Search the Community

SG Hard Truth Found this from a FB link sharing. I think it says a lot what some of us have been feeling but we didn't have the stats or facts to substantiate. Coming from Prof Koh, this is a good read.

Peking University professor sacked for having intimate relationship with student believed to be from S'pore http://singaporeseen.stomp.com.sg/singaporeseen/this-urban-jungle/peking-university-professor-sacked-for-having-intimate-relationship-with-student A professor at Peking University in Beijing has been removed from his position and had his teaching license revoked after having an affair with an international student and getting her pregnant. According to Shangiist, a university graduate reported Yu Wanli, formerly an associate professor at the School of International Studies of Peking University, to the school's inspection department in November. The informant, named Liu Wei, was a friend of the student, Wang Jing, who is believed to be from Singapore. Wang became an undergraduate at the School of International Studies in 2004 and started her doctoral program in 2013. She met Yu during a course on US diplomatic studies in 2013, reports People Daily Online. Liu sent an e-mail and three letters to the university with photos and chat records from Wang's phone, Shanghai Daily reports, citing The Beijing News. Wang later told reporters that Yu forced himself upon her in July 2013 when he came by her dorm, and the two maintained a sexual relationship ever since. "I was resisting him constantly during the whole process," Wang said during a previous media interview, adding that she and Yu had since maintained a lasting sexual relationship. Wang discovered that Yu was married and had a child when she went to visit his home, but he insisted that he and his wife were separated. "I told him that I won't be anyone's mistress because it is not fair to me. He said he needed time to work things out," Wang told Huashang Daily.

A FORMER bus driver has been charged with causing the death of the wife of a prominent professor at a pedestrian crossing in Clementi three months ago. Chan Mun Hing, 48, faces a jail term of up to five years, or a fine or both, if he is convicted of causing death by a rash act. He was driving an SBS Transit double-decker bus at the junction of Clementi Avenue 3 and Commonwealth Avenue West on April 23 when he allegedly failed to give way to housewife Zhang Huirui, 42. Pinned under the bus, she was dragged for about 5m before the vehicle came to a stop. She was pronounced dead at the scene. Source: http://www.straitstimes.com/breaking-news/...cident-20130716

An economics professor has spoken up to dispel what he perceives to be misconceptions on immigration and Singapore having a bigger population. Among these, says Nanyang Technological University

I have not consumed such drugs so I don't know if they promote creativity.

When Prof Lim gave his recommendation recently, it was relentlessly attacked by all parties inclduing our political leaders but csince then changes seemed to take place though not significantly. Strange isn't it? From ST Forum: http://www.straitstimes.com/STForum/Online...ory_805130.html Praise for Prof Lim, query for NTUC Published on May 31, 2012 KUDOS to Professor Lim Chong Yah, who sparked the debate about the need to increase wages for low-income earners ('NWC: Give built-in pay rises'; last Thursday). One must then question why the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC), a union that is supposed to represent Singapore workers, did not take a more proactive approach to bargain for better wages and help improve the plight of poor Singaporean workers until Prof Lim stepped in. Furthermore, a wage of $1,050 a month, even after the proposed $50 increment, still makes Singapore a country that offers one of the lowest wages among developed nations. This is hard to accept, considering the other extreme where Singapore boasts of being one of the countries with many millionaires. The $50 increment should not be just a one-off; it should apply over the next 10 years. Unless it is mandatory, some employers will not feel the need to reward these workers more, even if they are more productive. While employers are justifiably concerned about increased business costs with higher wages, labour cost is but one of the factors, another being the spiralling cost of rentals. The Government can take the lead in adjusting commercial rent downwards, through JTC and various other landlords it has a stake in, or give more rental relief to help businesses. Other business costs like the necessary operating licences should also be scrutinised to achieve savings that can be passed on to businesses, especially the small and medium-sized enterprises. Terence Tan

