Recently, DBS, Singapore's biggest bank and the one with the widest network of ATMs, suffered a system outage that brought their ATMs and Internet banking to a grinding halt island-wide. 

From around 3am Monday morning till about 10am that same day, folks could not do Internet and phone banking, draw cash from ATM machines, or pay with their debit cards. 

When I found out about this technical glitch, I immediately went to my nearest ATM, once it was back online, to see if I had gained an extra million dollars. To my disappointment, the system outage did not bless me with the additional funds. Dang it. 

A later news report said that the bank has ruled out "sabotage". 

Which means poor system design or stupidity was to blame for the seven-hour financial blackout. Very reassuring. 

Poor IBM. I'd hate to be in their shoes right now, "helping" DBS with their investigations. 

Good thing I don't do much shopping at 3am in the morning or I'd be really mad. The only thing I do at 3am in the morning is buy fishball noodles for supper and the fishball noodles man does not take debit cards. 

Age of the cashless society?

If you are wondering why it is a big deal to have such a banking outage in Singapore, it's because a) infrastructure failure is unheard of here, and b) the government wants us to enter The Age of the Cashless Society even if they have to drag us kicking and screaming into it. 

As a country that prides itself in robust infrastructure and ruthlessly efficient public services, Singapore hasn't been doing too well lately. 

We've had a series of floods (What? Our canal standards going down the drain?), a Swiss man broke into a subway depot to vandalize an MRT train with graffiti, and now this ATM fiasco. 

This has led to soul searching and existential angst as we Singaporeans deal with the fact that our country has the capacity to be... well, messy.

When the graffiti-ed train rolled into the station, some people, the MRT staff included, even thought it was an advertising stunt. 

A person from another country would probably see the graffiti on the train and think, "Bloody vandals struck again."

We are not wired that way. Our brains would go, "No way ANYONE would cut a hole in the fence of a secure subway deport and vandalize a train like that in Singapore. Must be an ad."

It makes you wonder if all those tv commercials airing at MRT stations about looking out for suspicious people and their bags, do any good. A Singaporean is more likely to see a bulky bag taking an MRT train by itself and think, "Oh look, someone left a bag with a giant bowling ball and a ticking clock in it, on the train! Silly and forgetful fellow!" 

Government-endorsed graffiti

Perhaps we all need to go for some training on how to tell the difference between Officially Sanctioned Graffiti and Random Vandal Graffiti.

Knowing our government, there may soon be a law that states that if a company wishes to graffiti a train as an ad, there must be accompanying copy that reads "Licensed MRT Train Graffiti: Permit Number 32385", in a large bold typeface. 

Even illegal bookies are starting to get complacent in Singapore. Twelve bookies were nabbed at a coffee shop in Geylang, our red light district, for taking illegal World Cup bets. 

They don't seem like a bunch of competent illegal bookies if they can get raided like that. I saw little pieces of yellow paper and other low tech stuff in the photos of the police raid. That's just sloppy bookie-ing, if you ask me. 

Haven't these guys heard of the Internet and a paperless society? That's what happens when you are a bunch of baddies in a super-efficient city like ours. You get soft, you lose your edge. I mean, besides the fact that they were operating openly and leaving a paper trail the size of The Great Wall of China, these fellows did not run when the cops came. 

I mean, kudos to our super cops and all, but you know a society has gotten too safe and comfy when even its underbelly is well, overweight and flopping about. 

Get a grip, bookies! Go cashless! Take debit cards! And just hope the ATM network doesn't go down again.