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A Dragon In Singapore

Ah, Singapore, the last quasi-right-wing holdout on planet Earth (other than the Middle East). It’s a different kind of right-wing the Western world is accustomed to; these right-wingers are pro-multiculturalism and pro-environmental (more on those in a minute).

Yet even conservative, capitalistic, authoritarian Singapore is starting to feel the burn (as in left wingers like Bernie Sanders) of the encroaching left-wing dominance of the world. The right-wing People’s Action Party has been in near-complete control of Singapore since 1959. However, every year since 2006 they’ve been losing votes to more left-wing parties, the biggest of which is the Worker’s Party (can’t get more left-wing than that!).

How much longer can Singapore hold out? Only time will tell, but soon Singapore will start the slow transition from (quasi) right-wing authoritarianism to left-wing bloat. Start singing that “Change” Van Halen song.

I’m spending a week here in Singapore, working, relaxing, hanging out, and “visiting” some of my offshore investments (but I won’t say anything more about that so don’t ask). It’s a cool place, certainly one of the best places in Asia, but not without its problems.

1. The Weather sucks, almost beyond belief. Jesus God. Holy shit. KILL ME. Since it’s pretty much sitting on the equator, Singapore is the hottest and most humid place I’ve ever visited in my life. Hey, it’s hot and humid in places like Hong Kong too, but in Hong Kong I can walk around several hours before I feel really disgusting. In Singapore, if you walk outside for just 15 minutes, which can easily be the distance from your hotel to the subway, oh fuck hell, you feel so hot, sweaty, sticky, and miserable you want to kill yourself. And that’s when wearing a short-sleeved shirt. Let’s not even talk about trying to wear a suit here.

Seriously, this heat and humidity is absolute torture for a Western white boy like me. I can walk around in a “normal” hot/humid place for hours and be fine, but here in Singapore, and I hate to sound like a pussy here, I have to seriously duck into an air conditioned building at least once every 20-30 minutes. Walking around outside here for more than that is a serious endurance test unless you were born and raised here. Not to mention the fact that if you’re wearing business attire or similar, your entire vibe is ruined because you’re sticky and drenched all over.

Once again, as I talked about when I mentioned this humidity stuff in Hong Kong, I am simply amazed that people would choose to live in a city where you can’t go outside for more than 20-30 minutes without taking a sweat shower. The people who live here tell me that if you were born and raised here, it’s not quite as bad, but, and this is the point I’m making, they still really dislike it.

My only guess is that if I actually lived here full time, I would A) develop systems in my life to mitigate this and B) get “used to it,” or at least have it be really irritating instead of inducing suicidal thoughts.

On top of the insane heat and humidity, you have to carry around an umbrella all the time because it rains here. And I thought Washington DC’s weather was bad, Jesus. DC’s weather sucks, but DC is Singapore’s little brother when it comes to humidity.

Oh, it gets worse. Singapore is like this year-round. As a matter of fact, right now while I’m here is supposed to be one of the more “mild” months. Ha! “Mild” in the Singapore world means low 90s with 70% humidity. Yeah. I ate an ice cream bar in a mall the other day, and the god damn thing was actually smoking. And I was indoors.

Singapore was on my short list of cities to move to when I finally leave the US. No longer. I like Singapore and I will certainly visit here again and do business here, but live here? Even spend a month here?

No. I just can’t do this. If I had to actually live here with this heat and humidity, I can picture myself jumping off the top of the Marina Bay Sands towers just to feel cool again. Then I’d splat on the bottom, which would be sweet relief.

Sorry, Singapore. You’re awesome, and I gave you a decent shot, but you need to install a giant air conditioned dome over the entire city before I would ever consider moving here, or even spending any time here longer than several days.

2. The People. This is where Singapore is most interesting for a variety of reasons.

Very unlike most countries, Singapore is multi-cultural. It’s about equal parts Chinese, Malaysian, and Indian, with a small smattering of non-American whites (but not much). When first arriving here I mistook the darker-skinned Malaysians for Indians, which look very similar to Western eyes.

The Chinese here are agnostic, Buddhist, or Christian. The Indians are Hindu. The Malaysians are Muslim. In Singapore, you can walk down a street and see a church, a mosque, and a Buddhist temple all on the same street. I’ve never seen this kind of religious integration anywhere, including places like New York. Fascinating.