http://singaporemind.blogspot.com/2012/04/...heap-labor.html Breaking out from the cycle of cheap labor and low productivity. After Professor Lim proposed his shock therapy to push up wages of low income workers earning below $1500 and freeze the wages of those earning more that $15000, Minister Lim Swee Say & Lee Yi Shyan came out to make the standard argument against wage intervention: "National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) secretary-general Lim Swee Say felt local economist Lim Chong Yah's suggestions for a wage restructuring was 'too risky"..... "However, labour chief Lim Swee Say said that if productivity does not lead to a corresponding increase, competitiveness would be lost which may cause some businesses to close down or re-locate out of Singapore. This in turn would lead to a higher unemployment rate and structural unemployment." - Wage restructuring suggestion 'too risky': Lim Swee Say. When you run an economy, you have to make sure that business don't become too dependent on cheap labor and income inequality does not become too big otherwise you can end up in a situation where there are no good easy risk-free solutions for the problems you face. Professor Lim's proposed approach is risky - that's why he calls it "shock therapy". The only reason for shock therapy is that things cannot be maintain at the current state - societies with this high level of inequality do far worse that societies that have more equality[Link] and the longer you have this level of inequality the deeper your problems become and the harder it is to break out of the vicious cycle[is Higher Income Inequality Associated with Lower Intergenerational Mobility].The PAP govt took a long time to recognize the problem and do something about it. It was only in 2011 that they saw the trend of falling productivity & low wages and came up with programmes to improve productivity. Lim Swee Say suggests that instead of doing "shock therapy" we try to improve productivity first then wages will improve. Remember the earlier approach of "skills upgrading" to improve the wages of low income earners - after more than a decade skills upgrading we find the wages of these workers either stagnant or falling because they were retrained to fill one low paying job after another. To illustrate the various approaches clearly, lets look at a simple example. In some parts of India, the wages is so low, they human beings to do what is normally done by machines in developed countries. Hard to believe but this is a human powered ferris wheel that uses cheap labor. The obvious way to improve productivity is to buy a motor and reduce the number of workers. However, the business man that owns this ferris wheel is not going to do it because he has access to cheap labor - why spend money on a motor when it is cheaper to use humans to do the job. No amount of productivity campaigns and urging by the govt can overcome the business logic of keep cost down by using the cheapest means to keep the wheel turning. The business man is not going to invest in a motor just because Lim Swee Say tells him to do so. There are only 2 ways to get productivity up. The first way is for govt to subsidize the purchase of motors but that doesn't guarantee the boss will pay his workers better after productivity goes up but he will certainly sack the workers he doesn't need. The 2nd way is to make labor expensive by setting a minimum wage. Once the cost of labor goes up, the businessman has no choice but to invest in a motor because he cannot pay all his workers and still make a profit. The workers who are now better paid have more money for consumption and that generates demand which will create employment for workers that were laid off. When wages are pushed up, there is a risk that the businessman will choose to simply shut down his Ferris wheel and close shop however as long as there is demand for Ferris wheel rides and money to be made, he is likely to stay open for business. Before Malaysia decided to implement minimum wage, Malaysia businesses claimed that 3 million jobs will be lost and lobbied against minimum wage. This is essentially the same argument put up by the PAP govt against minimum wage and Prof Lim's shock therapy. It will be interesting to watch what happens in Malaysia once minimum wage is implemented. Hong Kong implemented minimum wage and saw no significant impact on employment[businesses still hiring despite new minimum wages]. One of the particularly bad schemes implemented by the PAP that will cause our current problems to be entrenched is Workfare. On the surface it looks like money given to lowly paid workers to keep their heads above water. However, it is actually a subsidy for businesses using cheap labor - business don't pay workers enough for basic living and the govt steps in to make up the difference. Workfare creates no incentive for businesses to improve productivity because it encourages businesses to use cheap labor by subsidizing their wage bill. Workfare traps workers in menial jobs and perpetuates the current state of affairs because the PAP uses this scheme to justify not doing more to break out of the low wage and low productivity cycle. If we want to break out of this vicious cycle, there is no choice now but to take some risk using wage intervention approaches. One way to do it is set a minimum wage and raise it every year until it reaches living wage level at the same time restricting the access to cheap foreign labor. The rate at which we do it depends on how much time we believe we have to solve this problem of income inequality. Professor Lim recommends a "shock" approach (50% increase in wages low income earners in 3 years) to snap us out of this vicious cycle because he sees Singapore nearly reaching a dangerous situation unless we do something. The PAP on the other hand has gone on a completely separate direction - they seem to think that they have all the time in the world to get this fixed favoring approaches that are so gradual they hardly moves us away from the status quo.

