Us-versus-Them

The most heartening piece of news today is the ST story on a group of bloggers coming together to combat the rise in anti-foreigner sentiment. They are going to do a Youtube chatshow on national issues, with xenophobia as a starting point; and a food/culture series on the main immigrant communities here. This is so splendid.

I wonder if the efforts are being supported by the National Integration Council, which I gather gives grants for such causes. I hope it does – AND keep a hands-off approach to what’s being discussed or presented. The worry, I suppose, would be the chatshows degenerating into some kind of slugfest and instead of becoming learning points for Singaporeans,  merely widens the divide. Discussion and debate is always good; get it all out of the system. Let’s hope the general community is mature enough to absorb what’s being said.

I found a comment in the story interesting – whether the rise in anti-foreigner sentiment is genuine xenophobia or out of some sense of an unfulfilled social contract.  I think the discussion should start with this topic before going into specific national issues. I suppose housing, jobs and NS would be discussed. I wonder if the G is going to take part. Or will be invited to do so. I want a Mindef person there, because this whole NS for PRs’ children should really have some sort of resolution/explanation.

It’s going take ages for the us-versus-them divide to narrow. I can think of only a few things that might help a) greater use of English b) having the men do NS c) stop foreign enclaves from developing in private estates (like racial quotas in HDB areas) d) more transparency on foreigner numbers from the G e) publicity on not just the role but also the benefits of being a citizen.

To those bloggers, good luck and thank you.

So what if we’re rich?

Okay, this is my usual tirade about numbers. Now it’s about the number of millionaires everywhere. Interesting that there were two sets of angles – That Singapore millionaire numbers have come down (am I suppose to worry?) and Singapore’s rich list is longer than Hong Kong’s (is a yay! expected?). I find numbers interesting because you can read so much into them depending on what numbers you want to focus on. Which is why I prefer to see whole sets of numbers and determine for myself what’s important.

I therefore declare My Paper as the newspaper with the best set of infographics.

It’s a no-brainer, idiot-proof graphic – and I mean that in a good sense.

Much better than BT’s

Anyway, never mind the numbers – the main thing is, what’s the point? Or rather, so what? So what if we have fewer millionaires than before, and so what if our rich list is longer than HK’s?

BT went straight for the implications of the shift of wealth to Asia on wealth managers. The rest remained more reportage than anything else with attempts to explain the ups and downs. What I thought intriguing: these high net worth individuals  include foreign residents metinks. I wonder what that proportion is. Maybe the Hongkongers came over here. Another thing I found disconcerting – there was an earlier survey last week on the number of Singapore millionaire households – and the number at 188,000 if twice the number of high-net worth individuals.

How does this compute?

Not-so-numbing numbers

I thought ST’s page 1 story tried very hard to explain the significance of Suntec Convention Centre’s six-month shutdown. The issue came down to whether there will be a space crunch for the MICE business. The stats: Last year, Suntec hosted 1,602 events. Together with other big three at Singapore Expo, MBS and RWS, they did more than 5,000 conventions all together. So Suntec does about 20-over  per cent of the business? Actually, it would make better sense to find out if the other big three have the capacity to take up the slack. I mean, are all four over-booked? They had to turn away events in the past? The assumption in the story is that they are…but you know what they say about assumptions, it makes an ass out of you and me.

By the way,

Here are some words in the story to be chewed over…and maybe spat out.

facelift – doesn’t matter if its extensively renovated or surgically operated on, buildings always get their face lifted

spruced up – useful phrase, but I always seem to associate it with plants

grand entrance – aren’t they usually? with awful cornices and all? prefer grand exit – by people

refreshing – a term that’s between revamp and overhaul? or maybe the convention centre has a new air-con system put in.

Thank goodness there wasn’t a “spanking new” in the article though

TVs and tablets

There’s nothing much to read in the newspapers today. Really. Most went big on the holiday driving deaths, with general tips on how to take care when cruising on foreign roads. But hey, what can even experts say except rest well, look out and remember this is not Singapore? I suppose for newspapers to stay relevant, it must give some kind of advice, even advice that was resurrected from the last time a spate of holiday driving deaths occured.

