My reflection on... Failure to Learn Japanese in Only Five Minutes

                  I guess this is just one of those things you never really forget. One of those details in life which you never really seem to be able to forget, no matter how insignificant it may seem. Ironically, it seems to matter a great deal to me because whenever I think back to the good old days when I had no worries and no care in the world, I never seem to be able to shave off this particular detail.

                  It’s not much of a detail as it is an eerie feeling of foreboding. I don’t know how many of you have been to Singapore or not, but having lived in Malaysia, I now realize how obsessed Singapore was with cleanliness and hygiene. I swear, even today, I would give anyone a dollar for every piece of trash he or she finds in the street, because there simply isn’t any. Of course, if we all scour the entire place I bet I’d have to pay a few bucks, but the way I remember it; nobody would have found a single speck of garbage on the streets.

                  Funny thing is, I’m not exaggerating either. I remember the days when the boldest thing a boy could do is chew gum in public. You see, the fine for getting caught chewing gum was around $5,000 dollars. Of course this didn’t stop me from chomping on rubber, with the right connections anyone could get their hands on bubble gum, they were the marijuana of childhood. The reason for such strict measures against gum was the apparent mess they caused, with mankind’s natural instinct to stick the gum under a table or anywhere they can reach.

                  Yet, I can think of one other bold move to show society who’s the ‘boss’, and that was graffiti. I say this because I’ve seen what the punishment is for graffiti in Singapore. When I was a kid, I knew this kid who drew a picture on a wall next to a street corner with his crayon. Of course when I say graffiti, I mean an innocent drawing of a 5 or 6 year old kid who probably didn’t know any better. However, when the police officers caught the poor kid, they dragged him over to the police office and beat him have to death. Not a very pretty thing to do, but, that’s what you get for graffiti.

                  I hear the rules are much less stringent now-a-days, it's too bad the policemen now lost their excuse to beat up small children to blow off steam but, I'd say it would be for the better. I mean, I visited Singapore just a couple of months ago, and the streets are just as clean, even with the less strict rules, perhaps the obsession was just something innate that the people show or something. Anyway, I believe I've made my point. Some people just like to be clean.

I guess numbers would never beat the insight of personal experience, but to get a general idea of what Singapore is like, feel free to take a look.

http://www.singstat.gov.sg/