**Iris' Castle of Happiness ^

After reading my cousin's blog and some friends' blogs, i realised how lazy i was for the past few months. hahaha.. i haven not update my blog diligently. work and studies are taking up most of my time. during my free time, i only wish to slag and nua in front of TV dramas after TV dramas. :D now i shall revive my blog!!!

topic for discussion today: GE 2011 - the most "in" and hot topic discussed in Singapore recently as this is the most exciting GE we have experienced for many many years. as a Sporean, i would like to note down my tots as well.

in 2 days' time, voting will commences. for many 1st time voters, this is surely an exciting moment. for people like me, so much so we would like to do our part as a Sporean, we can't. as our constituency is securely taken care by our honourable MM. but still i had been following the updates abt GE 2011 and i have so much thots everyday. whenever i go home, i will sure share my thots with my Aunt. So she said "if you have ur views, u shld pen them down." yeah, y not? since i have my own platform - my blog. i dun have any flowery description, watever i am writing is how i felt.

though i dun study politics, i am very interested in what is going on with our government and political system. Simply becos this is my home, a place where i belong. i am concerned how the system in placed will affect my life, my loved ones's well being and our future. after hearing so much from all parties during these 2 weeks of campaigning, i am more assured to stand by my views.

Aunt and Bro always said tat i pro-PAP. oh well, to a certain extend, i do admit. my point of view is very simple: i go for the party who can make Spore grow as a nation and move forward for better prospects. my support goes for leaders who wholeheartedly care for us regardless of race, religion, gender and age at grassroots level and at the same time be able to assist Singapore to gain recognition at an international level. didn't PAP done all the above? for tat, i respect them and i am really grateful for wat they did for us. of cos, there are areas which i am looking forward for improvement by them and i know they will do it. PAP is still PAP and they stand by their directions and beliefs. but for the new generation like us to accept them, they just have to fine tune their style of working. make us understand and convince us will be more feasible than throwing harsh words on us.

of all issues discussed so far, personally i tink only 3 issues are really relevant. the rest of them r just picked up becos there's a need to stir some noise for argument for GE.

Issue 1: Housing
YES! Singapore houses r getting more and more costly. furthermore, many of them r suppose to be public housing which shld be made affordable for general public. Govt is and in fact did make changes to ease this prob. they may have step in too late to curb the rise in pricing. but personally whatever have been suggested by our dear opp parties are not feasible. Rental Scheme for housing? i almost fainted when i heard this. House is an asset. shouldn't we move forward towards an era which almost all singaporeans get to own an asset? i am definitely for the idea of Home ownership and i am sure many people will be proud to be a home owner. just days ago, one of my fren told me that he is proud being an owner of the flat he is staying in with his parents. so for all that, y do we have to go backwards 5 to 10 yrs with the idea of rental scheme for housing?

if one would like to own a flat/house, one needs to just go within one's means. if you can only manage a normal 4-room flat, y do you have to force yourself to go for a 5-room DBSS flat? adding to ur monthly burden and u will have tons of debts to clear.

if one would like to own a flat/house, one will have to work for it. how can one expect the govt to pay half and u pay half and then u own the flat? so can govt stay half in ur flat then? u just have to work for whatever u wan to own.

Issue 2: Transportation
congested MRT, buses and traffic... i totally agreed. i gave up taking MRT to work as i can nv get up the train at TPY so i chose the alternative of bus. long waiting time during peak hours and i agree too. at times when i am in rush, i will complain "stupid! why the train is taking 6 mins to come?"

but i have stayed in Australia for 3 yrs, as compared, our situation in Spore is really not as bad as the big cities. in Aussie, we have to wait for almost 20 mins for bus, ferry or train. as compared, 6 mins is really nutting. if u r really rushing, practise self discipline and step out of ur house 6 mins earlier than usual.

overseas visitors always praise tat Spore's MRT system is very well-connected and organised. i agree with that. with the new upcoming MRT lines, i believe our transport system will be even better. but all these systems take time to be built and integrated to our current transport system. while waiting for the systems to be fully ready, we jus need to seek for alternative and go around the inconvenience. for instance when i travel to Tampines from Dobby Ghaut every sat, i used to take EWL and that takes me about 30mins (including waiting time) and i can't get a seat most of the time. So i chose to take the Circle Line from Dobby Ghaut to Paya Lebar and change to EWL to Tampines. It may take a slighly longer time (abt 35 to 40mins), but i can find a seat and the carriage is less crowded. we just have to be a little less lazy and take the little effort to seek for an alternative if u tink the usual route is not ideal.

