I am in debt. Recently, there were reports that National Library Board (NLB) incurred losses of up to approximately $3 million dollars from those people who refused to pay the fine after returning the book late or even worse, not returning the book at all. This prompted NLB to send out reminders to these people (800,000) that decided to cheat the system.
Unfortunately, I am one of them. I owed a sum of, hold your breath, $3.05 for a book that I returned late in 2005. It really is a small sum and I intend to play the part of a good citizen and pay the fine this time. There were fines that were much lesser than me, so much so that they actually complained on national newspaper, saying "Why is NLB now asking me to pay a fine of 30 cents that I incurred years ago?".
When I saw the "complaint", I thought to myself "Because you simply refuse to pay the fine at that point of time when you returned late? Duh." I mean if you had paid the fine at that moment, would you then have received the reminder of such a petty fine? If it's your own fault, then learn to shut up and just pay the fine. And that's what I'm doing.
I am glad that NLB is a non-profit organisation. Can you imagine if it's not? NLB would be rich, with all those interest charges going as far back as 1998! Phew.
