The Busy Busy Takahina, 2012 Week 33

Very sorry for not updating... and neither do I have much time to do any big updates. So this time it's just a quick info on what's happening to me lately.

Somehow maybe someone from my office really saw my blog (OMHFG), I got what I wished. I got transferred to a company which is the complete opposite of my previous department, it's so much more busy now I have no time to waste on the computer. Kinda ridiculous really as the change is really big. But somehow I'm feeling happy as this is much closer to what I expected in working in a bank. Also since the department is bigger, I have colleagues now who actually talk to me and it feels so much more welcomed.

So expect me to blog much lesser now. Sorry again. Since every post takes up a lot of my inspiration and energy and time, I have to wait till days when I'm more free before I can do any proper post.

Also, 2 of my bands have registered and auditioned for an up-coming gig event called JamFest organized by AMG. One band is Xylia, playing Top 40s while another is Marukyu playing Jpop. Results are not out yet so hopefully Marc can get us the results he promised ASAP.

Anyways, just a short update. Peace out.

Note: Since this post is just an update, I will not put it up on FB.

GETTT- Great Economics Tuition Teacher Takahina, 2012 Week 32

I would love to be in a class of his, not for him but for the school girls :p

Sure I'm nowhere as suave or as cool as him, but hey, I think maybe I teach better than him... well academically anyways.

As a few of my friends would have already known, I have been teaching tuition for a couple of years. I won't say I'm the most experienced one out there, neither have I been formally trained at all in teaching. In fact my first experience with teaching came when I gave a 1 tuition session with my cousin Ah Moi when she was in JC and that was the most awkward thing ever. You don't know how to treat her, as a student or as your cousin, and when you cousin gets serious you feel like "WTF is going on!?".

Thanks Lao Peng for the Fuck Up sign. Ah Moi won't like to see her face without makeup. :x

Gradually in University, I scolded Desmond on his flawed economic theories so much so he scores better than me. Then the best thing is all of these is irrelevant to him as he's doing a totally different trade.

Bugger scores better than me and yet doesn't thank me at all!?

Then again there is nothing wrong with him doing what he's doing, it's a proper job with very good business outlooks in the future. Maybe not now, but wait till when people are richer, he gains more contacts and he even has a chance to operate overseas, then there's where his business will get real lucrative.

Now, how does this relate to me teaching? Absolutely nothing... ok la a bit relation.

Something like what Desmond is doing, teaching is in a sense more like a 'self-employment'. You are your own boss, you find clients yourself, you find contacts yourself, you do everything yourself, there's no so-called system dictating your every move like in a job similar to my current contract with UOB. And to be frank, tuition teaching is quite lucrative as well.

I started teaching when I ended my perm-part time job at TNT as a data entry clerk. It was a fun place there, doing brainless typing and talking cock with the many foreign workers there. Trust me once you get to know them better they are actually real nice people.

They're all my ex-subordinates.

But I know I can't afford to type in TNT for until the end of my university. TNT takes away my whole evening to night and it always rendered me very tired to the extent I can't really study for my university. So I had no choice but to terminate it before I entered into the last few sems of my degree.

Then however, I realized I need income. Allowance from my parents were not enough, I need an extra source of income coming in. As a university student, it was the peak period when you have tons of outings happening with your friends and peers, it was also the time when the government would not subsidize this this, would not subsidize that thing, your parents refused to pay for this, refused to pay for that, it's the time when you have no freaking income at all. Studying in university gains you no $ and you spend the most during that period. I mean just a freaking plate of bee hoon can cause up to $2. WTH?!

You believe this shit cost $2+??

So I listened to people around me and finally decided to take up tuition teaching. Initially I was rather against the idea. I had a very good tuition teacher Miss Lee who passed away (god bless her), and she groomed me to be the scrutinizing person I had become today. So in my mind, teaching is not just for fun, it's a commitment to the student you're teaching.

Miss Lee gave me her everything when she teaches. She loved teaching and she enjoyed sharing her experiences with students. Normally when she teaches, she taught them from primary school all the way till end of secondary schools and she'll give advice to what the kid should study and the routes in which they should progress on which best suits their character, behavior and ideals. Of course she's a bit on the traditional side so normally students under her especially those with good results would end up being some sort of doctor or some Masters in Universities. Well very obviously I'm not there. :/

That's me on the right and the Master's on the left.

So thanks to her, my impression of tuition teaching got pushed up to a high level. Tuition teachers don't just teach, they impart life experiences and become friends with the student. I know not every tuition teacher does that much, but undoubtedly that became my impression of a so-called GTT aka Great Tuition Teacher.

Some fan-service is needed here.

Therefore, even though in the past before I even began working for TNT, people asked me to go teach. I refused. I lack the patience to teach kids who don't listen, I'm not that well verse in the subjects learned in primary school or secondary school and I didn't want to tarnish the image Miss Lee set for me. Eventually though, I gave in to money needs as I began to realize how good tuition can actually earn. So there you have it, my initial motive for teaching is $, that like totally ruined my image of Miss Lee already.

When I first started, I was thinking what can I teach. Well my Chinese is relatively quite good, I can teach primary school kids, I play drums and can read drum scores to a certain extent, so I can teach beginner drums, I'm a major in econs and I scored A for econs in my A lvls, that can be a good subject for me to teach too. Then you go to those websites and insert in your particulars and search for assignments. All of them want experience, all of them want good teachers. So it boils down again to the very basic problem:

"NO EXPERIENCE NO JOB, BUT NO JOB NO EXPERIENCE, HOW LIKE THAT?!"

So I resorted to what my girlfriend told me, "JUST APPLY, DON'T CARE!! MASS APPLY LIKE NO TOMORROW!"

Hokay. >_>

So I spent a freaking hour finding various tuition agencies and mass spamming my application to whatever Primary school chinese and JC econs, there was no drum assignment at all so screw that. After like almost a month, finally I got reply.

Primary 2 chinese, Indian Kid, Yishun.

You want me to learn Mandarin??????????

My eyes became like this. O_O

Even though I live in Tampines, I didn't mind the location because there's a direct bus there. But OMG Indian kid learn chinese. This family must be pro-government.

What was PAP thinking?
 

I'm pretty sure the government is aiming that at our Chinese families who are turning Bananas, but never mind....

I'm yellow outside but white inside.

The pay is low, but I couldn't complain. I was desperate. So I accepted the job not knowing what is to come.

She's an Indian Kid alright, not lucky for her, now all primary school chinese textbooks has Hanyu Pinyin in it, so she doesn't read from the chinese symbols, but from the hanyu pinyin... which imo is wrong. You learn chinese for the sake of knowing how to read Chinese, not English. Nevertheless I couldn't say much, just kept teaching. From my memories it's one of the most horrible teaching experience ever. I didn't know what contents to teach, all I could do was to every lesson get her to do Ting Xie, read the textbook endlessly and lecture her here and there. I'm supposed to be teaching chinese but 90% of the lesson was done in English. I felt miserable teaching her and I know very well it's not helping her at all.

Soon after, another assignment came in:

Urgent case, 2 months to A level, Economics H1. Choa Chu Kang.

This time, I'm appalled at the location. Damn, it will take like an hour plus to reach his house. But never mind, the pay was much much better than Indian Chinese Kid.

Thus forth, my official teaching life began. From then on my tuition progressed and as I gained more experience, I encounter different students with different problems and characteristics and how eventually it felt to me what being a tutor meant, on top of my original impression of tuition. Of course, I stopped teaching the Indian kid after half a year. No offense to her but I think she shouldn't be studying Chinese as her mother tongue, but her true mother tongue which is Tamil.

