Woken up by my roommate’s phone this morning, I realised that her dad got robbed in Foshan, China. Apparently, this is not your regular bum-and-rob or snatch-thief robbery. Not only was it done in daylight, it was done in the open, in front of everyone, at a packed and crowded place.

It was raining and her parents were walking in the shelter when her dad got pinned down by more than a few persons, who forcefully removed his wallet before making their run for it. It amazes me on how they can escape in such a crowded location. More importantly, I am amazed at the audacity of them pinning down a tourist in their coutry and robbing him in broad daylight.

While pickpocketing and snatch thefts are well-known and common in China, this is the first time that I have heard of such execution. They were not walking in some dark alleys, mind you, but in the open where people are amassed. Perhaps too many people, I guess.

This brings to light the social-economical status of China. From a personal observation, China is going through what Singapore went through - where the rate of social maturity is not catching up with the rate of economic growth. Singaporeans speak of the lack of social grace but this is gradually improving with increasing social-mindedness. I am quite sure that if you got pinned down at Orchard Road today, chances are someone *may* just help you. But from what I learnt of the robbery in China, everyone either gawked or moved on as it’s none of their business.

Very typical Chinese mentality - not minding in other people’s business.

I am not sure if the robbers are armed, and I am definitely alarmed. Could this be a result of not being able to address all the social issues in a fast-growing economy? Does the recent China stockmarket hype have a role to play in this?

Looking into the recent China stockmarket hype 

In the midst of a fast growing market and efforts from the China government to curb speculation on the stockmarket, it would be of little surprise that many people would want to jump onto the bandwagon before the market cools off. In addition, I have heard of instances where people sold off their house to speculate on the market from the proceeds of the sale. Because of recent market growth correction, and the inability of the speculators to hold on to their stakes, many have sold of their shares at a lost. This entire stockmarket hype could have given rise to 2 possibly scenarios:

1. People who are not on the bandwagon of speculating in the stockmarket would not want to miss a piece of the big pie; and if they do not have enough money, they would need to get some quickly - and the quickest way? Rob.
2. People who have lost substantial amount in the stockmarket and are driven to poverty. To get back some amount of “survival money”, they rob.

Of course, they likelihood of someone robbing you just to speculate in the stockmarket may sound preposterous, but this is said baring in mind that the stockmarket to the Chinese are no better than a legalized gambling den.

At the end of the day, the obvious reason is undoubtedly because the robbers want your money. They could have been doing so for the past donkey years and this is just another target for them. What I am more worried is if these robberies have greatly increased because of the expeditious growth of the China ecnonomy.

Moving on

At the end of the day, a robbery is a robbery is a robbery. The gong1 an1 (inland security) is working on this matter now, but I doubt it’s the first time that someone has been robbed in this manner. Back in Singapore, we quickly called the banks to cancel the credit and ATM cards. Yes, we know that the ATM cards are useless unless they have the PINs, but you can never be too sure. With iPhone and iPhone clones being launched on the same day, you need very little imagination on what they can do to your card or how they can circumvent the PIN.

For now, I am making additional plans to protect myself (read: travel insurance and stun-guns) on my unplanned trip to Shen Zhen soon. They will probably have to strip me first to get my money I don’t think I will be bringing out too much cash nor stashing it somewhere in the socks. Just remember that it’s not like Singapore, where it’s relatively safer. Sometimes, such incidents make you rethink about your options of moving overseas for good.

Update: More robberies here (or here if link is down). slkf also commented elsewhere that with a modern China and modern citizens, eventually people will at least call the gong1 an1 when someone gets robbed. My toes are laughing. Right. No so modern now as yet, if you ask me.

Ed: Apparently all the operators at the bank call centres are engaged “at the moment”. Did everyone just got robbed yesterday after their pre-GST-hike shopping?

I saw in the referrers that a lot of people are trying to figure out how to terminate their Starhub Cable TV from my previous post. So, here’s their reply on how you can do it, straight from the horse’s mouth (from an email that I sent them). You may be penalised for early termination, like mine. But here’s how:

Dear XXXX

Thank you for your email of (dd/mm/yyyy).

Your Cable TV service is under a promotional contract till (dd/mm/yyyy). The early termination charge for the contract is
$_____. You may choose to personally return the cable TV equipment to Starhub Customer Service Centres (CSCs) at:

4 Tampines Central 5
#02-27/28 Tampines Mall
Singapore 529510
Operating hours: Mondays to Sundays, 1030hrs to 2100hrs, or

1 Raffles Place
#B1-02 OUB Centre
Singapore 048616
Operating hours: Mondays to Sundays, 1030hrs to 1930hrs, or

68 Orchard Road
#02-01 Plaza Singapura
Singapore 238839
Operating hours: Mondays to Sundays, 1030hrs to 2100hrs.

1 HarbourFront Walk
#02-216 VivoCity
Singapore 098585
Operating hours: Monday to Sundays, 1030hrs to 2100hrs

Please return the following items:
1 x Digital Set Top Box
1 x RF Cable
1 x AV Cable
1 x Digital Remote Control (with Batteries)
1 x Power Cord
1 x Smart Card

You can authorize someone else to return the Digital Cable equipment with a written authorization letter and a photocopy of your NRIC. Alternatively, you may wish to arrange for our service personnel to pick up the equipment from the billing address. Please note that a service and transportation fee of $30 (exclusive of GST) is applicable.

