Eating my way through Ho Chi Minh City Part 2

Typical. Our host left us for one day and we ended up eating lunch at Pho 24, a restaurant chain that adopts the semi-fast food model like Thai Express but not quite there yet. They are all over the place in HCMC and there is two in Singapore, one at Millenia Walk. March and April are the hottest months in Vietnam and Pho 24 was air-conditioned, enough said.

Quan So 9

Address: 9 Cong Tuong Lam Son, District 1; Telephone: 3823 4735

Genre: Mixed cooked food. Zhi Cha store.

At the heart of the Ho Chi Minh City tourist area of Lam Son Square, is this humble little local Zhi Cha store.

Typical of Vietnamese diet, the majority of the meat dishes are are based around pork. We ordered a variety of dishes, from barbeque pork ribs, to braised pork skin (Sa Zham Bah). There was a fried fish cake dish that was quite unique and very tasty.The greens were deliciously cooked too.

All the dishes are marinated in their local fish sauce so the taste might not be what we are familiar with. The pork soup had an odd fishy taste that did not sit very well with most of us, but other than that, the rest of the food very much suited the Singaporean palate. A cheap and tasty meal in the heart of HCMC.

Nam Loi

Address: 43 Ton That Dam, District 1

Genre: Rice noodle with chicken and fish.

Our host dragged half way across District 1 for what he promised was breakfast that will make us cry. We did not react quite so dramatically but nevertheless this is an excellent breakfast place that warms the heart and gullet.

Situated on Ton That Dam but not on the same side as the more famous local street market. This short stretch of Ton That Dam is across the main thoroughfare of Ham Nghi. They have strange opening hours, closing between 12 noon and 2pm, which most people would consider peak lunch hour. It is a Chinese owned family restaurant (the family resemblence is there), and you can order in Cantonese. The menu is simple, rice noodles (kway teow) or yellow wheat noodles in a light soup. Into this you can add chicken strips and/or ultra thin slices of fish. We opted for both.

The chicken and fish is served seperate from the soup noodles, and hot soup is added to the chicken and fish before it is poured into the noodles before your eyes. The reason is not to overcook the chicken or fish.

Accompanying these are little pastries. The pastry tastes like Soon Kway in a French pastry crust. We ate the pastry while waiting for the noodles, but as I had witnessed an elderly gentleman, the pastry is meant to be dipped into the soup. I gave that a try and the result was incredible. The soup softened the pastry crust and melded the taste of the filling the crust together. It made the pastry tastier than before.

The soup noodle was slightly fish, but it was very light and we polished it away quickly. It was a simple and tasty breakfast food. To top it off, they serve handmade soya bean milk that has a lovely texture and quite concentrated.

Hung Ky

Address: 20 Le Anh Xuan, Ben Thanh Ward, District 1; Telephone: 8222673

Genre: Chinese claypot rice and dishes.

Hung Ky appears to have 7 branches all over Ho Chi Minh City. The one we went to is near Ben Thanh market and opposite New World Hotel, an area full of motorcycle shops.

Their claypot rice is not full of dark soya sauce like we like it in Singapore, but nevertheless, is quite tasty. This is one of the rare occasions where we had chicken. The soup is typical of chinese soups, a mix of meats and vegetables, nothing we would be unfamiliar with.

However, special mention has to be made for the claypot brinjal (eggplant) dish. It is cooked to a mush in a thick sauce with mince pork, and it was a real delight. Brinjal is not everyone\’s cup of tea, but the way they have prepared this is really awesome and a must-try.

Lau De 304

Address: 304 Le Van Sy, Ward 1, Tan Binh District; Telephone 3991 6890

Genre: Barbeque Goat and Goat Hotpot

Lau De is a growing business. It sits on Le Van Sy, a popular local shopping street, and it has overtaken three shop units in the immediate area, and is still full and busy. Some signages are in Korean, but the clientele was decidedly local.

We had anticipated eating this meal ever since one of our hosts mentioned that he would be taking us to eat \”Barbequed Goat Breasts\”. Just as Singaporeans drag their expatriate friends to eat Chilli Crab or Durian shortly after they touchdown, in HCMC, the locals take them to eat Goat Breasts. They barbeque the tissue from goat udders and goat meat over a charcoal fire or hotplate. The goat udders are quite different and amazing. It is very tender and slightly springy, a very different texture to the barbequed goat meat. We ended up polishing away three plates of the stuff, which was meant to be the starter.

