等得迫不及待的朋友们可以到百渡搜索一下就可以找到完整的小叮噹完结篇了。

Is the demand so high that the supply cannot deal with it? Or could it have been the result of the scenario below?

No wonder more people wants to own a car. * sigh *

Some civil serpents in the LTA ivory tower seem to believe (and would have us do the same), that this is true market forces at work. Is it really? Or just the supply refusing to meet the demand? It reminds me of countries dumping food into the sea instead of giving to starving African nations just to keep the prices high. The only difference is that the starving people can’t pay for the food, while in our case, we are willing to pay for a cab and yet we still won’t get it!

In fact, I vaguely recalled a Forum letter on the papers about Singapore having a higher cab per capita than Hong Kong. In spite of that, our cab services can’t hold a candle to Hong Kong. It seems Hong Kong really has a cab service that is really world class, because there were no usual articles by Singaporeans with the knee-jerk action to ‘set the record straight’.

Anyway, while taking a cab home some time ago, I spoke with a Comfort-Delgro cabbie, and was told that the device – which they called the ‘satellite’ – automatically assigns bookings to the drivers. They simply just press the buttons indicating how long it would take them to arrive at the pick-up location to confirm they will take up the job.

Refusing a call booking results in a penalty – i.e. they will not be able to pick up anymore bookings for the next few minutes. In fact, once they had refused three consecutive bookings, the device ‘is disabled’ for the next 30 minutes (or was it an hour?) as a kind of punishment. The device does not come free and costs several dollars in daily rental.

It is almost as if the priority is given to call booking. But of course, every call booking earns Comfort Delgro 50 cents, according to the cabbie. Now, I can’t help but feel that is the reason why cab companies drag their feet in dealing with the situation and the endless complaints. There’s no money to earn if it is easy for flag downs. And cabbies become their unwary accomplices because they are enticed by the extra earnings from each booking.

Sadly, passengers end up caught in between the proverbial rock and a hard place, and it is even sadder that some actually write in to suggest everyone pay more for call bookings. Talk about being brain dead or lacking in imagination.

Now, some cabbies wrote to complain they couldn’t get any passengers when they are out of the ‘town area’ (aka CBD). But isn’t it dumb to spend more than half an hour circling in a neighbourhood town trying to find the ever elusive passenger when they know where ready passengers are? Everyone knows it wouldn’t take more than 30 mins to get to town from any part of Singapore. These blasted cabbies should just calculate just how much fuel it would take to drive a empty cab back to town and decide for themselves if that cost in fuel would be more than wasting time looking for non-existent passengers.

Just how they continue to lament that life is difficult while real passengers try in vain to get through the blasted call-booking hotline, or languish in a queue in the heat somewhere is beyond me! And just pity the tourists who have no clue about call-booking! Uniquely Singapore, indeed!

How do I feel sorry for a cabbie that the company charges them $80+ – $100+ a day in rental in this case? Life is also hard for most of us so is it logical to expect others to make their lives easier for them? As a Michael Gleissner aptly wrote: ‘Why should I pay more for telling the taxi where his business is? I should get a rebate for that.’

And Mr Gleissner is being kind because I know someone who will say this: “L*N CHEOW!! You mean I should ‘reward’ the bastards for creating the situation in the first place?!”

Have a nice weekend!

Yes! That would save me $1.50. And this is where my nightmare begins.

By 0710 hours, there was no cab. So I had to call again to try and find out what happened to my cab. It took a minute or two before a sorry sounding operator came back to me and say, “Sorry sir, you cab is very far away. Can I get you another one?”

Just what the hell can I do? Of course get me another one, I thought. And yet another minute later, another cab was confirmed, this one coming yet another 5 – 7 minutes later. Time now: 0715hrs.

By the time the cab arrived, it was 0721 hrs, a small jam has started building up along the usual thoroughfare I take to join the AYE, and the morning rush hour jam has already begun along the AYE near the Clementi Road entrance all the way back to Clementi Ave 6.

Duration of trip: 27 mins. Arrival in office 0755hrs. Cost: $20.60 (incl. $4 call charges, + $2 peak hour surcharge.)

If the first cab come as it should: Travel time: 20 mins. Arrival in office 0730 hrs. Cost: $18.50

Estimated time I would have arrived at work had I took the MRT? 07:45 hrs. Cost? I think around $1.30.

No comfort indeed!!

