Trisha Reloaded said:

Juxtaposed among my anguished thoughts about Mr Y and Mdm C is the noisy ranting of an 18-year-old college kid with her “elite uncaring face”. And this is what I want to say.

There is no glory in being an elite. No honour in trumpeting one’s own success. Any of us could be born into a family visited by sorrow upon sorrow, where circumstances work against you and fate tosses you around like sand, so that you can’t get out of the shit even if you want to.

Recommended by Anonymous Coward: "A teacher comes face to face with the Singapore underclass, and has some words for the Singapore elite."

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lucretius said:

At times I pondered, if Singapore is really a tough place to live. There was this highly decomposed body was discovered in a flat nearby Woodland. When the neighbours were interviewed, one of them recalled the deceased complaining about job, pub bills and other living expenses he can’t afford. The HDB officers came to the flat having the intention to break open and repossess the deceased flat only to found the decomposed body.

Recommended by Anonymous Coward: "Whats more ironic?
The officers did informed the neighbour not to cause any alarm or alert to the deceased family prior to the repossession.
"

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Ash Tong said:

As the recession might be hitting Singapore hard, I hope that the HDB will be transparent with how their market pricing model works.

I refer to the 4 room flats in Treetops@punggol project as an example. Treetop@punggol was released April 2008 and the indicative price range for a 4-room flat then was $208,000 to $254,000.

In the October 2008 half annual sale, the price range for Treetops was then listed between $235,000 -$309,000.

In The Half Annual Sale in April 2009, the same development is being sold between $276,000 and $298,000.

The difference translates to at least a 15% price increase. No amenities have been built nearby yet. Neither are there any differences from the master plan for Punggol 21.

Recommended by at82: "HDBs' price seems to defy gravity even as Singapore is facing its worst recession..."

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ecstasy said:

Now while our award-winning public housing policy has managed to allow most $ingaporeans to at least own their own roof, it is a flawed system that is an omnipotent ulcer in every young salaried $ingaporean couple.

Recommended by Anonymous Coward: "Spoke my mind."

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QuaChee said:

I see many leaflets being thrown at the corner. Somehow that corner of the lift is always filled with leaflets. Today is good already as there is no urine on that corner.

Recommended by Anonymous Coward: "It shows the reasons why Singaporeans are leaving..."

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Leong Sze Hian said:

Why is the HDB giving flats to private real estate companies en-bloc to rent out to foreigners and permanent residents, when there are thousands of Singaporeans on the waiting list?

What gives?

Is it not the HDB’s mission to provide affordable housing to meet the housing needs of Singaporeans, especially the lower-income?

Or is it the HDB’s mission to rent out flats to foreigners and PRs to make a profit?

Recommended by at82: "This shows just how much our govt care for us."

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aaron ng said:

We got a painter to paint the unit and after he was done, he took a stick and poke at parts of the ceiling in each room and to our horror, the plaster started to come off. The painter said he noticed them while he was painting and showed us the problem. The HDB contractor came today and got that one done up.

Guess what happened next? I went into the master bedroom toilet and I heard sounds of water draining into the floortrap. I squatted down and looked around and found two small jets of water coming out of the wall near the ground. I called up the HDB contractor and he came up, inspected and promised to start work tomorrow.

Recommended by at82: "This is ridiculous."

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Singapore Alternatives said:

HDB has just announced the plan of demolishing 9 blocks of flats along with the market and industrial buildings which are located in Hougang ward. This time, they use the label "rejuvenate". But it was not so long ago, during the GE 2006 hustling that PAP has come up with upgrading plans for the estates, especially the market, as an "election carrot" (alas, that's pork barrel politics!). The same label "rejuvenate" was used too. But this time, the idea of "rejuvenating" the place is to tear down everything? Is this a PAP "retaliation" for losing more votes in Hougang? A "retaliation" for the rejection of PAP's offer of upgrading for the market? Since you do not want upgrading, I will tear it down mentality? Or is this a direct response to Mr. Low's vow of winning at least one GRC in the next elections?

