08-08-2008, 10:18 AM
Dear Roadjunky
I read one of your old articles on Singapore - one of the worst cities in the world to visit with much bemusement.
First of all, Singapore is a country with many air conditioned malls and buildings, is right. But if you made an effort to step out, you'd find many places with trees, yes real trees and you could actually see the sky if you again made an effort to look up. Many unopinionated tourists spend less than three days visiting the regular tourist sights because this is what Lonely Planet tells them to do. But if you bother staying longer you'd find so many more things to do and see, away from the hustle and bustle of city life. I won't tell you where they are because maybe some of your readers would actually try to find these places themselves. That would be terrible, wouldn't it?
Second, Singapore has a relatively low police per capita than most other cities. It's 239 police per 100,000, compared to 393 police per 100,000 in Hong Kong and 430 police per 100,000 in New York City and it still has one of the lowest crime rates in the developed world.
And then getting fined for those things mentioned? I've actually never heard of anyone getting fined for doing or not doing those things. Posters are merely reminders to the insignificant number of those who are not civic minded. Would you rather see posters like "Fine $1000 for mugging, Fine $1000 for carrying hand grenades or Fine $1000 for licking your fingers while wrapping customers' fish and chips for take-away"?
Fourthly, if anyone ever visited Singapore, they would hardly forget the trees that line the streets, even in the city centre. From the time you exit the airport, you'd be greeted with colours of bougainvillea and hibiscus and the blooms from the Rain Trees and African tulip trees and whatever trees that may be flowering. Not forgetting the palm trees - travellers palms, manila palms, fan palms, carpentaria palms, cabbage palms - should I go on? If you bothered to stop, look and listen, you'd find so much more wildlife iin Singapore than drunk students at any spring break destination.
Capitalism and consumerism, hmmm, how is that bad really? It really makes individuals want to accumulate more personal wealth so that there is more economic growth, less looting, less chance to recruit lowlifes to become suicide bombers because one has more to lose. If this bothers you, then please please don't visit Luxembourg or Tokyo because everything is just so perfect there, so rich and orderly, it would simply kill a road junky.
By the way, the only Big Brother we know of is the one shown on cable t.v. where there are REALLY!! cameras watching your every move, where individuals back stab and lie to YES .... accumulate wealth, and then some lesser soul is voted off. Today I'm voting off Road Junky.
Best wishes to the world!
Della
I read one of your old articles on Singapore - one of the worst cities in the world to visit with much bemusement.
First of all, Singapore is a country with many air conditioned malls and buildings, is right. But if you made an effort to step out, you'd find many places with trees, yes real trees and you could actually see the sky if you again made an effort to look up. Many unopinionated tourists spend less than three days visiting the regular tourist sights because this is what Lonely Planet tells them to do. But if you bother staying longer you'd find so many more things to do and see, away from the hustle and bustle of city life. I won't tell you where they are because maybe some of your readers would actually try to find these places themselves. That would be terrible, wouldn't it?
Second, Singapore has a relatively low police per capita than most other cities. It's 239 police per 100,000, compared to 393 police per 100,000 in Hong Kong and 430 police per 100,000 in New York City and it still has one of the lowest crime rates in the developed world.
And then getting fined for those things mentioned? I've actually never heard of anyone getting fined for doing or not doing those things. Posters are merely reminders to the insignificant number of those who are not civic minded. Would you rather see posters like "Fine $1000 for mugging, Fine $1000 for carrying hand grenades or Fine $1000 for licking your fingers while wrapping customers' fish and chips for take-away"?
Fourthly, if anyone ever visited Singapore, they would hardly forget the trees that line the streets, even in the city centre. From the time you exit the airport, you'd be greeted with colours of bougainvillea and hibiscus and the blooms from the Rain Trees and African tulip trees and whatever trees that may be flowering. Not forgetting the palm trees - travellers palms, manila palms, fan palms, carpentaria palms, cabbage palms - should I go on? If you bothered to stop, look and listen, you'd find so much more wildlife iin Singapore than drunk students at any spring break destination.
Capitalism and consumerism, hmmm, how is that bad really? It really makes individuals want to accumulate more personal wealth so that there is more economic growth, less looting, less chance to recruit lowlifes to become suicide bombers because one has more to lose. If this bothers you, then please please don't visit Luxembourg or Tokyo because everything is just so perfect there, so rich and orderly, it would simply kill a road junky.
By the way, the only Big Brother we know of is the one shown on cable t.v. where there are REALLY!! cameras watching your every move, where individuals back stab and lie to YES .... accumulate wealth, and then some lesser soul is voted off. Today I'm voting off Road Junky.
Best wishes to the world!
Della
