22 January 2011

Singapore Trip 2011 - (1)

At 5 a.m. in the morning, I was riding a cab on my way to Changi Airport. It's time to go home.

After 5 days of stay, I finally got to say goodbye to another stranger country. This time as usual, saying goodbye seems to be the hardest thing. 

On the beautiful highway to Changi Airport, the taxi driver explained to me how and why he doesn't like Singapore. You get to know the true color of a country when you talk to local people.

'In Singapore, everything is so controlled and controlled by the government.'

'There is no true democracy here. If you criticize the government, the government will sue you.'

'In Singapore, most businesses are owned by the government. You do not see much entrepreneurs here.'

'Singaporean government doesn't look like a government, it is more like a company, which makes many things very efficient, but too business-oriented. So there is not much you can do here, because most things are taken care of by the government.'

'And the living standard is too high, many things are expensive, especially housing.'

So what he said about Singapore is sort of a wrapping-up of my first impression to Singapore after this trip. However, I think those phenomena is just a result of a unique combination of several political/governmental models. I found that quite interesting and thought that might be a partial answer (not perfect) to a better government for Taiwan.

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