Singapore recently announced the planned development of Mediapolis, taking a step towards becoming another hub for the world, .

The project to grow Singapore’s media infrastructure and turn the country into a Trusted Global Media Capital - as it’s officially known - is slated for completion in 2020 and will occupy a 19-hectare space near Buona Vista with an adjoining 12-hectare space earmarked for possible expansion.

Despite the negative economic climate, the Asian media industry seems resilient – a recent Pricewaterhouse Coopers survey puts growth at 9% annually. While recession would dampen the investing mood, “a competitive cost structure, a growing audience of young and affluent middle class, as well as greater connectivity to digital content,” would continue to lure media financiers here, according to MICA* head, Dr Lee Boon Yang.

With Mediapolis, Singapore will be well poised to take full advantage of this boom. Singaporeans, especially those with skills in digital media will be in high demand when the project eventually takes off. Spin off and support industries throughout the media industry value chain will naturally benefit as well.

The media sector here already employs about 54,000 people, contributing 4.5% of Singapore’s GDP. With a dedicated hub and brand-name media firms in place, employment opportunities in this emerging sector can only abound.

*Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts

A man tried to rob a UOB branch in Geylang Serai on Monday, and failed rather miserably. Dressed in women's clothes for some reason, the robber threatened to set off a bomb using his mobile phone, but was eventually pinned down by an alert security guard.


Everyone knows how times are tough, so just in case you also decide to rob a bank in the near future, here are some tips from yours truly that might come in handy:


1) If you're a man, dress as a man. I'm quite sure it'll make you look less suspicious.

2) Refrain from saying "don't be a hero" to the security guard. Never underestimate the power of reverse psychology.

3) Try robbing from banks whose employees might be suffering from low morale due to recent retrenchment announcements. They might be more willing to cooperate.

4) Get an accomplice. Don't be a hero.

5) Arm yourself with a knife, toy gun or something more immediately threatening. Claiming to be able to set off a bomb with your mobile phone might be a little too James Bond-ish for the average bank teller to believe.

6) If you're a man, dress as a man. I'm quite sure it'll make you look less suspicious. (Pardon the repetition, but I really felt the need to stress this again)

Today’s big story is definitely Barack Obama being elected the 44th President of the United States. His most notable achievement thus far has been overcoming the prevalent but almost-subtle racial gap in the country. A bigger challenge looms close however – tackling the world’s biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 30’s.

Financial Armageddon didn’t ring a bell with most Singaporeans when the subprime mortgage crisis bubbled over late last year.

It finally hit home when financial goliaths like Lehman Brothers keeled over, rendering $501 million of related investment products here worthless.

On a macro scale, the manufacturing industry seems the hardest hit in Singapore. The sector hit a seven-year low with a slump predicted to last until early 2009, weighed down by weak demand here and overseas.

Home-grown firms like ST Engineering have also been hit. Bankrupt clients, slow business and a weak US dollar have shrunk the company’s profit growth and the firm is bracing for more bad news. On the flipside, Sembcorp Marine posted a profit jump of 73.2% for Q3 this year, defying cynics who predicted sunset for the industry with crude oil prices and credit sinking.

A fresh economic horizon beckons yet, with a new man at the helm of the world’s only superpower. “Change has come,” says Obama. Already, Asian shares have rallied with the announcement of his election victory. Time will tell if his promised transformation leads to miracle or mirage.

According to the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency, female executives in Australia are a rare and diminishing kind. Its recent survey found that out of every 10 executives there, only one is is a woman.

Furthermore, the number of companies there with no women executive managers now stands at 45.5%, a sharp rise of 6% from two years ago. In comparison, only 14.8% of US companies do not have a woman in a power suit, yet.

Underscoring the bias down-under: only four women, out of a nation of 21,468,700 people, are CEOs of their publicly-traded companies.

The Agency's director blames archaic and unjust work practices, calling progress towards equality "glacial". Surely, in modern, progressive and first-world Singapore, things are not so backwards for the estrogen brethren. Or is it?

And so it has begun.

Companies are already cutting back on salaries and headcount, according to outplacement firms who are reporting a rise in the number of retrenchments. Layoffs are being reported from diverse industries such as manufacturing and pharmaceuticals, proving that the global credit crunch is not just affecting financial institutions.

Human resource analysts expect retrenchment numbers to go up further, as the full impact of the economic downturn has yet to hit the job market. 11% of 218 companies polled in a recent survey have indicated that they have laid off workers or are planning for a retrenchment exercise this year, higher than the 2% forecasted half a year ago.

The National Trade Union Congress (NTUC) has also released a statement saying that retrenchment may rise next year when business continutes to deteroriate.

For those of you looking for jobs, do you feel less confident about getting hired currently? As for those of you out there with jobs, how do you feel about such gloomy reports? Are you afraid of losing your job anytime soon?