Before I start, here’s message for some of those blithering idiots who thinks they are damned ‘kewl’ with their SMS and chatroom craps:

And of course, I also support good spelling. It’s not ‘pluck eu, fker’ when you want to say ‘fxxk you, fxxker’, alright?

Scum of the Earth Award

– that Richard Yong to slip out of Singapore ‘just after midnight’ on the day after the Official Assignee’s (OA) office declared him a bankrupt. Yong had cashed in on his three properties when he admitted liability for damages in the NKF’s civil suit and he did not report his new address to the authorities when he moved house. (It would be poetic justice if this piece of shit were to die a long painful death due to kidney failure. And some bureaucratic snafu should deny him access to dialysis.)

The Shitty-Porean Award

– that officers from the Central Narcotics Bureau have uncovered more than $200,000 worth of drugs in an overnight operation. Nearly 1kg of heroin and more than $5,000 in different currencies were seized in the raid. The 122 packets of heroin seized have an estimated street value of $224,000. Officers had ambushed the trafficker, a Singaporean-Indian, near the void deck of Block 546, Bedok North Street 3. They closed in after spotting him alighting from a Malaysian registered car. The trafficker was carrying a red plastic bag containing more than 100 bags of heroin when he was arrested. (Drug traffickers should be sentenced to death – by consuming in one single serving every single gram of drugs – they are caught with. If they don’t die from that the gallows will be backup.)

– that a 43-year-old man has been arrested and will be charged in court for making two bomb hoax phone calls – one about a bomb at Raffles Place, and another about bombs being placed at Orchard Road and Tanjong Pagar. He faces a five-year jail term, a fine of up to S$100,000 or both. (Just certify him mad and confine him to a mad house.)

The World This Week

– that while Anti-death penalty forces have gained momentum in the past few years, with a moratorium in Illinois, court disputes over lethal injection in more than a half-dozen states and progress toward outright abolishment in New Jersey. The steady drumbeat of DNA exonerations – pointing out flaws in the justice system – has weighed against capital punishment. The moral opposition is loud, too, echoed in Europe and the rest of the industrialized world, where all but a few countries banned executions years ago. What gets little notice, however, is a series of academic studies over the last half-dozen years that claim to settle a once hotly debated argument – whether the death penalty acts as a deterrent to murder. The analysis say yes. They count between three and 18 lives that would be saved by the execution of each convicted killer. (There is no reason to be humane to the inhuman.)

– that Wolf**kwit said he was forced to quit because emotions had got out of control over his girlfriend’s promotion, in an interview. Wolf**kwit defended his two years in office, saying he was proud of his achievements and had few regrets. (Say whatever you will. The world knows nepotism for what it is.)

– that Jimmy Carter has lashed out at Warmonger Bush’s presidency, calling his administration ‘the worst in history’ in international relations. (Much can also be said about Carter’s own administration… but in this case Carter is right.)

– that Warmonger Bush portrayed the Iraq war as a battle between the U.S. and al-Qaida and shared nuggets of intelligence to contend Osama bin Laden was setting up a terrorist cell in Iraq to strike targets in America. Bush, who faces a public weary of war and is at odds with Democrats in Congress over funding troops, said that while the Sept. 11 attacks occurred in 2001, Americans still face a major threat from terrorists. (Iraq has got nothing to do with al-Qaida or terrorism until you f**ked it up, Warmonger.)

– that U.S. federal authorities said a plot by a suspected terrorist cell to blow up New York’s JFK International Airport, its fuel tanks and a jet-fuel artery could have caused ‘unthinkable’ devastation. Authorities announced hey had broken up the suspected terrorist cell and arrested three men, one of them a former member of Guyana’s Parliament. A fourth man is still being sought as part of the plot authorities said was foiled in the planning stages. The plot allegedly tapped into Jamaat al Muslimeen, described by justice officials as an international network of terrorists from the US, Guyana and Trinidad. (These shitheads ought to be told that others are more concerned with the ‘business of living’, not dying.)

– that Cindy Sheehan, the soldier’s mother who galvanized the anti-Iraq war movement with her monthlong protest outside Warmonger Bush’s Texas ranch, says she is done with being the public face of the movement. “I’ve been wondering why I’m killing myself and wondering why the Democrats caved in to George Bush,” Sheehan told The Associated Press by phone while driving from her property, now called Camp Casey in honor of her son, in Crawford, Texas, to the airport, where she planned to return to her native California. “I’m going home for awhile to try and be normal,” she said. (There isn’t a need to bash Warmonger Bush anymore and so her backers moved on.)

