Campaigning you to the altar (and the maternity ward).

From Yahoo! Singapore News:

Singapore woos singles in another dating campaign

SINGAPORE (AFP) – – Singapore is launching yet another campaign to promote dating among its notoriously love-shy singles as the city-state grapples with low birth and marriage rates, reports said Thursday.

The Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS) issued a tender this month through the government’s official procurement website calling for proposals on how to encourage singles to date.

“This tender is called to engage a communications agency to conceptualise, plan and implement a public communications campaign to promote dating,” said a notice monitored on the government’s online procurement website GeBIZ.

No details of the tender were given on the website, but the Straits Times said the winning bidder will produce a television commercial to promote dating and draw up a “unique dating concept” to get singles to interact.

Targeted at people aged 20 to 35 who do not date, the initiative is the latest effort by the government to act as matchmaker for its loveless singles population.

It comes amid falling marriage and fertility rates in the tiny but affluent island-state with a population of about five million, more than one million of whom are foreigners.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in February urged citizens to ignore superstitions about the Chinese zodiac and make more babies during the Year of the Tiger in order to reverse falling birth rates.

He said Singapore’s fertility rate had dipped to its lowest level ever at 1.23 babies per woman in 2009, down from 1.28 in 2008. This is well below the 2.1 replacement rate needed for a stable population.

The marriage rate hit 6.6 marriages per 1,000 residents in 2009, down from 7.8 in 1999, the Straits Times said, citing government statistics.

Initial reaction to the government’s latest campaign at playing Cupid was cool.

“I think it’s a bit silly,” Koh Hoon Kiat, 25, a university graduate who is single, told AFP.

Asked if the television commercial will prompt him to find a dating partner, he said: “I can say that it’s unlikely to do so… I’m not at a very desperate stage yet.”

Previous government attempts to heat up romance and encourage couples to make more babies have so far failed to reverse the falling birth rates.

From Singapore Love Links

I think one day I am going to wake up and find out that my government has put my profile up on eHarmony. Or rather, Singapore Love Links.

And so yet another joins Singapore’s already more-than-impressive list of campaigns. This, again, will probably be another example of what I talked about in my entry ‘Got problem? Make video lah!‘: making a campaign video that would subtly (or not-so-subtly) indicate that the problems of low marriage and fertility rates are completely the fault of Singaporeans, without any close examination of what really needs to change at policy level to help fix things.

Since it’s still just a tender right now, we don’t know what the video is going to be like, or what measures are going to be implemented to encourage singles to interact and date. However, I have my doubts as to how useful it will be.

“People aged 20 to 35 who do not date…” Yup, that’ll be me.

And, like Mr Koh in the article, I doubt that a TV commercial would make me feel more likely to date. In fact, depending on their casting choices, it might make me less likely to date, because the regular men will probably not be as “hamsum” as the smooth-skinned, perfectly-coiffed actor they will pick for the role. It’s the same logic as how watching romantic comedies have probably ruined me when it comes to a Real Life Romance. Unfortunately for all of us, there is only one James McAvoy, and he is already married.

But superficiality aside, there are plenty more reasons why this campaign would probably not work for me – and I suspect, many others in the target demographic.

1. No time

I don’t even have time for friends, much less boyfriends. Granted, that is because I chose to have a crazy-ass job that makes it incredibly difficult to make plans with anyone (including the family members I actually live with), but I believe the same applies for many others my age (and beyond). It’s all part of the “cheaper, better, faster” philosophy. Or the “better, betterer, betterest” philosophy. Even though they are telling us to work “smarter” instead of “longer”, we’re all still working longer. After all, who dares to be the first to say, “This is it, I’m not working any more today!” and just leave?

I remember overhearing a conversation between three working women at lunch years ago. One of the women was telling her friends how she hadn’t taken leave for a very long time. “But I don’t dare take my leave,” she said. “I’m afraid that when I’m away, they will realise that I’m dispensable, and then they won’t renew my contract. So I just work and work.”

Granted, this really was quite a long time ago, but from what I’ve noticed worries about job security seem to have intensified instead of being appeased. If people don’t even dare to take time off for their own R&R, how are they expected to even think about dating, getting married and having children?

2. No job security

It’s getting harder and harder to get any steady, long-term employment. Gone are the days where you join a company upon graduation and stick with it till you retire. Contracts are often reviewed and renewed yearly, with no assurance that you will actually get to keep your job beyond the year.

Financial stability is a worry, but this might be tolerable for young singles like myself, especially if we get to keep our salaries and not have to use it to support other family members. It might even be all right for a young couple. But once you start talking about getting married and starting a family with all it entails – buying a marital home, furnishings, medical bills, pediatricians, baby clothes, school fees, etc. etc. – would it be enough? Who, earning a fairly entry level salary with no promise of a raise or even job security, would dare to even think about such things?

3. No house

From TheOnlineCitizen, drawn by Joshua Chiang

We all know now that the price of property is sky-rocketing. More and more Singaporeans are unable to afford government housing (which would kind of defeat the purpose of government housing in the first place, but that’s an argument for another day). And if Singaporeans cannot even be sure of being able to provide their children with a roof over their heads, how are they expected to even want to have children at all?

Sure, we can all live with our parents, but is it really reasonable to expect newly married couples, or couples wanting to start a family, to be squeezed in a home with their parents?

These are just 3 big reasons why young, single people might not be dating. It’s certainly true for me. At the rate I’m going, I’m not sure that I will ever get married or have kids. And I definitely don’t think a campaign video is going to be able to make me change my mind, when the issue in question is such a huge, life-changing one.