AsiaOne: Coming home to a 'messier' Singapore

[Vulcann]

From AsiaOne:

 

http://www.asiaone.com/News/Latest%2BNews/...401-412692.html

 

Coming home to a 'messier' Singapore

 

 

By Tracy Quek

Singapolitics

Monday, Apr 01, 2013

 

After almost a decade abroad as foreign correspondents for this paper, my husband and I returned home earlier this month.

 

In our first weeks back, we wandered around the neighbourhoods we had grown up in, revisited our old hangouts and ventured into less familiar localities.

 

On the whole, we found the general lay of the land not too different from our memories of it.

 

There were changes, of course. New developments had sprung up where vacant lots once were. Food prices had shot up. Malls and trains were certainly more crowded than we remembered.

 

The number of foreigners working and living in the heartland had also grown. I was amused to find young Western expatriates shopping at NTUC FairPrice, getting a trim at one of those express haircut salons, and dining at kopitiams in suburban malls among ordinary Singaporeans. I recalled seeing fewer of them in the heartland in the past.

 

Over many welcome home meals with friends, some asked partly in jest but also seriously, if we were already regretting coming back.

 

They did not have to spell it out for us. We had kept up with happenings back in Singapore while in China and later the United States even as we worked to understand and analyse the broad political, societal and economic changes unfolding in the two world powers.

 

On the job, we covered natural disasters and protests, witnessed abject poverty as well as environmental degradation, wrote about the social impact of near economic meltdowns, and mused about the limits of democratic as well as authoritarian political systems.

 

Compared with the newspaper headlines out of China and the US over the past decade, the ones out of Singapore were tamer. I, for one, was glad for it; it meant stability at home and that our families and friends were safe and secure.

 

But over the past two or three years, in particular, things started to change.

 

From transport to housing policies, we read about how things were not running as smoothly as before.

 

Online, people were unrestrained in expressing anger and dissatisfaction, especially with how government officials had handled problems.

 

Some of the vitriol stunned me. I was used to reading all sorts of extreme anti-establishment online commentary in the US, but I was taken aback by the intensity of bitterness and resentment among some Singaporeans towards the ruling party, individual office holders and the mainstream press.

 

Over a farewell lunch with some Washington, DC-based Asia analysts, we wondered aloud about the increasing political and social messiness we were observing at home.

 

One of them chuckled and said: "This is what countries go through all the time, you guys are finally normal!"

 

We had a good laugh but it set me thinking.

 

The US is a vast country with more than 200 years of history and evolution. It has been through and is still going through war and political upheaval the likes of which a less resilient nation might not have survived.

 

Americans are used to the messiness of democracy and a democratic political system. They value the cacophony of views for they believe that is what makes American society so vibrant, innovative and unique.

 

But what is normal for the US and other mature democracies is relatively new for Singapore. The question is whether this new normal will work out in Singapore's favour, and if all segments of society will be able to come together to harness this messiness in a productive way.

 

A more personal question is how I, as a recent returnee to Singapore and as someone who has seen up close the merits and demerits of "messiness" elsewhere, can be sensitive to the new realities.

 

I have no answers at the moment. It would not be fair to venture any before we properly reconnect with home after such a long time away.

 

But one observation I can make now is that having the opportunity to live in two countries with very different political and economic systems has irrevocably changed how I view Singapore.

 

I guess you could call it perspective.

 

Our problems may have become more complex and, certainly, various missteps and blunders have been made, resulting in an erosion of trust and confidence among Singaporeans.

 

But it also strikes me that we are still in a far better and stronger position than many other countries to fix problems and find a new equilibrium for the times.

 

For one thing, Singapore is not as financially hamstrung as the US government and is able to tackle infrastructure problems quickly. In Washington, DC, ageing roads are filled with potholes and broken escalators take 10 months to fix because of budget and other constraints.

 

Coming home at this stage of Singapore's evolution, there will be many emotions to sort out and new discoveries to be made.

 

I stand at the beginning of my own homecoming cautiously optimistic that the journey will be enlightening and meaningful, and that it will lead to a deeper sense of rootedness.

 

At this time, I find these words of the late US senator Robert F. Kennedy especially apt.

 

"Like it or not we live in interesting times," he said in 1966, during a trip to South Africa when he spoke out against apartheid.

 

"They are times of danger and uncertainty but they are also more open to the creative energy of men than any other time in history. And everyone here will ultimately be judged - will ultimately judge himself - on the effort he has contributed to building a new world society and the extent to which his ideals and goals have shaped that effort."

 

The context may be different but the spirit of his exhortation rings true for me.

 

[email protected]

[Scion]

But what is normal for the US and other mature democracies is relatively new for Singapore. The question is whether this new normal will work out in Singapore's favour, and if all segments of society will be able to come together to harness this messiness in a productive way.

 

 

good article

 

but as always, people are afraid of change, whether things will work out if there are changes

 

this is why Singapore, and many other Asian countries lag so much behind in democracy... strong fist governments treating their people like obedient sheep

[Rustyz]

Agree Singapore seems more crowded.

[Watwheels]

Sgp is going thru major changes. Ppl will be angry. Who wouldn't?

[Subutai]

Sigh.... she forgot to mention the targeted 6.9 million in the near future...