Since its inception as a real and separate nation in 1965, Singapore’s goal was to become a multiracial society. Its founder and Abraham-like figure Lee Kuan Yew famously said, “We are not a Chinese nation, or a Malaysian nation, or an Indian nation. We are a Singaporean nation.”

Well, they pulled it off. Singapore is multiculturalism done correctly, perhaps the only nation I’ve ever seen to make this work effectively. Right-wingers dislike multiculturalism because of the right’s inherent fear of other races and foreigners. The left-wing loves “multiculturalism” because they sneakily use the word “multiculturalism” as code word for “welfare state.”

As usual, both the left and the right are wrong. Multiculturalism and immigration are good, PROVIDED two things:

1. There is no welfare state (Singapore has none to speak of). If any foreigners are allowed to live in your land, then they need to get a job and support themselves, or they starve (or leave). Europe (and the US to a lesser extent) is showing exactly what happens when you mix mass immigration with a massive welfare state. Multiculturalism or welfare state, choose one.

2. There is no politically correct, big governmental structure forcing you to spend time with, hire, or serve those of other races if you don’t want to. The US is an example of big government force-feeding multiculturalism down your throat (particularly as a business owner) whether you want it or not.

Don’t do either of those things, and multiculturalism is awesome. Singapore is proof of this. Embrace either of those two things (or both), and you’re screwed.

The Muslim population here is strong. I ate lots of Muslim food (yummy!) and went to two different Muslim concerts, where the music was surprisingly good:

Women wearing hijabs are everywhere. I said hijab, not burka. The hijab covers the head and neck only (not face). The burka covers everything. An example of Singaporean Muslim women:

Some of the younger Muslim chicks, as well as some of the milfs, were pretty hot. Not very many, but some. I was surprised. Much hotter than the Chinese women anyway.

As an American, I have some false Societal Programming that tells me to fear Muslims (terrorists!). However, unlike my stupid country, the Singaporean military doesn’t attack other countries nor set up military bases in other nations, thus Singapore has no terrorism problem and Muslims here get along with the other races and religions in peace and harmony. A pity this is too complicated a concept for the rulers of the America to understand.

The Asians here are also interesting. In Hong Kong and China, Asian men look, well, Asian. No one is fat, no one is muscular, and no one is tall. All the men have that typical “skinny Asian guy” body. Pretty much every dude you see has the identical body from the neck down, and exceptions to this are very rare. (Japan is like this too.)

Asian guys in Singapore, however, tend to be taller, broader, and have bigger torsos, arms, shoulders, and can actually be beefy, chubby, or muscular. In other words, Asian guys here in Singapore kinda look like…me. They look unlike the Asian men of any other nation I’ve visited.

The Asian women here are pretty much the same as China/HK. I would say that they are one tiny notch better-looking because of mixed breeding with the other races here. The few super-hotties I’ve seen here were clearly of mixed or semi-mixed race (Chinese, Indian, and Malaysian). But then those aren’t full Chinese women, are they?

In terms of look and style, Singaporeans are even more classy than Hong Kongers (who themselves are much classier than the mainland Chinese). The women here really present well. Feminine styles such as dresses, gowns, and skirts are common.

The men here, particularly the Muslim non-Asians but some of the Asians too, actually look somewhat Alpha. There’s a common hairstyle here where the men shave the sides of their heads and grow the rest of their hair out, and it looks pretty cool. (Wish I could pull something like that off; but I’m too pale and businessy.)

These are all a testament to the more right-wing culture here; more right-wing equals more Alpha and masculine men and more feminine women. I predict that over the years you’ll see less and less of this as the culture follows the rest of the world and becomes more left-wing. I have a strong feeling that in 20 years, people here will start to look more like the West does now; more beta-looking men and more women with shorter hair and wearing pants.

3. Interesting Coupling. There are two interesting dynamics in Singapore with boy/girl couples that I have not observed anywhere else.

The first is that interracial couples here are extremely common, more so even in racially diverse areas of the US. Hot mixed girls with Asian guys. White guys with Asian girls. Indian guys with Asian girls. Asian guys with Muslim Malaysian girls. Etc. It’s crazy, and kinda nice.

