So yeah, I haven't been writing much. Or it's been in separated spurts of mad typing. I figure that a bo-liao free willed post in 10mins in the train couldn't hurt. After all the Internet is about content and any content is better than no content - quite unlike what people say about shutting up when there's nothing good to say. Or at least it'll keep me occupied on the way to work.
If anyone read the last post, he/she will realise that I am affected about how unkind or uncivil people in Singapore have become. Everyone seems to looking out for themselves and oblivious to the needs of others. Someone (Twitter handle @Dustygirl) responded to my tweet about no one giving up their seat in the train to a man on crutches in this way:
"@gurms ppl have e right to remain in their seat as everyone paid fares. It should only be offered out of goodwill or by polite request."
I replied that logic meant the MRT needed to have seats available to all passengers. Everyone pays a fare, don't we all deserve the same on-board experience? Maybe the bit about goodwill or polite request is part of someone being kind and thoughtful. But it's a stretch. What happened to people opening doors for someone carrying bags, holding lift doors open, being patient with an older person? Basically helping someone else. (And perhaps not blaring one's car horn at the slightest hold up.)
Civility, that's what I'm asking for. Isn't that what makes a mature society? There's still a place for it in ever-changing Singapore right?
Or am I turning into a grumpy old man complaining about youngsters? Yikes.
(Time to switch lines. Just in time. )
Monday, 26 March 2012
Saturday, 24 March 2012
Strange People In Trains
I've always subscribed to the fact that people are strange. We all are and that makes life interesting. Other people's strangeness (I believe that's a term in quantum mechanics) bearable as long as they don't get in my way or make life in general uncomfortable for me or society. When strange people start being rude or uncaring, then it's time to step in and correct the madness.
Singaporeans can be mad and many of them take the trains. I take the train to work everyday and am arguably slightly insane too. I see many silly things people do and not do that sort of inconveniences their fellow commuters.
There are commuters who
- make it their life mission to get a seat. You see them scamper into the trains, with eyes darting about, looking for a shiny plastic seat to plonk their asses on. They teach their children to do the same. It bothers me when they look for empty seats in greener pastures, meaning they try to weave their way past standing passengers to get to other train cabins without a whimper of 'excuse me' or 'sorry'. It's like they have a right to slither about looking for a dark cave to curl into.
- lean on grab poles. It's as if they have no spines and need an external support mechanism to keep upright. No one else, in mid-fall or otherwise, can get two-fingers on the grab pole because it's just gross touching a stranger in hot, sticky Singapore public transport. These individuals wedge the pole between their butt cracks like a slick manoeuvre used for docking the space shuttle at the International Space Station. When the trains jolts or comes to hard stop, the pole wedgers clench butt cheeks for maximum grip as everyone else around them pick themselves off the floor. Shame on them for not sharing.
- think taking a nap on reserved seats disavows them of any obligation to give up their comfortable spot. Just the other day, I followed a man on crutches into the train at morning peak hour. Poor guy had only one leg. He took a spot leaning on the glass panel beside the door, holding crutches in one hand, other hand gripping a grab pole. In the 2-3 minutes to the next station, no one did anything. I stood watching the tension build. The guy opposite the disabled man was freaking out. So were a few others standing nearby. I could sense them calculating the possibility of disaster from the looks on their faces - the head slightly down, eyes looking up every 5 seconds to see if the man was going to lose his balance, glancing at seated passengers hoping the telepathic connection between nervous people would prompt some of divinely intervened action.
So when the train slowed to a stop, I tapped the man's hand and asked if he needed to sit. He mumbled some sort of yes. The lady next to me who was also part of the tension-affected crowd asked the two passengers in the seats nearest the door to vacate them. So the girl in the reserved seat who was about to perhaps feign sleepy innocence had to leave her comfortable abode for the disabled man. Happy ending. Relief for the transported masses.
There you go. I could add making out in the corner and talking loudly, on the phone or otherwise, and letting children go mad in a crowded space to the list but that'll take another weekend. Damn I've become lazy.
Singaporeans can be mad and many of them take the trains. I take the train to work everyday and am arguably slightly insane too. I see many silly things people do and not do that sort of inconveniences their fellow commuters.
