After looking at the new Translink guide for the buses and the MRT, it gave me hope for the future of S'pore. Instead of coming up with bizarre car restriction schemes [and what about caging in the Merlion and eliminating the Satay club for some new highway?], there are people out there who are actively improving the transportation system of S'pore. The new guide contains all the bus stops and the fare stage information. Now there is no reason to put in just 50 or 60 cents 8-)
I have been shuttling between Taipei, S'pore and Manila for the past few weeks. Because of this, I have been following this Philipino maid tragedy from three different perspectives. Unlike the Michael Fay case where I obtained most of the information from S'pore, I was able to observe this one from multiple sources. And my conclusions are there are always two sides to a story, and principles are important but flexibility and compassion are part of being human. [Also that EVA airline is a much better than SIA.]
Whenever there is an international incident like this, it is almost impossible to find the real "facts" of the case. There is no such thing as the international unpartial news source [maybe we should get some reporters permanently stationed up in the space shuttle or Mars], though companies such as Reuter, Associated Press and CNN come pretty close. Everyone is biased in some way. [Who the hell is this Kato Kaelin?]
But the true victim of the tragedy is the maid that was executed. I personally do not like S'pore attitude of shoot first and ask the question. In this specific case, execute the maid before the people of the Philippine had the time to digest the "facts." And if there was ever any doubt, the reputation of S'pore in the international arena in will be greatly damaged. Maybe someone had blundered in this case. Maybe some steps should have been taken earlier. But at the end of the day, we are talking about a person's life. A few weeks for a retrial is not a lot to ask for.
As of today, there is still an advisory for S'poreans living in and traveling to Philippine. Everyone is talking about the grenades thrown at the SIA offices in Manila. A colleague just visited the Philippine embassy here in Singapore. Instead of the carnival like atmosphere before the incident, the current eerie quiet environment made her really uncomfortable. Now with the Spartly islands affair. I hope this region will not become the next hot spot of the world. Principles will be the beginning and the death for us all.
Now about Manila, anyone who is a chaos theoriest should first visit S'pore and then go to all these Southeast Asian countries. It's amazing such a country so meticulously organized in nature can exist amongst all these chaotic neighbors. Take Philippine for example, flying into Philippine from the north you can observe the landscape turn from lushful green into dreary dark brown. The moment before flying into metro-Manila airport, you will see a thick haze covering the entire city. Once on the ground, the biggest difficulty I have was distinguishing between the potholes and the road bumps.
One of the most popular tourist attraction close to Manila is the Taal Volcano region. But when I was there, the whole area was covered with "haze", or the S'porean euphemism for pollution. It's a bit of disappointment to see [or not to see] such a natural wonder being blanketed by a man-made cloud. Practice of burning in open space and lack of pollution control are the root of the problem. One source for much of the pollution is the Jeepneys, which are the most popular form of public transportation in Manila. They are mini-bus which anyone can just flag down and take. They are convenient but are major contributor to the pollution and congestion problem of the city.
Gun touting people are supposedly common here. But now since it's getting close to election time, you don't see them that often nowadays. Politicians in Philippine has a nasty way getting assassinated. And policeman has a nasty way of getting rich. Bribery, like the other countries [except for S'pore] in the region, has to be done with care. [In Malaysia, people usually put a couple of Ringgit along with the driver's license when stopped by the traffic police.] Something I don't think I will ever do, or will be able to do.
What is the seventh wonder of the world? Every country, maybe except for S'pore, seems to have their own seventh wonder of the world. Philippine is no exception. The Rice Terrace in the Northern Luzon region is Philippine's seventh wonder of the world. Much of the Philippine is still under a shroud of mystery. There are supposedly ancient tribe, even some cannibals, in the remote region of the rain forest. There is still a lot of places waiting to be explored for those adventurers out there.
The thing I enjoy the most at Manila was movie watching. It's kind of sad considering I was supposed to be there on vacation. But the thing I like the most about it is that you can pay US$1 and sit there the entire day. You can bring in food, drink and watch a single movie to your heart's content. Most of all, there is no assigned seats and Chinese subtitles 8-)
One of the most annoying thing I have encountered during my travel was the security check at the Manila airport. They have three levels of security check through the airport. First they screen people when they enter the airport. Then after the check-in and the immigration, they screen them again when they enter the gate complex. At this point, the carry on bags are X-ray again. In addition, someone will frisk all the passengers. At least in Taipei they have separate line for female and male. Then before the gate, the passenger is screen again by the airline employee. The funny thing is they took my screwdrivers and batteries from my flash light. But they didn't even look at the labtop computer, the walkman radio, and all the other gadgetries that I was carrying. I wouldn't mind if the search was thorough, like the time at the power outage at the Newark airport where everyone and everything was being screen carefully by people. But in Manila, they did this as a token gesture. I can't imaging if they found out if the passenger is a S'porean 8-)
One of the things I learn from the Manila trip was that water and electricity, where I usually take for granted, are sometimes not available for days in Manila. I started to travel with a bottle of water and some basic necessity whenever I go [even in S'pore.] The second thing is that there are cheap labor out there and waiting to be exploited. I played tennis in Manila and ended up fighting to fetch the balls with ball boys since I am used to picking up my own tennis balls. There are countries and people out there just waiting to be exploited. It's only our human conscience stands between right and wrong.
23/03/95
