Author: Raymond

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Glad Singapore is my home

Reading about the Singaporean who was allegedly hit and punched when he confronted an alleged corrupt immigration officer in Batam last week [1] brought back memories of my visits to Medan, Indonesia in the the 1980′s during the Suharto era.

On one of my visits then, while I was clearing immigration, I was told to step into a room at the Immigration checkpoint at Polonia Airport. An immigration officer said I was visiting Indonesia too frequently – my passport showed I went there once every two months in the past six months. I pointed to my relatives who were standing outside the immigration area, waiting for me.

In less than ten minutes, I was let out of the room and my passport was returned to me, duly stamped. The official merely said I could go; he did not tell me more. But, I found out later from my uncle that he had to pay S$30 to the official to secure my release from the immigration room. That amount was about one-third of an immigration officer’s monthly salary in Indonesia then.

I was to learn more about this strange Indonesian custom during my frequent stays in Medan. It was an accepted part of life there, according to my uncle who had been living there for the past few decades. In my accompanied forays into town, I was to learn not to look at police officers while I was in the family car. That’s because, if you caught the chap’s eyes, and he signalled you to pull over, it meant he wanted money. If I recall correctly, there is a market rate, based on the type of vehicle you are in. For lorries, you had to shell out S$30, and for cars S$20. So, I tried very hard to keep my eyes out of harm’s way.

The Singaporean who wrote in to the Forum Page of The Straits Times1 had said, “a higher-ranking official then took me to a room and questioned my attire. He said that wearing sandals was ‘wrong’ and, because of it, he would not allow me into Batam”.

To me, that bore the hallmarks of the Polonia Airport incident I was a party to in the 1980′s, except, this Singaporean was accosted in Batam, Indonesia in March 2005. It might seem, in the past twenty-odd years, not much has changed at the immigration checkpoints in Indonesia.

In Singapore, we take our corrupt-free civil service for granted, so much so that we are affronted when confronted by corrupt officials in other countries. These are indeed eye-opening experiences for us Singaporeans. Such experiences make me glad my home is Singapore.

Forgive me for sounding cruel, but I would say — jolly well have more such experiences while we are overseas, either on short-work assignments or holiday trips. These experiences will help us appreciate things we take for granted in Singapore, as one such experience helped enlighten the Singaporean visitor to Batam, that “it is only now that I appreciate the orientation towards excellence in public service. A similar incident would not be allowed to happen in Singapore and, even if it did, the victim would be ensured a proper channel for redress”.

To be fair to the Indonesians, we need to hear their side of the story in the Batam incident. The Straits Times has reported [2] that the Batam immigration officer alleged to have assaulted the Singaporean has been reassigned while investigations continue. The Indonesian island’s immigration chief was reported as having told The Straits Times he had apologised to the Singaporean’s parents who are based in Indonesia.

The immigration chief was quoted as saying, “All complaints will be investigated. We have nothing to hide.” Kudos to the Indonesians for taking prompt action.

[1] The Straits Times 29 Mar 2005 (H6)

[2] The Straits Times 5 Apr 2005 (H5)

Date of article: 5 Apr 2005

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Count on our children to take care of us in our old age?

When the old Chinese man came up to the dustbin in front of the bus-stop, I thought he would, like many other old folk I had previously seen do, stretch his hands into it to look for used aluminium cans so that he could exchange them later for hard cash.

But, this man picked up a used bubble tea cup which he placed on the top of the dustbin. Then, he reached into the bin again and, this time, I saw in his hands a plastic bag – the kind used for storing take-away drinks. He proceeded to sip the remnants of the black liquid from the plastic bag after which he threw the bag back into the bin. The man continued on his way after picking up the bubble tea cup which still had some tea left. As he walked along the pavement outside Hougang Plaza, he sipped the tea, oblivious to the curious looks of those at the bus-stop.

