Singapore 1

Singapore is the most depressing country I have ever been in. Here are just a few notes...

Oh, I visited the botanical gardens. I wrote in my journal, "It is the only place in I have seen in Singapore where the human control over nature, which is so typical of Singapore, has a nice outcome".

I have seen many signs that say people will be "referred to the police" for doing various things from putting up notices on bus stops to viewing pornography or gambling websites.

At subway there was a sign threatening a $5,000 fine for walking over the tracks. Instead of this I suggest:

Then show a picture a person getting electrocuted, hair standing on end, etc, and then show a coffin. Make it slightly humorous, but serious.

In the surrounding countries, people from Singapore have a reputation of being rude, pushy, arrogant.

I was told it is common for men in Singapore to go over to Indonesia for the day where they visit prostitutes or have second familes. The island next to Singapore is called Batam. It is known for having many prostitures, mainly to service the men from Singapore.

When I was in Thailand I met a man from the Singapore navy who was clearly in Thailand to visit the prostututes,who are much less expensive than the ones in Singapore.

One night I talked to a hotel security guard as the prostitutes were coming back from work. None of them were smiling. They were dressed just like the women in the shopping malls - both the ones working in them and the ones shopping in them.

In Singapore I was told several times I could not plug in my laptop to charge my batteries because I would be using the restaurant's electricity. The first time I was told this was in a fast food restaurant that was part of the a chain. Someone saw me plug it in and then reported it to the manager who then came to tell me I could not do that. It was not in some mom and pop restaurant where the owners were barely making a living. This was the first country in the world where anyone ever told me this. It was also in a very expensive shopping mall.

In one of the poorest countries I have visited, Indonesia, I was never told I could not plug in my laptop. And in small, three table mom and pop cafes in Ecuador, I have asked if it was okay to plug in my computer and I have always been told yes.

Many people talk about how the streets are so much cleaner than in other Asian cities, but why are they clean? Because people are really personally responsible or because they are afraid of being fined, or because the city spends a lot of money on cleaning the streets?

In the USA it is supposed to be illegal to inflict "cruel and inhumane punishment." But I say that all punishment is cruel and inhumane. Punishment is intentional hurting of one human being by another with the intention of changing that person's behavior.

I asked her if she thought she deserved to be hit when she was hit by her parents.

She said: You think you didn't deserve it when youwere young but later you look back and think you did

She told me of this story. She was 8 years old. She didn't see the last page on a test at school. So she scored very badly. She told her mother she didn't do well. Her mother found out later what happened and hit her for lying.

She learned this from her teacher who said it in front of veryone. She solded Sharon publically.

Sharon now thinks she is "careless." She has labeled herself as the teacher labeled her many years before.

She has three earings. Her father scolded her. He said, "When did you pierce your ears? Who took you to get them pierced? You had better let the holes grow over I will check back in one week." But he didn't and she still has them.

Sharon's sister is 21 and her father tells her to be home by 12 midnight. She let's her father tell her what to do because otherwise he makes everyone's life miserable.

He stopped hugging her when she was about 8 years old. She feels loved by him about 6, by mother about 8 or 9.

Sharon said her parents would not allow her to go to Malaysia. She wouldn't disobey them

She said at first children obey their parents out of fear, but later it is from respect.

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