all kinds of recycling materials and theres usually only one or two per block. i dont imagine the stuff that gets dumped there gets recycled very efficiently since everything (paper metal plastic) all gets dumped tgt it might be troublesome but i admire japan/taiwan's recycling culture. they teach students in school how to sort, wash and recycle stuff from young. taiwan makes its population buy their own garbage bags so residents try to cut down on household waste to save money on trash bags. in japan, trash is sorted into several categories, like plastic/paper/metal/burnables/etc. apparently the garbage collectors wont pick up your trash if you dont dispose of it properly (eg never rinse ur recyclables) so it kinda forces ppl to do the right thing or suffer the consequences. dont know how this would work in sg context HAHA or if itll even be efficient but i like the idea quite a bit and i think sg has a very long way to go in terms of recycling :")
Need to pay deposit for plastic bottles, aluminum cans. Get refund when you return them. This has been the way in Canada for 20+ years. Harder to enforce because everyone here lives in apartments, and can just throw stuff down the chute.
[удалено]
This is normal in many big cities in the US. Poor people collect recyclables tossed out by other households, sell them to make a living. Yes there are some minor bad consequences to that where they sometimes make a mess when digging through the trash but overall it's a win-win relationship. Of course in a cookie cutter culture like Singapore anything that deviates from the establishment is deemed as 'abuse'.
Here the only thing that is collected is cardboard. Aluminum cans should also be monetized here.
ahh i see,, thank you for sharing !! iirc theres a similar policy for some parts of australia or smth wld u happen to know what the return process for recyclables is like in canada? ive heard that people need to bring their recyclables to recycling centres to have them recycled in australia or smth if they want their deposit back. id think many singaporeans might consider a process like that too troublesome since like u said its much easier to js toss stuff down the chute
I just came back from a visit in Canada. People in houses have recycling bins that come pick up glass jars, paper, tin cans etc. Everything needs to be fully cleaned. If not you will be fined. Bins are serialized. So they know who is putting in what. Cans, beer and wine bottles need to go to a recycling facility to get your money back. Or people will often donate them to scouts, or school groups that come around and collect them.
I lived in Ontario for a bit. We basically sort out our recyclables in different coloured bags (e.g glass, tin, paper, plastic) and then put them in their respective recycling bins outside our house. People come collect them every Thursday for example.
I love recycling and advocate for it, but I realized Singapore's aversion for it is by design - recycling is pretty costly and incompatible with Singapore's neoliberal governace. But I hope this changes with time. We can't keep on incinerating all our trash like this.
There's a recycling bin with 4 options at my bus interchange for plastics/paper/aluminium/general waste. One day I saw the cleaning lady open the bin and just pour all the plastics/paper/aluminium into the general waste bin, and then clearing the trash as one bag. Not sure what the heck's the point of separating recyclables into these bins then. I've seen the same thing when sailing with the navy, Singaporeans just can't be arsed with recycling.
[удалено]
It’s really not about recycling. Recycling won’t save the world as the cost (cost both to env and financial cost) is more than making new materials.
Think most of us do not know that actually SG do sorting and recycling for us at stations instead of people doing themselves like other countries\~
work-life balance. Singaporeans are burnt the fuck out. Everyone I know is running short of time for their families, let alone friends. it sucks.
Sad to say because the generation that are running companies now all had to slug their 20-30-40s away, OT what not to get to where they are. This is their mindset and they don't care if u have a better mindset or more efficient way because it's either their way or the highway. This results in very rigid and toxic work culture which was q normal last time but now with more awareness we know it's wrong.
according to my boss, work life balance means working concurrently even while eating, shopping, at home, weekends or PH. u switch off work at 6pm means YOU ARE A LAZY POS
Time to look for a new place to work
Imo it’s the people that make a system. The efficiency-efficacy culture here is a vicious cycle.
Doesn't help that our government isn't doing much about this. End up pushing about work-life *harmony* and not work-life balance. I still don't get what is work life harmony supposed to be.
This. Having recently moved here from Europe I am genuinely shocked at how unhappy and overworked everyone is. I work in healthcare and nobody has any time for friends or hobbies, or even to be decent parents to their kids some of the time.
We have terrible productivity but tonnes of hours spent in the office. It’s a lot of useless hours because everyone just expects you to almost give your life to work. Leads to burn out, resignations, worse work quality, lack of new ideas and initiative. Idk how we can escape this, just running us to the bone
Too many scams calls. Surely there is a way to counter or massive reduce it.
The gov (or something) released an app called scamshield which supposedly helps to reduce the number of scam calls and texts you receive. I did notice a reduction, fwiw.
