Summer Hours

It turns out nearly every expat wife, mother and child vacates Singapore the day school's out for summer. This over-generalization is a result of my thoroughly unscientific poolside observations. If the pool in my apartment complex is empty after 3 pm on weekdays and all day Saturday and Sunday, then surely all the other expat residential buildings must also be empty.

Not wanting to be left behind, I joined the mass exodus from the city-state and headed to the United States. For three weeks, I visited friends and family in my hometown, Columbus, Ohio. Highlights included my Bexley High School class reunion, 4th of July Bexley parade, and a road trip with my sister and two nephews to Garrison, NY. The brief break in my permanent home allowed me to exterminate the pests in our little cottage and absorb the life of my mother-in-law. Back in C’bus I ate, drank, lunched, dined and Target-ed myself until my departure.

My July: No blogs. No e-mails. No postcards. No Skypes. Just home, sweet home.

P.S. Yes, Target is a verb. After all the time and money I spent there it adds up to one big action!

Point Less

One of the greatest challenges I have faced while living in Singapore is breaking the habit of pointing. We all know that it is not nice to point, but in Southeast Asia, it is downright offensive and insulting. Even though I find it necessary at times, it never, ever is acceptable. Before I reach the point of no return, I am learning to keep my hands to myself.

I can be an expressive talker. Using my hands and face helps me to articulate a point, especially when I am taking aim at a political position or social situation. When listening to someone who says something interesting or funny, I tend to turn my hands into a couple of six-shooters and point them as a gesture of agreement. Not only must that action offend certain onlookers, but also a thumb pointing up offends others. In some countries, a thumbs-up sign is the same as giving the finger. I am not much for that hand signal, so keeping my thumbs down is not a challenge.

Using my index fingers while I am in conversation is just the tip of my pointing habit. Restaurant menus such as Vietnamese, Chinese and Thai list their traditional dishes by their customary names. No numbers printed next to foodstuffs for easy ordering and absolutely no pointing. It seems second nature to point to the dish on the menu while placing an order particularly when the words are difficult to say. Either I am doomed to eat what I can clearly pronounce (Pad Thai and General Tso’s Chicken) or I am doomed to eat intestines after butchering the name of a dish.

As I maneuver around Singapore, I am rarely without a map. When I am lost or confused in any city I whip out a map, stop a passerby, and point where I want to go. Language can be a barrier here so pointing on a map and asking directions seems logical, but it is unacceptable. Sometimes I am able to ask for assistance and a helpful person shows me the way by sweeping a flat hand in the general direction. However, that movement is not as specific as it is when using a finger and leaves me scratching my head in even deeper uncertainty.

Now I am at a turning point. In social situations, I make sure my hands are never empty by either holding a drink or my purse. When ordering in restaurants, I channel one of my mother’s screaming reprimands, "Sit on your hands!” I make my food selection by speaking slowly and clearly while keeping one hand on the menu and the other in my lap. Asking directions with a map is no longer an issue. Using my thumb in a Bill Clinton I-feel-your-pain style, I am able to pinpoint the exact location.

Beside the point, I am learning to live without a crook finger. That's a signal for postitutes.

That's Half The Paddle

The World Table Tennis Championship just ended. From April 28 – May 5, the players paddled it out in Yokohama, Japan. Singapore sent their national team with all the love and support of their countrymen and leaders. The Beijing Olympic Games produced one of Singapore’s proudest sporting achievements: 1st Olympic medal in 48 years! Li Jiawei lead her team to win silver in women’s table tennis. Li Jiawei became a national hero. Prime Minister Lee announced programs to raise the ranks of the game’s importance almost to the point of naming Table Tennis the national sport. Weeks before the WTTC, TV commercials ran repeatedly featuring the players in a grand style second only to our Super Bowl promotions.

Table Tennis is a big deal in Singapore and all of Asia. Knowing that the sport was created in England, I wonder if President Nixon’s Ping Pong Diplomacy had anything to do with its Asian popularity. The most I knew about the history of Ping Pong/Table Tennis was how our family table served. It sat in our basement next to our bumper pool table and went from popular game to slumber party fort to storage table. The story of Table Tennis is far more interesting than the Acton’s Ping Pong table.

Born from lawn tennis in the 1880’s, Englishman David Foster patented an actual table set in 1890. Parlour Table Games not only included a table version of Lawn Tennis, but it also included a version of Cricket and Football (Soccer). London game maker Jean Jaques created another version, Gossima. Both versions of Table Tennis used game balls made from rubber and cork. The game was never popular because of the low-performing balls.

