[Choon]

Problem is, most of the middle to upper class people around here are already used to air-conditioning. I still can't believe the number of people I meet/know who complain about not being able to sleep at night without one! (And my housemate happens to be one of them!)

And to think that these people are actually living in a hot + humid environment. God forbid that the lights go out at night, lest we actually sweat in our beds!

[mattduke]

UBS (UBSN.VX: Quote, Profile, Research) revealed a $10 billion writedown and an emergency injection of funds from Singapore and the Middle East, making it the biggest victim of the U.S. subprime crisis to date among major European banks.

Singapore is taking 9 percent of UBS in a deal that mirrors actions taken by U.S.-based Citigroup (C.N: Quote, Profile, Research). Citi expects to write off between $8 billion and $11 billion and has secured funding from the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.

Reuters

[Denny]

I saw ABC's 20/20 tonight and was impressed with the segment on Singapore.

Singapore

Its funny how we often think liberty is what makes life good, but Singapore shows that developing a society of good habits, punctuality and law abiding people has its benefits. I am looking to visit this place!

I recall years ago, seeing mail come from Singapore and was impressed at the uniformity of the letter packaging, they were among the first countries to use plastic warp, rather than rubber bands on letter bundles and it leads to much better machine sorting potential, and it makes it easier to load into mail trays.

Its a severe society, but it leads to good things. I often wish our business and government people were more like those in Singapore. I find so many Canadians and Americans are not focussed on their job and seem happy to turn out crap. I have seen so many co-workers chisel from the employer - time, office supplies, even unnecessary sick days.

I think in Singapore, it would be so much more productive, they expect good work from all their citizens and they would not tolerate some of the street crime and the general laziness and gross language that persists in Toronto. Toronto used to be a very clean city, but we have slipped a couple of notches on that score.

Maybe all American cities should look to Singapore for public control techniques, especially with respect to mass transit.

[rostov]

Good. I'm glad you like this place. To be a really strong genie -- you need to inherit everything about it -- including being a slave to the lamp.

No human rights. Capital punishment. High population footprint and density (try living in a 12 to 16 storey apartment no larger than 800 sq feet for a family of 4), high taxation (USD$30000-60000 for a 1.3-1.6l car, etc), no laws on minimal wages, no wage rights, no employment rights, and 20% of the population gone OUT and yet the net population increase is much MORE than what you experience across your mexican border. Oh, you have no space to grow your own veges, and there is no meat roaming around. Please don't play politics -- they sue you to the dungeons.

It's "work at OUR given rates or else another 2000+ engineers will be considered". Think 1930s style of depression employment. Hmmmm did I mention an annual 0.2-0.3% increment in wages?

All food is imported, with a bulk of it from our north "friendly" neighbour. 80% of energy from burning NG piped from Indonesia (who incidentally is still playing reindeer diplomatic games by denying the sale of SAND for our construction and reclamation works.

The list goes on. Unless you're a business person to exploit the human resources there, there is very little to gain coming here. I don't know what plant syrup you've been fed, but I sure wish I had that since I was born there.

Questions?

[eastbay]

Denny,

You'll love the place. We, my family and I, go there once or twice a year for a week or two each time. We stay with the locals and feel perfectly safe jogging and walking around anywhere. There are really no 'bad' areas.

It's super clean and tidy. No litter. No graffiti. No crack heads roaming around. No meth labs. No armed gangsters lurking at the light rail stations. The people are generally as friendly as anywhere and you don't have to worry about getting mugged. Taxi's are cheap and the clean and safe busses are even cheaper. The light rail system is maybe the best on earth.

I got sick there once a few years back. A flu of some sort. I went to a neighborhood clinic and they immediately fixed me right up for $sg20.00. No waiting. I'm talking blood test, med's, and, of course, the examination. Even with my fairly decent medical insurance if this happened in the USA I would have been out at least twice that much.

Don't believe all the liberal propaganda. Singapore is fun, safe, and friendly. You will find Singapore to be a dreamland compared to (most cities in) Canada or the USA.

[seldom_seen]

I find so many Canadians and Americans are not focussed on their job and seem happy to turn out crap. I have seen so many co-workers chisel from the employer - time, office supplies, even unnecessary sick days.

This is because much of modern work is meaningless, and pointless.

Like this scene from Office Space:

Peter Gibbons: The thing is, Bob, it's not that I'm lazy, it's that I just don't care.
Bob Porter: Don't... don't care?
Peter Gibbons: It's a problem of motivation, all right? Now if I work my ass off and Initech ships a few extra units, I don't see another dime; so where's the motivation? And here's something else, Bob: I have eight different bosses right now.
Bob Slydell: I beg your pardon?
Peter Gibbons: Eight bosses.
Bob Slydell: Eight?
Peter Gibbons: Eight, Bob. So that means that when I make a mistake, I have eight different people coming by to tell me about it. That's my only real motivation is not to be hassled; that, and the fear of losing my job. But you know, Bob, that will only make someone work just hard enough not to get fired.

[lowem]

channelnewsasia.com
In a massive new investment, the government will pump in another S$20 billion on new rail lines and extensions islandwide, Transport Minister Raymond Lim announced Friday [25 Jan 2008]. This is over and above the S$20 billion the government has already committed for the on-going Boon Lay extension, the Circle Line and the Downtown Line.

The rail update is the second in a series of three major policy announcements in a sweeping review of the land transport network. A bus system overhaul was announced last week. When the plans come to fruition in 2020, there will be one MRT station within five minutes' walk in the city, in a network that will be comparable to cities like New York and London, and surpassing Hong Kong and Tokyo.

