Singapore, Lah! 

Myriad Others-

Have you noticed how so many mass emails begin with some sort of apology about the fact of being a mass email?  Not me.  I was going to title this email "the cultural significance of mass emails" and say clever things about mass emailing - but "Singapore, lah!" has less to do with sounding clever and more to do with Singapore.

"Lah" is a Singlish word - Singlish being the dialect of English spoken in Singapore.  At first I thought that this was a joke and that everyone was speaking poor english.  But the more I listen to it, the more it becomes clear that it really is a dialect of its own - which is understandable as Singapore has been primarily english speaking for generations.  Anyway, they like to stick "lah" at the end of many of their sentences, lah.  Trying to figure out what it means or when it is appropriate seems to be impossible - "thank you, lah." "ok, lah"  "Download the homework online, lah" a Deductive Argument is one in which the conclusion is guaranteed to follow from the premises, lah." -  it seems to connote an added emphasis and it is very infectious.  It is also the most endearing aspect of Singlish - the new grammar can be very confusing and I am very grateful that thus far, my professors have more or less stuck to the standard english dialect on which this educational system was originally founded.

Classes started last week and thus far are quite good.  Lectures are once a week and discussion sections are led by professors (no more idiot graduate students grading my papers!  Did I just say that?).  Mostly I'm taking courses in Western Philosophy (why else would I come East?) - I'm even taking a course in Existentialism, which is very exciting; the last time I took a class in Existentialism, I got so excited that I wrote and staged a Brechtian Epic, dropped out of school, and fled the country!  (who remembers that?)

Singapore is like this:  After the National Day fireworks, hundreds of people swarmed the subway systems trying to get home.  Over the loudspeaker, a woman's voice spoke in a rich Singaporean accent (a delectable blend of ... chinese and british?)

"Your attention please.  The station is crowded.  If you are not taking a train, please leave the station."

I am surrounded by muslims and they are very nice people.  Muslims make my food, process my paperwork,  answer my emails, and smile at me in passing.  I keep wanting to ask one of the women why exactly they all wear those scarves around their heads, but thus far I've been too afraid of offending.  With all the muslim buzz going around in the States at the time I left, I must admit I was surprised how little hostility I have felt from the muslim population towards myself as a white American male.

The fact of "islamic" terrorist movements is, however, a very grave issue in Southeast Asia.  Jakarta (For the Geographically challenged, this is in Indonesia, just across the water) was bombed a few weeks ago - supposedly a direct attack on American tourists - and the headlines are full of terrorist manhunts and trials.

As you can probably guess, the heat is indeed sweltering and the humidity borders on disorienting.  The rain is absolutely gorgeous though - on average it has been raining two or three times a week -  a good part of Singapore accommodates this with rain-sheltered walkways anywhere pedestrians are likely to frequent - a good thing too, because five minutes stuck in the rain and you'd be soaked through and through with tropical goodness.  Sometimes the thunder is so strong that the furniture shakes.

The storms are the main reminder that that urban Singapore is an equatorial Island.  The stereotypes are somewhat true - the national pass-times here really are Eating and Shopping.  These people shop like nothing I've ever seen - there must be a hundred shopping malls in this city!  Of course, the government offers free housing to the majority of its citizens, so I suppose they have to spend their money on something, right?

But deeper than the stereotypes - what is amazing about this place - and I've really only just begun exploring - is the strange combination of cultural diversity and modern development.  The word Utopian keeps coming to mind - an English speaking, multi-lingual population of Chinese, Malays, and Indians, many of whom have been here for generations - an international leader in technology and one of the biggest and busiest ports on Earth - with a controlling government that nevertheless, facilitates no small amount of peace an prosperity.

Singapore (Singapura = the lion city - the national symbol is the "merlion" which is exactly what it sounds like) - turned 38 last week.  Here (as I hope, in many other places in the world) there is a great feeling of change in the air - the first thing I saw, after clearing immigration on my way in from Malaysia, were a series of posters saying, "Together, a New Singapore."  The City-State is hoping to grow and change with the times - the government has begun loosening its Big-Brother like controls, in hopes of attracting foreign talent and promoting creativity - increasingly large amounts of funding are going into the arts - homosexuality was legalized six weeks ago...

Here on campus, the students celebrated National Day out of doors by building giant floats of bugs and dragons out of aluminum, and dancing in the heat with full body paint.  The President (of Singapore) lounged in an armchair off in the stands.  At the end of the ceremony, everyone stood to start singing the national anthems.  To a rhythmic and rousing orchestration, hundreds of Chinese, Malay and Indian voices, singing in English -

Stand, Stand up for Singapore!