In 1909, the game bounced back! The celluloid ball was invented. John Jacques renamed his game Ping Pong after the sound of the ball as it hit the drum battledores (paddles). Ping Pong and Table Tennis games were both popular and, just like Federer and Nadal, they were rivals. Ping Pong and Table Tennis had separate rulebooks. Parker Brothers bought the American rights for the name Ping Pong and enforced all trademarks. Both sides knew all the back and forth between the game’s official name had to end. By 1926 Ping Pong and Table Tennis combined forces in order to bring the sport to the international table. Berlin established The International Table Tennis Federation. In 1977, Table Tennis became an official Olympic sport.

Like all professional sports, Table Tennis is not without a controversial performance enhancer. Forget steroids, these players use Speed Glue! It puts more Ping in their Pong. No, the players don’t sniff it they stick it. Professional players glue their own paddles. The paddles are blades of wood, foam, and rubber. Speed Glue is the stuff used to plug tires and when applied to the paddle layers, the foam expands and softens the tension of the rubber outer layer. The “corking” effect provides more spin and speed, but it lasts only a few hours. Officials are in the process of tabling the glue from use in the game.

With only a few exceptions since Table Tennis became an Olympic sport, the Chinese dominate. This year’s World Table Tennis Championship women’s singles final was between 2 Chinese players. The men’s singles final was between a Chinese and a Japanese. Fans and officials worry that the sport will drop in popularity because of China’s supremacy. No matter who is playing whom, the sport is fast and fun. Check out this highlight video of the men’s single final from this year’s WTTC. Turn up the volume! The play-by-play in Japanese adds more excitement to the match and the sport.
The day after the WTTC Prime Minister Lee made a special announcement. He awarded Singapore’s 2009 Sportswoman of the Year. And the winner is…. Jasmine Yeong-Nathan! She is a 20-year-old national bowler and AMF World Cup champion. Maybe Prime Minister Lee will spare Table Tennis as the unofficial national sport and strike the public with Bowling instead.

Expats Have It Maid

In the Singapore expat community, it is almost expected to have part-time or live-in help. It is common to hear from agents, co-workers, and publications that “the availability and affordable household help is a definite perk.” My thoroughly unscientific research and observation found some families with more than one helper – one for the kids and another for the household duties. In my apartment complex I’ve seen two helpers for one little boy! After scouring several sources of information, the numbers are clear.

The government refers to foreign household help as Foreign Domestic Workers. Residents refer to them as amahs, maids, nannies, and helpers. They are grouped into 2 categories: new hires and transfers. New hires are 23 years or older and have never worked in Singapore. They must have at least 8 years of education. Transfers have been working in Singapore and are moving from one family to another. Like all foreign workers, the Foreign Domestic Workers (FDWs) must register with the Ministry of Manpower. The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) is a cross between the Department of Labor and the US Citizenship and Immigration Services. James and I had to register with MOM when we arrived, but at least we didn’t have to undergo a medical checkup, pass a written test and purchase a security bond.

FDWs cannot come from just any country to live and work. MOM approves of the following 8 source countries: Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Sri Lanka and Thailand. Most of the foreign workers sign up with an agency because most expats hire from an agency. Agencies run background checks, schedule medical examinations, and pay for the preparation of a green card. The agency's cost for preparing the foreign worker is a loan. Part of the preparation is passing a written test in English. Below is a copy of the MOM’s test an FDW must pass in order to obtain a worker's permit.

Click Here For Sample Test!

The expats pay fees to the agency and the government. The agency charges a general fee for their service, upward to $1,000. The expat is also responsible to pay the agency for the worker’s loan, $2000 on average. The MOM requires the expat, now an employer, to purchase a security bond for each worker, listed at $5,000 in one report and $10,000 in another. The security bond is in case the foreign worker runs away, gets pregnant or otherwise doesn’t return to her original country. The cost of the bond will be returned by the government once the contract expires and the employer purchases a return trip home for the employee. The government also requires the employer to purchase $10,000 personal accident insurance. If the agency pays for the bond and insurance, then the expat must pay the agency for the cost of each.

