Author: Grievous

No Comfort Here (VI) – Cabbie Excuses

5 comments

I saw this comment on SimplyJean’s blog post.

Chin | December 20th, 2007 at 4:22 am

I work in a school where a high enough percentage of pupils who received the Financial Assistance Scheme have one of their parents who is a taxi driver. If I am one such driver, I would wait 7 minutes for the extra $4 too. $4 might be the allowance for my child for 2 days. What is 7 minutes compared to the chance a blogger who might have a chai latte for maybe more than $4 know about my family?

The comment was made in response to Jean’s post about a recalcitrant Tax Drivers who hide to wait for the peak hours so he can earn a few more bucks.

While I can understand where ‘Chin’ is coming from, perhaps ‘Chin’ should know the school which he works in, isn’t the whole of Singapore. And could ‘Chin’ actually prove to us that every recalcitrant taxi driver has a financial problem? What about those Mercedes Benz cabbies? Just the rental alone would be $120 bucks at least, if I am not wrong?

Jean made a good point in her response, I quote:

I know for sure that they must earn at least $1000 per month because if they don’t then it’s better off for them to sign on to be a paid taxi driver. Yes, SMRT has this option for paid taxi drivers, but they are only paid $1000 a month. I agree that it’s the perogative of the taxi drivers not to fetch anyone. However, in doing so, they are also breaking the law. It’s akin to stealing, robbery and extortion. But as the saying goes, “you can do anything as long as you don’t get caught”. If what the taxi driver are doing is right, then why would the LTA go all out to police them? Even if they need the money, it’s all in their conscience to earn it well. Do you mean to say that as long as I am poor, I have the rights to lose my conscience? I agree that Singapore is a harsh city and probably not the best place for people who are not doing well, but the taxi drivers are not the only ones – everyone is in it – but does everyone have to get their money in a dishonest manner? Hmm…

Every cabbie you talk to, will always whine about how tough their living is. What else is new? In fact, if you talk to anyone else, if they aren’t whining about how tough it is to earn money, they will whine about their financial burdens and how they wish they could earn a few more bucks a day! So, let me repeat this like broken record, most of us don’t have an easy living too. So, there is no reason whatsoever for us to make it easier for anyone else. There is no reason whatsoever for us to feel sorry for them if their lives are tough. It is almost unlikely anybody will feel sorry for us, if we fxxked up.

Had the LTA, the PTC and the vampiric transport operators done any soul searching at all, they would know for a fact the surcharges is the very evil system that’s creating a problem and it should be eliminated. They should have done away with it and replace it with a high flag down a long time ago and that would have dealt with the problem of cabbies hiding, ‘taking a break’, or driving around until they get a call.

Frankly, is it my fault if I want a cab in town after work during the so-called ‘peak hours’? Don’t ask me who’s the wise crack that designed the city this way where you have a large number of people concentrating at parts of the island at specific times. And I am supposed to pay for this design flaw?! LAN CHEOW, ok?!

In fact, a clamp down on call booking by barring cabbies from receiving a call booking if them cab has been empty for more than 15 minutes would force them to take that time to drive to the areas where the demand is. And when they received a call booking, they should bear the call charges all on their own, while we shouldn’t even need to pay a cent more, because they are being told to go to where their business is or else they would have to go look for it.

In fact, the so-called ‘World Class’ satellite system in the cabs should be used to inform the cabbies where the concentration of people are so they will know where to go to and leave them no avenue to whine about not being able to find a passenger while they languish 30 minutes in a queue in town or try frantically to call for one.

In summary, if life is difficult for these cabbies, it makes people wonder if half of their difficulties are not self inflicted. (The other half is of course, that of transport operators sucking their blood, and our wonderful gover-min supporting the invasion of Iraq, driving the oil prices up. Well, I know it isn’t exactly fair to blame the gover-min for the oil prices but they can consider this part of their $3 million a year pay package!)

Anyway, the operator’s high rental and high fuel cost is the cabbie’s problem. not mine! Just don’t expect me to pay for it because I am paying higher electricity tariffs due to it too but who is fighting for my pay increment? And who is always asking us to bite the bullet when the time is tough?

