Rilek1Corner

Tag: stress

  • Foreign Worker Issue Is Beyond Economics And Politics

    Foreign Worker Issue Is Beyond Economics And Politics

    Many of my Brothers (compatriots) feel the stress of foreign workers in Singapore.

    When we discussed this issue at a deeper level, I realize its goes beyond economics and politics.

    Its about jobs and emotions.

    Its also dilemmatic.

    Their beef isnt towards Work Permit holders but S-pass and EP holders.

    S-Pass come here with a minimum wage, thereby making them cheaper to employ, very good indeed for SMEs.

    Our government deserves credit for imposing quotas. SMEs and MNCs alike must now employ x number of citizens first before they could bring foreigners here.

    And indeed, our government has visibly reduce their numbers , especially after 2011 GE.

    At an emotional, we see a few of S-Pass holders displaying uncivil acts and forming social clusters.

    FEW PRC Chinese blast their lungs in the public transports , Few Hindu Indians try to bring the cast system and Hindi language over and FEW Filipinos do not mix with people other than their own kind.

    Yet Singaporeans like me cannot afford to see them go. Why? Who else would remain to rent our HDB flats. And mind you, rental income is one way to offload kids’ burden of providing for his/her aging parents.

    EP holders come and reside in uptown. Their men, mostly whites, come and attract both local and foreign women. Just look at any Match-making sites and see how many Japanese ladies here are seeking White men. And black and white women rarely depends on local Singaporean male to hit on them.

    It is a stereotypical view that many Asian men hardly hit on any women , a phenomenon i cannot understand and have never experienced. Yes, I do hit on Black and White women boldly. If you a Black or White female, drop me a PM.

    Singaporean men feels the pressure of trying to start a family. And when they see all these unfolding their very eyes, they feel disgruntled , which escalates to xenophobic mindsets.

    We need to address this at an emotional level, no doubt.

     

    Source: Faisal Maricar

  • Straight A Student Commits Suicide After ‘Poor’ Result, Guilt-Stricken Mother Takes Own Life After

    Straight A Student Commits Suicide After ‘Poor’ Result, Guilt-Stricken Mother Takes Own Life After

    She is still coming to terms with the death of her teenage granddaughter, who had committed suicide over two Bs in her O levels.

    Then three months after the 16-year-old plunged to her death, Madam Ng Siang Mui’s grief- and guilt-struck daughter, who was the teen’s mother, also killed herself.

    The tragic double deaths has left her son-in-law, the teen’s father, mentally unstable.

    In an interview with The New Paper, Madam Ng, 71, shared the devastation and anguish of the triple tragedy that began in January this year.

    She was reluctant to speak at first, noting that the death had torn the family apart.

    Madam Ng initially said: “Talking to you now is useless. My daughter is dead. My granddaughter is dead.”

    She changed her mind later because she hoped that sharing their story could help highlight early intervention and save more lives.

    Madam Ng said that in January, just three hours after getting her results slip, her granddaughter jumped to her death.

    Except for two Bs – in English and Mathematics – the student had scored distinctions for her other subjects.

    More children and teenagers have been seeking help for suicidal thoughts, said the Samaritans of Singapore (SOS).

    SOS says that in 2013, they had 224 clients, aged 19 and below, writing in to them — that is 65 more compared to the year before.

     

    Source: http://www.tnp.sg

  • Female Teacher Under Stress, Commits Suicide

    Female Teacher Under Stress, Commits Suicide

    A female teacher who could not bear with the stresses of her job decided to end it all – by slitting her wrists and jumping off the 13th storey of her flat.

    The incident took place this morning at 4AM at a HDB flat along Marsiling St 17. The female teacher was identified as 28 year-old Malaysian Luo Pei Wen. She lived alone in a room she rented from her landlady. She had been working as a Mandarin teacher at a local secondary school.

    According to her landlady Luo had rented her room for over half a year. Her appearance had become increasingly frail in recent weeks.

    “I chatted with her yesterday, she complained that the stress was very great and that she was feeling tired. I didn’t expect her to commit suicide,” the landlady said.

    She said that she had brought her eldest daughter shopping when the suicide took place. When she arrived at her block, she realized that someone had committed suicide but did not suspect that it was Luo.

    When she returned home, she realized that Luo had not left her room and decided to check on her. After knocking her door to no response, they opened the door and realised that there was a large pool of blood. After calling Luo’s school to check if she had gone to work, she realized what had happened.

    Source: www.allsingaporestuff.com

  • Singapore Students Spends Third Longest Time On Homework

    Singapore Students Spends Third Longest Time On Homework

    Students in Singapore are among the world’s most hard- working at home, clocking the third-longest time spent on homework, a report released this month has found.

    The country’s 15-year-olds said that they devoted 9.4 hours to homework a week, in the study by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

    They came in behind students in Shanghai, who spend 13.8 hours a week on homework, and those in Russia, who take 9.7 hours.

