STAR BLOGGERS

I recently caught an episode of Crimewatch which dramatised a case of cheating by a man who posed as an off-duty Customs officer. He convinced his victims that government officers could sell confiscated items at very low prices, and that the money would be donated to charity.

Believing he was a government officer, many obliged and handed their cash over to him. He then asked his victims to wait while he returned to his office to fetch their merchandise. They waited; he never came back. Eventually, this man was caught and sentenced to five years’ jail on 12 counts of cheating.

I bought a True Spa package, persuaded by the True Spa sales representative that the chief executive officer, being the son of an ex-Chief Justice, was an honourable businessman and would fulfil the service contract accordingly. Convinced, I signed up for a package and paid my share.

Then my nightmare began. Reservations were not easy to make. Many customers I have since spoken to could only get their names on the waiting list, more often than not. Many waited in vain.

Suddenly, we customers were transferred to another operator, Subtle Senses, without our consent. We are now stranded like the victims in the Crimewatch cheating case – having paid our hard-earned money and waited in vain, despite having legal, binding contracts signed.

Even though the Order of Tribunal has been issued for True Spa to reimburse me, nothing has come my way, and that deadline is long past. The sense of helplessness on the part of us victims is further heightened when we realise there are almost no concrete consequences – such as frozen accounts or suspension of operations for True Spa – if it were to choose to ignore these court orders altogether.

There have also been no updates from the relevant authorities, despite petitions having been sent and police reports made.

Unlike the Crimewatch case, where the police stepped in to uphold justice for the cheated victims although they entered into no legal contracts, we are unable to seek justice against True Spa. The legal documents we hold seem as good as useless. Enforcement of the court order has to be taken up by claimants, at the cost of even more of our time and money.

Why should the onus be on consumers to curb unethical business behaviour?

I’m sure the more than 10,000 True Spa victims would be hard-pressed to see the difference between the cases: Goods promised and paid for but never delivered. We can only hope that justice might similarly be meted out, so that our nightmare may end.

Cassandra Poon believes that she has been victimized by True Spa and she seeks to end this nightmare of hers.

Since I’ve reached the halfway point in my year in Singapore, it seems like an appropriate time to take stock of what I’ve been able to do, and what I would like to do before I leave.  This post’s title was inspired by “The Bucket List,” a movie I never saw.  I think I was pretty much able to glean the plot from the trailer, though.  Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson play two old dudes from different walks of life who meet when they both become sick with terminal illnesses.  One of them (not sure which one) proposes the idea of a “bucket list,” a list of the things he wants to do before he dies.  I will let you pick whether you want to be Morgan Freeman or Jack Nicholson (I’d go for Morgan, since he is so cool, and Jack dated that weird lady for awhile and might have lasting psychological damage).

So, in case you are wondering, my Singapore Bucket List has nothing to do (hopefully!) with me having a terminal illness; rather, I wanted to combine my expectations when I came here with what I’ve learned since arriving to come up with a list of things I’d like to do to have a complete experience.  A few of the items aren’t specific to Singapore, but they’re things I have to (or would like to) do this year.  This also, unfortunately for you, turns into a chance for me to put in lots of links to past posts (it’s sort of like those annoying television show episodes where they shamelessly play a bunch of clips from prior episodes).

Without further ado, my Singapore Bucket List is below.  I’ve crossed out the items I’ve accomplished (yay, success!).  Please feel free to let me know if you have additional recommendations!  These are in no particular order…