Once hired, the expat has standard payments to make. The helper receives a monthly salary of $300-$500. The salary depends on the age of the children and the duties required by the family. While there are no laws governing the hours of the workday or requiring employers to give an FDW a day off, most expats expect their helpers to work from morning to night with one day a week free. The government does require the employers to pay a monthly levy, or tax, of $345. The expat pays for meals, bedding, and toiletries. One website actually calculated the monthly cost to be $150 a month. The employer also pays for the government-required bi-annual medical check, $50.

Totaling the figures, a full-time live-in Foreign Domestic Worker in Singapore begins at $27,590. That’s a tidy sum.

Hospital Orderly

Recently I visited the Singapore General Hospital and took part in socialized medicine. In 2007, I had a melanoma removed by a doctor in NYC. I noticed another mole changing its spot, so a doctor check up was in order.

Medicine in Singapore is modeled on the British system. Singapore General Hospital is 100% government-owned and not-for-profit institution. It is a vast complex of buildings for specific treatments, such as emergency, children, heart, and the like. It is the location of a postgraduate medical college and a medical museum. The Ministry of Health’s headquarters are also part of SGH. My introduction to Singapore’s healthcare system begins here with an appointment in the cancer block.

Each treatment center building, or block, has several clinics. Each clinic has individual examination rooms for each doctor and one general waiting room. My appointment was with a cancer consultant. By the looks of the crowded waiting room, I guessed my wait would be long, even though I made an appointment. I soon realized that the crowd represented the efficiently of the clinic, not the incompetency.

When I walked into the clinic’s waiting room an attendant called welcome and asked me to place my appointment confirmation number and I.D. in a wire basket on the check in desk. I walked the room looking for a good seat and noticed the typical waiting room setup: TV blasting bad daytime programs, magazines on all subjects tossed about the place and, of course, a couple of people bobbing to the tunes from their iPods. Before I could take a seat the attendant called me by name back to the check in desk where I answered general questions about my nationality and my stay in Singapore. She weighed and measured me, assigned me a patient number and instructed me to take a seat.

When I settled in my seat I noticed a huge “Now Serving” electric board on the wall. The giant lighted board in the waiting room listed 10 set room numbers. Next to each room number was a space for the patient number. I just had to wait until my patient number flashed to know the corresponding room number of my doctor. After a short while, my mobile phone vibrated with a text message. Just when I thought the wait couldn’t get more straightforward, I read the text letting me know that 3 patients were in front of me in the queue. So, I decided I had a bit of time to look for a cup of coffee or a vending machine. The attendant gave me directions to the cafeteria.

Knowing that I had some “free time” took the edge off the wait and eased my nervousness. I suddenly felt lucky to be exploring SGH and their medical system. The thrill of the experience tipped the scales after walking from building to building under a covered sidewalk and into the hospital’s cafeteria. This being Singapore the cafeteria was actually a hawker center! Stalls of different cuisine: Japanese, Chinese, Korean, and Malaysian. One stall for drinks, another for desserts and a separate stand for fruit juices. What really blew my mind were the TV screens bolted from the ceiling like TV screens at an OTB branch. Rather than posting racing results, these screens were posting every clinic, room number, and patient number! Doctors, nurses, interns were merrily dining next to patients and visitors as if it were the Newton Food Center on a Saturday night. Once I bought my coffee I retraced my steps back to the clinic and patiently waited under the tote board for my patient number to appear.

I returned to SGH three times after that initial visit. Each followed the same routine of receiving a patient number, a text, and then a doctor. After the appointments, I returned to the check in desk to pay the bill. It was all surprisingly affordable, especially because the doctors were considered specialists. The drugs eventually prescribed cost only S$6. Because I also have my insurance from the US, I was required to fill out a 2-page form online and submit it with my receipts for total reimbursement.

When I first made an appointment to have a mole removed in 2007, I had to wait three weeks just to meet with a doctor and another 10 days to have the mole removed. For each appointment at SGH, I had to wait only 24 hours. I don’t remember how long my wait was in the US waiting room, but I know it didn’t compare with the ease of my wait at SGH. I had enough to worry about, but knowing that each doctor’s visit would be orderly, hospitable, and affordable reduced my anxiety.

The Best of the Story

Living 12 hours ahead of my favorite US radio programs gives my life in Singapore a bit of a pause. I no longer listen to radio shows as they air; rather I listen to episodes after they are posted on the Internet. By the time I heard that Paul Harvey died, thanks to Le Show, weeks had passed.

