Friday, August 27, 2004
Just Stop Eating Eggs

I have read about the issue of egg prices and consumption in the major newspapers for the past few days and almost felt bemused about the siruation right now about the "panic".Rightly,the egg (if not the chicken) merchants/wholesalers have felt that their livelihood is threatened as they are unable to get their hands on alternative sources of supplies.Many are bemoaning the fact that they now have to rely on selling slated duck eggs instead and cannot do this for much longer.I sympathise them really.Hope that they find some way of overcoming this as soon as possible.Maybe we could get supplies from Indonesia?Well,it is just a thought.ProbablyAVA might have already looked at this anyway.

Anyway,I was bemused not by this but by the bout of frantic buying that Singaporeans have gone into.Clearing the supermarket shelves of eggs so that WOW,we have an egg famine.Can you believe that?I told my American cousin J and she was laughing her head off.So now we got to pay 40 cents for an Australian egg and no less than 25 cents or more for a local one.Mind you,we are probably talking about the smaller ones.So those who didn't rush out to buy are paying the price literally.I just ahve one question,why do you need so many eggs at home?I am sure those who went into a frantic buying mode bought at least two trays each,which makes it 24 eggs.Do you really need so many eggs in a week?Don't people know that eggs can turn bad fairly quickly,even if you keep it in the fridge?So they're gonna eat eggs everyday because of the ban and well,they can't keep them for too long anyway?Wow,what logic!Well,at least they don't have to buy those expensive NZ,Aussie eggs for the moment...yes,for the moment.

Actually I have a live case-study here.My mum (or dad,don't know which one) also panicked and went out to NTUC and bought...gasp THREE trays of eggs right after the ban was announced.36 EGGS!MY GOD.The egg tray in the fridge wasn't enough to hold all the eggs so there is still one tray in its original packaging in the fridge.And you know what my mum did?She elected to cook three whole days of egg dishes and I was like...ARRRRRRGH.The first day,it was two sunny-side-ups for each person.The second day,it was fried eggs with onions.The third was sunny-side-ups again and si gua (I don't know what they call it in English) with eggs. Wow...*#$%.On the third day,I rebelled and refused to eat the sunny-side-up she cooked.She wasn't pleased and called me weird.I told her will not pay the price for the ridiculous things she does.Well,she stopped yesterday and fried chicken wings instead.Hahahah...one of my favourites.See if you say what you really mean to your parents,you will get compensated.

Another entertaining story I read from TNP from how Singaporeans said that they couldn't live without eggs...how their fried carrot cakes must come with extra eggs and blah blah blah.Some were complaining and some said boh bian,can't help it.Can't live without eggs?Oh my god.Am I really the weird one or are these guys the weirdoes?Can't one stop eating eggs for a while?!Come on!As some other level-headed guy/gal interviewed in the newspaper said,there's always vegetables,luncheon meat,fish...whatever else to eat.Why must you eat eggs?Of course I can understand if one says one can't AVOID eating dishes with eggs as an ingredient...but what these fellows are saying that they must have eggs.

I hope this continuing saga about the ban ends soon.I can understand the AVA's stand but hope they do a review soon.The Malaysians themselves are still eating their onw chickens and eggs and we are pushing the panic button more urgently than them.I thought they should trigger some kind of filtering system to ensure that sources of supplies are not from infected areas and also do stringent checks on the supplies but maybe it's too much work involved.I don't know.Whatever it is,come up with a solution.People's livelihoods are at stake here.

Well,what this exposes really is how dependent we are on Malaysia.Don't kid ourselves.They refuse to seel eggs to us and we'd die.They refuse to sell vegetables to us and we'd die(Don't talk about Batam...how many of you have eaten those?And how many varieties of vegetables do they have?).Ditto fresh chickens.God,we are at their mercy.Spare us,our dear Malaysian brothers.You sell us food and we,erm,shop at JB,gamble and lose at Gentings(until we have our own casino and lose our own money at our backyard)and visit Malaysia for the fabulous food you have.You do one thing for us,we do three in return for you.That is the sign of a good neighbour.