8/01/2010

The Cocks are crowing

With the high ridership in public transport system, particularly the trains, all kinds of brilliant and silly ideas are being churned out. There are actually no brilliant ideas at all but mostly silly ones. They are as silly as those offered and implemented to reduce road congestions. All ends up with the motorists paying more for being caught in slow traffic and jams. The silly ideas being bounced around will do the same thing. They will increase fares without improving the situation. The problem must be addressed first if we are to solve the overcrowding in trains. The problem is simply too many commuters and too few trains, like too many cars and too few roads. Some of the ideas like employing staff to shove commuters into trains were happily suggested as if it is a fashionable and acceptable thing because the Japanese are doing it. It is obnoxious to shove people around like animals into a cage. Never learn or do silly things just because a developed country is doing it. Think first, on what is good, reasonable and desirable in a first class transport system. Don't copy blindly. Another silly idea is to charge more for peak hours like ERPs. Another stupid idea of course. Most of the commuters are not rich and have to arrive at their places of work on time. Stop thinking of fleecing the poor commuters on an inefficient or inadequate system. The overcrowding is a simple manifestation that the train system is unable to cope with the increase ridership. You need more trains running or more lines. On the contrary you need to bring down ridership. The latter is no go as the public are encouraged to take public transport and give up their cars. Wait till another 100,000 foreign workers join the crowd. The signs of over capacity are there for all to see. The island is overcrowded and the infrastructure is straining. The flooding is another sign that there is just so much space left and further development or demands on space will lead to system breakdown. Say again, 6.5 million or 10 million population is our target? We need more people to ensure economic growth? It is time to stop adding more sardines into the tiny can.

17 comments:

Wally Buffet said...

These transport and housing woes are symptoms of bad population planning. It is as if the flood gates to immigration were suddenly opened on a whim to allow the deluge and we, the Singaporeans gets inundated in the flood (pun intended).

Hare brain suggestions reveal the kind of brains spewing it. The one that takes the cake is the suggestion to up the fares at peak hours, as if the current one is already a concession. WTF.

Packing more sardines into the tiny can? Hehe, at the rate they are going, I think it's more like packing more Integrated circuits into a wafer chip.

Sinkies are having problems with transport and housing because there are just too many aliens around.

I walk into a toiletries store and almost every employee is a Pinoy.

I walk into a restaurant and almost every employee is a PRC.

I take my zhi char at a coffee shop and almost every employee is a PRC.

What happened to the rule that a business must employ some Singaporeans for every foreigner?

Or is there a scamming system where the Singaporean employees are merely phantoms.

Anonymous said...

Hahahaa..aaa..aa..a getting choked

Did You hear Singaporeans saying those foreigners holding executive positions brought in not just their families? They were said to bring in their villagers to fill up the vacancies in the companies they manage.

"What happened to the rule that a business must employ some Singaporeans for every foreigner?". Unquote.
Ya, what happened? Too many Rules and Laws but no one to enforce? So many minted citizens, got to give them means to survive and prosper over citizens? No pun needed my fren, Singaporeans are not only inundated, we are drowning
in floods made by conscienceless leaders!

Lately, the real floods have been and being giving hopes and wishes to believers and non believers alike that only Nature can effect a change to SIN. Almost all are unanimous that there is absolutely nothing can be done to change the political landscape except by mercy of Nature.

While many reminiesces those were the days, there are more thinking the end is near. Singaporeans are not only NOT AFRAID of the end, they seem eagerly praying waiting for the end to happen. Utter despair and at wits end

What's happening? Me wonders.

patriot

Wally Buffet said...

Go to any NTUC fairprice supermarkets and you will see young PRCs with half a village of old folks past their prime tagging along. No wonder they say there are no beds in our public hospitals!

I have even seen handicapped old dependants being pushed around on a wheelchair by their PRC children. Now that is a real strain on our health resources not to mention housing and transport. How the f@#k did the ICA allow so many dependants to follow really boggles my imagination!

My Sunday is really spoilt by just thinking about it although by nature I am as Patriot puts it, "happy go lucky" Wally.

Hehe.

Wally Buffet said...

Oh, by the way, all the good time girls I know have some kind of relatives as a PR or a citizen of this sardine can.

