Err ERP!

Just got back from India and the latest news I hear was that ERP will now be applied even on Saturdays from 12pm to 8pm on Saturday on Orchard road (correct me if I am wrong)! The reason from the relevant authority was to ease traffic flow during the weekends and hence additional ERP gantries were put up.

I wonder if the authorities ever wondered that the people, actually like the traffic on the weekends in and around Orchard Road. Because it does make the city feel more "ALIVE", buzzing, exciting and more like any other big cities around the world. Like New York, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Shanghai, Beijing, Tokyo etc.etc. And it should be the perogative of the individual to WANT to get stuck in traffic in Orchard road on a Saturday.

Who wants to go to Orchard road on a Saturday when it looks like a dead city?? We want the city buzz! We want the traffic and we want a break from PAYING ERP on a weekend to help ease the already heavy cost of living in the Lion City!! An empty Orchard road make one feel very depressed....add on to that, the ERP....sighs

And If the authorities really want to ease traffic flow in Orchard road, what about the human traffic?? Maybe they should start a human ERP kind of thing along Orchard road and make the pedastrian pay as well!!

That will really ease the traffic in and around Orchard road and yes, it will then be very good business for all the shops in and around Orchard road........Lower traffic equals higher return (somehow!)....to compensate for the sky rocketing rentals in that area.

But then what do you think will happen to the traffic around Orchard road once these gantries are up? They will be congested somewhere else la, (like a balloon u squeeze one end the other end will balloon)......and a year or two down the road...ERP gantries will pop up in those areas as well...and then, what do you think will happen to the traffic in these areas?? They will all be in Malaysia....spending money there instead of paying ERP in the Lion City....

The Tree of Wealth

Ever wonder how a tree with a huge bloom of leaves stemming out from a few branches and a tiny trunk withstand the forces of nature? The answer is that it cant. One big huff and puff the tree will break at the trunk and left to rot!

And this is exactly what a sick economy feels like where you have major imbalance across the demographic in terms of wealth distribution. You have a few fellas on the top who are sitting on tons of money and a tiny bunch of fellas at the middle and everybody else is at the bottom who can barely scrape a living.

One big shock externally, the poor tree of wealth will come crumbling down. When that happens the plume of rich leaves will wither and die but the masses at the bottom may grow back in time depending on the kind of tree it is in the first place.

GODZILLA 2005!!! Part Deux

Finally I am now walking amongst the people who have seen and ran from the creature -GOJIRA!! I look to my left and look to my right, everyone seems to the their usual self. Men in suit despite the sweltering heat and humidity of summer and the women in their high heels with skirts or dressees, trudge through the human sardine pack as if nothing had happened.

It seems as if the trauma from the creature's attack had never existed!!! Amazing!!! The resilience of these people who have been through hell and back when GOJIRA attacked Japan and plucked the Tokyo Tower of its foundation as if it were a toothpick is amazing!!!

I noticed one thing about Japan, they now have an extensive network of subways, trains and even the Shinkansen!! (Bullet-O Train-O!). As I tried my very best to stare at and study the colorful spaghetti of a metro/subway chart, all I can make out of in the end is the picture of a naked Mr Miyagi from Karate Kid!! Eeeeeeeew!!!!!!

I also think the reason why the urban transportation and underground system is so extensive, is because to facilitate the evacuation of the people during an attack by Monsters. As they have learnt from film records in the past, the running and the screaming don't really save lives..... STOMP! STOMP! STOMP! EEEEKSSSS! "KER-PLASH".....dead......

Besides the Typhoon, Japan always faced monster attacks which you will never see or hear mentioned of course in the travel brochure...but trust me, the monsters love to hantam (whack) Japan somehow...And speaking again of the Typhoon, my Japanese friend told me that Typhoon No.14 does not denote the strength of the typhoon but the number of typhoon Japan encountered thus far....whew.....

My eyeballs by the time are seeing a lot of Little TwinStars hence I decided I need to stare at some really refreshing greenery and I saw the above nice green patches...untouched and un-destroyed by Ultraman or GOJIRA.

Speaking of Ultraman, I didn't really get to see him coz maybe it was raining most of the time
when I was there and U know Ultraman-la, he needs the power of the sun to charge him up to stay on Earth. Furthermore, even he appears, he cannot last being on Earth for more than 5 mins so.....sheeesh....moral of the story, u gotta be at the right place at the right time...!!

As I continued on my journey, I can see a lot of signs and where it could have been either caused by GOJIRA or by some other being on the building walls and structure of the buildings. There seem to be a lot of band aids with colorful pictures and ads plastered on the walls of the buildings. This is probably done to hide the battle scars of the monster attacks!! My nose tells me to follow them and follow them I did and then all of a sudden round the corner of my eye.....

To be continued....

GODZILLA 2005!!! - Pt I

The plane rattled as we sped head on towards Typhoon No.14 (NABI) for the island of Honshu where reported sightings of the creature GODZILLA or GOJIRA has been reported! I braced myself as the turbulence pounded onto our 747 as if we were a cessna single prop plane. I prayed for it to be over soon and land would then greet us instead of the fury of Typhoon No.14. I am at the same time excited and anxious as I am now on a great journey to discover for myself, the mythical creature called GOJIRA and many more mythical beings such as Ultraman, Kamen Riders as well as Power Rangers where legend has said somehow they congregate in the Island Nation of Japan!

