11/07/2014

Dalit aspiration, to ride a bicycle


The new aspiration for Singaporeans are changing, and the latest is to aspire to own a bicycle, an expensive one of course. Cars are out of reach to many and will only get worst. So reconditioning the Singaporean Dalits in the making to think cheap, think low, have low aspiration, is a good start. Tell them to cycle to work or to go any where, go dating, go for dinner, just cycle.
 

Don’t look at Communist China and the Chinese. They have different dreams as rich Communists. They want all the best things money can buy, branded goods, good housing and of course to own and drive cars, luxury cars. We should aspire to own and ride bicycles. We must have reached a stage when luxury and material comfort is no longer important to us. Next aspiration is for the new Dalits to aspire to live like monks, give up all possessions and desires.
 

And there are many good pretensions to ride bicycles. Think green, tell your neighbours that you want to save Gaia. If they don’t know what that is, tell them it is the fashionable name for old Mother Earth. Tell people you do not want to waste natural resources like consuming precious oil. Oh, tell people cycling is good for health. It is a life style thing. Every Dalit is cycling and owning a bicycle. Just ignore those who drive Mercedes and BMWs and with a few top of the range bicycles sitting on the roof of the cars.
 

The best thing about cycling is that you can throw your temper around with rude motorists. You can dump your bicycle on the car’s bonnet. It is not crime. After venting your anger with the rich car owners, you can cycle away happily. The only catch is if the bugger is rich enough to hire a lawyer to sue you. If not, you got your chance to show your manhood for free.
 

And the Govt is all for cycling. There is a National Cycling Plan to turn more roads into cycling paths and make cycling easy and safe. With the hot weather and tropical thunderstorms, they may think of building a roof over all the bicycle paths. Now, wouldn’t that be good and thoughtful? But don’t ask too much and demand the cycling paths to be air conditioned. That is not acceptable.
 

There will then be no shortage of car parks when there are less cars on the roads. Car parks can be converted to bicycle parks. As for loss of revenue from COEs, this can be compensated in two ways. COE should start from $200k. And once there are too many bicycles, can introduce COEs for bicycles to make up. Of course it cannot be the same as car COEs. But with the numbers of bicycles on the roads, even at $1k could be quite a princely sum.
 

Yes, tell the Dalits it is a reasonable aspiration to ride bicycles. They will manufacture two seat bicycles for those datings. It is so romantic and so nostalgic, like in the movies. Grandpa and grandma also did the same.
There is no need for four seater bicycles as the family unit is getting smaller with some not wanting to have children. A two seater bicycle is just perfect.


Kopi Level - Blue, Thank you.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

RB, you moan about riding bicycles? Wait till they tell you to ride trishaws. It is even better. You can have trishaw pooling, to save on bicycle power. You can even deck them out with the latest fashion, like they do to the jeepneys in Pinoyland.

Anonymous said...

RB. No wonder they keep asking us not to study hard and get degrees. A level or Poly will do. Degrees and cars are meant for the Elites. Peasants and Dalits can only do manual work.

Anonymous said...


In hokkien, this is:

"No Fish Prawn Also Good"
"No Fish Prawn Also Good"

So can afford bicycles also not bad not bad lah.

Cheers.

Anonymous said...

Maybe from their ground intelligence, PAP realise that Sinkies who ride bicycles are a big constituency?

That's why with this National Cycling Plan it will make a lot of them want to vote for PAP, tio bo?

I tell u lah, PAP can be many things but stupid and daft is not one of them.

Anonymous said...


A GOOD BUSINESS IDEA!

With our population growing fast
towards 6.9M (some people called
for 10M) there is a real huge
demand for well designed bicycles
to meet the population needs.

Indeed a very good business idea!

Maybe our ITEs and Polys should
also offer courses on bicycle
business and management studies
and engineering science to
prepare graduates to meet future
demands.

Cheers.

Anonymous said...

I want to be riding bicycle instructor to teach people how to ride bicycle and pass bicycle highway codes.

Anonymous said...


Anonymous 9.57am pls note.....

It is good to note that you wish to be a bicycle instructor.

But to qualify as a bicycle instructor you may first need a Certificate or Diploma in Bicycle Management & Technology.

Cheers.

Anonymous said...

Raymond Lim the former Transport Minister.
Maybe he can be appointed the Bicycle Minister.
But job title must sound more impressive to justify his million dollar salary.
How about "Minister of Environment friendly, small carbon footprint, cardio-enhancing, two wheeled transportation devices".

Hokkien translation:
"Boh Mee Kia Joh Minister"

Ⓜatilah $ingapura⚠️ said...

@RB:

>> But with the numbers of bicycles on the roads, even at $1k could be quite a princely sum.

Mate, you have to be kidding. Singaporeans being Singaporeans are happy to spend 5-20 times that amount on a bicycle -- and there are many out there. (McLaren bike ~ USD 20k).

I paid about 2k for my 2nd hand Scott carbon fibre mountain bike in Oz, but when I ride it in Singapore -- around Holland V and Tanglin/ Dover, I'm like 2nd class citizen lah.

Dun pray pray...Singaporeans will never "lose face", tak kalah. 10k for bike, no problem lah. Some more, check out the gear...wah lau, the riding outfit itself is several hundred bucks.

Me? I shop at Giodarno and factory outlet lah.

Chua Chin Leng aka redbean said...

Eh Mat, I am talking about bicycle COE lah. Maybe $1k for COE is too low. Yes $10k bicycle COE.

b said...

The fundamental system in this world works on the basis of rich poor divide - the rich gets richer and the poor gets poorer. All rich ministers in this world work for the rich, royalties, elites and big business owners. They do not work for the poor people, fight for the right of the poor people, speak for the poor people. All the leaders (except for one) are there to make sure that the rich poor divide system continues to reap benefits for the rich.

b said...

The rich poor divide will be most apparent in countries like this small island where the rich drives around and the poor cycles around soaked in sweat and rain. Only a cultural revolution will bring true justice for the poor.

Ⓜatilah $ingapura⚠️ said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Ⓜatilah $ingapura⚠️ said...

@RB:

>> I am talking about bicycle COE

Yah, I know. I make the point that there are many never-say-die Singaporeans. 10k bicycle COE? A bit of kpkb -- mostly on the internet...and then people will just pay. (as they always do)

The HIGHER the COE, the more expensive the vehicle tends to be. This is basic HUMAN NATURE at work. i.e. if people really want something, demand tends to be; to use an economic term; inelastic.

For e.g.: if the the COE is say 10-20k, then people won't have much issue about buying a 40k + car.

However if the COE is 95k and rising, most people won't buy a 40k car. They will buy a car exceeding 100k, at least, or not buy anything at all (out of the market).

So if the bicycle COE was 10k, then these are the bikes we're likely to see riding around.

Me? I'd be walking or riding a Vespa ;-)