Haze is here!

Haze is here again and we really have no idea how long it is going to last this time. Hopefully there is no El-Nino this year or else things will become worst. Despite all the high-level talks every year, no significant solutions taken place so far. We living in this part of the world, just have to bear with it every year.

I can still recall the terrible haze that we went through in 1997, the year my younger child was born. Thick haze was seen every day for several months. I had to wrap and cover my child up whenever we left the home. This coupled with the onset of the Asia financial crisis, making that year a very miserable and downcast one indeed.

Still, I think haze is bearable as compared to other natural disasters. We are so immensely blessed (or spoilt is a better word) that none of us ever experience starvation here. My mind brings me to a story told in the Bible (2 Kings 6:24-30) which vividly depicts what famine is like.

The king of Syria around BC850, launched a siege and surrounded Samaria so that people could not go in or out of the city. It lasted a long time that brought about a terrible famine, so bad that food prices went through the roof. A donkey’s head cost about 2 pounds (about 1 kilo) of silver and a bowl of seeds cost about 2 ounces (about 55 grams) of silver.

One day, the king of Israel was walking on the city’s wall. A woman cried out, “Help me, your majesty.” He answered, “If God does not help you, I cannot help you. I do not have any wheat or wine. What is your trouble?” The woman said, "Another woman and I were so hungry that we agreed to eat our sons. She said if we ate my son one day, we could eat hers the next day. So yesterday we cooked my son and ate him. But today when I went to her house to eat her son, she had hidden him." When the king heard the woman’s story he ripped apart his robe.

We need to learn to value plenty and be thankful what we have, and realize how deceitful money can bring. In time of despair situation like famine, even money is parted freely for anything that is edible!

Marrying foreigners

‘A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies.’ (Proverbs 31:10)

There has been an increasing number of Singaporeans married foreigners in recent years, especially among the Singapore men. Recently two guys that I know of got hitched with foreign girls. Both knew the other parties only for a few months. One is a graduate marrying a Korean girl, and the other is a poly graduate marrying a Thai woman. That came as a big surprise to me because both are good -looking, well educated, so to me, finding Singaporean wives shouldn’t be a problem for them.

I wonder whether this phenomenon has to do with the more liberal immigration (since last April) rule for the foreign spouses.  In the past, the immigration rule here was very stringent for them and we read many tearful stories of mothers forced to leave their families and children behind. Even Singaporeans married graduates had to get permission from the relevant authority before they could go for R.O.M. I guess now as we grapple with a shrinking population, we have to be more ‘pragmatic’.

Now these foreign spouses not only can get long-term visit pass, but also allow to work under a special scheme (no foreign workers’ levy for their employers). They are also eligible for subsidized medical benefits.

While finding a life partner may have become easier for some people, but I hope people do take marriage seriously, considering the unavoidable relationship conflicts, huge responsibilities etc.