This is the inaugural post for my newest (And first.) weekly segment on my blog.
So the basic point is that Singapore has a tendency to point out the obvious, sometimes the blatantly obvious.
I had an earlier post that alluded to this phenomenon before, where a cardboard police officer was giving advice to observant customers at a mall. But now that I have been here longer I now realize this is an epidemic of extremely simple public announcements, normally accompanied by a cartoon character.
The above picture is pointing out the obvious; don’t take something that doesn’t belong to you. But it’s the nonchalant delivery of this information that makes it odd to me.
In America a poster providing the same information would say something similar to, “Under penalty of law do not remove personal property other than yours from the premises.” Or “Royce Kids Gym is not responsible for the loss of personal belongings while in use of our facilities.”
To me the way Royce Kids Gym seems to put it makes the act of stealing something like an accident, or if it was done on purpose then an act that is frowned upon and the punishment is going to bed without your diner.
From a country that has on its disembarkation ticket stub, “Warning death for all drug traffickers under Singapore law” this seems like a very lenient warning for the crime of theft.
But then I am reminded that this is a private business most likely run by a Singaporean family, and in Singapore courtesy is a very important virtue. So a demanding or overtly aggressive message just wouldn’t be culturally correct.
This is a country where people actually move over in the subway when other people need to get on and where people will still hold open doors for others (Chivalry isn’t dead, it just moved eastward.)
tylerkellyon 