{"id":18044,"date":"2019-07-01T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-06-30T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/2019\/07\/01\/a-budget-standard-for-everyone-in-a-diverse-society\/"},"modified":"2021-02-15T15:53:00","modified_gmt":"2021-02-15T07:53:00","slug":"a-budget-standard-for-everyone-in-a-diverse-society","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/2019\/07\/01\/a-budget-standard-for-everyone-in-a-diverse-society\/","title":{"rendered":"A budget standard for everyone in a diverse society"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_18045\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-18045\" style=\"width: 939px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-18045\" src=\"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2020\/08\/Neo-Yu-Wei-Article.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"939\" height=\"625\" srcset=\"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2020\/08\/Neo-Yu-Wei-Article.png 939w, https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2020\/08\/Neo-Yu-Wei-Article-300x200.png 300w, https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2020\/08\/Neo-Yu-Wei-Article-768x511.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 939px) 100vw, 939px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-18045\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo: Jasmine Choong, The Straits Times<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In a Straits Times editorial Research Fellows Dr Neo Yu Wei (NUS Social Service Research Centre [SSRC]) and Dr Ad Maulod elaborated on their project entitled \u2018What Older People Need in Singapore: A Household Budgets Study\u2019, which involved focus group discussions with elderly from different household backgrounds and ethnic groups. The discussions sought to ascertain their basic needs and evaluate how much these needs would cost. This project was highlighted in line with President Halimah Yacob\u2019s recent speech about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.straitstimes.com\/opinion\/whats-needed-to-harness-the-strengths-of-social-diversity\">social cohesion in Singapore&#8217;s ethnically diverse society<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Some basic living necessities (transport and food costs, for example) surfaced as expected. However, what was interesting was how the elderly saw \u2018the choice to take part in social activities and freedom to engage in one&#8217;s cultural and religious practices\u2019 as one of their \u2018basic\u2019 needs. In the words of the researchers, \u2018only in Singapore did participants include the choice and freedom to engage in &#8220;one&#8217;s cultural and religious practices&#8221; as a key basic need.\u2019 In other words, in order for everyone to receive the freedom to practice their cultural traditions and religious activities, a common consensus has to be reached so that ethnic diversity can be respected. This would materialise in the form of economic standardisation of living costs such that different cultural practices could be accounted for. The authors raised the example of halal food being more expensive from food stalls, or even the elderly\u2019s need for a clothing budget for those who choose to dress in traditional or religious clothing.<\/p>\n<p>Read the full article <a href=\"https:\/\/www.straitstimes.com\/opinion\/a-budget-standard-for-everyone-in-a-diverse-society\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In a Straits Times editorial Research Fellows Dr Neo Yu Wei (NUS Social Service Research Centre [SSRC]) and Dr Ad Maulod elaborated on their project entitled \u2018What Older People Need in Singapore: A Household Budgets Study\u2019, which involved focus group discussions with elderly from different household backgrounds and ethnic groups. The discussions sought to ascertain [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":247,"featured_media":18045,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[4529],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/247"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18044"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18044\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28556,"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18044\/revisions\/28556"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/srn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}