Straits Times Forum - Charging laptops in the Community Centre

The Straits Times published one of my letters to the Forum (its in the Online edition and not the Print Edition). Read it if you are interested in my say:

http://www.straitstimes.com:80/ST%2BForum/Online%2BStory/STIStory_153523.html

I really loved the comments, especially the contrarian viewpoints that were offered. It is extremely interesting how very differently people can interpret my short letter from my original intention. When I wrote the letter, my thought processes were this:

- It only costs pennies to power laptops.

- There are more electricity draining equipment such as air-conditioners which are MUCH MUCH more expensive to run compared to laptops.

- CCs are funded by government money for the benefit of the public, especially poorer people. Come on, the Singapore government is super-duper rich. Just look at the PM's million dollar monthly salary. Why besmirch users for tapping into the power socket to power their battery drained laptops when it only cost pennies?

- I was also thinking in terms of the convenience provided to the casual user who may need to recharge his laptop once in a while. I am actually very thankful when I am outside to be able to find a place to charge my laptop battery so that I can continue using my laptop - especially at the end of the day (no thanks to lousy battery technology, most laptop battery can only hold 2 hours of charge). I sometimes do this at fast food restaurants (thanks, McDonalds).

- I am thus in favour that the publicly funded Community Centres allow users to recharge their laptops, and would like to encourage this behaviour.

Obviously, free facilities given in good faith should not be abused. Many critics against my letter state that providing free laptop charging will be abused by the public (and they really draw it to extreme conclusions). Unfortunately, the Singapore Government has been quite effective in teaching everyone that nothing is free (e.g. to get your free CPF $400 top ups during election year, you first have to put in $50 into your CPF account :-) ) and that free things will be abused.

Personally, I think we can encourage altruism in our society and not think so negatively about so many things. Call me the optimist :-)