There are commuters who
- make it their life mission to get a seat. You see them scamper into the trains, with eyes darting about, looking for a shiny plastic seat to plonk their asses on. They teach their children to do the same. It bothers me when they look for empty seats in greener pastures, meaning they try to weave their way past standing passengers to get to other train cabins without a whimper of 'excuse me' or 'sorry'. It's like they have a right to slither about looking for a dark cave to curl into.
- lean on grab poles. It's as if they have no spines and need an external support mechanism to keep upright. No one else, in mid-fall or otherwise, can get two-fingers on the grab pole because it's just gross touching a stranger in hot, sticky Singapore public transport. These individuals wedge the pole between their butt cracks like a slick manoeuvre used for docking the space shuttle at the International Space Station. When the trains jolts or comes to hard stop, the pole wedgers clench butt cheeks for maximum grip as everyone else around them pick themselves off the floor. Shame on them for not sharing.
- think taking a nap on reserved seats disavows them of any obligation to give up their comfortable spot. Just the other day, I followed a man on crutches into the train at morning peak hour. Poor guy had only one leg. He took a spot leaning on the glass panel beside the door, holding crutches in one hand, other hand gripping a grab pole. In the 2-3 minutes to the next station, no one did anything. I stood watching the tension build. The guy opposite the disabled man was freaking out. So were a few others standing nearby. I could sense them calculating the possibility of disaster from the looks on their faces - the head slightly down, eyes looking up every 5 seconds to see if the man was going to lose his balance, glancing at seated passengers hoping the telepathic connection between nervous people would prompt some of divinely intervened action.
So when the train slowed to a stop, I tapped the man's hand and asked if he needed to sit. He mumbled some sort of yes. The lady next to me who was also part of the tension-affected crowd asked the two passengers in the seats nearest the door to vacate them. So the girl in the reserved seat who was about to perhaps feign sleepy innocence had to leave her comfortable abode for the disabled man. Happy ending. Relief for the transported masses.
There you go. I could add making out in the corner and talking loudly, on the phone or otherwise, and letting children go mad in a crowded space to the list but that'll take another weekend. Damn I've become lazy.
Tuesday, 28 February 2012
The Difference To Love
We are different. Beyond the skin, bones and blood, we have the capacity to feel, understand what we feel and respond to what we are feeling, at a level beyond instinct and reflex. A capacity to emphatize. And as such the motivation to make change. The most powerful and simplest yet at times most difficult change is our capacity to love. This is why we are different, we choose to love, and choose not to love.
You've heard all the songs, "All we need is love" "Love can build a bridge" "Love conquers all" etc. All romantic and noble. Why don't we think it is possible, that love does conquer all, that love can build a bridge? We don't believe it. Not many do. We are prejudiced by our upbringing, economic levels, our wants and desires, our fears, our greed to fulfil our needs, our superstitions and beliefs and in some cases our ideals and aspirations. We cannot wholehearted unequivocally love. Not like dogs, wagging tails and all. We cannot truly love everyone. Despite all we can feel and understand we just cannot put aside our programming to simply care a little more for one another. We cannot change the world.
It's funny that our geographic boundaries define who we are in more ways than any other attribute. It's funny in a sad way. Kids can die because there's no food around, stuck in a vicious cycle because of lines on a map. Kids around me have no qualms about eating half a pack of fries and leaving the rest to rot in bins. It's funny in a stupid way. Yet we carry on like it doesn't matter, because our purpose in life has been defined, in fact predefined, by parents, government, society. We are manufactured to exist in a certain way. And to show love in a certain way.
