Beloved Little Red Dot

Singapore as you know can be such an irrelevant place on planet earth. Even when Singapore became successful we are still very tiny and can hardly be seen on the map. Then a huge neighbour that is all green had a President who called us just a "Little Red Dot" on the map. How aptly he described it and the Little Red Dot was well accepted by our then Prime Minister that we made jokes out of it so Singaporeans do have a sense of humour and a sense of perspective. Enterprises were even spawned from it. Quirky as we are with funny habits and quaint way of speaking "Singlish" some of which just have to come along - the good with the bad. 


Truly, we too often take the good life for granted as everything here is so convenient and runs like clock work so our complaints are centred around things which seem trivial to many others around the world. Harking back from the old days where streets were dimly lit and in some places in the villages, you could only depend on moonlight and a torch light to get you home. No wonder there were many ghost stories you have heard and today ghosts has no place in modern society that is too brightly lit. For everything bad or you do not like, let me show you the many things we have to give you that sense of balance so that you can feel grateful and thankful. We are truly living in a blessed land in case you have some bones to pick on any issue.

Sang Nila Utama and Temasek

We have to know where we came from and how it all started. We have to thank our founder, no, not Raffles but Sang Nila Utama. Talking about Raffles, do you know why one statue is white and the other is black? The black one has been facing the afternoon sun. Legend has it that when Sang Nila Utama came to Temasek, he saw an animal which he thought was a lion and we became Singapura which literally means Singa (lion) pura (city) thus we are Singapore. If it had been thought to be a tiger or a cat we could have become Harimaupura or Kuchingpura. Just not Tempura please. 


We should know by now that it was Admiral Zheng He (Cheng Ho), a Chinese muslim Commander who carried out 7 expeditions from 1405 and it was he who brought Islam to this part of the world including Indonesia and Malaysia. He commanded more than 300 ships and each of his ship was bigger than those of Christopher Columbus from 1492 and this fleet was bigger than the current US Navy's 286 ships today. And did you know that Christopher Columbus is also a Chinese? In fact, he is a Cantonese. As his ship approached American shores, he lifted his hand to his brow and while gazing at the distant horizon, his first words were in Cantonese: "Ah, Mart Yeh Lei Ka". America was thus founded and the name derived.

Food

Singapore is indeed a food paradise. We love our food - Malay, Indian, Eurasian, Chinese and even the Chinese have different style according to dialects. There is nothing you can't find - Italian, French, Japanese, Mediterranean, Thai, Filipino, Korean, Indonesian, American, English, Mongolian, etc. It is exhaustive. There are constant write ups on food everywhere. Our hawker centres were found to be very unique and a treasure not found elsewhere in the world in the word of a visiting Michelin 3-star chef. Quite often in the past, the neighbourhood fish ball noodle, prawn noodle stalls tasted the best anywhere. I remembered vividly the "char kway teow" (fried flat rice noodle) at the next block of flats in Toa Payoh was the best I ever had even till now. So too the lady who peddled her vegetarian bee hoon strewn with french beans and a fragrant sauce as gravy that is out of this world. 


The only lament I have is that the modern food courts we have today are like the shopping centres. Everyone looks the same and sells almost all the same things. Because the rent is high, the guy who fries noodles will also fry carrot cake and since this being the case, he might as well fry oyster omelette. You will have Japanese, Korean, fish ball noodle, western, etc. just like every shopping centres will have Giordano, G2000, a sports shop, food court, Breadtalk, Four Leaves, etc. I like to see something different. Well, maybe you have to go to Bedok, Geyland or Kallang Airport. Even our old historical buildings due to its high rentals attracted the wrong types of tenants in my opinion because we became too commercialized. How do we take care of the arty farty? I want to see our Chinatown like a Chinatown with the vibes to go with it - the real stuffs. Our Chinatown it too orderly so much so that it became like any other places. Take at look at Little India where you can still feel the heartbeat, the soul, the smell and aroma and that's real and that's how it should be done. Not an overkill. So is there really nothing to do but eat or are we gluttons?

Leadership

Say what you like, when people including foreigners ask me what is most famous in Singapore, I'll tell them it's MM Lee Kuan Yew. I just like to read him and even for those who don't agree, they held him in awe and respect. He could go to a world forum and tell a story about what the world is going to be like in 20, 30 50 years and what to watch out for and where are the potential banana skins, etc. and it seems to all make sense. It is not just Singapore, he talks about the world. He is held in the highest regard for that. How many world leaders do you hear or see making it to such forums? Aw man, pure inspiration!

