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One of the things I noticed when I was with Yichen at NUH was the large number of foreigners, both staff and patients. That got me thinking… are our healthcare adequate to deal with the exploding population?
I have no intention of blogging about this since I am in the midst of planning my exit (perpetually), so I didn’t care less… but I saw this article, so thought I might as well.
During Yichen’s admission into NUH, they actually advised her to go home and return whenever tests are needed after waiting for more than 3 hours for a bed. There was an old lady who had a minor stroke and has been waiting for a bed for more than 5 hours until she got so sick of it she started doing stretching and exercising at the waiting area. Apparently the hospital was quite overcrowded and not enough people was checking out. :S
I insisted that she be admitted (I wanted my fucking answer, that was the only way she could claim her insurance and I pay through medisave!!!) and the whole bloody process took almost a day.
So much for the world-class branding once again. :S
I’ve been busy the past few days running in and out of the hospital due to my wife’s condition… but it’s time to catch up with the action again! 
Referenced from this article on Temasek Review.
Temasek Review is a good place to get the REAL news, although some articles are simply bashing, it does provide a clearer picture of what our world-class state media can’t do.
I shall save the thousand words and just link the pictures here.
Definitely world-class, without a doubt. We’re always at or near the top… at the wrong end. Perhaps that is the same problem with the salary of the men-in-white.
Doesn’t take a genius to observe the trend…
I wonder is their 8.8% increase to their already world-class salary in Budget 2010 is justified.
Well… just for kicks, here’s the list. Before the increment. Obama is 3rd on the list of World Leaders (he couldn’t even make to the list below) and getting an annual salary of US$400,000 with a $50,000 allowance. More information on how expensive they are here.
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The TOP 30 highest paid politicians in the world are all from Singapore:
1. Elected President SR Nathan – S$3.9 million.
2. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong – S$3.8 million.
3. Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew – S$3.5 million.
4. Senior Minister Goh Chok Thong – S$3.5 million.
5. Senior Minister Prof Jayakumar – S$3.2 million.
6. DPM & Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng – S$2.9 million.
7. DPM & Defence Minister Teo Chee Hean – $2.9 million
8. Foreign Affairs Minister George Yeo – S$2.8 million.
9. National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan – S$2.7 million.
10. PMO Miniser Lim Boon Heng – S$2.7 million.
11. Trade and Industry Minister Lim Hng Kiang – S$2.7 million.
12. PMO Minister Lim Swee Say – S$2.6 million.
13. Environment Minister & Muslim Affairs Minister Dr Yaccob Ibrahim – S$2.6 million.
14. Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan – S$2.6 million.
15. Finance Minister S Tharman – S$2.6 million.
16. Education Minister & 2nd Minister for Defence Dr Ng Eng Hen – S$2.6 million.
17. Community Development Youth and Sports Minister – Dr Vivian Balakrishnan – S$2.5 million.
18. Transport Minister & 2nd Minister for Foreign Affairs Raymond Lim Siang Kiat – S$2.5 million.
19. Law Minister & 2nd Minister for Home Affairs K Shanmugam – S$2.4 million.
20. Manpower Minister Gan Kim Yong – S$2.2 million.
21. PMO Minister Lim Hwee Hwa – S$2.2 million
22. Acting ICA Minister – Lui Tuck Yew – S$2.0 million.
23 to 30 = Senior Ministers of State and Ministers of State – each getting between S$1.8 million to S$1.5 million.
Note: 1. The above pay does not include MP allowances, pensions and other sources of income such as Directorship, Chairmnship, Advisory, Consultancy, etc to Gov-linked and gov-related organisations or foreign MNCs such as Citigroup, etc.
2. Though it is based on an estimate, the data cannot be far off the official salary scales.
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Just 1 more feel-good picture from here.
Just when we’re kicking off our healthy lifestyle campaign…
Last Sunday my poor wife almost fainted from some mysterious abdomen pain. This is not the first time it happened. The first time was in Taiwan last April… and since then, it had happened 3 more times. Luckily, she was always with me when it came and nothing serious happened when she passed out. The doctors we visited the last 3 times couldn’t find anything wrong with her. All we got were some medicine and “feel-good so you can go away and we can bill you an astronomical sum” answers… so I wasn’t going to let anyone get away easy this time!
I bought her to the Women’s Clinic at KKH that afternoon. When we saw the doctor, first question he had for us was something like “Why did we come here? We’re not A&E, we deal with women’s problems like ermmm…” But I’m quite sure Yichen is a woman and the place is called Women’s Clinic. I don’t know what he was driving at but he stopped his ranting anyway and started doing some tests and such… and as expected, couldn’t find out anything wrong. Said the fainting spell sounds like a seizure or something and could be brain related. :S Wrote us a referral letter (So that we can get a public patient referral instead of private) to a neurologist via a polyclinic. Yichen had to suffer another night of pain at home.
