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Address unhappiness of workers:
Wen tells Japan
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao told a visiting Japanese delegation yesterday that Japanese companies in China should address the unhappiness of workers over low wages that he says led to labour disputes this year.
Mr Wen’s comment comes after Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada called for “transparent policies” governing workers in China, saying the labour disputes that halted work at dozens of factories were troubling Japanese companies.
Mr Okada brought up the issue at a meeting between China and Japan in Beijing to discuss ways to recover from the economic crisis and foster cooperation.
Mr Wen met the Japanese delegation yesterday. AP
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Japan’s Premier wants to keep jobs at home
Japan’s Premier has ordered his Economy, Trade and Industry Minister to draw up a plan to boost domestic investment and keep jobs at home as a strong yen pressures firms to move factories abroad, reports said yesterday.
Mr Naoto Kan has instructed Mr Masayuki Naoshima to compile “a programme to promote domestic investment” by October.
Mr Kan plans to incorporate part of the blueprint into a fresh stimulus he will outline tomorrow.
“In order to fix the economy,
the first thing to do is create jobs,
the second to do is (keep) jobs,”
he said on Saturday.
Mr Kan also renewed pressure on the central bank to take additional monetary easing measures. AFP
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Australia in a good position
Australian Treasurer Wayne Swan said yesterday that, while “uncertainties and fragilities” remain in the global economy, Australia is in a strong position.
There are signs that construction is recovering in the country and the outlook for business investment is “very strong”, Mr Swan said in his first weekly economic note since the general election on Aug 21 which resulted in a hung Parliament. BLOOMBERG
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HEARD:
- IllIquId
- hIgh transactIOn cOst
- lOw annUal yIeld
- lOw retUrn On capital
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SME SPOTLIGHT
Hot players in the frozen meat industry
Dec 2, 2009
By Jonathan Kwok
Couple help turn small family business into major local importer
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Mr Liew and Ms Tan with some of the frozen meat products that Pin Corp imports. -- ST PHOTO: AIDAH RAUF
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MR LIEW Yew Fah's elderly mother disapproves of his line of business.
But no, Mr Liew, 55, is not involved in some seedy aspect of the nightlife industry or anything like that.
Rather, he imports frozen meat - a product that has brought him and his wife, Ms Tan Seng Eng, 51, business success in the past 14 years.
However, his mum, like many older people, turns a cold shoulder to frozen meat.
He said: 'It takes time to change the mindsets of the people, and older people are likely to continue their ways.
'Even my mother doesn't believe in frozen meat, although her son is in this business. She prefers to buy fresh meat from the market.
'However, younger people are more likely to buy frozen meat, due to the fact that it is more convenient and more hygienic,' he explained.
The Singaporean couple have transformed a small-time family business into a major player in the local meat distribution industry.
Pin Corp is now one of the largest importers of frozen meat in Singapore.
Turnover last year was $100 million. Its 400 to 500 clients include major supermarket chains such as Cold Storage and Sheng Siong.
Strange as it may sound, a Spanish information technology company was instrumental in Pin Corp's success.
Mr Liew and Ms Tan both worked for the company, Fagor Automation, in management positions over an eight year period in Hong Kong and Taiwan.
In 1995, the couple decided to give up their high-flying careers in Hong Kong and return to Singapore to help expand a small meat distribution company run by Ms Tan's two younger brothers.
Ms Tan said: 'My brothers asked us to join them and restructure the business.'
They were keen to run their own business to take control of their lives.
At that time, Pin Foods bought meat from importers and sold it to vendors in wet markets and food stalls. It was a small business, with about 10 staff and a monthly turnover of about $100,000.
After the couple joined, it was renamed Pin Corp. One of their first steps was to apply practices they had learnt abroad.
'The firm had no stock management system before we joined. When I came in, I asked them to do a stock-take immediately. From then onwards, everything had to be invoiced and documented correctly,' said Ms Tan, executive director of the company.
Pin Corp jettisoned its fresh meat business to concentrate on frozen meat.
