Hoje infelizmente parece-me que a leve brisa nao passava de uma falsa ilusao estimulada pelo desepero de uma recuperacao economica, talvez ja alcancada e dai a ilusao ter sido apagada!
Singapore is a modern country built as any modern project: carefully thought of, planned, designed and executed all that supervised by the “control forces”.
Lee Kuan Yew, a Cambridge-educated became the first prime minister of newly independent state in August 1965 and governed Singapore until 1990 towards a great economic and financial success shadowed by its strict social order and the suppression of political opposition.
Singapore became known as the city of the forbidden.
Singapore’s population is composed by 3 main cultures that live in harmony side by side: Chinese residents numbered 2,311,300 (77.4%), Malays 423,500 (14.2%), Indians 214,900 (7.2%) and persons of other ethnic groups 36,800(1.2%).
When it comes to traveling, I prefer traditional, old, genuine and historical places to modern and cosmopolitan centers.
Singapore may not fit into my preferences but in recent years, there has been a visible improvement in terms of tolerance from the local authorities, which made life for the locals and visitors, less mechanistic and more human.
These changes, characterized by an opening of traditional mindsets, might have been influenced by the late1990s where in late 1998, unemployment doubled.
Slowly, with a visible openness, Singapore started to attract more tourism and the city-state is recovering.
And so last Christmas I choose to go to Singapore to enjoy this less expensive and new fresh breeze from a form expensive, stiff and rule mania place.
My favorite part of the city is the old China Town, where you can still have a feeling of the old days, walking around and looking at the wedding cake decorated buildings.
There are many boutique hotels that will give you a glance of Old China!
China Town - Singapore - December 2003
China Town - Singapore - December 2003
China Town - Singapore - December 2003
China Town - Singapore - December 2003
China Town - Singapore - December 2003
China Town - Singapore - December 2003
My morning call in China Town - Singapore - December 2003
China Town - Singapore - December 2003
To tell you the truth, the real reason I went to Singapore last Christmas was the Snow, the ball:
PS. I was just informed that the Singaporean Police this year decided not to allow Snow in Singapore:
In a statement on Wednesday evening, the Police said that while they do not discriminate against "Singaporeans with gay tendencies," they "cannot approve any application for an event which goes against the moral values of a large majority of Singaporeans."
Is a ball where many people from around the region, get together, dance and celebrate the holiday season, against the moral of Singaporeans?
Why only this year? Is it because Singapore’s economy has substantially recovered and the authorities no longer need pink dollars?
And I thought that Singapore was on its way to become a fare state when in fact sadly, very sadly, the authorities’ humanism still seems to be driven by $$$$…
