Money, money, money

So this is how you do it. Put up an ERP cordon around Orchard Road to reduce congestion, and a few days later, allow the public transport companies to raise their fares by the maximum amount permissable.

Might as well prepare us for the next increase and announce it now, a couple of years in advance. Put in the usual disclaimers and cite the need for fleet renewal and rising operating costs. Say it'll be subject to review, then allow them to go ahead with it anyway.

This is even better than SimCity. In that game, raise taxes and levy parking fines are there will be discontent and people will move away from your city. Your commercial district will have loads of abandoned buildings. Not so in sunny Singapore, here you can milk your citizens for all they are worth, and even get to call those who emigrate "Quitters". So fun right? SimCity didn't allow you to call those who chose to leave your city "Quitters".

According to the Public Transport Council, an estimated 0.1% decrease in unemployment and a growth forecast of 2.5 - 4.5% is sufficient grounds to raise the fares by the maximum allowed, never mind that people's pay packets might not have increased at all. And anyway, my family is not a "typical family of 4", so I don't give a crap about how their transport costs are estimated to increase by an average of $2.20 a month. There are 8 people in my humble HDB home, what's so typical about that?

Oh, and profits are "healthy", but not excessive, so you can go ahead and increase your fares, for "healthier" profits, you know. No need to go through the hard work of cost reduction and such. Just raise fares.

I'd rather not have "world-class" TV Mobile in buses and "world-class" plasma screens that play endless advertisements instead of showing me when the next train is arriving. I'll be satisfied with not-so-world-class LED panels in MRT stations, that actually display useful information all the time.

These justifications are just pathetic. If they want to allow an increase in fares, surely they should come up with better reasons than this.

Store Wars

I haven't been blogging much lately cos, well, there wasn't really much for me to talk about or reflect on, and also because I managed to get a temp job for a week from a friend. Anyway, I watched Episode 3 on Monday. The action scenes were pretty good, everyone knew what the storyline was and the dialogue was so bad, it was laughable.

For a parody of the Star Wars series, go here.

And for the Singapore style summary of the movie, you can go here. I know, I know, we must Speak Good English, but this is real funny. A word of warning though, if you haven't watched it and are planning to do so, don't go to the site yet. Got spoilers one, ok? Don't say I didn't warn you.

Michael Owen must really be kicking himself for quitting Liverpool for Real Madrid now.

And no, I am not a Liverpool fan.