10/17/2019

The perfect time proven strategies for raising transport fare

Yes there is going to be another transport fare hike, a maximum allowable under the official formula and all the brilliant reasons to support this hike. To me, all the hikes experienced so far are textbook formulas that are applicable only in this island. I have done many years of research on this matter and have crystallised the thinking and methodology behind transport fare hikes. The strategies are also applicable to other industries and services with a bit to tweaks and twits here and there.

There are several basic formulas to use to justify and raise transport fare.

1. Tell the commuters that if they want good service they must be expected to pay more. This formula is useful during normal times when the system is running normally and there is no good reason to raise fare except to 'improve services', better service. Add a few tv monitors in the train cabins, add a few monitors to tell the arrival or departure times of trains or something like these, would be improving services that the commuters can see. Hurray, train services improving and deserving of fare hikes. Got free in train movies or actually ads and also can tell when train is coming or going though in a small town when there is hardly any difference between a 2 min or 3 min wait. Nobody dies waiting for a train that is late by a minute or two.

2. Another formula during normal time is to tell the commuters how many long years no pay hike so it is time for another hike. No other good reasons needed.

3. Another formula is to use operation cost, like higher pay or higher oil prices. Never mind if the fares are not reduced when oil prices hit rock bottom. Just explained that oil prices have little effect on operating cost, or say the electricity is generated from using gas. But when oil price is up, just use it as a reason for higher operating cost, maybe tell the commuters that since oil price is up, it is good to use oil and thus affecting operating cost.

4. A more tricky formula is to hit a bad patch like daily breakdowns and disruptions, many times a day, over many places until travelling by train is affected, when train services are unreliable, when trains have to travel below the recommended or normal speed. Let the people experienced what is bad service.

Then put in furious work, buy more new equipment to return train to normal operation, travelling at normal speed and claim that it is an improvement, big improvement in service, nevermind if everything is just back to normal. This back to normal operation can be touted as improvement and thus justify transport fare hikes. Brilliant isn't it?

5. One more formula is to tell the commuters that you are hiring the best talents and paying them top dollars, in the millions to provide good services. So there is an obvious reason to raise transport fares or else unable to attract top talents for the jobs, even if the job is basically system maintenance not rocket science.

Caveat, apply these strategies and formulas in other countries at your own risk. These are uniquely Singaporean strategies that only work in our special environment and conditions.

10/16/2019

The real Chua Mui Hoong

Opinion editor of ST, Chua Mui Hoong, has for many years been on the receiving ends of brickbats defending the PAP in her opinion pieces in the ST. Many unkind words were used against her and her tribes in the organization with scant reservation.
 

Han Fook Kwang too was not spared though in the last few years he has taken a bolder front in criticizing and sharing contrarian views against govt policies and positions. In his retiring years, the restraints placed on him when he was the chief editor have seemed to be loosening and it is time to say what he really wanted to say for so long.
 

Chua Mui Hoong, though much younger and still far away from retiring, has finally taken a stand and stood up in defence of Alfian Sa’at, our local poet when the latter was attacked by Ong Ye Kung. This was what Chua Mui Hoong wrote in the Sunday Times, ‘I was disturbed by the way Education Minister Ong Ye Kung cited a few lines from Alfian Sa’at’s poetry to pain him as someone who might be disloyal to Singapore.’ She went on further to say this, ‘the 4G is a chip off the old block. Inheriting the same political DNA as the first three generations of PAP leaders, it is now merely showing its true colours. Online, some commenters drew this conclusion, citing the use of tactics of name-calling, character assassination and adhominem attacks to label critics negatively. The 4G in this view is just new wine in old bottles, and Singapore’s political development is as stymied as today as in the 1980s and 1990s.’
 

This is about the strongest statement someone from the establishment could say in print against a minister. This is the true Chua Mui Hoong, sharing the same feeling as Han Fook Kwang, Leslie Fong etc etc, that after so many years of being bottled up, it is time to let it go, establishment or not establishment.
 

