Expensive? Can you really put a price on human lives?

There was quite a bit of debate yesterday, over whether the videos of the MRT Suicides were real or fake. However, the Straits Times has confirmed with SMRT that the Yishun MRT Suicide video IS real. They are still trying to confirm the authenticity of the Admiralty MRT Suicide video.

It is clear that people are missing the point - whether the videos are real or not, the deaths DID occur. And all the deaths occured in stations where there were no platform doors to prevent people from falling (accident) or jumping onto the MRT Track (suicide).

SMRT has defended its decision not to install platform doors, despite so many deaths in recent months, by citing cost as the main reason. We would like to remind everyone however that SMRT has been making healthy profits in the last 5 years. Appended is a screenshot of SMRT's P&L Statement for 2002-2006.

Source: SMRT's 2006 Summary Annual Report
Clearly, SMRT can afford to install the platform doors, without the need to pass on the cost to its passengers. Afterall, close to half (just a rough estimation) of the MRT Stations island wide are already equipped with platform doors (aka the underground stations) anyway. The one time investment to upgrade the remaining stations would definitely improve safety and reduce downtime due to unfortunate accidents/suicides.

It is time for SMRT to reconsider the installation of platform doors, to improve the safety of its transportation network.

Admiralty MRT Suicide Video

Just noticed that somebody posted a link to another MRT Suicide video in the comments section of tomorrow.sg. The person claims that this is footage from Admiralty MRT.

[The video has been removed from metacafe and youtube]

Another question to add on to the list earlier (Yishun MRT Suicide - Was SMRT negligent?): who leaked the videos?

Yishun MRT Suicide - Was SMRT negligent?

We refer to the article "Another death on the tracks - 4th in 2 months" (Straits Times, 6 Dec 06). It was reported that the "victim, said to be (a) foreign worker in his early 20s, (wa)s hit by (a) train at Yishun MRT station" and that the "incident disrupt(ed) (the) morning rush-hour service".

We would like to highlight that a video footage of the actual incident has been released on the internet and it clearly shows what actually happened - the man hid below the platform and crawled out and laid on the tracks as the train was approaching.

Our questions to SMRT are:

1) How did the man manage to go down to the platform and hide there undetected?

2) As reported by the Straits Times - 4 deaths in 2 months, we feel that this is alarming statistics. What is SMRT doing to prevent incidents like this from happening in future, bearing in mind that existing safety measures have FAILED miserably?

Invitation to join Youth.SG Blogging Festival

Received an email to help publicize youth.sg's blogging festival. Exciting prizes to be won! What are you guys waiting for?

"Dear Straight Times Forum,

I am Alvin here, the webmaster at Youth.SG (www.youth.sg).

Currently, we are organising a blogging festival at Youth.SG to promote youth expression on the blogosphere. As your blog is one of the better-known blog in Singapore, we are hoping that you can help us to publicise about this by being one of the bloggers to send in an entry; Or alternatively, just invite your readers to join our contest.

Launched in December last year, over 2000 blog entries and votes have be submitted for the first 3 rounds of our festival (www.youth.sg/blog/iamfavourites).

We are now entering into Round 4 of this blog festival and participants stand to win a Nintendo DS Lite and an iPod Shuffle (http://youth.sg/blog/2007/02/08/i-am-youthsg-part-4-blog-and-win-a-nintendo-ds-lite/).
The Grand Prize to round up the festival in March will be an Apple MacBook. Note that the prizes are just an added incentive to encourage participation - Youth.SG is a non-profit online portal set up solely to promote youth’s online activities in Singapore. Hence we appreciate any help we can from netizens like you. :)

The details are here: www.youth.sg/blog/iam Just need to write an entry with the theme "I am @ Youth.SG" (theme is free for interpretation), link to us and email the URL and your personal particulars to iam@youth.sg.

Will appreciate the gesture much!

Do give me a call or drop me an email if you have other queries.

Thank you!

cheers,
Alvin Lim
Youth.SG Webmaster
www.youth.sg
DID: 6354 7191"

Increasing GST to 7% - What are your views?

One reader offered some kind words of advice - prompt contributions by offering pointers for discussion. So here we go, let's see if this works. Budget day is coming and with that, the Goods and Services Tax (GST) increase too. The rationale in increasing the GST is to help the poor. What are your views? Send your letters in to sgtforum@gmail.com

The ball is now in your court!

Thanks to Tomorrow, the word is out and we are anxiously waiting for your very first submission! Many people feel that we are an "apathetic nation of followers" but the recent advent of blogs touching on serious issues have shown that this is not the case.

There are voices waiting to be heard and we want to gather and centralize those voices so that they are loud enough to be heard.

Support us. Write to us. Link to us. Tell your friends about us.

We have exciting plans for this site and they will be revealed as we go along.

For now, the ball is in your court... What are you going to do with it?

About Straight Times Forum

Have you ever felt so passionately about an issue that you took the time to compose a well-thought out letter to the Press, only to receive the following reply?

"Thank you for writing to us. We do appreciate your making the effort.

We receive 70 letters on average each day. Limited space means we can publish only about a dozen every weekday. This means having to make often-difficult editorial judgments on which letters to publish.

We regret we are unable to publish your letter, and hope you will appreciate the constraints on space we face every day. We hope you will continue taking an interest in the Forum Page."

Inspired by Derek Wee and fueled by our own frustrations of having countless well-written letters on critical issues rejected and never seeing the light of day, we have set up this page especially for you.

Email your letters to sgtforum@gmail.com today!

Guidelines for submission...

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Guidelines for Submission

Before sending your letters to sgtforum@gmail.com, please take some time to read these simple guidelines for submission.

Originality
We want original stuff written by you! Feel free to include pictures and/or videos to supplement your discussion.

Please include your particulars along with your contribution(s) so we can give you the proper credit you deserve. Note that you are responsible for content you submit to us.

We are not interested in articles you found off the net (but we may occasionally entertain such content on a discretionary basis).

Quality
We are looking for well-written, intelligent letters on issues that concern you and the people you care about.

We are not interested in letters with malicious intent, or material(s) of seditious nature.

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Any revenue generated may be used to 1) Enhance the look, feel and functionality of the site, 2) Purchase lucky draw prizes to reward contributors and 3) Help charity organisations, among other things.

If you are interested in advertising here, please email us at sgtforum@gmail.com with your campaign details.

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