Tag Archives: Singapore

Traffic Travails and the need for a set of wheels

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This post was supposed to be posted on Tuesday, but for some reason, I didn’t do it then. The traffic that day was was the worst I have seen in my 2.5 months of commute. In about 30 mins, the bus that I was on moved the distance which would not have taken 5-7 minutes to cover on a normal day! The best part, there is no reason for this heavy traffic. If there was a major accident somewhere on the route, it would seem understandable but this is ridiculous. Maybe there was an accident, but I didn’t see anything that seemed to indicate any accident on the way. I think something should be done and soon. The BKE which in normal traffic conditions take around 10 minutes and during the morning peak hours take around 15-20 minutes to cover took about 40 minutes to cover on Tuesday! Yesterday S dropped me to work since he had some work in his Head Office which is not very far from my office. It took us around 35 minutes to reach my office! It is times like this I really want to have a car. But the costs really deter me. Add to the cost of the car and the COE (Certificate of Entitlement) which is ‘Uniquely Singapore’, I also will have to pay roughly around S$3 in ERP (Electronic Road Pricing) every day. This in addition to the S$100 for carpark charges per month. I don’t think I earn that much to justify this spending. Now I am dreading the office moving to the other end of Singapore and my commute will be from one end of Singapore to the other end (the longer end as I keep reminding my colleagues).

On the work front, another of my colleagues has decided to quit. He told us in confidence yesterday that he feels the organisation is going nowhere and so he wants out before it is too late. I am really concerned about the turnover of staff in this organisation. I am not sure what to do. Maybe I should work on my CV this weekend and see if I get some interview calls in the next month or so. If I get something by early December, then it would be ideal. Since I am in my probation period right now, I need to give them only two weeks notice. So if I get a new position soon, then I quit in the first week of December and give notice before I go on my holiday and then come back and join the new company. Will this work for me? God, if you are up there, listening and reading this, please do something, willya?

Singapore in second spot in WEF Global Competitiveness Report 2011-2012

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So Singapore has jumped one spot up and is now second in the recently released World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Report 2011-2012. Switzerland has retained it’s top spot while Sweden has moved one spot down and the USA has also fallen one place to come in at number five this year. Finland is at number four and Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, Japan and the United Kingdom round up the next five places. Japan has fallen three places since last year, but other than Singapore it’s the only Asian economy on the top ten which has been dominated by mostly European economies. China stands at number 26 while India is halfway down the list at number 56.

Well what this means to us will probably be the justification of the PAP’s foreign talent scheme and no end to our respite! This also means that more foreign talents will enter Singapore and the country and it’s resources will get more and more crowded! I am quite ambivalent about this whole thing – on one hand as someone who has majored in Economics and Finance, I know the importance of getting in foreigners who can do the tasks who can’t or won’t do, but on the other hand, I worry constantly if the country would not become so filled with Foreign Talent or FTs for short that we become a foreigner in our own land. I also worry for my children – 10-12 years down the line, when they are ready for university, will there be space for them here or do they have to become FT in another country?

Singapore has always been shaped by foreigners, most Singaporeans today are the descendents of someone who came into the fledgling country. The original inhabitants of this land – probably the Malays no longer count as the majority of the population. Hopefully the situation is not as dire as I see it – but then I have always been a worrier.

Travel Woes…

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After almost eight years, I am now taking the public transport to get to work and it has been a huge culture shock to me! I had read about the crush in the public transport system in Singapore but it was only when I actually experienced it did i realize the magnitude of it.

By and large Singapore has a fairly decent public transportation system with trains, called the Mass Rapid Transit or MRT serving major towns and the Light Rapid Transport or LRT connecting newer towns to the MRT stations and buses which either connect the outer lying areas to the city centre or connect the suburbs to bus or train interchanges. The two operators which run the bus/train network are SMRT and SBS.

Eight years back when I last took the bus on a regular basis, it was easy since I was taking it from the first stop to the last one and was guaranteed a seat. My connecting bus from the interchange to my office was also from the first stop and since the journey was some 10-15 minutes only, not getting a seat was not a big issue! The traffic on the roads was not so bad and I could reach my workplace in the western part of the country in less than an hour. Then last year when S was on his last reservist duty, I had to take the public transport for about 4 days and I took the bus as usual and the journey took me almost double the time! The traffic in the roads was terrible and made me realise just how many vehicles were on the road, in spite of high car prices and the other expenses that come with owning a car! I then took the train on the other days and that was not too bad considering I was travelog in the opposite direction for most of the journey. I was so thankful to be driven to work once S was back!

Now since July I am working in a new place which is on the fringe of the Central Business District (CBD).  This means along with me, approximately 60-70% of Singapore’s working population travel in the same direction as me. The first few days I took the train, but the crush there brought to mind the Mumbai train crush the only difference being that people are a bit more polite here and all buses and trains are air conditioned. I’ve had to frequently miss trains because there was just no way I could enter the train! I then started taking my chances with the road traffic and am now taking an almost direct bus which takes me to a busstop about 7-10 minutes walking distance from my office. This bus is also extremely crowded. The stop I usually get on is the last one before the expressway and the days I can actually get on the bus is good! But there is one thing that I have noticed which is fairly disturbing. Most people do not like to move to the back of the bus but crowd around the exits. This means that the bus is front heavy and newer passengers have to squeeze in the front with zero personal space while at the back it is fairly comfortable.

Wish the powers that are (aka the transport minister or the biggies in the ministry) take these busses and trains incognito without getting the operators and the grassroot leaders in the picture and get a first hand experience of what most Singaporeans go through. Only then would any policy designed to alleviate suffering really take place, otherwise it’s all just gloss.

Youth Olympic Games

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I’m stumped! I don’t know what to write today. These days because of the Youth Olympic Games, which will be held in Singapore for the very first time, getting to work and back is becoming increasingly difficult. The YOG Games Village is located at the Nanyang Technological University (NTU). I work at a research institute on campus. Due to security reasons, about half the campus has been cordoned off and now the busstops are only located at about 2-3 locations on campus. This means a good 10-13 minute walk to reach the place to get the bus and sometimes the buses are early and people miss their ride home. Luckily I’ve managed to not miss the bus till date and hope this continues till the 30th when things get back to normal!