You can blame the recession or people having to work harder (are you serious?), but as I’ve been insisting for the past few years, it’s because the Gahmen’s attempts at improving the birth rates are pressing the wrong buttons

Read the ST story first and my bits after:

Birth rate may dip further: Experts 

Continued economic uncertainty and Govt’s drive to raise labour productivity cited as reasons

By Kor Kian Beng

NEWS that 170 fewer babies were registered here last year worries sociologist Paulin Tay Straughan, who predicts that the numbers could dip again this year.

She cited two key reasons why she believes this will be the case: continued uncertainty over the economy and the Government’s drive to raise labour productivity.

Said Associate Professor Straughan, who is a Nominated MP: ‘When you are riding a rising tide, people would want to work harder in case the economy dips again. I don’t think numbers will go back up this year.’

The Government’s productivity drive could drive birth numbers down too, she told The Straits Times yesterday.

Leaders, including Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong, have spoken this week about the importance of raising flagging labour productivity rates here.

Said Prof Straughan: ‘I think the emphasis on productivity will overshadow work-life balance and the needs of the family. We all know the constraints, and with the contesting demand that work places on your time, investment in the family may have to take a back seat.’

Productivity growth is usually considered critical to improving living standards. It means getting more value from each worker, resulting in more income being available to be distributed.

Prof Straughan’s concerns were piqued by latest birth figures revealed by PM Lee at an event on Monday.

Speaking at a conference organised by the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS), he revealed that Singapore had fewer babies for the first time in five years. The number of births fell by 172 last year to 39,654 when compared with the 39,826 babies in 2008. The reason could be last year’s recession, Mr Lee said.

The dip indicates that Singapore’s total fertility rate (TFR) has dropped further. Singapore’s TFR was last reported to be 1.29. A society needs a rate of at least 2.1 to replace itself.

Assistant Professor Chung Wai Keung, a sociologist at the Singapore Management University, agrees there could be another dip in the birth rate this year. He said this would be in line with the declining trend seen over the years since the 1980s.

‘However, as a long-term trend, I don’t foresee a big dip because it will never happen like that. Future birth rates will likely fluctuate within a limited range but in a decreasing trend,’ he said.

But Dr Yap Mui Teng, a demographer and fertility expert at the IPS, sees it differently.

She predicts an improvement in the birth rate this year and pointed to the brighter outlook for the economy as a reason. ‘People may be encouraged to have babies, particularly if they had postponed parenthood last year.’

But she said that any spike this year may be tempered by the effect of the ‘Tiger Year’. The Chinese are traditionally less keen to have babies under this zodiac sign of the lunar calendar, believing that children would grow up to be rebellious, ill tempered and unpredictable.

To encourage Singaporeans to marry and start families, the Government has rolled out a host of measures, such as cash incentives to defray child-rearing costs, infant-care leave and subsidies, and longer maternity leave.

Dr Chung said the dip showed that Baby Bonus measures introduced since 2001 were not working well because’raising children was never about these short-term or one-time economic incentives’.

He suggested looking at other measures such as longer parental leave, including for the father, and better sustained institutional support for raising children.

Agreeing, Prof Straughan said the Government needed to put in more effort to find out from Singaporeans what it would take to encourage them to have babies.

She said: ‘It cannot be money because no government can pay for babies.’

But Dr Yap said it might be too premature to dismiss the Government’s enhanced Marriage and Parenthood package as ineffective as it was announced just one month before the global financial crisis hit in September 2008.

However, changes will have to be made or new measures introduced over time in areas such as childcare subsidies and flexi-work arrangements for back-to work mothers, she added.

kianbeng@sph.com.sg

IMHO, our birth rate is declining because of the following key issues:

- Our society is increasingly self-centered and focused on material aspirations. Why spend money on raising kids when we can buy a nice new car?

- The Baby Bonus policies are focused on women and we guys are merely an afterthought. This is wrong in the modern age when men play a big role in their children’s upbringing.

- The stressful education system, and the parents that both complain and encourage it, turn people off having kids. It’s stressful enough to work, what more try to solve the crazy PSLE problem sums when you get home. The silly thing is – we NEVER have to solve such problem sums in real life.