The use of character assassination has been very effective in the past and many opposition candidates fell and suffered lifelong stigma with their life totally destroyed. Chee Soon Juan is one of the victims and till today, many unthinking still harboured this anti Chee Soon Juan trait and attacking him, hating him is second nature. The young of today and the bottled up old of yesterday could not and would not stomach such personal attacks any more.
 

New wine in old bottle is still new wine and those who have seen the history of Singapore’s politics, grew up with such abuses, have very little tolerance and deference to new wine to do the same. Time has changed and the personalities have changed. To be stymied and trying to live and behave like in the 1980s and 1990s by young upstart is very uncomfortable and difficult to bear.
 

A young shoot of revolution is sprouting not in the young but in the not so young, that the old, harsh and uncivil ways to deal with political opponents, all Singaporeans, all wanting to do good for Singapore, to smear them and call them names, is not only out of fashion but also out of context, out of time and character. For an opinion Editor like Chua Mui Hoong, still very young in life, to openly saying it out in defiance of the old ways is very telling. The revolt is coming from within. The new wine does not have the same hold on the old stalwarts of the establishment and the seniors at large. They don’t hold them in awe and in fear. They just don’t have it to be acting and behaving like the old guards, with nothing achieved and no authority to swagger around like untouchables.
 

There is a silent revolution in the making, led by the old wise of yesteryears that do not see much in the 4G that have nothing to show but acting as if they have arrived just by being put up there. Remember the tortoise sitting on top of a 20 foot pole? How did it got up there?
 

Would there be more Chua Mui Hoongs, more Tommy Kohs to rattle the status quo?

10/15/2019

Swine fever outbreak so innocent?

BEIJING: China's agriculture ministry on Wednesday said a new outbreak of African swine fever had been confirmed in Sichuan province in the southwest of the country.
The highly contagious disease was found on a farm with 102 pigs in Jiajiang county in central Sichuan, infecting and killing 21 of the animals, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs said in a statement.

China, the world's biggest pork consumer, has reported more than 140 outbreaks of African swine fever disease since the first case in August last year.

Read more at https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asia/china-reports-new-african-swine-fever-outbreak-in-sichuan-province-11729128

Swine fever or African swine fever originated from Africa.  Lately it seems that swine fever happily sprouted all over China like it is in the soil. The Chinese agricultural industry and farming have taken a great leap forward and are modernised unlike the Third World farming industry. Why is it that swine fever finds itself so comfortable in Chinese farms and is spreading like wild fire?

Heard of chemical and biological warfare?  Many Asian countries are also affected, Korea, Japan, and Asean countries with Vietnam the worse hit. On the contrary, swine fever or the bacterial do not seem to like western or American soils. At the most they would visit some East European countries.

Could some countries be incubating and harvesting swine fever bacterial and spreading to countries that they deemed fit? The danger about biological and chemical warfare is that they are very difficult to contain once left in the air. It can travel widely and to the most unpredictable countries. Any country lighting this fire would soon be burnt as well. What goes around would come around.

The advances in Chinese farming make the spread of this disease very suspicious. The spread is like deliberate, like the riots in Hong Kong. At the moment it is only suspicion until someone is caught red handed. The evilness of mankind knows no bounds. Live by the sword, die by the sword.

The Americans are accusing the North Koreans for hiding their swine fever cases. How did the Americans know there are swine fever cases in North Korea when no foreigners are allowed into their farmland? Did the Americans did something and knew that what they did would cause swine fever in North Korea and thus confidently declaring that the North Koreans are hiding these cases? Is this a Freudian slip, the evil hands exposing themselves unintentionally?

The evilness of the Americans for the last few decades after WW2 is beyond comparison. Millions have been killed by them, many millions maimed and made homeless, wars everywhere, all kinds of wars, military, economic, biological, chemical, pyschological and covert wars to cause chaos and troubles everywhere. Many people are dying of hunger and starvation because of their economic wars called sanctions.

How many idiots are still believing that the Americans are angels? I know that is at least one die hard believer in this blog, where everything American is good. No amount of killings and destruction would change the mind of this idiot. And there are many such idiots in this island.