[PSP415]

Would be interesting to read her " follow up" article say, after a year or two, if any.

 

It's an honest piece of personal sharing and can sense her cautious delight to be home at last..... cautious because whether is it still home with all that she read and gathered thus far.

 

 

Safe ride

Cheers

[Mustank]

http://healnowtherapyhypnosis.blogspot.sg/...owding-on.html#

 

 

Rat City: Effects of Overcrowding on Human Population

 

Calhoun's 'Rat City' experiment is a nightmare for animal rights activists yet it produced so many interesting results it has to go down as one of the most famous psychology experiments of all time. Maybe it does not apply exactly to human behaviour, but certainly it goes a long way to explain several diverse behaviours within modern society. Are serial killers a societal product? Is homosexuality natural? Is inbreeding natural? Who can infanticide ever happen? All controversial questions I have heard asked between friends over the years and this study touches on each of them and more. Diverse behaviours exist in small communities (just google tribal studies) but the effects of over population on the range and frequency of these behaviours are interesting both for now and the future as the global population continues to rise.

 

The article below is written by Edmund Ramsden. Source: http://www.who.int/en/

 

In a 1962 edition of Scientific American, the ecologist John B Calhoun presented the results of a macabre series of experiments conducted at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). He had placed several rats in a laboratory in a converted barn where

[PSP415]

Thnx, bro for the article.

 

I am relieved that we behave/ adapt better than rats in a crowded environment. The human experiment has varied results/ findings. Perhaps, humans do their best first to accommodate or adapt or make full use of what works in a given situation until one's back is against the wall and the saying that even dogs will jump over the wall, if cannot take it liao.

 

Miss Quek's article is interesting simply because she had been away for a decade, worked in a much more advanced nation with access to many life experiences that not many of us went through and is now back to " ground zero", and yet not the same ground per se. How would she rate her country in light of the changes etc. I would be keen to hear her views in a year or two, if there is such a follow up article then.

 

 

Safe ride and thanx again

Cheers

 

[Vulcann]

good article

 

but as always, people are afraid of change, whether things will work out if there are changes

 

this is why Singapore, and many other Asian countries lag so much behind in democracy... strong fist governments treating their people like obedient sheep

 

逆水行舟，不进则退。

 

That is a universal truth in whatever context we are talking about.

 

Old ways may not always be the best way the smart way is to be ready for change but like you said folks are hesitant of it, that change may not bring about the desired result one hopes.

[Vidz]

morale of the story, when it hits 6.9 mil...

don't pick up candy on the floor and cover your backside

[Vulcann]

Sgp is going thru major changes. Ppl will be angry. Who wouldn't?

 

Major changes for the greater good of the people or major changes to look good on paper in terms of GDP?

 

Guess we all know the answer...

[Jamesc]

From AsiaOne:

 

http://www.asiaone.com/News/Latest%2BNews/...401-412692.html

 

Coming home to a 'messier' Singapore

 

 

 

Americans are used to the messiness of democracy and a democratic political system. They value the cacophony of views for they believe that is what makes American society so vibrant, innovative and unique.

 

 

[email protected]

We are not messier because we have more democracy.

 

We are messier because the people that run the MRT and plan the number of housing could have done a

better job.

 

Not maintaining the MRT properly or building enough home has nothing to do with democracy and its does not make us more vibrant, innovative and unique.

 

[Mustank]

We are not messier because we have more democracy.

 

We are messier because the people that run the MRT and plan the number of housing could have done a

better job.

 

Not maintaining the MRT properly or building enough home has nothing to do with democracy and its does not make us more vibrant, innovative and unique.

 

 

Most well said!!!!!!

[Vidz]

We are not messier because we have more democracy.

 

We are messier because the people that run the MRT and plan the number of housing could have done a

better job.

 

Not maintaining the MRT properly or building enough home has nothing to do with democracy and its does not make us more vibrant, innovative and unique.

 

guess which mini-star was in-charge of both portfolio before

[Joseph22]

guess which mini-star was in-charge of both portfolio before

you know.. i always feel a sense of fiery rising up within me at the mere mention of his name.

[Nolicense]

you know.. i always feel a sense of fiery rising up within me at the mere mention of his name.

 

who ah who ah???

 

can i offer you a malboro to relax?

Edited April 3, 2013 by Nolicense

[Vulcann]

Would be interesting to read her " follow up" article say, after a year or two, if any.

 

It's an honest piece of personal sharing and can sense her cautious delight to be home at last..... cautious because whether is it still home with all that she read and gathered thus far.

 

 

Safe ride

Cheers

 

Actually for her and hubby to come home after a period of time as compared to us who have absorbing, not necessarily accepting, these changes, some adverse, will be more impactful.

 

From what was written they have been faithfully following what has been happening in our little red dot lately but she was still "taken aback by the intensity of bitterness and resentment among some Singaporeans towards the ruling party, individual office holders and the mainstream press."

 

And from what was said they are still slowly getting used to these changes and of course quoting Bobby Kennedy's "Like it or not we live in interesting times" which quite aptly describes our present state.

Edited April 3, 2013 by Vulcann

[Joseph22]

who ah who ah???

 

can i offer you a malboro to relax?