A holiday observation.

I was out of the country last week for holiday. Although I do enjoy myself oversea but I never really like the journey especially at the airport. 

I do not mind being on a moving object like the plan, train or bus but I absolutely hate being in a long queue at the airport. I can never understand why the custom has to take so long every time. In fact the only country I find the custom is fast and efficient are in Japan and Singapore. 

Maybe Singapore welcome all foreigners so they don’t really care. I personally has not seen a long queue of foreigners waiting to clear custom at Changi ever.

A dumb thing I observe at the airport was why the airline allowed the frequent flyers to board the aircraft first even though they are flying economy.

Boarding sequence are there to speed up the boarding procedure so it is logical passenger sitting at the back rows are boarded first so they do not hold up the aisle. 

Children and old folks are ok to board first as they are slow and need assistance. Business are First Class traveller are ok too as there are less seats in there so they should be quite fast.

But letting a frequent flyers sitting at the front of the economy to board first to hold up the aisle is damned stupid.

These cheapo are the worst lot of traveller. If you want to board first please buy a first class ticket. They want to be treated as frequent traveller but yet are too cheapo to buy a business class tickets.

More stupid speech by Men In White

DPM Tharman outlines strategies to tackle inequality among citizens
01 March 2012

SINGAPORE: Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam on Thursday outlined four strategies in Parliament to tackle the issue of inequality among citizens.

The first strategy is to grow the economy, so as to raise income levels across all segments.

The second strategy aims to preserve and enhance social mobility starting from young.

Another strategy is to encourage a partnership with the community through voluntary welfare organisations and community development councils and lastly, to redistribute wealth among Singaporeans.

Mr Tharman said: "We will have to redistribute through a fair system of fares and tax benefits to provide significant benefits for the low-income group to keep up and upgrade, but avoid placing excessive burden on the middle income group. (This system) is there in all our budgets, including this year's budget."

As for the low income, Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam said there are already schemes in place to help them.

These include the Workfare and Comcare schemes as well as the enhanced housing subsidies.

Mr Tharman said these are major interventions made in the last five years and these measures are not new.

"What do taxes mean, and what do transfers and benefits mean over a lifetime for a low-income household? If you add it all up together, you'll find that for every dollar that a low-income household pays in taxes, they get back S$4 in benefits from workfare, housing benefits, healthcare benefits to education subsidies. This is a simple expression of how progressive our system is. Everyone pays some taxes because everyone should contribute to a better Singapore. But the low-income group gets back much more in benefits to support work, education and housing.

"In the last five years, the transfers we've provided to the lower income group, net of the taxes they pay, which is basically GST, and transfers net of taxes amounted to almost 20 per cent of their incomes. It is a significant increase from the previous five years. So, we've moved significantly in the last five years through a range of interventions towards addressing the issue of inequality and building an inclusive society. This is not new. This is not post-GE 2011."

But Mr Tharman added that benefits and transfers given to the low income must not end up as disincentives.

MPs like Mr Ang Hin Kee and Mr Edwin Tong had raised concerns about making sure Singapore does not end up a welfare state.

Mr Tharman agreed, saying that the government should be careful when it comes to giving out benefits.

He said the government has to be focused in its intervention strategies and these include addressing social mobility at the early stage and helping the lowest wage workers.

He said: "There are incentives effects if you provide too much benefit when your incomes are low. It is the natural workings of society. It's not that people are trying to gain on the system. It is natural human behaviour that you have an incentive to stay where you are and not upgrade or you will start losing your benefits. Every society has found this to be a problem.

"As you expand benefits, more people try to stay within the group that gets the benefits instead of upgrading beyond that threshold. We got to be quite careful, and preserve that drive to do better, learn a new skill and move your family up because that drive at every level of society defines us. It's not just the most talented people or the most educated that have this drive. It is actually that drive among ordinary Singaporeans that defines us. Let's not lose that and this means being focused in our interventions as we go ahead."

While extending benefits to those who need it, Mr Tharman was also cautious about suggestions to extend the Special Employment Credit scheme (SEC) to more groups.

These include homemakers, ex-offenders and single mothers.

Though he said Dr Lily Neo's suggestion to extend the SEC to those who did not attend special education schools would be addressed by the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports in their Committee of Supply debate.

Mr Tharman said: "The SEC is a major intervention in the job market. Not everyone faces the same disadvantage because some homemakers move in and out of work and they're not necessarily at a disadvantage when they come back. I would be very careful about extending what is considered a major intervention, in favour of older workers to more and more groups."

Moving on to the middle income group, Mr Tharman said one strategy is to raise the real incomes of the sandwich class.

This, he said, will help them cope with the cost of living.

He shared that median households in Singapore have seen healthy income growth over the past five years, at an average of 3.2 per cent per year, in real terms.

"This 3.2 per cent growth is frankly quite rare over the last five years. In Hong Kong and Taiwan, it was negative over the last five years for median income growth in real terms. There was positive growth in South Korea but it was lower than us. Most developed countries had significantly lower median income growth over the last five years so we haven't done badly."