Some kids (as how we tutors address them to other tutors even if they are 17-18) are inquisitive, some are very quiet, some are very respectful and even to the extent of scared, some forgetful, some extremely demanding, some blur, some simply don't care. It ranges from a whole bunch of situation. But I always say something for every kid I teach in their first lesson,

"I'm not your teacher, neither am I officially qualified to be one, I didn't attend any course in NIE nor had any school teaching experience, nor did I set any questions paper before. In teaching economics, no one is a teacher, we are all learning what is going on right now. You may be able to ask or answer things that I can't explain or can't refute because that's the nature of social science. Nothing is 100%. So don't call me teacher, just call me by my name."

And up to this date, I don't remember my students really calling me teacher except for the Indian kid (she calls me Zhang Lao Shi) and one RJC kid who is super respectful to the extend he calls me Sir when in actual fact I'm just a Sergeant.

'Allo, Don't call me Sir, call me Sergeant, you freaking hell give me 20.

Throughout this few years, naturally there are setbacks and stuff, sometimes I'm late, sometimes I have to last minute cancel tuition, sometimes I feel tired but I can't stop, sometimes I run out of contents to teach but I must teach something, sometimes my tuition gets cancelled because the kid doesn't like my way of teaching, but ultimately I'm starting to feel a bit of that so-called fulfillment when you see your kid becoming proficient in the topic and improving for their subjects. The fulfillment when your teaching is showing results, that's an amazing feeling.

I often get questions from other tutors, "Wow you teach JC students? OMG!" or "How do you teach econs? It's so difficult to teach!"or "Why some of your students can score so well while some can't?" or "Why don't you try teaching University level economics?"

For the 1st question, actually it's a no brain-er. Because I will ONLY teach econs and only JC has econs. I only teach econs reason is simple. I'm an econs major, so my econs knowledge are sufficient enough to teach the JC kids. Additionally my econs knowledge are fresh because I'm a fresh grad, just out from university. Plus I love econs and I scored well for it in my A's, so it will be easier for me to convince parents to let me teach and secondly, I won't feel bored like I did when I taught chinese because I love it.

For the 2nd and 3rd question, it's more complicated. To me, Econs is not a subject like maths or science. Sure they call it social SCIENCE, but there's a core difference behind it. Economics is never 100%, not like maths formulas. You want to score well for econs, you got to understand economics and that's how I teach econs. I go beyond the syllabus when needed, I teach contents in a way some may call "Kopitiam Talk". Because I believe teaching Econs lay-men is the best way for students to understand it and "Kopitiam Talk" could get a bit unruly at times. I talk to you, you have to talk back to me and we keep shooting each other economically. That's "Kopitiam Talk", I learned it from my dad and practiced it with Desmond.

My pa, Ph.D in Kopitiam Kong Wei

That's why for some people it's so difficult to teach, because the understanding has to be deep. You have to understand how everything you learn in econs can gradually link to one another, you have to know how to think beyond the context; not everything you answer in econs are in your notes.

A sign of showing you are an economist or think like one is when you can link many things in reality to economics.You learn how to scrutinize things and learn how to fully analyze information thrown to you. When you talk, when you look at things, you look at it from another point of view unconsciously. I have one student whom speaks in a different manner as compared to when I first taught him, it's amazing in the change I see in him and scary as well cause he's speaking in a manner quite similar to mine. O_O; And the best thing all those things he said, made sense, especially economic sense. When you have reached a level like this, there's nothing to worry about the economics content, what would be worrying is his exams skill of interpreting the question, how to answer them and understanding what the question meant. Some students on the other hand, just don't make have that change, I guess it boils down to character and personalities to determine how much they will change.

Economics is not a subject to be spoon-fed, it's a subject to be understood and some kids got so-used to the spoon fed secondary school system it's difficult to switch. Their understanding will always be limited and scoring A's will be difficult for them.

Why don't I teach university level? Simply put I'm not qualified enough. The knowledge and concepts I know may not be sufficient to teach university level even if I have already graduated. Hence I don't teach them.

Some tutors are in it for the money. Undeniably I started out with that thought as well, but I'm teaching econs not maths, so I can't teach econs in a totally systematic manner, that's just not logical with econs for me. So some students won't be able to adapt to the way I teach cause it could get a bit disorganized, and for that I have lost a couple of tuition assignments.

Regardless, I'm still teaching now and I will finish teaching my current students until they finish their A's or until they do not want me. It's just simple business and commitment. I did contemplate whether or not I should pursue teaching economics or being a full time tutor as my job, but I chose otherwise. :/

Ultimately, I don't think I could teach with great knowledge and responsibility like the Great Tutor Miss Lee, or I don't have the charisma that GTO has. However, I teach with my own principle and that's what I believe both the non-fictional Miss Lee and fictional GTO has, and that makes me my own GETTT.

So for you students or parents who don't like my style of teaching, you can kiss my....

Ok la no la kidding only, I still want your business. Relac ok? relac...

The Job-Hating Takahina, 2012 Week 31

Never thought I'll say this, but I guess it's official.

I Officially Hate My Job.

Yes.

Even though there are tons of perks in it, there's also tons of shit in it. To be fair, I'll name out the perks.

1. Near to my house, it's just 10mins walk away.
2. Low volume of customers, meaning very free and very low stress level.
3. Easy job to handle. The few things you have to manage regularly are relatively easy.
4. It's a 'respectable' local bank, so it looks good on the resume.

Now, the shit.

1. Everyone is free, meaning people will be blabbering their big bad mouth.
2. Low level entry job, meaning no one gives you any form of proper respect.
3. Being a local Chinese bank, the systems runs in a very "hierarchy" system. Everything must go through a lot of red tape and the bosses are as stingy as a Chinese salesman.

I give you best discount, 50c discount. You can't get it anywhere else.

4. Pay is low, note point 3.
5. Everyone pretends, even my supervisor.
6. Lack of proper training. You go through on-job training, but ultimately you only know things related in your own job scope. Nothing else. So essentially you're not gonna know anything of use for ur future job.
7. You feel dispensable. Anytime people can just replace you and your supervisor won't protect you even though they said they will. Note pt 5.
8. You feel too free, but you can't do your own stuff cause people are "watching" you. If they spot you, they'll just report you, even though you have done your job already. So ultimately you have to act busy. Something which I absolutely hate.

Let me rant, initially I was very excited about the job. Finally I can be like a working adult full of responsibilities and performing them. Emails come in asking me and I can confidently answer them about it. But that's far beyond what is happening right now. Let me just state it right from the start.

I searched for a job fast even before my last exams because I don't want to waste time. I know I'm a person with high inertia; you get me started I can keep going, you let me cool down my engine don't expect me to start anytime soon. So I got my job shortly after my exams finished. I sacrificed holiday trips and many other events just to make it for the interviews and stuff, in the process upsetting quite a few people I can imagine, but nonetheless I made my choice.

Then this interview at Tampines came in via Recruit Express. To me I didn't mind a low pay at that time cause I was desperate. Plus this job is just 10 mins walk away! Just imagine the amount of transport I can save up. It'll be comparable to a 2.5k job which is standard for most fresh grads. I accepted the job, went through a whole bunch of things in preparation for it.

Got to know that this job is about Options. Just nice, I learned options in University, something that I can use my expertise on.

So I started work. First few week is what they call a honeymoon period. You practically do nothing, just waiting the whole day. You try to study the procedures and everything but reading is not as efficient as doing it. You try to understand the product, which I did eventually. You know margin, you know the systems behind it, you learn the history.

At this point I was, "Well it's not too bad. People are quite friendly here and the mood is relaxed. Looks like I'll like it here." Plus I see my supervisor so busy all the damn time so I felt that once I'm qualified, I'll be almost as busy as him with a bit of free time available, which is just nice for me as I needed some time to do my own organizing and planning for my own life.

Go play some games, you'll get more lives.

 But gradually, after a month or 2. It felt different already. I find a lot of accusations towards me even though I have done my job. I find myself doing a lot of mundane stuff which is not necessary for the operations of the job. I find myself getting looked upon by people even though they say things until it's so nice and act friendly in front of you. I find myself worried about my own job position when there's a new staff coming in. The insecurity and the lack of value in my own work, made me feel that this job is no better than just a student job.

