GE Election 2011 – Make Your Vote Count

GE Election 2011 rallies have begun. Huge turnout at opposition rallies. Fiery speeches been lashed out. Life in Singapore will not be the same for the next eleven days. Singaporeans are now deciding who to vote for. Vote wisely they are informed. Their future depends on which political party they vote. However, Singaporeans are being short changed in a certain way. Some may think that if they vote in an opposition party, changes can be made immediately. Unfortunately, a new political party that takes up government ship in Singapore cannot change the present policies that are in place for the first term. They only can make changes if they are voted in for a second term. Therefore, Singaporeans still have to live with the present policies for five years. I apologise for this rude awaking.

Election rallies are rallies where political parties pledge to help their fellow countrymen in any way they can. They create manifestos to promise their supporters that they would make their lives better. Even come out with polices that can outdo the present policies. However, bear in mind, these polices may look workable but they have not been tried and tested. Everybody wants cheaper housing, cheaper transport, cheaper medical bills and a more affordable life style to live in. However, at the same time, they want to enjoy good food, good entertainment and be able to live a rather high standard way of life. Singaporeans want both sides of their bread buttered. It is not possible to do so.

There always has been a huge turnout at opposition rallies and not at PAP rallies. One reason is that speeches at opposition rallies are much more fiery than those at PAP rallies. Maybe the opposition feel that by using forceful speeches, they would win more votes. Well, they may be successful. If their supporters vote for them, all is well and good. However, on polling day, they may change their minds and vote for the PAP. It is actually good that the opposition give alternative ways to govern the country and if the PAP is smart, they can pick out certain points and tweak it to their advantage.

With 82 seats being contested out of 87, it shows that there are now more people willing to go into politics to challenge the ruling party. It is a good sign. It makes Singapore look more democratic. Singapore is a unique country. It is not a country whereby the Singaporeans are looking for an alternative government. Therefore, the “we need a change” shouts are just shouts encoring the “American” presidential campaign but without true substance. What Singaporeans want and which I have always wanted is to have a strong opposition in Parliament so that policies being implemented by the ruling party can be properly debated and not be one sided. This is a making of a true democratic country. Whether we become a true democratic country, we would have to wait and see. It may not happen in my life time but I hope it would one day. It will also help to strengthen the ruling party resolve to be more caring to their citizens and help the needy in one way or another.

For example, the implementation of the IR integrated resorts. There was protest against the building of the casinos due to religious grounds, the fear of our society becoming delinquent and the increase of gambling addiction which in turn would destroy the social moral fabric of Singapore.

However, gambling has been in the blood of Singaporeans since the early 1960’s, buying 4D comes in mind, so there were already Singaporeans being addicted to gambling and some even go as far to Macau to gamble. The creation of the IR’s was inevitable as countries around us were all re-inventing themselves into global cities (read my topic on Singapore’s urbanisation renewal – coming soon). Foreigners were going to other countries to enjoy the different exotic vibrant and exciting entertainment (theme parks, exotic food, shopping for branded goods and attending international exhibitions and concerts and night life – dancing and drinking ) that were being served to them on a silver platter. Singapore had only to offer the entertainment being served at Orchard Road to foreigners. To draw the who who’s in the entertainment, food and shopping industries, casinos had to be built. Profits earned by the Casinos also help to subsidize their operations. This happens to every other county. Our government knew that building the casinos was vital in order to attract investors to set up their restaurants, shopping and entertainment outlets to our shores yet we were told that building a casino was only secondary. This was to down play people’s fear of the disintegration of the social moral fabric of Singapore brought about by gambling and the objection of building a casino on religious grounds. If there was a strong opposition, this point could have been raised and we would not be “conned” by the ruling party.

There are more cons not to vote for the PAP. The opposition knows this. The world looks at Singapore as a country of great stability. Thanks to one man and his team in the 60’s. Investors and businessmen flock to Singapore shores to pump their money into our county to help them make more money and also improve Singapore’s economy. It is a win win situation. PAP has given foreigners great opportunities to make a good living it is shores. Singaporeans grumble that they cannot find jobs because foreigners are taking their jobs, however, do we have the talent to do certain jobs like running an MNC or taking up jobs in the health or construction industries like nursing and construction work. Foreigners like Filipinos and Indians flock to Singapore to find jobs because our dollar value is very strong as compared to theirs and they enjoy better security and stability in their jobs. They also face no corruption problems.
The government has helped most Singaporeans to have a good education. Hence, we have become choosy in our job search. How many Singaporeans would apply for jobs that are considered “low” class? If there are no foreigners who would do this “low” class jobs which actually make them rich due to our strong dollar value, who would do it?

Lets’ say if a new party is ruled in and they implement their policies of cheaper housing, cheaper transport, cheaper medical bills and a more affordable life style to live in ( bear in mind that they can only do it in the second term because a new ruling party can only make policy changes if they are voted in for the second term), their policies may survive in the short run. Prices of oil, gas, electricity & medical fees would always be on the rise. Eventually the opposition party would have to raise prices on goods, transportation and entertainment. It all goes back to square one. Furthermore, for Singapore to strive as a global city, they have to attract the who who’s in the restaurant, shopping and entertainment businesses and they do not come cheap. Therefore, in order for Singapore to grow, the rise in prices is inevitable. People must find a way to upgrade themselves. The opposition should concentrate on policies on how to raise the standard of those in the lower spectrum in order to meet the standard of the middle income or even those in the high income belt. They should help them rise above the poverty level. It would not speak well for a government if there is a high portion of its citizens that are below the poverty belt.
A few polices I can think that can help citizens are:-

- Free education to those who cannot afford. Be it in a government school or a private institution.

- Provide free medical treatment to those in the lower income. Relax on the rule and regulations on those who can be eligible for free medical treatment. Reduce red tape.
- Let singles buy brand new HDB flats. If we were to become a 1st world country, then the “ridiculous “ fear of not letting singles buy new HDB flats because it would encourage babies being born out of the wedlock should be abolished.

- Single mothers should be entitled to the same medical benefits that married mother have. This would further help increase the “greying” population of Singapore.

- Build bigger and spacious flats and not like those who make you feel like you are in the prison cell. This would encourage couples to have more children as they would have more rooms to sleep in and more space for their children to run about in their houses.

To end, I will provide a chain message sent by a friend that advises one and all to vote wisely as our vote would determine our future in Singapore. Take care and God Bless. Have a great weekend.

While walking down the street one day a political candidate is tragically hit by a truck and dies.The political candidate’s soul arrives in heaven and is met by St. Peter at the entrance."Welcome to heaven," says St. Peter.

"Before you settle in, it seems there is a problem. We seldom see a high official around these parts, you see, so we're not sure what to do with you.

""No problem, just let me in," says the political candidate.St. Peter says, "Well, I'd like to, but I have orders from higher up. What we'll do is have you spend one day in hell and one in heaven. Then you can choose where to spend eternity.

""Really, I've made up my mind. I want to be in heaven, I'm already dressed in white." says the MP."I'm sorry, but we have our rules", replies St.Peter.And with that, St. Peter escorts him to the elevator and he goes down, down, down to hell. The doors open and he finds himself in the middle of a green golf course. In the distance is a clubhouse and standing in front of it are all his friends and other politicians who had worked with him.

Everyone is very happy and in evening dress. They run to greet him, shake his hand, and reminisce about the good times they had while getting rich at the expense of the people. They play a friendly game of golf and then dine on lobster, caviar and champagne.Also present is the Devil, who really is a very friendly guy who has a good time dancing and telling jokes. They are having such a good time that before he realizes it, it is time to go.

Everyone gives him a hearty farewell and waves while the elevator rises...The elevator goes up, up, up and the door reopens on heaven where St.Peter is waiting for him."Now it's time to visit heaven," St Peter says.So, 24 hours pass with the political candidate joining a group of contented souls moving from cloud to cloud, playing the harp and singing. They have a good time and the 24 hours in heaven passes by and St Peter returns.

"Well, you've spent a day in hell and another in heaven. Now which will you choose for your eternity?" St Peter asks.The political candidate reflects for a minute, then he answers, "Well, I never would have thought it before, I mean heaven has been delightful, but I think I would be happier and better off .. in hell.

"So St. Peter escorts him to the elevator and he goes down, down, down to hell.Now the doors of the elevator open and he's in the middle of a barren land covered with waste and garbage.He sees all his friends, dressed in rags, picking up the trash and putting it in black bags as more trash falls from above.The Devil comes over to him and puts his arm around his shoulder."I don't understand," stammers the political candidate.

"Yesterday I was here and there was a golf course and clubhouse, and we ate lobster and caviar, drank champagne, and danced and had a great time. Now there's just a wasteland full of garbage and my friends look miserable. What happened?"The Devil looks at him, smiles and says, "Yesterday we were campaigning..Today you have voted."

Redevelopment Of The Singapore River

The Singapore River was once a river that trading boats used to carry their cargo for the British Empire and to call at the trading companies lined at the banks of the river. Now in 2011, boats can still be seen at the river, however, their purpose for being there has been changed indirectly. The only thing that has not been changed is that they are still used as a “tool” to fuel the Singapore economy. How to they do that? They ferry tourists around the Singapore River at a price. For adults, the price is S$15.00, for children it is S$8.00. They are called River Cruisers.