- Singaporeans are brought up to believe that you need to have dual income to have a family. But a double-income risks producing latchkey kids. So some people rather not raise kids that will treat their maids as slaves or mothers.

Dear policymakers, if you really want to improve the birth rate, stop looking at the numbers and ask how you can use money to improve the situation. That might work if you’re raising cattle or rearing koi fishes.

What are you really doing to tackle the four issues I’ve penned down above?

Like Prof Straughn says, the Gahmen needs to put in more effort to understand the problem and find the solution. I hope the policymakers don’t just fall back on the excuse that this is a common trend in the developing world, and continue to burn through our tax dollars to drive minimal or negative results in this area.

I don’t mind paying taxes for nation-building, but I demand good results, dammit.

(If we get really desperate, I can also suggest a sure-win solution – Ban Contraception. I’m sure the Catholics will support me on this) 

And honestly, because my kids are now turning 7 and 5 this year, I’m less aggrieved over this whole Baby Bonus problem than I was when the kids were babies. Back then, I was so upset that I had to endure all sorts of rubbish (long working hours in a typical Singaporean company, going back for National Service or training for IPPT, 2 or 3-day paternity leave) and yet I knew I had to play an active role in bringing the kids up.

But I resist apathy, and that’s why I continue to put my thoughts down on this website.

Here are my earlier posts on the same topic:

Of course the Baby Bonus didn’t work

Paying the price with no regrets

Once again, fathers do not exist in SG

Related posts:

1. Once again, fathers do not exist in SG
2. Of course the Baby Bonus did not work
3. Paying The Price With No Regrets

It’s been a long time since I used my Canon EOS 5D as I’ve been too lazy to lug the big thing around. Funny, when I bought it in 2005, I thought it was a really light dSLR . But with the purchase of the Olympus Pen this year, I really feel like an Ah Pek because I’m now too lazy to carry anything heavier than that Micro 4/3 camera.

Still, all dSLRs need some tender loving care, and I brought out both the 5D and the little used 70-200mm f2.8 lens for some fresh air with the family. The weather was hot at MacRitchie today, but we managed to find a cool spot near the canoeing area.

As the decade ends, I’m glad this was the decade where I received from God my most precious family. Sounds soppy yah, but true.

Happy New Year, everyone, and God bless you.

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This is the 6th chapter in my upcoming book “50 Things I Wish Someone Had Told Me Earlier”. The previous chapters were getting a bit too serious, so here’s something less philosophical, but no less important. The photo above is that of our wedding bands which I designed after watching too many episodes of Xena the Warrior Princess.

Whenever people tell me that getting married is an expensive affair, I point out to them that getting your marriage registered in Singapore costs only S$26.

Every other cost (expensive wedding dinner, expensive house, expensive wedding ring etc) is probably your own doing. But a wedding need not be expensive, and it’s not a competition with your friends on who can have the biggest bash of all. Yet so many people get hung up on putting up a big one-day show when they don’t realize it’s AFTER the wedding that you have to put in the most effort for years on end.

To make things clear, I’m not advocating a cheapo wedding ceremony either. Low budget doesn’t mean low class. For example, if your budget is super tight, there’s no point getting Grade AAA wedding dinner menus when Grade B+ will do. Nobody (or at least guys) remember how good the food was at your wedding, but they’ll remember if the wedding seemed boring or overly long.

Now I’m no expert in getting married since I’ve only been married once. But having attended many weddings, as well as taken wedding photos for more people than I really wanted to, there are a few things young couples need to take care of for the biggest day of their life.

Actually, it’s about getting three important people. Get them and everything else is a walk in the park.

ABOVE ALL, GET A GOOD PHOTOGRAPHER

Edwin and Soo in 2004.

I don’t say this just because I used to be a photographer. But I say it because you’ve never heard this from a photographer.

Of all the things that you’ll experience and receive in your marriage, nothing will survive the test of time save your wedding photographs. Yes, your wedding gown will turn yellow and wither, your fingers might get too fat for your wedding rings, your crowning glory may disappear and all the ang pow money would have been long spent.

But your wedding photos will most likely be viewed by descendants who don’t even know who you are. Especially with today’s digital photos which do not degrade with time (just make sure your family learns how to archive stuff properly. Read this primer.)

