Today I read the newspaper!

This is an exciting and unusual development. I usually just scan the frontpage but I don't usually read the whole paper- see, I get most of my world news on the net. But this does make me a bit (or very) backwards when it comes to local news. But I'm trying to catch up now- especially cos following the latest news and trends is highly important for 2 modules I'm taking at university this semester- Theories of Communications and New Media and Principles of Marketing.

So anyway, there's a story on the front page about how the government's starting a new Customer Centric Initiative (CCI) to improve service in Singapore, starting with the retail sector. Well I kind of expected something like this after what my Marketing tutor told me on Monday (I blogged about it a couple posts down). Of course, it's a jolly good idea. Who doesn't want better service?

Over in the home section there's a big 2-page spotlight on some big companies participating in the CCI. There's also a couple of interesting anecdotes about good customer service here by Mr Lim Swee Say, deputy secretary-general of the labour movement here (Wow I didn't know there was one! Wonder what they do?).

There's a big section on haze today. It's quite sad how poor farmers in Sumatra have no choice but to clear land by slash-and-burn methods. The Indonesian government really should help them out by providing some kind of alternative. It's a real shame that we had to see a repeat of what happened in 1997. Thankfully Singapore wasn't affected this time becos of wind directions and yadda yadda... but we might not be so lucky next time.