Pastel, my hamster

The bond between pets and their owners is just so ambiguous. People usually own a pet for companionship and in turn, grew attached to them. Animals, on the other hand, just simply grew dependent on their owners for food, shelter and a little bit of TLC. As we, humans, are prone to emotional set backs, we tend to grieve over our pet's death, or in my case, my pet's impending death. Seeing her so frail and weak, leaves me heart broken every time I locate her in her cage. Her hair count is depleting and she can bearly open her eyes. She can't even eat her food properly without occasionally tumbling backwards.

So why am I so attached to her? Because, she is my first hamster. I adopted her about 1 1/2 years ago from my friend, Kel. He is the one who discovered her abandoned by the road side with her cage opened, vulnerable to attacks from cats in the neighbourhood. Her previous owner didn't really take good care of her cause Kel found Ritz biscuit in her food bowl, dirty bedding and she was pretty much ungroomed. So Kel rescued her, feed her proper hamster food and clean her up. But he can't adopt her since he already had quite a few hamsters himself. He then asked if I wanna keep her and I agreed. When Airene and I saw her, we decided to call her "Pastel" due to her light golden fur. Since then, she has been residing in my room. She never fights back, always allow me to hold and stroke her. She's quite an acrobat too. Overtime, I grew real fond of her. And now that her days are numbered, I am left low-spirited. I can't believe she won't be with me any much longer.

Though I feel silly writing all these, I just want to let go of some sorrow in my heart. Pardon me.

De-Sigh-ner

Having attended the 2006 NAFA Degree Graduation show with my ex-classmates recently, it reminds me that it has well been a year since mine own. Looking at those eager unfamiliar faces of this year's cohort, I wonder how would their careers turn out to be. One year ago, there I was, so full of hope, thinking of all the endless opportunities and career advancement I'll get with my qualifications. Before long, I found out that, it takes alot more than just qualifications to secure a job.

Designers lead a hard life. First, they have got to possess an impressive portfolio and, of course, have relavant work experiences to secure a job. To add icing on the cake, some award certificates, preferably those with a "Crowbar" on it. So what do other fresh grads do if they have no experience and no award to boot? Well, there are companies that are kind enough to hire fresh grads. But they are not willing to pay (to be accurate, the starting pay is usually about 1.2k - 1.5k). The fresh grads will have no choice but to accept it since they are desperate for some experience and commercialise work to top-up their portfolio (cause in our line, no employer really gives a damn about school projects). There designers are required to work long hours, usually with no Over-Time pay, deal with plenty of rejections/ criticism and are required to produce top-notch work.

When the designer is sick and tired of the company's exploitation, he decides to move on. And obviously the figure of the expected salary will rise a bar since now he has some experience and commercialise work in his portfolio. However, the companies in Singapore are so conditioned to the "cheap price" they pay for designers that they assume that they can always hire someone for the same low price. The mentality is "I would rather hire a fresh grad for a lower price than to increase your pay. It's up to you if you wanna leave. Cause designers are so easily available. If not, I'll just engage a freelancer."

So by this time, what do the experience designers do? I thought of a few probabilities:

1) Work even harder and strive to be a Creative Director (It'll usually be harder if you are not blessed with blonde hair, blue eyes or speak with an accent)
2) Specialize in an art/design skill and polish it to perfection. Then apply to be a lecturer in some art colleges. (That depends on what kind of skill-sets are in demand)
3) Consider making a career switch if you are money-minded. Cause the design line is not where the money is.
4) Continue to endure the exploitation. By the time you are 35, you will realised that you are heading nowhere except that your body is growing sideways and your eyebags are comparable to those of a Bubble Eye goldfish. Perhaps even face retrenchment to make way for new blood.

Up till date, I haven't met any local designers who are above 35. Presumably, designer's career life-span will no last over 35 years of age. Considering the fact that 30s is the prime time in any adult's life (think starting a family, buying a HDB flat and ideally owning a car), it will not a good time to be out of job. By then, the "veteran" of design would have been considered useless and it will be too late to start carving a career in a different field.

All in all, I don't see the situation changing for the better anytime soon. Hence, I'm so utterly caught in a dilemma to give up or not to. I know there are others like me too. If only we can unite, speak up for ourselves and protect our fellow "comrades" (especially freelancers) from unreasonable abuse.