I’ve heard several horror stories of how people will splash big money on different aspects of the Big Day but scrimp on getting a good photographer. They try to find the cheapest photographer they can get, or the cheapest wedding photography package bundled with their gown.

That is a terrible mistake you mustn’t make. You can re-take your exams, find another job, but mess up your wedding photos and you and your wife will feel sorry for ALL ETERNITY.

Of course, good photography doesn’t come cheap (a few hundred bucks per hour is the norm) but then again, not all expensive photographers are good. On the other hand, very cheap photographers are most probably bad.

How to tell a good photographer from bad?

a. Check his portfolio of at least three different weddings. If you see the same photo angles being repeated ad nauseum for different couples, this guy follows a strict template and is probably inflexible for your needs. Some might say good photographers need to have a style template. I say great photographers shoot according to the occasion and bring out the best in different couples.

b. How much does this guy photoshop his portfolio? Excessive photoshopping (super smooth skins, unnatural color tones or exposures and so on) might indicate poor shooting skills. Great photographers usually get it right at the moment and do minimal editing later. Unfortunately, such photographers are rare. I’m okay with removing zits and stains in photos, but these days, couples get so photoshopped they look like avatars.

c. How much does he try to get the shot right? I’ve seen wedding photographers who take one snap of each dinner table crowd and walk away to get the next table done. That’s lazy and unprofessional. Someone always blinks. A good photographer is never satisfied with his skills and you can tell by how much he makes you pose over and over again (caveat – if all the photos are crap, then he’s just plain bad. Doh.)

d. Do people like to be photographed by him? This is the most important. If you have a photographer who’s glum-looking and anti-social, his subjects won’t look very happy either. Great photographers put their subjects at ease immediately and never pressurize their clients – you can tell when the subjects’ eyes smile along with their lips. A great photographer needs to be able to blend into the background to reduce distraction, yet come forth to take firm command of a scene when needed.

e. Anyone who takes couples in front of ugly CBD buildings or the Merlion is most probably a lousy photographer.

f. This is a bit subjective, but I personally believe any photographer who doesn’t use the best lenses for the job probably doesn’t care for image quality very much. Likewise, he probably doesn’t care very much for how you look in his photos (“it’s just a job”). The best lenses don’t cost the earth and can have their cost easily recouped with a few wedding shoots. However, only enthusiasts or pros can tell what kind of lenses are being used by another guy.

The problem in Singapore is that there has been so much undercutting in the market, many talented and passionate photographers don’t see the point in the downward spiral to the bottom. Still, there are a few talented joes around who treat every assignment with respect because they know every successful wedding builds their reputation further.

GET A DECENT MASTER OF CEREMONIES

Most couples tear their hair out over wedding invites and RSVPs, but don’t pay any attention to who will be the MC for the event.

Almost everyone I know resorts to getting their good friend or relative. “Hey, you’re quite talkative, can you host my wedding dinner?”

But guess what, 95% of people make crappy MCs and turn the crowd’s attention on their poor presentation when the couple is supposed to be in the limelight. And it’s not their fault, really.

An MC needs to know how to work the crowd, make the couple look like the best thing in the room and keep the momentum going even when the mike breaks down. An MC needs to breathe right into the mike and not sound like he’s hollering every word. An MC also needs to know how to speak well (“And let us welcomes the beautiful couple!”)

If you haven’t guessed by now, you probably need a trained professional to get the job done right unless you don’t mind a totally impromptu and unplanned outing.

Otherwise, you’ll end up like the MCs I’ve seen in recent years

• One MC kept telling everyone how he was still single, will never get attached, but would like to get attached anyway.
• Another kept forgetting his lines and went “Err…, errr…”. Nevermind that he was a broadcast journalist.
• Another had a helium voice and didn’t realize her voice kept going off key.
• Many MCs tell the audience weak jokes that nobody finds funny but themselves. Or they often get the wedding couple to do impromptu things on stage that fall utterly flat.

And personally, I was MC for Ronald’s wedding and was paired with an actual radio DJ. I felt so embarrassed because I was this amateur next to an absolute pro rattling off in perfect Mandarin. It’s also good to pair MCs of the same quality level, but then again, I think it’s better to have just one good MC.

