Rilek1Corner

Tag: IP

  • Confessions Of A Former Law-Intern: Bosses Used Young People With Financial Obligations As Pawns

    Confessions Of A Former Law-Intern: Bosses Used Young People With Financial Obligations As Pawns

    I had the misfortune of working at a boutique IP law firm for two weeks back in the days as an intern (hated it), and I noticed how strongly the bosses encouraged the young, unsuspecting associates to buy cars, buy houses, get married, and have kids. And whenever any of the senior associates had a new kid or purchased a new car, they were praised and glorified, so this created a peer pressure system where every employee competed with each other to see who can “establish their lives” and “live it up” the quickest.

    If you work in one of these companies, be very careful about listening to your boss.

    Well, OF COURSE they want you to increase your financial obligations/liabilities or at the very least sink into a consumerist mode where you’re unable to live frugally anymore even if you wanted to. If they had it their way, they want you to also surround yourself with equally-high-paying friends and friends who’re married with kids, so that you yourself are also sucked into these high-spending, low-happiness lifestyles.

    The more money you need to spend each month, the more dependent you’ll be on your job. The more dependent you are on your job, the weaker your bargaining power vis-a-vis your boss. The weaker your bargaining power vis-a-vis your boss, the less you get paid, the rarer you get promoted, and the less balls you have to leave your job or even demand better working conditions that you rightfully should be entitled to for working hard. Family men with mortgages and car loans and young children are the best candidates for employers with a power trip — it’s like the ultimate wet dream to push these sorry men around, because they have no choice but to swallow their pride and put up with all the bullshit you can rain on them. It even becomes a game to these bosses: they try to push the limits more and more (watch “Office Space” where Bill pushes Milton to the edge, and Milton still takes it) just to see what they can get away with, gleefully.

    I feel like an idiot for having to say these explicitly, but the behavior of some of my peers just convinces me that they don’t even know what’s going on.

    Source: NUS Confessions #39374

  • Study: Kids From Rich Families More Likely To Attend IP And GEP

    Study: Kids From Rich Families More Likely To Attend IP And GEP

    Children from higher socio-economic backgrounds are more likely to attend Integrated Programme (IP) secondary schools and their affiliated primary schools, as well as those that offer the Gifted Education Programme (GEP).

    This was a key finding of a recent study that examined class stratification in schools and if students from different schools had different levels of educational aspirations.

    The study was done by Ms Ong Xiang Ling, its principal investigator who is a Singapore Children’s Society research officer, and Dr Cheung Hoi Shan, a post-doctoral fellow at the National University of Singapore.

    Their work pointed to a disproportionate number of students from affluent backgrounds in IP and GEP schools.

    In the study, schools were divided into three groups and about 200 students from each group were polled. Type 1 were IP schools, their affiliated primary schools, as well as primary schools which offered the GEP. Type 2 were government-aided schools and autonomous schools which did not offer the IP, and Type 3 were government schools.

    Data showed that nearly 41 per cent of Type 1 secondary school students came from families with a monthly household income that exceeded $10,000, compared to 7 per cent in Type 3 schools. About 31 per cent of Type 1 students lived in private homes, compared to 2 per cent in Type 3. About 54 per cent of Type 1 students had at least one parent with university education, compared to 17 per cent in Type 3.

    The fact that there is a significant disparity in secondary schools, where entry is supposed to be by merit, points to a possible perpetuation of class differences in schools, said the researchers. Dr Cheung said: “The observation from many news reports… does point to some form of social stratification in our schools; so in elite schools you tend to have families represented by higher socio-economic status (SES) and in other neighbourhood schools you tend to have the reverse.”

    She added: “We see SES differences also in secondary schools, where entry is supposed to be determined in large part by the children’s results in the PSLE. Entry is not about distance or alumni associations, yet we also see marked SES differences in elite secondary schools. So it may point to a perpetuation – if you started off with high SES, chances are because you have more resources, you are better prepared for PSLE, so you are more likely to get into good secondary schools.”

    Said Ms Ong: “Higher SES children are more likely to be in Type 1 schools, and being in Type 1 schools makes them more likely to have high confidence in attaining at least a university degree. Then it would mean that there could be a perpetuation of class differences, because research has shown that if you have high confidence of attaining a university degree, you are more likely to actually get a university degree.”

     

    Source: www.straitstimes.com

     

  • Copyright foul? Sports Hub’s Round Ping Pong Table Similar To Artwork By Artist Lee Wen

    Copyright foul? Sports Hub’s Round Ping Pong Table Similar To Artwork By Artist Lee Wen

    An interactive, round ping-pong table installation at the Sports Hub Singapore has garnered criticism online for being strikingly similar to an iconic artwork by prominent Singapore artist Lee Wen.

    Lee, 58, a Cultural Medallion recipient, told The Straits Times: “I just found out about this a few minutes ago when Tan Pin Pin sent me the photo over Facebook. I am a bit upset because I was not informed, and my permission was not asked for.”