– that in a rare public discussion of her husband’s infidelity, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham said that she probably could not have gotten through her marital troubles without relying on her faith in God. Hillary stood by her actions in the aftermath of former Bill’s admission that he had an affair, including presumably her decision to stay in the marriage. (Better she or Obama win. There should be no more Republican presidents for the next 12 years to teach them a lesson.)

– that Venezuela filed lawsuits against U.S. cable network CNN for linking Hugo Chavez to Al-Qaeda, and against a Venezuelan TV network for encouraging Chavez’s assassination. The move comes one day after popular TV network RCTV went off the air after the Chavez gover-min yanked its broadcast license. (Venezuela has oil or else the U.S. and its attacks dogs won’t give a damn about what Chavez is barking about.)

– that Chavez recently complained about a video game, Mercenaries 2: World in Flames, because it takes place in his country. He said it was an attempt to prepare Americans psychologically for an invasion. (There isn’t much you can do about an American invasion anyway, Chavez.)

– that Tony B-liar said his gover-min wants new anti-terror laws as he accused the courts and parliament of wrongly stressing the rights of suspects over national security. B-liar argued that the disappearance last week of three terror suspects under a form of house arrest resulted from British society’s mixed-up priorities rather than from gover-min mistakes. (Easy to say as long as those suspects are truly guilty. What happens when they are not?)

– that Lebanese troops blasted a ‘Palestinian’ refugee camp with artillery and tank fire, seeking to destroy a militant group with al-Qaida ties. The barrage smashed buildings and sent plumes of black smoke towering over the crowded camp on the Mediterranean. The fierce, two-day battle has killed nearly 50 combatants and an unknown number of civilians, raising fears that Lebanon’s worst internal violence since the 1975-1990 civil war could spread in a country with an uneasy balancing act among various sects and factions. (The ‘Palestinians’ cannot say that no one helps them when even they aren’t helping themselves by making even those who give them refuge fed up with them.)

– that backed by tanks and military helicopters, the Lebanese army has tightened its siege around the squalid Nahr al-Bared camp – a deadly stand-off that entered its third week – where militiamen from the Fatah al-Islam group are still holding out despite the army’s superior fire power. (Go home and fight your war, ‘Palestinians’. Don’t fight it elsewhere.)

– that detailed plans for the new U.S. Embassy under construction in Baghdad appeared online in a breach of the tight security surrounding the sensitive project. Computer-generated projections of the soon-to-be completed, heavily fortified compound were posted on the Web site of the Kansas City, Mo.-based architectural firm that was contracted to design the massive facility in the Iraqi capital. The images were removed by Berger Devine Yaeger Inc. shortly after the company was contacted by the State Department. (Why even bother to build it? Just leave Iraq to its own devices.)

– that the general picked by Warmonger Bush to be his war adviser said he has serious concerns about the Iraqi gover-min’s ability to take control of its country, no matter how much pressure is applied by the U.S. (Finding excuses not to leave already?)

– that the Chinese gover-min looks set to back down from its long-held intention of imposing real-name registration for the country’s 20 million bloggers following protests from the industry. In a draft self-discipline code for blog services published by the Internet Society of China (ISC), real-name registration is only to be ‘encouraged’ instead of being made compulsory. Gover-min departments have been promoting a real-name system for years, arguing it will force Internet users to watch their words and actions, and refrain from slander, pornography and dissemination of other ‘harmful’ information. (There’s nothing to fear from what everybody have to say as long as you pretend to hear but never listened to them.)

– that China’s former top regulator was sentenced to death on charges of corruption and negligence even as the gover-min stepped up efforts to tighten its food quality control systems. Zheng Xiaoyu, ex-director of China’s State FDA, was convicted of taking bribes and dereliction of duty. The sentence comes as lax controls over the safety of foodstuffs, drugs and other consumer goods have catapulted to the top of the national agenda following a series of public health scares from Chinese-made products. It also came on the same day as state media announced that China would introduce regulations creating a recall system for dodgy products. (Go after his family too. Surely, their families would also have benefited! And the same should apply to all corrupted officials.)