At the same time, thanks to my job coming from Recruit Express, what they told me initially was this job will be contract at first like a probation period, after that you'll be recruited in. What I didn't know is that I'm literally a "temp-staff". Under my email, it writes "non-staff". Any company updates doesn't go to me, it has to be forwarded to me via my supervisor.

Eh... isn't it supposed to be just probation period? How come I'm now like a temp-staff? Due to my status being "non-staff", I can't access to a lot of systems, meaning I can't value-add to my supervisor. He'll be looking around for more "proper" staff eventually.

Gradually a few days later he asked if I'm willing to continue to work in the company after I finish my contract, "Woon Han, I want to know how you feel, in that I don't want to continue looking around for more staff cause I'm tired of labour turnover and retraining them. Would you still want to continue in this position?"

Then I said, "I thought I'm supposed to continue unless you guys don't want me?"

Meaning... no. I'm not supposed to continue. If I want to I have to re-apply again and go through the whole bullshit process.

Haha you suck big time!

Then from there I started to know how lowly paid I am and how "dis-benefitted" I am. Kinda sucks to hear that you're colleagues earn around $600-$700 more than you doing the same shit job.Thanks hor Recruit Express.

Next, working in Settlement (back end) means that you're a cost. The company does not treat you kindly or the same as with those front end. Because you cost them their profits. Being a stingy Chinese Bank, they do not update their systems even though it's centuries outdated. Anytime they will cut you up and transfer the department overseas for cheaper cost. I mean working in back-end itself means that you're dispensable. Plus the job I'm doing has low volume of customers, added to the fact that I'm a non-staff and just a fresh grad and also the youngest in the whole back-end department, I'm the MOST DISPENSABLE OUT OF THE DISPENSABLE.

I'M THE MOST FREAKING DISPENSABLE PERSON IN MY BANK!

I should have a cameo role in this show.

No wonder I'm treated with almost no respect, people don't really care about what I do, hold no true responsibilities (meaning the job I do can be easily substituted) and the back-end department being relatively quite free, anytime I can get reported for skiving on the job. Oh yes I'm skiving by blogging bout you jerk-asses.

Recently my conduct got worse, I guess you can say my engine has slowed down. My conduct is not on the ball, I go to work late, take extended breaks, can't help but doze off a bit while staring into space when using computer etc. However I have to support 1 thing, no matter how much I 'skive', my work always get completed on time without me needing to do OT. That shows something.

I'm a capable person and I can spend all ounce of my strength to get things done. Ask my Uni Project mates and they know how I can rush a whole night, completing one rough diamond to a good cut.

My subordinates call me da boss for a reason.

The way I do stuff is not like the conventional Singapore sometimes. The more rush something is, the more I take it in my stride to finish it, kinda like how artists and Manga-ka (manga drawers) works. You rush them, they will seemingly appear uncaring, but then next day you see the work done. I try to keep my cool when doing stuff and don't appear nervous although sometimes I do lose my cool.

To me, it doesn't matter how you do your job, as long as you manage to finish it properly, and that's what I do for my work. My 'conducts' doesn't really matter because I have ALREADY finished my job. Yet rumors still fly around like no ones business about my poor conduct. Fine, UOB.

PLEASE GIVE ME MORE FUCKING JOB THEN! MAKE ME SO EFFING BUSY THERE WON'T BE TIME FOR YOU TO EVEN COMPLAIN ABOUT MY CONDUCT!

I dozed off in office, because simply, there's nothing to do. And when I do doze off it's not because I intentionally want to sleep, but I can't help it. It's too BORING. And wait here's more... it's not just me!

There are others who do nothing as well whole day in the office. Openly activate Pinball and play like no one's business. Yet no one complains about him. Why? Because he's an IT support tech and he's of a somewhat senior position. So what is the between me and him?

He's indispensable cause of his IT knowledge while I'm expendables like a temp-staff that's why. I'm like freaking Arnold 杀死那个.

The Singaporeans call me 杀死那个 for a reason.

 People don't respect me here even if I do my job well. I slack as much as everyone around but I'm the only one who gets the complain. Why? I'm expendable that's why!

My department in Tampines overall only got 2 person, my supervisor and me. When my supervisor is out teaching staff in the other branch at Tanjong Pagar, I'm the only one left alone, settling my own meals. Lonely I tell you lonely.

I'm a kon and I'm lonely. So I sing a song with chipmunks voice despite being black and badass.

Initially I decided that I'll continue on the job until end of 2013 provided that I get a suitable pay-rise to the level comparable to everyone and I become known as a proper Settlement Officer, not some "non-staff" bullshit. Fucking hell if I'm a non-staff why the fuck am I still in the company for? If I don't get those condition, I won't continue.

Now I'm thinking, even if they give me those conditions, I don't want to stay anymore. I didn't sign up for a shit job.

I didn't sign up for this fuckery.

And I dare to write all of this shit here, because I have no friends in FB or anything and they won't find it, neither would they care. I can tell you none of them up till now still knows how to spell my name correctly. "Choon Won Han" MY ASS! 

The Takahinian Olympics, 2012 Week 30

As most of you guys know, Takahina has never been one to write about sports and stuff. I mean, Takahina was never a very sporty person and you guys know it. That's also the other reason why Takahina is fat, but that's besides the point.

But then Olympics... hmmm well you can't say that I'm totally not interested in sports. At least I have played several of them but excelled at none. I mainly watch soccer, but for Olympics I watch several items due to influence from my father. I watch sports like Badminton, Diving, Table Tennis, Gymnastics and 100 meters Men's. I watch soccer too, but only when there's Arsenal or Arsenal players or I've bet on it.

Thanks for ruining your own fan-base Van Pu**y, where your Arsenal Bros now?

Now if you noticed, the sports that I've watched other than 100 meters Men's, the rest are dominated by 1 frigging country.

China.

Sorry Manluo, can't resist myself when I mention China.

I was wondering why as I watched what I watched and pondered, why is it that I hear the Chinese National Anthem all the time? Well partly because my father loves China and he knows more about China news than Singapore news thanks to Starhub Cable TV Phoenix Channel.

It's like Anime to Otaku, for uncles.

And since I have to kinda watch whatever Olympic events that he watches, I kinda grew up watching these events. I don't totally know all of them and how all of them work, but I just like can kinda appreciate them. Note, I'm not a BTSS (Bian Tai Shu Shu) just because I watch gymnastics. It's my father, not me. If you want to, call me a BTKK (Bian Tai Kor Kor) instead.

Now personally I have never been interested playing any of these sports except for Badminton. I tried Table Tennis and the balls just hates me, it flies around like nobody's business. Diving is out as all I can do is an atom bomb into the pool, doing Gymnastics will break the equipments, 100 meters men will end up like rolling for me. Lastly, I have stated before, I only watch soccer, and I only watch ARSENAL. So yeah, sports wise I suck, big time.

Regardless though, I still know certain aspects of the game and I know China deserves their gold medals. It bewilders me in why China can do so well in these sports and why other countries can't. You have the same training time, you have the same, if not better resources. Then why can't these countries win over China? Is it simply because China has a big population of 1.2 billion? Then India should be close to getting number 2 or 3, but normally it's USA. So in a sense, size of a country only matters to a certain extent. There must be a reason why 2 countries always dominate Olympics, China and USA.

Fear the freaking Panda goddamn it!!!

Now, let's look at things from a few prospective; Geographical, mentality, environment, biological and economical.

Firstly, if the country is like Antarctica, you can bet your ass they will never do good in beach volleyball. I mean the people will freeze to death. So in certain places, certain sports are definitely out. But then again for the summer Olympics, most of the sports are well do-able under room conditions, such as table tennis or badminton. So again there's no excuse for Egypt for example to suck in swimming.

