Question on marriage and SIA?

[forum newbie]

Here is my situation....i am married to a singapore citizen and she hates it here in america. She has been nagging for me to move to singapore but finally i have given in. I am willing to move there and she said that i can get some sort of working visa or permanent residence? I already have my atp and flying regional jets here in the US.

1. DO i apply for the cadet program?

2. I dont have the following requirements since i went to school in the US: Minimum of 5 GCE ‘O’/SPM level credits or its equivalent. These must include English, Mathematics and a Pure Science subject, preferably Physics, taken at one sitting. So if i attended a university in the states, do i still need those gce requirements?

Any help appreciated, and how is life as a pilot in singapore????

[Foreign Worker]

Divorce her.
Singapore is a police state. If she feels happier here than in the US, then it's because she hasn't been able to re-adjust properly.

Singapore is a tiny little island - 30nm X 15nm - with 3 million people jammed in.

Divorce her - and at least have a LIFE. Something most Singaporeans DON'T have.....lah!

[forum newbie]

Thanks for the advise! I was thinking about it but damn thats too expensive. She will take half of everything.....i think in that part she is american:)

[windtalker]

hey man i saw u got some funny advice,

god to know you are american citizen now, do keep it.

i suggest since you fly regionals try ups they are hiring 100 new pilots for expansion.

i feel the same joining as cadet but i believe in the long run it will be better for my career.

let me know when u decide,

cheers.
windtalker:8

[wondering]

@ forum newbie,

do some in depth research about S`pore. A lot has been said here the last couple of years. Check out the posts of Gladiator and Freeman.

As Foreign worker said quite rightly S´pore is a police state.

Here is an article from the Washington Post. As far as I know the Post got sued for it and paid the penalty:

