Wednesday, September 01, 2004
Disparate Musings

I watched with shock last night,reports about two MORE people falling onto MRT tracks and either getting killed or critically injured in the process.Reports state that there are now four such cases happening in the past one month or so.Four cases!And what was the response?Initially when the first Bishan case occurred,SMRT said that they will not be adding any additional safety measures to the stations to enhance the safety of communters.NO!The cost is too great.It could go into sums of millions and they do not want to pass on such costs to the public.What they'd do is,they will now activate all the security cameras on the train platforms so that 24-hour monitoring could be done.So that if any cases occur again,the occurances of such case can be filmed and investigated.So well,they got their wish.The cameras are sure being utilised well.Instead of thinking about enhancing the safety of the stations,what do they do?They do nothing.Nah,it is safe enough but just in case you fall,we'd make a home video so that your family can see a video of you being run over.It's not our problem if you fall,you know.My goodness,I don't understand this.If the services get disrupted,you got to get alternative transport options for your customers.And the disruptions mean you got to do refunds as well.So economically,it's not even viable.Whatmore the bad reputation and PR you are getting.What price inaction may bring about...

When they said that the costs of erecting barriers is too great to be considered,I think they have got the wrong idea.No one asked them to do a full version with glass walls and automated gates just like those in the underground stations.No no no.I think the idea was simpler.To simply erect metal railing along the entire length of the platform except at the points where the gates open.That should be easy to do.They already know where the gates open because the entry points are clearly marked on the floor.And it's definitely not costly either.But things will be so much safer.The railings will prevent a lot of people from just falling over like that.And I think most of us agree that the most dangerous places are actually the spaces between the carriages because there is an awfully large space to fall into.But that space is at least blocked now from direct access.

Oh,onto a separate subject. Actually from this paragraph onwards,the contents were written after lunch while the previous paragraphs were written before.So if they sound incoherent,they should well jolly be.I just stepped out of lunch with most of my fellow X-Men in the pantry and of course,there was talk about the X-Men Revolution again(see the twoeggs blog about this).And we actaully had a laugh about the vision of our branch that was conceived during our branch retreat earlier this year.Hahah,I can see how our vision has progressed smoothly.From talking about it,we are now laughing about it.The next evolutionary step should surely be forgetting about it?I can only think so.

Oh,even more diversion from the topic.Have any of you people actually used the handicapped toilet instead of the toilet of your gender because it is more convenient?Well,I do.But plenty of people here do the same thing because the handicapped toilet is our little sanctuary.It's big and spacious and you can do pilates in it.It's also more private although that should be a good reason to use it.Rogue says that she'd bring a book inside to read.I mean...yeah,you know,it works like a study room too.Anyway,the inconvenience of this is that sometimes the doors are not locked properly and you find that,oops,someone is using the unit.Prof X once went to a shopping centre and tried to use a handicapped toilet cubicle.Upon opening the door,he found that a girl was changing inside.He said he apologised profusely.I think he forgot to use the adjective "happily" as well.I encountered the same thing exactly here,the door wasn't locked properly and the moment I opened it slightly,I heard a startled squeak from inside.It was my colleague E(she hasn't got a X-Men moniker yet).I just said "Ooops,try to lock the door next time."Didn't even apologise.I just didn't thought about that at the moment.And no,I didn't see anything.Girls and boys using these cubicles should really be careful to lock the doors and double-check that you did.Otherwise well well well...

A funny thing happened.I received an email from Rogue addressed to Jubilee and me asking us to take note of something.After reading through the thing,we can only agree this organisation we are working for is weird.Weird in the sense that the middle and upper management are full of ignorant people.Oh,another matter,read in the Business Times that the civil service is looking to reduce headcount over the next 3 years by 9%.Means 3% will be cut every year besides the normal attrition rate.And teachers and Mindef will be exempt from this.God,if anything,there is MOST deadwood in Mindef.What are they doing?!But more pertinently,suddenly,I feel my employment is in danger.I could get fired!Of course,there are a lot of old senior clerks who are getting paid more than I am and doing even less but the sense of danger is real.I could get sacked!The humiliation,the indignity,the hmmm,who cares.My mind is so out of it now.I can't really be bothered about so many things.Almost everything can be a laugh and is a laugh now.

As so widely reported,our golden boy and girl,Ronald Susilo and Li Jiawei are getting married.Congrats to the two of you.Really well-done.They can now be the official poster couple for our pro-family and pro-creation campaign.And I hope they get loads of sponsorships fro their wedding needs.Most importantly,that they'd live happily ever after.While so many people here want to migrate,they decided to sink their roots here.It's a very nice thought that while we the Singapore-born and bred seem to consider Singapore to be such a drab,boring and cold place,others think otherwise.There is good here we don't see.

So many disparate paragraphs about anything and everything.Me and my twisted mind.