These changes came about in the redevelopment project undertaken by the Singapore Tourism Board of Singapore to redevelop the Singapore River to become a food, entertainment and commercial establishment. This was to attract the youth, professionals and tourists to come and indulge in the range of activities that were organised around the Singapore river and to “part” with their money by feasting themselves to the various delicacies and indulge themselves in the entertainment provided by various fine dining outlets and entertainment establishments found at the Boat Quay and Clark Quay which is situated at the mouth of the river. This initiative was undertaken in order to enhance the night life of Singapore, to develop the surrounding areas of the Singapore River, to provide various activities at the Singapore River and to encourage people from all walks of life to go to the Singapore River. However, with the reference to the last point, can all people enjoy the “activities” that are found at the Singapore River. This point will be brought up later.

A city can resemble or symbolise culture. In the redevelopment of the Singapore River, one of its main aims was to retain its culture. For example, retaining old buildings of architectural merit and historical importance and developing new buildings as well as organising river – oriented activities like the River Hong Bao, Duck Race or dragon boat races.

There are some iconic landmarks situated at the river mouth. For example, the Fullerton Bridge and Hotel (which was once a iconic post office now refurbished for commercial use ), Cavanaugh Bridge & Anderson Bridge. There are also many dining & entertainment establishments. Two areas that were constructed along the Singapore area to provide these kinds of establishments were Boat quay and Clark quay. There is also an area which signifies Singapore’s increasing ambition to develop the Art’s scene in Singapore. Museums and Art houses are now situated near the Singapore River to house plays, concerts and exhibitions. With globalisation and our thriving economy, various international artists and renowned exhibitions come to Singapore to showcase their plays, concerts and exhibitions. Buildings that hold these activities are The Arts House, Victoria Theatre and Concert Hall and the Asian Civilisation Museum.

Few examples of food and entertainment establishments in Boat Quay and Clark Quay are Jumbo Seafood ( The Riverwalk), Rendezvous Restaurant, Billy Bombers classic, Waraku Japanese Restaurant, Hot Stores, Baize + China One, Crazy Elephant, Highlander, Pump Room, Penny Black and Harry’s.

Residential properties can also be found at the mouth of the Singapore River. For example, The River. It has 545 units, multi-storey sky gardens, lush green vista integrated with the Singapore River Promenade and various terraces overlooking the Singapore River. Units offered consists of 2, 3 4 bedroom units and penthouses. The price range for these units is around 1.5 million to 3 million. This residential property can only be bought by those with the “cash”. It mostly attracts expatriates, businessmen and those that are looking to buy property which they could sell in the future for investment.

Why do I describe what the Singapore River consists of? This is to help me to explain to you how the government uses what is called abstract spaces to create businesses, how the political economy approach reflect the development of the Singapore River. It will be illustrated using theories from Henri Lefebvre : Redefining the study of the cities & John Logan & Harvey Molotec : Urban Growth Machines

For those living in Singapore, you will be able to tell that those with the financial means would be able to visit the Food and Entertainment establishments found at Singapore River. Those who can’t, just got there to “walk around” and immerse themselves with the surroundings. Thus various of levels of social class are developed.

Why should several of levels of social class be developed? This can be found in the unevenness of the development of the Singapore River. This unevenness is theorised in Henri Lefebvre theory on urbanisation. He described this unevenness by creating two categories. He called it the primary circuit of capital and the second circuit of capital.

In a capitalistic system, the flow of money is the ability for manufactures to produce goods and sale of products to generate profits. In the case of the redevelopment of the Singapore River, food and entertainment establishments are created so that owners of these establishments can sell and even produce their own products to sell to their consumers, in the case of Brewerks, where the beer is brewed at its food and establishment to be sold to its consumers. Consumers with good purchasing power pay for such services. Thus these establishments make good profits on the sale of their food and entertainment services. Food and drink manufacturers, local or foreign, sell their products to owners of these food and entertainment establishments thus creating a two way business transaction. Prices and drinks are charged at a high price to cover the cost of the purchase of these products and also to make a profit on the sale of the products. For example, an Erdinger beer is sold at S$15 or the price of steak can reach up to S$50. Therefore, these facts re-iterate my point that those who have the financial means can visit these establishments and those who cannot can only stare and smell the aroma that is diffused from a lovely piece of Wagyu beef and watch others enjoy their dinner.

Another area of unevenness of urbanisation that Henri Lefebvre identified is the profit – oriented activity – real estate investment – the second circuit of capital. The Rivergate residential property built at the mouth of the Singapore River is a good example. Property agents cum businessman can acquire wealth by selling to the units to “people” who can afford it. As written in the 6th paragraph, the prices of these units are very high. The sales of these units are profit driven. The area around the residential property becomes private property or even gated property because people of certain status, wealth and power can acquirer these units and the units are closely guarded by sercurity men and cameras.Thus creating a social class divide once again. However, when it comes to housing, most Singaporeans are happy because the government has done a lot to help everyone to have a house even though they may not have the means to do so. With the Singapore HDB urbanisation project in 1968, Singapore is the only country whereby nearly 98% of it citizens own homes.

Those who own the properties at Rivergate can eventually sell them because residential property in most cases would appreciate in value. The sale of their units would in return provide them with good money. Therefore, in the short run, the sale of the units benefits property agents. In the long run, it will benefit the buyer. It is a win win situation. The buyer or the agent may use the money to invest in other properties or businesses, thus increasing their wealth. The sales of food and entertainment establishments to other investors also play a part in the increase of wealth for investors. As the saying goes, the rich can only get richer.

Henri Lefebvre explain these facts in his theory. I shall quote him.

“He said that investment in land always needs to profit and serves as an important means of acquiring wealth. One buys to make money by the sale of the property because one expects its value to rise. Investors take the money and invest on other projects in order to make more money “

The government’s good planning for the location of food and entertainment establishments drives the concept of abstract spaces. Henri Lefebvre explained that abstract spaces are what government, businessmen and investors have in mind when they want to plan where they can locate their businesses in order to reap the best benefits in obtaining profits for their businesses and the best location of the appreciation of the value for their establishments. They also consider the size of the location.

By locating Food and entertainment establishments at Boat Quay and Clark quay, the government has strategically placed these establishments near the CBD and shopping belt of Singapore. Coupled with many kinds of activities that attracts many kinds of different people Boat quay and Clark quay, there is never a time where these places are empty. Specially designing the food and entertainment establishments with decorative decor helps consumers identify themselves with their culture, attitude and identity and these concepts helps to attract consumers to the establishments.

Singapore has one great advantage and that is its size. It is a very small country therefore going to places is not a hassle. Furthermore, Singapore has a rather first class transportation system and this makes it even easier for people to go to Boat quay or Clark quay. As businesses grow for these establishments, the area around the Singapore River becomes a very popular for the establishment of restaurants and entertainment outlets to be located. The value of land increases thus the selling value of these outlets. Unfortunate, prices of food and drinks will also keep on rising. It may increase the gap between those who can afford or those that cannot.

Even the shopping centre, the Central built at Clark quay, caters to those who can spent. The merchandisers selling goods from clothes to computer accessories are rather expensive. It could be claim that the government only think of making money and do not care for the lower income. However, you still can see those who can’t afford go to Singapore River just to walk around and admire the surroundings, whether they are jealous of others is another matter.

Many a times, there is a “changing of hand” between these outlets. Therefore, it is to quite common to see a food and entertainment outlets to last only around six months to a year. Of course there are other reasons why these outlets also close down like economy downturn and lost of profit due to competition but we cannot ignore that profit driven motives are one the several factors that affect the sale of these establishments.

Jon logan and Harvey Molotch study on abstract space followed closely with Henri Lefebvre and held similar points of view with him.

They wrote that urban growth coalitions - typically made up of bankers, businesspeople, corporate property owners, developers, politicians, and investors - seek to spark population growth, increase the market value of land, and stimulate the city's economy through investment and development.To accomplish pressure the city's goverment to create a good business climate which are cleanliness, safety, tax incentives, low interest rate and relacation assistance. Isn't all these activities being down by our government to encourage local and foreign businesses and organisations to set up their " shops" here in Singapore.

Lee Kuan Yew once said this after a trip to England. He admired how the way the landscape around England's Heathrow airport was decorated. It was decorated by alot of flowers and plants and the atmosphere gave him a very good lasting expression of the country. If investors want to come to Singapore, the first place they will be at is the airport and they must have an instant feeling that Singapore is a wonderful and beautiful place to do business in. Why do you thing our airport is well decorated. Even the roads leading to and away from the airport are well decorated.

Around the Singapore River, you can see people from all walks of life, be it locals or foreigners. People follow a certain kind of conduct and behaviour when moving around the area so as to respect each other’s space. You can see office buildings and the office workers who occupy the office buildings. People with different income levels can still walk around as long they respect the privacy of others. This is what is known as social places. Henri Lefebvre calls this area a place where people live, work and play. Well there are people living in apartments living near the Singapore River also and you can see some of them jogging in the evenings with their dogs. However, for those really living, working and playing around the Singapore River are not your normal Singapore heartlanders. They kind of belong to a certain social class. Therefore it is not common to see them hang out in certain pubs that are “only meant of them” and exclude others.

