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Why I’ll Never Return to Singapore

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Re: Why I’ll Never Return to Singapore

#81

Post by [deleted] »

Kurtz79 wrote: post #80
ghshephard wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm looking at my Social Visit pass - you nailed it, it says in bright red: WARNING DEATH FOR DRUG TRAFFICKERS UNDER SINGAPORE LAW But - you get that message while you are still on the plane (and presumably have a chance to turn back?) Yes - GardenByTheBay is beautiful - as are the two conservatoriums (one of which they replicate Dry, Cool Mountain Highland Environment - which, is quite an accomplishment in Hot, Humi…

Makes much more sense that what you have to declare in the US landing card: http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3289/2949309916_5393a54eb5_o.j... I mean, seriously.

[deleted]

Re: Why I’ll Never Return to Singapore

#82

Post by Kurtz79 »

threeseed wrote: post #27
girvo wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seriously? I agree with the OP. And I've spent quite a bit of time in Singapore when I was younger.

I found it incredibly stupid. Never return to Singapore because every day students declare pride in their country ? Great. Better not spend any time in the US, UK, Australia or countless other countries. Or do people think kids are just born with an understanding of the flag, anthem etc. And citizens are forced to spend time in the military. Okay that is a bit much but hardly unprecedented. And personally I find the…

BTW this data is from 2005.

I would be surprised to see Ireland/Italy/Spain etc... placed so high, post-crisis.

Re: Why I’ll Never Return to Singapore

#83

Post by this_user »

rdl wrote: post #43
hackerboos wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think it's fair to compare Singapore to its neighbours considering how it was colonized. It's better to make the comparison with Hong Kong which enjoys much more freedom (even post 1997) than Singapore.

I love Hong Kong (probably my favorite city in the world), but in the case of Singapore and Malaysia (which were the most closely tied), I'd rather be from the worst-off group in Singapore (Malay?) than from the best off group in Singapore (politically connected and Malay, except maybe from the top few families), so a lot of it was due to PAP and post-1965 actions. If you're Chinese or Indian it's even more clear whi…

It's easy to forget and hard to imagine from a 2013 point of view, but South Korea was among the poorest countries in the world only decades earlier.

Re: Why I’ll Never Return to Singapore

#84

Post by blisterpeanuts »

gtuckerkellogg wrote: post #53

I'm an American who has lived in Singapore for almost nine years, in two very different jobs, in two very different parts of the city-state. Singapore has a lot of challenges, but the oversimplifications and generalisations in this glib article don't do Singapore or Singaporeans any favours. (I've been here long enough that my spell-check is set to British English). Let's take National Service (NS). Dover writes: "af…

gtuckerkellogg, thanks for your posting. I'm curious -- have you learned Mandarin or Malay language during your stay, enough to communicate extensively?

It was my experience living in Taiwan for two years that language is a significant requirement for understanding the culture, even when English is commonly spoken among the educated classes.

In my opinion, a month really isn't long enough to evaluate a country, even a small one such as Singapore.

Re: Why I’ll Never Return to Singapore

#85

Post by yardie »

threeseed wrote: post #34
emblebi wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, this is the real reason from the article: "I describe my time living in Singapore as sterile. Nothing particularly bad happened but it wasn’t particularly good either. Daily life was convenient but it was only the bare minimum of living. I had everything I needed to be comfortable but I didn’t have anything that inspired me. Even though there wasn’t a language barrier, I encountered a hefty communication barrier.…

I laughed a bit when I read that paragraph. Because I am sure it is the current/future dream of most of the people on HN to work for a big internet company in Silicon Valley. Which of course means long hours with your free time spent talking about work. The fact is that in "international" cities like Singapore, London, Sydney, Paris etc people do work long hours and in their spare time often talk about what they are…

I don't get that feeling from most of HN articles. In fact, just the opposite. HNers are leaving these companies for places that fit better. It's one thing to have crunch time to get an MVP out the door but if you're still doing that a month later something is wrong.

I've worked in London, Paris, and Miami. Only in the US do we work long hours and then continue to discuss it outside of work.

Re: Why I’ll Never Return to Singapore

#86

Post by HeXetic »

DannyDover wrote: post #10
forktheif wrote: post #2

The quick search I just made for suicide rate per capita shows the rate in Singapore is kinda average.

Hi forktheif, I am the author of this article. The wikipedia article on suicide rates (which I am assuming you found via google) uses data from 2009 as its source. The article I wrote uses data from 2011 (which is the most recently available.) More details here: http://www.lifelisted.com/blog/happens-everything-goes-right...

