Well, how often do you get a diarrhoea anyway? Not too often, right? Unless of course you had been eating Prima Deli cakes - although I really sympathise with the people who got poisoned, it really wasn’t any fault of theirs. Of course, then you might ask - who are those who get diarrhoea of their own fault anyway?

Well… how about people who take cockles? Nope, it’s not their fault, but I guess most people should know of the apparent high risk that comes with how unhygienic the origins of cockles can be… but that’s story for another day.

The United States saw at least 3 shootings (there may be more that are not reported) within 1 week - one involving a highly low esteem person who felt that he was a burden to everyone around him, while the latest 2 (both on 10th December 2007) happened at 2 different churches. The motives of the latter were not known, neither were any connections.

For the short duration that I was in New York some eons ago, police chase were as common the hello kitty craze - you get it now and then, and sometimes there were a whole bunch of them. I remembered that when I was staying a Brooklyn campus hostel, not only were shootings common, but robberies as well. Of course, this is the exception rather than the norm, but it was frequent enough to make me wonder where I should really go to if I should migrate to the States one day? Is the shootings a result of the relaxation of rules on arms ownership?

Well, seriously, I am not sure; but what I do feel is that it’d impractical to ban arms ownership altogether because they can at least trace who owns what, but should they ban it altogether, then:

1. they’d have a tough time finding out the origins of the arms
2. it’d be hard to convince everyone to give up their arms all at the same time - after all, who knows if someone else had them on their hit list

A lot of things can be done through regulation, instead of slapping a flat ban on it. In Singapore, the use of Morphine is regulated (and restricted to medical use - and it’s really good - the morphine, I mean), prostitution is regulated (as opposed to making it illegal outright - then we’d have a problem of tracing infections, from a pragmatic perspective), and gambling is regulated (although there are still underground ones). Not to mention that slapping a ban on everything will create an uproar eventually - although I don’t see anyone protesting strongly with the chewing gum ban, partly because everyone who wanted one will get it from our neighbour across the causeway.

Speaking of which, how about banning smoking altogether? When the rule was implemented to ban smoking at the bus stop, people literally stood outside the shelter to smoke. Damn. I need to get all their photographs one day and paste it all over the Net.

Anyway, back to the shootings. Of course the recent shootings could have been a one off thing - and there really isn’t anything to be alarmed about. Some people will just think that the deaths is just a statistic, but have you thought about what happens if it happened to be you? I’m not saying that anything should be done immediately with regards to arms ownership due to these recent incidents - after all, ownership was allowed for its own reasons (I need someone to fill me up on this) and I am in no position to question it.

However, with freedom comes a price. For Singaporeans who are still thinking the American dream - there are way more things that freedom can give - and some of these may not be expected. If you decide to move to somewhere, remember to always do your homework first. Just like what my biology lecturer told me: There’s a chance that something might happen, but if it happens to you, it’s always 100%.

DENVER (Colorado) - AT least four people were shot at a large Colorado evangelical church on Sunday - the second shooting in a day linked to a religious community in the state.

Local media said four, or possibly more, people were shot outside or inside the New Life Church in Colorado Springs on Sunday afternoon. The condition of those shot was not immediately known, but police said they had a suspect in custody.

In an earlier incident, two people were killed and two were injured shortly after midnight when a gunman entered a training centre for young missionaries in the Denver suburb of Arvada, about 110km away from Colorado Springs, police said.

It was not immediately known if the two shootings were connected. CNN reported that the description of the shooter was similar in both cases - a white male wearing a dark hat and dark jacket.

The New Life Church, which has about 14,000 members, was founded by pastor Ted Haggard, who resigned in disgrace in 2006 after admitting to sexually immoral conduct.

Colorado Springs TV station NewsChannel 13 said police scanner traffic indicated there were multiple victims at the New Life Church. It said many people were apparently hiding throughout the vast church building.

Police cordoned off the church and appeared to be still looking for the shooter.

Colorado Springs Police Lieutenant Fletcher Howard told CNN police had a suspect in custody, but that the motive for the shooting was not yet known. He said he could not confirm any fatalities from the shootings.

New Life Church associate pastor Rob Brendle said: ‘It’s been a dramatic day and we are participating with the police investigation right now but we are not at liberty to make a comment right now … a statement will be issued at 3.30pm mountain time (6.30am Singapore time).’

In Arvada, two youth missionary staff members were shot and killed by a young man who came to the door of the Youth With a Mission dormitory asking for a place to stay, the group said in a statement.

