AWARE 130-page Report

Association of Woman for Action & Research (AWARE) was registered in Singapore in November 1985 as a voluntary organisation of women with three main areas of focus - Support, Research and Advocacy.

Recently they completed this Report with the following key recommendations. My views are, of course, attached :)

• Amend the Constitution to include a provision that no one will be discriminated against on the grounds of gender and marital status.

[Since we are in the mood of amending the Constitution to eradicate discrimination, may I propose that we amend the Woman's Charter too? When Woman's Charter was initially constituted, we human were all living in another planet and in another era. Women have come along way since then. Divorced husbands too need protection!]

• Set up a body that promotes gender equality.

[I am for it as it promotes equality between man and woman. Refer to my comment above.]

• Promote more flexible work arrangements to help more women.

[Nope. We should say "Promote more flexible work arrangement to help more men and women.]

• Need for legislation on sexual harassment.

[Agree. Again it should cover sexual harassment for both sexes.]

• Taskforce to oversee interest of foreign women.

[Nope. The taskforce must also oversee the interest of foreign men. Remember there are men who are exploited too. Remember the man who died in a worksite accident whose body was dumped in a carpark in Sengkang. Remember the man who was paid $20 (I think) to sleep in the middle of an expressway to look after some construction materials.]

• Strengthen laws to ensure women are not fired during pregnancy.

[I think this is fair.]

• System to prevent human trafficking.

[I think this is fair as AWARE is referrring to human and not woman trafficking.]

• CASE should play an active role in opposing the perpetuation of gender stereotypes in the media.

[I can accept this proposal.]

My DBS Platinum Cards

Dear friends and yes, including those who are working in DBS Bank too,

This is based on the last credit card statement I just received.

For my platinum card, I spent $668.17 and I got 132 points. It looks like I am getting 1 point for $5 spent.

More importantly, what is the $ value per 1 point that I am getting from DBS Bank?
Take for example - For a $100 CYC voucher, I need to get 3,500 points. http://www.dbs.com/sg/personal/rewards/
Thus each point is valued at $0.029 or 2.9 cents.
DBS is effectively giving 2.9 cents for every $5 you spent ie. 0.58%.

Hmmm.. it does not sound like a good deal at all. But as I have been a single-hearted loyal customer of DBS Bank credit cards, I really don't know what other banks are giving for every $1 spent on their cards.

Can tell me which banks give you a better deal?

I really don't feel very platinum right now... haizzzz

My first time - episode 2 :)

Dear friends,

About Monday last, I received another email invitation from Aesop thru' Mutiply.

The email was peppered with URL links to articles that were carbon copies of mine! I looked for some form of acknowledgement to Edgar but in vain.

I felt thoroughly violated!

I msned Aesop immediately. Aesop denied any knowledge of the existence of the blog in Multiply nor my blogs in Blogger.

This person knows both of us as it has placed Aesop's name, email address and HOME telephone numbers in the Profile page.

Aesop complained to Multiply immediately with a simple click on the screen. Ermm... apparently there must be a lot of people going round using other people's identity to do something silly. I too lodged my complaint to Multiply for violating my rights.

The blog has apparently been brought down as per my last check.

Aesop and the good people at Multiply.com - Thanks for your cooperation in resolving this issue so quickly.

Competition Commission of Singapore

Wah so chim? What is that?

Among other responsibilities, it reviews anti-competitive activities in Singapore. In more human language, it is made up of a group of people with the responsibility of deciding whether a business has used its sizeable market share or monopolistic position to take advantage of its customers.

If I am not wrong, it is part of the requirement for Singapore to comply under Free Trade Agreement FTA signed with US.

Should Starhub, being a sole provider of cable tv services in Singapore, be called upon to answer for raising prices on its various cable packages?

Example - Imagine you signed up for 24-month contract for cable tv package at a price $60 per month. You got a 29-inch tv for a gift. So happy right? Then a few weeks later, you were informed of the impending price increase to $70 per month

Should you wish to stop the service before the expiry of 24 months, you are required to pay a penalty.

On the other hand, apparently the said 24-month contract allows the service provider to increase its price to whatever level it sees fit. You have no say at all but to pay till the end of term.

Why would one enter into a contract where one party can do nothing to change the terms and the other party can vary the terms and conditions?

Is this fair?

