I arrived in Singapore on 4th July. This was published on 7th of July 2017:
Have a new system for public? Test it rigorously first
All my attempts to apply for a SingPass two-factor authentication (2FA) have disappeared into a black hole.
Late last year, I was instructed to obtain a 2FA to make government transactions more secure.
But none of the options on the relevant website applied to me, as I live overseas.
After several e-mails and submitting scans of various documents, my application ground to a halt. I could not proceed with the registration online.
I called the helpline, whereupon a robotic voice took me from one option to another and landed me back at square one.
When I finally spoke to a human officer, I discovered that Assurity, the private company charged with dishing out 2FAs, has no records of my London address to which a token is supposed to be sent, and it insisted that it could not send one to my Singapore address.
I had to go down in person, I was told, and at least this helped resolve the matter.
If I did not happen to be back in Singapore, I would forever be locked out of the Singapore system. I could not even renew my passport.
This is not a complaint about personal inefficiency or individual unpleasantness.
It is a reminder that if the authorities wish to attempt such an onerous exercise, then the system should first be piloted with a group of disparate potential users.
Why allow only users of Singapore-registered mobile phones?
Call in some user-experience experts, test every scenario, and note that Singaporeans living overseas are as varied as they can get.
If the authorities cannot exhaust the ways of dealing with anomalies, then at least have an option within the protocol to deal with such matters satisfactorily.
===
The original:
BLACK HOLES DO EXIST
All my attempts to apply for my SingPass 2FA have disappeared into a black hole.
Late last year I was instructed to obtain a ‘2FA’ to make government transactions more secure.
I get that. My banks require two- or even three-part verification.
But boy! Do they make it difficult for Singaporeans who reside overseas!
None of the options on the relevant website applies to me.
After several emails, and having submitted scans of various documents, my application ground to a halt.
As I am in Singapore, I queued up at a CPF office to resolve this matter.
I could not proceed with the registration online as the (not so) civil servant said I could.
I called the helpline whereupon a robotic voice took me round and around the different options and landed me back at square one.
When I finally spoke to a human being (Daniel) I discovered that Assurity, the private company charged with dishing out 2FAs, have no records of my London address to which a token is supposed to be sent.
First they refused to register my overseas address. Now they insist that they cannot send it to my Singapore address.
Or I must attend one of two addresses in Singapore, which defeats the purpose of going online, surely.
If I did not happen to be back in Singapore, I will forever be locked out of the Singapore system. I can’t even renew my passport.
Am I now a lesser-spotted Singaporean?
This is not a complaint about personal inefficiency or individual unpleasantness. It is a reminder that if you wish to attempt such an onerous exercise, then pilot-test the system with a group of disparate potential users.
Mapping processes on a flowchart is inadequate. Reality does not always fit in with your limited categories. Why only allow Singapore-registered mobile phones?
Call in some user experience experts. Test every scenario. Note that Singaporeans living overseas are as varied as you can get.
If you cannot exhaust the ways of dealing with anomalies, then at least have an option within your protocol to deal with such, satisfactorily.
Incidentally, why ‘2FA’? Have you not heard the term ‘eff (sounds like ‘fook’) all’?
For me, ‘2FA’ = ‘total eff all’. So far.
Wednesday, 26 July 2017
Homeless in Singapore
This was published in Straits Times Forum (Web) Letters on 15th July 2017:
Difficult for returning S'porean to get HDB flat
When I decided to come home to Singapore after 26 years abroad, I began my search for long-term accommodation for my husband and me.
Years ago, when I tried to apply for a HDB flat, I was made to understand by a HDB officer that I did not qualify because there was no record of my marriage to my husband (who is a non-citizen) in Singapore. Hence, we put off trying to buy an HDB flat.
Friends suggested that if HDB deems me a single, I should buy a resale flat as a single.
But, the HDB now says I am definitely "married".
While it does allow joint applications with a non-citizen spouse, it is only for a two-room flat.
However, I am told that my husband has to sell his overseas property.
But if we do that, where is our teenage son, who could not come back to Singapore because he was not granted citizenship, going to live?
The only possible solution seems to be to divorce my husband - that is, to regain my single status - just so that I can buy a resale flat, after which I can settle to find work here.
With so many foreigners in Singapore, I am sure I am not the only one in this predicament.
===
The original:
Divorce (verb) to return to Singapore
After more than two infuriating hours at the HDB Hub I came to the conclusion that the only way for this reluctant migrant to return to Singapore permanently (after 26 years abroad) is to divorce her husband.
I cannot afford to work in Singapore until I get a home. Thus I began my search for long-term accommodation for my husband and me.
Years ago an HDB officer told my sister that I could not apply for an HDB flat with my husband because there is no record of my marriage in Singapore.
