http://sg.news.yahoo.com/cna/20090313/tap-041-singapore-short-60-000-births-ne-231650b.html

Still not enough babies to fight aging population in Singapore

Singapore is reportedly still shortof 60,000 babies to counter our aging population despite the efforts made by the local government during the past 5 years, to encourage citizens to give birth. Some examples of the government's initiatives include the baby bonus, extended maternity leave for mothers and domestic helper subsidy.

Financial aids appears to work as the extra push to have children, and if they already do have children, to have even more of them; however, the problem may be more skin deep than it seems.

Due to the strong influence of the western culture on the younger generation in Singapore, many couples are now more up for lovebirds marriage life, rather than rush to family planning straight after marriage. Cost of living and raising a child also deters Singaporeans against having children or more children. In addition, the younger generation often avoid shouldering responsibilities like bearing and raising a child. Such characteristics of the Singaporean generation now greatly lower the appeal of such financial aids provided by the government.

The government should therefore shift their focus to educating the citizens, in particular those that fall under the age of 21 to 40, as they belong to the group of Singaporeans most likely to be at the phase of their life where they may consider doing some family planning.

By playing up the importance of family life, citizens may start to comprehend the need and joy for family starting and expansion to complete their life. This can be done through planting such pro family planning messages in media mediums such as in movies, drama serials, even songs, and on the prints.

Long- distance relationships

requires the same amount if not more effort in maintaining, and are usually strained by the lack of communication between the two parties. It is however way easier for couples to communicate with each other with the modern technology available nowadays, as compared to 10 years back.  Back then, the only form of communicating across national borders was through snail mail. It is an ineffective mode of communication for interpersonal relationships as it is not transactional and although it may be interactive feedback and response takes a long time to take place. This sometimes frustrates the parties especially when it comes to times of arguments and urgent issues that requires immediate attention.

On the contrary it is now much easier to maintain or even heighten relationship with the help of technology such as through video calls, online chat, now more affordable international phone calls and text messages as well as email! Through these means of communication, the parties of the relationship tend to feel less separated, have more involvement in each other's life and maintain more trust in the relationship. In this case, distance does indeed makes the heart grow fonder and not further! 

 The lack of communication and low rate of exchange may create distrust between the parties, sometimes encouraging actions that undermine the other party's trust, and decrease the level of closeness and intimacy between both parties over prolonged period of physical separation. Therefore, in order to make  long distance relationship work out, it is best to sign up for skype, a free online international call program, purchase a webcam and use them regularly to establish trust, sense of closeness and sense of security in the relationship! Somehow by seeing the other party of the relationship on camera rather than not at all during the period of physical separation, does make seeing him or her in flesh again seem less intimidating. It may be due to the the reduction of the element of surprise or shock (depends), when the each party knows roughly what to expect when its time for the happy reunion!

Marley & Me - The movie

spoke volumes about the unique friendship between humans and dogs through the story of a impossibly mischievous labrador retriever and how it gained the unconditional love of its owner through time. The story depicts the life of the dog starting from its days as a puppy till the very last moment of its life, when it was too old and sick that it had to be put down. 

The labrador retriever, Marley was impossibly mischievous and destructive as a puppy and even as a dog, it continued to create havoc in the house. Despite so, it managed to stay in the family from one that consisted of only 2 to 5 members in the family when it breathed its last breath. The movie showed that through compromise, unconditional love and respect, one can indeed find a friend if not part of the family in a dog.

The movie is a real tear jerker for dog lovers and also teaches dog owners about the unconditional love shared between humans and dogs. Hopefully the movie had successfully communicated the idea of animal love and ownership responsibility, and not be inducing yet another bout of irresponsible and irrational labrador retriever puppy purchasing craze among the public after they watched the movie. It is observed that movies showcasing animals more often than not do indeed induce such impulsive pet purchases, resulting in irresponsible animal breeding to feed the sudden and overwhelming demand for the specific animal shown in the movie. It then lead to these pets being deserted and put to sleep, when their owners grow out of the craze or decided that the responsibility was too great for them to handle

Thus, movies makers play a big role in communicating the right values to the public. This is because the audience is more receptive to the intended message when it is transmitted through subtle cues weaved within the medium such as movie's plot as compared to a upfront and direct message flashed across saying 'love your dog no matter what' or 'dogs are friends for life'. By learning and stumbling across the message themselves through the story line of the movie, a deeper impression and impact is made. It is thus the responsibility of movie makers, especially those of animal movies, to take on a positive and morally correct point of view when depicting their stories.

Slumdog Millionaire and its message

Slumdog Millionaire, a movie made under tight budget and lack of sponsor, clinched 5 globe awards and become the talk of the town shortly after it was screened. The movie was about an Indian boy who was suspected of cheating when he won a million dollars in reality Television program, 'Who wants to be a millionaire?' In the movie he was questioned and tortured by the police till he revealed the reason how he had managed to know all the answers to the questions. As he does so, he tells the story of his sad life such as how losing his mother to a religion riot gave him the answer to the question about a Hindu God.

The movie reflects the living conditions and real life situations in India such as the existence of child labour, abuse, prostitution, secret societies, violence and more. Because of the controversy of the issues raised in the movie, it clinched 5 globe awards and at the same time, protesting voices from the Indians. 

The director captured the essence of the asian culture, by adding plenty of non verbal cues and less verbal ones as asians are usually less expressive verbally. As the movie also weaves in a love story between the male lead and an Indian girl, the director also managed to capture the pure and simple love of the two indians while they work against diversities in life.

