Rilek1Corner

Tag: Singapore

  • Part-time UniSIM Degree Not Recognized

    Photo Credit: The Straits Times
    Photo Credit: The Straits Times

     

    Dear R1C,

    I used to work in the public sector and several years ago I graduated with a UniSIM degree. After an extremely long wait and several email exchanges with the HR department, they finally got back to me with the news.

    Yes, I was not given any upgrade and remained as a junior officer.

    I recall Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, in the National Day Rally 2012, announced that Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT) and SIM University (UniSIM) will become the republic’s 5th and 6th universities. Both institutions will participate in the Government’s plan to increase the number of publicly funded full-time university places.

    As we already know SIM collaborates with foreign universities in some of their degree courses. UniSIM also confer their own degrees and I obtained my degree from there.

    It appears that there is no standardization in the public service. I asked around and found that only certain stat boards and ministries fully recognized UniSIM degrees. Not all stat boards or ministries share the same vision as PM Lee, let alone ready to offer better remuneration package to those who managed to graduate from their part-time degrees.

    For people like me who wanted upgrade themselves and take up part-time degrees from so called recognized universities like UniSIM, it takes a lot of perseverance, sacrifices and determination. I have two young children, the youngest is 7 months old and another one in primary school. Besides juggling work commitments and studying, I have to be a father and husband. Not forgetting, that I have to manage my relationship with my parents who are old and unwell.

    At that time, my wife also wanted to pursue her part-time degree but she had to put that plan on hold until I completed my studies. This is to ensure that the children don’t feel left out or neglected when our other half is busy studying. Alhamdulillah, my wife is currently pursuing her part-time degree in UniSIM.

    Except for several ministries and stat boards, UniSIM graduates working in public service are offered lower starting pay as compared to NUS/NTU/SMU graduates. Some I heard are offered upgrades but no jump in pay or change in career progression.

    I really enjoyed what I did in the public sector. Unfortunately, I cannot find any more good reason to continue this path. I found a job opportunity in private sector which offered me the same pay but better career prospects. As the cost of living is increasing in Singapore, I need to think about my family and our future. No one can make the change except ourselves.

    I do hope that part-time graduates will be treated more fairly especially in the government sector.

    Not just lip service.

     

    Authored by Mohd Syahrizan

     

    letters to R1C

  • STB Video Ranked 2nd in Worst Promotional Tourism Videos For Cities

    Hastily pulled by embarrassed authorities after an explosion of internet parodies, this 3-minute video for the Singapore tourism board follows a couple on their anniversary break in the city. With a script as varied and exciting as Singapore itself, featuring lines like “Honey, look!” and “Honey, look at that!” and “Wow, amazing!”, this is truly a classic of the genre. Be sure to watch until the end for the plot twist.

    Best line: “Look, honey!”

    This video is so cringe-worthy that Singapore Tourism Board has removed it from its own channel.

    Watch to know why it was deleted by its creator.

    This video was apparently uploaded on Singapore Tourism Board’s site, but promptly taken down after it became ‘viral’ for being such an ‘awesome’ well produced video. Mistake, or intent, we will never know.

    The actors are NOT Singaporean. They are Filipinos.

    But for the rest of Singapore, revel in the ingenuity of STB’s video to attract tourism.

     

    Source: SLF TV

  • DJ KC Berkongsi Pengalaman Di Jalanraya

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    Credit: https://www.facebook.com/djkcpage
    Credit: https://www.facebook.com/djkcpage

    Topik menarik perhatian saya dalam singamaksima. Saya ingin berkongsi pengalaman peribadi saya.

    Jumaat lalu kenderaan saya dilanggar dari belakang dan bumper kenderaan saya kelihatan kemek. Beberapa minit ketika sedang bertukar butiran bersama pemandu, datang seorang jejaka dan menghampiri saya suruh bawa kenderaan saya ke workshop-nya untuk diperbaiki dan dia boleh tolong claim. Pelik juga, dengan cepat dia sampai dan dari mana dia menjelma.

    Auntie yang melanggar saya kelihatan marah, bingit tapi saya kata baik-baik I will call you dan beredar pergi. Saya ada juga tanya pendapat beberapa pihak apa perlu buat ada yang kata – claim ajer. Setelah 2 hari, saya cuba tolak bumper yang termasuk dan kereta kelihatan seperti biasa *tadaaa (cuma ada 2 garis ajer)

    Bukan apa tak sampai hati pula nak menyusahkan orang lain. Hari ini kita buat orang takut lain kali kita pula kena cukup-cukup dengan orang lain.

     

    Authored by DJ KC who works at RIA89.7FM

     

  • Call for Alcohol Ban in Kampong Glam & near Sultan Mosque

    Please help Habib Alwi Al Habshi on his mission to stop restaurants in Arab street who are still selling alcohol located near the Sultan mosque… Please share this video.

    May Allah shower His blessings and love upon Habib Alwi Al Habshi.

    SEE VIDEO APPEAL OF Habib Alwi Al Habshi HERE by Syed Mahdzar Al-Shahab.
    Credit: Syed Mahdzar Al-Shahab https://www.facebook.com/Mahdzar.Shahab
    Credit: Syed Mahdzar Al-Shahab https://www.facebook.com/Mahdzar.Shahab

    Last night I had a small chat with Habib Alwi Al Habshi about the recent video that I posted on FB. He thank me and told me that someone approached him and hand him a print out in related to the permissible of selling alcohol in kampong glam and near the sultan mosque. He told me that a person saw the video of his plea and decided to hand in those print out so that Habib can use those guidelines to file a complaint. May Allah reward whoever that person is.

