Hi everyone, you're all invited to Deepest Sympathies & Synonyms, the latest exhibition by Seelan Palay & Shikin Ali, opening on 19th Oct.
Deepest Sympathies & Synonyms (Exhibition)
Wednesday, October 19 · 7:00pm - 10:00pm
15 Minutes (The cafe) @ La Salle College of the Arts, 1 McNally Street
In this exhibition, artist-duo Seelan & Shikin apply a newly developed visual ensemble to reflect on the chronic dichotomy of Singapore's social structures.
The exploration into both the artists' approaches to the portrayal of the evolving civic system lent itself to the stylistic application and conceptual framework in the created set of drawings, installations, collages and photographs. The eventual works displayed in the exhibition are the shared products of both artists, intertwined in form and intellection.
By visually translating the relativity between Singapore's public memory, social landscape, critical discourse and modern history, the artists seek to portray the paradox of power and experience in the island state.
There is nothing uniquely Singaporean about inequality
By Assoc Professor Aneel Karnani of the University of Michigan
14 September 2011
As of June last year, some 4.2 per cent - or 83,400 - of employed Singaporeans and residents still earned less than $500 a month, the same as they did way back in 1999. And in a nation that prides itself on home ownership, 45,000 households are renting subsidised one and two-room flats now, up from around 40,500 in 2008.
Meanwhile, the number of those who earn $10,000 a month or more has soared fourfold to 121,700 in a decade. And Singapore has the highest proportion of millionaires in the world, with one in six households on that gilded rich list.
Reel off these statistics - gleaned from recent newspaper reports and government data sheets - to Associate Professor Aneel Karnani and he does not seem the least bit surprised.
Income inequality is an inevitable by-product of free market economies, says the Harvard-educated academic, who has spent nearly a decade researching how society can strike the right balance between private profit and public welfare.
"Singapore likes to think it is unique but there is nothing uniquely Singaporean about inequality. That's increasing in practically all affluent countries." Technology and globalisation are two major causes of this "natural phenomenon", says the professof of business strategy at the University of Michigan's Stephen M. Ro Business School.
The 60-year old was in Singapore recently to conduct a series of executive training workshops and speak at universities here. As societies* and economies become more knowledge-driven, there is a greater premium on higher education, which increases knowledge, and technology, which increases productivity. Highly educated and technically skilled people thus tend to earn more and more.
At the same time, globalisation has brought a large pool of unskilled labour into the global market, depressing wages and the bargaining power of lower-skilled people who find their jobs migrating to the lowest bidder, whether within their countries or overseas.
This is to enable "economic efficiency" - where resources are used to maximise the production of goods and services. Thus, Americans these days get shoes or garments from Bangladesh or China because it is cheaper to manufacture them there than in the United States.
"In the old days, you could be a blue-collar worker in the US and make a reasonable living," says Prof Karnani. "But now there are people all over the world who say I can do this cheaper - so it's difficult to be a blue-collar worker in the US or other rich countries, with their jobs migrating elsewhere. So globalisation and technology are increasing inequality."
As someone who has spent three decades, teaching at a business school, the professor stresses that he is in favour of economic efficiency and that private enterprise is a proven "engine of growth". But he says too much of the discussion he hears in Singapore - he has been coming here two or three times a.year for the past 20 years - is from people on the `political right" who are keen to let free markets work unfettered. It increases the economic pie and makes the country rich.
But it is essential to know how to distribute the wealth as well: "The sense I get is that Singapore has focused too much on growing the size of its economic pie and not enough on distributing it." While free markets are good, they also produce more inequality than what most would consider socially desirable. And they lead to the exploitation of the most vulnerable.
The solution, he says, is that `we don't leave the market alone". "Governments should foster free markets but at the same time have another set of policies to temper the resulting inequality, even though it hurts economic efficiency to a certain extent."
There are a myriad ways for a government to do this - and most developed economies already have many such measures in place. The simplest and most direct is through cash handouts or even conditional transfers of payments - where the poor are given cash, as long as they meet certain preset conditions. Singapore's Workfare Income Supplement system is one such way, where low-income workers get their salaries topped up as long as they, are employed.
Progressive taxation is another way forward, where rich individuals and companies are taxed more for a more equitable distribution of wealth.