That happened last Saturday. I recall witnessing a similar incident long ago as a 10-year-old boy in North Bridge Road where I spent my childhood. Then, I had seen an old Chinese man picking up leftover pig trotters from a swill bin and eating them there and then. But, that happened in the late 1960’s – more than 30 years ago.

I told myself it couldn’t be happening in Singapore now. But, I wasn’t seeing things last weekend. There were several other people waiting for the bus too. They saw what happened. The old man outside Hougang Plaza didn’t look like a vagabond. He was dressed just like any other grandfather one would meet in the streets. And he wasn’t untidy.

Perhaps, this man was senile. But, he didn’t look it. Today, as I read The Straits Times, my attention focussed on an article on parental maintenance. Among other things, it said that 105 cases were heard in the parental maintenance tribunal in 2004, up from 88 in 2003 [1].

Apparently, siblings were quarrelling over financial maintenance of their parents. Ms Penny Tham, spokesman for the Tribunal for the Maintenance of Parents, was quoted in the article as saying, “Long-standing bitterness between siblings spawn such cases.”
I cannot say for certain that the old man I saw drinking from the used bubble tea cup is a victim of similar circumstances. But, in my estate alone, I often see old people going around picking up used aluminium cans, and then flattening them with their feet before placing them in a bag they carried with them. They are a common sight nowadays in Singapore. Perhaps their children are not giving them any allowances. Perhaps, they need to feed a smoking habit for which their pocket money was insufficient. Whatever the reasons, I don’t think it’s fair for their children to be calculating towards them or neglect them in their old age.

I despair to think of my old age. If I get to live to a ripe old age, will my compulsory CPF savings be enough to last me through my twilight years. Will my children be kind enough to support my wife and me when we are no longer productive and have to depend on them for maintenance.

I see many youngsters engaged in animated conversation over who has the latest mobile phone and I think, at this age, they have yet to earn money and they are already bowing to peer pressure and thinking of spending more than pocket change. When they come into the mainstream of society, will they wise up and live prudently or will their parents still have to support them then?

Yesterday, I was having lunch with my wife in a foodcourt in Hougang Mall. Seated at another table next to us was a family of four – father, mother, and two pre-teen boys. Forgive me for being nosey, but, I couldn’t help noticing that both parents shared a bowl of Yong Tau Hoo while the two boys each had a Western meal, complete with canned drinks. It wasn’t the first time I had witnessed such things happening.

My point is this – as parents we do our part, but can we count on our children to do theirs and take care of us when we grow old? I despair to think of the answer.
I need to find good reasons to give my wife to convince her to have children. Providing descendants to carry on my family name isn’t a good enough reason for her.

[1] The Straits Times 28 Mar 2005 (H3)

Date of article: 28 Mar 2005

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Second-hand smoke in public places

By October this year, more public places will be declared non-smoking zones. The ban will then cover bus shelters, bus interchanges and public toilets. That’s also the time when the ban on smoking in public swimming complexes, open air stadia and community clubs – currently enforced as a house rule – becomes official.

It seems that the number of public places in which a smoker can take a puff is slowly but surely dwindling in Singapore. As a non-smoker, I cannot appreciate the toll that the ban on smoking is taking on smokers. All I know is that there will be more public places where I do not have to force myself to breathe in air that is polluted by second-hand smoke.

Already, although the smoking ban is in place in many public places, I suffer the threat of second-hand smoke as I traverse such areas. Some smokers openly flout the law by partaking in their habit, oblivious to the inconvenience they are causing to non-smokers like me.

In many toilets of shopping centres, people indulge in this habit, albeit in the locked cubicles. Of course, one could argue that since they have enclosed themselves in the cubicles, they are actually being considerate to others frequenting the toilet. But, I become frustrated every time I enter a cubicle and have to suffer the second-hand smoke for the minutes that I spend in that enclosed space. It’s worse than having someone smoke near me in the open area of a shopping centre.

