By the title, one might suspect I'm gg to pay a tribute to our young nation with her 45th birthday just round the corner. Oh no no no no no. That's not what I'm about to say. What I wish to discuss or rather complain here is the 'fine' spirit of Singapore which has recently seeped into a new corner of this little island ! Yes! For the clever ones, the MRT trains !!! It so happens that I glanced at the TV today and so happens that I saw this news on channel U's 11pm news where a reporter was invited to go on these spot-check rounds with a MRT staff on the trains. Not to mention that I hardly consider this news important enough to be put into a clip and shown on a golden 30mins of news time, but what's disturbing is that the MRT staff not just go ard disturbing adults, but also went round dishing out warnings (maybe fines =Z) to mothers whose babies are so cute and innocently sucking on their milk bottles (regardless of their content). He kindly offered to bring them to the staff office of the next station to let the babies finish their unfinished business BUT they have to stop their action of drinking now cos it's fineable by law. (to which a mother replied no need cos she needs to rush to destination). Hmm... very fine example of law enforcement, very fine haul for the staff that day & a very fine alternative solution given, all's fine, except... I wonder if the babies will be fine if the bottles were wanked away from them (that incidentally wasn't shown on the clip). Heaven knows, the cuties might just turn into bawling monsters the next moment if they were inflicted with thirst and hunger. The point is aren't we becoming too fine that it's become inflexible ? I dun mind if adults have to bear with the thirst for a ride that can sometimes last longer than an hour (on an island less than 50km in length) cos our physique should be still fine with that, but it's NOT FINE to extend that rule to teethless babies. That just adds another discouraging factor to have babies. Who knows, maybe the next time the news clip will show a poor brute on the verge of a heart attack but got fined for taking his pills with water. Saved life but burned pocket. Tsk tsk tsk.
To cut the alr very long story short, I think as our nation steps into its 45th year of independence, we ought to rethink about some of our methods of doing things. Law is good, but I hope we all bear in mind that 法外有情. Do not let our reputation as a fine city spread get a booster to its pun.