Third, governments could intervene directly in the markets by setting minimum wage laws or by strengthening unions and enabling workers to collectively bargain for higher wages. Providing public-funded services - such as education or health care - cheap or free to the poor is yet another way forward, he says.
But won't high taxes that must be exacted to fund such handouts kill incentive? And is it wise to advocate more spending on the poor at a time when so many debt-ridden °Western economies are groaning under the weight of burgeoning welfare bills?
"You can take all these equality-inducing mechanisms to a silly, dysfunctional extreme. That, of course, must be avoid- ed. The trouble, is that the debate on, this issue is polarising all too often free markets or communism," says the self-avowed political centrist.
"We can and must find the appropriate middle ground." This can be done through vigorous debate in democratic societies in Parliament, in the media and in other public fora - with each country deciding for itself what is the best course of action.
Currently, similar debates are on in the US, which is deciding how best to deal with record deficits, and in Britain, where the recent London riots were blamed on rising income inequality.
Singapore, too urgently needs more discourse on inequality, says Prof Karnani. Its economy may have grown at a blistering pace of 14.5 percent last year. But at the same time, the gap between its .rich and poor was the second-largest among the world's developed economies, according to a United Nations report.
Its Gini coefficient - among resident employed households - a measure of income inequality between zero and one - has risen from 0.43 in 2000 to 0.452, last year, despite government transfers. This figure could be higher still if wages of Singapore's large pool of blue-collar migrant workers were taken into account, he points out.
The Gini average among members of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), a consortium of developed economies, by contrast, is 0.3.1.
One issue Singapore can discuss, for instance, is whether its richest can be taxed more to help the poor gain access to better services and opportunities, he says.
After all, the Republic's Gini coefficient has grown steadily even as the highest personal income tax rates were cut from 28 per cent in 2002 to 20 per cent in 2007, one of the lowest in the developed world. Currently, those earning $320,000 per year pay the same tax rate as those earning 10 times more.
"We can have progressive taxation without killing entrepreneurship or incentive. Taxes that can go up to 30-40 per cent. In Western countries, the rich don't say that because taxes are 30 per cent, I will stop working."
In fact, back in his own country, billionaire investor Warren Buffett recently sparked debate by saying that the richest in the US could be taxed even more than the current 35 per cent to help ease deficit woes and avoid cutting 'services for the poor, says the Indian-born American citizen.
"These are interesting'' questions that need to be debated openly. Every society must decide how much ' inequality to have." And no discussion on inequality in Singapore can be complete without considering, the impact, of the large pool of blue-collar immigrants here. Being transient workers, they are not included in Gini coefficient calculations. But they work here - and deserve more protection, he argues.
"Singapore wants cheap labour, but you can't have cheap labour without having inequality. I think we should say that, no, we don't want cheap labour because that's what forms the basis, for an unequal, exploitative society. But of course, that's up to you to decide.”
If immigrants must be let 'in, they must be protected by all the mechanisms of equality that a society has in place, he argues. "I don't know about you, but I want a society that gives protection of`equality, to those who are legally and physically there, irrespective of where they, were born."
Solving the problem of labour shortages by creating an "artificial underclass", like in the Middle East, he believes, is morally problematic. "You can't say you want an egalitarian society only for Singaporeans and not for others. Then don’t let immigrants in."
I recently read an article titled "Why Young People Don't Participate in Politics", and I found the latest comment posted to be of interest:
"I think too many of us are ready and willing to blame the political system for youth non-participation. This is a cop out. Of course the political system is frustrating and promotes cynicism--they all do to some degree. But the narrative that suggests it is somehow reasonable that young people turn away from participatory democracy because it is less than savory is ridiculous. And, in any event, I'm not sold by this narrative; it suggests young people attain a degree of understanding of what governance is and how it works only to suddenly turn away from this civic project. I don't believe this happens enough to explain youth non-participation. Laziness and lack of conviction, along with a lack of civic education, are the main contributors." - Benjamin Byron
Hi everyone who reads this blog occasionally or have it on your RSS feeds, thank you for all your support so far. I've been really busy since right after the elections with work outside of politics and activism and I haven't updating as regularly on this blog.
I'm thinking of developing a website to feature my artwork and merging this blog within it in the near future. I'll post a link to that when it happens.
Other than that, stay strong, be positive and always hold on to your convictions!
