election fever in Taiwan; KMRT; Ken Hirai

for someone who has lived in a politically sanitized country all his life, the vibrance of the political scene in Taiwan was refreshing. Don't be mistaken, cos I am not unhappy about the peace in Singapore, but it sure gave me some interest in looking at the activities that are taking place around where I am right now. Voting will take place on Saturday, and I guess I will be glued to the TV to catch the latest updates.


KMRT
The mass rapid transit is finally up and running, and they had "free travel" for one month, up till 6 April. When I was here more than a year ago, the cab drivers were saying that this would be an expensive toy, to be used by only visitors, students and the elderly. The rationale was that the locals were all very used to going around in their cars and scooters, and were unlikely gonna be interested in limiting their mobility with the trains. Well, during this free travel period, lots of locals and foreigners alike were taking this mode of transport. They despatched lots of urshers to maintain order at the stations, and hopefully people will be used to allowing passengers to alight before boarding the trains, etc. We shall see, especially on how the situation will be when they start to charge for the rides...

A local had told me that this free travel period coincided with the election period for a very specific result. After he said that, it became very clear that they were not only trying to get people interested to give the KMRT a go...


Ken Hirai 　堅。平井