Issue 3: Influx of FTs
i think this is an issue that has been amplified and is an issue which almost all developing countries will face. in Aussie, there are such problems. in Macau & HK, there are such issues as well. and people in all these countries are complaining too. but we can not stop FTs from coming in. we just have to live with it and work the best way out of it. when i was in Australia, we are known as the foreigners and i am sure the Aussies see us differently. As foreigners then, we did not care much for the locals as well. 80% of the bus or trains are full of us - foreigners, speaking in our own language. the Aussies are feeling uncomfortable but we didn't care and carry on and so the locals will just have to tolerate. Back home, we are the locals and other nationalities are the foreigners and we are complaining about them. felt as if in foreign land when almost half of the people in the train or bus speak in different languages, blaming them for causing an increase in housing and increase in cost of living. blah blah blah... and becos Spore is small, we can see foreigners everywhere we go. not like in big countries, they are scattered all around. personally, i oso felt uneasy with so many of them around and i do have some prejudice against certain nationalities. but since they are here already, we just have to accept them and learn to live with them. personally i felt tat Govt may not have prepared us well enough with this sudden influx. hence it seems like a sudden shock to most of us and the integration part is still lacking. so there is a need to improve on the integration part and not stop them from coming in totally. Govt need to do something, Sporeans oso need to do something on our part. be more tolerance and forgiving and accepting.

other issues: Income Tax, GST, COE...

Income Tax: 20% as compared to many countries of 40% to 50%, i tink tis issue is not an issue.

GST: 7% as compared to other countries of 10%, 13% or more, this is not an issue too. in some countries, u may not see the GST as listed but it is already included in the price. so we tot how come pple dun need to pay GST like us? oh well, but their items already cost more than ours cos GST is already hidden within the cost.

COE: rising COE so cannot afford a car, then don't buy a car. simple as that. unless u really really need a car, then just get one within ur means. car = status, so many pple want to buy a car? i think this is quite lame excuse. so when one cannot afford a car, one dun have status? and one will start to scold Govt for rising COE. stop acting like a child and be more responsible for ur own desires. if u wanna a car to represent ur status, live with the rising COE and stop asking Govt to do u a favour to cut on COE so that u can satisty ur desires.

Issue of Govt use our money to invest unnecessarily and lost our money in investment: people blame govt for losing our $$ in investment. 1stly, no one aims to lose $$ when doing investment. investment comes with risk and the lost in investment was unexpected. 2ndly, invest the $$ so that we can "grow" the $$$. is a fact tat u and i know. for instance, in personal context, with our own $$$, we will seek to "grow" our $$. we buy lottery, shares, bonds and other investments to "grow" our $$$. to be real, who dun like to have more $$$, right? govt is trying to "grow" our $$$ as well. 3rdly, if govt dun invest, they will be scolded as well. people will say "govt so stupid, dunno how to invest and earn more $$ for us". see how difficult it is to please Sporeans.

above r juz some thots which i can recall and would like to pen down my thots.

basically i am a sporean with simple wishes. i just wish for fellow Spoeans to be less demanding and learn to give and take and not expect to be treated like kings and queens and demand for watever they want. i just wish for fellow Spoeans to think for the big picture in making Spore progress together as a nation and not be calculative in the nitty gritty issues and hinder Spore's development. i just wish for fellow Spoeans to understand that we need leaders to lead us into developing as a global city recognised at international level and not leaders who wanna make use of our reserves unnecessarily and not leaders who have not lived in Spore for more than 30 years and coming back now to say they want to serve the people.

my wishes sound very pro-PAP? haha.. I just felt that we are far too small to be able to have too much differences in our political system. Yes, we can have alternative voices but we need alternative voices that make sense. If we can have that, i think it will good for our political systems. however, if we can't have, i rather do without as it will only jeopardize the stability of our govt. since school days till now, whenever i write the SWOT analysis for Spore, secure and stable govt is always the 1st criteria i put down under strength of Spore and i hope i can still do the same for now and in future. whenever overseas friends comment abt Spore, their first comment is always "Spore has a safe and stable govt." i hope i can still hear such comments in future.

i dun get to vote and exercise my right as a Sporean. i really hope my friends who have the right to vote will think carefully, be objective and vote wisely. it is our future that we are talking about. we cannot afford to lose too much as we do not have the ability to withstand it. honestly, if anything goes wrong to Spore, i doubt we younger generation can hold on together and weather the tough times together as a nation. simply becos our new generation of Sporeans are too pampered, lack of exposure and self-centered. we can't do wat our forefathers did, we can't do wat our grandparents or parents did. most of us are simply too arrogant and ignorant.

**Iris' Castle of Happiness ^_^

Thursday, May 05, 2011

personal thoughts on GE 2011

Saturday, January 29, 2011

When 27 meets 27

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Praying Hard