Young couples looking to government resources for guidance in matrimonial issues, were surprised to read that their plans for "Getting youth to believe in marriage, family as part of success" turn out to be building an underground tunnel linking Malaysia and Singapore. How did the Ministry of Transport end up being involved in the promotion of matters of the heart, marriage (to qualify for a HDB flat) and procreation (improve birth rate to stem the tide of immigration)?
Perhaps they were planning a tunnel of love, complete with floating ERP gantries. Imaginative NS boys are saying that they will probably be more like the tunnels discovered at the South Korean end of the DMZ, large enough for one regiment to pass through in one hour. Maybe even larger, for 55 tonne 2A4 Leopard tanks too heavy to rumble across overhead bridges, S-shaped or straight thoroughfares. Whatever the rationale of the scholar planners, it's not exactly the accouterment of choice that Cupid could work with.
The hurdles for today's youngsters contemplating a new home are staggering. Some say guys maintain that the COE must come first, before the down payment for an affordable HDB flat, if they can find one. With the coming of the baby, there's the worry of pre-school expenditure, as kindergartens cost more than primary or secondary school fees. Latter may range from $28 per month (inclusive miscellaneous fees) to the $400 charged by independent junior colleges. And with limited places in the local universities taken up by outsiders, parents may have to resort to downgrading their pigeon holes to pay for the overseas degree. In the light of all these financial considerations, maybe a Singapore variant of the prenuptial agreement should be drawn up, with an addendum to to ensure that doting parents don't end up destitute and dumped by their offspring in a nursing home in Johore or Batam. Surely those bureaucratic pen pushers can handle the paperwork.
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Marriages nowadays are for sexual relation and companionships only. Clandestine relationships and co-habitations are common. It could be quite accurate to say that sex is leisure for pleasure.
ReplyDeleteFew are interested in setting up families, it will be too much a burden for most with little prospects of a good lifelong carreer, family togetherness and of course as mentioned by the Writer, most are price-out by the costs of livings.
Marriage and setting up family are too traditional for the modern world which have done away with the virtues and values traditional with old cultures. It has evolved to be as pragmatic as the material existence of mankind.
Such evolutionary changes in culture and tradition has came about because of practical scientific and pragmatic approaches that evolve into present form of livings.
It will be nice to be able to modernize without having to part ways with traditions and values. Unfortunately, it's hard to remain beautiful and strong when one is into the twilights.
Similarly, modernization and practicality do changes value and virtue in humans, it is most unfortunate but that's the way it is.
If there are things that our youngs will believe in our leaders, it must be; first, take care of yourselves and last, you die your bizness and nothing in between.
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