The advantage of our government planning and zooming of areas for entertainment and residential activities is that it does not destroy unnecessary areas just for the development of such establishments. Every citizen’s social space is respected. The development of Singapore River in no way affects the residential lifes that normal Singaporeans enjoy. Most local residents would like to protect their own local community and may resist any development that would affect their local life.

Jon logan and Harvey Molotch wrote that “ local residents have a social space view of their community and may oppose growth as being against their own best interest”.

The re-development of the Singapore River was a project undertaken to develop the night scene, the arts scene and the retail scene in Singapore. Right down from Orchard Road to the Singapore River, similar fine, dining, entertainment and shopping concepts are being created. With on the onset of globalisation, international renowned brands such as YSL, Larvin and Giogio Armani have set up shops here. Identical shopping malls are created to house various shops that sell branded goods from clothes to computer accessories. Artificial cultural scenes that depict foreign cultures are created to serve foreigners. These can be seen in various culture themes that pubs and restaurants adopt. For example, the English pub called Penny Black.

However, these developments cater to the government’s aim of improving the Singapore economy. to make Singapore into a vibrant hip city buzzing with entertainment and night life. Those who can’t afford to buy the expensive goods and can only go to the cheaper shops. However, like every capitalistic country, in order to grow, re-development to make one country to an “exciting one” is inevitable, hence this would create a divide in the social class of people. Theories from Henri Lefebvre : Redefining the study of the cities & John Logan & Harvey Molotec : Urban Growth Machines describe the pros and cons of re-development.

However, not all is bad, the government’s planning and zooming of areas for entertainment and residential activities is that it does not destroy unnecessary areas just for the development of such establishments.

In these essay, I have shown how re-development of the Singapore River has helped the government to use what is called abstract spaces to create businesses and how the political economy approach reflect the development of the Singapore River.

Is It A Singaporean Problem Whereby They Do Not Help People In Distress?

On a bright Sunday morning, Orchard Road shoppers were given a rude awakening that interrupted their normal enjoyable shopping routine. They witness a horrendous traffic accident whereby a SBS Bus knocked down an old lady. The old lady was pinned under the bus bleeding profusely. Onlookers flock to the scene of the accident like bees but nobody did anything to help the poor old lady pinned under the bus. As the day went by, the police and civil defence force came and rescued the old lady. As of the faith of the old lady, I do not know.

As I read the about the accident in the newspaper, I asked myself why the onlookers did not help the old lady. Were they afraid? Or is it about the complexities about how humans interact with each other in a cosmopolitan society like Singapore?

I think most of you must have read how other people, besides Singaporeans, have helped people on the streets. Singaporeans have been accused of not being helpful, however, after reflecting on the accident, I have come to realise that there is a much more deeper cause to why some people would help and others would not. It does quite not matter how one is brought up even though it still has a part to play. There are four factors that explain whether one would help someone who is in distress. They are strangeness, space, fear & objectification. It is not confined to Singaporeans only, other people of various races, religion, citizenship and culture can be affected.

Strangeness

It is natural to help someone that we know. When we do not know someone, we have a tendency to be more cautious about interacting with that person. A conflict resides in us about how he/ she or society would view us when we interact with the person. Therefore, we rationalise the consequences of interacting with that person. We rationalise whether it would be beneficial or detrimental to interact with the person. We also tend to see how other people interact with the person and we will try to discern the right and proper way to interact with the person.

The old lady was a stranger to the onlookers. They had their reservation in helping her. They could have rationalised the pros and cons of helping the old lady. As nobody helped her, other onlookers could have discerned that it is a common norm not to help when such an incident happens thus preventing them from helping the old lady. However, if others were to help the old lady, the other onlookers would follow suit.

Fear

Fear prevents someone from doing certain things that he or she wants to do. People sometimes fear how others would think of them if they did something. They also fear of getting to involve in a certain situation. They fear they may cause more harm than good to the person in distress. When people face situations that are strange to them, they are faced with the unknown. Fear grips them because all of a sudden they are not in their comfort zone. I will elaborate more about it in spaces.

Therefore, the onlookers may not have helped the old lady due to the fear of how others would look upon them. They fear that their actions may go against the norm of that particular society if they help the old lady. Adding to the strangeness factor, they also fear that if they go against society, they may not be accepted into it (please note that I am stating this as a hypo - technical situation). Just imagine, if there is a campaign to persuade people to help others in distress in public, there might be a possible situation where more and more people would start to help people who are distress in public.

They also fear that they would have to get more involved in the accident. For example, in being an eye-witness.
They may not feel that they have the necessarily skills in helping the old lady. They are afraid that their help would result in more harm than good.

Space

Humans have their own comfort and private spaces. Once these spaces are invaded or changed, they would become disoriented or frightened. If you are a stranger in a city, you most likely would want to go somewhere that is familiar to you or find some situation that would make you feel comfortable. For example, eating at Burger King, meeting people you know or people whom you know that will help you assimilate you into the city.

Therefore for the regular Orchard Road shoppers their normal comfort space of shopping was interrupted with the onset of the incident. Suddenly, they were faced with a situation they may not have experienced before. Fear as I mentioned before grips them. Therefore, they will find in a situation which will keep them safe and that is just doing nothing and look. They will find this activity safe because that would be the activity that other onlookers would be doing. Therefore, it becomes a norm. As they say, monkey see monkey do.

They also fear of implicating themselves in the accident because it impeaches on their personal space, especially if they are not able to identify themselves as being eye-witnesses.

Objectification

Objectification is something we cannot run away from. We always set objectives in our lives. It gives us a sense of direction in how to lead our lives. We weigh the pro and cons of our objectives to see whether it is beneficial or non-beneficial to carry out the objective.

Therefore, applying the situation to the accident, people may rationalise whether it is worth helping the old lady. They may rationalise whether their help would benefit the old lady. They may rationalise that it would better that the “experts” rescue the old lady (which may be too late at times). Therefore, you may see that some would help while others just watch and stare.

I deliberately left out how the onlookers’ upbringing and values will affect them in their decision in helping the old lady. This was done because I want to show that it is not only a Singaporean problem but it can also affect others around the world. Therefore, whether you are an American, African or English, everyone also may have the tendency of not helping the old lady. This tendency of not helping others in distress is due to the factors of strangeness, fear, space and objectification. With the inculcation of good values, may be the effect of the four factors would be diminish but not entirely extinguished.

Monday

Monday is here
Monday will become Tuesday at 12.00am
Monday is a bright and shiny day
Monday is where we face the blues
On the contrary, facing the blues overcomes our misery
Like the women who sing the blues in the fields that they plough

As Monday goes by, we plough or devour of life at work
Beneficiary to some, unbeneficial to others
Yet, we still continue working in this mindless and cruel world
Which has no sympathy on our souls
Money is the only thing we work for but what is the use if it
only brings us misery and ends our lives in turmoil

Is Monday all that bad
No it would not be because we still have our love ones
Monday is a day which we should all pledge to the ones we love “ I love you”
For only they can give us a sense of living and give us a meaning to life

Do not hate Mondays
It can be a good day
Your faith has already been written, whether good or bad
It is already pre-destined

Monday, Monday
As long as I wish you would go away as fast as possible
I do not want you to because despite all the misery I face, Monday is the only day
Where I know there is a beginning to life

The Consequences of Objectification

Dating agencies in Singapore are set up to help single Singaporeans to find their right partner in life. It also has a dual aim. It is also set up to help Singaporeans socialize. The government has always been worried that as Singaporean progress in their career, Singaporeans will become career minded and they may put marriage on hold. This would lead to declining birth rates. Dating agencies are therefore tasked to help increase the marital rate of Singaporeans. This essay focus on how dating agencies may default in their task accorded to them by the government with emphasis on the theories of Alfred Shultz, Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann.

Dating agencies are set up to help single Singaporeans find their life partner. This will help increase the marital rate of Singaporeans. These agencies create social functions like, movie gatherings, wine appreciation courses, sports activities and dinner gatherings cum speed dating activities, for Singaporeans to meet and interact with one another. Social courses are also conducted to teach Singaporeans how to socialise (Singaporeans are nowadays to occupied in their advancement of their career that they have forgotten the essence of dating).

As the achievement to meet KPI settings are just as common as our drive to meet our career achievements, dating agencies would have to meet the government’s KPI target in trying to get Singaporeans to marry.

The purpose of getting Singaporeans to marry and reproduce becomes objectified. The difficulties of Singaporeans interacting with one another ( one of the reasons why Singaporeans cannot find partners ) are ignored.

This also objectifies dating agencies purposes in getting Singaporeans to marry. In trying to meet the KPI set by the government, dating agencies may in-turn lose sight in their purpose of socialising Singaporeans. In this instance, I am not saying that dating agencies will overlook the processes of socialisation. The socialisation process becomes impersonal, only to meet the dating agencies objective.

I shall now explain how this social phenomenon comes about by using the theories of Alfred Shultz, Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann.

