The Singapore post - part 2

There are a few things that almost every Singaporean tells me: people here largely don’t cook, the city is very safe so you can walk alone at night, everything is punctual and efficient, and I should travel to Thailand. It’s a bit odd living in a city that’s an entire country, but I guess if you live in NYC or DC you might as well be visiting another country when you go elsewhere.

The CIA Factbook summarizes it well: “Singapore was founded as a British trading colony in 1819. It joined the Malaysian Federation in 1963 but separated two years later and became independent. Singapore subsequently became one of the world's most prosperous countries with strong international trading links (its port is one of the world's busiest in terms of tonnage handled) and with per capita GDP equal to that of the leading nations of Western Europe.” Because of the British legacy, people drive on the left side of the road. As one would expect, foot traffic largely follows street traffic: oncoming pedestrians pass to your right. The large exceptions to this are (a) the oblivious tourists or recent expats who insist on pushing a baby yacht against the stream, and (b) the occasional escalators which intriguingly do not follow this pattern and are reversed for no apparent reason. This whole driving on the left thing was something I didn’t know before I got here, but I suppose it shouldn’t surprise me. In fact, I knew very little of Singapore before coming here: I knew it was an island (it’s actually about 25 islands together) and had four official languages, and that’s about it. I had to look it up on the map to find where it was in relation to anywhere else.

The entire country of Singapore clocks in at 697 sq km, which is about 3.5 times the size of Washington, DC and places Singapore as the 199th largest country in the world, following Bahrain and the Federated States of Micronesia, out of 256. The smallest, by the way, is the Vatican. There are, as of July 2009, 4,657,542 people in Singapore, which makes it only marginally less populous than the United Arab Emirates (4,798,491) and Norway (4,660,539), and more populous than 120 other countries, including Costa Rica, Ireland, Puerto Rico. It has twice the population of Jamaica, Kuwait or Latvia. Singapore also has one of the lowest birth rates in the world (218 of 224), followed by Austria, Germany, Italy, and Japan. For all of this, it has the 8th highest GDP per capita in the world, ahead of the US and just slightly behind Luxemburg, Kuwait and Norway. For all of this, Singapore has a massive army. It has compulsory military service of 2 years for men, followed by reserve duty until age 40. This makes 1,033,961 people fit for military service. I suppose being little makes Singapore nervous…

“Against all tenents of Western liberal democracy, Singapore works,” a Singaporean friend told me. Singapore is kind of a one-party benevolent “parliamentary democracy”. The ruling party has 82 out of 86 seats, of which over 30 were uncontested. It’s essentially a one-party system, but, as my friend commented, they offer low corruption, wealth, and excellent infrastructure in exchange for keeping opposition quiet. Of course, my friend was a journalist and perhaps a cynic. Still, someone else commented that the rulers that they have are just fine, the question is what happens when they’re gone – are there mechanisms in place to ensure the future crop of leaders is equally as benevolent? (more on this topic here ).

The beach we went to was on the island of Sentosa, accessible by bus, cable car or expressthingy from the adjoining supermall. The island is one giant theme park / resort / tourist attraction, like being at six flags or something, without the ferris wheel. It’s got butterfly pavilions and dolphin encounters, a jungle fort, and lots of beaches full of imported Indonesian sand.