Singapore Budget 2009

On 22 January, Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam delivered the budget speech for the financial year 2009.

(You can read the whole article at http://www.singaporebudget.gov.sg/)

It may be a lifeboey or relief for some but I disargree with a few parts of it.

Firstly, I do not think that the act of giving cash handouts to the public (espicially for people who are not retrenched nor elderly) creates dependence of the people on the government and erodes a sense of independence and self-reliance.

It might be argued that it can help them to cope with the rocketing prices of daily necessities. If that had been the case, the government should have given out the handouts last July or August not now as prices of items have mostly been stable and some have evened dropped.

Secondly, I feel that hard cash handouts can lead to wasteful spendings. For example some people might use this money to go on tours instead on more important things. I feel that handouts in terms of cash vouchers for basic necessities such as food and school fees would be more useful.

Lastly, I am not sure if this is the right time to dig into our reserves as most singaporeans are still not as badly hit by the financial crisis as our counterparts in other countries. I think many singaporeans can still cope with the present situation. Companies are the ones who need help presently.

Apart from that, the Singapore Government has to be commended for being very efficient for years already and Singapore has gone through good fortune so far.

The government wants to be prepared for the future, be prepared for further recessions in the future. As Singapore has no natural resources, the whole country can only depend on the intelligence of Singaporeans to earn money. Thus, shaping the minds of the young can lead to future leaders and cope with recession as the leaders will find ways to tackle the problem and eventually solve it.

I feel Singapore has one of the best governments in the world.

CCA Trials

These 2 weeks have been the time to go for CCA trials in my school. I have gone for quite a few trials already but 2 days ago it was my worst trial yet.

So as it goes, I went for the squash trials and to my surprise I was the only one there. Anyway, I felt quite nervous when I went in since the squash team (the senior players) was sitting there listening to the coach (or maybe not) while one of the members came to test me.

As I manage to hit quite a few balls during the CCA orientation, I thought I stood a quite a decent chance of being selected. So the guy started serving me balls and they were pretty simple surfs. But.... Guess what? I miss them all except for two which hit the metal botttom of the wall (which in case you do know is out).

I felt humiliated. The rest of the team tried hard not to laugh but I mean who wouldn't at someone with my kind of 'calibre'. I scurried off as fast as I could( well actually I walked off with the remaining dignity I had).

I can't understand why my school has only a competition team for each CCA. I feel that they should also have recreational teams espicially for popular CCAs such as badminton or table tennis. I understand that there are space contraints but 6 people for the badminton team for each level? Honestly, that is way too little. I am sure that table tennis does not have that many people either.

Of course, you just have to face reality and accept whatever the world(as in this case school) has to offer (even if it is not as much as you would like).

Cheating

There has always been talk about students cheating during exams.How about teachers cheating instead?

I feel cheated.

Firstly on Wednesday, a teacher (I will not say who) suddenly said we needed to hand in our homework that day. He/She clearly stated earlier that we only needed to hand in on Thursday. Thankfully, I had enough time that day to come up with some 'crummy' answers.

Secondly, another teacher suddenly emailed us on Wednesday with a new piece of assignment for Friday.

Students are always being told to keep to their word. Why can't teachers do the same?

My First Blog

The year started with a bang. I was off to a new school, going to see new people, have new schedules.........(the list goes on)

Anyway, I was so caught up in everything that I almost forgot it was my sister's birthday(she's an early january kid) had arrived. As a result, I forgot to buy her a present(and still have not...Ha Ha)!!! I was sure she was going to kill me. Thankfully, she got the present of her life--a Niitendo Wii!!

That was brilliant for me too!! Firstly, she forgot(up to now) that I did not give her a present. Secondly, she needed someone to play the Wii sports with her. That person of course was me! I was delighted(though I did'nt show it).

(Have you experienced the Wii fever yet? The thing's quite addictive!)


Back to school life, it has been quite taxing. A lot of homework, long hours.....(I can't decide if this is good or bad. It prevents me from getting as much Wii time as I would like.) The amount of homework has also contributed to the fact that I'm only able to write this blog today (instead of Friday or yesterday).

Hope you enjoyed my first ever blog.