People interact with each other because they have a shared meaning in life. I know what you know and you know what I know. This is also called intersubjectivity. It is this shared meaning that helps us understand one another. It also helps us to typify a person (stereotyping). Typification of people helps us to “bracket” out of our personality in order to interact with others. “Bracket” here means that we isolate our own characteristic in order to meet the characteristics of the person we are interacting. For example, I might be a successful banker but when I go NTUC to shop, I try to adopt the characteristics of a typical shopper in order to get along with other shoppers.

We are able to typify someone because according the Alfred Shultz, we have a “stockpile of Knowledge”, that we accumulated throughout our life experiences, to help us understand the people that we interact with.

At this juncture, I do know that some of you might disagree to what is being written but I appeal to you to reserve judgement and just read what is written. This essay is not to counter argue the theories of the above mentioned.

Another example is when dating agents meet their clients; they have to adopt the characteristics of their clients so that the process of their interaction would not be impersonal. Dating agents can study their clients profile in order to learn how to adapt to their clients behaviour.

Dating agencies are formed by people who share the same goals of setting up a dating agency to help singles in Singapore to find their life partners. Their shared aims of setting up the agency are their common sense knowledge of one another. Together with the common sense knowledge that they share, combined with the roles and process they develop in the running of the agency, a social institution (dating agency) is formed.

We create roles and habits in our daily life. For example, brushing our teeth and carrying out duties as a dating consultant. These roles and habits are internalized. They become part of our lives and they are taken for granted until someone comes along and question us. For example, there may be a long procedure in processing an employee’s transport claim. The officer in – charge carries out his or her role as a claiming officer and apply these procedures dutifully every day. As this process is repeated every day, it becomes a habit and eventually becomes a norm. These procedures will be taken for granted until someone questions about the procedures.

Therefore procedures are created and carried out for a dating consultant to follow in dealing with his or her clients and for the daily operations of the dating agency. These procedures in time will become the norm for the dating agency. It may also become the vision and mission statements of the dating agency.

All activity is subject to habitualization as repeated action is inevitably become routinized. Action performed repeatedly brings about a stable background.

When the procedures of running a dating agency and the roles carried out by the dating consultant become a habit, objectification might take place. This happens when a dating agency loses focus of it’s goals and is only concern of meeting the KPI set by the government and earning profits. It becomes divorce from the social experiences of those who institutionalized the procedures or originated the procedures that are now regulated.

Interaction between the dating consultants and their clients becomes impersonal. Of course, the dating consultants cannot make it seem that their interaction is impersonal and that the only objective is for the dating consultants to set up dates for their clients and what happens after the date will be the client’s problem. However, in most cases, dating agencies care about their clients’ welfare. They do follow up to see whether their clients did meet their successful partners during the dates that were set up. Dating agencies can carry out these procedures in two ways. One is that they do it because they really care for their clients; the other is for their profit margin. The latter in most cases are detrimental to dating agencies because as humans, we have feelings and indirect impersonality behaviours can be detected. Clients would eventually lose trust in the dating agency that they go to.

The purpose of getting Singaporeans to marry and reproduce more becomes objectified when the government sets KPI for dating agencies to meet. Dating agency also face difficulties in pairing up partners when clients set objectives for them. If these objectives are not met, clients lose interest. Social gatherings planned for singles to meet may also end up in failure if their clients’ objectives are not met.

If the government and clients is target centric, then they may overlook the actual root problem on why they cannot meet their life partner. For example, the reason why singles cannot find partners is because they do not have the necessary skills to socialise. Dating agencies actually help in this area but setting up courses on how to obtain socialisation skills but if clients still remain objective, then these courses would not be beneficial to them.

In summary we are creatures of habit. Every habit we adopt becomes routinize. This is depicted in our roles that we carry out in our daily life. For example, our roles as a dad, banker, fireman and accountant. These roles that are rountinize will become institutionzed. It will become a norm and eventually be regulated. For example, people call Federal Express as FedEX regularly. Soon this became a norm in society and Federal Express change their name to FedEX.
We are able to typify someone because the stockpile of Knowledge”, that we accumulated throughout our life experiences, help us understand the people that we interact with. Typifying a person (stereotyping) helps us to “bracket” out of our personality in order to interact with others. “Bracket” here means that we isolate our own characteristic in order to meet the characteristics of the person we are interacting.

Institutions like dating agencies will eventually objectify their procedures and roles. However, objectification of their roles and procedures may not be a bad thing if dating agencies do not lose side of their main purpose and in still social responsibility in their organisation. Other factors like KPI set by the government may force dating agency to objectify their procedures. If meeting KPI is the only primarily objective set, then the government is not actually tackling the root cause on why some singles cannot find partners no matter how many social gathers or dates they attend to. Clients may also not see the root cause of their problems if their only concern is for dating agencies is to meet their objectives.

On this note, I still hope dating agencies will keep on striving in their mission to get singles paired up. As they say, no pain no gain.

The difficulty of meeting the Singaporean Standard and why people are jaded in their jobs

This essay focuses on the Singaporean Standard, why it has to be met, the consequences if they do not meet the standard and why Singaporeans become jaded in their jobs.

Singapore is a society whereby an individual needs to be monetary sound in order to live a comfortable life. Due to globalization and its economic growth, we now are able to dine and shop at many restaurants and fashion boutiques. There are now many restaurants and fashion boutiques that cater to the upper middle class and above in Singapore. The number of Singaporeans who have the purchasing power to dine or shop at these restaurants and fashion boutiques are increasing. Therefore, it is common to see Singaporeans forming long queues at these restaurants or swarming to these fashion boutiques. It is also now common to see luxury cars cruising down our forever packed roads. Given the rosy picture on how Singaporeans live their lives these days, it would be safe to say that most Singaporeans now live a comfortable life.

As the number of Singaporeans that are now living comfortable luxurious lives increase, a standard way of living in Singapore has been formulated. For those who are not able to meet these standards, they are left out; thus creating an anomie for those that cannot meet the standard.

To have the standard of living that has been imposed on us, we have to work and earn a certain level of remuneration. An employee must aspect to earn around S$3000 or more and obtain promotion 2 to 3 years every time in order to meet a high standard of living, if not he or she would feel isolated from society.

Singaporeans have to work every day work from Mondays to Fridays or on Saturdays and Sundays in order to survive. Prices in Singapore for houses, car, books and other merchandisers will keep on rising. Young graduates who start working after their graduation will began to obtain loans like housing and car loans in order to meet up society’s standard of living. Therefore, they become slaves to car loans, marriage loans, housing loans and other financial loans. A good handful of Singaporeans are in debt for the rest of their lives. If you are “born” an elite in Singapore, you are lucky. If not, you are “born” unlucky.

In this world there will always be some who will not be able to live a comfortable life because they are not able to earn high salaries. The reasons for not being able to earn high salaries are as follows :-

• Do not have the right qualifications and skills
• By pass for promotion ( stuck in the same job for many years without promotion )
• In the wrong job. No vacancies to transfer to another department for better job prospects
• Long wait to be transferred to another department
• Are not good enough in their supervisors eyes
• Stuck in their careers with no prospect of promotion
• Do not know how to find another job

What happens to those that are facing these problems? They may become jaded and lose interest in their lives. They may feel a great sense of emptiness. They may just live from day to day. They are left feeling indifferent and dehumanize. They may feel trapped in this Singaporean pressure cooker society. They will lose their ambition to improve themselves in their jobs; they will lose interest in setting and achieving goals for themselves and will begin to lose interest in other things in life. They will have no mood to look for another a mate because they would not have the financial capability to get married. They may begin to feel trapped in their jobs, may not be able to find a way to get a new job and may not have the motivation to change their life.

There have not been any reports on Singaporeans adopting these kinds of behaviors but there have been such reports in China. Therefore if this social phenomenon is happening in China, what is there to say that it is not happening in Singapore or other parts of the world. This social phenomenon can be found among doctors, bank employees, teachers, journalists, traffic policemen and taxi drivers. The following are quotes by some China citizens that are facing this social phenomenon. It is taken from a newspaper article published by the Straits Times called Rise Of The “ Plasticine’ generation on Monday, September 13 2010.

• Kevin Tu 31, property agent, wakes up at 8 am each day. Drags himself to work, puts in 9 hours in front of the computer and with his clients. Then he goes home to his one-bedroom apartment in the South side of Beijing to stare at the TV shows alone. A go-getting executive in a multi- national company just a few years ago, just lives “one day at a time”. “Everything just feels very bland,” he said. “I have no ambition, no real goal in life and I just don’t feel interested in anything anymore, even in hobbies I used to have. Now that I feel stuck in my career, I am in no mood to look for a mate. Maybe this numbness is just a phase or maybe life will just be this bland for me and I’ll just have to accept that this is it”
  
  
• Advertising executive Wang Win 29 had this to say : “ I feel very trapped in my job boring job of six years, but I keep thinking I have to find first find someone to marry, then move on in my career, so I keep trying. I feel stuck in life and I feel confused, trapped but I can’t find the motivation to do something about it. I want to change my life but I don’t know the way out.”
  

An outspoken sociology professor Zhou Xiaozheng of Renmin University in Beijing said that most Chinese become slaves when they buy a car or a house; thus becoming house slaves or car slaves. This is because they will be paying back the loans they purchased to buy the house or the car or both. Now transpose this situation to our situation in Singapore and you will see the big picture. To meet the Singapore Standard, one has to buy a car or a nice house. They end up repaying the loans they purchased to buy these items for a very long time. If one cannot buy a house or car, they do not really meet the “Singaporean Standard”. Furthermore, more young Singaporeans are used to being driven around, so what more if they find themselves not being able to buy a car.

