Pressing questions

iTunes' party shuffle is playing: My Country - Randy Newman - Bad Love

Government Issue confetti maker Ever been in a conundrum where you've run out of parking coupons and had to park first, then run to the seven eleven or newsagents to buy a booklet, then run back, only to discover that the Parking Auntie has risen from the monsoon drain and clipped a ticket to your windscreen? Then make sure you buy another booklet before the last one is used up, they'll tell ya. Be more organised, they'll say. Cashcards ain't cash, my friend Or driven under any ERP gantry when you've only got $0.50 in your cashcard? Top it up before it runs out then. Simple. If the LTA's ERP system is so efficient in sending you notices to pay an 'administrative fee' for going under their gantries with insufficient values in your cashcard, surely they can have an equally efficient system that bills you quarterly or yearly for the number of times you pass under their gantries? If cost is a reason, why not tack it to your road tax notice? Why use the cashcard? It is just as unwieldy as cash, and just as easily stolen. Got answers anyone? Interesting ones? Hopefully something to do with how the banks have colluded to make more money? And while you're at it, apply yourself to the parking coupon system as well. Why can't they install automated parking fee systems in public carparks? Does the set-up cost and annual upkeep outweigh the cost of producing tons of coupons? Doesn't an automated parking fee system do away with the wastage of destroying unsold coupons every two years, or ensure non-evasion of parking fees, or even eradicate littering in carparks? Does your answer or suggestion have something to do with who the printing company contracted to produce the coupons is? Let's put our heads together and figure this out (or make a sound like two coconuts knocking). On a separate note, someone once said Singaporeans only know how to pass exams, but can hardly be called educated. There's one stupid situation I've been told that is one likely cause: Over at Singapore Management University, apparently if you take an exam, and are graded, and are confident that you've been wrongly graded, you have to pay a $100 fee to have your grade reviewed. Not only do you not get to see your exam script, your markers are protected from you if and when they've been incompetent. This system, I've been told, is to prevent 'vexatious' and 'frivolous' grade review requests. Speaking of asking questions, is it also unreasonable to bring the CPF Board into account for the billions of dollars of our savings? I don't need to know where my tax money goes. I can see it in the excellent roads, parks, trees, airports, trains (and car parks), but what of our savings? How does the money earn more interest than banks? How come we only know about Indonesian gas, Malaysian eggs and Thai chickens when there's a national crisis? Or that we're reclaiming so much land only when Malaysia protests? So many more questions. No answers. There's one sure thing though. This environment is good for growing mushrooms and not for cultivating global leadership. NeWater Raw - available at your nearest convenience store and public toilet