Getting published

I have been on occasion sent my comments to Strait Times writer. Sometimes I received a reply but most of the time, there was none. This week I sent another one and Strait Times wanted to publish it. Here is a copy of my comment on "High-crass service" publish on Sunday Times, 14 September:

" Sigh... sigh... sigh...
I totally shared your experience. I am technically an Indonesian, but I don't look or act like one. Over the years, I have often acted as a buyer/procurer of branded handbag for my sister who lives in Indonesia. I have made quite a number of purchases over the years in various locations such as Taipei, Denver, Boca Raton, and Singapore. I don't own one myself. When I walk into a store, I usually has a model and its number on hand. I don't even pretend to make a choice. But even within that short period of time, I can sense when I was regarded as an interloper. That happened exclusively in Singapore. Here, it seems that salesperson are trained to assess the potential of making a sales when a customer walks in. The message they projected about their opinion is loud and clear. Sigh... sigh ...

Poor service is not only in high end shops though. It happened usually in apparel shop like Samuel and Kevin, Giordano etc. When I walked in, no one greeted me. But the moment I touched the neatly piled clothes to find my size, some one jumped in to stop me and ask what size I needed. They even put their hand on top of the pile as precaution some time. I usually would say, "o good that you came in time. I was going to make a big mess of your neat pile. " Sigh.. sigh.. sigh...

Some nice changes I observed recently since a number of Filipinos sales person are in retail sales force. Bossini and Esprit hire quite a number of them and it made shopping there much more pleasant."

I didn't give much thoughts and I did not give permission to publish with my name. So unless they really need a filler on Saturday's mailbag forum, the most likely will not publish it. Why I don't have the nerve to have my opinion published? I guess I am a chicken.

I know of one person, Michael Loh Yik Ming, who make some world record of have the most number of letters published in the newspaper within a year. He had one letter published almost every day. What a nerve. I guess I am not Michael. In fact, there is one blog post on the Serangoon Garden workers dormitory which has been sitting as a draft for some time. I am too afraid to publish it because it implicates the Ministry of National Development of Singapore. When I get the nerve, I will publish it, I guess.