Usually the pain would be gone within a few hours but it didn’t this time. We went to the polyclinic the next morning and got our referral to NUH A&E… where she spent the past 3 days fasting, doing tests and scans and they finally found out that she had a colon ulcer. I’ll give a pass ranting how crappy they are since they eventually found out the cause. Gotta give a kudos to the nurses though. 
I’m not sure what symptoms all the other doctors missed the previous times, but I’m sure if their own wives run the risk of fainting randomly, they would have wanted an answer as well. And it took us 4 times to get ours.
Xiaoming is almost half way to 3 now. It’s time to start his training!
My mum threw me into the swimming pool when I was 3. My uncle trained me well, and it did a world of good for me. It also provided with great all-round fitness, physique and a nice tan to go with as well… so this is something I hope to impart to the little dude.
We started bringing him swimming every alternate day since we came back from Taiwan and he’s loving it. It’s also helping Yichen’s back problem quite a bit.
Some other things that I have in mind is basketball, of course. And power training and triathlon. Power training is most effective when young, but you can only start it after age 7, so I would probably need to research a bit on that… but the benefits sports wise is awesome. Naturally, along with all that, comes triathlon… but that’s just a plan. Maybe he’ll grow up to dislike sports. Who knows… :S
2009 “10 Worst Toys” List
I got this list from the W.A.T.C.H (World Against Toys Causing Harm, Inc) website. Geez… I actually let Xiaoming play with the Wolverine figurine and the CAT mini at Toys ‘R Us. Close brush with impending doom!
And don’t forget the dangers of lead content in brightly colored toys!
What’s safe nowadays? Sigh…
An interesting read here.
Till now, I am sitting on the fence regarding this. It’s not the cost that matters, but rather, is there at point at all?
In the end, we just donated it as Yichen and my family history are both pretty clean.. Hopefully it will help someone who really needs it.
I finally decided to make the big move. I have been using the E71 for close to 2 years. It’s the longest I have stuck to any phone, and hands down the best one I have ever used. I spent a few months pondering this upgrade… and when I saw the free for life OVI Maps for the E72, I was the last nail in my wallet.
A comprehensive review here. As you can see, this was written in August last year, so I have been holding back for almost half a year. Gotta give some credit to myself!
Both my E71 and E72 are the exact same color as the 2 shown in the review (above). I kinda regret getting the black E72 now ‘coz the silver corners don’t really go well with the black face, unlike the black steel E71 which matches really well. The silver E72 actually looks better after I saw it at a store just now. Also, the build quality of the E72 actually feels kinda like made-in-china plasticky compared to the solid svelte piece of steel E71 that will kill someone if thrown with enough power. I’ve dropped my E71 enough times to know how well it is built… not sure if the E72 will hold together for so long!
Useability wise, it retains most of the E71 plus points while adding many new features of its own, so the experience of using it has been positive so far. It should be hanging around for a while.
And I say again, OVI Maps are now FREE FOR LIVE. (For all the newer Nokia models with GPS) You get FREE driving and walking navigation, Lonely Planet guides etc. for the ENTIRE planet… well, those with maps that is. Just getting it for the GPS alone is already worth the buck. Why are there people still using Garmin? *Scratch head*
svelte
The weather took a bit of getting used to again. So how cold was it the night we flew back?
Damn bloody cold. Xiaoming was wearing 5 tops and 2 pants. I was in my Columbia Vertigo skiing jacket and it took me less than a minute to start shivering while I was unloading my luggage from the bus onto the airport trolley. Brrr…
It’s become like a regular thing when I travel. Just a bit of flashback…
- Spain 2003: Extreme heat wave that killed many people, but luckily I left a few days earlier due to the strike that was happening in France.
- New Zealand 2003: It was suppose to be early Spring with perfect weather… but somehow, the near-zero weather clung on and and on… Ended up spending quite a bit on winter wear, but not as much as Hong Kong though.
- Hong Kong 2004: Coldest winter in the past century, people actually waited on The Peak for snow. I was in tees and jeans when I arrived and ended up spending more than S$400 on winter wear trying to survive near-zero temperatures with wind-chill and sleeping in a non-heated apartment. Oh did I mention the Tsunami that wiped out Phuket, the initial destination of our choice. Whew…
- Taiwan 2004: Coldest winter in recent history, so cold that anywhere over 800m snowed across the entire island. Brrr…
Most of the recent Taiwan trips have been met with strange weather too, but nothing as bad as what happened in2003- 2004 though. Must be the badass El-Nino!
Why am I talking about this? Heaviest snow in Japan in the past 4 years, -40c in Haerbin… and I’m waiting to fly back on the coldest day of one of the worst cold snap in recent history at bloody 0740h. It’s all coming again!
I probably will welcome the heat back home though… for a day.
Photos are all uploaded here.
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Paya Lebar, SINGAPORE
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