News Stories

[ganbaru]

Venezuelan inflation rate tops 49 percent
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/venez...ops-49-percent

Libya: Car bomb hits Swedish Consulate in Benghazi
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...10-11-07-05-37

[JokerD]

Originally Posted by SaintessHeart

Shorten training periods for NSmen: Yahoo Answers users on national service system



Actually that part is true. I used to work for an MNC where the slut I had for my supervisor was commenting about us Singaporeans having to "take off for NS" behind our backs and a "productivity liability".

I am probably not the only ex-soldier on the forum, there are many here who had worse fighting in another country. What are the employment prospects and the general view towards people like you through the eyes of glaucomic managers who profit from your duties to keeping them safe?

Haha, when I first started working, the manager interviewing me was desperate to confirm that I did not have NS liability for the contract period (I didn't) Luckily for me, it was only when my career was stable that I was called up for reservist.
Even now, my (female) manager gives me a look when I tell her I failed my IPPT (physical fitness test) and need to take off early for a few days to do physical training in camp.

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by JokerD

Haha, when I first started working, the manager interviewing me was desperate to confirm that I did not have NS liability for the contract period (I didn't) Luckily for me, it was only when my career was stable that I was called up for reservist.
Even now, my (female) manager gives me a look when I tell her I failed my IPPT (physical fitness test) and need to take off early for a few days to do physical training in camp.

The worst one I have heard is from a job agent:

"What is reservist? I thought you have finished serving the army?" followed by, "I am sorry, we cannot hire anyone with a liability like this. You want to finish your reservist first before looking for a job?".

The first thought that went through my head is "Are you stupid?" - all employers are told that Singaporean males are required to serve reservist for 10 years. Beyond the "Degree in Finance" and pretty face certainly lies an empty head.

I guess those who do not serve NS, are really out of touch with reality of being a Singaporean. Then again, our boys are really getting soft too; I have colleagues of my age and younger who protest against going into less accessible areas to deliver a service; meaning which we have to walk on foot through muddy pavements for a kilometre or two just to fix a machine. Aside from having their maids carry field packs for them, walking through a rainstorm to reach a location or trudging through the hot sun to get lunch is considered a no-go for a whole bunch of them.

Being glued to the computer every night is one thing, but refusing to go through a little bit of pain to get things done is another. No wonder our girls prefer to go after those rich ang-mohs.

Much less can be said about most of ladies here who are really, really unrealistic, privileged and coddled to the extent of being useless. I still don't know why I am entertaining and being friendly to girls who go, "I want my future husband to drive a BM(W), if he doesn't earn more than $4,000 per month I don't want to date him."

Or the worst one : "He has to own a house, minimum, before I agree to marry him. I don't mind a HDB, but he has to own a house." Bloody joke.

At this rate, sooner or later I'll marry a boy younger than me and protesting for the repulsion of 377A.

[Sumeragi]

Originally Posted by SaintessHeart

Shorten training periods for NSmen: Yahoo Answers users on national service system

Things have really softened up over there in Singapore.

[Cosmic Eagle]

call it soft or what but RT scheduling really needs to be more flexible. Now it's pass or burn your weekends

I don't think it's "soft" to implement a better schedule option

[SIZE="1"]Much less can be said about most of ladies here who are really, really unrealistic, privileged and coddled to the extent of being useless. I still don't know why I am entertaining and being friendly to girls who go, "I want my future husband to drive a BM(W), if he doesn't earn more than $4,000 per month I don't want to date him."

Or the worst one : "He has to own a house, minimum, before I agree to marry him. I don't mind a HDB, but he has to own a house." Bloody joke.

You seem to have even more female contact than me....should I be surprised?

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by Sumeragi

Things have really softened up over there in Singapore.

Not softened up, but rather the wrong kind of competition.

Lower salaries, rising costs of living means the locals have to fight for their salary scales just to feed their families. The expatriates have the advantage of not having to go RT/IPT/IPPT and 2-week/1-month reservists, which could have costed the company tens of thousands for a blank position in terms of operating costs.

Besides, if you could hire a $2,000 per month foreigner with little tax levy and putting his home-leave into his annual, would you hire a Singaporean whom you have to pay $3,000 + $510 of CPF (adjusted for spending locally for living expenses to support family members), a reimbursed blank position of zero productivity for 2 weeks to a month costing your company $5,000-$10,000 in turnover, combined with paid annual leave?

Unfortunately, the foreigner works harder by a month because he doesn't have to got for ICT, IPPT and early off if he fails it. 2 hours of man-hours of early off, multiplied by 10 IPTs and a possible 20 RTs, that is 60-hours of productivity gone per month until he passes his IPPT. Much less said for places without working hours; he wouldn't be back after 4pm.......if workload dictates that he works until 10pm, that is 6 whole man-hours lost. Per day.

So do you still want to hire a Singaporean male? In a service industry like Singapore, his female counterpart will do. Besides, it is more likely that she has "relevant work experience".

There is more truth than rant to the quote, "The rich and the girls don't get it". In a turbulent job market of the mid-2000s carried on to the stagnant ones of early 2010s, which guy wouldn't be pissed?

P.S This is a coming from a guy who has been working weekends and ad-hoc night shifts since he left the army. My salary sucks thanks to "No work experience". The people I know running sticks behind nightclubs are the only ones not complaining. So do the ones running red-paint on doors.

Originally Posted by Cosmic Eagle

You seem to have even more female contact than me....should I be surprised?

I go out to drink occasionally on weekends if I am not scheduled for duty, if I don't feel like staying at home to read or play games. Recent weeks say no to that.

[Sumeragi]

I meant soft as in "You're not giving the NSmen their due share? What kind of unpatriotic stupidity is that?"

