Jam packed MRT

Whichever idiot ever suggests that it is a good idea, a bearable idea, to be jam packed inside a MRT train should first be put through the process and experience what it is like to be sandwiched between two smelly commuters. If he can stand the smell for 3 minutes, he is qualified as a super pig. For only pigs will be accustomed to such smell from a pig sty. Who is lauding the great Tokyo squeeze as something that we must get use to? What kind of world class standard is that?

Doing the opposite

We encourage entrepreneurialship. We want our people to take risk. High risk high returns. We must teach our people to be entrepreneurs. Hahaha. The real thing is that we are just doing the opposite. We reward employees and make the job as an employee so comfortable and rewarding that everyone is looking for a job. Singaporeans are looking for a job in Singapore and around the world. We are grooming the best employees for the world market. And the last hope for Singaporeans to take a little risk, to manage their lives and find their dreams is also dashed. We are keeping your money and we are going to manage it so that you will get $600 a month for the rest of your life. So safe, so secure, so predictable, no chances, no errors. Singaporeans will live a comfortable life as an employee with a monthly pay check from his employers and then a monthly pay check from his own savings. No need to take risk. The entrepreneurial dream is just a dream.

A little reflection

Chinese New Year or any new year is a time for reflection. Today paper wrote a frontpage article about the lonely people living alone and their need for the warmth of kins and young people. But it also said, 'A festive season that is all about kin and friends can be an especially depressing time for...the bedridden, the estranged, the abandoned, the lonely...' Many caring organisations and welfare groups are helping out to make these few days less lonely and less sad. 'At a dinner held last Friday, Madam Chew Ah Yim, 68, who lives alone and is childless, told Today: "It's like having grand children to talk to."' Because of the good work of all these organisations and the kind people that help to make these people happier, less lonely, life is worth living. The good thing is that all these people will have the chance to live beyond 85 years and have many such happy hours to look forward to. The unfortunate thing is that these happy hours come once a year. thanks or no thanks to the advances in medical science that these people can live to 100 years. Is it joy or is it suffering?

Halal canteen in a Singapore school!

This is shocking. We have been telling everyone everyday that we must respect other people's religion, culture etc and way of life, but not to impose our own way of life on others. How could this happen to Boon Lay Garden Primary School? I read it in the Straits Times but not in Today. What is more shocking is that it was implemented for more than a week! And School Discipline Master and Security Guards were checking the food the children brought to school to make sure that they were halal. Shouldn't they be spending time checking for terrorists? For such things to happen, there must be several meetings among the teachers and principals before it is being implemented and letters sent to parents. The sheeples as usual just like to keep quiet and be led around. If people are thinking, if teachers are thinking, the whole mess should not have taken off. It would have been stopped in the meeting room and not allowed to progress so far. This is the price we are paying for an unthinking populace, an unquestioning people that fears authority. Just take orders. Keep quiet, don't get into trouble by arguing with authority. What is happening?

Furious with Khaw Boon Wan

Forumer Seah Leong Khai was furious with the affordable $10 pm increase in MediShield premium introduced by Boon Wan. He used to pay $160 each for himself and his wife. Now each will have to pay $280 a year. This is almost double what he used to pay. But if you look at it from a monthly basis, it is very affordable. Only $10 mah! What irks Seah is that after collecting $297m, the CPF paid out only $119m in claims and expenses. 'It had a surplus of $178m in 2006. It now has more than $925 m in net assets in the MediShield Fund.' Seah asked why couldn't some of these be used for the higher payouts. Now, how to explain to Seah that the surplus must be kept for rainy day and that $10 a month is affordable?