SINGAPORE SHORT STORIES

As year 2007 comes to a close, let us recall some of the key stories that grabbed the headlines in Singapore this year. These stories are listed in no order of priority: UNSW Bombshell The University of South Wales (UNSW) pulled its campuses out from Singapore as quickly as it have them set up, leaving many students in a fix. Many affected students eventually accepted the university’s offer to continue their education in Australia. A380 The much awaited A380 giants finally soared to the sky after years of waiting and delay. A new ruling is implemented to prevent couples from making love in some of the very posh cabins. Taxi touting Letters written to the Straits Times complaining and lamenting on taxi touts finally caused the authorities to act by lifting the penalty for taxi touts. F1 Singapore will host its leg of the F1 tournament right on our sunny shores come 28 September 2008! And yesterday, Punggol residents had their taste of a F1 when their constituency staged its own Gold Kar

The part of Waterloo Street flanked by KuanYin temple and the Indian temple, OG shopping centre, Albert Complex and the food centre is a microcosm of daily Singapore life. The rhythm of life is encapsulated on this street. Here, one can see a good representation of the different races living on this island and as well as the various groups of foreigners congregating on this lively street. Every time I come to this street, I am also enthralled by the many ‘performers’ on the street. These can be peddlers selling some ‘magical’ charms or acrobats performing intriguing acts. Of late, I spot a tiny ‘performer’ (woman in a child’s body) borned with both legs twisted to the front, so that her feet and head face different directions. She was singing on a karaoke set and asking for donations from the crowd of on-lookers. There are many other interesting ‘performers’ on this street and what I have observed is that many of these ‘performers’ do not look local. Though these performers liven up th

I have recently completed reading the book titled Singapore Hawker Centres: People, Places and Food written by Professor Lily Kong from the National University of Singapore. This book rightly captures the essences of our Hawker Centres and its relevance to the lives of Singaporeans from the past to the present. Our ubiquitous Hawker Centres are really the gems of our small nation. Dining out and eating with friends have almost become a ritual of our daily lives, not just as a mean to fill our empty stomach. In fact our hawker centres, a central part of our lives have become one of “the 1000 places that one must visit before one dies”. There is no more addition to the existing number of hawker centres in our country. What have been springing up are food courts, restaurants, cafes and the likes. The quality of food served at very affordable prices is the main draw of hawker centres. Conversely, many food courts I have patronised before served very low quality food in very small serving p

Teachers will get a hike in their salaries and fatter bonuses with effect from next year, the Ministry of Education announced. This announcement brought cheers to the 29,000 teachers in Singapore, at least in my opionion :) It is a challenging time and exciting time to be a teacher in Singapore. In this era, knowledge is dynamic and ever-changing and these demand constant upgrading of the teachers to imbibe the constant changing information, transform them into knowledge and impart to the students. The Ministry is giving generous scholarships, bursaries and allowances for teachers to upgrade their qualifications, from bachelor to Masters and even doctorates. Imparting knowledge to the students in this era may be more challenging than the yester-years. Now there are a wide range of techological devices to impart knowledge. Different facets of knowledge transfer asides, the students of today may be more sophiscated than before and the teachers of today have to really connect with the stu

In just two days time, 2007 will come to a closure. It was a rude awakening and a shock to denizens the world over when the daughter of the Muslim Word, Benazir Bhutto was assassinated during a public rally on 27 Dec 2007 (Thu) Singapore time. Bhutto had a vision for Pakistan, a country fraught with malaise and struggle. She stood as the symbol against terrorism and a beacon of hope for a better tomorrow for Pakistan. Surviving assassinations many times before, and despites reminder morbid death notes by her nemesis, she returned to Pakistan in her attempt to liberalise Pakistan, unafraid and determined. She has died, as a result of cowardly terrorist act but the world over shared her vision and mission. The terrorists have won this time round but the fight against terrorists will continue and be strengthed further !

I find it increasingly difficult to take the MRT these days as the train is always packed to the periphery, to the extent that sometimes, one’s body can be pasted like a sucker-fish to the door of the train (no kidding!) The overcrowding of the MRT at most times of the day may be attributed to the population increase, the simply reluctance of the passengers to move into the interior of the train and the recent price hikes of petrol which may encourage more use of public transport among the population. With Singapore gearing to an ever-increasing population, it is a real challenge to accommodate transportation needs of the people in this land-scare island. Though MRTs are efficient modes of public transport, to curb overcrowding of the train, more services at higher frequencies may be necessary but this would inevitably lead to higher fares. Mannerism and basic courtesy of Singaporeans are embedded attributes, which are unfortunately hard to change over these years despites numerous cam

