An Affront

My first interview
This is a commercial school famed for its language. I can see it occupies two floors of a building with more than 15 tutorial rooms which would amply qualify it to be named a college. When I was told that they will take me in as a freshie and pay me on that terms, it makes me boil that my teaching skills since 1997 means nothing. And I have two younger superiors, both women.

It has 3 non-teaching and 3 teaching days. I think this is ridiculous as I only want to get in on the action when there are classes which in turn means more income stream for myself and the school. The non-teaching days are designated preparation days which are way out of proportion, I thought. Why devote such a huge chunk of time to non-teaching assignments when we could comfortably do our own preparation out of school hours?

Anyway there is a minimum wage that I think I can comfortably get by and what they pay isn't even the foreign talent 'S' pass category. Anything below that means working my life away without a plan for a retirement in my old age.

I was rejected for a room by a PR who prefers foreigners
The room was just nice for me. But the Malaysian PR chief tenant told me they prefer foreigners. Can you imagine the kinda discrimination Singaporeans face at work (foreigners are more talented and cheaper) and even in his own country? To be rejected by our leaders and now this (the English langauge at schools has to be taught by native speakers).

Short term gain/long term pain (micro)
As I mentioned, I welcome exotic talents that we cannot find among our local populace which will in turn create more jobs for locals (if this can be true).

But I can't help thinking how our companies, especially the SMEs or even our local MNCs may be doing themselves a great disservice by employing foreigners.

Firstly, some foreigners are rich back home. They come here to work for our companies to learn the ropes and eventually strike out on their own. They have nothing to lose as our salaries are way above what their home currencies are worth.

Imagine a company who wants to sprout an international/regional wing (Singapore is too small after all), only to find that their ex-employee has beaten them ahead of the game back in their home country. Mind you, this foreign worker has the home advantage of his own native land.

The companies must be "goondus" to train them for free like that. Yes the short term gain is that they cut on costs. But the long term pain is the price they pay for another competitor in a bigger regional/international market place.

Whereas with a local employee, he doesnt have the benefit of a regional/international market but only our Singapore one.

Perhaps this is something we can think about.

I thought about this when I received the Malaysian PR's free-lance calling card (which means that he is moonlighting). He is an art director with an advertising agency here but his calling card has a Malaysian operation.

Macro-translation
Extend this on a macro level and what happens. All the foreigners would be trained and skilled and if they decide to leave for their home country, which if there is a golden opportunity in their own developing nations (as is happening now), we have massive competition to our own local economy.

They would duplicate what we do and they have the trained human resources to execute the mission. All thanks to their rivals who helped trained them.

Foreign workers would become citizens if they are so loyal
Which brings us to the point of fealty. If they do not swear on oath to pledge their allegiance or perform NS, it can only mean that they are here only for the work and business opportunities. It has nothing to do with the nation and how it is faring or the community here.

If we don't offer them the work and business opportunity when times are bad, they move on.

A smart kid who isn't so smart at school
I just realised how smart Lynard is. His analyses of situations are almost as good as mine. I can also begin to see what are some of the kind of reasons (or tricks) kids would resort to to defend themselves.

An endearing old lady
I tried getting out news of my intention to move within the same estate by word of mouth. There is an information counter which was quite good. I got to meet this endearing old lady with whom I communicate in Teochew. She is recommending me a place which is her relative's (but I suppose it is all profit-driven again as it is really quite expensive on a co-sharing basis) .