Came across this Facebook Group – Singapore Sucks. The reactions over at Stomp are interesting.
Does Singapore suck? It has its ugly sides. It also has its charms. It really depends on what is important to you. Do other countries suck? Possibly? Of course? Just follow the news a little more. Travel a little more. You are definitely sure to find something about some countries, if not all countries, that you don’t like.
Are these foreigners on the mark when they say Singapore sucks? Their opinions are quite funny because most of the stuff said are familiar.
My country can be ugly.
I think there is almost no government in this world that value foreigners as highly as the Singapore government. Hell, there probably isn’t a single government that gives its citizens the impression that it values foreigners more than its own citizens. What really interests me is whether other countries face this possible little inconvenient problem we have with foreigners – that for all the welcoming we do, there is no country that is more hated by the foreigners she so badly desires and welcome.
Are Singaporeans generally ruder than people in other cities? Possibly – I haven’t live in any city long enough to know that answer, much less all the cities.
Here is something interesting. The older generation always, in their reminiscences, seem to convey the impression that things were much simpler in the past and people, as neighbors, were much nicer.
Things have changed and part of it is due to our relentless pursuit for economic growth. In that pursuit, we have made certain decisions, done certain things that has changed our society. Individually we have possibly become different. But hey, you know what, as a society we have more foreigners.
What sort?
Would it be presumptuous to say the sort that go where money can possibly be made.
Seriously, if Singapore is as bad as some say it is, so culturally devoid of any soul, so morally reprehensible that our citizens have no sort of decency and courtesy, so politically backward that no one has any sort of personal freedom, then what would attract scores of foreigners.
I’ll be so bold as to make a few guesses – Money; the chance of economic prosperity; the opportunity to rape another developing country for whatever resources it has.
Don’t kid yourselves. Corporations didn’t come here because they wanted to help Singapore develop. Expats weren’t sent here to help our citizens develop.
Better pay. Better job. Different lifestyle. Tax incentives. Parking of money.
Notice a trend?
Maybe Singapore is so terrible NOW because of all the foreigners. We could possibly have, unfortunately, attracted all the wrong people for all the wrong reasons.
We are all connected.
This reminds more of a little joke:
A guy said to a virgin girl, “I love you a lot. Don’t you love me? What’s wrong with having sex if we love each other.” The girl was moved and lost her virginity to the guy. After the sex, the guy turned to the girl and said, “We have to break up. I can’t marry a girl who is so immoral and not a virgin before marriage.”
Singaporeans, this is not an absolution of our complicity in this matter. It is up to us to set our own priorities. To start changing what can be changed. To start attracting the people who want to be here for the right reasons (we probably have to decide what these right reasons are).
And let this be a lesson to Singaporeans. It is stinging when we open our home to outsiders and they eat our food, steal our cutlery, have their way with our women and then proceed to piss on our beds. It is, to put it mildly, rather rude of them.
Let us not be like that and if you really look in a mirror, we have been rather poor travelers and guests ourselves.
And oh, foreigners who think Singapore has nothing to offer, maybe you got to start hanging out with different groups of locals.
Further Thoughts:
Singapore has always had foreigners. Even my paternal grandfather was a foreigner. The better life for people arriving then would be food, security, shelter and material possessions like clothing. It has remained so. And the new foreigners we are attracting, while different in degree, probably have similar definitions of the better life.
It is up to us then, who have due to the blood, sweat and sacrifices of generations before us, to build a different better life, if we want to, so that generations after us will move up the hierarchy of needs.
Maybe Singapore was never meant to be a country – she should have just remained a port and an administrative outpost. Someone once commented that an individual’s destiny is determined by genes. Similarly the reason for Singapore’s birth will chart an immutable course for us into social and cultural oblivion.
Marc | 19-Apr-09 at 3:05 pm | Permalink
Hi Ian
What an incredibly well thought-out and interesting piece! I just got sucked right into your thoughts and had to stay there til the end.