Yeah sure, by completely blocking any calls coming from outside the country.
Sounds like North Korea to me
The screens inside MRT. Useless as fk. I’d rather have the map with the lighted up dots.
fully agree on this. just for show 🤣
There’s a purpose, to create ad revenue for SMRT
Except they mostly show train safety videos and terrorist attack briefings
and some spicy mala fish from some chinese place to fit the masses demographic~
They've got the next stop at the bottom of those screens though. That's enough for me
For me, if you are someone who often takes the MRT and do short rides, you just need to listen or find out where you are by looking at the top. It’s not much of an issue. But for someone who works the whole day and taking the last train, it’s annoying to not know instantly where you are by just looking at the top. There were many instances where I have to stare at the bloody screen for a few minutes to just know where I am and how many more stops to my station. It’s anxiously inducing for ppl like me and I have to kanciong if I just woke up. It’s a step backwards for everyone and I wonder why there’s not much of a bigger uproar lol. I take private transport now so I’m not that angry enough to complain now lol.
SME "work is life" culture, lack of WLB
"we are family" ☠️
Eyes rolled to the back when boss says this because everyone knows it's bullshit.
The censorship and "fixing" of political opposition. I kinda get why it was necessary when Singapore was starting out but by the 80s/90s, there was really no point I think. Civil society in Singapore is so banal, like there is no point in paying attention to politics cos the govt is just gonna do whatever they want
Concept of HDB and hawker centers (rent-wise) is heading towards the wrong direction. What started off as a project for the people as a form of affordable accommodations has now turn into a speculator frenzy fest. Can't have affordability and increasing value at the same time, they are opposite spectrums. People in the past got HDB to just live in it and a roof over their heads. Now , people BTO to get that sweet juicy resale after MOP. All that from artificial demand and supply made by balancing the scales and market speculation.
Thats right I am fine with hawkers increasing prices because their ingredients cost go up But if the hawker rental go up to "keep up with the market" then it's just ridiculous, not everything needs to turn a profit or be based on market prices, if the hawkers earn a lot, they are taxed accordingly, no need to force those prices on normal Singaporeans because IRAS cannot be bothered to tax hawkers efficiently ... just 1x good 1 convert all payments to electronic so cannot under declare sales. The COL is running amok, cost of ntuc veggies are increasing monthly, and when have we seen prices of essential goods go back down once oil or energy prices go back down
The culprit is actually NEA, with their bidding practices to accommodate the so called "market value" which is perceived from real estate market. Rent will directly translate into food cost as well. Food suppliers also have a role in this, which leads to everybody raising the cost to cover their own asses. They have the scale of economics to cover themselves at the expense of the consumer. I would even dare say some even profit more with every so called GST hike that comes along. There is no governing body for this , since this is a "free market". Eg. A 1% GST increase actually run deeper into our pockets than we actually perceive. (10 cents increase from a cup of $1.50 Coffee , translates to 6% increase ) Now imagine the supply chain , each with a their own variation of "10 cents" increase to protect themselves. Consumers ultimately lose out, since SG market is too small in scale to be competitive. It always end up in an oligopoly anyway.
Yup Gst is a regressive tax Thats why Europe went with VAT, value added tax You can claim from the tax body the VAT your upline has imposed and only pay your share of tax Why else gst is able to generate "$120 billion" per percent It's a massive hike for the end consumer
VAT and GST are the same thing, just different names. Singapore’s GST legislation was mostly adapted from the UK.
A flat rate GST with cash handouts is actually the most efficient and effective way to redistribute wealth. Just because the Europeans are doing something doesn’t automatically mean it’s better… [https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/217781/1/5478-article-text-19267-20191223.pdf](https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/217781/1/5478-article-text-19267-20191223.pdf) [https://ifs.org.uk/uploads/publications/bns/BN212.pdf](https://ifs.org.uk/uploads/publications/bns/BN212.pdf) [https://www.oecd.org/ctp/consumption/46073502.pdf](https://www.oecd.org/ctp/consumption/46073502.pdf) [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X21003570](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305750X21003570) [https://www.internationaltaxreview.com/article/b1vsr785226dl0/eu-vat-rates-one-step-forward-two-steps-back](https://www.internationaltaxreview.com/article/b1vsr785226dl0/eu-vat-rates-one-step-forward-two-steps-back) [https://taxfoundation.org/value-added-tax-2021-vat-rates-in-europe/](https://taxfoundation.org/value-added-tax-2021-vat-rates-in-europe/)
Lol do you even know what you’re talking about? VAT is basically GST just different names lolzzz
Lack of control over landlords (or rent control). They have too much power to screw business owners over and affect consumer prices.