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by Sumeragi

I meant soft as in "You're not giving the NSmen their due share? What kind of unpatriotic stupidity is that?"

Actually we aren't. In my day coming up to the 2008 subprime crisis, I was paid $360 dollars per month.

$100 goes to transport cost per month because of my deployment (sorry can't tell, OSA). $150 goes to bills. That is $110 left to spend per month when each meal is around $5-$10 outside. I survived on watching anime and eating rations.

When 2008 blew up things went up pretty nicely. My bills went up to $180, transport remains roughly the same between $100-120, and that is $60-$80 per month to spend. And my parents are always fighting over money issues because of their literacy background.

It is only end 2009 when they decided to raise the pay to $420. By then I only have 5 months until ORD. And subsequently 1 year later, they announced that upon completion of reservist, all currently serving NSmen from 2011 onwards will receive a cash reward of up to $3000 upon completion of their 10 cycles; and I left in 2010. At the time of my exit, my payscale is around $800-1200 due to "lack of experience" and "economic crisis"; I was lucky that my mother is able to pool me at least part of the first year in university while I went to pick up a few workskills. With that little experience, I couldn't even qualify as an armed guard in the local security industry.

So where is my fucking due share?

My father had it worse than me, in 1968-1970 he was paid $30 per month for service and served 8 months longer, but at that time, each meal is $0.05 to $0.25. I am glad he understands, but I still don't like it when he argues with my mother over the bills - it is unpleasant to go home to that when you sweat and bled for your homeland(国家), only to find out that you have a country(国) and no home(家).

[willx]

Originally Posted by SaintessHeart

So where is my fucking due share?

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by willx

<snip>

Lol. I don't know what you meant with that gif, but dark humour or not, something less tense is certainly appreciated.

I gotten over the need of that monetary share, though I wish things weren't as tough because most people around me seem to be - privileged.

[SeijiSensei]

16-year-old Lydia Ko petitions for an exemption to play on the LPGA Tour

Ko is a remarkable golfing prodigy having twice won the Canadian Open by defeating an array of the top female golfers like Inbee Park, Suzanne Petterson, and Stacy Lewis. Both those wins would have paid her $300,000 in prize money but for the fact she is an amateur. She also placed second at the final major of the year, the Evian Masters, two strokes behind Petterson. The LPGA Tour has a minimum age of 18 to join, but a few players like American Lexi Thompson have successfully petitioned the Tour to begin play before then.

A South Korean by birth she moved with her family to New Zealand about a decade ago.

Ko's performances in the professional events she played in this year would have won her about a million dollars. While she has said in the past that she would finish high school before becoming a pro, she has obviously decided that her time is now. Despite her age and amateur status she currently ranks fifth in the world in the Rolex Rankings.



I love how nerdy she can look with those glasses. It's also pretty clear that at heart she is a pretty ordinary teenaged girl with a prodigious talent as this interview shows. She seems to share Chihaya and Shinobu's fascination with cutesy t-shirts as well.

[AnimeFan188]

Obama’s Efforts to Control Media Are ‘Most Aggressive’ Since Nixon, Report Says:

"The President Barack Obama administration has “chilled the flow of information on
issues of great public interest,” according to a Thursday report that amounts to an
indictment of the president’s campaign pledge of a more open government.

The report from the Committee to Protect Journalists, a non-profit dedicated to global
press freedoms, said Obama has “fallen short” on his promises of a transparent
government while at the same time forging ahead with an unprecedented effort —
the “most aggressive” since the President Richard M. Nixon administration — to silence
government officials and the media at large."

See:

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/201...xon-media-war/

[Xellos-_^]

change you can believe in.

[Sumeragi]

Change in the right direct. We need more crackdowns.

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by Sumeragi

Change in the right direct. We need more crackdowns.

Crackdowns on?

If it is crackdown on garbage writers hailing stupid views on gossip mags, I am in full support.

If it is crackdown on opinion articles about how retarded the education system has become dumbing down science and math to nothing more than rote learning, I am not for it.

So which is which?

[GDB]

Neither. It's about not letting anyone know what's going on behind locked doors. You know, like the whole PRISM thing.

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by GDB

Neither. It's about not letting anyone know what's going on behind locked doors. You know, like the whole PRISM thing.

I am standing in the middle for this. Intelligence is always changing and warping, so timely information unleaked is good for the protection of society. At the same time, listening on other people's conversation is no good manners.

The US already has Echelon. What more effectiveness would PRISM do?

[mangamuscle]

Originally Posted by SaintessHeart

listening on other people's conversation is no good manners.

You still believe politicians are people?

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by mangamuscle

You still believe politicians are people?

They USED to be people. Their souls have been bought out by the Almighty Dollar.

[SeijiSensei]

Another Migrant Ship Capsizes in the Mediterranean

Yet another tragedy in the Med in just a few days.

Isn't it time that the rest of the European Union recognizes that these migrants are not just Italy's problem? Most of them are not migrating to Italy but to Europe. Putting all the responsibility for handling these tragedies on the Italians is absurd. Migration into and out of the EU is a European problem and requires European solutions.

I realize that immigration is a political problem throughout the EU, and that there are strong political forces like Golden Dawn and French National Front that can mobilize right-wing opposition to immigration. (Just like here in the US.) Still wouldn't it make some sense to develop multinational coast guards to patrol the Med?

I heard an Italian politician be interviewed on these matters by the BBC. He observed that most of these African immigrants set sail from Tripoli or Tunis in rather large vessels, but the people are then off-loaded to smaller, less sea-worthy vessels halfway to Italy. He argued convincingly that intervening during the off-loading process would save lives and provide a better method of coping with these migrants then having them capsize off the coast of Lampedusa.