I really don't understand why anyone is surprised

I read with disgust the remark made by the newly disgraced local basketball coach who, having been dismissed by 2 schools for his leading role in the last Sunday Times' expose on underaged girls and men they meet on the Internet, still insisted that he was only trying to recruit new players for his basketball team and further explained that he had asked all those overtly sexual questions to the undercover reporter simply because he did not want sluts on the team.

I'm sure he believes that story is true.

Was just speaking with someone today about it and he expressed surprise that such people are a-lurking and in such large numbers. I gave him my honest view and that is - these people are bloody everywhere. I do not believe that any girl in Singapore can complete her entire course of puberty and not get flashed at even a single time. It's the school uniform that provokes it, quite frankly if you ask me. It's like a shining beacon of youth - everyone is attracted to it.

One fine day just as recess was over, I happened to mention to a close friend that I'd gotten flashed at just 2 days ago in a bus (no. 151, going past the old Whitley Secondary School). Meh. No big deal, she said.

She told me she got flashed at in a record store, when another customer who was browsing next to her decided to place his penis on top of a cassette display and she touched it by accident.

Another girl who dropped in on the discussion said she got flashed at walking back home from the bus-stop, from some guy sitting in a van waiting for his colleague. He just opened the door and there he was, more of him than she expected to see.

A fourth girl sitting nearby said she got flashed by her swim coach who was standing in the water teaching all the girls how to use their arms and legs to do the freestyle, and she noticed he had tucked the waistband of his speedos underneath his testicles, and was standing there, floating free.

A fifth girl said she had been flashed at walking through the park in Orchard Road where Wheelock Place now stands. Some naked man stepped out of the bushes as she passed by, which greatly expedited her journey through the park.

We were all 14, going on 15.

Not a single one of these incidents was reported.

Statistically considered, this was a random conversation, the girls were randomly selected and really, it's not like we were a particularly striking bunch of girls in any way. No models there. But just look at the results - every single one of us had been flashed at by the time we were 15. Why don't we report these things? Because quite frankly, no one wants to get into trouble.

And it's not just girls - a guy friend of mine who is now a doctor and presently much better equipped to handle the situation came scrambling out of a public toilet at the pre-renovation Plaza Singapura all pale and shaky because some guy standing behind him at The Wall asked him if he would like to "play my flute". He was 15. I don't know how old the flute was.