Joy’s Electromart in Funan DigitaLife Mall, Singapore – Horribly Overpricing
22 Jan 2012 1 Comment
in Rants
Joy’s Electromart, a photography shop located in the second floor of Funan DigitaLife Mall, Singapore is a big NO, NO.
I was looking for a tripod and lured to this shop after seeing a lot of “Sale” signs in the shop. I was expertly led to believe, by the salesperson, that I was looking at a high quality tripod with cheap price. It turned out the tripod was China-made and its price should have been 1/3 of the price I paid to the shop.
Gosh, it was my expensive mistake and I sincerely hope nobody else will be the next victims. Be aware if you want to visit this shop and be really prepared! Be really smart!
Joys Electromart in Level 2, Funan DigitaLife Mall, Singapore. This shop horribly overprices a tripod I purchased from them.
Learning from Thailand’s Disaster Expert
03 Jan 2012 Leave a Comment
in Thailand Tags: thailand flood
When panic conquers during a disaster and government agencies cannot make the public to trust them because of their (the government’s) failure to provide reliable information, the public need a savior and will keep searching until they find one. During the recent, heavy flood disaster in northern and central Thailand, Dr. Seree Supharatid, became the savior who won public’s trust and who could convey clear, reliable information daily to many ordinary Thais regarding how the flood would affect them.
Dr. Seree is the Director of Centre of Climate Change and Disaster at Rangsit University, one of the universities that were affected heavily by the flood. As part of a university that “fell victim” of the flood and as the victim himself (his house was also submerged by the water), he had every reason to analyse the disaster carefully, to estimate the risk and predict what would happen and find the best way to minimise the risk of more loss if the inundation kept rising. He was not the only Academics who gave their analysis during the disaster, because other universities were also flooded and each of them has their own “expert”, who also gave their opinion to the public through the press. Dr. Seree, however, is different.
So, how is Dr. Seree Supharatid different from his colleagues? The Nation (one of Thailand’s english newspaper) reported that Dr. Seree, who received his Ph.D from Tohoku University of Japan, has, at least, the following qualities that made him win over the public:
1. He knows his science and he backed up his words with data and facts. It’s not all theories and quotes after quotes.
2. He and his team ran 5 models to predict natural disaster, far more than the number of model used by the government’s meteorological agency, therefore his prediction has better accuracy. People acknowledged that his prediction was accurate.
3. He visitted affected area, to cross check his prediction and fine tune his models. His calculation was not just made on paper but he cross checked it against the reality.
4. He’s communicative, he used easy to understand maps and graphics. Most ordinary public are not scientists after all, so communication skill is an important part of conveying clear, succint and reliable message to them.
5. Dr. Seree was not part of government nor any political parties and he didn’t have any commercial interest either, therefore people trust his honesty. He didn’t tell a lie to ease people’s worry, he was direct in telling people where the water would go and how to prepare. His accurate predictions and instructions of how to cope with the flood have given people time to prepare properly and minimise losses.
During the Thailand Flood, Dr. Seree gave his predictions and advices on national television on daily basis. His work was eventually acknowledged by the government and he was later appointed by the Cabinet to serve as member and assistant to the Secretary of the Strategic Committee for Water Resources Management. Interestingly, in December 2010, he had actually warned that Bangkok would be submerged under water in less than a decade.
Speaking about Dr. Seree makes me remember our own “experts” who often view their opinion on nearly everything in our beloved country, including when a disaster strikes. It would certainly help us, the public, if our own “commentators” can give us accurate and reliable information so that we can save our lives and minimise our losses during difficult time such as during a disaster.
Photo-crazy Asian Tourists
02 Jan 2012 Leave a Comment
in Thailand Tags: bangkokian, Ikea
The Europeans like to say that those who always take picture (of themselves when they are on holiday in Europe) are the Japanese. This habbit, actually, is not the monopoly of the Japanese only, but most Asian, specially South East and East Asians like to take photos of themselves in front of or next to an object that serves as a background. The Japanese get the unlucky part of being labelled as the photo-crazy tourists because they have more wealth to travel around the world than other Asians do. Beside, most westerners cannot differentiate the Japanese from the Koreans or the Chinese anyway, so all they know is the “Japanese”.
The object that serves as the photo background can be a historic building, a statue, a tower, part of a bridge, a sculpture or just a landscape. The background is just that, a background to prove that they have been there, to that very place or tourist attraction. It doesn’t matter if it is a 750 years old goethic church or a new landmark, but all that matters is the person in the photograph. For most Asian tourists, the most important things during holiday are sightseeing and taking photographs, of course with them in the photos. So, all they want to know is where (they are), what (they are seeing) and when (they are there).
