Occupy what? S'poreans were 1st; it's called tissue chope-ing!

There's been a lot of media attention on Occupy Wall Street, Occupy DC, Occupy etc etc... even Occupy Raffles Place, which however fizzled out.

But no one has satisfactorily explained (till now) why Occupy Raffles Place turned out to be a damp squib. Come on, there is a huge "Occupy movement" in Singapore every working day -- with thousands "mobilised" -- and the folks who work around Raffles Place are in the forefront of this movement.

Yes, I'm talking about the Occupy Lunchtime Seats aka "chope-ing with tissue paper pack" (also can: umbrella, spectacle case, comb, even a condom packet if you really have to...) movement, played out Mondays to Fridays between roughly 11.30am and 1.30pm.

The almighty tissue pack scares the seat out of any transgressor. Angmohs even learnt not to pray-pray with this hallowed local custom, as this expat website's list of Singaporeans' quirks will attest:

http://www.virtualtourist.com/travel/Asia/Singapore/Local_Customs-Singapore-TG-C-1.html

One of the Angmohs, "Bladedragon", describing the tissue packs as "tissue scare crow" (a very clever coinage), even took some pictures:

So, now you know why the Occupy Raffles Place thing fizzled out. Everyone was rushing to occupy Lau Pasat and all those food courts in  the area.

P.S. Tonight's episode of The Pupil had this silly side-plot where a woman lawyer took a working class "auntie" to court (law court, not food court, hor) because the latter had sat down on a canteen seat the said lawyer had "choped" with a tissue pack.

In the end, the judge ruled in favour of the lawyer (you ask why? aiyah, the judge also chopes, lah!) but then intones as seriously as he could that his ruling was not meant to set a precedent. He then awarded a sum of $1 to the lawyer.

MediaCorp scriptwriters are clearly not creative enough. If they wanted this parody to have that touch of panache, then award the plaintiff... a tissue pack!