It’s sad to learn about yet another tragedy in water sports. But something about what the victim’s sister had said in an interview bugged me. I’m not sure if she had said so out of grief; grief might influence a person’s perspective. During the interview, she was questioning the authorities for not making life jackets mandatory for water sports, it could have prevented the tragedy from happening. It really made me wonder.

For one, do we really need rules and regulations in every aspect of our life in order to survive? To what extent should the authorities implement regulations to protect the lives of the people? Are we so protected by the regulations that we are unable to use our common sense in making judgments? I’m sure the victim knew his limitations in swimming, shouldn’t he have taken precautions? It was his own life after all.

The law prohibits drunk driving, but there are still lots of people around who drive after drinking. Some drivers can still drive safely when the blood alcohol content is above usual levels and obviously, some can’t. It’s a matter of good judgment and knowing your own limits.  The loss of lives cannot be prevented unless people care about themselves and ensure their own safety.

Sure enough, this fatal incident could have been prevented but really, who should take up responsibility? Should it be the authorities for not making life jackets mandatory in water sports? The sailing team for not insisting that weak swimmers put on life jackets and allowing them to join the team? The victim for not protecting himself? Sports should be a enjoyment for those who love it and it can only be so if sportspeople take good care of themselves while indulging in it.

Peace to the grieving.

while surfing the net i came across the photo gallery of a local photographer. he has some very charming landscape pictures of singapore. i never knew our sunny island had such beautiful sunrises and sunsets. in some pictures, the textures of the skies are stunning. there are quite a few of his pictures that play on symmetries too.

these are quite inspiring.

my friend was pointing out something funny in local blogger mr. miyagi’s blogpost from dinosaur years ago (no idea why she dug up the post) and something sounded weirdly familiar.

I remember one year in primary school, the teachers suddenly told us we had to change our names on the register. It was all well with me, seeing as my surname started with the same letter whether or not you pinyinised it. But many ‘Chias’ and ‘Cheahs’ were upset they were put at the end of the roll as ‘Xie’, as were ‘Chows’ who became ‘Zhous’.

so i thought i went through the same process until i figured out that it couldn’t be so because there’s a gap of about 20 years and knowing singapore’s efficiency in implementing changes, it couldn’t be round I and round II of name-changing-campaigns.

then i figured it out: it was just some bizarre capriciousness of the authorities.

the one mr. miyagi went through was the change from dialect names to pinyin names. the one i went through was from pinyin names to dialect names! i entered primary school with my pinyin name and somewhere along the way my index number in class was changed from 7 (chen) to 30-something (tan). for a period of time the entire class of 7 year olds was very confused because we had no idea which name to use when filling up forms and worksheets. to minimize confusion, the teachers told us that from then on, we were to use our dialect names and ignore our pinyin names. since then i’ve abandoned my pinyin (sur)name and i’m always momentarily surprised to see two names on my official documents.

it appears that a lot of the younger kids no longer have dialect and pinyin names. they usually have their surnames in dialect and first names in pinyin and they live their lifes without the confusion of multiple names. not that the kids nowadays use their pinyin names, most kids have a funky english name.

i’ve always thought the dialect names have more character to it, anyway.

that’s right, if you don’t see it, it’s not there.

the world’s heading for a recession [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8]  and singapore isn’t? or at least that’s what tharman shanmugaratnam says. is our economy isolated from the U.S. economy or what? oh man, no wonder our ministers deserve their pay hikes, it must be hard on them steering our economy away from recessions. they did such a good job i wouldn’t even be aware there’s a recession, if not for internet media.

“But there will be discomfort on the ground. Unfortunately, the fuel price increase in Malaysia does mean that vegetable, poultry and some other prices will go up. We can’t avoid that. Fortunately, rice prices globally are coming down.”

yes, we should be so thankful that the price of rice is coming down despite the prices of everything shooting up. i bet the rising prices of vegetables, poultry, fuel and other commodities are not as important as the prices of rice. rice is everything, i tell you. i thought the word “discomfort” was a gross understatement. to those who are comfortably employed, the rising prices might make just a slight difference to their spending habits. but imagine those from the low-income brackets, how are they gonna handle the price increases when their budgets are already tight? are they going to feed on plain porridge three meals a day (that is, if they can still afford three meals a day) because the price of rice is coming down?