I know of one shopping centre in Selegie Road where, on more than one occasion recently, I have seen groups of men smoking as they converse with one another in the wash area of the toilet. In the same shopping centre, on a different occasion, I even saw some youngsters openly flouting the smoking ban by smoking outside a lan-gaming shop in the air-conditioned basement shopping area, just next to a fast-food restaurant.

Should I have asserted my rights as a member of the public and approached them to remind them they were violating the law? No way! I would have risked a broken nose in the process. Just last month, in a small shopping centre in Hougang, I saw someone approaching a teenager who was puffing away in the air-conditioned lobby of the place, just outside a LAN-gaming shop. When he told the young man not to smoke there, the boy retorted, “I like it, leh!”

Making it an offence to smoke in certain public places is one thing, but policing the ban effectively is quite another. As the number of non-smoking public places increases, the job of policing becomes more difficult. There are only so many public health inspectors around. They certainly cannot watch every single toilet or shopping centre on the island.

We can only count on our public health inspectors catching a few culprits every now and then and making an example of them. But, will this deter the bulk of the smokers? I think those who have not been caught before will continue to play a cat-and-mouse game with the public health inspectors.

The price of a stick of cigarette has gone up from S$0.20 in the mid 1980′s to S$0.50 today. This, together with other governmental efforts at stubbing the problem, has led to a reduction of the number of smokers here, from 18%1 of the population in 1992 to 14% presently. The decrease is particularly significant for males aged 18-69 whose proportion has decreased from 33% to 24%.

But, there will always be teenagers willing to pick up the habit to boost their image in the presence of friends. To these teenagers, being able to smoke is akin to reaching adulthood, even though many of them are just entering adolescence. Then, there are those who succumb to peer pressure to become smokers.

Add to these, the boys who have entered national service and need to puff away their problems. Also, add to these, the growing proportion of female smokers aged 18-24, which almost tripled from 2.8% to 8.2% [1], in contrast to a reduction from 29% to 24% for males in the same age group.

So, it’s welcome news that the Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources is considering imposing a smoking ban on youngsters’ popular hangouts such as pubs, bars, discos, nightclubs and KTV lounges.

Even as I am preparing this column in my bedroom at 6am, second-hand smoke is wafting in from the flat just below mine. You see, my neighbour likes to puff away at his bedroom window. Every morning I have to close the bedroom window as soon as I get a whiff of the smoke. What can I say? That the Ministry of Health should also extend the smoking ban to cover HDB flats as well?

There are some areas where we should practise the ‘live and let live’ principle.

 

[1] Smoking ban to cover more public places from 1 Oct 2005

Date of Article: 21 Mar 2005

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Of pre-university students and CIP

I was flabbergasted last Friday when I read [1] about the student volunteer who collected a donation tin and, instead of going around asking for donations, went home, put some coins into the tin and then took it with him when he lunched with his parents. At the appointed time, he returned the tin to the collection point.

That act of his satisfied the minimum six hours of the community involvement programme (CIP) that pre-university students had to do each year for points needed to enter university.

In putting in place the compulsory CIP activity, the Ministry of Education (MOE) had a greater goal in mind – that of imbuing in students sound values and developing in them strength of character. But, calculative students managed to circumvent the good intentions of the programme and the CIP ended up a victim of some students’ self-serving motives.

In the end, MOE had to put to rest the idea of making CIP compulsory for all pre-university students. Now, junior colleges and centralised institutes have autonomy in integrating CIP into their curriculum to best meet and respond to the needs and interests of their students. But CIP will remain an integral component of the JC curriculum.

The Education Minister said in Parliament recently that the change “will encourage students to take greater ownership over these activities, follow their passions and build camaraderie, rather than engage for the sake of gaining points for university admission”.

We can take heart that CIP remains compulsory for primary and secondary students. It may be too late to inculcate in pre-university students desired attributes, but, there is hope yet that given time, the younger ones will gel on to the idea of authentic and enriching involvement in the community.

A day after the article appeared, I was having afternoon tea in a fast-food restaurant at Burlington, next to Sim Lim Square, when I saw a score of upper secondary students from Maris Stella High School soliciting for donations for the Children’s Medical Fund.