– that dozens of security guards wielding metal pipes made history this month when they spilt the first blood in the tobacco wars over the Beijing Olympic Games. State media reported that on May 1 dozens of security guards beat up workers taking a cigarette break during construction work on the National Stadium, centrepiece of next year’s Olympic Games. Olympic organisers are planning a smoke-free Games next year and legislation imposing strict curbs on tobacco use at Olympic sites will be announced on World No Tobacco Day. (Only in China. If only they would do the same in Singapore…)

– that as ethanol factories large and small have sprung up in China’s corn producing regions in recent years, they have begun to compete with animal-feed manufacturers for raw materials. (Ethanol and bio-diesel isn’t the miracle cure for our fuel problems. It is a problem in itself.)

– that U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates called on China to explain its intentions in undertaking a major military buildup that the Pentagon warns is altering the military balance in the region. “There is no question that the Chinese are building significant capacity,” Gates said. “Our concern is over their intent.” (Stop feigning ignorance. The intent is simply to modernise their armed forces. And if anyone talks about intent… what about the intent of U.S. in maintaining a nuclear arsenal?)

– that China’s military build-up is purely defensive, the deputy chief of the world’s biggest standing army said, amid US concerns over Beijing’s intentions. (China shouldn’t bother too much with the comments of the ‘peeping tom’ Americans. Anyone with a brain can see that the Chinese military might isn’t even anywhere near Japan’s, much less threaten America. Above which most Chinese equipment are at least 1 generation behind that of Russia, if not up to 2 generations behind their counterparts in Japan and the U.S.)

– that a Japanese court upheld a death sentence against a prominent member of a doomsday cult who produced nerve gas for a deadly attack on the Tokyo subway in 1995. Seiichi Endo, 46, was an elite university graduate in science who later joined the Aum Supreme Truth sect. (This is a mockery of justice! It’s 12 years and he’s still alive. Saddam didn’t even survived 1/3 as long!)

– that a resolution urging Japan to suspend the ‘lethal aspects’ of its scientific whaling program was adopted at global talks at the International Whaling Commission (IWC) annual meeting in Anchorage, Alaska, but prompted an unprecedented boycott of the vote. Adopted 40-2, the non-binding resolution was proposed by New Zealand and sponsored by other anti-whaling nations led by the United States, Britain, Australia, France and South Africa. Russia and Norway voted against it while China abstained. (Hunt whales in your own waters for all I cared. Hunt them outside and anyone has the right to sink those stinking, filthy whaling ships.)

– that Japan was warned it risks international anger if it includes endangered humpbacks in its annual whale cull, after threatening to pull out of the 75-nation IWC. Australia’s Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull said the two countries remained close allies, despite their differences over whaling. But Tokyo should realise the damage plans to hunt humpbacks were doing to its reputation. (Well, the Japanese hardly cared about their reputation. Denying the Nanking Massacre, denying the use of ‘Comfort Women’ by the Imperial Japanese Army, and denying that they launched a war of aggression against the rest of East Asia is hardly any more reputable.)

– that North Korea has ordered all its students studying in Beijing to return home for unexplained reasons. At Peking University alone, 19 North Korean students left for home before the week-long May Day holidays. The newspaper said one North Korean student at the university had reportedly quit the school and many others had submitted applications to drop out after being called home. (It’s time for them to return home for their religious classes to renew their ‘religious fervor’ in the Dear Lea-duh – Kim Jong-il, the god of North Korea.)

– that troops in Thailand went on high alert as a top court ordered the Thai Rak Thai (TRT) party, founded by ousted Thaksin Tham-sim Shinawatra, to be dissolved, after two of its senior members were found guilty of election fraud. As news spread across the Thai capital, tensions started to simmer as the nation braced itself for a prolonged period of political uncertainty ahead of new polls scheduled for December, and more immediately, the threat of a violent backlash by TRT supporters. (Tham-sim was bad. The junta definitely isn’t any better.)

– that with the threat of losing his family’s fortune looming large, Tham-sin Shinawatra wants to return home to fight a move to freeze his assets. And the gover-min has given him the green light – setting the stage for the long-awaited political confrontation. News of Tham-sim’s readiness to return home came even as the gover-min asked financial institutions to track down more than 20 billion baht that had disappeared from his now-frozen bank accounts. Tham-sim’s lawyer Noppadol Pattama said Tham-sim, who is now living in exile in London, is thinking about returning to Thailand ‘sooner rather than later’ to fight the allegations against him. (Tham-sim should send a double. The last time someone in-exile returned to his home country in South East Asia he ends up dead on the airport tarmac.)

