You know Bugis MRT station?

On 30th September, as I was walking to the MRT station, i had a great shock. The amount of people there was incredible, you know, from the MRT station all the way to the escalator, there are people queueing up.

At first I still don't know what was happening. I thought, "Is it just now the earthquake very strong ah, make part of the mrt station collapse, thats why so many people there to watch commotion? Because, I really felt the earthquake before that... and it was incredibly strong, probably a greater shock than the scene i saw at the mrt station later. I can hear shaking sounds throughout the whole building, and i was getting a bit disorientated so much so that i first, i thought that i must be so stressed till I'm seeing stars. Subsequently, everyone evacuated the building, then i realise that it must be an earthquake.

Back to my previous story. To my amusement, i realised what had happened in the MRT station. The jokers are queueing up for their ez-link card! i seriously don't understand because:

1) You have had about 9 months to exchange the card, why exchange on the last day? It is not as if the government never remind you to replace the card hor.
2) If you can delay exchanging the card for so long = you dont really care about the money. I mean it's only a few dollars. You spend a few hours queueing up for the card, your potential loss > a few dollars definitely. Really, to queue up for hours for a few dollars = no logic.

The next day, i heard on 95.8, the DJ (sorry i cant remember who) arguing that maybe the government never prepare enough, and never allocate enough manpower for the replacement exercise. I felt so incredulous at the remark. Everyday, i take MRT, close to ZERO people were exchanging. Ok, got a few people every now and then, but they can definitely be counted with the fingers on my hands. How can you say the government never prepare enough?

Ok, let's do some quick maths.

Total ezlink cards to be replaced --> 8 million (i put as 8.1 million) [source channelnewsasia]
Number of days in 9 months --> about 270 days.
Number of card to be replaced a day = 8.1 million / 270 = 30000 per day
Number of stations in singapore to replace the cards = about 100 (Depending on type of card, some more, some less)
Load per station per day = 30000/100 = 300
Assuming the stations are opened for only 6 hours a day, load per station per hour = 300/6 = 50

50 cards per hour is easily achievable, because the replacement for each card wont even take 1 minute (and there are multiple counters at every outlet)! And take note that I have given generous allowance at every step. The actual amount of cards to be replaced would probably be around 6 million only (Some do not wish to replace, some are owned by tourists etc), the stations are probably opened MUCH longer each day than 6 hours, especially the transitlink offices.

So, it is probably the people's own fault that they wait until the last minute to change! The worst thing is the fact that the government condone their behaviour and extend the dates by another 1 week! What are you trying to tell your citizens? That it is okay to wait until the last minute to do things?

In hokkien, we call this "crude translation - wait until your shit going to come out liao then look for toilet". Ya, shit going to come out liao. If I'm the government, I will make sure they soil their pants.