    Students in Finland and South Korea spent fewer than three hours – the least among the 65 countries and regions surveyed – on homework each week.

    The global average was about five hours’ worth of homework each week.

    The report was based on results from a questionnaire in 2012 for the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa), a test to measure academic achievement for 15-year-olds.

    Around 510,000 students took part in the test. They were asked questions about their school environment, families and attitudes towards subjects and school.

    The study found that students who did more homework scored higher in Pisa. For instance, Shanghai and Singapore, where students spent much of their time on homework, came in first and second respectively in the Pisa mathematics test in 2012.

    Across the countries and regions surveyed, students who came from socio-economically advantaged backgrounds tended to devote more hours to homework.

    A spokesman for the Ministry of Education (MOE) said Singapore’s weekly average of 9.4 hours on homework is “fairly reasonable for upper-secondary students, who would be preparing for the national examinations”.

    She said: “Homework, when used appropriately, can reinforce students’ learning, contribute to their progress and cultivate a healthy disposition towards learning.”

    But in response to parents’ concerns about excessive homework in recent years, schools have adopted policies to monitor and coordinate the homework load across subjects and departments.

    The MOE spokesman said: “Some teachers may get their students to complete their assignments in class or after school, rather than at home.”

    Swiss Cottage Secondary School student Nurul Amirah, 15, said her daily routine of homework and revision starts at 9pm and ends around midnight.

    “I spend more than 10 hours on homework every week. If exams are coming, I spend at least 15 hours. But I benefit from assignments that make me think more,” she said.

    She added that teachers and students list homework assignments on their classroom boards, so students do not get assigned too much work at any one time.

    Associate Professor Jason Tan, an education policy expert at the National Institute of Education, said: “The 9.4 hours do not seem that overwhelming, when students are taking six to nine subjects in Secondary 3.

    “But (the report) also doesn’t give any indication of the subjects the time is spent on, or the nature of homework, so it’s hard to draw any conclusions from this.”

    Prof Tan added that although students in South Korea and Japan were ranked low in the number of homework hours in this survey, they were not “learning any less”.

    “Their students spend long hours after school in cram schools similar to tuition centres, called juku in Japan and hagwon in Korea,” he said.

    It is difficult to set a “right” amount of homework for everyone, said Prof Tan.

    “Every student is different in terms of learning styles and interests, and each may need a different amount of time for practice.”

     

    Source: www.straitstimes.com

  • Suicide and Heart Attack Main Causes Of Deaths Of Adults In Singapore

    Suicide and Heart Attack Main Causes Of Deaths Of Adults In Singapore

    Suicide and heart attack were the top causes of deaths among 15- to 49-year-olds here last year, accounting for 337 lives, while the top killer for those aged 70 and older was pneumonia.

    These figures, which did not go into greater detail, come from a global study published in The Lancet medical journal yesterday comparing causes of death and burden of disease in 188 countries between 1990 and last year.

    In that period, global life expectancy went up from 65.3 years to 71.5 years – though people in Singapore fared far better with women living an average of 84 years and men 79.7 years.

    The study was funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, with hundreds of collaborators from around the world led by Professor Christopher Murray of the University of Washington.

    Prof Murray said collective action against potentially deadly infectious diseases such as diarrhoea, measles, tuberculosis, HIV and malaria has had a huge impact in reducing deaths.

    But he added that some major chronic diseases have been neglected and are becoming increasing threats to life, particularly drug disorders, liver cirrhosis, diabetes and kidney disease.

    In Singapore, deaths from chronic kidney disease and pancreatic cancer tripled between 1990 and last year. Pneumonia deaths also increased by 56 per cent.

    Associate Professor Reshma Merchant, who heads general medicine at National University Hospital, said pneumonia in the elderly is often due to dementia or frailty that causes difficulty in swallowing. She said: “Swallowing problems can have devastating health implications, including dehydration, malnutrition and pneumonia which affects quality of life and increases caregiver burden.”

    Deaths from congenital problems and asthma fell by 70 per cent and 39 per cent respectively.

    The study noted gender differences with far more men in Singapore dying from lung cancer and women from stroke. Last year, 953 men and 550 women died of lung cancer; and 1,449 women and 1,044 men from stroke.

    Dr Ross Soo, a senior cancer consultant at the National University Cancer Institute, said many studies show women with lung cancer do better than men – regardless of whether they have radiation or chemotherapy. He added: “The reasons for the gender differences are very complex and are not well understood.”

    At a global level, standardised for age, deaths from some cancers have fallen since 1990: lung by 9 per cent, breast by 18 per cent and leukaemia by 20 per cent. Deaths from heart disease and strokes have fallen by over 20 per cent.

     

    Source: www.straitstimes.com