My friends and I travel annually and we have traveled extensively. My group has never experienced a traumatic and scarring experience in all our collective lives. We are friends coming from different parts of the globe. Our countries are US, France, Germany, Philippines, and South Africa. Every year we plan ahead and agree on travel plans. Recently it was to be Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand. So we all come from Manila travelling to Singapore, all of us went through the immigration without a problem except for our Filipino friend. She was berated and treated poorly inside a room, her fingerprints taken, and was held at the immigration for 24 hours and sent back to Manila. All her things were locked in a room without any communication devices. She wasn't even allowed to call anyone to advise friends or family what has happened to her to prevent them from worrying, WE were all worried because we didn't know what happened to her as she was not allowed to communicate with anyone. This is a lady who has a respectable job and volunteers her time to do charitable work. She has not committed any crimes and has been to Singapore multiple times because she is an avid traveler.

WE stayed in Singapore overnight waiting anxiously for news from our Filipino friend. We only heard from her when she was about to board a plane back to Manila. We decided to abandon our week of cafe-hopping and craft beer-hunting in Singapore and go back to Manila.

What happened to you Singapore? Your tough and unreasonable immigration policies are hurting not just your visitors, but your country too. YOUR TOUGH IMMIGRATIONS LAWS HAS BRED ABUSIVE, RUDE, ILL-MANNERED IMMIGRATION OFFICERS WHO ARE DRUNK WITH POWER. You cradle these monsters in your bosom as you try to justify your actions as protecting national interests. You pretend to be an open society free from xenophobia yet you single out a FILIPINO TRAVELER out of 4 other CAUCASIANS. You try to pacify your citizens by limiting immigrants and visitors to your country, yet they complain about bad service at restaurants, they complain about the inefficiency at the retails stores, they complain about everything. Progress is unstoppable. It's either you keep up or be left behind. You are on top now so your neighbouring countries do not complain about your poor treatment of their citizens at the immigration points. But be very very careful about your arrogance. There will come a time when they have better economies and they will stop coming to your soil to partake of your chill crab and casinos and stop trading with you because YOU ARE SUCH AN ASSHOLE.

Be a better person Singapore, before it's too late.