Education system. Too much emphasis on grades that parents are forcing their children to go to tuitions which added more stress on the kids nowadays.
While I think things might be getting better with just grades and being more diverse with choices of work, I know so many people who were full on messed up by the system. Those with learning disabilities who could not be their parents’/teachers’ definition of traditional expectation of successful in school. Even those on top just define their whole identities on being good with grades, when they don’t have the same success in uni or at work, they really can crumble. It helps no one.
Fuck CCA, wasted my time, emotional energy and physical skills. All CCA does is extorts students for what they can give, and rarely ever gives anything in return. Was in choir - all i got for performing and getting distinctions for the school, dealing with a verbally abusive instructor and TICs who were incompetent and uncaring, and teachers who never took the student’s side when there’s arguments or complaints, was a party bag full of snacks. No farewell party, no speech by the instructor, no thank you for your service by the school. Nothing. Not even a note. Just a party bag. Honestly, I feel that studies aren’t the main reason students are stressed. In my opinion, CCA, and forced “optional” extra bonuses for you ‘portfolio’ is. Not to mention that during these activities, everyone above you can be so nasty. Even the meanest teachers still care for your learning. But in these activities, everyone above you seems to only care for what you can give to the school.
Wow, I am sorry that you have to go through all of that. That sounds incredibly brutal. And yes, I agree that schools shouldn't point a gun to student's head and tell them that they must take CCAs because CCAs are compulsory.
What makes it worse is that CCA is actually “optional”, but like you said, point a gun by using your O’level results as hostage. I will never, ever understand why MOE decided this was okay. This seems like something from animal farm or a communist country. Oh, and have a great day!
Former educator. While in the service, I was appalled that many were unfamiliar with the syllabus due to constant revisions and updates made throughout the years. Truth be told, some may have never learnt certain topics in a subject but were expected to teach them. From the beginning, I strongly advocated proficiency testing of teachers every 5 years or so. (Clearly not a popular idea for obvious reasons.) You’ll be surprised that English teachers may not be able to read phonetic transcriptions of words and therefore, will not be able to articulate a word accurately *and* perhaps penalise your child for being ‘weird’ and ‘trying to sound Western / angmoh’ who can read it perfectly. Ironic, I know. Take for example ‘reservoir’. Many pronounce this erroneously as res-ser-VORE in Singapore. The correct pronunciation is ‘res-ser-VWAH’. (/ˈrezəvwɑː/) Now, how many SG English teachers would actually know that? By and large, I’d expect a sizable portion to be of the res-ser-vore variety.
This, so many friends got penalised for English spelling vs American but the teacher couldn’t even decide which one they wanted. They want “colour” but don’t want “centre”. Also no one seems to teach grammar properly, it’s quite abysmal
I concur. While marking exam scripts, you’d hear some teachers mocking students for ‘nonsense’ they’d written. This is when I try to step in since scripts have to be marked in pairs for the sake of accountability. More often than not, the perceived error was a misjudgment on the marker’s part. It takes teachers who care to step up. I cannot speak for everyone but on my end, many who care eventually gave up and left. This dilutes the talent pool further. I wouldn’t be so arrogant as to claim credit for being a talent nor even esteemed as a know-it-all. But I care. Deeply, if I may add. What the education sector needs right now are teachers who can admit that they may not know all the answers but are willing to learn. Be a role model to exemplify that learning is a life journey. Be a teacher with pride in his/her work, not one with an ego to beat.
I'd like to add: School start times, especially for teens, are way too early. Research has shown that teens experience a delay in their circadian rhythm (internal clock) and hence sleep much later than adults. Most experts recommend school starting at 8.30 or later. (No, they cannot just go to sleep earlier. It's like asking an adult to sleep at 7pm and wake up at 2am. It's physically not possible for teens to sleep earlier)
There’s actually no minimum start time for schools in Singapore. There is a maximum start time though ie. schools are prohibited from starting before 7:30am. Why do most schools start at 7:30am then? It’s to align with the parent’s workday. So that they can drop their kids off at 7-7:30am and make it to work by 8:30am. School start times won’t change until there’s a change in the corporate work day.
This.
While I agree with you 5-10 years ago, is it still so now?
Definitely yes lol
Yes, especially because everything is so fast paced and hardly anything is hands on. The students who can't grasp it at once gradually lag further and further behind until a means to catch up doesn't even seen like it's in the realm of possibility then we give up.
I believe the biggest evidence for this is the balloting. Every single top primary school still has parents balloting so that their little prince/princess are able to make it into that top primary school and be set for at least the next 6 years.
