There is not a single Singaporean athlete at the Winter Olympics.

Today is the first day of Chinese New Year (or Lunar New Year, as it is also called, probably to be more inclusive). While this is not a whole week of public holidays (as it is in Mainland China), it does seem to be the most important holiday of the year here in Singapore, more so than Deepavali, Christmas and the other New Year. It certainly completely eclipses Valentine's Day, especially this year as they fall on the same date.

This year will be the Year of the Tiger.

Singaporean citizens have to register their race, and this is also indicated on their ID cards (not for foreign residents, we have "nationality" instead). In response to the growing number of mixed marriages, the registration law has been adjusted this year to allow the inclusion of two races, such as Caucasian-Chinese, or Malay-Indian. The two parts must obviously come from the parents, and it is not compulsory to use both: it is possible to use just the father's or (new from this year) the mother's classification. There cannot be more than two, however; a Chinese-Indian's child with a Caucasian-Malay will have to pick two. The registration must be done before the child turns fifteen.

The most prominent example where race plays into Singapore public policy is the allotment of public housing, which includes a quota system to prevent concentrations of ethnic groups in certain areas.

In a speech yesterday, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong commented on the debate regarding racial classification that he believes it is necessary to have policies and systems in place to deal with problems arising in a multi-ethnic society. He contrasts it with France, where all French are considered equal and racial classification is illegal. According to the PM, ignoring the existence of ethnic differences has not solved the issues arising from them.

There is no juice in the fridge.

Buy two packs of herbal tea and get a free oven glove. Top-up your mobile phone, and get free minutes plus a box of Oreos. Send ten SMS a day and get thirty for free. Buy Scott's Emulsion and get a colouring bag. The pack of margerine comes with a butter knife. Pay $12 for a five-year-membership to get a sports bag and a $10 discount for every language course. Spend $20 in a single receipt for a free ride on the toy pony. Spend $30 and enter the Holiday Draw. Pay $1 less for a cinema ticket with your OCBC credit card. Ask for your Citi privileges at the ice cream parlour.

I grew up in Germany with very strict consumer protection laws, which severely limited the more creative marketing activities that retailers would come up with. Probably due to EU pressure, loyalty programmes with point cards have in the mean-time become legal (and we know I love those), but all-year-round sales, buy-three-get-five deals, and crazy bundles are still impossible, I think. I am beginning to understand why.

Buy two packs of juice and get a free towel. Or a ball. Or a tote bag.

There is no juice in the fridge. I live in a shopping mall, but I drink tap water. The last three times I went to the super market, I refused to buy juice because there was no towel to be had.

In South East Asia, two fruits that you hardly found outside the region (at least I did not know them before coming here) are regarded king and queen of fruits, durian and mangosteen. The two species are not related, but they happen to share the same season (seasons themselves are not a given for tropical fruits, other types can be grown around the year), and people like to eat them together, so that the warming properties that durians are supposed to have (causing you to sweat excessively) are (according to traditional Chinese medicine) countered by the cooling properties that mangosteen has.

When it comes to fruit (or food in general), I am very conscious of practical concerns, as in how difficult fruit are to store, eat and dispose of. It seems to be that both of these royal fruit would not fare very well on the xkcd grapefruit matrix. Especially durian has problems there because of its strong smell. In Singapore, you are banned from bringing them aboard public transportation.

In 2003, Singapore stopped issuing one-cent coins. They remain legal tender but are hardly every used. I have not even seen one so far (even though there are still six million in circulation, roughly one per resident). So what happens in shops is that they round towards five cents, always in favour of the customer who for a purchase of 10.98 only has to pay 10.95.

I think that almost all countries are faced with production and handling costs for their lowest denomination coins that do not make sense. You could actually make money by melting them down and selling the scrap metal (which of course is illegal). But it seems that not many countries have adopted this pragmatic approach, which is apparently called Swedish rounding.

It would raise a lot of eyebrows (and lawsuits) in the West, but the visa application form for Singapore requires you to state your race and religion. It seems the government is taking an active approach to managing the country's ethnic composition. Apparently there is even regulation in effect to apportion access to public housing between Chinese, Malays and Indians.

Righteous indignation aside, there is a practical problem with the visa application now. Is Kai Caucasian or Chinese? Both? Other? All of the above?