The main course is a hotpot of goat meat, lotus roots, and Dao Ki (made form soya bean). Into this can be added vegetables, noodles and tofu, steamboat style. There was a pretty hostest plying us with beer and making small talk. A very hearty and delicious meal. Quite a meaty contrast to the \”grass\” we ate when we first arrived.

Xu Restaurant Lounge

Address: 71-75 Hai Ba Trung, District 1; Telephone: 84 8 3824 8468

Genre: Fine dining upstairs, Wine bar downstairs.

One of our hosts decided to take us bar hopping on our final evening in HCMC, and it started at Xu bar.

With its beautiful interior, Xu bar could be in any capital city in the world. What makes Xu special is the easy listening Jazz performances that gets its clientele up and dancing. They serve a nice Mojito too, although the house wine was not up to my friends\’ standards.

But what truly would bring me back to Xu bar is its Warm Chocolate Cake. Served with a scoop of Vanilla ice cream, the Warm Chocolate Cake breaks open to reveal a molten pool of chocolate. Mixing this hot chocolate with the cold ice cream, the sweetness of chocolate and the fragrance of vanilla, the various ingredients take the edge off the others and the result is simply divine.

Oc Gai

Address: 82-84 Hung Vuong, Ward 1, District 10; Telephone: 0903-993101

Genre: Shellfish and snails

This was our last supper in HCMC, and what a treat it was. A wide variety of shellfish and snails. Stir fried in tamarind and chillis. Spongy, springy, gooey and tasty. This is an al fresco establishment, where you sit on low plastic chairs.

The clientele include locals of all walks of life, including ladies of the night and their boyfriends for the evening. It is both a feast for the eyes as well as the mouth.

And so ends my eating tour of Ho Chi Minh City. I have also eaten quite a few times at roadside stores serving barbeque pork and noodle soup. There is not as much variety in Vietnam than we are used to in Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand, but the food suits our Singaporean and Chinese palate.

The Vietnamese love pork, so our Muslim friends might have a hard time eating through the country. Another issue I have with Vietnamese food is their love for monosodium glutamate. Ajinomoto makes a lot of money in Vietnam. Try not to drink too much soup from roadside stores, although many of the Chinese run places serve tasty soup that uses very little MSG.

Beware of the orange chilli slices that they place so casually in a dish in many eateries. Those orange chilli slices would embarrass our local chilli padi. I can see myself returning again to Ho Chi Minh City to continue my gastronomical tour. I hope my hosts have found more places by then.

Eating my way through Ho Chi Minh City Part 1

I was lucky enough to be hosted by two friends in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) and have many wonderful eateries recommended to me by their Vietnamese friends and themselves.

The eateries here will not be on any guide books, many are tucked away, and some are very much off the beaten track. They are all good food, recognised by locals and foreigners alike, give them a try when you find yourself in the neighbourhood.

If I was a professional food critic, I would furnish you with the Vietnamese names for the dishes so you could order it on your own, but alas, I am but a tourist pampered by my hosts.

Hoang Ty

Address: 106 Cao Thang, Ward 4, District 3; Telephone: 08.3833 2077

Genre: Traditional Vietnamese hand rolls and noodle soup

The first place my host, and his Vietnamese friend brought us for dinner on our first night was Hoang Ty, they said we were going to “eat grass”. As a card carrying Meatitarian, I put my palate in their hands and went on the ride.

Hoang Ty is a local eatery, I do not think they are used to serving tourists. The tile and concrete floor are greasy and slippery in parts. The tables are stainless steel, and the plates are melamine.

What struck me first was the trays piled high with greens. They were all fresh green herbs, my hosts explained. Plucking the fresh leaves off and taking a chew, they were a large variety (maybe 8 different) of fragrant herbs. The sort traditional Asian cooking would throw into soups or chop up to garnish meats.

Next came  rice paper wraps. The rice paper wraps are similar to the Po Piah skins that we get in Singapore. Apparently the secret to Hoang Ty’s rice paper wraps is that they are left to absorb the morning dew to moisten them. Romantic until you remember that HCMC is home to millions of motorcycles.

