Monday, March 2, 2015

Bad Luck All Around

Do you see a circle or an octagon?
Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam said in his Budget speech that the rise in petrol duties is meant to encourage less car usage and reduce carbon emissions. One man took that advice to heart and went one step further. He even skipped the bus alternative - another carbon emission source - and decided to walk on the viaduct between Choa Chu Kang and Bukit Gombak MRT stations. Hence the latest train service disruption for over a span of 90 minutes on Friday evening (Feb 27).

February 2015 seems to set a record of sorts for train breakdowns and other hiccups:
  • 03 Feb - NSL no train service from Marina Bay to Marina South Pier station for an hour
  • 17 Feb - EWL disruption from Joo Koon to Jurong East due to a train fault at Jurong East
  • 18 Feb - NEL train service suspended for 40 minutes, signalling fault
  • 23 Feb - NSL disruption between Yew Tee and Kranji, track fault
  • 24 Feb - LRT service between Choa Chu Kang and Keat Hong disrupted by damaged third rail
  • 25 Feb - NSL delay between Somerset and Dhoby Ghaut, signal fault with train departing Somerset 
  • 27 Feb - NSL disruption due to  track "intrusion" near Choa Chu Kang station

There's a story about then-Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew consulting the highly respectable Venerable Hong-Chuan when the plan for building the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) was first mooted in the mid-eighties. The monk warned that the crisscrossing tunnels would severely damage the excellent fengshui of the island, and the only solution was to ensure all Singaporeans carry a "bagua"(octagon diagram) with them. In consideration of the sensitivities of various races and religions on the island, Lee suggested the minting of a new coin embossed with the shape of a bagua. The new $1 coin was launched in September 1987, just two months before MRT began its first operation.

Note that the road tax label is also in the shape of an octagon, which means every car on the roads of Singapore is carrying a bagua too. Not that it does any good for the motorists pummeled by punitive taxes and tariffs.

25 comments:

  1. So that means another round of fare hike is coming for security enhancement liao?!!

    Bugger them. No wonder they enjoy having their depots and tracks intruded so many times. More excuse for fare increase lah. We are headed "in the right direction" as an MP said.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hmmmm, didn't realize quite a few differences between the older coin and the newer coin:

    1) The lion and tiger are taller in the newer coin with their heads above the state crest.

    2) The Majulah Singapura banner is convex in the older coin and concave in the newer coin.

    3) The convex banner in the older coin makes the whole Singapore Crest look like a frowning emoticon :(

    4) The concave banner in the newer coin makes the Singapore Crest look like a smiley emoticon :)

    Anything to smile about?

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  3. The smaller state crest in the new coin is 'overwhelmed' by the bigger Tiger and Lion. Does this mean that Singapore is 'being attacked' by bigger Tiger and Lion and so it is getter 'smaller'? Bad Omen!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Where got bad omen?

      Fengshui so good that the rats from Bukit Batok is attacking again leh. They also want to have a share in the cheese pie too. HUAT ah!!

      Delete
    2. I see two animals using the crest as a spade to dig a hole in the ground, probably to bury something 6 feet under.

      Delete
    3. methinks those pool of dead fish in pasir ris maybe bad omen for a particular DPM there. what do you think?

      Delete
  4. Octogenarian-no-more3/02/2015 12:15 PM

    I must have been in a very sedated mind of late.

    What octagonal shit are you yapping about here?
    I only see black and blue circle lah.
    Now, can I go back to sleep on my ventilator machine again?!
    And everyone ought to get back to work on that track intrusions instead of breaking track record for bloody Twitter!
    Why my son so ba-gua?!!! #%$#&*

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  5. The more disruption the better isn't it. Because the fines imposed on them goes to PAP, sorry I mean Govt's pocket. The commuters get nothing in return. Worse still, fares are increased irrespective of whether oil prices has gone down.

    Just wonder whether the middle class will still vote for PAP when they discover to their horror, they have only 2 options left to pay more than S$30,000 or S$60,000 to extend their car for another 5 or 10 years respectively. Of course they could still burnt a hole in their retirement fund if they opt for a new car, many thanks to PAP for allowing car dealers to bid for COEs on behalf of their buyers.

    That must be the beauty of voting for a Pay And Pay Govt !!!

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  6. Well, it won't just be bad for the motorists.

    Soon enough, the real estates speculators, greedy frenzy buyers and foolish flippers will soon be eating Pizza Dominos. Courtesy of the liberal asset-enhancing schemes propaganded by PAP. Let's see how many of those #richkidsofsingapore will still be vying to flaunt their parents wealth on instagrams while the rest of the middle class are eating their sandwiches.

    Nothing beats having a Harvard trained business economist, one of their kinds to dent Harry's feng-shuied island.

