ST: Expect high leakage of engineers From the Straits Times on 24 July 2008: Expect 'high leakage' of engineers TRAIN more engineers and expect a 'high leakage' of these desirable talent into other industries, said Mr Philip Yeo. It's inevitable because 'their skills of logical thinking and analysis can be applied to any field', he added. Mr Yeo should know. An engineering graduate from the University of Toronto, he has ST: Still adamant that scholarship holders serve their bonds From the Straits Times on 24 July 2008: Still adamant that scholarship holders serve their bonds By Zakir Hussain MR HECTOR Yee, one of three public-sector scholarship holders who were named and shamed for breaking their bonds 10 years ago, now works at Google's headquarters in California. So does Mr Philip Yeo consider him a loss to Singapore? Clearly not, suggests his answer to the question ST: Learning Chinese - where there's a will, there's a way From the Straits Times on 18 June 2008: Learning Chinese - where there's a will, there's a way I THANK readers who wrote in to discuss my article, 'Who says it's hard to learn Chinese?' (June 4). By so doing, you have provided the authorities feedback on the views, concerns and issues about the bilingual education policy. Hopefully, the Ministry of Education will take note and take appropriate ST: Who says it's hard to learn Chinese? From the Straits Times on 4 Jun 2008: Who says it's hard to learn Chinese? By Lee Seng Giap, For The Straits Times SOME English-educated Chinese Singaporeans think and say that Chinese is difficult to learn. That is why their children find it hard to pick up Chinese, they say. Is this really the case? I have found the answer is an emphatic 'No!' Vili Maunula, a theoretical linguist, writes: ' ST: English test for foreign front-line staff? Bosses say 'no' From the ST on 25 May 2008: English test for foreign front-line staff? Bosses say 'no' Many not keen on imposing test, citing current labour crunch in service industry By Jamie Ee Wen Wei and Dhany Osman Should there be an English entry test for foreign workers in front-line service jobs? Judging from the response of employers and human resources experts contacted by The Sunday Times, the ST Forum: Engineers' body will work to draw top brains into industry From the ST Forum on 2 June 2008: Engineers' body will work to draw top brains into industry I REFER to the article, 'His worry: Is Singapore becoming high cost, low tech?' (May 22). In it, Mr Ngiam Tong Dow, a former top civil servant, highlighted the importance of Singapore ensuring that the best and brightest students become engineers. He was quoted as saying: 'How do you become a Bond breakers A couple of months ago, I was asked by a professor J in the office building to review the credentials of a graduate school applicant X from my alma mater, the National University of Singapore. X is a 4th year Electrical and Computer Engineering student and should have completed his studies by now. Prof. J handed me the dossier file containing X's application materials - his transcript, resume, Sunday Times: Making S'pore a 'brain gain' city From the Sunday Times on 18 May 2008: Making S'pore a 'brain gain' city To stay ahead globally, Singapore - like many other countries - is trying to attract talent, but efforts will be hampered if locals don't welcome them By Warren Fernandez, Deputy Editor Imagine if you could read the minds of people around the world to fathom what they were thinking about most. What do you think it would it ST Forum: Speak English the way it should be spoken From the Straits Times Forum (10 May 2008): Speak English the way it should be spoken I FIND that our spoken English and Mandarin in Singapore are appalling. However, what amazes me is that our Malay and Indian friends are speaking at least their mother tongue efficiently. Some are even competent in handling both English and Malay/Indian languages. So are the Chinese learning languages the You cannot kill people by chanting Sanskrit The president of the Indian Rationalist Association, Sanal Edamaruku, challenges a tantric, on India Television to use the arcane arts to kill him. Hundreds of millions of Indians tuned into India Television to watch the televised performance of the dark arts by the tantric. The performance are on Youtube. Sanal Edamaruku Challenges Tantra Part 1 Sanal Edamaruku Challenges Tantra Part 2 Sanal ST: Appoint a woman to Cabinet? Base it 'on ability' Got this from the Straits Times (3 Apr 2008) Appoint a woman to Cabinet? Base it 'on ability' MS GRACE Fu would very much like to see a woman appointed a full Cabinet minister, but not 'just to satisfy some gender or race requirement'. Ms Fu, the Senior Minister of State for National Development and Education, is the first woman office holder to comment on the Cabinet changes announced ST: Staff crunch spells last orders for tze char stalls Got this from the Straits Times (2 Apr 2008) Staff crunch spells last orders for tze char stalls By April Chong MR HUANG Hui Liang, 40, served up his last plate of braised noodles at his tze char stall in Tampines in February. Four months earlier, his brother had also called it quits at his Bedok ST Forum: Help grads who do as well as foreign talent From the Straits Times on 20 Feb 2008: Help grads who do as well as foreign talent RECENTLY, I befriended a group of scholars from China studying at my alma mater, Nanyang Technological University (NTU). They were in their late teens and were attending foundation courses in English and maths before starting their undergraduate studies. In their five-year sojourn at NTU, they will be given free What is your religion? One of the things that strikes me as somewhat odd in America is the almost Talibanish national obsession with religion. Well, not really religion in general but just one particular persuasion, Christianity. The majority of Americans are religious to the extent that an ordinary Singaporean who does not share their beliefs would find it almost fanatical and irrational. I've had one who've tried to ST: It's S'pore's gain even if 30-40% of immigrants settle here: MM Lee This recent Straits Times article caught my eye. The MM said that it is Singapore's gain even if 30 to 40 percent of immigrants settle here. He also acknowledged that many PRC and India students use Singapore as a stepping stone to the West. Well, it certainly took him some time to catch on to what most ordinary Singaporeans have known for a long time. I was back in Singapore a couple of weeks Commonly mispronounced English words in Singapore One of my pet peeves is the way many common words are mispronounced in Singapore, even by teachers of the English language. By mispronunciation, I mean the way the Singaporean pronunciation of a particular word diverges from that as prescribed in dictionaries. While learned opinion may remain divided as to how a particular word is to be pronounced (e.g. 