That's just my naiveness. It's not possible. We are all selfish cowards in our own right.

The Peanuts vs Carrots election

To be frank, I am a little disappointed at the issues raised at the election rallies. The PAP didn't pin-point the exact problems that we (read average joes and janes) faced but tempted us with, as the media phrased it, "dangling carrots" (aka upgradings). The Opposition parties (SDA, SDP, WP) voiced out concerns that, I must admit, strikes a chord in my heart.

However, the future looks bleak with the Opposition and I have my reserves about their promises. Why? From my point of view, it would be the lack of resources. So with insufficient resources, how are they going to improve our lives? But then again, it brings me to another point. Why are funds distributed unevenly between the parties? Don't they have a common pool of funds that they can utilise based on the size of their constituencies? The PAP can promise residents living in Hougang up to $100,000,000 worth of up-grading programmes. And yes. That's alot alot of money. Have anyone ever thought about if this sum of money is well-spent for up-grading purposes? Wouldn't it be better if that money is used to subsidise transport costs and maybe provide a bit of relief for the needy amongst our fellow Singaporeans? Well for that cause, I guess it'll be alright for the majority of us not to have revamped lift-landings or beautiful landscape gardens. Or to some, maybe not. After all, Singaporeans are quite well-known for being practical (these days, even foreigners living here are influenced too).

All in all, I feel that the Election Campaigning period shouldn't be wasted on blowing minor issues out of proportions (NKF and Gomez episodes). Rather, the focus should be on how to be in-tune with matters at the grassroots and making policies that are beneficial to the society. I am heartened to find that they are finally moving on on the Gomez incident.

The media plays an important part in the election too. Some said they (the media) are biased. But I think otherwise. Most of the reports I read were not misleading. I mean, search your heart. Who doesn't want to look their best when the camera is pointing at them? And you don't get to see your MPs scrubbing your void deck floors everyday, do you? We wouldn't know what is Wayang until we fail to see results. Besides that, I must thank the gift of technology for helping voters like me access alternative views and highlights to the rallies. By the way, check out the
massive crowd at the Hougang field rally.

Okay. It's almost 6am now. And the poll centers will be opening its floodgates in about 2 hours time. I'm going to get some winks before I go down and mark that X on the polling card. Yup, I have made up my mind. I would love to reveal my choice but voting is secret. So sshhhh... By the way, dear voters, do go with your heart. Give the parties a run for their money.

(P/S: Btw, SDP got an interesting take on why the distribution of their newsletter got disrupted. FYI, it's not about the Peanuts)

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Uphill ride for the oppositions?

I was browsing through the CNA website and I saw this:

Clean sweep for PAP a likely outcome in this election?

Quote:
"Whether the new Parliament will be controlled totally by the ruling party, one thing is becoming sure. THIS ELECTION IS GOING TO BE A SAD STORY OF AN OPPOSITION THAT WORKED SO HARD BUT FAILED AT THAT FINAL WHISTLE."

And come Polling Day, whether my friend (PM Lee Hsien Loong) is proven right or wrong about a clean sweep by PAP, the Opposition is likely to return home dejected.

The sandstorm in our politics desert

Come Saturday, 06/05/06, is the General Election. Around my neighborhood, campaign banners have been put up, some parties more “kiasu” than the other. The media made endless reports on on-going rallies. Among them, many issues have been raised and, their solutions, promised to be fulfilled. Some claimed to dig skeletons out of their competitor’s closet, while others are just brewing storms in teacups. Well, during the election period, anything goes.

I wonder, what would first time voters, like myself, be concerned about?
Generally, my peers are considerably nonchalant about politics and are still un-interested in the election. Try posting them a question like, “What is the name of our Minister for Health?” The answer will most probably go “Erh… I don’t know.” “Which parties are contesting for your area?” “Eh… Not sure, but the logo is the one with the red circles and PAP loh.”

This is a phenomenon. I am no sociologist to judge if this ignorance is healthy to our country, but personally I feel that young Singaporeans should at least know a little about our country’s political background and culture before voting blindly. After all we are part of the One People, One Nation, One Singapore right?