Image hosted by toadjuice.com

Wednesday, October 25, 2006
"Please get out of my elite uncaring face."

Heh heh... I really like that. Get out of my elite uncaring face... I've gotta find an opportunity to use it one day. (I gotta become elite first... shit.) Oh, anyway, Wah! I didn't know the Internet got this thing until I read yesterday's crap... I mean, papers while taking a crap this morning. Of course, papers neh say much lah, so must search lor... and yup, I found the articles. In the process, I found some views about this whole issue and i think this guy from half the globe away pretty much sums up what I feel about the whole thing. Why did she bring the blog down? Why apologise? She did nothing wrong, really. She did qualify that she was insensitive and elitist. Oh, to Mr Wee, the father, there is no such thing as a private blog if you do not have to hack into a server or something to read it. If you post in a public domain, it is not private. === Part 1: Derek Wee Oct 12, 2006

When I read the Straits Times article (dated 24 Sep) on PM Lee calling the young to be committed and make a difference to Singapore, I have so much thought about the issue.

I am 35 years old, graduated from University and gainfully employed in a multinational company. But I cannot help but feel insecure over the future of Singapore. Lets face it, it's not uncommon to hear, "when you are above 40, you are over the hill".

The government has been stressing on re-training, skills upgrading and re-adapt. The fact is, no matter how well qualified or adaptable one is, once you hit the magical 40, employers will say, "you are simply too old".

We have been focusing our resources and problem solving on low unskilled labour. But in reality, our managerial positions and skilled labour force are actually fast losing its competitiveness.

I travel around the region frequently for the past 10 years. It didn't take me long to realise how far our neighbours have come over the past decade.

They have quality skilled workers, and are less expensive. When I work with them, their analytical skills are equally good, if not better than us.

It's not new anymore. Taxi drivers are fast becoming "too early to retire, too old to work" segment of the society. I like to talk to taxi drivers whenever I am heading for the airport.

There was this driver. Eloquent and well read. He was an export manager for 12 years with an MNC. Retrenched at 40 years old. He had been searching for a job since his retrenchment.

Although he was willing to lower his pay expectations, employers were not willing to lower their prejudice. He was deemed too old. I wouldn't be surprised if we have another No. 1; having the most highly educated taxi drivers in the world.

On PM Lee calling the young to be committed and make a difference. Look around us. How dedicated can we be to Singapore when we can visualise what's in store for us after we turned 40? Then again, how committed are employers to us? But we can't blame them. They have bottom lines & shareholders' gain to answer to.

Onus is really on the government to revamp the society. A society that is not a pressure cooker. A society that does not mirror so perfectly, what survival of the fittest is.

But a society, where it's people can be committed, do their best and not having to fear whether they will still wake up employed tomorrow. Sadly, Singapore does not offer such luxuries and security anymore.

On the issue of babies. The government encourages us to pro-create. The next generation is essential in sustaining our competitive edge. Then again, the current market condition is such that our future has become uncertain. There is no more joy in having babies anymore; they have become more of a liability. It's really a chicken and egg issue.

Many of my peers, bright and well educated have packed up and left. It's what MM Goh called "quitters". It's sad but true, Singapore no longer is a place where one can hope to work hard their lives and retire graciously. It's really the push factor.

A future is something we sweat it out, build and call our own. Unfortunately, people like me, mid 30's going on 40's, staying put by choice or otherwise, we can't help but feel what lies ahead is really a gamble.

To PM Lee and the Ministers, we are on a different platform. Until you truly understand our insecurity, the future of Singapore to me remains a question mark.

Part 2: Wee Shu Min's comment to the post on her blog,

Thursday, October 19, 2006

mom's friend sent her some blog post by some bleeding stupid 40-year old singaporean called derek wee (WHY do all the idiots have my surname why?!) whining about how singapore is such an insecure place, how old ppl (ie, 40 and above) fear for their jobs, how the pool of foreign "talent" (dismissively chucked between inverted commas) is really a tsunami that will consume us all (no actually he didn't say that, he probably said Fouren Talern Bery Bad.), how the reason why no one wants kids is that they're a liability in this world of fragile ricebowls, how the government really needs to save us from inevitable doom but they aren't because they are stick-shoved-up-ass elites who have no idea how the world works, yadayadayadayada.

i am inclined - too much, perhaps - to dismiss such people as crackpots. stupid crackpots. the sadder class. too often singaporeans - both the neighborhood poor and the red-taloned socialites - kid themselves into believing that our society, like most others, is compartmentalized by breeding. ridiculous. we are a tyranny of the capable and the clever, and the only other class is the complement.

