McDonald's apologized

McDonald's made a really stupid decision and upset many chinese when they decided to exclude the pig from their 12 horoscope doraemon toy collection. For once in the entire chinese horoscope history, there's only 11 characters. The reason for the exclusion is so as not to offend the muslim community in Singapore. About 75% of the nearly 5 mil population in Singapore is chinese. I really admire McDonald's stand in risking that 75% to uphold racial harmony. I guess toy shops should stop selling Porky Pig (in Looney Tunes) coz muslim children might walk into the shops. And The Simpson movie should be banned from Singapore (at the time it was showing) because of the Spider Pig song.

Frankly, I don't really think this is McDonald's fault as an organisation. It should be the fault of some drunk executives trying their luck to see if they would get sack for helping McDonald's lower their profit by coming up with weird and ridiculous ideas.

Singapore, as a nation, took alot of efforts in building racial harmony. It is not an uncommon sight to see children of different races playing together at the playground or neighbours of different races chatting at the void deck. We have come a long way. So what make them think that putting a pig toy in a combo meal toy collection would spoil that? I seriously have no answer except for the drunk executives. Or maybe....it's a promotional gimmick! If that's the case...it has backfired!

My suggestion...take a survey and see the response. It might not be what they think it is. Let consumer speaks for themselves

Taxi stand trio

Handy Road (Dhoby Ghaut) is not a very long road. Infact, it is one of the shortest roads with the most taxi stands squeezed in it. There is a taxi stand at The Atrium@Orchard, Plaza Singapore and The Luxe (near Cathay). What's amazing is that The Atrium is only about 5m from Plaza Singapura (you can even see the Atrium taxi stand while standing at the one in Plaza Singapura). I don't quite see the rationale. Can't the people from The Atrium walk over to Plaza Singapura? It's quite irritating when you are in a super long queue with your full trolley of groceries and then noticed that taxis are stopping at the Atrium for passengers who hasn't waited even a minute.

Actually, I have a better plan. Since they already have so 3 taxi stands on one short road, they should make the most of it. Yep! Have more. One more at Nomu and one more at The Cathay...And then maybe register for Guinness World Records.

ERP, our way of life

Nope, I am not talking about Enterprise Resource Planning. I'm talking about Electronic Road Pricing here. The Land Transport Authority has announced that there will be 4 new gantries in the following places: Marina Way (an exit road from the Ayer Rajah Expressway); Marina Station Road (near the new MRT station); and two on either direction of the new three-lane dual-carriageway Bay Bridge that links the new business and entertainment hub to Raffles Avenue. This brings the total number of gantries to a whopping 36 on this tiny little island. Yes, presenting...the crowding effect.

Map from Singapore Land Authority

In time to come, we will not be known as the little red dot. There will be a global rebranding and we'll be known as the little blue dot thanks to all the ERP gantries.

More gantries might be erected in high human traffic areas like the followings:


So the next time you step out of your house, remember to check if your Ezylink card has sufficient funds. A system will be installed in every household where you are able to check balance. Insufficient balance might result in traffic police summons.