More signs of Singaporean ignorance of world affairs

I wrote the letter below to Straits Times Forum, to the journalist Wang Meng Meng himself, as well as posted in the STOMP forum.

The Singapore football team was due to have a World Cup qualifiers match against the Palestinians, but the latter failed to show up and Singapore won by a walkover. However, the response of the Singapore national team coach, Raddy Avramovic, “fuming” that he just got a “farcical” win apparently moved Wang Meng Meng to write an unsympathetic commentry about the game.

He claimed that a “simple phone call” would have avoided the whole farce, not a bit of journalistic work about the reasons and situation of the Palestinian team. The photo showing the Singaporean players celebrating further shows their ignorance about world affairs.

Shame on you, Wang Meng Meng, Raddy Avramovic and the Singapore football team.

“I refer to the article “A simple phone call could have prevented this farce” by Wang Meng Meng (ST, 29 Oct). In the article Wang Meng Meng said that the least the Palestinian football team could do was to make a phone call and prevent the walkover game against the Singapore team. He also bemoans the thousands of dollars that the Football Association Singapore (FAS) had to pay for the “farce”.

Wang Meng Meng either has no knowledge about the plight of Palestinians or is taking this opportunity to push an agenda. The Palestinians have strict restrictions to their movement imposed on them by Israel. Unless Wang Meng Meng has, as a journalist, uncovered the news that the Palestinian football team only needs to make a simple phone call to avoid the walkover, he is writing nothing but an opinion. I would suggest that the Straits Times send Wang Meng Meng on a reporting assignment to Palestine. To report, to us Singaporeans, on the conditions that the Palestinian football team is living and training under.

As a sports fan, I am ashamed of Wang Meng Meng’s lack of empathy for sportspeople around the world. Sportspeople would want to play and they want to win. No one wants to lose a game due to a walkover. There must be a very compelling reason why they would miss a match, and no, the reason was not to waste the FAS’ time and money. I am also ashamed of the Singapore football team for celebrating a walkover win. They should be trying to understand why fellow Palestinian footballers cannot attend a game they would love to play.”

Here is Wang Meng Meng’s reply after a few days. I still stand by the fact that his omission of any mention about the difficulties of the Palestinian team traveling definitely shows a bias. The replies in local forums to the issue also shows such partizanship.

“Hi, I appreciate your feedback.

I agree with you that the team have difficulties travelling as it is an Israel-occupied territory. But I would like to bring your attention to the fact that the majority of the Palestine team are overseas-based Palestinians. They play for clubs in other Middle Eastern countries like Bahrain and Qatar or are based in the Americas, like the US and Chile.

Also, the Palestine team played no less than 15 matches since the beginning of last year, none of which was held in Palestine. They had even travelled as far as Guangzhou, China, to play in an Asian Cup qualifier.

Palestine stood us up twice. Once after they were out of Asian Cup contention and now, after they had lost 4-0 in the first leg. I didn’t want to accuse them of gamesmanship. However, it would have been polite of them just to drop a line to say they are not coming, which would have prevented this whole mess.

Regards,
Wang Meng Meng
Correspondent, Sports Desk
The Straits Times, Singapore Press Holdings
mobile: (65) 9007-9585
tel: (65) 6319-5500
fax: (65) 6319-8287 ”

Bicycle stopping at traffic junctions

The traffic rules are quite simple and clear on where bicycles should stop at traffic junctions. Like all other road users, cyclist have to stop before the traffic crossing line.

This would be the typical area where cyclists stop when they are at road junctions, in the tiny space between the first car, and the kerb. Occasionally this space is being shared with motorcycles. This space can be dangerous for a variety of reasons.

Blind spot of large vehicles If the first vehicle is a large vehicle, the cyclist would be in its blindspot.

Cars turning left If the first vehicle is turning left, the driver might turning without checking the left side of his vehicle.

