Category: Rants

Daily Discourse – STARiS

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TODAY [November 8 2008]
– Leong Wee Keat

Can’t hear the name of the station when arriving at the next stop? Wondering whether thedoors will open on the right or left side? Soon, commuters can use a new onboard rail travel information system to find the answers.

SMRT, which operates the North-South and East-West lines, put the system – which includes a new route map and information system – on trial on one train on Friday.

Unlike the existing static route maps in trains, the new map mounted above all train doors will indicate the direction of travel with a series of lights. A red light will show the current station, while a blinking red light will indicate the next station.

A series of green lights will indicate which line the train is travelling on, and the direction of travel. The route map will also have a “door opening” indicator, to show which side of the train the doors will open. Information about terminal and interchange stations will also be shown.

In addition, a fluorescent unit – similar to those seen in 21 trains here – will be mounted on train ceilings, displaying multi-language text synchronised with in-train audio announcements.

The system, called STARIS, was developed by SMRT over two months. It will be installed on all 106 SMRT trains after the trial ends in January. The entire installation would cost the train operator around $12.72 million, and should be completed by 2010.

SMRT deputy president and chief operating officer Yeo Meng Hin said costs would not be passed on to commuters: “It is a service issue and not a fare issue.”

Commuters on the trial train gave their thumbs up. Frenchman Franklin Huber, 26, said: “It helps to tell where you are going. The trains can be quite noisy so we may not hear the announcements.”

Finally! It would have been well done and a pat on the back but what took you fellows so long? After all, the trains have been running since 1987. Thus, SMRT COO Yeo is right to say that this is a service issue and not a fare issue because this should have been implemented for ages.

But there’s something puzzling here. Why is there the need to develop the system when STARiS looked just exactly like what I saw on the Hong Kong MTR trains when I was there in August? Did Singapore once again reinvent the wheel, just like they did with our EzLinkItchyLink card when Hong Kong already have a similar system in place – the Octupus [八達通]?

Furthermore, will this be shared with Comfort Delgro, which is operating the N-E Line and have them pay for part of the development costs so they don’t have to re-re-invent the wheel again? Just why spend money to reinvent a technology that is already available when you can pay the money to obtain it? It makes one wonder what cost analysis was done on this matter to come to the conclusion that developing it is cheaper than obtaining it from overseas.

Either way, I have not much faith in believe that this cost won’t be passed to commuters. After all, if it’s not energy prices, then the justification would be operating costs – which will cover wages, maintenance of the trains (including STARiS), the tracks and replacement of the trains. Just how SMRT justify that it isn’t passed on to the commuters at all will be hard to verify. Above which, even if this was taken from part of the previous record profits SMRT has made to cover this… it simply means the cost has already been passed to commuters.

Oh well…

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Weekend Discourse – Town Councils and Lamer Brothers

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Below is an excerpt from pg. A25 of Mypaper [我報] on Friday, 7th November 2008

I was surprised to read that town councils sank part of their funds into Lehman Brothers-linked minibonds.

Dr Teo Ho Pin, coordinating chairman of the 14 People’s Action Party town councils, has said that the investments make up a small percentage of the town councils’ total funds…. – Gilbert Goh Keow Wah

As my colleague and best friend showed me this article, I was once again incensed and brought back to the day when the town council said operating costs have increased and thus there is a need to raise conservancy charges.

And then I got more incensed when I remembered the day when I discovered that they have actually accumulated millions of dollars in sinking funds. And I have always asked this question, Where did all these extra money come from if the town councils are not already overcharging us?

We cracked some jokes and speculated on how that money came about over lunch, but I am not free to share them as they can be potentially libellious. None of us wants to clean our asses to do time and get free ‘kari rice’ in a Tali-PAP jail.

Anyway, as the news that they have lost money in LehmanLamer Brothers-linked minibonds sink in, more questions begin to form in my head. And the first question I have to ask will be directed at Teo Ho Pin. How much of public money meant for the maintenance of the town is lost? Which town council is hit the worst?

My next question, will be at the two opposition town councils, What about you guys?

