While the presentation by Suzanne was moving along, one particular scheme left a particularly bitter aftertaste in my mouth and heart. Inappropriately acronym-ed the HOPE scheme, or Home Ownership Plus Education scheme, its claim "to assist young, low-income Singaporean families get out of the poverty trap by providing comprehensive assistance." in my personal view, has dark undercurrents and darker purposes.
- That the scheme's targeted economical and age demographics would appear to disproportionately affect a specific racial group in Singapore; I encourage you to research at Statistics Singapore to make your own assessment on this.
- That the agenda of encouraging these young, low income Singaporean couples to be provided with incentivized sterilization, both reversible and non-reversible, with a far higher cash incentive for the latter.
- That should the young, low income Singaporean couple fail to ensure that they have only a maximum of 2 children, that the scheme will be revoked unless the couple accepts a state-provided abortion-on-demand backdoor.
- a Conditional Housing Grant of S$50,000.
- a training grant of up to S$10,000 per Singaporean family given over a 10-year period to enable parents to attend skills training.
- a one-off cash grant of S$1,000, payable to Singapore Power Services, to help the Singaporean family offset utilities bills
- mentoring support from a social service agency to guide the Singaporean family and help them resolve any issues.
- a cash grant of S$6,000 - S$9,000 to help Singaporean couples with family life education, family planning and parenting skills.
I personally cannot accept the financial blackmail approach taken with regards to the literal exchange of death-on-demand for cash just so to have lesser births from "lower society" Singaporeans.
It is said that a drop of sewage in a barrel of sewage is sewage, and a drop of sewage in a barrel of fine wine will still be sewage. With such outwardly beneficial schemes put forth targeting simple, lowly educated and low income Singaporean folks would lap up without much thought, much less read the fine print nor consider the future ramifications, I am filled with the bitter aftertaste of truly knowing how cheap life is in Singapore.
1 comment:
Hi there,
Fascinating piece on "HOPE"."Honour Our Peoples' Earnings" or commit seppuku :P. A Singaporean's life seem to portray wealth and certain richness that's only skin deep. @$10k over 10years gets 1k over 1 year. Is a person realistically able to upgrade him/herself with that kind of money these days?
I've been away for awhile. However, a story stayed with me that I'd like to share with you. This friend of mine applied for the award of a scholar some "decades" ago, only to have been demoted down the list from a Presidential one to a PSC one. Not for any reason save that she came from a single parented family. *Her mum knew the wife of the husband on that board* If there's any truth to that story, then our lives are already limited, by the status of our birth. Almost fatalistic.
We have come from a system that promotes subtle division, slotted into systems not very different from a beehive I guess. So "HOPE" isn't news. It has evolved to becoming a gaping hole we've yet to mend.
Your stories are highly fascinating and more importantly, real. like the snippets I enjoy from Warren Buffet. It's the subtle, little humour he has that goes a long way.
What I have enjoyed most about your profile(which I've stumbled upon via Someone called Something Liew from another blog from crowdspring) is the laterality of your choices and decisions made from the day of your graduation from Polytechnic, in film no less, to becoming a VC.
It's unusual. It's awesome.
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