21 June 2013:
Haze II. 煙霾 II. Смог II.
The haze has been raging for the fifth day today. Technically it started on 17 June, when PSI started to rise to around 80 or so. Apart from some things I raised yesterday, some things have surfaced and it deserves mentioning.Students should stop wishing that the PSI could increase further so that schools would be forced to close. I understand that no student wants to go back to school after a month’s break, neither do I. But do you understand how irresponsible that statement is?
Assume PSI hits 500 and schools are closed. Do you really think you’d be enjoying yourself? Do you think you could go to Sentosa or MBS to party over its closure? Chances are, you’d still be trapped at home in an air-con room slacking away.
Also, what about your parents or grandparents? If the haze really was so bad, their health would be affected too. It’s the holidays now and we don’t have to go out, MOE has cancelled all school activities for the remaining holidays. But most of our parents have to go out to work. You are indirectly cursing your parents.
Others say they wish schools would be closed for one week or so. Not just because they don’t want to go back to school, but because they need more time to study for exams which are just after school re-opens. Even so, in the long term this would still have a negative impact.
Assume that schools are closed for one week; exams are pushed back by one way. After exams, syllabus has to continue. This means one week less to complete semester 2 syllabus. For JC students I think we all know how bad that can be. Teachers would rush even more.
Yes we could possibly have make-up lessons, but how long would that take? My timetable has 30 periods of lessons in a week. There are 10+ weeks left in the term, not every day students can make it or end early enough to have make-up lessons. Eventually this affects us during our year-end exams.
Which is worse? Sacrificing our mid-year or year-end exams? For me, I’d rather do badly for JCTs instead of Promos. So although this reason (more time to study) still is more reasonable, but it is nevertheless slightly short-sighted.
I don’t want to sound mean, but I really think that if students keep harping on the fact that schools should close / may be closed, it gets irritating after a while. And I really expected many more to be more mature and sensible in thinking through such things.
Typicalben has mentioned something like that in his post as well. It’s not even funny anymore, to wish for the haze to rise any further, simply so that schools can close. If you haven’t realised, this is a national crisis; there is no time for immature thoughts and actions.
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Today some sources such as The Online Citizen have reported that some people are selling masks at hiked-up prices. According to CNA, the average price of a N95 mask is SGD 3. People are selling it for as much as SGD 5, or even SGD 12 (from Typicalben’s example).
On the other side though, there are people who purposely buy a lot and give them out free to elderly or people at risk. They don’t mind spending a bit of money to help others. I really do think that these people would be rewarded in one way or another, in the time to come.
In terms of economics, now is a time when demand grossly exceeds supply. During such periods, the price of the good becomes inelastic. I understand that, yes, some may look for such opportunities to profit.
However, can such people do so with a heart? Charging $5 for a $3 mask is too much. Have you ever thought of the other party? Out of desperation, they have to buy it at an over-priced level.
If you charge at $3.10 and you profit $0.10 per mask, that’s still all right. Not only do you stand to earn from this opportunity (thus fulfilling the aims of capitalism), you also are able to provide goods to people without over-exploiting them.
That would be a win-win situation, no? For those selling over-priced masks, I hope karma strikes you hard when you least expect it. You’ll get your just desserts for doing such things, wait and see.
During times of national crisis, we really see two types of Singaporeans. One is mentioned above, giving out free masks. The other is money-crazy and willing to fleece from fellow Singaporeans at all expense.
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It’s good that the government is actively releasing data regarding the PSI. Not only do they have the usual 3-hour average per hour, they have also added the 24-hour average per hour. Also, for the 3-hour average, they have increased it to round-the-clock monitoring, instead of stopping at 0000 hrs.
However, today’s calculations does raise some eyebrows. Using the same formula that I’ve used over the past few days, today I picked some negative hourly PSI values, which is absolutely wrong. I understand that there can be fluctuations but it can never be negative.
I wouldn’t go so far to say that they are doctoring the data though, since I don’t have much proof, although the multiple negative values do cause suspicion. Yesterday NEA finally addressed certain issues.
People were crying foul that the values published do not match what they see outside the window. NEA has replied that because it is an average, therefore sometimes the values do not really tally with the actual hourly value. However, the actual hourly value fluctuates a lot, and it is not that useful to give such data.
Regarding that part, it’s up to people to believe. I know there are die-hard cynics that would decry this explanation and slam it by repeating that the government hasn’t been honest with its PSI data. I think at this point we should look beyond it and focus on solving the haze first. After that, if we do have enough proof, then we may go ahead with the accusations.
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Everyone should rest well. Especially the Reform Party. They are politicising the haze issue, which is one of the lousiest methods to do. It merely adds to the noise and benefits no one but themselves.
TTFN.