Said Mr Liew, who is its managing director: 'Our land size in Singapore is too small for farming, and live chickens, ducks and pigs for fresh meat are imported only from our immediate neighbours.
'The meat from further afield needs to be frozen or chilled. As Singapore moves to diversify its food supply, we felt that frozen meat had better potential.'
To cut out the middleman, Pin Corp looked abroad to deal directly with meat exporters. A $300,000 credit line from a local bank helped cover the initial meat buys. Their experience in dealing with foreign partners also came in handy.
'For instance, we know that when we buy from Chinese companies, we have to entertain them, we have to drink and sing. They are alright if we call them out any time of the day,' said Mr Liew.
'The Germans, on the other hand, have always been family-oriented. We don't call them after 5 or 6 o'clock, and we don't call them on Sundays.'
By 1998, Pin Corp had struck agreements to import directly from suppliers in Europe, the United States, China, Thailand and Indonesia.
The business got a boost in 1999 after the Nipah virus struck pig farms in Malaysia and the Government stopped the import of live pigs and pork from Malaysia.
Mr Liew said consumers turned rapidly to chicken and frozen pork from elsewhere. Pin Corp's sales of frozen chicken meat doubled, while its sales of frozen pork shot up by 50 per cent.
Its reputation grew rapidly. In May 2004, it was invited by Cold Storage to supply meat for its in-house brand.
Cold Storage was impressed by the individually quick frozen (IQF) meat from Pin Corp's Brazilian supplier Sadia - a new product to Singapore.
Unlike conventional methods of packaging frozen meat in a single slab, IQF meat is chilled in loose pieces, which can be removed individually for cooking.
For conventionally packed meat, consumers usually thaw the entire packet and refreeze the unused portions, which Mr Liew says reduces freshness and encourages bacterial growth.
As the IQF meat packed for Cold Storage gained in popularity, Pin Corp started its own in-house brand, Linkrich, in August 2005, to market the IQF meat to other supermarkets and minimarts.
The brand started with five products. Today, it has more than 20 types of meat products, including duck meat and chicken nuggets.
Linkrich can be found at Prime and Sheng Siong supermarkets, as well as at about 100 minimarts islandwide.
Said Sheng Siong supermarkets' purchasing manager Phillip Leow: 'The sales of Linkrich are very good. We order around 75 tonnes of Linkrich products a month, and the demand is high all year round. Sometimes we even have to worry about the stocks running out.'
Pin Corp also supplies meat for the in-house brands of Carrefour, Shop N Save and Giant Hypermarket.
It says that it is one of the three largest frozen meat importers here, along with Singapore Food Industries and South Africa-based multinational company Angliss, part of Bidvest.
Pin Corp plans to expand its product range to build the business.
'We have always been dealing with meat, but we may go into frozen vegetables and frozen seafood. As long as it is frozen, we can bring it in,' said Ms Tan.
Mr Liew added with a laugh: 'But we won't frighten the ice-cream sellers. We won't bring in ice-cream, it is not our line.'
Pin Corp's achievements have not gone unnoticed.
In 2006, Mr Liew clinched a special mention award at the Entrepreneur of the Year awards. In the same year, the firm was a winner at the Enterprise 50 awards.
And two weeks ago, Linkrich was one of the winners in the Promising Brand category of this year's Singapore Prestige Brand Awards.
Closer to home, the couple is determined to win over consumers like Mr Liew's mother.
'Frozen meat is as tender, as tasty and as juicy as fresh meat. People were initially reluctant to switch to frozen meat, but we distributed fliers and leaflets at minimarts and at trade fairs to educate them that frozen meat is as good as fresh meat,' said Ms Tan.
jonkwok@sph.com.sg
EQUALLY GOOD
'People were initially reluctant to switch to frozen meat, but we distributed fliers and leaflets at minimarts and at trade fairs to educate them that frozen meat is as good as fresh meat.'
Ms Tan Seng Eng, Pin Corp's executive director
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Creating something
out of nothing
November 15, 2008 Saturday, 06:00 AM
Tan Hui Yee pays tribute to social entrepreneurs who started from scratch.
