SINGAPORE, a few impressions

A little introduction

I’m back home, so after a breakfast/lunch (brunch?) with eggs and baguette, morning glory (really spicy, I love cooking even for myself, I discovered a few blocks from here a small vegetables market, choose different veggies and spices and try all of them…) and Vietnamese coffee… really strong, after a long night, I can’t think in something better than that.

But this post it’s not about “living in Hanoi… neither about coming back home”, I´m just going trough my notes about Singapore, the few impressions I documented while walking and enjoying the easiness of the lion island-state with almost 5 millions people in, a mix between Chinese, Indians, muslims and many, many Arabs and women in veils and westerners. English is official language there (the mandarin and tamil also).

Usually you must be asking yourself why I´m writing in English? Or why I keep mixing Spanish with English and spanglish??  Practice? Well, yeah and no… Actually when I write my journal I do it in English, and not only the facts and the days, but the emotions, places, people, things, events, figures and a combination of all these things. So, this is the way that comes naturally at the beginning for me. After a few minutes/lines, I switch to Spanish.

The way I´ve been documenting my trip had changed over the months, and I´m looking forward to go trough all my notes again (they are in India… my friends mailed me a few days ago… hopefully I´ll receive the big package with many notebooks in a few weeks!). And then I´ll write here about India and Nepal, and I´ll enjoy the “changing process” that occurred while that period of time.

I can’t help but recall when I said that my life was not interesting enough to write it down.  Well, I still think in that way, my  the day-to-day is not interesting enough, but the surroundings and the reasons  of many events are the key to much more. They might just spark the key of my life and the stories of many others.

Finally, I ask myself, how best to chronicle all aspects of a journey or for that matter a person’s life? Both.

Singapore’s notes

The few days there I took many pictures (another way of documenting things), expended a lot of money and wrote a few notes, the first ones are funny: “Se me cayó el culo”, and “Masala tea…yeah, yeah, yummy…” They have of course its reasons.

Jacked up I arrived with my usual NO planning to the budget terminal of SG (3 de la tarde!). Nothing there, no surprise either. A real fast stamp in my passport, “3 free months to expend there”. From the budget terminal a “free shuttle bus” took me to metro station (all inside the airport), where I bought a tourist card for the metro (for 10 U$S u can travel around SG all u want). So, in less than one hour, stress free thanks to a very efficient public transport system, I was leaving my little bag in the cheapest hostel, with breakfast and fan, 10 U$S.

No one was rushing, everything was orderly, and people were happy to stop and give me directions (actually I didn´t need them, but they saw me with the map, so they asked me if I needed help!!) My first question was: Where had Asia just disappeared too? Within thirty minutes, it became apparent Singapore really was very different to the rest of Asia if not beyond.

“Just two days there… so, what´s up?”

SG is a city where is near impossibility to get lost on. And the ultra efficient light rail system is fast, clean, and every so orderly. People really do queue up on the printed arrows on the floor next to the sealed platforms. Waiting for people to exit, before entering. Esto y el hecho de que realmente la gente aguardaba al cambio de luz en el semáforo para cruzar la calle, aún cuando ningún automóvil transitaba, siguieron confirmándome la impresión de que no… esto no es Asia. Y lo tercero fue ver “Indians” arrojando un papel a un tacho de basura y no a la calle… Y luego otro clasificando la basura. “What the fuck?” Don´t get me wrong, that was awesome, but I experienced India for 6 months, I think I know them very well.

I decided to enjoy my afternoon walking round the centre of the city. Los automóviles realmente respetan al peatón… Confieso ser algo distraída cuando camino sin rumbo, y la costumbre de cruzar la calle aún cuando vehículos transitan por ella es algo que picked up in Asia (los quiero ver intentar cruzar la calle en Hanoi!!). Pero los autos (el parque automotor de la ciudad es increíble!!!) se detenían de veras, siempre me dieron paso y jamás tocaron la bocina!!