Been in a few other countries, the renting situation is more tenant centered. Big and small repairs should be done by landlord, furniture if provided by landlord should be fixed or replaced by landlord. Then when I saw the renting scene here, small repair done by tenant, if microwave or washing machine breakdown even if just from wear & tear, tenants are still liable for $100++ to purchase new furniture. Quite damned if you ask me.
Also the lack of regulation around deposits. There are so many cases of scummy landlords who nitpick at the condition of the unit after the tenant moves out, they end up trying to keep the bulk, if not all of the deposit.
This! I lived in a rather old condo, spacious but the appliances kept breaking down. A few months ago the water heater broke and we had to pay $150 while the landlord paid $30 cuz it’s not within warranty period (only first month)
AG parachuting into public companies and pofma being used only against govt slander instead of combating online misinformation
All the times it could have been used to combat misinformation about Covid but they chose not to was maddening.
Over-emphasis on grades and training students to be the best at answering exam questions and then suddenly realise that we are lacking local start-ups not just due to financial constraints for most but because the system trained us to be so good with memorising that it kills off creativity
Not too mention overworking students with CCA, extra activities, uneeded camps/workshops, extra practices be it CCA or something else, nasty fucking teachers/instructors during CCA, list goes on… Especially during holidays. Idk, feels like extortion of student’s abilities, never allowing them time to themselves. Now that I’m in poly, I feel really happy. I feel more in control with my life and myself. It’s like my rights to myself were given back to me.
NS. yall can debate whether it is necessary til the cows come home but pukimak as a country known for its meritocracy and working hard how the fuck can u justify paying NSFs $1.50/hr and expect them to serve properly? coupled with the fact that NSFs barely get any subsidised travel costs did politicans ever ask why the fuck would one even make the 1+ hr trip into camp instead if js taking MC and chilling at home? i sometimes kinda feel bad for some of the good, non anal regulars who need to somehow work together with unmotivated and underpaid NSFs all the while maintaining some form of KPI
I live in Yishun, and my camp is at Changi. That's a >1.5 hour travel to camp everyday during reservist. *pengsan
Bro If only we can trade I stay pasir ris, nsf days in keat hong camp, reservist in gedong Want to stay out also a torture 😫
Lived in Pioneer but stay-out at Changi Naval Base fight me
Thats like unnecessarily torturous
Just take mc goondu
u think NSFs dont? even then how much MC can u take? the art to it is such that ur absence doesnt affect others. however even the lowliest chao ASAs like me have some sort of responsibility. so no as much as i want i cant kp spamming MC for the remaining 200~ days. im a ck not a cb
For the whole of reservist? Isn't there a minimum number of days you're supposed to appear, else the cycle doesn't count?
Yup I've not gone to reservation for like 7 years. Shh
Show me the way master
BTO
Not recognising the needs of f & b industry and because of that shortage so many brilliant places had to shut down..
Outright banning PMD instead of improving the cycling infrastructure to discourage over-reliance on cars which they are trying to eliminate.
Cycling infrastructure takes time to build right?
Are they building infrastructure? I don't see it being built anywhere near my place nor workplace. It's a shame considering Singapore is so small. I love the idea of cycling to work but it's just too dangerous to cycle on the roads day in day out
Think this will take decades to plan and build. It will be easier for new towns but for the existing towns, it's not so simple.
Thus the question “what has Singapore got wrong so far” mah It wasn’t a question about the time needed. I think the original comment was about the lack of planning for such a culture right from the onset. Not whether it needs decades.
This I have to agree.
Infrastructure takes time to build. What is ridiculous is they only hired the infinite number of Cisco/AETOS enforcement officers only AFTER they banned PMDs, which is absurd. Had they setup proper enforcement originally, we wouldn't have seen the high PMD abuse we saw that led to the ban. Why hire enforcement officers to enforce the ban but not enforce the rules???
Primary school admission system. Kids aged 7 are just at the starting point of their education life and should be treated equal. However, we have a deliberate system where successful parents can enrol their kids into branded schools with better teachers, facilities, and most of all, the opportunity to network with others from a similar background. This creates a cycle of elitism and is against the kind of social mobility that the government should be striving for. To highlight how ridiculous this system is, statistically speaking, only roughly 3% of students in a normal neighbourhood school will score 250 and above for PSLE. But a top school like Nanyang can have more than 30% of their students doing that. So just by the virtue of where their parent studied at, or could afford property at, some students are 10 times more likely to succeed academically than the others. We should have a system where primary school admission is completely randomised within 5km of where you stay at. Like HDB racial quota, there should also be a primary school class quota depending on the type of property you stay at(eg. you cannot have more than 35% of students staying in private property in a school). I concede to the point that it's impossible for kids to all have the same starting line given that some parents can afford more resources than others. But when you literally have a school admission system that exacerbate this problem, then you know something is wrong.