“But we’re tackling it, and we’re confident of tackling it - both through the government’s measures, the Growth Dividends, the GST Credits, as well as the way in which you see a lot of community initiatives on the ground.”

if i recall correctly, was MM Lee saying something about complacency? now, what’s this then? confidence is one thing and overconfidence is another. i am waiting to hear some solid suggestions on easing our economy out of the recession and long-term solutions to rising consumer prices. i don’t want to hear assurances coming from the government. these assurances are just telling me that they are possibly still in a state of denial and it worries me. does assurances push down consumer prices? will assurances stop the economy from slowing down? will assurances help me get a job when i graduate?

i don’t want to hear about the government giving out $75 twice or thrice in a year so that we can overcome the GST hike or inflation. how on earth are these handouts supposed to see everyone through a recession? community initiatives are just short-term solutions for those who require it. is the community able to endlessly provide help? what if the pool of people who requires help grows faster than what the community can provide for?

time to do something about the recession which is right in your face, dude.

i got this post-it pad from cedele depot last year. they must have put a spell on it cos that christmas eve is one i truly remember. there wasn’t anything much special about that day but it left a deep impression on me. half a year has gone by and that christmas eve afternoon at cedele depot keeps popping up in my mind each time i use up a sheet from this post-it pad.

maybe it was the way i had to hang out at raffles place on christmas eve. the area was a ghost town by late afternoon and i had to hang out till 8pm for the second shift at the redemption counter. most of the shops and cafe were closed and i gratefully found cedele depot open. i was the only customer around and the staff were taking the rest of the day easy. the female manager was bitching about some rebellious employee like a chao ah lian and intruded on my thoughts.

i was scoffing at the tagline on the post-it pad when the staff chucked it into my hands along with the handful of change but damn it, i do vividly remember the christmas eve afternoon spent there.

this is one of the very few christmas eves i still (and want to) remember. it’s totally weird how i’m blogging about a christmas eve which has gone by but i just thought i would, before the post-it pad runs out.

for once i kind of agree with what they’re saying. i think vivian balakrishnan is one minister with a hell lot of guts, saying things that he feels (and usually i agree with his stand) is right, even though it might piss others off. i think he’s more sensible than some other politicians though i can’t really judge cos i’m not that interested in sports and youth announcements.

anyway, who the hell came up with the terrible idea to promote singlish? i didn’t even know it was being promoted. it’s not that i don’t speak singlish. whenever i’m among singaporeans i spew singlish like a bubbling volcano. the thing is, so many singaporeans out there are so used to singlish, they lose touch with basic grammar. i’ve seen so many singaporeans writing or speaking what they think is standard english but the kind of grammar mistakes they make are grotesque.

before i continue, i admit that i probably make a lot of grammar mistakes too. i’m just another singaporean.

the point is, promoting singlish only works if singaporeans can comfortably switch between proper english and singlish. it’s totally fine to speak singlish if foreigners can understand the kind of “standard english” singaporeans speak. however, the “standard english” that we use are so tainted with singlish, foreigners often do not understand us at all.it may not be that bad if we’re living in a world of our own, nobody beyond singapore would care if mere 4.5 million people blabbered away in a language alien to them.

i always thought the average singaporean had a pretty good (or comprehensible) standard of english. it’s only when i came to australia that i realised people from all over the world find the english singaporeans speak totally weird. they were pretty surprised to hear me speak comprehensible english (or so they think) cos they had the impression all singaporeans can’t speak english properly. whenever i try and overwrite those impressions they have by telling them my standard of english is actually average and that most singaporeans can manage decent english cos it’s our first language, they look at me in varying degrees of shock. our first language, and all we can manage is this?

