I am morphing into an ah pek in a coffeeshop

I am finding my political bearings and it is resting squarely with the working class. I got riled up by a phrase I read in papers the other day. It said, this being front page news, that transport companies in Singapore have decided to hold off raising bus and train fares for senior citizens for now, and that this will "cost the company more than $2 million." What utter baloney! What does it cost the company except put a tiny dent in their unchecked rising profit? It was them that arbitrarily decided to increase bus and train fares in the first place!

Public transport was privatised in the nineties, but it still remains a monopolised market. Although there are two transport companies - they operate separate routes and therefore do not offer true competition. Let's say I live in Woodlands and need to go to Shenton Way. My only choice is to take the train from Woodlands to Raffles Place, right? I can't very well take the competing transport company's route from Sengkang to Outram Station! Even if I were to take a bus from Woodlands to Shenton Way instead, the bus is (surprise surprise) run by the same company that runs the train route from Woodlands to Raffles! (Ever been to Woodlands interchange? It is dominated by TIBS buses. I suspect TIBS and SBS have cut up the transport pie between themselves to decrease competition and increase profit.)

And my final gripe, before I lay this to rest, if I have to be bombarded by the unrelentless adverts from the Cable TV the whole of my bus trip to and from work, why can't they get their profits from the advertisers instead?

And so, Godspeed, and thanks for all the fish.