Can't you link to those numbers?

Re: Why I’ll Never Return to Singapore

#87

Post by msohcw »

creamyhorror wrote: post #55

I've lived in Singapore all my life save for a few years in the US. This article's points are weakly argued, and Singapore's staidness is entirely a first-world problem which people from some neighbouring countries wouldn't find much of a problem at all. But on the whole, I'd agree with the author that Singapore is lacking in quite a few ways compared to the top cities (economically or culturally) of the world. Off t…

Thanks for speaking some sense. I suspect the author got the notion of Singaporean pride wrong. We're far more prideful when we feel attacked or maligned by foreigners, despite the day to day lamentations. You've stated arguments I agree with, but I do honestly feel that you're overgeneralizing to a large extent. I think it helps if we consider again what you mentioned about size. Singapore has a relatively small population. It's true, we don't produce that many groundbreaking innovations, but we need to consider the mathematical probabilities of having them in a relatively smaller population as well. My guess is that the detriment is at least an n^2 term, with less sharing of ideas, interaction and encouragement to pursue risk. As a student, I increasingly see people pursuing the entrepreneurship and more risky careers, rather than "selling out". After reading so many American articles and opinions and blogs, I don't think the idea of pursuing low risk paths is specifically amplified in Singapore. Everyone wants to do amazing things, but no one dares to. It just so happens that it's more common in other countries because of larger populations, and the environment that successful by chance entrepreneurs (I say this not to deride them but as a point of argument) have fostered. I don't have statistics to back this up, but hey we had Creative and Sembcorp/KeppelCorp. Our successes are just a lot less sexy. There's a lot of fallacious stereotyping as a result. Pragmatism doesn't imply a lack of innovation, creativity or success. On the contrary, it finds the most efficient way through to it. Our research institutions ASTAR focus on the commercialization of technology. That means we miss the sights and sounds and new discoveries along the way, we don't have Nobel Prizes, but can one really say that one type of practical innovation is better than the other?

Although props to you on the culture analogy. Nothing interesting ever happens in Singapore. For that, I think we must be at least slightly thankful. It's interesting to watch a government's politicking, gridlock and shutdown, but if and only if it's in another country

Re: Why I’ll Never Return to Singapore

#88

Post by blisterpeanuts »

yardie wrote: post #78
tlarkworthy wrote: post #60

"In my experience, people were polite but conversations rarely moved past surface-level niceties." As a Britain who lived in America, this is how I felt about Americans. I think its more of a cultural illusion.

As an American living in France, this is how I feel about the French. But I've heard the opposite from other brits about Americans. We're too friggin nosey. We want to know where you live, where you went to school, what you do (this is really big blunder a lot of Americans make), and why you're here.

Agreed, I have been told by Europeans that it's not common in their region to ask what you do for a living. It's as though they'd rather talk about real things rather than mundane money-related humdrum topics. It's rather refreshing, actually.

Quite the opposite from Taiwan where I lived for a couple of years. People would ask questions that in the West would be considered incredibly intrusive: how old are you, what do you weigh, are you married (and if not, why not?) and so forth. To me it was like a giant Jewish family. Or, I guess, a giant Chinese family :)

Re: Why I’ll Never Return to Singapore

#89

Post by Nicholas_C »

yardie wrote: post #78
tlarkworthy wrote: post #60

"In my experience, people were polite but conversations rarely moved past surface-level niceties." As a Britain who lived in America, this is how I felt about Americans. I think its more of a cultural illusion.

As an American living in France, this is how I feel about the French. But I've heard the opposite from other brits about Americans. We're too friggin nosey. We want to know where you live, where you went to school, what you do (this is really big blunder a lot of Americans make), and why you're here.

>what you do (this is really big blunder a lot of Americans make)

Woah, woah, woah, is this impolite to ask outside of the US?

Re: Why I’ll Never Return to Singapore

#90

Post by rfnslyr »

sleepyhead wrote: post #63
westicle wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The guy simply expressed an opinion about where he doesn't want to live. You can't force him to agree with your opinion on the subject, and you're unlikely to convince anyone with a barely coherent rant about a bunch of topics not even relevant to the original post. Calm the fuck down.

An I expressed my opinion. I think you are the one who needs to calm down given your words.

The OP posts about his direct experience in Singapore which are his reasons for leaving. You posted reasons for not coming into the US, that would not affect OP. Is he going to Guantanamo Bay? No. Does he murder civilians? No. Is America a beautiful and exciting country? Yes. It's the government and military which is fucked. If the OP's points for leaving were political, you would make some sense.
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