The second, and more interesting thing, is that you’ll quite often see boy/girl couples where the girl is clearly better-looking than the man, sometimes extremely so. This, again, covers all three races (plus mixed). This is something I simply do not see in the West, or even in other Asian countries (of course barring the exception of the ugly older guy with money with the younger hot gold digger).

The most extreme case of this I saw just yesterday. On the subway was a young couple, a super-gorgeous, light-skinned mixed girl, whom most men would easily rank a 9 or 10, with a lanky, dorky, ugly, zit-faced Asian beta dressed like a nerd and acting like it. Yet damn, this girl was all over him. Touching him, squeezing him, giving him doggy dinner bowl eyes, laughing with sparkles in her eyes when she looked at him, the works.

I was riveted. I’ve never seen anything like this. It was like watching something from a parallel universe. This was not an outlier…there’s a lot of this kind of thing here.

4. Big Brother. I’ve always said that left-wingers want government to be their mommy and take care of them, while right-wingers want government to be a big, strong, stern father, who keeps people in line. Singapore’s strong, right-wing, authoritarian “father” government is “felt” here.

You’ll see big signs on the freeway that say, “USE YOUR TURN SIGNAL BEFORE CHANGING LANES.”

On my visa exit card it had emblazoned in huge letters, “DEATH PENALTY TO ANY DRUG TRAFFICKERS” Yes, they will actually kill you if you try to sell drugs here, even if it’s just weed, and even if you’re a foreigner.

On the subways, you’re constantly hearing audio, over and over again, of “IF YOU OBSERVE ANY SUSPICIOUS BEHAVIOR, REPORT IT TO THE AUTHORITIES.” (The US is doing this now too. Great.)

On the buses, you’ll actually see signs that show a man’s hand on a girl’s ass, with the words “IF YOU ARE MOLESTED ON THIS BUS, CALL THE POLICE.”

When you walk into shops, you’ll sometimes see this crap:

Chewing gum is illegal here. Yes, it’s illegal. Why? Because you might spit it out on the street. WE CANNOT HAVE THAT, CITIZEN. OUR NATION MUST BE CLEAN. NOW OBEY.

Big government is stupid, wasteful, inhuman, and destructive regardless if it’s left or right wing. Like with my own left-wing nation, this garbage is a little fun to watch from a distance though. I’m so glad I’m an Alpha Male 2.0 and none of this affects me. If I was a normal person this shit might actually affect my happiness.

5. The economy is absolutely booming here, just like with the rest of Asia. Trying to nail down some private office space for some consulting and coaching was damn near impossible because all the office space in the city is pretty much full. I have not seen one homeless person during my entire visit here so far. Even the lower-class people here seem happy, hard-working, and vibrant consumers.

As just an example, here’s the Marina Bay Sands, a fucking cruise ship mounted on top of three skyscrapers:

Not to be outdone by Hong Kong, it shoots lasers too (just not as many).

The city is clean and high-tech. I’ve been here almost a week, and have been all over the city, and so far have seen a grand total of two pieces of litter. (Stands to reason I guess. They probably kill you if you litter.)

6. The culture is much more “suburban” than most other Chinese/Asian cities. When you land in Hong Kong, and take that first subway ride out of the airport, it’s like you’ve arrived on another planet, even well before you hit the city core. In Singapore, once you’re outside of the city core it looks just like any suburb of Los Angeles or Seattle.

As such, the people are much less rushed, more polite (they actually say “sorry” when they bump you; rare in Asia!), walk more slowly, and are less aggressive. One of my mentors, Wall Street legend Jim Rogers, could have lived anywhere in Asia and chose to move to Singapore to raise his kids. I think this suburban quality, along with the cleaner air, is probably why. (I’m sure he hates the humidity too, but he travels so much it doesn’t bother him.)

7. The air quality is the best of any Asian city I have ever visited. Both the city and its air are shockingly clean (for a large city). If it weren’t for the heat/humidity, Singapore would probably have the highest quality of living of any Asian city I’ve been to so far. True, it’s still a big city so the air isn’t truly “clean” if you’re accustomed to living out in a rural area, but as compared to other cities, the air is pristine.