When he was told he could not be accommodated there, he pulled out a handgun and opened fire. Two other staffers, who were cleaning up after a Christmas party, were wounded before the gunman ran away.

The Mission is an international and interdenominational organisation that trains young people to work as missionaries.

‘Please pray for the families who are on their way to Denver for the critically injured young man undergoing surgery today for the staff and students who have been evacuated to another location for the apprehension of the gunman who fled the scene,’ Mission spokesman Paul Filidis said in a statement. — REUTERS

Article obtained from straitstimes.com on 10th December 2007

Barely hours after I did my post on rude angmos, I witnessed for myself another uproar. Alright, I am exaggerating again, but what happened was a good example of how fragile the racial harmony in Singapore is.

Apparently, there was a Starbucks staff who was clearing the tables and while she was walking past a PRC customer, the latter threw a tissue into the tray that the staff was carrying. By any standards, that was rude. Yet the PRC didn’t think that there was anything wrong.

The staff was obviously very angry and she asked in a rather loud voice for the customer not to litter the place. Feeling indignant, the customer argued back in somewhat broken English something that I couldn’t get. In the end, the customer asked the staff to "go on" or "move on", or "be dismissed" or in Mandarin, 退下. For those who are not familiar with the Chinese language, it’s like the Emperor asking the subject to dismiss himself. It’s rather derogatory if you ask me.

In the end, a Singapore Chinese had to approach the Chinese customer to find out what went wrong. Perhaps the PRC customer really didn’t find anything to throwing a litter into the tray that the staff was carrying, but it is this kind of misunderstandings that can break the racial harmony and equilibrium that we are enjoying.

With a higher influx of foreign talents, and with the Singapore government encouraging more foreigners to come in, it may be inevitable for such things to happen - and tolerance of each other’s culture does not happen overnight. Already, a lot of Singaporeans are displeased with foreign talent "taking over" their jobs, how bad can it get if they bring along their own culture and assume that the locals will be able to adapt to it, or that the locals can accept it?

After all, isn’t it that when in Rome, we do what the Romans do?

STEP into the toy department of Isetan Scotts and chances are you will be served by Zhang Jia Le from north-eastern China.

The cheerful 20-year-old quit his studies, borrowed $7,000 from relatives and came to Singapore to work three months ago.

The Ji Lin native who said he lost interest in studying, remarked: ‘The environment here is better and we learn how to handle and sell many different kinds of products.’

He is among a growing number of front-line China workers in the service industry.

Mainland Chinese are making their presence felt not only in foodcourts and hawker centres but also in shopping malls, supermarkets and petrol stations.

Employers like these workers because they are hard-working and are willing to take jobs shunned by Singaporeans.

But the reception from others has been less than warm. In the past two weeks, four people have written to the Forum page of The Straits Times commenting on the ubiquitous China worker.

The letter writers said these workers are taking jobs away from Singaporeans and questioned their suitability, saying that many do not speak English.

One exasperated reader, Mr Murali Sharma, described how he could not get a glass of warm water from a waitress from China at a wedding banquet.

The 71-year-old retiree said: ‘I can’t speak Mandarin and she couldn’t speak English. It was so frustrating.’

The Sunday Times visited 23 coffee shops and foodcourts in the past week and found China workers serving in at least eight eateries. At a coffee shop in Braddell, up to 10 of the 25 employees were China nationals.

Their vocabulary is typically restricted to job-related terms but sometimes it is not even sufficient for work.

Ms Sharidah Zaitun, 47, a part-time editor, has had frustrating encounters with service staff from China at food centres and shops who cannot understand her.

She said: ‘Singapore has an international community and speaking English is a must.’

Even some Chinese Singaporeans have problems. Not all can speak Mandarin and they get by using dialects such as Hokkien or pasar Malay in hawker centres.

Mrs Maggie Goh, 61, a retiree who speaks only Hokkien and English, said she has resorted to pointing to items on the menus in restaurants.

Just on Friday, she was served by a waiter from China at a restaurant in Parkway Parade who could not understand English. ‘He kept speaking in Mandarin even though I spoke to him in English. I ended up pointing to items on the menu. It was a struggle,’ she said.

Expats in particular are having difficulty with the language barrier.

A Filipina accounts manager, Denise Iroy, 31, recounted how she once spent 15 minutes trying to explain to a salesman from China that she wanted to buy an adaptor.

