Anti-foreigner sentiments rising in China...

[moveslikejagger92]

Times Change. Things change. Social Norms change. The law should reflect the socially accepted norms. Its dynamic. Not everything we do here today may be right in the law of the future.

Social Deviation is necessary for society to not remain stagnant.

i agree with you. but depends on what social deviation. if there arent laws to protect, some social deviation would definitely get out of hand

 

[theRBK]

And these small groups of people are sometimes doing it with an agenda to undermine the peaceful protests dont you feel? And democracy/freedom of speech/ dont necessarily involve only gathering of people holding placards and such. It does not only have to be that way.

exactly... what are those agendas and who are the people behind them?... they are making use of mass public sentiment to push their own limited agendas behind the scenes, making suckers of the public... and democracy/freedom of speech is more than people in demonstrations, and people should not limit themselves to complaining about the limited scope in which to hold demonstrations when there is so much more

I think Speaker's Corner is a very calculated move from the incumbent. Its a victory in sorts for the pro-Freedom of speech camp, because it marks a first. But its also a win for the incumbent. It satisfies the freedom of speech camp, but outreach is limited. And they have got other ways and means to 'you know...'

it marks a first, and it should be used to the max... like in the recent event commemorating the 25th anniversary of the detaining of alleged "conspirators" using the ISA, just this past Saturday... they were not worried of "other ways and means to 'you know...' "

Because its the insiders you have to take care for first.

that presumes the "insiders" are not being taken care of first... if that were the case, sure, but often times, it is just an excuse to blame an easy target and not bother about looking deeper into the issues...

 

[theRBK]

People invest in Singapore also, because 1) gov is pro-business. 2) Singapore does not have strong 'people power' to request for a bigger piece of the pie. 3) Even if they did, Gov is there to support the business owners - by giving them cheap labour.

What we want here is to have equal rules for everyone, not necessarily an all-knowing all-perfect government. If the Government wants the people to stay competitive, by being cheaper, faster and better without resorting to strikes, then they have to lead by example. We want ministers to also be cheaper, faster and better through, without resorting to stifling the avenues for winning the hearts and minds of the people. Fair ain't it?

I believe the Gov has identified early on we cannot compete in "cheap"... that was why they pushed for higher value-add industries since the 80's and 90's... that's why we moved from manufacturing clothes and toys to aircraft parts and medical drugs...

the ones asking for lower cost labour are the various private companies... the Gov gave in to them, to allow them cheap foreign labour, and that was a questionable move, I agree, and when they implemented recent moves to limit cheap foreign labour, those companies complained again... suddenly, because of the pain to local SMEs and how they might either close shop or move their operations overseas, people were saying (just to clarify, I'm not saying you did that, which you most certainly have not, just that many seemingly reactionary people did) instead of limiting cheap foreign labour, which might hurt SMEs, we should limit high pay foreign talent that might limit Singaporean's promotion prospects... that of course does not solve the problem of overcrowding because the large number of foreigners is more in the low end side than the mid to high end side...

If you want to bring in the Foreigners to do the job, fine. Just make sure that Wages aren't shrinking, and that they are paid MORE than what the locals are getting to put the locals at a level-playing field, considering that they have NS commitments and all. Then thats fair enough isn't it?

but people are already complaining that foreigners are getting paid the same or more money for doing less, especially in white-collar situations... maybe you mean cost more to employers to hire foreigners rather than pay more to the foreigners...

 

[theRBK]

1) Like we do not have to resort to other foreign countries for basic necessity (water - Malaysia) we should work towards not resorting to foreign capital as well. The G-I-C model is good, making investments overseas, and putting Singapore on the globe, but its activities are somewhat under a veil. Nobody knows about anything. We should restructure and base our economic model on exporting National products. We should not rely on SMEs because its the government who has accumulated the surplus from the people through various means. How the returns are being distributed? Now, nobody knows.

the GIC model is limiting... it opens the door to accusations of public subsidizing of businesses, which our trade partners would complain or even retaliate with sanctions about... look at companies like Airbus Industries, which the US is accusing of using gov subsidies to compete against Boeing, or China's alleged subsidizing of their solar panel industry, which is now attracting complains... that's why GIC has so far focused on bonds, equities, and real estate... there is a case, I agree, for greater transparency of their accounts

2) Having a blackout on the discussion about race does not solve anything. No news does not necessarily mean good news.

I agree, there should be constructive dialogue to further discuss race issues

 

[NazgulKing]

Singapore's problem is that it does not know how to utilize its own talent, and its own people do not push themselves hard enough. Singaporeans largely view education as only a means to a higher standard of living, and many stop right there. University education here is slack, students look more and more self-indulgent as the years go by. If by anything, we are suffering from a case of complacency and the government failed to develop local industry early enough.

Take Chartered Semiconductors, now owned by Global Foundries. They used to aim for the mass market, i.e. the low end and did not do enough R&D. Then came the Chinese and the Koreans started to do their own manufacturing. They lost heavily for years, and had to depend on IBM for technology. Now they are owned by Global Foundries. Will we suffer the same fate? Go figure.

 

[theRBK]

Singapore's problem is that it does not know how to utilize its own talent, and its own people do not push themselves hard enough. Singaporeans largely view education as only a means to a higher standard of living, and many stop right there. University education here is slack, students look more and more self-indulgent as the years go by. If by anything, we are suffering from a case of complacency and the government failed to develop local industry early enough.

Take Chartered Semiconductors, now owned by Global Foundries. They used to aim for the mass market, i.e. the low end and did not do enough R&D. Then came the Chinese and the Koreans started to do their own manufacturing. They lost heavily for years, and had to depend on IBM for technology. Now they are owned by Global Foundries. Will we suffer the same fate? Go figure.

exactly... another example is Creative Technologies... when Sound Blaster was THE sound add-on for computers, it got complacent... it's been scrambling to stay afloat of late, since Microsoft changed the sound system for Windows from Vista onwards, and also due to its unspectacular performance in music players...