Connecting people

Nokia, connecting people. What a success by Nokia, now everyone is connected. Be it you are travelling in a fast moving underground train or up high at the tallest building, you are connected. Isn't it amazing. More than 99% of Singapore is covered with networks that allow you to start talking the moment you press dial on your phone. Most of our shopping malls are even equipped with free wireless network so you can get online on the go!

Connecting people; people are connected.

That, is a bad thing. Not really very bad until I want to demolish the whole telecommunication networks but it just has its bad points. Being a bias writer, I shall only discuss the bad points.

With more than 100% mobile phone ownership in Singapore (6 years back, it was only like 85%), we are expected to be connected all the time. If someone tries to call you for alot of time yet you are not contactable, you will be labelled as "got handphone but no use". That is one thing I really don't like about handphone. Why must I be on standby all the time waiting for calls? Why can't I have my own privacy time without people disturbing me from my peace? If there's really an urgent need to find me (ie emergency), leave me a message! Well, how often do I get emergency call? Most of the time it's just normal talk.

Sometimes, I wonder how do people in the ancient time (1990s) stay in contact with one another. Yes I know there's pager but that's in the later half of the 90s. Do people sit beside the public payphone talking to their friend while enjoying their mug of Tiger Beer at the coffee shop?

Times of pager already bring trouble for the people. Well, if you are too young, never seen one before and wondering what's a pager, I'm in the mood to explain it. It's basically a small piece of hardware around the size of one poker card which you carry it around in your pocket or clip it to your waist. HAHA. It used to be so fashionable to clip it at your waist (to show off of course). When your pagers rings, it means someone is looking for you and it will display the number of the caller. You then proceed to a nearby payphone and call back the person. BEEP BEEP.... RING! Connected. Should you want to know more, feel free to ask your parents.

Give me some time to enjoy my own privacy okay? At times, I just don't feel like to be online in MSN (not appear offline, just totally off my messenger). Why should I tell the whole world that I've turned on my computer and I'm now connected to the Internet. There are also times when I just want a quiet walk or cycle around my neighbourhood without anybody disturbing me.

Why is it becoming a norm for people to own a device to get themself connected to the world instead of it once being labelled as just a fashion item? Is staying connected really that important? Can't we have the option to remain un-contactable?

Friends, let's keep in touch but not connected.

Transport woes

Sad. Transport cost in Singapore is always on the rise. Never once has it go the other way. Living in Singapore needs alot of cents (and sense). Not only the cost of private transport is affected, public transport such as bus, taxi and MRT are affected too.

Nice try by Singapore to increase the price of everything just to show the world that our standard of living has improved. Singapore is the 6th richest country in the world. (Is it 5th already? I thought I read it somewhere but can't find the article now.) Indirectly, this is good news to us Singaporean but it's also bad news for the poorer community. As the famous quote goes, "the rich gets richer while the poor gets poorer". Is Singapore getting rich because of the rich getting richer?

It's really frustrating that the stupid transport cost keep rising without any major improvement in the service.

Talk about the rocketing price of petrol and diesel that directly affects motorist. My friends who drive complains daily about the rising petrol price. They are just pushing up the price for no big reason. It's like some company or organisation is controlling the price. Look! There's still plenty of oil reserve (though it's decreasing - duh) so there's no reason that the price should rise until this scary amount of $2+ per litre.

Diesel isn't any better. It once used to be a cheaper choice of oil but now, no more. It is almost on par with petrol price now. No wonder taxi companies are starting to charge 30 cents extra for diesel. As far as I know, taxi drivers are still enjoying a subsidised rate of diesel price. So why the extra 30 cents charge? Just to force us commuters to pay more?

CNG aka compressed natural gas price is rising too. People used to buy CNG powered cars because of its cheaper alternative. Now government wants to charge extra tax for CNG too. Time for us to go Orchard Road and riot? Pointless.

Public transport isn't spared too. Enough about taxi. Bus prices is always on the rise. The bus company will submit a proposal to the relevant authority about their price hike plan. Without fail, their proposal always get approved. It's just an action for the people to see. They are all under one big family, of course they will favour each other. Do we get better bus frequencies? I think it's the same. Are peak hour bus still crowded? No would be the answer when the moon stop rotating.

