February « 2008 « Alice Cheong

Today, I just experience first hand HDB lift upgrading and malfunction woes. I had to climb 25 floors upwards as the HDB flat that I am staying in, is undergoing lift upgrading program, and the only other lift that has not yet underwent upgrading had malfunction (by refusing to stop at the different levels, providing free reverse bungy ride and refusing to open the door).

What do I observed? I am suppose to be a young adult, but after the end of the 25 floors climb, I felt totally exhausted. The other elderly that I met on the way up, had her face green, can hardly catch her breath and the climb is obviously a torture to her body. Some others, rather continue waiting for hours downstairs, as being elderly, their health conditions will really require an ambulance to come by if they climb all the way up to their home.

If this scenario happens only once, I will put it aside. However, I heard from the rest of the residents that both the only two lifts for the block had been malfunction very often (but that I had always been lucky enough not to encounter the lift in it’s malfunction period, except for today). It just set me thinking. Is there something that is not right? Right in the sense of the handling of the entire situation by both the resident, the town council (or who ever) in-charged, and the lift upgrading contractor.

Let starts with the town council. The lift upgrading program had been voted by the resident to go ahead for a really long time, but there was a long lapse and delay before the lift upgrading contractor started work. Moreover, the lift upgrade just stopped for weeks and the completion date of upgrade is delayed. So, does the town council owes the residents a duty to explain the delays and has appropriate steps been taken?

Now. What about the residents? The residents are the ones who were inconvenienced and experienced the woes. Did they feedback and request/demand for the new lift to be quickly completed? Or are they just passively accepting the inconvenience as part and parcel of life (just like many accept bad service as part and parcel of life).

Lastly, which is the right authority to approach?

Posted in News & Views | 1 Comment »

Something is going wrong in the society

Tuesday, February 19th, 2008

Recently, there are plenty of reports that include scams, thefts, robberies, assaults and party drugs.

We have phone scams that netted $4.6 millions from 378 victims and 241 reported case of theft and robbery against the elderly in 2007. We have car theft cases. We have teenage being slashed by group of unprovoked youths. We have the deaths of Mr Eugene Chua in Boat Quay and Mr Lim Chye Huat in One Fullerton. We have party drugs taken by the wealthy and well-to-do.

Something is very wrong…

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Drink driving? Think twice. There is no escape.

Tuesday, February 19th, 2008

According to ST, the police has kicked off with they ring-fencing strategy to catch drink drivers. Their first blitz, of duration 3.5 hours, netted 20 drivers out of 117 tested.

This first example, consists of setting up 5 roadblocks that ring around the Outram and Havelock areas’ pubs. To ensure that no drivers slip off from the blitz, police men were stationed 150m ahead of each barrier that consists of the telltale flashing lights of roadblock. So, there is no escape.

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A personal peep into local art exhibits

Monday, February 18th, 2008

Art? Somehow art has always fascinated me. Today, I am taking a peep into the local art exhibits in the company of my sister-in-law. I am really fortunate to have her by my side for this tour, as she has been away in the States for the past 4 years and is currently being nurtured in art under the tutorage of a number of great art professors. I am really happily to have her by my side and enjoyed her company immensely.

We met at the Dobby Ghaut MRT station. Being early and without having breakfast, both of us decided to grab a quick bite. So, we popped by Cathay, and hoped to grab a good meal and took a look at a gallery there. Alas, the gallery wasn’t open on Sun morning, and we had a quick glance from the outside. Next, Indulge restaurant! The good food that does not burnt a hole in my pocket. Unfortunately, we are too early and the kitchen has not open. So, we had Kaykun breakfast set instead.

Next station. School of The Art. Ops. I forgot that it is still under construction. Ops ops ops. Next station. Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA). There is an exhibition, but, ops, it is closed on sun. We peeped through the glass walls, and my sister-in-law kindly took the post of commenter, and announced that the paintings have a china-like style. Seems like the exhibit artists had their training in china. Isn’t that interesting that training style can be decripted? Moreover, I realised for the first time that NAFA has 3 buildings and is called campus 1/2/3. Between campus 1 and campus 2, there is a beautiful palm tree. The branches stretch out in such an artistic manner that we paused for a minute and enjoy it.

Next station. Stamford Arts Center. Ops. There is no exhibits in the center. This center conducts classes related to art. Next station. YMS Arts Center. Ops. There are many people, but it seems like a function is to be held and not an exhibit. But, the wall and ceiling is really nicely done up artistically with elegant craving-style designs.

