what makes you think that working in a hospital definitely involve drawing blood from patients?

just as an army need clerks, so do hospitals. pharmacists, x-rays, cardio, all doesn't involve blood.

and you think all men are cut out to be soldiers meh? no, but still have to die die suck thumb. that's the way it is...sadly.

Originally posted by purpledragon84:

haha.. today u want women to serve NS, be it military or non military.. tmr u want them to do IPPT and go for reservist too.. just to be fair..

ippt, maybe not.

reservice, or smth like that, may be feasible.

assuming that women serve their National Service (not saf, but other forms of service to the nation), as what i had mentioned before, social workers, nursing.

singapore have a dearth of social workers, it seems. with an aging population, the issue of social welfare will be a matter gaining in importance, and with so, the demands for social workers.

nursing is also quite important. our hospitals also have a shortage of nurses and other medical personels. to the extent that 60-70% of nurses i see in NUH comprises of foreigners. so why not have mandatory NS to solve this need for trained medical personels?

it is not like in the SAF. nursing actually does have real value to the society, as oppose to chiong sua-ing if u r in saf.

and the 2 above mentioned vocations would require recourse, for them to be updated in the latest trend and technique of that vocation. so, i suppose u will be needing "reservice".

and again, i would like to reiterate that ns as medical personels in public hospitals (not military hospitals, we have medics nsf for that), are really useful to the country.

remember SARs? there was a shortage of medical personels then, when the docs and nurses themselves are also infected, with no one to replace them. having a well trained population of medical personels would be useful, especially with avian flu threatening us. (and my medical personels, i don't mean only nurses. you can have assistant cardiologist etc.... and if they need to complete their diploma, degree or anything related to their field of NS, they should be granted deferment. )

Originally posted by BadzMaro:

Of cours it will affect your marriage life. The pre-nup is there. An option. It can be abused. Unfair to the woman.  So is the charter. Rule of law prevails. This is just an idea what can and will happen, instead of what the law ought to be, its becoming what the law is. And outright unfair it may sound to many, unfortunately there are yet to be any kind of body that is effective at determining the right course of action when shit goes bad in your marriage.

And  yes, i will study really hard. And i will party just as hard too.

yes, thats the whole point, that all laws no matter with how good an intention they were set out to be, they will eventually be abuse by some malignant creature.

however, don't you agree that any potential victim should at least be given some sort of legal defence (not lawyers, but legalise laws), to prevent and deter the other party from exploiting his weakness?

an analogy.

an unarm man defending against a mad psychopathic women hacking people about with a parang (the WC). yes, you may say that men are equipped with better physiques and greater muscular strength, but that doesn't amount to anything when you are pitting ur bare arms against a sharp blade that is threatening to hack that very arm off.

shouldn't the men be also equipped with a similar weapon ( men's charter), for deterrence? with the law being fair and on each other's side, people may think twice before actually setting out to harm others. in fact, people will have an equal chance against each other, instead of the current lopsided trend we are seeing now.

and what good is strength when u r arguing for ur case in a court of law? punch the prosecutor and get urself extra jail term? legal protection and legal recognition is more important. 

so if you want to remove discrimination against women from spore society, you can start convincing ur fellow women to stop discriminating against themselves. that is one real positive step you can take.

Originally posted by skythewood:

Actually, I don't really care where Singapore ranked... But I am more interested in the way they rank. Read about some maslow hierarchy of needs

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow's_hierarchy_of_needs 

Basically, you will want to fill up the needs at the bottom before filling up those at the top, so you basically don't care about culture and arts unless you can fulfill your food and safety needs.

Which is why arts and culture is a consider a good gauge of a country's wellbeing, as they actually have the luxury to care about them. Just imagine the importance the iraqis give to arts compare to safety.

Think france deserved to be top in standard of living, with it's free and leisurely culture and relative shorter work hours. If you think of it that way, Singapore is somewhere in the middle, with it's stressful life in general.

i guess the gahment focus more on the top than the bottom....

if cannot use foreign talents, then use foreign labour lor. after all, ns is all about labour intensive saigang.....

i think that the statisticians purposely show only those stalls selling $2.50 food.

the coffee shop near my house, minimum price starts from $3...

maybe at hawker center then you can see $2.50, if u are lucky. but since they stop constructing wet market, how many people actually live close to a hawker center?

Originally posted by jojobeach:

????

Are you saying it is ok for men to discriminate against pregnant women and mothers ?

And not ok for women to do the same ?

What I wanted to highlight was the fact that mothers will and DO face discriminations at work.

Your argument was that women DO NOT face discriminations at work. SO dude..you've just proven my point ain't it ?

And who cares where the origin of the discrimination comes from ? It is irrelevant. Because even if women are not the origin.. men will still discriminate against mothers at work.

