Saturday, August 30, 2008

Human Traffic

I almost never go out to town on the weekend anymore. There's little point in going nose to nose with everyone swarming out of their towering ants nests we call HDB apartments and into the trains where you can barely get a seat on anymore...certainly not on a Saturday! I used to be able to get on an uncrowded train on a weekday before 6pm from City Hall to get home from work. After 6 of course, the trains would be jam packed with office drones heading home. Now you can't even find an unpacked train at 3pm!! Its ridiculous! I was going home at 3 on Friday afternoon and i could barely shuffle on to the train at City Hall...where have all these people come from in the last 8 years? Would someone mind telling me how on earth we're meant to fit 6 and a half million people into this country, let alone the overcrowding 4 and a half million that now live here. Its fine to keep building upwards but that's provided all those people stay indoors and never go anywhere. Given the lack of apparently meaningful things to do in this country, aside from shopping or wandering aimlessly NOT shopping in the cloned malls across the island, people are obviously out and about and its decidedly unpleasant having to jostle for personal space.
The powers that be tell us that its no different in places like Tokyo where people are crammed into trains like sardines. Well, all well and good but why the hell would I want to BE a sardine?

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