Some people take this photo-crazy habbit to the extreme, they took photos of themselves in the IKEA showroom. IKEA’s displays are the background of their photographs, as if they were tourist attractions. This is what I saw in the recently openned IKEA Store in Bangna, Samut Prakarn province of Thailand (south of Bangkok).
IKEA seems to have done really well with their advertisement campaign prior to the opening of their first store in Thailand. The number of people who visitted their store today (January 2, 2012) must have been thousands. I have never seen as many people in an IKEA store as I saw today in Bangna, it was fully packed (but then my comparators are limited to IKEA’s stores in Madrid and Melbourne only). Some of the visitors, however, were in the store to test the displays only. Others were there for tourism reason and they were equipped with a pocket camera.
The Street Tailor
01 Jan 2012 Leave a Comment
in Thailand Tags: street tailor
It was approximately 6.10 PM Bangkok time on one late December afternoon. The sky was nearly dark, there were clouds everywhere and sunset was nearly complete. The street lights along Thanon Phaholyothin (Phaholyothin Road) have already been put on and the road itself was full of cars, motorcycles and buses heading north. Traffic jam made the vehicles to move very slowly, sometimes they even stopped completely for a couple minutes. Most people are heading home after a hard day work. At the northern corner between Thanon Phaholyothin and Phaholyothin Soi 21 Road, just before the entrance to a large, Office Depot store, one person was still working, very seriously, without paying attention to her surrounding.
The woman is still quite young. She is small built, has long, black hairs and her skin is also a bit dark. She wore red color shirt and was covered by a tailor apron from her chest down. Her face looked tired but she concentrated very hard to sew a woman blouse under a dark sky without direct lighting to help her see the needle and the thread from her sewing machine. Her tired face seems to tell that she has experienced a lot of hardships in life or perhaps she was just really tired that day because she had been working all day.
Her business is located just a little bit off the trotoar, under some small trees. It is without any kind of permanent roof. The roof is in the form of dark brown, thick plastic cover, which is tied to some tree branches. The plastic cover, presumably, is used to protect her from direct sun shine or light rain and it is also used to wrap the sewing machine up once she finishes her work. Apart from a sewing machine, she also has a plastic chair and a box of sewing kit.
Street vendors in Bangkok are pretty much like those in Jakarta, there are lots of them, selling different kind of cheap things on the trotoar and hoping to earn some money for living. They are usually villagers who move to big cities in order to find better opportunities for themselves and usually also for their families. Most of them are hardworkers, often sacrificing their own health, fighting for their survival. Nobody can help them but themselves, therefore either they die or they “fight”. It is good to see that there are many people who “fight” in a good way, working “legally” although their presence is often seen as causing “disorganization” on trotoars and toubles to pedestrians.
The street tailor whom I saw that afternoon impressed me very much because she taught me about courage and perseverance. There are people who have better life but still complain about them being unlucky and always ask why their life is not as good as the others’, but this woman, on the other hand, risks her own health to finish her job that day.
The natural light at around that time, in my opinion, was already not enough for sewing job. I saw her leaning her head toward the needle of her sewing machine, fixing her eyes to her moving fingers and the blouse she was doing. She must have wanted to finish off her sewing as quickly as possible to fulfill her commitment to her client.
She doesn’t wear glasses yet, but the way she works most likely will not help her eyesight in the long run, not to mention that she has to work on trotoar, next to one of the busiest road in northern Bangkok, for five to six days a week. This is life, sometime we face difficulties and hardships, but we can choose to keep moving on with a lot of courage and perseverance, to fight our way out of our problems.
The Venezia of Thailand
06 Nov 2011 Leave a Comment
in Thailand Tags: Bangkok, flood, thailand
There is no flying lion nor San Marco Basilica nor water taxis, but the canals are there and the water is greenish albeit shallow only. They are not as narrow as the canals of Venezia and obviously Venezia’s canals do not have trees in the median, unlike Phahonyothin Road and some of its Sois in Chatuchak district that that became a network of canals after being flooded since 48 hours ago. There are no gondolas either, but only military trucks, buses and 4-wheel drives. There are some small boats though and even bicycles, too.
The view along the temporary canals actually is quite awesome in the evening, specially when seen from above. There are reflections of trees and lamp posts on the water and the moving vehicles seem like sailing boats with the wave created by the vehicles moving out to both sides of them. It is, as if, the wave is cut by the bow of a boat and it spreads from the front of the boat to the canal margin.
As of time of publication of this post, the water has reached Mo Chit BTS (skytrain) station after filling up the low level zone around the intersection between Ladphrao, Phahonyothin and Viphavadi Rangsit Roads. The local government said that the water may reach Victory Monument pretty soon. It is unavoidable that Bangkok will become Venezia for some time. Meanwhile, the politicians keep fighting themselves by blaming each other. Funny but sad or sadly funny.
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