The Washington Post
Singapore is a dressed-up dictatorship
When Alex deTocqeville wanted to look into new forms of governance, he travelled West to the new worlds and spent nine months studying America. With the same idea in mind, but not supposing that these days to find the new world one travels East, I went to teach for a year in Singapore.
I especially wanted to look into what Singaporean officials tout as a new, unique blend of Confucianism and capitalism, an Asian-style of governance that corrects what they call the West’s excessive emphasis on the rights of the individual.
Singapore’s government, the argument goes, focuses on the needs of the community and so spares its country the ills of the West while it promotes prosperity and general happiness. This new form of governance they call “authoritarian democracy”.
Since that country is a good deal smaller than the United States (three million people in a little over twice the area of Washington), I got to see it very thoroughly over the course of a year. At the outset, the country didn’t seem strange. Singapore is a modern, Westernized, consumerist society. The cultural overlap between Singapore and Tyson’s Corner must be at least 80 per cent.
Nor was the famous skyline hard to get used to: “Like Rosslyn on steroids,” a DC friend remarked. The longer I stayed, however, the more peculiar Singapore became.
There was a grim air about the university. On the chairman’s desk, propped up on a little easel and aimed to catch your eye as you sat in the visitor’s chair, was a small sign that read, “An ounce of loyalty is worth more than a pound of cleverness.”
Though I came from a military academy and was not likely to be a radical, the Singaporean authorities demanded that I be interviewed for political reliability by their ambassador in Washington. I was directed to furnish copies of everything I had published and was required to have a phone interview with the acting chair of the department before I finally was pronounced acceptable. Even so, I was in the country for almost 10 weeks before I was permitted to teach a class.
It took months to piece together what I was seeing in Singapore. Why did the chairman of my department bring two agents from the Internal Security department to the office of one of my colleagues and watch while they questioned him for 90 minutes and stripped his office of papers, records and computer files?
Why did the newspapers brag of the Government’s ability “to take a firm hand with irresponsible journalists”? Why was I visited after 10 pm by two policemen who demanded that I empty the water out of the saucer underneath a potted plant on my balcony (a threat to public health, they explaned) and which of my neighbours had called them to turn me in?
It took the entire year to appreciate fully the achievement of Mr Lee Kuan Yew, the man who ruled Singapore as Prime Minister from 1959 to 1990 and is still its dominant political figure in his role as elder statesman. Slowly his astonishing array of social controls became clear and the character of “authoritarian democracy” became obvious. I found that no organization on the Island has been left unpenetrated by his People’s Action party. His control of that compact and technologically sophisticated country is more total than any other national leader has ever achieved. Mr Lee has created the most perfectly realised autocracy anywhere, the world’s state-of-the-art dictatorship.
The press, the police and military as well as the electoral, legal, housing, education, trade union and employment systems are all entirely under his control, so dissent, even at the polls (where voting is compulsory and ballots are serially numbered) is quixotic. Total government control of a very successful economy permits the regime to scatter largesse, so compliance is richly rewarded.
Mr Lee has woven a web of rewards and punishments around every aspect of life in Singapore. Nine out of 10 Singaporeans live in housing on 99-year lease from the government. Their leases can be terminated on a pretext. In other words, their apartment, which typically represents most of their savings, can be seized.
On the other hand, if they behave well they get to live cheaply in safe, subsidised, spartan housing in a society where other real estate has been bid to well above Washington levels. If they do not behave, the consequences are dire. If, for example, a young woman engages in what the Government sees as morally inappropriate behaviour, such as having a child outside of marriage, she may be reported by the monitors in every housing block and expelled.
Singaporeans pensions are also held hostage: between 30 and 40 per cent of most people’s income is taxed away into a “Central provident Fund” and held by the Government. Those who behave get a sterling reward: Their compulsory contribution is matched one-for-one by the Government. On the other hand, they live in fear that their retirement will be expropriated. My colleague Christopher Lingle, the American academic referred to above who angered the authorities by publishing a piece in the International Herald tribune mocking singaporean propaganda, lost about $20,000, all his savings in Singapore, in this way.
The education systen is similarly rigged to provide huge incentives for compliance and lifelong punishments for deviance. Students must be certified politically reliable by their high schools or junior colleges before they attend a university. Males undergo two or more years compulsory military training before college; some among them are recruited by the Internal Security Department and directed to report on their classmates. Refusing such recruitment, I was told, is not an option.
In sum, civil society has been dismantled; the judiciary is utterly compliant and the legal profession has been reduced to a largely technical function. Complaints may be submitted to the official “Government Feedback Unit”.
Legal protections of such basic rights as habeas corpus have been abriged and trial by jury has been abolished. Paradoxically, Singaporeans were much freer under the british than they are today under Mr Lee Kuan Yew: Their civil liberties had much fuller legal protection when they were colonials.
When one district in the city had the temerity to elect to parliament a candidate from the tiny, feeble opposition party, the government launced a barrage of allegations, investigations and legal proceedings against him that lasted eight years, imprisoned him and left him ruined. When the victim took his case to the Queen’s Privy Council in Britain, they found he had been “fined, imprisoned and publicly disgraced for offences of which he was not guilty.” One year later, Parliament asbolished appeals to the privy Council for disciplinary matters.
Mr Lee also warned the dissenters that “the Government will not be blackmailed by the people…To make sure the excesses (votes against his party) are not carried too far…it is necessary to put some safeguards in the way in which people use their votes to bargain, to coerce, to push, to jostle and get what they want without running the risk of losing the services of the Government.”
Nonetheless, Mr Lee’s party intervenes to keep that opposition party alive, alternately mocking, intimidating and infiltrating it, then appointing a handful of its candidates to the Parliament, in order to sustain the fiction that genuine politics are possible in singapore.
The striving for control takes laughable turns. Last year high school debating teams were imported from several countries to demonstrate Singapore’s openness, but someone failed to apply in time for the permit that must be granted by the Internal Security Departement for any formal gathering. No exception could be made: The foreign students had to sit silent and watch the locals debate each other.
At other times, the control grows ugly. The leading creative writer of Singapore, Catherine Lim, was attacked and repeatedly humiliated on the front page of the straits Times by Mr Lee himself after she made a cautious plea to the People’s Action Party to soften its style or risk creating an :effective divide” between itself and the people.
Mr Lee used the occasion to establish a new limit on political expression, describing how he would confront those who questioned him. “I would isolate the leaders, the troublemakers, get them exposed, cut them down to size, ridicule them, so that everybody understands that its’ not such a clever thing to do. Governing does not mean just being pleasant. If you want pleasant result, just as with children, you cannot just be pleasant and nice.”
Such language was printed with approval in all the papers of Singapore. Editorialists professed to find his statements “reassuring”.
But Mr Lee went further in his intimidation of Ms Lim: “Have a one-on-one. I’ll meet you. You will not write an article – and that’s it. One-to-one on TV. You make your point and I’ll refute you…Or if you like, take a sharp knife, metaphorically, and I’ll take a sharp knife of similar size; let’s meet. Once this is understood, it’s amazing how reasonable the argument can become…”
In this, as in all arguments in singapore, Mr Lee has the last word. Outside Singapore, however, it is still possible to point out that under his rule “authoritarian democracy” has come to mean totalitarian control. What he touts as Singapore’s political innovation is in fact merely a sophisticated refinement of this century’s political invention: the totalitarian state.