Another strategy to help the middle-income group is to keep taxes low.

Mr Tharman said this is a very important feature of Singapore's tax system, which is lower than most developed countries.

He gave the example of how a middle-income family which owns a car gets about 80 cents back for every dollar in taxes they pay.

And the benefits are more for those who don't own a car.

Mr Tharman said: "If you don't own a car, even as a middle income Singaporean, you get back $1.50 for every $1 tax you pay over your lifetime. There are very few systems that provide this. And for those who want to have a car for the convenience because they have a large family or with elderly persons who need ferrying around, it's still a very fair system. There are very few systems where for every $1 of tax you pay, you get 80 cents back over your lifetime for the average household."




Its pretty ironic for a million dollar Minister to talk about income equality isn’t it?

These idiots in the cabinet are quite good at making things super complex and trying to sell shit to you as goodies all just to maintain there own millions dollar pay checks.

To hell with all the schemes.

All they have to do is to do away with GST for basic necessity, reduce the cost of public transports and public housing, make utilities more affordable and have a better health care service.

This is all it takes to make Singapore a better place to live in.

And if a certain MP, who stupidly drank water from the water tank with the dead maid, is to ask where to get the money.

You just cut the bloody pay for the Ministers and MPs and increase the tax for the bloody top 10% earner in the country. These people have enough money to last 3 life times while some Singaporeans are starving to death.

This alone make me sick to the core.

Overpaid idiot.

SMRT CEO apologises for train disruption
16 December 2011 CNA

SINGAPORE: SMRT CEO Saw Phaik Hwa on Friday offered her sincere apologies to all commuters affected in Thursday night's five-hour MRT network breakdown on the north-south line.

Speaking at a news conference Friday afternoon at the SMRT Headquarters, Ms Saw promised a full investigation into what caused the breakdown.

She said SMRT will learn from the incident and improve on giving better information.

"We do apologise especially those who experienced considerable inconvenience... What we can promise is that we will spare no effort in preventing such an occurrence," said Ms Saw.

"I will personally look into improving our incident management plan, especially in the areas of giving timely and better information, as well as crowd management, in both our stations and in the trains," she added.

SMRT cited a possible alignment problem in the rail system as the cause of the disruption, and deployed some 60 staff to test for alignment on Thursday night after the incident.

However, the exact point at which the alignment was off has not been established yet.

The disruption affected 127,000 passengers, and some 1,000 commuters were also trapped in each of the four trains that stalled.

More than 300 staff who were not working at that time were activated to help commuters.

SMRT acknowledged that the rail network has grown, and hence is more complex. It said this made it difficult for the operator to execute its emergency plans.

SMRT said it will review its standard operating procedures.

SMRT also said it will be working to improve its communication strategies. This includes possibly broadcasting recorded announcements in four languages.

SMRT has also apologised for the "income opportunity" template that was used by SMRT Taxi on Thursday following the train disruption.

It said this was a "very bad mistake", and the right template should have said "service disruption".

With her million dollar salary she still can screwed up.

This is what we call pay lots of money but still get monkey.

She should be sacked!

MP talking rubbish.

We’ve become a more gracious society: ESM Goh
Sat, Nov 12, 2011

Over the years, the level of graciousness among Singaporeans has improved, said Emeritus Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong on Sunday.

Speaking as the guest of honour at the first Singapore Kindness Movement conference, Goh noted that the habit of spitting in public is not as widely visible and common as compared to the past years.

He also observed that Singaporeans have grown more polite when speaking on their mobile phones at the public places, albeit there are still cases of people being inconsiderate.

“In my view, I think we have become more gracious,” said the former prime minister.

The Member of Parliament also mooted the idea of creating a “4G Home” which stands for “Great, Gracious, Generous and Green home” for the whole of the Marine Parade group representation constituency, which he represents.

This movement could later on be extended to the other parts of the country, he added.

Meanwhile, Minister of State for National Development and Manpower Tan Chuan-Jin, who is also MP for the GRC, said that Singaporeans can choose to be kind and gracious or not to those around them.

“We all make those choices every day. How we treat our family members, how we treat our neighbours. When we walk out and we see them, do we smile? Do we greet them? When we know they’re rushing, do we hold the lift for them,” he asked.

“All these little actions doesn’t cost you anything,” he pointed out, adding that doing such acts of kindness would eventually become second nature in people if done regularly.

Tan also reminded parents that they also had a role to play in instilling positive values in their children. For instance, he said that the way parents interact in public could have an influence on the behaviour of their children.

“Do we as parents pay attention to the way we talk in front of our children, the comments we pass about the neighbours, about people out there. We are sometimes very loose in the way we way talk,” he said.

William Wan, general secretary of the Singapore Kindness Movement Council, also stressed that the kindness movement is not a top-down but more of a bottom-up approach.

“This is a movement; this is not a government thing. This should be a people thing,” he said.

