here's something to share
my auntie/uncle's company from australia was asked by NParks to
give advice on the problem with singapore's greenary. they said
they wanted to bring the standard up.
my uncle (used to be a singaporean) told them in the face. the
problem with this country is that labour is under appreciated,
everyone thinks its a banghra job. unknown to them, a landscape
artchitect (or gardener) earns a starting pay of $2-3K in other
countries with good opportunities for increment if you're
certified. the certification is recognised in most countries.
so he told NParks, the problem now is that the foreign workers
come to singapore. do manual labour for a few years, go back home
and start a company with the money and experience. so in the end,
the employment ends at that country. that is a problem for us,
since there's no one to take care of the trees anymore.
So who's left? Singaporeans lah. but every mother son thinks its
a dirty job and there's no money to it.
who's to blame? education, parents, culture... u go figure it
out.
another problem is a typical singaporean problem - cost
savings.
We purchased D-grade trees, now they are deteriorating. my
relatives told them, if you had purchased A-grade trees in the
first place, the initial cost (though high) would be lesser than
the repair costs now.
They offered land to my relatives to train singaporeans in
landscape maintainence, they rejected.
Out of goodwill, they offered to let Singaporean students to get
the cert at their nursery in Australia.
recently my auntie came back to singapore, she said singaporeans
(in my words) cannot make it.
every little thing also complain, can't do manual labour.
lol~
i tell her not to waste time with them anymore and just send
them back. I'll go over when my contract finishes and take over
them.
Construction too.
In the US, construction workers are regarded as professionals
with pretty high pay and respect.
Here, when we talk about them, the first thing that comes to
mind is 'banglas'.
Let's face it.... hardly anyone here wants to do such work.
Don't even talk about construction workers.... even jobs as
foremen and site supervisors are shunned by many.
I know of quite a few people in my class (mechanical
engineering) who wants to go into finance and such..... basically,
engineers are overworked and underpaid.