• Go to the Night Safari. I came to visit Singapore in May, but wasn’t even here a week.  I never got over my jet lag, so I had limited time to sight see (there were important people to meet!).  The one place people consistently suggested we (=my boss and I) visit during our short time here was the Night Safari.  While that may not count for my bucket list this time around, I did make it back a couple months ago when my friends were in town.  Huzzah.
• Go to the zoo. I’ve also heard really good things about the zoo, which is right next to the Night Safari.  I’ve been meaning to go on a weekend, but haven’t followed through.  D’oh.  I don’t think it will be too hard to make it to the zoo before I leave, but my laziness never ceases to amaze me.
• Go to Sentosa Island. Done, and done!
• Finish The Brothers Karamazov. D’oh.  Sorry, Auntie, but I haven’t made much progress on this.  I guess it’s hard to finish a really long novel when you haven’t looked at it in several months.  I think I’m still stuck somewhere in 300-400 page range…or, more likely, somewhere around page 200.  Stupid bucket list.
• Eat chicken rice. Reader, if I could eat chicken rice every meal, I just might.  I mean, I probably wouldn’t since Cinnamon Toast Crunch, granola bars, and bread and jam exist, but chicken rice is delicious.  My introduction into this fine cuisine was a bit rocky (I kept calling it “chicken and rice”), but I’m going to miss it when I go home.
• Try durian. Okay, really, I had no intention of trying durian, but one of my friends from work made it her mission this week to get me to eat durian. She bought a chocolate covered durian cake slice for me and presented me with it at work a few days ago. I took a spoonful and…um…it was disgusting. The chocolate was delicious (surprise!), but the durian sort of tasted like something I remember eating as a kid. I can’t remember what it reminded me of, but I remember not liking the dish. So, durian and I will not be friends. At least I can say I tried. My friend has now moved on to suggesting other foods I need to try; I’m not sure if I’ll be game.
• Try instant noodles. Let me modify this item a bit: Try instant noodles again, and again, and again… done!
• Visit the Botanic Gardens. I actually managed to do this my first week in Singapore, while I was on quarantine. The Gardens were beautiful. One of the ladies from work takes her sons there every week, but I’ve only made it down there once. I would like to return before I leave, preferably with Dad and Mom and/or Blanket and Purple Lightning when they come to visit.
• Visit Chinatown. Done!  I sort of did a rapid trip through Chinatown, without stopping to appreciate the scenery too much, but I’ve technically been there
• Finish my awful master’s paper. Man, I will be super happy when I can cross that one out.  I wrote last weekend that I had submitted a second draft of my paper; my first reader got back to me and said it was “great progress!”  I hope that’s positive feedback, but I guess it’s relative (I mean, maybe the first draft really sucked and anything would be considered progress).
• Make it through the entire year without getting hit by a car. So far, so good.  I don’t know that this actually belongs on my bucket list, but it seems like a good goal to have.  When I was walking home today, I heard a loud honk immediately followed by the sound of screeching brakes and contact between two cars.  It was–fortunately–a mild accident, as accidents go, but it reminded me that I need to be an alert pedestrian.  Plus, I almost got hit by a car today, so that was awesome.
• See “wild” monkeys! Done, thrice!  So freaking cool!
• TRAVEL, TRAVEL, TRAVEL! This is, by far, the best one.  Really.  I’ve done pretty well so far–Malacca, Manila, Kuala Lumpur, and Ho Chi Minh.  There are a bunch of other places I definitely want to visit: Australia (Perth, at least); Indonesia (Jakarta, Bali); Thailand; Brunei; Hong Kong; Japan; Cambodia.  We’ll see.  I would also really like to go back to the Philippines, preferably with one of my friends around.  We’ll see.
• Pull off the ultimate Christmas surprise. My first year in Durham, it looked like I wasn’t going to be able to make it home for Christmas, or my Dad’s birthday (and, I had always been there for both).  I found out a couple days before Dad’s birthday that I would actually be done with work the morning of Christmas Eve.  Durham was about 4 hours from where I grew up.  So, I decided to drive home (to Virginia) right after I got off work.  I called home as I was driving north on 395, and somehow made it through the mixing bowl without taking the wrong exit (that’s a miracle in itself).  I got to talk with Dad and wish him a happy birthday.  After awhile, I got to talk to Mom.  As I was pulling into their division, I happened to run right through a new stop sign.  I absentmindedly said, “Oh.  They put a stop sign there?”  Fortunately, Mom didn’t ask what the heck I was talking about.  I got home, rang the doorbell, and Mom said, “Hold on, there’s someone at the door.”  And it was me!  This year was even better

Okie dokie.  That’s all I can come up with for now.  I feel like I need to get back into accomplishing the things on this list, since I did many of them months ago when I first arrived in Singapore.  That said, I’m not planning on picking up The Brothers Karamazov, yet (sorry, Auntie).

Flaneur Vric is a 31-year-old American blogger who had previously visited Singapore and she blogs at http://flaneurvric.wordpress.com/

The driver-rider relationship; a vicious cycle of Tom & Jerry where we always try different ways to get back at each other. Yup, I’m a rider myself and it’s no surprise that my next few paragraphs relate strongly to my bad experience on the road with drivers.