And this year’s campaign theme “Say Thanks, Make Someone’s Day” aims to ensure that Singaporeans are able to participate even through the simplest act of kindness, he said.

The conference was held in conjunction with the World Kindness Day which will kick off at Orchard Road on Sunday. Around 30,000 yellow gerbera daisies will be given out to the public and they are encouraged to spread the idea and pass it whenever they witness any act of kindness.



Has this guys been living in the cave for too long or maybe he built his ivory tower too high?

It is a joke that Goh comments that our society is more gracious, maybe when compare to 1 day ago but to me it has definitely gone from bad to worst.

If it is really a more gracious society now as Goh, MP for Marine parade, said then what are we even wasting tax payer money to launch this year Kindness movement reminding Singapore to say a simple “Thank you”.

Look around you Goh, look at the tissue reservation culture in our hawker. Opps I forgot you don’t have you daily meal there.

Look at people not giving up reserved seats to those in need. Opps I forgot you don’t travel on public transport.

Look at the amount of litters over the weekends. Look at the mess people created during meals. Do people thank those aunties and uncles who clean up the tables at foodcourts?

Step out of your damned comfort zone and see with you own eyes before passing useless views. You don’t live like normal Singaporean so you have experience how “Gracious” we have became.

Lui Tuck Yew talk for the sake of talking

New transport minister Lui Tuck Yew is digging his own grave towards the next general election.

He is talking rubbish and seem like Raymond Lim is going to have a majong kaki real soon.

Ordinary people like me can't even make sense out of what the hell is this million dollar scholar minister trying to say.


'Serious downsides' to WP suggestion
Transport Minister says taxpayers, even those who do not take public transport, may end up paying more
Jul 14, 2011

Singapore - The Workers' Party's (WP) suggestion to nationalise public transport "might seem like a very attractive idea" but it has "serious downsides" in reality, Transport Minister Lui Tuck Yew said yesterday.

Chief among these "downsides" is that "commuters and taxpayers - yes, even those who don't take public transport - are likely to end up paying more, and possibly, for a poorer level of service over time", Mr Lui added.

This is only HIS opinion and yet again we see the PAP using scare tactics tell you that YOU WILL PAY MORE even before studying how to implement this proposal.

Mr Lui's remarks on his Facebook page came a day after the WP reiterated its call for a National Transport Corporation.

The Transport Minister pointed out that, an entity that depends on Government funding and which operates on a cost-recovery basis, "would have little incentive to keep costs down".

Why can’t it be done? Just put the right person as the CEO and I am sure he can run the company well as a cost-recovery basis. Note the two companies currently are earning $161M and $54M profit and this a very big buffer.

Said Mr Lui: "Cost increases will be passed on to commuters. Over time, this will lead to higher costs for the same level of service, which means commuters pay higher - and not lower - fares. Not only would people have to pay more, nationalising the operators could result in a stagnation of service quality or efficiency over time."

Who is asking you to run the pubic transport company at a lost? You just have to operate it with minimum profit. In fact we have nothing to lose as now we are paying higher fare and no service.

Stagnation of service quality? Like PAP you meant? Bullshit lah! If quality drop just sacked the joker running the company and replaced with someone who can do it. I am sure you have lots of talented scholar in the civil service.

On Monday, SBS Transit and SMRT applied for the maximum increase of 2.8-per-cent for bus and rail fares. Responding to media queries, the WP reiterated on Tuesday its proposed transport body would not be driven by profit but would operate on a cost-recovery basis.

Mr Lui noted yesterday that "the profit incentive" of commercial enterprises "spurs efficiency and productivity improvements".

Huh? Now this Lui is really talking rubbish. Efficiency and productivity are method to increase profit, he don’t even mention service quality which I find is the most important factor in a service orientated company. Please don’t treat the public transport provided like a factory and commuter are just products.

Yes currently there are efficiency and productivity from the operator view point. By filling the bus and train to maximum capacity! This definitely improve the companies productivities.

While some have argued that the public transport operators should not be making high profits, Mr Lui said Singaporeans should also "recognise that as public-listed companies, it is not unreasonable for the (operators) to earn fair returns from the sizeable capital investments required to sustain their operations and to invest in future public transport needs".

So that is why we need to delist these companies and nationalised it! Are you listening to WP proposal at all Ah Lui? Or are you arguing for the sake or arguing?

A Ministry of Transport (MOT) spokesperson added yesterday that experience elsewhere has shown that privately operated public transport systems bring about greater efficiency. The spokesperson said: "This is why many cities around the world, like Melbourne, Tokyo, Stockholm and Seoul, either have or are moving towards commercial enterprises providing public transport services."

I don’t know about the rest but I can vouch that the Train service in Seoul is both CHEAP and efficient so how come ours are expensive, overcrowded and inefficient even thought it is a privatised company?

Mr Lui reiterated that commuters' interests are "safeguarded": A "robust framework" is in place to regulate bus and rail service levels through service quality and operating performance standards so that public transport operators do not pursue profit at the expense of commuters. Also, the Public Transport Council (PTC) regulates fares based on a fare adjustment formula that takes into account macro-economic factors, namely the Consumer Price Index and average national wage increases.