    So I decide to surf the web to get a clearer picture from that print out…

    http://internet-stg.mnd.gov.sg/newsroom/Speeches/speeches_2005_M_26092005.htm

    Check on the “Reviewing conservation guidelines with stakeholders”, paragraph number 19.

    Habib also told me that he is moving forward with it and to make a doa for him. As soon as he says that I started to hold my tears and remain silent, because there he is stand an old man who fear of Allah, who is so passionate and fearless.

    Habib Alwi’s will is an inspiration to me and I hope it is also an inspiration to all of us who have believed…

    Please share the link to the whole world!

     

    Authored by Syed Mahdzar Al-Shahab

     

    EDITOR’S NOTE

    There is a Facebook page created to show support for Kampong Glam Alcohol Free Zone.

    Those who share the same sentiment, can like the page.

  • American Mistress Spills Sexcapades With Sultan of Brunei and His Brother, Broke Sharia Law

    Ahim Rani/Reuters
    Ahim Rani/Reuters
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jillian_Lauren
    Jill Lauren, the escort for the Sultan of Brunei and his brother. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jillian_Lauren
    As a teenager, I was the mistress of his brother—who ‘gave’ me as a gift to the sultan. And in just one night, we committed at least two offenses under his newly implemented penal code.

    On Tuesday, I was greeted by a familiar face when I read through the morning’s news: the sultan of Brunei. He looks older now than when I knew him, of course, his face doughier and more careworn.

    When I was still a teenager, I was the mistress of the sultan’s brother, the prince of Brunei. My usual stance is that they weren’t bad guys, really. Just human and impossibly rich. I have often wondered what I would have done in their place, given all the power and money in the world. I’ve never come up with a satisfactory answer.

    Now the sultan is making headlines for implementing Sharia law in Brunei, including a new penal code that includes stoning to death for adultery, cutting off limbs for theft, and flogging for violations such as abortion, alcohol consumption, and homosexuality. There’s also capital punishment for rape and sodomy.

    articles300414-AY-Syariah_Panel_Code_Declaration-017.transformed

    I am no expert in international human rights. My only qualification in commenting on this issue is that one drunken evening in the early ’90s, the sultan and I committed at least two of the aforementioned offenses as we looked down on the lights of Kuala Lumpur from a penthouse suite.

    Let me back up a bit.

    I had barely turned 18 when I found myself at a “casting call” at the Ritz-Carlton in New York for what I was told would be a position at a nightclub in Singapore. When I got the job, I learned that the job wasn’t in Singapore at all. Instead, it was an invitation to be the personal guest of the notorious playboy Prince Jefri Bolkiah, the youngest brother of the sultan of Brunei. At the time, the sultan was the wealthiest man in the world. I was a wild child consumed with wanderlust. I was hardly an innocent, but I was—when I accepted the invitation—very, very young.

    When I arrived in Brunei, I found out that the prince threw lavish parties every night, in a palace with Picassos in the bathrooms and carpets woven through with real gold. At these parties there was drinking (which was not legal in public), dancing, some fairly hilarious karaoke, and, most important, women—about 30 or 40 beauties from all over the world, comprising a harem of sorts.

    The prince was rakish and clever and yes, even charming at times. I spent the next year and some change as his girlfriend. For a time, it was an adventure both glamorous and exciting. It was also lonely and demoralizing, and full of constant low-grade humiliations, including being given to the prince’s brother as a gift (see: the Kuala Lumpur hotel suite). Although I was by no means a prisoner, I wasn’t free to come and go as I pleased. By the end of my time there, I felt 10 years older and still not wise enough. It took me a long time to regain my footing, though I did find my way eventually. My struggles were internal and they were my own. In this context, they were a privilege.

    Stoning is practiced or authorized by law in 15 countries now. It is disproportionally applied as a punishment for women, often as a penalty for adultery. Human rights groups, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, consider it cruel and unusual punishment and torture. According to the international rights organization Women Living Under Muslim Law, stoning “is one of the most brutal forms of violence perpetrated against women in order to control and punish their sexuality and basic freedoms.”

    And yet it is the privilege of the prince and the sultan to misbehave. The picaresque escapades and legendary extravagances of the brothers are indulged with a collective wink. For everyone else residing within Brunei’s borders, Muslim and non-Muslim alike, freedoms are curtailed, and those limitations now are potentially enforced by brutal violence.

    Cast stones at me if you will for my past improprieties—plenty have. Of course, those stones will be metaphorical. As the citizen of a free society, it is my right to transgress, as long as I don’t break any laws or impinge on the freedom of others. It’s my prerogative to sleep with all the princes I damn well feel like. I live with my choices.

    As the citizens of Brunei face the erosion of their rights, I imagine the man I once knew, holed up in a posh hotel suite somewhere, maybe with another American teenager in his lap, making laws that legislate morality.

    Authored by Jill Lauren*

    *Jillian Lauren is the author of The New York Times bestseller Some Girls: My Life in a Harem.