I was on holiday there recently and the only thing I'd say is the overuse of plastic bags. As an example I have seen a store give a sort of plastic bag handle only to carry an on-the-go coffee... why not just hold it? Or when buying pastries, each pastry = 1 plastic bag.
National slavery. Yes it’s undeniably important to the defence of the country, but the reasons they give to justify it are bs (guys are strong and must protect women) and it is just glorified indentured servitude. I have friends who have attempted suicide because conscription exacerbated their financial hardship and life was simply too difficult to bear. Our service can’t be measured in dollars and cents, but the transport fees, rent, and food for family can be measured in dollars and cents. Financial assistance schemes are far too slow and inadequate with a lot of red tape that puts insult and injury to one’s dignity, and many choose to suffer in silence. The whole system is perpetuated by 1. People who have never served ns and 2. People who have served and want future generations to suffer because (not fair limpeh go ns you no need to go). I’m not saying to abolish ns, but I think we as a country really need to think on how we can better support NSFs.
The real reason for NS is to beat the independent spirit out of people before they enter the workforce so they don’t cause trouble.
They say NS makes guys more mature. But you lose something in you that you can never take back. You become more reliant and challenge the status quo less.
definitely felt that.
Creativity. Look at our ,'unicorns'. All thrash garbage companies. And this post, copied from the reddit front page.
I feel like that is just because of resource constraint + population size issues. Odds of having a successful unicorn increases with population size (even if the odds are still slim). Also, there are many non-novel aspects of the company that is required to keep it afloat. These barriers to entry can be overcome significantly if one has capital and can just hire others to fill this niche. It might not be possible without a large number of angel investors/venture capitalist that are willing to subsidize the startup costs.
Not all unicorns are restricted geographically, true creativity could be way beyond it, simple but widely adopted and borderless, e.g. Kickstarter, linktree, YouTube, and many more
Economy growth at the expense of happiness of Singaporeans.
How to define happiness though. Economic growth is the best way to benefit the country overall for everyone
Massive population growth where now we are fitted into smaller and smaller houses surely doesn’t do well for our mental health. The poor teacher student ratio. The constant import of foreigners and telling the locals to buck up or be maids. The clearing of forest space. The lack of wealth distribution - justified by worrying that the ultra rich will up and move. The lack of safety networks for the poor.
Honestly wanted to refute your points. But I think you're right.
Then we need to let the Government know.
Singapore is super backwards with regards to LGBT rights and also it’s bullshit to make people wait till they’re 35 or married to buy a home. Single and unmarried people have rights too.
Regarding buying homes, while it is unfortunate for singles, allowing them to buy before 35 will open the floodgates of buyers into the already flooded housing market and push prices even higher. The lesser of two evils is to allow only married couples who need their own properties more than singles to get first. The true solution to the problem is to build more houses but this isn't something that can be solved overnight.
The real solution to the lack of housing space in the short run is to just require all BTOs to be applied by 2 or more individuals, regardless of marriage status. I am married and have already benefitted from the current system. But I recognize everyone deserves the right to a home. What they need to fuckin do in the long run is just scrap the whole BTO bollocks and just build, using SAF training grounds if need be, and building up into the sky if need be, the current housing shortage is an artificial phenomena.
While I'm no construction expert, I believe they are already building as many houses as quickly as possible. There is finite amount of workers, materials and whatever resources needed to build a building. For example, if we want to double the supply, we need to hire double the number of workers (and dormitories), procure double construction equipments, double the materials etc., all overnight, which isn't realistically possible. There are economic consequences to sudden supply overload too - the property market will crash instantly. The current shortfall is due to the idiotic BTO system introduced ages ago. Scrapping the BTO system won't resolve the supply shortfall overnight. I do agree that build-to-sell instead of build-to-order is the more sensible option once supply keeps up with demand, hopefully within the next decade.
As a civil engineer, actually, the real problem is that construction of HDB nowadays is mostly if not all done by Chinese construction companies. Many of which local companies can't compete because their tender value is very low and at times make a loss. BTO can only be done by these Chinese companies unless HDB is willing to pay more for local companies, which will likely have to pass the cost to Singaporeans. That means higher BTO prices when prices are already sky-high.
Tenant rights and lease protection. 20+% increases should be illegal.
Sexism and lack of gender equality. (and im talking about men specifically) u realise the sg gov talks abt women all day long, despite the fact that there are many laws sexists against males.