If the 10% of the (Like the minister who never take pubic transport) salaries skyrocked, this will bring the national average wage up and if we use this to justify public transport fare increase then it is both stupid and dumb. I suggest you take the average salary of the bottom 50% of the national as a benchmark to decide whether to increase the fare my folk.

"The fare adjustment formula protects commuters by capping fare increases - (public transport operators) are not free to simply pass on their cost increases to commuters," Mr Lui added.

Yes there is capping at each increase only. There is no cap on how often they can apply to increase.

While SBS Transit and SMRT have asked for the maximum fare increase this year, Mr Lui noted there have been some years when the PTC approved fare increases that have been less than what the public transport operators proposed. "We should let the PTC deliberate on this properly and make its decision," he added.

Please remind us when was the last time fare was reviewed and reduced? And of cause PTC have to wayang a bit to proved their existence.

On Government Parliamentary Committee for Transport chairperson Cedric Foo's call to relook the fare adjustment formula, the MOT spokesperson noted the fare formula "is not meant to be static".

In 2008, for example, the revised formula factored in higher productivity gains. This revised formula is valid until next year. "The PTC will review the fare adjustment formula for subsequent years bearing in mind the interests of commuters as well as the long-term viability of the public transport operators," the MOT spokesperson added.

With the Government investing another S$60 billion in new rail lines by the end of the decade, Mr Lui reiterated the Government's commitment to invest heavily in the public transport infrastructure. "Government funding of public transport infrastructure is a key reason why public transport fares continue to be affordable," he added.

Election over! We are back folks!

Chan Chun Sing, the Minister who never wins a single vote, is showing how stupid and disengaged he is by blabbering such nonsense.

Whenever his name came up, I forever have a picture of him taking over LKY bodyguard job during his speech on nomination day 2011.

He sure is one of the best ass kisser around.



Chan Chun Sing: Offer ideas, instead of attacking gov’t

MG Chan Chun Sing urged young people to ask themselves whether their ideas could move the country forward.

Should you see litter on the ground, you have three options, according to Acting Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports Chan Chun Sing.

Pick up the litter and throw it away, write to a government agency and complain that the foreign workers are not doing their jobs, or take a picture of the litter and post it on citizen journalism portal Stomp, declaring that "Singapore is a dirty place!"

What if you picked up the litter and there are 10000 more? What if you are charge $80 a month by the town council but only a small percentage of it go to the cleaner while the rest goes to the town council sinking fund where they happy used your money for investment and hold parties during Nation Day for VIP?

Explaining his analogy, Major-General Chan said the third option is to "tear down", the second to "outsource the problem" and the first is to "take charge of your destiny, control your environment".

I tried to take care of my destiny by voting you out. But you came up with the stupid GRC system to ensure people like Chan Chun Sing and Tin Pei Ling get to be Minister and MP.

It is the third option MG Chan recommended, reported The Sunday Times (ST).

He was speaking at a two-hour dialogue organised by the People's Action Party's youth wing, where MG Chan dealt with questions ranging from liberalising the rules on civil society to more transparency in managing the national reserves.

He urged the 100-odd young people present to ask themselves whether their ideas could move the country forward, rather than just "throw stones, cast doubt and tear down institutions", reported the paper.

Yeah you still have not answered the question. How much of our money are still in the reserves and how much GIC has lost over the years. Ordinary Singaporean the opposition parties has came up with some good ideas for making Singapore a better place buy what have you done to them? Police had harassed them. You already has the idea of “either you are with us or you are all against us”. Too proud to hear anything and only like to hear what you want to hear so how go give you suggestion?

Instances of youth energies being ill-utilised during the General Election saddened him, said the 42-year-old.

He said, "They were caught up in the heat of the moment, attacking the government or attacking the opposition. I want to know ... after you attack, do you have better ideas to bring the country forward?"

Did they attacked for the sake of attacking? Did you listen to what are they trying to say? Do you know these things may already been there long before the election and you only realised it during your campaign? Hell your PM even apologised and admitted some of you mistakes and even some senior MIW cried!

He repeated often his conviction that young people must ask less what the government can do for them and more what they can do for themselves, reported ST.

But you are paid a lot of money for doing nothing if everyone do the job for you Ah Chan.

MG Chan said he would rather see young people telling the government: I believe in this, give me some help and I will do it.

I believe many have tried and will still try but are you willing to listen? Ask yourself that.

When asked about the tenor of social media discourse in Singapore, MG Chan urged the audience to "go and reclaim the space for reasoned discussion" after only two people indicated they were proud of the discussion that dominates local cyberspace.

MG Chan also dealt with policy suggestions.

Asked why Singapore cannot have a welfare system like in Australia, he replied, "We can. But are you willing to pay for it?"

Will you accept an Australian MP salary?

He later told reporters he did not want to give the participants any solutions but to "work through the solutions with them so everybody understands the choices, the consequences the trade-offs".