There are currently 138 kilometres of rail lines. By 2020, authorities hope to double the network length to 278 km and expect it to carry three times as many journeys, from today's 1.4 million a day to 4.6 million in 2020. Two new lines will be built - the Thomson Line and the Eastern Region Line. Existing lines will also be extended. The North-South Line will be extended 1 km to serve the Marina Bay area while the East-West Line will be extended another 14 km west into Tuas. To avoid long waiting time and crowded trains, there will be 93 additional train trips weekly during the morning and evening peaks.

- As I have written earlier, it's a great initiative, but from a peakoiler point of view, I do wonder just what these new trains will be running on seeing as how the expected completion date is 2020.

[eastbay]

I read from the CNA article that by 2020 the MRT will be considered a citizens 'other car'. What on earth will their 'first car' be?

It does seem like the infrastructure improvement planning is well intentioned, but the long-term vision is weak... much as it is in the rest of the industrialized world.

[dissimulo]

I do wonder just what these new trains will be running on seeing as how the expected completion date is 2020.

An even more interesting question is where they will get the energy to run all the air con units that make all the high-rises livable.

The expansion is cool though. I lived in Singapore for a while and never felt like I needed a car. In fact, it would have been more difficult to have a car.

[lowem]

An even more interesting question is where they will get the energy to run all the air con units that make all the high-rises livable.

The units on the higher floors are usually quite windy. I'd worry about the lifts (or elevators, as the Americans call them).

[lowem]

I read from the CNA article that by 2020 the MRT will be considered a citizens 'other car'. What on earth will their 'first car' be?

Legs. In the Hokkien dialect, "kar" refers to legs. Shrug. Local joke

Anyway. Last week they announced a big revamp for bus services. This week it's the announcement of throwing S$20 billion dollars at rail.

Next week, they'll probably be talking about the car population. They have been having a policy of letting the car population grow at a targeted 3% per year. Last year, in practice, it was more like 9%. Given the space constraints in a small country like Singapore, obviously we can't have that going on forever. I'd be expecting measures like road usage pricing going up dramatically.

[lowem]

The defining moment of last night's Formula 1 night race in Singapore, as Ferrari's Massa drives away from the pit stop with his fuel hose still attached, and the pit crew runs after him

*This* peakoiler watches in amusement ...

[Micki]

Somone's going to get spanked for that.
Hope this is on youtube as I didn't watch the race

[cualcrees]

Somone's going to get spanked for that.
Hope this is on youtube as I didn't watch the race

Here you go!

[Micki]

Sweet.
What a mistake. I am so glad I am not the guy who gave the green light.

[eastbay]

Lowem, can you find a map of the route it took? I'm really surprised to see such a race in your city, especially at night. I mean, NOTHING is allowed in Sg, and now we see this!

[lowem]

Lowem, can you find a map of the route it took? I'm really surprised to see such a race in your city, especially at night. I mean, NOTHING is allowed in Sg, and now we see this!

Here's a nice one, complete with Flash animation :
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/nightrace/map.htm

Well, they said they absolutely wouldn't have any casino too and then now they are building two, halfway completed already.

They also said they would rule out nuclear reactors for power generation here, but then you never know.

Moral of the story? Never say never!

[Micki]

Well SGP's electricity comes mainly from NG, so nuclear may be an option that is sustainable somewhat longer.

I recently also learnt from a mate who moved (back) to Singapore that rubbish incinerators generate some of the electricity, but if we are looking at a future with less consumption...i.e. less rubbish...this might not be such a great way to generate electricity either.


What is the market over there in SGP like? Is it slowing like the rest of us? Heard that COE prices are coming down.

[lowem]

Well SGP's electricity comes mainly from NG, so nuclear may be an option that is sustainable somewhat longer.

I recently also learnt from a mate who moved (back) to Singapore that rubbish incinerators generate some of the electricity, but if we are looking at a future with less consumption...i.e. less rubbish...this might not be such a great way to generate electricity either.

It's called Waste2Energy. I haven't really kept track of more recent developments but at the most it looks like just a handful of megawatts at the most.

It's a nice complement but obviously we shouldn't really think of it as large-scale baseload.

The government is trying to push for solar/wind but we peakoilers know the score. There are some goings-on and there could be a "Kyoto-be-damned" faction going for coal, but I really wouldn't want to see that.

Geographically, hydro is out and so is geothermal. We're left with nuclear. For large-scale baseload it makes logical sense. The only complications are politics and social acceptance.

What is the market over there in SGP like? Is it slowing like the rest of us? Heard that COE prices are coming down.

COE prices are pretty volatile. I got mine around $12,600 for the Civic Hybrid. It dropped briefly below $10,000 in early Sep and it's now back up at around $14,000.

Back in Dec 2005, I wrote in to the government and said that we can't grow the car population at 3% per year forever.

Apparently enough people brought up this obvious point that somebody up there agreed and it has been announced that going forward, the allowed annual growth rate will be halved to 1.5% per year. Less COE's should mean that the price shoots up (demand/supply), but on the demand side, the worsening economy is slowing demand for new cars, so we've got these push-pull factors at work here.

As for the other markets, the stock market's a mess, we're dropping by 200-point intervals (from Oct 2007's 3800 down to 2200 recently). You can see for yourself here :

http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=^STI#symbol=^STI;range=2y

Not bad, eh?

Property market is dropping, especially on the high end. Public housing is not really affected - yet. It moves slower. But all in due time.

[Micki]

Thanks for that.
Heard the markets in Oz now are predicting a .5% interest rate cut next week. For being RBA that would be quite aggressive and a sure sign recessionary forces are in play.
Darn, looks like I might have a good opportunity for a redundency here and was hoping for a blooming SGP economy so I could snatch a contract there for a few years.
My wife is from there and is missing her family a bit.
Some say SGP is boring, but I have always enjoyed it there. And I love to makan makan at the hawkers, so I could probably get by quite cheaply.
cheers..Micki