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Serious Boycott 'Criminal Minds' Show! Anyhow Say Geylang Is The 'Dark Side of Paradise'!

JohnTan

Alfrescian (InfP)
Generous Asset
cbs_what.png


American television series Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders has drawn flak for its inaccurate and "stereotypical" portrayal of Singapore, after an episode set here was aired on April 12.

In the episode, titled Cinderella And The Dragon, a group of investigators are on a case of two American flight attendants who have gone missing in Singapore.

In one scene, the characters discuss Geylang. Special Agent Clare Seger, played by American actress Alana de la Garza, says Geylang is "the dark side of paradise".


In her spiel, she says: "Officially it's known as the red-light district, but more accurately it's an overcrowded slum with a thriving underworld. In a country as affluent and educated as Singapore, employers have a hard time finding unskilled workers to do manual labour, so they get migrant workers from other countries to come do the menial jobs, but then that leaves the Ministry of Manpower with nowhere to put them, so a lot of times as a result they end up in government dormitories in Geylang."

Other inaccurate bits include a reference to Singapore Police Force as "Singapore PD".


"The country experiences fewer than 10 murders a year," one officer quips in the show.

"To keep crime low, Singapore's justice system is intentionally swift and severe," says Seger. "There's no such thing as trial by jury. Judges have been known to pass harsh sentences for foreigners who commit crimes."

"Isn't Singapore where that kid was caned for being drunk in public?" Mae Jarvis, played by actress Annie Funke, asks.

"Yeah. In 1993, an American college student was convicted of public intoxication and vandalism. He maintains to this day that he was coerced by Singapore Police into a false confession," answers her colleague.

This appears to reference the 1994 Michael P Fay caning, where the 18-year-old was sentenced to six strokes of the cane for theft and vandalism.

An article by "geek" community news site geekculture.co on Sunday (April 16) listed 20 mistakes in the episode.

The "misrepresentation" of Singapore irked netizens on various social media platforms, who pooh-poohed the episode for spreading misconceptions.

Wrote Facebook user Shahara Nordin Rogers on Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders' Facebook page: "Their depiction of Geylang is off. The red light district is definitely there but that area is not a slum for sure."

http://www.straitstimes.com/lifesty...-depiction-of-singapore-slammed-as-inaccurate
 

jw5

Moderator
Moderator
Loyal
Criminal Minds - Beyond Borders stars Gary Sinise of Forrest Gump and CSI New York fame. :biggrin:
 

po2wq

Alfrescian (Inf)
Asset
gahmen shud ban it! ... n bar dose involved in iz production 2 enter sinkielan ... :mad:
 

Jah_rastafar_I

Alfrescian (Inf)
Asset
Seriously in today's SG there are ppl irked by the accurate depiction of Geylang and the overall SG justice system? Geylang isn't a slum?

Oh sure it definitely isn't on the same lvl of slumdom compared to the likes manila or mumbai for example but just walk thru geylang, go thru the backlanes. Does it look different from say any other part of SG? Obviously geylang is a slum and the gang/prostitution/illegal gambling/drug problems have been ongoing for years now. It's not a secret.
 

JohnTan

Alfrescian (InfP)
Generous Asset
Seriously in today's SG there are ppl irked by the accurate depiction of Geylang and the overall SG justice system? Geylang isn't a slum?

Oh sure it definitely isn't on the same lvl of slumdom compared to the likes manila or mumbai for example but just walk thru geylang, go thru the backlanes. Does it look different from say any other part of SG? Obviously geylang is a slum and the gang/prostitution/illegal gambling/drug problems have been ongoing for years now. It's not a secret.

The Singapore PD has been aggressively shutting down vice places and putting gangsters behind bars. You can always check with political gangster Chee.
 

frenchbriefs

Alfrescian (Inf)
Asset
Obviously the show has gotten the definition of a slum wrong.orchard Rd is a slum,aljunied is a slum,hougang is a ghetto.geylang is far from a slum,in fact all the fancy hotels and restaurants has brought a certain economic prosperity to the area.
 
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