Singapore vision

My days on the remote Tioman island in Malaysia were over due to visa limitation. Once again I took the ferry to the main land which was far more calm and pleasant than last time which was an irritated blue water with white caps. The weather is hot. The day I left the island the merciless heat forced me to knee down in shady oasises under protection of the buildings. I knew though how fast and spontaneous the burning heat can turn in the penetrating cold through your body with feeling-less limbs  and from time to time with unpredictable shakiness in the frosty and noisy buses. AC is humble and invisible ghost that makes one to tremble without even imposing fear or hazard. I have to deal with freezing air for two hour until the sun will stroke me in the back in my way to the customs.

Singapore

With forgotten expectation about the place called Singapore I entered in unquestioned dominance of social inequality, technocracy, fearless vision of the coming future, destroyed marine life and land reclamation issues.

[1]

From the first look Singapore has innovative approach to add more green areas, trees and the feeling of the nature had great success. From transforming the buildings in the trees the Singapore have the honor to hold authentically the name in full meaning of "concrete jungle". To say that I was deeply impressed would be an underestimation. With such landmarks as Jewel Changi Airport with an indoor waterfall and full scaled jungle or PARKROYAL on Pickering with genuine infiltration of plants and trees into the building left me admire in the silent and consider that it is possible to restore the natural habitat and areas which was devastated by human activity with hopes to create new ecosystems and symbioses between people and wild life.

[2]

 I haven't fly for more than 3 years now but I went to airport to make a visit to that amazing achievement. Bold perspective, determination and advanced technology made airport of Singapore the best airport in the world for 7th consecutive year[1]. Fresh air from falling noisy water in combination with ever green palms and trees leaves one feelings of real outdoor rain forest experience.

In 8 sunny and rainy days to my surprise I couldn't spot any electric car. Indeed the total number of pure electric cars was 466 in 2016[2] though this data is few years old the things haven't change so much. With it's compact size, self-driving subways trains, tidy roads, technology expertise, and sustainable transport ambitions is a dream for electric vehicle that are not even close to take place. [3].   

[3]

The infrastructure is simply not there yet, not enough chargers to meet the new demands and authorities claim that proper standards haven’t been established. Whatever the response is from the outorithies seems like other places like Norway, California, Netherlands and Sweden have overcome this issue for some time ago where the ownership of electric cars per capita is rising fast. The only place I found to charge my electric scooter was inside IKEA store. Even here swedes try to encourage for emission free transportation and also environmental friendly moving with renewable electricity from it's solar panels on the roof of the store, well thanks for that small implementation.

The constant grow  

With epic success in development of housing, consequences were uncounted and ignored with tremendous negative outcome for the natural life.

Singapore compared to other places is quite small by area and since independence in 1965 the city has increased its land mass with 22% by reclaiming the land from the sea. Such development has led to the loss of 95% of Singapore's mangrove and estimated that up to 60% of the coral habitat is no longer sustainable[4]. The problem is not only destroyed habitat, reclamation of land comes also with creating tension among neighboring states because of sand. 

[4]

Though industries around the world depend on sand, the United Nations Environment Programme found Singapore to be the largest importer of sand worldwide in 2014. So to say sand was used to fill the reclaimed land, but after ban on the export of sand to Singapore was introduced by Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia and Malaysia sand was smuggled from Malaysia in what Singapore was accused. Now the Singaporean government refuses to disclose where the sand it receives is imported from. The Ministry of National Development has said that the government buys sand from "a diverse range of approved sources", but maintains that further details are not public information. 

Contrasting society

[5]

Cultural melt point between different ethnics made this place tolerant against many prejudice related to human's background and believes. In this active hotpot devoted to religion to fragrant food and traditional clothes you merge into the crowd without being noticed. Most foreigner can feel jealous and from their point of view the locals are seen as lucky and wealthy citizens of modern and prosperous place of Singapore but what no so many knows is that Singapore tops the ranking of social inequality and leave space for big corporation to escape taxes. The Commitment to Reducing Inequality Index 2018 showed that Singapore is ranked 149 out of 157 countries, below Bangladesh and above Laos[5]. This harmful from the first sight dilemma haven't pop up yesterday rather had followed and averted community to create social cohesion and economical balance among the people. As rich people pay as most only 22% taxes on their income and corporate income tax as most just 17% the gap never had a chance to decrease. Another thing foreigners shouldn't be jealous is because of work culture. Is not enough that companies pay ridicules small taxes it also had a labor conditions that could be presented as free-wiling work camps. I talked with some locals and they painted the same picture about theirs work place. The work culture have many similarities with South Korea and Japan were employees have to follow militarist hierarchy do unpaid overtime without any complains and not many times to have right to get full vacation. 

Many projects have been deployed to tackle the rising social inequality but non of them gave improving results. Whatever if Singapore is high developed in technology, green buildings and promising systems it still have some issues on the human level that require compassion, understanding and attention to find the harmony and equilibrium.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia | October 9, 2019

Source

[1]. https://www.worldairportawards.com/ - The World's Best Airports of 2019
[2]. https://www.eco-business.com/news/singapores-road-to-electric-mobility-whats-the-hold-up/ - Singapore’s road to electric mobility: What’s the hold-up?
[3]. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_car_use_by_country - Electric car use by country
[4]. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_reclamation_in_Singapore#cite_note-ftn10-5 - Land reclamation in Singapore

[5]. https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/singapore-ranked-among-bottom-10-countries-efforts-reduce-inequality-oxfam-report - Singapore ranked among bottom 10 countries for efforts to reduce inequality: Oxfam report

Pictures and photos

[1]. Photo, Ion Storland, PARKROYAL on Pickering, Singapore 30 Sept 2019

[2]. Photo, Ion Storland, Jewel Changi Airport, Singapore 2 Oct 2019
[3]. Photo, Ion Storland, IKEA Alexandra, Singapore 4 Oct 2019
[4]. https://www.deme-group.com/references/jurong-island-reclamation-and-tuas-view-extension-phases-1-4 - Jurong Island Reclamation and Tuas View Extension - Phases 1-4
[5]. Photo, Ion Storland, Subway, Singapore 2 Oct 2019