They’re big on the environment here. They even have an eco-mega-forest with rain forest plants and “super trees” that help clean the air:

8. The transportation infrastructure, perhaps unsurprisingly, is top notch. Just like with Hong Kong, during my entire time navigating Singapore’s subway system I never had to “think” once about getting around. While the buses are not quite as nice as HKs, everything is super efficient.

One small problem was that for some bizarre reason, the subway trains have very little seats. Many times I had to stand when there were barely any people on the train because all the seats were taken. Dumb. Sometimes you’ll have entire rows of a subway car with no seats. WTF?

Because of this, I can’t say Singapore has the best subway system I’ve seen. That’s still Shanghai, though both HK and Singapore come in at a close second.

On the overall, I like Singapore. I consider it one of my target Asian growth cities for business and income, and will be back here at some point, but because of the utterly ridiculous weather I will never live here, nor spend any time here longer than about 3-4 days at a time. I also don’t feel that exciting “hustle” of the populace in Singapore that I feel in more Chinese cities like Hong Kong and Shanghai. Still a very cool place though.

Next up, I’m headed back to the Western world: Australia…

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20 Comments

  1. Speculation

    I’m Australian and out of all the places I’d move to in Asia I would pick Hong Kong.

    The reason HK wins over Singapore is the vibrancy and lack of authoritarianism. There is a lot of latitude to live your life how you want in HK as long as you don’t cause trouble. In Singapore like you’ve pointed out, they love making laws and regulations to cover all sorts of petty things. To be fair without those rules Singapore wouldn’t be able to sustain a first world bastion of order in the middle of SE Asia.

    I’ll be very interested to hear your review of Australia (and its women) after your tour here.

  2. Leonard

    I live here. It is a pretty cool place. Humidity is shit though.

    One interesting thing — the trend of men dressing better, becoming beefier and more alpha, and women becoming more feminine, is new. Maybe in the last 10 years or so. I think it’s a direct response to massive immigration of expatriates and professionals from 2005 on — people feel they have to present better to stay competitive in the dating scene. They also definitely have better game than they used to. Welcome to the free market.

  3. Doug Bandler II

    I’ll be the right wing killjoy. Singapore’s multiculturalism doesn’t have blacks or Meso-Americans. If they had a significant black African population that city would resemble every other city on earth with blacks in it; crime ridden enclaves that lowered the quality of life for everyone. As for their Muslims. Something you overlooked, they are not Arab. If they had Arabs or other Middle Eastern Muslims in their city you could forget peaceful coexistence. So, no, you have not been fed any “false society programming” regarding Muslims. In fact, the Western world is “programming” everyone to believe that “Islam is a religion of peace” that has been hijacked by “extremists”. I guess you’ve bought into it. Its only the few bold Conservatives who actually know Islam’s history that are resisting the trend. But I guess you would call them racist.

    As for your superficial understanding of Left vs Right, it would take a book to explain it to you and then you still wouldn’t grasp it. So strong are your libertarian blinders. Although I will give Singapore and Hong Kong credit. They prove what a high IQ population can do with a free market orientation. Oh, thats right you forgot to mention the IQ of both these cities. That would be 109. Yes 109. Start importing Africans with their 75 IQ or Arabs with their 84 IQ or Mexicans with their 85 IQ and get back to me about how great multiculturalism is.

  4. Blackdragon

    The reason HK wins over Singapore is the vibrancy and lack of authoritarianism.

    Agree. And the weather.

    I’ll be very interested to hear your review of Australia (and its women) after your tour here.

    I love the women in Sydney, but yeah, more on that next week.

    the trend of men dressing better, becoming beefier and more alpha, and women becoming more feminine, is new.

    Interesting. Didn’t know that.

    In fact, the Western world is “programming” everyone to believe that “Islam is a religion of peace” that has been hijacked by “extremists”. I guess you’ve bought into it.

    In no way do I think Islam is a religion of peace. What I do think, and I’m right, is the reason the US has a terrorist problem is because it has had troops and missiles over in the Middle East for decades. Without this we wouldn’t have a terrorist problem, though I agree the region would still be hundreds of years behind the rest of the world. But I’m not getting into a political debate. That’s what my other blog is for. If you love big government neoconservatism and constant, massive foreign intervention, go rant about that over there.

    You’re absolutely right on the IQ thing though.

  5. Jack Outside the Box

     Its only the few bold Conservatives who actually know Islam’s history that are resisting the trend. But I guess you would call them racist.

