The Moley Prophet

While I was back at SIM last week to get my certificates which just arrived from Buffalo, I heard stuff about the new generation of students which I can’t help but agree. I experienced that in Secondary schools too. Students of these days are no longer able to speak up for themselves. I would have thought that the western influence would encourage them to be bolder and more open about such stuff. Yet they got their “Mommy and Daddy” to do it. Seems like western influence only encourages “sex” but nothing else.

After this, I wonder whether I should still speak up for their well-being. If they themselves refuse to stand up for themselves, why am I doing it? Why am I granting them rights when they don’t deserve it? Especially for those students in UB. As a college student of an American institution, this sort of cowardice is totally unacceptable. Who are the ones studying? You have a complaint towards a lecturer, do it yourself, why get your parents to do it? You need something from the school, ASK! Are your parents able to stand up for you forever? Plainly, it’s no…

Up to this point in my life, I have encountered countless situations when my position is at stake, when my reputation and my well-being in the future is at stake. But I never engaged my parents to seek redress. Even when I was dealing with MINDEF, my parents never had to be concerned, they continue their work, and just listen to the latest news. Whenever possible, I try to handle things myself. They only enter the picture when it’s the ultimatum.

MYOB people…

I flipped open today’s Straits Times and realize that there’s at least one rational writer in SPH. “It’s the Singapore Girl, not Granny” by aviation correspondent Karamjit Kaur, a rational lady for that matter views the issues surrounding cut-off age with a rational point of view. Lets face it, we did not call them the Singapore Girl for no reason.

I don’t care what reports say about top concerns being missing luggage and delays, it is just plain stupidity to think that travelers, be it Male or Female, young or old, do not want to be served by a more energetic and pleasant looking hostess. This is a fact. If you were to do a survey with maid agencies in Singapore, you would realize that employers are not just looking at good helpers, but pleasant looking ones at the same time. And let me point this out, people who usually choose the maids, are the women at home. Who would want to look at a sully face servant all the time? Imagine that you are on the world’s longest flight from Singapore to Newark. For almost 20 hours on a plane with restricted movements, you have to look at that sully-faced air stewardess. Wouldn’t it make your trip extremely unbearable, having already had to endure that almost 20 hours with restricted movement?

However, it does not mean being young is enough. Imagine, being nagged by a middle-aged air stewardess, or a young but sully-faced air stewardess. I would rather get a young and pleasant looking air stewardess who could have just plainly forgotten my order. I mean you can’t bear to not forgive her for that small mistake right? But can you forgive that middle-aged nanny whom you don’t know and is giving you a lecture for which she was supposed to accommodate to as a service provider?

This is what government agencies are best at doing. When you file a complaint, they will say, we are looking into the matter. And not matter how many times they look into the matter, they always take a week to give you a negative reply. Sometimes, I wonder whether its just their tactic to show whether they did something, we never know, until the day when they show us the minutes of their meeting. So, when they reply you negatively, they do not show new points to reinforce their position. They just take whatever they said earlier, and copy and paste. Now you know why out lives are so screwed up, why people do not bother to lodge complains, because there are idiots working in these places.

Take the requirements by Ministry of Education for General Education Officer (GEO) for example. You would have thought that as the crunch for educational stuff worsens, the government would be more flexible with its rule of hiring teachers based on this scale. Under the GEO grading, most degree holders should be under GEO 1, which offers better remuneration, less training required and position in a secondary school. This applies to all teachers, whether temporary or permanent. However, there are certain causes like Statistics and Business courses which are placed under GEO 2. This pays the teachers less even if they were already teaching in Secondary schools.

According to MOE, it is not suitable for graduates of this major, to teach in Secondary schools. Are they not armed with the skills that Engineering students have? In fact, statistical mathematics is of more relevance to Secondary school mathematics than Engineering mathematics is. Moreover, graduates of the Engineering faculty who choose to teach in Primary schools, are paid the GEO 1 remuneration, and graduates of the Business faculty who teach in Secondary schools are paid the GEO 2 remuneration. Isn’t that ridiculous? Paid more for a lesser skilled job and more for a higher skilled job which has a low supply? And yet MOE thinks that they are being perfectly fair in dealing with these matters.

Those working in the offices of MOE thinks they are so smart, yet if you were to argue with them, you would realize that they are actually quite dumb. They are not even able to reply an email using proper English, and has a problem with simple vocabulary. Their inflexibility kills the country, good for them when all the brains are finally drained out and this island is filled with a whole new era of first generations again.

How much would you spend to film an advertisement which could have been done using Computer Imagery? Seems like BMW would want none of it. But they would put in 3 of the V8 for this.

LTA has just announced that new gantries would be set up at Upper Bukit Timah and would start operating from tomorrow onwards. Their reason is that speeds have fallen below the acceptable speeds to 20-30 kmph. This is totally ridiculous. I used to use that road daily to school, and the only times the traffic slows are the peak periods. I wonder how they calculate the average speed limit on such a road when the top speed averages about 60kmph.

Going through Upper Bukit Timah Road is the only route for people staying in Bukit Gombak, Bukit Panjang, Choa Chu Kang, Upper Bukit Timah, and Hillview area to get to the city. Where else are these people going to go through if they do not use these roads? With average speed limits of about only 60kmph, and a winding and somewhat uneven road, I wonder how LTA arrive at the conclusion that the average speeds are unacceptable?

It is also impossible to ask those staying in these areas to take the public transport. Primarily due to the reason that there are only buses plying this road. The nearest train stations are all the way at Bukit Batok and Bukit Gombak. Buses are not ideal either. Just like I wonder how they measure the average speeds, I also wonder how they calculate the average passenger numbers on the buses and trains.

SMRT and SBS have been insisting that their bus and train services are frequent enough to give a comfortable ride to all passengers. I would like to invite their top management to take the public transport for a week, during the usual peak periods from Monday to Sunday. There have been occasions when I couldn’t board the trains because they are so full, passengers are really squeezed like sardines. And during off-peak periods, trains come after ridiculously long waits of about 7 minutes per train. I would also like to know from SMRT, how is it that, 4 trains on the East-West line, with passengers changing to 1 single train on the North-South line could be comfortable for passengers. 2 of the trains coming from the city direction are in fact a full load.

Over 70% of statistics are made up on the spot, I wonder whether LTA together with the 2 public transport companies are part of them?