Stupid Rule That Help No One

If you are good enough, you are old enough.

That’s the saying in football circles emphasizing that a player’s skill and ability are more important than his age. Evidently,this saying is not accepted in Singapore football circles.  

That’s the thinking I have when it’s announced that the National Football League (NFL), which is basically Singapore’s minor league, is going to propose a rule which state players in the NFL must be below 35 years of age. Many players and fans have come out to condemn this proposed rule, and you can count me in as one of them. 

This has to be one of the stupidest rules I have ever heard. It’s stupid because for the life of me, I cannot understand the reason for this rule. This is not a youth rule because players above 30 but below 35 can play, yet at the same time it also doesn’t improve attendances or the quality of the game.

There are some former national and S-League players currently playing in the NFL which help boost attendances because they used to be names. Some of them are on the wrong side of 35 but are still good enough to be playing in the NFL. Taking out these players will kill attendances and cause a drop in quality because skillful, experienced players will no longer be able to be playing there.

So who does this new rule helps? No one. So why the need for this new rule? Your guess is as good as mine.      

Bad Planning

Last week, the Public Transport Council (PTC) approved a fare increase for bus and train rides from April this year. This was done despite a fault on the North-South line affecting trains from Woodlands station to Choa Chu Kang station the week before.

Today, there is yet another train fault on the North-South Line. A 90-minute disruption during the morning rush hour caused commuters to be late for work and school and Singaporeans have taken to social media to complain loudly about the train disruption.

I think the complaints are very valid, and not just for the train delays. Complains about the price hikes are also very valid because we have two train delays sandwiched between a fare hike. There had been constant train delays for years and the week after a train delay, the PTC announced a price hike. Now a week after the price hike announcement, there is yet another train delay. That’s just bad news on top of bad news for Singaporeans and it’s small wonder why the complaints are flooding in. 

The PTC have no one to blame but themselves. They should have waited for a period of time to pass before announcing the price hike; if possible they should have waited till after Chinese New Year. Honestly, I think most Singaporeans are used by now to price hikes; what they are not willing to accept are hikes for broken down services. 

Since the SMRT are still unable to publicly say what caused the fault two Saturdays ago, chances are the faults will continue on for some time (with Chinese New Year coming up to boot). I’m willing to bet that the guys at the PTC will blame this fiasco on bad luck, but unfortunately it’s a lot more than that. It's not just bad timing, it’s bad planning. 

It's bad planning on their part to announced the price hike before the Chinese New Year, a week after a train delay. The fact that there's another train delay after the announcement of the price hike...well, that's just those guys at the PTC asking for it. They should have waited.   

MAS vs Forbes Magazine

The rising Singapore property has been targeted by Forbes magazine with Forbes contributor Jesse Colombo warning that Singapore is headed for an "Iceland-style meltdown". In 2008, Iceland was brought close to bankruptcy due to the vast over-expansion of its banking system and he argued that Singapore is heading down a similar road.

With the report coming out, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) moved quickly. The MAS released a statement stating that Singapore is not facing a credit bubble and that "serious observers and investors are not in doubt about the country’s financial health."

Now I give them credit for moving so fast on the report, but that statement is just the wrong thing to say. This is Forbes we are talking about. They don't come any more respected and prestigious than Forbes. You are just not going to get any traction going against Forbes magazine. 

What the MAS need to do is argued against the case Mr. Colombo made against Singapore. Mr. Colombo say that Singapore's ultra low interest rates have led Singaporean households and companies to borrow more, fueling a surge in property prices that similar to the US housing bubble which imploded in 2008. 

The MAS should be arguing against this. They should state the various steps the Singapore government has taken to cool property prices (weak as they are) and that Singapore's position is hardly unique. For example, China's property bubble is far far worse than Singapore's. 

That's what the MAS should be saying, not going after Forbes. When you say "serious observers and investors", you don't get much better than Forbes Magazine.

Comics this week

Astro City #8- I'm one of those fans of Astro City that believes its standalone issues are better than its multi-part arcs. Writer Kurt Busiek pull out all the stops for the first multi-part arc of this new Astro City series, calling back favorites like Samaritan, the Confessor and Winged Victory, and the issue was excellent by itself. However I just feel its just missing the energy of the earlier issues. #8 is a solid issue, just not great like the earlier issues of this series. Unfortunately for Busiek and artist Brent Anderson, that's how high the bar has been set. 

Justice League of America #11- For a series named Justice League of America, JLA has been showing nothing but Stargirl and Martian Manhunter for past 3 issues. Okay, now can writer Matt Kindt tell us why? Catwoman is part of JLA and she's not captured right? Where is she? Also, what's with the rushed and messy Denver scenes by artist Tom Derenick? Get this book back to the Crime Syndicate. If the Forever Evil event is going to bury this book, at least show us the reason the villains that will caused it.

