Reason Number 137,875 Why Singaporeans Need a Nanny (State)

Reproduced from the "Pravda Times" (before it disappears):

Falling birth rates? Here's food for thought

WHILE the cost of childcare and medical services have been identified as major factors for the decline of birth rates here, there is another factor, which may also be contributing to the decline, and that is food.

Food is a very basic need. When it is hard to get, this affects everything else.

Young couples, who can contribute most to the birth rate, are likely to be the ones setting up homes in new towns.

I seem to recall that the Housing Board, when asked why kitchens in the flats of these towns are so small, said such estates are designed for young couples who are likely to have a small family and unlikely to cook often.

Such a flat sounded suitable for me and my wife as both of us cannot cook and, in any case, don't have the time to do so. We booked a flat in Sengkang, trusting that it would have more hawker centres, coffee shops and food courts than the older estates to meet the needs of the 'non-cooking' families.

To our dismay, we found that there are no hawker centres in the Sengkang or Punggol new towns, and only three coffee shops and a handful of air-conditioned food courts to serve the whole of Sengkang and Punggol.

Compare these with an old estate such as Ang Mo Kio, which has about five hawker centres and countless coffee shops.

We have come to realise that a simple meal for us is a bus ride or a 15-minute walk away, and we have to pay about 20 per cent more for cooked food compared with prices at eating outlets in mature estates.

Once, as my wife and I were on our usual 15-minute walk for food, we concluded that it would be a smart move not to have children yet.

It is hard to imagine how we would be able to raise young kids in a place where it is so inconvenient to get a meal.

TOH YEOW CHYE

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Wonder whether they will publish my letter if I complain of how the humid weather here will affect the chances me me getting married. Come to think of it, what could possibly stop them from printing a complaint letter about how queuing up for NDP tickets can affect one's performance on the bed?    # D W denies liability.6/10/2004 09:04:00 pm