Crooked bridge and crooked expressway

When Mahathir insisted on building his crooked bridge everyone had a good laugh. For whatever crazy reasons, he wanted to demolish a land bridge in the form of a solid causeway just to build a bridge in its place, presumably more efficient in that way and awe inspiring. Fortunately the Malaysian govt had the commonsense not to believe him and his crooked bridge.

How can a bridge be more efficient that a piece of land with relatively little maintenance and could easily be expanded to take in more load? How could a straight causeway, with shorter distance to travel be less effective than a crooked bridge with more distance to cover and high in the air? And there would be the cost of demolition and relocation cost of the causeway and the water pipes and all the businesses in JB town to account for.

While the crooked bridge is now history, Singapore has built a crooked expressway in Marina South and capped with an undersea tunnel and earning the accolade of being the most expensive stretch of road on earth. While Mahathir failed to get his pet project off the ground, Singapore got its pet project underground and under the sea.

In many ways, the crooked bridge and the crooked expressway have a lot of similarities. Cost is definitely one. A simple surface road plus a bridge could be much cheaper than the elaborate and highly geared tunnel with so many electrical and safety gadgets attached to it. And it is crooked, and its existence led to a stretch of ECP being chopped off. The trade off is a bigger piece of land to build more highrise buildings. Driving through a straight expressway from Tanjong Pagar to Fort Road must be faster and more economical on fuel and tyre wear for sure. Could a straight tunnel work and still create additional space?

Suffice to note these similarities, and there are many more that are obvious to everyone. Both are state of the art engineering feats, and monuments of achievements for whoever desired them, a legacy of sort.

And one thing for sure, the crooked bridge and crooked expressway would cost the users that much more in tolls to be paid and time to travel for the unnecessary distance added on. To the masterminds of these two projects, there must be great reasons and benefits to build them crooked instead of straight. Crooked is definite better than straight in both cases.

1.1m foreign workers, not 500k

In a Bloomberg report today, it is stated that the number of foreign workers here is 1.1m and not 500k. In the same report it quoted Chuan Jin as saying that the govt is slowing down the number of foreign worker intake in view of the riot in Little India.
This change in policy would invite criticism from the same bunch of idiots accusing Singapore of racism, discrimination and exploitation of foreign workers. Now when lesser workers are allowed, they will change their tune and would demand that more workers be allowed to work here. These double headed snakes would always have their say, that Singapore owes them a living but they could not do anything to provide better jobs and decent standard of living for their fellowmen in their own dastard countries.
 
1.1m or 500k is still too big a number for a highly densely populated island to absorb. And the risk of rioting, in bigger number, is always there. With more than 1m of them here, there will be 1m reason to trigger a riot. With 500k, there will be 500k reasons to do the same.
 
Are our police prepared and equipped to deal with a mob of 50,000 on the street? Do we have the manpower, equipment and resources to be mobilized when there is an outbreak of violence? How many men will be needed to quell such an unrest? It only takes 20 minutes to set the city and the housing estates ablaze. It is not easy to mobilize so many uniform men to take on such an urgent task even if this is carefully planned and with many drills conducted to get the men ready. I have not seen such an exercise carried out in a scale that may be warranted one day.
 
We have been playing with fire for so long and getting away with it through our good fortune. After the Little India Riot, the reality of such an eventuality is getting very real and the risk that much higher. As of today, if a massive riot occurs, I am very pessimistic of the outcome. I don’t think our police are ready for it. And the likelihood is that they would not have enough troops on the ground and a joint operation with the support of the military must be in order.
 
How fast can the govt mobilize enough men in a short span of time to deal with a major unrest is a big question. The root of the problem is the big number of foreign workers in our midst. Would we get away a second time with minimal life lost, injured or equipment and buildings razed?
 
Oh, it is an isolated incident that would happen once in 50 years. Not to worry. The next one will be another 50 year.

Foreign workers in Little India

This is a photo of foreign workers relaxing and having a drink with friends in Little India. Photo courtesy of Singapore News Alternative.

Are these workers having a hard time in Singapore? Look at their dressing, the enviroment they are in, would they be better off in India? These are not the well educated professionals. Would they be able to enjoy such comfort in such a fine and clean surrounding? If they are back in India, would they have the money to enjoy their drinks or would they be jobless, poorly clothed and could not even afford a drink?

