Random rant: Our lovely transport system

Just came back after meeting a few ex-colleagues earlier today. Haven't been taking the public transport at this kinda peak hrs for some time and wasn't expecting what I am about to experience.

It was 6pm at AMK station, heading towards Jurong East with one of my colleague staying in the same direction. As its the peak hour (or so I assumed), I expected the train interval to be like 2-3mins each. To my surprise, the board indicated 6 mins. Nevermind lor, just wait... and while waiting, crowd kept piling in. We were standing at the arrows pointing in, but soon people starting standing right smack where the door is gng to open, with the arrow pointing out. Train was packed to the brim and we couldn't squeeze in at all, only those fucking ugly singaporeans (and/or foreigners) whom squeezed their way in without waiting for the people to alight first managed to get in. Fuckers.

Next train took another 6 mins. 12 min of fucking waiting time during peak hour. Nice.

Jammed packed again, managed to squeeze in this time, but it was so bloody packed that me and my ex-colleague's lips were almost touching. No joke. It was damn embarrassing for both of us. Luckily for us both, our breath didn't stink.

Anyway, we tried to make some conversation during the journey and the issue of single gender train carriages came up. She wished that there will be a carriage entirely for women and perhaps the old folks.

"Imagine its you right now so its not so bad, but there are times where I'm being packed so closed to a stranger that we're almost kissing, its not alright at all" she laments.

I can understand where she's coming from but a couple of reasons seem to make this impossible.

Looking at the load right now, imagine a female only carriage is half empty, who is to stop anyone from packing into them? how are you gng to enforce it? Will in results in fights/arguments?

Others such as the wheelchair bound and family with kids etc will start to demand their own carriages. Can I than request that we ban eg kids strollers from entering any other carriages? While we're talking about kids strollers, i think its ridiculous when they enforce strict requirements on foldable bicycle but not strollers. Have you ever seen the size of one of those 3 in 1 kinda stroller?

I just wish we had a better system with more trains and shorter waiting time.

A little project

I recently started this little project at 750words.com

I know I haven't been blogging alot. Other than being busy with work, the other reason for me not blogging more regularly is that I try to blog only when I have something relevant to say. I keep multiple blogs, for personal, tracking etc.

750words.com is interesting because I can basically dump all my thoughts there, and it even does an analysis of the entries to breakdown what they think they know about you from these entries. Its something like writing analysis if you like, which so far has been holding my attention. You should check it out.

MEASURES TO ENSURE A STABLE AND SUSTAINABLE PROPERTY MARKET

From: http://www.mnd.gov.sg/newsroom/newsreleases/2010/news19022010.htm

In a nutshell, the govt plans to curb speculation through imposing the following,

1. Seller’s Stamp Duty (SSD) on Residential Properties Sold within 1 Year
2. Lowering Loan-To-Value (LTV) Limit to 80% for Housing Loans

A few question marks come to my mind immediately.

I can understand that the govt is keen to nip the impending bubble in the bud, but why nothing for HDB? Prices for HDB has been going upwards steadily largely due to the fact that PRs are allowed to 'speculate' in them in a way that seems to me to be more detrimental to property prices as compared to that of the private housing market.

Secondly, the 2 new rules in itself doesn't seem to me that its going to have much of an impact in curbing speculation because

1. A quick search through the sub-sale caveats lodged since Oct09 showed that only about 10% of them are 'flipped' within one year of purchase. So this new ruling will at best only affect up to 10% of all sales?
2. Most financial institutes are already being prudent (due largely to the crisis) and not offering any 90% loan at all. Redundant?

Impact is going to be minimal at best, probably 'scaring' investors off for a few months, like the last time they took away the interest absorption scheme.

I seriously dunno why they even bother.

Another bond offering for Temasek

Frankly, I'm slightly disturbed. This is Temasek's 5th bond offering in as many months. Is Temasek really running out of money??

An other note, so far all the bonds have been rated triple A if I remember correctly, which is the highest grade possible. Given that even Warren Buffet's BH shares have been downgraded recently, I guess its safe to say that Temasek finances are still well and strong.

I wonder why Temasek not make the bonds available to the general public though. From what I know, they are only available to institutional investors. Given the relatively attractive yield of ~ close to 4%, they probably wouldn't have any problems raising the funds they need.

Maybe they get a better rate 'borrowing' from our CPF funds? Just a thought

Wakemate

I'm not exactly what you call an impulsive shopper. In fact, most often than not, I would shop around, read reviews, make comparisons before I made a final purchase. However, I kinda bucked the trend today. I'm not sure why I did it, but I just had to get this.

http://wakemate.com/

Basically this little thing here tracks your sleep to wake you at the optimal time and collects data that can tell you how to improve your sleep quality. I always had trouble sleeping well at night. On average, I sleep only 4-5 hours on weekdays. No matter how tired I am during the day, I can't fall asleep until around 2-3am every night, and I get up for work at about 7am, dead tired. Although this thing is not gng to help me sleep at night, if it makes me less tired, its well worth the money. Not to mention I'm a sucker for statistics and data. I track my spending habits, my investments, my income, my workouts and being able to track my sleep somehow feels perversely exciting. Not sure if it really works, since its a pre-launch and there's no reviews.