Cheesy little creature that I am - I got goosebumps.

Love to Everyone,

Jonathan

PS - write me!

PPS Here I am with Scorpions...

"... The world is round, and here I'm dancing on the ground.  Am I right side up, or upside down?"

--Dave Matthews

“Update Lah!”

The weather has cooled only slightly in these final days, but we have sadly seen diminished tropical rain storms – which I live for.

After three years of projecting my energy forward to the Sunny Disciplinarian Utopia of Singapore, I am about to leave.  In two days actually, I’m off to visit The Australian Utters and see the Family farm outside of Melbourne.  I’ll be back through Singapore briefly for exams, packing and thanksgiving, and then India, lah.

Singapore resists my descriptions but it is as much home as anywhere else.  Little international economic super-star plugged into the middle of developing Southeast Asia – Free housing for all, Government propaganda for increased creativity among Singaporeans (I wrote a term paper about it) – high hopes of becoming a cultural Epicenter of the East -- but they’re going to have relax the grip on their people’s thoughts and actions a bit more if they want to see that happen, lah.

I’ve picked up Singlish not bad already – nobody understand why I like to use it, lah.  But many also not understand why to Singapore I come at all –   many to Europe and America also want to go.  I tell them Singapore is a very nice place.  The Government here actually pays for education in exchange for a contract to stay and work in Singapore for a certain number of years.  Aiyah, like the US Army trade education money for military service, but in Singapore army service is compulsory already for men, so they pay their citizens to stay instead.  Also interesting that Government provides free housing for most citizens, while at the same time hundreds of shopping malls dot the island to absorb the worker’s surplus dollars.  If Marx were alive today and in Singapore, he would get a headache lah.  Okie okie.

There are many dark sides to Singapore also, but that’s old news – pick up just about anything written about Singapore before 1995.

I live on campus, which is really a steep mountain with a road around it.  The campus roads operate by an automated ticketing system – if you drive through campus, the campus actually docks money from your “driving account” or something.  Everything here is wireless, Internet included, and owning a cellular phone is about as important carrying personal ID – only ruffians go without.  Even I own a cellular phone here.  If I go outside, turn right, and go up the mountain, I come to a place called “the Center for Bio-informatics” nestled amongst the trees.  If I turn left and walk along the road to the library (the only entrance to which is on the 5^th floor, and no elevator!?) I pass small buildings with such proud titles as “The Center for Entrepreneurship” and “NUS Business Incubator – fostering creativity!” – Singapore is weird.  And if anyone cares, Hewlitt-Packard (don’t they make printers?) is advertising for Nano-Technology on Singaporean TV.

I continue to get the impression that much of the World thinks of America as an economic and cultural (and sometimes military) empire.  I think that’s funny and try to tell the internationals I meet that most Americans probably don’t really know that the rest of the world exists.

Anyway, Singapore, international economics - all the same thing to me right now.  Happy to be moving on – and I miss you all.

Jonathan

PS:  Below is a picture of the Singaporean Merlion.

OH THE MERLION!  How will I ever live without your Entrepreneurial Spirit, your Symbolic Protection against Competing Economies, and the Magical Green Lasers that Shoot out of your eyes and sweep across Singapore at 7 PM and 9 PM every Weekend as part of the MAGICAL SENTOSA™ light show!?

Dear Jesse,

it is late night in Singapore.  I am packing up everything.  EVERYTHING.  Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and the next morning I will wake up, put on a backpack, and catch a bus toward Kuala Lumpur.

I keep clicking my inbox to see if there are new letters.  no letters.  I just watched Scary Movie 2 on my computer a couple days ago ...  I am going to miss Scary Movie 3 and Lord of the Rings and some other movies because I am going to be in India.  I just bought 20 DVD's in Malaysia for a total of $50 are you jealous?  They stopped me at the border and threatened to expel me from the University of Singapore for bringing pirated DVDs into the country.  They forced me to throw all of my wonderful DVDs in the trash can.  I waited for a few minutes and then I reached into the trash can and got my DVDs and went home.  I am drinking Thai "Black Cat" Whiskey and using Coca-Cola brand "Heaven and Earth" green tea to chase it down.

I am totally overwhelmed at saying goodbye to the 100 or so people I know here, or even weirder, not saying goodbye to them, and just leaving because I have to leave and I won't possibly be able to see all of them tomorrow.  I don't know what to do.  What's going on.

Did I come to Singapore?

Jonathan

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