If these cabbies do not change their mindset, there is no reason for us to feel sorry for them at all. There should be no pity, and no mercy, until those who can afford a cab (or willing to pay for one), can get a cab as easily as any other cities in the world!

Movie: National Treasure – Book of Secrets

7 comments

Caught National Treasure: Book of Secrets at Bugis with Joyce (pinklittlefigure) after dinner at Sinma live Seafood at Geylang Lor 3.

An exciting, action packed movie in which Benjamin Franklin Gates (Nicholas Cage) looks to discover the truth behind the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, and clear his family name, by uncovering the mystery within the 18 pages missing from assassin John Wilkes Booth’s diary. There’s also a touch of ‘Indiana Jones’ in the movie nearer to the end (I won’t say what it is) to keep up with the suspense.

I learn a few things in the movie, for e.g. even though I know it is a gift from France, I did not know that there is a replica of the Statue of Liberty in Paris. I also learn the origins of the Resolute Desks and they are a pair, with one located in the Buckingham Palace, and another in the White House.

To some, these might be trivial to some but it’s things I never knew and I always like movies that are a little educational, though of course I am not suggesting that the ‘history’ presented in the Hollywood movies as truth. As always, anyone should always view the history context in Hollywood movies with a pinch of salt, and should never use them as their source of historical knowledge.

Anyway, I didn’t quite like the ending (because I liked Ed Harris). I would say the prequel is better because it has more originality. However, it’s still an exciting movie to watch. The pace of the story keeps you glued to the chair, though I would have wished for a better ending and for the story to be a little longer.

Movie: Alvin and the Chipmunks

2 comments
AatCM

One of the waitress in Glamor spilled 1/4 of the balance of our bottle of Wokka Saki and as a ‘punishment’ we got her to treat us to a steamboat dinner at 天下第一涮 in Geylang on Wednesday evening. (Wokka Saki is a wonderful drink… I ever downed half a bottle of that stuff in a night and no hangover the next day.)

After the dinner, we took her out to a movie at Orchard Cineleisure. She got to choose the show and she wanted to watch… Alvin and the Chipmunks.

For the sake of the ignorant, Alvin and the Chipmunks is based on a cartoon series about a music group of chipmunks comprised of mischievous group leader Alvin; tall and quiet Simon; and chubby, impressionable Theodore.

The story is about how the Chipmunks were uprooted from their natural home, end up in the company of songwriter Dave (whose songs ‘no people will sing’) and then rose to fame as a up-and-coming pop group.

It’s definitely a kids show and there were lots of laughter ringing in the cinema hall, and there were some parts that makes me wonder if it is a real reflection of the lives of pop stars. The part where the tired chipmunks were given ice blended coffee with whip cream and caramel makes me wonder if some pop singers are into drugs because their schedule so tires them out and their unscrupulous managers offered it to them to keep their tired bodies going. It also made me a little more forgiving to singers caught lip syncing, since well, what the hell can you do if your voice is blown to hell and you have a concert coming up that night? To cancel the show would mean losing a lot of money…

Thus, even though it is a kid movie, my thoughts wandered to who are ‘killing’ or ‘ruining’ these singers, treating them as the money tree and try to shake as much of it out of them before the soil get so loose that the tree collapsed as the roots could hold to the ground no more.

But hey, don’t make my usual wild thinking make you think the show is not funny. It’s still a kids show and it’s still pretty damn good animation with an acceptable storyline. Just don’t expect too much out of this of course, because it definitely isn’t going to be Oscar material.

No Comfort Here (V) – Public Transport Propaganda

6 comments

For the past 2 days since the taxi fare hike, we have been bombarded with news on a decrease in call booking for cabs, an increase in waiting time for a passenger, long queues of cabs at the airport and taxi stands etc.

I must say a great Thank You to everyone who has contributed to telling the PTC and these blood sucking cab operators how we really felt about the new fare structure. Let’s keep this up for more than just the usual 2 weeks and keep it going until the jumble of surcharges (other than the midnight and airport ones) are completely removed. And for those of you who felt sorry for their predicament, let’s not stop just yet. Remember, we are commuters, not a charity.