El primer edificio que verdaderamente me llamó la atención fue la facultad de Bellas Artes. Precioso. Moderno y sumamente funcional. Y a solo unas cuadras me tope con SAM, “Museo de Arte” (allí me colé a la presentación de una obra de teatro, que estrenará en marzo, pero nadie me pidió que me fuera. Realmente disfruté la obra “God eats God”. It´s a must see…)

El museo es un edificio from 19^th century, and I can see it as one of these few very deliberate fragments of historical texture serve as a reminder of just how deliciously odd “an entrepot Singapore once was”: a product of English Empire (¿?) But, for real, the physical past, here, has almost entirely vanished. Today's Singapore is far more precisely the result of Lee Kuan Yew's vision than the Manchester of the East ever was of Sir Stamford Raffles'. Impossible to find here the descriptions of Joseph Conrad about the city…
La historia de SG es un entramado de invasiones y conquistas. Tomé algunas notas en su incredible museo, que presenta toda la historia de la isla como una especie de película y viaje a través del tiempo.

In 1811, when Temenggong, a local chief, arrived to resettle Singapura, the Lion City, with a hundred Malays, the jungle had long since reclaimed the ruins of a 14th-century city once warred over by Java, Siam, and the Chinese.

A mere eight years later came Sir Stamford Raffles, stepping ashore amid a squirming tangle of kraits and river pirates, to declare the place a splendid spot on which to create, from the ground up, a British trading base. It was Raffles's singular vision to set out the various colonial jewels in Her Majesty's crown as distinct ethnic quarters: here Arab Street, here Tanjong Pagar (Chinese), here Serangoon Road (Indian). And Raffles's theme park boomed for 110 years - a free port, a Boy's Own fantasy out of Talbot Mundy, with every human spice of Asia set out on a neatly segmented tray of sturdy British china, someone called it: "the Manchester of the East."
Mientras caminaba along the futuristics streets (after that beautiful play at de SAM), I was still captivated by the beautiful people, beautifully dressed, skinny, “super connected with mobiles and ipads, and more ipads”, la noche llegó finalmente y fue un respiro a los 34° que reinaron durante la tarde. The temperature over the hole year is 30° aprox, but the humidity make it worst.
The rain, very common tough, forced me to seek shelter in Singapore’s giant blocks of shopping mall heaven. Para una “shopalcoholic” en recuperación como yo, SG fue una gran prueba. They were on sale (70% off)! But instead of shopping, that night I choose a nice restaurant (actually I knew that I was going to come back here after Malaysia…)
But I reminded something, actually I experimented that. Before in my life, the purpose of good attire and appearance was not to impress, but simply ”to be.” It was the essence of business, you were what you wore, and I wore it with perfected purpose. And I realize that inside the shopping I was behaving in the same way without any reason. I had really weird sensations there. Everything was clear when I came back to SG. And it´s clear now. And I enjoyed being invisible to them in some way. I chose a different path, I accept that with ease. I don´t need a Hermes scarf.

Such strange feelings. My corporate/professional life wasn´t so long, a means to an end to achieve what I am doing now. But, that feeling never leaves you once you’ve lived it. I learnt from that world. And I´m learning now.

Who´s “Lee Kwan Yew”?

In my notes I saw a name: “Lee Kwan Yew”, and the phrase, “hard-to-please, tenacious-power lover”.

Who´s this man? SG is a democracy, but the entire SG´s leadership was personified by this man, Lee Kwan Yew. That after 40 years and more than eighty years olds, refused to go away. Dicen que la ciudad e inclusive su gente están hechos y/o adaptados a los gustos y caprichos de este hombre.
A long time ago, I saw a movie about Sg, but that was a really different SG. The film was based in the novel “Saint Jack” from Paul Theroux. That book was banned for many years in SG. I was curious about that, and mostly because I like the writer. So I read the new book, in which Theroux came back to SG a few years ago. I think that my vision of the city is a little bit influenciada by this lecture. He said: “Nominally SG is a democracy. In reality it is no such thing. Any critic of the government is subject to criminal proceedings, heavy fines, libel suits, threats or jail. Singaporeans critics or aspiring politicians are pursued through the courts with fanatical zeal, and sue with such severity they are bankrupted.”
Then someone that lives there told me that The Sopranos was sharply edited and Six Feet  Under was chopped to pieces because of its sexual innuendo. ¿?