He also said that young Chinese feel suppressed by pressure in many fronts. Once they graduate, they have to fight to find a job, male enough money to buy a house amid the soaring property prices and when they do that they are in debt for a very long time. Isn’t this also happening in Singapore as well? They have to meet the Singaporean Standard if not they feel like they are losers.

Some sociologists have written about why people become jaded if they cannot obtain what they want in life or become jaded in their jobs. They are Talcott Parsons, Karl Marx and Max Webber.

Talcott Parsons created the AGIL system to explain how systems ( political, law, business and family ) can work together to form social equlibrium in society. I will use it to explain the consequences if the Singaporean Standard is not met.

The AGIL System: Adaptation, Goal Attainment, Integration & Latent Pattern Maintenance

The explanations of how these five factors can explain the social phenomenon addressed at hand.

Adaptation : This is based on the physical or material environment. It looks at how individuals adapt to its physical environment.

If Singaporeans are able to adapt their lives and meet the expectations of the “Singapore Standard”, then they will be able to live comfortable lives. However, if they can’t due to the inability of obtaining good purchasing power, then they may face difficulty living in Singapore especially with meeting up with the Jones. They may start to lose any ambitions they have in life. They will lose the motivation to improve. They may just accept the fact that it is their destiny not to live a good life and die as a single men or women. In other words, they would just become walking zombies. However, they may still hope that there will be a better future for them.

Goal Attainment : Ability of individual or groups to identify and pursue goals. The individual’s need to achieve his or her goals to live comfortably in Singapore.

If Singaporeans are able to achieve their goals of obtaining good jobs, getting fast promotion and earning high paying salaries, they will be able to have good purchasing power and indulge in the various “luxuries” that Singapore has to offer. If they can’t, then they will left out. They may start to feel jealous and have resentment towards others who can live a “good life” in Singapore. They will lose the motivation to improve. They may just accept the fact that it is their destiny not to live a good life and die as a single men or women. In other words, they would just become walking zombies. However, they may still hope that there will be a better future for them.

Integration : the need to coordinate, adapt and regulate relationships among individuals and groups within the economy or country in order for the system to function.

In order for Singaporeans to properly integrate themselves in Singapore, they have the meet the “Singaporean Standard”. Of course, Singaporeans can still integrate with one another even though they do not meet the “Singaporean Standard” However, they may be in constant struggle with themselves in trying to think of ways to obtain the “Singaporean Standard”, however not all Singaporeans would feel this way. It all depends on their character. A sense of anomie will be felt in some Singaporeans if they cannot meet the “Singaporean Standard” in society. They may resort to crime to obtain the luxuries they want. Some may just accept the fact that it is their destiny not to live a good life.

Latent pattern maintenance : to maintain that individuals are motivated to fulfill their roles as clerks, bankers, cashiers and managers. Rewards are given for them to motivate them in their jobs.

Rewards are given to those that perform well. However, some employees may not be given these rewards because of favoritism. Rewards like salary increment are given to those that work hard and prove that they are efficient in their work. Due to office politics, some efficient workers may not be given the promotion or the just rewards they duly deserve. They will start to lose interest in their job. They will lose the motivation to improve themselves in their jobs. They will shun away from society because due to not receiving the salary increases they may not able to indulge in the comfortable lifestyle that most Singaporeans do. They may eventually live and die as a hermit.

Employees follow proper work procedures in their job everyday. Day in day out, nine to five, they follow the same work procedures. As mention before, some of them endure their “boring & torturous” job because what they earn may be barely enough for them to survive. The work that they do will become repetitious. They may perform their job just like a robot. Eventually they will become bored and alienated from their work. For example, a cashier cashing in the goods that customers purchase at a supermarket. The process of cashing in the goods never change. The cashier internalizes the process. The tools that she uses to cash in the goods and herself become one. She becomes alienated from her work. Companies may form unions to persuade their workers that their work life is normal when it is actually detrimental to their well-being and there is no need for self development. A false consciousness is formed among the workers. They will start to lose interest in their job if they are not promoted. They will lose the motivation to improve themselves in their jobs. They will be left feeling indifferent and dehumanize. They will feel trapped in this pressure cooker. They will lose their interest to improve themselves and will start to lose interest in life. They will start to avoid their friends because they may not have the financial capabilities to indulge in the “good” life that their friends do. Karl Marx called this alienation.

Max Webber looked at the bureaucratic rules that organizations have to explain why some employees are not happy with their work and thus may lose interest in their jobs. In every organization there are rules to follow. As a result, in every organization there is office politics. Some employees may not be given the promotion or salary increment that they deserve even though they are efficient in their work. Supervisors may show favoritism to some employees. What happen to those find who themselves in such situations? They will portray the same kind of behavior I have mentioned in the above paragraph when they are alienated from their work. Max Webber calls it the “iron cage” syndrome. The rules and regulations that govern the way employees work also make them feel like they are in an iron cage. Some employees may feel this constrictive effect. They may not be able to find ways to make their work more interesting and effective. If they do, their supervisors may not like it. This is especially so for employees whose supervisors go by the book.

Singapore will continue to grow and prosper. Cost will keep on rising. Income gaps will widen. All these are inevitable in a thriving capitalistic country. Singaporeans have to realize that in order to survive they have to find ways to help them live. Life is unfair. You cannot have everything in life. If you want to have a prospering country, then you have to face the facts that these social consequences will happen. For those facing difficulties, they have to sit back and think of ways to help them survive. It is not impossible. I believe that those that really sit back, think and act on what they must do to survive in a society in Singapore can succeed in whatever they plan to do. Singapore is a nice country to live in and I believe that most of us are happy to make Singapore our home despite the troubles we face in life. Life is what you make out of it. I have written why people feel jaded in their jobs, why the “Singaporean Standard” has to be met, its consequences if it is not met and why some cannot meet its standards. Read it carefully and see in which areas you can improve your life. With this note, I wish you all the best in life and your future endeavors.

Plasticine

Wary I wake up
The sky ever so bright
The sun shines with much ferocity
A new dawn begins
but darkness only shines upon me
The darkness I feel
Is the feeling of being a plasticine man

Oh Plasticine Man, Oh Plasticine Man
For who I am
For what pleasure do I accept you in my life
The pleasure of being plasticine?
For I only know the plasticine wall of pain that surrounds me
Like a bear hug, ever ready to render a man breathless
As plasticine as I am, I still have to put on a smile and face the world

As my work makes me a plasticine man
The joy of building plasticine castles in the air makes me happy
As I know that it is the only way to prevent me from becoming a cement man
Oh my Oh my
I shrudder with fear as my air diminishes with each coming day
Will I ever break out of the iron cage I am in

With not much less to breath
Help!! Help!!! I shout with much desperation
Oh how plasticine I have become
Even my shouts cannot be heard
Oh when will my plasticine life be over
For I know I cannot carry on living this way
The pain is to hard to bear
Oh plasticine! Oh plasticine!
Go away! Never to return back
As thou needs to smile and laugh again

How Has Contemporary Sociologists Followed In The Footsteps Of Classical Sociologists

Social fact is an entity that exits on its own. It has its own characteristics. It is separate from our social actions yet it constraint us in our behaviour and thinking. It may seem as part of our social actions but in reality it is not. Let me explain.

As a law abiding citizen, I do not steal or jaywalk because it is illegal to do so. As a family man, I know how to fulfil my family obligations and customs. These family obligations and customs are what that has been taught to me throughout my life. The laws and the customs I abide to are the social facts. These laws and customs will still be around when I am dead and gone. It has a life on its own. Therefore a social fact considered is an entity that has an existence of its own, independent of its individual manifestations.

Eventhough social facts have their own existence; they also control our behaviour and thinking. For example, if the law says that is illegal to smoke in a certain facility, I have to control myself and not smoke in that area. If I do so, I have to face the penalty. Therefore, a social fact whether fixed or not is capable of exerting over the individual an external constraint. Since it affects our behaviour and thinking, it can only exist in society, either in a political society, religious denominations, political and literary schools. If there is no society there is no social fact. It is not like the organic or physical phenomena that can exist without a society.

There is another type of social fact called social currents. They force us to act in a certain way that we on our own would not act. Let’s take peer pressure as an example. An individual may not indulge in smoking but if he or she joins a group and if it is a norm in that group to smoke, he or she may take up smoking because it’s the group social norm. The act committed was due to the peer pressure he or she relented to.

Since social facts affects our lives, therefore there is a cause and effect relationship with our social well – being. These causal relationships can be studied by using quantitative methods. Emile Durkheim said that society is a system and is made up of various parts that function together. The theory that society is a system and it is made up of various parts that function together was known as structural functionalism. Durkheim was one of the leading pioneers that developed the theory of structural functionalism. Another contemporary sociologists, like Durkheim, who was interested in finding how social order was possible used Durkheim’s theory of structural functionalism to develop his theories. His name was Talcott Parsons.

