Tribute to Mr Lee Kuan Yew

Rest in peace Mr Lee Kuan Yew. Thank you for your foresight and commitment. Singapore has come so far because of you. You'll be missed.

Most difficult languages to learn

What do you think is the most difficult languages to learn? See if you guess right.

             

Happiness Index

Here's some really interesting. A website Movehub.com shows the happiness index of various countries. The thing that really stands out is the happiest countries are those that are also among the poorest. That's something for us to think about. Why is that so? Is that due to expectations of the wealthier nations? 

Check out the interesting map from MoveHub that reveals how happy people are around the world.

UN Human Development Index (HDI)

This is rather amazing. Singapore is the highest ranking in Asia and even on top of Hong Kong, Korea and Japan. The Human Development Report is about 'Sustaining Human Progress: Reducing Vulnerability and Building Resilience'. In simple english, it is about how each countries have progressed in human-centred development. 

Singapore ($72k) is way ahead of its neighbours like Indonesia (108), Malaysia (62), Philippines (117), Thailand (89), and even China (91). Is this $72k realistic or exagerated? Well, it equals to about $6k or S$7,380 per month. A lot of graduates would have easily reach this income level in their late twenties or early thirties. Just need to look around your friends and colleagues or yourself.

So what is the make up of this ranking? Income is one of the components. Gross National Income (GNI) is only behind Qatar ($119k), Kuwait ($85k), Liechtenstein ($87k) but lagging way behind in other components like life expectancy and schooling. Looking at the progress of Singapore, it is likely this ranking will only go up.

Which insurance company covers act of war and terrorism?

Mirror mirror on the wall, which insurance company covers you during act of war? 

There's an excellent article by the Straits Times covering this and the best appears to be Prudential. They cover not just act of war but also terrorism.

NTUC travel insurances covers terrorism but not act of war and any travel against MFA travel advisory. This is not too good as you will have to check before you travel for MFA travel advisory which is troublesome. If you need to go there for work sometimes, you will be going at your own risk. Their life policies does cover terrorism but not act of war.

Great Eastern also covers terrorism but not act of war. However, it is limited to SGD100,000 per person plus a list of terror exclusion. Looks like one's rotten luck is not punished by terrorism but also by the insurance company as well.

AIA travel insurance is the worst as it doesn't cover either act of war or terrorism. Their life policies does cover act of war and terrorism.

ACE travel insurance covers terrorism but not act of war.

Well, still not too late to know for anyone folks considering picking up a life policy. It is really important to know as it is often not our choice how we die and we would want our dependents and loved ones to be covered should the unfortunate happens. With such exclusion, then it is meaningless to be covered by those insurance companies.

How many Singaporeans are working overseas?

Have you ever wondered how many Singaporeans are overseas? The latest number from Straits Times shows about 207,000 citizens overseas. 50,000 or 24% live and work in Australia. That's quite a substantial number. In 2003, there were only 157,100. However, this number doesn't tell you if they've given up their citizenship. On average about 1000 Singaporeans have given up their citizenship yearly. This is not a good sign for Singapore as we are already having labour shortage and yet continuing losing people. How do we balance foreign talent and labour shortage? This is one of the biggest challenges our government face now especially when the next election is coming very soon. 

Singapore unhappy with their salary

I read with interest the yahoo finance article that says 83% of Singapore are unhappy with their salary. Only 31% can afford basic needs and some luxuries. Only 4% is comfortable with their salary. If the statistic is correct, this is really alarming and worrying. The ruling party needs to really sit up, take notice as well as action. Or it won't spell good news for them in the next election. Why is 83% of the population unhappy with their salary? Is that because of the high cost of living? Singaporean average wage is $4998 last year and even such salary is not enough for Singapore. This is really sad. This situation may be worst for the younger generations of Singaporean as the cost of housing has shot up dramatically as compared to their salary. Let's hope we get it right to really have inclusive growth.

London Airport Lounge

London Sliver Kris airport lounge? Seriously? 

StarHub expanded into India??

Noticed this building in Mumbai while i was on the highway. Even the colour scheme looks similar. 

Singapore Airlines

I was at the Mumbai International Airport and spotted something interesting. Do you notice any spelling error? 

Somewhere in China or Japan?

If you think that this 'iroming' board picture was taken somewhere in China or Japan, you are wrong. It is from right here in Singapore.  Saw this at our NTUC.