Electricians in Singapore: beware.

A few days ago, we had an experience that calls into question the idea that Singapore is a "squeaky clean" state. We called "Mr. Tay", an electrician. It seemed an innocent enough thing to do...but it was the beginning of nightmare.

We agreed a price with Mr. Tay to have his workers grout a bath and get a couple of lighting fixtures to work (which didn't work even with new bulbs in them). After much negotiation, a price was agreed.

The worker came very late, at 10.30 pm that night. He was a scrawny, mentally very slow, almost dead looking man. Clearly, he was being overworked by his employer. He did the grouting (not well), then said that he would be back the following day to complete the electrics. He asked for payment in cash, for the full amount. He wouldn't give a receipt but said that his boss would issue one. After some hesitation, we paid him, largely because he seemed too stupid to be a trickster.

The following day, three men including the one we had already met, turned up. They "worked"
for an hour on the wiring, ostensibly checking it for problems. They then demanded almost twice the fee already paid, in cash, in addition to the money already paid, before they would continue the work. Now, my wife was alone with them, for I was working. A great argument ensued, with my wife telling them, time and time again, that the full fee had already been paid. She even spoke to Mr. Tay...but he spent all his time lying down the phone, saying that the agreed fee of the day before had only been for the grouting. He wouldn't budge from his demands. When it became clear that my wife was not about to pay them an additional sum of twice the agreed fee of the day before, all three "electricians" left the house. The trouble was that they had left wiring exposed everywhere, in a real mess.

When I came home I argued with Mr. Tay for some half an hour, on the phone. This was no fun, since he spent most of the time shouting. His cries were of: "Your money so big, huh?" on the fact that we had already paid enough. "I have to pay for petrol and my men." and the real classic:"Be a gentleman". I thought this was hilarious since he was the one trying to extort extra money from us, beyond that which had been agreed.

The wiring was in a terrible mess, so we got another electrician down to look at it. He observed the wiring carefully and was clearly very puzzled. He said: "It looks like someone has deliberately messed up the wiring...it will take some time to work out what they have done."

So, during their hour of studying our wiring, what they had actually been doing, was messing it up, so that they could create problems which they then would offer to solve for a large fee. To my mind, that makes Mr. Tay and crowd, criminals.

The new electrician spent a couple of hours fixing it all - and, you know what, after all the trouble we had been through, he didn't even want to be paid. He was doing it out of kindness. We did, however, give him something...though much less than the extortionate fee demanded by Mr. Tay's crooks.

The experience was a real lesson for us. Singapore is not a haven from criminality. Criminals can easily be found in the classified section of newspapers (where we found Mr. Tay). Our conclusion is that one should only engage people, of any kind, in Singapore, by RECOMMENDATION ONLY.

There needs to be more regulation and certification of electricians, plumbers and the like, in Singapore. There needs to be a body that guarantees the skills, quality and integrity of these people. Until then, do this: NEVER book an electrician, a plumber or anyone similar, via an ad in a newspaper or anywhere else. ONLY go by recommendation. That is the only safeguard there is, right now.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and seven months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, five years exactly, and Tiarnan, twenty-eight months, please go to:http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, wunderkind, wonderkind, genio, гений ребенок prodigy, genie, μεγαλοφυία θαύμα παιδιών, bambino, kind.

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The shame of a nation.

How much should a book cost? What is a fair price? In particular how much should a book used in school cost? Think of a reasonable price, a price you would feel comfortable with.

I have learnt of a private language school, in Singapore, that disagrees with you, over the proper price for a book. A foreign student of that school was complaining that they had been charged SIX HUNDRED DOLLARS for their course books, for their language course (about a three month course).

Now, I would like you to guess how many books she received for her 600 dollars. How many books would have to have been priced fairly to come to a total of 600 dollars?

Two. That's right - she received two, quite slender, English language teaching books for her 600 dollars. One was a Student Book and one was a Workbook.

Now, this girl was upset enough over what she had been charged, but I bet she would have been even more upset to learn just how much those books actually cost. I would like you to have a guess at the standard retail price of those two books.

They cost just twenty-five dollars each, in any well-stocked bookstore. Thus, her 600 dollars of books could have been had for just 50 dollars, had she known to go to a bookstore rather than suffer the predations of the school salesman.

Singapore is aiming to be an "education hub" for the world. It aims to attract - and is already attracting - students from all over the world to come to study here and better themselves. There is nothing wrong with that aim. However, it must be implemented with integrity. Such abuses as the one I have just described must not be allowed to sully the reputation of Singapore, as an educational centre.