Society is made up various systems. They are the political system, legal system, family structures and marriage dyads. He concluded that social facts have an existenance of their own that transcends these systems. In order to study social facts one needs to collect data to study these facts. It is better to study the social facts that affect society than to study people’s behaviour ( at which interpretivist prefer ).

He used the collection of data ( suicide rates ) to study about suicide. He studied how well society was integrated and he based his findings on the rate of suicide one society has. He claim that if a society had high suicide rates, then the society had low social cohesion and was not very well integrated. The opposite was also true for him. He claimed that there Protestants tended to commit suicide more than Catholics because they hand a lower social cohesion then the Catholics.
The study of society by using empirical data was adopted by positivists. They foresaw, especially August Comte, that sociology could be studied in the same way as psychical science subject. By studying empirical data, universal laws that are applicable to all societies could be discovered

Weber took a different approach in the study of society. He theorized that society could be studied by observing people behaviour thus creating an interpretive understanding of human behaviour. As people’s behaviour is unpredictable, it would be very difficult to study patterns of people behaviours by using empirical data. Unlike Durkheim who studied the objectivity of social facts, Weber studied the meaning of people’s behaviour and actions. Durkheim argued that human behaviour and actions were shaped by society however Weber argued that people’s behaviour and action were shaped by the human interaction with other fellow human beings. Weber’s theories were instrumental in the development of phenomenology, symbolic interactionism and dramaturgical theory. One important contemporary sociologist that followed closely to Weber’s theories and also was the one that developed the theory of dramaturgical was Erving Goffman. The next few paragraphs will be on the two contemporary sociologists who based their work on Durkheim’s and Weber’s theories respectively; they are Talcott Parsons and Erving Goffman.

Like Durkheim, Talcott Parsons was also interested in how social disintegration effected society. He also believed that society worked as a system. He believed that society was made up of three systems; cultural systems, personality system and social system.

The cultural system looks at individual beliefs and values. It is concerned about how these beliefs and values shapes one individual life. Example of beliefs and values are religious beliefs, language, ethical values, national values and family values. It also looks at how individuals internalize these beliefs in their lives, use them to interact and socialize in society and maintain social control.

The personality looks at individuals’ attitudes, needs, motivation and self interest. How they obtain what they want and the behaviour they portray.

The social system looks at role interaction. It can be made up of two people, a community, a team or an organisation. It looks at how individuals interact with one another with emphasis being drawn towards the social values and beliefs that they adhere to.

There is however another system called behavioural organisms. This actually look at the behaviour of individuals in a certain situation. It encompasses all the other three systems.
Based on these systems, Talcott developed a set of concepts called the pattern variables which later was transcended to the AGIL System.

The pattern variables are made up of five pattern variables that individuals internalize and assist them to integrate into society. These five pattern variables have to work in accordance with each other for the achievement of social equilibrium. However, these five pattern variables also know as the social action theory is actually a grand theory because individuals do not always behave the way they should. This will be explained in Erving Goffman’s theory of dramaturgy.
The five pattern variables were divided into five dichotomies of factors that will explain individuals’ behaviour in a tradition (Gemeinschaft) and a modern society (Gesellschaft).

In a traditional society the factors are : Affectivity, collectively – orientation, universal, achievement & specificity

In a modern society the factors are : Affectivity – Neutrality, Self-Orientation, particularism, ascription & diffuseness

Affectivity

This action shows how people show their emotions. For example, when a child cries when he/she falls down.

Collectively – orientation

This action is based on decisions made by individuals that would affect their needs, motivation, and attitudes in a group. For example, a manager may resign on his own accord due to bad publicity on a certain issue that is affecting the company he or she is working for.

Universal

This action is based on general laws and moral values. For example, criminals are sentenced according to the laws set up by the court.

Achievement

This action is based on performance. For example, fulfilling all the requirements to graduate in UniSIM

Specificity

This action is based on individual roles and how these roles affects individuals in their socialization process with other people. . For example, a clerk’s role, banker’s role and cashier’s role.

Affectivity – Neutrality

This action is based on individuals being neutral in their emotions in certain situations. For example, board members of a company are not supposed to show any emotions when making decisions.

Self-Orientation

This action is based on individual needs, motivation and attitudes. For example, a student deciding what to study base on his or her own interest.

Particularism

This action is based on relationship of individuals in a given situation. Looks at how one would respond to another. For example, a friend defending friend accused of theft no matter whether he or she committed the offense.

Ascription

This action is based on an individual race, sex and age. For example, an individual not being able to buy cigarettes because he or she is underage.

Diffuseness

This is based on open guidelines of action. For example, a teacher and a student developing an intimate relationship even though theY have to respect the student and teacher role they are in.

This pattern variables were then transcended to four factors that Parson’s named as AGIL.

The explanation of AGIL are as follows :

AGIL

Adaptation : This is based on the physical or material environment. It looks at how individuals adapt to its physical environment. For example, the body adapts to heat by perspiring thereby cooling itself down.

The economy fulfils the requirement of adaptation. For example, one country may be producing rice therefore this country exports rice to another country in exchange for the refining of their oil because the other country specialises in oil refining.

Goal Attainment

Ability of individual or groups to identify and pursue goals. The system’s need to mobilize its resources and energies to attain system goals and to establish priorities among them. This system is essentially a problem for political institutions.

Integration

The need to coordinate, adapt and regulate relationships among individuals and groups within the economy or country inorder for the system to function.

Latent pattern maintenance

To maintain that individuals are motivated to fulfil their roles as clerks, bankers, cashiers and managers. Rewards are given for them to motivate them in their jobs.

All these factors need to work together for social equilibrium to take place. However, as I mention before, these factors are actually a grand theory because individuals do not always behaviour the way they should. We now look at why people behave differently. Max Webber defined dramaturgy as the art of dramatic composition and theatrical representations. On this note Erving Goffman looks at human behaviour in a theoretical setting. Individuals are known as actors and actresses. Individuals have different roles to play in society; therefore they are always wearing different hats. They act accordingly to the environment they are in. They adhere to the norms, values, antiquate and social behaviour that are approved in the group they are in. In doing so, their actions can be superficial. Goffman explored individual identity, group relations, the impact of the environment and movement and interactive meaning of life.

He looked at how items like insignia of office ranks would affect one’s behaviour. Other items were the clothes people wore, their age / sex / race, racial characteristics, facial expressions and body gestures. For example, a soldier in an army holding a rank of captain may portray a more authorative behaviour when he is in his camp where else when he is with friends at a pub he may be more friendlier.

An individual’s behaviour is shaped by the audiences ( people ) who surround him or her. An individual may perform an action no matter whether he has faith or lack of faith in it. For example, a doctor administers a “placebo” medicine to a patient even though the doctor knows the full impotency of the medicine. This is just to please his/her patient’s desire for more extensive medical treatment.

In human behaviour there is the front stage and the back stage. The front stage will most likely be the kind of behaviour an individual or group is required to portray. The back stage will be a more “truthful” kind of behaviour an individual or group will portray.

For example, Team members may present themselves in a behaviour that is approved by their other teammates and colleagues in a workgroup presentation. They will speak and act accordingly to what is required in the presentation. This is an example of a front stage behaviour.

After the meeting, since there is no more requirements for them to behave a certain way they had to in the meeting, they will let their guard down and behave a manner more natural to them. They may also start to show their frustration or voice their disagreement on matters they do not agree. This is an example of a back stage behaviour.

This theory is not far the most perfect theory. There are still other factors to look at. For example, Conflict. A team member may become angry and display inappropriate behaviour in the meeting room if he or she do not agree on what is being presented.

Therefore, there are various ways in studying society. The two most common methods adopted by contemporary sociologist are the positivist and interpretivist methods. The former is by using empirical data to study social facts and the latter is to the study the meaning of social behaviour. Contemporary sociologist like Talcott Parsons and Erving Goffman built their theories on the foundation of Emile Durkheim and Max Webber works. As time has progressed, there are now more than just these two ways of studying society and many more theories on how society function have been written. However, the foundation theories that classical sociologists like Emile Durkheim and Max Webber wrote will always be a basis where most sociologists will study from.

Extra Paternity Leave For Men

Women have four months maternity leave and men are able to apply three days of paternity leave. No extra paternity leave was given to men because according to PM Lee Hsien Loong there was feedback by women that they prefer the extra month of leave ( previously it was three months) to be given to them rather than their spouse. Maybe women think that they would do a better job in looking after their children. Who knows? However, is this enough? Will it benefit mothers if extra paternity leave is given to their husbands? Before we can pursue this issue, we have to examine various reasons why women or men may or may not like extra paternity leave be given to men. I have divided them into seven categories.

First Category : Women who enjoy four months of maternity leave and do not mind staying at home to look after their children

These women are happy to have this incentive. It gives them more time to look after their children. They believe that a woman should be the one’s looking after their children.

They would not worry about losing their jobs or whether their job performance would be affected. This is true if they work in civil service agencies or statutory boards as these companies will comply to the government’s directive. However, if they work for a private company, there are higher chances that they may worry about losing their jobs or whether their job performance would be affected as some of these companies do not like their employees to go on long leave. There are however labour laws in Singapore to protect women who are wrongly dismissed because they are pregnant.

They may not see the need for their husbands to take any extra paternity leave to look after their children.

