Arrest me but only after dinner

Every morning and for a month now we have been receiving a copy of the Straits Times, the most popular newspaper in Singapore albeit almost the only local one written in western characters. There is always the News section, the Home section, classifieds and other bits and pieces. After a month however it is clear that today's news is more or less the repetition of yesterday's news.

There is always the discussion about house prices, how they are going up and how the government should intervene to calm them while some MPs think instead that house prices going up are a good thing because it means the market is living and dynamic.

There is then the debate about HDB, the equivalent of Council homes in the UK or low cost housing heavily subsidised by the government. There are strict rules controlling how these homes should be used by the locals and how they invariably abuse the system, get caught and pay a hefty fine. One would think that they would have understood it by now but no, they still try to beat the system.

There is then the announcement of the grand opening of a new shopping mall or a new condo that promise to change life the way you know it into something out of this world.

Lately there is the story of a Romanian diplomat who supposedly mowed down an innocent bystander in a hit and run incident and then said the car had been stolen even if it was sitting the whole time at the Romanian Embassy. The story is so dodgy I wonder how he thinks he can get by with it.

So we are now thinking of stopping the delivery service and save a couple of bucks by reading old copies.

Today however there was one good story and I am still rolling on the floor laughing after reading the article.

It's about a tax official in Jakarta who fled to Singapore after being accused of bribery and corruption. Clearly a serious story with serious implications. He was tracked down by the investigators and found having dinner at the Lucky Plaza, another one of the usual malls though with a rather seedy side to it.

The investigator was ready to pounce but waited until said rogue tax official had finished eating his meal of nasi padang, a mild curry dish originating from Indonesia.

Clearly being arrested after a meal is better than going to jail on an empty stomach but one would imagine that it was not really essential to the story.

In any case it is reassuring to know that Sing journalists have their priorities clear.