Wu Xin Fang
Qn: Can we put Singapore's future in the hands of our youth?

The youth today bear a characteristic of being adaptable to changes, they are flexible and open to new ideas, unafraid to take up challenges and make changes. Indeed, this is a calibre very much needed in the ruling body. With such quality, Singapore will then be able to progress and not remain stagnant. For instance, Singapore youths dare to voice out their opinions and are willing to accept their mistakes. They are not afraid to fail, for victory is only sweet when they tasted defeats. They are also fast in changes. Given the hectic school life of youths, they can multi-task and adapt to the different environment quickly. Often than not, companies are more willing to hire young workers than older ones because they are usually very motivated in their work and some, career-driven. They dare to explore for new ideas and innovations. Such outstanding characteristic makes youth stretch their unlimited capacity to churn out greater ideas and innovations, bringing Singapore to a greater height of achievements, hence we can put Singapore's future in th hands of our youth.

Faris Hakim: To what extent should the government be responsible for taking care of the elderly?

The government maybe expected to be responsible for the elderly financially. Most of the elderly are no longer in the workforce and even if they do have monthly Central Provident Fund (CPF) payouts, the amount may not be sufficient in meeting their daily needs as the cost of living in Singapore is high. This is where the government comes into the picture. The government should give out subsidies for the elderly if it does not compromise on their use of resources on other purposes. Although the government maybe expected to be responsible for the elderly financially, it is the elderly's immediate family members who should bear the responsibility. The government can only do so much whereas the relatives can provide for more untangible needs such as their emotional needs and filial piety.Although the government is expected to provide for the elderly financially, the onus is on their relatives to play a more pertinent role.

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Eugene - Family friendly society

Singapore is a family friendly society as most companies in Singapore have policies that allow their workers to maintain a healthy work-life balance. Most companies in Singapore operate a five day work week, as well as giving their employees at least fourteen days of annual leave, despite guidelines that say employees need only be given fourteen days of annual leave after 8 years of service with the company. This gives employees plenty of time on weekends to spend with their families. They can also take up to about fourteen days paid leave to go on a holiday with their families. This ensures that Singaporean workers can spend enough time with their families even with a busy work schedule. However, just because Singapore has family friendly policies in place does not mean that Singapore workers will appreciate it. Because of Singapore’s highly competitive standards at the workplace, many workers will choose to work overtime or on weekends, and not take all of their annual leave so as to appear more hardworking to the company. This makes all the family friendly policies in Singapore useless as workers in Singapore do not bother even try to maintain a healthy work-life balance. However, the people who do so are a minority in Singapore, and many actually do try to spend time with their families. Therefore, I think that Singapore is effectively a family friendly society.

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How far should a state have a right to monitor the actions of people within its borders?
The government may monitor the actions of people when the actions of people may bring harm to the society. For example, there are black markets around the world. Those black markets sell harmful goods such as cigarettes, drugs which are illegal in the society. When such demerit goods are bought from black market, people may suffer from addiction which influences their families and even the society. Thus, government may monitor the actions of those people are harmful to the society in order to protect the majority of the society. However, someone may argue people have their privacy even when they are doing harmful things. For example, people in Tibet should have their own rights to conserve Buddhism culture. The government should not monitor the action those Tibet people doing their Buddhism staff……