It Was Simpler Then; Now Employers Have To Undergo Course As Well

MAIDS, EMPLOYERS IN MALAYSIA MUST ATTEND COURSE

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KUALA LUMPUR - From next month, all new foreign maids in Malaysia and their employers must attend a half-day course aimed at improving working relations between them, reported The New Straits Times.

The course that is being organised by the Human Resource Ministry is also aimed at reducing the number of runaway maids and physical abuse by employers. The maids and their employers must attend the course within six months of employment.

Human Resource Minister Dr S Subramaniam said the ministry found most employers to be responsible and supportive but "there is this 1 per cent who tarnish the country's image".

Speaking after launching a 30-page booklet on foreign maids on Saturday, he said the ministry also hopes maid employment agencies can do more: "We want them to act as a middle person and look into the management of the employer and the maid. They should also be able to counsel both the parties."

At present, agencies are obliged to replace a maid if the employer finds the helper unsuitable or if the maid runs away.

The course, which will be held during weekends, will also look into the contract's terms and conditions for salaries, working conditions, tips and how to end a contract.

Those attending the course will receive a book with hotline numbers, government addresses and phone numbers.

Asked if the ministry agrees with the recent call by Indonesia for a minimum payment of RM800 ($331.50) a month for an Indonesian maid, Dr Subramaniam said the ministry has rejected the demand.

"We will allow the market to decide on the pay because if we allow one country to decide on the pay, we will also have to entertain others," he said.

There are about 216,000 foreign maids in Malaysia with some 2,000 new maids entering the country every month.

Most are from Indonesia, followed by maids from the Philippines, Cambodia, India, Pakistan, Nepal and Myanmar. Agencies

From TODAY, Monday, 22-Feb-2010

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The hard truth about raising a family in SG...

Image via Wikipedia

YES, WE WANT KIDS, BUT ...
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SINGAPORE - Young Singaporean couples want to have children - but they are apprehensive about taking the first step towards parenthood or delaying it for practical reasons.

Most want to focus on careers and being together, while some want more family support. The cost of having babies is also an issue.

These were the key findings of a survey of 50 young Singaporeans at focus group discussions conducted by voluntary welfare organisation, I Love Children (ILC) last year.

ILC president Joni Ong was not surprised.

"The results show that, as expected, establishing their career, waiting for their finances to be built up, even trying to find more time for couplehood - those were some of the reasons that came up."

So, why have the survey? "The whole idea is it is going to serve as an impetus for us to have a quantitative study, some time towards the end of this year, where we're going to survey 1,000 young people on how we can help them," Mrs Ong explained.

Even before that, the VWO is coming up with its Maybe Baby campaign in April, where it wants those between 21 and 39 to start talking about parenthood.

"We want them to come forth and share with us their issues, whether it be work-life balance, whether it be career establishing, and things like that.

"We want to have a forum to discuss such things so there'll be seminars, there'll be life talk shows, there'll be expert advice panelists," said Mrs Ong.

The campaign follows the Prime Minister's recent call to couples to have more babies.

Singapore's resident total fertility rate slid to 1.23 last year - the lowest level ever. This means the country was short of at least 10,000 babies.

To help couples get over their parenting fears, an ILC bus highlighting the joys of parenthood will make its way around Singapore to the heartland shopping malls as well as the community centres from next month onwards.

The revamped three-year-old ILC bus made its debut with 70 young couples and Minister of State for Community Development, Youth and Sports over at the Chingay Parade on Saturday.

A one-stop Web portal will also be launched in May to share parenting tips and the kinds of financial assistance available.

From TODAY, Monday, 22-Feb-2010
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BEING CONTENTED: Living without the frills

Image via Wikipedia

MORE LIVE IN HDB FLATS; MOST SATISFIED

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SINGAPORE - There are more people living in public housing - 2.92 million in 2008 according to latest figures - and almost all of them are satisfied to be where they are.

In the Housing and Development Board's (HDB) latest Sample Household Survey, over 95 per cent of households said they had no complaints with their flats or neighbourhood.

And these sentiments were shared across households of different flat types, length of stay, tenure of flat, age groups, ethnicity, educational qualifications and household income, said the HDB.

The survey - carried out every five years - showed that the number of Singaporeans and Permanent Residents who are flat dwellers has increased 2.7 per cent since 2003. They now make up 96 per cent of the total population in HDB flats.

Location, transportation network and provision of estate facilities were listed by residents as what they liked most about their environment. What they disliked most were the state of cleanliness and maintenance, and noise

By and large - at 81 per cent - most homeowners were proud of their flats. They also felt that their flats were value for money, with 86 per cent of them telling the HDB so.

The average resident is also now older at 37 years old, compared to 30 years about two decades ago. And longer life expectancy has also resulted in the proportion of residents aged 65 years and above increasing from 5.4 per cent in 1987 to 9.8 per cent in 2008.

Residents are now also better educated too, and a third of them now tertiary-educated. More are also now in white-collar jobs, up from almost 30 per cent a decade ago to almost 35 per cent in 2008.

Reflecting growing affluence, the average HDB household income from work is now $5,680, up from $4,238 five years ago.

Over the next two months, HDB will release more findings on the well-being of the elderly and families, and residents' sense of social well-being. MUSTAFA SHAFAWI

From TODAY, Friday, 19-Feb-2010

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A first step to overcoming addiction

CASINO EXCLUSION ORDERS

ALICIA WONG

alicia@mediacorp.com.sg

SOON after they held their customary wedding ceremony four years ago, the hongbao (red packet) money that they had been given went missing.

That's when she had her first suspicions about her husband's gambling addiction.

Since then, the 41-year-old crane operator has "relapsed" twice from counselling. Altogether, he has incurred a debt of at least $100,000.

