TL;DR – Are you sure you landed in Singapore?
Quora is one of my favourite rabbit holes online. I can spend hours reading and reading and not feel the time. Mostly, it’s informative and interesting, sometimes it’s entertaining and once in a while, it’s borderline-incredulous.
Today’s one of those borderline-incredulous days.
First question on my feed just now was this,
I’ve been to Singapore and seen all corners of the country, and it looks like a third-world (underdeveloped) country, is this a justifiable statement to make?
There’re four answers so far and thankfully, all four rebutted and tried to paint a more accurate picture of what Singapore is really like. I really like this answer from a certain Lewis Loh.
He’s got quite a lot covered in his answer and reading it, I could almost feel my heart swelling with such pride.
Of course Lewis started with the latest jewel of our first class airport, the Jewel. He then moved on to show how spectacular the Singapore skyline is at night, complete with fireworks. And mind you, our little red dot is not just pretty at night, even in the day we’re quite something else. Lewis showed how even the drain network in Singapore can look so chio, although haha, it’s not as chio as the smooth-coated otters of Singapore.
Lewis also shared a NatGeo video that was produced and released last year. It was a collaboration between Gov.sg and NatGeo. It explores how our little dot grew from a small fishing village into a futuristic city.
Lewis did not stop here.
No Singapore story is complete without talking about how we’re actually the impossible story. When we were forced out of Malaysia back on that fateful day of 9th Aug 1965, that was also the day we had to fully accept that we’re a teeny tiny island of a country with no water, no food, no natural resources, no jobs and no friends.
Fast forward 54 years later, we now punch above our weight, and we’ve been working our way towards self-sufficiency in water. And food security is also a big thing with us.
And of course, our military strength, armed to the teeth, is quite possibly the strongest in the region.
Majulah Singapore!
Anyway, here’s Lewis Loh’s answer in full. Enjoy, fellow Singaporeans.
I’ve been to Singapore and seen all corners of the country, and it looks like a third-world (underdeveloped) country, is this a justifiable statement to make?
Are you sure you landed in Singapore? If you’ve been here, its very likely you’ve landed at the airport.
I don’t even think Wakanda has this type of airport
Whenever I come home, from wheels down to being in a car or taxi home, takes me under 30 mins.
This is NOT a photoshopped desktop wallpaper, this actually happens several times a year (New Year day, National Day… etc).
This is any given night without rain in Singapore, a light show happens at the Marina Bay Sands 3x every night.
This is a drain network that was re-worked into a picturesque river network and as a testimony to how it brought back wildlife?
Smooth coated otters, that have been documented to be extinct from Singapore’s waterways decades ago, RETURNED and started to THRIVE.
There are several documented families who have re-claimed some territories as theirs and are living amongst humans now!
Here’s a full episode of National Geographic documenting in detail Singapore’s plan in MANY aspects of the country from a technology standpoint. Covering topics like
- Housing
- Water
- Food
- Education
- Enviromental Policies
- Trash Management
- Many more….. just watch the video, even me a Singaporean is amazed
In the words of an American friend who watched this video….. Wakanda exists here!
Few other notable stuff about Singapore. Singapore is working towards a TOTAL self sufficiency in water.
Singapore is now working on sufficiency for food.
Singapore is armed to the teeth for deterrence and has the strongest military in the region.
This is a mini compilation of Singapore’s airforce done up by an England flight enthusiast.
Singapore has a citizen army that knows how to defend themselves, able to pick up a weapon when the time comes and deter aggressors.
Singapore was a country, that barely over 50 years ago sang the anthem
“God Save the Queen”
Then for a few years after they chickened out, the citizens sang
“Kimigayo”
Less than a decade after going back to singing “God Save the Queen”, they sang
“Negaraku”
And since 9th August 1965, Singapore have been singing
“Majulah Singapura”
I believe they’ve settled on the last one.
Back to my question to you, you SURE you came to Singapore at
1.3521° N, 103.8198° E
And not…
(Featured image via)