Sad for columnlist Mr. Brown because of .......

Sad for columnlist Mr. Brown because of a article, he got a letter from MICA, calling him a partisan player in politics. HAHA! What a joke! I realised today I din read his friday column so I checked his blog and realised that he has been suspended.

Here again we see another paper submitting to the gahman. Sad, sad day for citizen voice. Yes, I agree it is right to correct the mistakes that a newspaper put out, but are the points that Mr. Brown put out really mistakes? It is worth considering.

1) Singaporeans are fed up with progress???? True??? Is there evidence (whether survey or voting???) that show otherwise? Are we trying to say that singaporeans are really happy with the increase in prices???? I doubt so.

2) Progress Package is for the lower income family cope with the higher cost of life, how?? And paraphasing from what I read in "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" by Robert Kawasaki, most winners of lottery winners in United States ended poorer than the times before they won the lottery, due to poor management of sudden wealth. One reason why the lower income remains so is because they have no knowledge of acquiring and keeping wealth. As a teacher, I promise you that this is no taught in schools, even if there is a subject called "Principles of Accounts", which only teaches the pupils to balance the accounts.

3) By the way, how many families actually use to money to cope with the increase price of oil and not pamper themselves, children or ...... with gifts or whatever????? Any statistics available??? Personally my income tax is even higher than the progress package I receive. Why not just cancel my income tax and you can give my progress package to the lower-income??

4) Household income increases, the lower income (wages) shrink, true??? Why not?? Cost of world cup has a price tag on it, the last world cup free (Thanks to channel i, i believe). Price of coffee up, then same goes for the price of tea, milo........ Every economics students will tell you, price of goods go up, inflation takes place, the disposable income (lower income) shrinks, dun worry the progress package is expected to take care of the increase, but did not account that you have 10 mouths to feed. The other way of coping with the increase in price is to increase wages, which suits the upper income. Middle income how??? no big progress package, no wage increase, die lah!!!

5) "I am happy for progress, of course but I would be just as happy to make ends meet and to see my autistic first-born grow up able to talk and fend for herself in this society when I am gone. " quoted. I absolutely agrees. I guess I am quite a rational and logical person, maybe due to the subject I major in. What truely concerns us is not whether we have a card system that can be used to pay everything from top to bottom, we are concerned about our livelyhood. Example, when eazlink was inplemented, the trains and bus fares increased by 10 cents. Can you imagine during that time I had to travel from the top north of Singapore to NIE in the far west, my journey requires 2 bus trips and 1 mrt trip to go to NIE, meaning extra 30 cents to go and extra 30 cents to return home????? Meaning I spent extra 60 cents everyday to pay for the so-called new system. Why not they can keep their card system and let me save 60 cents everyday? And they say our fare is one of the cheapest in the world? People in England earn pounds and most have cars, so their fare maybe abit higher during the volume of travellers. And it is not fair to compare the value of the number. It maybe fairer to compare in ratio to the average income??? GNP or GDP?????

6) I will also like to child to be able to fend for himself when I am gone. Mr. Brown quoted the mean testing. Personally, as you may know that my son had wilm's tumour. I had to seek private treatment for my son. If you do not know, government hospitals charge the same amount as private hospitals for most treatments if you are a private paying patient. Most of the subsidies goes to the 'C' wards patients. Hence, as a private paying patient, $100 for an x-ray is the same whether you go to a private hospital or a government hospital. Even though medisave can be used, do you realised that medisave is actually taken from your pay?? So you still pay for your own medical bills. And deduction of medisave is limited. I ended up paying $10, 000 (50%) after medisave deduction. Thank God for family support, or else as a young family, where to find $10, 000 to pay for the medical bill. After the surgery, my boy still has to go for chemo (only $200 medisave deductible, when the bill is $400+) and flushing of his port-a-cathe after the chemo is over (which is non-medisave deductible, my money but i cannot use it)

7) If the government I voted in cannot take care of its citizens, then why should I continue to vote for the government ?????

It is regretable that Mr. Brown is suspended. Hope it is a short one so meanwhile can check out his blog. It is also regretable that the TODAY paper is now inline with the main papers, when it started out to be an alternative voice. other than encouraging constructive critic (I agrees to constructive critic), we also need constructive reply, instead of just slamming Mr. Brown, claiming that he distort the truth, which is very serious. Are you saying that Mr. Brown has intregity problem or he is a liar or which is all very serious accusation leading to slander, defamation????