As a foreigner I’m not sure I should comment, but as one who’s not an expat and who’s been here for 8 years, and never once lived in Holland Village or Bukit Timah, I’m going to claim special immunity to any accusations of bias.
I think we all have good Singapore days and bad Singapore days. I know I do. Some days I’m in love with the city, other days everything from the MRT commute to the range of dishes at the hawker centre annoys me.
And that love/hate extends to the bigger picture of governance too. When I stop to think about it there are things I hate having to live with. As a gay man, censorship is a big one for me, though that’s not restricted to being a gay issue. And as an ex-journalist and magazine editor, that extends to media control and manipulation in general. I’m very fluent in reading the meta of media, perhaps more so than someone who hasn’t been on the other side of it, and so some days I feel like I’m living in the Matrix watching the strings of control being played with while the world goes on, unaware. Because it seems so transparent, I find it patronising. Insulting to the intelligence and a little like it has come from some old dusty book from the 40s, “The 3rd World Dictator’s Guide To Mind-Control And Mass Suppression Through Media Manipulation”.
Yet I don’t think about it very much, and when I do it doesn’t drive me screaming to an airport with a hastily packed suitcase of belongings.
Because weighing that are all kinds things on the upside, from the country itself (weather, food, transport, facilities, bureaucratic efficiency, cleanliness, fairness etc etc) to the amazing, beautiful people I know.
Perhaps it’s a little Faustian, but I suspect if we’re searching for the “perfect country”, the one that gels with all of our own values, needs, wants and dreams, we’ll be searching forever.
I came from a city 8 years ago (ok, let’s not be shy, it was Perth) which people arriving from Asia usually label as “boring, with terrible food” when they first arrive. And I always advise them to give it time, because the beauty of the city doesn’t start to unfold until you begin meeting people on your wavelength, making friends, discovering what is below the surface.
Singapore I think is very much the same. It would be easy to pick a couple of negative things on the surface and label the country with them. But connecting with the things you love, and people who love them too, changes the viewpoint entirely.
Perhaps the foreigners pissing on the beds never get to do that. A bit like when we travel somewhere and we see tourists observing the country through airconditioned bus windows, never trying the local food or, heaven forbid, talking to a local person.
So, on the day when every driver on the road seems more aggressive than they need to be, or I have to elbow my way out of the train or default to chicken rice for lunch because everything else just looks too heavy, I try to think happy thoughts. It always makes me feel better about my choice to live here.
And, you know, I quite like having a bit of a love/hate thing going on inside me. It makes it so much more interesting and edgy. If I thought I was living in utopia all day every day I really would start to suspect that my water was drugged.
=) Marc
Snappshot | 19-Apr-09 at 3:51 pm | Permalink
LMAO.
iantimothy | 19-Apr-09 at 5:43 pm | Permalink
whoa. Marc, thanks for your comment.
I totally love your line ‘If I thought I was living in utopia all day every day I really would start to suspect that my water was drugged.’
But I must take issue with one of your lines – Insulting to the intelligence and a little like it has come from some old dusty book from the 40s, “The 3rd World Dictator’s Guide To Mind-Control And Mass Suppression Through Media Manipulation”.
Please do note my government is using an updated version of the book – “The 1st World Consultative Government’s Guide To Mind-Control And Mass Suppression Through Media Manipulation”.
But seriously, your comment made my day. Thanks again!
The Singapore Daily » Blog Archive » Daily SG: 20 Apr 2009 | 20-Apr-09 at 11:38 am | Permalink
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The Singapore Daily » Blog Archive » Weekly Roundup: Week 17 | 25-Apr-09 at 12:47 pm | Permalink
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brian | 06-May-09 at 2:59 pm | Permalink
i liked this. and Marc’s comment -) and i agree with most of it. life is made up of things we like and don’t like. but we ultimately decide if we want to be happy or not. -)))