After Bali it was a relief to touch down at Changi Airport. I like Singapore, I really do. I know this is an uncool opinion for a traveller to have and that I should prefer the so-called "real" Southeast Asia that comprises maimed jungle, crumbling and damp-stained shophouses and the smell of mould and dead fish rotting in open drains, but I don't. Years of working in the public sector in the UK has made me a connoisseur of good public services and walking around Singapore you can see the effect of years of good governance. They say "nothing works in Calabria" and by contrast everything works in Singapore. The metro runs on time and is clean and the doors slide open and shut with a regular and reassuring hiss. The vista from the carriages is of manicured parkland, well pruned trees and crisply painted high rise blocks in shades of pastel. OK, so the blocks have numbers not names and everything is regimented and maybe a bit boring and there are a lot of rules, but they're sensible rules and the cops have name badges. This may sound like a small thing, but when you meet a cop with a name badge, even if they are armed and wearing blue combat fatigues, you are somehow reassured that they are a person, employed by the State and accountable, not a faceless tool hiding behind a uniform.
Above all Singapore is a hymn of praise to a concept that public services in the rest of the world seem to have lost touch with - planned maintenance. The noble art of painting things before, not after they start to peel and repairing stuff before it crumbles and falls down. Singaporeans know that this is common sense and that in the long run it is cheaper. No wonder travellers from Singapore are always complaining about Malaysia on Trip Advisor - the service was poor, the bathroom was mouldy, Singapore is just better than almost everywhere else.
On my first morning in the City I went for a run and found myself, after about a kilometre, trotting round a purpose-built sports stadium with lots of other folks of all shapes, races and ages. In the centre of the running track was a large group of elderly Chinese men and women doing Tai Chi. At the track side was a sign advising people that when the light was flashing they should go inside to avoid the risk of a lightning strike. Chaos and squalor may well be exciting and make good photographs, but this is how to a run a city that is good to live in.
After Bali it was a relief to touch down at Changi Airport. I like Singapore, I really do. I know this is an uncool opinion for a traveller to have and that I should prefer the so-called "real" Southeast Asia that comprises maimed jungle, crumbling and damp-stained shophouses and the smell of mould and dead fish rotting in open drains, but I don't. Years of working in the public sector in the UK has made me a connoisseur of good public services and walking around Singapore you can see the effect of years of good governance. They say "nothing works in Calabria" and by contrast everything works in Singapore. The metro runs on time and is clean and the doors slide open and shut with a regular and reassuring hiss. The vista from the carriages is of manicured parkland, well pruned trees and crisply painted high rise blocks in shades of pastel. OK, so the blocks have numbers not names and everything is regimented and maybe a bit boring and there are a lot of rules, but they're sensible rules and the cops have name badges. This may sound like a small thing, but when you meet a cop with a name badge, even if they are armed and wearing blue combat fatigues, you are somehow reassured that they are a person, employed by the State and accountable, not a faceless tool hiding behind a uniform.
Above all Singapore is a hymn of praise to a concept that public services in the rest of the world seem to have lost touch with - planned maintenance. The noble art of painting things before, not after they start to peel and repairing stuff before it crumbles and falls down. Singaporeans know that this is common sense and that in the long run it is cheaper. No wonder travellers from Singapore are always complaining about Malaysia on Trip Advisor - the service was poor, the bathroom was mouldy, Singapore is just better than almost everywhere else.
On my first morning in the City I went for a run and found myself, after about a kilometre, trotting round a purpose-built sports stadium with lots of other folks of all shapes, races and ages. In the centre of the running track was a large group of elderly Chinese men and women doing Tai Chi. At the track side was a sign advising people that when the light was flashing they should go inside to avoid the risk of a lightning strike. Chaos and squalor may well be exciting and make good photographs, but this is how to a run a city that is good to live in.
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