Impatient drivers Some cars might want to accelerate quickly off a junction, and because bicycles can be the fastest off the line, a careless impatient driver might drive dangerously close to the cyclist.

Lane width changes While there is space for both a bicycle and a car to share the lane on the near side, sometimes the far side is narrower and does not have enough room.

While it is illegal to do this, this is the position that I usually stop at when I am at a junction. Most traffic junctions in Singapore are large enough that my bicycle would not be a major hinderance to pedestrians crossing. The reasons are clear.

Visible Being right in front of all the vehicles, I am visible to them, whether they are large trucks, vehicles turning left or going straight.

In the way Stopping in the way of the vehicle behind means that they are forced to move off slower and hence does not attempt to share the lane with my bicycle. This means that I can cycle into a narrower lane road without worry of being muscled out.

Once again, I am just stating what I do. Readers need to assess their own road conditions, cycling habits and local driving culture, to decide for themselves the merits of my cycling style. Junction designs might vary from street to street, as well.

For junctions that have a left turning arrow during a red light, I prefer to stop on the right edge of the left lane. Especially if the first car in the junction has already signaled an intention to turn left. This means that I do not get in the way of the turning traffic.

Familiarity of your commuting route will help you cycle in a way to avoid dangerous situations and possible confrontations.

Left filter lane Many roads of short left filter lanes. These pose less risk to cyclists, as the amount of time the bicycle would be blocking left turning traffic is minimal. Some roads of particularly long left filter lanes, these are usually necessary in junctions that have heavy traffic.

The problem is impatience. Drivers who do not wish to wait for a bicycle to clear the entire filter lane would sometimes speed up and try to turn left in front of the bicycle. This is a very dangerous situation that occurs all too commonly. Drivers might find out too late that they have a very small room to make the turn. The resulting panicked decision might result in an accident.

Vehicles too close to the kerb Some vehicles like to stop very close to the kerb so that bicycles cannot make it to the front of the junction. This forces cyclists to stop inbetween vehicles. Buses and large lorries are particularly fond of this, even though the lanes are wide enough for them not to.

I have encountered a situation where I stopped behind a car, only for a car coming from the back to knock into my bicycle. The car was moving very slowly, and luckily, my wheel was not damaged. However, I realised how blind and assumptious drivers can be.

Some cyclists decide to cycle between cars to get to the front of the junction. This can pose a danger to crossing pedestrians. It is definitely not advisable to do this. The traffic lights can change while the bicyle is in an awkward position.

Wasting time is good for social interaction

Someone from an online game I play made a post in a game forum about how she had a hard time making friends on that particular online game.

The game in question is Guild Wars. Depending on one’s definitions, it is not quite a Mass Multiplayer Onlne Role Playing Game (MMORPG) of the traditional style. Most MMORPG have a contiguous world, players move from one place to another seamlessly, and can bump into other players anywhere in that world.

Guild Wars is almost entirely based on instancing. Instancing and instances are industry terms to describe how a seperate copy of a part of the world is created for the players to play in. So, players in Guild Wars form groups in towns, and they will go into a part of the world that is specifically generated for them. They will not bump into other people in their copy of that part of the world.

Managing the game in this instanced manner allowed Guild Wars not to charge a monthly subscription to maintain the servers. They make their profit by releasing new campaign worlds instead.

Without charging a subscription fee, Guild Wars is also freed from artificially creating time-sinks for their players. Subscription based games tend to waste the online time of their players, so they need to spend long hours getting things done, and hence, will play the game longer and pay for fees.

Part of that freeing up of time-sinks is that a player can teleport to anywhere in the gaming world he has been to before, without having to walk across entire game continents to get there.

I used to think that being able to travel instantly to anywhere in the game world, would be an asset to the social aspect of the game. If your friend needed help halfway across the game world, you can almost instantly go to his aid, as opposed to most games, which would require a 30 minute walk and ride to get there.

