What's the price of hope?
I just realized that for many people who buy lottery, they are really buying HOPE.
For some the price is $500 a week. For others it's $1000.
I like it that I can say "I hope I can be a millionaire tomorrow" all for the low low price of $0.50!
Of course hope only lah. One cannot live on hope alone. Must plan for the future etc. That's all covered.
But it's important to have hope in life don't you think?
Anyway here are the numbers the computer picked for me yesterday
3, 5 , 10, 16, 31, 37
9, 22, 23, 27, 30, 44
Wish me luck!
posted by Dr Oz bloke @ 7:16 PM
13 Comments:
Actually you can live life without hope.
What I mean is that your life is not bad, you are not in difficulty, but you have no hopes or dreams.
Just live day by day. It's when you feel unhappy in your life. And in your mind you think life is bad AND there is no hope that it would change when things get depressing.
However we should realize that it's all a state of mind. What's bad is relative. Poor? How poor? Look at starving children in Africa. Even then, at least they have 2 arms 2 legs 2 eyes....what about the blind?
There's always a positive side to things. We just have to be aware that it is there and look at it more often.
But hope can be that shining light for people in darkness.
After all what can conquer hope? Only if you take it away from yourself and give up. Like I did.
But I don't need it anymore. In fact too much hope with no realization sometimes drives people crazy too.
It calls for balance according to the situation.
eh, ah oz, how's de 1.5mill bling coming along? I shall not not say "may the lady luck be with you." Instead I'll be your cheerleading pong pong girl aka the youngin' lady luck ;)
Wei, don't forget my beer when u win.
I suppose you would know how to show appreciation to your faithful fans here.
Those who don't have wished they had.
Those who have, wondered what their wish was.
Contentment equals hope minus greed.
My dad was in the lottery business for a while and I've never bought a lottery in my life because I know the chance of winning is almost nil. ;p Having said that this guy on dole in town won a $2 million lotto! Good luck to you.
Nope didn't win anything :)
Anyway it's all just for fun.
.50cents for Hope.
Worth it lah, can't even buy a cup of coffee at the coffee shop.
Buy more lah, next time.
Plonk down 100 bucks like the ah pek and ah ma.
Your chances of winning soars based on the law of average.
I can't publish this in my blog dunno why. Anyway......comments in (are mine)
"It's wrong not to recognise qualifications of some foreign doctors"
Read this letter by Dr Soon Boon Yi in the Straits Times forums :
The Straits Times reported on March 8th that the Health Ministry would recruit more medical specialists. It intends to increase the number of foreign medical schools that Singapore recognises from the current 71 institutions.
Do we really have a shortage of doctors or we are being short-sighted? There are many foreign-trained doctors who are not allowed to practise medicine in Singapore.
(Well tell me what's new? It's the same all around the world. Immigrant doctors in Canada are driving taxis. While I agree this is not an ideal way to utilize our resources, the problem is not unique to Singapore. Having said that I agree we should make the pathway for foreign doctors to practise in Singapore more transparent.)
They are qualified and experienced doctors. The reason they cannot practise in Singapore is that the Singapore Medical Council (SMC) does not recognise the universities they graduated from.
(Again. This is a charge that can be directed against every first world country!)
Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan realises this is a mistake. The doctors we need are already in Singapore but we are pretending that we need to look farther to get them. Is this necessary?
(What does Dr Soon mean by this? Are there are many immigrant foreign doctors in Singapore who are unable to practice medicine? I was not aware that Singapore allowed foreigners to migrate to Singapore without finding a job. This is interesting. Or what does Dr Soon mean exactly?)
In the USA, a foreign-trained doctor can take the USMLE examination and after three years of residency, they can practise medicine just like an American-trained doctor. Why is the SMC not operating like the US?
(Well easier said than done. The USMLEs are one aspect of it. But it is not that easy to get a residency position. Dr Soon makes it seem as if it is a breeze to be a foreign medical graduate and get to practice medicine in the USA. This is certainly not the case. For the USA, many foreign graduates end up working for FREE (yes FREE) in hospitals for 1-2 years to try and fight for a residency position. Not everyone can afford that luxury. The situation in Canada is no different. And neither is it for Australia. I can personally attest to this. So while Singapore should have an SMC exam, I see no reason why we should make it so easy for foreign doctors to gain full registration to practice in Singapore when their own countries do not make it easy for foreign graduates to practice there. As it is Singapore already has a system for foreign doctors. Read below)
Why is our medical system so rigid and not forward-looking? Could it be that the SMC is trying to protect the Singaporean doctors from external competition? Isn't it more beneficial for the patients when we have the best doctors to treat us? Doesn't competition give us the best doctors?
(Again those charges can be made to all other first world countries! Dr Soon, please name me a first world country where it is EASY and SIMPLE for foreign medical graduates to gain full medical registration to practise?)
