March 4, 2010
According to Shin Min Daily yesterday, two Singapore men
committed suicide on the same day by jumping off their flats.
The first suicide victim is a taxi-driver by the name of Mr Lim
who jumped from his 15 storey kitchen windows at Taman Jurong.
He had lived with his wife and children in the HDB unit where
the suicide occurred.
Neighbors described him as slightly plump and friendly to his
neighbors.
It was reported that he was under alot of stress due to
financial difficulties.
The second victim is a 30 year old Mr Quan who leapt off from 14
storey at a HDB flat at Holland Drive to his death.
He was wearing a white shirt and blue short pants when this
tragedy took place.
It is suspected that financial reasons may be a cause too.
Despite being Asia’s second richest country after Japan,
Singapore has few social welfare benefits for its citizens though
it is able to lose billions of dollars of its reserves in failed
overseas investments.
The competition has worsened lately with the relentless influx
of foreigners into Singapore who depressed the wages of ordinary
Singaporeans, increased the cost of living, especially that of
public housing and led to an overall decline in the standards of
living.
Foreigners are allowed to compete directly with Singaporeans for
jobs and there are no minimum wage or retrenchment benefits for
local workers.
Singapore’s octogenarian leader Lee Kuan Yew said during an
interview with the National Geographic magazine that it is a “good
thing” tha the nation has welcomed so many Chinese immigrants as
they are more “hard-driving” and “hard-striving” than locals.
For those Singaporeans who have fallen too far behind in the
rat-race as they are not hard-driving enough, suicide may remain
the last resort for them.
http://www.temasekreview.com/2010/03/04/2-singapore-men-committed-suicide-on-3-march-2010-due-to-financial-distress/
are you tellilng me that japan , asia's richest country has no
citizens committing suicide over financial distress or other
reasons? and japan has a good or better social welfare system to
take care of its unemployeds n those who refuse to work?
if you know that society will feed u, what
impetus will there be for an asian society whose
forefathers were firm believers in confucian
teachings to work hard to improve oneself? at what cost will
we have to feed those indolents who prefer to laze around and take
those handouts to gamble instead...? raising the level of personal
income tax for those who work hard to 50 % like some
countries in the west??
if you have to depend on others on such an important thing as
your own happiness, then indeed you are screwed really big
time....
