Alice Cheong

The following news catched my eye.

Quoting  ST 28 Jan 2010 acticle “Medisave as a screening option”

Breast cancer screening is affordable – around $100, or $50 in polyclinics, with subsidies. During promotional campaigns, it can cost as little as $25. According to Dr Donald Poon of the National Cancer Centre, response ‘is dismal even at heavily discounted rates’.

Quoting TNP 12 Oct 2009 acticle “Turned away from mannogram promotion”

THE two friends were excited by the promotion. They were going to pay only $25 for a mammogram which usually costs $100. But when the two retirees turned up at the National Cancer Centre Singapore (NCCS) headquarters on Hospital Drive yesterday, they were turned away. All the places had been taken up, they were told. A disappointed Madam Eileen Yeo, 62, said: “We made the effort to go down on time but we were told it was fully booked. “We didn’t even know there were only 150 places available. It was not stated in their advertisement.”

Hmm… I wonder what is the benchmark for poor response at discounted rate…

Is the figure of 150 undergoing the promotional mammogram considered a poor response, since the absolute number is just a fraction of the Singapore’s female population?

Or is response overwhelming as the promotion was unable to cope with the number of people turning up?

Dear Readers,

It has been a pleasure keeping this blog. However, as my webhost has decided to close his business and will be pulling the plug off the web server at the end of this month, this blog is now looking for a new home (Webhost), and will be homeless (unavailable) till it finds it’s next home (Webhost).

Regards,
Alice Cheong

On the 9th Aug 2009, our country celebrated her 44th birthday. This year, we are also celebrating our country’s 50 years of self-governance. As a young country, we have come very far and fast, advancing from a third world with no natural resources, scarce land and high unemployment to a remarkable first world country.

We have achieved racial and civil stability, surmounting the early days of riots ranging from the 1950 Maria Hertogh Riots, the 1964 Racial Riots, to the 1955 Hock Lee bus riots. Economically, our country enjoys a high GDP and is ranked the 5th world-wide by the IMF in 2008. Socially, our government encourages work-life balance.

Singapore’s population has also changed from the early years consisting of mainly lowly educated migrants, to a mainly highly educated citizens and residents. This highly educated population has been infused with different culture, beliefs and philosophies. With this demography change, the method of governance is also changing. However, change is always slow, and shrew gentle influence may be required to affect existing government policies, which were adopted at a time when things were different.

A number of recent changes can be seen with the changes in policies. For example, in 2000, the Speakers’ corner was established in Hong Lim Park, in 2003, the intake quota for female medical students was abolish, while in 2004, the grant of citizenship by descent has been made constitutionally gender neutral.

Despite the commonly perceived view that the people’s opinion will not be heard, changes are happening, albeit slowly. Now, for those who are interested to contribute in their own little ways, there is a chance. Singapore, being part of ASEAN, is involved in the ASEAN Charter, which is forming “The ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on ASEAN Human Rights” – an ASEAN human rights body during the ASEAN summit in Thailand this Oct. A consultation workshop, is to be held this 22 Aug 2009 Sat, to contribute to the reflection on the issues of engaging appropriately and effectively with this new human rights body.

The details of this consultation workshop is as follows. Click here for registration.
Event: Consultation Workshop on “Engaging the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) – The People’s Views”
Date: 22 Aug 2009, Sat
Time: 8:30am to 3:45pm
Venue: Novotel Hotel, Clarke Quay
Organiser: MARUAH (Singapore Working Group for an ASEAN Human Rights Mechanism)
Sponsoring Partner: Konrad Adenauer Stiftung
Partners:
Institute of Southeast Asian Studies
ASEAN Studies Centre

This is an interesting exercise to analyse the sales of Alexis (development with 293 units), which is supposed to be hail as the turning point of condo property in Singapore.

As a brief primer to those who are unsure of the procedure for purchase of condo, a typical purchase consists of the following steps.

Step 0: Reserve a unit. *Optional.
(Your agent will assist to reserve the unit for typically a few hours to 1-2 days, until you provide the cash/cheque for the booking fees. Not legal binding for both parties.)

Step 1: Book a unit (with 1%-5% cash/cheque) in exchange for “Option to Purchase”. *Optional.
(Typically, the option expiry in 2 weeks. However, some extend it to 3 weeks. A percentage of this “Option money” is forfeited if the interested party decides not to exercise the option to purchase.)

Step 2: Exercise option to purchase.
(Total payment required (including the “option money”) at exercising of option is 5% cash/cheque. This is also the contract date.)

Step 3: Pay the remaining balance required.
(Within typically 8 weeks, provide payment for the remaining 15%-95%, depending on the stage of completion of property.)

Let’s look at the dates of various events and dates of media publication.

12 Feb Thu
1st day of preview launch

13 Feb Fri
2nd day of preview launch,
BT “Alexis at Alexandra pulls in the punters” (quoting article “at least 50 per cent of development has been sold”)

14 Feb Sat
ST “90% of Alexandra Road condo sold”

18 Feb Wed
BT “Some Alexis buyers offer units in subsalemarket”

Now, let’s look at the contract date of the sales of Alexis from Realis.