Own self also don’t know what to do still dare to give lecture to the people.

"Even if they don't agree with a decision at a point in time, they will understand the considerations behind it. So in the future, when circumstances change, they are in a better position to make those new decisions."

Polo Trunk

The Singapore Polo Team is in deep shit due to the ridiculous Trunk they wore during the recent Asia games.

As per report:

"The trunks, featuring the crescent moon and five stars on the front, and the word Singapore on the back, were designed by the players just for these Games and were meant to be eye-catching. Unfortunately, it has also raised eyebrows. At issue is the 'suggestive' positioning of the crescent moon over the crotch."

Firstly whoever brainless clown in the team that design this ugly trunk should be sacked.

Who sane individual will wear such a trunk.
Well guess the team got what they wanted. They are being “Eye caught” by the authority.

More fantastic idea from the brilliant Elite

Night parking fee up
Price to double to $4; first increase in 21 years
Today Online Aug 03, 2010

SINGAPORE - The car population has outpaced the supply of parking spaces to the point that night parking charges are now going up, 21 years after the last increase.

From Nov 1, non-resident motorists and visitors at public housing and Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) car parks will pay double for overnight parking: From $2 to $4.

In 1989, the increase was from $1.50 to $2.

While the 34-year-old scheme was implemented in car parks where there were sufficient lots to meet season parking needs, "most" of these car parks are so "heavily utilised" that residents with season parking tickets face "difficulties" finding a spot at night, the Housing and Development Board and URA said yesterday.

The higher charge will "better manage the parking demand" and "safeguard the interests" of season parking ticket holders, the two statutory boards added.

The half-hourly night parking charge of 50 cents will remain, though.

The new $4 night parking coupons will be on sale from Oct 15.

Motorists can continue to use the $2 night parking coupons by displaying two such coupons.

Some Members of Parliament wondered if the latest measure is enough.

Ang Mo Kio GRC MP Lee Bee Wah, who receives one complaint a week from residents facing parking difficulties, pointed out that the non-resident group is not sizeable. And while the spike in overnight parking charges "may deter some non-residents from parking", the overall number of cars - and the supply of parking lots - remain unchanged, Ms Lee noted.

Jurong GRC MP Halimah Yacob reiterated that the problem requires "proper planning, a strategy of how to ensure there's enough parking places in Singapore. And that kind of planning is not only confined to just HDB, it has to be planning on the part of the Ministry of Transport as well".

On its part, HDB is planning to add 5,000 more parking spaces in the next three years….



This is actually a really dumb “solution”. It did not solve any problem at all.

The problem of shortage of car park will not simply disappear if you increase the cost. If it does, the fare increase in 1989 would have solve this problem.

The only winner out of this fare hike is URA. They has the opportunity to generate more income.

The fact is there is a shortage of car park. The question is why?

How many percent of a car park lots are being issued to season parking holder? Did HDB/URA issued more season parking (to earn more) and therefore causing these season parking holder unable to find a parking lots?

For example out of 100 lots avail. Does HDB keep 50 lots for season holder or 90 lots?

A simple solution is to increase the percentage of lots reserved for season parking holder. This is fair as they are resident of the area and is paying a monthly fee. They should be guaranteed a parking space.

And of cause a long time solution is to build more parking lots.

What they are trying to do now is what I call the ostrich mentality. “There is no problem if you don’t see any problem” By burying you head in the ground.

More Stupid Elites.

TEMASEK AND TRANSPARENCY: LIM HWEE HUA
05:55 AM Aug 12, 2009

Some Singaporeans are sore that they do not know enough about how "their money" is being invested by Temasek Holdings, acknowledged Singapore's first female Cabinet minister, Mrs Lim Hwee Hua.

"We have to ask ourselves if transparency is an end in itself, or if it is the means to an end," said the Minister in the Prime Minister's Office to Petir.

"If all our cards are revealed in pursuit of complete transparency, does that serve the purpose of having Temasek and the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation manage the reserves well? The goal is really to value-add for all stakeholders.

"It is reasonable for people to ask questions, but ultimately the government holds the responsibility for deciding how much to reveal in our best interests."


I don’t know how she became a Minister. Gosh but anyway you just have to be a yes-man or yes-woman in this case to be one anyway.

Hwee Hua is sprouting nonsense!

I almost fell off my chair when I read this article. Can’t believe one of our Ministers actually said this kinda thing in public.

Firstly every Singaporean has the right to know what is happening to their hard earn money.

"If all our cards are revealed in pursuit of complete transparency, does that serve the purpose of having Temasek and the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation manage the reserves well? The goal is really to value-add for all stakeholders.”

Er…what does transparency got to do with managing the reserve well? Hwee Hua actually is telling you that once we let you know what they are doing with our money, GIC and Temasek will have problem managing our reserve. Huh????????????????

"It is reasonable for people to ask questions, but ultimately the government holds the responsibility for deciding how much to reveal in our best interests."