However some countries do get a slight advantage. Ever wonder why countries like Kenya are able to produce very excellent runners? I've seen on Discovery once that certain countries have higher altitude. This makes the air up there thinner hence more difficult to run. For runners that live in these countries, they are faced with such conditions and are naturally trained in a more difficult environment. It's similar to how Lee in Naruto always fix himself to weights and stuff. He's already very good with them, you take out these "disadvantages", they become superb and shit happens.

That's what happens when you Kek Sai for too long.

So yes, where you live makes a difference ultimately. No doubt slight, but it still does.

Next, mentality.

What kind of mentality does sportsman have? To be frank I have no frigging idea cause I'm in no ways a sportsman. But I kinda have an idea that you will push yourself beyond your own pain for that eternal glory kinda thingy. Its like me running 2.4km for IPPT. Few seconds left and I'm free from the pain of RT. So I'll freaking push myself to the state of even vomiting just to escape the time wasting RT. Take that kinda mentality magnify it by 10000000000x and there you get Olympics.

Then you look at the mentality of China. These people get scouted since young and leave their family for their country's glory. They sacrifice more than half of their prime years learning and mastering just this one sport in Olympics. It's no wonder China can get so much gold medals. Just read the many stories and lifes of China's sportsman, I mean you won't get a praise from the country unless you get world no.1. What kind of sadistic mentality are they setting, dictatorship?

 Ahhhh Keng only keng only.


You don't get recognition for being anything other than no.1. You sacrifice a whole bunch of your youth away and you get nothing but just 1 skill of that sports. After you get old? What happens? Country doesn't want you and throw you away? With that 1 skill of yours it would not be enough to survive in society. It's no wonder they leave China for other countries like Singapore where they become rich but strangely looked down upon by the locals. Hmmmmmm...

They got it wrong, I should play in the men's, not women's.

This kind of all or nothing mentality not only gets them going, it forces them to go. Naturally they'll get no.1. So mentality understandable plays a big part.

Ok, then what about the environment you invest your sports in? Good training area? Good facilities? Clean toilets, very important by the way. Good facilities are definitely important, but to what extent? Singapore have very good training facilities for people, but our sports suck while some poorer countries without the so-called state-of-the-art equipments can still get number 1. So definitely environment is only good for up to a certain extent.

I could have placed more disgusting photos but that will harm my viewership.

The biological aspect of sports is getting hazy. In the past, Russian rules gymnastics, South America in most types of balls, the black Americans and Africans getting running gold, USA and Angmoh for swimming and diving and the chinese dominating badminton and table tennis. But now... it's a different ball game. Everyone seems to be winning something they don't seem to win in the past. Although some things still don't change like you see all Jamaicans winning the sprinting and USA conquering the swimming, but you see upstarts from other countries, notably China's Sun Yang huge win in the swimming. And now Chinese and Japan starting to show power in gymnastics, volleyball etc. Just look at the recent scorings and you can see the demographic changing. But I doubt this changes much.

I believe in the end, some "borned" advantages looms amongst athletics. Just look at the running competition it's always some black dude (RACIST~!!~) getting tops. It's amazing actually. This got me thinking that maybe if Singapore wanna win some athletics tops, we should get our bangla to start running.

MLMLWM

Last but not least, economically... which I believe makes no difference into achieving greatness in sports. How rich or how poor a country is not an excuse for anyone to be a great sportsman. Yes I agree in life, when situation handles you with money issues, you are unable to commit to being a sportsman and to represent your country, train and win medals. But then again, what's the whole thing about being a sportsman? As corny as it sounds, I believe that if you are out to be a sportsman, its to excel in your trade, to push for the highest level possible. Competitions are only an instrument to push out that excellence in a faster accelerated manner.

In the end, its still possible for people to become wonderful sportsman, regardless whether you're in the Olympics or not. There's so many differences in this world it's almost impossible to make any contest a "fair" contest at all. Ultimately, the biggest competition is inside you and that's what I believe every sportsman should believe in.

 By the way, I'm serious PAP, banglas have more means other than throwing rubbish.

The "Degree-Holding" Takahina, 2012 Week 29

As you guys all know, Takahina will be graduating soon. The official date is out to be on 22nd August. That's when I'll wear the gown and all, throw my hat as if it's chicken nuggets when extra curry sauce is known to cost 30cents more.

ORD lo!!

From what I know, after the few months you finished your last exams, people in the graduation ceremony will now be asking around like, "hey watcha doing?" etc, as if it's some Chinese New Year celebration when you're trying to break the very awkward ice between your friends and you. Well, I know some of my friends are already doing something, some found jobs, some found dogs, some found god. Some of them are also still slacking around finding a suitable job for them, I wish all of them good luck.

The queer thing however is that, I found some of my lecture mates doing sales in exactly the same place I work at. Sales, as in not selling insurance, but more like attracting or prospecting potential customers to deposit some money with us.

Don't get me wrong though, there's totally NOTHING WRONG with doing that. It's an honest job and frankly speaking a very difficult one. If you can get pass the initial hardship, you would be able to rise up and progress really well in life. Just that I felt this weird feeling that is that job the job they have wanted?

To be frank I'm not exactly working in a job I want to do now but it's all part of the plan for me to progress on to what I really want. But how about the many people around me? You study so hard for 3 years, in the end only to end up in something that as long as you have a basic diploma and good looks you can score, then what's the point of studying for the degree?

This is the misguided feeling I get when some people are studying and in the end working for something which doesn't require that education. Sure enough it's related, sure enough it has very very good prospects, then what's the degree for?

Being out in the "wild" now, I have a slight understanding of what a degree is. It's like a Poke Ball, you need it to catch new pokemons, before you can train them. So without a degree, you won't be able to get a job... kinda like a safety net or sorts. Next, the level of degree you have dictates the max rank you can rise in the company. For some weird ass reasons, degree becomes a gauge for employers to know what is your learning  capabilities. It's taken that the higher level your degree is, the more you're able to take over complicated stuff and higher level responsibility, hence if you're looking for a long term career prospects you better get a relatively good degree.

Dontcha feel like caressing it??...

Of course it's not saying that experience is not important, but it seems to be the norm now that if you don't have a degree you can't survive in Singapore. You use to hear all those stories like Bill Gates and Thomas Edison, drop outs from universities, schools etc became millionaire at their field of trade. Well, how high of a chance do you think you can do it like them? Now to be on a more realistic side, we all should not strive to be someone like them, being able to achieve success without tertiary education, I mean the chances of us being like Steve Jobs is almost 0%. We should at least get 1 degree, if not life would be difficult to proceed. Then after that whatever job you wanna do or apply is up to you, I mean you could have studied Masters in Economics and still go out sell Chicken Rice, to whichever rocks your socks I guess. Then what for study that much in the 3-4 years of getting that degree?

The sad thing in society right now is that degrees have ended up to be some sort of an insurance for us. It's no longer an instrument for us to learn things and we can apply it in our field of trade and it stems from 2 big factors.

Firstly, the difficulty of getting jobs. We have jobs we want to do, for example I want to be an analyst analyzing economic situations and how it will affect the economy. But then such jobs are far and few in between, so in the end I just ended up in somewhere that I can ply my services and knowledge into. A Bank. And being in a bank how much do I utilize my knowledge of econs and finance? Econs totally 0, finance at least still a bit, more on the accounting side. Is my degree useful in this sense? Yes, useful for me landing the job but not totally useful for me to understand the operations in this job.

Secondly, the realistic nature of working in jobs. You think you know everything and you just graduated, a proud and optimistic graduate ready to challenge the world. You enter into your first job that you obtained with relative ease, only to realized whatever you learn in University has no use at all. Is my degree useful in this sense? Again, YES.... for landing the job. That's all.

