Wow. While any author would clearly have some opinion which would show in their writing, this author definitely feels too eager to paint Singapore into some kind of bleak dystopian society. My favorite part - randomly putting many pictures of security cameras throughout the article. As if office buildings anywhere in the world do not have security cameras.
> One does feel very watched in Singapore, though. I remember finding it interesting that there were cameras even inside the buses for public transport.
Same thing in America, this has been the case for a long time.
Helps two fold, with lawsuits against the bus company/ accusations against drivers, and of course with catching criminals.
> Helps two fold, with lawsuits against the bus company
I think the most succinct way to describe the US to an outsider, in a way that will help them understand or explain most of the behaviors that may seem odd, is that everyone's #1 goal all the time is to avoid ever taking the blame for anything, supported by a #2 goal of finding someone else to blame. In an ideal situation, things are arranged such that no one may be blamed.
My mother was a school bus driver for years, parents constantly accused her of things. The camera kept her safe. "My son wasn't hitting people, the bus driver was yelling at him for no reason!"
No, your son was in fact hitting people, and the bus driver kindly asked him to stop, which is all she is allowed to do.
She would have been fired multiple times over if it wasn't for the camera disproving wild allegations from parents who want to lay responsibility on anyone but their kid.
I'm not even saying it's irrational, due to priority #2. We love to find someone to blame, then hammer them hard. Best is if we ruin someone's entire life over whatever we've found that we can blame them for.
There are cameras inside the buses in San Francisco too.
I certainly agree with your assessment, cameras are obscenely obvious in Singapore, which leads to the feeling of being watched. The difference, I suspect, is that more money is spent to make the cameras an obvious fixture, and you can be sure that the well-connected government is tracking you through them. In Singapore, little brother and big brother are one and the same.
Pretty much any country rich enough to have cameras in busses does that... because it's common to have crimes on public transport and cameras help a lot with that. Do you expect privacy while on *public* transport?!
US busses are full of cameras. School busses, public transit busses. Basically all busses. I wouldn't be surprised if most charter busses have them, even.
Between this and the other article from the same site about Arabic moderation of Facebook that just made the front page, I'll leave it your judgement on what's going on.
