DREAMING

I totally agreed with the writer on the issue to raise minimum height on buses and trains published in Today dated 14 September 2007. It is impertinent that Public Transport Council (PTC) raise the minimum height requirement for children to pay fares. Singapore used to be handicapped “un-friendly”. Now it is ‘child-unfriendly’ as well. Our public transport system caters to the midgets but not to children who are growing up faster due to better nourishment. The 0.9m rule for fare-paying children has not been changed for the past 10 years. In other countries such as china, they have recently adjusted the minimum height for paying children to 1.1m. Imagine the shock one day when my 4-year-old child was asked to pay adult fare once he reaches 1.2m. Currently he is about 1.1m now. No wonder the transport system is getting more expensive than ever. It is a heavy burden on tax-payers’ pockets. After all the construction of all the MET lines were paid by tax-payers before SMRT or SBS-trans...

All Rights Reserved 2010 Darren Chong WHY PHARMACISTS RESIGN ... -------------------------- Better work conditions, pay may help stem high turnover rate of these professionals Letter from Darren Chong I refer to the report, "MOH to recruit more pharmacists from overseas"(Sept 17). It was reported that of the 1,482 pharmacists on the registerhere, less than half are involved in direct patient care, such as practising in hospitals, polyclinics and retail pharmacies. This is a worrying figure. While I applaud the ministry's efforts torecruit more pharmacists from overseas, it should also delve further into why pharmacists are not practising and find ways to stem the drain. I know a pharmacist who has worked in a retail pharmacy and in one of the restructured hospitals. During her stint with the retail pharmacy, she worked from 10am to 10pm, with only half an hour's break for lunch and dinner. This included Saturdays and Sundays, when business is most brisk....

That day at that very interesting seminar, met someone even more interesting. He came and sat down beside me in the seminar and he said I looked familiar. I also said he looked familiar but cannot recall who he is. Found out later he went to Henry Park Primary, then Fairfield Methodist, and we are of same age! Coincidentally he also used to stay at Clementi, a few blocks away from my old house, and now he is staying at Jurong West St 41 Block 404 with parents, married He talked about the old basketball court at Clementi and I told him the space is taken over by Hospice What a super coincidence! There are many colourful coincidences we have yet to experience in life! By the way, he is an ML guy! An investment analyst! Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s speech before Congress, in which he affirmed the Fed’s belief that economic growth will slow in 2008 and into 2009, and that Congress should help the efforts by adopting a temporary fiscal stimulus plan stirred those sidelined into...

First Encounter of the Bad Kind ****** FEAR It was late and dark. I quickened my pace. I was on the way home after returning books to the Jurong East Regional library. I hurried towards the usual back lane alley behind the library. This small lane leads to a nearby bus stop. Suddenly a teary-eyed Malay woman appeared suddenly in front of me. She seemed frantic. In a shaky voice, she asked me how to get to the Changi General Hospital. She sprouted a bob of short hair and looked very anxious, almost panicky. Her body language and her facial expression showed that she was in a state of shock in the dim light. I was taken aback. It caught me off-guard. I told her straightaway that there are no buses to take her to Changi Hospital from Jurong East. She’ll have to take a cab. Seems funny, but I suddenly realized the urgency of the matter. ***** NONCHALANCE It was really much later than I realized the first question is a trick question. To see if I am a local and if I understand what she is ...

All Rights Reserved 2010 Darren Chong I read with interest about a new secondary school coming up in 2010. The School of Science and Technology “will offer another route for bright students with an interest in applied learning”. It is aimed “at individuals with a special edge and passion for what they do". However I am personally worried that such notion might promote elitism or at least evoke unwarranted elitism tendencies. It is without doubt, MOE's directions are clear. Its strategy is to provide alternative to mainstream schools to cater to the different calibre of students. However, with an initial intake of only 200 students, no doubt there will be a ‘demand more than supply’ scenario as can be seen from the sharp discrepancies between application and actual enrolment figures for the specialised schools of Singapore Sports School, NUS High School Of Mathematics and Science, and the School of The Arts. A predilection will be to start with least a handful of such schools s...

All Rights Reserved 2010 Darren Chong Preserve Jurong Lake area and not commercialise it Recently there are plans by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) to turn around the Chinese and Japanese gardens and the Jurong Lake area into a commercial, retail and entertainment centre or theme park of sorts. Understandably, this site development will take in the 12-ha area occupied by the now-defunct Tang Dynasty City theme park as well. I am a nature lover and they are many other residents around this area who took regular strolls along Jurong Lake to enjoy the greenery as well. I, too, stayed in the Jurong Lake vicinity. Hence, my frequent visits to the Jurong Lake and Chinese Garden area for the past few years for recreation and for exercises. I bring my 6-year-old son there frequently and we had great fun there mingling with nature and its animal friends. Many a time, we saw monitor lizards basking in the sun. We chanced upon chameleons darting in and out of the bushes. Once, we even sp...

All Rights Reserved 2010 Darren Chong I like to highlight my plight as a passenger traveling in our very own public transport It was Monday morning, 21 Jan 2008. I was travelling on SBS bus number 198 from Jurong Town Hall Road towards Clementi. It was during morning peak hour. It was around 8.30am when I boarded the bus at Jurong East library. The bus was very crowded. The passengers cannot move in. I was standing near the entrance door when it was traveling. As the bus moves along into the AYE, the bus suddenly opened to picked up passengers. I was standing too near the door and was caught unaware when it opened suddenly. I assume I was standing from a safe distance from the door as I was holding to the vertical handle bar dearly. The door hit one of my big toe and there was a sharp pain. I cried in pain but the bus was too noisy. I reached my stop a few minutes later and got down. I alighted at Clementi opposite West Coast Recreation Centre. There was no time and no way to notify th...

Burning of Joss and Incence paper cause Serious Air Pollution It was 1am on the 7th of February 2008. I was feeding my 9-month-old baby in the kitchen. Suddenly there was a huge gust of wind. I saw smoke coming in through the kitchen windows! The air in the kitchen turned smoky and sour. I could not bear the thick smoke. Neither could my baby bear the bellowing smoke and started crying. I tried to close the windows quickly. But it was too late! Layers of thick black smoke and ashes were already trapped in the house! I realized the smoke and ashes were caused by burning of incense papers. Many of my neighbours have gathered around the common walkway along the blocks of flats and started to burn incense paper. It dawned upon me that it was already the first day of Chinese Lunar New Year! People are praying to ancestors and to the deities for good luck! I tell myself that on 14th February 2008 before midnight, I will close all my windows before I go to bed. This is because on that partic...