Chinese New Year!

It may be a tradition for our Prime Minister but I'd just noticed it a couple of years ago, that our Prime Minister Lee would spend time with people working on the first day of Chinese New Year as a gesture of thanks to acknowledge their commitment.  While many of us have taken the Chinese New Year holidays for granted, there are people in logistics, security, cleaning, healthcare, service and transport who would work throughout the holidays.

I remember as a child, my mum would prepare a few red packets on the first day of Chinese New Year for the rubbish truck driver and his crew as they drive by our home to collect our trash, she does this as a gesture of thanks.  This may be insignificant to many of us today, but my mum was a domestic maid for the expatriate family and certainly does not earn a lot of money and I love her for her generous spirit.

When I heard that the National Taxi Association (NTA) will be going to Changi Airport to greet taxi drivers this Chinese New Year I thought "Wow! I'll like to be there!"  Primarily because my dad was a taxi driver and I thought this was a very nice gesture.

Knowing that NTA would be early, I planned to arrive at the Airport by 7 AM.  And as the sky lightened up, the road leading to T3 was already quite crowded and there're quite a few taxis on the road.  I am really looking forward to catching some action.

As I arrived at T3, I went to both the arrival and departure halls and didn't see anyone who looked like they were greeting the taxi drivers, so i took a skytrain to T1 and saw the taxi queues.  I thought now that would be a nice place to greet taxi drivers as they wait for passengers.

I asked around and was told that NTA was just coming over to T1 and sure enough, the team stepped out of the skytrain.

So I followed along and caught them in action....they walked from taxi to taxi, greeting each driver with a bag of goodies as well as a red packet.

The NTA team has apparently been at the airport since 5:30 AM and was preparing the oranges in the goodie bag as well as the red packets which contains "hope" to be a millionaire (a lottery ticket).

I didn't know much about NTA and the gentlemen I was walking with told me that most of the people distributing the goodie bags are taxi drivers themselves.  They are union leaders who decided to volunteer their time to encourage their fellow drivers who are working on the first day of Chinese New Year.  The gentleman leading the effort was the Advisor to NTA, Mr. Ang Hin Kee, who is also an MP in Ang Mo Kio GRC.  Now I wonder what my dad would say to that!    =)

There were a few ladies, a young lady who works for NTUC as an Industrial Relations Officer and she walked along even though she was expecting a baby in July.  There was also a lady taxi driver.

It was a unique experience that reminded me to be thankful to people working 24/7 to keep Singapore moving.  As I went home to join my family in visiting our relatives, I prepared extra ang pows to give to those who are working this Chinese New Year.

Wishing all Gong Xi Fa Cai!!

It's not the money

My taxi driver took out his mobile phone as I boarded.  And after he ascertained my destination, he made a call which was picked up by an answering machine.  So for the next 15 mins I was not able to chit chat with him as the music was intermittently interrupted with "Thank you for calling XXX taxi company.  Please hold and we'll be with you shortly."


I was a little disturbed that he would allow himself to be put on hold for so long -- and extremely disturbed that this taxi company would allow one of their drivers to be kept on hold for so long. Until a chirpy voice spoke "Thank you for calling, may I have your vehicle number please."

And as I listened, I heard the driver tell the call operator his vehicle details and that a passenger had left a laptop bag with a laptop inside in his vehicle.  To keep it safe, he had actually put it in the front seat.  


It immediately struck me that our taxi drivers are so honest!  I remember a recent report that a taxi driver returned almost S$1m that was found in his vehicle.  My heart warmed up knowing that there are good taxi drivers.

As he hung up the phone I said "Uncle, I am so encouraged to know that you are an honest man."  And the driver responded "Aiyo, so troublesome you know.  After the passenger alighted and I discovered the bag, I drove back to look for her and cannot find her.  Still kenna caught in a jam.  Tomorrow go return the bag waste time some more.  Aiya, but it's the right thing to do, or she will be so worried."


A million things raced through my mind and I thought, the taxi company should reward him, compensate him for loss of earnings etc....then I realised it's not the money, it's not the rewards -- but it's the right thing to do.  And that's true honesty, without any expectations.

Thank you for the lesson today My Taxi Driver.  

And if you ever need the Lost and Found number -- it's 1800 225 5582 or if you're calling from overseas, it's +65 6225 5582.