Andy Neo (102522U) Retirement Age

For us, we still have a long way to go before we retire. With better technology and advanced hospitals now, Singaporeans tend to have a higher life expectancy rate. A law that will make it mandatory for employers to offer re-employment to workers beyond the age of 62 will be in place by 2012. Singapore is raising the retirement age, through the process of re-employment from the current 62 to 65 in January 2012. Beyond that we would have to examine how we can further raise the retirement age. In Finland, they have raised it to 68, so it gives them an indication about where we should be heading.Because the Finns are not living longer than us, we have a life expectancy of about 80.


However, Singapore's Minister in the Prime Minister's Office Lim Boon Heng has indicated that the country may need to raise its retirement age to 68. Mr Lim who is also the minister in charge of issues on ageing in Singapore, cited Finland as an example, and will use this trip as an opportunity to study how the Finnish are dealing with their ageing population.

Mr Lim added there are areas that Singapore can emulate. One of which is to mobilise the elderly to organise themselves and form retirement communities that can provide mutual support and friendship.

Due to a higher life expectancy, we Singaporeans are supposed to work longer to ensure a retirement fee that would last us through 68 years old - 80 years old instead of 65 - 80. This may seem far for the young adults but it is still best to start saving up.

Andy Neo (102522U) Gambling

Gambling - (to play at any game of chance for money or other stakes) is a very addictive activity as it often causes families to breakup or even death. The casino in Singapore, which is the Marina Bay Sands. Other illegal gambling dens can be found easily in places like Geylang. Singaporeans were worried that the casinos would actually encourage citizens to gamble more instead of working or to find jobs.

In many news, we have heard about how gambling causes people to go in debt with the loan sharks, broken family up and declare bankruptcy. Those people that has lost their jobs and money would often have the thought of ending their own lives. Mostly the family members are the ones that suffer instead of the gambler as the gamble would ask them for money to gamble. This actually shows how deadly gambling can be. 


Gambling is very addictive because when you lost the gamble, you would continue to gamble so as to win back your loss. When you win, you would often think that lady luck is on your side and continue to gamble until you lose everything. Worse come to worst, gamblers would go around borrowing money from relatives, family or even loan sharks. 


Singapore has established a $100 entry fee for Singaporeans to enter the casino for 24hours, or $2000 for one year entry. This has hence cause lots of ruckus and issues as Singaporeans think that it is unfair for foreigners to enter the casino for free when the citizens of Singapore has to pay a entry fee. The entry fee would actually encourage more citizens to go for illegal gambling dens and therefore the number of illegal gambling dens rose. 


At special occasions like Chinese New Year, I feel that it is okay to gamble once in awhile as it can bring a joyous feeling to the environment. However, we must know when to stop. 
You can gamble, but gamble at your own risk. 

Andy Neo (102522U) Healthcare

Healthcare in Singapore is mainly under the responsibility of the Singapore Government's Ministry of Health. Singapore generally has an efficient and widespread system of healthcare. Singapore was ranked 6th in the World Health Organization's ranking of the world's health systems in the year 2000. 

Singapore has a universal healthcare system where government ensures affordability, largely through compulsory savings and price controls, while the private sector provides most care. Singapore currently has the lowest infant mortality rate in the world, which is on par with Iceland and among the highest life expectancies from birth, according to the World Health Organization.
Singapore now has 13 private hospitals, 10 government hospitals and several specialist clinics, each specializing to different patients' needs, at varying cost. Singapore also established a medical saving account, called the MediSave, to help patients save more money from medical fees.

In conclusion, the healthcare in Singapore can be considered world class as it as very advanced to provide good and fast services to patients. Although the country is very small, Singapore has many hospitals around the country so that during an emergency, the patient can be brought to the nearest hospital to save the precious time. With such advanced technology, Singapore is definitely a suitable and comfortable place to live in.

Andy Neo (102522U) Young drivers are reckless. Do you agree?

Young drivers are reckless. Do you agree??


I agree to a extent that young drivers are reckless nowadays. As Singapore's legal age to drive is 18, many youngsters have hence took up driving lessons.


Below are the reasons why I think that young drivers are reckless:


1 - Young drivers has not reach the age of 21, where the brain of a normal human is fully developed. Therefore for male drivers, they think that speeding is cool and impressive. Thus they speeds in highway, normal streets and hence forget to check their blind spots.


2 - Young drivers nowadays are very aggressive and hot-tempered. The minute other drivers speeds and overtake them, they will think that the driver is challenging to a car race. Therefore, their anger overtook their minds and speeds even faster just to catch up and overtake the driver.


3 -  The main reason is to actually drink and drive. As the drivers are young, they tend to go places like pubs or clubs to have fun. They often drive to drink as they can save money from taking cabs during midnight or to save time from taking public transports like bus and MRTs. By drinking and driving, they are endangering road users' lives and more importantly, risking their lives. 




Therefore, to prevent this, Singapore has taken measures like:


Setting roadblock in the night, to random check on vehicles and uses breathalyser to test the alcohol levels of drivers. If a certain amount is reached, the driver will be brought back to the Police Station for more investigations. 