sad derek attracted more than 50 comments praising him for his poignant views, joining him in a chorus of complaints that climax at the accusation of lack of press freedom because his all-too-true views had been rejected by the straits times forum. while i tend to gripe about how we only have one functioning newspaper too, i think the main reason for its lack of publication was that his incensed diatribe was written in pathetic little scraps that passed off as sentences, with poor spelling and no grammar.

derek, derek, derek darling, how can you expect to have an iron ricebowl or a solid future if you cannot spell?

if you're not good enough, life will kick you in the balls. that's just how things go. there's no point in lambasting the government for making our society one that is, i quote, "far too survival of fittest". it's the same everywhere. yes discrimination exists, and it is sad, but most of the time if people would prefer hiring other people over you, it's because they're better. it's so sad when people like old derek lament the kind of world that singapore will be if we make it so uncertain. go be friggin communist, if uncertainty of success offends you so much - you will certainly be poor and miserable. unless you are an arm-twisting commie bully, which, given your whiny middle-class undereducated penchant, i doubt.

then again, it's easy for me to say. my future isn't certain but i guess right now it's a lot brighter than most people's. derek will read this and brand me as an 18-year old elite, one of the sinners who will inherit the country and run his stock to the gutter. go ahead. the world is about winners and losers. it's only sad when people who could be winners are marginalised and oppressed. is dear derek starving? has dear derek been denied an education? has dear derek been forced into child prostitution? has dear derek had his clan massacred by the government?

i should think not. dear derek is one of many wretched, undermotivated, overassuming leeches in our country, and in this world. one of those who would prefer to be unemployed and wax lyrical about how his myriad talents are being abandoned for the foreigner's, instead of earning a decent, stable living as a sales assistant. it's not even about being a road sweeper. these shitbags don't want anything without "manager" and a name card.

please, get out of my elite uncaring face.

Part 3. Mr Wee , MP AMK GRC. reply on his daught blog reply.

Oct 24, 2006 A lesson learnt, says MP and dad Wee Siew Kim Teen blogger counselled for her 'elitist' remarks 'WHAT she said did come across as insensitive. The language was stronger than what most people could take. But she wrote in a private blog and I feel that her privacy has been violated. After all, they were the rantings of an 18-year-old among friends. I think if you cut through the insensitivity of the language, her basic point is reasonable, that is, that a well-educated university graduate who works for a multinational company should not be bemoaning about the Government and get on with the challenges in life. Nonetheless, I have counselled her to learn from it. Some people cannot take the brutal truth and that sort of language, so she ought to learn from it. In our current desire to encourage more debate, especially through the Internet, our comments must be tempered with sensitivity. I will not gag her, since she's 18 and should be able to stand by what she says. The new media of the Internet is such that if you don't like what she has said, you have the right of rebuttal. Hopefully, after the discussion, everyone will be the richer for it. As a parent, I may not have inculcated the appropriate level of sensitivity, but she has learnt a lesson, and it's good that she has learnt it at such an early stage in life.' ANG MO KIO GRC MP WEE SIEW KIM on his daughter's comments

Wat is this? U should know the answer. If someone else did this, sure 2 be warm by gahman, Just like our brown man.

But she is white horse. So...... u know.... Ya, like tt loh, life is like tt la.

# Crapped by Toadjuice on 10/25/2006 09:41:00 am

Comments:
Best thing is that daddy had to apologise for his defensive "apology". Yay!
 
Post a Comment

<< Home
 Toadjuice! ...cynic at work.

In case the conversation here does not make sense, click here. We share the same tag board.
[[*Links*]]

Mails
Gmail
Yahoo! Mail
Hotmail

News
Channels New Asia
CNN
BBC News

Interesting
Space.com
Planet F1
SGX
What Really Happened
Blog Skins
[[*Be Involved*]]
Here are some things to be involved in:

# Petition to free sharks.
# Play with your phone's bluetooth.

[[*History*]]
:October 2003 :January 2004 :March 2004 :May 2004 :June 2004 :July 2004 :September 2004 :October 2004 :December 2004 :February 2005 :March 2005 :April 2005 :May 2005 :June 2005 :July 2005 :August 2005 :September 2005 :October 2005 :November 2005 :December 2005 :January 2006 :February 2006 :March 2006 :April 2006 :May 2006 :June 2006 :July 2006 :August 2006 :September 2006 :October 2006 :November 2006

Disclaimer
My blog cannot be usually substantiated by facts, so don't take it seriously ok? To all offendees out there, I'm sorry! Comment me and I'll have the post removed.

[[*Worthy Blogs*]]

My Photoblog
Clubnarc Blogs
Memoirs of a Pea
Shit Girl Speaks...
Destiny (Angie's Blog)
Java Queen
Snog Blog
Bryanism
Kappocino

[[*Recent Shit*]]