I peeked out of the window and hoped to see some calm blue skies but all I could see was a thick mist of grey as we were now in the insides of Typhoon No.14. I had hoped maybe the Japanese airforce will send either some Valkyrie fighters from SDF-1 or some Gundam Robots (ZAKUS or Earth Defence Force I don't care as long as they come!!) to help escort our poor embattled plane to safety but to my disappointment there was none! Sighs!.....Damm, I should have taken JAL (tibai basketball!!) instead of SQ at least them planes can hopefully transform or sumthing if the going gets too tough into a GIANT ROBOT!!

All of a sudden the rocking and shaking seemed to subside and through the PA system I heard the Captain announced that we are going to land soon at Narita! A great sense of relief came over me as we will soon be out of the belly of the beast and descend into the land of great mystery! The land of GODZILLA!!!! YA!!! and sushi, ramen, soba, sashimi, toro and fugu!!!!

Finally the plane landed and I managed to make my way to my hotel. The wind was blowing and the rain kept pelting the land of the rising sun. Which of course for the moment, the sun, is nowhere to be seen. If I remembered correctly, Typhoon No.11 just struck Japan about 2 weeks ago or something, and now, Typhoon No. 14??? I am so gonna get it from my friend this time as this is my first trip to Japan, and the Typhoon was there to welcome my arrival!!! Bet your last Yen he gonna say :-

"Ah so, Grouch-san, welcome to Japan! Told you to come over alone but no... you have to bring with you the typhoon!!!...Ah so, arigato-gozaimashta Grouch-san!"

Sheeeeeeeeeeeeeit....some more no.14!! Stronger than 11!!! DIE!!...this one should be called Typhoon Nabei rather than Nabi....but on second thought, better not make fun of it after seeing the destruction of the lady Katrina of New Orleans...."hell hath no fury like a woman scorned???" What the heck did Bush do this time??

To be continued.....

Fear and Loss

What do we fear? Why do we fear? Some fear the dark, some fear the unknown and some are afraid of heights, closed spaces and so on and so forth. These to me are lesser fears. But inherently, what we fear most is of loss. As we start out in life, we have our family with us and we have all to look forward to as we progress through the trials and tribulations called Life.

We work hard to gain what we wanted and worked doubly hard to keep what we gained. But loss is inevitable. As we age, we will lose the people we love, either through to age or through sickness. Loss is inevitable and loss is painful.

The reason why loss is painful is because of love. It is because we loved. If one had never loved, one will not know loss and what more, fear it. But do we want to live without Love? To me, the answer is a clear no.

What is more important is that we should embrace loss instead of fear it, as it is after all apart of our life. This is what I have learned. Remember the dearly departed always and never forget how they have touched your life.

After having worked many years in Singapore, I have not had the privilege of being with my family all the time and in the course of my stay here I have lost 3 very dear persons in my life. My grandparents. Through their departure, they thought me how to cherish the people who come across our path and touched our life.

What I have ultimately learn is that, the people that we love, although we have the fear of losing them one day, is never far away from us even though they may leave us. All we need to do is to find a silent space of our own, close our eyes and look deep within our hearts and we will see them and have them bless our life again with all the memories that they have blessed us with.

Always remember them and they will forever be with us....always.

Life

I came across the postings of an utter arsehole in a forum I visit once in awhile. Someone basically started a new thread which basically spoke of his reflections and thoughts of a friend of his, who decided to take his own life.

The arsehole basically posted and voiced his strong view of how wrong suicide is and that the person who decides to take his life is a coward who has no regard at all to the feelings of the people who loves him.

Who gave him the right to judge? Whatever the reason maybe, we as third parties should not judge. No man can and no one is above another fellow man on this earth who can pass judgement on one's life except God. What we can do instead of voicing our judgemental views is to mourn the loss of a young life.

Don't let that person's life pass on in vain.

Remember the better things in life and take it as a lesson and instead of being bitter, learn to cherish the short time we have on this earth no matter how tough the going can get, there will always be a silver lining.

And to the arsehole who still rant on to justify his statements made in the post, may you find contentment within yourself.

Following is an excerpt of the post.

Loss of a friend...
A friend of mine passed away last week. I have felt the loss of loved ones and friends before but this loss was made a lot more painful because he chose to take his own life.No one of us would ever know why he did it. He told no one his troubles, except for the fact that he was thinking of changing his major in university because it was too hard. He was very active in Uni, among our group or friends and greatly appreciated by those who knew him.Whatever his reason, his decision has robbed his parents of their eldest son, his siblings of an older brother and for the rest of us, a cherished friend.I just wanted to shout out here to point out that taking one's own life doesn't resolve anything. Regardless the kind of trouble or dilemma you are in, it can always be resolved. Family and friends are there for a reason. Use them. They will help even if it hurts or inconveniences them. Just stay alive. The alternative is too painful for others.

The post of that arsehole :-

Sorry to say so, but your frn deserves no pity for his choice of suicide simply shows how selfish and cowardly he is... I only feel sorry for your frn's family and friends who are left behind to suffer the agony of the loss of their loved one...However no point crying over split milk, juz pray that your frn's soul will rest in peace like what XXX had said...