In my close to 3 years of riding, I can surely say my near accidents involve 90% with cars rather than fellow bikers. Perhaps might be the size of my bike? I don’t know. All I do know from all these near death incidents is that such drivers do not check their blind-spots and confidently change lanes or overtake other vehicles thinking they are the next Sebastian Vettel. Surely it looks cool to see someone doing that on the track and may have caught the F1 flu bug but we’re talking about public roads here and we have many lives depending on each other’s actions.

So when met with such drivers and we nearly collide with them, the next best thing many of us would do besides flashing the finger (which I know almost all of us have done it at some point of our lives) is to let loose on the horns which often results in a not-so-kind feedback from the other party and ends up in a tailgating session. It’s not uncommon to see such happenings everyday on the road. Recently, we saw an increase in cases where drivers start confronting each other. The most memorable to me being the batman incident – Man threatening to hit the other driver with a baseball bat after being confronted when his bat-mobile nearly got involved into an accident with that other driver.

Do we resort to violence when being confronted? Doesn’t one know the consequences of causing injuries to the other party should they be charged? It is really that worth it to react in such a way? I suppose when one meets such a situation, it’s hard to stay clear minded. Could it be that we are facing so much stress with our everyday work that we feel frustrated at everything that goes wrong? With modern day equipment, everyone can become an instant star once their unglamorous behaviour appears on Facebook, You-tube or Stomp but apparently that did not stop people from keeping their cool.

I witnessed a road bullying incident few days ago and wrote in to the Traffic Police department which I got a reply saying that they will take appropriate action against the driver. I suppose it will just be a stern warning to him. Does a stern warning actually prevent one from committing the same thing again? How about a hefty fine instead? Like they say, moneys coming out of their own wallets hurt the most. Or maybe revoking their license? Hmm… might be a good way to reduce private commuters on the road. With the skyrocketed COE prices, I hope it does not lead to a further increase in road rage. Suddenly everyone is feeling pissed because they don’t get to buy a new car.

Sam Ang is a 25 year-old undergraduate and he loves to go on the Internet. Having a strong belief in his opinions, he is an advocate for issues that relates closely to his life.

The reaction towards MOE scholar Jonathan Wong’s arrest for child pornography possession is as equally interesting as Wong’s arrest itself.

It would take something really serious in the form of a child pornography crime to alter the rationalisations of many a Singaporean.

From Wong’s case, we are exposed to the schizophrenia that has plagued many a Singaporean whenever they are confronted with different problems and issues. This is however a story compelling enough to flip that switch in the Singaporean psyche, alternating between two forms of rationalisations – the internalisation versus the externalisation of the problem.

When the news of his arrest broke, Singaporeans had a field day rationalising Jonathan Wong.

Some sought to internalise Wong’s problem, associating and reducing it to psychological traits. This is reinforced with news of him having been punished for being a peeping tom.

In reducing and atomising a problem (i.e. psychologically reducing it) to Wong, most we are able to distance ourselves from the “pervert” and “deviant”, as we continue to insist on being normal ourselves.

The internalisation of problems impedes any possible suspicion that problems could have a social nature.

It is a habit well-cultivated in a meritocratic society. With every resource, infrastructure and opportunity created, so too is the illusion that everyone has the same platform to succeed.

Any failure in terms of health, employment and well-being, would be readily rationalised and internalised as an individual failure – laziness, lack of diligence and other traits believed to be confined to the individual. Factors such as policy and society are ignored.

However, it is not that bleak after all. From their assessment and questions, Singaporeans appear to have developed the externalisation aspect of rationalisation.

They are asking questions about policy and the processes that have allowed Wong to slip through the system.

Singaporeans are able to see that Wong is but a unit or a member of socio-political and economic context. He is where and what he is – partly – due to his membership of the processes that also shape us.

It is because we are also involved in the same processes and inhabit the same contexts, we begin to question the institutions and processes with which he has engaged.

These discussions by Singaporeans are an indication that we can see that Wong – the person and the circumstance – is a function of the institution, as much as his behaviour is a function of his personality and psychological well-being.

In raising questions about the scholarship selection processes and whatnot, Singaporeans no longer stifle discussion on and rob attention from the social and political dimensions of the issue. It is just a tragedy that we have to wait for such a crime to be uncovered for us to develop newer perspectives.

Sam Ho is an NUS graduate of Communications, and also a guitarist and songwriter.  His insightful blog http://thinkingbetterthinkingmeta.blogspot.com/touches on many topics such as media censorship, race, religion, and even sexual minority rights!