HIRE A REALLY GOOD MAKEUP ARTIST

And you thought it was more important to get a good wedding planner? If your event is a simple affair, getting a few capable friends to manage the crowd and event flow is sufficient.

But no matter how glam your event, I kid you not, the makeup artist will make or break the bride for the day. Nobody really cares how the groom looks, unless he

• has an ugly wedding outfit
• is too ugly for his gorgeous wife (yes, why do pretty girls marry ugly guys?)
• is drop dead handsome

Tell me you didn’t gossip about the bride who had an overdone hairdo or that clumpy mascara? Or the bride who had far too much eyeshadow that made her look like a Thai lady-boy?

Yes, it’s not just girls who bitch about such things. Guys notice such things too but it’s not a high priority subject compared to other types of male gossip (cars, office affairs, golf).

Great makeup artists can correct many wrong-doings if you get them into the picture early enough.

Having done makeup for hundreds or thousands of couples, they’re probably the best person to tell you if your expensive gown sucks or if you need Botox.

They can also hide facial flaws, tell you which side of your face is best for major photographs and suggest where to find equally good salons or hair treatment lotions.

Of all the people that I’ve worked with during weddings and photo shoots, the makeup artist is the person who can really change perceptions on a huge scale. I mean, you can have a really grand ballroom, a massive dinner budget, but if the bride looks like a tart, it all collapses.

In conclusion, when you get married, remember these three people who play critical roles in making you look good during that moment or for all eternity. Everything else is secondary.

THAT WEDDING DINNER

Another thing – in Asia, it is customary to throw big wedding dinners with over 40 tables of 10 guests each. Naturally, many couples fear this procedure forced upon them by their parents, as they potentially face a huge hole in their bank account.

Some couples put off marriage for years so they can save up for the dinner which can cost S$40k and over for one night of revelry. This is wrong, because couples should marry as soon as they feel they are ready for a lifelong commitment, not because they feel they can’t afford a ballroom event (or a HDB flat for that matter).

From experience, it is possible to actually break even or make a profit from such huge dinners if you follow the following suggestions.

- If most of your friends are unmarried or fresh out of school, avoid inviting too many of them because their red packets will be low in value. Not because they aren’t generous, but they simply don’t have the earning power yet.

- It thus also holds true that you should invite older relatives who you know are more generous and have more disposable income. These are the sort who don’t come to wedding dinners so they can gulp down free beer or criticize how you look.

- Avoid inviting too many people, or in fact, anyone from your workplace. Because you probably don’t know these people long enough to know if they are generous, and not inviting colleagues also solves a major office politics issue – “Why was this other colleague/boss invited and not me?”

- If your parents or your in-laws insist on inviting the entire world, you need to draw the line clearly that either they foot that portion of the bill or they be realistic about who’s actually getting married. (You, not them).

My wife, at this juncture, says “You make everything sound so simple.” Well of course, organizing any wedding gets pretty complex, and you need lots of friends and relatives to help make things turn out right.

But most couples get the fundamentals of planning a wedding wrong, and they never even knew what the fundamentals were in the first place.

One last thought – your wedding is your day and it should be fun. And it’ll only be as fun as you, your spouse and the people who help drive it. For example, don’t get grumpy and stuffy girls to man the reception ok?

All Shrek-ed out : The bros at Ronald’s wedding with our new ears.

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1. Kids at the wedding
2. Chapter 2: Mr/Miss Perfect Does Not Exist
3. Chapter 7: Renovating Your House For The Future

For eg. what kind of question is this: "10 cents less than 55 cents is ____ cents."?

That’s a badly constructed sentence and doesn’t teach the kids the concept of addition or subtraction in a logical manner. It would have been more correct to say "____ cents is 55 cents minus 10 cents."

A big problem with how schools teach mathematics, as well as test the students, is that it demands high-level English skills without realizing that kids take time before they can understand such sentence structures. Parents often criticize the PSLE for having math questions that test one’s English standard rather than their Math ability. So many teachers or curriculum directors would rather roll the word "pedagogy" around their mouth than actually understand what they’re doing.

To cut the long story short, I came up with a 3-page worksheet with pictures of Singapore coins to teach my son how to count different combinations of currency. It’s very basic, but I’ve saved it in a Word 97 .doc format so you can download it for yourself and make edits if you wish. It goes up to $3.00 but hey, you can bump it up to $100 if you wish, I think the page can take that many 50ct coins.