Bull Shit! It is the right our the people to ask questions and decide ON THEIR OWN GOD GIVEN FREE WILL what is best for our interest.

If I read between the lines, I afraid the goverment interest is indeed not the people but for themselve, and they are afraid people will just pack up and leave for good.

Our dumb Bank.

Recently I am experiencing some problem with my POSB ATM card and so I was thinking of changing it.

However POSB is charging $5 for any card replacements.

Not that $5 is a very big amount but I think why should the consumer make to pay for putting our money into YOUR bank and shouldn’t the ATM card be part of the bank services.

I think maybe, just maybe, the $5 charge is there to prevent people abusing the system by changing their ATM card as often as they can and also to prevent forgetful people from keeping on loosing their card.

But which idiot has nothing better to do that he want to change his ATM card every months? And losing an ATM card can be quite dangerous and I am sure nobody wants to lose their card purposely.

So how to beat the bloody system?

I just called POSB hot line. Now they limit one ATM card to each person, which you could link up to 8 accounts. (Try to make you damage the card as soon as possible with so many usages so they can earn your $5)

But when you open a new POSB Saving account, you are given a free ATM card.

So what you can do is to cancel all your bloody GIRO payment services and close your POSB saving account, return the damaged ATM card, then on the same spot, open a new POSB saving account with a new account number and this come with a new ATM card, FREE.

The only hassle is that you have to redo all your GIRO arrangement. I am considering this option, but I will not arrange for new GIRO arrangement, maybe put my money in another bank and do my GIRO from there.

I can pissed POSB off by closing this new saving account in 6months, (think this is the minimum you need to keep it open) , and open another new saving account with a new passbook and new ATM card.

STUPID BANK.

Gusiness book of record of dumbness!

SMRT's train frequency to be reduced if flu alert hits red
04 May 2009 2123 hrs

SINGAPORE: SMRT said train frequency will be reduced by 30 per cent once Singapore's pandemic alert level hits red.

This is because its service staff are divided into two teams to prevent the potential spread of the H1N1 virus.

SMRT has increased its cleanliness vigilance level in trains and buses by more than three times ever since the Health Ministry raised the flu alert to orange.

Public areas are cleaned once every two hours and temperatures of SMRT officers are checked twice daily. There is also a quarantine room for passengers who display flu symptoms.

Ventilation within the trains has been increased, while windows and doors of buses parked at interchanges will remain open. Temperature of bus captains are also being checked at bus interchanges.


I almost puked out my dinner when I first saw this on TV last night.

I know SMRT is stupid but I didn’t know how dumb they are now until this announcement. GOSH somebody nominate them for the Guinness book of record please!

How can reducing train frequency prevent the spread of the virus? Reducing train frequency will only discourage people from using the SMRT so these people may chose alternate mode of transport and this may be the only reason it will help stop the spreading of the virus.

Put it this way. If 1000 people need to get from Bedok to City Hall station between 9am – 10am and they boarded 10 trains, if you reduce the train frequency, the only result is that these 1000 people will pack into 7 trains instead.

Now suppose Person A is a H1N1 virus carrier, he will infect 100 people in the current scenario, let say our “Clever” SMRT reduced the train frequency by 30%, which imply, that now each train carry 143 people instead of 100 and there fore Person A infect 43 more people.

The root cause of these is SMRT is not willing to increase manpower to help the spread of the virus. If the alert level reaches red, they could just stop all unessential work and get their staff in the back end to help the service staff. GOSH what a stupid organization, no wonder our world-class transport system is in such disarray.

My New Luggage

My new luggage! Remowa Topas 4 wheels. Delivered on Saturday after much drama.

I think the delivery service in Singapore sucks and is just plain stupid.

They only can do delivery from 10am – 6 pm, from Monday to Saturday and you can only specify whether you want them to come in the morning, 10am – 1pm, or in the afternoon, 2pm – 6pm.

They can’t even offer you an estimated time and you just have to stay at home either in the morning or afternoon just to wait for your deliveries.

So if you are a working adult, there is just no way you can get your deliveries done on Monday to Friday.

Come on lah! What kind of crap company is this when they only work during office hours when most people are, well, still IN THE OFFICE?

So you only left with Saturday, and you have to stay at home either in the morning or afternoon to wait for your deliveries. Needest to say, I bet Saturdays are their busiest days.

They should just work from 2pm - 8pm from Monday to Friday and with this I think they can even affort to work only half a day on Saturdays.

This has already made me think twice before buying anything from Takashimaya again.

How dumb our law is.

ST March 19, 2009

Phone threats a non-seizable offence

WE REFER to Madam Tan Lian Gim's letter, 'No action on phone threat' (March 11). Under the law, verbal threat is a non-seizable offence where the police have limited powers of investigation and arrests.

Nonetheless, when a report is made, the police will look into the facts and if no aggravating factor is found, the police will advise the complainant to lodge a complaint before a magistrate, who has the power to direct further action as provided under the law.

