Do the numbers on Spore population figures

Dear friends,

Here are the population numbers published today.

a) Overall population increased from 5.08 million in 2010 to 5.18 million in 2011 ie. about 100,000 more people.

we still got seats here

Ed - Can our infrastructures cope with an increase of 100,000 people every year? Yes, MRT increased capacity by removing seats and increase standing capacity? We rent out our HDB flat (some do it illegally) and bunk in with our in-laws.. Traffic jams on our roads.. making a business out of providing accommodation to foreign workers etc etc (Yes.. they are tongue-in-cheek comments.)

b) No. of citizens increased from 3.23 million to 3.26 million ie. about 30,000 new citizen.

Opening balance - 3.23 million
Add - New births ?
Add - New citizens 17,950
Less - Deaths ?
Less - Ex-citizens ?
-------------------------------------
Closing balance - 3.26 million
====================

Ed - Assuming new births at 37,000 added to new citizen number, it would account for 55,000 gross inflow. Using 2010's figures from Singstat, with no. of deaths is 17,610, are we saying ex-citizens account for 7,000 outflow? How to explain this?

Ed - Assuming every Citizen is in Singapore right now, 37% of residents are non-Singaporeans.

c) No. of PRs down from 541,000 to 532,000 by 9,000.
National Population and Talent Division (NPTD) attributed the fall due to tightened PR policies. Dr Leong of NPTD also attributed the drop to other reasons eg. re-location of corporates, cancellation of "non-residing" PRs etc etc.

d) No. of foreigners who who are working, studying or living here without PR status increased by a massive 7% from 1.31 million to 1.39 million (ie. increase by 80,000)

Ed - Actually the headline should read "7% increase in non-PR residents!!". But we should NOT be surprised by this given the quarterly MOM figures which constantly report significant no. of new jobs created (far in excess of new births/citizens available).

Why is this happening?

super structures with declining human spirits?

Dear friends,

I am just catching up on my last few days' newspapers. I would like to share with you three stories, which in my opinion, share similar traits.

First story is about an incident between Ms Rachel Lim and a Caucasian man on a SBS bus. She made a phone call to her daughter. The Caucasian, who was seated across her, came over, tapped on her shoulder and told her to get lost for being noisy. Expletives are alleged to have been vocalised by Caucasian. She threatened to report to police and he encouraged her. On a double-decker bus, she went down to tell the driver. Driver, as per SBS's instruction, stopped the bus and kept the bus "locked" until police arrived. Caucasian was pissed that the bus has stopped (and perhaps getting anxious he could be in trouble) and started to prise open the door after pressing the bell repeatedly. Ms Lim, upon seeing that, put herself between him and the door, to prevent him from leaving. He SLAMMED his body into her. (I guess it would be like a rugby world cup.)

Second story. Mr Ong Thiam Kwee stopped his car without signalling to let his daughter off. Dr Ho King Peng sounded his horn in response to the sudden stop without warning. Mr Ong got out of his car, walked to Dr Ho, gesticulated vigorously and culminating to Mr Ong smashing Dr Ho's windscreen with his right fist.

Third story. Mr Stefan Masuhr, a high-ranking RBS executive in his Bentley, who was alleged to have smashed the windscreen of a Mercedes-Benz, driven by a Mdm Wang, who was alleged to have cut into his lane suddenly and causing him to brake suddenly. Consequently, his 3 1/2 year-old daughter (apparently not wearing seat belt) hit her head on the seat in front of her.

What are the common traits observed in all these incidents?

• All incidents involved matured adults.
• All are relatively educated and feisty in letting the other parties know what each party stands for. (Not sure about Mdm Wang. Not much info on her.)
• The alleged violent parties have "lost it" at the spark of a moment.
• They all happened in Singapore (obviously.. given my biased sampling.. haha!), a country now noted to be getting crowded and compressed on buses, MRTs and roads.
• Each party in each incident has their respective concerns at the respective time of incidents. 

The Caucasian man in the bus maybe really trying to tell an annoying woman to respect other people's right to some peace instead of asking other people to listen to her phone conversation. Rachel was running late and could be trying to tame her children over the phone.

Mr Ong may have stopped suddenly as he could have been too preoccupied with finding a safe place to let her daughter alight and thus did not signalled. Dr Ho was possibly trying to remind Mr Ong to signal first before stopping.

Stefan was just enraged when his children got hurt by the sudden cutting of lane without signalling. Again nothing much about Mdm Wang.

Last words on this

I am just wondering whether the bus driver should have opened the bus doors if he/she could sense the situation boiling over. I am hoping that these incidents do not represent a deeper underlying problem that is waiting to escalate. Let's calm down.

the power of modern women

While queuing to recontract my mobile line, I overhead the conversation between an elderly couple and possibly their daughter. Old man and old were discussing as to which phone to buy as they joined the queue behind me.

Old man (to wife) - Sony phone not so good. We will consider Samsung or HTC. Anyway when you are not using, I can put in my SIM card and use.

Wife - But I have been using Sony.. I am thus comfortable using the functions on Sony phones

Old man - Sony not so good laa..

Wife - You are buying or I am buying? (pissed and walked away)

As the man of the household, he thought he won on the choice of the phone. A few moments later, the wife came back with their daughter (carrying her own child).

Daughter - Pa, if you put in and take out the SIM card to the phone too often, the phone will spoil la. (trying to be diplomatic by giving an excuse) Let Ma buy the phone that she wants and you buy your own phone.

Old man (trying to protest) - But Sony phone not so good...

Daughter (cutting him off) - It is ok, Pa. Mum is more comfortable with Sony. So let her choose.

Old man kept quiet after that.

I guess women in households of our previous generations are more subservient to men. To the extent that we do see women sticking faithfully to obviously lousy husbands for the sake of keeping the family together.

But the women of today are from a completely different orientation. The family dynamics have changed. Can we handle it?

P/S - I may not remember the exact words exchanged.