‘I tried to speak slowly but he still could not understand me. In the end, the manager had to come and assist me.’

Employers and labour agents said the influx of China workers came after rules were relaxed to allow them to work in the service industry.

They said service-sector companies can now hire work permit holders for up to 45 per cent of their total workforce with China workers making up 5 per cent of that.

The Manpower Ministry could not say how many China workers are in the service industry but interviews with labour agents suggest that demand is hotting up.

Agent Zen Tan said that from July to December, his agency supplied about 3,600 China workers to companies in the service sector. This month alone, demand has gone up by 20 per cent.

He said: ‘A lot of these jobs require long hours and Singaporeans do not want to take them.’

Mr K.H. Hong, who owns a chain of 10 coffee shops islandwide, said he hires China workers because they are ‘hard-working, willing to work overtime and eager to learn’.

It also does not hurt that a China worker’s pay is $1,000, about 10 per cent lower than what a Singaporean or Malaysian earns - because he is usually inexperienced. Mr Hong has about 40 China workers in all.

Ms Shereen Leong, senior human resource executive of foodcourt operator Koufu, which has 21 outlets, said local workers are scarce in the tight labour market. The company has 29 China workers out of its pool of 503 workers.

One such person is Wu Ye Li, who has been manning the dessert stall at Koufu’s Toa Payoh outlet for two years.

The 34-year-old started out serving customers but has since learnt to prepare all 15 items on the menu.

She works 12 hours a day, gets two days off a month and earns $1,000 monthly.

She admitted that the first months at work were frustrating because she could not understand her customers’ orders.

‘Language was a problem, the Singapore slang is different and I knew little English,’ she said. But now, she can speak simple English to her customers.

Ms Julia Tay, deputy human resource manager of Isetan, hired four China workers in the past four months after interviewing them via webcam.

She thinks that they would be more committed to their jobs because of the large sums they’ve paid labour agents to hook them up with jobs in Singapore. The amount can be as high as $8,000.

She said: ‘Though having a basic command of English is important, the willingness to learn is more important.’

The China workers are paid the same amount as the other workers - $1,100 a month. The company does not give them English language lessons.

The store, which has 600 retail assistants, plans to place up to three China workers in each of its four branches.

Bata Singapore, which employs 11 China nationals as sales staff, tackles the language problem by enrolling them in a week-long basic English course.

Ms Corrine Goh, manager of the Peninsula Plaza branch, which has two China workers, said the company preferred to hire China nationals over English-speaking Filipinos because they are cheaper.

China nationals get $1,000 a month compared to $1,500 to $1,800 for Filipinos.

She said: ‘Of course language can be a problem, but the workers try their best. We hire them based on how much they are willing to learn and how far we think they can go.’ She said that there have been no customer complaints.

While some customers may be unhappy with the China workers’ weak grasp of English, employers said the situation is not likely to change given the tight labour market and Singaporeans’ reluctance to work in the service industry.

Mr Hong Poh Heng, chairman of the Foochow Coffee Restaurant and Bar Merchants Association, said: ‘They are cheap to hire and unlike Singaporeans, are willing to work long hours and on public holidays to pay back their loans.’

But 24-year-old undergraduate Rebecca Norfor has this piece of advice for employers who seem to downplay the importance of language in good service.

‘If I have to tear my hair out to communicate, I will take my business elsewhere.’

mavistoh@sph.com.sg

shulis@sph.com.sg

Article obtained from straitstimes.com on 9th December 2007

Frankly, if you ask me, I think it’s all a sham. Haha… ok, maybe not as serious as that, but what I feel is that there is too much emphasis on the wants of taxi drivers to raise the fares. What taxi drivers want, I feel, is to take more bacon home. No, I don’t mean the Cold Storage ones, I mean money. Paycheck. Or whatever you call it.

Before I go into any argument of sorts, I’d like to point out a few things that I’d base my arguments on:

1. Taxi drivers want more income
2. Raising fare hikes is one of the ways for them to get more income - probably one of the more obvious ones
3. Raising fare hikes is NOT THE ONLY method that is available for them to get more income

With that being pointed out, it’s now important to realise one thing: why are taxi drivers complaining about not having enough income? Some reasons cited includes:

1. Increase in fuel charges
2. Payment of ERP charges to go into the city area without passengers

In addition to this, there had also been an increase in rental shortly after the last fare hike. The amount however, varies from company to company.