There's a TV ad that goes "Why are we here? Maybe it's because of all the species on Earth, we are the ones with the ability to save them all, including our own." Why is this possible? Because we have the capacity to love. We can make the difference. Maybe no one just told us how, or there are too many voices are telling how. Pick one, go with it. Figure how you can change someone else life for the better. We are all suffering in some way, so there lots of opportunity to change the world and change your world. Let love lead the way. Be the tail wagging dog.
our needs
You've heard all the songs, "All we need is love" "Love can build a bridge" "Love conquers all" etc. All romantic and noble. Why don't we think it is possible, that love does conquer all, that love can build a bridge? We don't believe it. Not many do. We are prejudiced by our upbringing, economic levels, our wants and desires, our fears, our greed to fulfil our needs, our superstitions and beliefs and in some cases our ideals and aspirations. We cannot wholehearted unequivocally love. Not like dogs, wagging tails and all. We cannot truly love everyone. Despite all we can feel and understand we just cannot put aside our programming to simply care a little more for one another. We cannot change the world.
It's funny that our geographic boundaries define who we are in more ways than any other attribute. It's funny in a sad way. Kids can die because there's no food around, stuck in a vicious cycle because of lines on a map. Kids around me have no qualms about eating half a pack of fries and leaving the rest to rot in bins. It's funny in a stupid way. Yet we carry on like it doesn't matter, because our purpose in life has been defined, in fact predefined, by parents, government, society. We are manufactured to exist in a certain way. And to show love in a certain way.
There's a TV ad that goes "Why are we here? Maybe it's because of all the species on Earth, we are the ones with the ability to save them all, including our own." Why is this possible? Because we have the capacity to love. We can make the difference. Maybe no one just told us how, or there are too many voices are telling how. Pick one, go with it. Figure how you can change someone else life for the better. We are all suffering in some way, so there lots of opportunity to change the world and change your world. Let love lead the way. Be the tail wagging dog.
our needs
Friday, 3 February 2012
Singapore's Problems & Our MRT System
Ok soon is a little late, sorry. The last post on Singapore's biggest problems required some explanation and here goes.
I was thinking about our recent SMRT technical fiascos as well as our ongoing issues with how crowded the trains were getting (this was the morning my mum made tea and banana pancakes out of the blue).
Keeping the rationalizations simple (because complicating them would confuse) the answers were:
- (track failures) someone wasn't checking for these problems or wasn't checking thoroughly or didn't care. Perhaps their bosses didn't care either.
- (overcrowding) the system was built to 1987 specs to optimal efficiency but without much room for redundancy. It's all too linear and unscalable. Scale now means building a new line. Also, with the push for new housing in certain areas plus more immigrants, it seems like the gahmen departments weren't talking to each other about the intersecting stresses on Singapore systems.
Who can we blame for all this? Ourselves.
We sort of let ourselves get carried away with the gahmen in the "They'll take care of everything, they know what they are doing" sort of way. I mean we were all kudos and applauding when the train lines opened but that's not the endgame. In fact there isn't one. It's forever, like diamonds but less sparkly. So we needed quite a bit of forward thinking in place. We knew back then we needed 5.5 or so million people to make the island work economically so why didn't we cater for that? Could we not envision the demand? We were not creative enough to figure out there wouldn't be space at Jurong East if we got more people to live in the west and northwest? Someone told me that the Japanese built Ginza station from the bottom up, meaning they dug 7 levels down first and built successive lines over that first deep-down station. What brilliant thinking. Anticipation is the hallmark of great planning. Efficiency with room to grow, that what we should have in place and aspire to.
My gripes/solutions with the train systems in Singapore:
- I can't figure why the Bukit Panjang LRT system was built when everyone was happy with the buses. If they wanted to spend $750 million on something through Bukit Panjang, how about a tunnel under the hill to link Ang Mo Kio to Choa Chu Kang with a bunch of stations across? This imaginary line from CCK to AMK could also stretch down Ang Mo Kio Ave 3 to Hougang, Defu and Ubi, roads that are still a mess at peak hours. At least then Serangoon North wouldn't get such a bad accessibility rep.
- Also, the envisioned line above could stretch westwards from CCK to NTU and Tuas, giving options to students at the university as well as workers now bound to use packed Boon Lay MRT/Interchange as their hub.
– I can't figure why the new Downtown Line being constructed from Bukit Panjang to Bugis doesn't start from Kranji or Choa Chu Kang. Wouldn't that help ease congestion into the city and ease the crowds gathering at Jurong East?