THE people had gathered on a Sunday afternoon to hear the luminaries of the social enterprise world speak, but it was a 78-year-old retiree who stole the limelight.
On the sidelines of the recent Global UBS Philanthropy Forum here in September (2008), the Lien Centre for Social Innovation had gathered together people like Ms Karen Tse, founder of legal rights group International Bridges To Justice, Mr Olivier de Guerre of French asset management group PhiTrust, which promotes business strategies that aid the disadvantaged, and Mr Alvaro Rodriguez from Mexican venture capital investment firm Ignia, which supports social enterprises.
The topic was on the promise of social entrepreneurship in Asia. A member of the audience asked how the social entrepreneurs found money to pursue their projects.
It was Mr Jack Sim, 51, the founder of World Toilet Organization, who told it best with a story about his 78-year-old mother.
Almost 50 years ago, the elder Mrs Sim wanted to learn smocking at the local community centre. But lessons there cost the $1 per hour and money was tight. Undeterred, she gathered six women in the neighbourhood and promised to teach them smocking for $1 per session.
After each lesson at the community centre, she passed the skills on to her neighbours, netting $5 each time.
About two years later, when smocking went out of fashion, Mrs Sim volunteered her services as a helper in a cosmetics counter and spent her time watching the beauty consultant do make-up for customers. Eventually, she bought her own set of cosmetics, practised applying make-up on her daughter, and opened her own beauty school.
Mr Sim's brainchild, the sanitation group World Toilet Organization, doesn't get much funding apart from $100,000 a year from the Lien Foundation. But it continues to grow by leaps and bounds by leveraging on the strengths of its partners or similar organisations around the world.
For its World Toilet Summit earlier this month, for example, it got a donor to fund one-third of the costs, and paid for the rest by organising an exhibition. It also gets its partners to lend their expertise, for example, instead of making cash donations.
Mr Sim was even named by Time magazine as one of the Heroes of the Environment this year (2008) and says that foreign governments "roll out the red carpet" for his projects overseas.
He told The Straits Times: "It’s a matter of confidence. If you take such a model, you can create anything from nothing. What you need is optimism and enterprise."
Unfortunately though, he doesn’t encounter the same enthusiasm back home. "I’m naturally patriotic, but the opportunities back home are like a desert. But it’s like what they say, prophets are not welcome at home."
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whIch Of CHINA's system Is cOmmUnIst ? ? ? ?
aLL fOrtUne 500 cOmpanIes are nOw establIshed In eIther BEiJiNG or SHANGHAi ?
nUmerOUs maInland chInese have becOme sIngapOreans ? ? ? ?
nUmerOUs maInland chInese have becOme sIngapOre PRs ? ? ? ?
nUmerOUs maInland chInese are In every cOrner Of sIngapOre ? ? ? ?
dO sIngapOreans sEE and fEEl the maInland chInese as cOmmUnIsts ? ? ? ?
are sIngapOreans threaten by the maInland chInese In any way bOth In sIngapOre and In maInland chIna ? ? ? ?
are sIngapOreans sOcial-cOmmUnIsts nOw ? ? ? ?
can anyOne recOgnIse and tEll whO Is a cOmmUnIst ? ? ? ?
can anyOne dIfferentIate the dIfference In lIfestyle between a maInland chInese and a sIngapOrean ? ? ? ?
maInland chInese alsO bOught and live In HDB flats In sIngapOre ? ? ? ?
maInland chInese Is the champIOn at wOrld's fIrst YOG In sIngapOre ? ? ? ?
maInland chInese alsO wOrk wIth sIngapOreans sIde by sIde everyday ?
are sIngapOreans harm by maInland chInese ? ? ? ?
are sIngapOreans benefItIng frOm maInland chInese's gOOds ? ? ? ?
are sIngapOreans benefItIng frOm maInland chInese's servIces In sIngapOre ? ? ? ?
what is cOmmUnIst tOday ? ? ? ?