If your child becomes a financial wizard thanks to this document, please be sure to send a cheque my way!

Please download it here

download: How To Count Money (1.19MB) added: 15/11/2009 clicks: 582 description: A simple guide for kids on how to count money with local Singapore currency coins.

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Being a photographer and marcoms guy who happens to have two kids is a recipe for disaster – I create more data with high resolution images and video faster than anyone in my entire estate (or possibly the entire country).

Today, my data archive stands at about 700GB (it’s alot of HD home video and ripped MiniDV tapes) and continues to grow on a weekly basis.

And as someone who was hardly photographed as a kid, I’m determined that my children will see every photo I ever take of them. So losing data might be shrugged off by some folks, parents like me refuse to accept such a hardware failure. I also keep an archive of all the photos I took when I was a professional photog, because these photos mark important milestones in my 20s.

So recently, when my main storage 1.5TB drive containing that 700GB crashed suddenly (it spinned up and went “click! click! click!”) and all my digital memories went to hell, I didn’t blink because I already had a recent backup on an external 1.5TB drive.

I didn’t lose my iTunes Store purchases either as I could transfer them back from my iPod Touch into the computer. The only real inconvenience was going to Acecom’s office (Seagate’s disty) in a secluded part of Ubi and getting a replacement hard disk.

But it set me thinking – one active backup isn’t enough. What if my backup drive failed as well? Sure, I have some older backups on smaller hard drives lying around the house, but those are several years old.

I spent the past two weeks exploring various options and found reasons to reject them:

RAID 1 (redundant array of inexpensive disks)

If I place two hard drives in my PC and “RAID 1” them, each can store exactly the same data by mirroring each other. However, my stupid MSI motherboard has half its hard drive SATA connectors blocked by my graphics card – really awful board design. So I can’t do this. Also, if I’m not wrong, once you use RAID 1, you can’t simply take one of the drives and plonk into another PC to transfer data. There are several technical hoops to jump through and I’m too old for that kinda crap.

Network Attached Storage (NAS) with RAID 5

NAS is all the rage in Sim Lim Square these days. Depending on the type you buy, you can put 2 to 8 hard drives in a single enclosure and combine the storage together for massive terabyte love. And with RAID 5 (with a minimum of three drives, one hard drive can fail but your data remains intact), you have a great combination of storage security and capacity. And the NAS hooks up to your wireless router so the content is available to any PC in your house.

But a 4-bay NAS can cost anything from S$500 to over S$1500 and that’s not including the cost of hard drives (about S$200 for a 1.5TB drive at time of writing). So it’s serious massive moolah! How can I buy my Transformers toys this way?

So I settled on the following solution which I would recommend to anyone who’s serious about backing up without busting the budget.

1. Two external hard drives.

Why two? You can’t rely on one backup because if it fails, you’re in deep trouble. You need a backup of a backup to be absolutely sure.

Should you use USB 2.0 or eSATA (external SATA) connections? Alot of external hard drives offer both options now, and many desktop PCs today have an eSATA port.

Over the past few years, I’ve had problems with my eSATA external hard drive enclosure because it kept disconnecting randomly no matter which motherboard I used. The hardware tech was still pretty shaky then. I bought a new Vantec enclosure recently and the eSATA appears to work consistently now. eSATA can transfer my data at an average of 50MB/s instead of 23MB/s on USB 2.0. That’s double the speed, folks.

And don’t bother backing up to DVDs or CDs.

My sister Marie lost half her kids photos because the DVDs they were back-uped to become corrupted over a few years. Disc media is a big NO-NO for critical backups.

2. Manual and automated backup procedures.

So with two drives, I back up to each in different ways.

Automated – I use Windows 7’a backup feature (found in the Professional and Ultimate editions) which automates the entire process and keeps reminding you to do it. We have no discipline to back up regularly, so might as well get a nanny to do it. It keeps your backup as current as possible, though the initial backup took an entire day for my massive archive.