Should CCS should look into the following incidents too?

• SingPost's postage rate hike from July 1
• Nets fee increase on merchants using its payment gateway

How about SBS raising its bus fares? This is already covered by Public Transport Council PTC.

My first time - episode 1 :)

Hi friends,

On Jun 1, 2007, I received the following email from a person who looked like an ex-student of mine. Let us call this person, Aesop.

"Your Friend Aesop has invited you to be his contact on Multiply.
Multiply is a web site that makes it easy to share photos, blogs, videos and more with the people you know. Aesop is using Multiply to keep in touch with friends and family and she wants to include you.

Accept Aesop's invitation or learn more about Multiply:
http://multiply.com/si/A+StMHF3p

Personal message from Aesop:
Check out my Blog... Its "Everything with Aesop". I have so far "Nonense with Aesop; Business with Aesop; Politics with Aesop; Comics with Aesop". Enjoy your time there and Have great fun!"

Do you notice the remarkable similarity with how he named her blogs? Well I thought his/her attempt to "emulate" Edgar would be the best compliments he could give me. I gave no further brain cells to it...

Today, 10 days later, I received another invitation to join her Multiply's network. I was flabbergasted at what I saw!

Look out for my next posting tomorrow!!!!

P/S - He/She/his/her are purposely confused as I am not sure whether he is a she or she is a he.

"I confess"

Yes I am also adding pressures to the pockets of my customers.


HhhEEElllllLLLppppPPPP!!!!!

Starhub will get more $ from me!

Starhub has just announced price increase for its various packages.

Sigh!! More pressure on our pockets.

In return, Starhub wants to show its magnanimity by giving you 2 FREE channels ie. the History channel and Crime & Investigation.

Hello? Are we getting more time, more eyes, more brains to process what we see per person to watch the additional 2 channels!!!

The reality is someone must put a stop to these spiralling price increases that we are experiencing now from left, right, behind and centre of us.

Heeeelllllppppppp!!!!

Digital Age and changing business models

the enchanting blue

In today's Straits Times, it is reported that the sales of music through the CD stores have plummeted from $60mio in 2003 to $36mio in 2006 due to Digital Age. Big CD retail stores are on a retreat.

Couple of years ago when CD-rom writer technology was first introduced, my friend was thinking of setting a chain of PC stations where you could choose your own songs and burn your own CD compilation. You may laugh at the idea now but back then, it was a logical idea to challenge the capital-intensive big CD retail stores. We decided against proceeding as we got a feel that songs, like any files, can be downloaded over internet.

That reality has long arrived.

Will the same or is the same happening now to book stores?

I am reading both paper-based printed books and PDF-formatted digital books on my handphone. One more medium - I am also listening to audio books.

Position available - World Bank President

This is an advertisement to invite suitably qualified applicants to apply for the position of President - World Bank.

Beside the usual requirements, the following are additional criteria from my observation.

• You must have "z" in your surname. [The soon-to-be-last president is Mr Wolfowitz. The current candidate is Mr Zoellick.]
• You must promise not to promote your girlfriend / boyfriend using your position.

Please submit your application to me. Thank you.

Cycling on footpaths is ILLEGAL

But the MP for Tampines GRC and Minister for National Development Mah Bow Tan said let's do a trial to allow cycling on Tampines pathways for a YEAR.

To me, it is not just a matter of courtesy for a pleasant experience for cyclists and pedestrains. To me, it is just plain safety ignored without proper grounding and education for ALL residents.

Do not expect me to move aside for a cyclist to pass. If he or she touched me with his/her bike, I will sue him for physical assault, emotional disembowelment, loss of income and whatever else my lawyerS can think of.

Mr Mah, with due respect, please focus on clearing the jams off the roads and make them safe for all wheelers to use.

Let us not complicate the issue by bringing the unmotorised two-wheelers with significant kinetic energy onto the pedestrain pathways.

Good riddance to a lousy trial.

P/S - Btw, thank goodness I don't stay in Tampines.

Twister in Singapore

Pictures courtesy of a friend of a friend of a friend.

For those foreign readers of this blog, the water twister really happened in Singapore recently. This is not an unexplained UFO phenomenon.

UNSW today and Singapore's tomorrow

looking for you

Prior to the debacle, I do not have much of an impression nor opinion of UNSW. Now the whole Singapore knows and talks about UNSW.