Also, more speed cameras has been set up in highways and streets. There are also hidden speed cameras at some places. Once caught, points will be demerit and if the driving speed exceeds 120km/h, the driver will go to court and wait for further verdict.

Andy Neo (102522U) Weather

Weather - the state of the atmosphere with respect to wind,temperature, cloudiness, moisture, pressure. Different countries have different weathers. Like Singapore, we experience the tropical weather all year round. However, countries like Europe experiences different weathers in different part of the years. 

Also, weather can be related to Global Warming -  an increase in the earth's average atmospheric temperature that causes corresponding changes in climate and that may result fromthe greenhouse effect. Global warming causes the icebergs in the north and south region of the Earth to melt and therefore causing the sea levels to rise. Global Warming is a deadly disaster and can cause apocalypse. 

Therefore to slow down this deadly disaster, nations wide has adopts ways like Reuse, Reduce and Recycle.

For reuse, citizens are encouraged to use their own bags when they purchase things. For reduce, the usage of plastic bags has been cut down and the use of paper bags is encouraged. For Recycle, things like plastic bottles can be recycled and reused again.

Healthcare -Karina 101756T

The number of health professionals that are involved in the primary care aspects of the health service are vast. You have doctors, nurses, health promotion specialists and school nurses. They all prevent ill health on a number of different levels. All health workers work at promoting good health. Health promotion is about raising the health status of individuals and communities to enable people to increase control over and improve their health. Health gain, health development and health improvement are the terms that professionals often use while describing the process of working to improve people's health.

There are many ways to keep ourselves healthy.
Firstly,what we could do is to Exercise.Exercise creates a set of responses in your body, whether you work out regularly or not. It also help to prevent diseases and it reduces the risk of heart disease, cancer, high blood pressure, diabetes and other diseases. It can improve your appearance and delay the aging process.It is also a key to weight control because it burns calories. If you burn off more calories than you take in, you lose weight.

Secondly, We can watch the food we intake. Choosing organic food over non organic food could enhance a healthier lifestyle. An eg would be Eating organic vegetables would be a better choice unlike traditional vegetables, these organic vegetables are not grown with any pesticides and they are not treated with harmful chemicals.Also fresh organic fruits from Singapore, also are not treated with harmful pesticides which may cause cancer in people.Eating lots of fruits and vegetables is essential to health. However, many people overlook that they have to clean their vegetables and fruits properly to get rid of the toxins that are applied by farmers.

The health promotion board also came out with a series of activities to encourage Singaporeans to lead a healthier lifestyle.

The health promotion board came out with SHOPATHON 2010 which requires
youths to shop their way in 60 mins       

45 teams of 13 to 18-year-olds will create an unusual sight by racing through a mall to complete a shopping mission filled with exciting and fun-filled physical activity challenges at the Health Promotion Board (HPB)’s Shopathon 2010 this Saturday, 13 March 2010, at Bugis Junction. 
This event is part of the “Exercise Your Way” physical activity campaign targeted at youths.  It seeks to reinforce their awareness of the physical activity guideline – 60 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity every day on 5 or more days a week – and motivate them to make physical activity a part of their daily routine.  The campaign also highlights to youths that they can tap on their creativity and transform every day activities into opportunities to be active.

  “We hope that this campaign and event will encourage youth to think of creative ways to fit exercise into their daily lives.  This will help them reap the benefits of regular physical activity and motivate them to sustain such active lifestyles in adulthood,” said Dr Wong Mun Loke, Deputy Director, Youth Health Programme Development (1), Youth Health Division, HPB.


Therefore keeping a healthy lifestyle is important.

Robin Goh (100861X)- Healthcare in Singapore

Healthcare in Singapore

From the research found on the web, I have realised that Singapore is ranked the world's best in giving good healthcare services by the World Health Organisation (WHO). To be able to achieve this result, Singapore had possess in:

• Promoting Good Health and Reduce Illness
• Accessing to Good and Affordable Healthcare
• Pursuing Medical Excellence

Singapore government also want to ensure that all Singaporeans to have proper and affordable basic healthcare needs, thus the government heavily subsidised for the services.

Patients would need to  co-pay the cost of medical services which they use. Individuals are also encouraged under the 3M framework (Medisave, Medishield and Medifund) to take responsibility for their own health by saving for medical expenses.

In order to deliver good quality healthcare in a cost-effective manner, Singapore has a dual system of healthcare delivery supported by both public and private sector players. Notably, public providers are clustered into 2 groups - National Healthcare Group (NHG) and Singapore Health Services (SHS).

Singapore also imported in alot of the advanced equipments to most hospitals. This is to ensure that all patients can be cured and receive the best medical services from the doctors. It is said that
Singapore's medical facilities are among the finest in the world, with well qualified doctors and dentists, many trained overseas.

Singapore’s well-established healthcare system comprises a total of 13 private hospitals, 10 public (government) hospitals and several specialist clinics, each specializing in and catering to different patient needs.
Patients can go at any time to the 24-hour Accident & Emergency Departments located in the government hospitals if there's any medical emergency.

In conclusion, I feel that Singapore is the best in giving such a good medical services to the people. And what i realised is that, more and more people around the world is coming over to Singapore to have the medical services from various hospitals. This can show that the people trust our home country's medical services. They believe that the best medical services will be given to them.