This fat-ass ang moh is so bloody insular:

Firstly, one has to be a registered Wordpress user before one can leave comments on his blog! How bloody open to discussion is he in this case?

I was going to tell him off for being an idiot and not asking someone in the know about Singapore and its heritage e.g. Otterman etc. or at least doing research on Singapore's 'heritage' sites, because there are plenty of these around on the net. From his photos, he was obviously alone on his trip, and there wasn't anyone to guide him around.

Singapore has a wealth of places to go to if one searches hard enough. The northwest of Singapore has farms and stuff; in central Singapore, we have reservoirs and nature reserves; we have Pulau Ubin and Chek Jawa somewhere north of Singapore. In the south, there's Sentosa along with A SHIT LOAD of parks - Labrador, Mount Faber, Kent Ridge and those form the Southern Ridges Tour or something right? Finally, the east. I'm not too sure what's there but there's a lot of food - Simpang Bedok, Siglap, Changi Village, etc.

And talking about food - there is food to be found in any damn place, and quite a few good eating places are usually open 24 hrs, 7 days a week!

So it's a fallacy to say that Singapore is an air-conditioned nation; that's what our government has conditioned us to believe, and this stupid fat-ass ang moh is only perpetuating this view. Someone who is a registered Wordpress user please copy and paste my comment on his blog, and fuck him one times good good for being such a redneck asshole!

Argh! So angry!

why do you take it so personally? everyone's entitled to their own view. you can't expect someone who's here on a few days to know everything about the place right? you can disagree with his views but i don't see why its necessary to resort to personal attacks and vulgarities.

and the wordpress restriction is probably just to avoid spam dude, stop thinking that everything is customized just to piss you off.

That's true.

I think I just get very irked when someone puts up stuff like that, and perhaps I tend to be overzealous in my defence of Singapore because at the core of it all, I think our country has its cultural merits.

And when I say cultural, I don't mean the artificial culture engineered by our government, but the type of things that have sprung up organically.

Some more places to add to the list: Haji Lane/Arab Street, Little India, Chinatown.

well, me too, i disagree with some of his views too and I think Singapore's culture is excellent. However as a casual tourist stepping in SG for a few days you can't really blame him especially when it seems that the stuff he went for is exactly what the STB would have marketed to a tourist like him. I would have been more peeved if he was a local who has stayed here all his life and YET has no inkling of the little nuances and history of places in Singapore..

...

It is a pretty fair blog entry about Singapore. He said more than enough good things.

Give that guy a break; he was on holiday headed for Thailand and decided to go to SG at the last minute. He wouldn't have had time to make much research anyway! And tourists are tourists - they just want to enjoy their time without much hassle. I guess that he is quite a history buff, he would probably like the temples and ancient architecture in Thailand and got disappointed at the handful of tourist-friendly temples here.

He is right in saying that we don't have a culture, as in we don't have "traditional Singaporean customs" as a whole... because he probably doesn't know much of our immigrant history! And can you blame him for it really? Do you really expect the whole world to know us inside out? :/

There's also no "traditional USA customs" as a whole either!

He talked about Singapore not having its local food - Singapore's food can kick the ass of USA's food any day. It's a shame that we're not exporting our cuisine overseas. Our food may be Chinese, Malay, Indian, Peranakan, whatever, but our hawker dishes are not cooked the same way as in China, Malaysia, India. What is so uniquely American about American food? Do people not realise that hamburgers and french fries are named after places that are not in America?

Singapore does not lack for history. How many cities in America have had to pledge allegiance to 4 different nations in their lifetime? How many cities have an Arab street, a little India, a Chinatown, a Geylang Serai, a Golden Mile (for the Thais), a Peninsular Plaza (for the Burmese)

I want to say he's got his head up his ass but he seems to have such a big head and such an uptight ass I wonder if that's possible.

Haha, the irony is that you are committing exactly the same "bigotries" as this guy did. You really think American cuisine is just all about French Fries and Burgers? The same way he does not know all the various cuisines we have here, you have shown your lack of knowledge of American cuisine. Anyway, you should really read above. Just as no one expects you to know EVERYTHING about America, why would you expect him to know everything abt SG?

No I never said American cuisine is all about French Fries and burgers I'm just knocking the notion that you can only call something American when it comes from America (he was making this argument about Singapore). I don't know everything about American cuisine, just the odd cajun stuff, reubens, fried sandwiches, southern fried chicken, jambalayas, fajitas, hot dogs, paninis, chimichangas, burritos, tamales, quesadillas, steaks, and based on my limited knowledge I still go for Singaporean food.

I expect him to know something about Singapore. I don't question his right to have an opinion but quite a few of his facts are completely wrong.

