I had a chat with a taxi driver on my way home last night.
He was dressed in all-white, and I thought he was pro-party but as our conversation took off I began to fully realize he was anything but. As we went to get the coveted chocolate fudge at a Macs drive-thru the first hilarious thing he told me was that Singaporeans are more practical than Hong Kongers. Haha Sporn fucks? Your typical rude, graceless, ugly, useless types that can't survive if it weren't for the Party? Self-serving they are too maybe but, overly practical? Excuse me? I had a hard time digesting this, and probably the ice-cream I was going to help myself to later.
While hardly being able to agree with that he said, I stressed that they sure are born-workers (followers) and they aren't as, smart. Bold, driven, and entrepreneurial.
He reluctantly agreed. Of course I spoke the truth. After getting what I needed to deal with the hot season I asked if he had ever stepped into Hong Kong. He laughed and said he had lots of relatives there. When I said he must have gone there often to see them he felt weak, crumbled into silence before squeaking that now with budget airlines there is less problem getting there. Though I didn't, but I really should have smirked at him for that.
Then I began asking him about his job, and for some reason it became an emotionally-charged (on his part) discussion on the labour force here. I merely began sharing my observation that Singaporeans are choosy and natural job-hoppers, and what happened? He started asking me my age, and the like that and I was quite taken aback because as a lowly driver and an outsider he had no real right to. I asked why, and he offered me a scenario that Singaporeans were actually bullied and exploited by companies here by depressing wages and all that jazz. Sure thing when a company I worked for had to hire FT pinoys and Indians as their IT staff because despite the good wages ($3 - 4 K a month) and working hours no one was keen to fill them up. No local, get this.
But despite this fact he claimed that what I knew were just newspaper reports and parrots who followed some form of, from his mouth, "propaganda". Which also meant he disagreed with my understanding that local workers are choosy and changeable (hoppers). To try to back himself up he started accusing cleaning companies of giving cleaners lower salaries that caused them not to take up these jobs that in turn went to the foreigners. And then he started telling me that an Indian construction worker actually makes about $1 an hour. I was amazed, and I mused that properties that were sold for billions and are worth millions a unit were done by workers on that wage scale? He said, yes. But in his limited range of knowledge he also did not understand nor was he capable of appreciating the bigger reality that these same workers back home would make far less than that, like the equivalent of $0.20 an hour? So they make considerably more here, and they keep coming. Yes, anyone who has been abroad should be capable of comparing and contrasting their wretched lifes, wages and living conditions than compared to a developed country like Singapore.
Then it was my turn to ask him if he had actually worked elsewhere and had actually stepped into those other industries he was talking about to come up with these findings that I felt were mostly dubious. He asked if he needed to work as a construction worker to know that they are paid a dollar an hour. He sounded angry and from this line I instinctively knew he obviously wanted to start a quarrel but being a general hater of conflict I refused to engage him and I just said I didn't mean that, but the other things he said. Nice retort when he got his information based solely on hearsay and rumours.
Monumentally he complained that taxi companies here had their top brass increasing the rentals of these drivers just so they could pay themselves fat bonuses at the end of the year. He thought it was extremely disgusting.
Then why don't he quit I wondered. You are uneducated and you can't do any real work, and so you are in no position to make any decisions let alone being appointed to a good one with a promising salary. It's all education and ability, don't complain.
These things don't make for nice conversation as truths hurt the ones affected, not that he's helping us any.
And in what became the strongest of his senseless ranting he shot his mouth off when I who stoutly believe in the government remarked that I thought the government is good. In an incredible self-consoling smug he said good government, and a government that takes care of its people... are two different things, if I understood what he's saying. I mean, how in the hell does that actually makes sense?
Common sense, logic and basic English would show that when you say a government is good it is understood that they also work and care for the the locals. These are inseparable characteristics, or perhaps our critic's command of his own intelligence if not also the language itself are poor?
He griped that they don't give people a chance to survive which is another piece of bullshit and when my destination was finally reached I heaved a sign of relief in my mind as the dreadful ride was over.
Now I have heard from more than one person that taxi drivers in Singapore are mostly incapable of any real thinking and are a basically a problematic and stupid lot that would only, if anything, reduce your intelligence to their low level the more you talk to them, and when I thought over it, I am now convinced that this is pretty true. Donald Trump claimed that they have extensive knowledge and all but it seems probably only applicable in the American context. Or Hong Kong. The drivers here contrarily appear to convey information that sadly, is not often too far from their noses, and from the sum of his words uttered I can only conclude that he is angry, yet afraid, and that all in all, he is a total loser. 15 years of driving experience and he could do no better?
These low-intelligence, ugly and stupid ingrates.
