GIC To Give Up To $20/hour For Poor Sinkies To Do Community Service!

SINGAPORE: In a bid to boost youth volunteerism, the Republic’s sovereign wealth fund GIC will hand out cash grants of between S$3,000 and S$5,000 to students who take on community work.

The scheme, called GIC Sparks & Smiles, will hand out S$2 million worth of grants over the next four years to more than 500 students in local universities, polytechnics and the Institute of Technical Education (ITE).

To qualify, students have to commit to at least 25 hours of community service, including mentoring. They also have to come from households with a per capita income of below S$2,000, GIC said.

Recipients of the grant will receive mentorship training from GIC’s charity partner Beyond Social Services, which will also connect each student to a disadvantaged child, youth or family. The students must build a relationship with the person or family they are matched with, and take on activities together such as tutoring, mentoring or facilitating conversations about key issues such as employment or education.

To date, 48 university students have received the grant, undergone training and started their community work, GIC said.

One of the recipients, university student Ivan Neo, was matched with six-year-old Syafiq to be his mentor.

“When I chose to work with pre-schoolers, I didn't expect it to be so challenging, as I needed to be constantly aware of how I was speaking and behaving after I observed Syafiq picking up my speech habits and actions,” he said.



“As a student who needed financial assistance, I often wondered why no one was helping me more so I didn't have to worry constantly about fees and other expenses. This experience as a GIC Sparks recipient made me realise I have the power to help others.”

He plans to continue volunteering even though he has completed the required 25 hours of community work, Mr Neo said.

Ms Deanna Ong, GIC’s Director of Human Resources and Organisation Development, said: “We believe a higher level of youth volunteerism will bring about a positive impact in improving education and the general well-being of the community.

“Through the quality interaction between the recipients and community members, we believe both sides will experience the impact of empathy and positive role modelling, which builds confidence for their future,” she added.

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/youths-doing-community/2394402.html

Volunteering is generally considered an altruistic activity where an individual or group provides services for no financial gain.-only in this place do you have such contradictions.
Once you are paid to do something, technically its an employment-not volunteering.

They are not tackling the roots of the problem-why the child, youth or family is disadvantaged in the first place?-is it because the parents jobs were taken over by foreigners and were retrenched ?, is it because the youth cannot qualify for poly, uni as more than 20% of the places are reserved for foreigners?, or how many poor locals will be able to continue their studies if they were given scholarships that were liberally given to foreigners? or is it because the cost of living is too high due to high prices of public housing, transportation and education?

borom said:

Once you are paid to do something, technically its an employment-not volunteering.

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Because if it is a job, CPF contribution is required.

The Devil pretending to be Santa Claus. The Devil creates the sickness and then give out medicine. The Devil created these problems so that they can be seem as your Saviour. That's their intention all along, to create a huge pool of underemployed poor in Singapore so that these people would be beholden to the Devil. "Conditioning Behaviour".

Imagine if fucking GIC did not lose $59 billion, they could have given every singaporean man, woman, and child $1685 each rather then this pathetic $20 for the poor. We are supposed to pretend $20 is big fuck. Assume Sinkie population is 3.5 million.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB125418236117447877

Singapore's GIC Suffers $41.6 Billion Loss
By Costas Paris and
P.R. Venkat
Updated Sept. 30, 2009 12:01 a.m. ET

SINGAPORE – Government of Singapore Investment Corp. suffered a loss of about 59 billion Singapore dollars (US$41.60 billion) in the fiscal year ended March 31, making it one of the worst years for the sovereign wealth fund since it was started in 1981, people familiar with the situation said Tuesday.

One person said GIC's portfolio currently stands at around S$265 billion after drops in equity investments and property valuations. GIC, which doesn't disclose the value of its portfolio or amounts of yearly gains or losses, said in its annual report that its portfolio lost more than 20% in value in the latest fiscal year.

However, GIC said, the recent rebound in global stock markets has helped it recover more than half of the losses incurred in the 12 months that ended in March. A second person said GIC's property valuations are also recovering after suffering big losses.

"GIC held on to all its property whose paper value at the end of the fiscal year looked miserable. Valuations were down in Australia, Russia, Europe, Japan and China. Now they are coming back, but are still way off their value in late 2007 and early 2008," this person said.