So, there is no such thing as critic here, or a mere reflection. But I found in the fringes of the city interesting artistic movement, theater players and music… a lot!

I choose instead this commentary about SG (old lady, journalist and S´porean writer, Catherine Lim): “Even in a society often described as aggressively materialistic and coldly efficient, there are, fortunately, Singaporeans who believe idealism has a place, and that the fire, passion and commitment of The Old Guard, who saw SG through the difficult early years with little hope of financial reward, are still alive in some young S´poreans”.

An experiment

My sensations while being there was that everything looked and worked as an experiment. I remembered the movie “Truman”. A city state flourished because it made itself useful to the great powers and global business.

You can see the world here, but SG looks isolated. Life is working hard in companies and shopping. Eating and drinking is expensive, but u can try the Singapore delicacies at the hawker stalls and enjoy: bowls of laksa, dumplings, chilli crabs and steamed fish.

Everything works. So I thought, that´s the problem. That’s weird. There is no room for mistakes or surprises. They don´t know how to handle a conflict o something different. In the few days I was there it happened to me twice. Once, I didn´t pay the hotel in the morning (u´ve to pay day by day), I came back late in the night so I went to sleep. The owner of the hostel wake me up at almost 3 AM just to tell me that I didn´t pay, that was wrong! C´mon, I was there, in the morning I was going to check out… Do u see any problem?

In GG the “spy” thing is encouraged… You can see that in many signs in the streets and you are always recorded by the thousands of camera round the city.
SG micromanaged by a state that has the look and feel of a very large corporation. If IBM had ever bothered to actually possess a physical country, that country might have had a lot in common with Singapore. There's a certain white-shirted constraint, an absolute humorlessness in the way Singapore Ltd. operates; conformity here is the prime directive. But with public FREE WIFI.
And then, when I was visiting the chinese and indian´s neighborhoods, they weren´t real at all. Indian´s are not tidy, they are chaotic! They are noisy! They are dirty! And they have real masala tea… not powder masala tea!!!

Disneyland with the Death Penalty

Singapore is the world’s fastest growing Economy. It’s the world’s 4th largest exchange trading center. Virtually everyone has a job and has the ability to own incredibly expensive accommodation due to government incentives.

Singapore has a huge interest in refining imported goods. As an example; Singapore imports water from Malaysia, processes it, and then sells it back.
Singapore plans for the future not just in years, but in decades and beyond. Singapore is vulnerable. With no natural resources it could easily collapse. But as a financier told me, it’s not going to happen. Why not?
“Simply put, Malaysia and Indonesia are too corrupt. We profit from their lack of an efficient system in this region. If they got their act together, Singapore would collapse.”

Take a look at how this country runs at street level. If you, even as a tourist, are caught with drugs, you can be put to death. If you speak out racially against another person, a canning.
Cross the road illegally, S$50 fine. Eat on the MRT, S$500 fine. Litter on the streets and you will have to work in public service cleaning the roads wearing a special jacket. Vandalize anything, a canning. Sell fireworks or copied DVD’s, canning and jail.

Get the picture? Don’t break the law in Singapore. There is a reason why locals joke that Singapore is a “Fine” country.

Obey the law, do what you are told to do, and reap the rewards of a comfortable life.
Crime is virtually non-existent in Singapore.

So, as I said before, there´s no room to freedom… People are human, we are human, and sometimes we need to mess the things up!

Conclusion: The Utopian Society
Cameras stared at you everywhere, all the time. It´s like a scene from Gattaca. I was walking through Orwell’s 1984 as a speaker droned out warnings of terrorist activity.

“Watch those around you, report anything suspicious.”

“We celebrate prosperity” is the famous Mac Donald product. And you can see that sign everywhere.

Singapore’s government has found a near Utopian solution. It has created a society where everyone can be comfortable. And, enjoy their lives. So long as you obey the laws, work long hours and be productive. Disobey this, and you will be punished in more ways than one.
Singapore is not perfect in many peoples eyes though. But, even they must surely admit, it’s a unique place.
In terms of human nature I found SG quite unsettling, but I felt safe. I hope, someday, I may see the other SG. I know it exist. I saw its ART.