Another aspect of time savings that Guild Wars is able to attract players with is the fact that not many things need to be done repeatedly. Gamers refer to repeatedly doing a certain task in the game as grinding. Guild Wars has very little grinding compared to most subscription based MMORPG.

It also has a low level cap. Most games gauge progress with character levels. Most subscription based games keep players interested by forever dangling a carrot in front of them in the form of a high maximum level and game content playable only by higher level characters.

Guild Wars has a maximum level of 20 and it can be achievable in 2 weeks of casual playing. Everything before level 20 is considered the tutorial. Most of the game content is then catered to level 20 characters and the edge that people get is in their playing skills.

It all ends up being an attractive game package. Players pay for the game, and they are not burdened with a monthly subscription. They do not need to waste time traveling around, they have access to almost all of the game’s rich content quite quickly, and they are not forced to repeatedly go through certain game content in order to move onwards.

For some reason, the social aspect of Guild Wars is lacking, compared to other games. Players are not able to form lasting relationships as they are able to in other MMORPG. I had pondered about this and realised that all the aspects of Guild Wars that attracted me to the game, is also detrimental to the development of the social aspect of online gaming.

As I have mentioned above, being able to teleport to any part of the gaming world should be helpful for buiding relationships. The game architecture that allows this to happen is instancing. The downside of instancing is that when someone is asking for help, it is likely that all his friends are in an instance, halfway through doing something.

Players in other MMORPG are usually faced with time consuming rides in ships, flying beasts or walking, if they want to travel vast distances within the game. Many people hate this waste of time, and occupy themselves during this time chatting with their friends online.

Occasionally, if a player only has 15 or 30 minutes to spare in the game, the long travelling puts them off, and they end up sitting in town for that period of time chatting with other gamers. Paradoxically, the instancing aspect of Guild Wars allows players with only 15 minutes to spare to at least get small parts of the game done, doing a simple quest, or a single round of Player versus Player (PvP) battle.

Players for many games get stuck at a certain part of the game, because they are not able to defeat the monsters in the next area. They continuously train in a certain area of the game in order to level up and improve their characters for the next challenge. This grinding can sometimes be mind numbingly monotonous, and the players are denied access to the next part of the world because of their level.

However, if a player plays in a certain part of the game day in and day out, he will bump into others who share his predicament, people of the same level as him. After a while of repeatedly meeting, friendships can be formed. While they might part ways later on, they can continually compare their progress of the game with each other

Guild Wars players are freed from most grinding, on top of that, being in an instanced game, they need to spend very little time in the towns, and hence, is not likely to form relationships with other players in the same stage of the game as them.

Guild Wars characters are also freed from resupply needs, one less reason to hang around in towns.

All those aspects that make Guild Wars more efficient, in terms of giving players more playing time, and less wasted time, also reduces the time and opportunities for players to interact with others.

It should have been so clear to me, because thats the way it is in the world. Social interactions happen when you are not efficient, when you are on a bus, when you are eating and when you are sitting around not working.

Most MMORPG gamers out there pay $5 – $15 a month and spend a fair chunk of their gaming time sitting around chatting. Guild Wars players do the complete opposite.

Dumbledore is Gay.

Its in the headlines. It came out of the horse’s mouth, so to speak.

Everyone has an opinion. J.K. Rowling is just stirring this controversy to inject life to her fading franchise. Whether kids growing up these days need any more sexual ambiguity and confusion than they already have. J.K. Rowling is the next flag bearer for the homosexual cause.

Some of us knew it all along, maybe because our gay-dar is never wrong. Maybe because Gandalf is gay too. (Incidentally, so is Gimli, Legolas, and those four hobbits.)

Well, who cares? Dumbledore is clearly on the wrong side of 70. He is a Wizard, he could jolly well be on the wrong side of 1070. Whether his prune has no juice, his wand still has a spark or two in it or if magical staff is long and strong, I would not be interested.