So as I said, degree mainly, is only worth for 2 things when you want to talk about it helping you in your career aspects, to grant you that interview with your future employer and to dictate how high you can climb in your corporate firm.

Why is it that career aspects are being held back by the level of degree and not experience? Look at the big shots around you and you'll realized those always getting headhunted or transfers around from here to there are normally people with either very high net worth (meaning able to garner a huge amount of sales), or they have those degree or certificates like CFA.

Now just by having those certificates aren't enough, you need to have experience as well. In this case though, experience would have long be gotten, the thing is how far you can go.

So you only have a basic degree, you can slog for years in this firm doing the same old shit but what is going to happen? At most you're just going to rise into being a vice president for a department or section that's all. And that's after like 10+ years of experience.

The ridiculous thing then would be those of higher position would be either head hunted from other companies, or not they have some satki certificates like CFA or Masters. It's kinda like telling you unless you get a Masters, your maximum pay per month is at most $5000 that's all. You wanna go more than that, get a freaking CFA or Masters.

Then look back at things, we from university after 3-4 years get our first bachelor degree. If we want to do Masters we have to sacrifice at least 2 more years being students and at least 2 years worth of education fee gone. After everything is done, then we'll come out to the world, experience-less but full of satki degree.

Now here's the unfair part. Most of us aren't rich enough to do so. My peers all around me finish bachelor degree would never think of going to Masters. And we go out into the workforce and slog, at the end of the day max pay $5000 per month, that is assuming we don't go into sales.

For Masters, they need to have the money from their family to support additional 2 years more worth of education/food/shelter etc. Which parents would plan for their kid right from the start to study a Masters? Seldom. Because the opportunity cost of affording for Masters is way too high for most families to support. Well if the family is somewhat better off, after realizing the kid's potential they can push for Masters, but most middle-class family would never think so.

Then when the Master's holders get into society, they earn close to $10000 or more max. In otherwords, they have broken the threshold to get into the high earners portion, something that for normal people, we could only get via very diligent sales.

So if you are able to sacrifice 2 years and you're in a well to do family, congrats you have just got into the top 25% of the rat race.

I'm going to study Masters, Bitches, YOU SUCK!! Hehehe...

Unfair? You betcha. The whole issue of the rich gets richer will keep going on and on. Income Equality is only but a dream if you talk about it. And sadly that's how society (at least Singapore) works.

So just know 1 thing people, if you're rich, go and get more education, if not you just be an ASK (ah sia kia) and wait for money to fall onto your plates.

My father owns Kopitiam and I'm gonna make KOPI for all of ya BITCHES!

For people who aren't rich, if you do not have the capabilities to accept the opportunity cost for going after a Master, don't go for it. You have to freaking farm your way up and attempt ways to get promotions, recognized, big certs like CFA. If not go do investments, or business or anything that can get you out of the rat rice. Hmmmm, where have we heard that before?

Ultimately, I'm digressing but I can't stress the importance of a degree or at least a good dependable diploma/cert. I used to believe that anyhow getting a degree and not using that knowledge is useless, but it's changing a bit now.

Society has deemed it necessary for any proper Singaporean who wants to so call progress huge in life to have a degree, be it you like it or not. Because a degree now, is an insurance. If you don't have it, chances are life is gonna be real real difficult for you in the future. So if you don't like any of the courses you see offered in university? Hate some more cause you're gonna need to spend additional 4 years studying that thing you hate or risk more years .

Life is a bitch. If you're rich maybe you're on top of that bitch. If you're not then you're in the a**hole of that bitch, filled with shit and knee deep in it. So suck up all the shit and climb up from the anus to the top of the head to be rich.

The Efficient Takahina, 2012 Week 28

Efficiency, work rate, progress, fast and accurate.

These are just some of the terms that drives people and work. Essentially, how fast the work revolves depends on simply, efficiency.

Efficiency is actually, something really simple to understand. Simply put, it's the work rate; how much work we can do in a certain time period like an hour for example. I can put it into many examples for many different types of environment, mainly into my own context...

Bands: What is the % of a song ready to be showcased in the public in gigs in 1 jamming session. Currently the fastest band I'm was in to learn songs had been Grover with up to 4 songs ready to gig in just 1 jamming session.

Data Entry: How many entries has been typed in within an hour. My record is 70+ conscripts. That's like less than 1 min per con.

Work: How much $ do you earn for the company for every hour that you work. I work like 8hrs per day but only spend like 4hrs fully on work.

Projects: What is the % of project is completed by every week. Ask my uni-cliques, I make up for their lack of efficiency HAHAHAHAHA..

School: How much % of the syllabus could you study in an hour. If it's science or maths, 0%. If it's econs, it's almost 50%

Blog: How much blogs can I write every week. 1?... I guess?

Weight: How much weight can I lose per week. Well to be frank it's 0% or even negative right now. 

I think it's fair enough to say that almost everything in this world has it's efficiency level, it may be difficult or ambiguous to determine, but it's definitely there. Similarly I think it's fair to say everyone in this world wants efficiency. FAST FAST FAST FAST they said.

However after working in NS, and currently in my job. I can tell that efficiency is only but a notion. I'm quite thoroughly convinced that despite the emphasis on efficiency, things aren't really working efficiently.

Many guys in Singapore would know, NS is a big freaking waste of time. I don't mean the waste of 2 years of your youth (because I believe in the value and necessity of NS), but the inefficiency of the whole "corporate" NS itself. Look at any clerks there sitting down, how many of them are really doing stuff? I know very well when I was in my camp as an sergeant I play Puzzle Fighter for like 25% of my time there. Like really a great big waste of time. We go to reservist, how many of us literally sit there and sleep our asses away? There's a very big reason why some people love going to reservice, because you gain $ there for sleeping.

You know Chun Li is f**ked.

Then bring in the normal working environment here. I sit in my office and I look around, some are surfing Hardware Zone Forums 'pres huan.', some are looking at facebook, some are looking at the latest transfer news going on in EPL right now and I'm sitting right here writing a freaking blog.

That's what HWZ EDMW do all day long... 

And you claim that you want efficiency?

The thing is this, everyone here knows how to do stuff, and we do it fast and well. So in a sense we're really efficient, but imagine the amount of pay given to us for sitting around growing round asses. From the society and corporate point of view, how much money could have been saved if we are only paid for the amount of time we actually work? Maybe if the corporate one day does a test and understands how fast we can work, you could retrench or transfer like up to 25% of the people here and save up on tons of cost. The fact is that this world is not efficient, at least the society from my point of view is far from being efficient.

It actually sucks to know that because people's full potential and capacity are not fully explored. My supervisor is doing an evaluation on how "fast" we can finish our task upon the hours that we work, however he dares not submit it up to the higher ups. Reason being we're "too" efficient. You submit such a report, they will surely cut the amount of estab that my department can have and next thing you know, BAM the whole department will be merged with another department, ultimately resulting in retrenchment which NOBODY WANTS except for shareholders who wants to save cost.

So it's actually a big political issue behind all this. Efficiency in real life is actually hindered by a lot of red tapes around. Also, if suddenly there is a surge increase in the job load, the department will need extra hands in to help, what will happen then? A company can't suddenly increase their estab because of additional cost involved. Besides that there's a whole bunch of procedures and systems to adhere to, resulting in a very much delayed process. So to be safe than sorry, a company will rather spend additional cost for inefficiency to save up for the rainy day.

Secondly, even if let's say this department is very efficient and they fully utilized their time, there will still be a situation whereby they have to wait before something gets done, that is the effect of procedural compliance.

