Sleepless in Singapore: Peeping Tom

In our hall, we have five blocks with four floors each. In each of the blocks, the guys stay in the first floor. The reason for this is something they call "peeping toms", who are people that sneak around windows to catch a peek of the girls! To avoid this from happening, they have all the girls staying on the 2nd and 3rd floors. Apparently it is a big problem here so they are always telling people to be careful. I am on the 4th floor so I have nothing to worry about (apparently there are girl peeping toms too!). I find this phenomenon extremely weird. How desperate do you have to be to risk soo much just to catch a glimpse?! I mean there's the internet where you can catch as much "glimpses" as you want and there is no stopping you.

I've noticed this sense of desperation in all asians in general. Even the Indian students that are here are the same way, and as I recall, the Indian students in Toronto are also the same. They are always on the internet checking out what it has to "offer" and downloading all kinds of videos. I have a friend who has about 40 GB of videos. It is truly mindboggling how people can be that desperate. As far as I know, North Americans are not like this (I may be wrong..). Perhaps since I've spent my teen years there, I find this pretty surprising.

Whats the reason for this? I think it is one of the disadvantages of having "rules" and a sense of "culture" in general. With all these restrictions and obligations, people become suffocated in a sense and try to exit through these means. In Toronto, I thought this was only the Indian students that were there and they only do it because they are so far away from home and they are lonely or something. But this seems to be much bigger. I didnt know the south-east asians were this desperate. I would definately conclude that this is simply because of the restrictions placed on the people by their culture.

In North America, everyone is free to do what they want and there are no 'judges'. Perhaps this is why it loses its appeal. It becomes something like eating junk food or something. You like to do it once in a while (for biological reasons), but not all the time... Anyway, I feel awkward even writing about this so I will stop now.