10-Feb Tue – 1 unit
13-Feb Fri – 3 units (On 2nd preview day)
19-Feb Thu – 1 unit (6 days after 2nd preview day)
26-Feb Thu – 13 units (13 days after 2nd preview day)
27-Feb Fri – 7 units (14 days after 2nd preview day) – 25 units from launch day

02-Mar Mon – 16 units (17 days after 2nd preview day)
03-Mar Tue – 22 units (18 days after 2nd preview day)
04-Mar Wed – 28 units (19 days after 2nd preview day)
05-Mar Thu – 32 units (20 days after 2nd preview day)
06-Mar Fri – 8 units (21 days after 2nd preview day) – 131 units from launch day

10-Mar Tue – 85 units (25 days after 2nd preview day)
11-Mar Wed – 12 units (26 days after 2nd preview day) – 228 units from launch day

25-Mar Wed – 32 units (40 days after 2nd preview day)
30-Mar Mon – 1 unit (45 days after 2nd preview day)
31-Mar Tue – 1 unit (46 days after 2nd preview day)
06-Apr Mon – 5 units (52 days after 2nd preview day)
15-Apr Wed – 1 unit (61 days after 2nd preview day) – 268 units from launch day

Analysis of data

So, what has actually happened? Based on the data, assuming that the option expiry is a lax 3 weeks from the 2nd preview day, we observed that 131 units was actually sold with the excising of option to purchase. That is 45% of the development.

I wonders what happened to the other 45%, since ST reported that “90% of Alexandra Road condo sold”. The most natural explanation is that those interested parties decided to forgo their reservation or booking with the forfeit of a percentage of their option money. Or perhaps, additional grace of time was given.

Oh, back to the point, within an addition of around 5 days (14-18 Feb), while the good news that “Alexis condo sold like hot cakes” sinks into our mind, 97 additional Option To Purchase were exercised on 10-11 Mar, where the earliest date of issuing of option (with expiry of 3 weeks) is at around 17-18 Feb.

No matter whether the news played any factor, or whether the lure of the discount at the preview price, or the good location of the development, or the pricing of the units at affordable price, the sales of Alexis, with a total of 268 units (>90%) sold to date, is a great achievement in the then recession months, and will always be hail as the turning point. (SIngapore is “officially” out of recession.)

Reading the ST article regarding PSC chairman Mr Eddie Teo’s eight-page opening letter to school on the selection process for PSC scholarship, evoked the feeling of hope for the future of civil service.

The article showed glimpse of insight onto the ground feeling, that equates obedience and ‘yes’ man as the mandate for staying in civil service. It is heartening to hear that Mr Teo is appalled to hear from a scholarship candidate that he will obey his superior instructions despite possibly contravening policies* due to vested interest, in order to be obedient.

It is even more interesting to hear the subtle encouragement to challenge authority shrewdly and with street-savvyness, through it is uncommon for shrewdness and street-savvyness to be applied in this sense.

This declaration that the public service is not looking for conformists and ‘yes-men’, is a good step forward, but hopefully, the few mavericks is equipped with sufficient Emotional Quotient, that enables him or her to survive without the possible backlash ranging from transposition of credit dues and mistakes committed and bad performance review**, leading to stagnant in salary, additional or impossible workload, and/or assign/transfer to strategically remote post as part of job rotation/career development initiative.

* Depending on the award process, it might or might not contravene policies. However, it is known that in the view of possible vested interest, a tender may be held. And as such, the drafting of the tender requirements may be skewed with shrew justifications provided to ensure the required end result, without contravening any policy.

** Performance review affects merit salary increment and bonuses. Judging by the number of months that this component is based on historical records, I do wonder how much does integrity cost. Ops, I forgot, in research, passion feeds, and in work, integrity feeds.

If life is short, would we treasure time, and stop being such superficial political creatures? Would our culture on obedience, ranks and money change? Would we be less self-centered when faced with family and strangers? Would we spend less time in front of the television and game console? What would one do?

What if tomorrow we happen to be the less than 2% statistic? What regrets will one have? When life is cut short, we often lament that life shortchanged us. But, how often have we been shortchanging ourselves, and waste a lifetime away in the spirit of working for a better future?

This is a call for all working adults who had a life (played computer games) when they were still studying, and all students who are interested in the gaming or game developments.

Let me start with the working adults. Do you remember the game Pong? Maybe you are younger than the pong days. What about Pac-Man? Donkey Kong? Mario? Those were the days… So nostalgic… Monochrome computer days. The green dot pixel display. Games loaded from floppy disks, of size in kilobytes. Harddisk were of size in tens of Megabyte. Programming were done in Assembly language or Basic language. Ops… you have a rough guage of my age.

