My biggest whinges about Singapore - are they justified?

Wham · Post by **Wham** » Wed, 29 Mar 2006 3:19 pm

ADH - in case i did not mention it - i still like living here despite the 10 things you mentioned as there is also another list of 10 things that i love about sing that negates the bad things.

Nevertheless, a good round of Kvetching once in a while is amusing

...did i mention how many times we got cut off while driving this am!!!

Harsha · Post by **Harsha** » Wed, 29 Mar 2006 3:27 pm

This message has been deleted by the user.

Saint · Post by **Saint** » Wed, 29 Mar 2006 4:41 pm

These kind of threads are becoming rather tedious and annoying. You have to remember that you are here as a Guest of the Singapore Government and Singaporeans people.

The good people of Singapore and their "ways" were here a long time before you arrived and will remain after you leave

ADH · Post by **ADH** » Wed, 29 Mar 2006 5:30 pm

May I suggest you don't bother reading these threads if they bore you? The topic cateogry says 'discuss life in Singapore' (or words to that effect) so that is what I was doing. Clearly, some topics will overlap as different people raise similar topics and similar points are made but that does not give you the right to not allow others to express their opinions, even if you find them tedious and annoying.

Not sure I agree that Singaporean ways were here a long time before. Time is relative and the MRT did not even exist pre the 80s so this way was only developed then, likewise mobile 'phone etiquette developed in the 90s. Singaporean ways are not static and will develop over time as will every other countries' ways.

Saint · Post by **Saint** » Wed, 29 Mar 2006 6:15 pm

ADH, Sir, I'm not disagreeing with your whinges about Singapore ways, maybe they are justified? My point is Singaporeans in general are happy and accept these oddities which you and I and many others find a tad frustrating, we're not going to change their ways and I tend to look at the funny side of it now!

Mrs S, when she come to the UK, found out very quickly that many of her Singapore ways do not work over here!

ADH · Post by **ADH** » Wed, 29 Mar 2006 7:52 pm

I'd be curious to know what 'Singaporean' ways do not work in the UK if you are willing to share?

Saint · Post by **Saint** » Wed, 29 Mar 2006 8:21 pm

ADH wrote:I'd be curious to know what 'Singaporean' ways do not work in the UK if you are willing to share?

The ones that spring to mind are

Walking at everywhere at a snails pace.
Standing on the left of escalators
Not moving out the way for people.
Queue jumping.
And the obvious one, Singlish out in public.

Wham · Post by **Wham** » Wed, 29 Mar 2006 8:27 pm

Saint, Some years ago i politely asked some old singaporean man if he was vacating his parking spot as he was sitting there with the door open and appeared to be leaving and i was in need of a spot. The old Ba$tard yelled at me and said "who do you think you are? Don't you know you're just a guest." And i thought, "if this is the way you treat guests...."

I then also realized that i probably pay more in taxes than he does. I DESPISE the stupid trap of calling us HUGE minority of Ex Pats "guests." We may be a small minority, but we pay an ENORMOUS % of taxes and without us so called "guests" this place would be in an economic depression. Furthermore, with the exception of a few Malays, we are ALL guests in the melting pot. So spare me the guest BS. I am a tax paying non resident soon to be a PR.

dot dot dot · Post by **dot dot dot** » Wed, 29 Mar 2006 9:15 pm

Wham wrote:Saint, Some years ago i politely asked some old singaporean man if he was vacating his parking spot as he was sitting there with the door open and appeared to be leaving and i was in need of a spot. The old Ba$tard yelled at me and said "who do you think you are? Don't you know you're just a guest." And i thought, "if this is the way you treat guests...."

I then also realized that i probably pay more in taxes than he does. I DESPISE the stupid trap of calling us HUGE minority of Ex Pats "guests." We may be a small minority, but we pay an ENORMOUS % of taxes and without us so called "guests" this place would be in an economic depression. Furthermore, with the exception of a few Malays, we are ALL guests in the melting pot. So spare me the guest BS. I am a tax paying non resident soon to be a PR.

but... still a guest Wham....

Behave boy, behave...

Eric

Wham · Post by **Wham** » Wed, 29 Mar 2006 9:33 pm

I'll be happy to be called a "guest" when people start saying "good morning mr Wham" and "please, after you Sir" and "no i insist, go ahead take that parking space and sorry for the misunderstanding." Until then, i prefer "work permit holding tax paying non PR."