Of course, there was the TV goes digital stories. So many acronymns and numbers but really two points: free-to-air channels will start going digital from next december and by 2020 – everything’s digital. If you are among the 40 per cent of non-Pay TV subscribers, get prepared to pay about $60 for a box of sorts to make the change. I thought BT was more educational in this respect, explaining how one analogue channel (there’s seven now) can host 10 to 20 digital channels. And how, more importantly, the system would lead to more competitors (which should lead to lower charges?) and the system cost pay-TV operators less…(which should lead to lower charges?) The stuff in brackets reflects wishful thinking on my part

The price of justice

There were several stories over the past few days related to the price/cost of seeking justice.

a. Whether plastic surgeon Woffles Wu got away with a $1,000 fine for abetment because he is “rich”.

b. Whether the sandwiched class can afford legal advice, given the increasing complexity of court procedures.

c. Whether you can really ask for $600K from your employer after your butt fails to connect with the seat of a chair in your office.

In the first case, some answers were forthcoming from the AG and Minister Shanmugam – it related to why Wu was charged with abetment rather than the heavier crime of giving misleading information. Seems his friend was the one who spoke to the police. But lawyer-MP Hri Kumar had a more general point when he first surfaced the issue in a blog – in some cases when you can’t pay a fine, you go to jail. Which means really, that if you are rich, you get a Get out of Jail card. Judges should be given some sentencing options. I guess we will have to wait for the courts to say how it decided on the Wu case, and for police investigations on who was really driving Wu’s car to be concluded. I hope they move fast. Because the fact remains that the case happened six years ago, and notwithstanding what police said that they only knew about it recently because of a complaint, I think people still want to know the ins and outs. It will not do for the ordinary fellow to start thinking that Singapore justice system is not a level playing field.

The second case was Law Soc’s Wong Meng Meng asking for a public agency to deal with legal stuff that don’t always have to make it to the courts. It’s about access to justice for all. I wish someone would educate readers on what sort of things the ordinary fellow really needs a trained legal opinion for. As well as a range of fees that lawyers charge. I mean, what sort of stuff has got so complex for the courts that we now need a lawyer to deal with it?

In any case, how do you source for a lawyer? Pretty much like a doctor I think – word of mouth. Then it’s a question of whether you think a cheaper one or a more expensive one can get the job done for you at the same quality of service? Are there cases when you can dispense with a lawyer? There’s alternative dispute resolution, mediation (at community levels too) – Are they well-used?

As for the $600K asking price for damages by a Jap worker here who fell on her backside after a colleague failed to push in a chair he had pulled out. She is sueing negligence, loss of future earnings etc. I pity the fellow – the colleague I mean. I pity the employer, which is really deep-pocketed – US-headquartered with more than US$5b in service revenue. Big target huh?

Seriously lah, as lawyers interviewed said, office mishaps happen and are usually settled within the company. But going to the High Court for this? I sort of choked until I read the last par – that both parties might just go to the Sub Courts to settle the final amount, where the cap is $250,000. That’s more palatable. In any case, some advice especially for the chivalrous among the guys, when you pulled out a woman’s chair, remember to push it back in…she won’t appreciate landing on her backside…and might just sue you too.

Numbing numbers Part 2

Can someone please save me from text? What’s wrong with newspapers these days? Why are they so averse to putting numbers in a chart? Why make the reader wade through text to figure out something? I am referring to two stories that were in ST and BT today.

The first one is on that MasterCard survey on global destinations. ST decided to angle on Singapore’s current status – we are in the top five. Yay! BT decided to angle on expected arrivals – Singapore might be among the top five fastest growing in Asia-Pac. Yay! You can see how cynical I am. Actually, I am just tired of reading numbers. Seems obvious to me a chart on the rankings, arrival numbers, tourists receipts needed. Instead both newspapers went with a boring pictures – tourists on trishaws and the Singapore skyline. What a waste of space!

