Have I told you about the elevators? As soon as someone steps on someone else pushes the “close doors” button. Which is ironic because these are the fastest closing doors on elevators anywhere….just weird. It happens everywhere-not just in one place and not just one kind of person.
Dengue fever (transmitted by mosquitoes) is a problem here. There are fines for having breeding areas (meaning, I think, areas (such as still water in plant pots, etc.) in your house. The fine is normally $200, but hey may increase it as the outbreaks are getting worse. How they get into your house to figure out if you are at fault I do not know… if your construction site is cited you are fined $4,000 and the place is shut down until remediated. That must be pretty hard to get your construction site in accordance with not breeding mosquitoes, but apparently it works here.
Some group or organization did a huge survey on the “Service” ranking of all these different countries. Singapore scored a 67 out of 100. The U.S. was like 85 or so. In the newspaper there were all these people saying that they must have asked the tourists how the service was because tourists always give higher marks than the people who live here. I completely agree. I think if you come to the airport and take a bus or subway and go to your hotel and stay for a couple of days you cannot believe how English-speaking, clean, well ordered this place is. If you live here a bit longer and ask anyone in the store (or like the cheese thing I described before) they are generally clueless about their store, what they sell and they are happy to keep it that way. One guy told us a particular product was out of stock. He assumed it would be reordered, he assumed it would be in in a month….the next day I happened by and the product was on sale and in huge amounts of inventory. The guy I asked, by the way, was actually an expert in that area—not someone new or who came from another department. This is just indicative. McDonald’s has great service though. Beats the U.S. from my recollection of it there.
There is a big PR push regarding Houston. Singapore Airlines now has non-stop Singapore-Houston which is awesome for anyone who is tired of the LA or NYC airport gig. They make it sound like the finest city in the world with so many things to do and see! I do think it must be fantastic to see so many different things from here and the normal US cities, but they go a little far when they start selling the jazz of New Orleans and the sports teams in the Carolinas and the places to see in Colorado and Arizona…really that is how far they spread their marketing net—Houston can get you all those things---just like driving to Vietnam from here!!
Living in NYC for the last two years has made me believe that taxis generally want paying passengers and know the layout of the place where they are driving a cab. That is not the case here. I do think they like paying passengers, but cannot be bothered to look for someone flagging them down. Siena and I are passed by about 2 taxis per morning on average. She is incensed when it happens. When your 4 year old can figure out something is not right with the taxis then there really is something amiss. Also, they hesitate often when given an address. Not because it is some polite cultural thing, but because they honestly do not know where it is sometimes. This is not quite so good when I haven’t been there either. One time the cab driver got out his map, gave it to Leon and had Leon not only find the place and show him, but then keep holding the map to correct him (the taxi driver) when he couldn’t remember where to go. One guy (a different one) looked at the map Leon brought with him (to a pretty central mall, not to some unknown home) and could not understand why they drew the map the way they did (I think that south was south and all was generally as you would expect). I do not know how to interpret this—I’m just relaying the facts.
I saw a window display today of those cheesy cardboard fragrance things that hang from rear view mirrors. There were like 8 of them with hula girls and dragons—you know the kind of thing..and there was a very enthusiastic sign that said “Made in USA!”. Does the USA really make those things? I am not even sure what they are called to look online to see if that could be the case.
There was a story in the paper the other day (you know how I love this paper) about how the media rules were going to be changed because they have to keep up with the times. Now there is going to be a new rating system on games (computer ones) and now there will be a PG-17 equivalent as well as “adult” ratings, etc. Makes sense…there will now be more games allowed to be sold or owned here than before, but not all of them of course—even by adults with no criminal record—there are some games that are just too violent or out of the range of what the government can support that will just be illegal. Weird. Also, there will be some changes in what is allowed to be printed on the internet or in books, papers, etc. I could not get too much information from the story because, I guess, they are not really going to tell me what it is I am not allowed to have that presumably the rest of the world (in places like USA and France) gets to see and read….its something I will keep up with.
The last item of interest is that the Committee investigating the escape of Mas Salamat Kastari has given its report to the Parliament. If you have not followed this story you really owe it to yourself to do so. So, here is the way that the major terrorist escaped….he climbed out a window when he was in the bathroom at the high security prison!!!! It is a horribly embarrassing story for the government who really do not usually let those kinds of things happen—being too lenient on terrorists is not their MO, but basically they were lulled into complacency and believed their own hype too much. Here is the part I find most funny/ heartbreaking…When the guard outside the bathroom door thought it was taking too long he told the other guard (who was at the other end of the hall) who told the (female) special agent in charge. As she was a woman she told the guy who was to “assist” Kastari so that he could check on him—because it would be improper for a woman to go into the toilet with a man. Forget the fact that the other two guards were men—they were Gurkas and are not supposed to talk to prisoners at all so that they seem more fierce! Basically this guys had 11 minutes to escape. They reenacted what they think he did and it took 49 seconds….
http://www.straitstimes.com/Latest%2BNews/Singapore/STIStory_229575.html
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Friday, April 25, 2008
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