Is cOmmUnIst a terrOrIst ? ? ? ?
Is cOmmUnIst a phIlanthrOpIst ? ? ? ?
artng25 ( Date: 25-Aug-2010 16:04) Posted:
All I know is they are 'Communist'
pharoah88 ( Date: 25-Aug-2010 16:00) Posted:
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CHINA LEADERS ?
CLEMENTLY ?
INTEGRITY ?
TRUTHFULLY ?
INNOCENTLY ?
HONESTLY ?
DECENTLY ?
ALLERGIC TO WEALTH ?
nOt mOney face ?
UNgreedy ?
UNselfish ?
selflessly ?
HOLY ?
nObelly ?
PURELY ?
CLEANLY ?
WHOLE-HEARTEDLY ?
CARINGLY ?
PROFESSIONALLY ?
PHILANTHROPICALLY ? |
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What dId CPF bOard and relevant minIstry cOntrIbute tO the retIrement cOncern ?
jUst eXtend retIrement agE ? ? ? ?
spend mOre mOney tO attend cOurses whIch dOes nOt secUre any emplOyment ? ? ? ?
emplOyment pOsItIOns fOr the AGED have nOt bEEn crEated ? ? ? ?
pharoah88 ( Date: 29-Aug-2010 12:13) Posted:
What if you run out of money halfway
into your reitrement ?
SINGAPOREANS' TOP 5 FEARS
in achieving their retirement planning
- Illness
- Loss of employment and income
- Investment uncertainties causing monetary loss,
change of lifestyle (sudden death of breadwinner, marital problems)
- Inflation
- Continued economic downturn |
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The stIgma of grey
February 28, 2009 Saturday, 06:00 AM
Tan Hui Yee muses on the negativity associated with being 'old'.
TO DYE to not to dye? That question popped up one day, during the preparation for my Saturday Special Report on ageism, when retiree Lena Lim, 71, talked about how she felt excluded at parties when she no longer dyed her grey hair black. Suddenly, she was deemed 'old' and no longer interesting. It turned out later to be an emotive topic among colleagues. Dyeing, they said, was a no-brainer because 'grey hair ages you'. Would you go for a job interview with grey hair, they asked? What was left unsaid: Would you want to be judged on how old you looked, and, because of the negative associations that being 'old' has, potentially lose out that job you are eyeing? It is a hard question to answer, when society's ageist attitudes may force you to walk the line irregardless of your personal convictions. Dr Robyn Stone, the executive director of the Institute for the Future of Ageing Services in the United States, thinks that 'our natural ageing process is really important'. 'Ageing builds character in individuals and societies. When you take that away, you don't have that opportunity in your society.' Technology has made if possible for someone who is 60 to look 40, but it cannot mitigate the ageism that arises when everybody tries to look young. That lone grey haired women in the corner sticks out like a sore thumb because she suddenly doesn't look natural. What would that kind of future look like, when everybody looks 'young'? Would the term 'young' still mean anything? It is a paradox similar to one presented in the common line: Would we know what it is like to be happy if we have never experienced sadness? Take out the grey, and we lose an important shade of Singapore. But the journey to erasing its stigma can be long and - in the case of Lena – sometimes lonely.
Read Hui Yee's Saturday Special Report on Ageism here
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It's about choice, not money
January 30, 2010 Saturday, 06:00 AM
Tan Hui Yee says going organic is a simple act of exercising conscious choice.
'I THINK that you have to be a cocaine dealer to be able to afford to eat ethically,' my colleague declared recently.
She had just enjoyed a meal made with ingredients like organic free-range chicken, which cost $33 each, and organic free-range pork, which cost a jaw-dropping $49 per kg. This was part of a food tasting session arranged for this Saturday Special Report on ethical eating.
The animals were bred in the United States and New Zealand on organic feed and had access to pastures instead of being cooped up in pens at conventional farms.
Sure, the meat was exquisite, but she and a couple of other colleagues at the tasting felt the cost was just too high for everyday consumption.