Will the council come out with a complete list of the medical schools that it will recognise?
Russia has very advanced medical science and technology. The Russians have pioneered surgeries such as eyesight correction for shortsighted people and extension of human height by elongating the leg bones, etc. Why shouldn't the Russian medical schools be on the SMC's list?
Is language barrier for some of these foreign-trained doctors a problem? In fact, their foreign language ability may give them an edge over the locally trained doctors when treating foreign patients.
Not all doctors from well-known medical schools are good doctors, and not all doctors from not well-known medical schools are bad doctors. The list of foreign medical schools recognised by the Singapore Medical Council does not guarantee us anything.
We should have something like the USMLE to evaluate our medical doctors to guarantee our standard.
Dr Soon Boon Yi
(Now I do agree with Dr Soon's call for a streamlined system for foreign doctors. I don't think we should deny the deserving good doctors a place to practise in Singapore purely because they are foreigners. I feel many other countries should also open their systems.
However Dr Soon might want to note that there are already a number of foreign doctors practising in Singapore. We have numerous doctors from the Philipines, Nepal, Pakistan, and India working in hospitals and polyclinics.
I believe the driving force behing these schemes is more cost and money. The foreign doctors are paid very little compared to their fully registered counterparts. So one would say they are more cost effective. However I have heard from registrars of polyclinics that some of these foreign doctors do not even know how to manage common chronic conditions like diabetes and hypertension.
Of course at the other end of the spectrum we have eminent professors from abroad who have no problems getting full registration to practise and even head departments in our local hospitals.
This leads me to conclude that at the end of the day, MOH only wants 2 types of foreign doctors; the cheap ones and the damn famous and good ones. This is prudent of course if you consider the best interests for Singapore. However what is lacking I suppose is the transparency in the decision process and whether it is fair.
Clearly the decision process has
nothing to do purely with medical competency alone. So will we get our wish for a SMC exam? I doubt it.
By the way I would hope Dr Soon could clarify what is it that he is calling for? Bear in mind that foreign doctors are already allowed to practise in Singapore based on different criteria. Perhaps Dr Soon does not know this. Or does he have personal vested interest in writing this letter?)
My ex was a doctor from Poland and I remember going through all the red tapes to try to get him a job in Australia. He had to pass the English test and AMC (Australian Medical Council) exam. They make it such that it's almost impossible to get a job here if you are not an Aust or Kiwi grad. First you've to pass the English test before you're allow to sit for AMC exam, but in order to sit for the English test you need to pass the AMC exam, DUH! In the end he called all the public hospitals in QLD and VIC and spoke to the docs in charged. One of them interviewed and gave him a viva voce exam over the phone and offered him a residency position provided he pass the AMC exam within 6 months. He was allowed to work under supervision. So the system is actually not as rigid as we thought, some hospitals are so desperate for doctors they would allow foreign-trained docs to work on certain conditions without passing AMC exam.
For the dentists, however, it's different, there's no exceptions, it's either you pass the ADC exam or you don't get to work as a dentist here at all. This poor dentist from South Africa became a dental assistant instead, but at least he's not driving a taxi.
I do agree with you that not all doctors from well known medical schools are good doctors, and not all doctors from not well known medical schools are bad doctors. If I've any health problem I would rather see my ex than an Australian grad doc and that's not because he's my ex, he's more knowledgeable in the field of medicine compared to the doctors I know. I'd a skin condition that Sg/Aussie docs couldn't fix, they don't even know what it was and just brushed me off and said it's allergy/infection and the bloody dermatologist actually made it worst after he told me to wash with chlorhexidine. Anyway my ex gave me this Polish herbal cream and it went away. :D
I guess it's just harder cos I've got a family already?
If I didn't I'd go anywhere frankly. NO need to bother about school, how my wife thinks etc.
But my wife and kids are not my problems in life.
Actually from what i read at lokun, foreign doctors are paid the same as local doctors when they are fully registered. This mean that yr point about Singapore wanting cheap foreign doctors are wrong.
I think what the dr is implying is that doctors from overseas can not easily set up shop in Singapore but require to work in a public hospital. This itself is not a bad thing as public sector is crowded with patients and private sector is not.
Regional areas actually have some nice private schools minus the city vices e.g. drugs. Prince Charles went to a private school in Geelong. ;p I would prefer to bring up my kids in the country area, ppl here are nicer, friendlier, heaps safer than in the city (I dont even lock my doors when I sleep), no traffic problem, parking is free and it's so damn quiet and peaceful. :D
Geelong was one of my areas of choice actually. Mornington the other.
Anyway it's not working out so let's drop the topic.
Cheers!
Yes Gary,
fully registered docs will be paid the same. But many do not come with full registration at the start. They have temp registration.
And temp reg docs are paid much less.
I think that may be a factor as well.
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