– that Singapore has submitted to Indonesia its masterplan to fight haze, even as the latter’s forestry minister said the country was confident the bush fires would be ‘drastically’ reduced this year. Yaacob Ibrahim said that Indonesia had been briefed, and that he would go over next week to attend the third Ministerial Committee Meeting on haze. Various initiatives in the plan include helping the Jambi province tackle forest fires. (Would Yaacob take a pay reduction if the haze persists?)

– that when asked will the Malaysian gover-min change its economic policies midstream like it has done in the past, Najib said he had assured investors there will be no flip-flop in the Malaysian gover-min’s IDR policies. (Oh… that’s so reassuring.)

– that in a case that tested the limits of religious freedom in Malaysia, the country’s highest court rejected a woman’s bid to be legally recognised as a Christian after converting from Islam. The court has instead passed the ball back to the Islamic, or Sharia, court. For the past decade, Ms Lina Joy, 43, has fought a legal battle to have the word ‘Islam’ removed from her national identity card. Her appeal to the Federal Court centred on whether she must go to a Sharia court to have her renunciation of Islam recognised before the authorities would delete ‘Islam’ from the card. Sharia courts are unlikely to approve apostasy, considered one of the gravest sins in Islam. (She can just leave and go be a citizen elsewhere where they don’t put one’s religion on their identity cards.)

– that Lina Joy, at the centre of a religious controversy in Malaysia, has accused the country’s highest court of denying her fundamental rights in rejecting her bid to be legally recognised as Christian, The Star reported. Lina Joy’s comments came a day after Malaysia’s Federal Court rejected her attempt to win recognition of her conversion from Islam. (She should be glad she still had the opportunity to make a case. In other countries, she would be already dead. Seek asylum elsewhere where you can be free to marry your partner, Lina. 此处不留娘，自有留娘处。 [Translation: If there is no place for you here, there will be a place for you elsewhere.])

Singapore This Week

– that with Singapore’s economic numbers looking good in many areas, there wasn’t much of a surprise in the NWC key recommendation this year: That employers should give their staff a pay hike. But the NWC’s wage guidelines for 2007/2008 were also notable for another set of findings: Productivity growth headed south last year – the second year in a row it has fallen. Companies should dish out wage increments that can be sustained in the long run, which depends on productivity gains exceeding wage growth, he added. (The many who finds themselves with a lousy pay raise will wonder just how productivity is measured.)

– that Temasek Holdings is under investigation in Indonesia for alleged monopoly practices in the telecoms industry, an official said. Indonesia’s anti-monopoly watchdog said it would start interviewing witnesses after concerns that the company was in breach of the nation’s business competition law. The investigation centres on Temasek’s alleged cross-ownership of two of Indonesia’s largest mobile phone companies, Indosat and Telkomsel. (We can almost hear the cash registry sounding, just like it did in Thailand.)

– that after viewing the 30-second clip twice – where it clearly showed a young woman flying through the air and landing on the MRT track – and listening to arguments by Kwong Kok Hing’s lawyer and the prosecutor, Justice Choo Han Teck sentenced the former Asean scholar to a year in jail. The 26-year-old, who had pleaded guilty, could have been jailed for up to seven years for his act. Since the sentence was backdated to the day of his arrest, he could be out in a few days with a one-third remission for good behaviour. (Well, they should allow someone shove him onto the tracks and see if he’s agile enough to run to the other side.)

that Tan Chor Jin, who is better known as the ‘One-Eyed Dragon’, was sentenced to death by hanging for the fatal shooting of nightclub boss Lim Hock Soon. Rejecting his defence that his actions were impaired as he had been drinking before the incident and that his gun had misfired, Justice Tay Yong Kwang said Tan did not go over ‘the precipice of insanity’
. He was ‘clear headed’ and showed ‘clarity and coolness of thought’ when he carried out the robbery and shooting at the victim’s flat on Feb 15 last year. Tan had fired six shots. His actions after the shooting had the ‘hallmarks of an assured and accomplished assassin’, judging by the way he disposed of the pistol and made a quick getaway to Malaysia. (Finally they can get this piece of news off the local evening Chinese tabloids.)

– that rooms with a view of the F1 race are going to be very hard to come by. Apart from paying three to five times more for a room, there will also likely be a ‘minimum stay requirement’. To ‘persuade’ visitors to extend their stay, downtown hotels, especially those with a view of the street circuit, are mulling a ‘minimum stay requirement’ of as long as five days. (As if people got reasons to be ‘persuaded’ to stay in boring Singapore beyond the F1 race itself!)

