you know what one one of the major catalyst that got me home ?
.......
it was not the high taxes, not the nuts freezing weather, not
the rednecks and racists you sometimes run into, not the feeling of
always being the curious alien in a cowboy hat wearing midwestern
society.
It's not being able to roam around freely around the city at
night, it's the frequent and regular bar fights at the pubs. It's
the inner city ghettos that everyone learn to avoid. It's my ipod
being stolen, my ciggies being stolen, my pens and pencils being
stolen, my books being stolen. The weed dealers, the petty crimes
that people took for granted as part of city living there.
Remember the time I told you guys about me almost knocking some
thief down over there cos he was being chased across the road by a
safeway worker ? Remember my car wiper's being stolen, and shortly
after being broken into, my tackle box gone, my beloved oakleys
missing, and the car scratched ? about my friend's car's dashboard
being smashed and his stereo being ripped out ?
What I cannot take, is Singapore turning into the sort of place
I left behind !!!!!!
and now we have punks robbing fishing reels on a public and
crowded fishing jetty, and people being hacked to death in the
middle of orchard ?!?!?!?! ....
You will always have the poor with you, even the bible
acknowledge that. There are poor people even in the richest
nations. You'd always have people who fail in life and fall by the
wayside, whether by choice or fate, even in the richest nations,
that's why there are still bums and homeless on the cities of even
countries with social security.
But crime is something that can be controlled, and this sense of
security, this freedom to roam anywhere on this small island at any
hours of the day, is probably one of the few things we have going
for ourselves. Lose it, and we are farked .... 
hey, don't forget people getting the shit beaten out of them on
buses and trains! :P
but this change has less to do with the police presence or
the lack of it, its more the people living on the island that
are changing.
