Middle-class

Had a busy day today. Meetings in the early morning and the late evening. Nevertheless, i picked up a good book titled "The Men From The Boys", written by Philips Collins. I left the BizIT library today with this book in hand, after 5 hrsand 358 pages, I have read it from cover to cover. The story was mesmerizing. The plot so-so.

The plot was about the lives of two young boys, who lead similar lives until their paths diverted differently. It is a journey of friendship, life and family. There were some touching moments of love, there were some parts which I zoomed past because it was utterly boring (I speed read parts when i deem a certain section a waste of my time). I would rate this book 6.5 out of 10 if I was at eBay. Sigh, some parts of my mind are still stuck in the English Bury culture from the book.

During one of the meetings today, Mr Ang fully announce the pleasure that we have a fun-filled packed 3 weeks leading to the final presentation on November 26. Now, let me explain my group's disposition here right from the start.

I am grouped with two other classmates, namely Aaron and Felicia. Initially in July, there was a lot of hoo-hah on grouping due to class politics. Nobody wanted to work with slackers and Aaron and Felicia had a reputation then as half-slackers. Half-slackers are people who will do work when the topic please them or when they like it and their abscene is often explained by falling ill or being indisposed to another commitment. Thankfully, they grew out of the phase.

At July, I was half pondering remaining comfortably with a more "hard-working" group of gals that I have worked with the last semester. Although I didn't get very good project grades with them, they were reliable and ever present for contribution to project work, although there is much to be disputed about. At that point of time, I was overseas having a family vacation during school term. So, both parties called me to persuade who I would like to eventually join up this term. There would be dire consequences if i join one. Least to say, I made a risky decision in my own opinion.

Anyway, i ended up with my two project mates. As a team of 3, I have always been the very troubled one. Reason being, we have a shortage of manpower as compared to teams of 5 and 6. We cope well, and we got into the final 3 of the community project, which in my own opinion, still in total shock. There were two other teams whom i felt had put in more effort. Amanda's group from '04' and Tiffany from'02'. I guess we were lucky to take the last spot from them.

So, we are in the finals now, with 3 weeks to go. To explain my group disposition, we are in a total disadvantage. Firstly, shortage of manpower. Secondly, the other two groups, Pei Wen from '04' and Sharon from '05' had better marks for their presentation AND their report. Thirdly, all 3 of us are busy with commitments. Aaron has ITP, I have a video club assignment and Felicia intends to take on an immediate holiday job. Thankfully, both of them withdrew from a Japan trip that would have taken up 2 weeks of their time. Lastly, the two other groups presenting the NLB project has the BEST presenters in the DMC cohort.

Am i worried or stressed ? Definently. Felicia says i am blowing things out of proportion. I just put things into persepective. My view on this is that since we're in the finals, let's make it a blast and aim high. Therefore, I like to be stressed. We are the underdogs and if we ever do make into 1st or 2nd place, I would be glad to strip to my birthday suit and run around Orchard road although I don't think tourists would appreciate a moving Asian Raffles in the buff.

Sigh, these few days, my stress level will be boiling and as sick as I am, like what McDonalds says, "I'm lovin' it."

Moral of today's post: Social Class

Are you rich or are you poor? Most Singaporeans lie within the range of middle class. But then again as my marketing lecturer says, there is still the Upper middle class, Middle middle class and the Lower middle class. I would say that our social class is determined by our education, occupation, car and the amount of 4-D tickets that you buy.

Let me give you some insights to our middle class. I'm giving an interesting anthropology lesson. Listen up.

The Upper middle class consist of aspiring lawyers, brokers, doctors and the durian men. They live in Condominiums or some even in terrace houses. However, the more expensive the dwelling, the cheaper is their car. So, if they live in some uullu uullu condo in Changi Green, they would mostly likely own a BMW Series 6 as compared to those that live in some urban condos in town, then they own a Mercedes Benz. Either it is the old ah peh type one which your uncle still drives or a Mercedes Benz lorry or van, your friendly neighbourhood durian seller. With the exception of the one mentioned above, the rest don't waste their efforts lining up at 4-D queues. Instead, they ask the maid to go. Or, they invest heavily in shares and bonds in the stock market. Then again, they sometimes ask the maid to call their broker to choose alphabets of the company which she like to gamble her employers money with. If the stock fails to make money, it will be deducted from the maid's maegre salary. Now you know the reason why maids run away or jump down from these high-level condos. Its not the windows they were cleaning, its because the stock market had a bear run.


The Middle middle class are the humble people. No matter how rich they are, from peddling drugs or begging along the Orchard tunnels, they always say they are very poor. That is why 75% of the population lies within this region. One scenario goes like this:

Friend: "Wah, got new handphone siah, rich leh you."

Middle-middle class person: "No lah, this handphone got from my mother one lah."

Friend:" Sure anot, this new model handphone Nokia 9999 just came out yesterday lor."

MMCP: "Aiya, i buy only very cheap lah. Same as the model no."

Friend:" Wah you so rich, your father own governement huh."

MMCP: "Aiya my father is Chiam See Tong lah, he want to own also cannot. AI SAY !!! Wah got new Rolex watch siah, rich leh you."

The cycle repeats itself. Because of the majority of population of MMCP, your circle of friends also fall under the same cateory. There is ONE main reason why the MMCP is so humble. The reason is that if they act too rich, they will be the victims of footing the bill for everyone if they happen to be in a karoke lounge or at a posh restaurant. They always make the rich one pay first and they say they will go dutch later. Usually, it doesnt end up that way and the rich MMCP would end up making a loss making him a poor MMCP after 20 visits to Crystal Jade. Humility is a virtue because wealth is at stake. That's why, you see the MMCP end up purchasing cars that are safe and have long life warranty. This is to safeguard their wealth. MMCP are "kiam siap" or in other words stingy. Come to think of it, all Singaporeans are stingy and if our forefathers weren't kiam siap, we wouldn't be in this world today.

Lastly, the lower middle class. This category is simply summarised as "not rich but act rich". These are people who stay at HDB flats. Their salary do not amount to anything much more than what a McDonalds Floor Manager earns but they still like to splurge. They dont own cars but they buy model cars like Ferrari and Jaguar, to tell people they owned one, that is at a scale of 1:360 that is. They have no maids so everytime they queue up, they always wear sunglasses, straw hats or carry big plastic bags to avoid being seen from fellow relatives or friends, who are practically doing the same thing as them. Marketers like to target them because they are the money spenders. They are the PEOPLE that chalk up those Credit Card bills and register themselves to Visa Mini, Women's Card, Manhattan Card, Black card .... to name a few. These people are mainly suckers for bankruptcy and once in a while, visit the court to get a cheap thrill at barristers in their funny wigs to settle their finance publicly. Point to note, if they keep making mini credit cards, how can these LMC people use them to cover their faces when they cannot wear sunglasses, straw hats or bring big plastic bags of Slim 10 pills to cover their faces to court?

Hope to receive comments or critiques to my blog. I don't know who the hell reads it, because my only promotion of it is through word of mouth or through my friendster account. If you're one of my friend and you happen to read it, email me to send it your honest criticisms or encouragement at quikquiksilver@yahoo.com , thanks.

- Benjamin