The crowds in the shopping malls are back. The SARS paranoia that kept people at home for the past months is dying down, now that more is known about the virus, and that the virus seems to be under control locally. Quarantine orders had been handed out generously on the side of caution, all incoming visitors to Singapore screened for fever, not to mention that travel in the region was devastated by the SARS scare anyway. So the rate of new infections in Singapore has been steadily decreasing, if it hasn't been zero for the past few days already.

Ridiculous things that happened during this scary period: Billions of dollars were being lost from the suffering tourism industry in the region, and Indonesia, instead of helping its people and their loss of income, went ahead and demanded that visitors from all coutries except 11 (down from a 50-odd number) now need to apply for visas before they can enter Indonesia. Reason for this new travel regulation? The Indonesian government didn't like how its citizens were facing stringent passport checks when traveling to places like US and Europe. Of course, what Indonesia seems to forget is that it is a confirmed haven for runaway Islamic terrorists, despite their previous lackwit denials to the contrary, before the Bali bombings.

Second stupid thing that happened: Because countries in south-east Asia were issuing travel warnings against China during the height of the SARS scare, China got miffed (this was still in their deny-and-cover-up period) and...get this...banned all group tours from China to countries like Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam. Loss of tourist revenue aside, I think China's action gave these countries more reason to breathe a sigh of relief than to feel sorry about their travel warnings. Especially since China was and still is the only country where SARS infection is largely unpredictable and uncontrolled.

Third stupid thing: I did not know this, but Hong Kong people are said to view themselves in competition with Singapore, and this has been especially true lately of the handling of SARS in these two countries. I suppose Singapore and Hong Kong are both largely urban and with a lot of international trade and traffic, though Hong Kong has cooler weather and higher population density. Now, the number of infected in Hong Kong has reached well over a thousand, while the number of infected here is currently at 201. So, Hong Kongers were said to be triumpant with the fact that at least the death rate of SARS-infected in Singapore (24 dead in Singapore) is much higher than the death rate in Hong Kong, which, IIRC was calculated at 4%.

Someone forgot to tell the Hong Kongers that of course their "death rate" would be much lower than Singapore's since their rate of new infected cases coming in everyday beat Singapore's by far. And I had to break out laughing when a Star News Asia report said Hong Kongers were "afraid" that the SARS death rate was going to rise, now that the rate of new infections was decreasing. "Afraid"? Don't you want the infection rate to go down? I don't know if the report was being honest about the general attitude there, or exagerrating, but it was sad to hear it all the same.

So, on Thursday May 1st, which was a holiday here, the local theatres were packed when I went to catch X-Men 2 with a group of friends. (Ten of us in a row. Because you have to watch geek movies in geek groups.) For some reason the reviews had built me up to expect a much, much cooler movie than the first, which I didn't think it was. It had to do mostly with pace, storytelling and amount of action. It felt like there was a lot of waiting for the really short cool parts.

I am also one of those who is a bit familiar with the comic book series (though hardly the whole series--too damn long, and I was relying on the kindness of people who owned the comics) and I had also watched how the TV cartoon adapted the original comics. I have to say that I really dislike the film version of Rogue, though most of the rest of the main characters are cast very well. I also don't like what this latest film does with Lady Deathstrike and Jean Grey. So I came out of the theatre unsatisfied, and when the group of us sat down for iced coffee afterwards (NOT AT STARBUCKS), I said what I thought. R looked at me and said: "You have too much emotional baggage!"

Mind you, it's probably true, but it was also bloody hilarious to hear it from someone honest. It certainly would have applied to the mood I was in after watching The Two Towers.