Tuesday 27 November 2012
SMRT bus drivers' strike: Who's the villain?
So who has "netizens" vilified most in the dispute between SMRT and its mainland China bus drivers?
FOREIGNERS?
I was bracing myself for another round of foreigner-bashing online, now an entrenched local pastime.
While this may not be the first time foreign workers have stopped work en masse in recent times, this is the first time a public service has been affected.
Maybe this will finally force the Government to seriously re-examine our over-reliance on foreign workers for essential public services and beyond. Then these foreign bus drivers would've accomplished with one strike what all the online foreigner-bashing couldn't.
Surprisingly, there is actually some sympathy and even admiration for the bus drivers for standing up to the establishment.
SMRT?
The Chinese bus drivers complained about unequal pay and poor accommodations provided by the company.
Most of Singapore already hate SMRT for the train disruptions. Where are you now, Saw Phaik Hwa?
But surprisingly again, SMRT isn't the big butt of jokes this time round.
So who is the big butt of jokes?
MAINSTREAM MEDIA!
Of all things, "netizens" have chosen to focus their weekly outrage on the reluctance to use the word "strike" in news reports of the dispute.
It's another "ponding"!
I'd rather make fun of SMRT's increasingly ironic insistence on calling its bus drivers "Service Leaders".
So "netizens" actually hate local media more than they hate foreign talent and SMRT. Now that's saying something.
Anyway, here's proof that The Straits Times isn't afraid to use the word "strike" where it's warranted.
Headline on Stomp today: See how badly this auntie wants to score a bowling 'strike'.
COLUMN: Call a spade a spade...
TRENDING POSTS OF THE WEEK
-
So I was shooting the breeze with this ladyboy I met at a bar in the beach resort town of Pattaya , Thailand, while on shore leave. I wi...
-
Did you see the pictures of Ris Low in The New Paper on Wednesday? Those legs! That hair! The peek-a-boo panties! If the pictures wer...
-
Dear Ashley Garcia , Clothes maketh the man while the lack of clothes can make a woman famous. Sometimes unintentionally. I mean, y...
-
It’s like 1996 all over again. Only instead of the Macarena , we’re dancing Gangnam Style . Instead of watching the White House get bl...
-
A few days ago, my former employer, MediaCorp, announced the surprise resignation of its chief executive officer, Lucas Chow. So what ...
-
I first met Darryl David at Gurmit Singh's wedding dinner in 1995. David's date was a woman named Lynette Pang , who was a stag...
-
I don't believe in ghosts. (Or Ghosts Of Girlfriends Past, the new movie starring Matthew McConaughey, because, well, it stars Matth...
-
Okay, I fell for it. When I read that Mediacorp actress Joanne Peh was going nude for the first time in a drama, Last Madame, I was curiou...
-
There will be no Today tomorrow. At least in print form. On Friday, Mediacorp published the final print edition of Today newspaper and S...
-
A week ago, The Straits Times reported that middle-aged men are getting testosterone injections to boost their sex drive. This confused...