People here in Phuket, especially the kids were staring at my shaved head at the supermarket.
Went to Tesco Lotus Phuket Thailand last night to buy groceries.
Adults at first got a shock, but they can pretend to look away at something.
But kids...their reactions is 'play play at the supermarket trolley, looks up, stunned!' Got a few babies or kids their eyes really follow me whenever I move the trolley.
its pretty common for schools boys in thailand to have their head shaved, but a middle age female with shaved head is rare.
am really getting annoyed with the girl that is suppose to be manning the sg home office.
http://sgblogs.com/entry/malaysian/349904
my relatives from malaysia are pretty much doing the same.
"Would be a very interesting topic at the next elections but then again it may not happen since our opposition seems to lack the intellect and wisdom in choosing the areas to cross swords with the papaya gang"
I received an email on what a Malaysian wrote about the "Ugly Side of Singapore"
On poverty
I dunno but the picture he painted on HDB dwellers is kinda like we are all so poor n miserable
The price of our HDB can get us a big big big big house at Aus is it? I forget which country tho
Originally posted by Midlusionz:The price of our HDB can get us a big big big big house at Aus is it? I forget which country tho
they forget.. the price of a big big house here can get us a pigeonhole in Tokyo or NY too..
Originally posted by elindra:I received an email on what a Malaysian wrote about the "Ugly Side of Singapore"
On poverty
I dunno but the picture he painted on HDB dwellers is kinda like we are all so poor n miserable
my ex-angmoh lady colleague says hdb is expensive and shithole hor....!
Originally posted by the Bear:
they forget.. the price of a big big house here can get us a pigeonhole in Tokyo or NY too..
Pigeon hole ><
Originally posted by LOTUSfairy:my ex-angmoh lady colleague says hdb is expensive and shithole hor....!
She never live in Hong Kong before right
No need Tokyo or New York...Just Hong Kong is enough
Let me see if I can find the email
Originally posted by elindra:I received an email on what a Malaysian wrote about the "Ugly Side of Singapore"
On poverty
I dunno but the picture he painted on HDB dwellers is kinda like we are all so poor n miserable
he just happened to live with a poorer family. but hor, the small flats located at henderson rd area really very depressing.
hihi. i haz questions.
where can i go get those ramly burgers?
and,
is botak jones still good?
Originally posted by av98m:he just happened to live with a poorer family. but hor, the small flats located at henderson rd area really very depressing.
you should see the ones around Kampong Glam..
Originally posted by udontknowme:hihi. i haz questions.
where can i go get those ramly burgers?
and,
is botak jones still good?
My house here at Khatib having Pasar malam soon .. Confirm got Ramly burgers .. Other than pasar malam i dunno
Originally posted by udontknowme:hihi. i haz questions.
where can i go get those ramly burgers?
and,
is botak jones still good?
botak jones is all right. ramly burgers usually where there are pasar malams or food stalls in hdb areas.
Subject: The hidden ugly side of Singapore
This article shed some light into why my visitors from Singapore very often
remarked that "Malaysians can't starve" whenever they see the vibrancy of
the self employed small businessman in a shop lot or the kerbside and flea
market vendors that are ubiquitous in all housing areas in Malaysia. They
[my visitors] always qualified their remarks by saying "anyone who loses his
job can find viable means to support oneself".
The full import of what my visitors remarked hit home today when I read the
article below which seems to say that self-help for the poor is near
impossible in Singapore because the author wrote "those who can't earn".
Singapore is indeed a country of employees, with very little opportunity for
self-employment and entrepreneurs. They invariably needs the help of the
government which is not always sympathetic.
Even in New York you find street vendors on the sidewalk particularly
numerous going uptown towards Harlem selling all kinds of things as self
help in times of difficulty. There is the iconic New York hot dog vendors
among others. There are even mechanics that will service your car by the
kerbside. The police tolerate them. (I have a NYTimes article that wrote on
the ubiquity of such mechanics) And then there are the soup kitchens and the
homeless shelters that provide a sort of safety net. But Singapore frowns on
all of these.
Food for thought.
Rgds
PS This article in written by an Indian gentleman which would imply that his
host/landlord is Indian too. But this fact does not reduce the significance
of the situation, but perhaps even accentuate it.
* <http://www.malaysiakini.com/letters/107799>*
*The hidden ugly side of Singapore*
Vijay Kumar Jul 3, 09 6:48pm
In between the glamorous buildings and shoppings complexes of this city
state, there is huge suffering that the world has never seen. Something that
the Singapore government or media will try to hide from the rest of the
world. And this is the lives of 80 percent of 'true' Singaporeans who live
in the republic's Housing Development Board (low cost) flats.
I, like many young youths, went looking for a better future in this Lion
City of opportunity, After four years of working experience in Kuala Lumpur.
It was my first experience outside Malaysia and I was very happy to be
offered a job in Singapore with a basic salary of S$3,500.
Then, with huge hopes, I started looking for a master bedroom to rent being
single. I finally got a master bedroom in Clementi for S$700 a month but
only after being rejected by many other landlords for being Indian. The
ensuing eight- month ordeal that I spent in this HDB flat really opened my
mind to what Singapore is for those who can't earn.
It made me ask if this is the type of development that I ever wanted in my
country Malaysia. This is the first time that I felt gifted to be born in
Malaysia. Anyway, I lived with a family of three (husband, wife with one
daughter) who rented out their master bedroom to me while they slept in the
common room.