I am not homophobic, I work in the “creative industry” where I am exposed to a fair share of inclinations. My view is this, if I am not interested in him personally, I do not particularly care who he consorts with.

Of course, this news comes at the same time that Singapore is having a heated debate about repealing Sections 377 and 377A of the penal code, which criminalises homosexual acts.

Singapore has a policy of not stirring up the hornet’s nest of the religious community’s ire. So the government is sending out the mixed message that they would turn a blind eye to what happens beneath the sheets, while not removing the offending law.

Enjoy the next whole week of discussions, J.K. Rowling.

Cycling distance from the kerb (curb)

Anyone who has ever cycled on a road, anywhere on Earth (except where there are no kerbs), would have had to make this decision. How far should I cycle from the kerb?

This is a contentious issue, even my cycling buddies cannot agree on it. Of course, every metre on the road is different from the last metre, and sometimes there would seem to be as many exceptions as there are rules.

I am stating down what I do. I am not suggesting that anyone follow suit. Judge what I am saying here based on your own experiences, preference, and confidence (in one’s own cycling, as well as in other road users), and decide on your own how you want to cycle.

The prescibed method of cycling on Singapore, as put out by the Traffic Police, is to on the left side of the road, as much as possible, so as not to be a hinderance to faster moving traffic.

There is a room for intepretation here, because obviously the rules do not intend that one cycles on the left as much as physically possible, like 1 cm away from the kerb, only to bump up and down on drainage holes.

I’ve put two examples the common types of kerb-side drainage used in Singapore below. These essentially mean that the left-most 20cm to 30cm are obvious no-go areas for a bicycle. You risk getting your tyre trapped in the grills of the drain cover.

So its not as far left as physically possible, so it has to be as far left as one deems safe to ride. Of course, one’s intepretation of what is safe, might be very different from that of the Traffic Police.

Most road cyclists like to cycle on the double yellow line zone of the road. My problem with this zone is that the bicycle is partially on the car lane, but not enough to force drivers to filter out to overtake the cyclist. Inevitably, drivers will try to share the lane with the cyclist, and occasionally come dangerously close.

This is a drawing of how far from the kerb I usually like to cycle. This is where I deem to be a safe distance from the left kerb, and I will explain why.

Visible By being directly in front of the cars, I force drivers to pay attention to me. I will not be mistaken for kerb-side or pavement clutter.

Force cars to overtake I am occupying 30% to 40% of the road lane, and it will be absolutely clear to drivers that they have no space to share the lane with me. They have to filter out and overtake me, or stay behind me if the traffic conditions do not allow.

Room to maneuvre I have a full bicycle-width of space on my left to maneuvre to if I need to, especially in an emergency.

Time to react The more space I am from the kerb, the more time I have to react to situations on my left. Cars opening their doors, people crossing the road, or items spilling onto the road.

Of course, I do not, and cannot always adhere to this riding position. I usually move to the left on narrow roads or in heavy slow traffic.

R.I.P. Bob Denard

R.I.P. Bob Denard (April 7, 1929 – October 13, 2007)

We’ve all enjoyed action films about mercenaries, spies and secret agents. Bob Denard was the real deal. He has led numerous coups and revolutions in many countries over a 30 year span.

He is of questionable character, but there’s no question that he is a character.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Denard

Happy Hari Raya

I would like to wish all our Muslim friends a happy Hari Raya Adilfitri. I was quite literally woken up today by the prayers of the Imam at the mosque not 200m away, but I do not mind that, once a year. It should be a wonderful day of celebration, and great food.

I was chatting with one of my Malay friend in reservist about Ramadan and fasting, and he said that every evening, after the breaking of the fast, the first thing he thinks about is a cigarette, not food or water. He is also fully aware that if he can “quit” smoking for the daylight duration of one month a year, he should be able to quit completely. Oh well.

Religious celebrations in Singapore almost inevitably leads to illegal parking around places of worship. They not just around Mosques on Fridays, they are around Churches on Sundays, and Temples on the 15th and the end of the lunar months.

