Hongkong MTR efficiency and cheap

Liew Kai Khiun praised the efficiency and cheaper fare of the HK MTR compares to our MRT. Its frequency is 1-2 min against our 5-8 min, its clean and working airconditioning and other facilities. And best, when they merged the Kowloon Canton Railway Corporation with the MTR Corporation, they immediately passed the savings to the commuters by shaving off the fare from 5-10 per cent. Reducing of fares is something unbelieveable in this island. It cannot be done and sinful not to continue to reap the windfall from the commuters. And the saying goes. If you want good service, prepare to pay more. And the commuters are paying more every year while the service standard is still at a standstill. Diminishing returns or it has reached a point where nothing can be improved? Or it is just like the congestion in the express ways. Keep paying and paying and the traffic jams will not go away.

Blogs to fill the gap

Marina Mahathir said that as long as there is a gap between what needs to be reported in the msm but not reported, the gap will be filled by blogs or the internet. True, many things have been first reported in the net and then followed up by the msm when it is already out in the open. There is now a credibility gap between the ugly tooth and the truth which needs to be addressed by the msm but conveniently left open. So here comes the net, to fill the gap. This role has been cut out for bloggers and forumers to play. It is a very decisive role to reveal the ugly tooth.

Corporate Governance in Sports

We have dealt with and the msm has reported extensively on the misdeeds arising from lack of corporate governance in the commercial world. And this has been extended to a few prominent and infamous cases in charitable organisations. And the bad thing is that we are only dealing with the tip of an enormous iceberg. Before we forget, there have been many complaints and rumours circulating in the sports fraternity. Biasness, discriminations, cheating, collusion, favouritism, etc etc have been floating in the grapevines. Many of these cases were outright cheating and abuse of power, misplaced trust and misappropriation of public fund to serve personal objectives. Anyone looking into this industry? Sports is all about uprightness, competition, fighting spirit, honour and sacrifice, to achieve glory in the most sportsman like manner. Are our sports organisations living up to these virtues? What kind of corporate governance are there to ensure fair play, recruiting sportsmen and sportswomen to represent the country based simply on merit? There are many who are tempted to become whistle blowers and this could be very embarrassing. Or maybe all our sports organisations are paragons of virtues, clean and untainted, and are models for all to follow. But I have heard and felt the tremors.

Myth 165 - Inferior genes

Inferior genes There is this myth that is being perpetuated as the tooth in the north and to some extend in this little red dot, that the genes of some racial groups are more inferior to others. So one can blame on their genes and continue to wallow in self pity or just demand to be given handouts and a piece of paper chopped with a degree without working for it. The top PSLE student today is Natash Nabila Muhamad. A 12 year old girl from St Hilda Primary School who scored a record 294 points and 4 A stars. This is the first time this score has been hit. Her mother, Zaharah Othman, is a homemaker and her father, Muhamad, is a technician. Bet you she did not received the best that an average normal Singaporean family received in terms of tuition and all the accessory aids. But she topped her cohort of 49,817, including many foreigners from China and India. If Natasha can do it, so can the rest. Don't blame it on your genes. That is a lousy and stupid excuse. It is hard work and a little intelligence. And for those who still think they are born naturally stupid, they can live on in their own stupid ways.

Run for your life

I was in the train this morning. Then I caugh a whiff of it. It was smelly. Something akin to smelly salted fish. I held on to where I stood. It hit me again. Then one local woman made her move and went to stand 5m away And the train kept moving. The smell kept knocking at me now and then. I looked around. Everyone was so innocent. I knew where it came from. After another two stations, another local woman also made her rude gesture by walking away, another 5m. Singaporeans are being forced to appear rude to foreigners. Foreigners, please pass the word around that Singaporeans do not want to be rude to them. Please tell them to wash and wash and wash till the smell go away. Then we can sit side by side happily.