Chasing an Illusion

By any metric the City-state of Singapore is a developed nation. With the exception of the tropical climate and the ethnic composition the city looks and feels a lot like the States. Crime is a minimal concern, the tap water is safe drink and the streets are clean—shopping is a favorite pastime. Much, no most, of the city’s downtown is retail space, temples devoted to the gods of consumption of a scale unlike anything I have ever seen. Eight story malls were common, four floors above ground and four floors below, interlinked by subterranean tunnels (lined by more stores obviously) and high-speed rail lines. Offerings ranged from cheap trinkets on the outskirts to luxury designer brands occupying center stage—the likes of Prada, Gucci, Dior, Burberry, Dolce & Gabbana—foreign brands aggressively staking claims in the psyches of the emerging Asian markets.These companies work hard (and spend a lot) to create perceived value in their goods based on brand recognition and its suggestion of status—at $350 a key fob they’re selling a desirable psychological association with their name more than a tangible good…and it’s working, well. When I passed Louis Vuitton there was a line out the door, devoted consumers willing to wait to throw serious cash at items like the hideous brown and gold handbags whose esthetic is centered on flaunting the company’s emblem—if you step back and contemplate this phenomena it is truly bizarre.

The whole scene was a bit much for me. The thought of how much energy that went into lighting and cooling the massive amount of retail space was mind boggling, let alone the embodied energy in the buildings and the goods that went out their doors. The relatively small island of Singapore, whose population is roughly equal to that of New Zealand, is a black hole for resources. I was aware it was happening, but seeing their success firsthand was disheartening—the same companies that have been so effective at engineering an insatiable hunger for consumption in America are now setting their sights on Asia, using the West as a role model. The fact that 80 percent of the faces that seductively stare out at potential customers from storefront ads are Caucasian is very telling—chasing the ‘American Dream’ seems to be a sadly relevant term in this context too. And it goes far beyond clothing and accessories, McDonalds, Starbucks, KFC, 7-Eleven,and other hawkers of cheap convenience fly their familiar flags on almost every block--it's a whole lifestyle being sold. Towering high above the frantic bustle skyscrapers house the true string-pulling puppeteers, the bankers. In one of the biggest port cities in the world all the big multinational financiers are present, no doubt spreading the same delusional debt based model of growth that now has the Western world, from the individual to the institution, in a chokehold.

While I felt there was value in experiencing it, this was all a little too reminiscent of the atmosphere I was striving to step out of by traveling—I was excited to get into Malaysia. 

Goods on the move--ships as far as you can see lined up in the harbor

The view from our hotel--check out the Dubai-esk hotel on the left, 80 floors of rooms and then a pool deck up top with palm trees and sand. Crazy. 

Kicking off Lunar New Year

MMM...Food

A bit jetlagged, our first day in the new city started sluggishly. After a month of traveling apart I met up with my parents in Auckland and we flew to Singapore, where we planned to spend a few days together before charting different paths north through Malaysia. I always enjoy their fun-loving company, and the upscale accommodations and meals they grace me with are a treat after living on my backpacker’s budget. 

It was the lunch hour by the time we were descending in the hotel elevator. The concierge recommended food stalls across the street where we strolled with haste, excited to sample the renowned cuisine of the region. Headed for the top of a five story shopping complex we made our way through a maze of cubic shops displaying everything from tailored silk suits to cheap electronics. Merchants were respectful as we passed, exchanging smiles they didn’t hound us for a sale. English is the official language of Singapore but it is not the first language of most of its residents. If you’re eating where the locals do English descriptions on menus are limited, as is most merchants working grasp of the language, luckily pictures are common. Point at something that looks good and hope for the best. What comes out is always a gamble but the surprise is part of the fun, it usually turns out well. The port city has long been a hub of international trade, its citizens and thus its cuisine reflect this international influence—Chinese, Malay, Indian and Thai are the staples but Indonesian, Korean, Japanese and Vietnamese are common, ranging from glitz to gritty. After the relatively bland fare of New Zealand, my taste buds thoroughly enjoyed the complex flavors concocted from the region’s sundry of spices, which of course finished with a beloved eye-watering burn of hot peppers. And for desert…coconut rice cakes, Chinese egg custards, fresh fruit smoothies. Yeah I think I can handle a few months of this...  

Here We Go...

I've rarely had access to TV news while traveling, but each time I catch it dramatic weather events are making headlines. An unusually cold and snowy start to the winter in Western Europe, record breaking summer rain in New Zealand, catastrophic flooding continues in Australia and most recently an extraordinarily harsh storm breaks records in the Midwest of the US. Coincidence of random events or is there a pattern emerging? I would strongly suggest the latter.

Two of the largest and well respected scientific bodies, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the National Academy of Science, have made strong statements that Climate Change (CC) is measurably occurring and that it is human caused. The science is solid and relatively straightforward, increased atmospheric concentrations of heat-trapping carbon dioxide (which can be traced to fossil fuels by isotopic composition) and methane means less of the energy the earth receives from the sun is radiated back out into space. What is far less straightforward, and really is anyone’s guess in a system as large and complex as the global climate, is the affects this increased systemic energy will have on the climate of specific locales—but as we’re beginning to witness change appears inevitable. On a macro-scale more energy in the system will likely amplify the intensity and frequency of extreme weather events on both ends of the spectrum, resulting in wetter, colder storms and hotter, dryer droughts. Global Weirding or Climate Collapse might be more appropriate terms as it seems likely that future climates will be anything but the stable norm we’ve enjoyed for all of commonly understood human history.

Since we’re basing the appraisal of this threat on scientific understanding there will always be a margin of error (however small) to support skepticism—that is the nature of science, it is never certain and never will be. Even more generally if we are being rational we can admit our own perceptual limitations as humans and thus the ever-present potential for if being wrong. So this ‘lack of certainty’ argument that’s being used to thwart risk averting action is erroneous.

Action or no action…it’s a gamble either way, but let’s be clear about what’s on the line. Wager an economic cost or a stable climate?  

Eye Candy

Singapore Orchid Park