Boiling is not exactly what I would consider the most delicious way to prepare pork, but it is one of the most common ways they do it in Vietnam. The pork is boiled until it is white and sliced very thin.

In true Po Piah style, we had to prepare the food ourselves. Placing a slice of boiled pork on our rice paper wrap we proceed to add a little cooked rice noodle, as many herbs as one wishes and to wrap it all up into a hand roll. This is dipped into a condiment of fish sauce and chilli.

As I was about to discover about Vietnamese food, the first impression was underwelming, I thought that the handroll was slightly on the bland side, despite the myriad of herbal tastes. Being used to Thai, Malay, Indonesian and S.E. Asian Chinese food, I had expected an assault of my senses.

However, as the evening went on, and my palate started to get coated by the grease of the pork and the chewed herbs, the hand rolls started getting tastier and tastier. It was not oily or heavy, the boiled pork tasted sweet and the herbs were refreshing.

The meal was completed by a bowl of pork noodle soup. The noodles were the white rice noodles we would call Kway Teow, and the pork was boiled. This looked more like normal food. The soup however, tasted amazing. It is prepared by double boiling pork bones.

It was a tentative start to my gastronomical tour of Ho Chi Minh City, my view is perhaps jaundiced by my Meatitarianism, but in retrospect, it was a unique tasty meal and it was healthy to boot.

Anh Phan

Address: 60 Nguyen Thai Binh, District 1; Telephone: 3821 2839

Genre: Fruit Juice and Smoothies

We cabbed off to have a supper of fruit smoothies. This is in District 1, so you really have no reason not to go try it if you go to HCMC. The fruit smoothies are fresh and simply divine.

Hoi An Quan

Address: 308/26 Hoang Van Thu St.,Ward 4, Tan Binh District; Website: hoianquan.com

Genre: Central Vietnam Hoi An food

Hoi An Quan is a restaurant with two branches in Ho Chi Minh City, with the decor and service of an international standard. The one I went to was Hoi An Inn 1, in Tan Binh District, the same district as the HCMC airport. I went up there to visit a friend at his office, and he took us out to this restaurant, owned by one of his colleague’s relatives.

Hoi An is a province in Central Vietnam, and the restaurant imports fresh ingredients from Hoi An, to have the authentic taste which attracts even Hoi An people living in HCMC.

The meal was started by what looks like prawn cracker. Perhaps its the Vietnamese equivalent of a poppadom. However, I was to eat it with some tiny fried shellfish of some sort. The result was slightly oily, crunchy and slightly fishy or shellfishy. Its not bad at all.

One of the other starters that my friend ordered was some kind of dumpling. The dumpling skin was soft and the filling was tasty, we ended up eating two plates of those.

Then came the hand roll. Having experienced it once the night before, I was prepared for it this time. However, the Vietnamese never fail to amaze with their variety of spring rolls. The wrap for this roll was so thin it was nearly transparent. It has to be seperated by a plastic mesh specifically designed for that purpose. The wrap was moist and sticky.

Into the wrap we placed a slice of what looked like luncheon meat of some variety, and a roll of spring onion and what looked like shrimp. To this was added some fresh herbs, although nowhere near the variety and quantity witnessed in Hoang Ty. This hand roll was of a different texture completely, owing to this ultra thin wrap and the meatier contents.

The meal was completed by a bowl of dry yellow wheat noodles with roasted pork as compared to the boiled pork rice noodle soup in Hoang Ty. It was variation of the same theme, but the differences were there. Another satisfying and tasty meal.

Mi Chu Tac

Address: 20-6A Ky Dong, Ward 9, District 3; Telephone: 9 318 966

Genre: Chinese braised herbal duck noodles

We finally got our taste of Vietnamese Chinese food, and what a taste it was. A long taxi ride got us to Mi Chu Tac. I am sure this Chinese eatery serves a wide range of Chinese dishes but we were here for one thing, and one thing only: their braised herbal duck noodles.

This is not a dish unique to this restaurant, but as our Vietnamese guide told us, this is the restaurant that got it all right, the duck, the herbal soup and the noodles.