So  yes.. we now all agree that women DO face discriminations at work.

yes and no. my original point is that this so called "discrimination" does not originates from men, and you too have proven me right.

it is women who are discriminating against fellow women.

and you got my point abt men discriminating against women wrong.

what i meant to say is that it is fair to cry discrimination against women if men are the main and only party involved, but when it is the women themselves who discriminate against their fellow women, it is not exactly fair to portray themselves as victims of "male dominance".

it is not men's fault if women choose to intensify discrimination against fellow women. thus, all the more that men should not be victimise by being roped into this conflict within women.

if women themselves can blatently follow such double standards, i can't see why they can be fair and impartial when it comes to moral judgements, divorce agreements. etc.

sad....germies lost to spain....

spainful sia....

Originally posted by jojobeach:

Uh huh.. I never say there's no gender discrimination did I ?

i am saying that the claims of your so called "gender discrimination" seems to originate from you women instead of from men.

if women themselves feel inferior, lacking confidence in themselves and other women, there's nothing men can do to actually remove the "gender discrimination".

and from the above posts, i somewhat gathered the impression that even women themselves are reluctant to employ pregnant women and mothers to work for them, it does tell alot about the mentality of singaporean women.

it may still be acceptable and understandable if men discriminate women, but it is kind of absurd when women themselves too discriminate against fellow women, then to complain about "gender discrimination" against them. what double standards....

it is like someone chopping off her own foot, to later complain that it is unfair that her foot got chopped off.

invest in lottery.

will be rich when u finally strike first prize.

Originally posted by tripwire:

if our govt increase the price of power based 100% on crude prices... your electricity bill would have went up by more then 500 percent already, given that the price of crude oil was only US$22 in 2002 (yesterday its at US$142!!!).

but the govt's foresight to switch to LNG due to the oil production peak... we have been spared the full brunt of the rise in oil prices.

unfortunately, the LNG peak production is only about 10 to 20 years after the oil peak production.... we need an alternative energy source quickly, or we will all suffer.

i know what you are trying to say. but sorry, u interpreted what i said earlier wrongly.

my point is:

since our powerplants are burning 100% CNG, which is half the price of crude, why is the SP quoting crude oil figures to justify its price hike? consumer are not dumb. I'm sure people understand what is gas and what is crude oil.

why can't they simply justify their price hike with information telling us about the rise in price of gas?

what they are doing is that to explain for the rise in price of chicken rice, they quote the figures for rising price of duck rice.

yes, gas and oil are related, but their price are not pegged as u said. they are independent of each other, with their price set by market demand. and so far, gas is still in less demand than crude. (most cars on earth have not converted to CNG yet, as does all other vehicles, e.g. ships and planes.)

Originally posted by jojobeach:

Why would a woman only hire women ?

I prefer to hire all hot young sexy men to come work for me !!

even u as a woman is not interested in hiring women, it tells alot about the so called gender discrimination of our society. 

btw, would like to talk about SP recent price hikes

they claim that rising price of crude oil have force them to raise the price of power. with that, the quoted figures about the price per barrel of crude.

the issue here is that singapore always claimed that here in singapore, we burn cleaner fuel to generate power. our powerplants run on 100% natural gas, imported from indonesia.

yes, i know that the price of gas may be link to the price of crude, but is it justifiable to explain for price hike in power quoting price of crude?  it is an attempt to deceive the consumers.

Originally posted by purpledragon84:

and to deathmaster.. I do not think that laziness is the only reason for them not stepping out.. as u said, hangovers from the 70s, 80s affect them, and guess what, it affects men too.. there are also unspoken biaseness against women in the workforce holding high positions, which will rear its ugly head every now and then.. u cannot solely put the blame on women that the unwillingness is due to their own fault.. if the situation is favourable, u will have seen much more females out there in leading positions..

ya, but now the workforce are now mostly youth dominated.

yes, there are also male dominated realms, such as construction and engineering, but i don't think most females are interested in those field, so it probably doesn't matter much.

and speaking of employment, why can't women be more proactive on their part. instead of waiting for employment from male businessman, why can they become entrepreneur, become businesswomen who hire people? that way, they can choose only women to work for them, if they wish to.

Originally posted by gigabyte14:

brian miller, eric ding and gary lim love to predict on faves

ian macintosh like to predict draws

the eastham worse, love to predict upsets

thats why his score the worst

follow ur ling gan better

i always get the impression that ian macintosh  is always betting on underdogs, that they have the highest odds, that he is gambling on luck that the underdog win, so he gets more points. (the betting tally thing they have)

Originally posted by dont know much:

even UBS is given a helping hand by singapore's SWF.

 

I just need a account to deposit/withdraw funds,without government knowing.  is this possible?

GIC brought $10bn worth of UBS alr leh. even swiss banks are under their control.

those of u with loads of money in swiss banks better move to other tax havens.

Originally posted by jojobeach:

Olivia Lum is married ? Got children ?