Next station. Singapore Art Museum. That is a good one. There is 5 exhibits ongoing today, occupying all 3 levels of the museum. There is the Seal exhibit, which is really fantastic. Some of the seal’s chinese wordings were so boldly craved in an artistic manner, that it can be read both as words and shapes. It is really amazing that the artist produced so many seals and that he only had 5 years of formal education.

The Big Picture exhibit spanned 3 levels of the side wing. It is a pity that the artistic paintings were not boldly “pushed” as commented by my private personal commenter. The asian artistic paintings are still held back in their expression, perhaps for fear that the mass cannot recognise the theme. It is so fun to see my sister-in-law inspecting the canvas used. “This canvas is not stretched properly.” What does that means? I learnt that canvas needs to be stretch properly during the mounting to the board, and that this is a tiring and skilled job that many artist cannot get it perfect. “This artist is rich”. Oh. This artist is using good quality canvas. And… A good quality linen canvas cost $100!!!, as oppose, a cheap cotton canvas cost $7! And yes, “You see the yellow and red paint being used?” Yellow paint costs 4-5 times the price of blue paint. And red paint is also more expensive than blue paint. “So, you know why my painting is always blue”. The cost of material for canvas painting is high.

The Re-Woven exhibit. This is a solo exhibit by Benny Ong. Even though it is suppose to be a part of Celebrate ASEAN, a National Heritage Board programme series, it irks of exploitation. Though Benny Ong is a renowned international fashion designer, and not an artist, in this exhibit, he merely provided the design, and these designs were woven by Lao’s weaver, who’s names never appear in the exhibit. How can you have a solo exhibit, with your name claiming all the credits, while all the hard work of weaving the entire art piece is done by others?

Next station. The Sub Station. There is a solo exhibits of photography. 1/3 of the works are really good and it is really a pleasure to know that the pieces are selling very well. Next station. MICA building. There is really a lot of galleries within the ground level. One of the poster in the notice board that caught my attention is as follows. I like it.

I have a religion.
My religion is kindness.
By Dalai Lama.

Posted in Personal | 3 Comments »

Every [Congested] Road Pay may be ready 2010

Monday, February 11th, 2008

With the Chinese New holiday, most are busy (holidaying, visiting relatives and friends and partying), with fewer people reading the newspaper. You know, according to Reuters, some 77 percent of the population, are fleeing their Chinese New Year (CNY) in droves to holiday oversea.

Interestingly, we have the ST article “Longer you stay on busy roads, the more you pay“, published on the first day of Chinese New Year, where many will have missed, and I was unable to browse free daily previous days article (Am I the only one unable to browse free daily previous days articles?).

In short, the plan is to make every car install a GPS, that will monitor where the car is at, where it goes to, the distance the car clocked and naturally the time it takes, as the plan is that the longer you stay on busy road, the more you pay.

According to ST, “It is understood that one advantage of the new system is that it can determine quickly when and where congestion is occurring, and levy charges accordingly. Motorists will also benefit: The IU can notify them that they are approaching a priced road.”

~~Scenario 1~~

Imaging yourself as the driver of the GPS tracked car. Oh no. IU beep. $10 road in front. Search furiously for exit. Spy one. Hit forehead with hand. Exit is 2 lanes to the left and 100 meters away. Signal left. The car behind on the left increases speed and refuses to let you change lane. So, you waited till the car past, and did an abrupt lane change. Oh yes, just in time to get onto the exit.

~~a) But… the cars behind had an accident trying to avoid your abrupt lane changing.~~

b) Ops. It is going to take an addition 15 minutes to reach your office and you met with a lower price road at $5 on the way. Starts counting the petrol cost and the degree of blackness on the face of your boss.

~~c) Ops. What is the route to office from this exit? Got lost and spent the next 30 minutes trying to figure your way out, and ended back on another $10 road.~~

d) Ops. How to go to office from this exit? Got lost and sat in the car staring at the street directory, and the IU kept beeping with increasing price, as the idle car on the side of the road was causing congestion.

~~Scenario 2~~

Imaging yourself as the driver of the GPS tracked car. Oh no. IU beep. $10 road in front. Blood rushes to your face and it goes all red. Drove ahead in deep silence crunching teeth (thinking of the lunch that you have to skip to save $10), as you do not know any other alternative roads to office or cannot afford the time to detour.

