Every move you make, every step you take, I'll be watching you?

I referred yesterday to an almost paranoid worry about Singapore's future existence as such, as we mark our 49th year of nationhood. And what do I see today (Aug 9) in ST's commentary pages?...

The full article by Shane Harris in Foreign Policy (July 29) may be accessed online:

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2014/07/29/the_social_laboratory_singapore_surveillance_state
____________________________________________________

The other interesting article in ST (Aug 9) was the one about how an out-of-the-box idea for a floating platform cum parade ground (The Float@Marina Bay, the world's largest floating platform) nearly never came to fruition, all because of bureaucratic timidity ("extreme aversion to risk")...

______________________________________________________________________

So what else were special on our 49th birthday? Given my poor eyesight, I thought this ad gave a super deal...

...until I saw the fine print:

I like Singapore Post's National Day ad...

________________________________________________________

Finally, National Service is, appropriately, so intertwined with National Day commemoration...

ST, Aug 8

But the institution memory is fading. Back then, we (at least those of us in the earlier batches; I was in the sixth batch) did not call the "wife" we constantly cradled the M-16 rifle. We knew it as the AR-15 (Assault Rifle number 15) even though it was the same American-made rifle. Who among today's crop of journalists would have known that?