Friday, August 20, 2010
YOG - EPIC
Well i just came back from volunteering at YOG and it was epic, too epic for words. I learnt a lot as it was a brand new experience. I got to watch international ranking u-18 people do what they do best. The treatment for the work force there was amazing too. I can't believe i actually got to volunteer at YOG!!!
Back for Real...
Ok now i back for real. Term 3 Exams finally over! Today i will be talking about something quite related to our daily lives. The increase in certain aspects of bus fares so that those who ride long distance don't have to pay as much. However in my opinion this was a somewhat bad move made by the government.
In our modern society, people prefer to save time, and take faster transport. Most of the time, most of the people who travel long distance, would prefer to take bus to a MRT station then take MRT to their destination. For example, from Upper Bukit Timah to Jurong East it would take me 40-50 minutes by bus. With that time, i could travel from City Hall to Jurong East.
The mentality to waste less time and take the MRT is shared by most Singaporeans. For the working class, a few more cents wouldn't matter to them, both when taking MRT and bus. Their income would be more than enough to cover transport costs. However, the increase in bus fares affects one party the most - the elderly. Many elderly who stop working and have no income, live off from their CPF. However, they can only get so much money from their CPF every month. For the elderly, they tend to take the buses around for convenience sake to go buy groceries etc. This increase in bus fare may seem small at first glance, but for elderly people who take short distance bus rides and take bus very often, the small increase can amount to quite a large sum of money.
I fail to understand how the decrease in cost for the long distance rides resulted in the increase in cost for the short distance rides. If the government did it to encourage people to transfer bus more, i think that it is a dumb idea. Many of us have buses leading directly to bus stops near our houses, and this new system that was implemented a little less than 2 months ago does not help us at all.
We Want Our Old Bus Fare System Back! >.<
In our modern society, people prefer to save time, and take faster transport. Most of the time, most of the people who travel long distance, would prefer to take bus to a MRT station then take MRT to their destination. For example, from Upper Bukit Timah to Jurong East it would take me 40-50 minutes by bus. With that time, i could travel from City Hall to Jurong East.
The mentality to waste less time and take the MRT is shared by most Singaporeans. For the working class, a few more cents wouldn't matter to them, both when taking MRT and bus. Their income would be more than enough to cover transport costs. However, the increase in bus fares affects one party the most - the elderly. Many elderly who stop working and have no income, live off from their CPF. However, they can only get so much money from their CPF every month. For the elderly, they tend to take the buses around for convenience sake to go buy groceries etc. This increase in bus fare may seem small at first glance, but for elderly people who take short distance bus rides and take bus very often, the small increase can amount to quite a large sum of money.
I fail to understand how the decrease in cost for the long distance rides resulted in the increase in cost for the short distance rides. If the government did it to encourage people to transfer bus more, i think that it is a dumb idea. Many of us have buses leading directly to bus stops near our houses, and this new system that was implemented a little less than 2 months ago does not help us at all.
We Want Our Old Bus Fare System Back! >.<
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Flash + Floods = Flash Floods
As most Singaporean know and have probably experienced it themselves, Singapore recently has suffered from a series of flash floods. The reasons given by the government were numerous : clogged drain, caught off guard etc etc. The people are slamming the government for not helping to prevent the floods, and letting it happen it the first place. So who was in the wrong? In my opinion, both parties are in the wrong.
First I shall start with the people and how they are in the wrong. Right now, all they are doing is complaining about their lives and feeling sorry for themselves. The blame game is then started, blame the PUB, blame the government, blame everyone else. However they are missing one important party, MOTHER NATURE. The people keep blaming it on the government, but have they actually even thought thoroughly about it? Are they being reasonable? The rainfall in the morning of the first flood day, amounted to 60% of the total rainfall the previous month. Some people may think that it is just a bit rain. But think about it. Every 1-2 days it rains once, and each time it rains it is enough to leave huge puddles of water on the ground even hours after the rain has stopped. Add all that up in a month, and 3/5 of that amount of rain poured down on Singapore in one morning. We have to bring ourselves to admit that no one can predict it. If everyone thinks it is so easy, why not do it themselves? They keep saying that it is the government's responsiblity, but that is just a pathetic excuse to cover up for their own incompetence. Mother Nature is not a political party nor a country. Singapore can't make a treaty or pact with mother nature. MN gets to do what it wants, and no one can stop it. If it decides to give us a whole load of rain in morning, what can we do? Songs dont work, bribes dont work, NOTHING WORKS. The only thing we can do is just stand and one side and take the shit coming towards us.
However i feel that the government is also wrong in a way. They should just stop making excuses and come clean. Actually, by blaming the floods on a clogged drain, they make it their fault that the floods happened. This is because that means that they are at fault for poor maintenance of the drains. However the government's excuse is quite hard to believe. The width of the drain is said to be equivalent to that of a SBS bus. Such a big drain is hard to clog up. Even if something of great length were to jam and clog the drain at one point, it will be quickly washed away by the mass of rushing water in the drain. It is hard to even find such big things big enough to clog the drains!
Both parties should just stop playing the blame game. The people should stop complaining and the government should start taking action. If you can't change what is happening, don't complain because it doesn't help. Those who are not part of the solution are part of the problem.
First I shall start with the people and how they are in the wrong. Right now, all they are doing is complaining about their lives and feeling sorry for themselves. The blame game is then started, blame the PUB, blame the government, blame everyone else. However they are missing one important party, MOTHER NATURE. The people keep blaming it on the government, but have they actually even thought thoroughly about it? Are they being reasonable? The rainfall in the morning of the first flood day, amounted to 60% of the total rainfall the previous month. Some people may think that it is just a bit rain. But think about it. Every 1-2 days it rains once, and each time it rains it is enough to leave huge puddles of water on the ground even hours after the rain has stopped. Add all that up in a month, and 3/5 of that amount of rain poured down on Singapore in one morning. We have to bring ourselves to admit that no one can predict it. If everyone thinks it is so easy, why not do it themselves? They keep saying that it is the government's responsiblity, but that is just a pathetic excuse to cover up for their own incompetence. Mother Nature is not a political party nor a country. Singapore can't make a treaty or pact with mother nature. MN gets to do what it wants, and no one can stop it. If it decides to give us a whole load of rain in morning, what can we do? Songs dont work, bribes dont work, NOTHING WORKS. The only thing we can do is just stand and one side and take the shit coming towards us.
However i feel that the government is also wrong in a way. They should just stop making excuses and come clean. Actually, by blaming the floods on a clogged drain, they make it their fault that the floods happened. This is because that means that they are at fault for poor maintenance of the drains. However the government's excuse is quite hard to believe. The width of the drain is said to be equivalent to that of a SBS bus. Such a big drain is hard to clog up. Even if something of great length were to jam and clog the drain at one point, it will be quickly washed away by the mass of rushing water in the drain. It is hard to even find such big things big enough to clog the drains!
Both parties should just stop playing the blame game. The people should stop complaining and the government should start taking action. If you can't change what is happening, don't complain because it doesn't help. Those who are not part of the solution are part of the problem.
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