     

    Dude, Islam is not a race.

  6. James

    BD, which cities will you be visiting in Australia?

  7. Mik

    We dont get very many red pill bloggers who’ve made their way here into sunny Singapore.

    As for the attrativeness of women, you’d be right to say that the prettiest girls tend to be non-chinese. The amount of mix-blooded races here is verg high.

    As for muslims, since iam one myself, unlike other places all over the world, we get very little to no terrorist bullshit and no harrassment or being singled out by the government. Again, its the extremists. We get along extremely well with non-muslims alike like you wouldnt believe.

  8. Blackdragon

    BD, which cities will you be visiting in Australia?

    Sydney and Melbourne. I’m here now.

    We dont get very many red pill bloggers who’ve made their way here into sunny Singapore.

    I know. It’s because they’re all too busy moving to Russia or Eastern Europe looking for The Perfect Virgin to marry.

    As for muslims, since iam one myself, unlike other places all over the world, we get very little to no terrorist bullshit and no harrassment or being singled out by the government. Again, its the extremists. We get along extremely well with non-muslims alike like you wouldnt believe.

    I haven’t decided 100% on this yet, but next year I’ll likely be spending a week or two in the Middle East, mostly Dubai. It will be interesting to compare Muslims there to the Muslims in Singapore.

  9. Mik

    Do drop me an email next time you drop by SG even if is for a short few days, im a fan of your blog and id be happy to show you around, there’s surprisingly a lot to see despite how ridiculously small SG is.

    Id like to point out that there are actually a considerable amount of arabs in Singapore, but they’re mostly “watered down”, they’re usually of Yemeni descent. Yet you dont crazy extremists like you down in the Middle East or parts of the world where the Muslim population is Arab or Pakistani. Extremism here is deeply rejected by the local muslims who practice their faith rather staunchly.

    With that being said, the majority of Muslims here are either Malay/Indonesian, Indian or a mix of both.

    As for left wing/right wing politics, its actually quite different from the type you get in the US. For one, the supposedly right wing PAP are pro-immigrant, the left feel quite differently about it. If anything, opposition exists primarily to oppose the authoritan/dictatorship ways of the PAP.

    You’d be right in saying Multi-culturalism has worked here, to an extent, it runs a little deeper than that, but thats another story for another day.

  10. ray

    yeah lol, DEATH PENALTY FOR LITTERERS!   (Thank you for visiting Singapore!  Please visit again if we didn’t kill you during a previous visit.)

  11. Gluteus_Maximus

    what’s great about life here on earth is that we still have choice in deciding what areas we want to live in, with our choice of perks, along with the perceived negatives we’re willing to tolerate. and with that, that there are still areas all around the world that cater to so many different preferences. it’s actually kind of magical that life is this way.

    apart from the weather, singapore does seem like a fantastic place. especially in regards to the air-quality. that’s become a personal biggie for me. not to mention:

    If any foreigners are allowed to live in your land, then they need to get a job and support themselves, or they starve

    that sounds lovely.

    I’m so glad I’m an Alpha Male 2.0 and none of this affects me.

    as you said with things like the chewing gum and cleanliness/littering/turn-signals/drug-trafficking. even though i, too, am more inclined towards freedom to do whatever people want, i gotta admit, i don’t mind things like that. but of course those are just few you’ve mentioned to use for examples, so i’d actually have to go there and see what else they’re doing, so i could change my mind.

    On the subway was a young couple, a super-gorgeous, light-skinned mixed girl, whom most men would easily rank a 9 or 10, with a lanky, dorky, ugly, zit-faced Asian beta dressed like a nerd and acting like it. Yet damn, this girl was all over him. Touching him, squeezing him, giving him doggy dinner bowl eyes, laughing with sparkles in her eyes when she looked at him, the works.

    it is rare, but whenever i see shit like that, it makes me question EVERYTHING LOL. the thing is, having had my own transformation, i still remember being a scrawny little beta before (with glasses and everything — i am a natural ectomorph) and because i know things now, being on the other side of the fence, i can recall similar occurrences with gorgeous girls giving me the anime eyes and sucking up to me, being all super nice sweet kitty status. i just didn’t know what those things meant before, so nothing ever happened. or like you said with your previous article:

