Last week in Singapore sure had us go WTF, with politics, buses being in places they shouldn’t be, and of course Amos Yee’s conviction, all making the front page of the news. Here are the top four stories this week that made us go WTF:
Bus drivers create their own routes
Residents of Kim Keat Avenue woke up to find an SMRT bendy bus stuck in the middle of the field. The bus driver was taking the bus to the depot, when he took a wrong turn on the way. He drove the bus onto the field in the hopes of making a U-turn, but instead got its wheels stuck in the soft ground for 10 hours. Workers had to attach the bus to a truck using a chain so that it could be pulled out from the field. The very next day, another bus found itself inside a tennis court near Yio Chu Kang MRT station. And they say Singapore is boring.
Our PM hopes are dashed
While many people were gleefully speculating that Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam would be one day become the next Prime Minister, he boldly announced that he’s not suited for the job, and that he knows what what he can and cannot do, emphasizing that he has a better grasp of making policies, advising the younger generations and supporting the current PM. He uses a sports analogy, saying that he “was always in sports, center-half rather than center-forward,” and prefers “playing half-back and making the long passes”.
Amos lands in jail
After a very public trial over a year ago that landed him in the IMH, irreverent YouTuber Amos Yee has been given a jail term of six weeks and a fine of $2,000 for eight charges: six for hurting the feelings of certain religions (namely Islam and Christianity) and another two for not showing up at a police station. He pled guilty to the charges.
Bet monitoring becomes a thing
While Singapore has not outrightly condoned gambling (in fact, they’ve expressed concerns about gambling addictions), Singapore-based lottery operators Singapore Turf Club and Singapore Pools were granted the green light to run their operations online after the Ministry of Home Affairs exempted them from the Remote Gambling Act. However, punters will have to explicitly state on the website exactly how much they’ll be spending, whether they’re placing bets for Toto, 4D, football, F1 sports or others.