The magistrate can direct the police to lawfully investigate the case and take further action where appropriate.

In Madam Tan's case, the police had found no aggravating factor and Madam Tan's husband was thus advised to lodge a magistrate's complaint accordingly.

DSP Paul Tay,
Assistant Director, Media Relations,
Singapore Police Force



This is another case of how stupid Singapore Law is.

The police simply try not to do anything at all.

The question is will the Police still give this kind of attitude if the person being threatened is a MP, Minister or the 3 wise men themselves?

So theoretically I can call someone in the middle of the night, verbally threatened them in a polite and none aggravating tone and then apologized.

The police cannot do anything to me. (But to make sure, you call someone who is poor so he cannot hired a lawyer to sue you, see the law protect the rich)

Else you will end up in court like him.

Geez….. Think the police do a better job in harassing opposition parties then to protect innocent taxpayer from gangsters and speeding cyclists.

How SAF haress NS-men long after their ROD.

I did not take my IPPT during my last in-camp in Oct 2008 as I was still awaiting my FFI result. The SAF system know I am not allow to take the IPPT until I am FFI cleared. Wow! Quite impressed with MINDEF.

I was cleared of my FFI in Dec 2008 and my IPPT window will close in May 2009.

Sometime in Dec, I received 2 SMS from MINDEF automated system reminding me to clear my IPPT by May 2009.

I check the on-line NS portal then and as what I suspected, my unit has not update my FFI status so MINDEF is still sending me these SMS reminder. Note I can’t even book my IPPT date since my FFI is not clear. Wow! The system so advance.

So I called my unit up and finally MINDEF system was update in Jan 2009 and I booked my IPPT test in Apr 2009.

Thinking this will be automatically updated the MINDEF Super Advance system?

Wrong!

I still keep getting these stupid MINDEF’s SMS reminding me to clear my IPPT before May 2009.

Gosh! I can’t do that now stupid! My IPPT test is in April!!

Our Home Team

Jan 16, 2009

Likely Mas Selamat has fled

ALMOST a year after he escaped from custody, where is terror fugitive Mas Selamat Kastari?

Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng narrowed it to either of two scenarios: one, he is in Singapore and hidden by sympathisers unknown to the authorities, or, two, he has fled the country.

Asked which was the more likely, Mr Wong told The Straits Times: 'It's very hard to say. Both scenarios are plausible. Maybe the second one is more plausible.'

He added: 'I can't say whether he's in Indonesia, the Philippines or whatever. The moment you leave Singapore, you can find a place to go.'

Meanwhile, the hunt continues, with officers deployed on the ground, including at checkpoints and around Singapore's borders, he said.

Officers from the Singapore Civil Defence Force and Central Narcotics Bureau have been seconded to the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) to help out.

The Internal Security Department also continued with its intelligence-gathering, surveillance and sharing of information with regional counterparts.

Speaking about the ministry's precautions against possible attacks by Mas Selamat, the minister said: 'We are always watching this.

'It's not just us alone, we have to work very closely with all our foreign counterparts. If there's any activity, if he plans something, hopefully the ones outside will pick it up and then share it with us.'

Detained Jemaah Islamiah terrorist Mas Selamat escaped from the Whitley Road Detention Centre on Feb 27 last year.

That day, the ICA set in motion 'Operation Tidal Gate', closing off all exit points and in effect locking down Singapore, Mr Wong said.

'But you cannot lock down Singapore without freezing economic activity...We know that despite the best efforts at the checkpoints, Singapore being so porous, things and people can slip through.'

Referring to the public outcry that ensued in the wake of Mas Selamat's escape, with many slamming the ministry for being slow to release information, the Home Affairs Minister noted that his ministry had learnt a valuable lesson: the need to be more open with information.

'We accept that. We accept that shortcoming,' said Mr Wong.

But determining how much information to give out was not an easy decision, as accuracy had to be ensured first.

Going ahead, he promised that his ministry would make efforts to be more open in sharing information - but without compromising investigations.

He said that there was a need for Singaporeans to appreciate the complexity of the Home Team's work.

It would also help the Home Team manage public expectations, he added.

Citing last year's incident in which Singaporeans criticised the ICA for allowing through a person carrying the wrong passport, he noted that there seemed to be 'unrealistic and unreasonable expectations dominating the public discussion, that there cannot be any lapses whatsoever'.

He asked for distinctions to be made between 'clear negligence' on the one hand, and errors that arose 'as a result of a confluence of events, some of which were outside the officers' control'.

Yeah it does not take a rocket scientist to know that Mas Selatmat may have left the country.


Notice this Wong Kan Seng’s statements is totally crap.

“Wong Kan Seng narrowed it to either of two scenarios: one, he is in Singapore and hidden by sympathisers unknown to the authorities, or, two, he has fled the country.”

Wah lau.. how brainless is this statement! He forgot scenario three: He died.

“It's very hard to say. Both scenarios are plausible. Maybe the second one is more plausible.”