The noodles is hand made yellow wheat noodles. It was served dry with seasoning and vegetables. The duck, a whole drumstick and hind quarter each, was served in a stainless steal bowl inside a brown herbal soup of the Chinese variety.

The duck was soft and tasty, without the “duck taste” that some might not like, and the soup was a hearty, and heaty Chinese herbal soup. The end result was a very full but satisfied stomach. My first, and by no means last, encounter with Vietnamese Chinese food was a good one.

Stay tuned for more of my gastronomical escapades in HCMC.

A case for a watchdog

Recently and over the years, the Consumer Association of Singapore (CASE) has come into the spotlight over many consumer issue.

From touting in Newton hawker centre, unethical practises of Sim Lim Square retailers, unfair Telco contracts, timeshare deals, multilevel marketing to dodgy private schools. The list is as long as there are consumer services in Singapore. However, I am sure the majority of consumers out there feel that CASE is a watchdog with not a lot of bark, not to mention any bite.

CASE works like many other things done in the Uniquely Singaporean way. Like our trade union, which has not overtly fought for worker’s rights in living memory. Ask anyone what NTUC stands for and “supermarket”, “insurance company” and even “dentist” comes up before “trade union”.

With CASE being related to quite a few local news topics in recent weeks, I would like to put forward an alternative. Something not done in the Uniquely Singaporean way but in the more uniquely British way. Even the Americans may not be able to stomach Watchdog.

And the best days of Watchdog was when it was presented by Anne Robinson. Anne Robinson make grown men cry. Her authoritative style of questioning not only stabs at the heart of the issue, but twists it, and takes out two or three other organs on its way out. She has made even international conglomerates like Sony whimper. Her power is television, and with it, the people. She later went on to host “The Weakest Link” in both the UK and the US and earned the title ” The Queen of Mean”.

The BBC is publicly funded by the Radio and Television license that the British pay. Incidentally, Mediacorp is also funded by the Radio and Television license that Singaporeans pay. Whoever pays the piper calls the tune. So Mediacorp should serve the people, and not the corporations.*

Dirty laundry is best aired on television, and if CASE is to have teeth, it needs to weight of public opinion behind it. The same sort of public opinion that has got AIG executives in hiding over their bonuses.

* Radio and Television License in Singapore should be another issue that CASE looks into. If I am only using my television set for cable TV, which I pay for, why should I pay TV license for terrestrial TV?

Motor Insurance in Singapore Part 3

I am a prophet. Feathers have been ruffled and The Law Society has responded for being put in the spotlight by the GIA. I cannot wait for the Singapore Medical Association to be caught up with this affair as well.

Below are two recent letters to the Straits Times Forums that I reproduced.

March 21, 2009

EXCESSIVE MOTOR CLAIMS

Lawyers: Why blame us without proof?

THE LAW Society refers to last Friday’s report, ‘Motor insurance set to cost more’, which reportedly quoted General Insurance Association (GIA) president Derek Teo as follows: ‘We suspect that some workshops, legal professionals and medical practitioners are working hand in glove in making these claims.’The Law Society notes that the insurance industry has made similar allegations in the press over the past two years. To date, these allegations have not been substantiated by evidence. Neither has the GIA approached the Law Society on its concerns. It is, therefore, unfair and improper for GIA to repeatedly use such unsubstantiated allegations to blame lawyers and the others for the increase in the number of claims.

If GIA has suspicions about any professional acting improperly, it may lay a complaint against the professional before the regulatory bodies.

No claim is possible unless there has been an accident and lawyers cannot be responsible for any rise in the number of accidents. In fact, a lawyer has an important role in this process to ensure the claimant receives his rightful entitlement.

The Law Society is concerned that the public may not be aware of their legal rights if they choose to settle a claim in the absence of a lawyer, particularly in injury cases where the medical problems may not be immediately detectable and the claimant is barred from any claims in the future once a settlement is struck. The society will advise members of the public to consult a lawyer before deciding whether to settle the claim with the insurance company so as to ensure their rightful entitlement under the law.

The rise in claims has to be seen in its proper perspective. GIA, through its Motor Claims Framework, has made it compulsory for all motor accidents to be reported to the vehicle owner’s insurers within 24 hours or by the next working day, no matter how trivial the damage is. Failure to comply would be considered a breach of policy terms and conditions. This stringent requirement may have resulted in an increase in claims as parties, who previously would have settled among themselves without alerting their insurers, would now have little choice but to make a claim.