Who is claiming that they are being exploited and living in drudgery, in a fearful environment and being discriminated by the Chinese majority in Singapore? Look at their faces, are they unhappy, in pain, in fear, being harassed? Or are they free and relax and happy, enjoying their drinks in the company of friends?

They may not be making a lot of money. But they are getting on well and with the freedom to do as they pleased in their off days.

How the rich get richer and the poor get poorer

The infamous photograph posted in Baey Yam Keng’s facebook is going on its second round of circulation. A plate of nasi padang with fish, chicken and cuttlefish I think, and probably with vegetables, cost $2.50. And there is the even more infamous $8 open heart by pass, and free serving of quality grade tooth picks in boxes, are privileges of the rich and famous. They seemed to know how to get things cheaper than the common folks.
 
Most ordinary people would be charged at least $6 or $7 for a plate of similar nasi padang. Most people would be broke or have their Medisave savings emptied and probably not enough if they have gone for a heart by pass. And if they need some tooth picks, probably will get the ordinary ones and comes in a few pieces.
 
While the poor have smaller incomes got to pay more for what they need, the rich with million dollar incomes could get things so much cheaply. Now you understand why the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.
 
And this is just a natural thing in life, one of those hard truths. Some are born more equal than others. And some don’t even know what $2.50 can get for a nasi padang lunch. And some don’t even know there are poor people in this rich city. This is uniquely Singapore. And you can’t blame them. They don’t eat in hawker centre like the poor do. They don’t walk in the company of the poor or when they did their walkaround the poor might have been shooed away, not to be seen.
 
Heard of the story that there are only 3 seasons and not four?

500,000 march with their feet

DNAIndia.com, 14 Dec 2013
‘While it is no one’s case to condone Sunday’s violence, Singapore would do well not to treat the incident as an aberration, and not be dismissive about the larger sociological implications. It would be wrong to ignore the underlying simmering resentmentand frustration of Singpaore’s imported labourers. It is Singapore’s worst-kept secret that most of the lowly jobs (housemaids, construction workers, garbage removal and sewer maintenance personnel, so on) are performed by non-Chinese immigrants from South/Southeast Asia. Stories of worker abuse, intimidation and exploitation are aplenty : employers lodge thousands of imported workers in poorly provided cubbyholes, subject them to long work hours and confiscate their passports during the contract tenures….’
 
The above is a comment in DNA India which reflects the kind of thinking in India over the plight of the Indian workers here. Many of the claims are true, but things are improving dramatically and many dormitories are now like little country clubs with facilities that the workers would never dream of at home. Some of the dormitories are quality housing, better than HDB flats, and thousands of time better than the broken sheds they had at home with poor or no sanitation. Once the full programme dished out by the MOM is implemented, the quality of living condition in dormitories would be like heaven and hell from where they came from.
 
The proof of all these is that 500,000 of them are voting with their feet and more are craving to be here. There are exploitations, sure. Who are the exploiters? Who did the workers took their loans from? The Singapore side of the equation is no angels, but the law is coming down fast on them. Would the Indian media and their heart wrenching journalists and reporters offer these ‘exploited’ workers jobs that are better or at least the same as what Singapore can provide, with the same decent income? The answer is a big NO. They could not give these workers decent jobs, decent income and decent lodging and they are blaming Singapore for providing them a decent alternative! If these workers are thrifty and not exploited by their agents and employers, many of them would not only provide well for their families, some would return fairly rich, much richer than the reporters writing their nonsense.
 
If India is so good, these 500,000 workers would not be here. If the terms of their employments and life are so bad, they would not pay thousands to their agent to be here. And not only the workers are here, many of the professionals that India could not provide them with decent jobs and incomes are escaping from India to the West, with many coming to this island that are victimizing them on racist grounds. Many of their top brains are here to be exploited. Either their top brains are fools or the reporters are talking rubbish.
 
The truth is that they are exploiting Sinkies and the good infrastructure here for their own good. The people that are exploited are the Sinkies, particularly the PMEs. Wait till these local PMEs find life unbearable and unsustainable when they could no longer provide for their families. Just wait for their wrath.
 
