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