As such we put off trying to buy an HDB flat.
Friends suggested that if HDB deems me a single, I should buy a resale flat as a single.
HDB now says I am definitely “married”.
HDB does allow joint applications with a non-citizen spouse, which seems a very enlightened step, but only for a two-roomed flat.
However it reverts to the Dark Ages by requiring my husband to sell his overseas property.
Where is our teenage son going to live if we are forced to sell this, his only home?
Our son is not coming with us because he has not been given citizenship. (I am an inferior woman Singaporean married to a foreign man.)
The only possible solution seems to be to divorce my husband (ie regain my single status) just so that I can buy a resale flat, after which I can settle to find work.
With hindsight I did not have to declare my married status, nor that my husband owns an overseas property. But we are honest Christians who don’t know how to lie.
Perhaps it is far easier for me to get a divorce from Singapore.
Difficult for returning S'porean to get HDB flat
When I decided to come home to Singapore after 26 years abroad, I began my search for long-term accommodation for my husband and me.
Years ago, when I tried to apply for a HDB flat, I was made to understand by a HDB officer that I did not qualify because there was no record of my marriage to my husband (who is a non-citizen) in Singapore. Hence, we put off trying to buy an HDB flat.
Friends suggested that if HDB deems me a single, I should buy a resale flat as a single.
But, the HDB now says I am definitely "married".
While it does allow joint applications with a non-citizen spouse, it is only for a two-room flat.
However, I am told that my husband has to sell his overseas property.
But if we do that, where is our teenage son, who could not come back to Singapore because he was not granted citizenship, going to live?
The only possible solution seems to be to divorce my husband - that is, to regain my single status - just so that I can buy a resale flat, after which I can settle to find work here.
With so many foreigners in Singapore, I am sure I am not the only one in this predicament.
===
The original:
Divorce (verb) to return to Singapore
After more than two infuriating hours at the HDB Hub I came to the conclusion that the only way for this reluctant migrant to return to Singapore permanently (after 26 years abroad) is to divorce her husband.
I cannot afford to work in Singapore until I get a home. Thus I began my search for long-term accommodation for my husband and me.
Years ago an HDB officer told my sister that I could not apply for an HDB flat with my husband because there is no record of my marriage in Singapore.
As such we put off trying to buy an HDB flat.
Friends suggested that if HDB deems me a single, I should buy a resale flat as a single.
HDB now says I am definitely “married”.
HDB does allow joint applications with a non-citizen spouse, which seems a very enlightened step, but only for a two-roomed flat.
However it reverts to the Dark Ages by requiring my husband to sell his overseas property.
Where is our teenage son going to live if we are forced to sell this, his only home?
Our son is not coming with us because he has not been given citizenship. (I am an inferior woman Singaporean married to a foreign man.)
The only possible solution seems to be to divorce my husband (ie regain my single status) just so that I can buy a resale flat, after which I can settle to find work.
With hindsight I did not have to declare my married status, nor that my husband owns an overseas property. But we are honest Christians who don’t know how to lie.
Perhaps it is far easier for me to get a divorce from Singapore.
Sunday, 2 July 2017
Ethnic enclaves in Britain
Another letter was published in Straits Times on 8th of June:
The original under-400-word letter reads:
The original under-400-word letter reads:
===
My thesis supervisor asked, “Do you think multiculturalism is a good thing?” His tone of voice suggested that he did not approve, which is most unusual for a British academic.
My answer: Multiculturalism is great. Public services can be run on religious holidays as we take turns to go on leave.
What is there not to like?
However British children do not start the school day by pledging unity with fellow citizens ‘regardless of race, language or religion’.
Previously school assemblies were required to be ‘Christian’ in perspective, providing some semblance of cultural glue. These days, liberals, humanists, agnostics, atheists, etc have ensured that religion, and especially the Christian religion, is kept out of the classroom.
An elderly friend was furious on learning that her grandchildren were being taught – at school – that divorce is ‘normal’. (What, I wonder, would she think of same-sex relationships being taught.)
Previously most immigrants chose to integrate. We hear accounts of people changing their surnames (hiding their German/Jewish/Polish/etc roots), adopting Anglicized names (my son says I should call myself ‘Susan’) and adopting western dress, even to the point of cutting their hair and removing their turban, just so to find work.
Even Muslim immigrants adapted, becoming vegetarians as there was no halal food. They worked hard and learned the English language. They needed to feed their families.
Multiculturalism became more prevalent in the late 1990s. Two things happened.
‘White flight’ is the phenomenon of locals (of whatever colour) ‘fleeing’ to other areas to avoid being swamped by people of a ‘wrong’ ethnicity.
