In My Life

I found this news article on Monday a little bit puzzling:  

“76% of drivers who do not pay ERP daily benefit from 15% road tax cut“ (source: CNA website)

In particular, the first two paragraphs:

“SINGAPORE: Only a quarter or 24 per cent of all drivers in Singapore incur daily Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) charges.

Speaking in Parliament on Monday, Transport Minister Raymond Lim said this means the majority, who are not affected, are actually better off with the 15 per cent cut in road tax implemented in conjunction with the ERP changes.”

First and foremost…for all you logic fans out there, I believe the title of the article, i.e. “76% of drivers who do not pay ERP daily benefit from 15% road tax cut” is wrong.

If you read the article carefully, it should either be stated as:
i) “100% of drivers who do not pay ERP daily benefit from 15% road tax cut” or
ii) “76% of drivers benefit from 15% road tax cut” or
iii) “76% of drivers, who do not pay ERP daily, benefit from 15% road tax cut” (with two important commas added in).

Now on to my thoughts proper:

I really struggle to see the connection between the first and second paragraph.

Firstly, why does it necessarily mean that those who do not “incur daily ERP charges” are better off with the 15% cut in road tax?

We can’t equate ”not incurring daily ERP charges” with “not incurring any ERP charges at all for the whole week” can we?

If I incur ERP charges 3 days a week, it could still mean that my monthly ERP expenses are pretty high…especially if I have to drive through gantries where the rates are really high.

So I have absolutely no idea how the conclusion in the second paragraph was made was made based on the the first paragraph.

That’s the first point.

Secondly, is it really true that “only a quarter or 24 per cent of all drivers in Singapore incur daily ERP charges”?

It could be true, but I find it very hard to believe.

But I’m pretty sure our Transport Minister is not lying, so I shall attempt to rationalise that assertion.

Perhaps when they say “24% of all drivers”, it could mean that they were referring to everyone who actually owns a driving license, and hence is referred to as “a driver”. So this total polulation of “all drivers” would also include people who passed their driving tests but never intend to buy a car, people who have abstained from driving as a result of their old age, as well as multiple members in a single family who have to share one car amongst themselves.

Perhaps that’s why when they said “24% of all drivers”, they weren’t necessarily referring to all drivers who drive to get to work on a frequent basis.

Maybe.

Cos if not, I find it hard to understand how 76% of drivers manage to avoid the gantries at the AYE, BKE, ECP, PIE, CTE, KPE, Victoria Street, Eu Tong Sen Street, Lim Teck Kim Road, Anson Road, Tanjong Pagar Road, Prince Edward Road, Beach Road, Temasek Boulevard, Republic Boulevard, Havelock Road, CTE/Havelock Road Exit, River Valley Road, Marchant Road, CTE/Merchant Road Exit, Crawford Street, Central Boulevard, Orchard Link, Oxley Road, Orchard Road, Orchard Turn, Killiney Road, Buyong Road, Kramat Road, Clemenceau Ave, Cairnhill Road, etc. on a daily basis.

Which roads are these 76% of drivers using?!? I really need to know!!!

I was just revisiting some of our previous NDP songs over the last few years, and I realised that the 2001 NDP song entitled “Where I Belong” written by Tanya Chua is brilliant.

The more I listen to it, the more I like it.

It’s a fantastic song.

Great job, Tanya Chua!

I’ve been following F1 pretty closely for a good ten odd years now.

I’ll say that, apart from Michael Schumacher, there are basically two drivers in the last ten years whom I consider to be “special”.

One is Fernando Alonso, simply because of what he did in 2005 and 2006.

The other is Lewis Hamilton.

(I say it in all honesty, even though I am not a huge fan of both Alonso and Lewis.)

No, Massa is not in the list. Although I am a Ferrari fan, I think it is fairly obvious that Massa does not come anywhere near to being called “special”.

No, Montoya is not considered “special” too. He was a great racer, but we knew he was never going to win a championship in F1 with that kind of temperament.

