Anyways, lately from some news, I heard that the life-old problem on birth rate of Singapore is out again. Exactly how many times has it been?
The PAP has been scratching their head over this problem. Money? Well there's the baby bonus, they give more maternity leave, but no paternity leave, they had tons of solutions out to counter this. One of the TOO EFFECTIVE ONE, is the opening and loosening of laws allowing foreign workers into Singapore and becoming PR in the end. Conclusively, that formed another phenomenon that Singapore has a new natural resource, China citizens here to work.
They flew to Singapore, believe me.
To the extent now, 1 racist joke I heard,
"On a ship there's 4 people of different races, namely USA, Iraq, China, Singapore. The ship suddenly started to sink cause too heavy, so they decide to throw stuff which they had extra.
USA threw his cash,
Iraq threw his barrels of oil,
China threw all the cheap merchandise he have.
The Singaporean seeing the situation, also threw something. He went to the China citizen...
And threw him away."
But then again, this post is not about the overcrowding influx nature of foreign workers in Singapore, it is about birth rates. You wanna throw away more China citizens? Increase birth rate then.
But seriously... what's so wrong about China people? Well don't talk about those which work in Geylang and "enhance" our Singaporean culture, China citizens, think it through properly, is fine. In fact some Singaporean Aunties are worse
From left, Malaysian Auntie, China Auntie, Singapore Auntie.
Not forgetting...
The Singapore Unker.
So stop complaining about Chinese people Singaporeans. We already have worse. You wanna solve the problem, you have gotta up the birth rate.
Then again, why doesn't our birth rate increase? What are the problems? The key word, is "problemS", not "problem".
If you ask Takahina, this birth rate problems is caused from various factors, which affects equally in the creation of life. And these factors, come from various parts of society environment, and the way of life. So similarly, everyone have different views, which I find, are rather valid. Comments from people such as:
Elites like all the ah sia gia's with their Bentleys driving around like no one's business, and having 5 digit monthly salary knows 1 point of the factor.
Middle class people like yours truly,
The lower class/poorer/lower educated people.
The Chairlady of AWARE, Mdm Lim has stated a point which I found very true, although I do find her usage of words a little... erm, inappropriate.
The actual title of Mdm Lim's reply is "Improve gender equality and you will raise fertility."
Her points are correct, but usage of words could be hurtful to the 'prideful' guys in Singapore.
Firstly, you don't improve gender equality. Because on that note, Singapore is on quite a good level as compared to that of Japan, Korea etc. Singapore's woman stand a very good chance to fight and compete in the local industries and to be fair, I don't really hear so-called MCP mannerisms much in the Singapore society. The newer general public are very equal to the rights and capabilities of the females. We recognize their worth, we recognize their efforts. At least I do sincerely.
The point of Mdm Lim, is that in the local society, the parenting role always falls onto the hands of the female/mother. Hence this situations makes it more stressful for females to give birth. Because they'll need to worry about both work and the kid, while the father just have to bring the bread home.
Valid indeed. The fact is true that father's do throw more responsibility onto the mother's side. You often see in those Taiwan Hokkien drama...
Huh? Now you bui song ar? The kid you always part of it ok nabei. Wah? Diao Simi Diao? Not my fault our son enter PAP right?
So to say, to counter such things, we'll need to improve on either...
1) The husband takes more care of the kid.
2) The wife don't work.
Among the 2 solutions, the 2nd one sounds almost illogical or inhumane even. So yes, I do think the husband needs to take more responsibility, and stop throwing everything to the wife. Taking care of the kids, bringing them out, understanding the kids problem... bring kids to geylang, teach them how to ogle at girls... etc etc...
However, why is it that in Singapore, it sounds inhumane to don't let the wife work? Here comes the 2nd factor in Singapore. Money.
Half of Singapore's money is his and his family's legacy. :p
A normal family in Singapore, like yours and mine (L33Ts won't read my blog ;D ), CAN NEVER SURVIVE without extra income. Especially to support your kids' education etc etc. Not everyone is financially savvy, not everyone is like Takahina :D, therefore if only the husband works, the family will starve to death.