    Still inexperienced, I was surprised a woman like that would actually like me, or what to do about it.

    what i have learned from it though is that, no matter what ya do, there will always be girls that like you no matter what. and knowing that on a visceral level really instills a certain kind of confidence. similar to the epiphany you had that you wrote about in your book, i think closer towards the beginning, and i’m paraphrasing:

    “two girls, both equally hot, the first one didn’t go through, but the next one did, and i didn’t do anything different.”

    and with the ectomorph thing, i’ve learned to use that to my advantage. a lot of people work out TO get girls. or to increase their probabilities. hte way i see it, in my experience, there are A LOT of girls who like skinny guys. so when i work out, i just do it to do it.

  12. Gluteus_Maximus

    On the subway was a young couple, a super-gorgeous, light-skinned mixed girl, whom most men would easily rank a 9 or 10, with a lanky, dorky, ugly, zit-faced Asian beta dressed like a nerd and acting like it. Yet damn, this girl was all over him. Touching him, squeezing him, giving him doggy dinner bowl eyes, laughing with sparkles in her eyes when she looked at him, the works.

    since you’ve brought it up, i can’t help but reflect on it. i think what’s happening is that the girl knows the guy is not going to judge her for being a sweet, little kitty-kat. just like how even as an alpha male 2.0, when they get to know you, that you’re non-judgmental, they’re also going to be a sweet, little kitty-kat.

    just like how us guys, deep down, we would like to provide, but we leave it as a reward to only those that earn our trust.

    because a lot of people take those things for granted.

  13. Gluteus_Maximus

    and this may be more prevalent there because you’ve gotta have a pretty non-judgmental populace (not seeing the other as weak) to have three different types of religious buildings on the same street.

  14. Signor Farfalla

    Hey Ray,

    How about just not littering?

  15. It-Began-In-Africa

    Thank you as always BD, I am enjoying catching up with your travel diaries. Lots of interesting and funny perpectives. Your reaction to the weather made me crack out at my old experience visiting a seaside town in South Africa many years ago. Gosh their cockroaches were as big as mice.

    Safe and happy travels!

     

  16. Kurt

    You’re absolutely right on the IQ thing though.

    Seriously? I find it surprising that you, BD, with what you claim is such a rational and evidence-based approach to understanding the world, would subscribe to such ignorant and silly prejudice. The IQ test has been shown through several studies to be essentially useless at measuring anything beyond one’s ability to do well on an IQ test.

    Just as the Nazis came up with a very convincing-sounding data set on how other races were inferior and less intelligent than they were, anyone can use a bunch of standardized test data to try to make the argument that one race is better than the other, but it’s all bullshit. The real evidence is in the people in our society. If blacks were so stupid why are they disproportionately represented in our country’s population of successful (and brilliant) artists, musicians and athletes? If mexicans are so stupid why do I regularly see them starting with less (more like nothing) and succeeding at business and real estate development far beyond their (comparatively lazy) white peers where I live?

    Remember, not more than 120 years ago ‘multi-culturalism’ in this country meant Irish and German immigrants. Everyone back then could prove, PROVE beyond a doubt that they were completely inferior, stupid, prone to base instincts and just plain filthy.

  17. Blackdragon

    Aaaaaaand this is exactly why I don’t discuss these issues. People on both the left and the right immediately go for their pitchforks and go crazy. I’m not going to get into a discussion about this. The bottom line is that the data is pretty clear that IQ (and race) aren’t the sole determining factor for these things, and it’s also clear that it’s not the case where IQ (and race) have nothing to do with anything.

    As usual, the real answer lies between the left and right extremes.

    But a detailed discussion on racial IQ levels is a topic for another web site, not here.

  18. Anthony

    I’ll be honest….Anthony Bourdain is responsible for me visiting Singapore in 2011. I miss that place so much. The food was amazing and I loved the cleanliness of the place. Far different from Seoul and New York.

  19. Jay

    Hope those investments were property in Batam, some amazing returns there 🙂

  20. CWS

    Hi

    It is Oct/Nov 2017 and the temp/humidity has gone crazy.

    It would be bad even by June standards.

    The tree cutting/mass immigration/construction/car sales are at full steam.

    A scary place – but people like to say ”All is fine…if you don’t like it, move out or shut up”.