'schedule' or 'often'), it is fairly safe Merry Christmas Merry Christmas to all readers of this blog. More than 2000 years, the greatest story ever told began on this very night. Oops. I meant the greatest action story ever told. ;) Religion cannot be divorced from politics, society or culture I find this letter to be rather amusing. The religious persuasion to which the write subscribes is self-evident. I never knew that the Chinese character for boat (chuan2) is related to the story of Noah's ark, which any sensible person knows is, at best, allegorical. The religious nutjobs you find in Singapore... ST: $6.3b solar plant to be set up in S'pore by 2010 I had earlier mentioned that Singapore would do well to prepare itself for the silicon solar panel industry since it shares a lot of basic technological similarities with the microelectronic industry. Turns out that Singapore has jumped on the bandwagon with a $6.3 billion solar power plant to be built in Tuas. With the price of crude hitting nearly 90USD per barrel, using alternative sources of Are you for or against keeping 377a? Check out this facebook group - Keep s377a! - which was created by a certain Mr. Dharmendra Yadav. Mr Yadav also wrote this blog post where he claimed to support the repeal of section 377a of the penal code. I'm confused. Can someone explain to me what's going on? Paying people to be their stepping stone In one of my earlier post, I discussed the use of scholarships to attract Chinese immigrants from the PRC and how it does not seem to be working very well as a population policy with most of the recipients having little propensity to settle in Singapore. Of course, that required no great insight on my part but nevertheless, it was something I felt I had to articulate. Well, it turns out that Currus meus fractus est... Today, I found out what rear wheel bearings are and how much it costs to replace them. Ouch. ST Forum: Time to reconsider satellite TV for homes A couple of days ago, on June 14, 2007, this letter appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times. Time to reconsider satellite TV for homes I AM curious to know if the Media Development Authority would be re-evaluating the policy on satellite TV for homes. While undesirable contents that are at odds with Singapore's multiracial and multi-religious society may be a key concern, with proper Self-radicalisation through the internet and cable TV subscription fee hikes As most Singaporeans might have read in the news, a certain Mr. Abdul Basheer s/o Abdul Kader was arrested under the infamous Internal Security Act last week for making plans to pursue militant jihad in Afghanistan. The man has been described as a 'self-radicalised' individual who 'began to develop militant jihad ideas in late 2004, after being affected by the radical discourse he read on the On UNSW Asia's low enrollment figures This blog has been getting quite a few hits recently, thanks to my previous post on the UNSW Asia fiasco. As everyone knows, this is no small thing with tens of millions of taxpayers' money down the drain. For everyone involved, it is a spectacular failure. Well, enough of the nay-saying. Rather than indulge in conspiracy theories as to why the UNSW hastily withdrew from this venture, I think Another one bites the dust I guess this isn't really hot off the press but by now, most people ought to have known that the University of New South Wales (UNSW) is going to shut down its campus in Singapore because of the low enrollment barely three months after starting operations. You can find reports of the closure of its Singapore campus here, here, here and here. Originally, an enrollment of 300 in the first semester Singapore's real carbon emission level. May 12, 2007 For S'pore, it pays to go green With the environment making headlines all round the world, Singapore too is investing as never before in clean energy and sustainable development. But does this reflect a real shift in mindset towards global environmental concerns? Aaron Low reports ... Singapore Environmental Council executive director Howard Shaw suggests doing more to push A log and a speck of dust Some time ago, I gave the reasons on why I don't disgree with the ministerial pay rise. Of course, this doesn't mean that I agree with it. It just means that the issue is very complex, coloured very much by emotions and impossible to decide on a purely rational basis. I don't want to go into the merits and demerits of the issue but I think I have learned a few things about people in general over A thoughtful article on the homosexual debate Three cheers for Associate Professor Victor V. Ramraj for writing this thoughtful article in the Straits Times today (9 May 2007). I guess someone had to step in to show that the law faculty in NUS isn't entirely staffed by intellectual pygmies. In this article in the review section of tehe ST, Prof. Ramraj takes neither a pro-gay or anti-gay point of view but instead gives a brief and balanced Preserving the Chinese language There was a slew of letters in the ST Forum yesterday (7 May 2007) on how the standard in the Chinese language has declined among young Chinese Singaporeans, which is something I don't deny. Given the growing dominance of English in Singapore as a lingua franca, it is hardly surprising that fluency and literacy in other languages have waned. One writer correctly diagnosed the cause of this