I am quite sure that many non-Malays have, at some point in time, attributed the reason why Muslim drivers do not get parking tickets when illegal parking near Mosque, to the fact that the majority of Traffic Police and parking attendants are Malay.

The preference by different communities to different types of jobs is one stereotype that very strong in Singapore. I am quite sure that perhaps in the past, it might very well be true that most Traffic Police and parking attendants are Malay. I do not think that they have that large a majority now, especially in view of the privatisation of parking attendants.

Even if it was true that the majority of the people on the ground in those Traffic departments are Malay, it is more than likely, in Singapore’s unique social pact, that the people in charged on top, are Chinese.

I personally do not feel that racial bias is the reason, otherwise you’ll see Traffic Police and parking attendants diligently giving parking tickets to Church and Temple goers. The main reason is, of course, racial harmony. I see the result of this when I am attending a funeral in the void deck of a HDB estate. The parking attendants do not issue tickets to cars parked there during this sensitive period.

For all the value of racial harmony, it still does not solve the traffic conjestion problem around places of worship. There is a Catholic Church at the end of my friend’s street, and on Sundays, he has difficulty driving out of his own house. I also have a friend living just behind Bright Hill Temple, I sympathise with his traffic condition during Qing Ming.

It is quite a simple legislation issue, right? Put the onus on the organisation, to survey on how many visitors and cars they are expecting, and provide the adequate parking space. Shopping malls and convention centres spend millions of dollars to build adequate parking for their customers. Why should other organisations not do the same?

This is probably too big a burden for smaller places of worship to handle. While there are Mega-Churches, and huge Temples and Mosques that go some way to providing parking, most places of worship are small. Many historical ones are in the city, where few can afford to build parking.

I have realised who would suffer the most if the government implemented a policy putting the onus on organisations to provide adequate parking for their visitors. It would be the myriad of government agencies themselves. While we only see a traffic issue with places of worship on specific days of the week, many government agencies have inadequate parking on a daily basis.

Enjoy the holiday and celebrations, be careful when crossing the road between two parked cars.

Singapore Cyclist: Road Cyclists

As far back as I can remember, my grandfather road a bicycle, and he rode it on the road. So it was not hard for me to equate riding a bicycle with riding on the road. You can see the results of my refurbishment of my grandfather’s bicycle here. Unfortunately, he passed away before he had a chance to see the finished result.

Having grown up living on the East Coast, I was no stranger to riding bicycles, many of my friends own them. My traumatic childhood memories include two bicycle crashes at the East Coast Park.

I picked up riding again during my Polytechnic days, when my Polytechnic moved within a 25 min ride from my house. This was compared to an hour’s bus-ride to get to the same place. After that, I had stopped again, only to start cycling in the last few years when my work-place was a 15-20 min commute away.

Road Cyclists
Let us now look at the guys who are riding bicycles legally. There are two broad groups of cyclists on the roads. I think a simple way to separate them is by their cruising speeds. One group cycles at less than 20km/h and the other tends to cycle more than that.

Of course, the disclaimer from the previous post is relevant here too, there are many individuals and groups that move and and out of the categories that I place them in.

Less than 20km/h
Elderly and low-wage foreigners make up the bulk of cyclists on the road. They do so because it is the most convenient or affordable mode of transport. Many ride on poorly maintained bicycles and do not wear helmets. They are joined by some housewives, domestic helpers and children who are confident to ride longer distances on the roads.

Many elderly cyclists have been doing so all their lives. In their youth, their bicycle was their only mode of transport. Back in the day, bicycles carried Singaporean all over the country. My grandfather used to ride from Bendemeer to Naval Base every single day on his 20kg+ bicycle. Nowadays, most people confine their cycling to East Coast or Bishan Park and places like that.

These elderly cyclist have seen the number of cars on the road grow by a thousandfold during their lifetime of cycling. And now, in their autumn years, they face a real risk of getting into traffic accidents.