So instead of making unsubstantiated allegations against other parties, GIA should discharge its duties to the motoring public by ensuring its members’ claims departments investigate accident claims fully and seriously.

Michael Hwang
President
Law Society of Singapore

This was a lovely response from a Straits Times reader that was spot on. One of the Google Ads in the Straits Times website, right after this forum letter, is one for an “Accident Lawyer” “for consultation Accident,Injury,Road Traffic Claims“.

March 24, 2009

MOTOR INSURANCE CLAIMS

Law Society and GIA should work together

I FEEL that Law Society president Michael Hwang has overreacted in his letter, ‘Lawyers: Why blame us without proof?’ last Saturday, to comments earlier by General Insurance Association (GIA) president Derek Teo.

In the March 13 report, ‘Motor insurance to cost more’, Mr Teo was merely stating his suspicions of what led to unreasonably inflated claims by some motorists who were involved in accidents.

We cannot deny that most members of the Law Society are honest and honourable, but there are black sheep in any profession and this is a problem Mr Hwang should address. There cannot be smoke without fire.

In Britain, it is an open secret that lawyers are to blame for inflating the amounts paid out in motor injury claims and their actions are now fuelling a compensation culture which was not expected in the first place.

The claims were made following investigations by the Association of British Insurers, which highlighted increased profits made by lawyers, who now receive an average of 43 pence (95 Singapore cents) in legal fees for every £1 (S$2.20) paid out in motor accident injuries. This compares to 30 pence in 2005.

The average claim there takes two years to complete. Opportunistic fraud is committed by someone who ‘bumps up’ the price of a damaged vehicle like a car and this costs insurers more than &pound800 million a year.

Mr Stephen Haddrill, the association’s director-general, said: ‘Using a lawyer does lead to larger but slower payouts when claiming on a public liability policy. Our research shows that genuine claimants will benefit from a simpler, speedier system which minimises legal wrangling. We are not attacking lawyers. But we are attacking a system that is too slow and too cumbersome.’

Keeping Britain’s experience in mind, the Law Society and the GIA should put away their differences and work closely to ensure that benefits and savings flow out to motorists. What motorists want is a process that puts the aggrieved party at its centre and delivers access to justice at a proportionate cost.

Heng Cho Choon

Wait

Remember when you had to queue up at Deli France restaurants to get your food, and carry it all over to your table yourself, picking up the cutlery, condiments, sugar and cream on your way there? Did you ever curse the thick and heavy ceramic plates and cups that they used?

Well, they are still using those thick and heavy ceramic plates and cups, but now I wish they still let me queue up for my food and carry it myself. A year or more ago, Deli France decided to change their operations, to have menus and waiters and to carry the food to the customers. However, my experience with this change has been unsatisfactory.

I was taking lunch at a Deli France about a week ago, it was coming close to 2p.m. so a little after the lunchtime rush. I saw in my seat for quite a while, menu strategically put away so that waiters would not mistake me for having not made up my mind. In my sights were several other customers craning their necks and raising their arms in mid-wave in the hopes of getting attention.

Attention did not come promptly, there was no waiter in the dining floor looking around to wait on the customers. Minutes passed, and a waiter appeared and attended to some customers, but there were still craned necks and half raised arms. This got me wishing for bygone days where I struggled to hold up a tray of heavy Deli France ceramics.

The waiters eventually attended to all customers, bringing them the right cutlery, serving their coffee when they had finished their meals, and informing them to pay at the counter. I ended up having to spend 30-45 min on a meal as opposed to the 10-15 min I would have spent under the old system. Yes, I am well aware of the existence of a slow food movement, and I support it wholeheartedly, the point to slow food is for better food, and better service, neither of which was present at Deli France. Getting your food slower is not slow food.

The food at Deli France was the same quality, and the dining floor was as conspicuously absent of waiters as they were when we picked up our food at the counter. Deli France cannot have their cake and eat it. If they want to shake off their semi-fast food legacy, they will need to fill it with more timely and better service. You cannot suddenly become premium dining by just changing the way the food is delivered.