SIA Steward The Mission Impossible DREAM

While teachers are to encourage the pupils to dream the impossible, go realise their dreams and spread their wings and soar to the high heaven, i did the "undreamable" thing yesterday (01/07/06). I went for the Singapore Airline (SIA) flight steward and stewardess recruitment. :) Teacher must also do what they preach, right?? We always tell our pupils to do their best, reach for the stars and fulfill their dreams, but teacher cannot be a living example for them.

So I accidently (I promise you it is really accidently) so happened to check the SIA website to see if they have any recruitment drive on friday. And "wah kao" the next day is the recruitment. It really got me pretty excited, imagine the oppotunity to meet the rich businessmen (for business oppotunites when i retires from SIA), to fly to places where in this life time, I may never afford TIME and money $$$ to go, work with some of the beautiful people and in one of the best company in Singapore and widen my scope of life. I still believe that there is more to life than teaching, marking, scolding and meeting.

When I arrived at the convection center, I cannot believe it. There is long quene for the application form. (Just a shorter version of quene compared to the Singapore idol. Side-track abit, Project Superstar is coming, maybe I should also try. Hmm........ Dun laugh please.) I felt kind of under-dressed for the occasion. These people (men) are coming in long-sleeved shirts, pants and tie, well styled hair (every strand in their proper place, not one is out of place) and I just worn a short-sleeved shirt and jeans. HAHAHAHA............................. As for the ladies, they are REALLY, REALLY well-dressed, some in office attire, dresses and full make-up. Prew, luckily I am a male, believe me the ladies really enjoy this make-up stuff.

Praise God! I was able to clear the 1st round, but got knocked out in the 2nd round. I was pretty disappointed. The interviewer told me that I will receive a notification letter if I am selected but I see those cleared to the 3rd round will receive a slip to go for the water test on another day. Hiaz (sigh!) After reflecting, (teachers are very good at this. we ask pupils to do reflection for success, mistakes etc. Teachers are also to do reflective teaching. PUKE! What a load of bullshit!) I came to a few conclusions why I am not selected (Any SIA interviewers may correct me if I am wrong. HAHAHA)

1) I am too good for them. Teachers are to be worshipped (You know, a life-changing career, change the pupils' life and shorten my life, hahahahahaha)

2) I am still too good for them. The interviewer noted that I have not worked in a service industry even though I have sales experience in a wine shop. but looking on the other hand, the school is also a service industry as some of the principles have put it that the students are our customers ( but i cannot agreed with this, because we do not shout and scold our customers, do we?) He continued to ask me how I will handle difficult parents or pupils. We, teachers, just explain to the parents our position and point of view if they are reasonable, they will also agree with us. It is for the common good of the pupils, their children. What is so difficult?!

3) I think I may have "cocked up" the question portion. The interviewer asked me if I see a fellow stewardess is molested by a passenger, what will I do? How the hell am I supposed to know what is the SOP (standard operating procedure) of the company without training? Am I supposed to slap his face, ask him not to molest my fellow colleague and embarrass him in front of all the passengers or tie his hands up?

4) Read a passage. What interview is this? English teacher? Even the MOE interview also did not ask me to read a passage. Not prepared for this, of course, my reading is crap, compared to what I can do during the phonetics class during NIE. How the hell on earth do you pronouns this word "carousel"? Am I supposed to read the safety regulation before the taking off of the plane? From the last time, I took a flight of another airplane, the safety regulation is video recorded before hand so they just broadcast on the tele screen. Reading is SO, SO old school. The interview do not change with the times.

5) Sad, but I admit there is a gap between my two front teeth. Hey, with money, nothing cannot be corrected. All I need is a thousand dollars to get the braces. The last time I did braces, the dentist did a good job but the teeth started to shift. :)

6) The interviewer ended the interview by asking:" Oh, you are married?" Of course I am are you blind or what? Can't you read that in the application form or see the ring in my finger? "With child." Yes, what is wrong with that? you mean I cannot have children???? Maybe SIA cannot accept married people applying for the job. DISCRIMINATION!!!!!!!! Talk about a equal opppotunity employer...... or they imply that stewards and stewardesses cannot get married and have children???? ........ leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

Disappointed, yes, I am. But I am try again, not before I go back to lick my wounds. :P



I tried I failed but at least I tried to fulfill my dreams, have you?