I was walking along New York City back to YMCA where i was holding up, i remembered I was returning from shopping at 5th Avenue.
A pretty slick looking Black guy came up to me, apparently he was promoting his music (Lots of them do that) and I obliged and took his CD. He asked for a donation of “Ten to twenty bucks”. I offered five,stingy ol’ me. He then asked, after finding out I was from Singapore…
“Are they into Hip Hop, from where you come from?”
I replied ” No, we live in trees.”
No, i did not reply him with that of course! The guy is like 3 times of me, in size. I promised to check out his website before leaving.
I popped the cd into my laptop thinking it was just another Black trying to make it big, I was so wrong. The songs are pretty good, and upon Youtubing, i found that he was featured in some artist’s musics as well. This guy may just well be the next big Black star alright.
The GST hike is taking a toil on every Lower to Middle classed Singaporean as our daily expenses are being increased either noticeably by that same plate of economy rice that used to cost $2.50 that now cost $4 in any common coffeeshop, or unnoticeably by that HL Milk that used to cost $1.20 and now $1.60 at your local supermarket.
Many of us are complaining (Mostly the middle aged adults) about why the government has increased our living expenses by increasing GST from its mere 3% (incredibly low in worldy standards) in 1994 to the 7% of today. in these bad times. We often snub at the GST Offset Package introduced in 2007 stating “What good is $200-$500 when my car petrol for a month is already $400?”. We may have missed the point that the GST package is introduced with a system that the poorer you are, the more it will help you, while the richer you are, the lesser it would benefit you and at the end of it all, Singapore’s Economy will still benefit from the 2% additional GST that everyone will still eventually be able to afford.
It is like asking, “Why build a casino when it will do so much harm? “. The answer is really simple, to keep up with other countries, example, revenue and tourism. This would also put us a notch higher in terms of our country’s development and progress, especially when it comes to competing with other Asian countries. Just imagine the impact our casino will do to Genting alone.
Back to the GST credits…
Scenario 1:
Scenario 2:
Information here is given to the best of knowledge from our GST offset package website. Although i am not Pro-Government, neither am i anti- positive thinking. I hope everyone understands what those few hundred dollars are for. Our Government really did not have to implement this. It seems like they are doing it to appease a very spoilt child. I had used to think “Buy me over, over a few hundred bucks? “, now i think differently.
Bet then again, these are just my theories and our Govt. might be just using this to buy us over. Your judgement call.
Finally back to blogging from what seemed like a Six month break. Really missed doing this. It was what kept my mind going and a place where thoughts, with a sole purpose of sharing with the world, could flow. It is my attention seeking haven, guilt not included.
Pretty much spent an entire morning redoing the layout which was so easy, God bless automated blog sites. Just some reconstruction with the banner and a miserable attempt in having a tagboard/shoutboard attached to the sidebar, unfortunately, wordpress does not support them. I might consider registering my domain and upgrading the account if my budget permits within the next couple of months.
The difference between then, and now? Blogging is now done Fifteen storeys (Story for Americans) high in an opened spaced living room of my HDB with the ocean breeze in my hair. How can one’s mind not be any clearer and uncluttered.
A half an hour show on channel 5 featuring bands performing live on stage and a terrific audience grooving to all that amazing local talent. What took Mediacorp so long? I repeat, the show is LIVE. I just wish this could spark of Singapore as being a hub for talents in English music. Enough of Ching Chong music being the majority, can ? ! (Australia’s English music scene is pretty strong.)
Hosted by ever youthful VJ UTT makes a terrific choice as who else can relate more to youth and music. The audience looked like they were having so much fun and the whole atmosphere really makes me feel like being there. Sure, it is not as cool as perfomances by most white skinned countries but knowing how Mediacorp Channel 5 is trying to promote potato music for Kantan people leaves the Kantan people some room to breath in a sense of having their own identity! Of course, it is supporting our local talents that gets me excited.
Live ‘N’ Loaded premiered tonight and happens every Tuesday, 9pm.