This leads me to another observation I have at MacDonald’s the other day. I am not sure when they changed their policy, but at some point they did. They no longer asked their customers to go to their seats and wait to be served with some article of food that was not ready yet, they would push the tray to one side like a little assembly line instead. This seems to be an attempt to speed up the time that customers got their food, and I must say that it is usually successful, however, I have had a bad experience as well.

I found myself in this MacDonald’s counter assembly line one day, again shortly after lunchtime, because of a shortage of French Fries. I had to wait at the head of a four tray line longer than usual, and certainly longer than comfortable. It was then when one of the customers that came after me, but got take-away, walked to the French Fries station and made off with their fries before I could.

What made matters worse was that the counter area was overcrowded with staff, two of which were managerial, and still they could not keep their fries coming in a timely fashion.

While admittedly, I could have got my fries later under the old system where the counter staff craned their necks looking around the restaurant for its customer counterpart, I would have much rather got the chance to sit down and waited, instead of standing at the counter as it started to get backed up. Oh, by the way MacDonald’s, what happened to the sweet thai style chilli sauce?

I cannot help but feel that large dining establishments’ service standards lag behind comparatively large retailers. This has been the case even before the economic downturn has pushed grumpy jobless people towards the service industry. With the banking sector in the doldrums, and manufacturing figuring less in Singapore’s economy, we have turned to service as the salvation. Macau has got decades of experience serving their casino resort guests, and our own service standards have a lot of catching up to do.

Controversy over controversy

I wrote the following letter to the Straits Times Forum because the ST saw fit to publish an article from E.J. Mishan about the cause of the current economic crisis, in which he claims that financial institutes in America were pressured into political correctness and upgraded the creditworthiness of minorities, in particular, blacks and hispanics, and took a risk to lend them money. This led to the housing bubble in America that led to the subsequent crash.

I REFER to E.J. Mishan’s article in Economic Watch on Tuesday, March 17 2009, “‘Political correctness’ led to global crisis”.

I am not disputing his claims that the ‘upgrading of creditworthiness of minorities’ led to the global financial crisis, but I read the entire article and did not find any information supporting these claims. I would like to understand the Straits Times’ justification for publishing these articles without information supporting those claims.

In certain quarters, E.J. Mishan’s claims are controversial, and they are definitely sensitive. In allowing the article to be published without supporting information, the Straits Times have opened the claim, and its own judgement, to attacks. Especially in these times where there are people out there looking for someone to blame for this crisis, and that the claims identify certain racial and social groups. This is a discredit to anyone putting forward ideas that are not main-stream or related to certain sensitive issues. Did the Straits Times and E.J. Mishan decide to go ahead with the article without supporting information because the minorities in question are in the U.S.A. instead of in London or Singapore? Would this article have gone through more rigorous scrutiny if the subject groups were local? Was E.J. Mishan or the Straits Times trying to make a point on ‘political correctness’ by not including supporting information?

Most of the article, and I mean a good 80% to 90% of it, was the normal economist sort: analysing the crisis and the various attempts and methods of tackling it. However, it was opened by a completely unsupported claim about the cause.

I am taking issue, not with the nature of E.J. Mishan claims, but with the wisdom of publishing an article of such controversy and sensitivity without supporting information. E.J. Mishan has been analysing economies with ideas and views that are not mainstream for much longer than I have lived. He has tackled political correctness’ affect on economic policies and its effect on economy many times before in his work. I am sure he has been attacked for his views, and I am sure he has had to counter and justify them before. So this is nothing new to him. I wonder if the people in charge of publishing his article in the Straits Times assumed that the readers would know anything about E.J. Mishan. Regardless, it was irresponsible, not just to the minority groups, but especially to other writers wanting to tackle controversial and sensitive topics, not to have substantiate the claims.

Motor Insurance in Singapore Part 2

An article in the Straits Times that insurance companies are increasing the premiums for motor insurance in Singapore has got the forums buzzing again on this topic. Motor insurance is compulsury in Singapore. If you own a car, you need a bare minium of a Third Party insurance in order to drive it.