No, I don’t even consider Kimi to be “special”, even though I am fully aware that he is the current World Champion. Kimi is easily the quickest driver in the world on his day, but I’m afraid he hasn’t really done enough in my opinion to be considered “special”. You could say Kimi is “extremely gifted”, but I would hesitate to use the term “special” for him.

Don’t get me started on Hakkinen. That is a discussion for another day. That one is a really close call, but I would hesitate to call Hakkinen “special”, to be honest. Something tells me his McLaren in 1998 and 1999 had a huge part to play in his two world titles. I never really saw enough evidence that allowed me to conclude that Hakkinen was “special”. I tend to think that Hakkinen basically took what was given to him. He made the most of the opportunities that he had.

Of all the drivers, I guess the only other driver who may potentially be called “special” would be Robert Kubica. But time will tell on that one.

There are many drivers who can be really quick on their day. There are many drivers who are capable of winning races. And there are some drivers who are capable of winning championships.

But only Alonso and Lewis are “special”.

Sometimes it’s hard for me to fully define what being “special” really is. Sometimes you just know it when you see it. It’s more than just being a race-winner or even a championship winner. There is that “x-factor” involved as well.

Alonso demonstrated in 2005, 2006, and in some parts of 2007 that he definitely has what it takes to be multiple world champion. He showed patience when he needed to, he showed intelligence when he needed to (Imola ‘05), he showed aggression when he needed to, he showed stability under pressure when he needed to (Imola ‘05), he showed brilliance when he needed to, he showed brilliance in the wet when he needed to (Hungary ‘06).

Lewis, although he has yet to win a championship, is definitely “special”. His starts are amazing. You’ll notice that he hardly ever loses places at the start. His British GP victory this year was incredible. He controlled the race to perfection. And so was Canada and Fuji ‘07. He definitely has that special ability to drive in the wet that perhaps only Schumacher and Alonso have. And last week’s German GP once again showed that Lewis is fully capable of dominating a race like no other driver. He is only in his second year in F1 and he’s showing the ability and the composure to win races in F1.

Most importantly, he has that ruthless streak in him which is what I think the “special” ones need to have in them. It’s simple: You never become great in F1 if you don’t have that sense of ruthlessness. Senna had it. Schumacher had it. Alonso definitely has it. Drivers like Kovalainen, Webber, Button, Heidfeld, Massa, Coulthard, etc. don’t seem like they have it.

Being ruthless means you not only take every single thing that is given to you, but you also take it even when it is not given to you. Being ruthless means you tear up the field when you have to. Being ruthless means you go for the win at all cost. (Maybe not always the “race win”, but definitely the “championship win”.)

And I think that in the last ten years, only Schumacher, Alonso and Lewis had it.

My Singapore
Music & Lyrics by Jeremy Yew

When I take a look around me in this city that I love
In our island so beautiful and free
See the red and white, the stars, the crescent flying high above
I think of how it flies for you and me

Hand in hand we’re marching onward, strive to do the best we can
Based on justice and equality
And it warms the heart to feel the passion for our fellow man
Different races, live in harmony

Chorus:
And it’s Singapore, my nation, my fortress strong and free
This is Singapore, my homeland, my one big family
Let our one united spirit soar, over all of Singapore
In our hearts, there’s one place we call Home

As we walk along the River, think of those who’ve come before
Our forefathers, toiled to build this land
Lion City, Singapura, march we onward Singapore
As we strive together hand in hand

Bridge:
We’ve built our hopes and dreams on this very land
Through thick adversity our nation will withstand
With one dream, one hope, one love, one heart
One people, one voice one Singapore!

(YouTube version, with chords)

…

Notes

Credit: Firstly, all the credit in the world goes to Betty for bravely pulling this song off.

I could tell it was quite a challenge for her because the range was a bit high, and there were instances where she had to hold a high E…but I felt she pulled it off remarkably. Considering she is an alto, I think she did great!

Key: I definitely wanted the key to be in A Major, cos I believe that A Major sounds “grand” and “anthemic”. That’s why I was reluctant to alter the key, even if it meant the singer sustaining high Es, haha!

