Scenario 1

I walked out of my room door, so happy that the holidays are still in progress. I had only finished 50% of my homework... still have a lot of other stuff to do... Father and Mother were talking in the hall.

"I would not be back for dinner. I got to meet up with my boss and the client."

"But," Mother interjected. "We promised the whole family that we would go and watch "The Chronicles of Narnia, Prince Caspian" today! The kids would be very disappointed once they hear of this."

"I know, but if I do not attend this meeting, I would risk losing my chance of promotion, I would even lose my job! And once I lose my job, who is this world will feed our family?" Father retorted. Afterwhich, he grabbed his briefcase and stormed out of the house.

===========================================================

Scenario 2

"Hi Elsie! Good to see you!" the fishmonger yelled from his station.

"Yes good to see you too,Towkay," Elsie replied."I want the usual. 1 Yellowfish, 2 Pomfret and 4 fillets of codfish."

"No prob! Total cost is $24.50"

"Eh, how come so ex?" Elsie was shocked. "I thought the usual price was $19? Why, your fish much fresher today is it?"

The fishmonger laughed "No lah. You got see the news or not? Oil prices reached $127 this week leh! When oil prices go up, all our prices go up! You got see the petrol prices or not? Rise up by so much! Even the chicken rice stall (pointing opposite) also increase price! From $2.50 a plate to $3.70 a plate!"

===========================================================

Scenario 3

"I said no! You are not allowed to go for the group outing!"

"But Mother," cried Jon, "We could barely get everyone to join in for the outing! Please, just one day!"

"No!" Mother roared, "Your schedule has been organised to picture-perfect! You miss one, you miss all of them! Firstly, you got your violin lesson in the morning. Afternoon you got your chinese and physics tuition. And in the night you got your maths tuition! Come on, Jon! Saturdays are not meant for "outings"! They are meant for you to catch up on your work! How much did you get for your physics for the Mid Years?"

"74" Jon muttered.

"See? You never got what I wanted you to get! Remember what I told you? '85 and above' before you get a break! It's final! No going for your outing! You go and study!"

===========================================================

Does any of the above 3 scenarios sound familar to you?

This is the Singapore we live in now, where competitiveness matter. Employers pick the graduate with 5 A-level certs and leave the one with 4 A-level certs behind. Numbers are so important in all our livestyles'.

Firstly, students are getting rather stressed up because of the amount to work we have to do. For example, the JC's project work. A number of JC students are facing a lot of troubles with it and they are angry and flustered. The education system is such that we as students have to work and work and work. See the amount of tests, the toppling pile of homework, the projects. Students have to study and study and study untill the joy of study is LOST!!! Now, we are just studying for the sake of a good life later on. But when we die, where does all of that go? (I will elab more on it in my next post). We are all studying for fear of not reaching our goals, or the goals that we got pressured into setting! Everyone of us wants a life where money flows like a rushing river.

Even adults are stressed. They all have to work and work just to keep bread on the table. Unemployed adults had to (almost literaly) fight for an avaliable job post. Office workers, where they are confined to a cubicle for at least 6 hours (Lucky ones get an office), had to work to an extent where they had to bring their work back home to try and meet all the deadlines! Construction workers, factory workers etc. have to work with a high level of stress because once they make a mistake, they either have their pay cut fatally or even lose their jobs! Both consequences which are equally deadly in this world. Why is it so? Well...

BECAUSE OF THE OIL PRICES!

Which brings me to the last point of this post. Oil prices, creeping up like a weed. From a mere US$20 a barrel in 1996, to US$60 a barrel in 2006 and to a dangerous height of US$120 in March-April 2008 (not too sure of the exact month). Oil, literally, makes the economy situation in any country soar or crumble. How?

-Crude oil makes petrol, kerosene etc.
-When oil prices goes up, petrol prices goes up.
-When petrol prices goes up, the fees for public transport goes up.
-Once that happens, businesses (from chicken rice stalls to large international firms) will start to increase their products' selling price to keep their profit : loss ratio constant.
-While the ratio stays constant, bosses would start to cut their employees' pay bit by bit TO INCREASE THEIR OWN PAY so that they don't lose out.
-Employees' will start to get retrenched when the profit : loss ratio sinks towards the "Loss" side.
-As more people gets jobless or axe-pay, the affordibility rate of everyday items will go down, as the price of everyday items goes up and the peoples' savings and income goes down.
-Once that happens... well I guess you know the result.

Environmentalists claim that the earth is dying. But with all these... human-caused complications... I think we would go first.

My next post would be the spiritual side of these matters... so stay tuned!

God bless,
Yong Quan