10/14/2019

Workers Party guilty of breaching fiduciary duty as elected MPs

I take this piece of shit, oops, news as something that is expected. Nothing unusual or spectacular. This is Singapore, remember. It is good that the 3 top WP exco members and elected MPs take it in their stride, knowing that this is inevitable. Now the good news and the bad news.

The bad news is that the 3 WP MPs would be disqualified from the next GE, as sure as the sun shall rise. Everyone sees this coming. The bad news, they would lose a big chunk of their income from being MPs, maybe coughing out every cent they earned in their whole MP career. They are lucky if they did not end up behind bars. I am not saying they are guilty or deserving of this punishment. I reserve my comments like many people and the WP supporters living in AHTC.  You don't have to second guess what is in their minds.

The good news, it is time that WP has a new breed of young leaders with fresh ideas to continue with the fight. The good news, the die hard WP supporters and those that cannot stomach injustice would be pushed to take a stand in the next GE on who they should vote.  The good news is that the support for WP is likely to grow stronger despite this set back. The good news is that WP can start afresh, to join a coalition instead of going it alone, a strategy that has proven  to be short sighted, naive and disastrous.

In the bigger picture, the good news is that the likelihood of a stronger opposition coalition would be much enhanced. The stupidity of going alone and trying to pretend to be nice boys and girls, to be accepted and allowed to exist is obvious. Chiam See Tong was allowed to be in that position because he was just one man, tolerable and useful in his own sense but totally ineffective and irrelevant. It has been proven beyond doubt that a bigger than one man opposition is just unacceptable and must be destroyed at all costs.

Would this event shine some light into the dusty dark corners of the minds of opposition leaders that this is not just a game to be played for fun once every four years, to get some silly publicity and to be forgotten after a GE? Or would this be enough to wake them up and decide to close ranks now that the old school thinking of trying to be good boys and girls is debunked? There is no such things as being nice and would be left alone to do a good job.  Get it?

We would have to see if this fiasco would be the turning point in Singapore politics, the last bridge and there is no turning back, no silly personality and ego fights anymore. To fight to win, it is time to unite and close ranks or to be the same as before, run around like silly bull arse flies during the GE all for nothing, just hot air.

10/13/2019

Hong Kongers - Good riddance

Anonymous said...
10 October 2019, 6:54 PM GMT+8

More than 42 per cent of Hongkongers want to emigrate because of the ongoing social unrest, according to a recent survey by Chinese University, compared with around a third of respondents who gave the same answer in December last year.

The Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies at the university interviewed 707 individuals by phone between September 20 and 26, with 42.3 per cent indicating they would emigrate if they had a chance. In December 2018, 34 per cent respondents had given a similar response.

Of those who would like to move abroad, 23 per cent had already started planning for emigration.

They should have emigrated to UK before 1997 while they had the British Subject Identity Cards.

Now UK needs them to stay in Hongkong to create troubles for China and HK.

10/12/2019

KPKB or TCSS a waste of time?

'Basically, what Singaporeans ought to do is to “wake up” from their slumber of letting others determine their lives. If they are unhappy about the haze and irresponsible forest fires in Indonesia, speak up and do not suffer in silence or waste time on pseudo rallies. Turn up at Hong Lim Park, if you have to. Go there to do real protest about real issues. If you are fed up with the hedonistic F1 (rich man’s sport) messing up the traffic, make your voice heard. If you dislike what is happening in housing, healthcare or education, do not keep quiet and think that bad policies affect only other people. If your jobs are being stolen by foreigners who sometimes reportedly bring in their whole villages to displace you, the last thing you want to do is to keep quiet or turn a blind eye to the plight of other Singaporeans affected by these blatant imports.

Voice your concerns. Write letters. Be more civic-conscious, pay greater attention, even if the public discussions do not seem to affect you immediately.

Prof Low: “The only real chance we have of protecting our interests is to protest the basis or foundations of those policies, even before they inflict damage on you or your children.”'