Let's say we finish some paper work and we want to get on to the next phrase of the work but before we can do so, we have to let some superiors check through, cover the whole department's asses before it's approved and could be carried on by the lowly officers. By right it should be fast and immediate, but no. Normally such higher up people control tons of people under them and numerous departments under them. They have to check through every little single details of every department which could be like hundreds of emails, reports, documents etc to check through. You think your paper work could be accessed immediately? Nope... you have to wait like for 2-3 working days before it gets access. Now you understand why banks and companies always say you have to wait certain amount of working days before the process could be done? I mean for my wage to come to me, it has to go through this additional process of my employment agency to view my payslip for a week, then it'll come to me. So by right my pay should have arrived every end of the month? Mine takes like an additional week. I can't blame them, cause there's so many payslip to go through and so many departments/hands for the work to get process through it's almost impossible to get it done within like 1 day.

Don't even get me started on government organizations. >_>

And I'm sure, that's not the end to how "efficient" this society is. Things like budget constraint etc are a freaking big pain in the ass.

My Ass is pain.

If so then why do you even emphasis efficiency? It will only result in a Rush to Wait and Wait to Rush situation; something that we are so familiar in NS.

Since I'm already waiting, might as well take a pic...

 All in all, to me it boils down to management.

The current way of how companies run is standard throughout. Different departments handled different jobs and they will pass to the next in hand for it to be done. All this processing takes waiting. All this checking takes waiting. The more wait there is the more inefficient things become. Yet at the same time, all this checking can't be done without. So is there any way to bypass all these processes?

Well, I doubt it can be bypassed. but then at least to prevent people to have too much time, so much so they have to surf the web and do nothing, why can't the lower end departments or departments who are very much "free" in a sense, merge? So in a sense rather than just "you do your stuff I do mine", it becomes "you do your stuff, I do mine. But if you finished doing your stuff and I'm not done, you come help me until you got things to do." At least efforts and time are not wasted.

Secondly, I find firms can actually learn something from NS. Train your workers/sergeant/cadets/officers.

You always see things like to acquire this position you need like how many years of experience etc. Sure, it's clearly understood why they need experience to get a high position. If so then why not you train any existing staff that wants to be promoted with relevant knowledge, and when a position is open, these existing staff who ARE trained can apply confidently?

I'm a lowly settlement officer in a bank and I want to build up my career in this bank. There are internal job postings coming up every month, but they all require this knowledge or that experience etc. I will only be accomplished in my knowledge of settlement, how am I expected to know other expertise such as maybe compliance or analyst unless I work in it? If this is so then I'll be stuck in settlement for the rest of my life, which is totally unfair cause I won't be able to enter any other jobs unless I get any experience. In the end I'll be sick of it and transfer to another job or another bank, breaking my loyalty to the bank.

If you train them up and prepare them for upcoming positions, you won't need to go around looking for external sources cause you have already capable personnel working for you. Save up on the many labour turnover cost and you make staff happier as there is a very sizable career opportunities open to everyone.

Training is not only for them to gain the additional skills and knowledge, it's for them to have the confidence to be able to perform in that job. If staff have no confidence in applying for jobs, they won't try it out even if they may be really good in it.

You save up on labour turnover, save up on time since it will mostly be internal transfers and they are already trained so they know what to do. All this time and cost savings, won't that be much more efficient? Plus even if there is no open position for their new expertise to be utilized, they are in a sense "qualified" to do checks and hence help higher-ups with their checking. Like this they can filter through a big part of their procedures and utilize their time.

Thirdly, a firm can actually choose to pay via efficiency level. You do your task, you finish your task, you can go home, then you pay them accordingly to how fast they can finish their work. The faster their work rate, the higher you pay them. Then since workers can go back earlier, in a sense they are rewarded for their efficiency. It creates incentive for people to push for efficiency and hence you get your FAST FAST FAST effect. More time for workers to be at home with their family, go for another 2nd job if there is time and maybe even the country earns by having more babies. ;)

You won't be thinking of 'hey shio hey shio' with bushes like those...

Actually if the firm goes via the 3rd method I proposed, I need not even be at the office in the morning. Just be there by 2pm and I can finish everything by 7pm tops. But oh well, stick to the system.

All in all, I just want to say this. If firms and corporates want to look for ways to up their profit, look no further than the inner working of your own company and you can notice the many flaws of the systems. Systems and procedures can be tweaked around to provide for a more "fruitful" job experience. Efficiency are being compromised to these systems to such an extent certain procedures are totally redundant and it makes completely no sense to keep adhering to such redundant systems or procedures.

When people are truly efficient, you will start to realize actually there's so much time we can save. So firms, corporates, government bodies.... wake up please.

The Future of Singapore, Takahina style, 2012 Week 27

You think that life is bad now. Think again.

For us 60% Singaporeans in Singapore that have lived for all our lives, we complain about things all the time and truthfully, we should complain. But not about Singapore or the world or whatsoever, you want to complain you complain about yourself.

A recent talk with my bro Tian Wei over lunch one day caught me to my underlying attention on how Singapore could become. Well, it "could" become. You refer to other similar countries like Hong Kong, Japan, it's all getting really similar and yet so distinct as well. Think of subjects such as moral values, religion, politics, economics, geography, sociology, psychology, globalization, it's all getting too predictable on how the future is going to shape and it's not a good one. You should have notice by now there's so many "secrets" and "conspiracies" going on in this world, why do they even exist? Because the rest of the population can't take the truth, even though it's so out rightly in front of us.

Let's take it this way, imagine that society has been brought up on the so-called moral values that we have now, religion continues to impose and set the values for us to follow and it will change accordingly with time. With this moral values and beliefs from religions, sociology will be set to "obey" these values and rights, hence affecting each and everybody's psychology itself to follow to these values. No doubt not everyone will follow to it, depending on the environment they are brought up but in a sense our "right" and "wrong" are highly determined by our environments which in return is affected by society. Next government will set laws and name it under the term "justice" so that we will be deterred from doing the wrong, as this will be "beneficial" for the government politically. With available power from being a popular government, they could then have to power to conduct economic policies beneficial either to the country with factors dependent on the country's situation and ability, or to the politicians themselves, if you know what I mean. Currently with the added flux of globalization, technology, information spreading, the previous known boundaries of geography and information retention has been changed significantly, hence society itself changes unconsciously but definitely and government will change themselves accordingly.

This is how I see the current general system works. Of course it's just a very very brief outlook on how things flow with all details excluded. In a brief sense, all I'm saying is this; things are changing, fast and if you do not catch up fast enough, you will find it increasingly difficult to catch up.

Now the reason I'm writing this, is a sense some form of warning to myself to better buck up my own socks. I'm working comfortably now at UOB and I'm sensing that I'm losing my drive, something that is very dangerous in anyways in this kind of fast moving global world. Secondly, it's to bring to you guys a very sense what is the worst thing to happen to our home Singapore if it does get bad, so to people who are reading this, I hope this can help you guys brush up a bit.

Takahina has stated tons and tons of times long ago and I share the same sentiments with my brothers, in that this world waits for no one and as it goes on progressively, as long as we do not hit to the top 10% of the population in Singapore, we can expect to not ever hit there unless some miracles happens.

Let's look at the situation in Singapore now, a stagnant economy being propelled highly by FTs and Singaporeans remain disgruntled with their life complaining over PAP all the time. We want an opposition to enter into parliament so as to better keep check what PAP is doing and to ensure the government is doing what is correct now.

What if you look at the future? We can take reference to various countries like Hong Kong and Japan. Inflation is set to rise yet again, housing especially will reach to an exorbitant price (look at Hong Kong's property price now), aging population (like those in many developed countries). In a sense you can imagine Singapore to be like a kid with very fast growing cells, due to the fact that we are small, things, information, policies can get done much faster here in Singapore. It gets developed faster, as is evident with us reaching a "developed" economy status in a matter of decades while other countries take centuries, our currency growing superbly fast and strong compared to countries like MYR etc. So we grow fast, hence at the same time we die fast.