Singapore's inflation during the years has grown overly fast, in fact too fast to the extend before the wealth can be equally distributed to the lower class families, inflation has gone to the extent even monks need extra funds to take care of their horses.
imma get some horse with ma pimp :D
True Singapore is rich. But their people aren't, we are all coping with the inflation level. I mean my parents ate Fried Kway Teow for 50c in their 20s. I eat Fried Kway Teow for $3 in my 20s. Extra Hump 50c. And they add 1 extra nia. HML.
HUAT MY LIFE.
So to say, in a span of 40years, our income should have increased by around 6x. But nope, at most jump by 3-4 times. And that's for usual middle class people, thus even though inflation over eats our income... we still die die can survive, but having more people in the family I'll have to escape to JB for my wedding where Seafood which would cost $100+ in Singapore cost $30 overall. Rich people can eat $12 Chick Rice for no prob since their income would have jumped together with Singapore's economy, like the increasing number of people jumping Singapore's MRT tracks.
What about the lower class? Even worse. Despite the many rebates and cuts given to the lower class/poorer class people, they still suffer from much poverty. Someone I know who got married, her stepmother extorted $8000 from the guy to allow marriage. You only hear such stories from ancient china tales. Selling daughters, seriously are only the thing of the past, or current India :x
My belief is that the rebates are not long term at all, and helps no one in the end. I rather you provide free education for these poor souls, or simply let them strike 4D/Toto to Huat their life.
So to say, that's why whatsoever Baby Bonus, are Bogus. It won't attract. Parents will still have to work, wifes will still be old and haggard by the end of the day, and for the new generation, such things DEFINITELY don't attract at all.
Then what about the people with more financial power? They surely don't have to work right? That's where you're wrong.
Here comes the 3rd factor.
The nature of Singapore's woman.
Singapore's woman are a very independent bunch, filled with their own thinking and lifestyle. Plus with the strong education they get, they get even more strongwilled and confident, which is quite positive if you ask me.
Asking them to be a resident housewife... is NO WAY. Mahjong aunty even more impossible.... maybe except for Huiming la.
"Huh?" Kun-bin of Huiming which is epik win
And Huiling who didn't dare to play MJ with me anymore after my emo-spate of losing to her 13 wonders. ZOMG. I still regret that day I emo. Fuck.
Sure, not all woman are workaholics. But asking them to just stay at home, just isn't their cup of tea. Having a child will further solidify that aspect of life. And soon enough they will start loving dogs more than man.
"imma steal your gf."
Well, it's the same case for guys. We don't wanna to get a kid, cause it'll tie us down. I wanna "ai-shiteiru" my wife, and freaking baby cries. Imma kill that kid. And you won't wanna love-shiteiru your wife in front of your baby/kid, lest he'll get into action when he's in primary school.
Commitment people commitment issues.
I won't commend on the issues of guy and girls attraction power. Cause the trend of love jumps around and is more volatile than the Europe Currency right now. Guys can love fat chicks, girls can adore pigs. Marriages still go on, it's the baby issue which matters.
I mean, weird things like...
How this guy is still single despite his brilliant/marvelous/attractive conditions, remains one of the greatest mysteries.
4th factor.
A very straightforward one.
You go to the streets of Singapore, the everyday life. What do you see? Ah Bengs and Ah Lians. You will think to yourself. I don't want my future kid to be like this.
I'm your son. Nao give me manaaayyy....
The thing is that Singapore kids have never strike a good image with most of the newer generation. They are loud, irritating, persistent and hard to maintain. You take your eyes off them and they become fat. Take care too much they say you never give them freedom. The good balance is difficult to strike.
For Singapore's younger generation, parenthood is quite a fearful thing. Unless you tiao kia, you won't wanna be a parent until maybe at least 30. Perhaps it's due to how our parents brought us up, provided with the ongoing developing of Singapore, it creates a different form of generation.