The boys were stationed at various spots around the area. They caught my attention because they were moving around in the hot afternoon sun although covered walkways were within reach. Yet, they didn’t seem the least bothered by the searing heat, for their minds were single-mindedly focused on the passers-by thronging the area.

These boys from Maris Stella were busy running up to the young and the old. You could see the eagerness in their faces as they went about their task. Each approach was energetic, and though some pedestrians did not donate, the boys were not disheartened.

In these boys, I saw the same enthusiasm which gripped me as a secondary student some thirty years ago when I was selling flags for charity. These boys from Maris Stella were certainly not of the same grain as the one who took the donation tin to lunch with his parents.

So, there is hope for the younger set of Singaporeans. We may be able to count on the younger ones to embrace CIP with the right mindset.

That schools have to turn to making CIP compulsory in the first place shows up a weakness in the typical Singaporean family unit. Parents have to take responsibility for the way our students turn out. How they are raised at home, their experiences and relationships with their family members will shape their character. Schools cannot do it alone.

[1] The Straits Times 11 Mar 2005

Date of Article: 14 Mar 2005

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When parents take their children’s lives

Today, Singapore was shaken by the news of the deaths of a family of four in Tampines Street 44. A 40-year-old Chinese man was found dead at the bottom of a block of HDB flats this morning. Police later found the bodies of a 39-year-old Chinese woman, a 12-year-old boy and a 4-year-old girl in a flat on one of the upper floors of the block.

It is not known yet what exactly happened to the family, but a neighbour who was interviewed on television today pointed out that the dead man was a happy-go-lucky sort of chap. Another neighbour said she saw the man screaming as he fell off the window. The television news programme also reported that several handwritten notes, in English, were found in the flat. These hinted at financial problems faced by the family.  

It could be that the father took the lives of his family members before committing suicide. If that is the case, then we have every reason to rebuke the dead man for his selfishness.

Every few years in Singapore, the lives of innocent young children are sacrificed by their parent or parents in the name of protecting these children who would have otherwise grown up in the absence of these parents. Is it a noble act in the part of such parents, causing their young children to die without the chance to grow up, get married, have children, and then grow old?

These children never had a chance to decide for themselves their fate. They died by the hands of their parent or parents. It is sad when children suffer such fates through no fault of theirs. These parents, having sown the seeds for such a situation that demanded they take their own lives, had no justification to sacrifice the God-given rights of their children to a full life the moment they decided to have these children. 

It is a joy to be able to wake up to a brand new day each morning. Alas, the two children will no longer be able to join thousands of young Singaporeans in going to school tomorrow.

It’s already so difficult to have children in Singapore. Those of us still mulling over the idea of having children will find no consolation in hearing today’s grim news. But, let us not allow the selfish acts of a few to mar our efforts at baby-making.

It is times like these that we bystanders get a chance to reflect and say to ourselves: Aren’t we lucky our parents are not like that?

Yes, we are certainly luckier than the two children who died today. But will Singaporeans ever learn the lesson taught by this tragedy? Unfortunately, today’s tragedy may not be the last of its kind here. In the next few years, there may be a repeat of what happened today, just as what happened today bears similarity to other incidents which have taken place here in the past.

Society also has to take responsibility when tragedies like this happen. In Singapore, face-saving is so important that when people face financial problems, they rather take their own lives than live with the shame the money problems bring them. It takes courage to be able to live through financial problems. It takes courage to accept bankruptcy in a conservative society such as ours. In the heat of the moment, it may seem easier to seek a way out through death. But, must we play God with our children?

Date of article: 7 Mar 2005

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Strangers in our own land?

Where I live, in Hougang, I have been seeing more foreigners nowadays, sometimes during my routine walks to the neighbourhood shopping centre and the MRT station, and often while I am on the bus within Hougang.

For the past few years, Indian and Chinese nationals were a common sight in Hougang, but now, it also appears there are Caucasians and Africans in the town.

