the situation in hongkong where jobs held by hongkies are lost
to PRC is prevalent in the world. take spore for eg, our low end
manufacturing industries started to shift to low cost countries for
the past decade. so it is not the hongkong government's fault for
the influx of cheap PRC workers but rather, the fault lies in their
inability to move up the ladder of the job industry. although spore
has seen many retrenchments when companies shift to china, thai,
vietnam, our government on one hand tries to deep cost down (but
they know it is impossible to compete with these countries head on
with cost), thus they pursue high end jobs for us, this is the
major reason why our unemployment rate is lower than hongkong.
hence, there is no way to stop the production of a good or service
being snatched away from someone who is at least as capable but
cheaper. this is globalisation!!!
ok back to PRC cabbies in spore. when i was in london and new york
city, most of the cabbies are foreign talent and mind you, they do
know the way around and what i am most impressed about is that they
know the historical and cultural aspects of the cities too. this is
akin to spore cabbies who knows a lot about our history from the
time Raffles set foot here till LKY took power till our 1st world
economy status. i have a neighbour who is a cabbie for many years
and i love to talk to him becos he knows all this stuff and he is a
gentleman driver. however i think not all spore cabbies are equal
so there will be those who are more knowledgeable than others.
having said that, i think it is reasonable to expect that there are
some PRCs who know at least as much as spore cabbies, especially
those who have stayed here for quite a while. and it has to be
noted that even for a freshie spore cabbie, he/she can't know 95%
of the roads in spore rite, it is the experience on the road that
is needed. as long as a new cabbie has the motivation to serve
their customers and keep up with the road directories, who cares
whether it is a spore or PRC cabbies. if spore transport system is
to move forward, this should be our mindset.