MRT. The worst. Perhaps it's the place where the ugly side of Singaporeans is shown. The rise in transport fee is as fast as bullet train yet our train is not even moving fast enough. The only fast thing about MRT is the buidling of railway and EZ-Link enabled fare gate. I hereby suggest that MRT should travel at a speed of about 30%-50% faster than the current speed. The frequency of the train's arrival should improve by 1 minute too. My wonderful suggestion will sure help to ease the jam in MRT during peak hour.

My friend Ben complained that his 5 years old son being forced to pay adult fare because he is well above 0.9m. Note: children below 0.9m travels for free. What about children that are early bloomer like my friend's son case? His son is towering slightly above 1m at just the age of 5. Thus, the adult fare. Isn't it strange? Maybe it's time our Singapore train providers start to revise this theory and re-engineer everything. Nowadays kids are growing faster than we can grasp. I understand that there is a special type of EZ-Link card which you can apply for oversized children. It's not publicly advertised nor the form is easily available. Only when you feedbacked complaint to them then they will give you the form after a long procedure.


Back to the ugly Singaporeans parading themselves in train. Oh before moving in train, let's start from the platform. Are Singaporeans so blind that they can't stand behind the yellow line, queueing orderly to board the train? Or is it that they can't read arrows? Bloody idiots blocking the train making fellow commuteres unable to alight at their destination smoothly. When the train arrives, they will start scanning inside the train for all the possible seats. Aunties would then whisper to their friend on which seat to hunt for when the door opens. Strategy game is fun.

On the topic "train door". For some very unknown reason, it's either you get a seat comfortably or you would be glued to the door fearing that the door would vanish. You scared cannot exit because the train is too full if you move inside? Open your damn mouth and say "excuse me". Singaporeans are easily excused.

That's the good thing if you asked. But most Singaporeans just don't ask. For example, they need a seat but that seat is occupied by someone else's bag. How? They would either grumble from the beginning of the journey to the end of the journey. Another alternative is to secretly take a photo of it (with heart pounding at 191 beats per minute for fear being noticed) and post it online. Mouth got stitched is it?

However, there's good example of mouth usage too. I've personally seen two case of people asking for seat from another passenger. It's obvious that they need the seat very much that's why they asked. For both case, they are given the seat.

My online friend A30A538C98931355AEEB6483CDE0F732 (name is encrypted because he doesn't wants to be named), everyday without fail, would send me SMSes on the unpleasant encounter he had in the MRT. I can understand his frustration but nothing I can do but exclaim the fact that we are stupid.

As this post comes to an end, we are left with two unsolved issues.
1. The ever rising price of transportation.
2. The never rising intelligence of public commuters.

What can be done?

2012

Have you heard about the 2012 prophecy? If not, maybe it's time you should start searching and read about it. Definitely, it's not a new movie.

Will the Mayan prophecy about year 2012 come true? Is 21^st Dec 2012 (21-12-2012) really the last day for us? So what if the prophecy is true? What can we do to survive this unknown yet greatest disaster threat to mankind?

I'm not here to discuss about the 2012 prophecy in details. However, I believe that whether we get to see the sunrise on 22^nd Dec 2012 or not, we won't get to live long either. Can't you really sense that the Earth is falling apart? The development of technology and degrading of environment is so fast that we can't even grasp.

Cyclone Nargis on 3^rd May 2008 at Myanmar (Burma).
Earthquake on 12^nd May 2008 at Si Chuan (China).

Suddenly, so many people died in just two natural disasters. So many people weeped. Sad.

I always think and wonder, is this a warning for us? If we don't start doing anything to save the Earth, we will all soon be gone for good. No number of heros in such disaster is enough to save everyone. Of course, earthquake and cyclone can be explained using science but it can't be predicted. The fastest action we could take is to evacuate before it his us in the face. But, must we really start taking preventive action after something happened? Why can't we try to prevent and stop it?

Start saving the Earth.

Whether the Mayan prophecy about 2012 is true or not, we got to start saving the Earth to save ourself. No one is out there in the universe to save us. Human beings is the cleverest and most advanced living thing in the whole universe. We create and invent things, we kill and destroy things.

With all the business and advertisments focusing and tapping on the recycling business now, it's more of a trend than a habit. People see the fact of bringing recycle bag as a trend more than a job to save the Earth.

Think Gaia. Save Gaia.

The Saving Gaia advertisment produced by Mediacorp that aired on TV caused alot of disagreements. Luckily, there's still people like me around who understand the message driven behind this whole video. It's not just about violence, it's about Earth's feeling.

2012, 4 more years.