If this is representative of a trend happening in HDB towns, it points to Singapore becoming truly more cosmopolitan as people of other nationalities integrate into the heartlands of our city state.

Should Singaporeans have reason to complain about the perceived demographic change taking place? I see no basis for any complaints.

Let’s face it. We were never a homogeneous population. Our parents and grandparents came from China, India, Malaysia and other countries. They settled down as total strangers in a new land. But, they quickly became friends with people of different races out of a common need for security and mutual help. In time, communities grew out of this motley group of settlers.

I was reminded of this ease in which older Singaporeans of different races blended with each other recently when I was on the bus back to Hougang.

I was standing on the lower level of a double-decker bus, taking notice of the passing people and vehicles on the road when my ears picked up a conversation between two elderly people. Both were using Malay as a lingua franca, for one of them — a woman — was Indian, and the other — a man — was Chinese.

I realised that they were total strangers when I paid attention to the content of their conversation – the woman was asking the man where he lived and what he was doing for a living. Here were two perfect strangers, who happened to be seated next to each other on the bus, exchanging their views on a myriad of topics. Yet, they were engaged in an animated conversation that could only have taken place between two persons who had known each other for ages.

Are our younger Singaporeans — those in their forties and younger — as forthcoming as our older Singaporeans when it comes to mixing around with people of other races? Personally, I have yet to see positive signs.

I have to admit that I am guilty of not being friendly. If you were to put me in the same situation the two elderly passengers were in, I daresay I would have kept mum and remained unapproachable.

So, what’s wrong with people like me — the younger generation of Singaporeans? Have we not inherited the ‘blending’ skills that our parents and grandparents tried so hard to acquire in order to make living in a new land palatable?

I remember when I was in primary school in the early 70′s, my neighbours were Indians. I remember I used to visit them every day. On their festive occasions, I would join them and their relatives, seated on the floor in a circle and eating their delicacies. I even followed them when they were doing the Thaipusam walk all the way up to Mount Faber.

Yet, today, I have difficulty bringing myself to talk to strangers, whether they be people of other races or my own race, in public areas. I hope my behaviour is not representative of a trend taking place in Singapore. If it is, it begs the question: Why are younger Singaporeans withdrawing into their own cocoons nowadays?

I cannot answer for others. For myself, I would say that I have become reticent, unwilling to take the first step. Unlike in the past, there are no disincentives for not taking the first step. Our parents and grandparents would have found Singapore inhospitable if they had not mixed around. Today’s Singapore presents too much of a good life for us Singaporeans. Inhospitable conditions do not exist so we need not take the first step in becoming neighbourly. We are in danger of becoming strangers in our own land.

Alas, what our parents and grandparents tried so hard to build may be lost to future generations through our complacency. But, all’s not lost. Though I don’t mix well with strangers, I don’t look down on them. I treat them as equals. It’s just that I rather not come out of my cocoon. But, rest assured that in times of trouble, I will not fail to help other neighbours, just as I did last month when I alerted my Malay neighbours living downstairs of a fire in their kitchen – the whole family was sleeping in their air-conditioned bedroom though the flat was blanketed in smoke.

So how do we ensure that our younger Singaporeans do not become withdrawn socially? By actively imbuing in them, when they are in school, racial integration skills and appreciation for other cultures. By actively encouraging neighbourliness among residents in housing estates. Already these are things being done, but needing to be improved upon.

But then, there’s only so much the Government can do. We Singaporeans need to break out of our self-induced reticence too. With Caucasians, Africans and other nationalities assimilating into our community of four races; and with mixed marriages become more common, we don’t have a choice. Singaporeans have to get used to a new Singapore – cosmopolitan and vibrant.

Date of article: 28 Feb 2005

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Competition from China whiz kids in our schools

Lately, there has been talk of China whiz kids – studying in our schools – posing a threat to our own students. Is it an empty threat – one void of merits?