Prices of many essential items such as flour and oil have increased in the recent few weeks, leaving many Singaporeans concerned and worried. Basic necessities asides, the price of petrol has also skyrocketed a little, leading to corresponding increases in the prices of petrol and inevitably higher taxi fares. Prior to these increases, GST this year has increased from 5% to 7%, and with the recent increases of many items, prices of hawker fares have subsequently seen a hike. All these increases this year may have put a strain on the pockets of the average Singaporeans, thus when the latest increases to top civil servants and ministers were announced, some Singaporeans lamented that it was not the most appropriate time for the increase. I would not dwell on the link between top pay and top talent. I believe one shall have read the lengthy justifications made for these pay increases in the newspapers. To me, the salaries of the top civil servants are definitely high but these may be reas

The SEA games ended last Saturday 15 Dec 07 with Singapore at the 6th position, clinching a total gold medal tally of 43. Our result at the SEA games was neither impressing nor poor. It was mediocre and to a certain extent fell short of expectation. We had a patchy performance with excellent results in some sports and under-performance in traditional strong arenas. It led some Singaporeans to wonder whether the heavy investments in our sports and our athletes were worthwhile? Consider countries like Thailand, which did not have such a heavy investment in their athletes nor handsome rewards for them as Singapore, and yet these countries produced sterling results at the SEA games. To me, talent is both nature and nurture. One may argue that Thailand is a much larger country than Singapore. In a bigger country, the number and quality of the talent pool may be definitely much greater than that of a small country like Singapore. With sufficient training given to its athletes, it is not hard

Recently I bought a game item from a reputable retail shop in a shopping centre. The item was sealed up in a neat transparent packaging with the price tag clearly labeled. After payment, I happily brought the item home. Impressed with the neat and transparent packaging which in my impression, conveys quality of the product, I did not open the game item until a few days later. Imagine my shock when I tore open the plastic wrapping and the stickers, only to find an aged box, which showed once the packaging, was torn. Examining the game item, I realized some parts of the item were missing ! It definitely pays to check one’s items after purchase and not to assume the purchased item has no defects, no matter how well packaged the item may be. I endured some inconvenience to bring back the game item to the shop where I bought it and convinced the staff there for a replacement, especially tedious when I had thrown away the receipt. I realized how applicable the adage “Do not judge a book by i

While passing the park connector between Tampines Avenue 10 and Pasir Ris, there are evidences of people poaching wildlife. Laying nets, armed with some traps, they straddle the shallow rivers, the canals and lay their baiting traps, hopefully to catch some wildlife. These can be fishes, or sometimes some rare creatures such as iguanas. Most often, they fail in their attempts as they are not skilled but once their baits are caught, they may be rewarded handsomely. And if they themselves are caught, the cost is even greater.

This month seems to be a month of marriages, with me witnessing, one after another, my friends, stepping into the aisle, being congratulated by friends and relatives. To get married at the age of twenty-plus in this age is considered early. Marriage is a commitment and my friends are already signing on this life long commitment at this tender age. Married or not, there are pros and cons, and it depends on one’s viewpoints of things. Responsibilities come flooding once one gets married. Being a good husband, a good father, taking care of wife and children, managing accounts and expenses and having real little time for oneself. All these commitments are challenges. To some, these are pros and they relish these challenges. For others, these commitments may be costly and one prefers to be single and free of commitments. Singapore is at a development stage where we need more babies as our population is ageing and declining. To tackle the problem of our population shrinking, our youth needs

With the advent of Email (Electronic-Mail), postage mail has been, to a certain extent relegated. Postage mail however is still a necessity in today’s world, especially when original copies of documents or parcels are to be sent from one point to another in the world. This necessity renders the sustained presence of mailboxes in Singapore. Together with the relegation of postage mail in today’s era is the ‘relegation’ of the location of the mailboxes. Mailboxes used to be located in populated areas, within easy reach of the mailers, e.g. inside the MRT stations. However after ‘911’, these mail boxes suddenly ‘moved house’ to be relocated at a further distance from crowded places like the MRT stations. The mailboxes are not the only facilities to have ‘moved house’ after ‘911’. Dustbins, a common sight in MRT stations were removed from the stations shortly after the incident. The relocation of these facilities stem from security concerns, which are worthy causes. It is a worthwhile trad

The seasonal monsoons are here again, bringing with it plentiful rain to this tiny island, lending a tinge of Christmas to this all-summer country. Areas in Singapore are not all flood-proof. Low-laying areas in the country are susceptible to floods. It was not unheard of for horticulture farms, homes and other factories to incur losses after flood water ravage their properties and assets. With excellent drainage facilities constructed, these flooded areas are fortunately a minority. In neighboring countries, the damage caused by floods is tremendous, ravaging homes, whole stock and barrel, livestock and even precious lives. The magnitude of these floods is far greater than our local floods where the maximum height is only waist-deep. As a result of man’s action, climate has changed. It was reported yesterday that it is raining hailstones in Australia, which is an unusual fact considering that it should be summer now in that country. Hailstones are no kidding stuff. Falling from great