Low-wage foreign workers cycle for the same exact reasons as our forebears in the past. You will see hundreds of cheap bicycles parked near workers’ dormitories around Singapore. And workers contracted for street cleaning are often seen moving from work site to work site in their bicycles that have brooms and pails attached. My friends and I gave them a nickname: Harry Potters. Mentally erase the bicycle, and you can imagine them gliding through the air on their brooms.

They are most common target for drivers’ frustration with cyclists. I see part of it as a lack of understanding between drivers and this group of cyclist. I feel that the problem is largely the lack of respect for cyclists on the road, as well as impatience of the drivers. Having said that, this group of cyclists have a higher tendency to cycle unpredictably. They swap between pavements and the road, and use pedestrian crossings to save time, sometimes in quite dangerous fashions.

Being the largest group of cyclists on the road, they are also involved in most of the traffic accidents. Regardless of whose fault these accidents are, they would be the ones that suffer disproportionately. When an old man or a low-wage foreign worker ends up in hospital, issuing him with a $20 traffic fine seems the least important thing then. That is, if they survived the accident in the first place.

More than 20km/h
This group is probably the most “serious” cyclists around. They cycle primarily for the exercise. They tend to have well maintained bicycles, wear proper cycling clothes, helmets, and have proper warning lights and reflectors.

Our scorching weather lead most of these cyclists to cycle in the wee hours of the mornings, at night, or during the weekends. Changi Coast Road, West Coast Road, and Lim Chu Kang are common routes that are taken. There are precious few long stretches of roads that have few traffic junctions in Singapore.

Most of these serious cyclists are young or working aged, although it is nice to occasionally see elderly couples cycling together. Some are training for cycling, biathelon and triathelon competitions.

Some have extended this passion of cycling to use it as a primary mode of transport. As confident riders, their riding pattern tends to be predictable, so they can avoid some accidents like that. It is hard to find much fault with these cyclists, who embody the virtues of a green mode of transport, as well as regular exercise, even if they sometimes break the odd traffic rule for convenience.

They are few and far between, however. Even if the road conditions permit, Singapore’s working environment would discourage most people to get to work in tights and dripping with sweat. Most people I know who commute to work are those that have ready shower facilities at their workplace. Gym instructors, and people who have their own shops, etc.

There have been a few bicycle parking facilities opened in town, that let the riders take a shower before heading to work. Hopefully they lead to more bicycle commuting.

Everyone is guilty of something
I have highlighted why the authorities have had to tread carefully with enforcements of traffic rules with various groups of cyclists. Pedestrians and drivers might find this an unfair situation.

But pedestrians and drivers have to look at themselves first. How many pedestrians can raise their hand and say that they have never jaywalked? How many drivers never exceed the speed limit?

We ignore these rules sometimes because we feel that we are in control of the situation, and that no one would be at risk with our actions. What would they feel if the law came down hard on them every time they made an infraction?

Singapore Cyclist: Pavement Cyclists

I commute to work almost everyday on a bicycle. No, I am not a fitness freak, my little spare tyre would attest to that. I cycle mainly because my workplace is not very far from my home. It is faster for me to cycle than to take a bus to work.

Of course, getting those 15-30min exercise a day is also a consideration. Another reason that allow me to do so is that I seldom have to dress up nicely to meet customers, being largely a backroom guy. I do not particularly ride very fast, about 25-28km/h, on the road.

To all the drivers reading this, I also drive a car. I would say that my weekly distance covered by my car usage, and bicycle usage is about the same. I use the family car when I am making longer trips on weekends, and use the bicycle for shorter trips in my neighbourhood. Public transport and taxis are my favourite choices for going to town, it is a nightmare looking for parking in town usually.

This article is not for cyclists in Singapore, you know who you are already. It is for non-cyclists: pedestrians who dislike cyclists on the pavements, and drivers who dislike cyclists on the roads. Hopefully some will change their minds and have more patience with cyclists.