They may worry that their husbands may suffer a salary cut or their job performance may be affected if extra paternity leave is given to them. If women worry about these issues affecting them, there is also a very high chance that they may worry that these same issues will affect their husbands as well. Company pay women less because they have maternity leave. What is there to prevent them from doing the same thing to men if they are given extra paternity leave. Therefore, it would be better for them to apply maternity leave because men’s salaries are usually higher then women’s salary. Even if their husbands salary is less then theirs, they would still prefer to apply for maternity leave just so to prevent their husbands from getting a cut in their salary as these would cause family problems because their family income will be affected.

Second Category : Women who thinks that looking after their children are their duty and they would do it better than their men

These women prefer that they look after their children themselves.

They may want the independence in looking after their children.

They may not trust their husbands in looking after their children.

They may have the thinking that a woman’s role is to look after their children and that they are the best one’s for their job.

They may not see why men should be given extra paternity leave. They may worry that their husbands may suffer a salary cut or their job performance may be affected if extra paternity leave is given to them.

Third Category : Women who prefer that men have extra paternity leave so that they can go back to work earlier and their men may stay home to look after their children

These women may believe in the equality of women and men.
They may prefer that their men stay home to look after their children. Men in Sweden has no qualms in staying at home to look after their children while their wives go out and work.

They would prefer to go back to work as to improve their work performance. They may be afraid that too long a break may affect their chances of getting a job promotion and some may fear of job lost ( losing of job applies to private companies ).

They tend to lead the household and make household decisions. However, there is a chance that they may not trust their men to look after their children so the second category may apply to them also.

Fourth Category : Women who may not like their maternity leave to be shared with their husbands. For example, two months of maternity leave for her and the other two months for him

These women are the ones that really treasure their four months of maternity leave. They would prefer that the extra month of leave (previously they could only apply for 3 months of maternity leave) be given to them rather to their spouses.
They may be looking for a break from work.

They may think that they are in better position in looking after their own children.

They may worry that their husbands may suffer a salary cut or their job performance may be affected if extra paternity leave is given to them.

They may not see the need for men to have extra paternity leave because they may believe that it is a woman’s job to look after the children ( due to way they have been brought up as a women to know what the duties of a wife should be ).

Fifth Category : Men who may not want to have extra paternity leave

These men may think that looking after children is a woman’s job.

These men think that they are the one’s that must provide the financial stability for the family. Therefore they must work. If they do not work or take too much leave, their job performance will be affected and have less chance for job promotion. If they bring in less cash, the financial stability of the family will be affected more so if both spouses are not high income earners.

They may argue with their wives that there is no need to take extra paternity leave especially if they have a maid helping to look after their children. They may use the excuse of the chances of their job performances being affected if they apply for extra paternity leave as well.

Wives may argue back that they need more help or that they want to go back to work earlier but in a patriarchal society like Singapore, women are viewed as those that should stay home and bring up the children. In – laws ( husband side ) may interfere in the argument in telling wives that it is their duty to stay home to look after their children. Wives may feel guilty and not to want to cause any unhappiness. They may argue for awhile and feel angry but they will give in eventually.

Sixth Category : Men who like to have extra paternity leave and do not mind taking care of their children while their wives go out and work

These men believe that women and men should have equal rights. Most of these men are foreign men but there is still a handful of Singaporean men who are willing to stay home to look after their children. Therefore being house husbands. Why is this so? Well, Singapore is a patriarchal society therefore women are viewed as the one’s that should stay home and look after their children, therefore they should have maternity leave. These values have been inculcated in Singaporean Women from a very early age. The men are taught to be the head of the household and be in charge of household decisions. Even though children are now taught to share household duties, boys have more chances in escaping from doing household duties by making excuses like they have homework to do or that their favourite television program is about to begin. Girls may not have the same opportunities as boys.

Foreign men on the other hand are taught to share household duties from young. They are taught about equality between a woman and a man. Of course there are still exceptions to the cause however foreign men are more willing to look after their children and will mostly be the ones in favour of extra paternity leave. Men in Sweden have no qualms in being household husbands.

In a company in Singapore that I know of, their Australian Marketing Director and their Irish Chief Technology Officer each brought their respective babies to the office time to time to look after and nurse them because their wives do not have time to look after them. Their wives are just as capable as them yet they had no qualms in looking after their children. I wish to see the day that Singaporean men will do that. If extra paternity leave is given to both foreign and local men, then these men can take leave to stay home to look after their children.

Seventh Category : How would companies feel if men are given extra paternity leave? Is it going to affect their profits? Would they revise their salary paying scheme?

Companies may not favour extra paternity leave being given to men. They will complain that it will affect their bottom line. Furthermore companies may revise their salary scheme; cutting men’s salary for those men who opt to apply for extra paternity leave. Companies already pay women less because of their maternity leave scheme. If men are also given the extra paternity leave, they will feel justified in paying men less. If men bring in less income, this may affect their family financial stability especially if both spouses are not high income earners.

Companies have claimed that it would be more costly to allow men to take more that a month off work than it would be to allow women to do so because there is a bigger pool of men in the work force. Statistics have shown that 57% of the 1.9 million people in the resident workforce of Singaporeans and Permanent residents are men. Men hold higher salaries and senior positions than women. Men earn an average of S$4,335 per month where else women earn on the average of S$3,148 per month. The impact of men taking extra paternity leave is greater.

However, there is still light at the end of the tunnel. The government is still looking into how to give men extra paternity leave.

How could this initiative be implemented?

Surveys can be conducted to examine Singaporeans attitudes and views on whether men should have extra paternity leave. We need to survey a rather large sample of men and women so that we can cover the various categories of women and men I have indicated in this essay. Having a large sample will represent the voice of the majority.

As mention earlier, one of the reasons why the government did not give men extra paternity leave because due to feedback, women preferred to have the extra month leave rather then letting their spouse have it. A survey could be conducted on why they prefer to have it and see whether their mindset could be changed.

For this initiative to be implemented there must be a good number of supports by women and men. If there is minority support for the initiative, then it would be difficult to implement the initiative. The mindsets and attitudes of Singaporeans need to be changed also. It would not be easy because in an Asian society like Singapore, women are socially obligated to be the household guardians and caretakers of the children. Men are obligated to be the head of the household and to provide the financial means for the family. I am not saying it is wrong to believe in these values but we should be more flexible and try to help the women of our society in any way we can. After all they are the one who have to suffer during child birth so the most we can do is to make their life easier and happy. Road shows and public education could be conducted to educated Singaporeans about the benefits of extra paternity leave for men. A lot of work has to be done but the good news is that the government is still open to the idea of giving paternity leave to men. I hope in the future this initiative would be implemented.

Are health inequalities socially or individually constructed?

Health inequalities are prevalent in societies as there is no society in the world that strives on equilibrium. Sociological theories, taken from a functionalist, conflict and Interpretative point of view, state that inequalities exist throughout society. They just differ on how inequalities exist in society and the role they play in society.

Durkheim stated that health inequalities do exist in society, However these inequalities will weaken the solidarity of a society. In order for a society to perform, there must be unity and cohesion. People would create changes in society so as to eradicate the inequalities that exist in society in order for society to perform properly.

Marx, however, challenged that eventhough changes can be made , it would be to the beneficiary of the upper class than the lower class. In order words, the capitalist would benefit more than the working class. Those in the upper class would benefit more in obtaining health benefits. For example, they can visit hospitals that have better facilities and doctors. Some working class workers can’t even enjoy these benefits as their income may be too low for them to pay to enjoy the benefits. Some companies may not want to give their workers health welfare incentives as they are afraid that it may affect their profit margin.

Weber found inequalities to exist in the form of people’s prestige, power and income Those with different prestige, power and income form different status groups and lifestyles. These various form of social groups and lifestyle that they form were also a way for them to have more social mobility and a way climb the corporate ladder. They excluded other groups that did not have the same social status as them. People with different prestige, power and income varied in their ways of obtaining health benefits. Those in the upper class could reap most of the health benefits that their country has to offer, however the lower class could not obtain the same benefits as the upper class. It is towards the theories of Marx and Weber that I will show how health inequalities are constructed.

Health inequalities affect us as individuals and as a society. Individuals make up a society and society consist of individuals. It is difficult to separate both of them as they influence each other. Health inequalities caused by individuals are due to their personal choice , health behaviour, health beliefs, their socio – economic status and skeptism in the health system.

There have been changes in which the kind diseases that were prevalent in the early 19th century to the 20th century. From acute diseases like Measles to chronic diseases like heart disease , cancer and stroke. Individuals are now more responsible for their own health. There are enough literature to teach people how to look after themselves. The internet is flooded with medical advice, some are genuine and others not. Therefore, when people fall sick , they are sometimes blame for bringing the sickness onto themselves.

