Singaporeans should just send the elderly to nursing homes in JB

Singaporeans could consider living in nursing homes in neighbouring Johor Baru. It would be cheaper, yet be near enough to Singapore for family members to visit and for residents to return for medical care if necessary.

-- Khaw Boon Wan, Health Minister

Since you are not producing babies, no Saturday offs for you!

We should accept that as a people our procreation talent is not our forte - nothing to crow about. I urge the Government to take steps to determine whether our productivity and competitiveness have been affected by the five-day week and to review the policy, if necessary.

I have nothing against our young Singaporeans having fun and partying. But I hope they will work as hard as they play.

-- Loo Choon Yong, Nominated MP

The internet is not an effective self-regulated regime

Contrary to what some may feel, Mr Lui Tuck Yew has said the internet is not an effective self-regulated regime. Mr Lui added that the internet community had not done enough to rebut some of the unhelpful comments delivered by fellow netizens.

He said bloggers and website proprietors need to maintain credibility, while netizens should do more to establish and enforce the norms of acceptable online behaviour.

"It is a squandered opportunity for a higher degree of self-regulation. It would have been an example of the genesis of the first step towards a more responsible, a greater self-regulatory regime. But many of those responses were not rebutted nor answered. And I think it is not healthy for some of those to remain on the net unchallenged, unquestioned, and unanswered."

-- Lui Tuck Yew, Senior Minister of State for Information, Communications and the Arts

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The lesser mortals get envious when MPs brag about their luxury lives

Maybe it made lesser mortals envious and they thought maybe he was a little bit boastful...would people have taken offence if his wife (a senior investment counsellor at a bank) had paid for everything?

-- Charles Chong, Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC MP

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Cooking Up The Holiday Spirit with just S$45,000

"We found out that Le Cordon Bleu Paris runs intensive courses in culinary and patisserie from mid-November to December. These are the regular three-month classes they run but compressed into five weeks, with no loss in content.

To my surprise and theirs, I told them I would sign up for the course with them. (Taking five weeks’ leave from work is not as difficult as one thinks. Most times, when you are at the top, you think you are indispensable. But if you are a good leader who has built up a good team, it is possible to go away for five weeks or even longer.)

It would be quality family time for the three of us. My daughter Yanying, 23, would join us in Paris in our last week, since she could not take such long leave because she had just started working."

-- Tan Yong Soon, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Environment and Water Resources

The Intensive Cuisine Certificate Programme:
Basic: 7,750 euros (S$15,500)
Intermediate: 7,600 euros
Superior: 7,700 euros

Three meals in a hawker centre, food court or restaurant?

When reminded it is about time to increase the amount to give to the poor, the Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports said...


Dr Lily Neo: Sir, I want to check with the Minister again when he said on the strict criteria on the entitlement for PA recipients. May I ask him what is his definition of “subsistence living”? Am I correct to say that, out of $260 per month for PA recipients, $100 goes to rental, power supply and S&C and leaving them with only $5 a day to live on? Am I correct to say that any basic meal in any hawker centre is already $2.50 to $3.00 per meal? Therefore, is it too much to ask for just three meals a day as an entitlement for the PA recipients?

Dr Vivian Balakrishnan: How much do you want? Do you want three meals in a hawker centre, food court or restaurant?