It is almost as if our ICA is standing at a street corner somewhere in China and India giving away PRs and citizenship. Buy one free Five!

Hehe.

Anonymous said...

Hey, the 3 old fools are badly perturbed.

Anonymous said...

The problem is that employers are exploiting the rules of employing foreign workers.

What they have to do is to rope in their parents, siblings, cousins, uncles, aunties and other relatives as employees to make up the numbers, in order to employ foreigners. All they have to do is contribute CPF for them, while the relatives just lend their names and while holding down other jobs.

That is why you never ever see locals helping full time in restaurants, zhi char stalls etc. But the foreigners are legitimately employed via the back door formula. This is an open secret, or not even a secret at all. The only thing is the authorities are doing nothing about it.

Ⓜatilah $ingapura⚠️ said...

The best part of the MRT system is that recently the likelihood of catastrophic structural collapse has been increased due to the consistent flooding on the surface.

Water logged soil is not good for underground structures. Neither is several million tonnes of water on the surface periodically placing additional stress on the structures below i.e. your precious MRT.

Now there are increased numbers of commuters underground.

Fucking hell, I wonder if god is going to take the opportunity and created some amusement for himself...if so, I'm all for heavenly entertainment and divine comedy.

Wally Buffet said...

These days with so much activity going on underground, pioneered by the MRT with their shopping malls, the day is not far off when a sizeable portion of Singapore's targeted 8 to 10 million people will be living in HDB apartments UNDERGROUND.

Fortunately, not within my lifetime.

The floods occuring recently may have put a dampener on their planning but be assured that the blue print is still on the table. Hehe.

Think about it. How do you accomodate 8 to 10 million people in a country, 1/10 the size of greater Shanghai? You burrow deep into the ground of course!

Matilah, you may have your day of "entertainment" yet.

Chua Chin Leng aka redbean said...

It is so easy to talk about 8m or 10m population. Don't forget that they need housing. And when houses are built, you can't build them without building toilets and sewerage systems, just like you can't have so many people without a good transportation system, road networks and also canals to drain off the floods.

Anonymous said...

Wow, dear Wally forecasting that Singaporeans will become Rats soon burrowing to make homes.

Me agrees with your foresight, likes to warn Singaporeans that it will be almost impossible to 'waterproof' the burrows. Sinkapore will sink for sure literally or otherwise.

patriot

Wally Buffet said...

Singapore will then be known as Ratsgapore. I humbly suggests all foreign talents be allocated dwelling underground whilst we, the citizens of Ratsgapore live like human beings. That will bring the unhappiness quotient down somewhat.

Let me tell you there will also be a new sunrise industry.

Fertilizers!

Yup. 10 million people sure can shit a lot. And a mix of exotic poo too. Very rich. Very energizing. Very nutritious for our malnourished NEA trees which have the tendency to keel with just a teeny weeny rainstorm.

I am now living in fear that the next car insurance premium hike will take into account the propensity of our trees to die suddenly of cardiac arrest and our cars to become submersibles once the 100mm rainfall threshold is passed.

Come to think of it, I might even go with a cardiac arrest after receiving the renewal notice!

Hehe.

Chua Chin Leng aka redbean said...

Wally, you have forgotten about Newater and the water from our tap. We are truly integrated by the water we bath and drink, together.

Wally Buffet said...

It puzzles me no end why Chinese Foreign "talents" would want to trade in their pure mountain untainted spring water with our Poowater.

Maybe to them, money is more important than long term health. Or maybe that's the first sign, although hardly palpable, that they don't really intent to stay for long, drinking water distilled from poo. Ok ok, microfiltered from poo.

Chua Chin Leng aka redbean said...

It is a healthy concocktion with multi vitamins and complex minerals. A uniquely Singapore brew: )

Wally Buffet said...

Actually, it's really healthy you know. No bullshitting. Since Poowater, oops, sorry, Newater was introduced, I have been walking with a spring in my step and my libido has been more than "uplifting".

Hehe.

Anonymous said...

That was probably the Newater boosting or enhancing the tablets that went into you.

Too strong a libido is no good for the country if it does not produce babies. As there will be too many men and women fooling around.

Ⓜatilah $ingapura⚠️ said...

> Matilah, you may have your day of "entertainment" yet. <

Wally, I can hardly wait!