    He has been trying to reach the Sports Hub, adding: “I don’t want to blame anybody, but I think Sports Hub should at least give me some credit or ask for my permission before putting this out. I’m now just asking around what is going on, and checking if there is any infringement of copyright.”

    Ping-Pong Go Round was first created and performed in Melbourne, Australia, in 1998. Lee had envisioned the game as “a dialogue between players on opposite sides”, using a doughnut shape for the table and creating new ways to play the game. It was a popular installation outside the Singapore Art Museum’s annexe, SAM @ 8Q, in 2012, exhibited as part of a survey of Lee’s work.

    The work also travelled to Art Basel Hong Kong in March, where it proved popular with visitors to the art fair.

    Lee, a performance artist, is best known for his Yellow Man performances, where he paints himself in bright yellow poster paint. He received the Cultural Medallion in 2005.

     

    Source: www.straitstimes.com

  • Dr Ting Choon Meng – The David Who Took On The MINDEF Goliath

    Dr Ting Choon Meng – The David Who Took On The MINDEF Goliath

    A doctor, a professor, a philanthropist, and an inventor. A man who believes in educating young Singaporeans to think and imagine, and not just to follow. A firm believe in putting Singaporeans first.

    That’s Dr Ting Choon Meng. That’s the man that Singapore’s Ministry of Defence cruelly ripped off by stealing the rights to his design for a first-aid vehicle from right under his nose.

    A short rags to riches story of Dr Ting

    From young, he stood in for his seaman father, who was seldom home, while his seamstress mother toiled.

    By age 11, he was cooking, ironing and tutoring his four younger siblings.

    The Pearl’s Hill Primary, Gan Eng Seng Secondary and National Junior College student was the only one in his family to qualify for the University of Singapore medical school.

    During National service, he attended Officer Cadet School as a medical officer, where his right index  finger got sliced off by a bayonet.

    He became a GP at a family health clinic, and later on invented a blood pressure monitoring watch that would shake up the medical world – the BPro.

    In 2007, the device won a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer award, which counts Google and PayPal among previous winners. Today, all the hospitals here, including some clinics, widely use his wireless monitoring devices.

    Dr Ting has given out some 30 scholarships to students from Singapore Management University and Pioneer Junior College. The only condition – they pay it forward and help other needy students when they are financially-capable.

    A serial inventor, Dr Ting and his partner would go on to develop a mobile first-aid centre in 2004. It was patented in more than 9 countries, including Singapore. That is, until MinDef conspired with an external vendor, Syntech, in 2009 to run with the idea  force him to revoke all rights to the invention. Read the full story here.

    The Great MinDef Heist

    What happens if ordinary citizens really do come up with something novel, and this can be taken away in a flash? Or in this case, after years of legal wrangling?

    Dr Ting received intellectual property rights to his invention in more than 9 countries. Even the SCDF acknowledged this and played fair by demanding that its vendor give Dr Ting’s company, HealthStats, its dues.

    But MinDef and its legal battalion was allowed to run roughshod over this.

    Let’s not forget, this invention received IP rights in more than 9 countries, including Denmark, Britain and the US.

    Are we truly that Uniquely Singapore?

    No Country for Innovators

    “All things being equal, we should get local brands. The Government should be the first and main customer of local enterprises, as in Japan and Germany.”

    Sadly, this wasn’t the case for Dr Ting when he  created his award-winning BPro blood pressure monitor.

    Cardiologists here boycotted his talks. “I’ve been told countless times I’m only a GP… Re-learning is uncomfortable,” he concedes.

    Economic Development Board officers asked him where he took the technology from, implying he copied it, and remarked: “You mean a Singaporean can do this?” Others took issue that he had no PhD, only a medical degree. And that his was a “local company, single product, with no track record”.

    “But you got to start somewhere, isn’t it? It’s called colonisation of the mind.”

    Dr Ting had to obtain patents from the US and other western nations, before the Singapore medical scene even bothered to take notice.

    What does this spell for Singaporean innovators, then?

    Can we blame Singaporeans for wanting to try their luck abroad, if their own country can’t even accept them?

    And if they make it there, should we call them “quitters” or the reason for Singapore’s brain drain if they were to give Singapore the collective middle finger? Their homeland that refused to give them even the slightest of shots?

    In Sum

    The government continues to trumpet its desire for creativity and innovation in Singapore.

    But following Dr Ting’s story, how can any Singaporean feel assured that anything they create will not be laid at the mercy of the bureaucratic meat-grinder, and they’ll be left with nothing except wounds to lick?

    And even if they have the mind for invention, will they be given the support needed to develop their ideas without being stone-walled by unimaginative leaders who are grossly resistant to change?

    It’s probably time to give this machine the collective middle finger.

     

    Source: http://redwiretimes.com