Tue Mar 1
1:21am
By Denise Cheong
Only in this city can you lose S$100 before you even get inside
the casinos, queue for two hours for bubble tea and join a dating
agency run by the government.
We all know about Singapore's air-conditioning, shopping malls,
hawker centers, fines for littering and carrying durians.
But did you know the Lion City also has a government-sponsored
dating agency and a Merlion hotel? Here are 10 more eyebrow-raising
facts about the Little Red Dot.
We haven't seen queues like this since Hello Kitty showed up at
McDonald's, but trendy bubble tea stores like Koi, Gong Cha and I
Love Taimei have really been cashing in on our tenacious tea
drinkers who are willing to queue up to two hours for their
fix.
Girls don fake lashes, bambi eyes and Japanese-styled French
maid costumes at the Akibanana Café and Bar (108 Tanjong Pagar
Road, +65 6222 2087) to serve your every whim and fancy.
These Meido-sans will spoon-feed you, do your nails, and even give
you a massage.
Lo and behold, our nation's favorite half-fish half-lion will
"undergo a transformation from February 7 to March 9 to turn into a
temporary hotel suite to welcome quests for overnight stays.
As if our Merlion has not been subjected to enough mockery, we now
have a hotel erected in its name.
Yes, we're the only country in the world that enforces a casino
entry fee for locals and we find it thoroughly absurd.
But please, don't try to be hero and fake a foreign identity
card just to evade the fee; several people have already been
arrested, fined and jailed for using another person'sSingapore Work
Permit card to enter the casino.
As part of our government’s plan to “secularize” Singapore, we
now have a law stating that “shouting and other forms of unruly
behavior are prohibited; participants shall not paint their faces
or bodies or wear any form of disguise.”
Right, so where does this leave ethnic festivals such as
Thaipusam? And seriously, where was this heinous rule during our
YOG opening ceremony?
Again, we’re the only country in the world that has a national
campaign to promote kindness and care among citizens. “Kindness is
in everyone”? Clearly, it isn’t.
Oops sorry, it's the Social Development Unit, our very own
government-sponsored dating agency. Be prepared to receive an
exclusive membership invitation (at an annual fee of only S$10)
from the SDU if you're above 30 and (still) not married.
Over 80 percent of Singaporeans live in a Housing Development
Board (HDB) flat and with one million of them built you'd think
securing one would be easy.
Sadly no, the HDB dictates that a racial quota be met before
homeowners can secure a flat of their choice -- with a maximum
ethnic limit per block of 25 percent Malay, 87 percent Chinese and
15 percent Indian/Others.
Does this policy serve to integrate or segregate?
We’ve spotted a “No Making Out” sign at the Mandarin Gallery
several months ago. Has anyone been brazen enough to challenge this
yet?
Singapore, you know it as "A Fine City," or the "Little Red
Dot," but it should also be dubbed the “Tuition Nation.” The
Straits Times coined the term some years ago and the saying still
holds true with over 540 (and counting) tuition centers islandwide,
their banners adorning every wall and fence possible.
This tuition-chasing phenomenon is making parents more kiasu and
uptight, and their kids (future leaders of tomorrow, right?) more
umm, myopic, in more ways than one.
