Bravopilot I was told the reason for banning the chewing hum in the country was mainly because kids will stick their chewed gum on the sensors of the automatic door on the Singapore's Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) subway. Which delayed the schedule often. Being a social democratic society, a few people decided that the chewing gum has no nutritional value, creates garbage, so banned for everyone, including the visitors. Yes, the littering law is strictly enforced when I was there. Hard to imagine it was the dirtiest port in Southeast Asia before it got independent from the British Empire.
Also while I was in High School there ( Singapore American High School), cops came on the campus with a name list to bust students who was buying and using soft drugs. Maybe a dozen got arrested and jailed for sometime until our Embassy negotiated with the local government for sparing them from being canned and jailed. I heard those got released back to their parents and banned from entering the country for life. Yes, they still enforce the canning as part of the sentence for crime committed. At the same time, everyone knows there were opium den around Sago Street, Smith Street, and Mosque Street( near the old Chinatown). Government tolerated the addicts from decades ago to live out their lives using opium ( heard it was super cheap, less than the cost of liquor). So that kind of government could exist in a small dynamic place but it'll never work here. I remembered the way they solve the traffic jam issue with police standing in the change zone from two way traffic to one way during rush hour, ticket books in hands and waving violators to pull over for hefty fine. I also remembered that none citizen could only rent/lease real property but can not own one. Apartment/condo units are okay but no independent single family dwellings. Lots of funky rules and regulations.
But for all honesty. That was the only city I feel safe as teenager walking in the streets with friends after curfew ( 11P.M.?) at graduation night. I don;t miss the hot and humid days and the sudden spur of rain storm there, but I miss the food and the people there and of course the time period while I was there. Rockefeller was the vice president, he visited our school when he was on his Asian Tour.