My third question, whom one of my other colleague having lunch with me pointed out, is directed at the MAS and the banks. How can anyone now even say that those individual investors who are seasoned or better educated should know the risk and thus they should expect nothing back from their bad investments?

The reason this question must be asked is because when the town councils which would be better advised than any single individual can be on matters of investments have also screw up, how can we expect individual investors who have less resources and are probably even less informed to know the risks?

My fourth question, is at the town council. Who is making these investment decisions? Shouldn’t someone be held responsible for this fiasco now?

Or is it like Wall Street where CEOs takes their nice little bonus and share option packages while things are well, and just throw up their hands, declare bankruptcy and leave the mess for the taxpayers to clean up? Frankly, I must say, from the NKF to our town councils, the continual justifications to maintain a large amount of reserves is becoming annoying. Is it not a time to decide on what that figure should be – revised every few years – and give a proper accounting on them, even when we understand why it is even needed?

And my final question, is also at the town council. With so much freaking sinking funds, and in view of the impending economic downturn, should the town council not now use some of that money to alleviate the burden everyone have to bear, by lowering conservancy charges?

Frankly, just when the hell did you clowns become some kind of bank or profit-orientated organisation? Is your main job to maintain our town and serve us, or just another big ass organization that cares only about your Profit & Loss sheets? Or perhaps town councils are really un-necessary, but just another unemployment sink where jobs are created the unemployment figures don’t look so bad, while at the meantime clean up some figures from the gahmen spendings so it doesn’t have to make provisions for the ministry / department for city maintenance on their annual budget?

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Daily Discourse – Singapore Taxi Drivers

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The Taxi Driver is one of the most protected profession in Singapore. And I am not saying this lightly. I am sure you would agree with some of the examples I am giving below as support to my statement.

  1. They complained it is ‘unreasonable’ to expect them to enter the CBD with an empty cab because of the ERP charges, and a CBD surcharge is argued as a form of incentive for them to ply the streets in the CBD.

  2. They complained it is not fair for them to pay ERP charges for commuter alighting at the IBM towers, and commuters end up paying even when they are alighting outside the CBD.

  3. They complained that the diesel costs is too high, a 30cents diesel surcharge is slapped on commuters!

  4. And this is the best part… when we complained that it is difficult for them to get a cab in CBD during peak hours, a peak hour surcharge of 30% is slapped on the commuters – victims of cabbies who refused to pick up street hires – so cabbies can be enticed to enter the CBD.

  5. When we complained that even calling a cab is difficult as a result of the above, call charges during peak hours are also increased! Just why are passengers made to pay for telling cabbies where to get business is beyond me!

It wouldn’t be so bad had any of these sweeteners translate into an improvement of the cab service for commuters. Yet, the problem commuters face remains the same, while these surcharges just continue to mount, and encourages cabbies to remain recalcitrant. How the LTA continue to justify maintaining this unwieldy system that punishes commuters is perhaps only understood by the high level car-driving civil servants serpents of the LTA in their air-conditioned offices – the modern day equivalent of an ivory tower.

It doesn’t freaking matter to taxi drivers that being self-employed, and thus ‘businessmen’ in their own right, these operating charges should part of the operational risks that they should bear, along with traffic fines, congestion and accidents! Frankly, who listens to the entrepreneur who complains about the rising electricity tariffs, or even SingTel raising the fixed line charges by $10? No one is going to give any of these guys a bail out, but here we have the taxi companies acting in concert to pass all of that costs downstream to you and me when it is no fault of our own. No wonder even other businesses now shamelessly pass all the costs to their customers – such as when there is a cost increase in sugar, rice or egg prices!

Thus, it is of no surprise that some cab drivers can afford to wander around the street and ignore passengers flagging frantically for a cab or ignore the long queues in taxi stands. It is also not a surprise to find some cabbies doing side trades as pimps. They can also afford to disappear from the streets until the fares are in their favor, or reject passengers citing a myriad of reasons ranging from having an advanced booking, servicing or changing shift! And if you know which coffee shop to look for them, you can at times listen in to their chats and hear them boast about their earnings. Yet at the meantime they play up to the media just how difficult it is for them to earn a living.