Take this into account, and you'll start to understand that's why maybe Singapore's government is pushing our economy and society so fast. Because if Singapore doesn't plan things, doesn't look at things fast enough, we will be behind the whole world and outdated by it. In the past, things planned can be done rather fast, but now it's a different case with globalization and the internet itself. Anti-government sentiments are being blown out of proportions and netizens only look at the good side of other countries, but what most Singaporeans failed to realized is that the situation of Singapore is very different from other countries.

Like what I mentioned above, for a government to be able to handle our it's policies effectively, it has to be popular. The inclusion of globalization rendered it increasingly difficult for not just Singapore, but the whole world as well. However for Singapore the effect is much faster, why? Because we are small as I've mentioned before.

That's why you have seen now, PM Lee apologizing to Singaporeans, doing somewhat populist policies not done before such as increasing wages of low paying jobs. In a sense they are necessary, because PAP is losing favor with the citizens. At least Singapore's government system is still on a more steady stronghold, imagine if our PM changes every half a year like how Japan changes theirs as if changing clothes, before the policies implemented would show effect a new set of policies would be implemented by the new PM. If Singapore ends up like that, we would be dead and PAP is doing their best not to let that happen.

 In a sense it's not saying that PAP must be the sole ruling party with no one to "keep check" on their behavior, but seriously look at the few opposition party members elected into parliament. What kind of "difference" are they making? Does citizens in the Aljunied region feel happier? Nope they feel the same as with the rest of the other Singaporeans.


Then again, maybe the opposition party is not strong enough to make any difference. But think about it, if Singapore's government is split into almost a half-half party like Taiwan's Kuo Ming Tang and Ming Jing Tang, there's bound to be high conflicts which can potentially split a country into 2. For a country that is as small as helpless as Singapore is, we cannot afford that. So no ways will PAP in a sense let that happen.

What I believe is that the PAP knows certain things that we won't know of, and in a sense even Presidents don't know of (remember ex-president Mr Ong Teng Chong?). The one who holds the most power in Singapore still remains to be the key members in PAP. Maybe it's highly confidential secret that holds the balance to our economy? Or certain deals signed in the past which enabled Singapore to survive it's infant stages I have no idea. What I know for sure is that every country has certain secrets that they can't divulge and that opposition party will never know it unless they become the official ruling party. By then who can confirm that the opposition party will not become another PAP again?

Few things are for certain though, PAP's method of reaching out to public is definitely less effective now. The words, "What Do You Think We Should Do?" should have never been spoken by a high member politician. The words used are much more tactless now, as is evident with how politicians, especially the older ones, are frustrated with the comments thrown at them, something which they have never really encountered before in the past. In fact right now the younger ones seem to show a bit more promise if you ask me. Laugh at Tin Pei Ling all you want but the fact that she's a MP of PAP proves that at least she's more promising than the average Singaporean her age. 

Secondly, PAP can never do everything correct in current stages. I sincerely believe they didn't expect the outburst of information and technological widespread. I sincerely believe they didn't expect the social outcry and the overly too effective FT policies. They used to be so powerful and correct in the past because we are not informed. Now that we ARE informed, they can't just simply say something is good and that we will take it to be good. They have not yet adapted to the "proper" way of convincing us and still have a long way to go. The FT policies done a few years ago are indeed necessary for economical reasons, but I'm sure they did not expect the huge influx at such a pace. Population has grown too fast before our own systems such as the public transport can adapt to it. MRT breaking down in Singapore high chance is due to our MRT being over utilized and MRT could not support the immense overcrowding weight and frequency.

But in all certainty, we definitely do not know certain things but the government is already conducting something to "curb" it. However remember this thing, neither PAP nor the opposition party can do everything correct and expect the effectiveness to be as expected, so don't put 100% faith in them or the government to be able to help even if they wanted to.

Additionally, similar countries like Hong Kong are showing sense of what is going to happen. Expect things like sky rocketing housing prices, further inflationary pressures and in a weird sense retirement at other countries. I know there's this trolling picture of Singapore's future MRT lines, but don't find it weird if it really happens. I mean 1 Tampines can have 3 MRT stations, what's up with 1 Malaysia line?

Well I'm sure few of the lines are bullshit, but a future Malaysia line I don't find it implausible. Singapore is in desperate need of space, so why won't we take over some land from them?


Inflation is very dangerous in Singapore as we know it. Increasing income gap coupled with increasing prices but not increasing income for the poor makes it a lose lose situation in any sense. Problem is that the few causing it are the rich people themselves. For those with at least a bit of econs sense in your mind, when you have additional income you will demand more. The more you demand, the higher price will be bid up. Hence inflation happens.

Now remember, the rich people gets richer due to them knowing how to get rich and know how to exploit the market. Every consumption, investment that they do will serve to increase the country's aggregate demand by a significant factor due to them being filthy rich, thus increasing inflation as well. How about normal middle/low income citizens like us? We will not get that increase in income but inflation will still grow, so our burden will increase to the extend that there won't even be a middle class. You're either rich or poor.

This effect will be even more severe when houses price shoot up, this is a very basic simple economy theory. Singapore is a small country, so our supply of houses will eventually be limited by it. Yet at the same time the country has to grow, so our own growing population and growing FTs will demand more and more houses. With an increase demand but yet no corresponding increase in supply, don't be surprised if 1 normal HDB reaches $1mil.

Middle class will be gone as we get lesser benefits from government but we have to afford for the increased cost. Buying a house will slaughter us into paying debts for the rest of our lives, and yet it's almost a necessity to buy a house, so be expected to pay debts to pay off for your house. Lower income group are already disadvantaged, but because their expenditure is already low, the impact felt by them is understandably less painful than that of the middle income.

Higher income group? Their real wealth will be unlikely to drop and they will leverage on the middle income and lower income to grow up in status and wealth, because they would be the one to lend $ and property to them and earn interest/rent from them.

Now this is a very scary truth, but it's yet just a possible truth which has been shown in other countries. Its like saying that, if you're not rich within the next decade, you can proceed to be slum residents.

So what can we do now? Must we all be rich and wealthy to be able to survive in the future. Not exactly. No one is asking you to compulsory become rich with over $1bil worth of assets. But you must basically be able to have certain personal financial knowledge, discipline and to know the consequences of your decisions. I'll get to that in a future post.

For now though, just don't expect the future to be cheery. For those who still have the luxury of going overseas, enjoying and slacking like no tomorrow without a secure future... better do something. For this time it's not something that the government can help like what we are so used to, but only you can help yourself this time, and you don't have all day.

Even I need to wake up.

The MRT manners of Takahina, 2012 Week 26

In this metropolitan society of Singapore, there lives the very big problem of gracefulness and politeness and MRT is one of the best places to show it.

Takahina is not a very graceful person, neither am I really polite either. But I know at least I have manners and I am considerate to a certain degree, I won't be that heartless as to see an elderly in front of me and yet still do not know how to offer my seats. At the same time I won't be so naive as to let my seats to every uncles and aunties requesting it. At the same time I'm not so timid that I do not sit in reserved seats.... And please don't be mistaken. Takahina is not seats grabbing although he seats whenever there's a chance to.

The most recent saga in Singapore going on has been about the most polite Ah Lian scolding this auntie in the MRT. I'm not someone to judge who is right or wrong in this case, because from one video it won't be enough to justify what sparks off the quarrel even though it seems VERY obvious who is the one at fault this time.

So to facilitate my understand and your additional knowledge for the local MRT manners, I'll group people into several groups.


Mistake her for a fat lady and she'll bitch slap you.

Group 1: Real elders mostly after late 60s and pregnant ladies. For those ladies who look like you're pregnant but in actual fact you're just fat. Accept it, you're in this group too to avoid embarrassment for yourself. For those who's also handicapped, injured whatsoever, you fall into here too. Parents with kids who are f**king irritating you fall into this category because I respect your tenacity to deal with such a kid. Generally, people who really needs seats fall here.


I'm getting famous on STOMP!

