All we have to fear is fear itself. FDR
Chewing gum is not illegal in Singapore! The sale, import or advertisement of it is:
From: http://www.visitsingapore.com/faq/template/display/1,1560,41,00.html#41
and
From: http://www.google.ch/search?q=cache:2DmUJmtFmSMJ:www.singaporelawfaq.com/chewing_gum_%26_smoking.htm+&hl=en&lr=lang_en&ie=UTF-8 (sorry – original page no longer exists)
Also note that the only laws being amended concerning the recent changes to allow therapeutic gums are import laws.
This is a huge misconception, not only amongst foreigners, but also natives. My reasoning is that those who grew up in Singapore have never had a need to test the law or go overseas to purchase gum.
Sadly, the ‘fact’ is constantly used as an example of Singapore’s oppressive system and many sites referring to Singapore on the Internet have the following paragraph:
The word ‘possession’ has no business being there.
True, but that type of attitude, if shared by a great majority of the population, is dangerous. Every person should live in another country for at least a couple of years. Someone who has not experienced another culture has an extremely limited view of things. I think it is safe to say that in general terms the people who have lived in other countries are the most open and understanding of other cultures while those who never left their country and have lived always in the same environment are the most intransigent with other ideas and cultures.
The same Americans who would consider Singapore is oppresive because you can’t buy gum there do not stop to consider that a great part of the world thinks America has gone absolutely crazy with regards to prohibitting smoking. Any European smoker would probably feel very oppressed in America.
hmn? why yes, yes i am. three? i think Lostcause might be one, though i don’t know him. who’s the rest? ^^
Well, there’s Dangergene, for one. And me. And now you. And maybe Lostcause. And given how easily xejkh is quoting Mr.Brown, maybe him/her too.
We should all get together for a Mee Siam-Tiger Beer dopefest. 
Or even Ireland, now 
But as some people have mentioned before, the idea of living in fear because of draconian laws has to be contextualized.
Agent Foxtrot’s point #1 has been debunked earlier, but let me offer another example. The average adult American in the average state pretty much “knows” that it’s “not accepted” (even if you yourself have a proclivity for it and wish it were legal) to date 14-year-olds if you’re 39, have a crack pipe and a .45 lying in plain sight on your car dashboard, play music at 140dB at 3 a.m. in a residential area, say “cunt” on broadcast TV, key the paint on someone’s car, hunt out of season, keep two wives in different states, drive drunk, piss on the public plaza’s flower beds, download Kiddie Pr0n off the net, slap your wife, claim fictional dependants in your tax return, etc., without necessarily knowing what it says in Section 100.02 of Article 98 of Title 33 or wherever the law or regulation against it is written. Growing up in a society where those are the rules of the game, they become second nature to the citizen – specially if the enforcement is perceived as mostly fair-handed and the result is a better quality of life.
Believing everybody in the world must want what you want shows quite some ignorance about the world and I am sure there are people like that everywhere but I get the impression it is more common in the USA, probably for two reasons, (a) because the USA is so big and Americans do not have so much contact or are influenced by other countries and cultures and (b) because American culture is so dominant and successful it maty seem natural to its natives that it must be better.
Look at Apos’s posts in this thread about China and you will see a pretty good example. He seems to think the Chinese people live under constant fear because they do not have the freedom to speak against their government in public. This person has obviously not spent any significant amount of time in China but also just lacks the capacity to realise other people do not make a huge deal about not being able to speak against the government. They know not to do it and they care about other things more. I would say if you ask most Americans what is important for them they will talk about job security, paying the mortgage, etc but criticizing the government is not at the top of the list. But Apos just seems to have this image of China as a place where people feel the daily oppression of their government. It is a propaganda stereotype which many Americans believe.
And yet, I have spent time in China and life there is more chaotic than in the USA. There is less regulation of what you can do in your everyday life and even what regulation there exists is observed in the breach most of the time. A Chinese person who went to America would feel much more oppressed by regulations and by their enforcement. Life in China is quite chaotic. I remember in a conversation someone referred to China a a “ruthless dictatorship” and someone who knew China well said “maybe, but it is a ‘ruthless dictatorship’ tempered by near-total chaos”.
To people who come from a place like that the USA can feel much more oppressive than their home countries.
I think it was during the Atlanta Olympics that some foreign athletes were caught by the police peeing in the street and they spent the night in jail. In most of the world peeing in the street would not get you this treatment and I remember many foreigners saying Americans are nuts without any sense of humor or proportion. Peeing in the street in China would definitely not get you thrown in jail.
But some Americans just cannot grasp the notion that for some Chinese guy peeing in the street is more important than overthrowing the government.
Europeans like their system of socialized health care, 4 - 6 weeks paid vacation per year and job security in that you cannot be fired without cause. They would not trade it for anything and they do not understand that the USA does not have these things but they figure Americans are different and to each his own. They do not seem to think Americans are suffering the explotation of the ultra-capitalist system.
Americans who take the attitude of preaching to the world how superior American culture is do not realise how ignorant and stupid they sound and how they are only contributing to the stereotype of the arrogant and overbearing American.
Sailor said rudely…
Sounding stupid and ignorant is but a small consequece of being free.
You and your socialist friends aren’t.
Sailor, pal. You’d best hope against hope that when the noose of oppression tightens around your collective necks that there is still a United States for you to tell your woes to. Otherwise you’d best become a robot and do the capricious will of those who are in charge of your fate. Good luck.
Please excuse me for preaching and sounding stupid and ignorant, I’m just an Americian and I don’t realise how I sound.
To bring this discission full circle, what fate doth befall the Urban Urinator in Singapore, I shudder to think.
Yours is just willful ignorance because plenty of people on this board, Americans and foreigners alike, have told you how ignorant you sound. In fact, while ther is plenty of disagreement on this board about other topics I think it is safe to say there is pretty much a unanimous consensus that your opinions are ignorant and stupid. I cannot think of a single instance where you have been defended by anyone here. So, Americans and non-Americans agree: your opinions are stupid and bigoted. What else do you need to take notice?
Milum, your calling me a “socialist” made me chuckle. You haven’t read many of my posts have you? If you had you would know I am as opposed to government intervention in the economy and in social affairs as is possible. Calling me a socialist is one more indication that you really don’t have a clue.
In the thread about China you kept interjecting your childish jabs until enough people told you to go away. You are a very good example of the provincialism we are talking about in this thread. Americans and non-Americans alike have told you so.
Hm, same as in America … If you get caught driving while intoxicated you get certain punishments. You have a choice, drink and drive, or don’t drink, and drive/drink and take a cab or have someone else drive. Vandalise cars and get caned/dont vandalize cars, and dont get caned.
People who live under restrictive laws do tend to be very aware of what laws cause what punishments. In general, you are raised knowing what behavior is acceptable, and what isnt. I really don’t see that as a sword of Damoclese. Can you absentmindedly trash a car, or drive drunk? If you know that opening the fridge 2x in 30 seconds will make a big boom, then you simply learn NOT to open the door 2x in 30 seconds.
mmm, mee siam dopefests.
IANAL. in case you’re serious, IIRC if one is stupid enough to do it in front of a police and it’s obvious you’re just making trouble, then a maximum fine of $1000 or something like that.
why would you want to pee in public 