The Good and the Confusing

My expenses claims which totalled into gadzillions of dollars (ok, a bit of exaggeration but still bloody big - almost equivalent to one month's pay) and went back to January has finally been approved. I was beginning to fear that my claims had disappeared into the administrative blackhole which all taxi and entertainment expenses go into. I can imagine a graveyard where dead/rejected/misplaced claims went to rest. The cold moon was up in the night sky, throwing its unfeeling light over the graveyard. A rejected taxi receipt from NTUC Comfort fluttered forlornly in the distance while suddenly the black soil erupted and a dead dinner claim from Jan 2007 started to claw its way up and demand to be reimbursed.

I am now flushed with a bit more money than usual. So I felt like splurging again. Problem is that I have run out of stuff that I need to buy and I do hate buying stuff which I don't need.

Oh, one thing that bugs and confuses me no end is this whole rojak poisoning thing.

Granted, the impact of this food poisoning case is tragic but the reactions from media and public are as usual, knee-jerk and stupid. Some moron wrote in to ST and claimed that he was an expert in food safety and by looking at the picture of the stall, the stall should not have been operating. Then he lamented on Singapore's no wash hand before meals culture. And then, as if ST wants to be extra stupid with chili sauce, it runs an article that says 33% of Singaporeans did not wash hand.

You know, this is the part that always bugs me. As if washing hands before eating rojak or other food will prevent the person from falling into coma and dies. Pardon my Singlish, but can everyone be less stupid or not? Everybody uses utensils nowadays, even eating rojak. Scientifically, I just can't see the link between washing hands and dying in a coma induced by poisonous rojak.

If Singapore is unhygenic, then pray tell, how would anyone describe Laos and China? Devastating dirty? Unbelievably filthy? Many Singaporeans don't wash hands before meals because it is a relic from the past. Most of us are from poor families so when food is presented on the table, you run and grab and eat it before it bloody disappears. People from many cultures (African, Islamic, IndoChinese) engage in communal eating with their hands, passing food on common plates to one another.

It is an isolated incident. The rojak must have contained chemicals that can down a whale and in our case 139 people. Washing hands is not going to do any good.