Goodbye Garden City

October 24th 2016

Last night we met up with Wolf, a German who lives and works here. An acquaintance of mine told me that we would definitely have to visit him if we are in town. Well, said and done. We meet (slightly late) at Orchard Road, a pretty confusing metro station with many exits and entries. He shows us around a part of Singapore that we haven't come across so far — the Arab street. With a pretty large, golden-domed mosque in the background we enjoy a tasty Arabic dinner. More authentic than we have ever eaten in Dubai, ironically.
As we eat, Wolf tells us a lot about the structures of the city and the people who live here.
It's just past midnight when we return to our apartment, and our hosts (yes, I know how that's pronounced by now... was about time) are sitting on next to each other on the couch, watching some drama together. Nils and I agree that the two make for a cute couple.

We decide not to set an alarm for the next morning and sleep in for a bit. Still, we get up around 11, not wanting to waste the day entirely. I look at my phone and see that Stacy has texted me — they brought food and we should tell them when we're up so they can warm it up. A very welcome invitation for Nils and me, who were just about to get breakfast. Stacy and Davon present us with four different local, mostly Malay (and very tasty) dishes. They do, however, also warn us that some may be quite spicy, which might be a bit of a problem for me — Nils is grinning. (True — but Jan did really well this time)
I was pretty brave for my standards and survived the spiciness without collapsing.

A Review

As I have mentioned a couple times by now: I love Singapore. The city has a distinctive character that I've never seen before. Nils and I agree — we could both imagine living here for a while.
You have to think of Singapore as a city surrounded by nature. There are incredible amounts of green on the streets — in some places you could think you were in the middle of a jungle with some houses in between rather than a huge city.
Furthermore, Singapore has a very clear structure. The public transport is well organized, inner city and suburban living quarters are separated. And despite having the third highest population density of any country on earth, it rarely feels crowded here.
I've also come to like the cleanliness of the Singapore. In the inner city it feels like you could eat off the floor. This, if nothing else, is also due to the heavy fines here that apply to littering as well.
And that already brings us to the negatives:
The human rights situation in Singapore is at least somewhat problematic. Freedom of the press is not really a thing here, and there are restrictions to freedom of expression as well — even though Singapore is a democracy. And then there are the rather draconic punishments, including the death penalty and corporal punishment, which are unacceptable in a constitutional democracy but are still practised here. Still, polls show that 95% of the people of Singapore don't want to get rid of the death penalty — rather surprising in my opinion. Homosexuality is also still illegal here, to which I can only shake my head.
(we interrupt this post for a political digression by Jan...)
On the other hand, Singapore is somewhat of a economically liberal model state. Every citizen is responsible for their own prosperity and there is no state-run welfare program. The results are almost full employment and a high income per capita — a good model, in my opinion.
(end of the politology lecture)
Looking at the history of Singapore, it is clear that beginning from its foundation, the city rose with the influence of many different ethnicities. Malay and Chinese people as well as European colonialists have built this island nation without a lot of conflict, and continue to live here together to this day, leading to a huge variety in cultures.
Singapore is one of the most globalized nations of the world. People of countless nationalities live alongside each other and alongside nature here, making the city a truly unique place.

Jan is already scouring the internet for ways to take an internship in Singapore — so I think I can speak for both us us saying that we'd love to come back here some time.

And to finish up, here are your two things you should better not do in Singapore:
Eating a durian fruit in the metro is not a good idea to be sure. There are warnings against that in every wagon, and although I can't remember the exact fine, I'm sure the little snack will be quite expensive.
Also, shoplifting (or stealing in general) is inadvisable considering Singapore's draconic punishments.