- Extra platforms and tracks were retrofitted to Jurong East MRT over the last two years to allow more parking space for trains from Woodlands and extra trains headed east. Did that help ease the human jam? I dunno but people are still complaining. Here's a thought - how about an extra pair of tracks running down from Jurong East to Buona Vista? Additional tracks to link the two major interchanges on the western line. This would give passengers spread-out options to switch lines at other stations instead of sardine-packing Jurong East. Also trains from Woodlands could continue straight on from Jurong East to Buona Vista, giving commuters headed to Harbourfront an easy switch at one stop. Alright, extend at least till Clementi so that commuters have two stops instead of one to switch at.
- Isn't Tanjong Pagar station busy enough to be an interchange? It is now and was even in 1987 when the EW line opened. Every work day hundreds of thousands of commuters have to make the one stop trip from Raffles Place to Tanjong Pagar to get to work in the city. I think that's just silly. If different lines can link across 3-4 stations in Central and Causeway Bay in Hong Kong island and in Tokyo, why could we implement this magnanimous, stress-reducing plan here? It would save commuters time and bring ease.
- We left Marina Bay station languishing for so long as a terminus. Now Harbourfront has become such a vibrant hub. Wouldn't it have be nicer to have the North South line stretch on to Harbourfront for easier connectivity. It would have been obvious to do so than to have had Marina Bay poorly utilised for a decade or so.
- The newly opened Circle Line benefits many who need to head down to the Suntec-Marina area. That's cool but the single point terminus at Dhoby Ghaut isn't. That's now a three line interchange, and consequently a people mess at peak hours and weekends. It would have been nice to extend the Circle Line crossover points further north up Orchard Road to alleviate the stress on Somerset and Orchard stations and end at Newton instead. This would allow suburbanites from the north heading to Suntec to switch earlier at Newton and not join the crowds at Dhoby Ghaut. (the future Downtown Line from Bukit Timah joins at Newton too, so these commuters would enjoy the same convenience too). There would have been the chance to add another station perhaps between Orchard and Somerset maybe behind Paragon or to extend the Circle Line towards Tanglin and Dempsey.
- You may already know how I feel about the Sengkang LRT system. If you don’t, I feel it’s dumb to centralize the connectivity just to one point at Sengkang Interchange. It would be wiser to even link up the same LRT service to Punggol, Sengkang and Hougang since most of the residents probably have shared interests in these adjacent estates.
There you go. My rant about the MRT system. They’re building more lines, of course. Nothing stops the big machine. Not sure if there’s more sense in them (I doubt). Having named a station Tan Kah Kee (like who? and where?) and allowing Farrer Park and Farrer Road stations to co-exist already has me shaking my head.
So with all these complaints, it makes our problems quite clear, no? Over-reliance on the gahmen for ideas, no one really putting forward alternative ideas, too much centralization for perceived efficiency, no creativity and when all goes wrong, no one admitting failure. Ta-dah.
I was thinking about our recent SMRT technical fiascos as well as our ongoing issues with how crowded the trains were getting (this was the morning my mum made tea and banana pancakes out of the blue).
Keeping the rationalizations simple (because complicating them would confuse) the answers were:
- (track failures) someone wasn't checking for these problems or wasn't checking thoroughly or didn't care. Perhaps their bosses didn't care either.
- (overcrowding) the system was built to 1987 specs to optimal efficiency but without much room for redundancy. It's all too linear and unscalable. Scale now means building a new line. Also, with the push for new housing in certain areas plus more immigrants, it seems like the gahmen departments weren't talking to each other about the intersecting stresses on Singapore systems.
Who can we blame for all this? Ourselves.
We sort of let ourselves get carried away with the gahmen in the "They'll take care of everything, they know what they are doing" sort of way. I mean we were all kudos and applauding when the train lines opened but that's not the endgame. In fact there isn't one. It's forever, like diamonds but less sparkly. So we needed quite a bit of forward thinking in place. We knew back then we needed 5.5 or so million people to make the island work economically so why didn't we cater for that? Could we not envision the demand? We were not creative enough to figure out there wouldn't be space at Jurong East if we got more people to live in the west and northwest? Someone told me that the Japanese built Ginza station from the bottom up, meaning they dug 7 levels down first and built successive lines over that first deep-down station. What brilliant thinking. Anticipation is the hallmark of great planning. Efficiency with room to grow, that what we should have in place and aspire to.
