"Want to go to Bukit?"

While still on the topic of trains and tragedies, I have this to add. This happened on my way back from school today.

There I was, minding my own business on the seat, typing an email to Nokia for my publication design and graphics project. Suddenly, a man in his fifties-sixties to my right whom I never really noticed called out to me.

He asked (in no way exagerrated)

"请问一下, 这里怎么去bukit?" (translated into - "Excuse me,
how do I get to bukit from here?)

I don't rule out the possibility of hearing him wrongly, but I seriously thought, since we were on the east-west line, that perhaps he's asking me how to get to kaki bukit.

So I naturally asked him to clarify, telling him that there are many bukits in Singapore. It was his turn to look at me in confusion, saying that there's only one bukit.

I was about to argue with him and list down the bukits I know, Bukit Timah, Bukit Gombak, Bukit Merah, Bukit Batok, Kaki Bukit...

Then I turned back and saw the route map. And we reached Lavender by then.

The truth dawned on me.

"Oh, you want to go to Bugis! The
place where there's Fu Lu Shou Complex, Sim Lim Square?"

"Ah yes yes yes."

Then he had to alight and take the train in the opposite direction.

Tragedy not in a physical manifestation, but how it's disadvantageous to those who don't know English and are living in Singapore. Face it, it's hard, if not impossible to implement multi-culturalism in every aspect. Just the fact that most announcements are made in order starting from English, has given speakers of other native languages the shorter end of the pole. Can't blame them for stumbling and falling. There are many instances of written languages at the platform and stations, but once on the train, you're screwed.

Maybe the TV screens on trains should not be used solely for mute commercials that're plain dumb (pun intended), in a multimedia world of advertising. Maybe it should flash the route map and places in different languages periodically.

Then no one would ask me where bukit is and miss his stop during the clarification stage.

What I learnt: There are 4 basic rules to game design. They are agon, ilinx, mimicry and alea. If the game has one or more of these 4 elements, it's playable. Agon means conflict, or players competiting against each other. Ilinx is a state of disorder, commonly deployed in strategy games where you must make sense of the mess in the battlefield and win. Mimicry is the application of actual scenarios in life and making it a game, like how Pong imitates the path of tennis balls. Alea is, unfortunately not teh alia, and it's the element of chance, luck and destiny.

Put these together in the right mix, and you're on your way to survive in this post-Fordist world of capitalism! Make games, indulge, get hooked and die!