It was a three-room flat (but unlike in Malaysia, a three-room flat has only
two bedrooms). I did not believe it was the master bedroom that I was
staying in until I went into the other room and saw that there is no
attached bathroom there. I was given a bed and a mattress and also two fans.
Then I noticed that the couple with their daughter sleeping on the floor
with a thin mattress in the other room. Not even a fan in that room.
Both husband and wife are born Singaporeans and were employed. It was after
one month that I realised that the daughter was not going to school
regularly and most of the time there would be a quarrel in the early morning
between the father and daughter as there was not enough money to pay for the
bus to go to school.
There were times when the daughter was very sick and father had no money to
take her to see a doctor. It was a real pain in the heart to hear a small
girl suffering through the thin walls of this HDB flat. It was unbelievable
for me to see this happening in this ultra-modern city. It took me another
two months to realise that what was happening in this flat was not an
isolated case of urban poverty in Singapore.
It was every where in those HDB flats. There was a Chinese neighbour (an
elderly man) and his son had no money to get a taxi to send his father to
the clinic for daily diabetic wound-dressing. I soon understood that poverty
in Singapore transcends racial boundaries. The whole family of my landlord
got a shock that I own a car in Malaysia.
My landlord would keep pestering me every time I come back to Malaysia to
bring my car over so that his whole family could go sightseeing in
Singapore. In all my life, I never believed people in a developed country
like Singapore would ever consider car ownership a privelege.
Three months later, one fine day, I came back home and realised that there
was no electricity in the house. This time, my landlord did not have the
money to pay for the utility bills. I was back in the Stone Age, using
candles. This lasted for days until finally he borrowed money from somewhere
and settled the bills.
My landlord as a person I have known during that period never come back
drunk or looked like a gambler. He had to pay for his mother's medical
expenses, that much I know. This was the time in my life when I learned what
is was like to live in that poor quality HDB flat, drying clothes in the
rooms and listening to what the couple talked about in the next room via the
thin walls.
It was this time in life that made me to think, 'Is this what I want
Malaysia to be? For those who talk great or look up to Singapore's success,
have they ever come and lived in Singapore like I how I did? Have you seen a
HDB flat and how it looks like?
Bring your whole family for a dinner using public transport and then rush to
catch the last bus. Is this what a 10% growth rate a year is about that we
want boast? Does this growth figures mean anything in the first place? Do we
want to open our country to expats so that they can progress at the expense
of our own Malaysians?
Do we want to 'progress' to a level that even our children can't buy a house
in our own land? Last, I ask myself. Do we Malaysians look at GDP growth as
the only measure to choose our government or are we much more matured than
that? Achievement at whose expense?
Originally posted by av98m:he just happened to live with a poorer family. but hor, the small flats located at henderson rd area really very depressing.
That’s what I think as well.
He should live in one of those flats at Marine Parade and then tell me if the people there are poor and pitiful.
I just went to Parkway recently and was shocked. The shops there are all the upmarket brands you find in Orchard -_-“ I don’t even need to go down to Orchard for Boarders
the guy makes it sound like most hdb dwellers are poor. which is definitely not the case.
Originally posted by av98m:http://sgblogs.com/entry/malaysian/349904
my relatives from malaysia are pretty much doing the same.
Actually, 2nd generation PRs have to do NS. So even if the fella were to maintain the status quo, his sons would have to serve NS if they were to take up PR status.
Otherwise, I kinda agree with the gist of the story - there are plenty of incentives for foreigners to come here, but there is no clear and distinct incentive for being Singaporean.
On my part, I still get all riled up when I see foreign students getting heavy subsidies in uni when half of them are seriously a bunch of screwballs.....
I don't deny that we need foreign talent, but it seems to me that any Tom, Dick or Harry with a foreign passport immediately qualifies as 'foreign talent'.....
Originally posted by udontknowme:hihi. i haz questions.
where can i go get those ramly burgers?
and,
is botak jones still good?
amk central having a pasar malam this week (i think still there..)
got ramly burger!!
botak jones a few blocks from my place..
wanna go eat? me tmr free from 3.30pm :)
Originally posted by LOTUSfairy:i thought it should be quite boring one... but then.. no leh.. quite fun to watch.. so i watch and watch and look up at the clock...SHIT ! 3.30AM...
which K is this?
Originally posted by elindra:
She never live in Hong Kong before rightNo need Tokyo or New York...Just Hong Kong is enough
Let me see if I can find the email
Hell yeah....
One of my lecturers told us about a colleague of hers who lives in Hong Kong....
Their apartments are so cramped that the maid actually sleeps on a wooden plank placed over the bathtub. No place on the floor to put a mattress.
Originally posted by LOTUSfairy:amk central having a pasar malam this week (i think still there..)
got ramly burger!!
botak jones a few blocks from my place..
wanna go eat? me tmr free from 3.30pm :)
mi tmr work till 9pm. >.<
Originally posted by fudgester:Hell yeah....
One of my lecturers told us about a colleague of hers who lives in Hong Kong....
Their apartments are so cramped that the maid actually sleeps on a wooden plank placed over the bathtub. No place on the floor to put a mattress.
HK is way way too cramped and the rents are skyrockets. even for their burials - it's vertical. but most folks go for cremations since it's cheaper.
Originally posted by av98m:the guy makes it sound like most hdb dwellers are poor. which is definitely not the case.
yeah
Most likely he lived with a family who fell through the gap
There are a few of them around