That girl has a tongue. That tongue will tell the tale of the 600 dollar course books to many people in the years to come. Rumours will spread about the extortionate cost of things in Singapore. There is no telling how many people will get to hear that tale. Most of the damage, of course, will be done to the reputation of the school in question. However, some of that poor reputation will attach itself to Singapore as the location of the school.

I am unaware as to whether charging 600 dollars for a couple of books is school policy or whether it is opportunism on the part of the salesman, who may, indeed, be pocketing 550 dollars for himself. Whoever is ultimately responsible, it should be stopped. Such practices are criminal in a moral light, whether or not they would be regarded as criminal in law.

Singapore speaks often of how "clean" it is of corruption of all kinds. Yet, it seems, there are dubious practices happening everyday in Singapore that appear to be overlooked. They usually centre on overcharging or exploitation of the customer in some way. To me, such dubious practices are as unwelcome as any corruption in high places might be. Society should do what it can to stamp out such abuses before Singapore becomes known not for its "clean" society, but for being a rip-off.

Truly, that private school is the shame of the Singaporean nation. It is also, of course, doing irreparable harm to the reputation of its nation. Just think of this: what if all the students at that school are being massively overcharged for books? What if thousands of students a year are being ripped-off? Just how many hundreds of thousands or even millions of people would ulimately get to hear of how they had been cheated? That hardly benefits the reputation of Singapore.

There is one way to handle this. It should be an offence to charge higher than the cover-price/standard retail price, for any goods, within the borders of Singapore. That would put an end to it.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and seven months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, five years exactly, and Tiarnan, twenty-eight months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, wunderkind, wonderkind, genio, гений ребенок prodigy, genie, μεγαλοφυία θαύμα παιδιών, bambino, kind.

We are the founders of Genghis Can, a copywriting, editing and proofreading agency, that handles all kinds of work, including technical and scientific material. If you need such services, or know someone who does, please go to: http://www.genghiscan.com/ Thanks.)

The passenger should be in control

In Singapore, taxi drivers pride themselves on their dishonesty. Or, at least they appear to. I have travelled quite widely (about 20 countries) but I cannot recall a nation of taxi drivers so prone to invent ways to increase their income at the expense of the passenger.

A case in point, minor as it might seem, is when the taxi stops. Ask yourself, how many times has the taxi driver refused to stop the meter at that moment - but then makes excuses to wait, by adjusting the mirror, fiddling with the steering, staring vacantly into space, or edging the car forward again, after stopping, all in the hope of nudging the meter up another 20 cents? If you have had the same experiences I have with taxi drivers then you would have to say that most drivers do this. Almost all drivers will try to wait or roll forward, to make the meter roll up another 20 cents.

Does 20 cents extra per journey matter? Well, it does if you add it up across a year. Many Singaporeans take at least two taxi journeys a day, some take four or more. However, let us look at 2 per day. That is 730 per year. That works out at $146 per year stolen from you by taxi drivers, simply because they cheat the fare by 20 cents at the end of every journey.

Today was an example of this kind. The taxi stopped. The meter didn't. The taxi driver started adjusting everything in sight. I told him: "Stop the meter". He didn't. He carried on adjusting. "Stop the meter". I said again. He didn't. He carried on adjusting - in sullen silence. "Stop the meter". I said. He didn't. Though he did stop moving. He just sat there, hoping the meter would suddenly tick over. It didn't. Finally, I said: "Stop the meter!" rather more insistently. Finally he reached slowly forward and stopped the meter. It hadn't rolled up despite his best effort. (It takes 45 seconds of waiting, I understand, or some extra distance - hence the rolling forward). Now, I don't know about you, but I find this taxi ritual irritating. It irritates me that I have, so often, to fight the driver to get him to stop the meter when he should. It shouldn't be like this. A change is needed. The passenger should be in control of the meter. Any passenger should have the right to reach over and stop the meter. In fact, I have been thinking about starting to do just that - to stop it myself, at the end of every journey. I wonder how that would go down?

Anyway, it would be good to see a special button in the back of every cab, that allowed the passenger to stop the meter - because $146 a year taxation on a typical Singaporean, by cab drivers, is a little too much. In fact, for many it would be much more. My family typically takes perhaps 4 cabs per day. That is $300 a year extra in unnecessary charges because almost all taxi drivers show this particular kind of dishonesty.

I suggest that people start stopping the meter, when the cab stops: just reach over and push that button. You really shouldn't wait until the driver gets around to it - it isn't fair on you. Or put it another way, do you really want to give taxi drivers an annual bonus of $146 out of your own pocket, as a reward for dishonesty?

I don't.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and five months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and ten months, and Tiarnan, twenty-seven months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, wunderkind, wonderkind, genio, гений ребенок prodigy, genie, μεγαλοφυία θαύμα παιδιών, bambino, kind, niño, gênio criança, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)