Manual cut and paste – Every time I copy stuff onto my PC’s hard drive, I make sure I switch on Backup Drive A and repeat the procedure immediately. This is because I don’t fully trust the automated procedure either. Paranoid, you say? Wait till you hit 500GB of data on your PC and you’ll be paranoid too.

3. Keep your C: and internal data drive separate.

Your C drive is the one that usually stores your Windows and program files. For the past decade, I’ve always kept a separate drive for pure data storage for a good reason. The C: is the most often used drive and is most prone to crashing. So if it crashes big time and you need to reinstall your operating system (eg. Windows), you don’t lose your data in the process.

But like I said, my data drive crashed recently for no particular reason. Which reminds everyone that ANY HARD DRIVE CAN DIE SUDDENLY.

Conclusion: You need four hard disks. Yes, believe it or not.

• One for your Windows and program files
• One purely for storage
• Two external or internal drives for multiple backups.

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Don’t get me wrong, I like the Baby Bonus plan because it helped me avoid paying taxes for quite a few years. Now that my Bonus has run dry, I end up having to fund it with my taxes (oh the irony). But it was pretty clear from the start (to me at least) it wouldn’t work. And not because of what the Gahmen thinks.

Before I tell you my three cents, let’s read what the Gahmen folks and other experts have to say in today’s Straits Times (I like the way the sub-headline tries to be so positive despite the bleak news…I had to cut and paste the entire story because it’s only available to subscribers):

Baby bonus has had little impact so far

One positive trend is the rise in the number of first-time parents

By Radha Basu, Senior Correspondent

A RECORD $230 million was given out by the Government in baby bonus payments last year, up from $55 million just five years earlier.

But there was no corresponding increase in the number of Singaporean babies born.

Figures from the National Population Secretariat show there were only 32,423 citizens born last year.

That was just 129 more than in 2003, the year before the Government extended the Baby Bonus Scheme to include the first and fourth child.

Non-citizens, who are not eligible for the payouts, fared better on the baby front.

The 7,403 non-citizen babies born last year represented an increase of 2,212 from 2003.

The Baby Bonus Scheme aims to encourage Singaporean couples to have babies by easing the financial burden on parents.

Introduced in April 2001, the scheme has undergone two major revisions – in August 2004 and again last year – with bigger carrots being dangled each time to prospective parents.

Since Aug 17 last year, fifth and subsequent children were entitled to bonus benefits too. Cash payments for the first and second child were also increased.

Dr Yap Mui Teng, a fertility expert at the National University of Singapore’s Institute of Policy Studies (IPS), said the latest revisions to the scheme and the fact that it is retrospective in nature, could have led to the record bonus payouts last year.

The first child, for instance, may now get up to $10,000 from the Government, up from $3,000 earlier. The scheme is administered by the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS).

When asked how successful the scheme was given that the rise in foreign births has outstripped that of locals, an MCYS spokesman told The Straits Times that more time was needed to ‘assess the efficacy of the scheme’.

Singapore is facing one of the worst baby droughts in the world. The total fertility rate (TFR) – or the number of children a woman is expected to have – fell a notch, from 1.29 to 1.28 last year. Only South Korea and Hong Kong have lower TFRs than Singapore. To replace itself, a population needs a TFR of 2.1 or higher.

While the TFR may have flagged a bit, take-up rates for the Baby Bonus Scheme have been increasing. About 19,000 new Child Development Accounts (CDAs) were opened last year, up from 14,000 in 2004.

CDAs are savings accounts parents can set up in their children’s names, with the Government matching deposits dollar for dollar, subject to a cap of between $6,000 and $18,000, depending on the birth order of the child.

The money can be spent on childcare, education and medical expenses. Parents can open a CDA any time before a child’s sixth birthday.

Although the number of Singaporean babies born remains low, family and fertility experts see some signs of hope.

Sociologist Paulin Straughan, for instance, was pleased to note the sharp rise in the number of first-child births among citizens – from 13,969 in 2003 to 15,129 last year.

‘A common suspicion of the Baby Bonus Scheme is that it speaks to converts or those who have already decided to have children,’ said Associate Professor Straughan, a Nominated Member of Parliament.

She sees the rise in the number of first-time parents as proof that the scheme is helping to change mindsets and encouraging many couples to have at least one child.