    Contrary to SM Goh's warning, looks like plenty of balls are being dropped.

    http://economyandmarkets.com/housing-market/u-s-real-estate/singapore-the-next-global-domino-to-fall-in-real-estate/

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  7. Is it true to say: "MRT disruptions is the only way to convince the daft Sinkies that the PAP government is not operationally ready to be government anymore"?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. hmmm that would be one way of putting it. a rather good way too.

      possibly the first way of course was thru the stop at two policy, which was stopped far too late.

      i'm sure if we put our minds to it, we could think of other indications that the PAP is not ready to be govt.

      Delete
  8. If they want more money, there are plenty of more "sinful" avenues to tax, start with casino, toto/4d/football betting, cigarettes, another round of property tax on those foreign buyers, even liquor.So ask ourselves why must be transportation which affects ultimately the whole nation, where no one will be spared directly or indirectly? My humble answer: they need to create inflation. The banks (and central bankers) are really afraid of Japanese style deflation forcing house prices down and default on bank loans, MAS is afraid of deflation because it means they cannot justify strong Sing dollar policy to attract more hot money. And with inflation all civil servants can justify high fares, higher fees, and higher bonuses for themselves. Remember in 1998 some top civil servants and ministers were "forced" to freeze their annual (aka auto) pay rise and even take pay cuts during the recession? That was painful and they will do everything to avoid another year without GDP bonuses. The garmen is hell bent on creating inflation, every thing must go up, cannot come down. Only savers, importers and our younger generation who have not bought their HDB flats benefit from falling prices. This is really sad, when the civil servants work so hard to screw you for their own benefit.

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  9. The elites drive to work
    Some are chauffeured
    They do not feel, smell, hear or see the chaos in public transport.

    They also need the slaves to do their bidding.. foreign or native.
    It is good to have a total collapse of the public transport... slaves will be late or not turn up at all.

    This should occur weekly.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. weekly?!?
      what have you got against daily?
      disciplining takes firmness.
      driving home a point to numbskulls needs ramming...

      Delete
  10. I am a motorist and I am upset with the patrol tax increase. I see no good reason why government needs to increase the taxation when the COE and Road Tax are so bloody high. The reason for reducing carbon emmission etc are mere excuses. As someone pointed out clearly, why can't they tax gamblers including 4D and Toto?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "What's wrong with collecting more money?"
      With this type of attitude ... do you think you will pay out more money in taxes if you vote PAP in GE 2015?

      Delete
    2. Didn't you know TOTO has been raised from $3.50 to $7 now? That's 100% jump. Did the odds get bigger or the pot just got bigger ?

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    3. The top prize doubled as well, but the odds have worsened from 1 in 8.14 million to 1 in 13.98 million.

      Delete
    4. Correction, top prize increased by only 67% from $600k to $1 million, but price of tickets increase by 100%. And the odds of winning the top prizes are much worse. So you get screwed twice over - front and back.

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    5. boyz and gamblers above, illustrate red dot's plight very well: one man's meat is another's posion, toto vs petrol, your choice seems to be what is closest to your pockets, not the country's benefit. pappies understand this, i am sure next time alternatives also will exploit this "vote close to yr pockets" behaviour, some call it kiasu, in m'sia, people pack buses to go to berseh, in red dot, people join their 4d queues or hello kitty queues. that is why my money is on the pappies again, any gamblers here want to take me on?

      Delete
  11. Lau Goh tried to pull a fast one on the daft citizens.

    He said Singapore always have good succession plan.
    Must have confused PAP's succession plan with Singapore succession plan.
    How can he contradict what PM Lee had said earlier? If PAP is voted out, Singapore will be in big trouble?
    Can you claim a nation has a good succession plan when there are no alternative parties (shadowed) to take over the country when one party is voted out? What kind of banana republic is this?

    Just look at the holy trinity today. Two cancers and one on life support. Thank god he is an agnostic person. If this is another prophet figurehead who would declare the grandson is the rightful successor, and everyone will bow to the 'leegal' ruler, and knowing how sedition act can apply on you if one were to object or disagree, that will not just be a bad omen, but a bad ending for Singapura.

    And Ariel Sharon, Israel PM case is another bad example we should pray will not be used on this island.

    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/ariel-sharon-dead-how-israels-sleeping-giant-was-kept-in-a-coma-for-eight-years-9053476.html

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. What good succession plan when our appointed DPMs are not good enough to become PMs ? Only when the PM drop dead on one fine day then only one of the DPM will have a remote chance of becoming PM ?

      It seems the actual truth is when the incumbent PM doesn't not want to give up his seat yet, the DPMs will never have a chance to become our PM unless he is the chosen one.

      Delete
  12. Heard that the Baqua Octagonal shape is Not all that Good a shape. Nature do not have many eight sided structures..
    Those Chinese pagodas are not dwellings for living humans are they? Think about it.

    ReplyDelete
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