This thought was going through my head when I was reading an article about Singapore and the heavy fines and restrictions they have against any unorderly conduct. It’s pretty common knowledge that they don’t allow chewing gum and I think you can be fined and jailed when caught, but did you know pornography was illegal. A man caught with pornographic dvds at the airport was arrested and detained I believe and later fined.
This reminded me of a country in 12 Kingdoms (Juuni Kokki – 十二国記), another anime classic for me. Really loved the storyline. The country Singapore reminded me of was Hou (芳極国), where the King was really pure and innocent but got detached from reality. He wanted everyone in his country to be pure and innocent too, and started increasing punishment for the smallest crime. If you were late to work, you were executed. If you didn’t pay your bill on time, you were executed. You have to remember, the Kings of the countries in 12 Kingdoms are selected by a Kirin (麒麟 – a mythical creature), and their rule is absolute and once selected, you have immortality unless your Kirin dies or you get killed. So, one of the King’s most trusted official could no longer stand the massive killing decided to revolt, killing the King and the Kirin. Though after the revolt, he did not want to ascend as the temporary King and would only help with governmental matters aside. He wanted everyone to know that he did not kill the King to obtain power. In fact, the King and him were extremely close friends, but because he lost sight of reality, this was something he had to do.
I’m not sure if Singapore is headed in the same direction, but I’d sure hope not. Though there is good news. There was recent news they allowed the first sex exposition to run in Singapore. It was called Sexpo 2005, but there were many restrictions such as no homosexuality, S&M, or beastality were allowed. There were many police and security officers all over the expo to enforce this.