The problem over the past years is that damage and medical claims from traffic accidents have increased dramatically. This has made Motor Insurance a loss-making part of an insurance company’s business. How much this is related to the change of policies a decade ago, that non-injury accidents no longer need to be reported to the police, is not known. At that point, the government has drawn a line between the public and the driving public. It takes the workload off the police, but the knock-on effect is that people feel that they are only up against an insurance company when making dubious claims, as opposed to being against wider society.

So two parties in this system is being involved involunteerily. Firstly, drivers and vehicle owners are mandated to have insurance, and for very good reasons too. Secondly, insurance companies have to offer motor insurance. Correct me if I am wrong about this. I believe that it is related to their operating license, and insurance companies are handed certain unprofitable, or less profitable forms of business, and some profitable forms of mandatory insurance business (such as the first 5-year term of fire insurance for a new HDB flat) from a higher authority. If all of these were based on total free market principles, no insurance company would be offering motor insurance in Singapore. Ever increasing cost of insurance can be detrimental: in many countries, doctors are reconsidering practising because their indemnity insurance is too high.

What about other parties involved in all these? Lawyers, mechanic workshops, and clinics and hospitals are involved. Mechanics, clinics and hospitals are involved in the claims and the amount of claims, and lawyers are involved in the dispute over those claims. Shouldn’t they all be made to bear a burden for the total cost of the system, with their operating license at stake? As it is, free market principles do not apply to the insuree nor the insurance companies, so why should they apply to these related businesses?

The situation is quite simple. The cost of getting a lawyer would be S$5000 upwards to perhaps S$40,000 for a claim. An insurance company being hit by a S$20,000 claim would have to think twice whether to pursue the claims legally, or just pay up. More often than not, they are just paying up. The insurance companies and insurees are blackmailed into capitulation.

If the General Insurance Association of Singapore (GIA) take a stand and refuse to pay out claims to claimants using unauthorised workshops, clinics, hospitals and law firms, then all these businesses would have to get themselves accredited by the GIA. The GIA can pay them a retainer in return for much more rigourous levels of reporting and transparency. This, of course, needs the support of higher authority and legislation.

While a seperation between the public and the driving public is necessary, if motor insurance premiums get out of hand, the economy will be impacted. Decentralizing businesses out of the CBD might be held back, as it is, the public transport system is CBD centric in design.

Third party insurance is also is a double edged sword. While it is perfectly logical from the responsibility standpoint, the fact is that the insuree is paying not based on the value of his own car, but the value of other people’s cars. So the more expensive your car is, the more you are benefiting from a third party system.

Not much would be done to change the insurance system, too many feathers will be ruffled if the GIA plays hardball. Too many powerful entities would object to it. In the end, the drivers will continue to distrust insurance companies, and insurance companies will continue to be stuck doing unprofitable motor insurance.

Video games and Violence

There was two articles in the Sunday Times today linking violence with videogames, both quoting the same Iowa State University Professor, apparently the report got circulated around the Straits Times office, and everyone had their take on it. The first page three article talks about three recent local cases, written by three journalists.

03 March 2009 The Sunday Times Page 3

03 March 2009 The Sunday Times Page 28

19 March 2009 TODAY Page 6

Case 1: Indonesian undergraduate from NTU stabs his professor and commits suicide. It is revealed that he is an avid fan of World of Warcraft.
Case 2: An SAF Medical Officer goes AWOL, and is found at the bottom of a bridge in Melbourne, Australia. Witnesses saw him leaving his car. He too is an avid fan of World of Warcraft.
Case 3: A 19 year old plays AuditionSEA, a dancing online game, and commits statuary rape on a 10 year old girl he got to know there.

Before I even start to talk about the relationship between video games and violence, I would like to talk about how these three journalists wanted so much to link the three cases to video games because these guys all play video games.

The NTU student had his scholarship revoked two weeks ago, he was going to graduate in six month’s time. Later that week, an associate in his faculty commit suicide as well, the two people may well have known each other. Their relationship is unknown. Whether he had any reason to stab this particular professor and not anyone else is also unknown. But somehow, a journalist knows enough about this case to feature it in an article about video game violence.

An SAF medical officer goes AWOL. Did he go AWOL because military service was getting in the way of his video gaming? Most AWOL personel do so because of personal reasons, or because they cannot stand the military. This guy may well have gone to Melbourne, the cultural capitol of Australia, for the latter reason. The pressure of being a fugitive from the SAF might have pushed him over the edge, or maybe one of the hundreds of other reasons that force people to take their own lives, such as having problems with their video game characters.