[422]

Dear Newbie,

You are most welcome to JOIN SQ, but beware of the

veiled 'goodies', for reality lies torture .

What the heck, the reason you're joining SQ is because

you've got nowhere else to go.

Just remember, there is no such thing as

1) contract

2) Better Working condition

3) Comparable wages

:ok:

[JapJok]

I`m with the guy who said divorce her. It`ll be cheaper in the long run.

Singapore is great for a short holiday, but to live there...?????

[forum newbie]

thanks for all the replies. Its amazing that the overall census is to divorce her.

Thanks for the advise everyone and windtalker, i will apply to ups as soon as i meet their mins.

[yourarm]

Yes we might be a police state or if ur a political analyst you might know Singapore as a pseudo democracy but whatever it is we still have an effective government which is stern in some of its ideas but fair otherwise. We dont let out citizens die during times of need. If you want to make comparisons....first of all what happened in New Orleans? Secondly if your country cant look after your own people...what are they doing in other peoples countries? Have you ever visited Singapore to make comments like that? And if u have visited my country, you would know that its a much safer nation then many others. Yes we may have 3 million people "packed" together but majority of us are doing well. Look at your own countries before you speak about others. Whatever it is, here in Singapore we live in a multicultural society where the majority of us learn and tolerate and mingle with people of all races and cultures. So before you criticize my country, take a good look at your country and its mistakes before making comments about other people's countries.

[fhchiang]

why do you still want to go for the CAdet Scheme if u already have your ATP and plenty of Hours under your name?

seriously though, moving to singapore is one thing, But working in singapore is another........ have u secured a job yet?

if i remember correctly,


SIA needs 777 drivers,

and Silkair needs A320 drivers......


don't flame me though, i'm just a wannabe... giving my comments as i'm living in the neighbouring country of Singapore..

[Foreign Worker]

Hey yourarm, is that the same Singapore that imports slave labor from Indonesia, Sri Lanka, the Philipines, and Indonesia, and pays them (if they're lucky) about SGD300 - 400 (USD177 - 237) per month?
Generously let's them have 2 days free of duty in 1 month?
Allows their private employers to lock them up of a night?
Sees these slaves regularly beaten, and even KILLED, as was the case a couple of days back with a Philipino house slave!

Whatever it is, here in Singapore we live in a multicultural society where the majority of us learn and tolerate and mingle with people of all races and cultures.

Singapore, the country that promotes slavery!