Guest is just the WRONG word.

Quasimodo · Post by **Quasimodo** » Wed, 29 Mar 2006 9:39 pm

Wham wrote: I then also realized that i probably pay more in taxes than he does. I DESPISE the stupid trap of calling us HUGE minority of Ex Pats "guests." We may be a small minority, but we pay an ENORMOUS % of taxes and without us so called "guests" this place would be in an economic depression. Furthermore, with the exception of a few Malays, we are ALL guests in the melting pot. So spare me the guest BS. I am a tax paying non resident soon to be a PR.

You do? Ah, not self-employed. No way around it. Oh oh - I see an American who also has to pay Uncle Sam. Doubl taxtion is a b!tch. - - - yuck, yuck, yuck.
Just kidding with you, Wham!

Hmm, how does one broach this subject delicately?

ADH, I grew up in a nice neighbourhood in Sydney - the same one as my bestestest friend Vaucluse, which might give the location away. Plus it was the harbour sidem not the ocean side! Went to Cranbrook then UNSW and dodn't think about it. I knew that whole areas of sydney existed that I wouldn't enter in my wildest dreams - West, South even the boring WASP-ish north. FCR, we'd draw the line at Maroubra!

I'm sure everyone cold name 8, 80, 800 or 8000 reasons why they dislike a place.
I can't for the life of me understand why you would prefer Sydney - polluted, thuggish, rabble, uneducatd fu@kwits whose idiotic bahaviour makes it the highest crime city in Australia.
Boorish Australians who grew up in the West , made a bit of money and think they are the cats friggin whiskers. Bondie with his pathetic, yet very Australian, attempt to buy his way into something cultured and refined.
Nightclubs? Don't make me laugh. I was a regular at the Cauldron for years and it was full of pretentious gits.
I could go on and on and on and on.

10 things you don't like about Singapore? Mate, I could tell you 50 things I dislike here - half of them I see every day.

What I dislike about Singapore is less than what I dislike about cities in the US and Oz. Even NZ cops a backhander for having Auckland.

Spitting, hawking, pushing, queue-jumping, spatial awareness . . . yaddah yaddah yaddah.

Cheekybeek · Post by **Cheekybeek** » Thu, 30 Mar 2006 12:03 am

If you're comparing Sing and Sydney,

at least in singapore you can get a train anywhere (or bus/taxi), you know the train will come unlike Sydney, you now only know it will turn up you know right down to the last minute, and exactly where on the platform it will stop. You know it will arrive at your destination on time and hardly cost you any money, it will be well airconditioned, clean, and you will usually get a seat.

I have never been sworn at or abused in Sing as I have in Sydney, I can walk around anywhere anytime and not worry for my safety. you can go from one side of the country to the other in less time than it takes to get from Hornsby to the airport. The taxi drivers know almost always the best way to get to your destination, and they actually know how to get there, plus most you're ever going to pay is like $25.

People have snotty noses in Sydney too sometimes... happens everywhere. At least I don't see kids walking around with food/snot/god knows what all over there faces and clothes.

I think when you get back to Sydney you'll realise there are somethings you really miss about Singapore.

sapphire · Post by **sapphire** » Thu, 30 Mar 2006 2:36 am

ADH, if the eight whinges you posted are your reasons to leave Singapore ASAP, I would say I pity you. Hope you have a non whinging life in Sydney.
I say this for the simple reason that when you leave your home country, there will always be several reasons to whine about in a foreign country, I would understand that 'cause I do that too. But to leave, hmm...

ADH · Post by **ADH** » Thu, 30 Mar 2006 7:24 am

I raised my 8 points to try and understand WHY do people generally act like the way they do in Singapore (and not the reasons why I am leaving Singapore - the reason I am leaving Singapore is because my secondment finishes very soon).

It was not 'I think Sydney is far better than Singapore: discuss' nor was it 'these are the 8 reasons for me to leave Singapore - do you pity me?' nor was it 'compare and contrast taxis, nightclubs and trains in Sydney and Singapore'.

Saint · Post by **Saint** » Thu, 30 Mar 2006 7:41 am

ADH wrote:I raised my 8 points to try and understand WHY do people generally act like the way they do in Singapore

Maybe because over 80% of the Singapore population are locals and contray to popular believes, they have a bit of a say how they run their day to day lives!

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My biggest whinges about Singapore - are they justified?

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