from green to black

realizations

something hit my thick head today as i was waiting for
the bus. sometimes it makes me feel so ungrateful that
i keep wishing for faster bus services just because i'm
tired even though, the bus has just left and i'm the
only passenger in the queue. i was thinking about public
administration after haque's insightful lessons and
readings and i feel totally embarrassed. today i started
to appreciate the inefficiencies of the public service.
in this case lesser profits due to increased costs.

huh?! what? i bet some of you are thinking. think about
it, we could be paying taxi fare rates if we had bus on
demand (ok i admit, maybe slightly less since it is mass
transport). so what's your point? we could just take the
taxi if that's the case isnt it?

thats true. but what if i cant afford the taxi?
if i were a bus operator and i want to be totally
efficient and my motive is solely to increase profits
then i shouldnt bother to have regular services after
peak hours where i can justify filling up my buses.
so my non peak hour buses could just arrive every hour
on the hour so i can guarantee a full load but still
the bus arrives in 15 minutes to pick up 4 miserable
commuters waiting at the busstop at 10.

i'm thankful that public service is meaningful, because
my quality of life has improved simply because there is
a public service.


as for interesting stuff, i kindda met an intelligent
guy today, coming from me so take it as you will. and
as intelligent guys are, we have interesting conversations.
so anyway here we have some jibes first. liquid papered
above the toilet roll dispenser in engin were written the
words, arts degree, pls take one. take one? take a few
he says! well, sometimes when you consider that arts grads
are but glorified gp writers, you can only wince in
response. but things got more interesting when we discussed
about the stock market, or why i believe democracy as
it is may not be that fantastic an idea.

so here's something to consider, when this guy talks
about intellectual fraud.

poor us, what are we learning for really?


ok so another update in this fragmented 3 part series
so far, since i only blog when the ideas hit me and not
in one sitting. i was paid $16 bucks today by the
university for doing nothing and it irritates the crap
out of me. firstly, all i did was play the darn prisoners
dilemma game for module credits, and i did it within
10 minutes. paying me 16bucks for 10 minutes is like
paying a person $96 an hour. for doing nothing!

now thats not my beef, imagine they pay 400 students
an amount of money. how much would they spend? you
guess. imagine them doing it every semester, or for
more than one module. now...

can you imagine why your school fees just keep
increasing without you getting any substantial benefit?!

but something amusing came out of this when i met
my course freshies after the test. i said i didnt want
to keep the money since i felt uneasy to accept money
given to me by a stranger whom i did not even work for.
they said well dont worry, they would keep in money
without regrets if they were in my shoes. so i took
out the cash and went nah, prove it. obviously they
didnt accept it from me. touche, point illustrated.

for the record, the cash is in a separate component in
my wallet. time passing would make it easier and easier
for me to treat it as mine i guess.

ethical? if time passes like this, would i need to care?

posted by green unseen @ 7:38 AM