1) Traditonal customs is a peculiar trope. Still, Americans have great customs - cultural imperialism; habitually taking up more than their allotted seat in economy class; shock and awe, etc. Singapore just needs to muster enough courage to be as obnoxious, that's all.

2) Don't get me wrong, Singaporean food can be pretty tasty, but it's not going to be easily exported. Too rich, too spicy; it loses its local context if turned into a commodity. Note that there's a lot to American cuisine, though most of it is contemporary fusion. Cajun cuisine, soul food, bastard Chinese/Thai/Indian fusion. Like America, Singapore is a mixing pot for cooking styles.

3) Singapore does lack a depth of history, if you consider the time of its conception as a nation state. You're not going to compare geological history, are you? Every land mass will have been occupied by some human tribe at one point or another.

4) You forget Singapore is a city state, not an urban landscape that has a rural countryside to compare to. These enclaves for the different communities are representative of the country's demographic. Cities like New York have their own little India(s), Chinatown(s), Mini Moscow(s), Little Italy(s), Korea Towns, etc.

If you ask me, what makes Singapore truly unique is that it is the only developed nation that lacks workers' unions that protect the interests of blue/white collar labourers. So next time someone asks you what makes Singapore so special, tell them that. Oh, and of course we're the only state to have a created a new office each time we have a new prime minister. That makes us truly unique, and truly Singaporean.

1. My argument was that the USA does not have one traditional custom. Not that it doesn't have any. It has many. You can say this about Singapore and the US. It's impossible to argue that Singapore does not have culture. Singapore has to muster the courage to be obnoxious, that's right. I'm only trying to do my fair share.

2. Thai or Indian food is also too rich and spicy. My feeling is that Singaporeans who migrate to angmoh countries don't usually end up opening restaurants. There just aren't enough Singaporean migrants around. There is a lot of good food that doesn't go around: I heard that Georgian food is really good.

3. You aren't ever going to compare Singapore's history to Thailand or Java or Angkor Wat Cambodia. But history is things happening, not a pile of pretty ruins. Japan defeating the UK in Singapore was a big shock: the beginning of the end of the British Empire, just as Afghanistan was the end for the USSR. Later on Singapore was in the vanguard of the rise of the Asian tigers. That's history too isn't it? Most Singaporeans underestimate the historical significance of Singapore. Even though we are not a big mover or shaker our influence has always been disproportionately larger than our size. You can have a nice king who lived in a nice palace 500 years ago, but I would rather say that my city played an early role in the rise of Asia.

4. It depends on what you want to compare Singapore to. You can compare yourself to New York, or maybe Little Rock? If you want to feel ugly you can always compare yourself to the prettiest girl. About Singapore being mostly urban that is true, except that this island by virtue of being in the tropics has more biodiversity on it than the whole of North America.

The argument that I'm about to put forward will sound like I'm saying that America is gaining on us on the race to the bottom. This is fairly unfortunate but I do not mean to say that "other people are also assholes so we can be assholes too". I just don't want Singapore to be criticised unfairly.

About Singapore lacking worker's unions, our unions are crap. But unions in the USA have been crap for a really long time too, especially since Reagan onwards. Singapore did not invent the McJob. Plenty of Mexicans and latinos do crap work in America, in the farms, the slaughterhouses, the ghettos, or wherever is not being properly policed. And we're talking about American soil. Then the MNCs (mostly American although a few from other places like Singapore) can also avoid adopting unsavoury labour practices by exporting / outsourcing their crap to 3rd world countries. Is there a meaningful difference whether your sweatshops are on your own country or somewhere else? I don't think so.

People always give each other shit and I do not think we are unique in this regard.

Read the guy's blog entry. Pretty fair comments. Who goes to a country that was meant to be a stopover and become a authority of its history and culture in 3 or 4 days? Its normal to form simple 1st impressions (and perfectly human to do so). Its something i would write about any country which i spent 3-4 days in. What is there to be so worked up about? He has more good things to say than any real negative comments. Anyway he NEVER went into the "My country is better than... ", " My country has this this that that... your country sucks" comparison. I actually enjoyed his photos and got a whole new perspective at looking at our little island's attraction.

IF you, Mr Udders, feel so indignant about his comments, then be a gracious host, invite him back and offer to show him around the cultural/heritage rich portions of Singapore. As you have rightly mention, he was here alone without a guide. I'm sure you are above the usual government conditioned anonymous uncaring bochap Singaporean (like me) and willing to show that rude vulgar bloody angmoh the folly of his ways. You will definitely do the right thing and make Singapore proud.