And a final word, if the Indians, professionals and the workers, find it so bad here, exploited here, discriminated by the racist Chinese here, please get lost, go back home to the great comfort of your great country.
 
If our relations with India are so good, why are the Indian media so hostile to Singapore? Remember Sun TV. Who is spreading the myth that relations between the people of the two countries are so good that it deserves a big celebration in 2015 using public money? How much of the people’s money would be spent on this make belief while the Indians are cursing us everyday in their media?
 
Do we still want to spend public fund on this 150th Anniversary? For those people who believe that relations are so good and it is deserving of a big celebration, can they please use their own pocket money for it and not the people’s money? It is so easy to spend OPM ya.

The simplicity of it all

As life gets more complicated, as solutions to problems get more complex, some things are getting simpler. The Little India Riot is a case in point. It was all because of alcohol. Stop the selling of alcohol and the problem will go away. And the govt did just that over the weekend, and yes, no more rioting in Little India after the ban. It was a peaceful and quiet little place for the families and children to walk around and feeling very safe from the fierce bottle hurling and car burning mob. This is like a miracle.
 
The solution is simple and effective, like what Singapore is all about. It also sent a signal to all the drinkers around the island, if they want to continue to enjoy their booze, keep the peace. Any sign of trouble will mean no more booze. Yes, got it. Who says complex problem needs complex solution?
 
In the MyPaper today, Dr Koh Poh Soon diagnosed his election defeat to something he said or should not have said. The offending statement was ‘everybody has a car’. And to make it worse, he added that he and his wife had two cars, one each, caused they were professionals. Another reason was the parachute. He was seen as a paratrooper dropping in from the sky. These two reasons caused his electoral defeat to an unknown. And the margin was quite a trumping.
 
Dr Koh is still walking the ground in preparation for his next election. By then he would not be seen as someone dropping down on a parachute. So this problem would be a non issue. As for the two cars he and his wife owned, he can either not talk about it, or to make a bigger show, sell one away. This should make him more like everybody else, owning one car and could give him the votes for a victory.
 
Thank God that life is getting so simple. Time to reconsider cutting the salaries of ministers when solving problems is so easy.
 
What do you think?

150th anniversary of Sin India fraternal relations

I remember that 2015 has already been earmarked as the year to celebrate the good relations between India and Singapore and a long list of activities will be planned for this great event. The presidents of both countries will pay homage to each other with their entourages of courtiers and royalties. Dunno who is paying for this great year long party. Maybe they will provide for it in the next budget.

As a warm up to this event, it would be appropriate to build up the tempo early to get the people of the two countries in a celebration mood and to be emotionally prepared to love and hug each other when 2015 arrives. The little isolated incident at Little India may mar the mindsets of the two people at the moment and both may be looking at each other with suspicion. Those who listened and believed what TV Sun had broadcasted over the air may not only be harbouring hatred against the Sinkie Chinese, some may even be planning some vengeful treats in return. It is thus of utmost importance to cleanse out this bad and wrongful thought that had been planted in some unthinking minds, of course done unintentionally, just an innocent mistake.

Make 2014 a year of love and peace between the two people prior to the year long celebration in 2015. And this can start almost immediately, now, and encouraging all Sinkie households to adopt an India worker and play host to him till 2015. The Indian workers can be invited to stay with Sinkie families and enjoy the tender loving care of Sinkie families and our way of life. This would definitely be the best integration exercise of all integration exercise. This would not only build a damn good relationship with the people of India, it will also save a lot of other problems, like housing, saving them on food and lodging, govt no need to build more dormitories to ‘angrify’ the neighbourhood, and the Indian workers need not go to Little India to feel at home, thus reducing their tendency to drink and get drunk and ending in rioting.

Singaporeans will also not be attacked and blamed for xenophobia. The whole country may be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for building a harmonious relationship with poor foreign workers needing shelter and love and a home away from home. Hey, if every home has one, there should be enough to go round with half a million of them here and more to come, there would not be any enclaves forming. They will all blend in nicely with the families and the housing estates.

Now would not this be nice? And come 2015, we can celebrate together all year round with Indians visiting here and Sinkies visiting India. The visiting should not be confined to just the Presidents and govt dignitaries. That would be too selfish. Let the joy be shared by the people of both counties. I am already looking forward to it.