LOL, as PM and also personally invested in these projects at Marina Bay how could he not like the generous hyperbole from this Lonely Planet writer. I don't care for MBS but I like GBB. And what if we did not build the GBB? That may actually be a better choice. We could build a better one in future or not at all.
But MBS is for the well heeled and not for the majority of Singapore. For that we have more local and not glitzy (read cheaper but rarely free) alternatives mostly in the heartlands. To me our most remarkable destination must be the grand old dame Botanic Gardens. That is truly the place the rich and the not so rich could share. It really helps that you do not need to pay to visit and a few times a year the Orchid Enclosure is free to our students and accompanying adults. The GBB will never match the Old Dame.
Lonely Planet writer Daniel Robinson couldn't have written us up any other way. It was accurate but most important he isn't the only travel writer. He faces much competition including users' feedback say, Travel Advisor etc., Know how your bread is buttered. We have built it with much coin and we want others to help bring in the visitors.
What these writers naturally omit is not to criticize what could be hidden from the casual and temporary visitors. So there is no need to talk about train breakdowns or even the riot in Little India.
To the ordinary Singaporean, what have MBS and GBB done for us? Very little because trickle down economics do not work and there is the additional insult in the guise of a spike in gambling problems destroying more than a few families.
MBS and GBB must be seen from a narrow perspective for it to be a huge success. Throw in the F1 too. In the broadest perspective I think they are mistakes but most people will only discover this after quite some time. Do you expect an enterprise that is not built solidly on good old fashioned values to stand the test of time? Who is that guy who just beat KS Li to the be richest guy our side of the world? He made it with casinos. It will not last.
Mr. Robinson took care not to mention the Singapore Flyer. Surely he can't missed seeing that.
Update: 4:20 pm
I just checked the PM's post. There are about 4,600 likes and 220 comments nearly all positive I think as I don't have the time to read everyone of them. I am so grateful for them. So my thank you to the top few. Here goes. Thank you Darko Molinar, Kuroneko Shingapooru, Christy Khoong-Tanguy, JiaMa Ren, Faiz Budak Kecik, Mike P A Tan, Esther G Aw, Abdul Rashid Sahari, Michael Soh, Betty Leong, Maimunah Farid, Lim Walter, Betty Leong, Chandramouli Dorai, Mary Adele Ng, Li Leng L, Zainab Mohamed, Katy Lau.....
But there was one guy who stood out. Alvin Hartono Ho asked: Isn't govt suppose to serve us citizens?
Alvin is right but so was John F. Kennedy admonition telling us not to ask what the country can do for us but we we can do for the country. Of course here on this island Singapore = Government = Singapore. The only other place off the top of my mind with this equivalence is North Korea but otherwise they could not be more different than us.
Just as the quiet investors and traders needed suckers each time a financial bubble burst, some of us need suckers first for our Plan B to work. No thanks actually I wish the reality had been different.
In case I am seen as uncaring but what else could I do? Just check out what P N Balji posted today at his The Independent: What's happening to my country?. He said it more incisively and concisely what I had on and off written here for myself and family.
People should just go and ask the surviving Old Guard sans LKY how they feel about today's Singapore. Lim Siong Guan had recently written his experience and view. Regrettably Ngiam discredited himself. Go check with Jek Yuen Tong, Chua Sian Chin, Othman Wok etc., and ask yourself how come George Yeo is serving Robert Kuok than Singapore Inc?
Update: Jan 23 9:10pm
I just read this from the NYT. Sure, this guy isn't a travel writer. It is a different perspective of MBS and like the one from Lonely Planet as valid. People should look at an issue from enough angles. Those who offer high praise at the PM's page are just clueless or in some cases self centered suckers.
I visited GBB recently. Scale of GBB is impressive but overall it is too organised and sterile for my liking. I didn't bother going into the 2 domes after walking around on the outside, so perhaps my view is a little unfair. As for MBS, it's just a mass of concrete, steel and glass that does nothing for me. I much prefer something more natural and organic and free, like P. Ubin and the Botanical Gardens.
ReplyDeleteTickets to the two domes are pricey. To make it worth the while we paid up for the annual membership. We have visited it countless times but eventually you start to tire of the place, which you are not likely with the old Botanic Gardens at Tanglin. That one has the X-factor. With GBB, esp. the Domes they better hope to make their money back quickly. It might not be durable.
DeleteMBS and GBB are like competing in the never ending race to build the tallest office tower. It is a fool's game in the end. The only tower with great X-factor is the Eiffel Tower.
I've been to neither MBS nor GBB. I prefer Bukit Timah.
ReplyDeleteLim Siong Guan was part of the circus that created today's problems.
ReplyDeleteYour comment gave me the chance to say this. I agree with you although in my blog post it wouldn't come across as such. Take his fondness for scenario planning as an example which I happen to know something about. It is not workable and came with the danger of creating closed minds unaware when evidence do not fit the framework etc....and if you are a markets person you will appreciate even better how hopeless it is for peering into the future. Hence our dismal 20/20 track record. I imagine Nassim Taleb have only harsh words for guys like him. What he had though in spades is the spirit of excellence....
Delete