The thing that I don’t get is, why isn’t the companies helping to bear to brunt of the increasing cost of the drivers? Isn’t it supposedly in the best of their interest to help the taxi drivers? Or are they really just like rental companies who are concerned with whether the taxi drivers are paying their rent via Giro and not bother about what happens to them?

I understand that the taxi companies are supposedly profitable organizations, but sometimes, I wonder if they treat their taxi drivers as customers, or do they really consider them as staff? After all, all they are concerned at the end of the day is seemingly ONLY the bottom line and perhaps passenger complains (which I am beginning to doubt because of this). Do they care whether their taxi drivers are in dire straits? Or do they care whether they can pay their rent on time?

Of course, they are help to lower the cost of diesel by providing their own pumps at their own centres, but have they considered that there may be drivers who live at the other end of Singapore and whether it’s worth it to go all the way down to the refuelling stations? If they really want to offer an option to the drivers, I feel that it’s a half-baked option.

For all I know, they might start increasing rentals from the taxi drivers now that the fare hike is confirmed. Perhaps I am really new and raw to the entire concept of capitalism and it probably goes deeper than what I had expected.

In fact you know what? I give up. I don’t think I want to care anymore. Raise taxi fares for all they like. Raise the rentals for all the want. Squeeze the damn daylights out of the taxi drivers and squeeze them dry. Milk them till there’s only bones and roughage left. After all, there will be generations after generations of taxi drivers - why bother about the current fleet? There will be new drivers to take over when the current fleet gives up. At the end of the day, passengers who need to take cabs will still take, those who don’t need to take will stop taking and the disappearing taxis syndrome will stop.

Good.

IT IS official. Taxi fares are going up.

Taxi giant ComfortDelGro Corp has notified the Public Transport Council (PTC) about an imminent fare increase. The PTC could not say more.

Commuters can expect to pay more from as early as the week before Christmas, as taxi operators have to inform the council at least two weeks before any fare changes.

For its part, ComfortDelGro again declined to comment, as it has for several weeks since speculation about a hike first started.

Sources, however, said the adjustment will include a 30-cent rise in flag-down rate. This would bring the minimum starting fare to $2.80. For newer cabs which meet the stringent Euro IV emission standard, the flag-down will go from $2.70 to $3.

Currently, ComfortDelGro has about 2,000 of such cabs in its fleet.

Commuters can expect changes to the distance and time-based charges too. Surcharges are also expected to be streamlined.

There is speculation that the operator might help cabbies defray electronic road- pricing charges to encourage them to enter the Central Business District - where demand for cabs is high.

The signs of a fare hike had been there for some time as cabbies and their associations have been lobbying for it for several months now, arguing the increase in diesel price and the goods and services tax have eroded drivers’ income substantially.

The plight of cabbies is not lost on commuters. Said merchandiser Ivy Ong, 41, who takes cabs regularly: ‘Will this fare adjustment be helping the taxi-drivers? If their taxi rental goes up, I don’t think it would.’

Citigroup Singapore strategist Lim Jit Soon does not think ComfortDelGro would raise rental this time round as it wants to retain as many drivers as possible ‘in this buoyant market’.

‘What it means is that it might gradually remove some subsidies,’ he said.

For instance, ComfortDelGro is still selling diesel to cabbies at 94 cents a litre, 36 cents cheaper than diesel dispensed at stations run by oil companies.

christan@sph.com.sg

Article obtained from straitstimes.com on 5th December 2007

I’m not sure about previous issues of Sunday Times, but today’s paper seemed to have a theme - on how people are trying to cope with the increased cost of living.

"We can barely stay afloat, say low income folks" screamed across the header of the papers today. Reading on, I read about how an administrative assistant, earning S$1350 a month, is finding it hard to cope with the rising cost of living in Singapore. She is the sole breadwinner in her family and had to look after her mother, son and 2 children from her late aunt. Faced with this cash-strapped situation, she approached her MP for help, who then put her on short term financial assistance that provides an additional $200 per month for 3 months.

These situations are probably not uncommon and is a result of the people’s pay not rising as fast as inflation in Singapore, which was estimated to be about 3.5% to 5%. However, just basing the layman’s calculation on the GST alone, it’s definitely at least 2% and this excludes the compounded effect that exists as a result of trade from raw materials to the finished product. Other things that contribute to this includes food (up to 20% increase) and electricity.

