The Certificate of Entitlement (COE), a piece of paper costing $100k-ish (as of current writing), entitling the bearer to buy and use a car in Singapore for 10 years.
For many Singaporeans, car pricing is a multiple of their annual income. A car owner has to afford that kind of money to get the certificate to own a car and its no wonder they are feeling smug and entitled over it.
Singaporean drivers are the worst and most inconsiderate drivers in the world:
Road hogging: “I am going at this speed / This is the speed limit – if you want to go fast, go round me. Where are you rushing to?”
Refusal to indicate: “Signal for what? I want to go there means I go there. It’s none of your business”
And my favourite…
Refusal to yield: “You signal so what? I’m here first. You want to come in, come in behind me”
In examining the words, I’m thinking that a policy guy made a mistake 30 years ago calling it that. If it were Certificate of Permission, or Car Ownership License, maybe the public attitude behind it would have been different.
Feeling triggered? Bite me.
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