uniquely singapore

read this article in the forum page by a Mr Anthony Lee in the straits times today...

The Singapore Tourism Board’s new tagline, “Uniquely Singapore”, despite its unimaginative impression, makes sense on second thought.

From an outsider’s perspective Singapore is indeed unique. Which other nation…
- with a Chinese majority has had non-Chinese heads of state – viz Mr Yusof Ishak (Malay); Dr Benjamin Sheares (Eurasian); Mr Devan Nair and President S R Nathan (Indians)?
- with a Chinese majority and other Asian minorities uses English so ubiquitously that native English speakers can navigate everything, including roads, more comfortably than vernacular-dependent locals?
- of comparable acreage and population is as highly ranked in net work, including reserves, after only four decades of independence?
- brazenly acknowledges its national phobia as kiasuism: a particular version of atychiphobia or fear of failure? Especially with a majority race of Chinese culturally hyper-sensitive to face-saving and shame.
- eats out readily and loves food and its diversity so much that its hawker centres (cooked-food stalls under one roof) have been rated as a must-see by world travellers?
- has as many taxis for its proportion of roads and with fares this cheap relative to its standard and general cost of living?
- prices its cars this high and yet have at least a third of its households owning at least one car each?
- has almost 100 per cent of its citizens owning their own homes, both privately and publicly managed?
- educates its students so well in maths and science that even First Word nations buy its public-school textbooks for adapting to their schooling?
- which is a democracy has been ruled 40 years by the same political part with a comfortable majority of seats in Parliament?
- is an island nearest to the southern-most point of mainland Asia?
- does not emphasise learning the language of its nearest neighbours – Malay/Indonesian?
- has such a superficial grasp of its mother tongue (Mandarin) among its majority race (Chinese)?

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i think it was an interesting read. yes, we are unique in our own culture. and did i hear another american or british thinking we are some part of China? haha... i can totally relate to the fifth point about loving food. i can't acknowledge that i love food very much, but when i like the taste of something on my tongue, i do really like it. an example was how i went hunting these two days for cream cheese danish from breadtalk. had my first taste few saturdays ago and craved for it since. no sight of it at capital building. when i was at PS (where i first bought it) yesterday, i headed for breadtalk but couldn't find it there. today, i popped by the one at wisma. none in sight. peeped at the bakeries at shaw towers, nope. taka, still none. but hey... found it at the one next to centrepoint! yay! and i bought two immediately. jon stares in amusement.



and what other things makes us so unique? i reckon we are the only country in the world who has injected humour into its train annoucements to remind people to not eat on the train or not block the entrance? kudos to mediacorp and smrt! when i first heard about the announcement from zihui, i thought was just some ad or joke. but when i heard it for myself yesterday, i was impressed. genuinely amazed. amazed at the ingenious idea. amazed at how we need such blatant announcements to STILL remind us to be courteous, after years of singa the lion reminding us of the courtesy campaign. all i hope is that this method proves to be effective. perhaps they should use the announcements in the stations as well, so that i don't have to give a killer stare when i alight at tampines and attempt to claw my way through the masses of people who are dying to get a whiff of the aircon inside the train!

have i mentioned that jon and i saw the prettiest accessory that has caught BOTH our eyes today? it is the philippe starck ring watch by fossil. what a beauty.... at a beautiful price of $133...