We’re at the airport … way too early, having followed instructions from Jet Star for passengers with an extra bag to check. It turns out this is merely punishment, a way to make people really sorry they are over the imposed limit. I have been trying to alternate blogs: one dealing with the outer reality and the next dealing with what is going on behind the curtain, in the dreaming. Today I am just connecting the the last one I wrote, about Singapore, to expand on first impressions.
My first impression was based on walked through some expensive shopping areas, and predictably, it was a very flawed sample. The designer goods and ridiculously expensive jewelry is to objectify the person, and objectified people behave according to rules of etiquette, which serve to keep anybody from moving up a class. There’s no point in being superior if you behave like a glad hander, so when the air is thick with that particular flavoring people are less likely to break into spontaneous song and dance.
Once I got away from the place where bank executives buy their luggage, things changed considerably. My first impression of the people in Singapore as not obsequious was right; but they are friendly, open, and maybe the most democratic people on the face of the earth. They just don’t need your money. They have their own. As the cab driver told me, begging or hustling money in Singapore is not allowed, and even though there are some poor people, nobody is desperate. Everybody is provided food and shelter.
The people are very attractive, the population being composed of Chinese, Malaysians, Indians, Eurasians, and mixes thereof. And my impression of order was correct, but maybe I assumed it had to be enforced order. It is order secured by excellent planning for the future, and a public transportation system which keeps the traffic down. On the bus I took around the city, there was a host who asked where I wanted to get off and informed me when I was at my stop. Even people who stopped the bus mistakenly were treated with great courtesy and given information.
Singapore has a variety of religions, but there is very little tolerance for intolerance. There was an article in the Sunday paper relating that a Christian evangelical minister had made some disparaging remarks about other religions and the entire community was upset. He was apologizing, and there was a reminder that what makes Singapore such a wonderful place to live is that nobody judges anyone else. People here, the paper reported, pay no negative attention to the habits, dress, or inclinations of others, and most don’t intend to change it. Intolerance is divisive and stirs up trouble where there was none before.
Okay, I’m going to qualify the “very attractive” summation of the people here. Some of them are drop dead gorgeous; and they are an advertisement for the benefits of democracy and elimination of gross poverty. Singapore is so safe you can walk in the park at three in the morning without concern for your safety. There was an article in the Sunday paper which gave me an idea of how little crime there is here. The story, given a lot of space and with a photo, was about a man who came back to a public garage to get his car and found it on blocks, the wheels stolen. This was so unusual as to cause a furor in the city, and grave concern.
Imagine a three column story in the New York Times about somebody’s wheels being stolen. You can’t even get the police to take an interest in such a crime, not even if you know who did it and provide a name and address. So my impression that so much order and absence of crime was accompanied by repression of some sort appears to be mistaken. It seems people live this way because they like to have a clean, well ordered, prosperous and democratic society. What a concept. They don’t even pack heat in case somebody cuts them off in traffic.
And so we leave Singapore wishing we had planned a longer stay here. On the other hand we can get here directly next time. It’s worth renting a place and staying for awhile.