And that report on Singaporeans being Number 2 worldwide in tablet craze in ST. Yay! No chart again, but it was accompanied by a picture of people in the MRT glued to the phone and three little nuggets of information accompanying it. That was the best picture ST could come up with for page 1….

Guess what saved the story for me. My Paper. It had an interesting chart on what Singaporeans DO in their phones, compared to users in seven other countries. We’re tops when it comes to using the phone to get on the Internet, email, use apps, instant messaging, social networking and watching videos….Yay?

A reading life

I so identified with Richard Lim’s column in Life! today about his introduction to humanist books. Actually, I identified with his friend, Kenny, who retired early because he wanted time to read. I am not retired but I do have plenty of free time which I spend reading, reading, reading. I can’t think how anyone can live life without reading something. Errm, preferably a proper book and not just Facebook.

It was my late grandmother who introduced me to books. It was Enid Blyton’s Secret Seven. You know the trajectory from there…you move on to Famous Five, Three Investigators, Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys. On her death bed, she gave me $50 to buy books, My parents rushed this 12 year old to Katong Shopping Centre to make sure I fulfilled her last wish. By then, I had graduated to Agatha Christie. I hadn’t finished Five Little Pigs when she died. It was my habit to always relate to her the stories in the books I’ve read.

The trajectory continued. I saw my Sec 1 classmate engrossed in a book and asked her what it was. A Mills & Boon. That was it then! I borrowed from her stash (she had plenty) and moved round second hand book stores for them. I kept them hidden from my mother, who didn’t like those sexy pictures on the cover and probably thought it was porn.

Book reading took a break in my university days. I stayed in a hostel…and where got time? with tutorials and games and plays and exams to mug up for. That, I know now, is an excuse. No one should give up reading – it keeps you informed, entertained and raises your writing and creative abilities.

I got back to books with a vengeance a few years after I started work. And started scaling up when I had my own place. Finally, I could have my own library. My teenaged books are at my mother’s place, and the rest of the 1,000 or so are jostling with each other for space on custom-made shelves. I arrange them in alphabetical order and in genres. Once, my part-time maid decided to shelve them according to size. I freaked out.

People ask me if I speed read. I am a certified speed reader, but employ the technique only professionally. It was useful when newsmakers threw speeches, statements and bulky press kits at the last minute, expecting journalists to digest them in five minutes before taking questions…Good trick, I thought.

People ask me when I find the time to read, especially when there are daily newspapers and weekly periodicals that I have to consume professionally as well. My ex-colleagues used to think that I only work all the time… Well, I make what time I can. There’s always a book in my bag. A few books by the bedside, in the loo, in my ex-office. I read while eating, watching TV, before I sleep, waiting for a ride, when I drying off by the pool. There’s always time to read.

People also ask me to write book reviews. In my whole career, I’ve only done a handful. And only for those books by authors I know inside-out. That is, I had read the author’s whole collection. I part admire and part resent book reviewers, wondering if they really “know” their stuff when they write about them. I also part-admire and part-resent film reviewers, who review films based on books which I don’t think they’ve read. I once interviewed a Canadian author who was in Singapore and had four books out already. I knew more about her books than she did! During the interview, she said: You must be a news reporter, not a reviewer. I didn’t know whether to be pleased or not, until she said she was a news journalist too and could smell a news person a mile away.  Actually, maybe I should NOT be pleased.

This entry is a digression from the other content on my blog I know. I’m sorry. But I do so love writing about reading…So I think I will start a new tag on this blog on Reading. You can read or don’t read.

Never mind.

Numbing numbers

I think I should give up making sense of numbers in the media. Or my brain doesn’t work in the morning. So there goes everyone trumpeting the fall in May private home sales. How interesting, I thought. So people aren’t buying? But look deeper and it could be that developers aren’t selling. So how many units were on sale? 2,449 units – but I don’t know if it includes exec condos. How many bought? 1,702 units or 2,057 units if exec condos are included. I don’t know about you but I think take-up rates of total private (including/excluding exec condos) would make better sense to the ordinary reader. Go read all three newspapers - Today, ST and BT. And good luck.

