Singapore - City of Order and Contraint

The gleaming glass towers of Singapore form a cordon around the green canopy and red tile roof of the colonial district. The view from my window is expansive … from the Strait of Singapore on my left, shimmering in the sun, studded with legions of ocean freighters, across the green sward of the Padang and colonial St. Andrew’s Cathedral, to the forested bulge of Fort Canning Park on my right.

The modern architecture is startling – I.M. Pei’s two-dimensional Gateway towers; the three towers of Marina Bay Sands, precariously supporting the massive, boat-shaped sky park; Norman Foster’s Supreme Court flying saucer; the organic durian shapes of the Esplanade Theatres by the Bay.

The famous Raffles Hotel squats across a full city block, recessed, arched walkways articulating it’s 3-stories and encircling palm shaded court-yards that echo with Somerset Maugham and Noel Coward colonial Britain.

Broad shaded avenues serenely shoot out from the city centre, past ultra modern, glass condo tours and colonies of the hillside, gated homes of business and civic elites. Large communities of well-paid ex-pats live a comfortable life here, with good schools, excellent health care and little fear of crime.

It’s a neat, orderly, well-behaved city. A shopper's delight, a foodie's haven. Little traffic congestion, no horns, not a splash of graffitti, not a stray tropical leaf under the manicured sidewalk plantings. It's an idealized, utopian city - and easy to forget that it sits at the tip of the Malay peninsula, guarding the pirate infested Straits of Malucca and a short hop from fabled, untamed Borneo.

But there are pockets of stunning equatorial beauty. The botanical gardens harbour a fenced 6-hectare old growth rain forest and the compact, orderly National Orchid Garden is a mere 15-minute walk from the upscale Orchard road shopping district. Roof-top garden's spill bright colours and greenery over rigid walls; potted flowering trees line sidewalks and mark patios.

And beneath the surface, a colourful past. At a cross-roads between east and west, Singapore merged Portuguese, British, Chinese and Indian cultures with the local Malay resulting in the multi-faceted Perenakans – a rich blend of languages, traditions and cuisines that is now celebrated.

Utopia requires a balance. There is clearly money here - full employment, no visible homelessness, subsidized housing for all. But the rules in this semi-autocratic principality are harsh and unbending. Opposition is curtailed (the park with the city's "Speaker's Corner" also contains a police station). Long-term planning streams children towards needed occupations at a shockingly early age. Penalties for transgressions are draconian - the death penalty for drug dealing, deportation for frequenting prostitutes, huge fines for chewing gum, $80,000 to license a car that is over 10 years old.

It's a good place to live I'm told. As I look out over the the sparkling city the activist in me debates the citizen - wondering if the trade-off between order and constraint is worth it.

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