Hello penguins and kangaroos

See you Singapore. Hello penguins and kangaroos.

I'm leaving on a jetplane - on a Boeing 747-400. Back on 20 Jul.

Till then.

So long, and thanks for all the fish

12 Dec 08 - 27 Jun 08: That's the period of time I've spent at PSA Corporation. I wanted to say that I felt weird today when I said goodbye to everyone. They seem to expect me to come back. But it's too early to tell them whether I will ever come back.

I believe the 6 months spent at PSA make me realise that there are so many other fishes out there in the ocean trying to survive. All along my life, the education system has made it such a way that these fishes don't seem to exist at all. Alas I understand all the ITE certs better now. Speaking of which, JR mentioned that we are like the top 5% of the cohort and hence we are quite high up and don't see the rest. Interestingly it is when we enter university, we see more people. When thinking about all that, I can't help but feel sad that I will never be the top 0.1% of the cohort.

MIT seems like a nice place to be in but that's a dream passed down from my mother.

My colleague managed to get me up the Quay crane for the first time in my life, and maybe the only chance I get. I guess I will always feel pride when passing by the PSA terminals because I know I have helped recruited people to run the place and operate the machines.

Sometimes I wonder how I even got a job with PSA. It seems so much like fate.

I miss you

I miss the sounds of the pouring heavy rain. I miss the loud thunders and the crackles that comes along with them. I miss the sight of the lightning contrasting against the dark sky. I miss listening to music with rain the background. I miss walking in the rain. I miss running to avoid the rain.

I miss the feeling.

Guilt

What I didn't expect was that the reduction of fuel subsidy would have impacts on the food prices in Singapore. Another completely unrelated question I would like to bring up is whether the booming financial sector and maybe the life sciences industry an effect of the dutch disease.

Had IPPT yesterday and managed to get the lousiest 2.4 timing in maybe 6 years. At least I managed to scrap past and get a silver.

Today, I've met up with my jc classmates and form teacher and among the topics brought up was the video that is still lying unedited on my harddrive. I really need to do something about it and I feel really guilty about that. It has been more than 2 years. I need to get myself to do things and not procrastinate. How I wish I can say no to procrastination.

Across the causeway

I'm so sure I'm going to be sued for this entry.

On my bus ride home, I catch a few segments of the Malaysians protesting against the reduction of fuel subsidy. The protests were pretty amusing (causing me to laugh on the bus), especially the commentaries made by the opposition party leaders. Things like:

Teo Kin Teng, a translator, said: "We produce so much oil – import the poorer quality one and export our high quality one – why can't the government use the proceeds to subsidise the people? The increase is not making sense."

The new policy to attempt to redistribute wealth by giving cash handouts to those owners of cars with less than 2 litres engines seems more reasonable than the current subsidy. Using of subsidised fuel will pay less attention to its usage than users who pay the full price. Yet, the sudden increase is definitely bad publicity for the government, especially when the opposition parties are gaining a foothold in the Malaysian elections. Petrol cost USD1.60 per litre in Singapore, while USD0.84 before the reduction of subsidy in Malaysia. No wonder Singaporeans like to go across the causeway. (USD0.05 per litre in Venezula - essential free oil?; USD2.65 pre litre in Norway)

From the government's point of view, it's understandable why they would want to cut the subsidy. With rising fuel prices and food prices, the government can't just keep the prices at the same level as they will run out of money. The Malaysians shouldn't have started with subsidies in the first place as subsidies distort the real price, and will eventually prove to be a burden. Getting rid of the subsidies should have been done centuries ago, yet it has proved to be a politically bad move as evident from the protests in Malaysia. The Bumiputra policy is also another grand idea that they should discard. (This remains a highly sensitive issue which I should keep my mouth shut on it)

With rising oil and food prices, what can we all do? Nothing I guess. We can't sit back and wish that the government save us as truly socialist societies rarely exist in these days. What the government can do and should do instead is help its poorest people.