I have taught our students in secondary schools in the past few years. Whether they be in the Express, Normal Academic (NA) or Normal Technical (NT) streams, I have taught them all, and have seen enough of them to know what makes them tick.

I have also had the opportunity to teach kids from China, keen on settling into local primary schools here. Over a period of six months, I had a chance to teach English and Mathematics to these chaps, aged from ten to sixteen years old, in a local school. And it was certainly an eye-opening experience for me.

Of the sixty or so China students I had come into contact with in the school, only two did not show keenness in absorbing knowledge. These two boys were typical of the many boys found in our NA and NT streams – they were in the classroom because their parents wanted them to be there, but in their own minds, learning was a chore.

The rest of the China students I found to be eager to absorb knowledge. Though some of them did not know common words such as cat or dog, they did not let their journey into uncharted territory daunt them. They all came into the classroom armed with electronic Chinese-English dictionaries which could even voice English words keyed into them. And they all listened intently as I explained the rudiments of the English language to them.

I admit that the two or three months they spent in the school did little to help them gain a good grasp of the English language. Tried as I did, I could not get the majority to construct correctly basic sentences in composition assignments given them in the time they were there. But, they picked up enough skills to be able to pass tests having Multiple-Choice Questions (MCQ). And they learnt fast, especially with the aid of these electronic gadgets. 

When it came to Mathematics, these China students pleasantly surprised me – I could say without a doubt that most of them would qualify as whiz kids in the subject, for they are nothing short of being brilliant in Mathematics. This is the area where our local students will face intense competition from the China students. I hesitate as I say this, but, I have to admit that I think these most of these China students will surpass our own students in Mathematics, given enough practice in handling the translation of the English text in the questions set. 

An article in The Straits Times of 13 Feb 2005 quoted Mr Wang Yongli, the education counsellor at the Chinese Embassy, as saying that about 30,000 China nationals were studying in government and private schools here in 2004, compared with 25,000 in 2003. It went on to say that one-third of them are in polytechnics and universities, 10,000 in primary and secondary schools and the rest in private and commercial schools.

Rather than worry about the influx of talent that could threaten their children’s future, our Singaporean parents should see these China whiz kids as a necessity for local schools, for our own students, having outdone their own kind at school over the past decades and not having worthwhile competition to spur them on to greater heights, can now count on these brilliant China kids to pace them into greater excellence.
It’s a win-win situation for everyone. If our best local students can outdo themselves, we can certainly breathe easily in the knowledge that they can overcome whatever odds that may fall into their paths in future. 

So parents who are worried about top places going to foreign students and Singapore losing face and having a reputation for producing mediocre students should put their fears behind them.

Date of article: 21 Feb 2005

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Reliving new year memories

The advertisement in The Straits Times today reads:

“Today & Tomorrow only, 7 & 8 Feb – Free Fresh Eggs 30′s”

Yes! Giant, Shop-N-Save and G’Value are offering a free tray of fresh eggs today and tomorrow for the first 100* customers each day spending S$30 and above in a single receipt.

A line in red reads, “Hurry, When It’s Gone! It’s Gone.”

Giving away free eggs is a good way of rewarding the customer for his patronage. The tray of eggs featured in the advertisement jolted my memory. I found myself staring blankly at it, for in an instant, my mind had been transported back to the Singapore of the early 70′s.

I remember I was in secondary school then, and living in a three-room flat in Toa Payoh. Back then, with every new Chinese New Year, each household, whether in an HDB flat or a private residence, would receive free eggs. Some received a tray, others were given more trays of eggs. It was the pig farmers’ way of thanking the households for contributing swill to the pigs the farmers were rearing.

You see, each day, my mother would pour the leftover food into a small bin which she would then leave outside the flat, in the common corridor, for the pig farmers to collect. It was the same thing happening with every household in our block, and in other blocks in the neighbourhood.