~~Scenario 3~~

Imaging yourself as the driver of the GPS tracked car. Oh yes. IU beep. $10 road in front. $10 only? Let me contribute a little to the economy, with all my [tax-free?] income due to all the treaties Singapore just signed. You know… I tip my maintanence guy of this Ferrari much more and Singapore has such great leaders that help me make money with all the pro business policies.

~~(Any more examples? Feel free to add. )~~

***Update: Thanks goes to Yuhui for helpfully alerting me that LTA had a clarification mail on this article. Below is the clarification mail.

New ERP ‘not based on time spent on road’

ST Forum Feb 9, 2008

I REFER to the report, ‘Longer you stay on busy roads, the more you pay’ by Mr Christopher Tan (ST, Feb 7).

There are material inaccuracies in the report.

First, the report claims erroneously that the next-generation ERP system is likely to charge motorists based on how long they stay on the road. This is categorically not the case. Rather, the next-generation ERP system is intended to have the capability to charge based on distance travelled along congested stretches of roads. This will be a more equitable and economically efficient system than the current point-charging system where motorists are charged on the number of gantries they drive through rather than distance travelled on a congested road. Further, motorists who join a congested road after the gantry points are not charged even though they also contribute to congestion on the road in question.

Second, a distance-based system will need to track movements of all vehicles accurately and that is where Global Positioning System (GPS) technology comes in. Contrary to what the report said, the GPS in each car is not intended to ‘determine quickly when and where congestion is occurring, and levy charges accordingly’. Road pricing works only when users know in advance how roads are priced and change their behaviour accordingly, so there will be no dynamic pricing that would surprise road users. Rather, the public will be told well in advance where roads will be priced and charges levied.

Finally, as the technological challenges involved in designing the new-generation ERP system are considerable, it is premature for the LTA to commit to any deadline on the roll-out of such a system. Hence the report, in claiming the LTA ‘may implement it as early as 2010′, is not well founded.

Dr Chin Kian Keong
Chief Engineer, Transportation
Land Transport Authority

Posted in News & Views | 7 Comments »

Slingers Girls, Who wants some balls?

Wednesday, February 6th, 2008

Ops. It doesn’t sound right. But, yes, that is the question. Here is the video.

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Last chance for million dollar shot

Wednesday, February 6th, 2008

Now, the next Slingers home match on 13-Feb-2008 will be the season’s final match, where the $1 million shot will be held. (You can get your tickets here.) If you are wondering what is this million dollar shot, let me give you as short overview. Singapore Slingers has holding a contest, named million dollar shot, in which a contestant will be chosen for every single Slinger’s home game, to have a chance to win (a) Fully catered corporate boxes for 08/09 season, (b) 32″ LG LCD television (c) 500 dolars cash. For the final Slingers home match, which is on 13-Feb-2008, the lucky contestant will have a chance to win a million dollars.

So, what do you have to do, in order to enter as a contestant? You will simply have to answer a question that is given out at each Slingers home game. But, if you have not been to the game, let me reveal some of the secret questions to you. (I cannot tell you all the secret questions, since it will not be fair to those who went for all the matches )

So, the questions are as follows. The website to enter for the contest is here. (Do remember to give me a treat if you win. )

Match: Slingers vs Razorbacks – Wed, Dec 19
Question: What is Mike Helm’s jersey number?

Match: Slingers vs Hawks – Sun, Jan 13
Question: What is Rod Grizzard’s Number?

Match: Slingers vs Dragons – Wed, Jan 30
Question: Who is the Title Sponsor of the Slingers?

Here is some clues for my readers.
Below is a list of all the Slingers player.

#9 Hayden Allen
#30 Dave Donaldson
#4 John Fitzgerald
#11 Michael Wong
#7 Shane McDonald
#3 Chris Cameron
#21 Blagoj Janev
#1 Rod Grizzard
#15 Pathman Matialakan
#12 Koh Meng Koon
#23 Mike Helms
#33 Ben Knight

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Slingers vs South Dragons, with Air Asia as sponsor

Wednesday, February 6th, 2008

Slingers and Air Asia! Go go Slingers! Go go Air Asia! Yes! This post is about the 30th Jan 2008 Singapore Slinger vs South Dragons basket ball match, where Air Asia sponsored 1,000 free basket ball tickets for the game, and gave out numerous free air tickets to Kuala Lumpur, Phuket and Gold Coast. Thank you Nicholas for the ticket.

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