Whenever I hear Paul Harvey’s name, his voice, or a parody of his signature lines, my early childhood vacations in the 70s instantly pop into mind. Our family car was a 1964 army green Chevrolet station wagon with 3-on-the-tree transmission. It did not have air-conditioning or power windows. The big rear window had to be cranked open and closed from the outside. For long trips, the back seat and the way-back seat folded flat to create one long flatbed where my brothers, sisters and I would stretch out in a row like a box of Ohio Blue Tip Matches. With suitcases stowed on top of the roof and a cooler stowed below my mom’s feet, off Dad would drive to our destination. Entertainment on the road consisted of singing songs, playing car bingo and listening to the radio. The Chevy wagon was the vehicle that drove my devotion to the radio.

In waking hours, Paul Harvey was the only time the car went silent. Once his broadcast began, we instantly shushed. At first, I did not know what I was listening to until I heard him say, “Page two.” Then I knew I missed something. So, I learned to pay attention the minute he began his broadcast. I would build an image in my head as I listened to a story unfold about everyone from George Washington to Amelia Earhart.

The radio always seemed to be on no matter where I was or what I was doing. A transistor was on as we played outside or worked in the yard. At night, my sisters and I would listen to our radios under our pillows before falling asleep. We would listen to Cincinnati Reds and Cleveland Indians baseball games. On Christmas Eve, we would listen to Santa’s sleigh report. WCOL always seemed to be playing a song by the Steve Miller Band and all the stations aired the test of the Emergency Broadcast System. The radio provided the soundtrack to my childhood.

Paul Harvey’s style of storytelling is gone, but storytelling on the radio is alive and still sparks imagination. He was the best of the story. Now we have Garrison Keeler and his weekly program A Prairie Home Companion. However, other programs are telling stories even if not promoted as such. Brian Lehrer tells the story of NYC and Leonard Lopate tells the story of entertainers and historians. Even NPR gives a narrative of the day. My favorite in radio storytelling is baseball. I prefer to listen to the Yankees on the radio than watch them on TV - so much that I schedule my yard work around their game times. John Sterling knows everything about the Yankees and the history of the game. He can describe Jeter at the plate while telling a tale of another baseball great and then tie it all together with the action in the stadium. Listening to a play-by-play on the radio is exciting storytelling.

Today, the radio continues to air the story of my life. But what’s to become of me this baseball season? I have no radio, no yard and I’m nowhere near the Yankees time zone. April 16th will tell the rest of the story. Good Day.

End of 100 Days

Thanks to Franklin D. Roosevelt’s hard times/drastic action during his 1st administration in 1933, the media and political pundits have since measured a president’s agenda during a 100-day period beginning on inauguration day and ending 30 April. I do not have a nation shaping agenda for the next three years while living in Singapore, but I do have a plan to learn and experience as much as I can about the city-state. In this spirit, I am celebrating the end of my first 100-day learning curve.

1. Where does Singapore get nearly 70% of its water?
a. Recycled rainwater

b. Imported Malaysian water

c. Treated Straits of Singapore water

d. Controlled reservoir water

2. Match the maximum strokes to the offence which caning is available.
a. Drug Trafficking
b. Murder and attempted murder
c. Vandalism (graffiti and defacing public property)
6
15
24

3. In Singapore prostitution is legal. How does the government regulate it?
a. Register all prostitutes and have them attend routine health screenings
b. Designate red-light areas
c. Record clubs and brothels
d. All the above

4. True or False. Last year the government created Speakers’ Corner, a designated area where people can gather and speak freely. All speakers must first register with the police and a group of 5 or more people is against the law.

5. Prime Minister Lee recently said, “Their leaders are picking up points here and there” about how to “run a tight ship, honest and effective.” Which one of the following explains the quote?
a. Countries such as USA, UK, and Iceland want to learn how Singapore has kept the economy of the tiny nation strong since the birth of the nation.
b. Countries such as Syria, Egypt, and other Middle Eastern States want to learn how to keep a country safe from terrorist activity.
c. Countries such as China, Russia, and the Gulf States want to learn how Singapore has kept its ruling party and people in place since the birth of the nation.

This is not my blue print on how I will spend my term here in Singapore. I have no desire to discover all these quiz facts first-hand. Although I hope to find out about the water recycling treatment, I hope to not discover the caning treatment!

answers: 1 b ; 2a-15 2b-24 2c-6 ; 3 d ; 4 true ; 5 c