[yourarm]

Dear Foreign Worker,
Do you work in Singapore as a foreign worker to know how much they get paid? Yes i do agree some of these foreign workers do not get paid as much as normal people but thats because of a few factors. Firstly, education. They dont mind getting paid that much because their own countries cant afford to pay them as much as Singapore can and that is why they decide to work in Singapore. Next about them getting beaten up, Every country has some incidence of people getting beaten up? And on the subject of the filipino domestic worker that got killed, it was her fellow country woman who killed her not a singaporean. So please get your facts right before commenting about my country. Thank you.

[Foreign Worker]

And there are many Singaporeans who are paid less in Singapore than in other countries, for the equivalent work.
If those Singaporeans move to the wealthier countries, should they be paid (much) less than the native inhabitants, because they are a "lesser" people?

Other civilised, developed countries do NOT indulge in the slave trade, and exploitation of foreign workers, like Singapore does.

Next about them getting beaten up, Every country has some incidence of people getting beaten up?
Oh, well that's okay then - other countries have it, so Singapore should be allowed its share as well :ok: :(

it was her fellow country woman who killed her not a singaporean.
That is not PROVEN, it is only conjecture, and one of the many theories at this stage.
House slaves have been killed by their Singaporean employers on several occasions in the past.
One of the more infamous beatings was by a Singaporean Chinese of her house slave - she beat her with an IRON (the sort you iron your clothes with).

[herz22]

Foreign Worker,

Since we are on the topic of domestic "slaves", Singapore is not the only country that employs them to work at home. Have you ever read articules about foreign domestic "slaves" been abused in other countries.

Let us be fair, not ALL Singaporeans are evil. Yes, we may live in a society that raises a few eyebrows for our foreign workers who come here to work. After a few years working and living here, most of them enjoy the security and some have called it home.

Miserable pay? Do you how much is that in Rupiah or Pesos? That is more than what they make in 3 months for some if they work in their own country. FYI, a security guard in Indonesia takes home about SGD$120 a month.

SQ do hire foreign workers too and that is our SIA girl. The Indonesians hired are based on local terms, do they take back lesser than a Singaporean crew (No!)?

Do you agree that the phrase "Do not bite the hand that feeds you". So if you are working in Singapore, please be fair with your comments because for some this is a place they call home.

[Foreign Worker]

Plain and simple, the Singapore government condones the exploitation of people from poorer countries by paying them LESS than a Singaporean doing the SAME work.
That is discrimination.
The fact that they are receiving more than they would, if they were working in their own country is irrelevant.
Using that line of reasoning, Singaporeans working in say Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka, and so forth should also receive only the same as the local workers.

But it's more than money, it's the slavelike working conditions - the 15, 18, and 20 hour days, for EVERY day of the month except 2 - that these unfortunates are FORCED to work, to glean their pittance.

Now shut up, or you'll be flogged with the iron!

[freaktrimmer]

you sporeans dont get it, do u !
"Do you how much is that in Rupiah or Pesos? That is more than what they make in 3 months for some if they work in their own country"

- yup, it wud be great money back in their homeland, but they have to live in ur singapore, which takes up a lotta $$ as well.
so lighten up

[yourarm]

Freaktrimmer and foreign worker,
why dont u guys or ladies tell me which country you are from and Ill tell you what the problems are with your country. If you are think that you live in a perfect country let me know cause not every country is perfect and Ill be delighted to tell you what are the flaws of your country...shall we do that then...?

[I love to Cum Kuat]

I'm with the DIVORCE her advice. Stop thinking about what you might lose. Think about what you might GAIN!!

If you move to Singapore in trying to please her and not yourself, you will lose it all, your present job there in Free and Weird America, your own personal happiness and satisfaction, your friends and the unhappiness of living in Singapore,...which means you will not only lose it all but actually be in the negative!!!! Besides, what is the logic of thinking you have the 100% but your life is hell?? The actual fact is how you perceive ownership. It has to be in the heart too, ie; peace of mind, that's truly yours.

If you divorce her now, you will gain back your half, have all of yourself, your job, your friends, your family, your environment, your free country and the ability to start again, more wisely this time. You gotta take time where girls are concerned. Take time to know yourself, (it may take a lot of years), before you can share that with someone whom you are going to PAY for eventually and nag you that the world has to be fair to her..but will not pay!(equal rights BS).