That’s fair enough, but it is a stretch to conclude that ethical eating is too expensive as the practice is as much about what you avoid eating as it is about what you eat.
Someone who adopts a vegetarian diet to reduce animal suffering could end up spending less than a conventional diner as meat dishes always cost more at food outlets.
And meat lovers can always eating less steak, chicken and so on, which would mean - again - lower food bills.
Detractors love to thumb their noses at organic food on the basis of its relatively higher cost. Going organic, they say, is just too impractical for the average person.
But organic can be used as a benchmark for sustainable agriculture rather than some standard for ethical eating. In other words, it’s okay not to choose organic produce, as long as you demand your food producer grow your vegetables in a manner that is safe for you as well as the environment.
Internationally certified organic standards can be hard to meet, especially for small farmers who have no means of knowing if chemicals had been used on their soil by previous occupants. A farmer who tries his darndest to reduce pollution and support wildlife on his land deserves support – organic or not.
In fact, part of the process of ethical eating is communicating your choices to those who matter.
Have you ever wondered if those prawns at your fishmonger’s were farmed or wild-caught? (Prawn farming has been blamed for the destruction of the region’s mangroves.) Have you bothered to ask him about it?
If enough people did, he might just think twice about stocking that product in the future.
Simply put, there are no gold standards to ethical eating, no checklists to follow. It is a simple act of exercising conscious choice over what you put in your mouth.
Those who choose to walk this path do what they can, and don’t beat themselves up over the stuff that they miss.
It’s okay to slip up, they say.
Redemption is just a meal away.
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Aug 28, 2010
Sex best taught at home
AS A former educator and a mother of two - a son and a daughter - I believe that sex education is best taught at home with the parents being the prime educators.
Lessons on sexuality should begin when children are preschoolers, when curiosity about differences in anatomy is aroused. This early start can help prevent child molestation.
I have always believed that since I brought my children into the world, it is my duty to teach and enlighten them about the human anatomy. And I did.
In their growing years, I taught them about respect for one's body and that of the opposite sex.
If parents teach their children the right things while they are young, they will never live to regret it.
Julia Sng (Mrs)
http://www.straitstimes.com/STForum/OnlineStory/STIStory_571764.html
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Listen up and listen close
August 21, 2010 Saturday, 06:00 AM
Tan Hui Yee finds out what teens think about sex education
I DON’T particularly love children. I was an awkward child, a gawky teenager, and really quite happy to cross the threshold into adulthood when the time came.
I never thought I would have to deal with teen issues, or come across them again, until a lunchtime discussion with a colleague earlier this year turned up a rather intriguing question: What do teenagers think about sexuality education?
You see, up until then, the whole debate on the topic was centred around adults.
Last year (2009), a group of women from the same church tried to take over feminist group Association of Women for Action and Research, saying that the sexuality education it was providing in schools was objectionable.
Some parents argued otherwise; many others disagreed; academics weighed in; and the Ministry of Education reiterated that sexuality education in schools must be aligned with the values of Singapore’s “mainstream society”.
Few, if any, bothered to ask for the opinion of the central characters of this whole matter: The very teenagers whom sexuality education was supposed to benefit.
If sexuality education were a product, it would seem that society had forgotten to ask its clients what they really wanted or needed.
So this was what I set out to do. Together with my colleague Eisen Teo and the team at The Straits Times’ student publication IN, we polled 300 students aged 13 to 18 and also conducted in-depth interviews with selected teenagers.
We were not sure what we were going to get: Awkward silences? Incongruous babble? Or detailed theses?
In the end, those who agreed to talk gave thoughtful albeit halting responses.
But one sunny afternoon outside a McDonald’s restaurant, a 14-year-old girl changed the game completely by uttering one of the most profound statements I had ever heard about sexuality education.
Rebekah Tay, a secondary two student from a northern Singapore school, was analysing the sexuality education video she watched both in primary school and secondary school. (Yes, she watched the same video twice.)
She said: “The video just says, oh the boy has affection for the girl, the girl has affection for the boy, and then they have a boy-girl relationship (BGR).”
