After
three years of living in Singapore, we feel pretty safe in our knowledge
of how things work here. A lot has changed since we started
calling Singapore "Home", changes in Singapore, and changes
in ourselves. Many of our visitors come seeking some insight
into what it's like to live in Singapore and why we choose to stay
here. Thinking about our experiences here, we came up with 8
things that we love about Singapore. But just as easily, we
came up with 8 things we could do without. Hopefully, both these
perspectives can help shed some light on Singapore for you.
What
We Love (in no particular order)
1.
The Food. American
cities like San Francisco and New York brag about having a melting
pot of different cultures, and thus, a huge variety of restaurants.
But Singapore, in our opinion, has them all beat. Because
while Southeast Asian cuisines remain rare in the US, Singapore
has them all and in their authentic greatness. Not only is
there a variety of restaurants, but Singapore restaurants remain
truer to the taste of the home country than, say, Tokyo, where the
food is altered more toward Japanese tastes. On any given
night when we want to eat out, it's a struggle to decide which of
our favorite restaurants we want to go to, or if we'll try something
completely new. Our sole lament is that there aren't enough
good Mexican restaurants in Singapore; hopefully, someone will hear
our plea and open one.
2.
Changi International Airport. Singapore like
to talk about becoming "world-class" this or "best
in the world" at that. For
the most part, it's all a load of crap. But when it comes
to the airport, Singapore doesn't have to strive to become the best;
they already are. There is nothing like coming home to Singapore
from a business trip, passing through the ultra-efficient immigration,
picking up your luggage in mere minutes after your plane arrives,
and getting a taxi after waiting in a queue for less than five minutes.
Hey, you even have time to stop off in the Duty Free shop and pick
up something, and you'll still be through the airport in less than
30 minutes. Add that together with the range of shops and
services to be found, the absence of machine gun toting security
guards, and the candy dish at every immigration officers booth,
and you've got the airport the world has to beat.
3.
Safe Streets. Yes, it's practically a cliche
to talk about Singapore as "clean and safe". While
I don't necessarily believe the "clean" part anymore (we'll
discuss that later), it's hard to dispute the "safe" factor.
School children can still walk home by themselves without their
parents fearing they will be kidnapped. Women can walk around
after dark. There are no bands of roaming gypsy children to
pick your pockets. As the Singaporean slogan says, "Low
crime doesn't mean no crime.", but low crime is still a lot
more than what most cities can say for themselves.
4.
Public Transportation. There is sort of a love/hate
relationship people have with mass transit, but to be fair, I have
to include it as something we love. Now living near a train
system, we find it almost unnecessary to take a taxi anymore.
The buses go almost anywhere. And the whole system is cheap,
cheap, cheap. Of course, there are reasons to hate the public
transportation system as well, but
we'll go into that later.
5.
Proximity to Prime Vacation Areas. Despite
the hordes of Japanese and European tourists who believe otherwise,
Singapore itself is not a prime vacation destination. On the
other hand, getting to a prime vacation spot from Singapore is a
short, boat, plane, or bus ride away. To name a few, Bali,
Phuket, Langkawi, Tioman, Bintan, and Koh Samui are all less than
two hours away. And local travel packages are inexpensive
enough that it's easy to make a long weekend out of any of these
destinations.
6.
Shopping. Given the fact that there's not much
to see in Singapore, it's no wonder there are so many places to
shop. You can buy almost anything in Singapore, from designer
clothes to fake rolexes. And the best thing to buy in Singapore,
in our opinion? Electronic goods, which usually come ready
to use in any country of the world, which means dual voltage and
multi-system. You won't find that in most other places in
the world.
7.
The Singapore Zoo.
If there is one thing that is a "must see" for your visit
to Singapore, it's the Zoo. There is a whole
story about the Zoo here if you are interested. But let
me just say, there are tons of monkeys at the Zoo. Need I
say more?
8.
Prenatal Care and Delivery.
Okay, this is a strange one to include, but since we are having
our first child here, we should share that experience as a positive
one. I'm sure I will write a complete story after our son
is born, but for now, let's just say that the experience has been
very positive. Singapore is much more thorough than the US
in terms of prenatal monitoring of a baby, and we have heard that
the actually delivery process is as comfortable and pleasant and
baby deliveries can be. The doctors and nurses we have worked
with are friendly and professional. Overall, there may not
be a better place in the world to welcome a newborn.
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What
We Could Do Without (in no particular order)
1.