A few facts that need to be established.

1) Cyclists have as much rights to use the roads in Singapore as the driver who pays the highest road tax. They are governed by the following rules of the Road Traffic Act.

Road Traffic (Bicycles) Rules of 25 November 1955
Road Traffic (Bicycle Crossing) Rules
Rule 11(1) of the Road Traffic (Expressway Traffic) Rules

2) It is a traffic offense to ride a bicycle on a pavement. That is covered by Rule 28 of the Road Traffic Rules, enacted in 1981.

Disclaimer:
These are broad generalizations. There will inevitably be groups that are missed out, and there will definitely be exceptions. In fact, many cyclists may weave in and out of different groups, or straddle several groups at the same time.

Pavement Cyclists
I personally feel that it is more dangerous to cycle on the pavements than roads in Singapore. I almost never cycle on them if I can help it. Singapore pavements are narrow, with a lot of obstructions like road exits, rubbish bins, lamp posts and trees in the way.

However, I recognise that the vast majority of regular cyclists in Singapore only cycle on pavements. Most of them are forced to cycle on the pavement, driven by transport costs and inconvenience.

They are all breaking the law, but there is little the policy makers can do about it but educate them to cycle safely.

Child Transport
Stand outside any neighbourhood Primary school in the mornings, and you will see many of these cyclists. Lets think about this group: HDB dwelling parents, grandparents and domestic helpers ferrying children to neighbourhood schools just down the road from their homes.

Some of these children sit on properly designed child-seats, but most just sit on illegal modified cushions on the rear rack or the top tube. Students too, ride their own bicycles to school. Almost every single one of these cyclists use the pavement and break the law on a daily basis.

The problem here is that most of these cyclists are either new or poor cyclists. It would be dangerous, and unreasonable to ask them to share the roads with impatient drivers in the morning and evening rush hour.

Most Singaporeans who live in HDB estates would recognise and identify with this group very closely. Our neighbours and even our own family members number among them. Generally, this group of cyclists would not use the bicycle if it was not for the need to ferry children to school.

For most children going to neighbourhood schools, the distance is too near to justify the costs of a school bus, but too far to walk carrying their humongous school bags. Cycling on the pavement is the best way for these children to get to school. They tend not to be a problem for other pavement users because their timing is quite fixed, and they are quite predictable.

While highly paid politicians are not likely to need to ferry their children to school on a bicycle, they would certainly feel the pain if the law was enforced on this group of cyclist. A large portion of the voter population have family that will be affected.

HDB Commuter
The coverage of the LRT is very limited, and feeder buses run quite infrequently. The best means of commuting within one’s HDB estate, is to ride a bicycle. Look outside the MRT station of any HDB estate, and you will see hundreds of bicycles parked there by commuters.

Majority of these cyclists are housewives, children, elderly, domestic helpers and low-wage foreigners. Even people who would usually use public transport, taxis or a car, will sometimes ride a bicycle around their neighbourhoods. It is relaxing, casual, convenient but illegal, as most of these cyclists use pavements.

The problem with this group is that they are not predictable. Their routes might take them across traffic junctions, roads, pavements and shopping areas. They are also out and about for the whole day, as opposed to just before and after school. They may also be unfamiliar with the route and traffic conditions. The route would look different whether you’re on a bicycle, a car or on foot.

Some legitimate complaints have been leveled on this group of cyclists by pedestrians, their unpredictability means they are more risk to pedestrians, as well as themselves. Similar to the previous group, these riders are usually not equipped to share the roads with car traffic.

Foreigner workers are often targeted for indirect racism/nationalism because many of them are low-wage and have no choice but to use bicycles for transport.

Street Culture
This group of pavement cyclists is completely different from the above. They do not ride on the pavements because they are unable to safely ride on the roads, they do so on purpose.

