SCO201 Alternative Development

Introduction

The policies and the approaches of resilience by the Government of the country and the ministry of national development are significant for addressing the immediate covid-19 crisis in Singapore. the approaches and the norms of the policies involving social distancing and maintenance of hygiene due to the rapid spread of coronavirus are necessary from the perspective of public health in the neighborhoods of Singapore (Amir, 2020). Being the representative of the neighborhood of a small region within Kampong Lorong Buangkok in Singapore, this policy memo is intended to address the challenges as well as the benefits of the community members of the neighborhood following the impact of current government policies and regulations of social distancing measures on the lives of individuals during this covid-19 circuit breaker or temporary lockdown (IN FOCUS: How a year of COVID-19 changed Singapore forever., 2021). The interventions and the approaches of social distancing recommended by the World health organization and the Government of the country are considered to be effective against the epidemic however are potentially detrimental for the entire economy. Singapore as an entire economy has experienced drastic falls with the shutdown of business hampering and tampering with the lives of several individuals residing in the communities of Singapore (Ashraf, 2020). This is because the policies and the approaches adopted by the government and the country minister of national development for enhancing resilience in each and every neighborhood in Singapore are costing the economy and the daily standard of life for many individuals.

Discussion

The area within Kampong Lorong Buangkok neighborhood of Singapore has been struggling with socio-cultural factors like access towards employment opportunities, poverty as well as lack of access to proper medical care. This community within the neighborhood also has low maternal educational levels due to demographic constraints and a high rate of neglect and abuse towards physical and mental illness. The current health demographics of the country States that the first recorded case of covid-19 coronavirus in Singapore was on 23rd January 2020, which was respected to travel from China due to the sudden big outbreak of 68 cases from China during the same time (Kuguyo, Kengne & Dandara, 2020). Apart from the connection with China, Singapore also has the strongest contact with Wuhan having an estimated 3.4 million people traveling frequently and annually between the two locations. The situation points out the greatest potential trait that exists due to the covid-19 outbreak as per the World health organization. Since the first recorded case in Singapore, the average reported case of the country has been around 6126 cases per million which have been higher than the reported case in the United States, Brazil, and Italy as of 2020 June. In line with the increasing rate of covid-19 cases throughout the country, it is suspected that few members from the area within Kampong Lorong Buangkok neighborhood are affected by the coronavirus (Singapore: key challenges to businesses in COVID-19 2020 | Statista., 2021). The symptoms of high fever, tiredness, dry cough followed by diarrhea, sore throats, and conjunctivitis are some of the commonly reported challenges from the family members of the area within Kampong Lorong Buangkok neighborhood in the last few months. However due to the lack of access to proper medication and medical facilities, together with a high rate of poverty and lack of awareness and education, people in this neighborhood not following any of the measures provided by the government, neither listening to any suggestions provided by the representative of the neighborhood regarding the immediate address of the symptoms related to the covid-19 virus.

Analysis

Some of the major highlights from the interview with the community members of the small area within Kampong Lorong Buangkok neighborhood included there is lack of awareness towards the covid-19 outbreak, failure to a stocking up sanitation products and masks, wrong perception of coronavirus been killed by the heat climate of Singapore. The majority of the people residing in the neighborhood revealed that they believe how masks and sanitation protection is important only when a person is very sick and cannot make up to do the daily activities (Fouda et al., 2020). Another significant qualitative data gathered by interviewing the members of the neighborhood included the impact of social distancing and covid-19 policy measures on their economic activity and daily business. The majority of the people in the neighborhood belong from the background and are engaged in small daily business for their living. Many reported being employed as daily wage laborers in work construction sites, tourism, and transportation industry, and beverage and food services which majorly relies on face-to-face communication, before the covid-19 circuit breaker (How big businesses in Singapore are managing the challenges of coronavirus., 2020). They reported how the imposition of social distancing measures in 2020 has snatched away from their employment opportunities and has pushed them to the dungeon of poverty.

The members of the small area of the neighborhood within Kampong Lorong Buangkok community have been facing serious challenges due to the economic crisis and lack of employment and challenges of social distance in measures that are negatively affecting the daily business. As one of the significant international transportation and economic hub, Singapore has always been the first preferred destination for investment, business as well as tourism. However, during this spread of coronavirus, the uniqueness towards interconnecting the international business, human resource as well as capital resource inevitably helped in the spread of this coronavirus covid-19 that not only tested the domestic health system of the majority of the individuals in this community but also affecting their economic standards (Covid-19 Singapore: A ‘pandemic of inequality’ exposed., 2020). The pendency has disrupted the business practices as well as the consumer practices as per the reports and interview data gathered from the community people in Singapore.

Recommendations

The Government of Singapore in collaboration with the World health organization, has been taking steps for ensuring enhancing resilience in each and every neighborhood of Singapore for addressing the immediate covid-19 crisis (Koo et al., 2020). In response to the upcoming plans for enhancing resilience in the neighborhoods of Singapore, as the neighborhood representatives, it is important to highlight the current situation in the small area within Kampong Lorong Buangkok community by explaining how these neighborhoods are faring with the areas of strength and weakness followed by some proposals for supporting the resilience in this community.