Professor Lim Chong Yah, who was a key architect of the economic restructuring exercise that overhauled Singapore

I was reading newspaper...about lacking of parking space now...he suggested demand responsive pricing...yes...so my season parking should be demand responsive as well ?? And is really that much people facing parking problem when they are home ?? If yes...pls lower the coe quota...that will solve the problem...the prof forgotten we have a very interesting one and only COE system in the world that can control the population of vehicles...and that solve the root of the problem....to have responsive pricing is shifting the needs...but alot of things cannot change... like crowd during lunch time....can we say you eat at 3pm and I eat at 12pm so it solve the overcrowding problem ??? everyone will want to eat 12pm....then we use money to force them to change... wow...seem like ah kong...everything use $$$ to solve the problem...

March 2, 2009 Stabbing in NTU Prof stabbed, student dies AN information engineering professor at the Nanyang Technological University was rushed to hospital after he was allegedly stabbed by a final year student in his office on Monday morning. Moments later, the body of the undergraduate was found at the foot of the seven-storey School of Electrical, Electronic and Engineering building. NTU students returning from their mid-term one-week break were shocked at the double tragedies which happened at about 10.30am on the sixth floor, where the offices of the lecturers are located. The School of EEE is next to the School of Communications. Prof Chan Kap Luk is said to be the supervisor the student in a project. The body of the student is still lying on the grass verge. Trails of bloodstains ere seen at the murder scene, where a blood-soaked blue shirt was found. An NTU spokesman said it would issue a press statement later on Monday. Prof Chan is the Deputy Director of Biomedical Engineering Research Centre, at the NTU's division of Information Engineering. He was been with the School of EEE since 1992. He received his Bachelor degree in Electronic Engineering from Queen Mary College of University of London, UK, and PhD degrees from the Imperial College of University of London. According to his website, his research interests include computer vision and machine learning. He has done significant research work his research areas and published over 40 top quality international conference and journal papers. He has been often invited as a committe member or referee and reviewer for a number of premier conferences and journals. Dr Chan is a member of IEEE, IET and PREMIA. He was formerly a project manager at Axiom Innovation Ltd, in Cambridge, UK, as Information Engineer from Nov. 1990 - Aug. 1991 and later became became project Manager. Prof Chan Kap Luk's areas of expertise are Image Analysis and Computer Vision , Image and Video Retrieval, and Biomedical Signal/Image Analysis for Computer Assisted Diagnosis System (CADS). 南洋理工大学今早发生命案 一死一伤 （综合讯）南洋理工大学今早发生命案，一讲师被一名四年级印尼学生刺伤，目前已送往医院。该学生过后跳楼身亡。 《联合早报网》 --- Sg is becuming dangerous

Aug 28, 2008 Prof dies in truck accident The truck driver (left), who is in his 50s, talking to a passer-by at the accident scene yesterday. The incident happened at 8.30pm while the professor was walking home. -- ST PHOTO: SAMUEL HE View more photos A TRUCK hit an engineering professor on Tuesday evening, killing him. Associate Professor Ooi Ban Leong of the National University of Singapore (NUS), who was taking his usual walk home from the campus, was then crossing the road at the junction of Commonwealth Avenue West and Clementi Road at 8.30pm. He died at the scene from severe head injuries. Prof Ooi, 41, who had taught at the university's department of electrical and computer engineering since 1996, specialised in microwave engineering, said an NUS spokesman. He was said to have been popular with the students. His father, 62-year-old security guard Ooi Chor Seng, was at the mortuary yesterday to claim his body. He told reporters that his son owned a car but preferred to walk between campus and his home in Buona Vista. 'He told me he was tired of always sitting down at the desk, so he enjoyed the exercise he got from his walks. He was always concerned about his health,' said Mr Ooi, as he broke down in tears. Prof Ooi leaves behind his wife, a housewife aged 38, and an eight-year-old daughter. His father said the family did not wish for any apology or for the truck driver to attend the funeral. He said: 'Even if he apologises, it won't change the situation. It doesn't matter whether or not the truck driver had the right of way. The pedestrian's safety should always come first.' The truck driver, an unidentified man in his 50s, is helping the police in investigations. KIMBERLY SPYKERMAN http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/Breaking%...ory_272763.html