Singapore is a wonderful, wonderful place to visit. Very sterile, great eateries, night clubs, hotels, shopping...now, what else?? But to live there forever....you'd be selling your soul.

In work environment, the locals can be very hostile to foreigners, and really there is only one very major airline to work for, and we all know how it is. Search "Singapore Airlines" ..

Hey she made the move there to "catch" you and now she's playing the unhappy, controlling wife game. Tough luck man. Maybe she knows that she has got you by the bouls, that is why she is pushing the issue. You're at a cross road now and I dont envy you. Talk to your family and friends and get some proper advice, even from a shrink. $300 is cheap in the long run!!!

All the best, newbie!

[CAT IIIB]

Dear yourarm,
I'm not one of those guys who want to start a debate with you.I just want to know what is your comment about Malaysia?

forum newbie,
A lot of people dream to be an American citizen.Why would you want to throw it away?If you move to Singapore and still your marriage doesn't work out well and you end up divorced anyway,where does that leave you?I may sound conventional but don't you think that a wife should be beside the husband through thick and thin,no matter where?

Okay,on the other note;
A husband wants to pursue his career in the middle east but the wife hates the idea.She prefers home(Malaysia).Now,do you fullfill your career aspirations or do you please your wife(although the deal back home sucks and there's no future)?
What do you guys think?Any opinion is duly appreciated.

[Foreign Worker]

Divorce the wife.
Let`s face it - your first true, and ever enduring love has always been flying.

My country, yourarm?
Vanuatu.

It's about time the Singapore gov't started treating the people for whom they are responsible, responsibly.
Singaporean adults need to start to act like grown-ups, instead of spolit children who can't look after their own houses, cbd's, or kids.

It might sound good to say that you're paying them a lot more than they could get back in their own country, but the reality is they are being EXPLOITED by you, in Singapore, by not paying them at least the minimum local wage.

[Dani]

Of course SIN and USA have a very different culture, but it's not true that you cannot live here! Specially if you are joining SIA. You must have spent a few holidays here so you have found out how it is here.
On the other hand if you get hired by SIA and a 777 TR, the world is yours, if you should not love it you still could go back in a few years.

Of course there are a few limitations here but also US folks do not live in paradise. You must know for yourself what is best for you, and you can easily find out.

[herz22]

I wonder if there is so much hate about living here in Singapore, why are you still here??

You took the time and effort and pay your trip here to work or maybe holiday and now you are spitting at the policies here?

I ever come across a maid with a mobile phone and a brand wallet chatting away on her mobile while buying bread at 7-11. Ill-treated??

You know why you may say $300 is not enough, because you are not paid $300 a month. I do know Singaporeans are paid $50 a week and they are also trying to make ends meet (They have to pay electrical/water bills and rental too).

Stop the agruments, we have a person here who needs advise not about Singapore or his marriage.

You are not helping him! :*

[Foreign Worker]

How DARE that "maid" be allowed to have a mobile phone!
After all, mobile phone is a status symbol in Singers :=
She should be lucky to have 10 cents to use the public phone! And even then she must be cheating her employer by daring to call her friends when she was sent out just to buy some fish and some rice!
She needs a good flogging!
I wonder if there is so much hate about living here in Singapore, why are you still here??Chilly crab and drunken prawn soooo cheep - and Singapore Girl so...so...kiasu, lah ;)

[yourarm]

Hi there cat,
Malaysia....what can i say about malaysia...Its a beautiful country. Just came back from a holiday there. Most of my relatives are staying in malaysia and whenever i can I go up to wind down from the hectic singapore schedule. Food is excellent, people are friendly. But one thing i do realise is that malaysia is not as cheap as Singapore as some people might have expected. Pricing for commodities are equally as much as stuff you would get in Singapore. In terms of electronic items, Singapore is slightly cheaper than malaysia. But like I said before...I reckon you get better food in malaysia then in singapore.