The next step is to help the new parents to grow their families and have two or more children – though data from 2003 and last year show that fewer are opting to do so.

Prof Straughan was not surprised at the rise in the number of foreigners giving birth, given that there are more foreigners here.

‘Besides, in first-world countries such as the United States, it is the immigrants who are boosting fertility rates,’ she said.

So what more can be done to encourage more Singaporeans to have babies?

Rather than increase the payouts, Prof Straughan believes that what parents really need is more ‘flexibility and latitude’ at the workplace.

‘We need more enlightened employers who know that granting parents time off for pressing childcare needs may actually produce happier, more productive and loyal workers,’ she said.

She speaks from experience, as supervisor of a ‘very fertile’ office. Four of the five women who work under her at the National University of Singapore had children in recent years and none has quit her job.

The women – all young mothers – willingly cover for each other when one has to be away on an emergency. They also hire temporary staff when necessary.

‘Mothers need to be more vocal about asking for help at work when necessary,’ she said. ‘Too many are worried about offending the singles.’

She concedes that productivity may be hit in the short term as more working mothers take time off to tend to children.

‘Bosses need to decide whether they should insist on short-term returns to productivity at the cost of the long-term stability of Singapore.’

Dr Yap from the IPS agreed that more can be done at the workplace, and women need to see that they will not pay a heavy penalty in terms of career advancement if they choose to have babies.

Only then can more educated and career-driven young women be persuaded to have children.

Indeed, balancing career and family is what many women find tough.

Insurance agent Mun Wai Ping, 34, who has two children under two, said she finds it hard to handle the emotional stress and frustration of juggling her two roles when her children fall ill.

‘I know this is just a passing phase. But it’s hard to keep turning down my clients when they request to meet up with me,’ said Madam Mun.

She and her university professor husband Ben Leong, 35, are entitled to about $7,000 in Baby Bonus cash payments, which are especially useful for paying their older daughter’s childcare fees.

In addition, they can receive up to $6,000 for their younger girl’s CDA, if they match the amount.

But they are not planning Baby No. 3. ‘At this moment, I think I have reached my limit juggling work and children,’ she said.

The Baby Bonus Scheme has been a godsend for Mrs Anandhi Raghavan, 33, who works as a trainer in a daycare centre, and her hospital safety officer husband Ragavan Nair, 36.

They have three children aged seven, two and six months. Their eldest daughter was born before the scheme was extended to first-borns in 2004, but they told The Straits Times that the $9,000 they received as cash gifts for the birth of their younger children has enabled them to better manage both career and family.

It has allowed them to get paid help with domestic chores so that when she is home, Ms Anandhi can spend her time with the children.

It has also allowed her to take part-time courses in counselling in the hope of getting a better job.

On Tuesday evening, baby Haridaren developed a raging fever and had to be taken to hospital. The bill, after multiple tests, was nearly $400.

Mr Ragavan said: ‘The baby bonus is allowing us to make use of the best kind of medical care. Later, it can help with their education.

‘That’s more than we ever asked for.’

It’s a classic Singaporean approach to solving a social issue – blame it all on the woman and her lofty ambitions. And like I’ve said before, the policymakers often believe that fathers do not actually exist in Singapore.

I have my own solution, and it’s so plausible the policymakers will probably write it off straightaway. And it won’t even cost a cent, much less $230 million.

Boosting fertility rates starts in school

No no, I’m not asking students to go hump like rabbits. What I’m saying is that long-term mindsets are often formed in school and that’s where the Gahmen brainiacs need to hit first.

Think about it: If it is believed that Singaporeans are career-minded (or rather, materialistic) and that is deemed as the reason why they rather be DINKs (double income, no kids), where did that mindset come from? It comes from living and growing up in a society which praises and celebrates the chase for money.

Every weekend, I feel slightly ill when I read the papers and it keeps telling me which swanky condo to buy, which rich person has a strategy for becoming richer, which car above S$100k is good for my soul and so on and so forth. The media inadvertently propagates a culture of envy, even as journalists remain largely poorly-paid around the world.

When I was in school, we were often taught that if we studied hard and got good grades, we’d have our comfortable car and condo. Of course, nobody told us that after securing your first job, nobody really cared about your grades anymore.

Most parents in my generation encouraged their kids to become one of the holy trinity – doctor, lawyer or engineer.

