"There are similarities between this bit of history and Singapore today. The death of the Sultan of Johor sparked a dispute between his two sons over who would succeed him. After Singapore’s founding Prime Minister died on March 23, 2015, a public feud broke out between his sons. The Straits of Malacca was a strategic point of contention between Holland and Britain during the Raffles’ time and is so presently between the US and China" - Toh Han Shih
Now for the good news: I won’t be thrown in jail for inadvertently smuggling a forbidden substance, lying at the bottom of my handbag, into the only place in the world where its importation and sale is prohibited.
Now for the good news: I won’t be thrown in jail for inadvertently smuggling a forbidden substance, lying at the bottom of my handbag, into the only place in the world where its importation and sale is prohibited. Still, guilty palpitations in the arrivals hall queue are unavoidable, awaiting scrutiny of our documentation by stern-faced immigration officers at Singapore’s Changi airport. Described by The New York Times as “so clean that bubble gum is a controlled substance” the import and sale of chewing gum was banned to combat the cost of cleaning all that masticated gunge off footpaths, walls and sneaky hiding spots, thus defiling this spotless south east Asian dynamic city state.