The above quotes are from Law Professor Donald Low of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in theindependent.sg

A rose by any other name is still a rose. Call it tcss, kpkb, complaints, ranting, grouching, bitching etc etc, when one is unhappy or disagree with govt policies, these are some of the things that one can do. One can go further by protesting in Hong Lim Park or like the rioters in Hong Kong. One can also choose to do nothing, see nothing, hear nothing.  Or one can just resign and either keep quiet or go away.

The most evil human bean is one that does not want to do anything, does not want to lift his finger when he sees something is wrong right before his eyes. Then like some in this blog, they would want you to be just like this, stop tcss and stop kpkb. Just let the govt do what it likes and live with it. And when everyone's lips are sealed, some deaf frogs would pronounce all peaceful under heaven, the people are happy, see, no complaints.

The choice is yours. You can even join the political parties in one way or another, to do something for yourself and your loved ones. The last thing one must not do is to be like the 4 proverbial monkeys.

10/11/2019

When a country destined to fail

No need to look further for a country destined to fail. When the time comes, such a country will be blessed with an idiot, who thinks he is a genius, to be its ruler and he will surround himself with twits and half twits whom he believes are the best talents he could fine.

The USA is in this state of development, destined to fail. And in strolled the new emperor Trump, godsend, who thinks he is the greatest, and sincerely thinking that he is going to save the USA, to make America great again. He could not see anything wrong with what he is doing while the bystanders watching could see clearly the road he is paving to hell. And his sycophants around him, all thinking equally that they are the best men and women, and all playing along with him, to make America great again, but actually going the other way.

Obviously Trump and his twits and half twits did not know and could not see the truth, the great tragedy that is unfolding before them. If they only knew, but that is not to be as the USA is destined to fail. Even the general American public could not do anything about it as they watch haplessly how the USA is plunging into the abyss. The big twit and his half twits are all happily doing what they are doing and believing that they are the gifts of God, the best men for the job of running the USA.

Is Singapore also in the same decline? If it is, then Singapore will also be blessed with a godsend and surrounding himself with twits and half twits just like Donald Trump is doing, all equally happy that everything is doing just fine without knowing that it is spiralling down into the same shit hole of no return. Let's hope not.

One anonymous posted this:

'The current bunch of PAPies r the result of the past pioneers ruling party dreams, there isn't much changes other than some twits here and there, today Spore is regressing as a society under the new gen of leaders with no new ideas but only twits. This island city need new ideas for a better future & Dr Chee & its party members will shape a new future for tis tiny red dot.' October 10, 2019 5:04 pm


Is this is what is happening in Singapore? If it is, then there is nothing anyone can do about it, just like the USA, it will fail.  

How many of you agree with this anonymous and think this is so. Or how many of you are just like the bunch of twits and half twits thinking everything is fine, believing like the twits and half twits that they are doing great to keep Singapore prosperous and the Singaporeans will continue to have a great life of abundance under wise and able leadership for another hundred years?

Not many leaders would intentionally or consciously want to destroy their own country. It can only happen when they did not know that they are twits and half twits and instead of doing good for their country, like Trump's call to make America great again but actually doing the opposite. Of course he did not know that he is harming the USA and all Americans. This is how life is all about, and how great empires failed and fell, not for want to do something about it, but doing every wrong that they thought were right. And this can only happen when twits and half twits walk around thinking that they are geniuses and the most talented people on earth.

It always happen and never fails to happen. When the time is ripe, the durian will fall. They would not have signed the CECA if they knew that it is bad and will destroy the country and bring them along as well. They would not have done a lot of things if they knew that they were bad, like wasting so much money on white elephant projects, like wasting billions on foreigners instead of our own students, like flooding the island with more and more wildlife, like the insanity of wanting to have 10m or 20m people on this piece of rock. To them, these are all great things, for the good of the country and Singaporeans. Only history will pass the verdict when it is over, when twits and half twits would be confirmed, not as geniuses or talents that they believed themselves to be.