Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Unexpected difficulty in connecting a flight
I faced an unexpected difficulty in connecting a flight from Riyadh to Jeddah. There are some lessons to be learned to avoid this type of problem in the future. Read here.
Population of Jeddah
I asked the hotel staff in Jeddah about the population of the city. They did not know. Most of them were "foreign talents". One told me a figure of 3 million, which seemed rather high.
I checked Google and found the answer here. It is one and a half million. It is the second largest city after Riyadh. Jeddah is on the coast of the Red Sea which separates Arabia from Africa.
I checked Google and found the answer here. It is one and a half million. It is the second largest city after Riyadh. Jeddah is on the coast of the Red Sea which separates Arabia from Africa.
The free market in Singapore
I was given a cake on a low cost flight to Jakarta. The airline probably paid less than $0.50 for this cake. To get the business, the confectionery shop probably had to sell the cake based on the cost of ingredients, labour, rental and (hopefully) a small margin of profit. It must be a lot of effort to make a profit of $0.05 on a cake.
My bank wants to charge me $40 to remit some money to another country. Their real cost is probably $2. The rest is profit for the bank. This is why the bank is able to make a profit of $2 billion a year.
This is the "free market" as is operated in Singapore.
My bank wants to charge me $40 to remit some money to another country. Their real cost is probably $2. The rest is profit for the bank. This is why the bank is able to make a profit of $2 billion a year.
This is the "free market" as is operated in Singapore.
Defamatory messages
One person continues to post defamatory and insulting messages against the agents and current CEO of NTUC Income in this blog. I have blocked a few dozen of these messages, but might have allowed some to go through by mistake. I like to ask this person to stop posting these messages, as it is a burden on me to moderate them.
In the process of rejecting these messages, I have made a mistake in rejecting a few unrelated messages that were intended to be passed. I apologise to their writers for this mistake.
In the process of rejecting these messages, I have made a mistake in rejecting a few unrelated messages that were intended to be passed. I apologise to their writers for this mistake.
Really, who is highfalutin?
Someone used the word "highfalutin" to describe a speech by Mr. Viswa Sadasivan. I have never come across this word before, so I checked the dictionary. It means "pompous or bombastic".
I found nothing bombastic about the speech by Mr. Sadasivan. Guess who is "highfalutin" in choosing to use this unfamiliar word?
I found nothing bombastic about the speech by Mr. Sadasivan. Guess who is "highfalutin" in choosing to use this unfamiliar word?
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