There are many sub-groups and cycling sub-cultures that do this. Most of them enjoy doing stunts on their bicycles and use street terrain as their obstacles. The target of ire from pedestrians, I think this group can be tolerated if pedestrians are aware of their behaviour.

Once pedestrians are aware of the usual spaces where this group likes to hang out and practise their stunts, they can avoid these areas or exercise more caution when passing them. Of course, these cyclists should take care not to endanger other pavement users, especially when riding to and from their “playground”.

The good thing is that this group is very small, and the areas they affect is small and predictable. They might be a nuisance to residents in the area, but they mean no harm to anyone.

What to do?
It is a bad idea to enforce the traffic rules against all these pavement cyclists, but throwing our collective hands up is not the answer either. I can only see education as the only way forward. I believe that all children in Singapore should learn how to swim and ride a bicycle, for their own benefit.

Since it is only legal to ride bicycles on the road and at specific parks, I would advocate that children learn to ride bicycles in that context. Pavements in Singapore are dire to ride on.

I also feel that there is a lot of scope for improving the training of drivers. Drivers should specifically be taught that cyclists have a right to use the roads. They should also be taught various scenarios on how to handle their vehicles when a cyclist or a motorcyclists is on the road with them.

If a driver knew that his own child is currently out there on some road riding a bicycle, maybe he will be more patient towards other cyclists.

Myanmar

Lets start with something current: Burma or Myanmar

A random stranger sent me an email today asking me to sign a petition to put pressure on the Burmese government, and their ally China, to change their oppressive path.

I will refuse to sign this petition for the sole reason* that I do not feel that the Burmese situation should be used as a stick to beat China with.

* Another reason is that I refuse to click on a link from a random stranger’s email.

Some quarters in the West, are using this as another excuse to browbeat China, to the extent of suggesting a boycott of the Olympics over this issue. Taiwan is also making a big deal out of this situation to score political points over China. A distraction from the disgrace of them missing out on the route of the Olympic torch.

Just because most of the world feels completely impotent when dealing with the Burmese military government, does not make it right for them to punish those people who do have some leverage with the junta. They should reflect on their historical role, and past conduct on why the situation has gotten to this stage.

Yes, China should be putting pressure on the Burmese junta. I am quite sure a quiet word behind the scenes with China would do much more than this desperate diplomacy. They are more likely to anger certain people and get no results out of it.

China might yet be a major part of an eventual solution by offering the Burmese military leaders a place to exile to after a transition to democracy.

On a related note, it is heartening to see Roman-Catholics in the Philippines, and Muslims in Indonesia protest at their respective Burmese embassies against the crackdown on the Buddhist monks and population.

The Filipinos liken it to their people’s revolution that brought down Marcos, likening Aung San Suu Kyi to Corazon Aquino. Perhaps if the Burmese student’s protests in 1988 had succeeded, the parallels would be closer.

I can respect Aung San Suu Kyi for the fact that she withstood the military junta for all these years and did not succumb to being their tool. However, I am not sure whether any of her decisions and actions have actually helped the Burmese peoples’ cause.

What about Singapore? The Singapore Government have put themselves forward more than usually to support the UN Envoy Ibrahim Gambari’s mission to Burma. A distinct difference from their usual stance towards ASEAN members.

What of the people? No protest at all. A handful of petitions going round, most notably a politically motivated one by opposition politician Dr. Chee Soon Juan. Not a sound from any notable Buddhist leaders.

The local laws controlling protests have successfully ingrained in us an aversion to even protesting for a foreign good cause, inline with the Government’s stance, at that.

Is it that most Singaporeans are politically ignorant? Quite likely. Are we politically apathetic? Almost certainly. Have we gotten used to the idea that force is a tool to suppress protests? Do we feel that governments are too strong to be toppled by protests?

I am interested to know is whether Singaporeans feel that the Burmese monks and protesters are fools to even think they can stand up to a military junta. That would really reflect on us, as a population.