At the end of each year, usually just before Chinese New Year, the farmers would pile tray upon tray of eggs in the lift landings and then go from flat to flat to distribute the trays of eggs to the flat occupants. Some received two trays. My family was given one. The number of trays of eggs given depended on the amount of swill contributed during the previous year. We received less because ours was a small family and had not much swill for the farmer to collect each day.

There are no farmers going around HDB flats nowadays to distribute free fresh eggs to HDB dwellers. This is because the pig farming industry was phased out of Singapore in the 70′s. The only thing left are my memories of the whole affair. In fact, I had plain forgotten about the whole thing, till, that is, I saw the advertisement in today’s newspaper.

I am sharing this with you so you have an idea of what people did at home way back in the 70′s. In case you are wondering how it is possible for pig farmers then to have such big farms to consume the amount of swill dished out by so many HDB estates such as Yishun, Bedok, Tampines and Ang Mo Kio, let me tell you this – such estates were not even built then. There were only two HDB towns then -Queenstown first, and Toa Payoh later. If memory serves me right, the next HDB town built was Bedok in the late 70′s, followed by Ang Mo Kio.

But, it’s all history now. Memories of the old ways come back when the mind is jolted. It is times like this that I yearn for the old days, of a time when I was much younger. Can we turn back the clock? Obviously no. But, we can have a good time reminiscing the past. And this advertisement did something that money cannot buy – it brought me back to the past, albeit in my mind.

I look at the advertisement again and read aloud the line in red:

“Hurry, When It’s Gone! It’s Gone.”

It’s true. When that time has gone, it has gone, never to come back, except in our reflections.

So what is the message I have in mind for this new Year of the Rooster?

It is this:

Live each new day to the fullest, for it will never return. What you do today decides whether it is good memories or bad nightmares you store in your mind’s bank for you to conjure up in your twilight years.

 

*500 for Giant

Date of article: 7 Feb 2005

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Scratchit! cards a hit with older Singaporeans

These days, a new craze has hit town. Scratchit! is so popular that stocks of the game cards run out within days of them reaching the 4D betting outlets. The people who buy them are mostly older Singaporeans – Ah Peks and Ah Sohs. You can see them at these outlets buying strips of such game cards for themselves and their friends.

Just what is Scratchit! and why is it a phenomenon here? Scratchit! is a scratch-n-win product launched by Singapore Pools on 30 Nov 2004. The game is printed on a square card called a ticket. There are S$1 and S$2 scratch game tickets available at the local betting outlets.

What you do is simply use a coin to scratch the surface of a game ticket to reveal the figures, pictures, letters, symbols or words printed beneath. A player wins by matching three of those figures, pictures, letters, symbols or words out of a total of eight.

Prizes vary from S$1 to a top prize of S$10,000 for a S$1 game ticket, and from S$1 to a top prize of S$20,000 for a S$2 game ticket. There is one game for each S$1 ticket and two games for each S$2 ticket so theoretically, you could win twice for a S$2 ticket.

Each series of game tickets has a theme such as Go For Goals!, Wildlife Treasures, and Jewels of the Rainforest. The proceeds of the game series go to beneficiaries such as Football Association of Singapore (FAS), Wildlife Reserves Singapore (WRS) and Jurong Birdpark.

While it is difficult to win the top prizes, it is quite easy to win amounts such as S$2, S$4, S$5 and S$10. So, if you buy a strip of, say 3 S$2 cards, it is quite possible for you to win, say S$5. So, in this case, for an outlay of S$6, you get S$5 back. This means your net donation to the funding programme is S$1.

Just what is it about Scratchit! that fascinates the older Singaporeans? I guess it’s fun and a chance to win big money. I mean, who can resist surprises? Here you have a game that instantly surprises you with cash prizes.

Those born in the 50′s and 60′s will surely remember a popular game for children then – the ang pow game tickets stuck to a long rectangular cardboard. For 5 cents, a child could peel off a ticket and unfold it to reveal hidden money prizes. One could win 20 cents, 50 cents or even a whole dollar! If you have played such a game before, you will remember the times you spent pondering over which of the 100 tickets on the board would hide the biggest prizes.