If I may say, had our parents been borned in the X generation (1950 - 1970), we will be the Y generation (1970 - 1990). Assume every 20 years a new generation is born, Generation Z will be those borned in 1990 - 2010. Each Generation will be a whole different concept, because every generation creates a different feel, opinion, environment. Nowadays the kids that older bunch of Generation Z sees aren't too bad, Ah Bengs and Ah Lians have elevated to a status of attractiveness and kids are somewhat more educated and well-mannered, and knows more about how to think about for themselves. In otherwords, streetsmart, because that's how Generation Y raised their kids to be. But our parents, the Generation X, didn't taught us that way. They taught the very used and outdated formula (nonetheless still an effective one), study and don't ask question.
It doesn't get very productive until when we Generation Ys manage to carve our own route out thanks to the changing society and environment. No thanks to the fact that most kids that we see, are brats who points middle finger to you if you don't give him eat macdonalds or force them to talk in chinese.
And add to that, Singaporean kids, when compared to other kids like Japan, USA, Europe... we are seriously not cute. Go to Kinokuniya branch in Takashimaya and camp there for a day. Listen to how cute the Japanese kids are there, then listen to the Singapore kids in the streets. See how big the difference. I tell you it's bigger than a shoopuf.
Problems of Genes, seriously. Chinese kids are never meant to be cute. But when we all grow up, it's another matter. :/
I'm pretty sure every god-darned mother borned Singapore will know the few very obvious reasons to why Singapore don't have kids. Money and time ma.
However, take aside the problem of money, you'll realise that even if you have money, you still won't wanna produce more kids. At most 2 or 3. To Takahina, the main problem with money aside, is society itself, how we think, and how we treat this issue. You see poorer countries, they are still producing much more babies than Singapore, so money may not be the problem after all.
Singapore itself, isn't a happy country is our 5th factor. We live in a country so hot and humid we can sweat our crap off our ass while we take a dump, much less say get a baby. If we wanna get a baby, it must be in a very cool room. No air-con no baby.
I'll like to attribute the fact that, why Singapore itself isn't a happy country, to its essential factor of how Singapore managed to survive. In just a span of decades, Singapore has become so successful it should be noted in the world records. Our government had vision, we see the needs of industrialization, the needs of investments, the needs of economy. However, like any trade-off, this created a negligence in our systems more to our hearts like freedom to do what we want, act as we want, perform as we want, etc etc. We came with the whole systematic way of life of education to career, we came with the whole systematic way of realistic and pragmatic thinking, it makes us ignores things which we want in our life.
Yet if we didn't do this tradeoff, Singapore won't be so successful. Takahina won't be writing this in his aircon room right now, and you won't be able to read this on your broadband which poorer countries don't have at all.
The thing is that this is the root to our problems. This is the root which gave rise to any other problems we have and this root, is unavoidable for our success. The root of Singapore itself.
Singaporeans are unhappy. And we have a survey that was conducted last year which had Singaporeans being the 2nd last on the ranking for happiest people in the world to prove it.
Seriously.
The fact that so many young guys dread and hate going to NS and thinking about defending our country is a sign. The fact that so many families are thinking of emigrating is a sign. The fact that everyone is cursing about the weather is a sign.
The lucky thing is that more and more freedom, more highways of information are being flown to and fro in Singapore, more globalisation is happening. The situation can only hope to improve as time goes by.
Birth rates, is just one of the many major problems we face.
Mdm Lim of AWARE and the various PAP members and netizens, no need to be so affixed to this problem, ok? Discussions are fine, but don't let it escalate to another EGM or a Good Friday Celebration at City Harvest Church. We have foreigners coming in to take over our rice bowls while we take their rice bowls instead. Problem solved. :)
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Suikoden 2: Reminiscence
This song is from one of my most favourite RPG ever played. And it has a very sad touch to the tone to enhance a game, and very few games have such brilliant sounds. For a game produced in the 90s, this song is a gem.
Ben, play this and I'll love you deep deep.
