It's a rich man's world

So our local ministers are getting yet another pay hike and as predicted, the masses are rumbling about the unfairness of the whole thing. How can you read about some guy in a suit getting $2.2 million a year without feeling all crappy that you will never see that amount in a lifetime? Hey, an entire village in Somalia would probably not see that in 10 lifetimes. To feel jealous, angry, contemptuous and yet completely covetous about our millionaire ministers is a completely human thing.

I personally think they should be paid high but a possible million dollar hike is just over the top. I personally like Low Thia Kiang's sneaky suggestion that they peg minister's salaries to the poorest 20% of Singapore so there is major incentive to push the agenda of the disenfranchised, but I think it will probably not work. Perhaps pegging it to the average income earners instead?

What I WOULD like to see from the government is better PR skills. I think it is useless for them to keep trotting out the same logical, rational, intellectual arguments about why ministers should be paid well. Financial renumeration is a topic that strikes people to the heart. Like it or not, many of us peg our pay to our self worth. I think this is a habit we would do well to exorcise from our systems. Meanwhile, it is not helpful to hear the rich and mighty pontificate in cool,intellectual arguments about why they deserve the pay - because the implication is "...and you deserve yours. (Perhaps you are not trying hard enough - it's a meritocracy after all?)"

Less logic, more heart. Less talk, more action. If I had my way, scaling up the minister's pay dramatically ought to go hand in hand with policies that scale up help to the nation's poorest with equal drama.

I think some of our ministers are Christians. I would LOVE to hear such a minister talk to the people with genuine honesty about what he feels about out-earning his people by such a high percentage, without retreating behind intellectual reasons. I want to hear him just talk about his thoughts on the social responsibility that comes along with earning that amount of money and what he does with the treasures he has been allotted. It's not about justifying himself to the people. It's about showing people that there seems to be some point or some good about that much money being given away from the taxpayer's pockets. Also, I am just plain curious about the thoughts and struggles of a Christian millionaire.

I had a pretty sober conversation with SB one night about our chosen profession and hence, chosen income level. He was talking about how saddening it was to listen to students who appreciated his contribution as a teacher to their lives, see nothing wrong in talking openly about liking the idea of teaching but never wanting to do it because "the money wasn't worth it." There seemed to be complete and utter unawareness of their indictment of their teacher's choice in life to choose sacrifice over financial reward.

It was like "thanks for teaching me and making those sacrifices. I won't be doing the same though. That was your choice, not mine. Someone has to do the crappy, underpaying, noble jobs. But it's not me. Thanks anyway. :)"

Being a good teacher - or a good pastor or social worker for that matter - does not automatically result in more pay. I assume this is unlike what happens in banking, sales and the civil service. Good teachers often commit to too many unpaid overtime hours of decent marking, planning, pastoring, prepping of own material. They understand that an overstretched school budget just cannot renumerate them - so they sacrifice their own money and time for the sake of making sure children turn out into half decent human beings. I am nothing like the best of these teachers - but I try to aspire to greatness that way.

We are raising a generation of youths - Singapore HAS been raising generations of youths - that do not see wealth as a responsibility. They see it as a goal, a prize and an affirmation of one's ability. Wealth is yours because you deserve it for all the work and all your choices. Go ahead and spend it on yourself. Oh, and throw in a piddlly amount into the charity tin that will hardly add up to the amount you spend on facials or lattes in a year. Wealth is not a daily gift from God, a grace extended to you for a higher purpose. Wealth is not something you consider soberly as something that ought to be distributed and shared.


I think I earn a decent amount of money. I like to keep in mind that compared to 80% of the world - I am considered a "Have", rather than a "Have Not", born into a developed nation of realtive luxury and choice. I think I am fairly renumerated - enough to save for vacations, buy nice Christmas presents for people, give money to my mom, tithe and keep myself fairly insured. However, I still calculate what it would cost me to buy a Starbucks latte, I still check out the cheapest thing on a fancy menu and I still check out Giordano and This Fashion.

I am always thankful for the opportunity to build something meaningful. I like knowing I do not have to slave away at something I do not believe in. I know even if I was paid tons of money but had to work in something I feel nothing for, I would be vastly unhappy. Rich but quite stressed and cynical. Often, I quite appreciate my lifestyle of being fairly paid, unstressed and have-the-time-and-energy-to-not-be-cynical.

But there is always that undercurrent of covetousness that lurks underneath the confidence. It jars me when I hear people talk about how many months bonus they get or how much CPF they have accumulated over the years. Fear and covetousness - the sly little tag-team - taunt," You fool, you poor poor fool, for thinking you have enough. You think you have a decent amount of savings and earn alot? HA! Please look at your peers. Give a few more years and you will be eating the dust in your face as they race away into a life of condos, cars and endless vacations."