Superman/Wonder Woman #4- When this series was announced, I had my doubts about this. This issue showed some of them. Thus far I think Superman/Wonder Woman has been a good series with writer Charles Soule and artist Tony S. Daniel delivering some great work, but #4 broke the hot streak. Writer Charles Soule decided to spilt the loving couple apart for awhile and the issue was poorer for it. Fact is, the thing that made this series worked thus far was the budding relationship between the couple but both of them are superpowers with separate responsibility and lives. Soule did the right showing that even though they are in a relationship, both Superman and Wonder Woman has their own lives to live, but why would anyone buy this series to see that when they can buy their own Superman and Wonder Woman title? We need to see them together or else it doesn't make sense for a series names Superman/Wonder Woman.

Not What Comics Fans Need

People who read my blog regularly know that I take regular potshots at Marvel. In Marvel, we have X-Men comics, Avengers comics, Spiderman comics...and nothing else. They are an easy target; there are currently more than 10 ongoing monthly series under the X-titles!

One of the best thing about DC and it's New 52 launch was the fact that they gave room for fringe titles like "I, Vampire", "Animal Man", and "Demon Knights" to be released. All 3 of these titles had ended (or ending as in the case of Animal Man) and unfortunately it seem DC is going the way of Marvel. 

With Forever Evil ending in March, DC will release some new series in April. First up are "Sinestro" and "Aquaman and the Others". Now I actually look forward to "Sinestro" (have to watch and see with The Others), but I also wish DC hadn't announced the titles. 

This is because with "Sinestro", we now are going to have 5 Lantern series! We have "Green Lantern", "Green Lantern Corps", "New Guardians", "Red Lanterns", and now "Sinestro"! If that's not taking a page out of the Marvel playbook, I don't know what is. 

We, fans of comic books, don't need 5 monthly Lantern titles! We need more titles like "I, Vampire" and "Animal Man"! Yes, for those wondering I am still pissed that "I, Vampire" got cancelled and we need titles like them. Fringe titles that tackled the niche, quirky side of comics. That's what we need. 

Get Ready For A Rise

From February 2014, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) will refine our much hated COE quota system. In Singapore, in order to buy a vehicle, you must first bid and get a COE. Basically, this is just a piece of paper which state you can own and use a vehicle in Singapore.

The COE system was implanted to control the vehicle population in Singapore (accordingly to the Singapore government), but most Singaporeans think of it as nothing more than a way to make Singaporeans fork out money to the government. Currently, the number of COE is determined by taking into account the number of vehicles de-registered in the previous six months. The idea is to maintain the number of vehicles on the road. LTA has now decided to change the period from 6 months to 3 months.

According to the LTA, this will make the COE system more responsive to de-registrations of vehicles. Most industry players in Singapore were quoted by the government newspapers that the idea could be both good or bad, depending on the future situation.

I'll be honest; I think Singaporeans need to get themselves ready for a rise in COE prices. If the Singapore government newspaper can only quote industry players as being mixed on the change, then it should come as no surprise that the reaction of normal Singaporeans is more negative than positive. This is the reason why.

For the COE price to fall, you basically need Singaporeans to get rid of their vehicles first, then buy their replacement vehicle at a later date. If there are less vehicles on the road, then more COE will be released, and the price will go down.

In car obsessive Singapore, that's not going to happen. Singaporeans will not get rid of their cars in the hope that COE prices will drop in the months ahead. Losing their cars is a loss of face in Singapore so that's just not going to happen. Also if this COE change will make things more "responsive" to price changes (as hoped by LTA), that might not be a good thing because the COE prices are so high at this moment. A Cat E COE is worth $79,000 right now!

In short, this COE change will do nothing to lower prices. Instead, the price will rise.

The New Normal

On Saturday, there was another breakdown on the MRT. This time it’s on the North-South line affecting trains from Woodlands station to Choa Chu Kang station. The SMRT publicly say that the latest breakdown on out local subway system was "probably a cable fault".

In short, 2 days after the fact, they are still not sure. However the most telling fact of this latest breakdown is the reactions of Singaporeans. Basically, their reactions amount to…almost nothing!

Singaporeans are now just so used to trains breakdowns most of us just have to shrug our shoulders, grumbled a little, and move on. We have no choice in the matter because the SMRT and Ministry of Transport seem powerless to stop the disruption. In this latest breakdown, they can’t even pinpoint the fault, much less fix it!

So it seems that we Singaporeans have no choice but to accept trains breakdown as a way of life. It is as people say, our new normal.