Govt's REACH says PM Lee's climate change message "resonates" with most Singaporeans

In the recent National Day Rally (18 Aug), PM Lee talked about climate change and how Singapore would deal with the impact of rising sea levels by creating dikes and draining the inland water, much like what the Dutch did. He mentioned doing this in Singapore’s East Coast first.
After the rally, Government feedback unit Reach did a survey and said that PM Lee’s climate change message has “resonated” with most Singaporeans.
Reach’s survey shows that nine in 10 Singaporeans below the age of 30 felt the climate change threat to the country is real, and that Singapore should invest in taking mitigating actions before it is too late. For those aged between 30 and 54, eight in 10 felt likewise.
DPM Heng Swee Keat was heartened by the response. He told reporters at a closed-door dialogue with 200 people yesterday (29 Aug) that Singaporeans see the importance of tackling even challenges that are not imminent and of preparing early.
He said, “I’m very encouraged by how Singaporeans are continuing to think long-term, to look at how we prepare ourselves better, and at the same time to work together.”
He added that while interest in the issue is strongest among the young, seniors citizens also feel encouraged that the Government is taking steps early to tackle it.
Other than speaking on climate change at the National Day Rally, PM Lee also spoke about providing better early childcare subsidies and increasing the retirement age.
Shocked at number of tertiary grads applying to drive Grab
Meanwhile, it was reported that 44% of licensed private hire car drivers are young working Singaporeans (‘Retrenched young working Singaporeans cannot find jobs; Many turn to becoming a private-hire driver‘, 25 Jun).
In May this year, Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan was asked to disclose the breakdown of the current number of taxi drivers and private hire car drivers by their respective age groups. Minister Khaw replied that as of February this year, there are about 41,000 Private Hire Car Driver’s Vocational Licence (PDVL) holders and 99,900 Taxi Driver’s Vocational Licence (TDVL) holders.
The age breakdown is as follows:

In other words, some 44% of licensed private hire car drivers fell into the age group of 20-39 years old.
Last year, a forumer on kiasuparents.com went to attend the Private Hire Car Driver’s Vocational Licence (PDVL) training course so that he could become a Grab driver. He was shocked to see the number of tertiary graduates attending with him too.
“Recently, I attended a Private Hire Car Driver’s Vocational Licence (PDVL) training; here’s a shocking fact I discovered when my curious self went around surveying for a bit – many of the folks attending the classes were ex-PMETs from polytechnics, NTU and NUS!” he exclaimed.
“A lot of them previously were in computer science, electrical and civil engineering jobs before being replaced. I counted a handful of them in their 30s and while most were in their 40s. There were also some fresh graduates who could not land jobs yet and so resorted to driving to earn a living.”
Even the dumb knows GDP growth can be achieved by importing FTs
He added, “Dear lord! You mean to say our graduates from these top schools in Asia couldn’t find proper employment?! One of the common reasons supplied was that too many foreigners were plying the same trade as them and at considerable lower salaries. In other words, a huge quantity of electrical engineering jobs going instead to Indians FTs and civil engineering jobs snagged by Filipinos.”
He went on to criticise the government, “The clowns at the top echelons of our G are always boasting about the country attaining GDP growth, oh come on even the dumb would know GDP growth can be achieved by importing vast quantities of foreign labour.”
He noted that as more foreign jobs seekers flood Singapore, more locals will become underemployed or unemployed. While the government constantly publishes reports about how awesome the Singapore education system is, they prefer to go around hiring cheap labour with dubious academic credentials from third world countries, he lamented.
“Many of our locals live in HDB dwellings and are thus saddled with enormous housing loans; without jobs to fund their debts and living expenses, they are left with little choice but to force themselves to become private hire car drivers,” he explained.
“When autonomous vehicles finally arrive at the scene in a big way, what then next? Take an elevator to the tallest floor of Marina Bay Sands Hotel tower and contemplate “migrating” to the netherworld?”
In other words, before the sea water gets to Singaporeans, they would have taken the elevator to the tallest floor of MBS and “migrated” to netherworld – another word for hell.