It didn’t, she added, address the complicated problems that teenagers face.
“Usually teenagers enter into a BGR because they face stress in studies, stress at home and they want to unwind.”
In her own words, Rebekah had unleashed an insight of great sociological and psychological value: Sex and romantic relationships, in her world, were not so much the product of mutual attraction but more of a salve in the pressure cooker environment of the Singapore school system.
Yet, many parents continue to vex over the possibility of their children falling into the wrong company and having a child out of wedlock without looking at the larger environment their charges are struggling in.
Is the problem the Singapore school system, rather than the sexuality education regime itself? Or is parental pressure the real issue?
I don’t have the answers. But I know we could listen more closely to young people like Rebekah.
Read the Saturday Special report here
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KE CFD is pleased to introduce US CFDs as our latest offering.
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For existing CFD clients, just sign up for free US price feed here and fax the form to 62263682 or mail it back to
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For more information, please refer to the US country Guide .
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63 Market Street, #08-01 , Singapore 048942
Tel: +65 6536 2000
Fax: +65 6226 3682
cfd@kimeng.com
www.kecfd.com
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JAPAN's ecOnOmy is wOrsenIng ?
will saIzen ImprOve Its bUsIness and prOfItabIlIty In wOrsenIng ecOnOmy ?
hOw ? ? ? ?
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when HDB flat Owner rents Out Own hOUse ?
and CRAMS UP wIth Others at sOmebOdy's hOme ?
sacrIfIces the lOss Of persOnal prIvacy ?
what dOes It mean ?
Is the sublet rent an eXtra IncOme ?
Is the sublet rent a sUpplementary IncOme ?
1) hOUsehOld IncOme INadequate tO cOver hOUsehOld lIvIng eXpendItUre ?
2) hOUsehOld IncOme dImInIshIng Year bY Year ?
3) hOUsehOld IncOme greatly Impacted Last Year In 2009 ?
4) hOUsehOld UNemplOyment Increased Year bY Year ?
5) hOUsehOld UNemplOyment sIgnIcantly Impacted Last Year In 2009 ?
6) hOUsehOld cOst Of lIvIng Overtaken hOUsehOld IncOme Year bY Year ?
7) hOUsehOld cOst Of lIvIng greatly Impacted hOUsehOld IncOme Last Year In 2009 ?
8) 14,000 Owner famIlIes have hOUsehOld IncOme defIcIt agaInst hOUsehOld eXpendItUre ?
9) 14,000 sUblettIng famIlIes cannOt affOrd tO Own Over-prIced HDB flats ?
10) at least 14,000 UnIts acUte shOrt sUpply Of HDB flats ?
11) HDB IneffIcacy, IneffIcIency, UNprOdUctIvIty ? ? ? ?
12) ? ? ? ?
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组屋获准整间出租 上半年倍增至万四
（2010-08-29）
● 蔡永伟 吴淑贤
组屋转售市场旺热，出租市场也同样活跃，越来越多屋主出租整间组屋以赚取额外收入。
建屋发展局的数据显示，获准出租整个组屋单位的新个案在半年里飙升将近一倍，从去年第四季的3902宗增加至今年第二季的7595宗。
……
（全文详见今日出版的《早报星期天》。
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By Channel NewsAsia, Updated: 28/08/2010
Whether PAP stays in power depends on talent pool: Dr Balakrishnan
Whether PAP stays in power depends on talent pool: Dr Balakrishnan
Dr Vivian Balakrishnan
SINGAPORE : Community Development, Youth and Sports Minister Vivian Balakrishnan has said whether the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) stays in power depends on which party can attract, nurture and grow its talent pool.
This was one key point Dr Balakrishnan highlighted at a dialogue session with students.
About 250 students attended the inaugural Singaporeans in Conversation 2010. The theme was
" The Singaporean Dream versus The Singapore Reality".
Some shared their concerns about the education system, such as the chase for top grades. But issues on the political arena dominated the two—hour session.
