Riding the bus: Beauty in small things

An old friend left this on her page yesterday. Time and again I have noticed the beauty is often in the small things and they are within our reach and even within our power to make happen. The big things managed and led by the elites are often disappointing.

Ice Cream: 15 years later still $1

Sometimes I would buy myself an ice cream like this for $1 after lunch at Boat Quay. That was easily 15 years ago. Tonight I bought this for $1. No cutback in the portion but meanwhile the prices at Swensens and elsewhere including Magnums keep going up.

So how can people like this ice cream seller not be suffering income loss over time? The guy who washes my car is afraid to raise his rate but the car wash at the petrol station isn't afraid. Big business is leading the way with price increase. The smallest businesses are taking home less every year. May be they often serve the poorer customers and so can't up prices.

Ngiam Tong Dow Clarifies...

I don't recall ST carried the story of Ngiam Tong Dow interview with SMA. I had posted to this blog my impression of it on October 1, "Ngiam stirring up a storm?". I also noticed a couple of days ago I was wrong about how I thought the government would respond. I thought they would be cleverer and more secure.

Earlier this morning I picked this up. There were others but this one was the most convenient and more credible. After all Dr Yeoh was the former chief economist of GIC.

Wifey just said those who were out of the loop are now going to look up the backstory since ST printed it. So does it or does it not make the government look better after this? And if at the end of the day what's important is the truth and given their overwhelming staying power to stick around and prove that, I thought the government should just leave him alone. And if Ngiam was so eager to clarify himself there wasn't the need for the PM to respond either. Instead now we are going to have more innuendos and conspiracy theories. What an insecure PM. He doesn't believe the truth will somehow surface in wisdom of the crowd manner? To be fair to daddy, during his premiership there was no information clearing house to speak of. He was right to worry and act on such matters.

We cannot hope to respond adroitly if he hopes to run this place in the old command and control style. See what is happening at SPH which is in the main their stooge. Profits down 25% and advertising revenue going down despite valiantly raising circulation....

Tong Seng Closes: A coffee shop to remember

Closing after sixteen years. In that time I have never been a customer of Tong Seng but I think it is a good idea to remember them. Leave a record that they existed and served many here. They did good providing free food. This is the sort of charity I welcome and like the best. The same spirit as the laundry which was providing free cleaning service to the poor jobless going for a job interview.

Tharman is FinMin of the Year

Tharman has been named the FinMin of the year by Euromoney making him the second Singaporean to be honored. The first was Hon Sui Sen in 1982.

This is evidence that netizens are not daft. We more or less know which of our ministers are good; which one is overpaid or underpaid. There are more overpaid ones and as a team the heavy hitters are subsidizing their light weight colleagues. I am not complaining here. Look around any office and you see the same situation. I just don't believe they cannot do better if only they were more willing to be more transparent and accountable.










Update: October 16

Tongue in cheek from Mothership.sg but certainly not absurd or ridiculous.

A comment which made my yesterday

Someone left this comment at my post on Dr. Yeo Sze Ling yesterday and it made my day :-)

Always it is the little things we common folks share that makes life wonderful. Indeed Mother Teresa was right again and again about doing small things with great love rather than doing great enterprises. The big issues always invite feedback and frequently criticisms as narrow interests try to shape matters to their advantage but they always give a good and partially true story why it is good for us. It is always for the benefit of business or help a party strengthen their hold on power. If it also benefited us, well and good but always the party's interests come first even if there are many times people welfare and the party's interests are synonymous. However as the world change and we become more fragmented and diversified such happy coincidence will become increasingly rare.

The WP makes plenty of hay pointing out how the other side put their interests ahead of the people isn't it?

Too many pastors consumed by big ambitions cannot be trusted, political leaders are slowly losing their moral grip and the courts are good only as backstops. We must do better.

Replacing my wallet

Wifey bought me this from Robinsons today. She got herself two dresses spending enough to enjoy at 25% discount from all purchases. I think it is merchandising gimmick but you could end up paying full price without the voucher. In reality you don't even shop there until they improve their value proposition isn't it and it could be as good as the discount she got.

My almost three year Renoma (only know this fact from this blog) is still usable even if somewhat worn. I can take my time to make the switch.