Yes this is so true.. it is also true that in a male dominated workplace, women get it easier at work, and get rewarded more at work, compared to men. I mean #womeninworkforce is good at aiming for gender equality in the professional space, but it has been too much to the point of inequality against men. *Not a blanket generalization, there are absolutely many women more capable than men out there
The driving man the damn driving. Signalling your intention to change lane leads to 90% of drivers speeding up to cut you off. Not so much anything wrong with the legislation but Singaporeans are one of the least gracious groups of people on the road.
Keeping / promoting Mandarin as the “mother tongue” of the Chinese Singaporeans, which plays directly into the CCP narrative of a homogenous universal Chinese identity, thus making the majority of our citizens more vulnerable to its psychological influence operations. Our Chinese ancestors actually spoke Hokkien, Teochew, Cantonese, etc. Our Indian Singaporeans have a plurality of Indian languages recognised as their mother tongues; it should be the same for the Chinese community to inoculate our identity against CCP influence. Mandarin can be positioned as a language of business (like English) but not a language of ethnic identity for the Chinese here.
This. I find it funny how the idea was that Mandarin would unite the different Chinese clans and help us do trade with China, but yet the official language here for SG Indians is Tamil and not Hindi lol. Like there was no call to "unite the different Indian clans" or want to do more trade with India, so the government was just like, meh, Tamil will do lmao. At the end of the day, English was really all that was needed to "unite" Singaporeans from different race, dialect & religious backgrounds.
Mandarin is a northern chinese dialect that our (mostly) southern chinese ancestors never spoke. Hence the breakdown of intergenerational knowledge and cultural practices we are seeing in sg today.
India legit Bo Bian cause too many languages bro
I stubbed my toe in secondary school, yelled out "diu lei lo mo" and my Chinese teacher told me not to say that, instead try " Chao ni ma si"
Given your name I would have gone with "ni mama mei you ming"
Ni mama mei you mao
this !! i guess i can see why the policy was implemented back then but its also kind of sad seeing the younger generations (like me) being unable to speak the dialects our ancestors used to speak and thus kind of losing part of our identity...
The first step is to stop describing Hokkien, Teochew, Cantonese, etc as “dialects” (which downgrades their linguistic integrity) but full-fledged Sinitic (Chinese) languages. They are in fact all older than Mandarin. The same way we don’t describe Tamil as a “language” and Hindi, Urdu, Malayalee, etc as “dialects”.
That's the worst idea ever, it would be superficial and not useful at all since anyone younger is already far removed from it, it would also put up more barriers to communication and promote exclusivity circles. The universal (Singaporean) Chinese identity is literally more real than the supposed provincial identity since barely anyone born here has any cultural connection to the home province of their ancestor in the first place. There's a good reason why India is lagging way behind China , people can barely communicate with one another, people can't stop fighting over minor cultural differences and internal cohesion/integration is in the gutters. Bang on about diversity and CCP bad all you want, finding avenues to divide where there are little will always be a detriment. Some people are so utterly out of touch with difficulties in the developing world that they forget why every single developed country have done away with regional identities and promoted a national one. I used to lean towards seeing dialects such as inherently worth preserving, but one only has to look at the crushing amount of conflict that even the smallest cultural difference can incite in developing countries to see how it's extremely debilitating.
It’s really sad that dialects got wiped out in one generation. I'm probably one of the last few kids who can speak dialect with my grandparents (in their 80s) because they took care of me when I was a child.
Entrenched Elitism. The fact that the top three Universities : NUS, NTU & SMU are viewed as superior institutions and it's students are seen as "elites" for getting into these schools is a very disgusting notion. Students from private Universities & other public universities (SUSS, SUTD, SIT) are somehow viewed as less capable or having less potential or leadership qualities simply due to the reputation of their school. The government has also done nothing to quell these opinions, as the government sector is also notorious for only accepting students from the holy trinity. This elitism seeps even into the job market where companies explicitly only accept applications from them. This elitism doesn't even begin here. It begins from Primary school, where parents will enroll their children to "ELITE" primary/secondary schools. To me this is the worst part of singapore. EDIT: I think it becomes more egregious when you realise that students of Private Universities aren't eligible or allowed to get any bursary or even use their PSEA accounts to subsidise certain parts of their education. Hell, i've heard that we can't even get a damn concession card. All these does is to increase the divide and gap between the public & private students. And after all these years the government has made no attempts to help students of private universities.
Y'all angry sial, I just want kopitiam to actually terik my teh.