Singapore is a ‘campaign’ country. Since two or three decades back, we had a slew of campaigns such as the ‘Courtesy’ campaign, the ‘Save water’ campaign, ‘Two (Children) are enough’ campaign, etc. Some campaigns such as the anti-littering campaigns are evergreen, which persist till today while some faded into oblivion due to irrelevance in today era. These campaigns are medium of mass public education, intended to achieve a social or economical aim of the nation. Of late, campaigns of a new nature have come to the fore. Though the aims of some of these new campaigns are still mainly economical, to a certain extent, they have taken on an international and global twist. When Singapore hosted the World Convention the year before, there was an aggressive campaign to showcase to the world that our people are friendly and ready to welcome the international delegates via the ‘Smile Singapore’ campaign. Currently, Singapore is in a bid to host the Youth Olympics in year 2011. Preliminary roun

This evening, I went for my routine cycle cum jog session to Bedok Reservoir. After an invigorating run, there was a commotion sparked up by some monkey business. Literally not figuratively speaking, monkey business. Out of the blue, a monkey appeared swinging from trees to trees at the reservoir. It piqued the curiosity of many joggers who paused to take a look. Some took out cameras to take photos of the creature, who was obviously proud of the interest it has created in the tranquil reservoir. For once, I did not know where this creature come from to claim a stake in Bedok Reservoir. Monkeys are common in the water catchment areas, Bukit Timah areas but in Bedok Reservoir?

Experience is the sum of interaction with people, with the environment and hence experience is always dynamic. Some folks who have been to a certain place individually may not want to revisit the place with a group as they believe that the experience is the same: visiting these ‘old’ places. But they are wrong. With groups, the experiences gleaned will be different, with interaction with others at different dates and in different environments. All these make for different experiences, different enjoyment and shall be cherished. It is like playing games: playing with different people will make the fun of the game different.

STOMP continues to be a popular news online medium in Singapore where Singaporeans can become reporters and their articles viewed by many others. Pictures are often convincing and it often validates the stories told by these ‘reporters’ but I must really caution that pictures can also be biased. There may be only one picture but the interpretations can be a dozen. One must judge the credibility of the stories at face value only.

I really advocate the smoking ban to be extended to all HDB flats. Living in a non air-conditioned unit, everyday, I fall victim to the suffocating cigarette smoke emanating from my neighbours below and which penetrates my room. The only solution is to shut all windows (which make the room also suffocating) and reopen the window again and the battle continues………..till the person stops smoking

Mocca, a platform for users to post advertisements free-of-charge has come to the fore with a big bang via an aggressive and humorous advertising blitz. There are hundreds and hundreds of advertisements of all types being posted on Mocca. Of late, I discovered a whole slew of advertisements offering sexual and discreet services. Though Mocca provides a free platform for genuine buyers and sellers, certainly it also fall prey to the oldest profession in the world. Sex sells and do continues to sell, via a whole gamut of medium in all places!

Employees who are late for work everyday are a drain on the company’s resources. Imagine if there is only one employee who us late for just ten minutes per day: in a month, about 100 minutes of working hours will be gone and extrapolated to a year, 20 man-hours will be wasted, and the company may have more than one such employee. Though it is true that quality of work takes precedence over the quantity of time spent in work, nevertheless, lost man-hours due to constant lateness on the part of the employees should be something management shall look at.

What are noticeboards for? For this one, it serves as a rubbish bin! But I find it disbelieving that this notice board is used as a rubbish bin for it is extremely difficult to slot these papers in. Or rather, how does one put all these refuse in? for this noticeboard looks locked.

This picture was taken on a raining day. I really believe the white mist shrouding the towers is low laying clouds.

Civil servants this year will get between 3 to 3.3 months of bonus + $220. This bonus includes the 0.5 month bonus +$220 that Civil servants had been given in July 2007, 2 months of bonus in December 2007 and a ‘Growth Bonus’ from 0.5 to 0.8 month pegged to the performance of good performers. Normally, the stand of the Civil Service in giving out its bonus is not to be seen as leading Private Sector in this practice, but rather as a guideline. Shortly after the release of the bonus handouts, private sectors are reported not to peg their bonus with that of the Civil Service as it is akin to comparing apples and oranges, and they have their own practices. There is one reader who wrote in to the Straits Time today to challenge the notion of the good performance of the supposedly good performers of Civil service and calls for transparency to dishing out public funds to these good performances and she even question the bonus itself. The reader seems to be steeped in a culture of envy in the

Today is 1 December 2007, the last month of the year. With two holidays in this month, two half day offs granted on the eves of Christmas and the New Year and with many colleagues taking off and leave, this month will fly and soon 2007 will be history. 2008 will be the year China hosts the Olympics and Singapore hosts the F1 tournaments and besides these great events, there will be a slew of interesting happenings coming up. However, there is a possibility that recession may set in year 2008. Recession is a vicious, cyclic occurrence. With the most recent two previous recessions in 1997, 2003, it may seem time that recession will indeed set in year 2008. But Singapore is confident that the recent slew of international projects it has undertaken (or will be bidding and hopefully getting them), will help our country tide over the recession.