The Proliferation of Portable Phones. The fact
that Singapore has the largest percentage of cellular phone users
in the world may be wonderful news for the telecom service providers,
but it sucks for the rest of us. It probably wouldn't be so
bad except that a large percentage of Singaporeans don't know when
to use their phones appropriately. It horrifies me how many
educated, otherwise well-bred people will talk on their phones in
movie theatres, at business seminars, and in fine restaurants without
a second thought. And never mind the even greater number of
people who refuse to turn off their phones or pagers in these events
or at least use a silent alert mode. In Tokyo, I have seen
more than once a person who received a call on the train and deferred
the call because he was actually embarrassed to disturb the people
around him. While that's a little overboard, Singaporeans could
take a lesson in appropriate places and times to use their phones.
2.
Public Transportation. Did this appear in the
list of things we love? Well, as much as we love public transportation,
there are plenty of things to dislike about it too. Crowded
buses with pushy passengers, some bus drivers who shouldn't even
be allowed to ride a bicycle, let alone drive a bus, and most recently,
people on trains who don't give up their seat to an 8 month pregnant
woman (it happens more often than you think).
3.
TCS (Singapore Television). Okay, maybe this
is not completely fair. TCS does produce some pretty good
quality Chinese language shows. But what TCS has done with
English television is practically a crime. Since we've lived
here, I can say that I have watched only one locally produced show
that I enjoyed ("The Donny Lee Show", a comedy sketch
show reminiscent of "The Muppet Show"). The quality
of the American shows they import has improved, but in most time
slots, is still a joke. The quality of Cable television is
not much better either. In Singapore, there is a cable television
station devoted completely to Infomercials. No joke, I'm afraid.
4.
"Short Man Syndrome". In the US,
there is a condition called "Short Man Syndrome" where
a man of small stature talks and acts like someone much bigger to
compensate for his lack of height (see Ross Perot). I am liberally
applying this syndrome to the country (particularly the government)
of Singapore. Everyday in the media, we are bombarded with
how Singapore will be the "best in this" and "world
class that". It's fine for a country to have lofty goals,
but when you have to hear about it everyday, it begins to lose it's
effect. Any educated person stops buying that crap after a
week or two of hearing about it. Singapore, show a little
humility. Maybe then the world can take your potential more
seriously.
5.
Censorship. One of the ways we are reminded
that Singapore is not a democracy is in the way things are censored.
After two years, I have yet to figure out how a country can call
itself enlightened and keep up a policy of censorship that makes
no sense. As the world evolves more and more into a "Global
Village", it becomes more and more ridiculous to keep this
up. Consider this: violence and language in movies can go
nearly uncensored, even on television, but a hint of sex or homosexuality
is cut in a second.
6.
Taxi Service. When we first came to Singapore,
I thought the taxi service in Singapore was excellent. As
time went by, either the service deteriorated, or my eyes were opened
to the truth. The truth is that getting a taxi in Singapore
when you need one can be one of the most frustrating experiences
of your life. The policies that govern taxis don't help the
situation; currently taxis are not considered public transportation
and are therefore not exempt from the fees incurred from entering
some of the prime traffic districts. Therefore taxi drivers
have devised their own ways to avoid paying these fees, at the cost
of the convenience of the riders. I'm not blaming the drivers
for this; they have to earn a living. But the solution is
pretty simple, in my humble opinion: define taxis as public transportation.
7.
Customer Service (or lack thereof). Entrepreneurs,
take note! Want to make tons of money in Singapore?
Offer a service to businesses to train their employees on good customer
service. The market is huge, since 90% of the places you go,
customer service is either lacking or downright non-existent.
It is common to go to an upscale department store, purchase an item,
and have not a single employee in the store say a word to you.
I have been followed around stores by employees who don't greet
or speak to me. I have dealt with Customer Service departments
that are so inflexible about their policies, they give the appearance
of not even caring about the customer. Singapore needs some
help in this area, and from the looks of things, it's not going
to come from inside the country.
8.
Courtesy Campaign. It's true that Singaporeans
need to be more courteous to one another. Many of our dislikes
about Singapore stem from the fact that Singaporeans in general
have a lack of courtesy. We believe this is fostered by the
"Kiasu" (Me first) attitude that is not just tolerated
here, but often encouraged. However, the belief that the government
can teach people courtesy is outrageous. Courtesy comes when
people believe that the rights of others are equal to or greater
than their own. What is actually being taught, though indirectly,
is to survive in this competitive world, you must be number one,
and your rights to be number one are greater than the rights of
others. Again, a little humility goes a long way here, and
if the government wants to teach courtesy, it should start with
some humility itself.
I should
point out that the US isn't doing much better in this regard.
Since the 80's, this spirit of "Me First" and individual
rights has run rampant in the States, and we can see it taking it's
toll on American society today. There is no reason for Singapore
to follow in it's footsteps however.
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