Cost is going up, fuel cost, labour cost and buying of new buses. The commuters pay. The commuters are expected to pay for all the cost increases, bonuses, and the inability to increase profits from other sources. There is an expectation by the management that they must make so much profit. If all things failed to hit profit target, just raise fares. That is a sure fire way to meet profit target, and the easiest way to do so. The commuters must make up for the shortfall in profits.
It is not that the transport companies are making losses. In fact the profits are growing by the years, and in hundreds of millions. Can the transport companies absorb some of the cost with a little lesser profits in view of the higher fuel cost? Can the transport company pay lesser bonuses and lower salary increases to hold down cost?
Why is it that the transport companies are given the birth right to make profits and profits and millions of profits, and the commuters just have to pay?
For those people who are finding public transport unaffordable, please cut down on your travelling. Do not travel unnecessary if you don’t have to. Don’t go for bus ride or train rides just to pass time. Cycle, walk and find other means to amuse yourself. Take bus or trains only when necessary. Lower your expectations and live within your means.
Transportation cannot be cheap with cost spiraling. In fact walking is good for health. Go for long walks, there is a new green corridor, from Tanjong Pagar to Woodlands. Everyone is walking, for fun. Rich people also do that No need to take bus or train, and free fresh air too.
7/12/2011
Time to take ownership
I was at a foodcourt and happened to be next to a hot discussion on the future of Singapore. Two gentlemen, a citizen and a PR were in an intense discourse on the slippery road the country is taking. The PR was all heated up. He came here more than a decade ago and liked it, settled down with a local lass, and started a family.
He was terribly worried and angry at the things that were happening. He feared for the future of his children who are citizens. The boy would have to do his NS bits. What he was incensed with was the unfair competition that his citizen children were facing today and into the future. There were simply too many foreigners everywhere, in schools, in work place, queuing for medical services, representing Singapore in sports, and being imported here with full lodging and food provided, plus expenses, to compete with the children of citizens. The country is spending so much money and resources to bring up foreign children to compete with the children of citizens.
Many Singaporeans have left, ran away from the competition. They said competition is good. But the Singaporeans who left felt that it was unnecessary and unfair competition against the citizens and their children. Many are kpkbing in cyberspace. The happy ones are writing letters of praises in the main media of how great this place is and how great the foreigners are.
In the meantime the country is sliding down the slippery road to Third World. Today books were written about how we climbed from Third World to the First World. Tomorrow, there may be books written about how we slipped from First World to Third World. Several decades of nation building only made us a work in progress, not a nation. What rubbish! All the efforts is either wasted or ineffective, redundant stuff. What the hell have they been doing?
All the education on social graces, keep the country clean, do not litter, be gracious and kind, and compassionate, be a peace loving people, a safe and clean environment, are now at risk, deteriorating. We were turning into wine and almost became wine. But for greed of quantity, we added more peels, orange peels, banana skins, coconut husks, and all kinds of skins into the fermentation. Our wine is turning sour, and will not be wine anymore. It is back to square one.
The Japanese will not want to turn themselves into Third World. Over the decades and centuries, they have nurtured a people with discipline and social graces, and proud of being Japanese, to keep their country in a meticulous state of goodness. They will not accept the Third World being imported en mass to undermine a society, system and culture they took so long to build, just to make the economic numbers look good. Economic growth numbers are not everything. There are better and more important things in life, in the creation of a nation, in nation building, in the overall improvement of the quality of life, in social graces, in a clean and safe environment, in living life.
Look at what is happening around us? More litters, more crimes, foreigners coming here to cut up our people, beat up our people, more spittings and ugly social habits, all for what, economic growth numbers? Is that what we want for our children? Is that how we want our country to be? If the Singaporeans, do not agree, stop running away. Do something. Take ownership of the country and shape it the way you want it, the way YOU think is good. Not the way other people think is good. Singaporeans must take charge of their own country and future. One man’s goodness may not be the goodness for the rest of the citizens. Singaporeans must decide what they want for themselves and not accept everything that is thrown at them.
This is your country. This is your home. You stake your life and the future of your children for this piece of rock. Don’t let it go to the sewers. Don’t let it become Third World.
He was terribly worried and angry at the things that were happening. He feared for the future of his children who are citizens. The boy would have to do his NS bits. What he was incensed with was the unfair competition that his citizen children were facing today and into the future. There were simply too many foreigners everywhere, in schools, in work place, queuing for medical services, representing Singapore in sports, and being imported here with full lodging and food provided, plus expenses, to compete with the children of citizens. The country is spending so much money and resources to bring up foreign children to compete with the children of citizens.
Many Singaporeans have left, ran away from the competition. They said competition is good. But the Singaporeans who left felt that it was unnecessary and unfair competition against the citizens and their children. Many are kpkbing in cyberspace. The happy ones are writing letters of praises in the main media of how great this place is and how great the foreigners are.
In the meantime the country is sliding down the slippery road to Third World. Today books were written about how we climbed from Third World to the First World. Tomorrow, there may be books written about how we slipped from First World to Third World. Several decades of nation building only made us a work in progress, not a nation. What rubbish! All the efforts is either wasted or ineffective, redundant stuff. What the hell have they been doing?
All the education on social graces, keep the country clean, do not litter, be gracious and kind, and compassionate, be a peace loving people, a safe and clean environment, are now at risk, deteriorating. We were turning into wine and almost became wine. But for greed of quantity, we added more peels, orange peels, banana skins, coconut husks, and all kinds of skins into the fermentation. Our wine is turning sour, and will not be wine anymore. It is back to square one.