Foreign worker, Vanuatu is a beatiful place. No qualms about it... Been living in Brisbane for 4 years and made 3 trips up to Vanuatu and I just love the beaches and the easy going attitude the people down under have.

[fedups01]

looks like foreign worker is just a sore loser! Maybe he tried to get into sq but couldn't.

[4PW's]

You're an idiot Foreign Worker.

Take a day off.

To the gentleman who made the innocent inquiry, by all means, come to Singapore.

I can say from first hand experience that the people are welcoming, the atmosphere is friendly, the workplace clean and the quality of life high.

If it doesn't work out, at least you would have given it a go. Just don't be put off by life's disillusioned and bitter people.

[Foreign Worker]

You picked me in 1 4PW's.
What sort of intelligent person would expect that those (darker) brown skinned uneducated peasants from those third world countries should be deserving of equal treatment in "atmosphere friendly, clean, quality of life" Singapore?

The serialised ballot papers, the race categorisation found on job applications -
No 1 - Chinese
No 2 - Malay
No 3 - Indian
No 4 - other
all indicate a well balanced equalitarian State of Utopia.

[Gypsy]

Foreign Worker - you need to take a 'chill' pill. If you are indeed an American then your time would be better spent taking an inward look at your own country.

I've spent a lot of time in Singapore and if you can be a grown up and get your head around the fact that all countries are different and have their good and bad points then Singapore is okay.

For the guy who asked the original question - its a tough one and I guess it comes down to 'do you want to work in Singapore?'. I wouldn't recommend taking a major career move just because you're being brow beaten into it but if its something that you're interested in yourself then why not give it a go.

[freightmover]

Foreign Worker have u tried going back home to get a job ?

[Arkdriver]

Foreign Worker, you are brilliant. Your ability to stir up so much **** is quite remarkable indeed. you obviously come from a much enlightened society with perfect scruples. If only we could all be like you...

You are entitled to an opinion, but inflammatory comments do nothing positive.

It's simple, you don't like the place, you think it's a police state, but you know what, last i checked, you're still free to buy a ticket home... preferably one way

Now forum newbie, working for any company, in any industry, has its own peculiarities. if you think you can stomach it, then by all means go for it. There are negatives, i can tell you, but you won't hear me bitch about it because I feel that one should have their eyes open when they get into this. There are also lots of positives, and in the end, it is up to you to balance it and see what you want.

The issues with your wife are something that you two need to work out for yourselves i guess.

[guybrush]

Hey all!

Although I haven't been to Singapore (or the Far East for that matter), I agree with those who say that you should give it a try, but do not committ yourself until you're sure that Singapore is the place you want to work in. Also, I don't think it's funny to tell the guy to divorce.

I'm actually surprised that no one refuted the Washington Post article. Personally I don't think its true...but then again I am an idealistic man:hmm:. Perhaps Singaporeans and foreigners in Singapore would like to comment on the article. We already heard Foreign Worker's point of view, how do others feel?

Cheers,
guybrush

[mgcastrol]

I have been scheduled an interview with SIA Cargo F O on B-747 -400 , I actually Fly A-320 does anyone know how they handle their schedule .

[Arkdriver]

Hey Guybrush,

Speaking for myself, I'd say that all news articles may carry an element of truth, but you'd be hard pressed to convince me the believe everything in the paper or on TV. How would you react to an article that painted an extremely objective view of a situation, laying only facts down, and one that was full of superlatives and used what information it had for sensationalism?

Reporters gotta eat too i guess, and if the "news" doesn't sell, reporters don't eat... i'm not saying that it isn't a credible paper, but I do think that particular article is extremely skewed.