After all, these blasted operators will never wake up until their bottom line is hurt and the only way to hurt their bottom line, unfortunately, will be to drive some cabbies out of the trade by making life really, really hard for them. Above which, if some cabbies leave the trade it would sort of justify the new fare structure in terms of supply and demand. In other words, this is just business.

And if you still can’t help but feel sorry for the cabbies, don’t forget that as long as cabbies do not change their attitude in treating passengers, you need feel no remorse in seeing some of them hurting at all. It’s simply a well deserved retribution. Above which, there will be more good years for the cabbies when F1 and the IRs are here next year. In no time, the demand will return, or do you doubt the helicopter vision of our million dollar mini$ter$?

So, once enough cabbies are out of the trade, the choice would either be to continue raising the fare and drive more cabbies out of the trade, or these blasted operators will have to rethink their business model. I doubt they’ll care about the cabbies and they will just continue to squeeze them and commuters. After all, they think they have nothing to lose by forcing us onto the trains and buses

The public transport operators thinks that will be the end of story by driving us onto their buses and trains. But should we suffer in silence? Of course not. We should not stop at hurting this operators just at the cab level alone. Not only should we increase the heat on the cabbies by making them work hard for their money, we should step up our complaints regarding ‘elastic time’ intervals, long wait of buses, bus bunching etc.

Let us all report every single instance of such ‘outrages’ on STOMP, on the ridiculously trivial Stooge Time Forum and Voices on Today, and on our blogs to make the noise deafening enough that no one will believe the PTC and the Tali-PAP’s justifications to raise fares every year. When was the performance matrix ever met anyway, and every year they expect to squeeze us for some more?! LAN CHEOW, understand?!

Come on, Singapore. We can work together to do something about this ridiculous system. And let us not be swayed by all that comparisons with transport systems with other parts of the world. This is our system and when it does not live up to our expectations, it really doesn’t fxxking matter if it beats the expectation of Ravi from Mumbai or James Mok from Hong Kong!!

It’s time we fight back and hurt these transport operators in anyway and as best we could. When they raise our fares, we raise our expectations. When they do not meet our expectations, we raise a ruckus until they address our demands.

It’s not easy for any of us to make our money. There is no reason for us to give it to them that easily.

Asian Idol

4 comments

This must be the single hottest topic for the past 24hrs as it makes up 6 out of 10 of the top 10 posts on ping.sg. In fact, I think it has make a record on ping.sg itself as one post by haney actually had almost 750 pongs when this screen capture was made

This is not going to be a congratulation post to the winner, Hady Mirza. Nor will this be a post talking whether he deserved the title or not. There is nothing fair, or unfair in a popularity contest, but it is almost a foregone conclusion he will beat the 5 other contestants from India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines.

First of all, let me just categorically say that none of these ‘Idol’ contests has anything to do with talent. All these are popularity contests and all popularity contests is a competition of personal charisma and influence. And one’s influence would of course has a lot to do with his community – i.e. his race and his nationality.

Anyway, according to Wikipedia: “The voting procedure for Asian Idol requires viewers to send SMS votes for two favorite Idols, thus allowing contestants to receive votes aside from their respective countries. As consideration on population size among the participating countries, tabulation of votes are done through an ‘Equal and Even Cumulative Method’, wherein the total votes of each country are converted into percentages. The winner was determined through 50% viewers’ votes and 50% judges’ scores.“

When that’s the case, it is no surprise that Hady will win in spite of Singapore’s small population compared to that of his competitors. The answer lies in the per-capita penetration of television and of course, mobile phones. It is also decided by the nation’s affluence.

In simpler words, if you have a really large population, but only many of the people do not have a television, then you have a large number of people who won’t be voting. And the people who have television may not even be interested in watching the program in the first place.

Next, if you are watching the program, you must also have a mobile phone to SMS and vote. And while there are those who would truly vote for the talented, I am in the opinion that this is only a very small percentage. Most would vote along the lines of their community – i.e. nation and race.

Now, how often you vote, and how much votes one would get, would depend on their affluence. After all, you need that spare cash you can spend to vote.

And, thus, this is my superficial analysis on why it is a foregone conclusion that Hady will win. Many would probably disagree, but I am entitled to my opinion… even if it might be seriously flawed.

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