Home for the Christmas Holidays...

Two of my daughters are back this year for Christmas and with the havoc in London, I thought that both would not make it back.
The first daughter and her husband from London were on the tarmac for a few hours before the flight was abandoned and they spent at least six hours getting back to their home.
There was no information from Heathrow and the Singapore Airline website did not have reliable updates. So my daughter and son-in-law made another trip to the airport without even knowing that the flight was leaving. They were lucky as the next day the police were barring anyone from entering who did not have a confirmed flight. So their flight was delayed further when a few bags had to be offloaded as the passeners were missing. Hardly surprising when the information was non-existent!
So the two managed to get to Singapore with about 24 hours delay.
The scenes at Heathrow apparently were like a war zone.
It's a big difference what time can do to improve the situation. My other daughter had a slightly different set of problems to navigate. Her flight was from St.John's in Newfoundland to Toronto for the first leg and then from Toronto to Changi via Heathrow.
The people at St. John's could not advise if the flight would take off from Toronto and my dughter had to fly there to find out. In Toronto they would not confirm that the flight from Heathrow was on. Her ticket was purchased from SQ and the first stage from Toronto was a code-share with Air Canada. However, the Toronto desk advised the luggage could not be checked through to Changi.
This meant that she was expected to collect her bag, check out and then check in again through security and the time frame was about 2.5hours - not easy for a huge airport like Heathrow and now there were also thousands of people milling around.
I won't describe the colourful exchanges my daughter had with the airlines' counter staff.
Her flight from Toronto was the only one of four planned that left for Heathrow and when she arrived the bags also appeared like magic in double quick time. The service was extra fast as it was the only plane to be unloaded.
By then more information was being uploaded and when I checked for her arrival yesterday, there were 9 pages of fine print of all the arrivals and departures. According to the Airport CEO, they had been able to discuss and agree with airline chiefs on a realistic schedule of flights.
Although the flight SQ317 was delayed by about an hour, it was reassuring to see that it was on both SIA and Heathrow websites.
Thus that is how we are able to have a nice family reunion in Singapore this year. When my daughter in London told us of the horrific scenes at Heathrow, we thought that was the end of the holiday plans.
So as we gather to celebrate Christmas, I wish my Christian readers a Holy Christmas and a Happy New Year.
To all readers, please spend quality time with your loved ones and if you are driving, please take extra care on the roads.

Getting Malaysians to Register as Voters

I spent about 3 hours on Saturday as a volunter with the Johor People's Action Group to help voters register and change address.
It was an interesting experience and the first time I got involved with part of the electoral process.
What was even more interesting were the different responses as I approached adults with a multi-lingual placard with the query "Have you registered as a voter?"

Some folks responded , "Yes" and gave a friendly smile - a minority.
Some said "No" and just walked off.
Many were too busy and waved me away.
A few were Singaporeans and said so but a few also did not want to disclose they had come to shop in JB. Scared of being targetted?
The site was at Sutera Mall, a popular shopping centre for Singaporeans.

The work was a little tiring unless you limited your approach and became selective but my style was to approach anyone and everyone.
I managed to get 6 to 10 persons to the table where the registration process could be completed. Maybe I will also attend training to become a polling agent.
Let's see how it goes.
There was also a registration exercise by the SPR in Taman Daya's EconMart on Sunday (for double pay?) but the approach was so low-key I wonder how many people registered.
There was the standard sign informing shoppers but it was not easy to find the officials as they placed the table in such a position that most shoppers would not notice them and also the 3 middle-aged civil servants were all seated at the table and no one approached any of the shopers.
I guess that is the basic difference between work done by civil servants and that done by an NGO.
I wonder if the SPR offers any incentives to staff to register more voters or is it just based on time spent on the job?

Water Woes of Malaysia and Especially SELANGOR....

Water is a basic necessity for mankind and one wonders why the BN government colluded with the previous Selangor government to piratise the water distribution companies that are now burdened with debt and cannot even operate without soft loans guaranteed by the MoF.
In the good old days, water was a relatively simple operation. We build reservoirs or pump water from rivers and the CEO of the Selangor Water Board would have drawn perhaps RM15,000 per month plus other allowances.
Fastforward to 2010 and we discover that the CEO of SYABAS draws a monthly salary of RM425k per month. The figure looks unbelievable.....RM425k per month for ensuring that our copious rainwater is properly pumped through the pipes?
Even the Sultan of Selangor is urging the state and federal governments to work out their differences. I wonder what he thought of the truly fabulous deal the CEO had wrangled for himself.
So the people protested in KL and were subjected to the usual treatment of tear gas and water cannon and you can read the response of malaysiakini readers here.
To me the stance taken by Selangor is correct. Water should be controlled by the state with the Federal government playing a coordinating role only.
Even in Johor, the state also went into piratisation mode when the state's water resources were sold to a public company just 3 years after the IPO where they pledged they wanted water consumers to own part of the company. It was followed by the mandatory takeover of all shareholders. And Johor's water is about the most expensive in Malaysia.
I guess they want to recoup some of the losses from Malaysians after selling the water cheaply to Singapore.