Inspiration: For this year, I decided to write a more “safe” version of an NDP song. I wanted to write something that the NDP Committee would potentially listen to.

Basically, that means being extremely politically-correct.

However, I still wanted the lyrics to be well-written and well-thought out. I looked through various websites such as the Singapore wikipedia page, the Uniquely Singapore website, and the Singapore Infomap portal for lyrical ideas. I also read up on the Singapore pledge, the Singapore flag and other things to gain more ideas…hence the references to the Singapore flag, the Singapore national anthem and other small references in the lyrics.

The basic skeletal tune came to me quite quickly. I was just fooling around at the piano one night and started playing chord progressions in A Major…and suddenly a tune started to surface. I used the “ascending” chord progression (A-Bm-C#m-D) as I felt it was rather anthemic and kinda induces you to wanna rise up and raise your spirits when you hear the song. It has that kind of feel.

Sadly, the lyrics took me a really long time to finish. I just couldn’t find enough inspiration to write an entire song full of politically-correct cliches (but I managed to squeeze it out in the end). There were also some melodic lines which gave me HUGE problems, like the 3rd line of the chorus (“Let our one united spirit soar…”). I took the longest time to finally decide on the tune and lyrics for that 3rd line.

Overall: Overall, I’m very pleased with the way the song turned out. I think the reception to the song at Songcraft last night was pretty encouraging too.

Some commented that the key was a bit too high, which made singing along a bit difficult, since an NDP song is supposed to be sung along by everyone. I think that’s a very valid point.

I’m looking forward to presenting it at this year’s Songcraft mini-concert!

Photo (untitled) by simple mike

The Songcraft Songwriting Circle has grown quite a bit since it was first started in April last year.

Grown, not necessarily in the “numbers” sense, but definitely in the sense of “passion”, “chemistry” and “spirit”. This is definitely something which I had not expected, but neither can I say that it was something which I had not wished for.

In fact, Songcraft has become everything I had wished for it to be. It is the very thing I had hoped for when I first decided upon the name “Songcraft” and started the humble little blog at songcraft.wordpress.com.

I really think we’ve got something good goin’ on.

Just like any other group, we had our own little milestones: the actual starting of the very first session @ The Substation (they say starting is always half the battle won right?), the initial growth spurt of the circle, the move to the YMS Arts Centre, the year end mini-concert in Dec ‘07, the 1st year anniversary at Fort Canning Park in April ‘08, etc.

Along the way we’ve had many new friends join us…friends who share the same common passion for songwriting and music. It’s always easy to build a rapport with people who share the same passion for music. We speak a common language.

As of today, I would say we’ve more or less reached a pretty stable state. I repeatedly state in all honesty that I’m perfectly pleased with the way things are going right now, even though our monthly sessions have been averaging around 12-15 people every month. We’ve got a really good chemistry going on, and that’s something I really appreciate.

I think that’s the essence of the circle.

You see, herein lies the dilemma: On the one hand, it would be ideal if Songcraft grows and reaches out to many more songwriting enthusiasts out there in Singapore. (That was one of the goals of the circle.) But on the other hand, how would one manage a session of say, 40-50 attendees? It would be near impossible. There would be space and time constraints.

At the moment, with 12-15 attendees we have just enough time to let everyone share their songs. The timing is absolutely PERFECT at the moment, to be honest. (Our cutoff time is always 10pm, and we always manage to finish just at that time.)

The essence of “circles” (which is what Songcraft is - a songwriting circle) is that it is usually a rather small, tight knit bunch of like-minded folk who come together to share stuff with one another. The sense of “intimacy” is important. And that’s what I believe we have at the moment.

So let’s say if Songcraft were to double in size…then I’m not really sure what to do.

It’s one of those delicate situations whereby you would like to see the group expand, but neither are you sure if you can manage the group once it gets too big.

And that’s what I call the Songcraft Dilemma.

This is good stuff.