[HectorXVIII]

Hoi foreign worker,
What the:mad: are you talking about? Divorce the wife. How can you tell someone who's sincere to divorce or were you told to divorce? Minimum wage? Slavery?
No one force nobody to work. Have you ever heard of a foreigner been threatened to join a certain employer in Singapore? Yes, sometimes the terms of employment might be ****ty, but hey, if someone's willing, someone's hiring. So, take a chill pill and relax, Btw, who started slavery?:=

[BlueEagle]

The Portuguese Hector. Rival African tribes fought each other, those captured were sold to the Arabs who sold them on to the nations that had ships to carry them. Portugal was the front runner, to Brazil, the British carried 90% less than the Portuguese across the Atlantic.

[Ejector]

Go to Mexico and get Divorced there.


:ok:

[ruykava]

i don't know if this is still relevant, but i can say that, as a NORMAL person, singapore will not feel like a police state at all.

do you know that across the causeway, the workers get less than RM400 a month? that's less than $200! but it's still more than what they could earn if they stayed on in their countries.

and singapore doesn't have a minimum wage. it's not that the minimum wage doesn't apply to those foreign workers. anyway, the workers don't spend anything while in singapore - they live for free; eat for free; sleep for free. what do you mean their expenses are higher??

and now for the article: i did apply to singapore's national university, and i can assure you i wasn't asked any political questions. but it's true that overly political academics aren't welcome. that's fine by me: overly political islamic preachers aren't allowed to the USA as well!

as for policemen coming around asking you to empty still water: it IS a health threat in singapore, because deadly mosquito larvae breed in such places - it doesn't happen in western countries but it is very relevant (and serious) there. can't say much about the rest of the article as i'm not singaporean.

anyway, as a professional in a non-political field, i believe you'll enjoy singapore except for two things: it's too small (can be solved by taking weekend trips up to malaysia), and cars are f**king expensive (public transportation is unbelievably good, but if you're going out of singapore you're stranded).

i'm not singaporean but i've lived there for 5 years (now in the UK) and despite some peculiarities (more amusing than anything) i can honestly say i enjoyed it greatly. the people are great, food isn't as good as malaysia but it's alright, and it's actually (despite the image) quite a cheap place to stay. given the chance, i'd get out of the UK and go to singapore ANYDAY (not flaming the UK here, but singapore, with its conveniences and modernity, just suits me better).

[BANANASBANANAS]

I have to agree with the above post. I am a Brit expat who has lived in SE Asia for 10 years and Singapore for the last few months.

So far I have been met with nothing other than courtesy and kindness and am thoroughly enjoying my Singapore experience. Its really as expensive or cheap as you wish it to be. Last weekend we blew over $300 on a very nice meal for 2 at Clark Quay with a nice bottle of wine.

The next night we ate at a local hawker stall for a total of $10.00 and very nice it was too!

Nowhere is perfect and you can find fault with anywhere if that is your nature.

As for UK? Well, I get no pleasure from saying it but cold weather, warm beer, high taxation, inefficient government (of any political colour) and the high cost of living will not attract me back anytime soon.

[serangga]

Hi Foreign Newbie,

If you're interested in getting a flying job in Singapore, just put in an application. There is no guarantee that you will get in. The GCSE requirements can be waived if you have jet time.

As for the pay, well, it is not really the best in the world. There are some other outfits that pay more but since you are interested in coming to Singapore that is really a moot point.

As for some people out there asking you to divorce your wife, and stay in the US, well, that too is an option albiet an EXPENSIVE ONE no matter which country you file that in!

Singapore is a bit of police state but if you don't harbour any criminal intent, what should you have to worry about? Policital freedom? Who cares. I am a foreign worker here in SQ too, and I am comforted that I don't have to vote for any of those clowns out there.

In your flying career (here in Singapore or anywhere else) you will come across some chaps that are a joy to work with and some idiots who you would like to avoid like the plague. There are both types in SQ (foreign and locals alike).

So just chill. Apply if you want it. At least you know that the airline you work for is not going to go belly up anytime soon. And if you think the long term prospects are not too good, then move on BUT WITH A HEAVY JET RATING IN HAND!

But submit your application BEFORE you move from the US.

Cheers