A 19 year old signs up for a game styled and designed for kids, befriends a kid, and commits statuary rape. Did playing a kiddish video games turn him into a pedophile, or was video games his means of getting close to his victim?

Does gaming make you violent?

I have heard that some where before. Rap music makes you violent. Dungeons & Dragons turns you Satanic. Heavy Metal turns you Satanic AND violent. Television turns you into an idiot. Of course video game turns you violent, right? The reason why people go around looking for “things” that turn people violent, is because they hope that human beings are peaceful creatures at their core.

Humans feel the most alive when they are the closest to death. It is the adrenalin. It is the reexamination of our priorities and our self worth. Women get closest to death when they have children. They create a new life, and they recreate their own life.

But what about men? Lets go back to caveman times. The closest a man gets to death is during the thrill of the hunt. When fighting to defend his own family, his own tribe, his own city and his own nation.

I think society has forgotten that the idea of a “gentleman” is but 200 years old. The knights of old may be chivalrous, but they were by no means gentlemen. This 200 years clashes against 10,000 years of human history of the might of arms, and violence. Humans, particularly male humans have a propensity for aggression. And being social creatures, we also naturally form packs, or gangs.

Human babies are born helpless but experts of love and cuteness. They are the epitome of human peace and love. However, they crave attention, and like their animal counterparts they have in themselves a seed of jealousy. It is a survival tool, if I have more of my parents’ love and attention, I will have more nutrition and have a higher chance of surviving. 200 years of civilization is fighting against that. Just as Great White Shark foetus devour each other in the womb until only the strongest survives, baby birds will deny their weaker siblings food until they grow too weak and die.

Society has a tendency to think we have evolved to peaceful existence every time there is a brief period of peace. We balked at the xenophobia and genocide of the Nazi regime in Europe, but a deeper look at history would reveal that xenophobia and genocide was rampant for generations up to the time of Hitler. The Germans and French have been at war with each other, and most of their neighbours in 1877 and 1914.

And now you and I living in peaceful countries cannot conceive that anyone would wage war in this day and age, the difference between a state of peace and a state of war is extremely vast. It is on all levels, economic, social, emotional and physical. But we know that is just plain delusion. War and genocide happens as we speak. It did not stop happening when the world woke up to Hitler’s acts. It happened again in Cambodia, in Burma, in Yugoslavia, in Rwanda, in Uganda, in Sudan and in Palestine. I would like the peace loving reader to reassess their idea of non-violence.

I would argue the opposite to be true. That violent video games are an outlet to expend aggression in men and boys, aggression that used to be expending in actual violence. I am certain that Singapore was more violent in the 60s to 80s, before the widespread playing of violent video games, than it is today. The simple fact is that people will find something to occupy their time with. Of course we can hope that they spend their time enriching themselves with literature and art. The reality is that for the majority of people now, their spare time is spent watching television, drinking alcohol and playing video games. So the social choice is between them playing video games at home, or hanging out in street gangs. I would be interested to see a study comparing violence related to both those activities.

By 2010, the worldwide video game market should grow to US$46.5 billion. That means ever more people on earth are becoming gamers. Is the world going to become more violent as a result? I certainly do not think so. A certain percentage of the population would always be prone to violence, some studies put it as high as 2%. I am not surprised at all to find that many violent individuals are attracted to violent video games. They would be attracted to violent television too, and violent comic books, violent music, and violent novels. There are a myriad of reasons that push people over the edge to do the unthinkable, but to overstate the power of video games on individuals is highly suspect.

Lets not even talk about gun laws. An individual with a knife, even with a sword, as a recent situation in Japan has shown, can only harm a certain number of people before they are stopped. Guns don’t kill people. People kill people. People with guns kill more people.

The Iowa State University professor’s analogy of the relationship of violence and video games being similar to cigarette smoking and lung cancer is one hyperbole too far. Sure they both have the same traits, non-smokers get lung cancer and chain smoking old ladies can live for over 80 years. It is blatantly playing to the scare monger crowd, but the Straits Times journalists have lapped it all up to justify their prejudice.