Healthcare

I know some of us complain about the costs of health care. Perhaps more could have been done but we do have a high standard of health care and at certain levels come with subsidies. We have great infrastructure for it with excellent doctors and state-of-the-art machines and technologies so much so that even foreign dignitaries Presidents, Ministers, VIPs are patronising our hospitals. Meritocracy means having the best doctors around. I think the health care here can help to keep us alive longer. There are hospitals in developed countries where people die while queuing up for a hospital bed.

Greenery

Sungei Buloh Wetlands Reserve

Singapore is so small and yet we have greenery everywhere. Around your homes, between streets, along roads, even at some obscure corners. For a small country with limited land, we have many golf courses which some people complained about but such courses are usually located at unusable land for housing or industry. They are usually built near airports or reservoirs. You can't build tall buildings near airports and you can't have night golf there too or you might find a plane landing on the fairways. Industry will pollute reservoirs. we have many parks and now added with new park connectors adjoining many parks and waterways. Just to name a few places:

Fort Canning Park

East Coast

McRitchie Reservoir

Jurong Bird Park, Sungei Buloh Wetlands, Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, McRitchie Reservoir, Sentosa, Night Safari, Fort Canning Park, River Cruise, Pulau Ubin, Mandai Orchid Gardens, Mount Faber, East Coast Park, Labrador Park, Esplanade, Marina Barrage, Kite Flying @ Compassvale Bow (Sengkang), Seletar Reservoir, Pierce Reservoir, Zoological Gardens.There is also at least one in every estate. Go to other cities and you will more nothing like it here where they are vastly concrete and where birds can't even lay eggs. With flora and fauna and sufficiently dense foliage, we can't complain.

Water

Singapore has nothing, not even water. We only have people and even the people we have are are fewer than many others. How? Time magazine called Singapore the Global Paragon of Water Conservation. Through desperation, sheer grit and effort, we turned recycled water into technically cleaner water than those we drink from taps and also for industrial use. Those who laughed at us drinking from the drain or from our own pee may be the ones we could be laughing at as they may some day have to buy our pees mixed with their pees and drains. Not only that, we can get fresh water from sea water desalination through reverse osmosis. Where even the mighty Euphrates or Mekong can dry up some day, Singapore could some day be the world's saviour and help countries avert war. Blessed are the peace makers. A classic example of turning a crisis into an opportunity.

Oh Crabby

We have great chicken rice, satay, prawn noodles, laksa, char kway teow, bak kut teh, etc. but one of Singapore's most popular food are seafood. Foreigners and expatriates even crave for them as they would tell me so. Among the sea food, crab is a favourite - crab bee hoon, butter crab, creamy crab, black-pepper crab, plain old steamed crab, and the awesome chilli crab. Despite what the Malaysian Tourism Ministry claimed, Chili Crab is Singapore's. They can say what they like. Let me bring you there to savour it and you will know why. C'mon let's do it. When?

This is awesome!

Singlish

Despite what has been said, Singlish is beautiful! The danger is in today's context, with sms and msn lingo, etc. many are using their own lingo in creating words like "oredi" for already, Rofl, etc. When the command of the English is not there and you sync into that then some may have a problem. However, by and large, I do believe that many who spoke Singlish do so intentionally. So it has to be a situation of balance such that when there are others around who may not understand, we should use proper English to converse. I mentioned the word "proper" English and not good English. Good English is the name of a band. It is just manners because it isn't nice to have a group speaking in their own language and there are some odd ones being left out if they are not Singaporeans. Most of us would conveniently, efficiently and effortlessly slip back into Singlish and we do so intentionally. Singlish is like the old pasar melayu where different races mingle at the market so much so that the chinese dialects has malay words in them like sabun (soap), tuala (towel), roti (bread) etc. With a simple "meh", "lor" or "lah" one can magically transform a statement, a question or an answer. Q: Why is he so moody? A: He does not like his job lor (passive). A: I don't like my job lah! (active). A: You don't like your job meh? (inquisitive). Eve: Adam, eat apple. Adam: Cannot lah. Devil: Cannot meh? It is sort of like sentences were constructed in dialects and being literally translated to English. Ya lor, cannot meh? More on Singlish another time.

Libraries

We have great libraries. 22 of them with hundreds of thousands of books to lend out. 30 million borrowings were recorded last year. But I love the one and only red brick National Library. With it gone, a very important part of our lives durin gour childhood days have been permanently erased. Reading is a great way to unwind as it engages your mind. It drills more things in your head than a corkscrew would to make you a better person and more than what travelling can do for you.