My gripes/solutions with the train systems in Singapore:
- I can't figure why the Bukit Panjang LRT system was built when everyone was happy with the buses. If they wanted to spend $750 million on something through Bukit Panjang, how about a tunnel under the hill to link Ang Mo Kio to Choa Chu Kang with a bunch of stations across? This imaginary line from CCK to AMK could also stretch down Ang Mo Kio Ave 3 to Hougang, Defu and Ubi, roads that are still a mess at peak hours. At least then Serangoon North wouldn't get such a bad accessibility rep.
- Also, the envisioned line above could stretch westwards from CCK to NTU and Tuas, giving options to students at the university as well as workers now bound to use packed Boon Lay MRT/Interchange as their hub.
– I can't figure why the new Downtown Line being constructed from Bukit Panjang to Bugis doesn't start from Kranji or Choa Chu Kang. Wouldn't that help ease congestion into the city and ease the crowds gathering at Jurong East?
- Extra platforms and tracks were retrofitted to Jurong East MRT over the last two years to allow more parking space for trains from Woodlands and extra trains headed east. Did that help ease the human jam? I dunno but people are still complaining. Here's a thought - how about an extra pair of tracks running down from Jurong East to Buona Vista? Additional tracks to link the two major interchanges on the western line. This would give passengers spread-out options to switch lines at other stations instead of sardine-packing Jurong East. Also trains from Woodlands could continue straight on from Jurong East to Buona Vista, giving commuters headed to Harbourfront an easy switch at one stop. Alright, extend at least till Clementi so that commuters have two stops instead of one to switch at.
- Isn't Tanjong Pagar station busy enough to be an interchange? It is now and was even in 1987 when the EW line opened. Every work day hundreds of thousands of commuters have to make the one stop trip from Raffles Place to Tanjong Pagar to get to work in the city. I think that's just silly. If different lines can link across 3-4 stations in Central and Causeway Bay in Hong Kong island and in Tokyo, why could we implement this magnanimous, stress-reducing plan here? It would save commuters time and bring ease.
- We left Marina Bay station languishing for so long as a terminus. Now Harbourfront has become such a vibrant hub. Wouldn't it have be nicer to have the North South line stretch on to Harbourfront for easier connectivity. It would have been obvious to do so than to have had Marina Bay poorly utilised for a decade or so.
- The newly opened Circle Line benefits many who need to head down to the Suntec-Marina area. That's cool but the single point terminus at Dhoby Ghaut isn't. That's now a three line interchange, and consequently a people mess at peak hours and weekends. It would have been nice to extend the Circle Line crossover points further north up Orchard Road to alleviate the stress on Somerset and Orchard stations and end at Newton instead. This would allow suburbanites from the north heading to Suntec to switch earlier at Newton and not join the crowds at Dhoby Ghaut. (the future Downtown Line from Bukit Timah joins at Newton too, so these commuters would enjoy the same convenience too). There would have been the chance to add another station perhaps between Orchard and Somerset maybe behind Paragon or to extend the Circle Line towards Tanglin and Dempsey.
- You may already know how I feel about the Sengkang LRT system. If you don’t, I feel it’s dumb to centralize the connectivity just to one point at Sengkang Interchange. It would be wiser to even link up the same LRT service to Punggol, Sengkang and Hougang since most of the residents probably have shared interests in these adjacent estates.
There you go. My rant about the MRT system. They’re building more lines, of course. Nothing stops the big machine. Not sure if there’s more sense in them (I doubt). Having named a station Tan Kah Kee (like who? and where?) and allowing Farrer Park and Farrer Road stations to co-exist already has me shaking my head.
So with all these complaints, it makes our problems quite clear, no? Over-reliance on the gahmen for ideas, no one really putting forward alternative ideas, too much centralization for perceived efficiency, no creativity and when all goes wrong, no one admitting failure. Ta-dah.
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