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What issues affect the future direction of Singapore’s community engagement programs? The annual Community Chest Heartstrings Walk is an example of how Singapore approaches community engagement – by involving citizens at all levels of society, and engaging the government, private corporations, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). According to A/P S. Vasoo (Department of Social Work), Singapore …
Community Development in Singapore: New Directions and Challenges Read More »
Critical Issues in Asset Building in Singapore’s Development is a new collection of essays published by World Scientific and edited by Associate Professors S. Vasoo (NUS Department of Social Work) and Bilveer Singh (NUS Department of Political Science). The essays presented chose to define “assets” broadly. Apart from traditional tangible assets such as housing, intangible …
The Intangible Assets That Hold Singaporeans Together Read More »
Why weren’t Singaporeans keen on state-endorsed matchmaking services? In 1984 Singapore initiated the Social Development Unit (SDU) and the Social Development Services (SDS) to provide matchmaking services for university graduates and non-graduates. In January 2009, SDU and SDS merged and on 16 October 2009 became known as Social Development Network (SDN). The SDN provides matchmaking …
Single Singaporeans and their hesitation to use commercial matchmaking services Read More »
What role should the state play as the pace of globalisation accelerates? Beginning in Thailand in July 1997 with the devaluation of the Thai baht, the Asian Financial Crisis (AFC) rapidly swept across Southeast Asia and Japan to trigger the devaluation of Asian currencies and slumping of Asian economies along with financial and political upheavals. …
A Lien foundation-NUS study revealed that more elderly Singaporeans are being cared for at home and centre-based care services instead of nursing homes. Co-authored by Associate Professors Elaine Ho and Shirlena Huang (NUS Department of Geography), the study further discovered that the monthly cost of taking proper care of a severely disabled senior at home …
The environment provides free positive externalities that many people are unaware of and tend to take for granted. These ecosystem services include carbon storage, coastal protection and food production. A team of researchers from the Singapore-ETH Centre (SEC) and the National University of Singapore (NUS) hope to illuminate this by quantifying the benefits of Singapore’s …
How do Southeast Asian states cooperate to combat piracy in the Straits of Malacca? Piracy is a great threat to Southeast Asian states, particularly the coastal states in the Straits of Malacca. For this reason, Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia came together on 20 July 2004 to form MALSINDO – an effort between the navies, coast …
Based on a recent survey, Singaporeans evaluated their society as scoring well in the provision of healthcare, elderly care services and educational opportunities. However, many feel that individually, the attitudes of Singaporeans are negative and detrimental, with words such as kiasu, competitive and materialistic being used to describe the current culture. Associate Professor Tan Ern …
How Singapore can achieve a more desirable society Read More »
Do you remember the lyrics to “Count on me Singapore”? What about the National Day favourite – “Home”? Every year, a new National Day song is launched to commemorate 9 August, the day of the nation’s independence. Leading up to this date, radio and television stations broadcast the new National Day song while students learn …
Music and cultural politics: ideology and resistance in Singapore Read More »
Singapore has seen a rapidly ageing population in recent years. Those aged 65 years and above made up 14.4% of the population in 2017, with the old age dependency ratio increasing from 12 in 2007 to 18 a decade later. This implies that there are 18 seniors aged 65 years and older per working age …
The Importance of Socially Engaging the Elderly in Singapore – Lessons from Abroad Read More »