One student said: "Many people think the civil service is not independent of the governing party which should not be the case, because in the future, should the PAP no longer be in power, what is going to happen to the civil service?"
Others also wanted to know if the government has monopolised talent.
Dr Balakrishnan said he does not believe that the future of Singapore purely depends on political leaders, but the talented people from the different components of society.
He said: "I make no apology for trying to grab all talent available. Ultimately, whether the PAP stays in power or not depends on which party can attract, nurture and grow that talent pool, and offer that talent pool to the people of Singapore to decide.
"We are trying to run an honest political system that is based on integrity and talent and that will reflect the will of the people and that will do long—term good for the people."
Prior to the event, the organising committee set up a Facebook page. And discussion boards there also sparked lively debates over issues like whether the job expectations of youths today are reasonable and how Singapore preserves her heritage.
The topic of voicing opinions and criticisms through online platforms was also raised.
A participant said: "The Internet has started to be dominated by one kind of very vocal minority, but is increasingly very influential."
Dr Balakrishnan said the approach is to encourage more genuine participation.
He said: "It is not which channels — it is what is your motivation. Motivation is so important. When I listen to someone, it is not just what he or she says, but at the back of my mind, I am always asking why is he or she saying that or why is he or she so angry or so happy.
"That is the more important question and I always try to operate with that question at the back of my mind."
Dr Balakrishnan said what is important are sensible, logical and reasonable discussions of the issues and points of disagreement.
Dr Balakrishnan also shared with the students that after nine years as a politician, he feels that politics is not about a debating society, but one where the livelihood, security and long—term future of its people remain key fundamentals of any political system.
He said: "We are not perfect and we are still evolving, but understand that we are now at the point of actually considerable success, and it would be silly of us to dismiss all that, and to ignore all the considerable achievements we Singaporeans have made as a democratic society, as encapsulated in our pledge.
"So I do not say that as a matter of arrogance but as a plea for a realistic assessment of what we are at." — CNA/ms
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rOOt caUse:
- UNprOdUctIVe mIddleman stOre-lOrd prOfIteerIng frOm hIgh sUb-let rental ?
- prOdUctIVe hawker nEEds tO SCARMBLE On fOOd cOst and qUalIty ?
iNOrder tO recOver the hIgh stOre rEnt OverhEad ?
iN Order tO make dEcEnt rEtUrn On effOrts and Investment ?
- vIctIm Of stOre sUbletting pOlIcy caUsIng ArtIfIcIa Internal InflatIOn On cOOked fOOd cOst and prIces ?
pharoah88 ( Date: 29-Aug-2010 12:17) Posted:
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Hawkers now use cheap substitutes
 Today, 01:10 AM
I empathise with Professor Tommy Koh in his quest to rescue the quality of hawker food ('Hawker fare: Teach it or lose it/Preserve and perfect hawker fare'; last Sunday). The decline in hawker food quality is being driven by the unquestioned use of modern (cheaper and faster to prepare) substitutes in place of traditional (expensive and slower to prepare) ingredients.
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Today, 10:14 AM
Not only cheaper substitutes but poorer quality of prepared food. We have lost big time our traditional hawker food - short cuts and passionless cooking.
Sad to have lost so many of our wonderful delicious hawker food. Big Loss!
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Good Post
Bad Post
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Hawkers now use cheap substitutes
Today, 01:10 AM
I empathise with Professor Tommy Koh in his quest to rescue the quality of hawker food ('Hawker fare: Teach it or lose it/Preserve and perfect hawker fare'; last Sunday). The decline in hawker food quality is being driven by the unquestioned use of modern (cheaper and faster to prepare) substitutes in place of traditional (expensive and slower to prepare) ingredients.
|
|
|
|
|
Today, 10:14 AM
Not only cheaper substitutes but poorer quality of prepared food. We have lost big time our traditional hawker food - short cuts and passionless cooking.
Sad to have lost so many of our wonderful delicious hawker food. Big Loss!
|
|
|
Good Post
Bad Post
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|
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