I Like Chopin

Gazebo has a lovely song - I Like Chopin but we have our local version of chopin (Singlish for reservation of seats or obtaining something ahead of a queue). As you know Chopin was a great Polish composer named Fryderk Franciszerk Chopin with Chopin pronounced as "joupaen" (English) or szopen (Polish). Our version is "chope-in".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grGjD1rTNyg

You will be surprised that some people actually support this movement stating that is is a clever way of saying the seats are taken when they placed packets of tissue paper on the tables or seat as it saves time. Or is it downright rude and uncouth? How would a foreigner know? What happens when the tissue was blown away? Why can't one person get seated to reserve the other seats? I once had lunch after 2pm, as the place was no longer crowded and only had a few people, I found a table at a more shady area. A lady came over with an unhappy look asking me why I had taken her seat. When I said I didn't, she pointed to a tissue packet at the corner of the table which I didn't even notice. It could have been left over by somebody. Next I got seated for late lunch and later two gentlemen came and stop at my table, briefly picked up their name cards and move on to another place without saying a word. I can only guess that as guys they didn't have tissues with them, so they placed their name cards. When I sat there, I must have thought at first glance they were some discarded cards like flyers that people politely collected and later discard. LOL!

Sentosa

Once known as Pulau Blakang Mati = Pulau (island), Blakang (behind), Mati (Die or Death) in Malay. Now renamed as Sentosa with the first ever Casino and theme park. The last couple of times I went near I observed the RWS (Resort World Sentosa) first from a restaurant at Vivo City and later on the way to golf at Sentosa Golf Club. To be honest, I found the architecture and colour scheme disappointing. They should have given it to Frank Gehry's iconic design that has such flowing angles to it that would have made it so special and a stand out in the world but alas perhaps Universal Studio's pledge was what they had wanted. Well, at least the Marina Sands seems to be more special. It must have been quite a feat to build a park on the roof. The hefty thing looks like a ship.

Airport

We truly have the world's best airport. There is such warmth and beauty here. Even the carpets soften your soul and soothes your walk. Each time I come home, I wanted to kiss the ground. I really think that I am not being biased to say that Changi is the best airport in the world no matter where the votes went.

Safety

Singapore is one of the safest place in the world. Tourists used to say that even ladies can stroll in the wee hours of the night without fear and Neil Humphreys, a UK columnist who wanted to be here for a few months satyed on for ten years. Of course, low crime doesn't mean no crime and we can't take things for granted and get careless. When you open the daily papers, you can read about all natural disasters everyhwere - earthquakes in China, Indonesia, Haiti. Typhoons, hurricanes, cyclones whichever way you call it are everywhere. Floods, droughts, tsunamis, starvation and all kinds of hardship. We have been truly blessed that your complaints are restricted to a hard day's work, the humidity, the sudden downpour or feeling sick of eating the same nice food. We seldom appreciate what we have until we lose it.

HDB

HDB - Housing Development Board was founded to build houses for the masses. Today's HDB flats look like private condominiums. Recently someone wanted to purchase an unit at Bishan for a massive $900k but could not get his loan approved. The pinnacle of HDB progress can be seen from the aptly named "The Pinnacle@Duxton" where I heard some units fetch more than $600k. It even comes with a sky garden where visitors can patronise by paying $5 for the views up there. For a paltry $2, I can charge you for these views from where I write my blog plus usage of facilities. The sun is free. C'mon over.

The Arts

Whether this looks like a durian or the compound eye of a housefly, whether you call The Espalanade as Esplanard or Esplanate the question is when did you or may be even when have you attended a concert there or elsewhere at the Indoor Stadium or did anything arty farty?

The Little Red Dot

I like MM Lee Kuan Yew's analysis that he once told the late great Deng Xiao Ping that many Singaporeans who migrated from China were originally landless peasants and if we could build Singapore like it is today then China with its top brains and huge population will be basically unstoppable. The only reason I am writing this article is because I still hear lots of complaints about life here, from education, work, stress, etc. If we look around us and see life in perspective, then we really should have no complaints. No natural disasters, no madman on a shooting spree or with a parang or knife chopping and slashing people and so on but yet we don't see enough people smiling or laughing. We have this tendency to look at only the negatives. Japanese tells me that there are 3 places they would like to be at - the triple S. Sydney, San Francisco and Singapore. Are we taking ourselves too seriously? If you don't thank the leadership then thank yourself. We need to make the software changes as the hardwares are all there. Polish up the rough edges. May a thousand flowers bloom for this little red dot!