Tell us what you think on the JobsCentral Forum by CLICKING HERE

Immigration: to enter and usually become established; especially to come into a country of which one is not a native for permanent residence

Singaporeans, you needn’t worry nor feel threatened about the influx of foreigners settling on our shores. According to Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng, it’s only a “natural human response” which the government will assuage by ensuring that “our own people are always closest to our hearts.”

We need immigrants because we simply do not (cannot?) sufficiently reproduce ourselves to maintain our current standard of living.

Besides, this new wave of talent will make the Lion City a truly roaring and dynamic one – just like how every one of us (former) immigrants have built it into whatever it is now.

With natives forming only two-thirds of the population, the authorities will “continue to attract talented people to settle here.” Of course, Singaporeans and our interests are always the first to be considered, and “this is reflected in the way our policies are crafted,” said the Home Affairs Minister.

I feel content already.

Reading about the retiree couple who lost their $100,000 investment without knowing how, some may say that financial managers are money-grubbing, unscrupulous and self-interested scum of the earth.

"Of course the bank will not tell us to target retirees officially but you don't have to be a genius to know that retirees are usually heavy with cash," said one senior relationship manager from a foreign bank. I keep thinking that the quote's missing a "clueless" somewhere.

Their AIG cousins in the US don't fare much better. Funded by taxpayer bailouts, they go on frivolous spa retreats and English hunting trips to reward employees and customers respectively. Their best excuse: these had been planned months in advance. We all know of course that the global money meltdown was as unexpectedly sudden as ice melting in lava.

But really, who can fault them? Finance has always been where the money’s at, literally and otherwise. Practically anyone can be a financial executive. Just know your product and all you have to do then is your job: sell. Nevermind the risks; with all that money, banks never go bankrupt anyway.

Besides, the algorithms used to derive the products have all been rigorously thought out by computers. We rely on these infallible machines obviously, because these formulas are too complicated for the average any human to understand.

So the next time Ah Kong starts whining about "minibonds" or "high notes" destroying the thousands of dollars he broke his back to earn, tell him about what you've just read. Just don't blame it on the financial executives.

In 1981, J. B. Jeyaretnam became the first opposition politician elected to parliament. Despite making political history, he eventually lost his parliamentary seat, and was even sentenced to jail and made a bankrupt.

But the lawyer commonly known as JBJ never gave up. In fact, he formed the new Reform Party to make a political comeback this year, and was scheduled to appear in court in October for a court challenge aimed at bringing him back into parliament.

Unfortunately, JBJ died of a heart attack early this morning. He was 82.

While his political career may have been checkered, JBJ will go down in history as one of Singapore's most outspoken and iconic opposition politicians. Not all of us may be able to relate to his cause, but the fact that JBJ spent his entire life striving to achieve what he believed in is truly inspiring. After all, how many of us can claim to have the same level of dedication to what we do on a daily basis?

In the Manpower Ministry's report on second-quarter labour trends, social workers were found to have suffered a 14.7% shrink in their real wages, far above the national average of 4%. On average, these people receive $3,481 a month, before tax deductions and after adjusting for inflation.

What really needs discussion though is the attitude of netizens at this drastic turn of the economy on the people who can be said to rely on their passion for human potential to motivate them in their work.

"If you want to be noble, do not talk $ and cents," said one Boobsy.XiaoWei.

Asiaslider chimed in, "If they do it for nobel (sic) reason then why discuss pay... if not happy with money get another job.. don't waste space and ink.."

True, people doing charity work in society shouldn't expect to get rich along the way. However, you can't eat passion, pride or any other value for that matter.

Something else needs to compensate social workers for the work they do that not everyone will. Something to at least bring home the bacon and put bread on the table. Something like money perhaps?

Once again, Forbes crowned Bill Gates as the world's richest American. With US$57b (or S$81,490,151,247), the Microsoft head honcho emerged seven billion smackeroos ahead of his nearest rival, Warren Buffet.

Also in the list is Mark Zuckerberg, the Father of Facebook. His estimated $1.5b fortune is poised to skyrocket should his social networking site go public. The youngest on Forbes' list, Zuckerberg is only 24-years-old.

Also 24 but with considerably less fortune, literally or otherwise, is Eduard d'Archimbaud. The young banker had left his Paris home to take up a new job in London's Bank Street. Reporting for his first day of work at Lehman Brothers, he found people milling around aimlessly.

"My team laughed when they saw me arrive on Monday morning," said Mr d'Archimbaud. Presumably, they were more cynical than celebratory with their welcome.

Faster than anyone could say "financial meltdown", d'Archimbaud's £45,000 basic annual salary simply evaporated along with his dreams. Poor chap never even had the opportunity to power up his workstation or use some swanky office stationery; in fact, he didn't even make it to his desk.

Rotten day for d'Archimbaud then. On the bright side, I suppose he'll at least have a great story to tell the folks back home.