Reading on, I was also shocked to learn that luncheon meat has went up from $1.30 to $2.50 and not the 60 cents that I read about recently (the previous article cited current price as $1.90). In addition, with the recent destruction of crops from the 6 farms which were contaminated by Tengah Air Base, I can’t help but wonder if I’d see a permanent raise in the cost of raw vegetables.

Another family of 7 also saw their mum return to the work force after a 15 year hiatus. To them, the rise in living cost was too much to bear. In addition, the overtime pay that the dad used to get is stopped, resulting in a $600 reduction in pay every month.

For them, they had to resort to shopping in Johor Bahru for cheaper groceries as well as downgrading to cheaper and simpler equivalents of food, produce, groceries and toiletries. They have also switched to eating more chicken than fish because it is cheaper for them.

Amidst all these tough times, the best words that the government can give them is to "downgrade". As I am not an economist, I can’t fathom what else can be done to help the poor(er). Even for myself, I have stopped taking 1 meal a day so that I can save up that extra bit for a rainy day.

The expatriates are facing this inflation with a different set of problems, with most revolving around property rental prices. One family have to move down from their 24th floor to a similar unit on the 3rd floor - giving rise to a whole new meaning to downgrading. At least they have another alternative - pull out from Singapore altogether. Well, they may not earn as much as being an expatriate if they were to return home, but at least they have an option.

For now, I am just glad that my cuppa Tazo Chai Tea Latte had remained at the same ol’ price of $5.30. I hope it remains that way for a while more, else I’d have to downgrade to plain water soon - and they’ll chase me out for sure.

I have always been a fan of consumer electronics fairs and Sitex 2007 was not much of an exception. The only exception for this exhibition is that, I was greatly disappointed.

Unless you have deep pockets and are looking for big items (read: LCD TV, home entertainment systems), you will not be finding much offers. Of course, it could be because I am looking for DSLRs, digital cameras, and probably every other thing that happened not to be on sale. The freebies were ok, just that the price wasn’t.

For something like cameras, I guess it’s hard to deviate from the usual *ahem* speciality shops in Sim Lim once you know how much they can go for, and with independent PC/laptop sales going on every now and then, you’d barely miss anything if you missed the mega fair, unless you are going for lower end models - at least that was the feeling I got. Price wise, it’s going to be about the same, although they are more generous about the upgrades and RAMs though. Then again, I’d probably only get a Fujitsu or Sony, or perhaps the Eee PC and the first 2 are seldom on discounts while the last one… is out of stock.

However, if you are looking for LCD TVs, then this might be the right place for you. The prices are really good, especially if you are thinking of getting a high end Samsung LCD TV. 46 inches are going for about 40% off the listed price, but bear in mind though, that the prices of LCD TVs seemed to be soaring… downwards nowadays. If you buy one today, it’s good if you keep your eyes to yourself for the next 1 year.

The Starhub offers are decent, perhaps better than usual. However, I can’t stand it whenever they ask me to sign up on a new service plan. I mean, I’m already on full subscription with 2 mobile numbers, how many more services do they want me to sign up on? tsk tsk…

Besides Samsung and a few other stores, all major brands are being marketed by Harvey Norman for this show. This is quite unlike the previous ones where Courts and Best Denki fight for a piece of the consumer pie. Being so, there’s little competition in prices if you were to buy, say, a Canon or a Sony of equivalent model. Freebies are abound, but I heard that a particular fair going on in Wisma Atria is matching the same price and same freebies. Hmm…

In addition, I find that this fair is not as crowded as usual - but perhaps I chose to go at "non-peak" hours. This is perhaps good for casual browsing where you can take your time and walk around without having to squeeze with the crowd. What you might lose out on, is perhaps the time-based special offers. Then again, you’d have to be there the whole day to catch all the fabulous offers!

One other thing that I was looking for is phones. I usually don’t expect to buy them off the shelve with no contracts because the price will always nearly be exorbitant. So what I really do is to visit the booths to check out the functionality of the most recent models to make a mental note if I were going to get one elsewhere, like the forums (used sets).

Having said that, I got for myself a HP Laserjet 1020 monochrome laser printer for my daily use. At S$178 with vouchers, it was quite a steal for me. Of course, I could probably get it at a price with the vouchers offset, but I guess I’d just give them to my mum. At least she’d find better use in them.

So, if you’d still want to take a look at the great deals that are abound in Sitex, do make your way down today, being the last day, from 11am to 9pm at Halls 5 and 6. Do avoid driving there and if you have to cab down, do make do with alighting at the main road. It’ll save you about $15 from waiting in the traffic.