I see that you’ve finally visited my Garden City, Michiel :-). Am so happy that you love it (ha ha).
I must say that at times, I thought you sounded just like my mother. She just returned to Singapore yesterday – after 5 weeks in Europe (her 5th visit to the Continent) – and every other day she would go : “Nice, but I wouldn’t want to live here. I still think Singapore is the best. I can’t wait to go home…”
A pity for me as I would have liked to have my mom around longer, but as it is this was her longest trip, she normally wouldn’t stay for more than 3 weeks. Sigh…One man’s poison is another man’s meat.
And I see too that you’ve noticed our many signboards :-). I am personally fond of them, they are full of History, a constant reminder of past struggles. Though I doubt if many locals even notice them nowadays, for we do not usually litter in public (and no reason to – lots of bins everywhere), we appreciate a clean MRT system, and the guy who brings durians up a bus should be shot not fined.
They are there to remind people like you not to litter, spit etc in the country – in case you were not informed beforehand. Though I would be surprised if you should get caught in any case, we do not have that many Policemen around. Unlike Florence where you could’t walk without at least seeing a few cameras in each street, and Policemen and cars are everywhere.
And I disagree that we call Singapore a FINE city out of sarcasm. Used to ages ago when we first came up with the joke, but it’s a stale one that we happily spring on our visitors nowadays, sure that it’ll make them happy to hear and repeat it. Then we sell them a few T-shirts and magnets (damn it not cheap at 4 bucks apiece) on the theme and everyone’s happy.
Besides signs are no longer our speciality, I was surprised to notice quite a number here in Germany, and they just say “Verboten” and do not usually mention a fine which if you ask me is quite sinister.
But you did great with your suits. I’ve always wanted to have a cheongsum (for me) and a few suits (for hubby) tailored in one of those shops but never found the courage to walk into one. They just look like tourist traps…and so hubby ends up buying all his suits from the Hugo Boss outlet in Metzingen. Are they really worth the money (really all that for less than one Boss suit?)? Hubby has broad shoulders and relatively short arms so it would be better to have his suits tailored.
As for Singlish, there I know that you’ve heard nothing of it. In Singapore, we are specialists of plain English – in which case it would be correct English just used plainly (there are international competitions on Plain English btw). Then we would also speak Singlish – which in this case would resemble at times like English – plain or otherwise – but which normally wouldn’t make any sense to anybody else but us. It is a mixture of different local dialects and heavily charged with Malay and occasionally Tamil words. You could pin a Singaporean down from a 100 m anywhere in the world nowadays with that. Singlish is music to the ears.
Do you know that you could also dive in Singapore? We have a French friend who’s a dive fanatic who has dived in many many places in the world and on his dive blog he had pictures of beautiful small fish and they were taken at…Pulau Hantu! I didn’t know it before myself, so it was a pleasant surprise. Singapore has many tiny islands and they could be worth a visit. And as you know it yourself, Singapore is also a great place to set out exploring the rest of S.E. Asia’s dive spots from.
Finally, Singapore has a growing population by choice. We stopped our 2 children policy 2 decades ago as an answer to the ageing population. Lack of land is nothing new and you must admit that in spite of the high population density, there is still much “space” on the island. Management is the key and as there are not that many historical buildings on the island, there is flexibility vis-à-vis (re)construction according to demand etc which is the upside of a modern city.
Sincerely I have lived in “liberal” countries in different parts of the Western world and I honestly do not see what price there is to pay to live in safety in Singapore. Singapore is safe because she is little, organised, the population educated, the streets densely-lit, there are people everywhere, shops and restaurants open late, laws enforced and respected…It is not the freedom to run down a street naked, smoke pot in front of kids or have a mafia that gives us a sense of freedom. Freedom comes also as “freedom from” and the right to live and carry out life’s projects with dignity.
Having said that, I do not deny that there is much to improve upon in the country which I’m sure that with time they will be realised. It is wonderful that you should come visit and see the country for yourself and now that you’ve gotten yourself a few suits tailored (to your satisfaction), maybe you could pass me the address of the shop!