I still remember that some of the games were available on PC, while others were commonly available in arcade or specialized game console. Super Mario was one of my favorite, but I didn’t have the game console, and so could only played it in the holidays at my relative’s home. Those were the days…

Now, you got your chance to have a glimpse of 30 years of gaming culture in the up-coming single (1 concert, only) concert – Video Games Live, the first Southeast Asian appearance at your door-step in Singapore Indoor Stadium (on 19 Jun 2009, starting at 8pm of duration 2.5hrs). Booking is available through SISTIC. Don’t say that I didn’t mention that it is only a single concert, and that it has been the most successful video game concert in the world.

Now, for students who are interested in the gaming or game developments, there isn’t any better chance to experience the entire 30 years of gaming culture than this concert. You can see the development of games from dot display, to crude visual graphics, to the current realistic computer graphics which you can mistaken as real-life. 30 years of development does a great difference to game developments. Err… maybe you want to pause playing Final Fantasy or Warcraft for a while, and make the concert booking. Just kidding, you are reading my blog at the moment, and there is no pause.

There is the details of the concert (Booking is available through SISTIC):

Video Games Live
Date: 19 Jun 2009 Friday 8pm
Duration: Approximately 2.5hrs (Pre-show festival from 6pm onwards)
Interval: Approximately 20 mins
Venue: Singapore Indoor Stadium
Ticket pricing(excluding booking fee): S$115, S$85, S$70, S$55
Discount: 10% discount available for local student
Official Website: http://www.vgl-sea.com/
Articles/Bloglinks: CNET Asia, Sheylara, Precious-Living

I was reading the Straits Times, and is appalled that Singapore actually does license hotels at locations away from the airport to charge accommodation at hourly-rate, apparently with no mention of restriction to only transit passengers. What!? Are we a sleazy city country?

Hourly-rate accommodation (also commonly known as transit accommodation), which is a feature usually at airports, is commonly meant to provide the weary transit passengers with a comfortable private resting area.

However, it is often a different scenario when hourly-rate accommodation is provided at locations away from airport. In the heartlands, and especially within the legally provided red-light district, it’s role is often as a very budget private room for purchased sex. Yes, it is so budget that the hourly rate starts from below the starting charge for a taxi booking made within CBD after work ($10.30)*, to around the cost of an adult ez-link card ($15).

So, with the ease that one can find budget hourly-rated hotel rooms, my view is that we are in effect silently practicing the line of thought that we are just being an open society, where we assume that people are responsible. Sex, regardless of whether being purchased or not (mistress?), is a private issue, and is just a human need (and will not be legally punishable, if it does not contravene any laws).

Sigh… Temptation does not mix well with responsibility. So, now I know that there is another temptation that exists in Singapore. That is in addition to betting, be it with Singapore Pools or our future Casinos. Sounds like writing 此地无银三百两.

* ($3+$3.50+$2.80+$1=$10.30) $3.00 CBD charge, $3.50 Booking charge at peak hour, $2.80 Flag down charge, $1.00 35% peak hour charge on flag down.

Frankly speaking, reading about the court in St. Paul, Minnesota authorising electroshock treatment as therapy for certain mental illness on a certain person, brings about repulsion. Shouldn’t such treatment be conducted on voluntary basis?

So, what is this electroshock treatment? It is usually termed as electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), which is medically approved for depression treatment. This treatment uses electricity to induce seizure on a patient which is under general anesthesia. Medically, it is touted to be a safe and effective method.

Short term memory lost, and difficulties remember events from the time during and around the ECT treatment to confusion immediately after treatment is benignly termed as adverse effects.

Quoting ST, “‘It’s not torture,’ said Dr William McDonald, a psychiatry professor at Emory University who chairs an American Psychiatric Association committee on ECT.”

Two questions for all the advocates of forced treatment: Would they be willing to be forced to undergoing this safe treatment in a double-blinded study? Yes? No? Do the scientific community understood when and what makes the treatment works and when it doesn’t? If no, why should the court orders a person to take the risk of a treatment which may not work on him or her?

The EOGM is over, and reins of AWARE has been handed back to the old guards. However, the AWARE affair is far from over.

A number of issues are in hand.

1) The $90k spent in 5 weeks by the ousted exco is over the $20k upper limit of what the exco is authorised to spend in a month. This issue will have to be solved and accounted for. In NGO, every cents count.

2) The influx of roughly 3k new members, where some are unfamiliar with AWARE. How are these 3k new members going to be integrated into AWARE? Many have abilities, and are willing to contribute. How is AWARE going to tap into their expertise?

3) There is 761 members who voted against the old guards. How is AWARE going to engage them? Will them lay hibernating, and perhaps strike again in future? Will they actively makes life difficult for AWARE to carried out activities? Or will they contribute in their own way to AWARE?

With the take-over and ousting, trust was lost. and 2 camps are formed, where each camp is united. The old guards got back their association, and perhaps the other camp can consider setting up their own association too. The 2 camps obviously have different ideas on association management, public relations, democracy, and target group of people their will like to assist.