There are two dimension of the impacts of such moves by PAP government. Politically, it is not the first time that PAP has tried to cut off the support level of opposition parties in "danger zones" by administrative means . The market place at Hougang is a very important battleground of both PAP and WP as it is the focal point of everyday lives of those living in the town. Both PAP as well as WP members have been very active at the market place during as well as off election period. Since PAP has not been able to win the battle on the front, it would be tactically advantage to remove the battle front altogether. Needless to say, the nine blocks of flats are the stronghold of WP.

But why is PAP doing this? The reason is obvious. They do not want Mr. Low to walk out of Hougang to contest in a GRC by reducing the potential support, thus the buffer of winning percentage for WP in Hougang. They hope that by making the battleground in Hougang more tight, WP will think twice about taking the risk of letting Mr. Low to lead a team in other GRC while leaving this Hougang ward to another candidate. Will their wish come true? We will wait and see. ;)

Recommended by at82: "People don't vote for you then you demolish their homes?"

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Donovan said:

Town Council is helping- and has helped with cleaning.

Mr Palmer, the MP of our constituency will be coming down tomorrow- Mum wasn't feelin' too well today and re-scheduled the visit.

The electrician would come at 9AM tomorrow.

Cleaners would arrive around 12PM, if memory still serves me well.

Nice Jia Ru volunteered to help me from the morning. I owe her big-time for that.

I would have to call YJC tomorrow, and inform my CT.

Recommended by alvinism: "The boy's house caught fire - and he still found courage to blog about the incident to inform his friends and loved ones. Scroll down the blog entries to see photos of the damages the fire caused..."

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HWZ member petrarchan spotted surveillance cameras at a HDB flat.

soon the $$ u pay to ur town council will go up up up lo.... got 2 at my friend's lift lobby... 1 at the letter boxes

Singapore roads have cameras. Buses have cameras. HDB flat also got cameras.

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fugs said:

But can someone tell me what the f*** are these black discs that you can find at your block's first floor lift lobbies? You can also see them outside of utility rooms at some blocks of flats as well.

Recommended by moe: "I'm curious...that's why!"

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moe said:

In some estates, these are called Senior Citizen Corners. These centres/corners are created for elderly folks to get together for a game of chess, chit-chat, a cup of tea or just sitting around to while away the time.

Recommended by moe: "Should something be done for the non-smoking elderly folks?"

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Cherub discovers a newly-installed LCD monitor at a HDB void deck.

so I was walking home one day and I saw a new addition to one of the nearby flats...A LCD screen at the void deck!

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Siyang said:

One evening when i looked out the kitchen window, I saw a group of uncles prodding the tree, what a curious sight. I thought someone's underpants or bra had fallen from their flat and got caught in the trees. But i soon found out that they were robbing the tree of it's fruits!!! The tree was full of Green mangoes.

The geriatric pole vault

Something's going on in the heartlands....

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Singapore Critic takes issue with the meaning of ownership as defined by HDB and compares it to renting a private apartment.

...an overwhelming 95.6 percent of households interviewed prefer to own rather than rent a flat. ".

My question now would be:

1. How many of these people actually think that they "own" their 99 year lease hold flat?
2. How many of these people actually know that they are actually "renting" these HDB flats from the government, and not "buying" them?
3. Or are these people voicing their unhappiness that these flats are "leasehold"?

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kelchan reads Aldous Huxley's Brave New World Revisited and is reminded of Singapore's Housing Development Board's fine housing development and how it affects its inhabitants' mental health, sorta:

And reading BNW-Revisited now is still as eerie as ever. Reading this, I only have a vision of our perfectly organized society, perfectly adjusted to their HDB normality.

She quoth:

The really hopeless victims of mental illness are to be found among those who appear to be most normal. Many of them are normal because they are so well adjusted to our mode of existence, because their human voice has been silenced so early in their lives, that they do not even struggle or suffer or develop symptoms as the neurotic does. They are normal not in what may be called the absolute sense of the word; they are normal only in relation to a profoundly abnormal society. Their perfect adjustment to that abnormal society is a measure of their mental sickness.

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