Then there was the other big story on LTA and SMRT pledging to reduce train pull-outs by 30 per cent next year. What does this mean? Seems 2009, the number of trains withdrwan was 243. Last year, it was 529. So far this year, it’s 58 trains every month. So it might be 696 this year, at the current monthly rate? And so 30 per cent, means it will be back to 200 plus? I don’t know….nobody worked out the maths. I working this out on my newspaper.

Anyway, who cares? What does this mean to the commuter? He’s going to be waiting for a shorter time? How much shorter than the current “less than 10 minutes”? Fewer delays than what he’s going through now? This won’t happen if all the trains are pulled out in a bunch rather than spread out nicely no?

Dear media and assorted newsmakers, please don’t just throw a bunch of figures at readers. It’s tiring trying to make sense of them. In fact, this lady is so fatigued she doesn’t even want to read about the quarterly labour figures….

The quality of mercy

It was  heart-warming to read about a merciful court. So the CJ quashed a man’s jail sentence and went for a fine instead. The renovation contractor who had a self-exclusion order tried to get into a casino using his wife’s IC and got caught. He was jailed two months and fined $800. His lawyer said there were five other unreported cases like this but they got off with a fine instead. The CJ ruled that he had tried to help himself out of the addiction and was merely succumbing to temptation. The point that he used his wife’s IC, while illegal, didn’t detract from it.

I wish someone would clarify what the Casino Control Act really says about breaching self-exclusion (and third-party exclusion) orders – the CJ says its not a criminal offence in itself and that there were several measures to deal with this. I wonder what they are – and whether the unreported five others were dealt with that way. So the renovation contractor was fined $3,000 – under what law (for the crime of using his wife’s IC? The CJ also said that those who breach third-party exclusion orders, that is, those who were forced to stay out of casinos, would be more severely dealt with. How so? Have there been such cases? So many questions leh.

BT had a casino story too – on the courts being kept busy dealing with casinos trying to get debtors to pay up. Plenty of Malaysians (which makes me wonder why they didn’t play in Genting), but a couple of Singapore PRs and Singaporeans. I don’t know why but all this makes me uncomfortable. In March, one Singapore was made a bankrupt because of his debts. I guess the really happy people would be lawyers. Go buy BT.

As an aside: I really loved ST’s piece on the playgrounds in the HDB heartland. I have noticed them too. Now, my question is: how much did all these new-fangled devices cost the taxpayer?

Turning green

Usually, when I come across reports about the environment, my eyes glaze over. I try reading those reports now because the weather’s been so hellish. What’s with the heat man? I missed reading about the launch of Singapore’s climate change strategy in ST and BT but Today’s version caught my eye. I guess it’s because it’s on page one and had this intriguing headline – Not watching TV now? Then turn it off. First thought: Today, a Mediacorp production, is telling me to turn off the TV….Hmmm

http://www.todayonline.com/Hotnews/EDC120615-0000039/Not-watching-TV-now?-Then-turn-it-off

But I found the piece interesting because it went into the nuts and bolts of how me, the individual, could save on energy bills. There was some reporting done, with experts weighing in on how to get households aware of the need to eat less energy. But an enforced black-out and water rationing exercises? Aiyoh….

So I went in  search for the story in BT and ST. I mean, DPM Teo Chee Hean launched the book so can’t possibly be ignored right? BT gave a big picture overview with figures on how much carbon emissions Singapore aims to cut by when. Then there were some useful statistics on what sort of emissions were being produced by the different sectors and some of the plans introduced to get the levels down.

ST went on why Singapore’s cuts were so small compared to other countries. Why the apologetic tone? I wondered if readers already knew that the cuts were small and hence had this question in their minds.

Sure, it’s an interesting question but I wish there was more reporting on the climate change strategy itself. I figured that the strategy is probably not new. Hence so little play. It’s a constant problem for the media – to have report on what’s been reported before. On balance, however, I think the issue is important enough to warrant a re-cap. Will such a report bore readers? Not if it’s written interestingly enough and the significance of the strategy brought home. I wish there was a report which led off with the Today angle, used BT for the main body of content – and ended with the question that led the ST story. Better organised this way, methinks