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/cna/20090205/tap-081-no-credible-information-whereabo-231650b.html

Rumors has it

rumors have been spreading like wild fire these days, facilitated by sms-es and emails. According to these sms-es and emails, it is believed that the next target of a terrorists attack is none other than Singapore's very own bustling Bugis. The information without a doubt has stirred emotions of the citizens, mostly fear and cautiousness. Despite a handful of Singaporeans who stand by their faith in the government's control in the terrorist activities on the island, the notorious escape of terrorist, Mas Selamat from the Whitley Road Dentention Center during February last year, has clearly impacted on the citizens' past unwavering faith for the protection and vigilance provided by the nation's big bosses. 

We could hardly afford letting loose merely one terrorist, now can we afford a terrorist attack? Yishun was a close call years ago. But can we always be so lucky? No one has any answers. However the Police has stepped in and warned the public to stop circulating such emails and sms-es. It is clear that the government do not wish for the public to be panicking yet, which may very well be a good sign because it implies that the situation is still under control, or so they may think. Despite the Police's interference, there has not been any official confirmation nor denial of this piece of information.

All that is crystal clear is that Singaporeans who have caught their whiffs of the news, would definitely shun Bugis for awhile now. Tenants in Bugis are bound to be hit first wave by the news and the impact of it but life in general, has to and will go on. 

Fighting against terrorist activities must be recognized by the public as not only the job of the government, instead it should be part of a nation wide exercise. During times like these, what may give us a chance is standing united as one to exercise constant vigilance, to support our government and their decisions in busting terrorist activities.

Economy slowdown hits Integrated Resort due 2009

Source:
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/ap/20090203/tbs-as-singapore-tourism-3c8dc0d.html
http://app.stb.gov.sg/asp/index.asp?



Singapore tourism continues to shrink in December for a seventh month, adding to the city-state's economic woes, as more visitors stayed home amid a global slowdown.

Tourist arrivals to Singapore fell to 880,000 in December 2008, down 6.9 percent from the same month a year earlier, the Singapore Tourism Board said. Hotels revenue also took a dip from 7.4 percent to 141 million Singapore dollars ($93 million) in the seven months.

Factors leading to the dip of tourist arrival is believed to be directly affected by the ecnonomic slowdown, inducing potential tourists to stay home instead of going on a holiday. This effect may be as long lasting as the economy crisis is expected to stay globally.

Singapore's economy is highly diversified, with Service and Tourism taking up a substantial percentage. The shrinking of the industry is sure to affect the economy in considerable degree, especially with the Integrated Resort that is scheduled to be ready by the 2009.

The Integrated Resort was part of the government's plan to ease its economic dependence on manufacturing and exporting and also an initiative to re-position itself and increase its attractiveness as the new tourist attraction. The Integrated Resort includes two casinos, Universal Studios amusement park, hotels, restaurants, shopping malls, Convention Centers, Theatres and Museum and other facilities

The tourism industry slowdown may undermine the expected flow of tourists the Integrated Resort will bring to the nation.

Despite the present unoptimistic situation, the Singapore Government continues to work towards pulling more tourists into the city by hosting the upcoming youth Olympics and the recent F1 race.

The Singapore Tourism Board also work to not only attract tourists to come to Singapore for leisure holidays, but also for Official Conferences (Medical, Economic etc), education and business.

Some examples of the works of the board are BikeAsia 2009, Indexing & ETF Investments Asia 2009 and Singapore LIVE 2009 (18th Annual Live Interventions in Vascular Endotherapy, Global Healthcare Congress 2009)

TV Ads made cheaper

and more affordable for the medium scaled, and rising businesses in Singapore by the nation's largest media medium, Mediacorp Pte Ltd.

It could very much be due to the economic downturn and the negative effects expected, tagged with the situation that Mediacorp is now and has been advertising on its own Television channels, encouraging ad broadcasts purchases.

The company encourages purchase with the most upfront strategy, and that is to make it more affordable to advertise on their channels, which is not all, as it also provides basic advertisment advisory and production services for customers on tighter budgets.

Televison is undeniably the most infulential and accessible of all mass communication medium probably threatened only by the internet. Every household if not all, owns at least one television set and it is accessible by viewers of all age groups, making it the most powerful and popular communication tool in many company's marketing initiatives.

However, advertising on the TV is sure not cheap. Most of the commercials that we watch on the national channels are usually representatives of the bigger and better established companies such as MacDonalds, M1 telecommunication, Colgate Toothpaste etc. These companies, due to their financial strength are able to fully utilise the medium by shooting an excellent commercial using different appeals such as humor, logic, emotions to reach out to their target audience at the most favorable (and undoubtly most expensive) airtime.

E.g Toy companies would not air their commercials too late in the night, their target audience being children would be most likely asleep and not watching TV by then.

In contrary, new and smaller scaled companies are likely unable to afford advertising of such scale, turning towards print ads and other marketing communiction tools.

Now that Mediacorp has spoken, there is a noticeable increase in the airing of more commercials, that are short and sweet, simple yet informative, representing names we may not have heard before (such as traditional family owned restuarants).

This move, by Mediacorp not only benefited themselves, in revenue generating, it also allowed these smaller companies to reach out to their target audience more effectively, without straining the company's budget during bad times like this.

Last but not least, as viewers, we now have more variety of commercials to talk about, no longer having to tolertate the many repeating commercials intruding our 'prison break' sessions. I mean, if they have to intrude, they might as well give us something new once in a while to watch.