The vacuum was filled by new migrants, leading to monocultural ethnic and linguistic enclaves.
Women in particular did not learn to speak/read English and instead became dependent on husbands and so-called community leaders in matters of marriage and politics, including their right to vote (by post).
If children did not have a chance to interact with families outside of their own ethnic group in monocultural schools, how are they to learn ‘British ways’?
If university students are unable to use a knife and fork, how are they going to land (well-paid) jobs requiring fine-dining with clients?
Some insist on wearing Islamic robes to interviews, and then claim racism for their continuing unemployment.
Frustration, boredom, drug addiction, criminal behaviour, and then it’s only one small step to being radicalized by someone who promises an alternative to such purposelessness.
My answer: Multiculturalism is great. Public services can be run on religious holidays as we take turns to go on leave.
What is there not to like?
However British children do not start the school day by pledging unity with fellow citizens ‘regardless of race, language or religion’.
Previously school assemblies were required to be ‘Christian’ in perspective, providing some semblance of cultural glue. These days, liberals, humanists, agnostics, atheists, etc have ensured that religion, and especially the Christian religion, is kept out of the classroom.
An elderly friend was furious on learning that her grandchildren were being taught – at school – that divorce is ‘normal’. (What, I wonder, would she think of same-sex relationships being taught.)
Previously most immigrants chose to integrate. We hear accounts of people changing their surnames (hiding their German/Jewish/Polish/etc roots), adopting Anglicized names (my son says I should call myself ‘Susan’) and adopting western dress, even to the point of cutting their hair and removing their turban, just so to find work.
Even Muslim immigrants adapted, becoming vegetarians as there was no halal food. They worked hard and learned the English language. They needed to feed their families.
Multiculturalism became more prevalent in the late 1990s. Two things happened.
‘White flight’ is the phenomenon of locals (of whatever colour) ‘fleeing’ to other areas to avoid being swamped by people of a ‘wrong’ ethnicity.
The vacuum was filled by new migrants, leading to monocultural ethnic and linguistic enclaves.
Women in particular did not learn to speak/read English and instead became dependent on husbands and so-called community leaders in matters of marriage and politics, including their right to vote (by post).
If children did not have a chance to interact with families outside of their own ethnic group in monocultural schools, how are they to learn ‘British ways’?
If university students are unable to use a knife and fork, how are they going to land (well-paid) jobs requiring fine-dining with clients?
Some insist on wearing Islamic robes to interviews, and then claim racism for their continuing unemployment.
Frustration, boredom, drug addiction, criminal behaviour, and then it’s only one small step to being radicalized by someone who promises an alternative to such purposelessness.
===
Spot the difference. This is the published version:
===
Spot the difference. This is the published version:
===
It is not hard to see how someone could be radicalised.
In the past, immigrants to Britain chose to integrate.
We heard accounts of people changing their surnames to hide their German, Jewish or Polish roots, and adopting Anglicised names and western dress.
Some removed their turbans and cut their hair so as to find work. Muslim immigrants became vegetarian, as there was no halal food.
They learnt English and worked hard to feed their families.
When multiculturalism became more prevalent in the late 1990s, two things happened.
Residents in some areas moved en masse to other neighbourhoods to avoid being swamped by people of a "wrong" ethnicity.
This led to a vacuum, which was filled by new immigrants, resulting in monocultural ethnic and linguistic enclaves.
Women, in particular, did not learn to speak or read English, and instead became dependent on their husbands and community leaders in matters of marriage and politics, including their right to vote (by post).
Children did not have a chance to interact with families outside of their ethnic group because the schools were monocultural.
How, then, are they to learn "British ways"?
The isolation brought about by living in ethnic enclaves could provide fertile ground for radicalisation.
===
In the past, immigrants to Britain chose to integrate.
We heard accounts of people changing their surnames to hide their German, Jewish or Polish roots, and adopting Anglicised names and western dress.
Some removed their turbans and cut their hair so as to find work. Muslim immigrants became vegetarian, as there was no halal food.
They learnt English and worked hard to feed their families.
When multiculturalism became more prevalent in the late 1990s, two things happened.
Residents in some areas moved en masse to other neighbourhoods to avoid being swamped by people of a "wrong" ethnicity.
This led to a vacuum, which was filled by new immigrants, resulting in monocultural ethnic and linguistic enclaves.
Women, in particular, did not learn to speak or read English, and instead became dependent on their husbands and community leaders in matters of marriage and politics, including their right to vote (by post).
Children did not have a chance to interact with families outside of their ethnic group because the schools were monocultural.
How, then, are they to learn "British ways"?
The isolation brought about by living in ethnic enclaves could provide fertile ground for radicalisation.
===
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