“Be an artist? You’d be poor forever! See, your classmate over there, he’s doing 3 A-level Special papers and he’s gonna be a brain surgeon one day earning so much money and living in some big bungalow. Why can’t you be like him? And why don’t you go apply for any scholarship out there?”

Nobody with a rational brain faults the Gahmen for putting us on the path to economic prosperity. I don’t blame my mum for making me study hard so that today I have a decent job. Today Singapore is a shining spot in the region and we are more well-off than millions living around us. For that, we have much to be thankful for.

But in the pursuit of economic development, many locals have forgotten that there are other pleasures in life besides chasing after the material.

I was fortunate in my case. As a journalist, I was exposed to the raw reality of life and learnt quickly that happiness reigned supreme among all desires. And that while earning money to pay your bills was critical, one had to set aside time for the immaterial like family, friends and personal growth.

As a Christian, I knew from young that money was the root of all evil, and as economically-driven members of the society, we all know that families get ripped apart thanks to money issues.

When kids go to school today here, it appears their key focus seems to be nothing but chasing the material dream. Sure, there are more enlightened schools and teachers who teach otherwise, but to put it in a corporate way, if these kids don’t hit their KPI of getting top grades, the school is going to come down hard on them. Never mind if the working world doesn’t really care about grades but passion, drive and talent.

Teach parents how to be real parents

Then again, maybe it’s not the classroom that will help the situation much. Perhaps it lies with parents who learn to shower their kids with time and love so that the kids remember it for life.

Instead of parents who insist that having a double-income is the only way to be happy and leave their kids alone or with the maid. Sure, they’ll have a million bucks or two in savings come retirement, but they don’t really know their kids. Is it any wonder why the children grow up and insist on not having kids themselves, so they can save up to their first million much faster?

Our society needs more role models of great parenting. And that said, I consider it an anomaly that I’m actually in a circle of friends and colleagues who are very focused on their family even though they are highly successful at work. Most of the guys I hung out with in school actually had their first kid before we were 30 years old. (By the way, I kicked things off at 26, and I must admit it wasn’t entirely according to plan ;D)

Birds of a feather flock together I guess…so who are you hanging out with?

Stop throwing money down the drain, start thinking out of the box

If it doesn’t work after eight years, stop kidding yourself that the plan will work with more time.

And the ST article doesn’t mention how much has been spent IN TOTAL over the past decade trying to encourage people to procreate (c’mon journalists, that’s a great number to put up). Has it been a billion or more dollars? Hey that’s my tax dollars you’re talking about!

Perhaps a devious strategy would be to tell single people blatantly – if you don’t start having kids, you’ll just have to pay more taxes lor!

Our Gahmen likes to talk about how its top civil servants like to think out of the box since they’re such brilliant scholars. Come on, I don’t see much creativity at this point. Just throwing more money at the Baby Bonus scheme and increasing ERP rates – anyone could suggest that. Why, perhaps some joe will dare suggest that we make more casinos to fund Better Fertility! (Actually, come think of it, a gambling addict will need alot of kids who are working to help him pay off the bills right?)

These are all silly ideas, I know. But creative problem solving comes from facing a problem from another angle. Not the same old same old.

Final thoughts

If you strip away all the angsty reasons, the low fertility rate really stems from the problem of money. And the biggest irony is that the Gahmen is using more money to solve a money-related issue.

If you can’t fight fire with fire, then douse a big pail of water on it.

Related posts:

1. Paying The Price With No Regrets
2. Once again, fathers do not exist in SG
3. Are they really fixing the birth rate problem?

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1. Olympus Pen At the Botanics
2. Olympus Pen E-P1 review Part 1
3. Olympus Pen E-P1 Review Part 2

Anyway, today was a good opportunity to put it through its paces again. We were hanging out with the rest of the family at Botanic Gardens and I must say the skin tones on the Oly were near perfect, even under cloudy weather. All photos taken with the kit pancake 17mm f2.8 lens. Must really get the 25mm f2.8 lens soon – I’m really a normal lens kinda guy

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1. Olympus Zuiko 25mm!
2. Olympus Pen E-P1 review Part 1
3. Olympus Pen E-P1 Review Part 2