Drugs, Army and Nice people in Singapore

I have been the witness of an event together with Albert and Irina and they have both wrote about it (here and here). They were quite pissed with this issue (please read their blogs). Yeah, the conclusion is that people are afraid of dealing with the government on drug issues; they would rather find ways not to deal with the authorities on this issue. However I think that generally the helpfulness of people does not necessarily depend on their nationality, but of their education back home (and sometimes religion).

I think overall Singaporeans are as helpful people as any other nation, except cab drivers (cab drivers are a different part of mankind). Two short stories that happened to me on the next days after the mentioned event, just to show that there are nice people as well in Singapore :) And to mention the positive things as well, not just the sad ones.

Story one: I was practicing my swing on the driving range and there was a guy who just started to give me some really good advice and after that we started a nice conversation and he started to teach me on how to improve my golf swing.

Story two: I was rushing to work in the morning and was trying to catch a cab. After standing at the side of the road for 10 minutes I could not catch any cab. One guy who was waiting for a taxi as well called a cab on the phone and when the cab arrived he saw me waiting there and asked me where I go. It turned out that my office is close to his, so he just took me with the cab to my office.

About drugs in Singapore: it is funny that now they “chop your head” for drug trafficking. In the early years of Singapore, just after Raffles established the first settlement here and the port, the only income the Singaporean administrative office had was the tax on opium and prostitution. So basically the early development of Singapore was based on these, because all other trade was free and there was no taxation except for opium and sexual services (check the History of Singapore made by Discovery Channel).

Now that I am writing about Singapore, here is one funnier thing. The guys who finish the army (which is 2 years) have each year a fitness test and a week or two of special training if they are fit. If you happen to eat too much chocolate, you drink too much coke (or eat too much rice lah) and you fail this yearly compulsory fitness test, then you will be sent to a special camp to train and get fit for army again. If you are fit, then you just go to this yearly normal training. It is an interesting way to make sure that you have a fit army all the time if needed .

(Songs of the day: "Bond - Victory" and "Electrico - Runaway")