Group 2: Uncles and Aunties around late 40s to early 60s who think they fall under group 1. You people are those shameless type to think that due to your "age" you deserve to be given a seat in MRT. And so you guys will rush to seats available as if it concerns your CPF money getting swallowed by PAP. And because you think you deserve to get a seat, you tend to be really selfish and competitive to the extent you don't offer seats to Group 1 people.


Do not look at me, I'm pretending to be asleep.

Group 3: These are the group of people who obviously have the strength to stand and support themselves. They are young they are strong BUT they are at the same time, actors. They pretend nothing happen and continue to sleep, do their own stuff etc. Although technically these people are not wrong to do their own stuff, but for some reasons Group 2 people hates them to a core and Group 1 people generally don't have a good impression of them.


I'm a fat man, not pregnant.

Group 4: These are the group of people who irregardless of what happens, they refuse to seat in reserved seats and normally they even have a fear of normal MRT seats. Getting them to sit takes some persuasion. These are Group 2's favourite.


Remember me? I'm the polite ah lian.  ;)

Group 5: These are the cream of the crop bunch because Takahina belongs here. They are not scared of sitting and they are not ashamed or too shy to offer their seats. To them seats are like economical resources, if it's there and no one is being "allocated" the seat, you go and take the seats - Allocative Efficient. If there are no seats available, they don't go around eyeing for seats because they do not need the seats, it's just a luxury to them. If they are already seated and some Group 1 people arrives, Group 5 will offer them seats because they need it. If Group 2 people arrives and starts eyeing for that seat, Group 5 will not offer them any seats because they'll save it for any Group 1 people that arrives. If any Group 2 wants to get the seats off them, they will have to try relatively hard and get risked being on STOMP.


I USED to work in SMRT. Now I'm just an auntie.

Group 6:  They work in MRT.


He lives in the MRT and is furious when others interrupt into his house uninvited.

Group 7: Misc people who simply can't be inserted into any other groups.

Just to let you Group 2 people know 1 thing. GET IT IN YOUR DAMN BRAIN. The seats are not YOUR SEATS. The purpose of putting those seats as "reserved seats" is to say that we Group 3/4/5 will be obliged to give up the seats to you, BUT THAT DOESN'T MEAN WE HAVE TO. And indeed, only Group 4 will give you the seats just because they aren't seated at all in the first place.

Just to enlighten you people out there, Takahina is a mix of Group 3 and 5. My criteria of judging people who deserves the seats are strict, so to some people I tend to appear as Group 3, but I judge myself as Group 5.

This is how I do it in the MRT:

1. Enter MRT
2. Take a seat if there is or once there is seats.
3. If there's any Group 1 in the MRT, place bags on seat, leave the seat and offer them the seat.
4. If not, continue sleeping in the seat like a Group 3.
5. Reach station, exit MRT.

Now why did I mention the bag? Simple reason.

Some people, especially the Group 2, due to their competitive nature, they tend to grab any seats once you get up. There were times I saw some Group 5 standing up and going over to the Group 1 to offer their seats, at that exact moment, like some Speedy Gonzales the Group 2 snatched up the seats. Right at this moment, the Group 5 and Group 1 turned around ready to get their seats when BHAM, your freaking seat is GONE!!!!

Imagine the embarrassment on Group 5, the bewilderment on Group 1 and the don't care attitude on Group 2. Of course once Group 2 realizes the situation they will say, "Ohhhhh ohhh, sorry... lai lai take the seat." But of course the Group 1 won't dare to take the seats, Group 1 paiseh to take the seat how do you expect them to take it??

That's why Takahina came up with the CHOPE MRT seats method. You freaking put something there as you get up to offer your seat. This is what happened once when I did it.

1. I placed my bag on the seat, got up to offer this old uncle my seat.
2. Some aunty carrying freaking NTUC bags scattered to my "seat" only to find a bag there. Machiam got terrorist bomb inside. She immediately have the ???? Face.


Daf*q?

3. I noticed the aunty looking around wondering what's going on, but I didn't care much. I asked the Uncle if he wants the seat. He replied...

"No need boy, next stop I getting off le."

I felt an instant "facepalm". Then I walked to my seat, ignoring the Aunty who's now looking at me, with her eyes transmitting the evil intent...

"Give me your seat.... give me your seat.... give me your seat...."

I took my bag, and sat down. Aunty looks at me like the "WTF" face. I just gave her a sian look.


This is my baby face. I'm borned Sian.

The reason for the bag as you see is simple, to act like a stun in MRT, to reserve your seat for either the person you intended to offer, or for yourself back. Because in the MRT, no one likes a Group 2. Even Group 2 hate other Group 2, reason being they will compete for seats like Amazing Race. So to them, every journal is like an Amazing Race; Amazing MRT, Amazing Bus, Amazing Taxi etc.

Someone asked me, what if I'm faced with the situation like the MPAL (Most Polite Ah Lian)? Let's just assume MPAL is Group 5, like me!

................................................................................................................................

EA (Evil Aunty): *stares with evil intent*

Takahina: *leans onto the glass beside the seat with eyes closed to avoid stare, earphone plugs in with music blasting.* (Takahina is an ATS aka All Terrain Sleeper, so in MRT I'm perpetually asleep or at least pretending to be asleep)

EA: Aiyo some man here pretend asleep don't know how to have courtesy and give seats to elderly.

Takahina: *Continues sleeping*

EA: *Keeps hurling shitty and sarcastic words at Takahina*

Takahina: *Sleeps or pretend to be asleep in MRT.*

*MRT reaches stop

Takahina: *Auto-wakes up, walk to exit.* 

............................................................................................................................

Due to Takahina's nature of being an ATS, I seldom or rather, never got faced with such situations before. However Takahina knows not all people are ATS, so this is what I recommend.

- Say, "Aunty, I don't know you so old leh. Ok la nvm I give you this seat. PS ah, old people must take care ok?" Then walk away immediately. Most likely she'll take the seat and attempt to scold you, but since you have already walked away far far, you won't hear it so you're not affected, and she'll be regarded as mad since she'll be going on with her rumblings to herself.

- Say, "PS ah Aunty, I didn't know you talking to me. I thought you mumbling to yourself wor." It will make the Aunty look like a full fledged retard. Most Aunty will attempt to scold you back, but just keep trolling her. Importantly you need to keep your cool. She wanna take your pic, you just smile as if you camwhoring. Best.

- Chat with her. Take off your earphones, look at the aunty with a smile and act like a customer service receptionist and talk/reason with her on why she shouldn't get your seat. Be careful not to lose your cool cause customer service CANNOT lose their cool. Explain it nicely like, "I understand your anguish for not being able to get my seat, but sorry this seat is not entitled to you..." If STOMP gets you, you can use that for landing a job in any customer service related positions.

- Push her and make her fall, then post up on facebook, twitter and every social media you can find explaining how mentally ill you are and you're suffering with depression. You will probably get more limelight than you had wanted.

- Say god will forgive her ignorance and say Hallelujah at her face. She will instant diam diam one.

- Say, "Anything, we complain to PAP. Ai mai?? Can submit a letter to MP with us explaining our situation. Until they say I MUST let you have my seat, I'm not letting you sit. I'm innocent until proven guilty. Get your lawyer if you want.

- Take your phone and record her scolding you. Say, "Aunty, please keep scolding. I posting this on STOMP.... No wait I posted liao." She will stunned. Don't let go of your phone and keep filming for SOCIAL MEDIA ROCKS.

But seriously, there will be f**ked up situations in MRT and in fact virtually all locations in the world. Sometimes you're lucky, sometimes you're unlucky. Just keep your cool and do as you believe in, ignore what the whole world says. Most of the time the saga will pass with time.

As long as you're right, or Takahina says you're right. You are right.

PS: You may notice a lot of pics are from STOMP. Yup I pirated them off and I don't give them credit for it.