– that the gover-min collected $91 million in the last financial year from ERP charges and this will go into funding gover-min programmes. Responding to a question by Potong Pasir MP Chiam See Tong, Lim Hwee Hua said an increase in charges on the city-bound CTE was required recently as average speed had gone beyond the threshold 45km/h. (As if that helps relieve the problem at all!)

– that soldiers in the SAF were given new powers of search and arrest in security operations, even as MPs voiced concerns over how such powers might be used – or abused. The House passed a Bill to amend the SAF Act, at a time when the country is grappling with threats to domestic security in a post-911 world. SAF personnel will now be able to search, arrest and seize independently when assisting civilian authorities in security operations, instead of having to rely on accompanying police officers. Some 400 personnel have been trained by the SAF Military Police Command and around 2,000 servicemen will eventually be trained for this purpose. The new law will apply to air and sea as well as land operations. (The framework to martial law is put into place. After all, they maybe a time when it is needed against other kinds of ‘terrorists’.)

– that the surge in dengue incidents has been attributed to two factors: Warmer weather conditions, which facilitate breeding of the Aedes mosquito, and the shift in the predominant dengue strain from DEN-1 to DEN-2. (Yet more to thank the Americans – and to a lesser extend, the Australians – for not ratifying the Kyoto Protocols.)

– that there are four virus strains, and recovery from one strain does not provide immunity from the other three. DEN-2 is prevalent in regional countries like Indonesia. (Does anything good ever come out from there?)

– that Singapore office rents are the fifth fastest-growing in the world, according to the findings of CB Richard Ellis’ semi-annual Global Market Rents survey of 176 cities. In the 12 months up to May, rents in Singapore rose 54% to S$104 per square foot per annum, or $8.60 psf per month. Singapore is now ranked 24th among the top 50 most expensive office markets around the globe. The city moved up 13 places from its No 37 spot six months earlier. It held 43rd position a year ago. (Including or excluding GST?)

– that some 60,000 civil servants serpents will get a mid-year Annual Variable Component (AVC) of half a month’s salary plus an additional payment of $220 next month. Announcing this, the Public Service Division under the Prime Minister’s Office said this payout is against the backdrop of good economic performance. The economy grew by 6.1% in the first quarter this year, compared to 6.6% in the last quarter of last year, it noted. (Then why so stingy in giving us more GST rebates?)

– that Philip Jeyaretnam, the president of the Law Society, has taken issue with Singapore’s approach to public sector remuneration, and in particular the remuneration of judges. Mr Jeyaretnam makes a number of points, including the following: ‘That it is regrettable that Singapore has shifted from a system of rewarding “contribution to gover-min” to a system where public sector salaries are correlated to private sector salaries; and that the very best of the high flyers in the private sector [whose incomes are considered for the public-private sector income correlation] may often owe their success to luck or an aura acquired as a result of market imperfections, rather than superior ability.‘ (Well said!)

– that according to data published in a report on the wealthiest cities in the world by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC), Singapore ranks 36th out of 70 cities based on GDP in 2005. A look at the rankings will reveal that, apart from Singapore, all the cities in the bottom half are in Second and Third World countries. Singapore’s GDP of US$129 billion pales beside other Asian cities such as Tokyo (US$1.19 trillion), Hong Kong (US$244 billion), Seoul (US$218 billion) and Shanghai (US$139 billion). In fact, we are only slightly ahead of Mumbai (US$123 billion). (We are only 36th out of 70 when those clowns are paid the highest in the world? Time to replace them with those from Tokyo for the same pay!!)

– that one in three nightspots, about 312 of them, have decided to go entirely smoke-free, come July 1. Another 89 have indicated that they will build smoking rooms or designate outdoor smoking areas. In all, 900 businesses, including pubs and bars, KTV lounges and discotheques, will have to make a choice either way once the smoking ban is extended to entertainment outlets. (Prepare to read on the news, of fighting which breaking out in these places when a smoker was unhappy because he was told off for lighting up.)

– that local mail will cost a cent more from July. For standard mail up to 20 grammes, the postage fee will be 26 cents. For mail up to 40 grammes, postage will go up from 31 to 32 cents. SingPost is making the revision to reflect the GST increase. For local mail of other weightage, Singpost will absorb the GST increase. (This is new. For once they won’t even put on the act of absorbing GST for all mails, and increase later while claiming they have not done so for ages.)

