If you want to open a bank account, show me your IC (I do agree with this one requiring official ID). You want to buy cellphone service? Show me your IC (ok, I can still buy this, terrorists, yadda, yadda, yadda) You want to use the Clubfitt gyms? Show me your IC. You want a store discount card? IC. (I still have yet to hear of a decent, half-baked reason why this is necessary) You want to go to a spa? IC. (WTF?!) You want to talk to me? IC. (Ok, that last one I jest, but basically for any situation you can think of, and more I can't, that is the first thing people want to know.) To me, almost all of the situations above do not require official identification, yet people will obediently supply it. I'm slightly disturbed by this, due to the fact that, the information not only seems unnecessary and extraneous, but also because of the information security risks of having your IC stored in so many different places. Seriously, I've had an email response from a local government ministry that it was ok to send personal information and identification numbers over their obviously not secure website, because, if you read their Privacy Statement, it says it is secure, so there! Stop or I'll say stop again. The practice and acceptance is so widespread, and I am but one man, doing what little I can to stop the insanity, with no chance of winning.
Queues. For those of us from the only former British colony with a rebellious southern neighbour, that's a line up. They're everywhere and can even signify the popularity of a food stall or restaurant, though social experiments have proven that people will line up without knowing why, just because others have. While I think there's some room for improvements in the manner which they are used, overall I appreciate the order they bring. I giggled like a schoolgirl at the sight of a service rep at the ICA give a verbal beatdown to a PRC jumping the line. Of course, my mum nearly paid the price recently in Macau standing at the front of the line, the only thing separating a bunch of PRC from the buffet table. You'd think people who can fake just about anything could come up with a reasonable facsimile of civility.
On an unrelated note, can anyone else think of another job other than a cab driver, where it benefits you to be more incompetent? Think about it. So filing this under "Things I learned while watching Amazing Race (or actual experience)", cab drivers are a crapshoot because:
- don't always speak English (true even back in the T-dot) even in an english speaking country
- will never tell you they don't understand what you just said to them (remember what I said about seeing the lights come on? Unfortunately, once the cab is in motion, you're left to their devices)
- will never tell you they don't know where you want to go, regardless of whether or not that is true, and
- almost always expect you to pay in full for the Tour of Fill-In-Your-Current-Location (otherwise known as the fare) because 1, 2 or all of the above just happened to you. It is at this moment that you wish all cabbies were required to have "The Knowledge" that the reputedly best cabbies in the world have. At least then they might take some pride in their work. Or at least, not talk on their cellphone when you are trying to give them directions. But here, that'd be too much to ask.
