oldies, you are wanted, in Oz.

Oldies wanted! Below is quoted from Soc.cul.spore. There is a way out for some oldies. The local paper quoted the WA police as saying that they are sending a recruiting team to Singapore. WA is extremely short of police officers. To make up for the difficulty of getting Aussie, they have recruited British bobbies. They now think that Singapore police officers who have to retire at 45 will make good cops in WA with their years of experience. The Singapore system value youth and vitality while the Australian system value experience and wisdom.

can johore become a metropolis?

To turn Johore into a metropolis is not just hardware, cheap land and money. They will need a host of other softwares to get it really moving. They can't one day say you are welcomed and tomorrow say you are not welcomed. They can't change the law today and backdate it 5 years to strip an investor of his properties and assets. They also need the whole govt machinery to tell the investors and vistors that they are welcomed. They cannot have civil servants, police or custom officers making life difficult to foreigners or irritating foreigners or preying to take advantage of foreigners. They cannot have a place that is so hostile to investors and visitors. Investors and visitors bring money to the land. They need to be very sure that they are safe and not be robbed by robbers and govt officers. The investors and visitors need to feel that they are welcomed and not seen as intruding into other people's land.

myth 89

'Have a pap smear at least every three years' Just read this in the paper this morning. Haven't we have enough of pap smears? Just kidding.

hand holding indonesia

My proposal to Indonesia on the haze problem. Divide Sumatra into 6 regions with Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore being responsible for two regions. Similarly Kalimantan be divided into 3 regions with Brunei taking one region and Malaysia taking two. And for each region appoint an Indonesian Mayor In Charge of Environment(MICE). And each MICE be supported by an adviser whose advise is to be followed. And when the MICE failed in his job, the Adviser shall report to Jakarta to have the MICE removed. I think that will work.

the poor had it.

The poor had it. The bulk of the commuters of public transport comes mainly from the less well to do Singaporeans. These are the people whom the govt takes great care to make sure public transport is affordable. And if there is any increase in transport fare, it will be done cautiously, and in small amounts like 2c or 3c. One can expect that the transport operators will also be sensitive to the fares that the commuters are paying and not to over charge them. But we are still hearing commuters being made to pay extra because of system failure or errors. The poorer segment of the society, often less articulate, also did not have a voice. Are there really people who represent them and their interest? Take this uncle for example. He seldom takes public transport. Then hopped onto a bus and asked the bus captain how much it cost to his destination. $1.30 came the reply. Uncle scratched his pocket for his $1.30. He only had 80c, and no ez link pass. The captain patiently waited for his fare to be deposited into the box. Uncle asked, 'got change?' as he took out his smallest $2 note. Captain grinned. Sorry no change, exact fare please. Uncle was caught not knowing what to do. And the queue behind him grew impatient. He reluctantly let his $2 dropped into the box for his $1.30 ride. And no change. Why is it that the poorer commuters should always be made to pay more for the convenience of the big transport operators? How many uncles and aunties have been forced to pay that much more for their rides? But they are to be blamed for not having the exact change. It is the system. The bus captain is also unable to waive the short changed. A modern and world class system has no tolerance for the ignorant and difficult to train poor. This is another brutal truth of a world class transport system. To be fair to the transport operators, they have given enough publicity on the need to have exact fare. Or else the computerised system cannot cope with all the change. They have educated the commuters and the commuters jolly well know what is expected of them. The poor commuters shall not make a nuisance of themselves.