Online gallery of images here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/thecapital
theonlinecitizen on June 8, 2011
Q. Which is the only country in the world that allows foreigners to buy public housing?
A. Singapore – permanent residents (PRs) can buy resale HDB flats.
Q. Which is the only country in the world that allows not just citizens, but also PRs to own public housing and private property at the same time?
A. Singapore – You can buy private property after the 5-year Minimum Occupation Period (MOP).
Q. Which is the only country in the world that allows whole public flats to be rented entirely to foreigners?
A. Singapore – After the MOP, you can rent out the entire flat to anyone.
Q. Which is the only country in the world which requires a public flat owner to pay a penalty of up to $50,000, when he or she buys another new public flat?
A. Singapore – Resale levy when you buy your second new flat, even if you suffered a loss when you sold your first flat many years ago, or if you were forced to sell your flat or had your flat compulsorily acquired by the HDB because you couldn’t pay your mortgage. Or if the HDB Resale Price Index dropped by about 40 per cent from 1996 to 2003.
Q. Which is the only country in the world that pays your down-payment in full or in part, when you cannot afford to buy a flat?
A. Singapore – CPF Housing Grants. Other countries’ public housing authorities normally keep the prices of public housing low and affordable, so that the lower-income can afford to buy. What is the difference between the sub-prime mortgage crisis in the United States, which caused the 2008 global financial crisis, by encouraging those who cannot afford to buy homes by lending them housing loans effectively without the need for any down-payment, and the HDB Housing Grants for the lower-income?
Q. Which is the only country in the world that marks up the price of public housing, and then give Housing Grants that never seem to catch up with the price increases, and thumb it as helping people to own homes?
A. Singapore – Flat prices rose 66 per cent or 11.1 per cent per annum over the last five years or so, whereas Housing Grant increases were about a few thousand dollars a year for most eligible buyers. What about buyers who are not eligible for Housing Grants?
Q. Which is the only country in the world that allows public housing prices to increase by about five times more than median wage increase?
A. Singapore – The real median wage only increased by about 1.1 per cent over the last 10 years or so
Q. Which is the only country in the world that acquires public housing flats at only 90 per cent of the valuation as determined by the public housing authority, when owners default on their mortgage?
A. Singapore – The HDB eats up 10 per cent of the valuation from those who are already in dire straits when they cannot pay their mortgage.
Q. Which is the only country in the world that requires you to find another stranger who is 35 years or older to rent a flat together, with a combined monthly income not exceeding $1,500, when you are homeless?
A. Singapore – Joint singles rental scheme.
Q. Which is the only country in the world that increase the rent of the poorest of the poor, after two years of renting a public flat?
A. Singapore – Households earning just over $800 a month have to pay higher rent after two years of tenancy.
Q. Which is the only country in the world that allows public housing to be rented to foreigners for profit?
A. Singapore – E M Services, a joint venture between HDB and a publicly listed company, rents HDB flats to foreigners for profit. How much profits does E M Service make from renting flats to foreigners?
Q. Which is the only country in the world whose public housing supply policy caters almost entirely to first-timer families?
A. Singapore – 95 per cent of Build-to-order (BTO) flats are reserved for first-timers and and an unknown percentage for grassroots volunteers. The forsaken – second- timers, divorcees, single mothers, singles, down-graders due to financial stress, mortgage defaulters, etc.
Q. Which is the only country in the world that requires a public housing flat to be returned to the public housing authority, at a price to be determined by the authority, when couples divorce?
A. Singapore – Divorce within five years, without children.
Q. Which is the only country in the world that requires divorcing couples to cancel their existing public housing loan, and re-finance with a new one?
A. Singapore – Why can’t the existing housing loan be continued? Many divorcing couples have difficulty in re-financing.
Q. Which is the only country in the world that does not disclose public housing statistics like mortgages in arrears, foreclosures, etc?
A. Singapore – Only occasionally, but rarely, when questions are asked in Parliament, but only HDB loan statistics, but not HDB bank loan statistics.
Q. How many of the above HDB policies will be reviewed by the new National Development Minister?
Thank you to everyone who attended the opening reception of the CAPITAL exhibition. It's showing till 26 May 2011 and is open everyday from 5pm onwards.
For details on the venue and directions read: http://seelanpalay.blogspot.com/2011/05/invitation-to-my-next-art-exhibition.html