Cool it guys! Everybody is entitled to his/her own personal views. You can't expect every tourist to love Singapore. For me, when I visited Luxembourg, I found it to be a boring place. You can't have something which will satisfy everyone.

All of his criticisms can be lobbied against America. We Americans don't have much history prior to the early 1800s. Who does he think owns the trademarks for more of the brands in the shopping malls?

Anyone who would knock Singapore's food is just ignorant.

Can someone ask 'ccchia' who is replying fervently in Andrew Mouser's to shut up? Hen diu lian leh. This is exactly the type of 'fellow Singaporeans' that I am ashamed of -- unwilling to take criticism and using statistics and facts to justify arguments -- as if everyone gives a shit.

Hi all. ccchia invited me to come look at what I stirred up so here I am.

First off, as many of you have already pointed out. This is only my opinion as a tourist. The ONLY purpose of the blog. It's not meant to be an authoritive and it's not attended to be a discussion blog like this (which is why it's password protected) but ccchia made some good points that I put up.

It looks like all the issues involves 1 or 2 sentences at the end of the post. Again, just my opinion of what I've seen. I would have LOVED to have seen centuries old temples but the most ancient that people I have asked pointed me to were obly built in the 1800's. Can someone tell me of other that are at least 300 or 400 years old? 1000+ would be best! :) To the person who said "We Americans don't have much history prior to the early 1800s." You never been to the grand canyon? A history of millions of years? Or even the 1000 year old cliff dwellings in NM? Heck... many of the buildings around Boston Common are older then 1800s.

It's funny someone mentioned farms. I have an Animal Science degree and asked around a lot about if there were any cattle farms around that I may be able to visit. No one knew of any and was told that all beef are imported. There are no cattle farms around. So please, to the person who was talking about all the farms, where's the cattle?

What about the beaches? I was told and it appeared to me that there are no natural swimming beaches in Singapore like I mentioned in my blog? Is this true? Or did I miss that too?

So I'm open to make a retraction directly of those 2 or 3 sentences on my blog but not by what's been said here so far. All I've read so far is how wrong I am but nothing to back it up. Show me where there are cattle farms? Show me where there are natural swimming beaches (and not on one of the outlying islands). Show me a Singapore dish besides the Chilli Crab (who's origin is under question by some) that another country doesn't claim as one of their own. Show me 3 buildings older then the 1800s. Show me a rain forest that is still populated with primates. Show me these things, and I'll make a huge apology... and maybe even come back to Singapore to check all these things out!

On another note. When will the IR be finished?

Andrew

Can somebody take him to McRitchie to see the monkeys and introduce him to some Peranakan food?

Well there is Vishnu Dairy Farm, but I haven't been home in Singapore for a while, so I don't know for sure if it's still around. I don't know if by cattle farm you mean cattle destined to be eaten, since Vishnu Dairy Farm really only does milk. Still, you can see cows there.

To the person who said "We Americans don't have much history prior to the early 1800s." You never been to the grand canyon? A history of millions of years?

I do think you're being somewhat disingenuous in using the grand canyon as a counter example. (ie. you assert Singapore doesn't have cultural history, but you use geological history as a counter example).

As for history prior to the 19th century, you can still find stuff on Fort Canning (see a short write up here), which dates to the 15th century. About 15 years ago, when I was still in school, I recall excavations going on there turning up Ming dynasty porcelain shards.

I agree Singapore doesn't place much emphasis on pre-English history (partly because, I suspect, a little knowledge is very dangerous). Furthermore, this pre-English history is discontinuous from today's culture, unlike, say, the Greeks claiming direct descent from the classical Greeks. But nevertheless, this does not mean that no one lived here at all in the past 1000 (and more) years

I suppose the long and the short of it is that I'd shy from making such statements as you have made (whether positively or negatively), even though I grew up and spent almost my whole life here. For you to spend 3 days here and confidently assert thus, well...

Wow...I mean, wow, I really just couldn't leave this alone. Gotta be a passionately patriotic SG citizen (yes, we exist!)! I'm not sure if you followed a guidebook in doing the things that you did (sure sounds like Tourist 101!) but what you got was pretty much the distilled tourist version of Singapore. Plus, you did it alone, without a local to give you background info (oh, screw that, most Singaporeans don't really know much about their own history anyway).

But just for your information. Yes, majority of food in Singapore is, as you would put it, Chinese, or Malay, or Indian. However the type of Chinese food you get in Singapore just isn't the same kind of food you would find in China, for example. I've gone to China and I have never been able to find any of the dishes we serve in local hawker centres. Chilli crab is uniquely Singaporean, for one thing - and as you were staying right in the midst of Geyland (FOOD HAVEN!) you'd have ready access to Chilli crab, Crab noodles with XO, frog leg porridge, dim sum, etc, all of which are Chinese dishes which have evolved to be quite different in Singapore.

