Thursday, May 03, 2007
So here we are in the month of may, for the year 2007 and this is the very first post. It's labour day and a public holiday that all working personnel look forward to because they get to take a break away from their work and spend some quality time with their family and friends. The way Singaporeans work, I'm not surprised that some of them decided to head back to the office to settle some last min stuff. In view of Labour Day, let's us not forget the usual people who will be working to serve us. Primary are the transportation sector like trains, buses and taxis and the food industries people. The thing about hawkers, when they start working, it meant that their income will stop as well. It's a tough choice between taking a rest and money.
Recently in the papers, there were a few articles showing hawkers who are earning big bucks in their respective trade. From the zhi char, fish porridge, fried kway teow, bak chor mee and nasi lemak hawkers, me and my friends were astonished by their earnings. The minimum amount was $8000(more than a chemical engineer's monthly salary) that was earned by this uncle who sells fried kway teow. The big earners are for eg, the large extended malay family who sells nasi lemak in the adam road food centre($400 000 annual income) to a zhi char stall holder who earns $120 000. Of course everyone will want to be in their shoes, they are in the position to employ assistants to take care of their stalls while they shake their legs at home. It even led my friend jokingly, to even want to give us his university studies to pursue a career in the hawker business.
For every sucess story that we read in the papers, there's 9 other out there who didn't make it. Faced with stiff competition from other hawkers, rising rents and cost of supplies, it's not easy to rake in big bucks just by selling food. You need a combination of tasty food, good location, good luck and capable assistants to really make it big. Otherwise, you will be be facing the closure of your stall within months. Most of the time from what I've heard from the hawkers themselves, they're making just enough to cover rent. We tend to look only at the current scene and forget the bigger picture. Long hours of standing behind hot woks and ovens and sweaty shirts is the price to pay for it.
The death of steve irwin is indeed a great loss to the animal kingdom but after his demise, I've started to warm up to another great animal lover, jeff corwin. Don't get me wrong, steve irwin will forever be in the hearts of their supporters and fans but he's not around anymore. We've gotta move on. I was telling myself "Oh great, now what's left on animal planet to watch now that he's not around anymore". I didn't particularly like jeff corwin before and thought he's just another arrogant and showboater on his shows. However, as I started to watch more and more of his jeff corwin experience shows, he turned out to be a pretty funny and knowledgeable person. He makes his shows interesting and you don't just get to check out the animals but also the countries that he's in also. These people put their lives in danger most of the time to bring us close to wild life and it's not because they're trying to be funny but it's part of their job. Many a times, I feel for jeff corwin as he went through near misses when he attempted to capture a snake so viewers like us at home can have a closer look.
He deserves a good pat on the back for every show well done.