– that a record $26.2 million was spent on electronic gadgets as the 17th PC at Suntec City Convention Centre. This busted the expected target of $25 million in sales projected earlier, and the top buys were laptops and desktop computers, printers, digital cameras, mobile storage devices and MP3 players, according to the show’s organisers, Lines Exposition & Management Services. (The squeeze is not worth whatever discounts one can get.)

– that the High Court has rejected the Far Eastern Economic Review’s (FEER) application to use a British Queen’s Counsel to represent the magazine in a defamation case. According to court documents obtained, Justice Tan Lee Meng ruled that the defamation suit filed against FEER by Baby Lee and Lao Lee was ‘not sufficiently difficult and complex’ and will not require the services of Gavin Millar, a Queen’s Counsel. The Hong Kong-based magazine had said in its affidavit it needed the libel specialist who has successfully argued several high-profile cases in Britain, because of the complex nature of its defence. The judge noted that the fact that Queen’s Counsels have been admitted in the past for defamation cases cannot, by itself, justify their continued admission except in the most exceptional circumstances. (FEER should just forget about Singapore and not bother writing anything more about it. After all, we Singaporeans really luuurve the Tali-PAP. 66.6%, ok?)

– that at least 2 HDB flats were sold recently at prices not seen since the zenith of the property boom in 1996. A flat in Jalan Membina, in the Tiong Bahru area, changed hands for $675,000 – an all-time record for a 5-room HDB unit. During the 1996 market peak, the highest price fetched was close to $600,000. An executive apartment near Braddell MRT station in Toa Payoh went for $680,000, according to real estate agency PropNex – a whopping $150,000 or 28.3% premium over the official valuation. The price-tag was also close to the $700,000 record set 11 years ago. In both cases, the buyers had recently cashed in on en bloc sales of their private property homes. (1996 – All time high. 1997 – Asian Currency Crises. Ok, I am just being pessimistic.)

– that SCV announced its decision to increase subscription fees for all its channels. Citing rising content costs, the operator said it ‘had no choice’. But its decision has left some resigned viewers crying just such a refrain, given the lack of alternatives in the pay-TV market. While this is the first time SCV is raising its basic subscription fees across the board, it has – as in the past – found itself on the defensive, fending off suggestions of monopolistic behaviour. (It is what it is no matter what other names you call it, SCV.)

– that from July 11, SCV homeviewers will have to fork out $4 more in subscription fees across the board – the ‘first’ such hike in its basic pay-TV prices since the service was rolled out in 1995. Sports fans subscribed to the basic groups will, in addition, have to foot a $10-increase in fees for the sports channels, come October. (Always need to sugar coat the poison. Like: ‘This was not done since xxxx’. Frankly, Did I mention I have not said 恁老师 [read as nin lao shi] since 221BC?)

– that SCV maintains it does not enjoy a ‘true monopoly’. In fact, it counts free-to-air television and other entertainment sources, such as cinemas and the Internet, as its competitors. StarHub’s senior vice-president of Cable, Fixed & IP Services Thomas Ee states: “In Singapore, we believe that there are already other pay-TV operators, and free-to-air channels have always been an alternative to pay-TV from the perspective of consumers”. (From SCV’s assumed ‘perspective of consumers’ you mean? Just give us satellite TV, for some real competition.)

– that SCV was ‘not required’ to seek the approval of MDA on its decision to raise subscription fees as under the existing media competition code, MDA does not regulate the pricing of media services. Nevertheless, MDA added: “StarHub is required to inform MDA of any changes to its published subscription rates and it did so.” (Get real, Singapore! Even if approval was required, would the outcome be otherwise?)

– that DBS has raised its e-transaction fee for IPO applications, and the 100% increase is making some see red. Since May 23, retail investors who applied for IPO shares launched on or after that date, through the local bank’s ATMs and Internet banking, were surprised that they now have to pay $2. A company launches an IPO when it wants to offer shares to the public and to financial institutions ahead of a listing. The revision of charges also applies to bonds, ST-Notes, securities and rights that come under its Electronic Security Application. Customers were informed of the new charge when they asked for these services. But they are questioning the need for a hike – especially as other local banks have not budged on their $1 transaction charge. (Just use other banks. The other banks’ ATMs almost never have queues, if the queues are not always shorter in the first place.)