GIC manages Singapore's foreign exchange reserves. It is the world's fourth-largest sovereign fund in terms of money managed, according to Deutsche Bank, with high-profile investments in Western financial institutions like Citigroup Inc. and UBS AG.

In its report, GIC said that for the 20 years ended March 31, 2009, it had an annualized 5.7% return in U.S. dollar terms, while for the two decades that ended March 31, 2008, the annualized return was 7.8%. As of end-March this year, its nominal return over 20 years in Singapore dollar terms was 4.4%, compared with 5.8% at the end of March 2008. "Like many large institutional investors, GIC's portfolio had been impacted in the severe global downturn of 2008," said Tony Tan, GIC's deputy chairman.

Ng Kok Song, GIC's group chief investment officer, said that "by end-August, global stock markets have recovered 48% from the lows of March 2009 even though they are still down 35% from their peak in October 2007."

GIC said it has confidence in the long-term prospects of Citigroup and UBS.

It holds a 9% stake in UBS by way of preferred shares it bought in late 2007 for 11 billion Swiss francs (US$10.66 billion).

Last week, GIC said it cut its stake in Citigroup to below 5% from more than 9% after it exchanged its convertible preferred stock in the bank for common stock. It made a profit of US$1.6 billion from the sale. GIC had invested US$6.88 billion in Citigroup in January 2008.

"The UBS investment will take longer to recover. While both banks still face challenges in returning to profitability, we maintain our confidence in their long-term prospects," Mr. Ng said.

He said that in the short-term, fewer funds will be available for leveraged investments as lending institutions will face more onerous capital-adequacy requirements and asset securitization markets remain impaired.

"Regulatory intervention is likely to dampen risk-taking. Investment vehicles such as hedge funds and private equity funds will be subject to greater disclosure of their activities," Mr. Ng said.

The executive also said governments and central banks may face pressure not to withdraw fiscal and monetary stimulus packages because of high unemployment levels.

He added that economic growth will be higher in developing countries rather than developed economies.

GIC said it cut its exposure to equities by more than 10% from July 2007 to September 2008, but has now increased its exposure in global stock markets to pre-crisis levels.

As of March 31 this year, the fund had 38% of its portfolio invested in equities, down from 44% a year earlier, while exposure to fixed income such as bonds was 24%, compared with 26%. As of end-March 2009, about 30% of GIC's portfolio was invested in real estate, private equity, venture capital and infrastructure assets, from 23% a year earlier.

By geography, the Americas accounted for 45% of GIC's portofolio at the end of the latest fiscal year, compared with 40% at March 31, 2008, while the fund's exposure to Europe was cut to 29% from 35%. Asia accounted for 24% of the portfolio, from 23% earlier.

No such thing as something for nothing. All our RC guys get nice perks for turning up to help when needed. Only idiots join opposition for no gains.

these volunteer clones are no different from their highly paid ministars and mps,the only way PAP can motivate their minions is to pay them extraordinate sums of money for very little service to society.also in line with PAP motto,service to society means big bucks and dollar dollar bills yall,come serve the public with PAP.and lastly eschewing to the age old wisdom of kiasu,kiasee,kiaboh,the fastest way to a sinkie's heart is thru their pockets and their bellys,secure their iron rice bowl and take care of their needs and they are loyal to you for life.

mojito said:

No such thing as something for nothing. All our RC guys get nice perks for turning up to help when needed. Only idiots join opposition for no gains.

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That's right. Quit WP or SDP grassroots. If given the choice, choose to serve in RC instead of in a church, temple, mosque or dialect hway kuan. We offer better perks and recognition, and your volunteerism directly helps more people.

JohnTan said:

That's right. Quit WP or SDP grassroots. If given the choice, choose to serve in RC instead of in a church, temple, mosque or dialect hway kuan. We offer better perks and recognition, and your volunteerism directly helps more people.

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Who is footing the bill? the RC? where did the money come from? the Govt? Who feeds the Govt? GOD? or the TAXPAYERS. the GST, ERP, etc... Now even GIC is doing it. What the diff? CPF?