| Research shows- 91% Singaporeans turn to family in times of need |
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| World Affairs Talk | |
| Friday, 01 June 2007 | |
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Singaporeans know, they can always count on family ties that bind when they are in trouble, which is indeed a healthy trend. But some issues has to be taken into consideration for a safe family bond; besides falling birthrate and rising divorces, another hurdle Singapore faces is the growing number of transnational marriages. They form one third of families in Singapore. Yu-Foo Yee Shoon, Minister of State, Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports, said “We need to teach the children the root so you can go anywhere to study to work or even marry a foreigner, but we still hope they keep Singapore as a root. We still hope that they will rear their children here. "And we still hope that if they have sons they still do national service but at the same time they can travel very freely. We also hope to organise more programmes to encourage the foreign talent and also the newly-wed to integrate into our society". Total population living in Singapore as of December 2006 is about 4.6 million. After two decades of a successful family planning policy, Singapore is now facing the threat of an ageing population with declining birth rates. The government is encouraging Singaporeans to have more children through the provision of financial incentives for the first to fourth child of each family. Singapore is a true multi-religious country and the roots of that can be traced to its strategic location; after its declaration as a port, a wide variety of nationalities and ethnicities from places as far as Arabia immigrated to Singapore. More than 40% of the Singaporeans adhere to Mahayana Buddhism, the main faith of the Chinese population of Singapore. Around 51% Singaporeans practice Buddhism and Taoism. About 15%, mostly Chinese and Indians, practice Christianity. Muslims constitute 16%, of whom Malays account just over 13%. Smaller minorities practise Sikhism, Hinduism, the Baha'i faith, and others while 15% of the population has no religious affiliation. The National Family Week was started in 1985. Since then it has grown to include many different types of activities from exhibitions to workshops to conferences. Just this year there are over 80 of them for families to take part in and learn more about fostering closer family ties. A new jingle dedicated to the family has also been also launched. Singapore government is working hard to increase the family ties within its nationals and so far has succeeded in its efforts. Share & Bookmark             |
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| Last Updated ( Friday, 01 June 2007 ) |
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