He was dressed in all-white, and I thought he was pro-party but as our conversation took off I began to fully realize he was anything but. As we went to get the coveted chocolate fudge at a Macs drive-thru the first hilarious thing he told me was that Singaporeans are more practical than Hong Kongers. Haha Sporn fucks? Your typical rude, graceless, ugly, useless types that can't survive if it weren't for the Party? Self-serving they are too maybe but, overly practical? Excuse me? I had a hard time digesting this, and probably the ice-cream I was going to help myself to later.
While hardly being able to agree with that he said, I stressed that they sure are born-workers (followers) and they aren't as, smart. Bold, driven, and entrepreneurial.
He reluctantly agreed. Of course I spoke the truth. After getting what I needed to deal with the hot season I asked if he had ever stepped into Hong Kong. He laughed and said he had lots of relatives there. When I said he must have gone there often to see them he felt weak, crumbled into silence before squeaking that now with budget airlines there is less problem getting there. Though I didn't, but I really should have smirked at him for that.
Then I began asking him about his job, and for some reason it became an emotionally-charged (on his part) discussion on the labour force here. I merely began sharing my observation that Singaporeans are choosy and natural job-hoppers, and what happened? He started asking me my age, and the like that and I was quite taken aback because as a lowly driver and an outsider he had no real right to. I asked why, and he offered me a scenario that Singaporeans were actually bullied and exploited by companies here by depressing wages and all that jazz. Sure thing when a company I worked for had to hire FT pinoys and Indians as their IT staff because despite the good wages ($3 - 4 K a month) and working hours no one was keen to fill them up. No local, get this.
But despite this fact he claimed that what I knew were just newspaper reports and parrots who followed some form of, from his mouth, "propaganda". Which also meant he disagreed with my understanding that local workers are choosy and changeable (hoppers). To try to back himself up he started accusing cleaning companies of giving cleaners lower salaries that caused them not to take up these jobs that in turn went to the foreigners. And then he started telling me that an Indian construction worker actually makes about $1 an hour. I was amazed, and I mused that properties that were sold for billions and are worth millions a unit were done by workers on that wage scale? He said, yes. But in his limited range of knowledge he also did not understand nor was he capable of appreciating the bigger reality that these same workers back home would make far less than that, like the equivalent of $0.20 an hour? So they make considerably more here, and they keep coming. Yes, anyone who has been abroad should be capable of comparing and contrasting their wretched lifes, wages and living conditions than compared to a developed country like Singapore.
Then it was my turn to ask him if he had actually worked elsewhere and had actually stepped into those other industries he was talking about to come up with these findings that I felt were mostly dubious. He asked if he needed to work as a construction worker to know that they are paid a dollar an hour. He sounded angry and from this line I instinctively knew he obviously wanted to start a quarrel but being a general hater of conflict I refused to engage him and I just said I didn't mean that, but the other things he said. Nice retort when he got his information based solely on hearsay and rumours.
Monumentally he complained that taxi companies here had their top brass increasing the rentals of these drivers just so they could pay themselves fat bonuses at the end of the year. He thought it was extremely disgusting.
Then why don't he quit I wondered. You are uneducated and you can't do any real work, and so you are in no position to make any decisions let alone being appointed to a good one with a promising salary. It's all education and ability, don't complain.
These things don't make for nice conversation as truths hurt the ones affected, not that he's helping us any.
And in what became the strongest of his senseless ranting he shot his mouth off when I who stoutly believe in the government remarked that I thought the government is good. In an incredible self-consoling smug he said good government, and a government that takes care of its people... are two different things, if I understood what he's saying. I mean, how in the hell does that actually makes sense?
Common sense, logic and basic English would show that when you say a government is good it is understood that they also work and care for the the locals. These are inseparable characteristics, or perhaps our critic's command of his own intelligence if not also the language itself are poor?
He griped that they don't give people a chance to survive which is another piece of bullshit and when my destination was finally reached I heaved a sign of relief in my mind as the dreadful ride was over.
Now I have heard from more than one person that taxi drivers in Singapore are mostly incapable of any real thinking and are a basically a problematic and stupid lot that would only, if anything, reduce your intelligence to their low level the more you talk to them, and when I thought over it, I am now convinced that this is pretty true. Donald Trump claimed that they have extensive knowledge and all but it seems probably only applicable in the American context. Or Hong Kong. The drivers here contrarily appear to convey information that sadly, is not often too far from their noses, and from the sum of his words uttered I can only conclude that he is angry, yet afraid, and that all in all, he is a total loser. 15 years of driving experience and he could do no better?
These low-intelligence, ugly and stupid ingrates.
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