TR EMERITUS

Written by Our Correspondent An obviously peeved Singapore lady Ms Wong Kit Peng has written a letter to the Straits Times Forum today complaining about PRC bus drivers who "did not understand simple English and were ignorant of the routes they plied." She related two recent encounters with PRC bus drivers who were unable to comprehend her queries: "In the first case - SBS Transit service 151 - I asked if the bus stopped at National Junior College. The driver had difficulty with my query, even though I repeated the location a few times. The same thing happened on SMRT service 852, when I asked if the bus went to Selegie Road and Peace Centre," she wrote. Ms Wong wondered why SBS and SMRT are now hiring bus drivers with doubtful English language proficiencies and knowledge of the bus routes. She thought they are doing so to cut costs: "If bus companies have trouble hiring drivers, perhaps it is time to improve their pay. It is better to cut costs by, say, going green than hiring drivers who hurt service quality," she ended her letter. Ms Wong cannot be more wrong if she thinks that Singapore bus companies are recruiting PRC bus drivers because they are cheaper. According to a Sichuan newspaper, an unknown “big” Singapore bus company is currently mass recruiting prospective bus drivers from Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province, China. (read article here) The PRC applicants are offered annual salaries ranging between RMB90,000 and RMB120,000 (approximately $1,562 – $2,082 monthly taking S$1 = RMB4.80) and are also given free lodging, transport allowances and medical insurance coverage. The applicants must have a Chinese class “A” driver and three years of driving experience of public transport in China. With such attractive terms, it is highly unlikely that the company will encounter difficulties recruiting Singaporeans for the job. Are PRC nationals safer drivers than Singaporeans? Or are they more experienced? Perhaps the HR managers of SBS and SMRT should go to China and take their buses for a week and witness for themselves the "performance" of PRC bus drivers: [Photo: A PRC bus driver showing how he can "multi-task" in China] Due the PAP's liberal immigration and pro-China policies, large number of Chinese from mainland China have flocked to Singapore to work, study and live in recent years, many of whom are unable to speak a single word of English. Unlike other countries like Australia and Canada, foreigners do not have to pass a basic English proficiency test to work in Singapore which explains the large number of PRC bus drivers who do not understand or speak English. PAP strongman Lee Kuan Yew said in a recent interview with National Geographic magazine that it is a "good" thing that Singapore has welcomed so many Chinese immigrants (from mainland China) as they are more "hard-driving" and "hard-striving" than locals. When your correspondent took a bus driven by a PRC bus driver and half-filled with PRC nationals along Geylang road lately, he almost thought he was in some third-tier city of China. View photos of how PRC bus drivers drive on the road here   EDITORS’ NOTE: Please join our Facebook page here and invite your friends to do so as well.   Related articles: >> Singapore bus company mass recruiting PRC bus drivers from Chengdu  Read More →

Written by Our Correspondent Singapore has seen a spate of casino-related crimes committed mostly by foreigners since the Resorts World Sentosa casino was opened in February this year. The first crime was committed by an Indonesian who stole the handphone of a Singapore student after losing money at the casino. A month later, two Chinese nationals were fined $1,500 each for using someone else's credit at a jackpot machine. Last Saturday, three foreigners were arrested after being caught cheating at the roulette tables of Resorts World Sentosa's casino, the Straits Times reports today. They were a Spaniard and two French between the ages of 46 and 64 who almost made off with $13,400 in winnings. A police spokesman told the media: "Police do not tolerate any attempt by criminal elements to cheat and carry out criminal activities in the casinos and thereby affecting the safe gaming environment enjoyed by legitimate gamers." Resorts World Sentosa has become embroiled in a series of controversies since its opening. There were questions raised about the number of Singapore citizens it employed as visitors to its casino revealed that most of them are foreigners. RWS refused to make public the exact percentage of Singaporeans on its payroll except a vague statement that "70 percent" of its staff are "Singapore citizens and PRs." Two weeks ago, RWS's Universal Studios Singapore theme park’s main attraction has to be shut down indefinitely due to a technical glitch found in the Battlestar Galactica roller-coaster ride during an inspection. A series of concerts by celebrity singer Tom Jones scheduled at RWS were cancelled in the last-minute due to his purported ill-health. With Marina Sands casino due to open later this month, RWS will have to contend with a strong competitor in a limited gaming market. Not that all is going well with Las Vegas Sands either. The parent company was mired in debts and almost had to filed for bankruptcy in the midst of the global financial crisis last year. One of its "person in charge" of a VIP room in Sands Macau Cheung Chi-tai was implicated in a murder plot. According to testimony in previously undisclosed court transcripts obtained by Reuters, a witness identified Cheung as a leader of the Wo Hop To — one of the organized crime groups in the region known as triads. The sensational news made international headlines with Reuters, Washington Post and New York Times carrying the story last week. The two casinos are a brainchild of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong whose political fortunes may now hinge on how well the two perform in the coming months ahead.   EDITORS’ NOTE: Please join our Facebook page here and invite your friends to do so as well.   Related articles: >> High rollers, triads and a Las Vegas Giant >> Universal Studios' main attraction shut down >> Universal Studios Singapore courts 8 for lucky launch >> Freelance prostitutes spotted at RWS Sentosa >> Call on RWS to reveal exact number of Singapore citizens on its payroll  Read More →

 April 5, 2010 - 10:29AM AAP   The debate on Australia's population is more than an "old style immigration debate", the first federal minister for the issue says. Tony Burke was on Saturday appointed population minister, after Prime Minister Kevin Rudd succumbed to growing public pressure to better evaluate what numbers the nation can sustain. Over the next 12 months Mr Burke will develop a strategy to cope with a forecast 35.9 million people by 2050. He told ABC Radio on Monday the plan was not just about tweaking immigration levels, but would examine all areas of government and how population could be better spread into the regions. Immigration levels under the Rudd government had remained about the same as under the previous coalition government, so people should be "calm" about that part of the debate, he said. "This is not simply an old style immigration debate," Mr Burke said. "This is about people in the urban areas as well (those) who are seeing infrastructure pushed to capacity... it's about some areas of the country where there are employers desperately need more people." But others insist immigration is central to the exercise. Opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison told ABC Radio he doubted the government was up to the job, when it had been unable to control the growing population of Christmas Island asylum seekers. "The government has boxed itself into a corner of this big Australia notion that it's going to impose whether people like it or not," he said. Former NSW premier Bob Carr, who has been outspoken on the issue of population, said the government must cut skilled migration. Mr Carr told ABC Radio it added to the demand for labour and forced older workers out of the workforce. "The argument is not about the movement of people or the contribution that immigration makes to Australia," he said. "The argument is about the level of immigration, the rate of immigration... we've ramped it up to levels the Australian people aren't comfortable with." Australian Greens leader Bob Brown said skilled migrants could be better used in their home countries. "Skilled migrants, by the way, if left in their own countries, would help raise standards of living there," he told ABC TV on Monday. "We know that helps lead to a population decrease." © 2010 AAP Source: http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/population-debate-more-than-immigration-20100405-rm5r.html  Read More →