Postal Rates Increase by 100% but Delivery SLOWS

Years ago, a letter posted in KL took 3 or 4 days to reach JB but ever since the increased use of ICT etc, performance has fallen dramatically.
Today I received a letter posted from Shah Alam on 22nd November. It took 8 days to reach its destination in JB.
Previously the letter would have cost RM0.30 but the stamp required is now RM0.60.
What are the problems facing PosMalaysia?
It seems using a carrier pigeon would be cheaper and faster.

News to MAR the Sultan of Johor's Birthday....

The timing of this malaysiakini article will put a small dent in the festivities associated with the Sultan's birthday celebrations.
It seems that the main hospital does not have enough funds to function properly.
Even if 50% of the letter were true, it is a major shame that the hospital that bears the royal name is short of funds.
Remember the other hospital in Tebrau that also carries the Johor royalty's name. That had a major fungal infection when it opened a few years ago.
The MB should be ordered to ensure that such hospitals are maintained at a certain high standard if they are to carry the name of our royalty. Otherwise the ordinary folks may feel that no one really bothers about their welfare.

Johor Baru's CIQ Sucks!

I wonder if any bus passenger using the JB RM2bil CIQ has any good words for it. I guess they don't expect us to compain when we have have to walk about 500metres to get a bus and maybe 900metres to go to City Square.
Obviously the architect or the Transport Minister has never walked through the CIQ.
Even when the CIQ was opened more than 9 months ago, bus passengers had to walk a further 500metres near the JB Railway Station to jostle for the buses that used to wait there or passengers. The main drop-off point with proper covered areas was only opened about 2 months ago.
The buses then started to drop off and pick up passengers just next to the covered area and even concrete benches were built so that passengers could sit and wait for the bus.
About 3 weeks ago, this changed and buses were allowed to drop off and pick up passengers under the covered area that is wide with 2 lanes for traffic. The only flaw is that the concrete benches are now facing the wrong side.
Then last week, things changed for the worse. Buses are only allowed to drop off passengers but cannot pick up.
Where do passengers have to wait? The answer is shocking. The new place to wait for the bus is under the pedestrian bridge between the CIQ and the Railway Station.
It seems the MBJB and the Transport Ministry cannot even organise a good systm for bus passengers.
After the imposing CIQ building, I wonder what a new visitor to Malaysia will think when he encounters our wacky bus stops. What a waste of money for the CIQ!

WARNING! Danger for Bus Passengers at the Singapore CIQ

Thousands of bus passengers use the Woodlands CIQ on the way to Johor.
This is what happened to one passenger yesterday.
I was on my way back to JB and had disembarked from the Johor-Singapore Express at about 11:15am.
There is a wide covered walkway for bus passengers leading to the escalators for Immigration clearance. Across the walkway is a small drain maybe 35mm deep and 60mm wide and this is covered with a perforated metal grating in sections about 70cm long just resting on the drain.
Yesterday I stepped on a cover, most likely at the end and the section lifted slightly causing an elderly lady to trip. I had already stepped off the cover but I heard the sound and just saw her falling forward.
Luckily she managed to use her arm to prevent her head from striking the ground but her spectacles flew off.
A few fellow passengers helped her get on her feet and fortunately she was not badly hurt and her specs were not damaged in the fall. I am sure she is feeling sore today. The plucky lady reassured us she was OK and thanked us for helping her and I apologised to her for the accident.
A duty policeman was approached and told of the incident. He advised that the danger of the gratings had already been reported and advised me to write an official complaint.
I would have expected that the officer in charge of public safety would have taken some safety measures to prevent a recurrence.
There are 2 ways to do this:
1.Remove the small drain completely with a small gradient on the floor to prevent ponding. This is the safest solution.
2.Secure each of the gratings with 2 conceaed/recessed rawl bolts.