Tuesday, May 11, 2010 at 11:31PM Back to the grind tomorrow.
Friday, April 30, 2010 at 10:23AM Vivian Balakrishnan's indignant response to Al Jazeera's coverage of the homeless in Singapore has been making the rounds for the past couple of days, helped by our unquestioning mainstream press when they printed the minister's words without even an hint of challenge or an effort towards verification. And when Al Jazeera refused to back down from that story, the contrast between them and the local press has never been clearer.
Thursday, April 29, 2010 at 2:39PM Al Jazeera's Marcus Cheek shoots back at Vivian Balakrishnan:
The real point of story was to illustrate how the safety net in Singapore sometimes fails to catch those who have fallen on hard times – whatever their background – because of the rules governing access to assistance.
It's a policy problem, which is what I, and a lot of bloggers, have been saying. When will the minister man up and admit it?
Note: The TOC official response will be coming soon, and I promise you it will be good.
Al Jazeera, Marcus Cheek, Vivian Balakrishnan, public housing in Journalism, Policy, QOTD, Singapore, TV, homelessness Thursday, April 22, 2010 at 11:50PM Getting pretty quiet on the local front.
Michael Greenberger on Over-the-Counter Derivatives (MMBM) from Roosevelt Institute on Vimeo.
Wednesday, April 14, 2010 at 4:48PM Leong Sze Hian has written many pieces regarding HDB flats and policies for TOC, and part two of his report on the People’s Association Youth Movement (PAYM) policy forum @ Jurong GRC, held last Sunday, has some very interesting statistics for us to mull over. Here are some that caught my eye.
HDB, Leong Sze Hian, The Online Citizen, public housing in Policy, Singapore Wednesday, April 14, 2010 at 11:32AM What the homeless need is a helping hand, not a free gift, and that helping hand could just be as easy as fine-tuning existing policies to close off such loopholes. Which is what the government should be doing anyway.
HDB, Kirsten Han, The Online Citizen, Yong Pagit, public housing in Policy, Singapore, homelessness Wednesday, April 14, 2010 at 10:39AM Singapore Mind does one better and posted the entire Sue-Ann Chia editorial in this article, along with more numbers to illustrate how HDB mismanaged demand of flats and pulls together a pretty good summary with links.
HDB, Mah Bow Tan, Straits Times, Sue-Anne Chia, public housing in Fail, Journalism, Mainstream Media, Policy, Singapore Monday, April 12, 2010 at 11:13PM I won't call it a triumph of journalism standards, but it is refreshing to see an ST editorial that cautioned against dismissing legitimate issues with the excuse of astroturfing, and exposed the sleight-of-hand that National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan presented to the ST as justification for rising resale flat prices, using Hazel Poa's blog post.
HDB, Jessica Cheam, Mah Bow Tan, Straits Times, Sue-Anne Chia, public housing in Mainstream Media, Policy, Singapore Saturday, April 10, 2010 at 10:08PM Hazel Poa breaks down the latest HDB statistics National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan provided to ST's Jessica Cheam to justify median household income outstripping increased HDB resale flat prices.
Wednesday, April 7, 2010 at 10:36PM Straits Times published a fluff piece today, an interview with National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan about the cost of public housing. The minister produced a chart proving that median household income has kept pace with prices of flats, which is touted by Jessica Cheam to be "hard facts and statistics".
HDB, Jessica Cheam, Mah Bow Tan, Straits Times, public housing in Fail, Journalism, Mainstream Media, Policy, Politics, Singapore 