Well, kids nowadays don’t have such fun anymore. Now, I am not encouraging gambling. I am for the occasional things that bring fun and excitement, with the possibility of pleasant surprises, to the individual. You have all these things on TV today – eg. buy some provisions, get a lucky draw ticket and if your ticket is picked by a presenter, you win a prize. Sure, the games are in different forms, but they do provide fun and excitement, and occasionally a reward.

I don’t deny it. I am a fan of the Scratchit! game too. But, I don’t go crazy over it. I spend a few dollars a week, get some nostalgic fun scratching the panels on the tickets, collect the S$5 or S$10 that I win, and go off thinking that as I am having my fun, I am also contributing to the programmes run by the FAS, Wildlife Reserves Singapore or the Jurong Birdpark.

Hey! This is life that we are living. Why go complicated over such a simple fun-raising idea that benefits both the fun-raiser and the contributor? If the idea is wrong, then those raffle tickets, in whatever form, that are sold to raise funds for community groups shouldn’t be sold, for they too provide fun and excitement, with an occasional reward, too.

Date of article: 31 Jan 2005

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Still envy our children?

School starts today for more than 500,000 children across the island this new year. As these children stream back to their schools and begin looking around in their new classrooms, some of them may notice a classmate or schoolmate missing. And they may realise that the tsunami which took place far from our shores over the holidays has something to do with that student’s absence from school.

Yes, our children return to school nowadays to face situations which we did not face in our time as schoolchildren. The year before last year, it was Sars. Children suddenly found their term holidays extended and home quarantine orders slapped on holidaymakers returning from Sars-affected countries.

I used to be red with envy when I saw students whip out their mobile phones in the classrooms and corridors of schools. Simply by flicking their fingers on the phone pad, they could instantly message classmates, schoolmates and friends, be these chaps in the same school as theirs or any other school in Singapore. The entire island’s schools had become a very personal communication network for the students.

These students could share news and gossip about their teachers and friends in real time, though they were in their own classrooms and far away from one another. They could even snap pictures or video-record scenes and send these instantly – remember the teacher-scolding-student incident in a JC?

And when you were teaching them, you suddenly realise that it was possible that their minds might be far away, for they could be looking blankly at you while their fingers were doing the communication work for them – sms-ing their friends on their mobile phones which were hidden from your view.

Yes, indeed, I thought these students were a privileged lot – to be born in this time and blessed with the tools that today’s technology had made available to them. But, now, I do not envy them.

It’s true that in my time – in the 1970′s – we had no gadgets to indulge ourselves in. Why, we didn’t even have electronic calculators in class. They didn’t exist then. At secondary school, we were using logbooks which we had to flip through for sine and cosine calculations.

It’s true that television for us was black and white till 1973 when colour was introduced in Singapore. I remember I was in secondary three at Victoria School that year. It was a year I could not forget, for that same time, my family had our first telephone in our flat in Toa Payoh. Wow! I thought, what a thrill it was, being able to call my schoolmates on the telephone and talk to them in the comfort of my home.

It’s true that looking back, I realise that these were simple thrills indeed, pale in comparison with what’s available to the young of today. But, while it’s true these gadgets have made living a luxury of a lifestyle for students of today, it’s also true that the ills of today – Sars, birdflu, Tsunami and their lot – were practically unheard of in my time as a student.

The young of today are saddled with these problems and so they learn to grow up faster than we did in our time as students. It’s not precocity, mind you. It’s just that they have found themselves in an environment which is not as conducive as that which we had when we were as young as they are now.

Whether it’s Sars, birdflu, tsunami or whatever nature may throw in their paths in future, our young will have to face up to these afflictions for it’s a world they have inherited by virtue of their being born in this day and time. Pluses and minuses considered, I think these chaps do not have as good a time as we had as students decades ago.

So, should we still envy our children?

Date of Article: 3 Jan 2005