Strength of the resilience program and the imposition of the measures related to covid 19 social distancing measures for the people in this neighborhood included very fewer mortality rates, rising harmony among family members and community people, awareness of the importance of education among the members, and expected less spread of the coronavirus. However, the rate of negative impacts for the community people has been on the higher side (Amir, 2020). The sudden outbreak of the virus following the restrictions and the policy approaches by the government like the social distancing has snatched jobs of maximum people in the community who are mostly daily wage earners. These social distancing measures are henceforth imposing a significant cost to the lives of the people. While the majority revealed of being excluded from the income support programs by the government, lack of access due to demographic challenges and rural location of the neighborhood, the challenges experienced are rising every date (COVID-19 impact: Singapore's economy contracts 41.2% on a quarterly basis in April-June., 2020). To the expected implementation of the plan for enhancing resilience by the Ministry, the following are some of the proposals for maintaining continuity of supporting strengths within the neighborhood, while also addressing the challenges and weakness for increasing the resilience of the neighborhood for the emergencies related to future pandemics.  

Very little data are actually available regarding the eligibility or the qualifiers towards government aid. The ministry needs to re-evaluate the norms and consider the socio-economic parameters of the daily wage earners like that of the people in this small area within Kampong Lorong Buangkok community (Mokhtar, 2020).

The ministry needs to conduct a thorough survey of all the neighborhoods in Singapore for proper identification of the people in the challenge during the covid 19 crisis and due to the social distancing measures.

The ministry should also note that the delivery channels often do not reach the most vulnerable people due to the rural demographics (Ashraf, 2020). The people in the small area within Kampong Lorong Buangkok community often complain of not receiving proper government aids and living in poverty, often struggling to meet their ends.

The regulators should collect segmented data on the beneficiaries, which will help them towards better understanding as well as an assessment of the needs related to the informal workers from the small rural area within Kampong Lorong Buangkok neighborhood (Mokhtar, 2020). The policymakers should ensure that the regulators are empowered towards temporary modification as well as adjustment of rules.

Conclusion

The outbreak of covid-19 followed by the strict policies and measures implemented by the government has contributed to social-economic as well as health prices for the neighborhood members. This is because the impact of the social distancing policies, as well as the other measures, are seen among the families of the neighborhood amplifying the pre-existing socio-economic conditions in the neighborhood. Along with the news related to fatalities, the people in the neighborhood have been witnessing disturbing visuals related to discrimination, poverty as well as hunger. majority of the families residing in this neighborhood involve informal workers who engage in home-based work, Street vending and other shorter-term contract which is majorly undocumented. Many people in the neighborhood as reported not being qualified to see Government support due to their undocumented employment status and non-registration with any social protection programs and agencies. The daily wage earners in this neighborhood have been the hardest hit when the Government of Singapore announced the economic shutdown was the response to the covid-19 crisis.

References

Amir, S. (2020). Hidden Vulnerability and Inequality: The Covid-19 Pandemic in Singapore. Retrieved 7 March 2021, from https://items.ssrc.org/covid-19-and-the-social-sciences/disaster-studies/hidden-vulnerability-and-inequality-the-covid-19-pandemic-in-singapore/

Ashraf, B. N. (2020). Economic impact of government interventions during the COVID-19 pandemic: International evidence from financial markets. Journal of behavioral and experimental finance, 27, 100371.

COVID-19 impact: Singapore's economy contracts 41.2% on quarterly basis in April-June. (2020). Retrieved 7 March 2021, from https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/business/covid-19-impact-singapores-economy-contracts-41-2-on-quarterly-basis-in-april-june/articleshow/76960695.cms?from=mdr

Covid-19 Singapore: A ‘pandemic of inequality’ exposed. (2020). Retrieved 7 March 2021, from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-54082861

Fouda, A., Mahmoudi, N., Moy, N., & Paolucci, F. (2020). The COVID-19 pandemic in Greece, Iceland, New Zealand, and Singapore: Health policies and lessons learned. Health policy and technology, 9(4), 510-524.

How big businesses in Singapore are managing the challenges of coronavirus. (2020). Retrieved 7 March 2021, from https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/24/3m-dbs-microsoft-how-big-businesses-in-singapore-manage-covid-19.html

IN FOCUS: How a year of COVID-19 changed Singapore forever. (2021). Retrieved 7 March 2021, from https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/covid-19-pandemic-singapore-one-year-on-coronavirus-14004318

Koo, J. R., Cook, A. R., Park, M., Sun, Y., Sun, H., Lim, J. T., ... & Dickens, B. L. (2020). Interventions to mitigate early spread of SARS-CoV-2 in Singapore: a modelling study. The Lancet Infectious Diseases, 20(6), 678-688.

Kuguyo, O., Kengne, A. P., & Dandara, C. (2020). Singapore COVID-19 pandemic response as a successful model framework for low-resource health care settings in Africa?. OMICS: A Journal of Integrative Biology, 24(8), 470-478.

Mokhtar, I. A. (2020). Project Kampong Lorong Buangkok—Singapore Mainland’s Last Rural Village. International Journal of Social Science and Humanity, 10(3).

Singapore: key challenges to businesses in COVID-19 2020 | Statista. (2021). Retrieved 7 March 2021, from https://www.statista.com/statistics/1200981/singapore-key-challenges-to-business-in-covid-19-pandemic/

We provide unmatched quality assignment writing services for all subjects in your curriculum. The most common subjects we cover include Maths, English, Humanities, Social Sciences, Management and more. Our experts have acquired their respective PhDs in specific disciplines from reputed universities. Tell us the subject you need ghostwriters for. We will assign a suitable ghostwriter accordingly. We are not restricted to writing assignments only. We also provide top-notch proofreading services and essay writing services. The essay writers are well-versed in all types of essays such as persuasive, expository, narrative, argumentative, persuasive, etc. Whether you need math homework help or English homework help, we have the right expert for you.