First Time

P/S - My heartbeat at 4.20pm yesterday.

I wish to share this light-hearted piece for the weekend. I was really smitten when I heard this over Chinese radio station last evening.

The two DJs were bantering about their "first time". He said his first time was in Orchard. He and this girl were walking up and down Orchard Road in those days of dating. He was planning to do it at while crossing a road without traffic light.

The lady DJ asked, "Why do it at a crossing without the lights?"

He said it would be an opportune time for him to do it.

"So did you manage to?" she asked. He said he missed it as he was very nervous.

"Then?" she pursued eagerly.

He gingerly replied, "The girl asked me whether I had wanted to hold her hand. She then went on to hold my hand instead. That "first time" feeling was beyond words at that moment."

Moral of the story
Just ask the guys what they want. The guys will really appreciate it.

What does this mean?

For those uninitiated, here is a collection box placed on public land for residents to deposit recyclable items in return for nothing.

• I observed that we do have many people who understand recycling effort.
• They are also willing to give away those items for free. Not sure whether they know the proceeds from disposing those items benefit a private company with profit maximisation motive.
• The karang guni men and women are more than willing to pay you some pennies for the stuff but yet you are willing to give them away for free.
• Do you notice who are the people collecting the stuff from the boxes?
• Given the picture of a mess at the box, is it due to scheduling problem in clearing the boxes regularly OR is it due to enthusiatic people filling the boxes faster than they are being cleared?

Can you try to explain this phenomenon?

The "B" word

One thing we all learned quite well by the end of the Salary debate was the word:-

B E N C H M A R K I N G

A Malaysian's comment on the Salary debate

Hi friends,

The following is an extract from an article written by Tan Shao Qian pp27 in SIN CHEW JIT POH (17 APR 2007) entitled "IF THEY ARE FIRST-CLASS TALENT, ANY HARM IN PAYING THEM A MILLION DOLLARS A YEAR?".

After reading the article sent by a friend to me, I asked myself, "Should I count their salaries or should I count my blessings?"

(Open Quote)
Are you convinced by Lee Hsien Loong argument? Pay a Singapore minister or the Prime Minister an annual income you would probably never be able to save in your lifetime. The reason is to maintain a first-class team. Times that figure by two plus and the S$3 million salary becomes more than RM7 million – a shocking amount, especially for us who are a strip of water away from Singapore.

Difficult to accept? But let us look at some stories besides the remuneration: Singapore was a country in a weak position with no resources when it was separated from Malaysia in 1965. Incidentally, the ringgit-Singapore dollar exchange rate was one to two; but barely 40 years later, the situation is reverse.

The wealth of Singaporeans has doubled. Not only that, when Malaysia’s per capita income was US$5,000 in 2006, that of Singapore was US$28,000, comparable to that of the US, Europe and Japan.

However, there is more to it. They have the world’s busiest port, airport and financial hub. Just as Lee Kuan Yew has said, which country in the world has risen from Third World to First World in one generation like Singapore.

If this still does not justify the million-dollar pay rise for Singapore ministers, then let us look at it from another angle. Malaysia’s Bank Negara lost RM30 billion in foreign exchange speculation during the Asia financial crisis; the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) suffered RM3 billion in paper losses and RM500 million in bad debt in 2004 and a host of third class projects chalked up large amounts of additional costs.

In addition, national enterprises – MAS and Proton – each lost a few billion ringgit due to mismanagement. And in the ongoing Perwaja corruption suit, RM1.5 billion was lost before Eric Chia took over. Then, there was Bumiputra Finance and many other corruption cases where investigation results were not disclosed.

One disheartening fact is that such a situation is not exclusive to Malaysia. ...... (End Quote)

At-least-$48mio Salary Debate

Quotable quotes

"One should not write their pay cheques."

"There is no comparative jobs in the private sectors." - Yet we are using "benchmarking" to justify salary increase.

"It is difficult to be specific with KPIs as their nature of jobs are more long term."

"I will donate my salary increase for next 5 years to charity." Wow!!!

"I do not expect my ministers or my MPs to do the same."

Bus lane woes...

Some bus lanes have gone off-limit to all other vehicles except SBS/MRT buses in recent times.

Why is it necessary? An effort to ensure the uninterrupted movement of these buses and thus encouraging them to be timely for the thousands of commuters.

Is it fair? It is certainly fair for the thousands of commuters. BUT the alternate view from the other road users - Are we privatising one-third or one-quarter of certain important roads for the benefit of public listed companies with profit motives for their respective shareholders?

We could get summon for straying into the bus lanes

P/S - Can someone send me a pic of the bus lane for this posting, pls?

They are challenging the Authority.

P/S It is not the same Mr Wong.

These people are challenging the Authority. The Authority is totally blind to these crimes being committed.

These people are going around putting up advertising with no regard to the civil society. They are pursuing their selfish objective of making monies for themselves at our expense.

They will stick these papers permanently on walls and pillars. They even sent people to go from door to door and throwing flyers (ie. rubbish) into your home in broad daylight.

Please respect each other.

Last night, my home was visited by 3 different persons seeking donations to dun-know-what-cause. First, a young girl, scantily dressed and asking for $2. Second, a man said to be partially paralysed in his left arm and carrying a banner in right arm. Third, a bulky man in black t-shirt went away hastily when I asked him how come tonight there are so many people asking for donations.

It was Good Friday. It definitely was not Christmas Day and Edgar was not visited by 3 "ghosts". Will the relevant Authority please do your job?