– that electricity tariffs for the next three months will go up by 8.83% – an increase of about 1.6 cents per kilowatt per hour of electricity. SP Services attributed the hike to fuel oil price increases of about 20%. The latest tariff increase comes after two downward revisions since the start of this year. (* yawn * The only thing that rises the slowest is our pay.)

Trivial, Jokes and Thoughts from Discussions

– that it was reported, when Ah Meng suffered from constipation, traditional Chinese medicine was used to help the great ape pass motion. (Did someone showed the poor thing the King Kong Movie? Must have scared her shitless when she saw how it got shot to death by airplanes and fell from the Empire State Building.)

– that the police have arrested two teenagers believed to have been responsible for vandalising 16 vehicles at a carpark in Sengkang. The 15 cars and one motorcycle were spray-painted and vandalised with marker pens. They were parked at different levels at the multi-storey carpark at Block 325A, Sengkang East Way. Police learnt from residents that the two youths were seen loitering in the vicinity of the car park shortly before they allegedly committed the offences. (Kids these days are getting more and more unbecoming. The parents should be fined.)

– that in China, people eat more pork than anywhere else in the world except Germany. (Well, someone has to cleanse the world of those filthy pigs. Thank the Chinese and Germans for taking up this unpleasant task.)

– that blog aggregator Tomorrow.sg has been served its first legal letter after publishing an allegedly defamatory posting about a timeshare company, a move that has set the local blogging community abuzz. The five-paragraph letter from law firm Gurdip & Gill, acting for the timeshare company, was delivered to the site’s editor on May 23 this year. Signed by the firm’s partner Jagjit Singh Gill, it insisted that the site remove the heading from a blog post dated Oct 22, 2006 that described the timeshare company as a ‘scam’. (‘Baiting’ consumers with a gift to go listen to a sales pitch for a travel package may not be a ‘scam’, but many certainly have had enough of them.)

– that MediaCorp Radio has been fined $15,000 by the MDA for airing a segment deemed ‘controversial’ on a morning show on 987FM. The radio segment in question was entitled “No Bra Days With The Muttons” and involved DJs Justin Ang and Vernon A [The Muttons] timing how quickly wannabe models vying for the popular FHM Girl Next Door Award 2007 could remove their bras – without removing any other clothing. When quizzed about the stunt, the MediaCorp Radio spokesperson that at no point were the contestants forced to participate and, in fact, they had accepted the challenge voluntarily. (Darn. There goes the possibility of 987FM inviting SPGs to show off how fast they can remove their ‘sarongs’ and get in bed with chow angmohs. Just what the hell is the problem now when the little bitches themselves have no objections to removing their bras? Who gives a flying dank even if they removed their panties?! Maybe except the MDA and a whole bunch of local papers.)

– that U.S. prosecutors said they captured a nefarious Internet marketer responsible so much junk e-mail they called him ‘Spam King’. Robert Soloway, 27, was arrested in Seattle, Washington, a week after being indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of identity theft, money laundering, and mail, wire, and e-mail fraud. Between November of 2003 and May of 2007 Soloway ‘spammed’ tens of millions of e-mail messages to promote websites at which his company, Newport Internet Marketing, sold products and services, according to prosecutors. (Even 1 minute of jail per spam he sent would be a long sentence for him.)

This is quite interesting.

There are two reasons why I would even know who Chan Soo Sen is. And one of them is because of Joo Chiat’s ‘Little Vietnam’. The other reason is, if I recalled correctly, when Chan was asked about his reduced majority after the vote count in the last GE, he made the comment that ‘people maybe voting for the opposition because the the times have gotten better’.

Perhaps. And when I ‘listened’ in between the lines, it suggested to me that the residents are ungrateful for the good work he and his party has done, though let me make it clear I am just thinking out loud and I am NOT accusing Chan of meaning his comment any other way.

But before you become indignant about what has transpired, remember: if you have voted for the Tali-PAP, if you ‘shhh’ your friends when they complain, if you don’t give a shit and think the opposition can’t make it anyhow, if you are afraid they would find out if you vote for the opposition, if you are afraid that the world will stop spinning without the Tali-PAP, then you are a part of what created this little ‘predicament’.

66.6%, dudes. Pat yourself in the back for a job well done. Or if you are the other 33.4%, then join me with a mug of beer to drown our misery.

But I applaud this lady, because she has her photo on her blog and there’s a possibility she might even get into trouble for what she has written.