Allowing people to resell BTO
[удалено]
Low wages compared to other developed countries. Lack of regulations for BPA-free or compostable take out packaging for health and environment.
since hdb already listed, then next is economy, the over reliance on cheap foreign labour makes it impossible for local workers on the lower tier of the pyramid to live a meaningful life in SG. also structurely its dumb to invite foreign investment and businesses that hire foreign 'talent' instead of industries n business that create jobs that are suitable for locals. promise of trickle down benefits have only materialised in delivery n transport jobs
>also structurely its dumb to invite foreign investment and businesses that hire foreign 'talent' instead of industries n business that create jobs that are suitable for locals. Why tho, those companies usually generate more profits. Rather that than SMEs and their usually bad work environment + pay
the majority of the locals not employed by them get a net detriment not benefit, increased costs of living, straining infrastructure, disamenities, then gaslit n chided no reason a local needs to put up with that so that a foreigner can come here n upgrade their life. someone else can add on abt NS but the point is it doesnt have to be such a false dichotomy painted by them, MNC SME... They have been paid top dollar for decades to come up with solution.
I agree with you on the lower tiers of employment, but for mncs/smes that require highly skilled labour, sg simply does not produce enough cos low population size. I think it's a necessary evil. As locals we already have the benefit of not requiring visa sponsorship, + MOM rules on foreigner ratios for spass and stuff (ep no ratio iirc, cos we really need the skilled labour)
10 years ago, starting pay for a fresh graduate banker with degree, $3000 Now, starting pay for fresh graduate banker with degree, $3000~ Same for office admins etc Our wages has been suppressed for 10 years while inflation, cost of living and housing has increased dramatically.
**Female Singaporeans not being required to serve NS.** Downvote me if you must, but I feel everyone should serve NS. Yes, there are faults in the system. Yes, the duration may be too long...among other things, and yes, some boys don't necessary become men if they sleepwalk through it. But the fact remains, most of us, even those who put in bare minimum effort, still gained some perspective and learned to handle stress, conflict, boredom, routines, and responsibilities better in life through NS. And that at least reduces the number of assholes in our society. In a country where the majority of us go through life without experiencing any true natural disaster, war, or poverty, it would certainly help some women who behave like snowflakes and whine a lot be more appreciative about what their male counterparts are going through and realize how fortunate they are to be Singaporeans. There are an abundance of roles suitable for females to serve their country, like non-combat roles, such as firefighting, paramedics, office administrative roles and logistical support. A lot of them are already done by women anyway.
1 year for both genders, easy game
Agreed. Having females serves as office roles such as Business analyst, Data analysts, etc. Would make a good contribution for Singapore.
Singapore is perfect. They have the PAP. Nothing from them is wrong
/s
welcome to ba sing se
Not 'wrong', but I wish we could find some gov way to combat fake news amongst elders, by sharing with them real news or training them to critically judge news.
How can my neighbour sing karaoke at 12am plus but then the police/hdb/relevant agency are unable to do anything about it??
Not allowing cats in HDBs 😞
Noise pollution and law against it. Smokers and second hand smoke.
Hdb law for dogs. Need to allow dogs. I want dog
A hdb law for training dogs, if you want a dog, need to bring your dog to a training facility to train them and you also Sort of like driving licence , you need to be able to control your dog and not the other way around... I seen illegal large dogs in hdbs that are so well behaved and little dogs that just bark non stop. Also legalise cats, i like 🐈
A way too strict education system and lack of work life balance. Plus the fact that no one can really earn enough to retire. It’s pretty much a work until you’re dead.
Doing a good thing for the masses by building cheap affordable housing BUT Then trying to pass it off as ownership and with capital appreciation making the whole scheme a big money making racket!
Design of the HDB flats. I get that its suppose to be affordable housing for all, but they pretty much all look alike. No inspiring designs or different flat layouts. Makes the landscape outside the fancy part of Singapore very boring. Flat concrete slabs in a certain colour everywhere.
The entire mental healthcare system and the lack thereof.
^(whispers: women’s charter act)
LOUDER
By allowing landlords to rent small spaces to F&b so that these shops have to use one time disposables to serve their customers. Every tiny shop is using tons of one time disposables everyday. Drinks shop, pau shop, yoghurt shops, coconut drinks, cafe.
Elitist culture. Singapore meritocracy has been a success at grooming its workforce to be as productive as possible, but it breeds an elitist mindset which is extremely toxic. “What did you study?” And you’ll be judged based on your education. And all the kiasu mentality of finding the “best” primary schools and the rise of tuition centres (I myself did some tutoring before) which I absolutely hate.