Some individuals choose a healthy living and some choose an unhealthy living. There are various factors that influence the health lifestyle of these individuals. The social factors are age, gender, race, ethnicity, the social environment, material wealth and access to health care.
People from different ages view life differently. The elderly prefer to eat food that are nutritious and are more careful with their food. They prefer to live healthily as they are old. However, the kind of food they obtain also depends whether they have the economic means to obtain them or whether the area that they are staying provide such kind of food . Some elderly people might be poor and can’t afford to obtain good value food. Some cannot due to lack of financial support from their government. Distance in obtaining good value food maybe a factor as they will not be able to obtain the food if they do not have any transport. The elderly are more prone to chronic illnesses, if the elderly from low income groups do not have financial assistance in order to obtain medical care, they might suffer from these illness for the rest of their life until death. For those in the upper class, they have a better life. They are able to access the health care system that their country provides and live a longer life than those that find it a difficulty to access the health care system. There are, however, elderly people whether they are in the upper or lower class strata, who prefer to eat unhealthy. They adopt a fatalistic point of view as since they are old, there is great uncertainty in their life.

Young adults may adopt a healthy or unhealthy lifestyle. Their choice depends on their income, prestige, power and environmental factors. Those with high income may indulge in healthy living. They are able to join health membership club, access the best medical care, enjoy good health ( less chance to suffer from chronic diseases that those on the lower income strata ), eat healthily and able to take part in more sports ( depending whether the sport is high risk or low risk as there are more chances in injuries occurring in the latter than the former ). Those in the lower income strata will most likely adopt an unhealthy living. They will indulge in smoking, drug use, violence , eat unhealthily and participate less in exercise. As their income is low, they might not be able to access proper medical care as the cost maybe too high, in the case of United States. They may be living in the areas that are violent prone, therefore they may get involve in fights and either get injured or killed. Death rates are higher in these areas. As they are poor, they may not be able to obtain nutritious food. They have a higher rate of lung cancer due to smoking.

It does not mean that only those in the lower class would smoke. The upper class young adults also smoke. Smoking can be considered as having a high status, especially smoking cigar. They may still suffer form lung cancer. There are reports that there is a high rate of people with high income suffering from lung cancer. However, They may create a social group that will have in common certain kind of eating habits, sports preferences, music preferences and literature preferences. This people can create what Bourdieu’s call it, social capital within their group. These groups can exclude those from the lower class in joining their circle, prevent them from improving their socio-economic status and also prevent them from accessing health care. For example, in US, as medical costs increases and new medical innovations are created only those with high income can buy medical insurance , use the medication innovations and access good health benefits. The lower class may not be able to purchase medical insurance and therefore may not be obtain medical care or may be forced to visit low cost medical doctors which may not have the necessary means to cure their illness.

Health inequalities also exist with gender, male or female. Women from the middle class eat much more health food, drink less, smoke less, indulge in less dangerous activities and visit the doctor more often. For example, women in Britain prefer to eat more nutritious food, those with more fibre and low cholesterol as compared to working class women who would eat food with high cholesterol level and vegetable. Women greater use of the heath care system could be due to their gender socialization. For example, they are permitted to cry, be more caring and show more weariness. Males on the other had are told not to cry and to be brave. They are trained to bear more hard ships. Therefore their use sage of the health care system. Depending on how severity of their illness, male or females do visit the doctor when they have to. However, there are other factors that prevent them from visiting the doctor. For example, the cost and benefit of seeing one, whether they have enough income to visit a doctor, transportation, whether their company provide them with heath welfare schemes and whether they will get paid if they are on sick leave.

Males tend to indulge in more risky activities than women. This is due to their upbringing. They tend to indulge in smoking , violence and tend to commit suicide ( due to work stress, social isolation and lack of social support ) more than women. Therefore their rates of death or being injured are higher than women. There is a saying that actually more women attempt suicide but men are more likely to succeed.

Depending on what kind of job a men is doing, he can suffer from different diseases. If he is indulging in manual or unskilled labour, like mining job, he may suffer from chemical poisoning from inhaling to much carbon. If their jobs are stressful, they drink more or smoke more and eat more “junk food”. These creates high rates of lung cancer and liver cancer in men. However, those who have high paid jobs also suffer from stress and because they earn a high income, they are able to smoke more and drink more. This creates a high rate of lung cancer or liver cancer in affluent societies. There is always the counter argument that people with high income can cope better with stress and are able to participate in activities to relax more, it is however untrue.

Men in high paid jobs also may suffer from back pain due to uncomfortable chairs and wrong sitting positions. Women can also suffer from the same thing. However as there are more women secretaries, they may suffer more from eye – problems and headaches due to long viewing hours of the video display unit .

Men also suffer from heart diseases and stress due to unemployment. As they are brought up to be the breadwinner of the household, they have a huge responsibility in looking after their families. Those with high education maybe able to find another job faster than those with lower education. Those who are out of job for a long time may resort to robbery, more so if he comes from a poor family.

Women are prone to mental illnesses. This is due to the social isolation they suffer from doing house work and the “ double shift” Double shift means that they are full time or part-time workers and after work return home to do house work. They are less prone to cardio vascular diseases because it seems the oestrogen protects them from it. Those in professional positions may have more flexible time and therefore are able to cope better. They suffer less stress. They have more time in visiting the doctor if they are sick. Part time workers are also able to visit the doctor as they have more time on their hands. Women are taken less seriously by doctors than men, Doctors prefer to treat men as their illness are more treatable. Women’s problems tend to be much more difficult as it is most likely a psychiatric problem. They are also more emotional so a doctor must be more tactful when diagnosing an illness for a women. Reproductive and women’s sexual health are sensitive matters at which women prefer female doctors to handle.

New environments can create stress for some people. The level of stress that people cope depends whether they are able to access medical care, various techniques of relaxing ( like indulging in sports activities ) and social support. Usually those with higher income and education are able to cope.

Social support is important in helping people cope with stress. If you have somebody to communicate with and give you love and moral support, you will suffer less stress. However this social support may be only catered to the upper class people and the lower class people may lose out. There may even be a fee charged to join social support organizations. However there are now few organizations, like churches, which create mission groups to go to the poorest parts of the world like Africa to help out in supplying food, clothing and other essential needs. Work places, schools and community centres should have social support groups that cater to all classes in order to make the people feel wanted and valued.

Different people with different race face different health inequalities. The largest health disparities in US are between the blacks and whites. Life expectancy at birth for white was 77.6 years, 71.9 for blacks health inequalities increases due to risk factors that blacks face, like smoking, diet and exercise. It is said that white men exercise more than blacks. One possible reason could be that whites have a higher income than the blacks and therefore are able to access to more exercise facilities like gymnasiums.

Mortality rates for Blacks are higher than whites in countries like UK as they live in poverish areas of the UK. They also smoke more, indulge in drug use and are involve in violent activities. Blacks also have lower health knowledge as they have lower education. For those that are poor, they may not have enough income to place their kids to school. Furthermore, schools may practice racial segregation and may differ in their curriculum between the whites and blacks. Blacks may not have less access to medical books, medical magazines and the internet for medical knowledge.

Black women end up with low paid jobs due to low education. Therefore they most likely are going have poor housing, low socio-economic status, poverty and ill-health. They may also suffer from culture shock if they have just migrated to another country. With lack of social support, they may not be able to cope with the stress they suffer from the culture shock.
The Health sector labels different people from different countries as having bringing in diseases like Rickets and Tuberculosis. This is true for Asians. Therefore in Britain, Asian patients are treated and scanned for these diseases even though they go and see a doctor because they are having a flu. White people do not get scanned for the disease even though they might have gone to an Asian country.

Some people from different cultures have different health beliefs. Doctors may not approve some of these health beliefs especially when it is according to faith and tradition. Health professionals need to be informed about minority cultures and to acknowledge that they may have special needs to be met. They have different culture beliefs. If this criteria is not met, doctors would not be able to treat the patient correctly. There would be a communication problem. They may mistreat the patient or just push the patient around, passing the patient to the next doctor. For example, a patient from Hmong goes and see a doctor for stomach pain, he or she may think that her stomach problem is due to the imbalance of the universe. If the doctor does not know this, how is he going to treat the patient correctly?

Government policies like the one-child policy in China can cause health inequalities between the rich and the poor. The rich are able to go against the one-child policy and pay the find for having more than one child. The poor cannot. Furthermore, ladies have to scan to check the fetus of the baby and if it is girl, those from poor families usually abort their child as there is a strong emphasis on having sons.

The media can also create health inequalities between women, especially those from the upper and lower class. There are techniques to look healthy and beautiful, for example, breast augmentation ,liposuction and spa treatments. They are very expensive. Only those whose income are quite high enough can afford, those with low income cannot go for these treatments. However treatments are well know to cause side effects to health , for example breast cancer.

Individuals may be able to make decisions on their health lifestyle. They may choose a healthy or an unhealthy lifestyle. Their social factors, environment, age, gender and health beliefs influence their decision. Therefore health decisions cannot be sole made on individually decisions only. Inevitably there would be health inequalities when health decisions are made because socio-economic factors and social factors are in play. Therefore health inequalities cannot also be individually constructed. Different people with different race and ethnicity face different health inequalities. It depends on their socio-economic status. Social support is needed to help migrants cope with cultural shock and stress. Governments must help the lower income group rise out from the poverty belt in order for them to enjoy better health care. They would be able to buy medical insurance also. The ratio of blacks in the US not having medical insurance is rather high. There are signs that the rate of the white is also on the increase. Doctors must know their patients culture in order to treat them, if not there would be a communication barrier. Therefore there is a lot work to reduce health inequalities in the world but it is not impossible.