I saw this letter in the Straits Times Forum section today which really piqued my interest:

N-Day song’s music concept video a copycat?
I WAS proud of Singapore when I first read the lyrics to this year’s National Day theme song Shine For Singapore.

The song made me reminisce about songs of past National Day Parades.

All of them, whenever sung or hummed in the head, invoke pride and belonging.

Our usual complaints of fare hikes and increase in Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) gantry prices are overshadowed by the fact that our pragmatic Government has boldly moved forward to be one of the best in the world in many aspects, including prosperity, security and technology.

The songs make us feel that we’re part of the nation’s progress.

But here’s the glitch. The music video concept popularising Shine doesn’t seem original. It mimics one that was aired by the Japan Ad Council, about two years ago, which, ironically had a tagline that said: ‘How to encourage your child? Use your imagination.’

The uncanny similarities between Shine and the Japanese ad, can be viewed on the Internet’s YouTube, titled Imagination Whale.

I hope it’s coincidental. If it isn’t, what does it say about our imagination and creativity? How do I call Shine my Singapore song if the music video copied its Japanese predecessor?

Tham Chen Munn

Source: Straits Times Website

Thank you, Tham Chen Munn, for making such a fantastic point! I would not have realised this if you had not pointed it out.

Now let us examine the two videos in question.

First, is the Japanese ad entitled “Imagination Whale”:

What can I say? It’s such a breathtaking ad. Definitely one of the best ads I’ve seen in a long while. Such a fascinating concept!

Now let us take a look at our 2008 NDP video for “Shine For Singapore”:

Ignore the “boy-meets-girl” part and the “vertical marathon” part…just concentrate on the “little girl with the undecipherable drawings which eventually turn into a huge picture” part.

The resemblance is uncanny, don’t you think?

The LTA continues to pat itself on the back for a job well done last week:

“Traffic conditions improve in first week of new ERP criteria” (from CNA website)

To quote from the article:

“The Land Transport Authority (LTA) said there has been an overall improvement in the travel speeds and traffic conditions in the city centre since the implementation of new Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) criteria and the addition of five new gantries along the Singapore River Line.”

No kidding! Who would’ve thought?!?

Give yourselves a pat on the back, LTA boys.

Now perhaps it’s some other ministry’s problem to figure out what to do about plunging businesses in the Singapore River area due to the new ERP charges.

Or that the people are getting more and more frustrated with yet another round of ERP increase, especially in times of rising prices everywhere.

“LTA’s Chief Executive Yam Ah Mee said: “The overall improvement in traffic speeds and traffic conditions during the first week implementation of the July ERP changes in the CBD (Central Business District) and the first Saturday implementation of the new Bugis-Marina Cordon is most encouraging. This is similar to our experience in implementing ERP in Orchard area where we have seen the effectiveness of the ERP scheme in managing congestion.” (Emphasis mine)

Uh-oh…you know that that means, folks.

Start topping up your cashcards!

There’s a reason why they call ERP “Every Road Pay”.

Since our July Songcraft session is this coming Friday, I shall dedicate a few posts to Songcraft this week.

Firstly, let me just announce that after almost 16 months of existence, we finally have a Facebook group! (Many thanks to Jerron for setting it up, cos I wouldn’t have done it on my own.)

Songcraft Facebook Group

If anyone were to ask me “What do you cherish most about having started Songcraft?”

My answer to that would be: “Two things, in order - One, is the friendships that I’ve made with fellow songwriters. A close second, would be the songs. The wonderful songs that were created as a result of Songcraft.”

…

Logo

The Songcraft Logo

We’ve adopted our official Songcraft logo!

Many many thanks to Barffie for designing what is in my opinion an exceedingly beautiful and meaningful logo.

When I invited Songcrafters to design the official Songcraft logo, I never expected that the response would be so overwhelming. But after much careful consideration, I decided that I had to pick Barffie’s logo because it was simply ingenious.

The black letter “S” and the red “C”, which stand for the word “Songcraft”, resemble a treble and bass clef respectively. And this whole “music” theme fits in so perfectly with what Songcraft is all about.

