Singaporean Ironies

If I open my eyes a little, I find quite a lot of ironic, amusing and contradictory things going on here. I am in one of, if not THE cleanest city in world, yet wherever I go to eat that's fast food (a la Singapore - don't think Mac Donald's or anything), napkins are noticeably missing and the food is particularly messy to eat - there's a lot of splattering going on, and/or you are literally eating with your hands. I only ever realize this when I am in some sort of compromising position and wind up having to make do with my bare arm, sleeve, or shorts.

I also see "Employees must wash hands" signs everywhere, but there are no paper towels. Where do they dry their hands? On their dirty clothes. At one particular hawker stand (the Singaporean equivalent of a fast food stall) after I had placed my order for fresh naan (the stall had gotten an A for hygiene -and I must say everything was very very clean), I noticed the man who was about to make my fresh naan wipe the sweat from his forehead onto a wet kitchen cloth, use the same cloth to wipe his utensils, the counter, his hands and God only knows what else, and then dive his freshly cleaned hands into what would soon be a part of my lunch. As he spread the dough over the counter, I was relieved to see that my naan was to be cooked in a stone fire and duly disinfected!

What I also find amusing here is the water conservation efforts. You go to these ultra high end malls that have posted signs about environmental friendliness and the importance of water conservation - all the taps in bathrooms are on short timers (like 2 seconds), and the toilets have the "half-flush" button for inoffensive business, and then you see these unbelievably elaborate (and beautiful) water displays, fountains, water walls - you name it - that must use up literally tons and tons of water, but you are not given a full 2 seconds to rinse the soap off your hands!
Another discovery I made, through an unfortunate experience - for me - was my discovery that you can't use your ATM card in any ATM but the one that belongs to your bank. Not even for an additional fee. For such a capitalistic country, I find this surprising as banks could be making an killing from these fees. I discovered this when I was in a Taxi with Charlie that didn't take credit cards. I had not a penny, and so spent 25 minutes (after a 30 minute drive) having the cabbie going around looking for any ATM, hauling a very compliant Charlie in and out. At the time I didn't realize that I could only go to my personal bank's ATM and got increasingly more panicked as I kept getting "declined" and "unable to process" messages. My fare, I knew, was substantial enough that the Singaporean generosity would not kick in this time (I also don't think my driver was Singaporean). We eventually went to the largest mall, and I had to go down several levels to find my bank's ATM, and (phew!) there were funds in there after all. $30 later, I stepped out of the taxi very relieved and swearing never to leave home without $20 in my pocket.