Couple of days back I was cycling along East Coast Park in the morning, and came across some Primary School having a mass run in the park.
Of course I stopped to take some pictures. Before I took the third picture, the questions came:
"Excuse me, who are you?"
"Are you a parent?"
I said "No, I'm just a hobby photographer," and flashed my most brilliant smile.
Nope. Didn't work. Next came the inevitable question:
"Is this allowed?" (asked aloud, to all present).
You could see some of the other teachers starting to shake their heads dubiously. As Sim Wong Hoo pointed out in his analogy about the "No U-Turn Syndrome" (aka NUTS) - when faced with a question about whether something is allowed or not, the typical Singaporean response is to assume it isn't, unless expressly stated that it is.
I did not want to waste time explaining that just because I was not a parent, that did not make me a pervert, that whether I was a parent, pervert or photographer, this was a public park, not private premises, and that it would be infringing on MY personal liberties if I was forbidden to do something that could by no stretch of the imagination be construed as a public nuisance.
I took some more pictures, then cycled off.
Of course, if I had been Tom "The Myth" Shen, the pretty young teachers would all have crowded round me asking to have their photographs taken. But that's another story.