 

why does marital status matter? its her choice not to be married.

to quote some singapore woman who is married and have children, and have a successful career, there's Ho Ching, u know....

and it is not as if singaporean wives nowadays take much care of their household and kids.

many people are hiring maids, in some case, multiple maids to look after the house, their kids and their elderly parents. kids are sent to childcare centers or to their grandparents' house.

and working parentS are actually quite normal in singapore.

i think the person is intending to pressure you into completing ur task on time, and at the same time, up to his satisfaction.

you can't really slack off the task, especially when so many people, due to his cc., knows what you are suppose to do.

Originally posted by purpledragon84:

 

regarding elections, u claim that females and males are equal when it comes to election candidates.. u claim that the proportion of male and female population is roughly equal, u claim that there are more female graduates than male graduates, but where are the female? why are the men leading everything and women not given their share? you mean to say that all those educated women are unwilling to step out of their comfort zone to seek political rights? surely, the women are stuck somewhere.. somewhere called the KITCHEN..

how many men are willing to stay at hm and be house-husband while the female goes out to work? are you? even in dual-income families, there are conflicts and times when someone has to sacrifice when something crops up.. and the women are the ones who has to take a step back.. don't ask me for stats because there aren't any.. because, quoting u, this is the general observation, that women despite all the education and so-called abilities in the office, are still the ones who has to be home to do the chores, where the men only "help out".. no matter what, eventually the woman has to be the one taking a step back to the family and eventually depending on the man to bring home the bacon..

and what happens if the man goes out to have fun and make merry and refuse to give money to the wife "out of chivalry"? there is a thin line between chivalry and lawful obligation.. and giving money to ur wife is fulfilling your obligation..

if until now u refuse to accept the fact that our society views men and women differently, which in turn leads to a difference in the treatment of the law, den lets not continue this topic anymore.. quite sick and tired of this topic which is so obvious.. that when a marriage turns ugly, it no longer becomes just about qualifications, or men and women being equal.. it may turn violent.. and the woman loses when it turns violent..

you should go ask the women why they are not achieving in the realms of politics, business etc.

as far as i know of, there are no laws prohibiting women from doing any of these things. and yes, i do think that the reason is that most women are too lazy to step out of their comfort zone.

let us start with the enterprise spirit in singaporeans. most men are rather reluctant to step out and risk their stable income to start their own business. i am not saying that men don't, but rather, most are reluctant enterprisers.

and this trend is even more amplified in women. this generation's women are raised from childhood in a culture in which women work only when necessary (family needs etc,). however, with the rapid development of the society, working females are now the norm. however, due to the hangover effects of the 70s, 80s era, females are still rather unwilling to step out into the business world and compete with their male counterparts.

i am also not denying that females can manage their own enterprises really well. look at olivia lum. her company, hyflux, responsible for the newater technology, is now making big bucks, locally and globally.

thus, regarding the issue of women not making it out big in the society, the problems lies with the females themselves, that they are indeed unwilling to step out into the unknown, and carve out their own career.

the gahmen is trying to herd us around like sheeps.

PR only wad. can renounce it and go back china as and when he wishes. somemore he will not have to serve NS as he is first generation PR.

if he is smart, cling on to his PRC citizenship, and remain as a citizen of the world's future superpower.

Originally posted by purpledragon84:

so u are saying that for the past 40years of NS, that women are not able to get higher ranks PURELY because of a small pool of women regulars not able to compete with the larger numbers of men? 

yes.

if u want to point out that there are very few high ranking female officers about, i can too point out that there are more guys out there whose rank had not rise for quite some time.

and seriously, how many females are actually selected for ocs, scholars aside?

yes, u may have females signing on, but that doesn't imply that they will ever get into a position of leadership. if u go by the sarge route in the army, u will never be an officer.

to become colonel etc, u have to get into ocs first, which is not easy to begin with. after that, if u sign on, after many many years den u may be raised to maj.

how many women in reality stay in the army so long to even qualify for colonelship? too few to talk about.

lippo.

Originally posted by lotus999:

....
The city-state's supposed affluence is also largely a myth.

"About 30 per cent of the population still lives in poverty by Western living standards," he says. And Singapore's Housing Development Board, Central Provident Fund and state-run health schemes have severe shortcomings.
.....

Entrepreneurial and innovative capacities have suffered because of a lack of domestic competition and the predominance of state bodies. Public servants running state boards often have little experience of the private sector "and no idea how to run a business", King and other analysts say.

"The local private sector, normally the seedbed of innovation in most market economies, is stunted and starved of venture capital," King writes. "The country's capacity for indigenous research and development and entrepreneurial and innovative endeavours remains limited.

"Heavy state control of the economy is exercised through an extensive layer of state enterprises. The state imposes this control through layers of red tape.

"The government also manages a big chunk of the people's savings through forced savings … and owns 72 per cent of the city-state's land. Moreover, the government controls the unions and most of the labour force. Equally mythical are Singapore's claims to being transparent. Nothing could be more untrue. The operations of Singapore's government and bureaucracy are swathed in secrecy." 

King counters claims of high home-ownership levels, saying 86 per cent of Singaporeans rent government flats from the Housing Development Board on 99-year leases.
.....

agree.