Singapore - Life in misery city - A BBC article

[soihok]

This piece has appeared on the BBC News web site, it is a western woman's account of her life in Singapore.

Make of it what you will.

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-26546169

After living in Singapore for 11 years I do agree that the people are quite stressed out most of the time. The place is ultra competitive, this is its nature. I hardly think its misery though, I think life in Mogadishu, Somalia would be misery, but not Singapore. I really enjoyed living there.

Obviously some people's outlook on things are different than others.

Waste of an article if you ask me, so that means so is my post. Oh well.

[Jay Sata]

I'm ok there for a couple of days but because it is so small the novelty of the clean streets and ordered traffic flow soon wears off.

Sentosa island is too artificial to offer any sort of ambiance.

[soihok]

So is it a misery to be there?

Sentosa beach is man made, as is East Coast Park beach.

Terrible places to be aren't they, just need Pattaya's Jet Ski scam to move in at its a complete misery

[harrry]

As I have never been pregnant (I am male) I cannot speak for the lady. I do know that I use a wheelchair and in one of the crowded interconections between underground streets a wheelchair chair stair lift I was using malfunctioned. It took two minutes for someone to come and assess the situation and call for help. about 5 minutes for someone to control the situation to arrive and a toal of about 40 minutes from getting stuck to being freed. While sitting there I was passed by thousands of people most of whom smiled and some spoke. Certainly the treatment I got was not as she did.

[soihok]

Sorry to hear of your ordeal Harry.

Do you think you would have got a better reaction in Thailand?????

[harrry]

Sorry to hear of your ordeal Harry.

Do you think you would have got a better reaction in Thailand?????

I would still be stuck on the thing................. with everyone running round in circles.

(thats if I ever find a fully accessible path through the city here.

Of course some of the scenery that passed me in Singapore was very nice to see too.

[soihok]

Nice one Harry

[manarak]

too bad the article doesn't include a photo of the author.

[soihok]

....but we can paint a picture her...well fed, western, expecting, expecting the world to bow down to her, connected to the BBC (say no more)....

[harrry]

....but we can paint a picture her...well fed, western, expecting, expecting the world to bow down to her, connected to the BBC (say no more)....

It wasn't tourist mall area....not loud and busting out of her top and pushing everyone to one side while looking for a XXXX.

Mostly small very expensively dressed packages that still seemed to flow round without even having flaunt their Gucci bags.

(Not all of us spend all our time round Geylang

Edited March 16, 2014 by harrry

[guzzi850m2]

Singapore is one of the most expensive city's in the world to live in.

You get a 99 year lease on a condo if you "buy" one, huge prices for permits for cars/bikes.

Average expat salery for Westerners: 200K US$ per year

Average expat salery for Indians/Pakistanis: Something like 10.000 US$ per year perhaps even lower for an unskilled worker.

Okay nice and clean and low crime rate and good cheap food courts and that's about it.

My company have the head office there so I been there perhaps 30 times the last +10 years.

I was looking to buy a Nexus 7 there untill I found out that it is app 50$ cheaper in Thailand, lol.

Yes nice to viset for a few days and than get the hell out again.

[manarak]

Average expat salery for Westerners: 200K US$ per year

Average expat salery for Indians/Pakistanis: Something like 10.000 US$ per year perhaps even lower for an unskilled worker.

and this is exactly the way it should be everywhere in the world!

I worked there too, we had skilled Indians in the office who were earning 150+ kUSD.

It is skill that makes the difference, not race.

[guzzi850m2]

My post have nothing to do with race, but all the guest workers in all the ship yards are on very low saleries.

What about the guys cutting the trees/lawns, do you think they are local, no way.

[manarak]

My post have nothing to do with race, but all the guest workers in all the ship yards are on very low saleries.

What about the guys cutting the trees/lawns, do you think they are local, no way.

so what?

they are unskilled, they get paid enough to go by. what more should they get in your opinion?

paying out too much is what killed european welfare systems and also the reason why I opted out, I accept to get no pension at all, because I know they won't be able to pay any, besides maybe a few alms that will pay for the cost of a 30 sqm studio in the ass of the world in a village where all lights go out at 20:00...

Edited March 17, 2014 by manarak

[anotheruser]

So everything was fine until she got pregnant and had a hard time on the subway. Kind of odd that a Brit would wonder why people from Spore are obsessed with money. That would be the British influence at work. She should try getting pregnant and going around BKK on local buses that many normal commuters use to get to work. Her only complaint is about subway seats.