The Forum

If ever you get the chance, you must read the Strait Times – Singapore’s biggest selling English paper. Not for its insightful journalism (of which I am sure there must be some – though, if it is, then it has gone deep, deep undercover) but for the ‘Forum’ – i.e. the letters page.

For people write in to complain about such trivial things that they are laughable. Like how someone jumped ahead of them in a queue, or picked up some salad leaves in the supermarket with their ‘bare’ hands. That would be funny enough but their letters usually start off a trickle of letters from others who have experienced the same ‘problem’, demanding that something should be done. Or, sometimes, you get a serious topic started and that prompts someone to utter their two cents’ worth, which really shows bad taste and is hardly relevant.

For example, someone recently died after being run over by a tube - which was pretty awful, granted. That incident prompted a host of letters ranging from crowd control to automatic safety doors, from lines for people to stand behind to cameras at stations. All sensible enough (ish), agreed.

But on the topic of cameras, someone has written in today to ask why the cameras are not used to catch people who fall foul of the law. Reasonable enough if the crimes were muggings etc but this ‘crime’ was eating an apple!

To quote from the letter: “In one incident, a Caucasian walked right past Security Control eating an apple in his hand – for all to see! Yet no one stopped him. Despite the fact that this was clearly in breach of the eating and drinking regulations on the MRT (tube)”

Unbelievable but true.