sterile

Uncategorized / Tuesday, August 3rd, 2021

One of the most common and sticky criticisms of Singapore is that it’s sterile.

Part of this can be a kind of orientalizing Western perspective – the assumption being that Asia is supposed to be dangerous, exciting, and that Singapore is just too clean and clinical for the adventuring westerner.

But also, simultaneously, there’s a truth to it that Singaporeans ourselves will acknowledge to be true. And there are reasons for this. Singaporeans didn’t wake up one morning and collectively decide that we wanted to be boring. In fact, Singapore used to be called “Sin Galore” by sailors who docked at our harbour back in the 1950s. Bugis Street was once the place to catch “The Dance of the Flaming Arseholes“.

I think it was only after the PAP government came to power that Singapore began to become sterile, with the intent of maximising economic growth. The idea was to make Singapore a safe haven for foreign investment – and keeping things boring, predictable, stable and sterile was a significant part of that in the decades since independence in 1965.

There’s more to dig into here, I’d like to really dive into it and expand this post into a proper exploration. To be continued. Here are some old reads.

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