I've said it before and I'll say it again: I'd rather be dead than live in a fishbowl.
I've been here on and off for most of the last year. It's a beautiful country. You get a close-to-zero crime rate, almost zero violent crimes, impeccably clean transit system (and country in general). Incredibly civilized people, even in the lower socio-economic environs. And they've taken religious and social harmony to a whole new level.
It's a pretty nice fishbowl life as long as you don't want to carry a gun, or do drugs.
Or look "kind of Bangladeshi".
Or challenge any kind of social order.
Or get involved in domestic politics at all (as a foreigner).
Fwiw, I've been here longer than you. I enjoy the low crime rate, weather, transit system (excluding the erratic bus arrival times) and the privileges a white face affords me too.
I'm careful of what I say online though, because I know that they are listening closely and are likely to respond accordingly (probably listening even closer than the US monitors its citizens).
>And they've taken religious and social harmony to a whole new level.
A whole new level where the possibility of a race riot in Little India is non-existent?
Or a while new level where race riots in Little India happen, but they manage to put a nice enough spin on it to satisfy you?
I will be very surprised if Comcast (my ISP) doesn't have fiber splitters along their backbones feeding my (and other people's) internet traffic to the NSA.
edit: Also, with the recent revelation that NSA targets Tor users, I would not be surprised if by virtue of using a VPN, you are automatically deemed more suspicious.
Yes, the US have periodic bouts of widespread semi-fascist repression (McCarthy, GWB etc), but they traditionally subside after a few years. TIA eventually generated Snowden, for instance, and in 20 years time it's very much possible that we'll look back at early 2000's paranoia as a dark age of sort. There is no indication of this ever happening in Singapore.
It might be due to issues of scale (repressing 3m people is much easier than doing the same to 400m) or culture (the whole Constitution / Freedom mindset in the US is very different from the "community first" approach more typical of Asian countries), but that's how it is.
They've had (multiple) Riots in Vancouver (though, usually involving Hockey, but also alcohol). I don't find that an indictment on Vancouver.
But, yes, I do agree, it's pretty clear that you don't want to discuss politics, and certainly don't want to get involved in them if you are a foreigner.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1964_race_riots_in_Singapore
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1969_race_riots_of_Singapore
You do realize that one of the core reasons the country EXISTS as a separate entity (kicked out of Malaysia) was because of race riots, don't you?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_singapore#Racial_te...
I don't even know of any other countries where race riots have played a greater role in the country's history.
Unique indeed.
>it's important to note, happened after someone was run over by a bus, was predominantly not involving singaporeans (mostly foreign workers), and involved a lot of alcohol.
It's important to note that the itinerant foreign workers are treated like shit and the reason they rioted was because the ambulance took forever and the guy who was ran over was dead by the time it came.
Alcohol was simply the fuel for the anger created by that.
But yea, racial harmony and all that.
Singapore is famous for the extreme of this, and the scary thing is it is China's main role model.
And do you have any supporting evidence for your claim that migrant labourers are any worse off in SG than they would be elsewhere, including their home countries? I had believed they were pretty well treated.
> the ambulance took forever and the guy who was ran over was dead by the time it came
Wonder how long it would have taken in India.
Not especially. Those riots were huge, vastly influential in the country's history and, according to the GP, non-existent.
They are the reason why the government hyperfocused on "racial harmony" ever since.
>And do you have any supporting evidence for your claim that migrant labourers are any worse off in SG than they would be elsewhere
Are you saying that because they would be killed by horrendously unsafe working conditions in Qatar that they should consider themselves lucky?
>I had believed they were pretty well treated.
No, they are explicitly third class citizens - kept in dormitories, bussed around on the back of trucks, banned from public places when their appearances there becomes 'unsightly'.
They are only treated well compared to Middle Eastern hellholes like Dubai, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
>Wonder how long it would have taken in India.
This is disturbingly similar to the rhetoric made during segregation in 1950s America: "the blacks have it better here than they would back home in Africa. Shut up.".
The other fact that one of the examples was in 1964 - Singapore only became an independent country in 1965 - probably didn't help either.
Or chew gum?
That said, the single best thing about Singapore is that it's a gateway to the rest of SEA. Changi is the best airport in the world, IMO, and you can be in Thailand or Vietnam in an hour for $100. No malls there! (Well not by CapitaMalls, anyway)
I thought YVR (Vancouver) was fast - (You submit your entry form, answer a couple questions on a kiosk, and then present it to an immigration person who makes sure you match the passport - about 2-3 minutes) - but Changi beats it hands down.
Departure is just as good - no long lines at security or worry about missing your flight - everything is done at the departure gate (which also makes a helluva lot more sense from a security perspective as well).
Makes SFO feel like a miserable cast-off of an Airport after spending time in Changi.
That title, albeit very amorphous, is definitely Bangkok's by any honest number (eg. flights) or remotely holistic cultural assessment.
I also think that MacRitchie Reservoir Park is a lot more fun to walk around (with its giant lizards, multicolored parrots, flying squirrels, hordes of monkeys and general lack of crowds) than Hyde Park or Central Park.