Friday, August 13, 2010

YOG Spending in perspective...



PAP government is spending $387,000,000 for YOG which Singaporeans have shown very little interest. They even need to FORCED students to volunteer in the event while giving them TERRIBLE FOOD!

On the other hand, there are many problems which the PAP is very reluctant to spend money to solve. The recent flooding needs to be solved but at an UNKNOWN cost which the PM said would be TOO HIGH.

ON top of that, PAP government has refused to provide to many less privileged Singaporeans. They have refused 50% of applicants for public assistance.

This $387million was spent to host 5000 athletes and officials for YOG. This means on average, S$77400 was spent for each of the 5000 guests. This could have lasted 5000 citizens who are on public assistance of $360 for almost 18years!

It is time for us to re-examine the priorities of the PAP government. Why would they be willing to spend hundreds of millions on an event which very few Singaporeans are interested in while become a miser unwilling to spend in improving or helping the lives of Singaporeans at large?

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

The $387 mil is a classic example of pump priming the economy and indulging in what americans call "sunshine patriotism - waving the flag during summer 4 Jul parade". This is done a few months before the election. Be prepared for the election to be called soon - definitely before the end of the year.

Anonymous said...

I don't agree with the large amount of $$ spent, but simply dividing the $387 million by 5,000 guests and saying that $77k was spent on each guest is inaccurate at best and dishonest at worst.

Sure, some of the money would have been spent on air-tickets, hotel bills and local transport, but a fair bit would have been spent on the infrastructure and hosting various events, which were enjoyed by more than 5,000.

If you want to put it in perspective, you can say that the cost of the YOG was $100 for each Singapore resident.

Anonymous said...

Dear Anon @ 10.50 PM,

To some extent I quite agree with you on putting the figures in the right perspective so as not to be inaccurate.

You know what? This 'methodology' is exactly the same one used by the ruling party across many ministries. How do they come out with the housing statistics? How do they come out with the ridership calculation of public transport? How do they derived at the figures for the various increases for public services?

Same method lah, my friend.

Anyway, good to see GMS get active again....

Anonymous said...

Dear Anon @11.08

Yes. Offhand, I recall the selective use of the base year when MND released the charts on the affordability of HDB housing some months ago. You appear to know of further cases; care to share them?

Agree its good to see GMS active. I admire him for his boldness and commitment -- unlike the anonymous cowards that you and I are ;-)

However, boldness and commitment must be tempered with credibility. This is true for the ruling party, and perhaps even more true for those coming from the Opposition.

Careless remarks will easily erode a hard-earned reputation

regards

Anon @10.50

Anonymous said...

i don't quite understand the infrastrucre arguement. There were NO new stadiums/venues built for the events. All of the events were held at exisiting venues with a little bit of touch up and make over.

Nost of the $ was spent to get the "atheletes" and officals here. The event was unpopular and singapore had to resort to paying for all of the expenses to get the current poor turn out.

As a result of this, it is somewhat dubious of all the atheletes are really atheletes. I watched a swimming competition yesterday. There were only 3 kids taking part. All were somewhat chubby and hardly had the physique of olympic swimmers. When the race started, 2 swam as fast as they could. The third gave up half way and appeared to have difficulty completing 50 m !

I am sure that this is replayed across many of the events. Many of the kids here are not serious atheletes but rather just children here on all expense paid holiday.

The irony is that when they are here, these children are treated like VIPs. Our children on the other hand are made to volunteer. While these foreign kids get buffet meals, our kids get "dog food".

Anonymous said...

"While these foreign kids get buffet meals, our kids get "dog food"."

This is what one old fart meant by digging the spurs in our sides!

The Void Deck said...

Brudder

However much they spend, it is orways too much one lah right? hehe