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The Fantasy and the Cyberpunk Futurism of Singapore

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Re: The Fantasy and the Cyberpunk Futurism of Singapore

#81

Post by ValentineC »

JSavageOne wrote: post #59
RyJones wrote: post #2

Strange place. I was amazed how many homeless there are - which will be denied, when mentioned. I guess the people sleeping on the walkway to Louis Vuitton island were not homeless? The sleeping people in the underpasses, sleeping under signs saying not to sleep there also?

I was in Singapore for 10 days and don't recall seeing any homeless people. Then again as an American who's lived in cities like NYC/SF, no other first world country even comes close to the amount of homelessness we have in the U.S.

You won't see them if you keep to the business district or tourist areas.

They're mostly in the public housing estates, and it's most apparent at night when you see them lying on a bench with trolleys of their belongings.

Re: The Fantasy and the Cyberpunk Futurism of Singapore

#82

Post by ValentineC »

HHC-Hunter wrote: post #3

My biggest disappointment about Singapore is the censorship. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_in_Singapo... My biggest boast about Singapore are the privacy laws and technology infrastructure. Singapore could be great, if only a few things were to change.

I think we could do better with less self-censorship, but I'm glad I don't have to circumvent a Great Firewall.

> My biggest boast about Singapore are the privacy laws and technology infrastructure.

Does Singapore really have strong privacy laws?

Re: The Fantasy and the Cyberpunk Futurism of Singapore

#83

Post by ValentineC »

aaron695 wrote: post #68

The fact the "Four Floors of Whores" was government sanctioned always fit well with the Disneyland feel to me. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orchard_Towers I started seeing the beauty in rubbish after visiting Singapore a few times. There's something quite unsettling when there is absolutely none.

> I started seeing the beauty in rubbish after visiting Singapore a few times. There's something quite unsettling when there is absolutely none.

If you were here during our lockdown, you might have seen plenty.

Some parts of Singapore's population don't see the civic responsibility in throwing trash into bins, unlike most of Japan and Taiwan.

Singapore is a cleaned city, not a clean city.

Re: The Fantasy and the Cyberpunk Futurism of Singapore

#84

Post by dehrmann »

JimDabell wrote: post #70
dehrmann wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I'm going to call BS. Thailand has executed 3 people since 2004[1]. One was a robbery gone bad. The two in 2009 were drug traffickers with $1M in meth from arrests in 2001[2]. I couldn't find a source, but their names look Thai. Apparently a bunch are waiting to be executed, though. 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_punishment_in_Thailand 2: http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Bangkok,-drug-traffickers-exe...

Perhaps I’m wrong but I understood the comment to mean that the person went from Singapore to Thailand, bought drugs there, then forgot to get rid of them before returning to Singapore. So Singapore executed them, not Thailand.

Rereading it, that could be what they meant, and the thresholds for cocaine and heroin are low enough for that to happen.

Re: The Fantasy and the Cyberpunk Futurism of Singapore

#85

Post by gliboc »

Mizza wrote: post #6

Singapore is a weird place. During the flight, the stewardesses walked around and handed everybody something - I was expecting a wet towel, but in fact it was a card in multiple languages which says "If you are about to bring any amount of drugs into the country, you are going to be executed." Lovely first impression to set the tone. Other than the omnipresent paranoia, the thing that struck me as the most bizarre is…

What paranoia are you talking about ? Weird to hear that because it's the safest city I've been to...

Re: The Fantasy and the Cyberpunk Futurism of Singapore

#86

Post by lordnacho »

dehrmann wrote: post #84
JimDabell wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps I’m wrong but I understood the comment to mean that the person went from Singapore to Thailand, bought drugs there, then forgot to get rid of them before returning to Singapore. So Singapore executed them, not Thailand.

Rereading it, that could be what they meant, and the thresholds for cocaine and heroin are low enough for that to happen.

This is correct. Pretty banal, just a short trip from Singapore to Thailand to have some fun. Not a drug kingpin. Left some very shocked friends.

Re: The Fantasy and the Cyberpunk Futurism of Singapore

#87

Post by hatenberg »

ValentineC wrote: post #79
hatenberg wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nothing shows the ignorance of most mof the western world about modern Asia most than falling back to 27 year old articles at every time a place is mentioned. I guess we all need to reference Reagan's Star Wars program whenever we talk about the US to get an equivalent feel. As someone living here (queue US coworkers 'why would you move to China?'), that article has not aged well. Children are so so much better suppo…

Singaporean here. If anything, one reason I'd say that Singapore isn't like Disneyland now is because its "management" has lost touch with the ground, and things aren't as well-maintained as Disneyland. My estate (a ruling-party-managed one, too) is showing its age, with plenty of rats and cockroaches running about at night.

Uhm, its the tropics? My non hdb property has those guys and there is nothing you can do about it outdoors.

But then again people probably expect some foreign worker to come and hunt them individually while taking to the internet to complain about there being so many foreign workers ;)

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