The Japanese will not want to turn themselves into Third World. Over the decades and centuries, they have nurtured a people with discipline and social graces, and proud of being Japanese, to keep their country in a meticulous state of goodness. They will not accept the Third World being imported en mass to undermine a society, system and culture they took so long to build, just to make the economic numbers look good. Economic growth numbers are not everything. There are better and more important things in life, in the creation of a nation, in nation building, in the overall improvement of the quality of life, in social graces, in a clean and safe environment, in living life.
Look at what is happening around us? More litters, more crimes, foreigners coming here to cut up our people, beat up our people, more spittings and ugly social habits, all for what, economic growth numbers? Is that what we want for our children? Is that how we want our country to be? If the Singaporeans, do not agree, stop running away. Do something. Take ownership of the country and shape it the way you want it, the way YOU think is good. Not the way other people think is good. Singaporeans must take charge of their own country and future. One man’s goodness may not be the goodness for the rest of the citizens. Singaporeans must decide what they want for themselves and not accept everything that is thrown at them.
This is your country. This is your home. You stake your life and the future of your children for this piece of rock. Don’t let it go to the sewers. Don’t let it become Third World.
7/11/2011
Wow, wow, wow!
Good things come in threes. We have the three iconic towers in Marina Bay, the three wise men, now three dinosaurs are coming. They cost only slightly more than a billion bucks, including the housing for the mammoth exhibits. Any visitors seeing the exhibits will definitely say, Wow!
For $1b, the wows don’t come cheap. But what the heck, we have so much money and dunno what to do with them, getting wows is not a bad thing too. I will suggest that a floating platform be built in the Marina Bay Reservoir so that it would not take up more precious space from housing. It would not be of a shoebox size for sure. Shoe boxes are only for the privileged citizens.
Alternatively the $1b can be used to buy a boulder of gold in its natural state, to replace the dinosaurs. The value can appreciate over time, and there will always be buyers for the gold. I think there will be the wows looking at the glistering gold, wow!.
By the way, who is paying for the dinosaurs? If I am going to pay for it, would I have a choice to say yes or no?
For $1b, the wows don’t come cheap. But what the heck, we have so much money and dunno what to do with them, getting wows is not a bad thing too. I will suggest that a floating platform be built in the Marina Bay Reservoir so that it would not take up more precious space from housing. It would not be of a shoebox size for sure. Shoe boxes are only for the privileged citizens.
Alternatively the $1b can be used to buy a boulder of gold in its natural state, to replace the dinosaurs. The value can appreciate over time, and there will always be buyers for the gold. I think there will be the wows looking at the glistering gold, wow!.
By the way, who is paying for the dinosaurs? If I am going to pay for it, would I have a choice to say yes or no?
Crossing the Rubicon
Anyone who has been fed with a diet of Hollywood or Hongkong movies must be familiar with the endings of gamblers in gambling dens. The stories almost always have a similar sequence and a similar ending. A habitual gambler could be on a winning streak and walk away with his winnings. This can go on and on as long as he does not break the bank.
A certain amount of winnings is tolerable to the operator. Once the rubicon is crossed, when the takings are too high, the gambler often live to regret for taking so much. He could be robbed, maimed or may even pay for his life.
A smart gambler will know how much he should take from the table and call it quits, and walk away to enjoy his windfall. A greedy gambler that does not know when the limit is up will not have the chance to walk away.
The moral of the story is simple. Don’t be too greedy. Greed will take you in and you will have to return everything, with a bad taste. Take some, win some, but always watch the rubicon.
A certain amount of winnings is tolerable to the operator. Once the rubicon is crossed, when the takings are too high, the gambler often live to regret for taking so much. He could be robbed, maimed or may even pay for his life.
A smart gambler will know how much he should take from the table and call it quits, and walk away to enjoy his windfall. A greedy gambler that does not know when the limit is up will not have the chance to walk away.
The moral of the story is simple. Don’t be too greedy. Greed will take you in and you will have to return everything, with a bad taste. Take some, win some, but always watch the rubicon.
2 times oversubscribed, 35% sold
When Centrale 8 was launched, it was reported that it was oversubscribed by two times which technically translated, all should be sold as they were more buyers than units available. Today’s paper reported that till yesterday, on a notice board at the showroom, it showed that only 35% were sold. And the number of people visiting the showroom was about 20 families at any one time.
What happened to all the applicants? What happened to all the eager buyers and long queues? Centrale 8 was reported as a great place with great facilities, a mature estate, good value for money.
Was the report on the oversubscription wrong? Anything wrong with the 35% take sold figure? Anything wrong with all the hypes about the attractiveness of the estate?
Is the lack of interest got to do with the pricing, the location or the measures taken by HDB to build more new flats? Or is it that the influx of foreigners is slowing down?
Will Centrale 8 be the first DBSS project that is going to be partially sold, at least in the short term? Is this the first sign of a cooling down of the public housing market?
What happened to all the applicants? What happened to all the eager buyers and long queues? Centrale 8 was reported as a great place with great facilities, a mature estate, good value for money.
Was the report on the oversubscription wrong? Anything wrong with the 35% take sold figure? Anything wrong with all the hypes about the attractiveness of the estate?
Is the lack of interest got to do with the pricing, the location or the measures taken by HDB to build more new flats? Or is it that the influx of foreigners is slowing down?
Will Centrale 8 be the first DBSS project that is going to be partially sold, at least in the short term? Is this the first sign of a cooling down of the public housing market?
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