Friday 29 March 2013

Welcome to tropics

Having enjoyed 10 consecutive days of unrelenting headache, I finally gave in and went to see a doctor. There were the typical root cause expectations related to bad ergonomics and so forth, but the doc did take me seriously as one shouldn't apparently suffer from headache for so long. The doctor herself took blood tests (way convenient) and send me to bed with muscle relaxants for 2 days on MC (medical certificate).

Still the headache wasn't unbearable, just continuous discomfort. So I was merrily working on my laptop at home when the doctor called in the results. My platelets (aka trombocytes) had plummeted, so I had to see another doctor immediately. Sooner than I realized I was being admitted into hospital with positive results for dengue fever.

I never learned to know the sucker who stung me (later learned that it was one Aedes Aegypti). In Finland mosquitoes make this infernal whine just before they start to feast on your blood. And they don't carry any diseases. Well I guess this is part of living in the tropics.

So good possibility (and way too much time to kill while resting on a hospital bed) to make some comparisons on the hospital care between these two countries.

I'm now in a private hospital through my insurance. It feels quite similar to Finnish public sector hospital. The facilities are considerably newer though. One thing I have noticed is the amount of paperwork I need to review and sign. All kinds of terms and conditions and getaway clauses I guess. Admittedly I didn't read every paper when worrying about dengue in the admissions.

I do feel like getting a quality care from a Burmese nurse (among others)  and Edinburgh schooled Sikh doctor. This particular doctor mentioned that some of my Finnish hospital procedures sound like they were done here 30 years ago. And there I was expecting Finnish level of health care being among the best in the world. I still do, but so seems Singaporean equivalent as well.

NP: Amerigo Gazaway's DJ-set from South by Southwest (SXSW) event couple of weeks ago.

PS. I'll proofread, add links, tags and geo location once back slouching over my laptop in as unergonomical position as before

Monday 25 March 2013

Learning through scare of a punishment


As a side note to the previous blog entry, I had to undergo yet another process to certify myself as an employer in Singapore through the Ministry of Manpower. There seems to be a process for everything and all of them work very efficiently. As part of this process I had to participate into a mandatory training event either in a physical class room session or through self paced e-Learning. As I have found myself in my new job role to be a training specialist I applied into the online training from professional interest.

In terms of e-Learning you have your typical "please spend more time on this page before proceeding forward" check, but also some kind of a verification that you actually have the window with the course content active while waiting for the time to pass before proceeding. So essentially I couldn't multitask through alt-tabbing as I had expected, but actually had to sit through the whole ~3 hour course from beginning to end.

Couple of interesting observations:
- One out of every six households in Singapore employ a helper.
- Clarity followed with Patience seem to be the key virtues in terms of getting to positive results with setting expectations and guidance.
- There was one quiz as part of the training where the false assumption was to expect the FDWs (Foreign Domestic Workers) to speak English.
- In the graphics supporting the learning content, the instructor was always portrayed as Chinese looking male with a tie, the employer as Western lady and FDW as a Filipino lady. In the text even though mostly genderly correct occasionally FDW was just being referred as she. Granted that there are not likely many male FDWs, but still this struck my eye.

And finally the biggest interesting finding. Throughout the education it was emphasized how many dollars of fines, how many years in prison or how many strokes from a cane will the employer get if something that is against the job contract is being conducted. Of course I understand that it would not be OK to ask the helper to clean the windows outside the apartment on the 18th floor (This had apparently really happened!) or to have the helper do your work related chores at evenings (sounds tempting though). But for me highlighting all the time the scare of the punishment didn't make the participation into the training more captivating nor did it reinforce the learning objectives in an appropriate way. I wonder if we should utilize these scaring techniques more with our professional training material at work...

My possible future

Sunday 17 March 2013

My outsourced life

While my kid starting in a school was a major event for our family in terms of integrating (assimilating?) into local society, another one is just lurking behind a corner. Finally we have decided to employ a Foreign Domestic Worker (FDW) -- a full time helper living in our home.

This seems to be a very big issue for me personally. I am not even sure, why am I reacting so strongly about this and thus as a form of self examination and hopefully as some kind of a catharsis (this word I didn't have to google up), I am documenting some of my initial feelings related to employing a maid.

There are number of obvious benefits in having someone available to help out with everyday chores:
1+) The primary reason for us to employ a FDW is to have someone to cook healthy food for the kids. I admit it, just yesterday I was in charge of conjuring a healthy dinner for them and I took the easy way out by ordering a delivery from McDonalds (by the way, that's actually one of the only ways to eat ice cream at home -- it's way too hot outside to carry a package from a grocery store without ice cream melting during the journey).
2+) Having someone to help out with home cleaning, washing and ironing clothes and washing dishes (basically none of the apartments I viewed when selecting our new home has a dish washer, because everybody (?) employes a maid!) translates into having more time for things which are important, like playing board games with my 7-year old (in a sudden moment of nostalgic urge, I bought Talisman, which I played last time sometime in the mid 80s).
3+) Most cost efficient way to buy groceries around here is at so called wet markets, where they sell fresh veggies, meat and so forth in a market setting, but only in the morning hours. Both of us essentially working, we basically have no possibility in doing any of our shopping there.
4+) Finally as a main driver for the decision is that it enables basic everyday life to work out. While we are at work and having no family around to rely upon, there is someone for example to pick up my son from school at 3:15 PM every day.

However, I have observed following cons as well:
1-) We will have to sacrifice some of our privacy, when inviting someone living with us 24/7. This is probably the number one concern which I have right now, although I cannot really articulate what about privacy I am specifically worried about loosing. There are stories of helpers exchanging every single little dirty detail about their employers, but I don't think my details are that particularly dirty to be shared.
2-) I am also concerned that my kids will get used to an environment where you don't have to clean up after yourself as there is always someone to do it for them. This is something for me to really be mindful about and make sure they understand that they still have to do their part (and me as well!).
 3-) Apparently there is some inherent Finnish value of everybody being equal and Lutheran morale code embedded deep within even an devote atheist like me, which makes me not comfortable with having someone doing things for you which you could do perfectly well yourself.
4-) There are costs involved: in addition to salary and upkeep fees, there is agency fees, government levy and medical and other insurance to be paid .
5-) Then there is a nagging fear of exploitation, which I have tried to explain to myself by
5+) Giving a possibility for someone to have a clean, nice indoor job with relatively good pay compared to jobs available where they are from and also as opposed to some other horrible means to make ends meet for girls from countries like Myanmar and Philippines.

Lately I have been reading a book called 4-Hour Work Week. One of the basic concepts of the book is to outsource all things you can in order to to have time for more meaningful things in your life -- provided that you can pinpoint what is it that you want to have more time for. I guess this is one step in that path while living in an environment where employing helpers is made easy and possible.

Tuesday 12 March 2013

Partly cloudy spring day

I know I am making an obvious comparison here, but I get asked a lot how's the weather in Finland at this time of the year. Is there still snow on the ground? At least they are seemingly enjoying some sun finally. The weather in Finland can be really nice in the Spring time. Personally I really like Spring, because dark and gloomy Winter is starting to melt away and there starts to be a promise of Summer in the air.

Over here it is mostly that year starts with Summer, then continues into Summer, after which the real Summer is finally here, after Summer is over it is once again Summer and eventually by the time when we get visited by Santa Claus it is Summer.


Friday 1 March 2013

Closing in on half year mark

Well, whaddya know! I just started my 6th month living and working in Singapore. Funny how time flies when having fun in the office, basking in the sun and relaxing in the pool.