Singapore 2.0

Singapore – Most admired city (by me)

I am fortunate to return to Singapore to gain a better understanding of this wonderful city and its people. But first let me tell you how I arrived here from Rochester NY. Travel hacking led me to the website, points.me. There I found a flight from NYC to Singapore business class for under $400 and 90,000 Chase Sapphire points. But it was grueling. It took three days of travel and waiting in airports for numerous hours before finally boarding fabulous Singapore Air for my last leg. The lay flat bed was comfortable allowing sleep on my back or either side without trouble. The staff was attentive and pleasant and the gourmet food was delicious. Singapore Air business class is superior to that of BA, AA, Brussel Air and UA. I understand Emirates is equal or maybe better.

The airport could easily be added to their city attractions, it was efficient and beautiful as seen in the blog featured image. Everywhere you look, their attention to detail and good design is evident. My Moxy hotel in Brooklyn, was tiny,  where I stubbed by feet several times. Compare this to the Holiday Inn Express in Singapore. It was a smaller room but better designed with a small functional desk to compose this blog, and I never stubbed my feet throughout my 2 day stay.

As mentioned in my earlier blog, Singapore is inhabited by 4 or more different cultures who are congenial to each other, the Malays, Chinese, Hindus and several other smaller religious groups. The government dictates that each building’s residents must maintain the cultural diversity of the area it’s in, thus if a Hindu sells his apartment, it must be to a Hindu, unless the surrounding Hindu population grows unexpectedly, the government can fine tune the process to maintain the desired mix.

As we know, their laws are very strict and penalties could be quite severe, but people here seem to be thriving and happy. My taxi driver was married had two kids and lived comfortably in one of the government subsidized apartments. They  were also able to go on out-of-country vacations occasionally.

Let’s compare Denmark with Singapore, both countries are small with a socialist (government provides most needs) Denmark has a homogeneous population as opposed to Singapore’s culturally diverse that live congenially, but have to live with the strictest laws in the world. Singaporeans, however,  appreciate their laws which reduce chaos. Both country’s populations consistently rank high in the world’s “happiness index”.

Their happy residents never worry about falling into the poverty abyss, are not inconvenienced by freedoms they may never want or need, nor are they so proud to declare “no one is going to tell me what to do”. Why can’t we all accept the necessities societies dictate and improve our world.