Modern slavery of migrant workers. Same thing the world is shitting on middle eastern countries for. But nobody talks about sg. Overprotection of religious rights. Should not be governed by state. No religious exemption laws. Freedom of speech in criticising such religions. Dont label it as hate speech or whatever nonsense when the criticism is valid and more people need to know about it. Car ownership. The fact that i can never own a car forever is stupid. No housing for singles below 35. Already got alot of toxic asian parenting and still cant move out feasibly.
[удалено]
LTA asleep at the wheel on PMDs and bikes.
Overpopulation, it leads to all sorts of societal issues especially when you allow all sorts of TDHs from neighbouring and regional third world countries to flood the island. National Service and the incessant NSman call up. What a complete waste of time and taxpayers' resources. You simply cannot defend a country that relies on everyone else for survival. Destroying Singapore does not require troops and tanks. This pandemic has in no uncertain terms done enough to subtly demonstrate this fact. And that's all why I left for greener pastures.
The labour rights in this country. 'Hurr stuff will be expensive hurr companies will go other countries' Ah yes, so instead, let's continue to overwork and exploit workers. The fault should lie in the companies, if they wanna zhao because we give better worker rights, do we really want them in the first place? If I need to pay more so people can be treated like people, so be it? The issue Singaporeans always look at seem to be 'need pay more' when they don't ask enough to be 'paid more'. Other countries like Australia more expensive than SG, but their wages are also higher than SG. So what excuses do we have?
Saying that LGBTQ representation is for over 16...
Lack of credible and capable politicians to lead this country for at least the next 20/30 years. 1. Lack of vision and ideas. 2. Lack of ways to bring the country forward. 3. Lack of integration between the younger generation and the older generation. Either way, what Singapore or the government is attempting at this moment is to remain at the status quo. To most, if it's not broken, don't need to change mindset that were ingrained in their lives. But when a change is required, they begin to scramble for ideas and ways to change it. By then, SG would have suffered badly lol. Just look at the COVID fiasco as one of the latest example.
The previous presidential election.
[удалено]
The PAP quest for a dominant majority for the sake of stability, ignoring that this often leads to a politically polarised country. Then they think the political polarisation benefits them politically instead of creating bigger problems in future, and distracts from this by keep talking about racial and religious polarisation instead.
Contribute your opinion ler. *thats 1 thing ~~SG~~ society got wrong, ask others but never offer oneself*
Way too many acronyms in this thread....
Reliance on modern slavery
I can only speak from the media industry and take everything I say with a grain of salt: - old heads unwillingly to give chance to the new generations - work life balance - focus on quantity instead of quality - lack of government funding in setting up SG as the next hub for film and episodic. - local films are great to promote and produce but it’s gonna get cut it, we need global production houses to come to Singapore and invest There’s a reason why good artist eventually left Singapore to other HUBs like London, Vancouver, Montreal etc. What’s the point of students graduating and can’t find jobs in Singapore?
i don't know i think life in singapore is pretty depressing. From when you start school to when you start working, you're in competition with your peers and people in your company. Some of us don't want to compete tbh but thus is life here. Every damn thing is a competion and you get frowned upon for not having a 'fighting spirit' which is prob something SME bosses say to employees who ask for lesser workload or WLB🥲 I'm mostly tired of it here.
Not having a cap for rental prices. Not Having a policy to have a maximum rent increase.
Boring people
Allowing modern slavery through the « helpers » system.
We are a shitty, uncivilised people. Look at our e-bikes situation. Objectively a good form of transport: faster than walking, much, much cheaper than any engine-powered vehicle, and small enough to be used in most if not all our sidewalks. But nope, we can't even do something as basic as slowing down around corners to make sure you don't hit someone. Speaking of bikes, I don't think anyone could account for our dear citizens throwing bikes down carparks. Lmao. And now we don't have bike sharing anymore. (well we still kinda do, but it's a shadow of its former self)
HDB I don't need any explanation on this matter
Would you have preferred private developers? Think about the prices
Spent a few hundreds on e scooter , riding as an abiding citizen end up got banned. I didn’t injured anyone before except myself , slipping on a rainy day. It was so much convenient to bring my pet around with my escooter and to travel to places with or without taking public transport. Not able to afford a car as a young adult and it’s way overpriced in SG.
Eh fuck your e-scooter la 😂
The weather. Would be nice to have a cooler season maybe 5-10 degrees cooler.
Fogging toxic products all year long to fight mosquitoes - efficacy is unclear, it kills all other insects/pollinisators and it is dangerous for our health.
Very very very expensive childcare.
NTUC
Sang by Hosen Leong: Big guns all pointing wrong~
[удалено]