It’s just a remarkable piece of work.

I am deeply grateful to Barffie and will always remember to credit her for this design whenever it is being used.

Thanks Barffie!

…

More Songwriting Groups

In the last few months, I’ve come to know of a number of new songwriting-based groups and showcases in Singapore, both virtually (i.e. on Facebook) and physically.

I think it’s a really great sign, and it bodes well for the state of amateur songwriting in Singapore.

The various groups have their various focuses. Some of these groups aim to simply help local songwriters network and get to know one another better. Some of these groups aim to organise monthly showcases whereby they will get certain established singer-songwriters to formally present their songs in a cafe kind of setting.

I always remark to my Songcraft friends that if I had known of any other songwriting group in Singapore early last year, I would have simply joined them and not have to have started Songcraft.

But anyway, it’s really great to know that the art of songwriting is gaining more and more attention in Singapore.

And I’m glad that the Songcraft Songwriting Circle is doing its small little part in helping to contribute to the growth and development of songwriting in Singapore!

The official NDP 2008 theme songs are now upon us!

See the NDP website (here) to learn about the songs in their full glory, including lyrics and hi-res video.

Shine For Singapore
Music & Lyrics by Benny Wong
Performed by Hady Mirza

The English song is “Shine For Singapore”, written by Benny Wong.

What can I say?

It fulfills all the criteria of what an official NDP song should sound like - safe, sweet and satisfying.

It’s got a nice, pleasant tune and a hook which promises to stick in our minds.

Comes complete with sure-win phrases such as “you will achieve”, “reach out for the sky”, “as one we’ll stand”, “it’s here that we belong”, and “nowhere I’d rather be”.

You can’t ever go wrong with a song like that can you?

(In fact, the NDP song that I’m currently writing is filled with such lyrical cliches too, haha!)

NB: You know what? I was listening to the first few notes of the intro to “Shine For Singapore” and I thought they sounded really familiar. I finally figured out what it is…it’s similar to the intro of Celine Dion’s “That’s The Way It Is”! Seriously, go check out her song (here) at the 0:10 mark. I’m just sayin’.

晴空万里
Music by Benny Wong
Lyrics by Ms Xiao Han
Performed by Joi Chua

The Chinese version is “晴空万里”, with lyrics by Ms Xiao Han.

It’s given quite a different treatment, so at first I thought it was a completely different song! There are bits here and there which are tweaked a little bit, so it isn’t exactly a carbon-copy of the English version.

Especially the choruses…the English chorus has a little bit of syncopation whereas the Chinese chorus is just a string of five straight beats.

It really makes a difference to the whole song, even though it’s just a slight tweak in the chorus.

Imagine if one day one of the Songcrafters were to actually write the official National Day song for Singapore. That would be so cool!!!

You gotta love what you read in the news these days.

Today’s Straits Times headline says: Tharman: Pay rises no cure for inflation

(Hmmm…”pay rise”…now where have I heard about this contentious topic before?)

Anyway, whatever it is, our Minister says a pay rise is NOT the best solution in times of rising prices. There are better solutions.

And in yesterday’s news, there was an article on CNA which said: LTA says travel speeds, traffic flow improve with the 5 new ERP gantries

The paragraph I liked best was:

In a statement, LTA said some have questioned if it was timely to raise the ERP rates, given the current economic conditions. In its response, LTA said that if congestion is left unchecked, it will create a negative impact on the Singapore economy. This will also affect the quality of the living environment.

So basically, to summarise: The cost of everything is going up, everyone’s purchasing power is greatly reduced, we have to pay a bomb now to access certain roads like those in the Singapore River area thanks to yet another round of ERP hikes…and at the end of the day, wage increases are not something to be considered in times like these.

I’m just sayin’.

P.S. Oh, and regarding the recent round of ERP charges in the Singapore River area, let me just say that I guess you need highly-paid geniuses to figure out that the best way to reduce traffic on a particular stretch of road is to charge motorists a bomb to pass through it.