Patriotism on Wheels

Looking down from my house, I felt very patriotic. Felt a 'BIG' connection to the government; or as Mr Brown would call it, Gah-men. I suddenly felt I contributed to this country that I now call home. I felt I've done a big favour to my fellow MRTians now that they have more place to sit, more room to stand. I think the SMRTians and SBSes are happy the bus queue is two and half person shorter.

I would like to contribute the same amount of money to Malaysian Gah-men, but I think it might just end up as somebody's pocket money. But at same time I wish that Singapore Gah-men is not so clever at sucking money out of working class citizens. Maybe more free parking at some places? Lower parking fees? Insurance (ok, this is not caused by gah-men but maybe can be regulated). I don't think that we wanted to 'contribute' so much money out of choice.. but rather this was done out of necessity. Time, comfort, health - its all necessity.

Time - busy schedules for her, high housing cost forces us to move further from her working place. Of course the gah-men can say that you can move to a smaller house, but from where we come from, space is a necessity but here, its a luxury! Due to that, 45 mins to 1 hour of idling in the bus and MRT does not justify the value of missing the time with your kids!

Comfort - especially to a pregnant lady with a cantilever stomach in front. 2.6kg and counting...

Health - everytime we had to wait for a bus, the exhaust from the bus waiting to pick up passengers are pretty damn potent to cause you carbon monoxide poisoning. The yellow Malaysian bus from over the causeway and SBS 170 also contributes to this. They'd wait for passengers (although I don't see any) while the other passengers had to inhale the smelly by-product (disclaimer: that doesn't mean that I'd like to inhale it if bus exhaust smoke smells good like perfume or KFC). Maybe one solution is to move the passenger waiting area away from the bus waiting area or even better, airconditioned terminal like in AMK and Boon Lay.

Well, all I can say now is this: I think Merlion government could do a lot with my 'contribution' but can't you give more discounts?