So when the opportunity to bar him from entering the casinos at the integrated resorts came up, Mdm Tan (not her real name) took it.

"(His gambling addiction) is not easy to handle, it's a long process. That's why I decided to apply for the exclusion order," she said yesterday in a phone interview.

Mdm Tan, also 41, and her husband are one of the seven families granted a family exclusion order - one of three types of exclusion orders - by the National Council on Problem Gambling (NCPG). The order allows a family to seek help to curb a problem gambler's behaviour and bars the addict from entering the casinos.

The other two orders, self-exclusion and third-party exclusion, will be implemented later.

Mdm Tan knew her husband had been gambling since his teenage years, but thought he was "just a social gambler". Her husband knows all types of gambling "but it's soccer betting that got him into trouble", she said.

She only noticed things were amiss about three to four years ago, when they seemed to be in financial difficulties.

"We don't have children, and we're both working. So we shouldn't have ended up in this state," she said.

It was then that the office administrator found out about his $50,000 credit card debt and loans which he had taken from his insurance policy and from his company. Checks on her husband's mobile phone turned up text messages on betting tips.

Often "black-faced" and "depressed", he would also wake up in the middle of the night to access online betting sites.

They quarrelled when she confronted him, but he finally agreed to seek help.

He knew "his mistakes" and would have agreed to a divorce had she asked him for one. But Mdm Tan decided to give him another chance.

The couple went for marriage counselling but stopped after a few months. Almost a year later, her husband went back to gambling and racked up another $50,000 in debt in four months.

This time round, they turned to gambling addiction counselling. But after about "a year plus, he relapsed again", said Mdm Tan.

Spotting a Giro application form for betting with Singapore Pools that had been mailed to him, Mdm Tan "immediately talked to him and tried to understand (his struggles)". Counselling has taught her that her husband "needed time to cut off the habit".

While the couple had quarrelled frequently and "almost wanted to separate a few times", the silver lining this struggle is her husband's willingness to change, she said.

Their families and most of their friends are unaware of the couple's situation. Only her brother-in-law is aware of his brother's addiction, and attends counselling sessions with them.

Their counsellor has also advised Mdm Tan's husband to tell his gambling buddies of his problem.

For now, Mdm Tan continues to cut out soccer news from the newspapers and asks him to leave a party if she sees his friends gambling.

"So far, so good," she said.

The application process

Madam Tan was granted the family exclusion order at the end of August, after waiting for about two months.

Her counsellor at Tanjong Pagar Family Service Centre prepared the report and submitted it to the National Council on Problem Gambling (NCPG) secretariat.

"They (NCPG) called me and sent me a letter to ask me to go down and sign documents," she recalled.

She was initially told she may have to attend a hearing - where a committee of assessors will decide whether to issue a family exclusion order - but because her husband agreed to the exclusion, the hearing was not needed.

"So he signed (the documents) and we sent it back (by mail) … After that, they sent us the exclusion order."

The order can only be revoked after a minimum of one year. The NCPG will review the case and decide if it should be revoked. ALICIA WONG

From TODAY, News – Wednesday, 23-Sep-2009

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Siren used as ring tone

Letter from Vasan S

I REFER to the letter "Time to silence phones, game consoles and headsets on trains" by Mr Sam Ang (Sept 2).

I would agree with Mr Ang on the disturbance from the headsets and, at the same time, would like to highlight the use of weird ring tones by some people.

While I was travelling on the North East Line the other day, I observed a student using an emergency tone similar to the ambulance and police siren as his ring tone.

Unfortunately, he received at least two calls during my trip. I could see that the people around him looked worried each time his phone rang.

One of the passengers later spoke to the student about his use of the siren as a ring tone but it was no use.

Should we allow the use of the emergency siren as a ring tone?

From TODAY, Voices – Wednesday, 02-Sep-2009

Time to silence phones, game consoles and headsets on trains

Image via Wikipedia

Letter from Sam Ang

THE SMRT has taken action against commuters eating and drinking on MRT trains. However a more annoying and pervasive daily problem is not about eating and drinking.

When I take the train to work in the morning, it is very common to hear irritating noises and music coming from electronic gadgets like handphones and handheld game consoles.

There are those who listen to music so loud that all those around them are forced to listen to it. The bigger audio headsets often give off loud noises and these should be banned. The worst scenario is to be seated next to someone wearing them.

Ring tones, too, can be loud but at least telephones do not ring all the time. On the other hand, one can be sitting near or next to a someone listening to music that is blasting away non-stop for half-an-hour or more.

As in the case of eating or drinking on the trains, most of this noise comes from teenagers and young adults.

This problem is getting worse because the culprits have been getting away with it. It is time the SMRT takes strong action to stop this nuisance. The culprits should be fined because, as in case of eating and drinking, warning them is not good enough.

Everyone would like to sit in a quiet train in the morning and concentrate on the day's work ahead.

From TODAY, Voices – Wednesday, 02-Sep-2009

Build character as well as a living

Letter from Benjamin Gan

I REFER to "All of us are guilty sometimes" (Sept 1).

Mr Wilson Lim's remark that "people here tend to mind their own business to avoid unnecessary trouble" is truly indicative of the mindset of the average Singaporean, a mindset that seems codified into our genes, reinforced and refined through generations in the name of survival.

And what is even more remarkable is that our society has progressed beyond the state of survival. We do not need to steal or kill for our food and we are comfortably sheltered from the wrath of nature.

I marvel at how this mindset could have flourished in the midst of our economic progress. My only sad conclusion is that our social development has been woefullly neglected in favour of economic development. I think it is time we get back to basics by revamping our education system to include ethics and social studies in the curriculum. Education is not just about grades and good jobs. It is about building character.

From TODAY, Voices – Wednesday, 02-Sep-2009