UNSW’s dream may have cost the University’s trustees and even Singapore’s taxpayers a few millions dollars. UNSW’s non-performance may have cost some 150 students and families some inconveniences which I believe will eventually be sorted out. UNSW may have given some jobs to some Singapore contractors. UNSW may have temporarily retarded Singapore’s plan to be the education hub. UNSW has certainly lost a lot of “qualitative” goodwill too.

But coincidentally a few weeks before the fallout, I spoke to a media person about not seeing the expected explosion in foreign student numbers to date. The media person was vehemently in disagreement with me. To me, the current education hub theme is a recycled theme with a few new bits. I was a product of the old theme of bringing foreign students to Singapore from neighbouring countries.

What is important to Singapore is knowing what had contributed to the sad story of UNSW. Did the best academic brains in UNSW fail to do its costing, projections, budgeting, scenario analysis, financial analysis, marketing plan, etc etc etc before committing to the project? Is Professor Hilmer too impatient for the tree to bear fruits? Or does he know something we don't? What is/are/was/were EDB’s role/s in the project?

Why is it important to know?
We have two IRs coming on stream in 2-3 years’ time costing billions (not just millions) of dollars. We certainly cannot afford these two IRs to fail on the basis that “the actual tourists/MICE numbers are way below our projected figures”. Many lives are entangled to the fortune of these projects. Given the size of the 2 IRs, we certainly must have investors with DEEP pockets and knowhow to mitigate the risks.

One thing for sure - "No guarantee in life"

Taste of life

Awkward.

Hi friends,

Just had a plate of chicken rice that costs $5.05 inclusive of GST. Tasteless despite the tender but breasty meat that I had to swallow. In addition to that, I really dislike the practice of conveniently putting dishes (that I did not order) on my table and happily charging me for it.

How could the restaurant owner think they could get away with not delivering value for the price that a customer is paying? Yes running a business is tough but the customers too have their financial burden.

Sorry no more business from Edgar.

Racial Discrimination - Have you experienced it?

Yes, I have.

In the paper today, it is reported that AmBank, a second Malaysian bank (after MayBank) has scrapped plans to offer privileges to law firms which are at least 50% owned by ethnic Malays.

Even though the policy is officially scrapped, will the management staff, involved in assigning the bank's business to law firms, practise it in reality? My soul says "hope la".

Racial discrimination is a way of life, is part of the government and is deeply entombed in constitution in Malaysia.

Have you ever experience being a minority race in your country? I have.

So when will this "dynasauristic mindset" change? I really hope it will be soon.

How to increase your company's bottomline?

We can grow the bottomline by tackling the middleline and tweaking things about.

Traditionally, companies will focus their effort on growing their business is. customers and sales turnover. Nowadays, they do this:-

• print your monthly statement on both sides of a page
• change to 360-day year in interest calculation
• sending e-statements
• collecting monthly subscriptions in advance instead of arrear
• when they make your money "disappear" temporarily into a "black hole" when you do a fund transfer between accounts electronically

I am not saying all of the above are no good. Some are definitely enviromentally friendly (which i support). But may I appeal to your good heart to share some of that cost savings with the consumers?

Guys, can we try to focus our time and energy on growing the business, really? Please try to be really (and not superficially) productive.

Our days in Bangkok/Pattaya - as a "farmer"

my caddy, mew.. tremendously fair lady despite the sun..

a farmer working on the tee

another farmer on the fairway

we toiled from sunrise to sunset

the beautiful land

Our first trip after many years of discussion, it finally became a reality. We were at Burapha and Laem Chabang golf courses in Pattaya.

3 nights in Bangkok/Pattaya - As a Tourist

in S'pore budget airport

thaksin-built airport

puppy-trading in chatukchak

a very good tiger show @600 bahts

suicowboy as a "walking street"

suicowboy in its full living spirit

Forgotten to take pics of our dinners. There were plenty of seafood with beers to help with digestion and cholestrol.

3 nights in Bangkok/Pattaya - Hotels

Two hotels in two cities over 3 nights in Bangkok and Pattaya meant we were really living out of our suitcases.

Waking up and rushing out before sunrise and only going to bed way past midnites also meant we hardly had the opportunities to enjoy the hotel hospitalities.

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?