Smuggling anything into Singapore is easy but if you get caught you may well hang. Not sure they would hang a gum smuggler. There are places like Geylang in Singapore where illegal cigarettes are sold in the street very openly for half price. They are from India and Malaysia mostly.

25 years ago my father was pulled up at Changi airport for a mandatory haircut, his hair was just over the collar; he refused to ever go to Singapore again. Nowdays it's common to see dreadlocked feral druggies looking paranoid and trying to stay calm in Changi airport.

One of the weird things one experiences in Singapore is when catching trains around the city; announcment on the loadspeakers on the train (in English) "If you see any suspicious object or person, please report it on the intercom next to the train doors."

Yes it has been quite awhile since I have posted, but I do lurk occasionally. I am doing good, how about you?

I was in Singapore in July, very nice city, very nice and extensive public transportation. It is amazing there are still all those developments (esp. Marina Bay Sands!) despite the -8% GDP recession. I was also surprised at the number of foreigners, since it seemed like more than half the people I saw on Orchard Road and the CBD were white. I felt like I was still in America (or to be more accurate, Australia).

I didn't realize that I was chewing gum until I was in the taxi out of Changi, chewing is a habit on planes since my ears always clog up without it. But since the immigration officer didn't comment on the chewing, I figured it was fine

But from what I could tell, I can see Singapore doing fairly well in an oil-reduced environment, since everyone has access to public transportation and there are extensive water catchment areas as well as desalinization plants. The biggest issues would be food supply and migration into the city, most likely these would cause strain in the ever-important relationship with Malaysia.

July eh? Some of those folks might have been from the USS Ronald Reagan?



http://www.news.navy.mil/search/display ... y_id=46479

Ah yes, I'm fine, thanks. For the moment, anyway.
Quit Lockheed last year, joined the local equivalent.
Uh, sort of.

I've been making some trips across the newly-opened section of the Circle Line, it's pretty good, finally we've got the missing link between the two north-south going lines. They are going to double the MRT rail network by 2020. But yeah, long before that I would worry about the supply chain issues.

Hey iowem i will be in singapore again on 9/20 if you would like to bang heads?
I noticed a much smaller backlog of shipping last time 6 weeks ago.

Oh hey, sure. You do know it's a public holiday on Sunday and thus it's a public holiday also on Monday, right?

Anyway. I'll drop you a PM to arrange things.

A boy is sitting at the staircase playing by himself. In his "house", actually, an apartment unit in a public housing estate, the lights are out. Their electrical meter had run out. Apparently the household is on a pre-paid scheme where instead of receiving a monthly bill, they have to slot in money at the meter to keep it going.

No money, no electricity. It's sad

Last I heard, unless they've changed their mind in the meantime, an updated system somewhat like it is going to be rolled out nationwide. No nation of deadbeats here.

No money, no electricity.

It's kind of brutal. You know, as in, brutally efficient. Should we as a nation leave it to market forces to work out little details like these and claim the moral high ground of capitalism or laissez-faire or whatever it is called, or should we be more compassionate towards the less well-off? I wonder.

Here in remote Australia they have the card prepay system in welfare housing; have done so for many years.

Especially where i work in Aboriginal communities it is the norm that the locals houses have the prepay while the white contractor houses have a quarterly bill.

Recently I was working in a community outside of Alice Springs in Central Australia. The Government was building new houses and among the 'modifications' was the installed 3kw split system aircon (x2 per house).
These were put in to replace the evaporatives which have always done the cooling in this very hot dry place.
No insulation was put in.
These houses get up to over 50 celcius (115F) every day for months during summer.
Most occupants are welfare dependent.
There is no way known they can afford to run these new aircons.

In Singapore I was shocked how much rent people pay; when compared to wages, rents there are absolutely outrageous. The prepay electric system is another lever to push people out. When they can't pay the electric they certainly won't be paying rent.

Strangely though there are far fewer homeless in Singapore than in any city in Australia. (at least visibly)

and there is a good reason for it.

The whole situation is a mess. Yes there is.

'Local Equivalent', hehe. No sketchy black-ops deals from the military anymore? But anyways, sounds cool. I'm glad your doing well!

I was really impressed with the MRT system, very efficient, the trains come often and they don't even have drivers (I think). I liked the announcements in 4 languages, and the "let me come out first" signs with the crazy lady everywhere.

And I don't think the white people I saw in Singapore were from the USS Ronald Reagan, they all had Australian (maybe British) accents. Lots of teenagers, maybe it was their winter holidays or something.

Heh thanks. Black-ops deals eh? I shall neither confirm nor deny



The older lines have drivers (North-South Line, East-West Line). The newer lines are driver-less (North-East Line, Circle Line). All the 3 LRT (light rail) lines are also driver-less.

The crazy lady (and crazy guy) are famous local TV actors/comedians