A sense of personal safety.

I saw something really odd today. The oddest thing about it is that no-one else thought it was odd.

I was standing in a queue at the bank and, directly in front of me was a young woman of about 22, carrying a shopping bag from Watson's. After a while, she reached the front of the queue and was called over to a teller. She had to be called, because she was daydreaming. Given what she was carrying you would rather think she wouldn't be daydreaming.

Anyway, when she got to the teller, she handed over her shopping bag. The bank clerk looked within and began to pull out bundles of cash. The whole shopping bag was filled with money. Admittedly, it wasn't a large bag...but still, that was a large amount of money for a young woman to be carrying around in a plastic shopping bag.

I was rather startled. I was startled that the young woman was not, in fact, two large, burly men, wearing helmets, padded jackets and carrying guns. You see, in most countries that would be who would be delivering such a large sum of money to the bank. In Singapore, however, it was quite clear that a shop (as I assumed the money was from) felt safe sending a young shop assistant to deliver the funds.

I looked around...but no-one else was paying the girl any particular attention. No-one thought it was odd, in the least.

I realized then, that I was watching a scene that was quintessentially Singaporean. Only in a country in which people were ABSOLUTELY convinced of their personal safety would a shop send a young woman, alone, to deliver the day's takings to the bank. In any other country, burly, armed security guards would be doing the job. Or, at the very least a couple of beefy guys, alert and ready for trouble. In Singapore, however, they sent a daydreaming girl who was quite unaware of her surroundings, to carry thousands and thousands of dollars to the bank. I was flabbergasted.

In Singapore, there is a definite sense of personal safety. This is not entirely an illusion, for violent and personal crime is quite low. However, you should note that we have been stolen from THREE times in our eight years in Singapore...so this girl was not really as safe as she thought she was. I think theft is quite high in Singapore, since I have never been stolen from in Europe or America...in the other 33years of my life not spent in Singapore. So, if anything, theft is higher here, than where I spent most of my life. At least, that is the experience of my life.

Yet, it is true that people are quite safe in Singapore. Indeed, Singaporeans believe that they live in the safest country in the world. Now, this is not true. Even the Republic of Ireland has lower crime (particularly violent crimes, like murder) than Singapore (it is ranked the least violent country in Europe)...so there are other places with lower crime than Singapore. However, Singapore does have relatively low crime and that can only be a good thing.

More impressive though than the actual relatively low crime rate is the BELIEF people have about their personal safety...there is a definite sense in which people really feel safe on a daily basis. There is an absence of fear for personal safety that cannot, for instance, be felt, at all in the USA (a place which always puts me on edge, for obvious reasons).

For me, today's experience in the bank was a marvel. It brought home to me just what kind of place this was. It is a country in which people so strongly believe in their own personal safety that they give it no thought whatsoever. It is a place in which young women feel safe carrying thousands of dollars in cash, in a plastic shopping bag. I can't think of anywhere else on Earth, in which someone would actually do that. Even in the safer places than Singapore,such as Ireland, people are not so sure of their safety to do so (or perhaps not so naive...).

Of course, this leads me to wonder just what would happen to a girl like that, if she were to move to London, or New York. I don't think she would live a week. Her behaviour would be so naive it would only be hours before she would run into trouble. So, there is a downside to this. Singaporeans should not forget that the rest of the world is not such a controlled place as Singapore. To live and think like a Singaporean outside of Singapore (except for a few places) would be a really stupid thing to do. In some respects, it is pretty stupid to think like this girl, too, even inside Singapore...but that is another issue.

Nevertheless, today left me with an indelible image of a young woman, quite inattentively carrying a very large amount of cash, without any concern at all.

How odd.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and seven months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, five years exactly, and Tiarnan, twenty-eight months, please go to:http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, wunderkind, wonderkind, genio, гений ребенок prodigy, genie, μεγαλοφυία θαύμα παιδιών, bambino, kind.

We are the founders of Genghis Can, a copywriting, editing and proofreading agency, that handles all kinds of work, including technical and scientific material. If you need such services, or know someone who does, please go to: http://www.genghiscan.com/ Thanks.

IMDB is the Internet Movie Database for film and tv professionals.If you would like to look at my IMDb listing for which another fifteen credits are to be uploaded, (which will probably take several months before they are accepted) please go to: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3438598/ As I write, the listing is new and brief - however, by the time you read this it might have a dozen or a score of credits...so please do take a look. My son, Ainan Celeste Cawley, also has an IMDb listing. His is found at: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3305973/ My wife, Syahidah Osman Cawley, has a listing as well. Hers is found at: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication prohibited. Use Only with Permission. Thank you.)