When actress Zhang Ziyi was photographed on a beach without a bikini top in early January, the scandal lasted for days in the Asian press – at least the tabloid parts of that press, which include sections of the Singapore Straits Times, the local paper of record. Pictures of Ms. Zhang on the beach (in […]
OK, now we’re really gearing up for the holiday. The crowds at the malls are bigger, and outside the new mall near us they’ve got a lion dance stage all set up. I tried to post video of this, but it wouldn’t play, alas. So I’ll paste in a link to a great lion dance […]
Let’s talk about the weather. There are supposed to be two monsoon seasons in Singapore: one now, November – January, and the other in May or thereabouts. All the other months are pre-monsoon, which means basically it’s supposed to be wet and raining nearly all the time, as far as I can make out. The […]
If you’ve been following my adventures since I arrived in Singapore in July, you’ll know that my wallet was stolen about four days after I arrived here. Well, I was in Bugis Market, which has a subsection called the Thieves’ Market, so fair enough. But this time someone entered our apartment and swiped my cellphone […]
These guys are at the Bird Park, where they greet visitors at the tram station, preen on a chalk wall in Parrot Paradise, and engage in formation flying at the Bird Buddies show. That’s really glorious to see. Many of these specimens come not from their native South America, but from New Zealand. They […]
There are several types of kingfishers to be seen on the NTU campus, and this is the most common one: the King White-Throated Kingfisher. If you go for a walk at 7:30 a.m., you can see up to five of them lining the trees and fence along the drainage canal near the National Institute of […]
You can get a foreign maid to take care of your house and/or children, and there’s a complete set of laws to protect both you and her. The maid earns $300-$400 a month, but it costs you about $1,000. This is because you pay for her airfare from the Phillipines (both ways), three thorough medical check-ups annually […]
OK, with the election of Obama we all know that democracy can claim to be somewhat restored in the U.S. So it’s time to turn our attention to other forms of democracy! I heard a story last night I thought I’d pass on about democracy in Singapore. As you may know, the government in Singapore […]
I was chatting with a store owner named Lucy last week, and she said that if she had some spare money now she would buy U.S. dollars and Australian dollars. The reason is that her two children are about to start their post-graduate studies at Columbia University and the University of Queensland, respectively. Previously, in […]
The Singapore government builds roads and train tracks, creates bus routes and the world’s nicest airport, and runs a really great airline. Fares on public transit and taxis are very low, probably subsidized, certainly controlled. The government builds and runs schools and universities; it builds and sells high-standard public housing; it hires armies of cleaners, […]