When I dwell on those thoughts, I feel like scum. I feel like an idiot and someone who has been made a fool. Someone who has not "grown up" and started earning "grown up money". I fall into the self same trap all the time of thinking about wealth as something I am entitled to, that "I DESERVE MORE for being this smart/educated/ qualified/hardworking". I stop thinking about wealth as something that is given to me by God - whatever amount that I have been given, I should be thankful and thoughtful about the way I use it.

I don't think you can ask the world to be Communist - there will always be people who will out-earn you, just as there will always be people who you will out-earn. If Christ was telling the truth that this world is just a big bunch of brokenness, then unfairness and imbalance is going to be there. This world sucks - it's true. But it was not meant to be that way - and Christians ought to live in anticipation of the un-sucky, fairer world that IS TO COME.

Which means for me - I have to ignore what the world's ideas about wealth are and consider soberly Christ's ideas about wealth. I should not be concerned too much about the fairness of how much I earn or be bitter about my EXTREMELY RELATIVE "poverty" (big bunches of sarcasm)

It is a gift for me to earn whatever I am earning. There is responsibility and opportunity entailed in every dollar that I earn.
I need to remember that and focus on that. And keep praying for Christians and non-Christians alike to remember the same.

What small luxury can I deny myself today that would provide so much more relative happiness for someone else?

It's a really tough question that I cannot always answer well. It's the kind of question that makes me squirm because I know the answer humbles me. I cannot keep bitching about highly paid ministers who do not care about the poor if I find it hard to talk about how I spend money myself.

I am not a smarty pants economist and just an armchair critic. I do not have numbers to back up whether high pay or average pay is good enough for ministers. I just know the problems in this world do not get solved just by thinking about how other people should live - it really and truly begins with a lifetime commitment to thinking about how I live.

If that step never gets done, all talk is just dust.

Let the ministers earn their millions: which of them uses the millions for good purposes and which of them truly deserves the millions will be revealed on the same Day that my own intentions and actions are revealed.

wanna be a cult leader?

quite a fabulous summary of how to tell if you are being brainwashed into having a religious experience :) the scary thing is the tactics probably work too well.

Life - a mystery to be lived

"I met a woman afflicted with multiple sclerosis, shockingly young, who limped up to tell me she was learning all she could about prayer because the disease was progressing so fast that soon she would be able to do little else.

I heard of suicides, birth defects, children hit by trucks, and teenagers raped. One woman, now an ordained minister, spoke of a dark period after her son died when for 18 months she could not bring herself to pray. She cried out one day, "God, I don't want to die like this, with all communication cut off!" Even so, it took her 6 more months before she could pray again.

In one meeting, a 20-year-old came to the microphone and chided me for not taking literally the Bible's promise about faith that can move mountains. I agreed I needed a larger dose of such childlike faith, yet at the same time, I could not dishonor the pain of suffering people by telling them their faith is somehow defective.

From such souls, I learn that life is not a problem to be solved but a mystery to be lived. Prayer offers no ironclad guarantees, just the certain promise that we need not live that mystery alone."

Everytime, I leave Philip Yancey, I return to find another lovely turn of phrase. I like that last paragraph.

PoP! Goes My Heart

oh 80s cheese, how i adore thee. its slightly scary how they managed to de-age hugh grant. its slightly scarier that the song is insiduously in my head. retro is evil

Ever wondered if guys think exposed bra straps are THAT big a deal?

I must say this is quite a well done website with a pretty interesting survey on what men consider immodest - the questions go into a lot of detail about what men (from various age groups) find difficult to keep their eyes off. The two guys who conducted this survey have really done some impressive homework - questions range from exposure of the small of a back, to pulling off a sweater, to slinging a bag across the chest, wearing glitter lotion etc.

The results are pretty revealing (bad pun) and the comments are candid, funny and some even moving. I learnt a couple of things myself that I would NEVER have thought would feature as a potential stumbling block.

The really nice part about this survey I guess was to know how many men out there cared enough to answer this survey and put their comments out there to guard and encourge women.

It is genuinely moving and sweet to read the encouraging comments left by so many of the men - from 16 to 45 - to let women know they care about inner beauty and genuine modesty and are open and apologetic about the ways in which they discourage women from believing any less about them.

Rabbit Steeple Chase

I had no idea there were rabbit jumping competitions. But my favourite part of this video is the in the 56 sec when this grown man is all serious, puts down his rabbit and shouts a loud "YES!" when his little cutie clears a major leap. priceless. :D

God like Jazz

Just wanted to remember one of my favourite opening lines of a book.

"I never liked jazz music because jazz music doesn’t resolve. But I was outside the Baghdad Theatre one night when I saw a man playing the saxophone. I stood there for fifteen minutes and he never opened his eyes.

After that I liked jazz music.

Sometimes you have to watch somebody love something before you can love it yourself.
It is as if they are showing you the way.

I used to not like God because God didn’t resolve. But that was before any of this happened."

Donald Miller, Blue Like Jazz

I am pretty fond of it because that's how I got lured into this whole God business as well - truthfully, it wasn't the intellectual arguments nor the precious words of some preacher.

I saw people in love with Him. And I fell for Him too.