And if you are wondering just why they are so protected… the first reason is the well being of taxi companies are intertwined with the taxi drivers’. If taxi drivers quit, taxi companies will end up with a large fleet of cabs rusting away and they will have a tough time explaining the losses to shareholders. Thus, you will only see taxi companies help their drivers by collaborating to pass the cost to commuters, but never by cutting rental. But still, taxi companies is really not the main reason why taxi drivers are protected.

The most important reason is the taxi driver profession serves as the proverbial carpet where Singapore sweeps its unemployment problem under. A lot of folks in their mid- to late-thirties usually end up as taxi drivers during recessions. Taxi drivers are where a part of Singapore’s unemployment problem is hidden, along with homemakers and students. In short, as long as taxi drivers remained in their trade, they will not show up as unemployed!

I suspect that is the real reason why Singapore taxi drivers are always protected under a jumble of surcharges, giving the recalcitrant ones the loopholes to screw commuters several times over. Frankly, if the LTA is really into a people-centred land transport system, I reiterate again that the correct thing to do will be to raise flag-down charges for cabs substantially, and do away with the insane surcharges – except the airport and midnight charges, of course.


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Obama Wins U.S. Presidency

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Against all odds, 47-year-old first-term senator Barack Obama from Illinois has won the Presidency and will be the 44th President of the United States. History has been made, be it for better or worse.

The heavens here broke, as I read of McCain conceding to Obama while having my lunch at a coffee shop along South Bridge Road. Superstitious Chinese would have wondered if that was tears of joy, or weeping in sadness.

Whatever the future portends, let’s hope President-Elect Obama will have the courage and wisdom to do what is right for the U.S, and reverse some of the obvious idiotic policies of the George W. Bush AdministrationRegime. It is certain that with the impending global recession, any more foul ups in the US isn’t going to be any good for the rest of the world.

Regardless of my apprehension and disagreement with Obama’s liberal stand on homosexual civil unions, I hope I can really look forward to some change which can be believed in.


See also Senator McCain’s concession speech on Youtube. Applaud the man for his graciousness in the face of his defeat, a defeat that is no fault of his own, but that of George ‘Warmonger’ Bush.

Random Discourse

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“Work smart, and not work hard!” has become the slogan in the corporate world along with “It’s more important to be effective than efficient”.

Nothing so wrong with both, since to be efficient all you need is a robot and working hard also doesn’t mean you are a good worker. Unfortunately, some people have become quite ruthless in working smart. They ‘outsource’ even their thinking to you so you will be doing all the hard work and all the thinking, while they leech the end result off you. Just too bad they continue to receive their pay for doing nothing, while you get zilch for it.

An example of such people are those who come and tell you that there is this particular problem, what the suspected cause could be, and then ask you whether his suspicions are correct. This means that this person has been previously told what are the possible causes of a particular problem and possibly even the solution. This isn’t the same as someone having no knowledge whatsoever on what this problem maybe and where to look for the solution.

To be fair, while the reason he asked maybe a lack of experience in dealing with the problem, or is too timid to attempt the solution as it maybe tricky or hazardous, it is hard to view it as such when this person repeatedly shows no initiative in attempting to solve every problem on his own. It gives you the impression that this person is more than timid, he is simply being lazy!

Anyway, the usual outcome would be you verifying whether the conditions consistent with the suspected cause are present since this person apparently has done nothing whatsoever to confirm them. In short, they outsource the entire mental process to you while they sit back, relax and wait for you to give them the answer. And by the time you are done, you probably would have gotten to the solution as well and they would have done nothing. (Of course, one can always give this person a chewing out but then you will have no clue how this person would take it, or whether this person won’t deliberately screw it up to spite you.)

While thinking over it, I suspect it might not be a case that the person is being lazy, or timid. But rather, he’s effectively working smart! He makes you angry while you do all the work, and he sits back and just take earn his pay. And most of the time, everyone else would be too angry to even think of the possibility!!

And it has come to my notice that a lot of the people who works this way are usually of foreign origins. Now, is it of wonder why they are called ForeignFallen Talents, while we Singaporeans are looked upon as idiots by even politicians from Taiwan?

It’s perhaps high time we return some of these economic parasites the favor.

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