My goodness sake. All things are plausible and certainly some thing are more plausible then some and sometime both things are equally plausible. Geez…. And this guy is taking home $1.57M per year.

Stupid Service

Location-based SMS ads for all cellphone users
The SMSes can be sent to specific shoppers when they are near the shops.
-Tue, Jan 06, 2009 my paper

ADVERTISERS can now cheer the prospect of reaching over four million mobile-phone subscribers - more than 80 per cent of the population in Singapore.

SingTel and StarHub have joined M1 in a partnership with Singapore Press Holdings' (SPH) location-based advertising SMS service.

This allows advertisers "to reach all three telcos' subscribers in a timely manner", said Mr Raymond Teoh, assistant vice-president of SPH Marketing Division's Interactive Business Unit.

The SMSes can be sent to specific shoppers - based on their age, gender and economic background - when they are near the shops.

The service, first launched in November 2007, is available to all customers of the three telcos, and is free of charge.


Talk about stupidity.

The article above is trying to portray that everyone is keen to have this service.

Gosh who like we care it is FREE. Big Deal!

I don’t even want to receive these SMS at all. I do hope they have an op out option.

Which idiot will pay the advertiser to watch his advert? Brainless!

White Elephant

CCTV could cut taxi wait
By Christopher Tan
Oct 23, 2008

STUCK in a taxi queue that is hardly moving?

Relief may come soon from a system of closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras at taxi stands feeding 'live' images back to cab despatch centres, which can direct cabbies to where fares are waiting.
Home-grown information technology company Stratech Systems is devising such a system in response to a call by the Media Development Authority (MDA) for industries to design innovative business solutions.

It is disbursing $12 million for 15 such innovations, among which is Stratech's 'Dynamic Vehicle Allocation System'.

Stratech executive chairman David Chew said the system, which he claimed will be a world first, will be installed at 50 taxi stands, mostly in the Central Business District, for a start.

It should be ready for trial in nine months. He said of the current problem: 'Taxis may be waiting at a vacant stand while commuters queue in vain elsewhere.'

More than just feeding images of taxi queues back to taxi operators, he said, Stratech's system would be smart enough to adjust to changes in the numbers of waiting commuters and cabs arriving.

'Today's taxi despatch systems are dumb,' said the Stratech chief, who has begun talking to the taxi operators.

Ms Tammy Tan, spokesman for ComfortDelGro Corp, Singapore's largest cab company, said: 'We believe a taxi queue monitoring system will help our drivers pinpoint areas where there is higher demand and have in fact been exploring such a system ourselves.'

She added ComfortDelGro was 'encouraged' by the MDA's support of such an initiative and would seek to work with it on its development.

SMRT Taxis' senior manager of customer relations Eunice Lui said initiatives that will enhance taxi services for customers are welcome.

Industry observers, however, said they did not see anything compelling about the system.

Property firm executive H. Y. Loh, a 51-year-old regular cab commuter, is sceptical. She said the system would work in bad times, 'when cabbies going to taxi stands are at least assured of business'. But she is less sure it will work when good times return, because more people will be taking cabs then.

Cab companies may also not back Stratech's system fully, since doing so will hit their call-booking revenue. After all, commuters in taxi queues often resort to phoning for a cab, said Ms Loh.

But Mr Chew said that if Stratech's system works, 'it will ensure a continuous flow of taxis'.


For God’s Sake, can’t they see this is yet another White Elephant.

Firstly – The Cab will only appear when there are Surcharges. Extra bucks to be earned.

Secondly – I thought all cab in Singapore are being installed with some super duper GPS system? Isn’t this good enough to pin point where are all the cabs? Is it necessary to spend $12millions to install 15 of this junk? Who is going to pay for it anyway? Another reason to add more surchages?

This system is not solving the root cause of the problem. Say taxi stand A has no taxi and the queue is really long. So how will this $12M system help with the main problem, which is shortage of taxi at stand A? Absolutely nothing! It only confirmed there is a long queue at Stand A.

Taxi who are at Stand A picking up Passengers most likely has already called their buddies that there are a shortage of cab anyway. Or if they are kind enough they may had also call their dispatch centers.

Come on lah. No need to spend $12Millions on such White Elephant. Use the money to help the poor instead.

Great example of overkilling!

Yesterday our dear PM gave his 2008 National Day's Rally speech.

I am not a big fan of his and I know nothing good will come out from his speech anyway.

But I turned on the TV wanting to catch other stuff on the TV but fat hope!

If you are a poor soul like me without cable TV, PM speech was being shown on every damned channels!!.

His face was on, Channel 5, Channel 8, Channel U, Suria, Air Central and Channel News Asia from 8pm – 10am.

Boy talk about over killed. Don’t forget I pay for my TV license annually not to be force fed by you guys man. But hey we all know who own mediacorp.

Yes I understand you need to have one channel for each language but do you really need 2 English channels showing exactly the same thing? (Channels News Asia and Channel 5)

Thanks God for Youtube
Maybe next year PM rally speech will be force feed to us via the internet as well.