Can't wait to get my hands on it. :)

A minister apologises in Sinagapore, is hell freezing over?

From Today online

Khaw apologises
by Hoe Yeen Nie and Claire Huang 05:55 AM Dec 22, 2009
SINGAPORE - Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan has apologised for the over-crowding situation at Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH).

In his blog yesterday, he said the hospital's Accident and Emergency department is always packed. Several times a week, TTSH even has to divert civil defence ambulances to other hospitals. "It is no fun waiting for a bed, in a crowded room or in a corridor; I am truly sorry," wrote the minister.

The crush at TTSH has, in turn, spread the over-crowding situation to hospitals like Changi General Hospital and Singapore General Hospital.

Many patients are from Woodlands and Yishun in the north, and Mr Khaw hopes the new Khoo Teck Puat Hospital will ease the load when it opens.

"We are all looking forward to this, especially the colleagues in TTSH and other hospitals. They have been wonderful in putting up with the extra workload, without complaints. I thank the patients too for their patience and understanding," he said.

On hindsight, the Ministry of Health (MOH) made a mistake by not building the new hospital two years earlier.

"I am determined not to repeat this mistake in the west," said the minister. Hence, planning for the Jurong General Hospital was "activated" last year, with the management team "working enthusiastically to build a hassle-free healthcare system ... ".

Major changes are also coming up, especially in the allied health professions, with legislation having to keep up with these. After dental hygienists and advanced practice nurses, optometrists and opticians, Mr Khaw is "now getting ready" to go to Parliament again to register physiotherapists, occupational therapists and other allied health professionals.

The MOH has also taken steps to beef up manpower as well as widen staff skill sets.

So far, more than 1,200 people are enrolled in nursing courses in polytechnics while the Bachelor of Nursing course at the National University of Singapore is expected to see some 200 students.

"The nursing profession has regained its popularity," said Mr Khaw.

To be fair, I think Khaw Boon Wan is a minister that does more than he speaks, and maybe one of the few that honestly comes close to deserving a hugely inflated paycheck. In him, I see at least some humility as a person and his willingness to admit to his mistake is refreshing to say the least.

WKS, maybe you can learn something from your fellow colleague.

Musings

I'm not sure whether to laugh or cry when I see this article from Today

Finance sector 'expected to increase hiring' next year
05:55 AM Dec 17, 2009

SINGAPORE - Industry leaders say the finance sector is expected to increasing hiring next year.

Speaking at an industry forum yesterday, they said with the economy recovering, more companies are expected to list or issue bonds. This will lead to more banking services and increase demand for talent especially in capital markets.

The Financial Training Institute at Singapore Management University (SMU) said there have already been more enquiries from industry for training in areas such as capital markets.

SMU's Dean of the office of executive and professional education Annie Koh said: "We are definitely going to see demand for banking services, transactions, and consumer banking services, and wealth management services. You need to have the back-end and middle-market trained to prepare for that front-end movement."

Overall, industry growth in the region will also be driven by rising affluence in Asia.

To develop and retain talent, forum participants said banks are increasingly looking at moving people between departments to grow their skills.

These include transfers between various operations within the company such as back, front and middle office operations.

DBS Bank, Chief Executive Officer, Piyush Gupta said: "I find that companies where people are given the opportunity to have lateral mobility, create a lot of talent, and create people who are extremely well-rounded."

He also said: "In my previous company, you could move wherever you wanted to as long as you put your hand up and say 'I want to move', people encourage you to move. And frankly, in my current company, that is something that I hope to be able to institute."

The finance sector contributes 13 per cent of Singapore's GDP and hires 5 per cent of the work force. Ryan Huang

Mr Gupta was previously from Citibank if my memory serves me right. Maybe they do practice such a culture, which is really great IMO. No matter how great you are in your current job, there will come a time when you feel that you have achieved all that you can, and yearn to move on to a new challenge, to something that can simulate your mind further. Or maybe that's just me.

I enjoyed what I was doing back in the bank, but after 3 years, it just doesn't seem that challenging anymore. Everything is so repetitive, I literally took only half the time to do what most others took, and ended up doing twice the same work than most others. Not a very smart move as it made my boss totally unwilling to release me when I asked for a internal transfer. I was very comfortable with the bank, its structure etc and was hoping that I can remain there, but doing some other role. I was literally waving both hands and feet shouting "I want to move!" but nothing ever happened. Plus, given that my boss is unwilling to release me, and HR is unwilling to do the dirty work in re-allocating me, I finally left. I don't know... but it really left a bad taste in my mouth, being that I really see myself as providing value to the organisation, yet....

I'm not alone in this situation so it seems. I think its a pretty common preference among local banks to 'outsource' rather than 'insource' to fill vacancies. Which to me, doesn't really make sense and simply makes for a big round of musical chairs. Most of my seniors, including my manager at that time, had been through all 3 of the local banks and some more. My mentor had been with the same bank for 9 years and counting, yet he is always overlooked for promotion as he is also deemed 'irreplacable' to the manager, and someone from another bank will be headhunted come in to fill up the vacancy despite not have the experience and capability of my mentor.  Does loyalty still count for anything these days?