If you have further enquires, please contact us at this email address (customerservice@starhub.com) or fax to 6725 1603.

Best regards

XXXXX
Customer Affairs

I am not advocating that you should terminate your Starhub Cable TV, but this is just a guide for those who are interested.

Yes! I totally, whole-heartedly agree! And oh! I have many horror stories to tell on this, and apparently I am not the only person complaining with tonnes of horrible experiences. On June 30, 2007, the straitstimes.com reported:

SINGAPORE drivers are ‘among the worst in the world with regard to spatial awareness, ability to control their vehicle adequately and courtesy to others’

This was what New Zealander Champak Mehta wrote in a letter to The Sunday Times published last week.

Do you agree?

Expats mostly did, reciting a litany of sins from reluctance to give way, refusal to signal and being downright rude.

Singaporeans also admit their countrymen don’t always make the most congenial road users - although they do just fine themselves.

Skills, it seems, isn’t the main problem.

After all, anyone who has had to re-sit his driving test knows that getting that piece of licence is as easy as landing a cab just before midnight.

‘It comes down to attitude,’ said Mr Mehta, 36, a sales manager for an international firm who has been here nine months. ‘If they’re not so much in a hurry and considerate, that would be a massive help.’

Not many would disagree going by a Sunday Times poll of 100 motorists, mostly Singaporeans.

As many as 80 agreed that common behaviour such as tail-gating, road hogging and failing to signal make local drivers none too charming.

But less than half pointed the finger at themselves.

Other common complaints: cutting queues, honking and slowing down to gawk at accident scenes.

Interviews with 10 expats had similar findings with eight citing issues with local road manners.

Read the full report in The Sunday Times.

Before I start ranting, to land a cab in Singapore just before midnight is tougher than striking your local lottery. So, let us start with the infamous signalling.

1. Signalling before changing lane. If I have my say, I’d say this is taboo! As recent as just yesterday, I observe that drivers on the lane that you are going to change to will almost always seem to accelerate whenever you signal - even when they are a few car lengths away! Just 2 days ago, there was this driver who accelerated almost at the speed of lightning the moment I turned on my signal light. Because he was so far away, I could safely change lanes. But he proceed to catch up and tailgate me for a good kilometer or two before keeping a safe car lenght from me. My advice is… not to signal too early. 9 out of 10 times, you will not be able to change lane successfully, especially in the evenings during peak hours. For me, the time to change lane after putting on the signal light is not more than 1 second!
2. Signalling your intention at cross junction. Goodness! Drivers nowadays seem to have problems moving their hands to the signal indicator to indicate where they would like to turn at a cross junction, or before a slip road. Many times, I have to wait patiently at a T-junction waiting for approaching cars to pass. At the end of the day, they ended up going anywhere but straight, and I end up spending time waiting for not 1, not 2, not even 5, but 15 cars to pass with all turning elsewhere but going straight. Singaporean drivers have a problem, I tell you.

Then there are the road hoggers. I have seen people travelling on lane 1 or 2 at 20km/h lesser than the speed limit on the expressways. For goodness sake, if they would like to travel “safe” at 50k/h, there’s such a thing called “keep left”.

Next on the list would be taxi drivers. Most of them drive as if they own the roads. Amongst the complains:

1. Changing lanes without signalling
2. Tailgating
3. Weavering in and out of lanes
4. Driving recklessly

Unless they have an emergency (and indeed even if they do, then the more they should drive safely), there is no reason why they should drive as if they were “rushing for incarnation” (it’s a local slang - gan3 zhe4 qu4 tou2 tai1).

And one of the last but not the least, drivers slowing down to gawk at accidents… at the other side of the road heading the other direction. Slowing down to gawk at accident seems to be a local past time. Singaporeans are really deprived of anything exciting. Of course, some Singaporeans have valid reasons - they want to take down the car registration number to buy 4D. Goodness! If you want a number, here, take this - 8375 and 8791. It’s going to be the first price next weekend because I saw it yesterday from an accident on the expressway. Now I know why they planted tall trees along the divider of SLE between Thomson Road exit and Woodlands Avenue 2 exit.

There are other stuffs that I couldn’t stand of local drivers. These include those:

1. Hogging the road while talking to their passengers
2. Talking on the phone while driving and drifting across lanes (this is a traffic offence in Singapore)
3. Who mod their cars to give that extra ‘oomph’ in the exhaust (read: vrooooom! to the db of more than 200)
4. Drive as if they own the roads… including showing you the middle finger as they overtake u

It’s little wonder Singaporeans are less welcomed on our neighbour’s highway too. Don’t you agree?