Take Chinese food in the US for example. There is nowhere in Singapore (or China, for that matter) where you would ever find such strangely named dishes as moo goo gai pan, or chop suey. It's Chinese food, evolved to suit American tastebuds. But it isn't really Chinese food. Chinese-inspired perhaps, which is probably what Singaporean food could plausibly be really called.

You missed our nature preserves - Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, Sungei Buloh, Chek Jawa and the rest of Pulau Ubin, Kusu Island shore walk, Chinese Garden, and many more. There's plenty more to Singapore than the neatly packaged tourist bit you did. You say you visited Chinatown, Little India. You could have gotten a day tour - Singapore Walks (www.singaporewalks.com) does fantastic day tours with brilliant background information and spicy stories that show you Singapore's character.

We also do have farms - veggie and hydroponics farms mostly, goat farms (Hay Dairies Goat Farm in Boon Lay), fish farms (Qian Hu Fish Farms among many). 277 farms in Singapore to be exact! Of course we don't have cattle farms! We are far too small to rear most animals, especially cows, commercially - again, cows, I hope, are not the be all and end all of farming. Though if you'd popped down to quiet Sembawang I do recall that you could actually see cows wandering around the grassy areas a few years back. With our small land space it is much more efficient to import our meat. We simply don't have the huge space needed for viable farming, as your country does.

We don't have much visible history before the 1800s because there are few stone quarries in Singapore - anyway, our ancient people built with wood rather than stone due to availability (and heat). So few of these constructions have survived, due to the material used. But I hope that old buildings are not all that make a country - certainly they do not make ours.

We Asians are very much a collectivist culture rather than individualistic as most Europeans are and so I take no umbrage at your opinion that we should have our own, easily recognizable features. Rather I do like that as an immigrant country and a young one, at that, we are still very much a beautiful melting pot of cultures, races and religions that are slowly beginning to find our common ground. What we do have, as we've obviously shown, is a passionate love for our country (no matter how much we bitch about govt, taxes, etc, we are the only ones who are allowed to bitch about our country - let anyone else try and tomorrow.sg readers will crucify 'em!).

I tried to post on your blog and even registered but for some reason my comment cannot be posted. Well, perhaps Singapore doesn't appeal to you merely because it is not a place that is aligned with your particular interests. I hope though that I've corrected some of your false impressions, and maybe you'll come back another time to give Singapore another shot - and this time, get someone who knows his/her stuff to take you around. I volunteer.

I don't understand why would some of you guys get so worked up and defensive over his comments. HE IS ENTITLED TO MAKE THEM as we would when we go overseas too. Don't many of us whinge about trivialities and that of other countries ("too hot, no aircon", "transport suck", "food lousy", "place so dirty and smelly") when we travel too? Isn't it fair to say that if we could whinge why can't he? We should be gracious and accept his comments. It is his personal point of view. Doesn't mean that he's American, what he says represents what all Americans think about Singapore. Loosen up folks!

A note: Calling him FAT is a personal attack. It's rude to do so.

Okay. I'm sorry.

I give him respect for answering these criticisms. It is his right to publish his opinions, and it is our right to critique them. I do feel a little sorry for him. It is perhaps the tourist guidebooks to Singapore that we should be criticising. He basically did all of the things that such books recommend, but unfortunately those books don't really look past the surface and the consumer oriented side of things.

I still maintain that America doesn't have much history before the 1800s. (I suppose if I wanted to be more accurate, I could say the 1700s.) Yes, we have native Americans, and, yes, there were colonists around in the 1600 and 1700s; but Singapore has always had indigenous people on it, and Singapore has had colonists around for quite some time too.

its just his opinion and you guys are crying abt it LOL

No amount of economic power, military spending and propaganda can erase the facts of what other ppl see of us that we are too blind to admit

Our fathers were migrants, and given the chance many of
us will migrate out of here for better lands like our fathers before us.

"I really don’t think I will make a return trip to Singapore."

This shows something... STB failed to promote singapore attractive enough for them to want to come back.

And Mr Andrew, you should have dined at our Hawker Centre and not some seafood restaurant to taste 'local food'.
And to add on to the list of places that might interest you, there is this pretty impressive chinese temple in Toa Payoh, "Siong Lim Temple". It's said to be built without a single nail.
You can google "Lian Shan Shuang Lin Monastery" to find out more.

i think this is what singapore tourism board needs to take note. for those living here instead, i think we know more than just that.

and i think its the same if we visit another place as well :)

QuaChee - Inspiring. Dreams