i don’t know why we bother to promote singlish if the typical singaporean cannot manage decent english and/or mandarin. i think singlish just worsens the situation and muddles the poor schooling kids who don’t understand why their essays are always covered in red ink marks.

this starting-salary and ease-of-finding-job thing is a huge mystery, i tell you.

first smu said their graduates get jobs with higher salaries within a shorter time (75% secured jobs before graduating).  now nus says their business graduates get higher starting pay and wah lau eh, 80% of their graduates secured jobs before graduating hor, siao siao.

this annual race provides me with much entertainment.

that is, until i start my job search in june. maybe i should start accumulating good karma now. i desperately need a good job. good as in something that would keep me happy and motivated, pay is secondary.

]]> http://yanyanyanyanyan.wordpress.com/2008/05/27/what-they-say/feed/ yanyanyanyanyan http://yanyanyanyanyan.wordpress.com/2008/05/21/costs-and-profits/ http://yanyanyanyanyan.wordpress.com/2008/05/21/costs-and-profits/#comments Wed, 21 May 2008 10:45:11 +0000 yanyanyanyanyan http://yanyanyanyanyan.wordpress.com/?p=954

i’m developing a very bad habit of criticizing everything i see in the local headlines.

so what’s the topic today?

SMRT announces that they’re gonna add 700 train trips per week, and it’s gonna cost them S$5 million per annum. such a generous thing to do. are we pathetic passengers supposed to be thankful to them for spending S$5 million so that we can ride more comfortably? with the fares we’re paying, shouldn’t that be the least to expect?

did anyone notice they didn’t mention how many more passengers they expect to ferry with these 700 additional trips? so the cost is gonna be S$5 million but the profits are gonna be? i couldn’t help but do a quick calculation: S$5 million / 52 weeks / 700 trips = S$138. so each trip is gonna cost them S$138. so they just need like, maybe 100 passengers to break even for each train trip? bottomline is, they’re still gonna make profits right?

it was also mentioned that additional train trips had to be included so that the passenger loads do not exceed 1,000 and 1,200. if i remember correctly, each train has 6 cabins right? let’s take a maximum of 1,000 passengers per train trip. that’s like a whopping 167 passengers per cabin?! no wonder i try all ways and means to avoid peak hour train traffic.

i know there are maximum passenger limits for buses and cabs, i seriously wonder if there are any for trains. the only maximum passenger limit i know of is when the passengers standing right at the doors get giaped as the doors close on them. considering this is singapore, i’m sure the authorities must have made contingency plans for terrorist attacks or train breakdowns in tunnels right? so if a train with 1,200 passengers catches fire in a tunnel, can all these passengers be safely evacuated within 5 minutes?

ok lah, whatever lah, as long as they don’t raise the fares again. me no money.

i was beaming with pride that i actually woke up at 8.30am without setting an alarm even though i slept at like, 2am the previous night. so i did my weekly groceries shopping bright and early and came back to log on to msn, wanting to share my sudden joy with everyone.

it was 10.30am singapore time and not many were online. it took me a while to realise that it was vesak day, dang.

i hate public holidays because my msn list becomes deserted and i can’t blabber.

oh well, hope everyone had a good day yesterday.

seriously, who the hell are they trying to kid?

Those from universities earn a starting salary of about US$2,000 and those from polytechnics receive US$1,400.

i wonder about the sample population they had when they conducted this survey. if starting salaries were this high i wouldn’t be so depressed about my impending job search, dude.

the article mentioned that about 93% of primary school graduates (or do they mean secondary school graduates?) move on to higher education but i can’t really tell what is so amazing about this tidbit.

He said in Singapore, there are 530,000 students, aged 6 to 18, in 354 schools.

and this piece of information is useful because….?

Singapore spends 3.3 percent of its GDP or US$5.8 million on education

i don’t know whethere spending 3.3% of GDP on education is sufficient because they haven’t included any benchmarks? maybe it’ll be a little useful if we know how much other developed countries are spending on education per capita. or how much of our GDP is spent on…attracting tourists and trying all ways and means to become an arty-farty city? or uh, on building more and more ERP gantries?