Sin City

Engsiong Tan
3 min readJul 31, 2022

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Guilty by association

When I was a child, I was given a very wise and important advice. “Never do anything that will make you the headlines in tomorrow’s news.” This advice has aged badly because people today do not read hardcopy newspapers. The e-copy is usually cheaper and easier to read on the go. So it should be reworded to “Never do anything that will make you name appear in my google newsfeed.”

Photo by Roman Kraft on Unsplash

I suspect that some of my readers will think only about the positive headlines. That is one thing that I am willing to forgo. I have seen enough child celebrities that never became adult stars. Being forced to live in the past can be painful. Or adult stars that never have privacy. The constant attention is similar to being in a prison. You might want to watch The Truman Show to understand the need for privacy. Plus if I only wanted positive headlines about me, I would have moved to North Korea.

Resignation

A president fled to Singapore before tending his resignation. The president had to flee as his people had entered his house and started using the facilities. (At least a pool and a gym. That is probably why he manage to outrun the mob.) Some people even grab a meal from his kitchen. His people in Singapore tried to meet him at the Singapore airport to give them a price of their mind but he managed to give them the slip.

What I dislike about the story was that the president chose to land in Singapore before tending his resignation. In this day and age, you can send an email from your smartphone. Couldn’t he had done it on the way to the airport? When he was onboard the plane? There is such a thing as WiFi onboard plane. The fees may cost an arm and a leg but as a president of a country is an email too much too ask? A direct flight from his country to Singapore takes more than three hours. Moreover, he flew in business class. I guess nobody does business onboard business class anymore.

Repayment

A couple of guys in Singapore apparently owe people billions of dollars. More, accurately, a hedge fund owes money to many institutions. The reason? They were long on cryptocurrency. If they had betted their own money, this would be a none story. But they borrowed cryptocurrency from other institutions. These other institutions also borrowed the cryptocurrency so are in a similar spot of bother.

While these gentlemen were bullish on other people’s money (Or cryptocurrency), they were strangely quite prudent with their own property. One of them put his son’s name on a deed instead of putting it in his own name. Perhaps the writing was on the wall. Or craved into the memory of the Internet.

They purchased a yacht and they currently cannot be contacted. The silence is deafening.

Relative

Nobody is perfect. But what I hate is people coming to Singapore to flee from their crimes or debts. Other people are left behind to pick up their mess.

Photo by Derek Lynn on Unsplash

The lack of remorse or attempt at redemption of certain people ire me. When they were powerful or rich, they did not bother to hide. But when they are down and out, they all have golden parachutes. Their escape plans are better than those in Mission Impossible. The rest of the Singaporeans now have to play Among Us.

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